Derek Price is a pinball player and community member from San Diego, California, who competed in the 2020 Stern Pro Circuit Championship. He transitioned from player to industry professional, joining Stern Pinball as a new hire from Pentastic (an East Coast venue), exemplifying the community-to-Stern hiring pipeline. Derek is known in the pinball community through Kaneda's podcast appearances, though his relationship with Kaneda deteriorated significantly over political disagreements regarding the 2024 election, resulting in a severed friendship.
No relationships
Derek Price's early failure to complete modes puts him in a difficult position for catch-up play
Derek Price advanced from top 150-200 ranking at end of 2018 to top 50 consistent ranking by 2019-2020 through tournament travel
Derek achieved third place at Classics at InDisc in 2019
Derek finished 18th at Pinberg tournament by winning 11 consecutive games in final qualifying group after being far down entering that day
Tournament competitor from San Diego; drove ~2 hours to participate
B division winner at INDISC 2019, played in earlier rounds
Well-known San Francisco competitive pinball player; opponent in round 9
San Diego competitive pinball player; mentioned as skilled peer of Kyle Smith
Tournament player, strong competitor in INDISC 2019 Classics II Playoffs Semifinals; scored 198,000 on Freefall
Twitch username 'D Twisted D'; closest guess in the contest at 55 attempts; to receive prize at Pins and Pirates event
Tournament competitor from San Diego area; competed against David Oliver; subject of the inter-San Diego betting dynamic
No linked glossary terms
Derek only uses headphones when he knows a game extremely well, as lack of experience requires audio/visual cues he would miss with headphones
Stern Circuit increased competitive difficulty by making 40+ players legitimate A division contenders versus 10-12 in pre-circuit era
Derek studied tournament archives from 2013 onwards to prepare for competitive play
Derek won California North American Championship Series (NACS) the year prior to this interview with 350 qualifying points
Mid-tier tournaments like ZapCon serve as better entry point than major Stern Circuit events for emerging competitive players to avoid discouragement
Community integrity and honesty is the defining characteristic that distinguishes pinball competition from other gaming
Derek qualified top seed for California NACS with 350 points while second place had approximately 180 points
Derek Price scored 198,000 points on Freefall, the highest score of the INDISC 2019 Classics II weekend
Derek Price advanced to the Final Four with his Freefall performance
Derek Price played well in the Sam Stern circuit event the night before
Free Play Florida this year is approximately the 5th or 6th iteration of the tournament
Derek Price came very close to qualifying in classics tournament, getting booted out in the last hour
Derek Price is from San Diego and coincidentally found a tournament during his family visit to the east coast
San Diego-based pinball player competing at 2019 event; referenced as participant in tournament matches
Player who competed on Warlock and achieved approximately 28th-29th overall position with 300,000 points
Tournament player; qualified via tiebreaker; defeats Raymond Ashby 2-0
Pinball tournament player competing in Free Play Florida 2019 Classics with 3 points in group three
Host/commentator from San Diego
Pinball tournament commentator from San Diego; participated in classics tournament; competitor in Radical quarterfinals group
Tournament competitor from San Diego; high seed in match against Johnny Pinball Modica
Finalist from San Diego with poor performance on Blue Note (finishing score not clearly stated) but strong El Dorado recovery game; mentioned as someone who does homework on games before playing
Tournament competitor who played in Sam Stern circuit event the previous day; competing on Batman 66
Competitive player; possibly achieved top Swords of Fury score (~20-23 million) at Free Play Florida (speaker uncertain between Monica and Price)
Competitive pinball player; in Bob's group at Classics tournament; beat Bob by less than 5,000 points on Volton, resulting in tied third place finish
Top-ranked competitive pinball player confirmed to attend Super Series
California pinball player who attended Free Play Florida
Rising competitive pinball player from San Diego, ranked top-50 by 2019, won NACS 2019 and Pinball Profile World Tour championship, organizes San Diego tournaments
Competed with Jim Belsito on Excalibur against Carl D'Angelo at recent Pirates tournament
New hire at Stern from Pentastic (East Coast venue); cited as example of community-to-Stern hiring pipeline.
Started appreciation thread on Pinside for Butch Peel after his termination; thread significantly helped Peel's emotional recovery from job loss
Audience member who asked about contacting original designers; referenced Laughlin
Kaneda's former friend, recently returned to Pinside; relationship strained over political disagreement
Kaneda's friend; Winchester owner; mentioned as hyping his own game on stream
Kaneda's former friend; estranged over political differences (Kamala Harris voting); Kaneda hopes he obtained Beetlejuice
Former best friend of Kaneda in pinball community; severed relationship over political disagreement regarding 2024 election
Player from San Diego, California; seed 20 (lowest qualifier); struggled in Game 1