{"id":7306,"date":"2016-06-29T11:20:08","date_gmt":"2016-06-29T10:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/?p=7306"},"modified":"2017-08-25T13:26:44","modified_gmt":"2017-08-25T12:26:44","slug":"papa-world-championship-2016-ifpa-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/2016\/06\/29\/papa-world-championship-2016-ifpa-13\/","title":{"rendered":"PAPA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2016 & IFPA 13"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019d like to preface my report with a big thank you to the PAPA<\/a> folks, who graciously let us use their huge collection of games each year.\u00a0 People sometimes forget that it costs them quite a bit of money and a lot of mostly volunteered time to maintain that facility.\u00a0 Kudos to PAPA President Kevin Martin, Director of Operations Mark Steinman, Tournament Directors Doug Polka and Elizabeth Cromwell and lead Technician Steve Eckert.<\/p>\n

\"Director<\/a>
Director of Operation Mark Steinman playing Attack from the Back<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Circuit Final<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

The week began with the PAPA Circuit<\/a> Final in its new format.<\/p>\n

\"PAPA<\/a>
PAPA Circuit Champion belt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the first three years, the Circuit took the top 20 players, who then played an extended 4-player stepladder elimination match where the loser of each game was eliminated and the next higher player then added for the subsequent game.<\/p>\n

This year, the Circuit took the top 40 players and broke them into groups of four.\u00a0 These 10 groups then played four games, using PAPA-point scoring, with the top two from each group moving on to round two.\u00a0 Those 20 people were assigned to five groups and then played another four games in groups of four, again with the top two from each group moving on.\u00a0 Each of the first two rounds had one tiebreaker, with Andrei Massenkoff besting Andy Rosa to survive round one, and Robert Gagno taking out Brian Dye in round two.<\/p>\n

The final 10 players then entered the stepladder elimination finals, based on their original positions, starting with the four players seeded lowest.\u00a0 Original #1 seed, Raymond Davidson, had been eliminated in round two, leaving Robert Gagno as the top seed for the stepladder portion.<\/p>\n

The stepladder – a series of four-player games where the low scorer each game was eliminated – weeded out players one-by-one until a not-surprising final group of Robert Gagno, Zach Sharpe, Keith Elwin and Bowen Kerins remained.<\/p>\n

Bowen then was nudged out to finish 4th, next Robert in 3rd, leaving Zach and Keith for the best-two-of-three final.<\/p>\n

Keith took game one on Whirlwind<\/em>, passing Zach\u2019s 10M score on ball three.\u00a0 Zach then chose Game of Thrones<\/em> for game two.\u00a0 Keith completely annihilated the game with a ridiculous 17B – plunging off ball three at that! – to 3B win to emerge as the Circuit Champion, adding yet another banner to his PAPA legacy.<\/p>\n

\"Zach<\/a>
Zach Sharpe “all I can do is laugh” after Keith Elwin blows up Game of Thrones with 17B in the Circuit Finals<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Keith<\/a>
Keith Elwin with his PAPA Circuit Champion belt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PAPA Divisions<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

PAPA 19<\/a> had 23 of the world\u2019s top 25 players present; only Jorian Engelbrektsson and Roy Wils missed the event.\u00a0 Two-thirds of the top 100 was represented as well.<\/p>\n

\"Dressed<\/a>
Dressed for success … he hopes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The competition was brutal in every division, in both A\/B\/C\/D and Classics.\u00a0 Everyone who qualified for a play-off really had to earn it this year.\u00a0 Over 500 players participated in total, with C having the most at 160.<\/p>\n

\"C<\/a>
C Division qualifying<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Players in A and B played the most entries per person, and the portion of entries voided was progressively higher as you went up in skill; over half of the A entries were voids versus 1-in-6 in D.\u00a0 There were die-hards everywhere, too, with\u00a0A, B, C and Classics each having some players put in over 20 entries.<\/p>\n

\"B<\/a>
B Division qualifying<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The tournaments themselves ran pretty smoothly with very few hiccups.\u00a0 The ever-present machine breakdowns were handled quickly, as were the rulings, by the great PAPA staff.<\/p>\n

\"PAPA<\/a>
PAPA tech crew at work<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Chief<\/a>
Chief Technician Steve Eckert working on Ali<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Waiting lines for the games were longer than usual in the A and D banks this year.<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/a>
Former World Champion Lyman Sheats trying to qualify in A on Party Zone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The longer waits in A were due to the IFPA players influx and eligibility restrictions; the D lines were long due to that bank being shared with the Juniors, Seniors, Women\u2019s and Split Flipper events.<\/p>\n

\"Tim<\/a>
Tim Hansen and Andrei Massenkoff trying their luck at Split Flipper on The Shadow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Each division had specific entry restrictions so that no one ‘sand-bagged’ and entered a level below their true skill.\u00a0 Some people wondered how a few players ranked better than the #200 restriction could be in the PAPA B results.\u00a0 The rankings used for division restrictions are those prior<\/u> to the start of qualifying.\u00a0 A few people did well enough in the three PAPA Classics events that their ranks rose into the top 200 during the three days of qualifying for the A\/B\/C\/D divisions (nice job, Dean Grover, Darren Kamnitzer and Todd Seaver).<\/p>\n

The IFPA ranking site<\/a> now updates rankings consecutively by day during PAPA, so the rankings of players entering Classics 2 reflects any changes due to their performance in Classics 1 the day before.\u00a0 The A\/B\/C\/D division results reflect all three days of Classics.<\/p>\n

For example, look at Bowen Kerins\u2019 rank each day for an example.\u00a0 He was 26th entering Classics 1 on Thursday, which he won; 17th entering Classics 2 on Friday, where he placed 4th; 12th on Saturday for Classics 3, which he also won; and 9th for the A division on Sunday.\u00a0 Note that these figures may change slightly once the PAPA Circuit results are posted, since that tournament took place first.\u00a0 WPPR rankings are recomputed in chronological order when events are submitted.<\/p>\n


\nThe Winners [and player counts]<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n