Texas Wizards Tournament

Texas Wizards Tournament | Classics Side Tournament | Women’s Tournament | Kids’ Tournament

The Texas Pinball Festival is excited to once again present the Texas Wizards Tournament, a high quality and prestigious competition where players in the will have the opportunity to play on a variety of titles, ranging from vintage electro-mechanical (EM) pinball machines to modern era pinball machines, in an attempt to win cash prizes, trophies and WPPR points.

In addition to being a Stern Pro Circuit event, the Texas Wizards Tournament qualifies as an “IFPA Certified PLUS” tournament, meaning that its WPPR values will receive a 50% boost over normal points earned.  Because the base TGP value of TPF Wizards in 2024 will be 132%, the boosted TGP will be 198%! Get ready for some Texas-Sized WPPRS.

Tournament entries for the Texas Wizards Tournament must be purchased in advance of the show in our online store. Tickets will go on sale September 30, 2023. There is a maximum of 160 players for this event, and the limited tournament entries sold out quickly last year.  Follow and subscribe to TPF’s social media pages to know what date and time they go on sale.  Once all 160 tickets are sold, a wait list marker will be made available in the store. If/when any spots open before the start of the tournament, they will be offered to those that “purchase” a waiting list marker in the order they purchased.

There will be a one-hour open practice session early Friday morning. Open qualifying begins on Friday morning following the practice session, and runs until Saturday afternoon. Finals for all divisions will be held on Saturday evening, with 24 players qualifying for A Division Finals, and 8 players each qualifying for B and Novice Finals. The tournament will follow a limited entry, best-game format allowing each player 25 attempts to qualify.

View the Wizards Players / Waiting List.

Cost

For TPF2024, Wizards will have a one-time fixed price of $112 for 25 plays, excluding processing fees. Note: because show admission is required to play in this tournament, it will be bundled with your tournament entry purchase and processing fees for a total cost of $195.

Prizes

Approximate cash prize percentage pay outs. Actual payouts are determined by player participation, net of trophy and fixed case prize expenses, and tournament expenses.

A Division

1st place – 26% of Net Prize Purse + trophy
2nd place – 15% + plaque
3rd place – 10% + plaque
4th place – 7% + plaque
5th-8th places – 3% each
8th-16h places – 1.5% each
17-24th places – 1.0% each

B Division

1st place – 4.3% of Net Prize Purse + trophy
2nd place – 3% + plaque
3rd place – 1.7% + plaque
4th place – 1% + plaque

Novice Division

1st place – $200 + trophy
2nd place – $100 + plaque
3rd place – $60 + plaque
4th place – $40 + plaque

Warm-Up Period

Friday, March 15th: 8:30am – 9:30am

During the warm-up period, we invite players to warm up on the tournament games. The purpose of this warm up period is to find any last minute problems with the games before the tournament begins. All players are required to limit their warm-up to around 30-60 seconds on each machine to give other players a chance on the machine. We ask all players participating in the warm-up period to please record and report any issues with the tournament pins to the TD’s using the sheets provided. Players are not guaranteed warm-up on all or any games. There will be no warm-up or practice allowed on tournament pins outside of this period.

Qualifying

Friday, March 15th: 10am – 12am and
Saturday, March 16th: 9am – 4pm

View the Tournament Schedule

Players will be required to demonstrate skill across 3 Eras of machines, among a bank of fifteen (15) different pinball machines: five (5) modern, five (5) classic (SS) and five (5) vintage. A player’s best score on 12 out of the 15 pins will be used for qualifying ranking, though at least three pins from each Era MUST be included in the player’s ranking. If a player does not play at least 3 pins from each Era, then each pin missing from an Era will have zero ranking points. Players may choose to play individual machines multiple times, as they desire, staying within their total limit of 25 plays and the qualifying time limits. Only their best score on each pin will count in that pin’s ranking table. The top score on each machine is worth a maximum of 200 ranking points Second place is worth 195 points, Third place is worth 190 points Starting with 4th place, point totals will be reduced by 1 point for each subsequent standing.

The total ranking points earned on each of a player’s best 12 pins (given the Era constraint above) will be combined to create a composite score, which will be calculated for all players. At the end of each qualifying session, no new games may be started. Real-time rankings, game scores, game queues, and plays remaining will be available at: neverdrains.com/tpf2024.

After Qualifying has ended, the 24 players ranked highest will advance to the A Division Finals, with the top 8 players receiving a bye in the first round. Beyond the top 24, the next 8 highest ranked players whose rank is 501+ in the IFPA World Pinball Player Rankings (WPPR) standings* will advance to the B Division Finals. The next 8 highest ranked players whose rank is 3001+ in the IFPA WPPR standings* will comprise the Novice Division Finals.

* Note: The cutoff date to determine a player’s WPPR/IFPA ranking is the latter of March 1st, 2024 or the date the player registers for the Texas Wizards Tournament.

A Division Finals

** All Finals begin on Saturday, March 16th at 5pm. and players are required to check-in by 4:45pm, or they forfeit their Finals spot. **

Finals will be played using a modified “PAPA style” format. Each round, finalists will be placed into groups of 4 players based on qualifying seed, in “slaughter” seed groupings. They play 3 games. At the beginning of each round, the top seed in each group gets to the pick the pin (from available pins) or their playing position for each of the three pins to be played during that round by their group, but each group must play one pin from each Era for their 3-game match. Note that each group choosing all three pins at the beginning of each round is different than the PAPA World Championship rules, but the rule of only one group being allowed to play a particular pin as Game #1, etc. of each round still applies. New for 2024: a player may not pick a pin that the player picked during the prior round, including any tie-breaker pin selection.

Each game’s scoring is 4-2-1-0 for the four positions of each game. After 3 games, the top 2 players from each group advance based on total game points. Significant tiebreakers will be resolved on an additional game, according to PAPA rules. For the Final Four, final placement will be determined by game points. Eliminated players’ finishing positions are determined by the round they are eliminated, and then by game points scored during that round. More information on PAPA style finals can be found in Section V of: https://www.indisc.com/tournament-rules/

B Division Finals

Qualifiers 25-32 in the Texas Wizards Tournament, if not ranked in the top 500 on the IFPA world rankings*, will compete in the B Division Finals. If a player is ranked in the top 500, they will be skipped and the next eligible player will be included in the finals.

B Finals format is identical to A Division, but with only 8 players. For each game, B Division pin selections will take place after A Division groups have selected their pins, with the same restriction of only one group being allowed to play a particular pin as Game #1, etc. of each round, regardless of division.

Novice Division Finals

The eight top qualifiers in the Texas Wizards Tournament who are not ranked in the top 3000 on the IFPA world rankings* and who are not competing in another division’s finals will compete in the Novice Division Finals.

Finals format is identical to A Division, but with only 8 players. For each game, Novice Division pin selections will take place after B Division groups have selected their pins with the same restriction of only one group being allowed to play a particular pin as Game #1, etc. of each round, regardless of division.

Tiebreakers:

In the event of a tie to qualify for finals or for a bye in finals, the tie will be broken on a pin selected by tournament officials, while significant finals’ tiebreakers will be settled on a pin chosen by the highest seed that was not played by his/her group during that finals round. Tiebreaker games for qualifying for finals will be held immediately following the end of Qualifying. 

In the event that two or more players are tied but are not on the qualifying or bye bubble, a simpler tie-breaking procedure will be used in order to save time. Each player’s best game rank will be compared. The player with the highest game rank will be given the highest seeding, proceeding through all tied players, in descending order of game rank. If there is a tie for highest best game rank, then those players’ next highest game rank will be compared until the tie is broken.

Other Rules:

• Finals will use the same pins as Qualifying except in the case of a malfunction rendering a pin unplayable. Unplayable pins may be substituted at the Tournament Directors’ discretion.

• There will not be any warm-up period for Finals. However, if a new pin is required to be substituted into the bank of pins, then each player will be provided 30 seconds of warm-up on any substitute pin to which their group is assigned.

• An “available pin” in Finals means one not already chosen for the same Nth Game played during the round by any higher seed or higher division. For example, if one group is playing a given pin as their first Game, a second group may choose to play that same pin as their second or third Game.

• If a Finals group doesn’t have an available pin from Era(s) they have yet to choose (or play), the order of that group’s Games and selected pins will be adjusted, if possible, to allow an available pin from all Eras. If that is not possible, then for that Game # with an unavailable pin, they will wait until the first pin from the appropriate Era opens up due to another group finishing their game, and immediately begin play on that pin. If there are two or more such groups in this situation, then the higher group will be assigned to the first available pin, and so on.
• There may be both photography and streaming of this tournament. By registering for and playing in the tournament, each player grants TPF, PinEvents LLC, and its media partners permission to use the player’s photographic/video image in streams, advertising, promotions, or other publications without payment or compensation to the player.

All other rules (such as malfunctions, stuck balls, player conduct, etc.) will be governed by the PAPA/IFPA Competition ruleset. Any differences between those rules, the PAPA/INDISC Finals rules, and the Texas Wizards Tournament will be governed by the Texas Wizards Tournament rules.

Waiting List:

Once the maximum of 160 players is reached, a waiting list will be created. Any spots that open up before the start of the tournament will be awarded to those on the waiting list in the order they were added. To sign up for the waiting list, purchase a free Texas Wizards Tournament Waiting List Marker in our store.

View the Wizards Players / Waiting List.

Refunds and No Shows:

Tournament tickets and accompanying TPF show passes are refundable if there is a standing waiting list and according to the following refund schedule:

Tournament tickets may not be transferred. If a player is unable to compete and applies for a refund, we will offer that spot to the next person on the waiting list. TPF show passes that are not bundled as part of a tournament ticket are not refundable.

No-shows for the Wizards Tournament will not be refunded. Waitlist players will only have the opportunity to register if and when a registered player notifies the TPF of their withdrawal. There are no “walk-up” opportunities for Waitlist players at the beginning of the Qualifying period, as registered Wizard players are allowed to begin their qualification games at any point during the Qualifying period.

Exhibitors will be refunded their Show Admission when they arrive at the show with their game.

*Fees include, but are not limited to, applicable Processing Fees.