{"id":7626,"date":"2016-02-29T15:28:38","date_gmt":"2016-02-29T15:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/?p=7626"},"modified":"2017-08-28T16:05:15","modified_gmt":"2017-08-28T15:05:15","slug":"ifpa-european-championship-series-final-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/2016\/02\/29\/ifpa-european-championship-series-final-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"IFPA EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES FINAL 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the second year running, the IFPA European Championship Series (ECS) ran across the preceding twelve months. Participating countries could nominate one event from their 2015 tournament schedule, and all WPPR points earned at that event contributed to players’ ECS 2015 points total.<\/p>\n

The thirty-two players with the highest ECS points total at the end of the calendar year then automatically qualified for the final, which is held early the following year. If some couldn’t make it to the final, lower-ranked players filled the gaps until the field was complete.<\/p>\n

After last year’s event<\/a> at PinballEd in Switzerland, Printimus Pinball<\/a> in Bytom, Poland stepped up to host the 2015 ECS final in late February 2016, combining it with another major tournament and a number of side events.<\/p>\n

\"Printimus<\/a>
Printimus Pinball in Bytom<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Regular readers will be familiar with Printimus Pinball. It was set up by Marcin Krysinski on the upper floor of his printing business on the outskirts of Bytom<\/a> in Silesia, in the south of the country.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The main use of the building is as a printing company<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The building is on a light-industrial estate around a 15-minute walk from the city centre.<\/p>\n

\"Part<\/a>
Part of the industrial estate on Bernardynska<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although the ECS final was limited to the 32 top-ranked players who could attend, the other tournaments were open to everyone. The ECS pinball action was also combined with the Mihiderka Pinball & Food Festival.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The poster for the ECS final and the Mihiderka Pinball & Food Festival by Piotr Widuchowski<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A<\/a>
A poster for Mihiderka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mihiderka<\/a> is Marcin’s family’s vegan restaurant business, and the \u20ac135 entry fee for all the tournaments included vegan food provided all across the three-day event. Some players broke ranks and headed into the city for McDonalds, KFC, or other meat-based meals, but most enjoyed and appreciated the care and skill put into these meals.<\/p>\n

\"Vegan<\/a>
Vegan burgers, with all the ingredients derived from plants<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Assorted<\/a>
Assorted salads, side dishes, and desserts were available<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Pizza<\/a>
Pizza (without cheese, of course) was served on Sunday<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Two<\/a>
Two types of soup were served each day to combat the cold weather outside<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For those in need of non-vegan snacks, the vending machine provided a little relief.<\/p>\n

\"Chocolate<\/a>
Chocolate bars, potato crisps, soft drinks, energy drinks and even low-alcohol beer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bottles of Pepsi, along with filter coffee and a kettle with tea bags were all provided at no extra charge, while 500ml bottles of lager cost 5 Polish Zlotys (\u20ac1.16\/$1.27\/\u00a30.90) each.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The kitchen facilities<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ECS Players had to register and pay in advance so that on arrival they could sign-in and collect their welcome pack. This included information cards on Printimus Pinball and Mihiderka, a sticker, a fridge magnet, a card detailing the rules of the tournaments, an entry to the Roger Sharpe Contest, a bookmark, and tokens for three meals.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The welcome pack<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Tournament<\/a>
The organiser of the tournament weekend, Lukasz Dziatkiewicz, shows Franck Bona how to vote for the most-stylish player<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The main ECS final began at 09:30 on Saturday morning when the 32 players were paired-up and played a best-of-seven match. The highest seed chose the first machine but also had to take the player one position. Thereafter, the machines were chosen by the loser of the previous game.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The ECS bracket<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The sixteen winners continued on the right side of the bracket, while the same number of losers moved to the left to play each other in best-of-five rounds. Eventually the survivor of the winner side would play the winner of the loser side in the final.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The ECS final is under way<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Twenty-two machines were available to play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Attack from Mars<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bride of Pinbot, The Machine<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cactus Canyon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cirqus Voltaire<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Demolition Man<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Dirty Harry<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Dracula, Bram Stoker’s<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Fish Tales<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Funhouse<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Getaway, The: High Speed 2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Indiana Jones<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Johnny Mnemonic<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Monster Bash<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
No Good Gofers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Revenge from Mars<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Shadow, The<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Star Wars (DE)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tales of the Arabian Nights<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Terminator 2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Theatre of Magic<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Twilight Zone<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Whitewater<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The vast majority were Williams\/Bally dot-matrix machines, with a couple of alpha-numerics, a Pinball 2000 and a Data East machine completing the line-up.<\/p>\n

\"Data<\/a>
Data East’s Star Wars<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Before play began on Saturday morning there was a moment of silence to remember Edy Flammer, who passed away on the 7th February 2016.<\/p>\n

\"Edy<\/a>
Edy Flammer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Edy was the gracious host of last year’s ECS 2014 final held in Switzerland at the venue in Kollbrunn named after him – PinballEd.<\/p>\n

Everyone honoured his memory and marked his passing with a moment of reflection, before this year’s ECS final began.<\/p>\n

Starting on Friday and continuing on Saturday, running alongside the ECS final, was the Mihiderka Modern Tournament.<\/p>\n

In this, players could play as many games as they liked on any of the twenty-two machines. When they got a score with which they were happy they could get it recorded on their score sheet. Once recorded, the score was locked-in and couldn’t be changed for a better one.<\/p>\n

\"Play<\/a>
Play in the Mihiderka Modern Tournament<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With twenty-two machines and unlimited games, there was a lot of concern by players that they would be able to get a decent score on each machine before the close of qualifying at midnight on Saturday, especially with the ECS final and other side-tournaments in which to play.<\/p>\n

\"Rafal<\/a>
Rafal enters scores into the computer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The scores on each machine were ranked, and the total of their ranking points made up a player’s overall score.<\/p>\n

\"Scores<\/a>
Scores in the Mihiderka Modern Tournament<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We’ve mentioned the side tournaments before, so let’s take a look at those.<\/p>\n

The first was the Mihiderka Classics Tournament, played on the same six machines used in the Printimus Pinball Cup in November last year. They were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bronco
\nHaunted House
\nJungle Queen<\/td>\n		Mata Hari
\nSinbad
\nSpirit of 76<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\"The<\/a>
The six Classic Tournament machines<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Players could buy as many entries as they liked at 5 Zlotys each, where each entry was a run of three games. However, only the last entry submitted counted. Scores were then ranked and the eight players with the most ranking points from their last entry went into the quarter-finals on Sunday.<\/p>\n

If a bad game ruined a prospective run of three scores, an entry could be torn up and not submitted.<\/p>\n

The second side-tournament was the Mihiderka Fantasy Quest by Stern, featuring four fantasy-themed Stern machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Game of Thrones Pro
\nOrbitor 1<\/td>\n		Star Trek Pro
\nTerminator 3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\"The<\/a>
The Fantasy Quest by Stern machines<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Contestants had to choose three of the four machines and record scores on them. The same rules about unlimited entries and only the last entry submitted counting applied, as in the Classic Tournament.<\/p>\n

Next came the Mihiderka Triple Star Trek Challenge tournament, played on three Star Trek machines – one shared with the Fantasy Quest Tournament.<\/p>\n

\"Stern's<\/a>
Stern’s Star Trek, Williams Star Trek: The Next Generation and Data East’s Star Trek 25th Anniversary<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In this one, two of the three machines were played with each entry, but the rules were otherwise the same as before.<\/p>\n

There were also high score tournaments held of Dirty Harry<\/em> and Johnny Mnemonic<\/em>. These were free and included any games played in the tournaments. A third high score tournament was run on The Wizard of Oz<\/em>, although this was pay-per-play.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Wizard of Oz was used for a high score tournament<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The ECS final was expected to finish on Saturday, but the last remaining matches were played on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

\"Marcin<\/a>
Marcin explains how the last rounds of the ECS will be played<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They were interspersed with the play-offs for the Mihiderka Modern Tournament.<\/p>\n

In these play-offs, the top sixteen formed the A-Division where they played a total of fifteen head-to-head games – one game against every other player in the division. When all the games were complete, the four players with the most wins would compete in a final. The next sixteen players formed the B-Division and did the same for 17th-32nd places, except there was no final.<\/p>\n

\"Marcin<\/a>
Marcin explains the format<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The choice of machines was a little more convoluted. Each player was given a sheet listing all the machines and asked to delete all but nine of them.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The machine list for the Mihiderka Tournament<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These nine machines would then be the player’s choices. In the first round the highest seed got to pick the machine, which they then crossed-out on their list. After that, the player with the most remaining machines got to choose, or the highest seed if they both had the same number of machines remaining.<\/p>\n

\"Players<\/a>
Players decide on their chosen machines<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The pairings in each round were shown on the projectors – one for the A-Division and another for the B-Division.<\/p>\n

During Saturday, three TV crews were filming the competitors, and holding interviews with organiser Lukasz Dziatkiewicz and some of the players.<\/p>\n

\"Filming<\/a>
Paul Jongma playing Theatre of Magic against Cayle George<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You can view their reports here while they remain on their respective websites:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n