Friday Night Live at The Ice Box

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Overview

Join us for the weekly three-strike pinball tournament at The Ice Box Arcade every Friday night!

Follow along on app.matchplay.events by searching Ice Box Friday Night Live!

21+. $5 buy in. This is a three-strikes head-to-head knockout tournament, with the top 4 advancing to a match-multiplay final round.

Schedule

Every* Friday night! The tournament starts at 8:45pm. Signups open at 8:15pm.

* Occsasionally, the tournament is moved to Thursday to avoid conflicting with major events such as the Northwest Pinball & Arcade Show or Northwest Pinball Championships.

Player Of The Year Series

Players who play at least ten Friday Night Live tournaments in a calendar year are eligible to qualify for the Ice Box Player of the Year Series. To view the current standings and prize pool, click here.

House Rules

1. Late players will receive an automatic 1st round strike. Tournament directors have a right to close registration and allow no further players after 8:45pm. Thus by arriving late, you do take the risk of being shut out. There is a 110 player cap, subject to change without warning.
2. Report to your machine within 5 minutes once round is called. If after 5 minutes your opponent has not reported to the machine, let the tournament director know. They will try to find the player and ensure they know a new round has begun. If the player is not there within another 5 minutes (total 10 minutes after round is called), they could be disqualified from that game and receive a strike. TD can make exceptions for extenuating circumstances.
3. Play in the order that your name reads on matchplay. If your name is first, you are player one.

4. Do not play extra balls. You may pick your skill shot before plunging and plunge your extra ball, but you may not play it or touch the machine once the ball is in motion. Any extra ball is to be plunged. You may also choose to tilt the machine prior to plunging in lieu of skill shot and end-of-ball bonus, but a tilt anytime after a first plunge attempt will result in disqualification. Once the ball is in motion the player must step back and cannot touch the machine, unless the ball returns back to plunger lane and is not auto-plunged, at which time they should plunge again.

   In the case that a player has a compensation ball awarded due to a major malfunction, and they earn an extra ball, they may choose to play the extra ball in lieu of the compensation ball in a new game. Special note: On the game Hot Wheels, you may not press the flipper to "charge" your skill shot at the same time as plunging.

5. Playing out of turn results in an automatic loss. If you plunge your opponent's ball, you will receive a strike. The exception is if you play your opponent's extra ball, the points will stand and there is no additional penalty.

6. Do not make tournament rulings on your own. If there is a machine malfunction, get a tournament director to come make a ruling before continuing your game. Do your best to catch and hold your ball (if it is in play), and have your opponent find a tournament director to make the ruling.

   Players who make incorrect rulings on their own may be subject to receiving a strike. Any player found to have knowingly taken unfair advantage of a malfunction rather than alerting tournament officials may receive a strike. You must get a TD right away for any malfunctions, as failing to do so may mean that a ruling cannot be made and the results of the game will stand regardless of the malfunction.

7. Ask for a machine redraw instead of waiting more than a couple of minutes for your machine. For example, get a tournament director to redraw your game if you are waiting on a non-tournament player having a potentially long game, or multi-player game on ball 1 or 2.
8. In the interest of time, the TD may choose to invoke Runaway Scoring rules on any game in which one player has a significant lead on the other. The other player will be given their remaining balls to try to catch that score, and if they succeed then neither player will receive a strike.
9. Ties for moving onto playoffs or paid finishing positions will typically be settled with a full game tiebreaker on a classics era machine. Alternate tie breakers can be used as the discretion of the tournament director, but those will be announced at least one round ahead.

10. Players may not intentionally delay games for more than 60 seconds between balls, with the exception of delaying for significant environmental disturbances beyond the usual distractions of playing in a bar, such as a game nearby being repaired. Any player who delays intentionally will receive one warning. After that, their ball will be plunged after 60 seconds without warning.

    If the 60 second timer is reached twice, or the player continues to intentionally delay, they will automatically receive last place on that game and any other game they delay on from there on out (AKA the "Chris Chinn Add-A-Ball Time Rule").

11. Players may not sign into Stern Insider while playing tournament games.
12. The top seed will have their pick of finals bank from a list of four banks preset by the tournament director. If there is no top seed, the finals bank will default to a set of classics machines. If there is a tie for top seed, each player will have the opportunity to eliminate one bank, and then the finals bank will be determined by a coin flip between the remaining two. If the tournament is running behind schedule, the director may opt to utilize the classics bank for finals regardless of whether there is a top seed.
13. Any prize money not collected by the end of finals will be given to the bartender as a tip.

Malfunction Rules

IFPA Malfunction Rules will be in effect. With the exception of rules included here, refer to IFPA rules posted online, a copy of which can be found here: https://mondaynightpinball.com/ifparules

Rule exceptions include:

1. A dead upper flipper will be considered a minor malfunction unless it renders one or more key shots impossible to hit.
2. Loss of a switch or feature that prevents starting the majority of modes or an easy multiball will be considered a catastrophic malfunction.

3. Stuck Balls: Do not try to free a stuck ball on your own. If you tilt, that is the end of your ball. Find a tournament director to help you free the ball. In the case of a stuck ball during a multiball, you may not play a one-ball multiball. You must trap the ball and wait for a tournament director to free the stuck ball.

   The exception is if there is a trapped ball that will certainly be released after the multiball, in which case the stuck ball is permitted and you may play your multiball with that ball stuck. An example of this is Stern's Spiderman or Attack From Mars, in which you can get the ball trapped behind a wall. You are also permitted to play multiball on Shadow with a ball stuck in the ramps by use of the flipper ramp switch. A ball in the plunger lane during multiball must be plunged.

4. In the rare event that, after a runaway score has been called, a catastrophic malfunction causes a game to be removed and prevents the player from attempting to catch up to the runaway score, that player will instead attempt to reach a target score set by the TD on their choice of machine, from a preset selection.
5. Tournament directors may make exceptions to any rule listed here or in the IFPA rulebook in order to maximize fairness.

Footnotes