# Episode 441: UK Open AND the EPC together!

**Source:** Pinball Profile  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2026-06-30  
**Duration:** 30m 58s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.pinballprofile.com/episode-441-uk-open-and-the-epc-together/

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## Analysis

Neil McCray discusses hosting the UK Open and European Pinball Championship (EPC) simultaneously in September 2024 at Wandsworth Civic Centre in central London. The tournament features three major competitions (EPC, UK Open, and Classics), 110 machines, affordable card-format play (£5 per card), and a new Target Match Play event for non-finalists. Tickets (300 available) go on sale July 1st at playpinball.uk and ukopen.net.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] The UK Open and EPC will be held simultaneously September 24-27, 2024 at Wandsworth Civic Centre in London — _Neil McCray, event organizer, speaking directly about official tournament dates and location_
- [HIGH] Tickets will go on sale July 1st at 4 PM Eastern time (8 PM UK, 9 PM Eastern Europe) — _Neil McCray and Jeff Teolst discussing official ticket sale details_
- [HIGH] 300 tickets are currently available for purchase — _Neil McCray explicitly stating current ticket cap_
- [HIGH] UK Open card format costs only £5 per card, or £45 for 10 cards — _Neil McCray discussing tournament pricing structure_
- [HIGH] Last year the UK Open broke records for the number of pinball matches in an event — _Neil McCray stating personal achievement metric_
- [HIGH] The EPC is one of five IFPA pinball majors and rotates to a different country each year — _Jeff Teolst providing context on EPC structure_
- [HIGH] They are bringing 110-120 games to the tournament from various sources including personal collections, clubs, and community loans — _Neil McCray discussing logistics of acquiring and transporting games_
- [HIGH] A hotel deal was arranged with the Holiday Inn at approximately £100/night (15% discount), located near the venue — _Neil McCray discussing recent hotel partnership negotiations_
- [HIGH] All players are being asked to do two one-hour slots of scorekeeping to support the event — _Neil McCray explaining volunteer requirements for tournament operations_
- [HIGH] The EPC will be held in Sweden in 2027 — _Jeff Teolst stating future EPC location_

### Notable Quotes

> "I want to play as much pinball as I possibly can. Literally from nine in the morning until they kick me out."
> — **Neil McCray**, early in interview
> _Explains Neil's philosophy on tournament format design and player experience_

> "If you want to play, you can play all day or not. But also, you know, last year we had some players who qualified on their third card and then actually went on to try and beat their third cards and didn't."
> — **Neil McCray**, mid-interview
> _Illustrates the unlimited card format and its competitive dynamics_

> "Many hands make light work, right? And there's enough games out there and enough kind of infrastructure that we're pretty confident this will work well."
> — **Neil McCray**, discussing volunteer requirements
> _Explains the reasoning behind asking all players to scorekeeper as part of event logistics_

> "When you're reflecting on the tournament on Monday, you probably won't even remember that you did that because the pinball is going to be so amazing."
> — **Neil McCray**, closing remarks on scorekeeping
> _Motivation for players to embrace volunteer role during tournament_

> "If you want these to exist, you got to step up. You listening as the player, it's not a big ask to do a little bit."
> — **Jeff Teolst**, reinforcing volunteer importance
> _Meta-commentary on why tournaments require player participation to survive_

> "Without Pinball Republic, we just couldn't do this. So, you know, and actually this year, you know, venues in the UK have been a bit challenged."
> — **Neil McCray**, discussing venue ecosystem
> _Acknowledges importance of physical pinball venues and the UK venue crisis_

> "I watched the Jaws game and the Surf 'n Safari game from last year and the tiebreaker with Mads. I've watched them so many times just because it's just pure entertainment."
> — **Neil McCray**, discussing memorable tournament moments
> _Reflects on what makes tournaments memorable—iconic pinball moments_

> "People remember those sort of moments and I'm excited about those moments."
> — **Neil McCray**, discussing tournament legacy
> _Explains what drives event organizer passion beyond logistics_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Neil McCray | person | Event organizer and founder of UK Open tournament; running both UK Open and EPC in September 2024 |
| Jeff Teolst | person | Host of Pinball Profile podcast; provides context and support for UK Open discussion |
| UK Open | event | Annual pinball tournament held in UK, described as major tournament now hosting EPC in 2024 |
| European Pinball Championship (EPC) | event | One of five IFPA pinball majors, rotating annually between countries; coming to UK in September 2024 |
| Wandsworth Civic Centre | venue | New venue for 2024 UK Open/EPC, located in central London, run as not-for-profit by local council |
| Pinball Republic | organization | UK pinball club that supports and organizes the UK Open; key partner for logistics and game collection |
| Mark | person | Backhand Pinball streaming operator; handles tournament streaming and coverage |
| Pinball Profile | organization | Podcast series hosted by Jeff Teolst covering pinball news and interviews |
| IFPA | organization | International Flipper Pinball Association; governing body for pinball tournaments and rankings |
| Ticket Tailor | product | Ticketing platform used for UK Open/EPC and other major tournaments (Indisc, YAGPIN) |
| Holiday Inn | venue | Hotel near Wandsworth venue offering 15% discount at approximately £100/night for tournament attendees |
| Stefan Riedler | person | Organizer of 2023 EPC in Austria; praised for tournament execution |
| Phil | person | Pinball Heaven representative; game supplier for tournament |
| Matt Vince | person | Sponsor/supporter of UK Open tournament |
| Pinshades | organization | Sponsor/supplier for UK Open/EPC tournament |
| Andreas | person | Associated with Scorabit; working on electronic scoring solutions to potentially reduce manual scorekeeping needs |
| Mads | person | Tournament player mentioned for memorable Kong tiebreaker moment at previous UK Open |
| Indisc | event | Major pinball tournament in US; inspiration for UK Open's card format design |
| Kirk's Place | venue | UK pinball venue that closed recently, part of UK venue closure trends |
| Scorabit | organization | Electronic scoring system developer; being evaluated for potential automation of tournament scoring |

### Signals

- **[event_signal]** UK Open now hosting EPC (one of five IFPA majors) simultaneously in September 2024, positioning this as a can't-miss event (confidence: high) — Neil McCray and Jeff Teolst both emphasize the significance of combining two major tournaments; Jeff states 'Two, it's a can't miss'
- **[operational_signal]** Tournament requiring all players to contribute two one-hour scorekeeping shifts as experimental solution to volunteer shortage (confidence: high) — Neil explains this is a deliberate shift from traditional volunteer model due to scale of event (10-day effort) and volunteer availability constraints
- **[venue_signal]** Multiple venue cancellations before securing Wandsworth; reflects broader challenges securing UK entertainment venues (confidence: high) — Neil describes falling through with Earl's Court venue and backup venue; attributes delays to venue competition concerns about competitive events
- **[venue_signal]** UK pinball and entertainment venues facing financial challenges; Kirk's Place closed, other venues struggling (confidence: high) — Neil states 'venues in the UK have been a bit challenged' and notes Pinball Republic runs as not-for-profit to maintain operations
- **[community_signal]** Strong community support for UK Open evident through voluntary game loans, sponsorship offers, and player participation expectations (confidence: high) — Neil mentions community loans games, sponsors offering support unsolicited, and long-time volunteers taking time off work to help
- **[market_signal]** UK Open maintains low entry cost (£5 per card) positioning it as affordable major tournament; hotel deals arranged to keep costs manageable (confidence: high) — Neil emphasizes £5 card pricing as competitive with arcade play rates and negotiated Holiday Inn discount for attendees
- **[event_signal]** New Target Match Play format introduced for non-EPC finalists, maximizing tournament play opportunities across three separate competitions (confidence: high) — Neil describes running Target Match Play on Zeta for top 72 EPC qualifiers who don't make finals, reducing downtime for attendees
- **[operational_signal]** Moving 110+ machines across central London requiring permits, tequila lorry transportation, and complex event coordination (confidence: high) — Neil describes 'major feat' of moving games through London and securing permits; mentions sponsorship help with logistics
- **[industry_signal]** Strong international interest in UK Open with players planning travel 3 months in advance; tournament considered can't-miss destination (confidence: medium) — Jeff mentions attending every year, Neil discusses travel booking strategies for international attendees
- **[content_signal]** Mark at Backhand Pinball continuing professional streaming coverage with live video feeds to venue TV displays and online audience (confidence: high) — Jeff and Neil discuss Backhand Pinball's streaming role and note that video feeds go to TVs during tournament for spectator experience
- **[design_innovation]** Card format tournament structure emphasizing volume of play over limited entry gates; inspired by US tournaments like Indisc (confidence: high) — Neil discusses card format allowing unlimited void and requeue, inspired by Indisc's Jim, Carl, and Jay
- **[technology_signal]** Ongoing collaboration with Scorabit and Andreas to develop electronic scoring system to reduce manual scorekeeping burden for future tournaments (confidence: medium) — Neil mentions continuing work with Scorabit team 'to figure out how can we do this without, you know, electronically' but acknowledges not ready yet

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## Transcript

It's time for another Pinball Profile. I'm your host, Jeff Teolst. You can find everything on PinballProfile.com. We have a great Facebook group as well. We're on Instagram at Pinball Profile. If you'd like to email, it's pinballprofile at gmail.com. And if you'd like to show your support, don't worry, the show is always free, but we thank everyone on our Patreon. Thanks to GME Law and Francis W., Fox Cities Pinball, Derek S., Jerry S., and more. That's patreon.com slash pinballprofile. It is the summer, but I already have this marked on my calendar, and in fact, I had it marked on my calendar last September. This September, the return of the UK Open, but as great as that tournament is, it just got a whole lot bigger with the addition of the European Pinball Championship. Yes, that is one of the five pinball majors in the IFPA, and the madman who's putting this all together and has done so well for so many years with the UK Open, like he doesn't have enough on his plate, Neil McCray joins us. Neil, how are you, buddy? I'm great, Jeff. I think Mad Mad is absolutely how I might position it. I'm great. Looking forward to a phenomenal tournament. Neil, you're well-traveled. There's probably not a handful of people more passionate about pinball than yourself in every aspect, but you certainly travel the world and see different pinball places, pinball tournaments, and have just really tried to bring a lot of that back to the UK, which you did with the UK Open. And I know when you first started this, you know, you were really influenced a lot by what Jim, Carl and Jay and everyone does at Indisc. So you kind of, in a way, introduced that card format to the UK. That was really the first time a lot of these players had ever seen that. Yeah, absolutely. Especially in the unlimited format. So there's a few little tournaments here that have done card but kind of limited and not in the style of kind of void and recue, void and recue and the prize pool and stuff like that. So the thing I want to do at a pinball event, Jeff, I want to play as much pinball as I possibly can. Literally from nine in the morning until they kick me out. You know, that is the goal. And, you know, there's some formats where that's great. There's some formats where it's not. But I really think that, you know, there's nothing better than card format for playing a lot of pinball. And actually last year we broke all the records on match play for the number of pinball matches in an event, which I'm very proud of actually. What you just said there is so true and I'm the same way. When I go to a pinball event, I want to play as much pinball. And sometimes you're capped because, oh, I'm out of entries or whatever. So you have the opportunity to go back. And by the way, let's point out at the UK Open, very affordable, only five pounds a card. You know, a lot of these bigger tournaments, especially Major S tournaments, are a lot more expensive and limited. So you're, you know, you've got two good things there, two feathers in your cap, if you will, that it's only £5 a card. So it's easier to void and requeue. And again, the unlimited aspect with the schedule. So I'm glad you've done that. Yeah. And also, if you want to buy 10, it's £45. So the way I look at it, Jeff, is if you go into any arcade here in the UK or in Europe, it's a euro or a pound to play a game. We kind of have it in that kind of fold. Of course, it's not quite the same, but in many of these trips that I've done and people coming to the UK Open, probably the cheapest part of it is actually the tournament cost. You've got to travel, you've got to stay in a hotel, you've got to eat, you've got to drink, you've got to buy merch, etc. You've got to nip into London and buy a signed autograph of King Charles or something like that. So quite often, this part of it is, you know, if you want to play, you can play all day or not. But also, you know, last year we had some players who qualified on their third card and then actually went on to try and beat their third cards and didn't. So, you know, there's a belief that if you spend more money, you'll do better. I think there's an element of that, especially for less good players like me, I take a while to adapt to harder games. But if you're a top player, then you're a top player, then you're a top player. Whether it's this format or another format, you're going to be in the finals or you're going to get one of the buys. And of course there's the odd freak thing where someone doesn't qualify, I'm like, wow, but that's Pinball, that's the excitement, that's the highlights. My God, last year at DPO, Vigo didn't qualify and everyone was like, oh my God, what happened? That's the excitement. And also, we're doing a different format here for UPC. Once in a while, mixing it up, I think is exciting. It doesn't mean you're playing the same format. This is the thing about formats, Jeff. People have got fans of every format. I love match play when you're playing against four players and you get a lot of pinball. I love card formats, you play a lot of pinball and it's tough to be consistent. Head-to-head I love as well, but what I'm less a fan of is how we run a lot of events here in Europe, It's kind of head-to-head league format that you play 10, 15 games and if you don't qualify it's kind of all over. Whereas for their event, if you arrive Thursday morning at 10 when we open, for the EPC you can be playing until 11 at night on the Saturday to qualify. Literally three solid days of playing pinball. Before we get into the tournaments, let's talk about the new location because this is now the fifth year of the UK Open. This will be five years in the world for myself. Jeff, and it's funny you mentioned getting the autograph of King Charles because I actually did do a tour of Buckingham Palace on one of these UK open trips. And the new location is pretty close to Buckingham Palace. Tell us about the new, is it pronounced Wandsworth or Wandsworth? Wandsworth. Wandsworth Civic Centre in central London. Wandsworth. Now everyone's going to call it Wandsworth. No, no. No, look, actually, when I first moved to London, I thought it was Wandsworth about 25 years ago. So yeah, we're in Wandsworth. We're in a kind of an amazing venue that's actually owned by the local council. It's a kind of more traditional kind of British location, an old building with chandeliers and wood, lots of wood panels and carpets. Is there a torture room like the Tower of London? There is a room that could be used as a torture room, should we require it, but I think the torture room will be some of the games if we set them up how we like to set them up. But yeah, this is quite a historic building and actually the company that runs it and the council, this is one of the things that appealed to us. They run it as a not-for-profit organization, so they literally give this building out to folks who want it and they don't make any money on it. They just want to return their costs. And UK Open is an organization in Pinball Republic, which supports the UK Open. We're very much in the same light. We don't make any money out of this. Everything that we do goes back into either the club or the games that we're using or the team that putting the team into hotels or the transportation. So there a real kind of alignment between them And actually I just mentioned we actually had two other venues Jeff And this is the challenge of operating in somewhere like London You one of the biggest cities in the world Millions of people live here mass transit systems The size of one of the bigger boroughs is as big as somewhere like Boston It just a huge location What we found out, there's another venue that we have, which is in Earl's Court, a place that's very famous, used to be a really amazing venue there for pop gigs. In fact, your favorite band led Zeppelin. Zeppelin Baby. It's even in the Pitbull machine. It is indeed, although sadly spelt wrongly, but we'll give them a pass on that. But yeah, we had a phenomenal venue there. But actually when they understood it was a competition, they bailed out of it, which is really disappointing because this venue was stunning. Not that the one that we've got isn't great, it's equally as good. And then we had a backup and that pulled out. So a lot of people were saying, hey Neil, why aren't you, we kind of announced the details maybe a little bit later than, so the guys in Sweden who are hosted next year, they've announced already before we even ran. But we wanted to make sure it was 100%, contracts signed, fees paid, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So it took us a bit of time to get there. And we've got the core team of Pinball Republic have been down to have a look at it. And we're excited about it. The great thing about it is it's literally, as you say, literally a stone's throw from the West End of London. And there's lots of hotels around it. There's actually a kind of another venue across the road that's got a few pinball machines in it. There's a brewery just around the corner. There's hotels all around the venue. There's Airbnbs that are a bit easier here as well. Anybody who's been to London knows that you can get anywhere with the Tube. It's the absolute best transit. I mean, maybe you proper in London are frustrated at times, but when we see what's available in other cities, you know, the Tube is elite. It's kind of like the New York subway system. You can get anywhere. So it doesn't really matter where you stay. You can stay close by. You can Airbnb. You can get a hotel. And I'm excited that it's in a new place in central London. So that's going to be exciting for sure. So again, the EPC, for those that don't know, the European Pinball Championship, one of the five majors, it rotates to a different country every year. And last year, kudos to Stefan Riedler, who did an amazing job in Austria. Yeah. And I've been to three already and I've had great experiences. Germany was wonderful. I was in Denmark as well and they just seem to be getting better and better. So excited that it's going to be in central London as part of the UK Open. We should point out tickets go on sale in North America, at least in the Eastern time zone at 4 p.m. on July 1st. What is that in the UK? What is that in most parts of Europe? I guess it changes, doesn't it? Yeah. It's 8pm here in the UK and 9pm in Eastern Europe. And then as you go further, if you're in Greece, it'll be 10pm. So we wanted this to be during the day for most of the big pinball locations, even the West Coast. It's a reasonable time to make it as easy for people to get tickets as possible. Your website's great. It's playpinball.uk. Is that where we're going to be going to get the tickets? Yeah, playpinball.uk or even ukopen.net, both of them will take you to the website and you can get tickets from there. So we use Ticket Tailor, which if you've gone to Indisc or Yagpin or Jermaine's Northwest event, they all use Ticket Tailor. And actually, I was the first to try it because we were looking for an alternative to Eventbrite where the fees started to get a little bit challenging. So we've gone to TicketTaylor and their site's just phenomenal. And yeah, you can buy tickets there and you can buy up to four tickets. So if you've got a family, that makes it a little bit easier to chuck everything in the basket and hit the button. So excited about it. The ticket's going on sale. It's always a nerve-wracking moment because it's kind of the first sign of, you know, what kind of tournament is this going to be? We sold out twice on ticket sales day, but last year we kind of sold out, but then we were able to extend the number of places in association with the venue we were in. They had quite a tight, but they made some changes in that venue, so we were able to actually sell a lot more tickets last year than we'd normally done. And we sold out as well. So again, I'm excited about that, hoping that we get as many pinball players in to play. I always say this to the team, find a time when you can just stand and look at the event running because it's a tough thing to do this, it's hard work and just having a moment that you can remember. I remember the first time I ran this, I couldn't remember any of it, it was like a blur, Jeff. So just have that minute just to see how people with their smiles on their faces, people getting, you know, I always get amused when people go nuts because the games beat them slightly. But it's a great thing to watch people play and enjoy it. We should watch out on July 1st, by the way, the current number of tickets being sold is 300. You know, that's certainly a comfortable zone. Again, should there be a demand and possibility to expand, that could happen. But right now we're capping this at 300 people. So again, on July 1st at either playpinball.uk or you can go to ukopen.net and we'll post those on Pinball Profile, the socials for you. So the EPC, when you decided to take this on, you know, you've been to several. The fact that you're able to couple this with an already, in my mind, major tournament. I think the IFPA should really consider the UK Open as a major and I think there's been a lot of talk of that and Jagpin and some of these really massive shows. But you've now got two. One was great. One was enough to get me there. Two, it's a can't miss. Yeah, I mean, that's why I'm really excited about it. And we've extended the calendar by one day. So normally we would start on Friday, we start on Thursday. And yeah, two massive tournaments. I've been buying games, you know, literally when the last UK Open ends, I start buying games for the next one and talking to people about borrowing games. We've got a great community here that loan us games when we need them. Some of those games are a bit harder to find. But yeah, I'm super excited about it. And also watching the strategy as to how people play because you might want to focus on the EPC, you might want to focus on the UGO, but you might focus on classics depending on how the games play, how you feel. I'm probably more of a classics player, more so because the ball goes a bit slower and I'm a bit old and rubbish. So I tend to try and get a card in on that. One year I actually even managed to qualify when we did best of three rather than five. So yeah, I mean, it's just literally never ending pinball. We got some amazing games, people, and actually this year it's kind of funny. I had people actually, I don't really go out and look for a lot of sponsorship, Jeff, because it's a tough business, Pinball. But I've actually had a few organizations offer me stuff, which is really helpful, especially, we've got to move 120 games from one end of London to the other. Just the logistics of that through central London. Getting the games out of our club, I'll be bringing a bunch of games from my house, other people bringing games. We've got to get them on a tequila lorry, drive it through London and then unload. And you know, you've got this, like, at the other end there's a bunch of permits I've had to organize. You know, just the scale of London and the scale of the event means that this is a major feat. I think it a great deal to be a part of the UK Open We the British don like to queue So we try and put as many games in so literally that you know you might have a player in front of you that playing the game but you not waiting long to play it And I think for me, that's a must do. So we'll have three huge banks for classics, UK Open and EPC with a great mixture of old and modern games, obviously just classics in the classics bank. But having a great collection of games for three massive tournaments, I'm super excited about Jeff. Congratulations to you, to your sponsors. I know there's a lot of people you mentioned, obviously, the club and that's the Pinball Republic is a big part. Matt Vince and so many others, Phil at Pinball Heaven, Pinshades is a big part of that too. So good on you. And of course, it's going to be streamed once again by Mark at Backhand Pinball, who does just a bang up job. And I know he looks forward to it just like the rest of us. So you're going to be able to see this, but you'll want to be there for sure. And again, this is happening September 24th to 27th, and it is at that new location, Wandsworth. I'm going to say, I'm going to screw it up on purpose. Get people saying it the wrong way. It's Wandsworth. Wandsworth. Don't ask anyone in London where Wandsworth is, because they'll probably send you to Glasgow. But the other thing I just say to people, look, I nearly travel over the world, it must cost you a fortune. It's like, no really, because I'll book super early. And the earlier you book a flight, and you know this, Jeff, because you come every year, the earlier you get it in the calendar, the earlier you book it, you'll get a great deal. So again, for those that are looking to come and you're thinking about it, book your flight now. It's kind of the sweet spot that three months out of a tournament is really the sweet spot. If you book it a year in advance, you're probably paying top dollar, but that three months, the airlines start to get a little panicky and stuff. So that's when I got mine, and I'm happy with that. But you're bringing 110 machines. We've mentioned the tournaments. There's also the massive ladies' tournament, the youth tournament, and something different this year. You know, heaven forbid you don't make the playoffs or whatever. You're like, I'm already in London. What am I going to do? Well, this is new. What you've got, you've got a target match play on Zeta. Yeah, that's right. So we're kind of opening up the UK Open main bank so that anyone who doesn't qualify for EPC finals will have another tournament to play in. So you get more chance to play on the UK Open bank. And actually, I should say, it's top 72 qualifiers for EPC. Yeah, so there's a good chance of qualifying. And, you know, we're going to be playing pinball finals all day on the Sunday. You know, we'll start around nine o'clock and we'll just crunch through it. You know, I'm excited about that. I'm excited. I think we're going to talk about the pinball moments that's going to generate. But if during the day we'll run the other tournament and as we get to the kind of business end of the finals, everyone will be able to sit down. Again, it's one of the other things I love. We have the video feeds going straight to the TV so you can watch live, drink a beer and really enjoy the finals. We try to make an atmosphere because the players love it. You saw it last year with Mads, who I love to death, where he really kind of, you know, that tiebreaker on Kong really whooped up the crowd. And that's what this is all about, you know, excitement, enjoying playing pinball, having a good time, you know, win or lose, having a good time and going home with a smile on your face. That's what we're trying to do. That's the name of the game, Jeff. Absolutely. And you know, any tournament, anywhere you go is only as successful as the people that step up and put in the time to make this happen. And that really can include the players themselves as volunteers. And I know from running the beast, I know from my association with other tournaments that there's always that need for scorekeepers and stuff. And it's really easy to do. It's a good way to meet people. It also resets your mind too. Like, let's say you're going, going, going at pinball and you're like, oh, I'm just not doing it. Every game sucks or I'm just not finding it. That reset when you're scorekeeping sometimes refresh things. You know, you're sitting here watching a game. Oh, I didn't think of that. And so scorekeeping is definitely needed. And unlike any major tournament, there's a request, a need for scorekeepers. And that's no different here with the UK Open and the EPC, especially two major tournaments. Yeah. So this is something we kind of deliberated over a little bit. So we're asking all the players to do two one hour slots of scorekeeping. And the reason for that, Jeff, is to make this event work. It's literally a week, maybe even as much as 10 days worth of effort. Our volunteers, you know, some of them are taking a week off work, so I'm taking a week off work. And some of our volunteers just can't afford to do that. Or you've got kids or other priorities in life, right? So it's a big ask. So, you know, we are in that length of time to assume that our normal kind of volunteer squad can do that. We just, we very early realized actually that's just probably not going to work. So we're asking folks to do this and it's the old adage, many hands make light work, right? And there's enough games out there and enough kind of infrastructure that we're pretty confident this will work well. Yeah, some players would prefer not to do it. Hell, I'd prefer not to do it. And I continue to work on with Andreas and the Scorabit guys to try and figure out how can we do this without, you know, electronically. And we get closer and closer, but we're probably not quite there yet. So that's something we're asking everybody to do. But as you buy your ticket, it redirects you to a system to kind of book the slots you want to book. And of course, you know, we can move them, but we're really keen for everyone to do that just so that the really hard part of this tournament, Everyone says, Neil, how can I help? And it's like, hey, can you list a game? Because that is the hard part of running a tournament, is moving the games, getting the games into a location, leveling them, testing them, fixing them if they need to be fixed. And that is the super hard part. People say, oh Neil, do you need help behind the desk or help TD in or help on the stream? Yeah, of course we do need that help, but it's not where we need the most help, Jeff. So we've kind of taken this as a bit of an experiment, but I'm pretty confident it will work. I think the players might initially think, but I think my promise or my strong belief is that, you know, when you're reflecting on the tournament on Monday, you probably won't even remember that you did that because the pinball is going to be so amazing. The games are going to be staggering, the venue's amazing, we're going to have a great stream, and the play will, like at every single UK Open and practically every tournament I've been to, people remember those great pinball moments that, you know, the Jaws game from last year's UK Open, you know, the Dracula game, BSD at IFPA a few years ago in Italy. People remember those sort of moments and I'm excited about those moments. But yeah, we are asking everybody to kind of help a little bit. It's not a big ask at all, Neil. In fact, I think it's very reasonable and good luck trying to find a tournament bigger than the UK Open and EPC at the same time. If you want these to exist, you got to step up. You listening as the player, it's not a big ask to do a little bit. So to expect everyone to do this, any tournament, not just here. You know, when you wonder why sometimes tournaments go by the wayside. Oh, I really like that tournament. Well, ask yourself, did you do anything to help? That's great that you're playing, but to take out an hour on this day and an hour the next day? That's nothing. So it's not a big ask at all. Again UKopen or playpinball is where you see everything here The EPC coming to London it be in Sweden in 2027 but holy cow Neil you done a big job here a new location I know you have actually made a deal like yesterday for a hotel maybe, so we're going to find out some of that information. Yeah, so we've been trying to work with the hotels and again, this is one of the challenges in central London. Hotels and it's the same people in New York will be nodding their head, people from New York will be nodding their head, People from LA will be nodding their head. People from Munich will be nodding their head. Paris. The big metro cities means that there's more people. London is a never-ending tourist zone. There's never a time where London's quiet. And even this week we've had a heatwave. Yesterday it was 39 degrees in central London and people are still out seeing sights. It's a beautiful city and because of that it's hard to pin down hotels and get deals but and actually a couple of event organizers that are buddies of mine that I've used for big events said I know you've got no chance but actually we've managed to arrange something with a hotel that's literally just around the corner and it's 15% off it's not a huge amount. The hotel rooms would be just under the £100 a night mark, which for central London is the average room price in central London at £250. So it's the Holiday Inn, it's just around the corner. There's other places around as well. I'm still talking to them, trying to get deals with them. But yeah, book your room early. In London there's loads of Airbnbs, but there's also lots of places to stay across London. I'm going to say the point you made earlier, Jeff. Where we are, if you're in central London, we're probably 20 minutes from wherever you are, worst case. So if you want to stay in the shard and jump on a tube to get to us, you could do that if that's what you wanted to do. I don't know how many times I've been in London, I've been fortunate many times, only once did I ever have a car and that was more because we were going countryside. I choose not to have a car when I'm staying in London. There's zero need with the tube. You know, I mean, if you want to do cabs, I guess, fine, dandy, but I'll tell you, your transit system is wonderful there. So, you know, there's an expense you don't need. You don't need to rent a car wherever you're staying when you go to the UK Open slash EPC. So that's a good sign, too. And the fact you got the holiday in, that's great. It's on the Discord right now. If you're on the UK Open Discord, you can see that information. It's going to be updated on the website soon. But oh boy, Neil, we appreciate all the efforts that you do to bring this on. Neil, I'm not saying this because I'm talking to you directly because I say this every single where I go, is you will not find three tournaments better than the UK Open. And now that you've got the EPC, I mean, this is just going to be the best of the best. Yeah, and look, it's a team effort. You know, Jeff, you help out a lot. Lots, you know, Mark comes over from the US. We have a great set of volunteers from Pinball Republic and the whole UK community is leaning in. So it's great to be part of this. I'm just kind of the loudmouth with the crazy ideas, but it's all those other people that make it work. Without them, this isn't doable. Without Pinball Republic, we just couldn't do this. So, you know, and actually this year, you know, venues in the UK have been a bit challenged, you know, till Kirk's Place actually closed down. You know, they would struggle, venue, kind of entertainment venues here in the UK are struggling a little bit. There's another place in Salisbury, it was a Pinball place that closed down and it's, you know, the Pinball Republic, we're in great shape, you know, but it's, you know, we run out as a not-for-profit. So, there's a couple of times in the year where it's tight, where we have to pay the insurance or we have to pay the rent for the year. So, venues, and I know this is true across the world, if you've got a Pinball venue, you know, make sure you use it, make sure you go there. And tell people about it because without venues I think these bigger tournaments would be really hard to do because it's those venues that have got big collections of games and it just makes the whole process a little bit easier. So yeah, huge thanks to everybody who helps and I know a lot of people who come also lean in and help and it's great to see everyone doing their bit to make the tournament a success. That's one of the things that makes me do this year on year, Jeff, is when people start to turn up and we're handing out all the details over the desk and the t-shirts, you can just see that they want us to be successful. We want this tournament to be amazing. When I go to a tournament like Pimberg or Papa or Indisc or wherever it happens to be, even the league meet down the road, you want it to be successful because it just adds and adds to that love of the game for us. So I'm super excited about it. And I'm excited about the Tuesday after we're done because I kind of jump in the bath. My feet are on fire, but, you know, and I'm getting, you know, people are pinging me and the team saying, well done. So I'm really excited about that. And hopefully, you know, I'm looking forward to playing some new and interesting games that we've managed to acquire and, you know, hoping for some of those amazing pinball moments. It doesn't matter which tournament you go to, they always seem to happen. That, for me, I watched the Jaws game and the Surfing Safari game from last year and the tiebreaker with Mads. I've watched them so many times just because it's just pure entertainment. We've obviously got a World Cup soccer on right now, so you're looking for those amazing goals. It's like pinball, those amazing moments where people achieve something that you think, how the hell do they do that? That's what's exciting me and I can't wait to capture those moments, Jeff. Those moments will definitely happen at the UK Open and the EPC here coming up on September 24th to 27th. Tickets go on sale on July 1st. Go to UKOpen.net or PlayPinball.uk to get those 300 available right now. And Neil, you don't have to wait until the Tuesday after the tournament to have a bath. Feel free to mix in a shower once in a while during the tournament if you wouldn't mind. Yeah. I kid, of course. You talk about other tournaments and stuff. UK Open has been a major sponsor of Pinberg, you know, the rebirth of Pinberg. Yeah. And it is sponsors like yourself with Pinberg that make that possible. So the sponsors you have for the UK Open and EPC, thank you for your participation, your support for making these happen. And, you know, it is a big community, right? We all want pinball to be successful, so we all can pitch in some way somehow, whether it's scorekeeping, whether it's promoting, whether it's sharing the stream when it's on. Just let people know about this. Build the hype. Make pinball bigger. And you do a great job of that, Neil, and so do the fans of the UK Open and now the EPC. So thank you very much, my friend. Thanks, Jeff. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find everything on pinballprofile.com. We're on Instagram at Pinball Profile, a great Facebook group as well. You can email pinballprofile at gmail.com. And if you'd like to show your support, don't worry, the show is always free. But we want to thank those on Patreon that certainly make this possible. Thank you, and more. We really appreciate it. That's patreon.com slash pinballprofile. Sign up for the UK Open and the EPC. It's coming September. 24th to 27th. Sign-ups on July 1st. I'm Jeff Teeolis.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v5)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-08-04 | Item ID: 756bcd9a-291e-45ee-8101-c075f527fc11*