# Episode 322: Tobias Wagemann

**Source:** Pinball Profile  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2021-11-12  
**Duration:** 32m 0s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.pinballprofile.com/episode-322-tobias-wagemann/

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## Analysis

Jeff Teolis interviews Tobias Wagemann, German IFPA country director, about his revolutionary multi-tournament weekend format (the Whopper tournaments) held in Fulda, Germany. Tobias describes how he transitioned from traveling internationally to tournaments to creating a local hub that now attracts elite players from across Europe and North America, discusses tournament logistics, volunteer challenges, and preparations for IFPA18 in 2023.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] The Whopper tournaments in Fulda attract elite international players and are comparable in field strength to World Championships — _Jeff states 'I have not seen a field like this since the World Championships' and notes 10 top-100 players with 60 others capable of being top-100 but not traveling regularly_
- [HIGH] Tournament registration sells out in 30 seconds and now has a waiting list — _Tobias: 'this tournament sells out in 30 seconds... We have a waiting list now'_
- [HIGH] Tobias runs 8-9 different tournament formats across 3.5-4.5 days, earning full TGP tournaments twice daily — _Tobias: 'in three and a half days we play eight or nine different formats' and 'we try to play two full worth TGP tournaments a day'_
- [HIGH] The tournament costs €100 for three and a half days including food and multiple tournament entries — _Tobias: 'you pay $100 here for three and a half days. It's ridiculous. It's a bargain'_
- [HIGH] IFPA18 World Championship is scheduled for 2023 in Germany and will include EPC a week earlier with potential for 300+ players — _Tobias: 'IFP18 has been postponed... happening in Germany, now postponed until 2023' and discusses 300-player format plans_
- [HIGH] Tobias transitioned from frequent international tournament travel to local tournament organization after his first daughter was born four years ago — _Tobias describes reducing travel and proposing to Patricia: 'give me the position as a tournament director, and we can create something very big with that'_
- [HIGH] Top-100 IFPA rankings mean little as indicator of skill; they primarily reflect tournament attendance frequency, not absolute playing ability — _Jeff: 'the rankings... mean nothing' and 'you just play a lot'; notes many strong players like Nico don't travel despite world-class ability_
- [HIGH] Kim and Margit are the technical staff maintaining machines at the tournament and are described as exceptional — _Tobias: 'Kim and Margit, absolutely amazing to have them here... if you have a problem at a pinball machine, you go to him, he picks up the key and he fixes the problem'_

### Notable Quotes

> "I was doing this interview anyway with you. I don't think you even know this. I had six people this weekend. You've got to do a pinball profile with Tobias."
> — **Jeff Teolis**, early
> _Establishes widespread community recognition of Tobias's impact before the formal interview_

> "this tournament sells out in 30 seconds... The positivity of that is that's how successful this is."
> — **Tobias Wagemann**, mid
> _Demonstrates extraordinary demand for the Whopper tournaments_

> "This weekend is like if Josh Sharp ran the Power 100 eight times in four days."
> — **Jeff Teolis**, mid
> _Comparison establishing the exceptional field quality and difficulty level_

> "10 years ago I bought my first pinball machine... And now I'm organizing the biggest tournaments in Europe."
> — **Tobias Wagemann**, mid
> _Personal narrative of transformation from casual collector to tournament organizer_

> "I think the atmosphere is a bit more stressless if you don't play for money. And I think it's a better solution."
> — **Tobias Wagemann**, mid
> _Philosophy on tournament structure and community building_

> "I have a very wonderful wife... if you can hear it now was pregnant I said, ok, I have to reduce that, it's not possible to go every second or third weekend on the tournament"
> — **Tobias Wagemann**, mid
> _Personal motivation for creating local alternative to constant travel_

> "You're the puppet master. That's what you are. Or Dr. Frankenstein. I haven't determined which one."
> — **Jeff Teolis**, late
> _Humorous characterization of Tobias's role in shaping European pinball tournaments_

> "When you look in the top 100 And you press on the best 20 results Half the tournaments are from Fulda"
> — **Tobias Wagemann**, late
> _Statistical evidence of the Whopper tournaments' impact on European rankings_

> "I think three to four tournaments a year, that's quite enough."
> — **Tobias Wagemann**, late
> _Tobias's deliberate constraint on tournament frequency to maintain exclusivity and work-life balance_

> "Safe drive home because I don't want you to crash on the Autobahn."
> — **Jeff Teolis**, end
> _Expression of concern about Tobias's physical exhaustion after the tournament weekend_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Tobias Wagemann | person | German IFPA country director, tournament organizer who created the Whopper tournament series in Fulda; pioneer of multi-tournament weekend format |
| Jeff Teolis | person | Host of Pinball Profile podcast; interviewer; competitive pinball player with international tournament experience |
| Kim | person | Technical staff member at Whopper tournaments responsible for machine maintenance and repair |
| Margit | person | Technical staff member at Whopper tournaments assisting with machine maintenance |
| Patricia (Paris) | person | Co-organizer with Tobias of the Whopper tournaments; helped develop the tournament format |
| Frank Goethe | person | Co-country director for Germany alongside Tobias; worked closely during COVID pandemic |
| Matthias | person | Venue operator for Whopper tournaments in Fulda |
| Dina Lindsay | person | Tournament director assisting Tobias; involved in implementing Flip Frenzy format discussion |
| Jim Lindsay | person | Tournament director inquiring about Tobias's tournament methods and Flip Frenzy format |
| Michael Kranz | person | Owner of pinball location in Bremen where Tobias joined league; influenced his tournament involvement |
| Josh Sharp | person | IFPA official; organizer of Power 100 tournament referenced as comparison point for field strength |
| Daniele | person | Top competitive pinball player requesting to attend Whopper tournaments |
| Peter Anderson | person | Top competitive pinball player requesting to attend Whopper tournaments |
| Nico | person | German player described as world-class competitor; finished third in World Championship some years ago |
| Albert Miller-Young | person | Location operator who first introduced Flip Frenzy tournament format |
| Whopper Tournaments (Bulls and Balls, Ho-Ho-Ho) | event | Multi-format tournament series in Fulda, Germany occurring in October, November, December; attracts 90-120 international players |
| IFPA18 World Championship | event | IFPA World Championship scheduled for Germany in 2023; previously postponed due to pandemic |
| European Pinball Championships (EPC) | event | Tournament planned to occur one week before IFPA18 in 2023 |
| Pinball Olympics | event | Tournament in Fulda that ranked second after Pinburg for tournament format quality before Pinburg's postponement |
| Pinball Profile | organization | Long-running podcast series hosted by Jeff Teolis featuring industry figures |
| IFPA | organization | International Federation of Pinball Associations; manages world rankings and tournament sanctions |
| Flip Frenzy | product | Tournament format allowing multiple games in 3-hour timeframe with TGP scaling; potential future addition to Tobias's tournament offerings |
| Match Play | product | Tournament software platform enabling group and head-to-head scoring via mobile devices |
| Laser Weapon Free | game | Pinball machine owned by Tobias; purchased around 10 years ago |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Tournament Organization and Format Innovation, European Competitive Pinball Scene and Community Building, IFPA Rankings and Competitive Player Assessment, Multi-Tournament Weekend Format Adoption and Replication, IFPA18 World Championship Planning and Logistics
- **Secondary:** Volunteer and Technical Staff Challenges in Tournament Running, COVID-19 Impact on International Tournament Coordination, Prize Structure Philosophy (Non-Monetary vs. Cash)

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.92) — Jeff and Tobias exchange mutual admiration throughout the interview. Jeff expresses genuine enthusiasm for Tobias's accomplishments and the tournament quality. Tobias discusses his journey with pride and humility. There is no criticism or negativity exchanged. The discussion reflects celebration of community building and shared passion for pinball.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** IFPA certified tournaments are emerging as distinct category with 20% TGP bonus; Tobias currently uninterested in certification for Fulda despite running multiple tournaments per day at 100% TGP (confidence: medium) — Discussion of certified vs. sanctioned tournaments; Tobias prefers standard 100% TGP rather than chasing certification bonus
- **[community_signal]** Multi-tournament weekend format is being adopted in other regions (Brisbane Masters, District 82) as alternative to frequent individual tournament travel (confidence: high) — Jeff discusses Brisbane Masters 10-day tournament and District 82 six-tournament-in-three-days model; Tobias noting this format solves accessibility for players with work/family commitments
- **[sentiment_shift]** Strong positive sentiment toward non-monetary tournament format and €100 all-inclusive pricing; concerns that cash prizes would attract 'wrong people' motivated purely by money rather than community (confidence: high) — Tobias: 'I think the atmosphere is a bit more stressless if you don't play for money'; concern about wrong demographic if adding cash prizes
- **[community_signal]** Technical infrastructure at Whopper tournaments (Kim, Margit) praised as exception to European norm; most European tournaments lack adequate volunteer/technical support compared to Scandinavian model (confidence: high) — Tobias: 'When you go to Scandinavia, you have tournaments with 10 to 15 technicians... We have quite a big community of players here in Germany, but we don't have the support'
- **[competitive_signal]** European tournament scene shows concentration of top talent at Fulda events; analysis shows over 50% of top-100 players' best results come from Fulda tournaments, indicating these events define European competitive landscape (confidence: high) — Tobias: 'When you look in the top 100 And you press on the best 20 results Half the tournaments are from Fulda'
- **[market_signal]** IFPA rankings narrative shifting to de-emphasize absolute ranking value and instead recognize that rankings reflect attendance frequency, not pure skill level; strong players not traveling remain undervalued (confidence: high) — Jeff and Tobias both emphasize that rankings mean little; many top-level players like Nico don't travel; Tobias notes 60 players at Fulda could be top-100 if they traveled more
- **[event_signal]** IFPA18 World Championship confirmed for 2023 in Germany with European Pinball Championships planned one week earlier; Tobias indicates venue expansion and 300+ player capacity planning underway (confidence: high) — Tobias: 'IFP18... happening in Germany, now postponed until 2023'; discussion of expanding venue and hosting both EPC and IFPA18 with international participation
- **[event_signal]** Whopper tournaments in Fulda establish new gold standard for European pinball competition; multiple international players now prioritizing attendance, selling out registration in 30 seconds (confidence: high) — Jeff: 'I have not seen a field like this since the World Championships'; Tobias: 'this tournament sells out in 30 seconds'
- **[community_signal]** Tobias's tournament operations reflect deliberate balance between growth and sustainability; explicitly limiting to 3-4 tournaments annually to maintain quality and preserve personal family time with two daughters (confidence: high) — Tobias: 'I think three to four tournaments a year, that's quite enough... I will have a problem when I run this more often because then I see my kids every second weekend'
- **[announcement]** Flip Frenzy tournament format being introduced to European tournament directors (Dina Lindsay, Jim Lindsay) as potential addition to Whopper format lineup starting at Ho-Ho-Ho in December (confidence: medium) — Jeff: 'I've introduced it to Jim and Dina Lindsay... At Ho Ho Ho... We will play that'; Tobias unfamiliar but interested in learning the format

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## Transcript

 it's time for another pinball profile i'm your host jeff tillis you can find everything on pinballprofile.com past episodes subscriptions and more we're on facebook we're on twitter and instagram at pinball profile and you can email us pinball profile at gmail.com this person here single-handedly might have changed the landscape of tournaments and how tournaments are run, not only in Germany, perhaps in the world. He is the German IFPA country director, Tobias Wagner, and he joins me right now. Hello, Tobias. Hi, thanks for the invitation. I have to tell you one thing. I was doing this interview anyway with you. I don't think you even know this. I had six people this weekend. You've got to do a pinball profile with Tobias. And I said, do I really have to do one with Tobias? I was doing it anyway. In fact, some people in North America, like the Fralies, you know, they are big fans. And you've built really something incredible here in Germany. It's a labor of love, isn't it? It's absolutely incredible. We started this several years ago here with only single tournaments. And we moved on to this Wopper tournament. And it's absolutely incredible that we reached the Americans. And the Fralies were here outstanding, absolutely amazing, both of them. And now we have you here. How incredible is that? Someone from the other side of the planet asked if he can join our tournament here in Germany. And it's literally ghost bombs everywhere. Yeah, really, really. I can't put up with it. Keep your shirt on. That's fine. Okay. Well, I have heard about this tournament for a while and watching JDL stream and seeing, first of all, the great facility. I talked to Matthias and what he and Patricia have done here. Spectacular. You had RS Pinball from Austria. You had Dirk from Pinball University bringing other machines. It is quite the collection to see this. And with Kim and Margaret doing the tech, I have to say I go to a lot of tournaments. And these are some of the finest machines I have ever played. Yes, it's true. There's a lot of experience for us, for sure. We started, I think, five or six years ago. And the first one or two tournaments, we collect a lot of experience. We had a lot of mods inside, but they were not all in a very functional way. We changed the technical. Kim is an awesome person. Kim and Margit, absolutely amazing to have them here. Not only that they are gentle persons, if you have a problem at a pinball machine, you go to him, he picks up the key and he fixes the problem. That was not usual the last years. And I think other countries have more supporters, more technicals. When you go to Scandinavia, you have tournaments with 10 to 15 technikens. You have another 10 to 15 volunteers. I think every second player has an own technikon on his side. And we have quite a big community of players here in Germany, but we don't have the support for scorekeepers, for volunteers, and so on. And this is quite a problem, so we have to fix it on our own by creating tournaments. You can run without those volunteers or scorekeepers. Well, with match play, you certainly can enter scores. If you're in group match play or head-to-head, that's easy for people to do on their own, on their phones. It's a lot of work for you as the tournament director of these big tournaments. And the one we're talking about right now is the Bulls and Balls one that happened in October. And then there's one in November. And then there's the Ho-Ho-Ho in December. And then we do it all again next year. But it does require a lot for you. Dina Lindsay has been helping from the TD side as well. Volunteers are very difficult to get for tournaments, but it would make things a lot easier. But the formats of the tournaments you run here, you mentioned, are conducive to you doing what you do without the volunteers. Are there some tournaments you'd like to try that you would need some volunteers? Yeah, we played some best game things or high score tournaments where you have to add the scores via the tablet or something. And we didn't find any volunteers. We collect some pupils here, and they support us during the weekend. But I think we have many alphas here, and you have to be a strong person, and you have to know the community and so on, because they are some troublemakers, and it doesn't make it very easy for them. So we decided, I think, three or four years ago, we stopped that with the high score thing. It was amazing because we played every device twice, so we earned the TGP a bit faster for the tournament. But now I think with a pin golf format, it's pen and paper. Sure, it's not perfect, but it's the day on the tournament. What is the easiest for me? Because I'm in a group. My group mates know I have to do the scorekeeping too. And I'm so fast of bringing in the scores. It's not a problem for me. And in the end, I know I have fed in all the information. That's it. That's good. And we can go to the next round. So to answer your question, we are not planning to do other tournament formats because in three and a half days we play eight or nine different formats. And before the COVID thing, we had four and a half days here. We played in 2019 at the Pinball Olympics up to 12 or 13 tournaments here. And we have all the formats and we try to play two full worth TGP tournaments a day. This means we are a bit limited with the selection of the formats. The one format that you don't do, and I've introduced it to Jim and Dina Lindsay, so you think of the Whopper farms that are here in Germany right now, thanks to Tobias, they could actually get maybe a little bigger with the flip frenzy, which you're not familiar with, are you? Yeah, absolutely not. I've heard the first time Albert Miller-Young had done it in his location, and I'm very interested in it, But I've never checked that. I have no idea about that. I know you explained it yesterday with the queues and player one and two. Yeah, no more promise at Ho Ho Ho. We will play that. The key for Flip Frenzy is if you want to get to TGPs fast, and I'm talking about a full tournament with all these people, three hours, and maybe a playoff. and, as you know, playoffs increase the TGP times two with the larger groups, it can be done. You just have to make sure you don't have long playing games. There are many you can think of, but, for example, Guns N' Roses, JJP was here, a spectacular game. There's a lot of multi-balls. That's probably going to take a lot longer. The classics games are a big part of frenzies in the way that, okay, they're not going to last that long, even if they're on five ball, like for EMs. So something to consider. And you can select the games. I'm curious to see, after Jim and Dina get a hold of you, what happens with this flip frenzy. But that aside, you do have a large variety of tournaments here. Is there one that's your favorite? Because I noticed there were three pin golfs here, and I've talked to a lot of Europeans, and they seem to love the pin golf. Yeah, the pin golf format is quite the best for me because I can hand out all the sheets. They play all the day at 5 or 6 p.m. They give it back to me. I've had in all the results and we play the playoffs. I think it's my favorite format as a tournament director. My favorite one is the five-strike knockout on Sunday because often or regularly I go to the next round, except today. But it's nice. I like the tournament formats where you don't play the strict things, the strict format against similar strong persons when you have random pairings So you play everyone you know If you have the strict Swiss mode or something similar you play good and you have to play against the good or better players. And I like to... Here in Germany, every 20 minutes you face another opponent, another player. And I like to talk to all of them because of my very stressful weekend. And I don't have the time slots to talk to each other. And during the games, when we change the players, it's my time to talk a bit to the players. Well, that's nice. Yeah, you're so busy and running everything around here and yelling out, Next round! It's amazing you have a voice. It's the last day of the tournament. I'm kind of soft-spoken right now because my voice is shot. But you could still go another few days. This is amazing. And one thing I have to say, there's this big gathering here. It's not a cafeteria. It's a massive, massive lunchroom, which the food was spectacular. And every morning you do the announcements, you do a roll call, and you hand out the awards from the previous day. But you had a nice speech today about how you got into pinball. Do you want to share that? Because I thought that was really touching. Yeah, it's not only me. It's not a one-man show. We have an awesome location here. We have the support and so on. But in the end of the day, I stand in front of the crowd and do what you told us. Song and dance, the whole show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you make sure everyone's looking at you. I mean, heaven forbid there's some chatter at the tables. You stop that right away. It's the Tobias show. It's the Tobias show, right. But it all started around 10 years ago. I'm working at the Bremen University in the north of Germany, and I have a colleague, and he invited me after work for a barbecue. And after the barbecue, he asked me, Toby, do you want to play some pinball? I have some pinball machines upstairs. I say, why not? It's 20 years ago. Let's have a look. And on the first day or during the next three hours, I destroyed all his high scores and was playing the first time there. And she says, oh, that wasn't that stupid. You want to try our pinball league here in Bremen? I said, well, okay, a new hobby. Okay, I try. And I went to the pinball league, and I learned Michael Kranz there and it was a laugh on first sight and he has a very nice pinball location and it happened to me and I said, okay, all right, I joined the pinball league. I play pinball now, fix the league instead of playing football. My wife says, yay, no more broken legs. And I joined the first tournament 10 years ago. I finished second in Lemko at the Electric Friends tournament. It was awesome. so I went to the world ranking list with my first 25 points I said alright let's try that and during the next few years I travel a lot through Europe to Poland, Switzerland, Austria for work or for pinball? no for pinball and also to Scandinavia to Norway and so on and it was quite fun it was absolutely amazing I learned so much new friends there but four years ago my first daughter was born and then I said, alright, I have to reduce that a bit, it's not possible while my wife, my wonderful wife my very, very wonderful wife, if you can hear it now was pregnant I said, ok, I have to reduce that, it's not possible to go every second or third weekend on the tournament, and I said ok, let's do something here in Fulda at Bulls and Balls I was here on the tournament it was ok, and I said, ok with Paris we can do it a bit better give me the position as a tournament director, and we can create something very big with that. So that's how it was born. These big Whopper tournaments are really just a, you know, someone has to run it. It's an egoistic thing, sure. And you don't want to be away from now your two daughters. Yes, I have two daughters now, and they were crying a lot that I'm three and a half days out of my house. Yeah, just wait ten years when they're teenagers. Go, Dad, go, go. Be schnell. Hey kids, you want to join me? No, no, thank you. Thank you. Make your own thing with your old speed, the other old guys. In the first line, it was an egoistic thing. And I think what worked yesterday or 10 or 20 years ago with the tournaments, you go to a venue, you have one tournament, you play five not so good games, and you can go back home. And that's it. That's how it works here in Europe. we don't have the classic buy-in thing we have the fixed games you play eight games best game format in in the first round you play good you move forward to the next round you have a bad day you can go back home and for me i said okay now it's a long way to go for it's a long way to go yeah it's not the distance you have to to do in like in america for sure but when you go to a pinball tournament you want to play pinball so yeah you don't want to be done yes and that's where it comes to say, okay, let's do perhaps a second tournament. And the organization was ridiculous. We had a timetable, and we played every day. We tried it out for Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and we played till 3.30. Yeah, and then you used to have midnight madness tournaments. Like you would... That was a test. That's crazy. That was a test. How far can I go at a pinball tournament? We have the Pinball Olympics. This week in pinball awards second after Pinburg. We became second for that tournament format. Okay, very nice. Very, very nice. Now, Pinburg is over, so we are first. No, no, no. It's true. It's true, yeah. But we thought about it. Let's look what we can really do. And we have, I don't know exactly, maybe in four and a half days, we had the team tournament. We had the ladies tournament. We had the midnight madness. This means we played till 11 p.m. We had a break for an hour for Kim to fix the machines. And from midnight till 6, we played another tournament. And it was all for... I've played in two 24-hour straight tournaments at the Sanctum. This is a big tournament. And I'm glad I've played it. I don't think I physically can do it again. And I have to say, Jim, Lindsay was asking me, how are you feeling? I said, I'm extremely tired. And this has been three days of 12, 14 hours pinball and no real rest. It's go, go, go. You can grab your lunch and stuff, but I love it. That's why I came. But it takes a toll. It's a real physical endurance. So I tip my cap to those people that can do it. It's tough, but you know what? It's fun. I'm going to go home tomorrow. I'm going to be like, oh, I don't want to play pinball for another week. And then I'm going to go, oh, I missed that. I want to do that again. And so the fact that you have people, this tournament has people from several countries, Robert Englunds, Sweden, France, Belgium, Denmark, Canada even. And it is something that you've created here. So you've probably noticed that there are people trying to do what you do in other places. Brisbane Masters did it a few years ago where they have a 10-day tournament. It's not go, go, go, but it's a lot of activity. And then now they're doing it at District 82 occasionally with, say, six tournaments in three days. So it's exciting because it's easier to commit maybe a weekend a month versus every other weekend. Yes. Yeah, for sure. Look, almost all the guys here have stressful jobs. They have family at home. They have wives or girlfriends. Or both. Or both. Or all of them. Or nothing. But most of them don have the free time slots to travel every second weekend to a tournament just for play one tournament lose the tournament go back home You have to pay the travel you have to pay the hotel perhaps you need vacation from work and so on And it's easy. I talked to several people here and they absolutely love it. You have six to eight chances to win anything at the weekend. Or if you don't win anything, you can go to the bar and have a beer or cocktail. In my mind, the idea behind play competitive pinball, There are several tournaments in Europe, and I visit most of them. But I think this can be something for the future here, because you pay $100 here for three and a half days. It's ridiculous. It's a bargain. Yeah. It really is. Yes, absolutely. Well, I say that because a lot of the big weekend tournaments in North America, there's your fee that might even just be that, and that's fine. And then a lot of those tournaments are pumping up. Now, the big difference there is they're giving cash prizes, which is not something that's happening here. So that justifies building the pot. But this is an affordable weekend. This is 100 euros for a weekend of four days of pinball, great food, lots of tournaments, lots of people. It's pretty impressive what you've done. Yeah, absolutely. And we had several guys who asked me, what about prize money? Can we raise up the fees for the weekend? Is it legal? I don't know what the status is. Yeah, yeah, it's legal. We also have card games or something. Why didn't we play for money, for crying out loud? I could have thrown a few Euro throwdowns. No, I say not in my watch. Oh, I'm kidding. No, no, I think we... Oh, what's that? What a surprise. Did that just fall on the glass? What happened? I think... I bring it back in my bag. Okay, I think we have trophies here. We have some vouchers here for drinking food for the winners. But I think the atmosphere is a bit more stressless if you don't play for money. And I think it's a better solution. I've played for years like yourself. And I've played in a lot of different tournaments, a lot of tournaments. I never once have ever played for money. It's not why I do it. But it's fine. It's nice to be cash if you can, but it doesn't matter. That's not why you do it. I'm a bit afraid of we have the wrong people here. Perhaps there are some players who said, okay, I don't come here only for points. But if we have cash, they register for the tournaments. And you have those guys here, and they are only looking straightforward. In my mind, I think it's not the better way. It's my way to play without money. Pinball, to own pinball machines, is expensive. To go to tournaments, it can also be expensive. You mentioned the hotel, the time away from work, and everything else. But when you add the factor of pump and dump cash tournaments, that makes it more expensive. And in fact, probably prices some people out. That's why I say this flat fee you had here for four days of pinball, it is a bargain. Even if you have to come from North America. Absolutely. So because you go to different countries for pinball, and you're the country director here, in Germany, you must deal with a lot of the other country directors. I know you were dealing with them, the state directors, provincial directors during the time the IFPA was down. Can you give us a little insight into what was that like? Okay. You probably had members saying, can't we get going again? Or you had other members saying, we're not ready yet. What was that like? Oh, it was a strange situation because, you know, every country had their own rules during COVID. and a long time I was against that. I do it, my co-country director is Frank Goethe and I was in a very, very intensive contact during that time and I said, come on, it's COVID, it's a worldwide pandemic thing and this is, sorry to say that it's only pinball and it's not worth to lose a friend or family member just because you are playing pinball here and you get the COVID thing and you bring it back home. And for a long time I said, don't do any tournaments here. And the rest of Europe, it was very similar. They said, all right, we are not allowed to do this for a long time. It's in the second half of the pandemic. Now it's getting better and better. But we have, for sure, we have stress with countries who are not able or allowed to travel. It's, I think, a big problem. But I think it's only the world ranking list. and the world ranking list. Now, at the moment, I'm on place, I think, 39 or 40 around that. It's not that I go home and say, all right, there are only 38 players on the world who play better pinball than me. It says I'm visiting tournaments and so on. And I think it's important for the registration for the IFPA World Championship. It's important for some other tournament formats here, but not less, not more. I'm going to tell you something about the rankings. And you and I are both kind of up there in the rankings. And people say, oh, you must be good. And I say, that's not the case. I just play a lot. And the rankings, honest to goodness, mean nothing. And I say that because this weekend you had 90 people here who wanted to play eight tournaments in four days. There are no casual pinball players that want to do that. Yeah, I'll give it a try. These are diehard players that want to go, go, go. So the field here, I said this on JDL Stream, I have not seen a field like this since the World Championships. Oh, really? It was that incredible how every single person who played knew what they were doing. And my head was spinning. It was pretty impressive. Yeah. We call it, translated in German, the ghost I called for. The better the tournaments, the better the player who will visit. But the rankings don't matter. The rankings, right, right. If you look at this tournament, I think there were 10 of us that were in the top 100. There are 60 that could be in the top 100. Maybe they don't travel. Nico here in Germany doesn't travel. And that guy was in the finals several times. And I watched him play. He's a world-class player. He was third in the world championship some years ago. He went third. We have very strong players But I think it's a day for them And for sure I think we have very strong players here And when you come next year You're invited now You're officially invited now For our Pinball Olympics Across Europe I think we have the best players here When you look in the top 100 And you press on the best 20 results Half the tournaments are from Fulda Full stop See now people are misled by that saying, well, that's because they won so many tournaments. That's not the case at all. No, no. You're playing the best of the best. This weekend is like if Josh Sharpe ran the Power 100 eight times in four days. Okay. Do you know what I mean? Do you know what his Power 100 is? Yeah, yeah. Okay. So that is the best of the best. That was this weekend. It was. I'm not. All right. Listen. Yeah, yeah. I'm putting this out there, so I always seem serious when I say that. It was incredible. Now, it's not to take away from the great players outside of Europe because there are several. And I've seen many of those people for a long time. It was nice to come on the other side and see these people that may or may not travel as much just play incredible pinball. Look, for me, it's something like, yeah, you can see it's something like a dream. The first Midsummer tournament the first three years I played it at my home with 20 pinball machines with 40 players and then you probably always won yeah right we all big fish in little ponds no what I want to say is for me it a dream Look 10 years ago I bought my first pinball machine I said, all right. What was it? Leasel weapon free. That was mine. No. That was mine too. BFF. For the listening audience, we're kissing at the moment. You can hang off my leg at any point now. We're good. And so 10 years ago. Ten years ago, I bought my first pinball machine. And my wife said, oh, yeah, it's a Tobias thing. It's a Tobias thing. If you buy one pinball machine, it's half a year. Then you switch the hobby to the next. And I will wait. I will wait. I bought the second. And I bought the third. And so one ends, one ends, one. And up to 15 to 18 in the hardest time. And now I'm organizing the biggest tournaments in Europe. It's something I'm standing in front of a crowd of 90 to 120 people who are spending their free time slots to travel to Germany, to Fulda, to play pinball. And I'm the guy who created that and is standing in front of that. I play the Wopper tournaments. And for me, it's a bit unbelievable. And now we have the strongest player here from you. Not only the guys who are in the top 100, but especially the top 100. There's guys like Daniele, like Peter Anderson. They are asking me if they can join my tournament. It's awesome. You're the puppet master. That's what you are. Or Dr. Frankenstein. I haven't determined which one. You have a wonderful problem to have. It is a positive and a negative. And the negative is, okay, this tournament sells out in 30 seconds. The positivity of that is that's how successful this is. You're right. I mean, you've got people like Daniele and others saying, I want to be there. The solution to that problem is you run more of these. Yeah, I think it should stay something special. I know you're killing, but I think three to four tournaments a year, that's quite enough. And sure, it's nice to see. I open the registration and after 30 seconds I can post in the forum. That's it. We have a waiting list now. And we have several plans to enlarge this here or to rent another hall to make it bigger. Wow. Bigger than this place? Yeah. I wish you could see it if you're listening and have never been here. This place is massive. There were one, two, three, four pinball rooms. Yes. Yeah. And I think we can manage that a bit better. We are in discussion every year. You and I did. Yeah. Yeah. We have lots of other tournament formats in Europe. And I think when we do it here in one time a quartile, that's enough. Because I think... Once a quarter for sure. I will have a problem when I run this more often because then I see my kids every second weekend. So IFP18 has been postponed. In fact, if there wasn't the pandemic, it would have already happened. It is happening in Germany, now postponed until 2023. Right. Did the postponement help you get ready for it, or are you all ready to go? I don't know. To be honest, I don't know, but I can say I talked to Josh. We will do the EPC at the same time a week earlier. And we will do it here. We will expand the room. We will have the communication to Pinball Universe. We will raise it. We will try it. In my mind, it's ready. It's ready. We can start with the EPC. We will do it a week before. I have some formats in my mind to put this up to 300 players. Doing stage, like, okay, you're on this? Yeah, we have time slots and so on. We have boxes with pinball machines. In my mind, everything is ready. We can start tomorrow. But I have the idea to do it a week earlier, the weekend before, and invite also all the American guys and all the... Canadians. Ah, not sure. Not sure. Yeah, probably the Canadians. All the world. We want to have all the world here to create one of the greatest tournaments ever. Because now we're doing the Whopper thing. I read from Josh in 2019, there were 8,000 sanctioned tournaments registered at the IFPA and only 118 out of that are with more than 64 players, and 72 out of them are from the WAPA tournaments. This means we have more or less than 1% of the tournaments here with the highest impact in Europe. If you want to be in the top 100 in Europe, you have to play full stop. And now we need next level tournaments. Is that part of why we're seeing now the certified IFPA tournaments? Because that has some people wondering, oh, wait a minute. You mean the tournament wasn't certified before? There's a difference between certified and sanctioned. All tournaments are sanctioned by FPA. Certified is about to add 20%. Is that of interest to you? Do you even need to do that when you're running eight tournaments here on a weekend? I read it, and I think it's a good thing. I think the base was doing the tournament from Caldeangelo, running two days with, I think, 150% of TGP. of TGP. It's a very good thing for tournaments running for two or three days. We have it here in Germany for the German Masters here. And I think that's probably a nice idea to say okay, you play a qualification on Friday, you have the first and second round on Saturday, on Sunday all the finals with the best 16. You can give 120% for that. Here for Fulda, I think it's okay to have 100%. And it's hard enough not to play till two or three and i think it's not interesting for us perhaps we we can create one tournament but i don't want to do buck using by by playing the the first round on friday and on after midnight on the second day i play the finals it's it's nothing i've meant i would say you're doing okay the way things are but i'm shocked when i heard about the previous midnight madness so yeah i know you probably got some people that really want the whoppers and do that but there's enough whoppers here you're doing quite well those type of certified tournaments i see happening more in the pump and dump format where you have that 20 hours of qualifying well yeah you don't need 20 hours of qualifying here when you can run two different tournaments so yeah you know there you go tobias you and i are both spent we are beyond tired i don't know how you do it. Safe drive home because I don't want you to crash on the Autobahn. This is an incredible weekend and I'm sure you're looking forward to giving a hug to your girls and your wife. But thank you for inviting me. Thank you for running this spectacular tournament and really being an inspiration to a lot of people outside in other parts of the world. Yeah, perfect. Thanks for the interview. And tomorrow, have a good flight back to Canada. I will. Thank you very much. Yeah. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find everything on pinballprofile.com. We're on Facebook. We're on Instagram and Twitter at pinballprofile. Email us pinballprofile at gmail.com. Chus. I used to say I'll feed a scene, but I guess chus is more casual. I'm Jeff Teolas. you

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: f8bbc038-906f-40bb-bc59-ce9f818ca15b*