Please come and join us for the "Pinbrawl on the Waterfront" tournament, at Waterland Arcade near the waterfront in Des Moines, on the 2nd Saturday of each month!

Registration will open at 7pm, tournament begins at 7:30 p.m. The entry fee is $5 (plus coin drop), with a $25 pot splash from Waterland Arcade. All entry fees + pot splash paid out as prizes to the top 3. $100 pot splash and top 4 paid if 16 or more players show up! And, Waterland pays your $1 / per-player IFPA fee.


This tournament will use one of five different formats. The format for a given month will be announced at least two weeks in advance on the tournament's Facebook event page. All but one of the five formats should earn a tournament grading percentage (TGP) of at least 50%. In addition, the formats will be setup to keep the tournament duration reasonable.

#1) Group Matchplay: This qualifying format features five rounds of 3-player and 4-player games. Finals will accommodate 4 to 8 players and will consist of one or two rounds, with each round consisting of 2 to 4 matchplay games. If there are at least 16 players, then finals will include eight players; otherwise, finals will include 4 players.

Expected TGP is 56% to 72%, with the higher number coming when there are 8 players in the finals.

#2) Max Matchplay (partial round robin): This qualifying format features ten rounds of head-to-head (one-on-one) games. The finals format will be the same as for the Group Matchplay format.

Expected TGP is the same as for Group Matchplay (56% to 72%, depending upon number of players).

#3) Best Game (Herb style): This qualifying format features single-player games, with players attempting to earn the highest scores possible on each of 17 different machines in a 3 hour period. Entry fee (plus coin drop) allows each player to make up to 25 high score attempts. No rebuys.

Finals will take 4 to 8 players and will utilize the same format as for Group Matchplay finals.

Expected TGP is 84% to 100%, depending upon the number of machines available for qualifying and the number of players who show up.

#4) Group Knockout (Fair Strikes or Progressive), with no separate qualifying portion. This format features primarily 3-player and 4-player games.

Expected TGP of 56% to 64%.

#5) 4-Strike Knockout, head-to-head / one-on-one with no separate qualifying portion: This format likely will be used only if the number of players who show up is fewer than 8.

Expected TGP is 44%