Caleb Hannan from the Seattle Weekly wrote a feature article on Canada’s current #1 ranked player Robert Gagno. Check out the article here!

http://www.seattleweekly.com/2010-12-08/news/robert-gagno-the-rain-man-of-pinball/

Play started at 1:30 pm and finished after 11 pm in a PAPA style (100 pts for first place,90,85, 84 etc) qualification with the top 16 advancing (Sean Grant finished 1st thank to 4 high scores followed by Nick McCarthy and Steven Bowden).

Then in the next round 4 groups of 4 played and the top 2 from each group made up the A Group for the subsequent (semi-final) round. The other 8 players made up the B Group and these players along with the players that didn’t qualify played 2 games in their next round. The top 4 players from the A Group went on to the Final Round to determine the tournament winner.

Machines used included: 24 -Simpson the Pinball Party – Monster Bash-Batman The Dark Knight-Indiana Jones 4-The Sopranos-Big Buck Hunter.

Sean Grant “The Storm” won the tournament over Jonathan Ehrlich(the Pinferno organizer), Harris Pankin and Chris Bucci all of these players reside in Manhattan. Nick McCarthy took 5th place and the title of New Brooklyn Champion , then Micheal Field from NJ took 6th place, Koi Morris(who helped run the tourney ) 7th, and Francesco La Rocca (Organizer ) took 8th place giving up his title of Brooklyn Champion.

Joe Said won the B group over Frank Romero and Mike Pantino beat Peace Nick Mann in a tie breaker game for the victory in the C group. Penni Epstein winning 15th place kept her title as Brooklyn Woman Champion.

Next Brooklyn Pinball Championship will be play Saturday February 5 2011 single elimination format (or double) since will follow the Monthly Master of the NPL on same day and location.

The popularity of end-of-season pinball tournaments in the UK was in evidence on 5th December when two parallel events took place in different parts of the country.  The Festive Pinball Gathering was held in Salisbury in the south, while the Christmas Cracker took place in Well in the north-east Midlands.

Despite the ice and snow covering the UK, both events were well attended and both saw first time tournament wins for the victors.  UK Number 3 Greg Mott won the Festive Pinball Gathering while UK number 6 Stan Simpson triumphed at the Christmas Cracker, both beating higher ranked players in the finals.

Image: Festive Pinball Gathering host Peter Blakemore (left) presents winner Greg Mott with his trophy.

On Wednesday, December 1st, Jim Fordham retained the Jersey Pinball Association PinGolf Championship. Having now won both the Spring and Fall 2010 tournaments, he has held the title for the entire year. He, along with Sanjay Shah and Kevin Smigel, were the top three finishers at the end of the qualifying period. Those three players competed on the same five games used throughout the season. Those games included: The unpredictable Monster Bash, the diabolical Iron Man, the high-scoring Johnny Mnemonic, the blazing fast Lord of the Rings, and the strategy-filled World Poker Tour.

Runner-up, Sanjay Shah was able to start the Finals with a lead by posting the first under-par qualifying entry in the short history of the tournament. He was able to keep his advantage through the first game of the Final, Monster Bash. However, Jim’s par on Iron Man quickly turned the tables and gave him the edge he would not relinquish. Jim was then able to use the double-hold-bonus bug/feature on Johnny Mnemonic to increase his lead, and he nailed down the title by simply not bombing out on Lord of the Rings. Valiant challenges by Frank Romero, Ed Zeltmann, and Koi Morris fell short.

The Spring 2011 JPA PinGolf Tournament will begin at the start of the next JPA season in early March. For more information on the Jersey Pinball Association, visit www.thebreak.net/pinball/. Full results and pictures can be found here at www.funwithbonus.com.

The IFPA is proud to team up with the Silverball Museum in Asbury Park to host the first-ever Silverball Holiday Pinball Championship.

The tournament will be on Saturday, December 18th, 2010. For more details check out www.silverballmuseum.com.

Qualifying will be from 10AM-5PM, with the finals starting at 6:30PM that evening.

OVER $3000 in Cash Prizes!

The London United Film Festival will be featuring the pinball documentary “Special When Lit” this Friday, December 3rd at 7:15pm.

Here is the information on where to attend:

Prince Charles Cinema
7 Leicester Place
(Off Leicester Square)
London WC2H 7BY

Sean “The Storm” Grant takes top honors at NYC Pinball League, 2010 season 2. The season ending on November 10 was not a slam-dunk for Sean as in previous seasons. Sean, Steve Bowden and Alberto Santana all owned the top rank at one time or another as the season progressed, but Sean earned it back from Alberto during the last week of regular play and successfully defended it during finals week against Steve Bowden. It was a great season contested on Stern’s latest titles, Big Buck Hunter Pro and Iron Man. Avatar joined the line up late in the season and will be added to the rotation to kick off the first of 3 expected seasons for 2011. Long time member, Adam Chao, fine tuned his game and broke into the top 8 early and stayed there the remainder of the season. Other forces to be reckoned with in upcoming seasons are Nick McCarthy and Alex Jones (both class C finalists at PAPA 13), Vanessa Cameron, Sean Garcia and Joe Said, all of whom made big moves this season relative to their starting ranks. For more information on the NYC Pinball League, visit www.nycpinballleague.com. Full results can be found HERE.

‘Pinferno li’V’es’, the 5th installment of NYC’s own all-day pinball tournament, took place on Sat Oct 30th, 2010 at Reciprocal Skateboards NYC. The Tournament started with a 6 hour round-robin style qualification Round played on Creature From The Black Lagoon, Getaway, Terminator 3, and Dr. Who, leaving the top 16 players to battle for the title of Grand Champion in Round II.

The Semi-Finals came down to Adam Cane (returning to his infamous role as “Mr. Semi-Finalist”) vs. Steve Bowden, and Alberto Santana vs. Jory Rabinovitz. This boiled down to an exciting finals match, with Steve Bowden battling it out vs. Alberto Santana, who personally has most of the high scores on Reciprocal’s machines. It ended with Steve Bowden emerging victorious in a 3-1 victory, with the final match being played on Reciprocal’s first machine ever, The Getaway.

Video action from the tournament can be found HERE. Pictures from the event can be found HERE. Full results from the tournament can be found HERE.

This year’s Flip-Out tournament at the 26th annual Pinball Expo in Chicago had players qualifying on 7 of Stern’s latest games including Avatar, Ironman, Big Buck Hunter, Wheel of Fortune, Shrek, Dale Jr. and CSI. 59 players from 7 countries competed in the A division, which featured nearly $6000 in cash and prizes up for grabs.

16 of those 59 players advanced to the double elimination head-to-head final, where Trent Augenstein defeated Zach Sharpe to take home 1st place. Other finalists included Bowen Kerins (3rd) and Josh Sharpe (4th).

The Classics Division champion was Brian Bannon, with Jason Werdrick finishing 2nd, Derek Fugate 3rd, and Zach Sharpe 4th.

Full results can be found HERE.

Coinciding with Stern’s Avatar Launch Party, the IFPA and GameWorks teamed up to host their 5th Pinball Tournament of Champions. 49 players participated for the $1600 in cash and prizes up for grabs, qualifying on Avatar, Ironman, Family Guy and 24.

Joshua Henderson defeated Jason Werdrick, IFPA7 runner up Andy Rosa, Jason Magnuson and then Josh Sharpe in the final to take home the victory. Other finalists included Josh Sharpe (2nd), Dave Hegge (3rd) and Jason Magnuson (4th).

Based on the success of the event, GameWorks intends on having their 6th tournament this upcoming February, 2011. Stay tuned for more details. Full results from the tournament can be found HERE.