I wanted to give a big thank you to all the people who came out to PinFest this year to support the event. It was by far the biggest tournament we've ever hosted.
Most importantly, the winners:
Main Event:
A-Division
1. Jason Zahler
2. Adam Mckinnie
3. Levi Nayman
4. Steve Bowden
5. Bowen Kerins
6. Eric Wagensonner
7. Elliott Keith
8. Alberto Santana
B-Division
1. Jay Robinson
2. Basci Dinc
C-Division
1. Eric Moberg
2. Jason Mawson
D-Division
1. Scott Wilson
2. Clark Fraley
E-Division
1. Francesco La Rocca
2. John Moran
Match Play:
A-Division
1. Rob Wintler-Cox
2. Tony Makowski
B-Division
1. Dave Peller
2. Jason Plourde
C-Division
1. David Reil
2. Nitzan Gabai
We have all the Finals match-ups on paper, so please give us a few days to get all the results translated into MatchPlay and submitted to the IFPA.
We had 166 participants in Main, and 102 Participants in our Friday Match Play event, which is by far the biggest turnout we've had for PinFest.
I have to make sure we say thank you, thank you, and thank you to all the event and machine volunteers for all your hard work during this year's event. Volunteers came early, stayed late, and this event would not have happened without each and every one of them putting in hard work and hours to make the event a success.
Thank you to our hard-working techs who kept machines up and running for the duration of the event. When there was a problem, they solved it. We had all 18 machines available to us for Finals, which is an amazing feat. B, C, D, and E Finals all ran smoothly and were all wrapped up around 4pm. A-Finals of course ran right up until closing time because we had some of the greatest pinball players in the world putting up crazy scores on our machines, but we closed out before 8pm.
This year we had more games, shorter queues, more uptime, funky trophies, and more payouts given to participants than we've ever been able to do before. I also met a lot of new faces this year who came out and helped us to execute the event and we hope to see you back next year! I have only been involved in the pinball for about four years now and am constantly amazed by the awesome people that I meet in the tournament scene.
There are of course improvements that can be made moving into next year. Jay and I have already been exchanging multiple notes and thoughts on things that worked and things that we know need to be better in order to deliver a great pinball experience for those who are dedicating time and money to come to our events.
* We know that the Match Play event did not run smoothly. This is a personal disappointment because we ran a similar event at the York show and by all accounts that was a great event. It did not translate here to PinFest and we'll think about either cutting it completely or modifying the format to be a better experience next time. Because we saw that the double-elimination format didn't work well for Match Play, we pivoted to PAPA-Style Finals in Main and by all accounts the Main Finals were much smoother as a result.
* We know that timing and the transition to finals didn't get started as quickly as it should of. We also know that there were game settings that should have been addressed (i.e. extra balls left on on a few games, displays with missing digits). We know that there was lack of clarity on bank, game, and order selection. All of these things combined made finals longer than they could have otherwise been, and we'll look to address it next year.
* We know we had glare on games, which is very hard to address given the location. We've also never had seating available at the event, and I know I had a few conversations where it was brought up. We'll see what, if anything, can be done to address these things.
Overall, I hope that people had a positive experience in this year's event. If you're interested to share your thoughts, please feel free to drop a note to [email protected] or reach out to me directly. I appreciated my many conversations with experienced players (people like Bowen, Eric W, and Sunshine to name a few) who shared views and advice that I know I'll be taking into account as I plan future pinball events.
I also have to make sure to thank Josh and Karl for taking phone calls from me during the event. It's great to know that I can get a hold of people quickly!
We have to ensure we thank the following sponsors for their contributions to the event:
Railroad Bar and Grill - Cash for Prize Pool
Pinball Gallery - Cash for Prize Pool
Pincades - Cash for Prize Pool
Game Exchange - Cash for Prize Pool
Lermods - Cash for Prize Pool
Rock Fantasy - Gift Cards to Division Winners
Modern Pinball - Gift Cards to Main and Kids Winners
Titan Pinball - Pinmats
Pinball Star - Gift Cards for A-Division finalists
PinCrossing - Machines for the Event
Rage Tilt - Streaming Coverage of the Event
Back Alley Creations - Gift Card for Event Winner
Stern - Translites for Winners
Jersey Jack Pinball - Translites for Winners
Stream Coverage from Rage Tilt: http://www.twitch.com/ragetiltpinball
Photos uploaded to Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/Pincrossing/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1361255160643264
Same photos posted to Pinside: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinfest-2018-allentown/page/26#post-4385288
Thank you one last time for everyone's help with the event. Looking forward to Pinburgh in just a few short months!