Keith Elwin wins 2011 Northwest Pinball Championships!
The Northwest Pinball and Gameroom Show hosts one of the biggest tournaments in North America with the NW Pinball Championships attracting players from all over the country.
With another record setting number of players again this year, making it to the finals continues to become a greater and greater challenge, but the top 16 ended up being a nice balance of both local and national talent. In the Final Rounds, 16 players became 8, and the 8 became the Final 4: Jim Belsito, Steven Bowden, Raymond Davidson, and defending Champion, Keith Elwin. Keith took the lead after the first game played on Supersonic, and going into ball 3 of the next game, Rolling Stones, it looked like it would be a bit of a lack-luster final, but thanks to some GREAT play by local pinball prodigy Raymond Davidson, he was able to have a big ball 3 to make game 3, Jack-Bot, become a must-win for Keith to ensure a repeat victory at Northwest. As the crowd watched all the action from an overhead camera, the excitement was palpable, and Raymond didn’t disappoint, having a GIANT ball 3 on Jack-Bot to pass Keith’s 2.3 billion and force a tie-breaker to decide this year’s winner . . . ah but the 80’s Bally games have always treated Keith well, and today was no exception as Raymond was unable to beat Keith on the tie-breaker game of Supersonic and would have to settle for 2nd this year, while Keith defended his title to become the 2011 Northwest Pinball Champion! Jim Belsito took 3rd place while Steven Bowden ended up 4th.
In Classics this year, Francesco LaRocca, all the way from Brooklyn, NY, became the 2011 Classics Champion, beating out Bob Matthews, Keith Elwin, and Cayle George who all finished 2nd, 3rd, and 4th respectively. The Women’s Championship was won by Seattle local Linda Nasfell who outscored Bonnie Bedford on the final game of the 4-player match, giving Bonnie 2nd place, with 3rd place going to Laura Stoddard, and 4th place to Julie Gray. This year’s Novice Division winner was Eric Dubofsky, with a convincing win (taking first place on all 3 of the games played!) over Miles Grant, Calah Kremmer, and Mike Williams.
