“Special When Lit” will be screening at the New York United Film Festival at 8:00pm, Sunday, October 24th, at the Cobble Hill Cinemas. Cobble Hill Cinemas is located at 265 Court Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231. Details of the film festival can be found HERE.

Connell Creations is giving away 3 pairs of tickets for FREE! To win a complimentary pair of tickets simply be one of the first three people to correctly answer the trivia question. Please send all answers directly to the IFPA at ifpapinball@gmail.com.

The trivia question focuses around THE place to play pinball in New York City for over 25 years, the Broadway Arcade. Located at 52nd & Broadway, it was one of the best arcades in the US for playing pinball. In 1997, the arcade unfortunately closed for business due to the non-renewal of its lease. This leads us to our trivia question:

Who was the legendary owner of The Broadway Arcade?

*WE HAVE OUR WINNERS!*
*TRIVIA ANSWER WAS . . . STEVE EPSTEIN*

30 players from 9 countries: Italy, Germany, France, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland, Turkey, Holland and San Marino attended the inaugural Rome Pinball Tournament in Italy. 3 tournaments were organized over the weekend of October 6-8th, with the main event culminating in the awarding of a brand new Stern Big Buck Hunter to the Main Event Champion.

The first tournament of the weekend was won by Frank Bona from France, 2nd was Michel Dailly from France, 3rd place was Michael Trepp from Switzerland, and 4th place was Levante Tregova also from Switzerland.

Day two saw Frank Bona victorious once again. 2nd place was IFPA7 World Pinball Champion Daniele Acciari from Italy, 3rd place was  Michel Dailly, and 4th place was Michael Trepp.

The Main Tournament was won by Rene Van Gool (Holland), 2nd place was Brenn Oosterbann (Holland), 3rd place was Daniele Acciari, and 4th place was Michel Dailly.

The final match was a 4-player game on Stern’s latest AVATAR pinball machine. Van Gool won one BIG BUCK HUNTER Stern machine, thanks to Tecnoplay and Stern Pinball. Picture courtesy of GiocoNews.

The IFPA is proud to announce it will be teaming up with GameWorks once again for the 5th Chicago Pinball Tournament of Champions the weekend of October 15th through 17th at the Schaumburg location (Streets of Woodfield). Over $1500 in Cash and prizes!

Participants will receive a one day pass to Pinball Expo being held during the following week.

Reminder that the Stern Avatar Launch Party for Chicago is being held at the same Gameworks location that Friday night.

Email the IFPA at ifpapinball@gmail.com for more details.

The tournament was great and all loved it and nobody went home with empty hands! Satellite Lounge had a great turn out with 32 players (split randomly in 8 groups of 4 players) plus 2 late entry for total of 34. 8 machines were used (24 – South Park – Monster Bash – Batman The Dark Knight – Indiana Jones 4 – High Speed II – Big Buck Hunter – Playboy from Bally),  all well taken care of by Al Cihak!

Steven Bowden came out triumphant with Koi Morris 2nd, Frank Romero 3rd and Peace Nick Mann 4th. Francesco La Rocca finished 5th and was the highest Brooklyn resident! 7 games were played in the first round with pts given 5/3/2/1 and the winner of each group went into Group A; second place winners went to B and the other 16 players went to C (there were 2 tie break games in 2 groups for 2nd place so 1 extra game, chosen at random, was played).

B Group played 2 more games; each player added their points from both games where coming in first on a game out of the 8 scores earned 10 pts; coming in 2nd out of the 8 scores earned 7 pts; and so on down to 1 pt for 8th place. Winner of B group was Joe Said! C group was played in the same style but 20 pts for first place, 15 for 2nd and so on to 1 point for 16th place (2 tie break games were played to decide 2nd/3rd place and 5th/6th place). Winner of C group was Simon Olenick!

The 8 qualified for A were split randomly in 2 groups and played 3 machines with same scoring as the first round: 5/3/2/1. The 2 winners and the second of each group went to final round (each player picking one machine plus 1 chosen at random) while the other 4 played 2 extra games and Francesco came out the winner.

Next Brooklyn Pinball Championship is scheduled for November 28, 2010 !

It seems that whether it be the shooting game, or the pinball machine, winning Big Buck Hunter is in Jerad Berg’s veins. The former Big Buck Hunter World Champion won the $165 pot during the BBH Pro Pinball Tournament held at the 3rd annual Big Buck Hunter World Championships in Chicago. Jerad scored over 80 million points on his way towards winning the pot. IFPA Vice President Zach Sharpe presented Jerad with his winnings following the tournament.

“Special When Lit” will be opening the Second Annual Chicago United Film Festival at 7:00pm, Friday, September 10th, at the Music Box Theatre. The Music Box Theatre is located at 3733 N. Southport Ave. Chicago, IL 60613. Details of the film festival can be found HERE.

All film screenings are $10, All Access Passes are $70 & Mini Passes are $35. Purchase advance tickets HERE.

With Chicago being the heart and soul of everything pinball, Connell Creations is giving away 3 pairs of tickets for FREE! To win a complimentary pair of tickets simply be one of the first three people to correctly answer the trivia question. Please send all answers directly to the IFPA at ifpapinball@gmail.com.

The trivia question focuses around the testimony of IFPA Co-Director Roger Sharpe during the pinball legalization hearing. Part of Sharpe’s testimony was to play a machine, helping to show that the game was truly a game of skill and not chance. Two machines were brought into the courtroom with one designated as the backup should any problems arise. Fearing that the original machine was somehow rigged to work exactly to Sharpe’s expectations, one of the judges threw out the original machine and requested the use of the backup game. The game Sharpe played was Gottlieb’s Bank Shot. This leads us to the trivia question:

What game was Sharpe SUPPOSED to play as part of his testimony at the hearing?

TRIVIA CONTEST IS OVER – CORRECT ANSWER WAS “EL DORADO”

Over 400 players from around the world arrived in Pittsburgh, PA to attend the year’s largest pinball event, with multiple divisions of play available to suit each individual’s skill level, and Division A being the competition for the very best pinball players in the world, and the battle for the PAPA crown! After 3 days of qualifying, the 16 top players started the road to the finals. 4 groups of 4 players played off on 3 games, and the top 8 players over all moved on to the semi-finals. From there emerged the top 4: Reigning back-to-back champion, Keith Elwin, coming off a tie-breaker win over Donovan Stepp to make the cut, previous 2-time PAPA and 2-time IFPA World Champion, Bowen Kerins, previous PAPA finalist, Andrei Massenkoff, and first-time PAPA finalist, Cayle George. After the 1st game of the finals on Cheetah, Keith was leading the pack, with Andrei just behind, Cayle next and Bowen sitting last. The 2nd game was Addams Family, and going into ball 3, with Keith already finished his game and in the lead, it was critical that Cayle, Bowen, or Andrei win to prevent Keith from locking up the championship. Cayle fell short of Keith’s score despite an exciting final ball. Bowen started his third and final ball, and after getting to about 23 million, with approximately 50 million more needed, his ball headed down the right outlane… but with what may be the greatest save in PAPA finals history, he double-bounced and double-dangered the ball back up and into the right INLANE, reflex shooting it up to the ‘lock’ to have multiball ready on the next plunge! Well Bowen DID come all the way back to pass Keith’s score, and made it so going into the 3rd and final game on Creature from the Black Lagoon, the championship was still wide open! The bar was quickly set by Cayle on his 1st ball, and then later raised by Bowen, but on Keith’s final ball, he scored himself a large Jackpot AND Super Jackpot to post a lead that, despite their best efforts, none of the competitors could catch… and so, Keith Elwin took PAPA’s highest honor for a THIRD YEAR IN A ROW! 2nd place went to Andrei Massenkoff, 3rd to Bowen Kerins, and 4th to Cayle George.

This year’s Classics 1 Championship went to Dave Hegge, with 2nd place going to Josh Sharpe, 3rd to John Kremmer, and 4th to Keith Elwin. The next day, the Classics 2 Championship went to Josh Sharpe, 2nd to Robert Gagno, 3rd to Keith Elwin, and 4th to Brian Bannon. This year also saw a remarkable feat in the B Division with pinball wunderkind Josh Henderson locking up the win after just 2 games in the final round. This makes Josh the youngest player to ever win the B Division, as well as the youngest player to ever be forced to play in the A Division (next year). Josh is only 12 YEARS OLD!

With his A, Classics I and Classics II performance (1st/4th/3rd), Keith not only firmly secured his spot back atop the World Pinball Player Rankings, but he also topped his own previous record of most WPPR points at any event in competitive pinball history. He earned a remarkable 126.80 points besting last year’s total of 125.85. Full detailed results can be found HERE.

The Downingtown Pinball League began their Summer 2010 season on May 20, 2010 at the Pinball Gallery in Downingtown, PA. Thirteen players competed in a 10-week season with the top 3 players from each of the two divisions earning spots in the playoffs. The playoffs were held on August 19, 2010 and it was a back and forth battle to see who would come out on top. In the end in Division A, a new champion was crowned: Frank Egitto. Gabe Patterson, last season’s champion, was runner-up in Division A this time around. In Division B, Bill Disney came out on top as champion, with Kevin Davis, a new player this season, winning runner-up.

The UK Pinball Open culminated in an exciting and tense final in front of an audience of dinner guests at the first ever UK Pinball Party on 14th August 2010.

The field of 86 entrants had been whittled down to the final four;
Janne Toukkari, Frank Bona, Peter Scheldt and Brenn Oosterbaan (pictured, left to right)

Their final game on Darren Ball’s beautifully restored White Water was overseen by the game’s designer, Dennis Nordman, who was the evening’s guest speaker.

Brenn’s total score of 320M appeared to be serious under threat as Peter passed 300M on his final ball. But an unexpected bounce sent the ball into the drain, leaving Peter on 301M and making Brenn the UK Pinball Open Champion for 2010.

Brenn received his laser-etched crystal trophy from Dennis, along with a winner’s medal, certificate and GBP200 ($300) cash prize. All the finalists received trophies, medals certificates and cash prizes. Full results can be found HERE.

The Toronto Pinball League Playoffs were held on Aug 8th 2010 and saw an attendance of 14 people. In the A division Kirk Hutton was really on his game after losing two straight in the first round, Kirk went on to work his way through the entire losers bracket and then defeated Adam Becker Twice in the finals to take his first ever title of TOPL Playoff Champion. So congratulations to Kirk for winning the TOPL playoffs and taking home the trophy plus $150. Second place went to Adam who got $80 and 3rd place was John Flitton who got $40.