Do you enjoy playing pinball and meeting others who do too?

It's not about the winning.

Do people enter marathons who don't expect to win?

Enter. Have a lot of fun. Meet new friends.

Don't worry about better players or worse players.

LTG : )

Do it! My first foray into pinball was tournaments. I knew nothing about pinball beforehand and just joined up. I was hooked after one tournament. My wife and I now have been playing for 2 1/2 years and love every minute of it. Some of our best friends were made thru the pinball league here. To me playing in a league or tournaments is socializing with people who share a similar love. I play with some of the top people here in Texas and I can assure you that every single one of them love new people and will never ever look down upon you. We are one big happy family and it is one of the best decisions I have made. It irks me so much when I listen to podcasts or watch videos and people say "I am not a tournament player". What the hell does that even mean? They act like people that play in tournaments are some hardcore people that don't have fun. Yes there are people who are serious about it but I can assure you again that 95% of the rest are there just to have fun and mingle. The other 5% love having fun as well. Playing in tournaments will 100% make you a better player. You will learn from better players and they will happily help you get better. You will start making goals for yourself and you will notice a change ASAP. Get involved with your local pinball league or group. It will force you to play games that you will never play and will make you friends that you never would have made outside of tournaments. I also have gotten real close with some individuals in league in that we all do temporary game swaps with one another. I now run one of the leagues here and my wife helps run the Belles and Chimes chapter here in Houston. It's awesome. Have fun and don't look back.

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Go and enjoy! I'm not a great player, but after 3 Season's in my local league I finally achieved 2nd Place in C division and won a trophy and cash.
It's been a lot of fun, and you will meet some great people I'm sure. Please post back after the event and let us know your thoughts.

I'll be there and I'm terrible as well, come join the fun!

Why not... You make a fool out of yourself... Big deal. I make both a fool and an ass out of myself many times a week. Almost daily... And yet, that hasn't stopped me yet. Some say it comes naturally to me, almost like breathing.

So enter. Have fun. If you win you win, if you don't, big deal. Life is too short to care about being a fool.
We all have been fools.
I wish I was too cool for school like Bronson, or Stallone in cobra, but yeah... No one is.

Yo! Definitely do it! I signed up for the pinball tournament at Magfest this year and met so many great people! I definitely suck and struggle to learn the deeper rulesets of some of the game but everyone is so willing to help you learn! I had so much fun and ended up placing 5th in the qualifiers for the B division!
Finals did not go well for me but I had a great time!

Go. You have noticed how good and fun pinball is in the ways you have already experienced it so far, this is just another pinball facet to try. Good night or bad, you'll be fine and have a fun time. You may have a good ball and take a match. That may hook you so watch out!

Don C.

My god, heck yes get out there and play! The majority are there for the camaraderie! And the really cool part is you get to pickup neat little tricks from players better than yourself.

See, let that guy be the real chump!

I was hesitant to ever play in a tournament because i thought “I’m not the best pinball player”. I went to a local tournament and had a great time. Such a different experience than playing at home or by yourself on location. I would definitely encourage everyone to try it out.

Good plan. That way you have someone that sucks more to take the focus off yourself.
LOL, just kidding.

Have fun and report back about how it was.

I suck, and after twenty years being in the coin op business, last weekend I signed up for my first tournament. I had a blast. And will do it again for sure. The fun is playing against people that you would never play against otherwise. And not just the ones you expect to win, but also playing against others of the similar level that you might not even talk to, until you got paired with them.

I was thrilled, out of a field of 100, I finished 93rd, I beat my goal, which was to finish 99th. So next time, Im gonna shoot for in the 80's

I'm looking forward to hearing "first impressions" .... I hope you had a great time

Just do it!
Most fun you will ever have with pins!

I haven't played pinball competitively for around a decade until a week ago. I figured I'd enter just for fun. The night started out feeling like I was going to take last place and I was fine with that; I was just happy to be back in it again playing some new pins, seeing some new faces and some I haven't seen in awhile either. Turns out I took 3rd for the night.

That's awesome! Growing the hobby!!

If you think about it, you are either going to have laughing, or frowning, but not both. But I honestly don't see either happening. If anything you should laugh at yourself if you do well, or poorly. Most importantly, have fun, and don't care about how you do or what other people think.

Most people who really care about how they are doing in a tournament/ league will be worrying about being neck and neck with the person scoring a little better or worse than themselves. Or they are going to be thinking about...what if i nudged the game a little more or little less/ would I have done better or worse.

That way you can't lose. This can be applied outside of pinball as well.

Another thing to put into the equation is you can’t really embarrass yourself anyway!
People are so wrapped up in their own world that they either don’t have a clue how someone else is doing or doesn’t really give a shit how someone else is doing, no worries either way!

cyberslunk , please report back with a full telling of your tale. Others will find this down the road. I'd love to hear how it went for you.

I miss the days when I was bad at competitive pinball and just played for fun. God those were good times.

The point of entering a tournament, in my opinion, is to have fun no matter what your skill level is. Besides, playing against people that are better than you is part of how you learn and get better at pinball.
Do it.

It's a tiebreaker system based on strength of opponents over the course of the event. Higher number in the "ties" column means you played tougher people on average, and "deserve" to win the tiebreak. It's not a perfect system, but it saves a lot of time NOT playing tiebreaker games, which are just boring downtime for anyone not directly involved.

Awesome job on the 4th/5th place finish! You never had a total crap game to finish last in a round, which is something I still struggle with after 20 years.

That is a great finish for your first tourney! Congrats!

Those beers always catch up to ya in the later rounds!! But still worth every sip!!

see , you don't suck ! lol , well done , now you'll get hooked

Glad you had a good time. Makes me remember my first tourny. This was PAPA 2 in 1992. Made the cutoff for day 2 (top 16). But then I was matched up against Rick Stetta, Dallas Overturf, and Roger Sharpe...and promptly got my ass kicked. Had a blast though.

Glad you and your friends had a great time. That is awesome to hear. The more you attend the more you will recognize the players and you will gain friendships and have even more fun. 5th is a great finish! Don't get discouraged the next tournament when you get last. That's pinball and what makes it fun. Like I said in my last post I have been playing in tournaments for the past 2.5 years and I had my worst showing last night at league. 48 players and I got dead last!! I was also the TD last night and we were having problems with every machine so it was stressful but I can only blame myself. But guess what? I still had fun and shrugged it off and had a great time. I noticed for myself that the moment I stopped caring is the moment I started to have a lot of fun. When I first got into it I was like you just having fun. Then I started to take it serious and the losses hurt. I would pout and just be a bump on the log. NOT FUN. Then I stopped caring and it was all well again. I had my worst showing last night in the 2.5 years playing in tournaments and it was one of my favorite nights at league. Can't explain why but it just was. Welcome to competitive pinball and hope you keep going and keep bringing new people into it. It is fun building the hobby up and getting more people into it.

All head 2 head play makes you better.