S.L.A.P.: The Gateway Drug

St. Louis Area Pinball concludes their inaugural league! The passionate and dedicated league players brought awareness of competitive pinball to each other and peripheral patrons, spreading pinball enthusiasm and knowledge to all around. Like any great vice, all it takes is that initial introduction and you are hooked-such

is the allure of competitive pinball, and the robust growth of WPPR ranked players (over 13,000 now!) is a perfect testament to the enthralling nature of the sport.

With participation from over 35 players the season provided an amazing opportunity for competitive pinball and generally great times. The large field allowed for full A, B and C divisions, providing tight races for playoff spots and consistently well matched groups. Many games along the way were decided by a single shot, made or missed. Others saw glorious, crushing victories, like getting Mystery Spot and Alien Invasion in a playoff round, or new league highs being set while under pressure of elimination, and of course the antithesis-house balls; all the greatness that is pinball.

Congratulations to all participants who made this a weekly highlight. Shown in the photo is the A division podium: [player]John Miller[/player] 1st (center), [player]Brian Bannon[/player] 2nd (left), [player]Chuck Sanderson[/player] 3rd (right). With ever growing interest and plenty of developing talent, the next season is sure to supply worthy challengers at all levels (like B division winner: [player]Andy Maurer[/player], and C division winner: [player]Alec Gleason[/player]).

Incredible thanks to [player]Joe Schober[/player] and the Free State Pinball Association for their well developed rules, organizational tools, web hosting and stats programming. The access to current standings, player stats, machine stats and other fun accoutrement were an amazing bonus to our first time through, and we benefitted from their tremendous experience and generosity.

Our league was rotated weekly between 3 venues (The Silver Ballroom, 3rd Rail, and CP Pinball) which can boast, in total, around 100 machines! Jet Spin, Frontier, Eight Ball Deluxe, Twilight Zone, Tron LE and AC/DC only begin to allude to the amazing breadth of games accessible for our league play. All three venues are open to the public, machine status is routinely updated on the pinball rebel locator map and all are star attractions on the St. Louis pinball tour (info on each can be easily found online). Look for annual or biannual tournaments at these venues as SLAP continues to grow.

We will be cheering on four of our own as they make the wonderful pilgrimage to PAPA for Pinburgh at the end of the month, and will be rooting for our winner to make another great impression on the IFPA World Pinball Championships in June.

Join your local league or try to start one up. For those already in a league-next meet, stop and observe your surroundings. Reflect on the sights and sounds, stretch your fingers and wrists; enjoy the fact that you are hanging out with the coolest people around. Enough chatter, there is a ball to plunge, “Let’s Go.”