Pinside Community,

I don't know how many of you played the tournament at SFGE this weekend. If you didn't, you really missed a great production.

Bryan and Amanda Broyles worked tirelessly for the last several months getting things ready to go behind the scenes and then this weekend they really let their skills shine.

Well over 100 players entered the event and thousands of games were played. All of those players were treated to 15 machines from the early seventies to 2013 that were in top notch playing condition. Were there any mechanical issues? Of course! And Bryan was all over them. I don't think any single machine was down for more than 30 minutes in the 21 hours of qualifying. Matt Kiser of Titan Pinball (http://www.titanpinball.com/) and Mark Jarzewiak (a Columbus, GA guy who can fix your board issues for you if you are near him) were instrumental in keeping tech problems to a minimum.

Every single player had to be tracked, every dollar accounted for, every score accurately entered. Thousands of times in two days. Thousands (no shit - thousands). Amanda and her brother Mark were instrumental in getting this not only done, but done accurately. In three days i was aware of two big mistakes that were made by volunteer scorekeepers. Both times Amanda and her admin staff got them straightened out perfectly with no hurt feelings or arguments. In addition they successfully conned (conned - coerced - persuaded?) many many others to help with the gargantuan task of scorekeeping. Without this Tom Sawyer like effort, the tournament could never have happened.

PAPA (www.papa.org) sponsored this event. It was a PAPA circuit event which really is a big deal in the pinball tournament community. Big deals come with big egos. We had players from all over the country that like to have things their way. Sometimes "their way" is not the fair way. Both Bryan and Amanda handled all the people and personalities like they were born to do it. I know they both had some frustration, but I don't think either of them ever showed it.

Pinball tournaments are very competitive high stress environments and I just cannot say strongly enough how well this dynamic was managed and minimized by the Broyles' team.

A lot of local people brought machines to use in the tournament. Scott Kutheis, Ray Smith, John Schlarb, Bryan Broyles, Mark Jarzewiak... Forgive me if I left you out. But we needed more and Bryan was able to get people from Alabama, Florida and as far away as Ohio to bring games to volunteer. Without his effort on this front we would have been playing Pinball Arcade on tablets.

This was a major major undertaking and I was absolutely amazed at how perfectly it went off.

So for all of this effort, the Broyles must have been well compensated, right? As a matter of fact, they did it on a completely volunteer basis. They paid for their room, bought food for the other volunteers and tirelessly worked behind the scenes so you and I could have a wonderful weekend of tournament pinball.

I want to offer my thanks publicly to Bryan and most especially Amanda (who had to do all of these things AND put up with her husband) for a job well done. This was a huge step in the evolution of competitive pinball in Atlanta.

If you are not currently involved in the competitive scene, keep an eye on this forum, the message boards on Pinballbash.com, Pinside, etc. We would love to see you at an event soon. Remember, it's more fun to compete!

Most Sincerely

Chris Compton