In this time of european unison, everything with the word 'Europe' in it is hot. So instead of the annual Dutch Pinball Open (DPO), the Dutch Pinball Association was host this year of the European Championships. And that was about time. After all, it has been over 7 years since the last one was held.

In the intermediate years, the Dutch Pinball Open has welcomed much of the most fanatic players from around the world. Fanatics? Well, it takes some spare time and money to travel all the way up here for some silverball and cheese. This year's European Championships have proven to be an even bigger magnet to pinball players from around Europe (unfortunately no Americans attend an event like this) to come and prove their pinball skills.

My camera was with me the entire event. An event filled with lots of backbreaking work (setting up over 100 machines), pinball stress (the general skill level was high this year) and meeting a lot of pinball friends from all over the Netherlands and even some from abroad.. But there was also dissapointment. There were so many participants that it was very hard to reach the finals on sunday. However, some sunshine and a cool glass of beer quickly solved this 'frustration'. All in all, the organisation went pretty smooth for such a big event. The atmosphere was great, the location, although a bit small, was very nice and.. well the whole event simply kicked mayor pinball butt!


And now... The photo's:

- Building up the EPC 2005 (34 images)
- Saturday: the qualifications (75 images)
- Sunday: A tour around the EPC (46 images)
- Sunday: The finals (93 images)


A big thanks to the organisation, all the players, silverstone staff and all the other nice people I met this weekend.



And to Roy: congratulations and good luck in the USA.

See you next year!
Robin