# Introduction to Competitive Pinball with Sam Keogh

**Source:** Pintastic Pinball & Game Room Expo  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2025-02-07  
**Duration:** 50m 31s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgEebM0VZUo

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## Analysis

Sam Keogh presents a comprehensive introduction to competitive pinball at a community expo, covering motivation for competitive play, tournament and league formats, barriers to entry, youth participation, and practical guidance for newcomers. He emphasizes community connection as the primary driver, discusses regional leagues like the New England Pinball League, and introduces the Friendly Flips newcomer tournament. Guest speakers Nick Quadrini and Adam Meter reinforce themes of personal growth, friendly community culture, and youth participation.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Sam attended Pinburgh (1,000-player tournament) in 2017 as his first major pinball show and was inspired to compete — _Direct personal testimony; Pinburgh is confirmed as world's largest tournament_
- [HIGH] Sam started competing in pinball about 2.5 years ago (from 2024, roughly 2021-2022) after 8 years of casual play — _Direct timeline stated by Sam; consistent with Nick Quadrini's similar 2.5-year competitive timeline_
- [MEDIUM] Most top 10 players in the world are 16-19 years old — _Sam's assertion about current youth dominance; not independently verified but plausible given tournament rankings_
- [HIGH] Shamus Meter is ranked 14th in youth division world ranking and under 1,000 in overall ranking (as of presentation date) — _Adam Meter directly states this about his son; specific ranking claims_
- [HIGH] New England Pinball League operates at 30+ locations across New England — _Sam states '30 something locations now' as established fact_
- [HIGH] Bells and Chimes is a nationwide organization for advancing women and non-binary people in pinball with local chapters — _Sam describes established organization with Boston Bells and Chimes and Connecticut Bells as confirmed local chapters_
- [HIGH] Roger Sharp founded the IFPA and is the subject of the documentary 'The Man Who Saved the Game' — _Sam references this; confirmed by external knowledge of documentary_

### Notable Quotes

> "starting compete was like one of the best things I ever did um it's introduced me to a lot of really great experiences um and it's really enriched my life in a lot of ways"
> — **Sam Keogh**, early presentation
> _Encapsulates Sam's core motivation for introducing competitive pinball to newcomers_

> "the number one reason is it's fun and uh I don't want that to be Lo at any point in this entire talk everything else on this slide is almost a subo to this um it's all fun if you're not having fun um you should reassess what you're doing"
> — **Sam Keogh**, motivation section
> _Core philosophy: fun is the primary driver, all other benefits secondary_

> "you're not only competing against the other players you're really competing against yourself right it's you against the game what can I do to get better"
> — **Nick Quadrini**, guest testimony
> _Articulates the self-improvement aspect of competitive pinball distinct from pure competition_

> "I'm sorry I didn't make you dinner"
> — **Mitch Curtis (league host)**, league introduction anecdote
> _Illustrates the welcoming, humorous culture of pinball league hosts_

> "literally everybody in this hobby was bad when they started every single person who's played competitive pinball was once bad and got their butt kicked over and over and over and over and over and over and over again"
> — **Sam Keogh**, barriers section
> _Directly addresses the primary fear barrier: being 'not good enough' to compete_

> "in a four-player pinball match you have a chance against anyone and there's something really empowering and awesome about that"
> — **Sam Keogh**, alternative competitive objectives
> _Highlights pinball's unique competitive dynamic where upset victories are possible and valued_

> "my number one goal is to play good pinball I don't care that much about how I finish in the tournament if I feel like I played good on the games"
> — **Sam Keogh**, alternative competitive objectives
> _Models healthy competitive mindset focused on personal performance over placement_

> "we have a lot of players in New England pinball League that show up for New England pinball league for the eight-week season three times a year and they don't play Saturday tournaments because it's too much of a commitment for them and we are just as happy to see those people as anybody else"
> — **Sam Keogh**, commitment discussion
> _Establishes inclusive culture accommodating varied commitment levels_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Sam Keogh | person | Primary presenter; 31 years old, from New Hampshire, 8 years casual play, 2.5 years competitive; introduced to pinball at Pinburgh 2017; hosts Friendly Flips newcomer tournament |
| Nick Quadrini | person | Guest speaker; got into competitive pinball ~2.5 years ago; originally from Massachusetts (Double Bow tavern in PBD); moved to Connecticut and helped restore New England Pinball League there; emphasizes personal improvement and community |
| Adam Meter | person | Guest speaker; father of Shamus Meter (ranked 14th in youth division, under 1,000 overall); discussed youth entry barriers and positive competitive pinball experience |
| Shamus Meter | person | Accomplished youth pinball player; ranked 14th in world youth division, under 1,000 overall; brought into competitive pinball by father Adam |
| Mitch Curtis | person | League host at Double Bow tavern in Pembroke, MA; known for welcoming newcomers with humor and hospitality |
| Chris | person | Owner of Ice Ice Arcade (Vanilla Ice-themed); hosts Thursday night pinball league with 20 games; friend of Sam Keogh |
| Bowen Kerins | person | Referenced as 'Bow'; elite pinball player; beaten by Sam Keogh in tournaments on select games |
| Roger Sharp | person | Founder of IFPA; subject of documentary 'The Man Who Saved the Game' |
| New England Pinball League | organization | Regional pinball league operating at 30+ locations across New England; runs 8-week seasons three times per year; finals gather few hundred players |
| New York Pinball League | organization | Team-based pinball league in New York area; more casual format with doubles and split flipper games |
| Port City Pinball League | organization | Pinball league in Portsmouth, New Hampshire |
| Connecticut Rhode Island Pinball League | organization | Pinball league playing at The Sanctum and Pizza Jays in Rhode Island area |
| Bells and Chimes | organization | Nationwide organization for advancing women and non-binary people in pinball; local chapters include Boston Bells and Chimes and Connecticut Bells; maintains clubroom at this expo |
| IFPA | organization | International Flipper Pinball Association; central governing body for competitive pinball; maintains standardized rules, world rankings (WPPR), and tournament calendar at ifpa.org |
| Ice Ice Arcade | company | World's Premier Vanilla Ice-themed arcade; Chris's personal collection of 20 games; hosts Thursday night solo run league |
| Lower Playfield | company | Pinball venue in Goffstown, New Hampshire; friend's location mentioned for tournament format example |
| Double Bow Tavern | company | Tavern in Pembroke, Massachusetts; early pinball league venue for Nick Quadrini; hosted by Mitch Curtis |
| The Sanctum | company | Venue in Connecticut/Rhode Island area running Connecticut Rhode Island Pinball League |
| Pizza Jays | company | Venue in Rhode Island area running Connecticut Rhode Island Pinball League |
| Pinburgh | event | World's largest pinball tournament (~1,000 players); held in Pittsburgh; inspired Sam Keogh to pursue competitive pinball in 2017 |
| Friendly Flips | event | Newcomer tournament held at this expo at 3:00 PM in Southern New Hampshire pinball room; open only to new/inexperienced players; reserved entry priority for seminar attendees |
| Pintastic Pinball & Game Room Expo | event | Current expo event in Marlborough, Massachusetts; hosts seminars, tournaments (Silverball Rumble), and Friendly Flips newcomer tournament |
| Silverball Rumble | event | Tournament at this expo with unlimited entries over event period (Thursday night to seminar start); allows high-volume participation strategy |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Community and social connection, Overcoming barriers to competitive entry, Pinball league formats and structure, Tournament formats and logistics, Youth participation in competitive pinball
- **Secondary:** Women and non-binary inclusion (Bells and Chimes), Alternative competitive objectives and self-improvement, IFPA rankings and world ranking system

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.92) — Overwhelmingly positive tone throughout. Sam, Nick, and Adam all express genuine enthusiasm and gratitude for competitive pinball community. Discussion frames barriers not as insurmountable but as normal parts of the entry process. Emphasis on inclusivity, welcoming culture, and personal enrichment. No significant criticism or negative sentiment detected; even cost barriers are presented pragmatically rather than negatively.

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** Formal structured seminar introducing competitive pinball to newcomers at major expo; Friendly Flips newcomer tournament immediately following; deliberate onboarding infrastructure (confidence: high) — Sam conducting detailed seminar with presentation slides, guest speakers, and dedicated newcomer tournament at 3:00 PM with reserved entry priority
- **[sentiment_shift]** Strong positive sentiment toward competitive pinball culture as inclusive, welcoming, and focused on personal improvement over pure victory; newcomers consistently report feeling encouraged (confidence: high) — Nick Quadrini: 'everyone's super friendly' and Mitch Curtis joke about not making dinner; Sam emphasizes nobody will judge new players; multiple speakers wish they'd started sooner
- **[community_signal]** Bells and Chimes organization actively running local chapters and community clubroom at expo; women and non-binary inclusion formalized through dedicated organization (confidence: high) — Sam highlights Boston Bells and Chimes and Connecticut Bells as established local chapters with clubroom at expo; describes as 'really awesome' networking events
- **[competitive_signal]** Youth dominance in top competitive rankings; most top 10 players in world are 16-19 years old per Sam's assessment (confidence: medium) — Sam states 'most of the top 10 players in the world are that young' and references Shamus Meter at rank 14 youth division as representative example
- **[event_signal]** Pintastic Pinball & Game Room Expo functioning as major community gathering and recruitment event with seminars, tournaments, vendor presence, and dedicated newcomer tournaments (confidence: high) — Multi-day event in Marlborough, MA with seminar programming, Silverball Rumble tournament, Friendly Flips newcomer event, Bells and Chimes clubroom, various vendor booths
- **[market_signal]** Regional competitive infrastructure mature and expanding: New England Pinball League operates at 30+ locations with 8-week seasons three times per year; established league structure supporting consistent player pipeline (confidence: high) — Sam details NEPL structure at '30 something locations now' with finals gathering 'few hundred players'; also discusses parallel leagues in NY, Connecticut/RI, and Portsmouth
- **[community_signal]** Sam Keogh positioned as community educator and tournament organizer; explicitly motivated by 'wishing somebody had wrote me into it a long time ago'; actively creating structured pathways for newcomers (confidence: high) — Sam explicitly states this wish and describes purpose of seminar to 'bring people into the hobby'; hosts Friendly Flips newcomer tournament; invites guest speakers with parallel entry stories

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## Transcript

hi thank you all so much for coming um I'm really touched to see so many people here people I know uh new faces people I just met this weekend and uh people I've uh never encountered before so this is this is really awesome thank you for coming uh see here's what we're going to talk about today um we there we go here's the slide deck uh we're going to cover why we play competitive pinball why why are the people who are gathered in that area down there why are they all here uh what drives us to be here we're going to talk about how to find competitive pinball where can you find the tournaments that you have to go to where's League where how do you get involved uh we're going to talk about what it's like to go to a tournament night or a league night what you can expect uh we're going to cover youth players in pinball so younger players we looking to get into it parents of uh people who are looking into getting the pinball how can they get into it uh what scares people away from competing what are some what are some common uh barriers to entry to pinball that uh you have to get past to start uh navigating the tournament uh what do I do once I'm there uh and some dos and don'ts some things you might want to look out for at the pinball tournament uh and then we're going to talk a little bit about the friendly flips newcomer tournament which which is going to be at 3:00 right after the conclusion of this seminar I'm going to say that a few times today um in the Southern New Hampshire pinball room and I hope to see as many of you not the experienced players they're not allowed to play all just the new players uh I hope to see as many of you as possible at that tournament right after this and you will all have first dibs on Entry as well if it happens to fill up uh so who am I why does this matter to me well my name is Sam Kio uh I've been playing pinball for about eight years I live in New Hampshire I'm 31 years old um but I only started competing about two and a half years ago uh in 2017 I went to my first pinball show a show just like this a little bigger it was known as pimber uh it was the biggest baddest greatest show in the world um and there was a 1,000 player match play tournament that's I'm pretty sure that was the biggest tournament in the world at the time and I remember going to that show and being like wow that that's what I want to do I I hope I can get there someday that would be awesome to play in something so big like that I didn't realize there was a whole world out there outside of just the biggest thing there were local leagues local tournaments things that I could go to and meet people um and uh that's what I hope to introduce to all of you today uh starting compete was like one of the best things I ever did um it's introduced me to a lot of really great experiences um and it's really enriched my life in a lot of ways and bought me places like here and other places and I wish that somebody had like wrote me into it a really long time ago that I had somebody give a talk like this or do a tournament like the friendly flips tournament and uh and bring people into the hobby so that's what I hope to accomplish here today uh so why why do we compete why uh why not just play Pinball competitively why take out time out of our Saturdays why go to league on a Thursday night why why do this the number one reason is it's fun and uh I don't want that to be Lo at any point in this entire talk everything else on this slide is almost a subo to this um it's all fun if you're not having fun um you should reassess what you're doing um and um if it ever stops being fun uh take a look at that but it's fun to get way better at pinball you know you're going to play with really good players uh there's really good players in these leagues all over the country all over the world and they're going to teach you a lot of things and you're going to learn a lot just from watching them playing with them um the first five years I've played pinball casually I didn't get much better but once I started playing with other good players I got a lot better A lot quicker uh you can push yourself competitively you know uh the first few times you go out in play you'll probably score close to the bottom of the table but you know you'll you'll keep playing you'll keep getting better you'll keep pushing yourself and finishing Higher and Higher and there's there's a real satisfaction to that at least for me and a lot of other people who compete uh you can play some fun games you won't see in the wild if you're playing in the club tournaments this weekend you may have played a game like Blackjack uh which is a great early solid state from the early 80s and um you don't see that game out in the wild you don't really see that game at the pizza place um you know going to these tournaments uh gets you an opportunity to play some of these rarer harder to find more obscure older games that I really love uh as much as I love the new games uh and you can visit some private collections some awesome collections go to more pinball shows like this we play our local League at a place called the ice ice arcade it's the world's Premier Vanilla Ice themed arcade it's my friend Chris's house and he has 20 games and he has a solo run Thursday night every week and we have a great time and I wouldn't know about that place at all if it weren't for playing pinball league and hanging out with my friends and uh that's really valuable to me um and the most important thing is you get to meet really cool people and make really great friends and I'm so I'm so glad of all the friends I've made in this Hobby and it's been really enriching to my life and I want that for everybody uh and that's the most important thing to me here today uh and here's a picture of my friends we all went to Wisconsin to go play Pinball together at District 82 we all traveled together and these are all people I met through pinball and that's really valuable and important to me um I'm going to ask uh my friend Nick quadrini to come up and uh say what starting in competing in pinball means to [Applause] him yeah thanks thanks a lot Sam and uh thanks everybody for coming I'm going to first off just Echo and agree completely with everything that uh that Sam just said great Community great people lot of f on love playing pinball he's the guy who got me into it he's gotten me into many hobbies but I can say pretty definitively pinball is uh is one of the greatest ones because of the you know the huge Community that's involved um for me getting into competitive pinball really the interest is kind of a combination of that competitive Factor I've always had you know the feeling of like I want to do better I like competing against people I like the the tournament feeling but one of the things that's that's really great about pinball is that you're not only competing against the other players you're really competing against yourself right it's you against the game what can I do to get better and you know if I go up against a player who's way better than me maybe they put up a billion points but if I've never cracked a 100 million and I get 102 I feel really good about myself even if I come in third place fourth place right so that's one of the things that that I really enjoy about competitive pinball you've got that me against the other players but a lot of it is Me Against the Machine and then building off of some of the other things Sam said I mean the community is just so fantastic everyone's super friendly I can remember very well my first league night uh it was a place called the double bow uh it's Tavern up in uh pbd mass and the guy running at Mitch Curtis Super shout out to Mitch he's fantastic but when I first met him he said welcome to pinball League I'm sorry I didn't make you dinner and I thought that was a joke he's like oh I'm not a very good host lots of these League hosts you know are happy to make you food you know they're they're super friendly really inviting people and uh being part of pinball league has been fantastic for me when I moved back to Connecticut uh went out of my way to bring the New Robert Englunds pinball League back into Connecticut uh now kind of helping support them uh in Connecticut as well but uh love to play you know all over New Robert Englunds all over the country and then you know whenever you're traveling it's a great way to just spend a couple of hours and say Hey where's pinball near me I can go and play some games and it's always uh easy to meet people or meet people who know somebody who knows somebody who knows Sam and uh see the connection there as well so yeah pinball and you know competing in pinball has been fantastic for me I really enjoy it and uh my timeline is very similar to Sam's I I didn't start really playing pinball until seven eight years ago competitively you know about two and a half years ago I've gotten so much better because of how friendly and helpful everyone is and uh I have a lot of fun with it and i' I'd highly recommend uh I'll just Echo I think exactly what Sam said that I just wish somebody had told me how cool and how much fun this would be and uh not not be intimidated by oh hey I'm not going to compete in this thousand player tournament like why not you know what it's it's not too uh challenging and uh I'm sure Sam will touch on a lot of the reasons why it's worth doing as well but yeah it's a blast and I I just say you know I wish I had started doing it sooner all right thank you Nick uh so here's what a day at a pinball tournament might look like for you this is kind of modeled after just a normal day at my friend's location the lower Playfield in GFF toown New Hampshire uh so the doors would typically open at about 10:00 a.m. we show up we play s we our practice games we hang out we say our hellos and maybe some of us are still finishing our breakfast uh at 11:00 a.m. the host is going to say hey like everybody finish up your practice games we're going to get started uh you're going to be assigned a game and a group of players they'll say all right Mitch Nick Alyssa and Eric are on high speed and so that mean Mitch is player one Nick is player two Etc and you'll go and you'll play that game and uh in the order you're asked to play sometimes you might be asked to pick a game that could happen too and you're going to report the results of the game on Match play it could be on a sheet we'll explain what match play is later I'm sorry or with the host uh you know just let them know it's like I was first Alyssa was second and uh you'll wait for the next round to start and you'll do that again until the tournament's over or you're out it's really that simple you don't have to get that tied up in knowing what the competitive format is all you really have to know is you play the pinball machine that they ask you to play against the people that you play against and uh you do your best and if you do really well you'll make finals or win um if you qualify for finals you get to play more pinball and you just play the game you're assigned just like before pretty simple um there's a lot of minutia that you can get lost in that's just not that important for you to know all about there are tournament directors there and rules people that know all the rules and if you ever have a question about the tournament rules or anything there are going to be a million people there to uh answer questions for you uh so that's a pinball turn but what is pinball League uh this is really important to me I think because pinball League was my intro to competitive pinball uh I have to go back there we go uh NOP that's here we go no here we go there we go uh what is a pinball league so a pinball League plays over the course of a few weeks usually you know one night a week um over about five to 10 weeks I've seen typical is of most leagues it's a lesser time commitment it might only be about an hour hour and a half 2 hour hours of playing as opposed to taking all day on a Saturday something that you can just do on a Thursday night I play Thursday night at 7:30 with my friends in New Hampshire um and um the other thing is like New Robert Englunds pinball you can miss a couple weeks and it won't really affect your score that much it's a lot more casual it's a lot more social it's less competitive hey we all want to win but it's uh it's for people who are it's for everybody really it's for the most competitive players and the least competitive players that just want to go out and have a good time and uh say hello to people and have something to do on a Thursday night uh it's a great way to get started it's how I got started it's how a lot of people in New Robert Englunds get started we have a lot of locations that run the New Robert Englunds pinball league and they're really good at roping new people in um you score points in your league every week and at the end of The League period there's a finals that you might qualify for um there's some local pinball leagues to uh and uh don't let me forget there's one more that I forgot to include an image of there's the New Robert Englunds pinball League uh which we play at 30 something locations now um and if you have a location near you if you have a pinball place near you in New Robert Englunds it is likely they play in the New Robert Englunds pinball League ask people that play there um it's a really great thing and we have a finals every four months where we go we all Gather in the same place few hundred players players from all over New Robert Englunds and it's a really fun thing um there's the New York pinball league if you're in the New York area it's a team League a lot more casual you're on a team with a bunch of players you play like split flipper games doubles games lots of fun stuff uh and then there's the Port City pinball League that plays in Portsmouth New Hampshire um I don't remember what day of the week they play when they restart uh but that's a fun league if you're in the Portsmouth area uh and then there's also the Connecticut Rhode Island area pinball League that plays at the sanctum and uh Pizza Jays in Rhode Island so if those are local locations to you that's a great place to play great people to play with um a typical night at a pinball league is a lot more casual the doors will open at maybe 6:30 we show up we start playing our practice games we sign in at 7:30 the host is going to call everybody's attention stop playing your practice games uh and everybody gets played in three to four player groups and uh we each play four games just with your group same people get to know them if you don't know them already um usually that'll take an hour and a half hour hour and a half two hours and then we have a score for the night we just have a fun time playing casual games uh until uh Chris kicks us out at 10:30 and uh your scores are added to the website and uh you will qualify for finals based on how you score over the course of the Season uh I just wanted to take a minute to talk about youth players in pinball uh I think this is a really important thing bringing new players into the hobby um the pinball Community is very kid-friendly for the most part and most tournaments are kid-friendly uh every once in a while you know there'll be a a tournament at a bar that's 21 plus but for the most part people are really cool about people bringing their kids or young players showing up teens College age kids uh not the typical demographic for pinball nowadays but we like to see uh we like to see the tide shifting on that a little bit uh a lot of the best players in the world are 16 17 18 19 years old I think most of the top 10 players in the world are that young uh and they're all kids whose parents were really into it and we brought into it from a young age uh and they've uh yeah had some really enriching experiences uh getting into pinball at that age I have to acknowledge that there are some barriers to entry for young players um like I said earlier like there are tournaments that are at bars that are 21 plus that even with a guardian the kid might not be able to get into um it's I think especially hard for unaccompanied miners who don't whose parents aren't into pinball uh might not be bringing them to that tournament that they might need an adult to bring them to um might not have a you know won't have a PayPal account if their parent isn't registering them for tournaments themselves um so I just think as you know as TDS maybe we uh we could do do better at uh navigating those accommodations Uh I that was jargon but that was for the people who understand the jargon uh I want to bring up uh my friend Adam meter to talk a little bit about uh youth players in pinball Adam is the father of uh Shamus meter they're both uh very accomplished tournament Players in New Robert Englunds um and I'd just like to have Adam talk for a few minutes about his background in pinball Sheamus's background in pinball and uh what pinball is meant for you to uh over the past few years yeah so uh I'm Sheamus's dad uh a lot of you guys know him because he's kind of known he's he's a very good pinball player he's ranked 14th now sh and and the youth division in the world um overall he's under a thousand and I would say there's 5,000 I think uh or maybe more sorry sorry there yeah what's your experience been like getting into it's it's been fantastic we' meet lots of amazing people we playing invol tournaments and it's just been fun we meet people all right uh and have you seen any like barriers to to entry to trying to get yes yes Sheamus is a very accomplished player he has kicked my butt many many many many many many times I think if you go on my IBA page my record against Sheamus is uh 035 and one but that one is a draw and I think Sheamus was 14 at that time so very happy to have Adam talk I want to since I just talked about youth players I feel like uh it would I have I should be talking about the bells and Chimes as well the bells and Chimes are a nationwide organization um for advancing women and non-binary people in pinball and they have local chapters here's two of our local chapters Boston bells and Chimes and the Connecticut Bells uh they put on a lot of really great events uh it's really awesome um it's not about like women not being able to compete with the men all these women basically play in the open tournaments too and some of them are very very very very good you know our New Hampshire state champion as a woman uh but she organizes a lot of these events too and it's really kind of a networking thing it's awesome we've gotten a lot of new people in a pinball through Boston bells and Connecticut Bells specifically so uh if you're interested in this kind of thing I would encourage you to look up information about your local chapter because uh yeah it's really awesome and and they have a club room here thank you Dave they have a club room in the uh the clubroom hall if you don't know it's will be close to where our friendly flippers tournament will be later down past the bar restaurant area and it's going to be kind of far down on your right the bell's room uh yeah it's awesome the people there are really cool talk to the people at the desk uh if you're interested and they'll they'll let you know uh what you need to know about your local chapter uh I want to talk about some things that scare people away from competitive pinball and things scarier than the Bram Stoker's pinball Dracula machine with that walks the ball really scary across the Playfield um oh that's that's a few slides um here we go entry fees and prize money this is something that like it's not easy to talk about in pinball to new players um so tournaments are typically going to have like an entry fee if you're playing at somebody's house you'll toss them 10 bucks just instead of you know you're not putting coins in their games just for the maintenance in their games but there's going to be some sort of tournament fee most of the time that's like added to a prize pool and the winner of the tournament the people who score in the top three will win in the prize money um you know sometimes it's just five bucks sometimes it's 10 bucks sometimes it's 20 bucks sometimes tournaments are pretty expensive uh you're not going to win money at the tournaments when you first start um I think it's it's important to accept this um because you need to consider what you spend on the tournament is spent money to me spending $25 to go play Pinball all day with my friends and play in a tournament uh that's totally worth it to me and I don't expect to win any money at the end um and uh but if I do it's a nice bonus it's great uh the important thing is just don't spend outside your means uh on tournament entries hoping that you're going to make money at the end it's not even as good as gambling uh go play the slots um you're going to lose your money to Brian O'Neal probably um so I think it's important to uh you know be realistic with yourself if if a tournament is too expensive for you you don't have to play in it and it's nobody's going to think you're a lesser player because you want to play in a $50 three Strikes Tournament which I love by the way um here's a common probably the most common thing I hear for people who are thinking about getting into it but are afraid to get they're not good enough um I reg got to inform you you won't be very good when you start but literally everybody in this hobby was bad when they started every single person who's played competitive pinball was once bad and got their butt kicked over and over and over and over and over and over and over again it's it's part of the process of getting good and nobody's going to think less of you nobody's going to be like why is this guy here this guy is slowing down the tournament that that never happens everybody is really happy to see new people in the Hobby and you're going to get better um the important thing is to find competitive object objectives for yourself other than winning the whole thing if you show up at your first tournament and go I'm going to win and then you lose and then the next one you go I'm going to win you lose the next one you go I'm going to win you lose you're not going to be that happy at the end of the day so there's there's other things to be looking for other than winning the whole thing maybe you improve on your placements over time maybe you got 20th Place last week and then you got 17th Place the next week you get 15th Place the next week that means something you're working towards something um you can get ranking points and boost your world ranking if you play one tournament you're going to be able to check on the website and see that you are ranked the 32,000 ranked player in the world there's a lot of people in the world to be 32,000 30 second thousandth and something it's pretty good but you play more tournaments you're going to jump to 25,000 you're going to jump to 20,000 you're going to jump to 15,000 uh and that's exciting right um maybe your goal is just to successfully execute a strategy you've been working on you know on Godzilla all right I can start Titanosaurus and then I start Godzilla multiball and that's going to give me a good shot if I do that and you get to do that in a game against other players and maybe you don't win the game maybe you don't win the tournament but you know that you you set an objective for yourself and you went out and you did it and those sewing the seeds of good fruit in the future competitively uh maybe your goal is just to beat a highly ranked player in a game you know if I have a crappy sorry if I have a bad tournament day but I beat bow and Karens I had a good day I had a good day and you know the beautiful thing about pinball is anybody can beat anybody I've lost to players who have hardly ever seen a pinball machine before and I've beaten some of the best players of all time that doesn't mean I'm as good as them please don't interpret that that way but in a four-player pinball match you have a chance against anyone and there's something really empowering and awesome about that and maybe your goal is just to beat a good player maybe your goal is just to beat your buddy I have a friend Brian who shows up at every tournament he just wants to beat his friend Mike that's all he cares about he just wants to beat Mike uh and if he but beats Mike he's happy he's buying us beers at the end of the day so that's a that's you know maybe that's your and my goal my number one goal is to play good pinball I don't care that much about how I finish in the tournament if I feel like I played good on the games if I didn't play Bad on too many games I know I'm working towards something and I'm having a good time I don't win a lot of tournaments I'll tell you that but I'm happy when I play good pinball uh and if you keep at it you're going to get better you're going to keep doing better you're going to play better you're going to place better the more you show up uh and uh the other thing I guess that scares people away is maybe level of commitment right some of these tournaments are really time consuming um some cost more time or cost more money than you're comfortable with and you don't have to play in anything that you don't feel like is worth it we have a lot of players in New Robert Englunds pinball League that show up for New Robert Englunds pinball league for the eight-week season three times a year and they don't play Saturday tournaments because it's too much of a commitment for them and we are just as happy to see those people as anybody else we love those people uh those people are really the the life blood of the pinball community that keeps a lot of things going outside of these big destination events uh and if that's your level of commitment that you're happy with then like power to you you you should show up to league and have an awesome time at League um you're here to have fun you know if playing a 8 hour 10 hour tournament on a Saturday is not fun to you then it's not fun to you and you don't have to do it and what's your idea of fun I think that's important and at a show like this so we have a tournament here called Silver ball Rumble where there unlimited entries over the time period from Thursday night till about when the seminar started and there are people that will spend the entire time putting in entries and putting in putting putting and putting and to be fair that's what gives you the best chance of doing well in that tournament but there's a Time balance I put in two entries you know took me three hours this show for me is about spending time with my friends you know seeing some seminars playing these little casual tournaments uh for me that's the time balance that works for me there are some people that put in one card there are some people that are competitive players that don't play that tournament at all so um you know it's up to you what your level of commitment is time check okay uh what is the ifpa you're going to hear about this I don't want to bloviate about this too much um the ifpa is the international flipper pinball Association it was started by a man named Roger sharp who if you watch that ball biopic last year the man who saved the game he's the subject of that documentary very interesting stuff not a doc it's a biopic uh it's the central governing uh body for competitive pinball uh so there's a standardized set of rules um that we all abide to when we run tournaments and they kind of maintain that rule Set uh most of the pinball competitions that you go to are going to be run under the ifpa umbrella and they also maintain a world ranking so when you play in tournaments you're going to get points for playing in that tournament and you're going to uh eventually see your rank climb and climb and climb and uh the best players in the world uh you can see where they're ranked at the very top way way way way higher than I am um and then you'll get to see tournament listings in history and that's something I'm about to delve into right here uh this is a picture of the ifpa calendar if you go to the ifpa website ifpa .org uh you can see in one of the droptown menus ifpa calendar and you plug in your location and uh distance radius and click the button and it'll tell you every single tournament that is planned under the ifpa umbrella in your area uh as you can see I took this a few days ago and it's all the tournaments from this weekend in marbor Massachusetts in this very location uh but you plug in if you're from De Moine Iowa plug in De Iowa you'll see everything you need to see there that's a great place to find out everything you need to know about tournaments in your area there's also Facebook groups local Facebook groups uh pinball we have the New Robert Englunds pinball League Facebook group here in New Robert Englunds and uh pretty much everybody posts their tournament uh in those Facebook groups too if you're on Facebook that's helpful um there's going to be Flyers at your local pinball spot a lot of the time uh so keep an eye open for those if somebody's running tournaments at your local and then some locations have their own website uh and uh I'm sure somebody will tell you if they have a website for their place um registering for tournaments I won't go on too long about this um sometimes you need to pre-register it can be a little intimidating sometimes um you know but that information will be on the listing on the ifba calendar page uh and sometimes it'll be like hey you know registration is at 12 o'clock on this Saturday and everybody logs on and just puts their name in a Google form and then PayPal $20 or something uh whoops oh no oh no PayPal me $20 to get it back okay thank you thank you sorry about that guys all right so yeah check the listing on the ifp page that's going to have all the information you need to know about pre-registering for a tournament if that's necessary um fill out the Google form venmo PayPal somebody um and then a lot of tournaments that just show up at the door they'll say show up it's Thursday night at bar moose Brewing Company at 7 o'clock show up with your five bucks uh and so those are the easier ones those tend to be the more casual ones the more serious tournaments that'll have caps on Entry that they're worried about hitting will'll have a pre-registration process uh match play something I also don't want to spend too much time talking about if you could blow this up a little bit larger thank you so this is the web app where we have our tournament we do all the organization for the tournament this saves the tournament director the person in charge from having to do too much pen and paper it organizes the matches automatically Al and sends people to the games um if you play in a tournament you'll have a profile for you automatically made on Match play you just have to register under it and uh this is where you get to see the current game that you're on who you're playing against what round it is what the standings are uh but you won't have to know too much about it it'll be on a big TV in the venue a lot of the time uh and you'll have people in your group that understand how to use it and uh you won't have to think about it too much if you don't want to think about it but this is where all the tournament info is as far as what game you're playing and everything um I'm going to go over competitive formats a little bit but uh the most important thing here is that you just play the game that you're told to play with the people you're playing against and you do as well as you can and you tell them how you did afterwards and everything else will be taken care of um uh but quickly we have something called match play which is just you play against people a three or four player group against people and uh you report your results and then you get to play against new people uh and then there's some sort of Point threshold uh usually or time threshold or round Threshold at which the tournament ends eventually uh strikes we play in four player groups if you finish third or fourth on a game you get a strike three strikes you're out pretty simple uh flip frenzy and Max match play these are like fun formats where you're going to get put One V one against people uh and get play a bunch of One V One games and then your record in those games will determine how you do uh and then there's card qualifying like the silver ball Rumble our big tournament here where this is for the big serious tournaments generally um and you're going to play solo games and your score on that solo game will be compared to everybody else's score that played in it over the course of uh the event that's a little bit of a simplification there's some Nuance to the different types but uh that's the uh that the basic gist we have silly formats we do too like The Amazing Race is my favorite one if you've ever seen the TV show the idea is that everybody let's say there's 20 people 20 people play the same game and the lowest rank score in that game is eliminated and then 19 people play a different game and the lowest rank person is eliminated until there's just one person left uh and we've had some fun with that recently that's a really good one um here if you want to find out anything more about this on the matchplay website uh on the sidebar at the very bottom here there's a there's a link called handbook that has all the information about all the formats that you don't really need to know about and um yeah if you have any questions everything is there they do a really good job updating that resource uh all right I'm going to talk about some dos and don'ts in competitive pinball um some things to look out for some things to do uh pay coin drop if you're at the location if you're at a public location like a bar or a restaurant or an arcade the machines will take quarters um and so before the game starts make sure everybody puts their quarters or their dollar in the game so that you can start a four-player game uh make sure you start the game with the correct number of players if you have four players in your group press the start button for times if you have three players in your group press it three times bad things happen when the uh when the right wrong number of players is started in a game uh check the game for notes with important info you'll see there's a note on this copy of matahari right here that says plunge extra balls that's important in a tournament sometimes it'll tell you things about the game specific rules sometimes it'll think tell you things like that to avoid getting disqualified for the game so always check uh before you plunge your first ball if there's anything you need to know about that specific copy of the game often times the host will tell you this beforehand if you're listening um do chat with your groupmates um this is a social experience that's why 99% of us are here um ask them questions ask them questions about the tournament ask them questions about where they're from where they where they play league where they play Pinball ask some questions about the game how do you get multiball on Godzilla um people are really happy to share information people are really happy to socialize um and uh yeah partake in that uh compliment others tell them if they have a nice ball tell them if they had a great game tell them if that mode into multiball stack they had was awesome you know be be nice to people people love hearing that stuff and as a new player you're you'll like hearing it from an experienced player too when they tell you like actually that was awesome uh and do bring cookies you know if unless you're at a unless you're at a restaurant where they serve food and they'll be mad at you for that kind of thing people people like goodies bring goodies it'll endear you to the people uh some don't right don't crowd the game Alysa don't stand too close to the player who's playing on the machine don't stand at the side of the game where you're kind of next to the screen don't hover over their shoulder don't stand within kicking range there are some people that are very physical players and kick when they play you don't want to be kicked by them um don't talk to your groupmate while they're playing a ball um when people are playing the ball they want they want to be left alone and uh if you feel like you have something to tell them it can wait until after the balls over unless there's a fire and they can't hear the alarm then tell them um don't wander off uh don't if like you know you just played your ball and you're like oh I'm going to go outside for a smoke if you have to go to the bathroom if you have to go to the bar and refill your drink and you feel like you that can be done in a reasonable amount of time these things are okay but please tell your groupmates hey I'm going to the bathroom otherwise they're not going to know where you are when it's back to your turn and that's not it's not fun your ball might get plunged uh don't play at a turn make sure if you're player three you're always playing player three if player two gets an extra ball and a shoot again don't launch their extra ball will be disqualified from the game not the whole tournament but the game and that's no good uh don't play extra balls um this is a in 95% of pinball tournaments this is a pretty standard rule um if you get an extra ball on a game unless they very specifically tell you to play it you just walk up you can set up your skill shot by pressing any buttons you got to press before you plunge but then once you've released the plunger it's hands off and it's off to the next player um don't abuse the machine please these are really expensive games and the people love them and take really good care of them and have to repair them don't smash the glass don't put your drink on the glass don't um don't pick up the machine and drop it on its front legs you wouldn't believe people do that that's not a nice thing to do to a game please be nice to the games um don't death save or bang back if you don't know what that is don't worry you're not going to do that accidentally um if you know what it is don't do it it's an illegal maneuver it you know it's fun to do maybe on Euro games or the games who belong to somebody who likes you uh on location but don't don't do it in a tournament you'll get disqualified from the game uh and the number one rule is Don't Be a Jerk please be nice to people we're all here for the same reason it's to have fun um please be nice almost almost almost everybody in pinball is really really really really nice uh please continue to contribute to that reputation um I want to talk about the friendly flips tournament is in probably about 20 minutes in the Southern New Hampshire pinball room and all of you who are new players new and barely experienced players um will be eligible for this tournament it's in 20 minutes right at the conclusion of the seminar at 3:00 is the Southern New Hampshire pinball room uh if you don't know where that is I will be leading you like the pi Piper onto the Next Room uh and they're going to be passing around Jerica and Will are going to be passing around a sign up sheet if anybody wants to sign up for this tournament you have first dibs please uh if you are an experienced player if you've been to more than a few like a couple two or three tournaments please don't sign up for this this is just for fun for the people who are uh who have never really played competitive pinball and want to get into an environment that it's going to be all new people and no players to be scared about there's no tournament free if you're in this room you've paid for pentastic admission you can play in the tournament for free uh it's going to be a short format four rounds of one game each probably won't take more than an hour and a half or something um and uh no early elimination nobody's going to take three strikes and go out immediately um and then there's going to be a onegame final to determine the champ um and I believe there might be some t-shirts or something in play something there's going to be something in play it's not going to be a big cash prize but there's going to be something uh something worth playing for that you'll be happy to win in the end um and coaching is allowed and encouraged uh there's going to be a lot of people there to help out with the new people tell them what they need to know about tournament play tell them what they need to know about the game anything you want to know I believe people will be walking around with see Jerica has this beautiful glow stick on her neck uh we'll all be walking around the volunteers with the big glow sticks on our neck so uh you can come and find us if you have any questions even if it's during a ball which is not allowed in ifpa rated tournaments but this is not an ifpa rated tournament this is for super funsies and uh yeah so I really really really hope to see a lot of you there this is right after the conclusion of the seminar in the Southern New Hampshire Club room it won't run for a long time uh and I think it'd be a really fun thing for new people I really wish when I was going to pinberry yeah sure yeah that normally yeah I mean it's fine yeah sure it won't run much longer than that I I don't think you'll be missing out on at more than one round so yeah that's fine next question so I'll I'll give an example based on our format New Robert Englunds pinball league right so you play in a four-player group and you each play four games the first place on each game gets seven points and then it's five points and then it's three and then it's one so the worst possible score you can get in a knight is a four and the highest possible school you can get a night is a 28 and there are some people that get 28s every night um and uh yeah and so a 16 is about an average score um and then yeah your core your score over the course of the season is going to be the year six best scores out of eight put together um and so yeah that sorts us through all 400 players into finals neppl finals which is an exciting time um well it depends on your obviously it depends on your league Loca location right if you're in the Port City pinball League they only have one location and they play at uh finals at Port City in Portland uh I keep saying that Portsmith New Hampshire but uh New Robert Englunds pinball League finals where we play all over New Robert Englunds we have two finals locations that we Shuffle between the western Mass pinball Club in Three Rivers Massachusetts near Sturbridge and Arcadia which is a place in Portland Maine oh western Mass does anybody western Mass Shamus Okay cool so like 75 games at Western Mass 4550 at Arcadia you know so enough to many games yeah sheam Sheamus is the expert on that information.com what's pinball map.com thank you that's a great question pinball map.com maybe it's.org I don't know Google pinball map uh it'll give you a listing of all the uh locations that have pinball in your area not necessarily competitive but the uh just the places that you can go play go practice go meet people and thank you good question so the question was do you play the same game four times or different game you you'll get set to four different games yep you you may in a larger tournament get asked to play the same game two times in the tournament or more not usually thank you any other questions okay back there uh that's a good question so that's something you'll definitely see the more experienced players do nudge the machine move the machine rock it a bit slap it a bit in a tasteful way um the uh yeah the uh the penalty for moving the game too much is that you tilt the game you lose your ball well first of all you don't move it in a way that is going to hurt the game you could get disqualified from the tournament at the game uh but when you watch players play you'll you'll learn where that barrier is I think it's fairly obvious what hurting the game looks like um but if you move the game too much you'll tilt your ball ends you don't get a bonus um there's a saying in pinball if you ain't tilting you ain't trying um you should be moving the game to kind of see what you can get away with um and the more you move the game the more you push the boundaries of uh how you can move the game the more you'll learn where that line is be able to interpret where that line is on a new game that you walk up to uh and uh that's a really big important thing in pinball being able to control the ball and being able to nudge it against every surface that you can nudge it against um really helps you get that kind of control to take controll shots in the game question got one more okay oh that's a good question thank you I should have covered that actually yeah if you get if you have a stu ball in a tournament uh raise your hand alert your groupmates if they're not already watching they'll call a TD over they'll usually have you hold the ball on your flipper uh and then the TD will come over and come take the glass off and then they'll uh they'll take the ball and they'll put it on your flipper and then put the glass back on and then you start the game again so it can be a little distracting sometimes taking you out of the flow but you know you're we able to get the game started again once that kind of thing happens okay so my final question when you've played in tournaments you should then go to the ifp website and read the rules and you know learn all the rules and stuff what is n how many tournaments would you play this many you've got to rules I I don't think there is really a concrete answer to that question I think it really varies person to person I think there are people that just show up to pinball league and they play their games and they have a good time and they never really learn what all the different formats and all the different things are and I think that's like awesome and like totally valid and cool uh and there are some people that play two tournaments and they're 100% in and they have to learn everything and that is also cool and I think it's really great that in pinball really allows for all that different room of involvement and engagement thank you all so much for coming I'm really really really delighted that all of you came thank you [Applause]

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: cb10dd2a-1e76-4c1c-ac3c-6de233da86ef*