All 8 groups could of started at sametime, just that one group always would of been waiting on a game.
FWIW I had the complete opposite experience. I thought it was the best state final we’ve ever had. Yes, it was a long day but I guess I’m used to that. Taking frequent breaks, getting to eat, and being able to watch other matches made it very enjoyable.
I’m just wondering why more machines weren’t used. I guess they weren’t in good enough shape? I just would hate to be waiting all day. I get breaks between rounds, but I prefer to at least get to play a full round without waiting.
Wow, that is not good. I feel like 8 is the bare minimum so all matches can begin at the same time. In Alabama we were fortunate to have around 35 games to choose from. Practice at 9:30 and started at 11am. We were done around 7pm but most of the players had left by 5pm.
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I agree with what others have said: This seems the most odd to me to use only 7/22 pins, unless those other 15 games weren’t in reasonable playing condition. For TX, we make it a point to hold the SCS where there’s an abundance of games (whether public or private venue), both for variety available to the players and the improved ability to keep more matches moving forward simultaneously.
4 of the 16 other games were used for a side tournament. The other 12 games remained available for the public, non tournament crowd. I don’t think condition was the issue.
Another factor in the duration was that the chosen games all played long, GOTG and Aerosmith in particular. They were side by side, too, and we never played on adjacent games at the same time. The long play games should have been separated so at least they could go in parallel.
We had similar planning discussion prior to TX SCS: in my opinion, making the SCS as good as possible should take priority over the ability to run a side event. It’s important to keep that perspective. So we made the Side event as Classics only, and while Side entries ran concurrently on pins also available to the SCS, any SCS matches took priority over a side entry game. I think it’s also wise to have Consolation match games yield their spot in a game’s queue to the other side of the bracket, if there is more than one match waiting to play a pin.
On long-playing games, we noticed the same on GOTG, so we removed the lane rubbers. It still played long, and in hindsight, we should have made it even more difficult.
I’m also hopeful that Stern will change the code to make repeated Groot MB’s less accessible, turn on the magnet for rebounds from Groot lite lock shots to make locking more dangerous, and nerf the ability to detain balls in Groot for 2x/3x. But that’s a separate topic.
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Set groot multiball to hard. 4 balls need locked first go, and two shots to groot open mouth.
Second go around you need to hit groot 5 times to open mouth.
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That’s a good start. But given the high % of safe feeds from hitting Groot, and overpowering benefit of easy 3x PF (6x if you hit things in combo, and 12x if you have a shot X) with only one ball in play, in the safety of multiball, I’m still going to be pelting Groot all day.
I was thinking along the lines of forcing a player to play the other MB (Orb, I think? I’ve honestly NEVER played it) or complete a mode post-Groot MB in order to requalify your ability for Groot locks.
Further, they need to come up with something akin to MET’s more difficult qualification of the Snake for 2x + detain a ball instead of a simple Groot bash and stash that you can do right now for up to 2 balls and 3x.
(realizing this discussion of GOTG is off-topic… let’s move it to a GOTG thread if you want to discuss further)
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This seems crazy to me, especially in a scenario where there are only 7 games. I understand nobody likes playing next to someone, but it is part of the game.
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GOTG was our most problematic game. Aside from some Wolverine dodginess on X-Men, GOTG was actually our ONLY problem game. I probably shouldn’t have allowed it in the SCS, but people wanted it in the lineup, especially the venue’s owner. But man, that game IS NOT ready for tournament play. There are bugs with the ball saver, Groot was acting really weird at times (on some people their ball started with the mouth open, others took multiple hits to open, some people saw a lock awarded hitting a closed mouth), the modes counting down in the shooter lane, and other little oddities probably made it a bad fit for the SCS.
7 games seems tough to run the SCS. We had 12, and our day still went over 9 hours of competition with no time in between rounds. I would say that you should aim for at least 10 games, but I know that’s not always possible. In our 12, we had 3 EMs, 1 classic SS, 4 DMDs, 3 alphanumerics, and one LCD (GOTG). Having a good mix helps keep the pace going, because those EMs and pre-DMDs really break up the long games in those matches that go 6 or 7 games.
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Can you expand on the 4pm part a little more? I don’t understand how you had to wait so long to play, even with the limited number of machines.
This was the entire SCS tournament area. As you can see, the games were fairly close together. Some players had wide stances that interfered with the games on both sides of the game that was being played, effectively eliminating 3 of the 7 games available for choice until that particular game played out.
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That’s a crazy reason to delay matches for so long. Stand however you want when there’s room to spare, but in close quarters players need to adjust.
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Or just don’t use GOTG for now. 
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This tournament sounds awful. Hopefully you and the rest of the players can lobby to have it changed for next year, or get a different TD to take over. It’s the state championship!
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No one wants a “booty bump” or “playing handsies” …ESPECIALLY during SCS Finals. 
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Sounds like it would have been faster to remove 2 games entirely and have more space between the other 5!
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I still am not sure how you didn’t start playing until four hours after the tournament started. You mentioned something about being the 6/11 match. Did they let the higher seeds play out their entire matches, first?