I went to my first pinball festival last weekend, The Golden State Pinball Festival. It was awesome and ive got the itch for more. Who thinks the west coast needs a Pinburgh?? Why yes? Why no? I would love to experience a tournament on that grand of a scale. Pittsburg is just so far from the west, and tickets sound hard to get. What are your favorite pinball events and why? What are the largest tournaments you know about? Id like to travel to more pinball events.
Quoted from KingHebes:I went to my first pinball festival last weekend, The Golden State Pinball Festival. It was awesome and ive got the itch for more. Who thinks the west coast needs a Pinburgh?? Why yes? Why no? I would love to experience a tournament on that grand of a scale. Pittsburg is just so far from the west, and tickets sound hard to get. What are your favorite pinball events and why? What are the largest tournaments you know about? Id like to travel to more pinball events.
Check out INDISC. There will never be another pinburgh but it's a big tournament with big name players in a great venue.
There needs to be a pinburgh sized tournament every quarter imo. Get your crew together and get it going on the west coast! Quarters 1,2, and 4 are still available.
Quoted from Cheddar:Check out INDISC. There will never be another pinburgh but it's a big tournament with big name players in a great venue.
INDISC is the new PAPA.
Quoted from yancy:INDISC is the new PAPA.
NYCPC is the new east coast INDISC
I do host a monthly tournament in my area. Some other guys do too. We are healthily growing the boise pinball scene, but dont think we have the draw/venue to throw a big event that will pull a lot of out of staters. I will check out indisc, but its more comparable to papa. Other than that the nw pinball and arcade show looks like the biggest event in the west. Might check out nw pinball championship as well. These still only draw a few hundred players. Pinburghs multi day match play just seems awesome, and i'll bet it maxes the 1k player cap this year. If that's not a sign for demand, what is? The attendees have steadily grown each year with pinballs re-rise in popularity. Their pay structure is the best ive seen in a pinball tournament as well. Im thinking a bigger city hub could replicate the pinburgh style event in the west. Seattle or portland or san francisco. Anyone know the guy that opened next level in portland? Ive heard his collection is incredible. Perhaps hes our man?
Quoted from KingHebes:I do host a monthly tournament in my area. Some other guys do too. We are healthily growing the boise pinball scene, but dont think we have the draw/venue to throw a big event that will pull a lot of out of staters. I will check out indisc, but its more comparable to papa. Other than that the nw pinball and arcade show looks like the biggest event in the west. Might check out nw pinball championship as well. These still only draw a few hundred players. Pinburghs multi day match play just seems awesome, and i'll bet it maxes the 1k player cap this year. If that's not a sign for demand, what is? The attendees have steadily grown each year with pinballs re-rise in popularity. Their pay structure is the best ive seen in a pinball tournament as well. Im thinking a bigger city hub could replicate the pinburgh style event in the west. Seattle or portland or san francisco. Anyone know the guy that opened next level in portland? Ive heard his collection is incredible. Perhaps hes our man?
It’s not that easy to just throw together something like Pinburgh. It’s more than just finding a dude with a bunch of games.
I’d suggest you get involved in running some slightly bigger tournaments to get some perspective, and then you can set your sights on some bigger game.
One thing to remember is pinburgh started with just a couple hundred participants, they weren’t hosting 1,000 people in year one.
We can use all the pinburghs we can get so let’s get it going!
Quoted from CrazyLevi:NYCPC is the new east coast INDISC
Not until you use the card format.
Quoted from KingHebes:I do host a monthly tournament in my area. Some other guys do too. We are healthily growing the boise pinball scene, but dont think we have the draw/venue to throw a big event that will pull a lot of out of staters. I will check out indisc, but its more comparable to papa. Other than that the nw pinball and arcade show looks like the biggest event in the west. Might check out nw pinball championship as well. These still only draw a few hundred players. Pinburghs multi day match play just seems awesome, and i'll bet it maxes the 1k player cap this year. If that's not a sign for demand, what is? The attendees have steadily grown each year with pinballs re-rise in popularity. Their pay structure is the best ive seen in a pinball tournament as well. Im thinking a bigger city hub could replicate the pinburgh style event in the west. Seattle or portland or san francisco. Anyone know the guy that opened next level in portland? Ive heard his collection is incredible. Perhaps hes our man?
Pinburgh is the largest tournament on the planet by approximately 5x. The next biggest tournament is intergalactic which is just run off of pinburgh and is almost zero fun.
So yeah, just build your scene, host bigger and bigger events and see where you can go with it. If you do a good job, word travels fast.
Where will you get the number of machines required to run Pinburgh format for let's say 500 capped players? I believe you could draw the players with that format and even the volunteers. The number of games is the problem.
Quoted from nikpinball:Where will you get the number of machines required to run Pinburgh format for let's say 500 capped players? I believe you could draw the players with that format and even the volunteers. The number of games is the problem.
Apparently there's a collection in portland. Over a hundred collector quality machines at this place called next level. But like any big pinball event/convention people can always bring in more.
Absolutely... and on the same weekend as Pinburgh!! Might actually help Pinburgh to last 20 seconds before selling out if this could be arranged.
Quoted from KingHebes:Apparently there's a collection in portland. Over a hundred collector quality machines at this place called next level. But like any big pinball event/convention people can always bring in more.
Of course. Now go find them. Haha.
Just can’t snap your fingers and have another pinburgh. TONS of works makes a tournament of that scale happen. And it doesn’t happen over night. Takes years and years to build up to it.
Quoted from CaryCarmichael:Bayburgh?
Why are people so terrible at portmanteaus? Pin-burgh is PINball in pittsBURGH. If you had a big tournament in the Bay Area, pinbay would be more on brand.
Quoted from CaryCarmichael:Bayburgh?
Are you growing it to 500 players this year??? Gonna need a bigger room... 
I've gone to CAX(California Extreme), in San Jose, CA for the last 4 years or so. Coming up again at the end of July. Not sure how it stacks up to some of the other ones, as it's the only one I've been to. Always have a great time though.
Quoted from epthegeek:Why are people so terrible at portmanteaus? Pin-burgh is PINball in pittsBURGH. If you had a big tournament in the Bay Area, pinbay would be more on brand.
Oh my, I think I just giggled again.
i'm not sure about other areas since i'm not much of a tournament player, but between the NW Pinball Champs, the NW Pinball and Arcade Show tournaments (the women's being the largest of it's type in the world,) Portland's Pinbrawl, INDISC, Golden State, the Fraiser Valley Flip Out, and whatever might happen at CAX, I think there's not a lot of call for a huge event on the west coast since we already have so many larger ones.
really, to have a huge tournament like that would take a dedicated, in-city location [for services like food and accommodations] with hundreds of machines available (the only two of which I know of would be the Museum of Pinball in Banning and the PHOF in Vegas, though the Pacific Pinball Museum could theoretically get enough together if they were interested.)
an event like this is not something that can easily be pulled from a bunch of private collections cobbled together for just a weekend. most tournament players are not collectors and own few if any games, and generally have no interest in helping with the backend and heavy lifting anyway (I know this from years of experience with the NWPAS.) and most collectors with enough games to do this have no incentive or interest in providing machines just for a tournament. it wouldn't be impossible but I think highly unlikely.
You guys in Idaho should come check out our upcoming event -
https://saltlakegamingcon.com
We are definitely no pinburgh but we're planning on about 50 pins so far all on free play with 5 tourneys running over the weekend. Bring a pin and get 2 free passes
I think there should be a West Coast “Pinburgh”. It should be in the Bay Area. Maybe in Pittsburg CA and we call it Pinburg? Name is close but not the same.
This thread is funny. It's full of people saying "Go to INDISC" and then lots of replies about "but where will we find a tournament with enough games?"
Nobody on the West Coast has more pins than Banning, chill, go to Never Drains, be happy.
Bayburgh 2019 is live! Cross posting because cross posting is fun! Just like portmanteaus! And You!
http://mfpinball.org/bayburgh
https://instagram.com/bayburgh
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/california-extreme-2019-and-bayburgh-tournament
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Boise, ID