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Pinball Competition

Stern Pinball Inc. Flexes Their Vast Pinball Muscle

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There is no doubt that Stern Pinball Inc. has played a huge part in the renaissance of pinball, so it is great to see the world’s biggest pinball manufacturer not sit on their laurels and bask in their success. Stern keeps striving and pushing the boundary of innovation, events and supporting the pinball community around the world with thousands of competitions.

Stern announced their The Godzilla Stern Heads-Up Pinball Invitational in partnership with Toho International Inc., owners of the Godzilla franchise, which is on August 10, starting at 7pm (CST local time). Catch all the action on YouTube!

The other announcement Stern made last week (August 3rd) was that they were launching new Insider Connected features, like mobile ID and Home Teams – which was great to see. However, we were quite excited to see that Stern had released the replacement arches for Insider Connected for their Batman 66 and Star Wars (Premium/LE) pinball machines. These replacement arches have quickly sold out, so we are keeping a very keen eye on one for our Star Wars Comic Art Premium machine! Go team Stern!

image source: Stern Pinball



Rising From The Ashes: Argonauts Pinball Club Tournaments Are Back!

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Like the phoenix rising from ashes, the Argonauts Pinball Club is back with new pinball machines and new tournament format with the same awesome group of pinball fanatics!

Come along to the Golden Fleece Hotel this Thursday (May 3rd) for the Argonauts Monthly Pinball Quest – The Horrid Hydra tournament. Bring your friends, bring your family, play pinball and soak up the fantastic atmosphere as Melbourne’s pinball community gather to battle it out for great prizes and IFPA points. Oh yeah, everyone is welcome, so you have no excuse!

The tournament format has changed to an 8 game limited qualifier, meaning that there is more time to socialise and hang out!

Tournament Details:

  • Qualifying time: 5:00pm to 9:00pm
  • Finals (start time): 9:15pm to 11:00pm (the aim is to be finished by 11:00pm, but it could run later)
  • Cost: $15.00 (entry fee covers ALL games for the night!)

The competition consists of limited qualifying and head-to-head final rounds. During qualifying, each player will play ONE game only on each machine and a SECOND game on one machine of their choosing. A point system will be used to rank each player’s best score on each machine. Those who rank highest at the end of qualifying will participate in the head-to-head final rounds.

This tournament will be managed through the rules and regulations of the IFPA.

Current Pinball Machine Lineup:

  • Medieval Madness Remake
  • Dialed In!
  • Indianapolis 500
  • Jack*Bot
  • The Shadow
  • Bally Playboy
  • Star Trek – The Next Generation

For more information visit the Argonauts Pinball Club on PinballScore.

image source: Argonauts Pinball Score

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Pinball: A Good Win At The IFPA Australian Championship Series

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New South Welshman Brett Goodwin has been crowned the 2016- 2017 IFPA Australian Championship Series (ACS) champion.

After a gruelling two days of competition at the Thornbury Bowls Club, the field of 32 players was down to just two: New South Welshman Brett Goodwin and Victoria’s Johnny Crabtree. The State Of Origin was on, with Johnny Crabtree taking out round 1 in the best of 5 rounds, on Stern’s Metallica. Round 2 saw Brett Goodwin sneak in a win on Gilligan’s Island to square the ledger. Brett then took out round 3 on Stern’s 1977 Pinball machine leading the final 2 – 1, leaving Johnny the table pick for the all-important round 4.

With the pressure mounting, Johnny chose his pet table, Stern’s AC/DC. Both players had a phenomenal game, but Brett was simply unstoppable, playing a near perfect game, scoring 120+ million to Johnny’s 75+ million, giving him a 3 – 1 win and the crown as the IFPA Australian Championship Series champion for 2016 – 2017.

The 3rd place playoff saw Matthew Venables (NSW) take on Robert Macauley (SA). Matthew took out 3rd place by winning both rounds 1 and 2 on Dirty Harry and AC/DC respectively.

As per all great competitions, there are a number of people that make things happen and ensure the competition is run smoothly and is fun for all. IFPA Australian Championship Series directors, Luke Marburg and Dan Robar did a fantastic job in organising the event and running it like clockwork.

Of course, the 15 tournament pinball machines didn’t just spontaneously appear, they were provided by these great people: Lucas Bardin, Geoff Wills, Marcus Sezonov, Dan Robar, Adam Clarke, Dan Brown, Alex Nunn, Jordan Tredaway and Johnny Crabtree – thank you all for providing your machines for the 2016-2017 IFPA ACS final!

See you all in Adelaide for the 2017 – 2018 IFPA Australian Championship Series final!

For all of the results and standings from the weekend, go and check them out on pinballscore.com.

The champion’s trophy and a $400 1st place prize. The pinball wizard deserves to be rewarded!

IFPA ACS Co-Director, Luke Marburg keeps an eye on proceedings

Two beauties!

The machines look very inviting. But first we must turn them on!

The Minnow will NOT be lost!

Alex Boz is mesmerised by Avatar

Busting ghosts!

Johnny Crabtree gives us the thumbs up!

A dead flip!

Getting in some action before the finals!

Even the beer is retro!

Young gun, Jordan Tredaway samples some Pinball Magic and gets 20 million!

The crowd is readying for the finals!

Beer is put down, time to play!

3rd place play-off between Robert Macauley and Matthew Venables. First up, Robert on Dirty Harry!

Matthew Venables feels lucky, punks! 1.23billion on Dirty Harry ain’t too shabby at all!

And the 3rd place in the IFPA ACS final goes to… Matthew Venables.

Down to the last two standing: Johnny Crabtree sets a winning score on Metallica in Round 1

Brett Goodwin steps up to Metallica

Johnny Crabtree getting in the zone on Gilligan’s Island

Brett Goodwin takes out round 2 of the ACS grand final!

Johnny sees the light on Pinball

Brett sets a round 3 winning score on Pinball

New South Welshman, Marc Bell (left) had an excellent tournament, making the finals on the Sunday after posting a 2nd in Pool B

Turn me on Johnny!

Johnny Crabtree sets a reasonable score on Stern’s AC/DC in round 4 of the grand final

But it’s not good enough, as Brett Goodwin gets the win and snags the title as the 2016-17 IFPA ACS Champion

The winner is congratulated

There are no losers in pinball! Fellow pinball wizard, Wal Dickie congratulates Johnny on his valiant effort

Show me the money: the top 8 players all received cash prizes

IFPA ACS Co-Director, Dan Robar presents Johnny with his trophy and cash winnings

It’s all smiles for the champion, Brett Goodwin

L-R: Matthew Venables (3rd place), Brett Goodwin (1st place), Johnny Crabtree (2nd place)

The final standings

Geoff Wills starts the bump-out – another great championship is done and dusted

Check out the awesome panoramic pic on Facebook!

 

eSports Is Coming To The Pinball Arcade

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Get those flippin fingers ready, as eSports is coming to The Pinball Arcade!

FarSight Studios has partnered with Pinball Joe and Major League Pinball and starting this year, they plan to bring you sponsored tournaments where you can win cash and prizes. Players will be able to compete in time and objective based tournaments to establish themselves as the best in their geographical region. The first tournament is to be launched this month (January) with many more to come. This is going to be a huge year in video pinball!

For more information, check out Major League Pinball on Facebook, or sign up on their site.


Melbourne Silverball League: Get Flippin

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MelbSilverballLeague_TitleAttention all you pinball loving peeps, April 1 2016 will mark the commencement of the new Melbourne Silverball League monthly pinball tournament. This new tournament will be based on a selfie format, but more on that later! No, this is no April Fools’ Day joke, this is for real!

After his recent US trip to Arcade Expo 2.0 competing in the It Never Drains In Southern California pinball tournament, Martin Robbins was inspired to set up a similar qualifying and competition format here in Melbourne, hence the Melbourne Silverball League (MSL) was born. The first selfie competition in Melbourne will be at Bartronica in Flinders Lane. This is how the MSL pinball competition format will work:

Each month there will be particular pinball machines at Bartronica selected for qualifying – for the month of April the machines will be: Creature from the Black Lagoon, Party Zone, Addams Family, Goldeneye 007 and Pin*Bot. Play on each of these machines and take a photo of your score. You can either upload your picture via the tournament location at Matchplay.Events or post it to the Melbourne Silverball League (MSL) Facebook page. One of the MSL scorekeepers will review your photo and then submit your score. Your ranking on each machine will be worth more points the higher up you are to give you a combined overall ranking (based on the PAPA format i.e.: 100 points for the top score, then 90 for 2nd, 85 for 3rd and so on). The combined scores of the top 16 ranked players will qualify for the playoff (which is on the first Sunday of the following month).

To ensure your score submission goes smoothly, your selfie should have your face and the score to help the MSL scorekeepers validate your submission. Some patience might be needed where certain machines take a while to scroll through credits to get back to your score.

If we have lost you so far, here are the TL;DR (that’s Too Long;Didn’t Read) notes:

  • Register your participation at the MSL Facebook page;
  • play pinball at Bartronica;
  • upload pictures to MSL Facebook page of your awesome scores;
  • check the MSL Facebook page to see how you are ranking for that month;
  • get in to the top 16 players to qualify for the monthly head to head comp to determine the overall winner.

It is that easy! So what are you waiting for? Go and register now and then hit Bartronica during the month of April to rack up your high score!

Martin Robbins – the brains behind the Melbourne Silverball League
Martin_At_ArcadeExpo2.0

Shane Rubans getting some testing done at Bartronica
Bartronica_ShaneRubanssource: Melbourne Silverball League