P4P Tournaments

Every year, we organize about 8-10 tournaments, mostly in Germany, but also in neighboring countries, e. g. the Swiss Open has already become a tradition.

At the end of the season, we have one significantly larger tournament (in terms of prize money and number of participants).

Still larger events such as European and World Championships take place from time to time - So far, we had the European Championships 2003/2008/2012/2016 and the World Championships 2006/2010/2014/2018.

Download player registration form

If you have never been at a P4P tournament, you will need this form, so we can enter you into our database and you get a player number. You can email the form to info@players4players.de, or complete it in paper at your first tournament.

How do P4P tournaments work?

If you have never been to a foosball tournament, here are some informations about our tournaments:

Participation

Anyone who wants to can participate! So you don't have to register in advance (but it makes it easier for us if you do, see below); and you don't have to arrive with a certain number of players. If you are alone and still want to play the doubles events, you have good chances to find a partner on site.

There is no visitor entrance fee, spectators are welcome. If you want to play however, you have to pay an entry fee (after all, we have to finance the prize money). More details below.

The different events

Different events will be played: Singles, Doubles, etc. - details can be found in the announcement of the respective tournament. A special feature is the "D.Y.P." (Draw Your Partner) - here you get a doubles partner drawn by lot.

Classification

So that beginners don't get knocked out in the first round against a pro, we play in different classes: Rookie, Amateur, Master, Elite.

In the "Rookie" events only rookies are allowed to play, in the "Amateur" events rookies and amateurs, and in the "Open" events everyone. So a lower ranked player may play in the higher ranked events, but not vice versa. For example, a rookie player may compete in Open Singles against the Master and Elite players, but a Master may not compete in Rookie Singles (otherwise it would be a bit unfair to the rookies :-)

Who belongs into which class is regulated by a sophisticated point system (including promotion and relegation). For example, if you have never been to a tournament before, you start as a rookie. You can read the exact procedure and the current classifications in the menu above under "Ranking".

Registration and membership fee

Online Registration

For each event you want to play, you must of course register with the tournament management - in time, i. e. by the specified time at the latest (see the announcement of the respective tournament, it gives the registration deadline for each event). Shortly after the registration deadline, the respective event will be started; the games will be called. You can also register for the events that start later, for example on Saturday morning you may already register for the Sunday events.

Once a year, in addition to the registration fees, an annual fee of currently 15 € (or 13 € for pupils, students, etc.) is due. You can pay this fee together with your first registration at your first tournament of the year. If this is your very first P4P tournament at all, you will also get a player number at this occasion, which you will need for the further registrations. This number remains valid indefinitely, i. e. at later tournaments you do not need a new player number -- you will register with the same number again and again.

The P4P registration system

  • The registration is done in our tournament software, where we enter all disciplines a player wants to play. Only if you have never been to a P4P tournament before, you have to fill in a player registration form once (see below).
  • The procedure works like this: you come to the registration desk and tell us your player number (and the number of your doubles partners); we enter them into the form, tick the desired events and you pay the corresponding entry fee.

Software and app

You can do various things in our web based tournament software -- read these instructions.

You can also get your match calls on your phone, by installing App our app »P4P Messaging«:

More informationen about the P4P Messaging app.

Online (pre) registration

You can also pre-register yourself. At the tournament we then only have to accept your entry fee and click on "Confirm". This is how it works:

Your registration is only complete after you have been to the checkout, paid, and your registration has been electronically approved there!

You can do this all live at the tournament also -- it just makes things easier for us (and helps to avoid long delays) if most players pre-register online.

Misc

  • You do not have to register for everything at once. You can also, for example, first register only for one event, go to the checkout; later you register for the second event and so on. The form will only calculate the changes, and you will only pay for these changes. Of course it is easier to register as many disciplines as possible at once.
  • Please check (after you have been at the cash desk and paid) at the info notebooks or online if you are really registered for all desired events! Mistakes always can happen, e. g. maybe we have forgotten to click on "Save" at the cash desk. You can check your registrations by clicking on your Name in the top menu bar, and then select "Registration". There you should see all events you are registered for.
  • The player registration form only has to be filled out if this is your very first P4P tournament and therefore you don't have a player number yet.
  • In the software, everywhere your player number is required you can also begin typing your last name and then select from the list.

Mode of play

A match is normally played to two winning sets (i. e. whoever wins two sets first is the winner -- "Best of Three"). In the open disciplines, the match is played to three winning sets ("Best of Five"). Each set goes to 5 goals. In the loser's round it goes faster: for newcomers and amateurs only one set is played to 7, in the open events to 2 winning sets (instead of 3). However, you should inform yourself about the exact mode on the basis of the announcement or on site, because there can be changes.

After the end of a match, the winner has to come to the tournament desk und inform us he or she has won the match.

We normally play according to the so-called "double knockout system", i. e. there is a winner's round and a loser's round:

  • As soon as you are eliminated in the winner's round (knockout system), you move on to the loser's round, where you can also still make it to the finals. Only if you lose in the loser's round, you are out for good.
  • The winner of the winner's round and the winner of the loser's round will compete in the final. However, the winner of the winner's round gets an advantage: he has to win one set less in the final to achieve the overall victory.

Entry fees and price money

As you can see from the announcement, we usually play out a total prize money of about 5000 € (more for big tournaments like the P4P Championship). In some disciplines (e. g. D.Y.P.), instead of fixed amounts, percentage shares of the entry fees are paid out, i. e. the more people participate, the more there is to win.

The entry fees paid by the participants are used to finance the prize money. Events where there is more to win have higher entry fees than others; moreover, in open singles, for example, newcomers pay less than elite players -- logical, because a newcomer naturally has a lesser chance of taking one of the top places here.

We have taken great pains to make the entry and prize money fair for everyone!

Rules

The game is played according to the ITSF rules, which you can read here. 

Especially for newcomers it is recommended to have a look at the rules in advance - you don't have to internalize all the subtleties, but there are a few points that differ from the "pub rules" as they are practiced in many places - e. g.:

  • No "bumping" - if your opponent loses the ball because you bump the table, it's a foul;
  • Goals from the 5 count; also, goals where the ball bounces back out of the goal count;
  • If you scored the last goal, your opponent gets to serve the ball on his five-row.

Tournament rules

At the P4P tournaments, in addition to the actual rules of the game, a number of procedural and behavioral rules apply, which you can read here. All participants of a P4P tournament accept these tournament rules as binding with their participation and by joining P4P as members.

Informational Video

A video with informations for new players, from Klaus Schankat at »kickerbau.org« (not completely up-to-date anymore, but for the most part it should still be ok:)

World and European Championships

Since 2006 P4P has regularly organized World and European Championships. The archive of previous World and European Championships can be found on the following pages:

German League Cup

In the years 2005-2008, when league play in Germany was much less structured than it is today, we held an annual tournament for the top players of the various leagues, for the last two of which you can find the historical results here. After 2008, we withdrew from league play and left this topic to the DTFB.