Season Three Grand Finals

NPC Season Three Grand Finals

NPC Season Three Grand Finals will take place at Gamecraft Arcade on September 26th, 2026. There is no door fee, as the games will be on coin drop. Please note that while GameCraft is a 21+ establishment, competitors under 21 will be allowed with their parents/guardians.

There will be a 4 Fair Strikes warmup tournament, hosted at GameCraft and directed by Dagmar Haecker, starting Friday at 6 PM. Signups begin at 5:30, and is open to all — no NPC experience necessary! Details on that tournament are here: https://www.ifpapinball.com/tournaments/view.php?t=119958

Doors will open at 9:00 Saturday for check-in and practice. Grand Finals will begin promptly at 10:00 AM. If you are not present at the start, you will be removed from Round 1 and given 0 points. If you are not present before Round 2, you will not be able to play at Grand Finals.

Confirmed Attendees/Teams:

• Arcadia: Nate Strax, Nate Mills, Ryan Lazzarin, Derek Carroll
• Capital Pinball: Arlo McGinty, Josh Moran, Andy Hoffman, William Prescott
• Czar’s:
• The Drome: Joe Lemire, Ben Bloomstein, Vince Vitiello, Sam Hilty
• Dusty Planet:
• Flat Top Johnny’s:
• Gamecraft:
• Iron Horse:
• JR’s House:
• OMG Pinball:
• Slam Tilt: Kyle Marshall, Zack Giroux, Josh Hodgdon, Barb Hodgdon
• SNHPC: Chip Morton, Christopher Townsend, Ron Lulfs, Matt Lemoine
• The Lower Playfield:

The short version (aka TL;DR):

• 8 Rounds of 4 player games, switching between short play and long play games.
• Your points for the first four rounds will be added up with other players from your location to determine team score.
• The Top 4 teams will be paired together in round 5 to determine the top 2 teams for Team Finals.
• After 5 rounds, we will break for team finals before continuing on to the final 3 rounds.
• At conclusion of qualifying, top 16 will play 3-game, 4 player groups with the bottom two players eliminated.
• Top 16 players will also take home cash prizes.

The much longer version:

Grand Finals qualifying will take place over 8 rounds of match play, alternating between the fast-playing and long-playing games at GameCraft Arcade (note: this is not necessarily era specific. Games will be paired based on their expected play time). The pairing will be different for the qualifying rounds 1-4, and rounds 5-8. The first 4 rounds will also determine the four teams competing for the Team Championship. In round 5, the top 4 teams will pair together to determine the top 2 teams for Team Finals.

All qualifying games will be scored 7-5-3-1.

Grand Finals Rounds 1 through 4

Grand Finals rounds 1 through 4 will be paired via a manual pairing process under the following constraints:

• Groups will have no more than 1 player from a participating location.
• Groups will be re-paired each round.
• Participants will play one game in each player position (player 1, 2, 3 and 4).
• Participants will play in the first 4 groups against players from at least 9 of the 12 other locations, and
• Participants will not play the same opponent more than one time in the first 4 rounds

Due to the complexity of this pairing, these groups will be assigned prior to Grand Finals and manually created in Match Play software. I will be using this script (Github Link) to create the pairings prior to Grand Finals once all players are known. This will be recorded and uploaded to YouTube to ensure there is transparency on the output of the draw — I will strive to have that uploaded the week of Grand Finals.

Conclusion of Round 4 and Team Finals

At the conclusion of round 4, the accumulated points earned by each player will be added to those of the other players from their locations to form their Team Points. The top 4 teams will all be paired against each other in round 5. The combined score of round 5 only will determine the 2 teams that move on to grand finals.

In the event that teams are tied on the bubble for participation in Team Finals, the tiebreaker will be the point total of the highest individual on the team, followed by the second highest if tied again, and so on.

Round 5 will be played with all players in the top 4 teams facing off from one player on each other squad, while players from teams not in the top 4 will be paired balanced. The top point earning team will pick two games and the 2nd highest point earning team will pick 2 games. Teams will then have 4 minutes to assign players to those games without knowledge of the other teams’ selections. Scores of round five will be summed across the 4 player team, and the top 2 will move on to finals during the break. Only the round 5 scores for these 4 teams will determine who advances.

At the conclusion of round 5, all players will be on a roughly 1 hour break while the team final is on.

Team Grand Finals:

Team Finals will be a race to 4 points in randomly-drawn head-to-head matches. Both teams will get to pick two of the games, however, the highest seeded team will have the option to choose to pick that game or defer to the other team once both names are drawn.

Order will be:

• A pairing is drawn of one player from each team
• The higher seeded team either can pick a game or defer arena choice for that group to the other team
• A game is selected
• The next group is drawn

The winning player from each pairing earns one point for their team. Should a team sweep all head-to-head matches in round one, the team final is over. Otherwise, the process will be repeated again and restricted to games designated short play in the second round. Should the results of round two end in a 4-4 tie, a single game on a randomly selected short-play game will determine the winning team. Each team will select one player to play the sudden death game, with the highest seeded team picking after the second seeded team.

Grand Finals Rounds 6 – 8

When qualifying resumes after the break and Team Final, all player pairings will be tiered swiss for the remainder of the qualifying rounds. At the conclusion of round 8, the top 16 players will be qualified for finals play. Tiebreaks will be automatic, except for any ties for top 4 positions and any ties for 16th place. These ties will be broken by a full game on a randomly selected A group (fast-play) machine.

Finals Play

The top 16 players will be paired in to groups of 4 by seed order and will play match play in 3 game sets. Each game set must include at least one A and B group (fast play and long play) machine. The third game can be anything that satisfies that group constraint. The top seeds in each group will draft in group order game 1 from the available arenas. That specific game will not be available for selection from other groups in that play order position. The second highest seed will draft the second game in the set in the same manner, starting with the highest seeded group and continuing until all second games are selected. Round 3 games will be selected by the high seed in the same manner.

Play order for game 1 will be selected in descending seed order: the highest seeded player will have choice of player 1-2-3-4. The second highest seed will then select from the available orders, and so on until all selections are made. This will be the play order for the entire set of 3 games.

Finals Play games will be scored 4-2-1-0. In the event of a tie for advancement, a full game will be played on the game of the higher initial seed’s choosing that has not been played during this round.

Rounds will continue with the top 2 players from each round until the final four will crown the NPC Season Three Grand Champion.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Is the Strikes Tournament open to anyone?

Yes, anyone can play in the strikes tournament regardless of NPC participation. Note: this will be held during normal open hours at GameCraft, and as such, will be strictly 21+.

What food is available at GameCraft Arcade?

From GameCraft Arcade’s FAQ page: We do not have a kitchen and only serve pre-made snacks from neighboring restaurants. We encourage our guests to bring in any outside food they like! There are many restaurants to choose from within walking distance of GameCraft. Please ask our staff for nearby recommendations for takeout and delivery. You can also order from your phone from our neighbors over at The Lab by Kraftwich or Barb’s Pizza.

Can I bring outside alcohol to Grand Finals?

You cannot – GameCraft is a bar, and as such – you’re welcome to purchase any of the wonderful cocktails, draft beers, and other drinks they have! Please do not bring in any outside alcoholic beverages. Thanks!

Just Play. Compete. Challenge.