Regarding the IFPA World Pinball Championships will be played as planned!
The National Gaming Board of Sweden has now officially announced that the Stockholm Pinball association has a license to put up 74 games at the Vårgårda Park during this weekend. This means that the tournament will be played as planned! We are very grateful that the gaming board came to this conclusion, and that they did it in time.
We will still NOT pay out any prizes, since this is explicitly forbidden in the license. Instead, the top 16 players in the championships will be the only ones invited to play in an exhibition tournament, probably in connection to next year's IFPA World Pinball Championships in Seattle. Hopefully this increased honor and glory will compensate for the lack of prize money. More information about this will be announced in the future.
There will not be any changes in the time schedule. All events will happen as scheduled, and as previously communicated on the ifpapinball.com web site.
Refund Policy
Since the conditions have changed, and there will not be any prizes, any players that decide to withdraw from the tournament will be fully refunded, and players from the reserve list will be called in instead. Please contact ifpapinball@gmail.com with details if you would like to be refunded.
We've naturally had a lot to do the last couple of days, and have not been able to recalculate the financials yet. Different aspects of the course of events have both increased (mostly the license application fee) and decreased (mostly the prize money) our costs. If the recalculation ends up in a significantly better financial situation, we will use this money for equal refunds to all players. More information about this will be announced in the future. If it ends up significantly worse, we will probably have to do the dishes at the local restaurants...
Balacs Pinball Party
There have been discussions about trying to play a mini-BPP during this week. A decision has been made not to do this, and to concentrate on the IFPA World Championships. Any other questions about the cancelled Balacs Pinball Party are best asked to Christian Balac himself.
Stockholm Pinball will continue to pursue the matter of licenses for pinball tournaments further, since we will not be able to pay this amount of money every time we arrange a tournament. More information about this will come as we proceed.
Regards
Patrik Bodin
Stockholm Pinball
IFPA Country Director, Sweden
the@pal.pp.se
