Thrilled to announce the largest pinball tournament ever hosted in Arizona in conjunction with a 3-day show featuring 150+ pinball machines! This tournament format was inspired by Pinburgh, will include 108 players with a better than 1 in 3 chance of winning prize money ($2000 to the grand champion), and is IFPA certified.
First, let’s acknowledge the elephant in the room… yes, this event is the same weekend as INDISC. The organizers would never normally have chosen to conflict with INDISC but at the point the conflict was known, it was not possible to change the AZ date so they are moving forward and creating an awesome show and match play tournaments! If you are not planning to go to INDISC, this post is for you! And if you are planning to go to INDISC then follow along and plan to join us in AZ in 2023!
Quick tournament overview below - all the details and tournament rules are available on the SPF22 Website. Tickets are on sale now!
Tournament Information (numbers and prize money based on 108 players) - tournament entry fee $70 (must have tickets to the show to play in the tournament - $60 for the weekend or bring a game to get in free)
Friday, February 4
6pm start time, division qualifying in 6 rounds of group match play among all players to determine divisions A, B, C (36 players in each division)
Saturday, February 5
10am start time, players play only against others in their division in three game rounds for four rounds to determine finalists. Points carry over from Friday qualifying for divisions A and B - Division C begins fresh on Saturday. Top 16 in each division move on to Sunday finals
Sunday, February 6
10am start time for top 16 finalists playing three game rounds with top two from each group advancing to subsequent rounds.
In addition, Belles & Chimes Phoenix will host a women’s Solid State knockout tournament on Saturday evening beginning at the conclusion of division qualifying!
This is great news!
One question before people start making reservations: Will this tournament be open to all players or only to those who choose to vaccinate themselves against Covid-19?
The event falls under City of Mesa rules and there is no vaccine or mask requirement. From the SPF website: By attending Starfighters Pinball Festival 2022, you voluntarily assume all risks related to possible exposure to COVID-19.The Sheraton is committed to your safety visit for details. What to Expect in the Age of COVID-19 | Sheraton Mesa Hotel at Wrigleyville West
There are still tickets available for the tournament! When you go to the tickets page, you’ll see links for several charities - you choose which charity will benefit from your ticket purchase and that will take you to the purchase screen. This tripped me up when I bought my ticket, but you have to click “show more” on that page in order to see the tournament entry option. You have to click “show more” on the next page too in order to see your tournament ticket(s) when putting in your payment information. Then you should be good to go!
Update! The women’s tournament on Saturday evening (7pm start time) will be a Fair Strikes (7 strikes) knockout on the main tournament solid state machines. Entry fee is $10 and 100% of entry fees will be given out in prize money and a wonderful sponsor is supporting awards!
As of the last update I received, they are approaching 3/4 sold for the main tournament, and beyond the tournament they are expecting over 150 machines in the free play area!
Another update: 13 tickets left for the main tournament!
And, we’re excited about a raffle to be held for the event. Project Pinball is conducting the raffle and proceeds will support Project Pinball adding a pinball machine at Phoenix Children’s Hospital!
The raffle is for a beautiful F-14 Tomcat that can either be taken home from the festival by the winner or shipped. Participate at the link below!
I just want to report how impressive the tournament and festival were, especially for a first time event.
for the free play area- Lots of machines available, not the rarest machines on the planet, but plenty you don’t see every day, and in great condition for the most part. Hardly saw any machines turned off, and those all came back on at some point later in the day/weekend as far as I saw. Lots of Premiums and LEs were brought in which was pretty cool, I’m used to seeing Pros at shows. Always an open game to hop on to.
Tournaments - the main event was a 108 player match play tournament which I would say went off basically without a hitch. Friday Night Qualifying session opened with Six Rounds of single games to determine divisions for Saturday. The games had been rearranged into banks of three by the time we all arrived Saturday morning, each made of three eras (out of 4 - early SS, late SS, early DMD, late DMD/LCD). A couple games ended up removed from the tournament but there was a backup bank of 6 games available which were used in their place. Good format overall, love pinburgh-style tournaments.
There was a Women’s tournament and pingolf tournament as well
