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The D.P.L. was founded by 3 extreme pin heads wanting more out of their collections,
more times to get together with friends and relate pinball stories and of course
to play pinball. The idea was brought up in conversation between John White, Scott
Freeman and Mick McDonald one night after a small get together at one of our collections.
Our combined disgust with local operators and their machines out on location and
also the lack of pinball machines in general was one of our major concerns. We come
up with there was no way any "pinball" league would be able to survive by attending
bars and bowling centers in public. The local pinball scene is all about dead in
Detroit, with less than 5 arcades with more than 5 pins. Thus we needed to be in
our homes playing our collections, where the majority of machines in metro Detroit
sit, in peoples homes.
John White then set out on a research mission and looked at other leagues to mold
the D.P.L. to be as successful and fun as other leagues. He spoke with Vince and
Craig, both co-writers of the Chicago pinball mafia for suggestions and comments
about his ideas. After drawing up a set of basic rules and showing them to Mick
and Scott, we decided to go forward with our plans on forming the D.P.L. We took
to the newsgroup, RGP and ask for interest from people living in the Detroit metro
area. We were surprised that we had over 20 people wanting to participate. From
there, we set up a meeting to tweak our rules with people who wanted to participate
in this league. Scott Freeman also did alot of work making spreadsheets for our
scoring and averages, plotting out maps and addresses and keeping a very easy to
read paper trail for all our events. Mick started building our website after John
Kosamal (KOZ) very happily agreed to loan us a webspace. Even know Scott wont admit
it, he is the backbone of the operation and the scoring guru of the DPL scoring
system.
That meeting December 1st. 2007 was the first official D.P.L. meeting to discuss
the rules and concerns of those wanting to participate. John White held the meeting
and had plenty of food and great looking games up and running. The member's together
made the final adjustments on the rules John wrote up. Concerns were voiced and
answered, all members had their chance to voice their opinion.
Our main goal is simple. We wanted to have fun playing competitive pinball with
other collectors on collector quality working games from all era's in a smoke free
environment. Our secondary goal was to protect our "host of the month" machines
and residence from our members. Our 3rd goal was to be able to do this without having
to travel great distances away from our home and family's. And our 4th and last
goal was to make the machines as difficult and tourney worthy so everyone will have
a chance to win.
A quick count of the current game list of our members willing and or capable of
hosting an event is well over 75 different game titles and expanding as we all get
deeper into the obsession. Games include the latest Stern releases to the old EM
machines that made pinball what it is today. We will rarely run into repeating a
game of the same title through a complete season. But due to mechanical failure
and host number of machines, this may not succeed. For example, there are 10 Twilight
Zones in our members ranks. Not all members have collections in their teens.
As most of us know, this is Michigan. Some of our members have houses 50+ years
old and really cant fit over 20 people in their houses. Collecting pinball machines
is all dependent on what kind of space you have to spare. The directors of this
league wanted a trouble free, no hassle league. By limiting our membership to those
people who are local ( 30 minutes out of downtown Detroit) will allow everyone to
make every meeting and be home at a decent hour.
We wanted to play competitive pinball with the best in the area. We do have local
"pro's" who often compete in the world stage, but we also have the run of the mill
collector who is an average player. We give everyone the chance to basically have
fun. Meeting other collectors, trading games, playing and restoration strategies
and parts is really our main concern. Not to mention its a night out.
The founding members had concerns of hosting an event while others cannot or will
not host events. We are trying to set it up so you wont have to host but every other
year. With only 6-8 meetings a year, we don't see a problem with this, but we would
prefer that new members will be able to host events to expand our title selections.
To be added to the waiting list to become a member please forward your name, location,
game count and host preferences to John White (jdubbbs at gmail.com)
We will not add members during the season, and we will not go over 20 members. Slots
will open up if attendance requirements are not met. Since this is in an experimental
stage, we really don't know how many members will continue into the 2008-2009 season.
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