The league office in conjunction with the team captains from each team have ratified a set of rule changes for this season. The new major changes include:
The league’s “Restricted Player” list will be drawn from the top 750 of the IFPA world rankings as well as the top 10 players in the league’s Elo ranking system. Previously, the list was drawn from the top 500 of the IFPA world rankings and the top 5% of the league’s MVP rankings from the previous season.
Teams may bring in substitute players if the team cannot field four players from the team’s roster at any point during the match. Substitute players may only play while there are less than four players present from each team, and the substitute players will not be allowed to play if a player from the roster arrives late and brings the number of active roster players up to four. See Section VI.D – Substitutes for additional substitute player regulations.
Home teams will no longer be allowed to choose both format and machine in tiebreaker situations. The home team will have the choice of machine, format, or deferring the first choice to the away team. The away team will choose the remaining option (or pick between the two if the home team defers). Once format and machine have been decided, the away team will set their lineup first and home team second. The away team will still play first and home team second as well.
Additional clarifications regarding situations during matches that may need rulings from a tournament director, such as premature loss of a ball or beneficial malfunctions. These rules are designed to mirror that of the standard IFPA/PAPA ruleset.
The following is the full list of changes to the rules:
II.B – Roster Limitations: Adjustments were made to the restricted player list as described above.
III.B – Lineup Declaration: A clarification of the rule regarding changes to lineups was inserted into subsection #6, stating that changes to the lineup may be made in the case that there is a machine failure that requires a game to be moved away from a machine.
III.C – Game Play Sequencing: An amendment was made to subsection 5 regarding the player whose ball was played by a player playing out of turn. The player affected will now receive a compensation ball at the end of the game instead of receiving the option of replaying the entire game.
III.G – Tiebreaker: A full re-write of the tiebreaker rules was put into effect, see the above list for details regarding the change.
V.A – Breakdown: This section has been updated to reflect the current playoff format.
V.C – “Neutral” Venues: The criteria item stating a preference for locations that did not have machines in common with either team’s home bar has been removed.
VI.D – Substitutes: Section added to rules, see above list for more details.
VII.A – Beneficial Malfunctions: Section added to rules in order to explicitly define situations regarding beneficial malfunctions in order to bring rules more in line with the standard IFPA/PAPA ruleset.
VII.E – Conflict Resolution: A clarification was added to this section stating that the IFPA/PAPA standard ruleset should be used in situations where the league’s rules do not define how to handle situations that arise during gameplay.
VII.G – Extra Balls: Fixed a typo regarding actions after the flipper button press on an extra ball, the word “Machine” replaced the word “Player”.
VII.K – Loss Of Ball During Play: Section added to rules in order to explicitly define situations regarding a loss of ball during play in order to bring rules more in line with the standard IFPA/PAPA ruleset.
VII.L – Machine Failure: Additional rules and clarification added in order to explicitly define situations regarding major machine failure in order to bring rules more in line with the standard IFPA/PAPA ruleset.
VII.O – Non-Traditional Machines: Added clarification regarding the prohibition of stick-and-bat games for league play.