The UK Pinball Open is a two day tournament with a qualifying round on Saturday and a series of final rounds on Sunday. The top players from Saturday's qualifying round progress to Sunday's rounds where they meet to top players from the UK Pinball League to win cash prizes, trophies, medals and more. Players do not need to pre-register and can sign up at the show on the Saturday.

Entry to the UK Pinball Open costs £5 and entitles players to a game on all of the six qualifying machines. All the scores on the six machines are ranked and points are awarded according to where each player finishes in the rankings.

At the end of the qualifying session on Saturday, the twenty players with the most ranking points will go forward to Sunday's final rounds where they meet the UK Pinball League's top players in a series of rounds, leading to the grand final later Sunday afternoon.

Prizes, trophies and World Pinball Player Ranking points will be awarded to all finalists and - depending on the number of players - may be awarded to everyone who plays in the UK Pinball Open, even those who do not qualify.

If you have any questions about the UK Pinball Open, please contact the Tournament Organiser Richard Wade here.

RULES:

Saturday is qualifying day for the UK Pinball Open.

If you're not a pre-qualified player from the UK Pinball League, you need to play on Saturday to qualify for Sunday's final rounds.

There are six machines in the qualifying round.

Contestants register and pay their £5 entry fee, in return they will receive a score sheet, a player number and a name badge. This entitles them to one game on each of the six machines during the qualifying period.

Contestants may only enter the UK Pinball Open once and it is their responsibility to ensure they complete all their games within the announced qualifying period, allowing for waiting time when appropriate.

Each of the six machines may only be played once per contestant and all games must be started by one of the stewards. Contestants should play alone or, if agreed with the steward, as part of a multi-player game unless there are other contestants waiting to play the machine in which case only single player games are allowed.

When the contestant’s game is over, their score from the machine is recorded by a steward after which they should move on to the next available machine of their choice.

When all six machines have been played and the scores recorded, the contestant’s entry is completed and they should vacate the playing area. If a contestant does not play all six machines during the qualifying period, they shall receive a score of zero for any un-played machines.

All the scores on each machine are arranged in ranking order, with the contestant achieving the top score on a machine earning 100 qualifying points with a reducing scale for all lower scores.

A contestant’s qualifying score is the sum of all their qualifying points earned on all six machines. Contestants are then ranked according to their total qualifying points. The more qualifying points a contestant earns, the higher they will be ranked.

Contestants’ scores as well as individual machine scores will be displayed on a projector screen or on display monitors in the tournament area. As more contestants play, individual rankings may change, so contestants should keep checking their position.

When all games have been played and their scores recorded, the final rankings shall be declared.

The 20 highest ranked contestants then progress to Sunday’s final rounds. Contestants ranked 21 – 25 should also report to the tournament desk on Sunday morning for stand-by places should some qualifying contestants not be available.

Finals Round 1

There are nine machines used for the first round of the finals.

The 20 qualifying contestants from Saturday are joined by 16 pre-qualified UK Pinball League players to form a total group of 36 contestants.

In the first round, contestants are split into two groups – A and B.

Group A consists of qualifiers placed 11th - 20th from Saturday and the 8 lowest placed League pre-qualifiers.

Group B is made up from the top qualifiers placed 1st to 10th from Saturday and the top 8 League pre-qualifiers.

For League pre-qualifiers, the split into groups is as follows:

Group A starts play at 11am on Sunday, Group B starts at 1pm Sunday. Contestants should assemble so they are ready to begin play at their allocated time.

In the first round of the finals, contestants are allocated three machines to play and three different partners to play. The order of play will be shown on the displays.

Before each new machine is played for the first time, contestants are allowed 30 seconds of play to get a feel of the machine and to warm up. After 30 seconds is up, contestants swap over to allow the other contestant the same 30 seconds of warm up time.

After the warm up time is over, stewards will reset the machine and start the first game.

On each machine, contestants play 2 two-player games with their partner, taking it in turns to be player 1. After each game, the scores are noted and after both games have been played, each contestant's highest score of the two is their recorded score for that machine. The lower score is discarded.

When all contestants have completed their two games, they will move on to their second machine to play their two games and then on to their third machine for their final two games. Warm up time is allowed before each new machine is played.

After all games have been played on all three machines, Group A has finished and Group B will then play their games in the same way.

When both groups have played, all the scores on each machine are ranked and ranking points awarded with 100 ranking points for the top score and a reducing scale for all lower scores.

Each contestant’s score is the total of their ranking points on the three machines they played.

The eight contestants with the highest ranking points will go on to the semi-finals.

If there is a tie for the eighth place, the contestant with the highest ranking score on any individual machine will prevail and if there is still a tie, a single game on a random machine shall decide the position. If there are ties for position amongst the other seven places, the contestant with the lowest player number shall prevail, so register early.

Semi-Finals

The semi-finals shall take place on two machines.

Contestants are split into two groups, A and B:

Group A will consist of the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th highest ranked contestants from Finals Round 1.

Group B will consist of the 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th highest ranked contestants from Finals Round 1.

Both groups will be allocated a machine and will play a single four-player five-ball game on their assigned machine. The highest ranked contestant will have first choice over their player position, followed by the second highest ranked and then the third highest ranked.

When all players have completed their game, the top two highest scoring contestants from each group go on to the final. The lowest two scorers go into the play-offs for 5th – 8th places.

Finals

The first match played will be for positions 5-8 and will consist of a single four-player, five-ball game on the chosen machine. As in the semi-finals, the highest ranked contestant from round 1 will have first choice of player position, followed by the next highest ranked and so on.

The winner of the game will finish 5th overall in the UK Pinball Open. The second highest scorer will finish 6th, the third highest scorer will finish 7th and the lowest scorer will be 8th.

The Grand Final will then follow using the same format – a single four-player five-ball game on the chosen machine.

The winner of the Grand Final will be the winner of the UK Pinball Open. The contestant with the second highest score will be second in the UK Pinball Open and so on.

WPPR Points Awards

The winner will also receive 25 WPPR points, the second placed competitor will get 15 WPPR points, the third placed competitor will earn 10 WPPR points and the competitor in fourth place will receive 5 WPPR points.

All qualifiers for Sunday's rounds (including UK Pinball League pre-qualifiers) will automatically earn 1 WPPR point.

If we get more than 72 competitors, all those ranked in the top 50% will receive 0.5 WPPR points if they don't qualify for Sunday, and those in the bottom 50% will receive 0.25 WPPR points.

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