This is a general qualifying announcement about Batman 66 and JunkYard.
* We will NOT BE COUNTING scores on Batman 66 and that machine has been removed from Qualifying.
* We will be COUNTING JunkYard and those scores are now locked in.
A longer, in-depth explanation is below.
Batman 66 was removed from the floor of Chester County Sports Arena on approximately Feb 3, putting it well short of the 50% qualifying requirement.
We are aware the JunkYard has been removed from Barcade and has been replaced by a new machine. For the purposes of the Winter 2018 event, we will be COUNTING the scores on JunkYard as one of the 33 machines to be used for qualifying.
On our spreadsheet where we track, we count a machine as “On” if there are no reported problems. We turn a machine “Off” when someone reports an issue. With our current logic, we only turn it back “On” when we have a positive crowd-sourced indication when the machine is working again, otherwise we assume that it’s “Off”.
According to that logic, JunkYard has been working 43 of the 87 days, which is 49.43% or one single day short of counting.
We have definitive dates for when problems were reported, and subsequently when people indicated that it was working again. What we do not have are definitive dates on when a problem was fixed; only when people observed that it was functioning again.
For the original flipper problem, it was originally reported on Jan 29, and someone reported by a league participant that it was working again on Feb 17, a period of 20 days. What we don’t know is when the problem actually occurred and when the problem was actually fixed, which gives leeway in either direction as to when the problem occurred. However, when we mark a machine as “Off”, we only turn the machine back on when someone has made an effort to go to the location and report back that is is working. It may have been fixed before Feb 17, but we don’t know because it wasn’t reported. A subsequent flipper problem was reported on Feb 23 and reported “working” during a Philly Pinball Club event on Mar 8.
When we assess the situation on JunkYard specifically, the main problem with the game for an extended period was a loose, misaligned flipper that fundamentally changes the angles of the game and puts those playing the game in that state at a disadvantage vs those playing the game in the normal state. Fundamentally, the game was still working and those who choose to put a score up on it were welcome to do so.
Therefore, because our initial arbitrary metric of what constitutes a machine “On” or “Off” in conjunction with the fuzziness around when a machine may actually have been working again, we are going to count JunkYard for qualifying purposes.
We will be taking better action in subsequent seasons to get better clarity and confirmation on the active state of machines moving forward. Any questions or comments can be directed at myself or Casey.
Thank you,
Corey