Is it true that Pintastic is moving to another location for next year?
Correct. Next year it will be in Boxboro mass. A little closer to Boston but still far enough outside the city.
We’ve outgrown the current hotel/conference center. And they can’t meet our needs amongst a few other factors.
New location will have more space with a better layout but still have a similar feel to what we have now. The hotel is in nicer shape as well and has a sister hotel down the road with more rooms and will offer a shuttle service to and from
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Expertly run tournament from The Sanctum / Flip Side crews as usual!
Thanks for all the hard work.
My only suggestion for next year:
The tournament in it’s current state appears to have out-grown itself.
With so much participation, the queues were brutal.
Add in some very long playing grind-fests like X-Files, Breakshot, and the nerfed BKSOR, and it was a war of attrition.
I was only able to get in one entry in 4+ hours.
For me, I’d say increase the difficulty of the games substantially or add many more. Since there are obvious drawbacks to those approaches, perhaps consider dropping the card system and pumping up the difficulty of the games. This will keep the tournament moving AND increase the pot big time.
I know Jim is partial to the card system, but the bottlenecks this year were just too much for me. I wanted to play more, but the queues were too brutal.
What did you need to play more for?? You got a bye 
Yes this year was the first year we had waits this long. We will asses this next year as we figure out the new venue arrangements.
I do prefer the card system. Like you said all these options to reduce wait times do have their drawbacks. More games means it’s even harder to qualify are there are more top place scores thrown into the mix. Now you’ll need 3 or more really good games to even qualify if that happens.
Black knight probably should of been made a tad tougher but at the same time I’d much rather see people be able to enjoy the games than be purely frustrated with playing them.
My biggest hold back with increasing qualifying hours is 2 part. Vendor hall hours which are reasonable and the fact that the show has so much to offer and is such a blast I want tournament players to go and enjoy and experience all that it has to offer. I think we can all agree on that, that’s its nice to be forced off the bank and go enjoy yourself for awhile and take a break 
Hours and things will likely change next year as well with the new venue. We shall see how that works and adjust with the growing pains.
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Mark your calendars! June 25-28, 2020 at the Boxboro Regency. It’s right at Exit 28 off I-495.
…David Marston
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Adding more games, or adding a classics tournament would greatly help with the lines and add value for players who make the trip.
As pinball gets more popular this is just going to get worse. 1 bank of 12 games for 150 people is rough.
Another option is to cap the number of players.
I remember when the Pintastic tournament was held in a tiny breakout room!
What did you need to play more for?? You got a bye
I would have played more because I enjoy playing tournaments!
Not to mention the three people I travelled with, who all would have put in more entires if they didn’t take so much time.
I don’t think increasing qualifying hours is the answer here, because that doesn’t solve the problem. Levi is right, the growing pains will continue and unless pinball falls off a cliff in 2019, I think it’s safe to assume there will be even more players next year.
If you want to continue the card system, maybe 2 banks is the way to go, with an A and B division based on IFPA rank. A bank is setup for the masochists, and B bank is setup like this years games.
Either that, or the second bank is a separate classics tournament with the card system.
Both of these options, (while requiring substantially more work on your end) will split the player base in a way that allows everyone to pump and dump with the maximum efficiency.
Just my 2 cents CAD, so take it for what it’s worth - essentially nothing 
Appreciate the feedback. Right now it’s an insane amount of work for me but I still have fun. I’ll keep at it but gotta still make it fun for myself while running it or what’s the point? 
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Double the price of the cards and it will help cut down on the lines?
Possibly but I also think it would effect the numbers too with a decline. We’ve had a slow increase over the years. 10$ first 5$ rebuys. 10$ first and 10$ rebuys. This year was 15$ first and 10$ rebuys.
I’m never against raising prices as it beefs up the prize pot, but I don’t think that really helps here besides scaring away a handful of total amateurs.
The problem is too many people and not enough games. That’s not going to change.
More games, more divisions, cap the # of players - seems to be the three best options here.
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To be fair, too many players enjoying your tournament is one of the best problems to have! You’ll find a healthy balance of entry fees, games, game setups, format, etc for next year - and I’ll happily come back to enjoy it!
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Not something I’d ever like to do for this show. We’ll tweak things in other avenues. Agree that raising prices will just scare off the more casual crowd which I don’t want to do. We definitely turned some new players into competitive pinball this weekend like in years past.
We already cap the 24 hour and I wish I could expand that but I know our limitations there for now.
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It was priced about as high as we wanted to pay. For our family it was $100 total for two runs each, we are C/D players and had no reasonable expectations of winning but wanted to compete and we all had a blast.
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What are your thoughts on an additional division for finals?
We will see how things look as we figure out the new space at the new venue and all that, that brings. Trying to do a walkthrough and measuring soon of the venue and find the best spot in the show for us to see what we can do.
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awesome! thanks for considering it.
What happened with the points for this tourney for IFPA?
SPC fees not paid yet
They were paid when I got back from vacation.