FRIDAY, April 18th

PinBaltimore Rat Race 3.0 (Hybrid Matchplay / Amazing Race Gauntlet)

FRIDAY, April 18th

1:00 PM (Registration at 12:00 PM)

$10 Registration Fee + $1 IFPA Fee

IFPA Sanctioned

OVERVIEW & FORMAT

Hybrid Matchplay & Amazing Race / Gauntlet Qualifying. A three-phase tournament where only the scrappiest rats survive.

Phase One - Rat Rubout
Players will be grouped in groups of 3 or 4 and will play a four game bank (old, mid, new, and one old/mid) with 7-5-3-1 scoring (7-4-1 for 3 player groups.) Top player(s) in each group will automatically advance to phase 2. Final qualifying criteria dependent upon number of participants. May be group winner or winner + highest 2nd place scorers.

Phase Two - Amazing Race
Remaining players will be divided up into four groups and will play an Amazing Race round. Amazing Race has players play one player games through a gauntlet. Lowest score on each game of the gauntlet is eliminated. Last player standing at the end of each Amazing Race will advance to Phase 3.

Phase Three - The Rat King
Final four will play a four game bank (old, mid, new, and one old/mid) with 7-5-3-1 scoring to be crowned Rat Race 3.0 Champion.

All tie breakers for phases will be determined by a direct play on a single assigned game with the finishing placement based on the results of that game.

Top 4 get paid: 40%/30%/20%/10%

Charm City Classics

FRIDAY, April 18th

5:00 pm (Registration at 4:00)

$10 Registration Fee + $1 IFPA Fee

IFPA Sanctioned

OVERVIEW & FORMAT

The PinBaltimore Classics collection (electro-mechanical and early solid state games) is one of the most eclectic and diverse classic pinball collections on the East Coast. Get ready to throwdown on some of the wildest and weirdest games in the history of pinball. 

4 player match play - balanced parings and continuous drawing of matches.

Note: Rounds will be drawn continuously. If we can call next round matches while current round is active, we will. There will be no breaks between rounds so pay attention!

Qualifying from 5-8pm immediately followed by finals. No new qualifying rounds after 7:45.

All tie breakers for phases will be determined by a direct play on a single assigned game with the finishing placement based on the results of that game.

Finals

Top 8 players make finals. 4/2/1/0 scoring. 3 games per round. 1st & 2nd place from each group advance. Seeding based upon qualifying position with high seeds receiving choice of bank. Play order choice based upon seeding in game 1 of round. Finish position determines 2nd and 3rd game choice of order with loser of previous game receiving first choice of order in following game. Same bank cannot be chosen twice by same player.

Semifinals:

Group 1:

#1 Seed (Choice of bank and play order for game 1)
#6 Seed
#7 Seed 
#8 Seed

Group 2: 

#2 Seed (Choice of bank and play order for game 1)
#3 Seed
#4 Seed
#5 Seed

Finals:

#1 Remaining Seed (Choice of bank and play order for game 1)
#2 Remaining Seed
#3 Remaining Seed
#4 Remaining Seed

Top 4 get paid: 40%/30%/20%/10%

PinGolfimore

Friday, April 18th & Saturday April 19th

Qualifying All Day Friday
Qualifying Saturday until 4PM
Finals Saturday 5:30 PM

FREE! (with paid admission) Prizes for winners from our sponsors!
Unlimited Entries any time from event start on Friday to Saturday at 4PM.

OVERVIEW & FORMAT

PinGolf is a unique competition format. An objective (e.g. score 1 million points) will be assigned to a machine. Players are tasked with achieving the goal in as few balls as possible. Achieve the goal on your first ball for a hole-in-one, second ball for a birdie, third ball for par, and don’t achieve the goal for a bogey.

9 hole course in the freeplay room

Must play in groups of 2 or more. Unlimited entries! Keep your best round. 

Score objective for each hole

  • Reach goal on ball 1 = 1 Stroke

  • Reach goal on ball 2 = 2 Stroke

  • Reach goal on ball 3 = 3 strokes

  • Do not reach goal = 4 strokes

  • Extra balls do not count as an additional stroke. They are a continuation of current ball.

SATURDAY, April 19th

PinGolfimore

FRIDAY, April 18th & SATURDAY April 19th

Unlimited FREE (with paid admission) qualifying all day Friday & Saturday until 4PM
Finals Saturday 5:30 PM

FREE! Prizes for winners from our sponsors!
Unlimited Entries any time from event start on Friday to Saturday at 4PM.
Get more info

Baltimore City Women’s Championship

SATURDAY April 19th

Time: 11 AM - 5 PM (Registration 10AM)

$20 Registration Fee

IFPA Sanctioned - Women’s Rankings

This tournament is IFPA-sanctioned for women’s WPPRs, and welcomes ALL women, as well as non-binary players who are comfortable playing in a women-centered experience.

OVERVIEW & FORMAT

Women’s City Champs takes center stage on Saturday featuring one of the largest women’s pinball tournaments in the world.

Group Match Play format with PAPA style finals.

Each round, players will be placed in four player groups. Depending on the number of players, there may be three player groups. Each group will be assigned to play one game. Players will be matched according to balanced pairing. At the end of each round, players will earn points based on their finishing position in that game (7/5/3/1). Results will be submitted by players via the Matchplay software. 

We will conduct as many rounds as possible in 4 hours before proceeding to finals. 

Finals:

PAPA-style finals (3 game 4/2/1/0) for the top eight players will begin immediately after qualifying.

Prize Distribution:

Top 4 get paid: 40%/30%/20%/10%

World Record Attempt: Largest Game of Stall Ball Ever

SATURDAY April 19th 

Registration – 3:30 pm

Competition starts – 4 pm

Free

Everybody Line Up! Let’s Make History!

Guiness McRecord himself will be on-site to certify our World Record largest game of stall ball. We will have one branching line that will feed to FOUR separate pinball machines. You will be filtered to one of the pins. Flip the ball into a scoop, lock, saucer, or other “stalling” mechanism and you have survived! Go to the back of the line and wait for your next turn. Drain before stalling and you are eliminated. Last player standing is the winner and gets to wear the Stall Ball World Record crown!

Finals

After the field is reduced to 10 players, the first drain or stall on each machine will cause a stoppage in play on that machine. We will pause and enter "Payoffs". All remaining players will be lined up on a single machine.

PINBALTIMORE SPLIT FLIPPER FRENZY

SATURDAY April 19th 

Time: 5:30-7:30 pm (Immediately following previous tournament finals)

2 Player Split Flipper Teams (Teammates can be assigned if you do not have a partner)

Cost: $10 per team

Prizes: Half the prize pool split between top 4 teams. Other half donated to Pivot Baltimore. Trophy for 1st place team. 

Duration: 1.5 hours of qualifying + playoffs

Synopsis: When the tournament starts, 2head-to- 2head matches are created on selected machines, and any teams not assigned to a match are placed in a queue.

  • When a match ends, a new game will be created using the following approach:

  • Player 1 will become Player 2 on the new game.

  • Player 2 will go to the bottom of the queue.

  • The player at the top of the queue will become Player 1 on the new game.

The tournament will progress in this manner until the timer runs out. Top 8 teams advance to finals. 

Qualifying: Top 8 teams after 1.5 hours with the most net wins (or total number of wins minus total number of losses) advance to finals. Matches that are not completed before the timer runs out will not count. Teams may opt to drain their ball 2 or ball 3 if they put up a good 1st ball to speed the match to completion 

Finals Format: Eight teams make a two-round finals. Top 2 teams from each round 1 group advance to compete for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place in one final game. 

Split Flipper Challenger X Joust X Battle Stations Head-to-Head WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

SATURDAY April 19th 

Time: Check-In - 6:00
Competition Start - 7:30pm (Immediately following previous tournament finals)

COMPETITION DETAILS

Team Limit: A team is defined as two split flipper players. Registration is limited to the first 36 two-player teams to register. This is the only tournament with a player cap and always fills up quickly. All-In ticket holders get a one week advance opportunity to register their team starting at 12:00 EST on Feb 21!

Requirements: Team name, intro music. Costumes optional. 

Divisions: One division of play. 

Tournament Structure: Single elimination tournament.

Number of Holds Barred: None

Prizes: Half the prize pool awarded to winning team. Other half donated to House of Ruth MD. Winning team immortalized with a name plaque on the Challenger Trophy.

 Price: Minimum $10 per team donation to

What the heck is Challenger??? There is a Joust Pinball Machine??? Hold up, this year you have a game called Battle Stations???

Battle Stations: Holy Crap a NEW Head-to-Head machine?!?

We are beyond hyped to announce that we are teaming up with Myth Pinball and will be featuring their new prototype head-to-head pin Battle Stations at PinBaltimore!!! Voted Best Innovation For 2023 at the Chicago Pinball Expo, Battle Stations is absolute space madness. No scores, just a health bar. Protect your Reactor (pop bumper) with deployable drop targets, shoot photon torpedoes to disable opponents’ flippers and eviscerate your opponents into space dust. Here are the full rules:

Challenger

Challenger is the greatest pinball machine ever designed. It is a simultaneous head-to-head pinball machine with a tilting playfield that puts players on offense and defense. 110 units were produced in 1971. Commercially, it was a horrible failure. Conceptually, it is one of the most inspired pinball designs of all time. We love this obscure pinball machine and want to share it with the world by holding our fourth annual Head-to-Head Pinball World Championship tournament. Learn More

Joust

Joust is another amazing and ultra-rare simultaneous head-to-head pinball machine. 402 were produced by Williams Electronics in 1983. Go head-to-head against the other team with up to four simultaneous balls being blasted back and forth across the playfield. Learn More


TOURNAMENT RULES

Teams will be randomly assigned to Challenger, Joust or Battle Stations in each round.

Challenger Rules

  • Two split flipper teams will play head-to-head for three balls. 

  • The floor in the battle arena will be greased.

  • There will be no tilt on the machine, only a slam tilt. 

  • 12” circles will be drawn on the floor in chalk around each leg of Challenger. Sliding the machine is encouraged when on offense or defense. 

  • If your team imparts a force that pushes the machine out of bounds of any chalk circle, the referee will call you out of bounds and you must release your hands from the flippers until the ball drains. The other team may continue to play the ball. 

  • The referee will guide the machine back to the center of the circles while play is ongoing after an out-of-bounds. 

  • High score after each team plays three balls wins. Loser is eliminated from the tournament. 

  • “Pinball Summer” style spectating is encouraged, allowing the crowd to gather around both sides of the machine to cheer and jeer. 

Joust Rules

Two split flipper teams will play head-to-head for the duration of a single game. 

  • Standard head to head split flipper match. Players may stand or sit. 

  • If your team imparts a force that causes a tilt, your team will lose. 

  • High score at the end of the game is the winner. 

  • “Pinball Summer” style spectating is encouraged, allowing the crowd to gather around both sides of the machine to cheer and jeer.

Battle Stations Rules

Destroy Your Opponent to Win

  • Hitting opponents reactor (pop bumper) (16 times) - or -

  • Shooting balls past the opponents flippers (8 times)

Raising Shields

  • Hit flashing target to raise shields (drop down targets on opponents playing field)

  • When all shields are raised, hit target again to fire a plasma torpedo (instantly removes one opponent health bar)

EMP Attack

  • Hold down lockdown bar button to charge and fire EMP attack

  • Will temporarily disable opponents flippers but will cost some of your reactor energy

  • Each sequential charge takes longer to fire

General

  • Standard head to head split flipper match. Players may stand or sit. 

  • If your team imparts a force that causes a tilt, your team will lose. 

  • High score at the end of the game is the winner. 

  • “Pinball Summer” style spectating is encouraged, allowing the crowd to gather around both sides of the machine to cheer and jeer.

Amateur Competition

SATURDAY April 19th 

Time: Various times throughout the day.

Are you a casual player that wants to try competing without all the pressure? Did you just start competing and you are still learning? Great! We will be staging special tournaments for new players. These tournaments will be designed to last ~1 hour and let new players give competition a try in a low pressure, fun environment. Ask at the registration desk for a schedule. 

Prizes: Our sponsors will be providing a bunch of fun prizes for winners.

Sunday April 20th

Baltimore City Pinball Championship 

SUNDAY, April 20th

Registration - 10AM

Competition starts - 11AM 

Finals Cut-Off - 3:45 PM

$20 Registration Fee + $1 IFPA Fee

IFPA Sanctioned

FORMAT 

Qualifying: 10 strike progressive strikes tournament. 

Qualifying stops when we fall below the # of players for finals. We will likely be well over 100 players, however, here are the finals breakdowns by player count. If < 80 players top 8, if 80-100, top 12, if over 100 top 16. Number of active matches will be limited and non-competing players will be asked to leave the competition room to reduce crowding. 

4 player match play - balanced parings and continuous drawing of matches.

Note: Rounds will be drawn continuously. If we can call next round matches while current round is active, we will. There will be no breaks between rounds so pay attention!

Direct play tie breakers among those who are eliminated in the final round to fill out the finals field.

If we have not reduced the field to the finals cut line by 3:45, the current round finish, and no new rounds will be called. The top 8/12/16 players will move on to finals (with a direct play tie breaker if necessary among players straddling the cut line.)

Finals

Finals will be seeded based on standings at the end of qualifying.

8 or 16 finalists will be split into 4 player groups.

Round 1 will be 3 game bank papa 4/2/1/0 scoring.

12 finalists will be split into 3 player goups.

Round 1 will be 3 game bank 4/2/1 scoring. Top two progress from each group.

Subsequent rounds will be 4 player groups 4/2/1/0 scoring.

Bank or position will be chosen in order of final qualifying seed.

A player may not choose the same bank for more than one round.

Top 8 will get paid

1 - 36%

2 - 27%

3 - 18%

4 - 9%

5-8 - 2.5%