NW Pinball Championships 2019

[hisokajp]

We had on first finals on Saturday evening and what a finals!
Top 8 of the Women division were facing off to take home the win! Brooke Borcherding came into the finals with the top seed

Youtube video:

Online standings and bracket:
https://www.neverdrains.com/nwpc2019/playerIndex.php?disp=division&sel=High%20Stakes/Women&skl=Women
https://www.neverdrains.com/nwpc2019/playerIndex.php?bracketId=1

After 2 games, Jasmijn and Hannah were tied at 6 points, facing Tron to decide who the winner would be. It came down to a close game and Hannah took home the win!
This is Hannah first win of the Women division of the NWPC, congratulation! Jasmijn came 2nd, with Zofia 3rd and Ashley 4th!

Finals standings below:
1,Hannah Hatch
2,Jasmijn De Jong
3,Zofia Gil
4,Ashley Weaver
5,Brooke Borcherding
6,Brianne Hunt
7,Sara Urban
7,Nik Sear

Our next finals was Sunday morning, early!
It was the Classics finals, for main and amateurs division. TOP 16 players in main and top 8 amateurs ranked out of a whooping 116 players this year, shattering our record!
Cayle George came into the main finals with the top seed while Mike Ridgeway was top seed for amateurs finals.

Youtube video:

Crazy Stern magic game by top 4, best ever recorded?!?

Online standings and bracket:
https://www.neverdrains.com/nwpc2019/playerIndex.php?disp=division&sel=Classics&skl=Main
https://www.neverdrains.com/nwpc2019/playerIndex.php?disp=division&sel=Classics&skl=Amateur
https://www.neverdrains.com/nwpc2019/playerIndex.php?bracketId=2
https://www.neverdrains.com/nwpc2019/playerIndex.php?bracketId=3

The top 4 were Will McKinney, Todd Rafacz, Derek Price and Karl DeAngelo after surviving some serious were some big names went out early in the quarter finals.
After 2 games in the final 4, Todd and Will were at 5 points with Derek at 4 points closely behind. This was after the craziest game 1 on Stern magic which Will DOUBLE ROLLED! Derek also cracked a MILLION while Todd 600k only took 3rd!
Game 3 on Bally Star Trek saw Will take the win by passing Todd’s 220k with 310k while Derek P4 could not catch up.
This was Will’s first top 4 and he took the BIG WIN, congratulation! Todd finished 2nd, Derek 3rd and Karl 4th.

The top seed of the amateur Mike Ridgeway went out in the first round after a last place on game 3, leaving the game choice for the top 4 round to John Cambareri. He was facing Robert Klug, Micaela Wolf and Maureen Hendrix in the final 4!
After taking 2 first place on game 1 and 2, John had the win nearly locked but Maureen at 4 pts and could tie if she won game 3 and John finish last.
Micaela put a great game on Bally Lost World winning it and confirming John as the winner for the amateur event! Micaela took 2nd, Maureen 3rd and Robert 4th.

Finals IFPA standings for event below:
1 Will McKinney
2 Todd Rafacz
3 Derek Price
4 Karl DeAngelo
5 Bob Matthews
6 Cayle George
6 Johnny Modica
8 Derek Thomson
9 Axel Blonde
10 Adam Lefkoff
10 Germain Mariolle
12 Dave Stewart
12 Andrei Massenkoff
14 Robert Gagno
14 Sean Lind
16 John McAllister

TOP 4 amateurs standing:
1 John Cambareri
2 Micaela Wolf
3 Maureen Hendrix
4 Robert Klug

And then it was time for the @Stern Pro circuit event, the OPEN FINALS! We had a main and amateurs division. TOP 24 players in main and top 12 amateurs from 110 players that submitted a full qualifying card. That is 20 more players than last year, a great boost with many top players travelling from out of state to compete!
Raymond Davidson, the defending champion, came into the main finals with the top seed while John Cambareri winner of the Classics amateur division in the morning was top seed for amateurs finals.

Youtube video:

Online standings and bracket:
https://www.neverdrains.com/nwpc2019/playerIndex.php?disp=division&sel=Open&skl=Main
https://www.neverdrains.com/nwpc2019/playerIndex.php?bracketId=4
https://www.neverdrains.com/nwpc2019/playerIndex.php?bracketId=5
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/478690675?t=04h02m42s

The top 4 were not unknown to winning the tournament, Raymond defending champion with 2 titles in a row as well as Robert Gagno who had also won 2 title previously. Karl DeAngelo who was in the final 4 in the main Classic finals and Steve Bowden were also no stranger to big wins!
The finals played on Godzilla, HS2 and the final game on Demolition man. After 2 games it was Raymond in the lead with 6 and Robert at 5, Karl had 2 and Steve one point.
Robert started very strong with a big ball 1 on Demolition man and rode it through, winning the game and the 2019 NWPC trophy! CONGRATULATION!
Ray finished 2nd, Karl 3rd and and Steven 4th.

The top seed of the amateur John Cambareri came in, with a BYE, into the semi finals but did not make top 4. That left the game choice for the top 4 round to Jay Marks. He was facing
Johnny Hill, Esteban Astudillo Vivar and Jaran Jones in the final 4!
Jaran came out super strong and 12-ed out the finals, 1st in all 3 games! Johnny took 2nd after getting 2nd on the first 2 game and securing 4 pts, Jay took 3rd and Esteban 4th. I am thinking we will see Jaran in the main finals next year!

Finals standings for event below:
1 Robert Gagno
2 Raymond Davidson
3 Karl DeAngelo
4 Steven Bowden
5 Todd Rafacz
5 Escher Lefkoff
7 Germain Mariolle
8 Lonnie Langford
11 Johnny Modica
11 Adam Lefkoff
11 Chris Chinn
11 Andrei Massenkoff
11 Colin Urban
14 Cayle George
14 Eric Wagensonner
16 Axel Blonde
18 Michael Tibbetts
18 Mike Pantoliano
18 Richie Terry
21 Jarrett Gaddy
21 Mike Corbett
21 Eden Stamm
23 Derek Thomson
24 Derek Price

TOP 4 amateurs standing:
1 Jaran Jones
2 Johnny Hill
3 Jay Marks
4 Esteban Astudillo

And then, to cap off an already long day of finals, we ended it all with our new tournament, the HIGH STAKES!
42 people try their skills at a $40 a card to make the TOP 8 finals! High stakes indeed, with $4,000 total in the pot!

Andrei Massenkoff came into the finals with the top seed while other top A+ players were also in the run (Raymond, Escher, Karl…).

Youtube video:

Online standings and bracket:
https://www.neverdrains.com/nwpc2019/playerIndex.php?disp=division&sel=High%20Stakes/Women&skl=High%20Stakes
https://www.neverdrains.com/nwpc2019/playerIndex.php?bracketId=6

After Ray and Escher went out in the first round, the final 4 fighting for the top prize of $1,500 were Andrei, Germain, Karl and Derek Thomson. After 2 games, Karl and Germain were tied at 6 pts and Andrei was tied with Derek at 1. We bet it all on the last game, Flash Gordon! Karl put on a clinic and took the win, that is a 1st after a 4th and a 3rd in other finals today, WHAT A DAY!!

Finals standings:
1 Karl DeAngelo
2 Germain Mariolle
3 Andrei Massenkoff
4 Derek Thomson
5 Dave Stewart
5 Raymond Davidson
7 Escher Lefkoff
8 Derek Price

[gammagoat]

@GeekGamerTV thanks for all the hard work. Great stream. Especially thanks for advancing the “playfield on left movement”. I don’t know how to move the needle here, hopefully more people will come of to the correct side.

[misterschu]

@GeekGamerTV Also chiming in here to comment on the great quality of the stream. Direct input from all the DMDs while I was watching, HD video cameras (not USB webcams) set up on many games (how many?) so no dealing with dead air or moving a camera rig. Really impressive result. Probably a little cost prohibitive for most streamers, but really something to aspire to.

Can you put together a list of all the equipment used?

[GeekGamerTV]

@gammagoat

thanks for all the hard work. Great stream. Especially thanks for advancing the “playfield on left movement”. I don’t know how to move the needle here, hopefully more people will come of to the correct side.

Starting last year, I moved to having to playfield on the left on streams based on advice I got from TV producers/coworkers (for my day job I work at KOMO-TV in Seattle) to make coverage more visually appealing and easier to follow for watching.

I was told that you ideally want the “focus” of what you want the viewer to see either left or center if possible (and not on the right side), and IMHO, the most important part of the stream is the playfield (action), followed by score/player (center), then info (right).

I’m happy with how it all turned out. I’ve gotten great positive response and will keep it in this general configuration for now (but I’m also looking at tweaking it some more based on feedback).

[Snailman]

@gammagoat

Especially thanks for advancing the “playfield on left movement”. I don’t know how to move the needle here, hopefully more people will come of to the correct side.

+1

[Snailman]

@GeekGamerTV

Starting last year, I moved to having to playfield on the left on streams based on advice I got from TV producers/coworkers (for my day job I work at KOMO-TV in Seattle) to make coverage more visually appealing and easier to follow for watching.

I was told that you ideally want the “focus” of what you want the viewer to see either left or center if possible (and not on the right side), and IMHO, the most important part of the stream is the playfield (action), followed by score/player (center), then info (right).

Fascinating. And here I was promoting the “movement to the left” for my own selfish iOS chat window overlap reasons.

[gammagoat]

Nice explanation. My reasons are more selfish, I like bringing the chat over the screen like this.

Edit. Haha we were thinking the same thing

[MikeCP]

Top notch work all weekend Chase. IMO, you set the bar every year.

[GeekGamerTV]

2019 Northwest Pinball Championships Streaming Recap

Hey Everyone,
I just wanted to share a few words and thoughts from last weekend’s 2019 Northwest Pinball Championships!

Every year during this tournament we tend to get some amazing moments and the past weekend didn’t disappoint! We saw some incredible pinball play from Escher Lefkoff putting up over 63 Billion Points on Batman 66 during qualifying, to an amazing Classics Finals game on Magic (with two rollovers!), in addition to an awesome Women’s Final Saturday night (during a big thunderstorm!) with Hannah Hatch getting the big win, Robert Gagno dazzling us with his talents getting the Open win and then ending the weekend on “Big and High Stakes” going to Karl DeAngelo.

All these great moments (and many others) would not have been possible if it wasn’t for the great volunteer help, I received from many of you, from the setup, testing, announcing, to breaking it all down at the end of the weekend. Thank you so much.

This is all a passion project for me with many hours of personal time and money invested in it. I really want to see Pinball get more exposure and help this sport that I love get it’s due. I’ve watched many hours of online streams of other eSports (like Rocket League, NBA 2K and others), see the big quality productions that are produced and wonder…why not Pinball? While I’m appreciative that we have seen pinball on ESPN 8 (the ocho), it really should be on ESPN (or any other outlet) with full coverage, interviews and with a high-quality production in tow.

That being all said, I do need some help!

One thing that I’m admittedly not great with is making connections with those that would be willing to provide sponsorship assistance toward the streaming side of major tournaments. (While there are sponsors that cover the tournament, that support goes towards the actual tournament itself and not the stream or video side of the coverage.)

My dream is to expand the big quality tournament coverage to other top regional pinball events (like Seattle Pinball League Finals, NWPAS Tournament, Portland Pinbrawl, Vancouver BC, etc.) but in order to do that I need more help. I’ve thought about starting a Patreon, Kick-Starter, IndiGogo or maybe doing local fundraisers to help offset the costs involved in creating quality coverage, but I’m not sure how this would be received by the community? Would you support something like that? Are there better ideas? Please let me know – I’m all ears.

In any event, I will continue to stream the Northwest Pinball Championships even if I don’t get any sponsors. I love doing it (both in the technical sense and announcing it) and will return next year in 2019!

Later I’ll be posting all the technical details of the setup (for those interested) and I’m also happy to announce that sometime in the future I’ll have more casual pinball streams that will take place from home & from local pinball locations (like Another Castle!)

Again, thanks to all of you who helped the broadcast (setup, during and take-down of equipment) and supported the stream on Twitch (either by watching, sharing, giving bits, subbing, following) – I appreciate it immensely!

See you all next year at the Northwest Pinball Championships!

Chase Nunes
GeekGamer.TV
chase@geekgamer.tv

[chuckwurt]

This is a setting issue. Just change the settings and you’re good. It won’t cover the screen. Actually I think it’s even a button you click in the window while viewing.

This button is what you want. See the yellow circle.

[chuckwurt]

Fantastic stream. I can imagine what the cost was for all that equipment, time, and energy and i know it was very very expensive. Thanks so much for putting the time in for such an awesome stream!

[gammagoat]

@chuckwurt

This is a setting issue. Just change the settings and you’re good. It won’t cover the screen. Actually I think it’s even a button you click in the window while viewing.

Except I am doing it on purpose. I want to read chat and see the playfield as large as I can.

[hisokajp]

THANK YOU! Once again our event would not happen without the support from many MANY people, or without players trusting our event and come participate!

We had 110 players in the OPEN tournament this year, that is a MAJOR increase from last year, 20% more!
22 Women participated in the CARD qualifying tournament this year, continuing strong. CLASSIC was also very STRONG with 120 players, 20% increase as well compared to last year!
The new addition, HIGH STAKES tournament also performed very well for its first year with 43 people trying their skills at it!

Special thanks for all our local people from the greater Seattle area but also people from Oregon, British Columbia, Idaho, California, Colorado, Texas, Alberta…!

This year we had over 680 card entries were played in the OPEN tournament, increasing from last year! Iron Man and The HS2: The getaway were the most popular game with around 210 saved games played each!
The Classic games were around 415 games played per machine in average, with the Womens and High stake bank games around 200 games per machine combined.

That is a mind boggling 6,100 games of pinball played during qualifying, more than 4 games per minutes!

Due to generosity of our sponsor and growth in attendance our cash prizes paid over $19,000 this year, a subtantial increase from last year! We brought in over $2,000 after expenses as the tournament opened. That is on top of the trophies and plaques which have SIGNIFICANTLY increased. Some of our top 4 payout below, 67 unique cash payout were handed out this weekend (@kdeangelo took 3 of them back to CA with him! )
Top 4 prizes in OPEN were $2,000 for 1st, $1,300 for 2nd, $900 for 3rd and $500 for 4th.
Classics top 4 prizes were $1,200 for 1st, $1,000 for 2nd, $800 for 3rd and $600 for 4th.
The Womens paid out $450 for 1st, $250 for 2nd, $200 for 3rd and $125 for 4th.
High stakes paid out $1,475 for 1st, $1,000 for 2nd, $700 for 3rd and $400 for 4th.

Max Davidoff also won our GRAND RAFFLE prize from Tiltcycle! Congrats!

We welcome any feedback and comments to make this event better every year (info@nwpinballchamp.com). We will also be sending anonymous survey to those who would like to provide feedback. We strive to do our best with our limited resource and volunteers dedicating them precious free time to others, with that said we hope everyone has fun!

Of course, this could not have happened without all our INCREDIBLE volunteers, sponsors and partners. I am always worried to call out people by name as there has been SO MANY people helping the core NWPC organizing team (you know who you are!). Our incredible pinball moving team, Danger Dan and Eric Morales (Jordan S we missed you), Michelle and the Tibbetts family for running the registration desk and much more all week as well as Misa helping out at the desk and score keeping. Karl for his tournament software, which he had to make a new version of and support during the whole weekend, ALL the scorekeeper volunteer, including last minute people helping out, even people from Canada like Dave, Miles, Derek, Mike or other travelling in like Adam, Johnny, Eric, Damien…!

Massive kudos to GeekGamer.TV, returning for a 2nd year and always bringing professional level quality! Getting even better than last year and with a MASSIVE amount of coverage! Ashley was a great partner supporting the streaming effort as well as guest speakers and support team members.

We rely on generous local collector to loan us game for our events, this could not happen without them either, thank you!

BIGGEST THANKS to Lynnwood Bowl and Skate to accommodate us against this year. There was no short of compliments from the players on the location and the staff! It is hard thinking of running our event anywhere else now. They were very flexible with our extended schedule to add another final event on Sunday which had our truck leave after midnight on Sunday!

And also our sponsors, which make this event possible in the first place by supporting our event and pinball at large. Our local sponsors, 8-bit Arcade as our special sponsor this year again with supporting trophy and plaques. As well as our Limited Edition partners in The Ice Box Arcade and Coindexter’s . Amazing support from our Premium sponsors as well, Jupiter Bar, Shorty’s, Olaf’s, Flip Flip Ding Ding and Another Castle Arcade. Special thanks to Pin Stadium for sponsoring us and donate a set of their Pinstadium that was amazing on WOZ all weekend! We also receive support from Tiltcycle, Pinball Life, ColorDMD Seattle Pinball Super League and last but not least Stern Pinball as part of the PRO CIRCUIT.
Pinball Tim, our best local EM tech provided us support and a game this year.

The banner can go back in storage, we will see you next year!

[Hepatitis_B_Good]

All the games played exceptionally well this year and it was incredibly well organized as always. Excellent work.

[soren]

@GeekGamerTV

Starting last year, I moved to having to playfield on the left on streams based on advice I got from TV producers/coworkers (for my day job I work at KOMO-TV in Seattle) to make coverage more visually appealing and easier to follow for watching.

Funny you mention this, pro TV.

I hate the mugshot camera on pinball streams. And would much prefer something like this right here for the 3rd frame. Even for a wider birds eye shot covering more games.

And I have thought a pro TV producer would not like to do the mugshot thing. As it is mirrored to the playfield frame. The right of one frame in the composit is the left of another frame.

Just a quick rant for this particular detail. Your production was top notch. Thanks.

[umbilico]

@GeekGamerTV

Starting last year, I moved to having to playfield on the left on streams based on advice I got from TV producers/coworkers (for my day job I work at KOMO-TV in Seattle) to make coverage more visually appealing and easier to follow for watching.

I fully support the Playfield Left Movement. To show my support, I updated pinballvideos.com to always show the nav box on the correct side, so it won’t overlap the playfield on Playfield Left videos:

[Lysurgeon]

If there was a tournament to raise funds to help offset costs for you, id play in it, Chase.

[MikeCP]

Other benefit of this is probably a better sense of player nudging.

[GeekGamerTV]

@soren - I like this shot a lot, but sadly it was hard to pull off at the venue (because space is limited to setup some cameras behind the players). I was able however to create this shot during classics/high stakes coverage (because I had more space)

I love this feedback and it does help drive new and interesting ways of covering this!

[Snailman]

Such a great discussion love it.
Thanks for all the setup teardown, and production work @GeekGamerTV!