Merit Introduces New Prize Program

This article comes from Highwaygames.com

Merit Industries, Inc.'s annual April Showers TournaMAXX had players competing in featured Megatouch games Tri-Towers and Merit-Thon Quiz with Merit also introducing a new prize program as a part of the TournaMAXX tournament play, with prizes being delivered at both the local and national levels. All three of this month's winners in Merit-Thon Quiz played on machines operated by Warner's Coin Machine out of Erie, PA. First place went to Denise Dymond of Vegas, PA, her score of 813,212 was earned at The Garage. Denise also took the single game high score title with 903,143. Both the second and third place winners played at the Marnia Inn in Erie, PA. Second place went to Hayes Biggs with a score of 714,274 while, third place went to Jerry Jarzomski with a score of 702,081. Frank Yenca was the high scorer for this month's regular Tri-Towers tournament with a score of 185,245. Frank played on a touch screen operated by H. Lazar & Son, Inc. at Ryan's Pub & Grill in Pittsburgh, PA. Second place went to Liz Sontag, who scored 180,333 at Jeddo Stars in Freeland, PA. She played on a machine operated by Aaaamusement Rrrr Usss. This month's third place score was 178,770 earned by Amy Anderson playing at The Ritz in Chippewa Falls, WI operated by Northwest Coin Machine. The single game high score went to Vickie Richards with 222,050. Vickie played on a machine operated by Jubilee Music at Miller's in Lino Lakes, MN.

The new prize program is run on a special skill-based edition of one of the regular TournaMAXX games, the game in April was Tri-Towers. This skill-based edition is specially engineered to remove all elements of chance in high earning games, so that players have to play often and build skill in a particular game in order to improve their scores. Winners simply fill out a prize claim form found at www.accessmerit.com/players and return it to Merit Industries within 60 days. The national prizes, awarded by Merit, are based on average scores from across the country. The local prizes are part of Merit's new Ultra program, one of three programs operators can now select for their TournaMAXX service. In the national program, prizes were awarded for 1st through 10th place, 15th, 20th, 25th, 30th, 40th & 50th places. Prizes in this competition ranged from a Sony 750 Watt DVD System to a Mr. Coffee 12 Cup Coffee Maker to a HoMedics Foot Salon. Local prizes in the Ultra program are awarded based on scores from participating operators. The local prizes in the Ultra program ranged from GE Microwaves to Motorola 2-Way Radios to Cannon Scanners and Kodak Digital Cameras. The top three April Showers Tri-Towers national prizes all went to players from Associated Vending in Ohio. First place winner Jack Taylor took home the Sony 750 Watt DVD System with a score of 194,692. Jack played at Rick's Tavern in West Chester, OH. Marion Marshall took second place with a score of 188,818 playing at Stammers in Cincinnati, OH. Marion's prize was a 20" Flatscreen TV Triple Combo. The third place winner, Mariusz Kraszweski, took home a Nikon 4100 Digital Camera. Mariusz plays at BWW Huber Heights in Huber Heights, OH. The single game high score winner was Jen Piazza who plays at Classic Rock Café in Fairfield, OH on a machine operated by Dixie Music Co.

In May, the Ultra program features a bartender promotion where the location that gets the most players registered for TournaMAXX and the prize programs will receive $200 cash. The May prize game will be 11-Ball and Merit will be introducing a threshold score for the prize games which means that players will have to earn above a set amount of points in order to be eligible for prizes. There will also be a prize of a portable DVD player for the single game high score winner in May. Bob Mills, Merit's Vice President of Marketing & Network Business said, "We would like to say thank you to all who participated, helping to make this event another great success. We would also like to thank Best Buy for helping us out with the prizes and the operators who took on the Ultra and Progressive programs for us. Everyone came together to make this April Showers tournament one of the best ever."

PICTURED: Tri-Towers winner Jack Taylor, left, is joined by Lisa from Rick's Tavern and operator Jeff Siegel.