Rules

CPR follows the official PAPA/IFPA Tournament Rules.

Pace and round timing

CPR Main qualifying runs five rounds: Round 1 is 2 hours 15 minutes, and Rounds 2–5 are 1 hour 30 minutes each. The rules below, adapted from the Pinburgh ruleset, keep the field on schedule.

Order of Play

Games are always played in the same order: Solid State, DMD, EM, then LCD. When two groups share the same bank, the first full group to arrive at the Solid State machine starts there and plays forward. The second group starts two games ahead on EM and also plays forward — looping back to Solid State and DMD once they reach the end. This two-game offset keeps the groups off each other’s machines and cuts down on dead time between rounds.

Finals divisions and restrictions

• The top 24 from Main qualifying advance to A Division. The next 8 eligible players advance to B Division.
• B Division is restricted to players outside the Top 500 IFPA WPPR Ranking. A restricted player who would otherwise qualify for B finals does not advance; their slot passes to the next eligible player in standings.
• Both divisions play PAPA-style Group Elimination starting Sunday at 9:30 AM.
• Tiebreakers: ties affecting A Division qualification, B Division qualification, or a finals bye are broken on Saturday on a randomly selected one-player EM. Other ties are resolved by cumulative win-loss records from prior sessions, falling back to original seeding if still tied.

Main qualifying only

• 10-minute late rule: a player more than 10 minutes late to their assigned group at the start of a round is removed from the group, recorded 0-12 for that round, and the group continues as 3 players (with W-L records multiplied by 1.5 to keep point totals comparable).
• Two consecutive missed rounds without prior notice of an emergency disqualifies a player from Main.
• Mid-round absence: if a player who started the round disappears, the TD must be notified. The player has up to 3 minutes to return; after that, their score for the in-progress game is 0 and any remaining balls are plunged unplayed.
• Pace calls: the TD may declare a player the winner of a game in progress (recorded 3-0) when the result is no longer in doubt and the schedule is at risk. Stop play immediately when called.

These do not apply to the Friday Night Melee, Sunday Send-Off, or Sunday finals; those run their own formats.

All tournaments

• Slow machines: the TD may pull a machine from the tournament lineup between rounds (malfunction, unusually long average playtime, etc.).
• No practice on tournament machines during the event window. Open-play machines elsewhere on the floor remain available.

Rulings

Tournament staff have final say on disputes per IFPA guidelines.