Allentown Pinfest Tournament - May 2-3, 2025

Events
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Official Allentown Pinball Tournament Info - May 2-3, 2025:

We are changing it up a little bit this year after carefully considering your nuanced feedback, providing extra chances and reducing the cost per game!

The Allentown Pinfest Tournament entry fee has been slashed from $130 to $100 in 2025!

$100 gets you 12 games to test your mettle; Play each one of the games in our bank. Every one of your 12 games counts.

Also new for 2025, you can buy three “do over” entries! Buy them for an additional $40 and play THREE additional “do-over” entries on the three games of your choice. Improve your scores! Unbeef your beef! Take a mulligan - or three!

If you’d also like to play in the Pinfest Women’s Tournament, it’s an additional $30, or $50 if you are only playing in Women’s and not in the main.

—Tournament Rules and Schedule ------

Qualifying - Friday, May 2, 12-9 pm. You will play 12 one-player qualifying games, at your own leisure. Lines are never an issue as this is a limited entry tournament. This year, you can buy three additional “mulligan” entries on the games of your choice. The top 40 (24 in A, 16 in B [restricted to IFPA rank 250 or higher]) will play in the finals.
Finals - Saturday, May 3, 9:30 am - 7ish Finals will be held Saturday. These will be four-player groups, PAPA style, until we whittle it down to the final 4, with one final four player game deciding the champ!
Cash prizes will be determined on site, depending on number of participants. Trophies and glory will be awarded to the winners!
We are looking for scorekeepers for shifts on Friday, any help appreciated. We’ll be awarding schwag and other compensation. If you want to help us out with an hour or so of scorekeeping please let us know!

----Contribute Your Game for the Tournament; Free Show Entry and Other Perks!—

Bring a game for the tournament, get into the show all weekend (including Thursday, May 1, early entry) AND the tournament, for free. THat’s a $145 value! Please contact me directly if you are interested in these perks and benefits!

Exclusive Benefits include-

EARLY ENTRY! Get into Allentown on Thursday for tournament setup when all the sweet early deals go down.

BEAT THE LINES! You don’t have to wait in the long entry lines with the unwashed masses; pick up your wrist band on Thursday, or come in the back to the tournament entry Friday/Saturday and pick up your Allentown Pinfest wristband.

MORE PERKS:
Your game gets played 150 times max all weekend, vs. the untold hundreds of plays it will get on the free play floor all weekend. Less wear and tear, and all games played under watchful and protective eyes of our staff. We will also have techs on hand to address any issues.

You can still easily sell your game. We sold five games out of our tournament bank last year. Only stipulation is the game has to stay through the tournament Saturday night (around 6pm)

You can play in the tournament for free, which is fun. You play 12 games the entire day on Friday, and if you make the finals, you’ll play in them on Saturday. Fun, chill, limited entry tournament you play on your own time at your own pace on your own schedule. No endless match play death march here!

We are looking for games of all eras. I’ll be reaching out next month to folks who have brought us games before, look forward to seeing you all and working with you again this year. We are going to downsize the bank a little (having 20+ games was more work and more games than we needed), so let me know if you are planning on bringing something for us!

Requirements-
Get the game there on Thursday so we can set up for the tournament. Certain exceptions will be made for people who can get there (very) early on Friday

Game works and is tournament-ready. No issues, with a working tilt. We don’t really care about cosmetic condition as long as the games play nicely and will likely hold up for the weekend. We love “players” games!

We will need the game till Saturday evening around 6pm.

Be prepared to help setup and break the game down for us as we’ll be very busy.

THanks gang!

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Updated info:

Play in the fabulous Allentown Pinfest tournament, featuring stream sponsorship from Player One Amusement Group.

$100 gets you 12 games - play every one of the 12 games in the bank during qualifying on Friday, May 2. Top 24 make A finals, the next 16 (eligible, with an IFPA ranking above 250) play in B finals.

A/B and Women’s finals are on Saturday, May 3. These are PAPA -style four player game finals on higher-seed selected banks of three games.

This is an IFPA-sanctioned event, and players will earn a healthy haul of precious WPPR ranking points.

This is a tournament crafted by experienced players AND showgoers based upon 20+ years of attending Allentown and the tournament. The idea is to keep lines short, and allow plenty of time for players to both qualify and enjoy all aspects of the show; you will be “free range” and able to enjoy the show and tournament on your own time and schedule (unlike most tournaments where you are chained to the tournament area for the entire weekend).

Great tournament for noobs and vets alike; every year we have new players who qualify for finals, some in their first ever tournament! This event is about having fun, glory, and healthy competition. We try to keep it light.

Games will be a mix of classics and LCDs and in between.

-How it works-

Registration:
No pre-reg. This is a cash tournament, simply show up to tournament area in the back by the Nut Guy (and bathrooms) and register to play. There’s no limit to players so don’t sweat it.

Cost:
$100 cash for 12 entries in the main tournament. New for this year, players can buy an additional three “do-over” entries. Unbeef your beef. Beef up your scores. Boom your ticket. You can play the same game three more times, or spread these mulligans out among three games to improve your final qualifying standings. The optional three do-overs are an additional $40.

Women’s Tournament:
A concurrent women’s tournament will be held on a bank of four separate games, with the same bank for qualifying and finals. This tournament costs $30 if a player is also entering the main tournament, or $50 they only want to play in the Women’s tournament.

Sorry, no kids’ tournament, just doesn’t work since most kids are in school on Friday and we are busy with finals on Saturday.

Schedule:
Qualifying for Main and Women’s tournament is held Friday, May 2, Noon-9pm.
Finals will be held Saturday, May 3, 9am to 7ish pm. Women’s and main finals are held concurrently; if anybody qualifies for both they will bounce between both banks.

Prizes:
ALL finalists will win cash prizes, with the amount going up the further along a player advances. Final payouts are determined by total players and income, and will be determined on site. In the past, our top prize has been as high as $1,000. There will also be cool stuff from sponsors awarded to winners.

Streaming:
We are proud to announce a streaming partnership with Reclaim Arcade out of Fredricksburg, Va. This awesome arcade and restaurant will be bringing their pro rig to Allentown so the world can witness the athletic prowess on display, and we’ll be sure to bring you the hottest pinball action with the freshest tournament commentary throughout the weekend.

Volunteers:
We’ll need volunteers for scorekeeping during qualifying on Friday. Volunteers are eligible for compensation in the form of cool schwag, tournament discounts, and other stuff. Reach out to me if interested and I’ll put you in touch with Greg, the volunteer wrangler.

Sponsors:
We are also proud to announce the stream will be sponsored by Player One Amusement Group, purveyors of arcade machines throughout North America. We are also putting together a great team of support sponsors who will be featured on the stream and on the t-shirt; please reach out to me if you are interesting in joining the team!

If you have any questions about this tournament or sponsorships, please reach out to me directly. And as always, any Pinsiders who want to come by and say hi, bury the hatchet over Pinside beefs, or just get into a staredown with me, I’ll be at the tournament area desk for much of the weekend and happy to meet you.

Seeya there!