I have been in the hobby for 5 years and I just entered my first pay tournament last night. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many other people out to support it. I live in a smaller city with very limited location machines. About 6-8 months ago a local venue opened up that has about 15 professional dart boards, 2 pool tables, and 3-4 pinball machines at any given time. They also have a very cool club and cocktail lounge in the downstairs with live music just about every night.

Anyhow there were about 20ish people who were in the pinball tournament. I knew a few people from the area but the majority were complete strangers. In between rounds we were all drinking beer and socializing over pinball and the games. Just about everyone there was very very amateur and had no idea how to score big points on any of the games. These people just liked the competition and the atmosphere that the pinball machines made.

After playing a few games I found out that I am decent...at least compared to the average non owner of a pinball machine I was telling people about how I have been into pinball for 5 years but never entered an official tournament before. They all looked at me like I was crazy. Well I am kinda crazy for having so many different machines over the last handful of years. These people were super excited to learn about people like all of us on pinside that have such a deep passion for this hobby. I was telling them about some of the great machines and how we modify the hell out of them. I personally like working on the games just about as much as playing them.

The games on site were Avatar, The Walking Dead pro, and Funhouse. All of the other players thought they were awesome games and didn't care that they weren't 8000 dollar machines. Even avatar was fun in a tournament setting.

So my point is there seems to be plenty of people who just love to play on location and tournaments. If they are exposed in any way possible I believe that pinball could make a mainstream comeback to locations everywhere. I will certainly try to make it back to the tournament to support the local pinball effort, drink some good beer, and hang with some regular non owner pinheads! It's a whole new world of pinball for me with this aspect

I bet a well done Stern Steve Ritchie Star Wars machine would give some serious competition to TAF! A huge well known theme along with a great game would have everyone talking and buying.

I like TAF, but seriously games like AC/DC, Metallica and Tron put TAF to bed for gameplay.

That is awesome! I want to put a couple games out at local business but it seems complicated with contracts and liability insurance. I certainly put money in any games I see in the wild.