Five days of playing pinball during our trip to Denver at the International Flipper Pinball Association (IFPA) championships. Idaho State Pinball Champ Aviana Smith, my daughter, competed against 54 other players from across the country and Canada. She was the only woman who made finals. There are MANY excellent female players and some were in attendance for the Women’s World Championship running concurrently.
Here she is with the competitors. The boy to her right in the NASA shirt is Colin Urban from Portland. He and Aviana are the same age. He won the tournament, taking home a giant trophy, cash and a brand-new pinball machine.
The play is intense and takes hours for each best-of-seven match. Good players are on machines for a long time. The competition began at 11 am Thursday. Colin got his final win at 3 am Friday. The champion trophy is ridiculously large.
Aviana carries a notebook to keep track of all her game scores along with rule sheets, tips and tricks for each game. She played the New York State winner, Greg Poverelli. She won two and he won four, so he advanced.
The event was held at Game Exchange of Colorado. A giant showroom of all kinds of games. Arcades, claw machines, foosball tables, pool tables, jukeboxes, hockey tables, vending machines. They set up 22 pinball machines on free-play for spectators to enjoy, and for competitors to practice flipping. My arms are sore.
Later Thursday, the IFPA Pin-Golf championship began. It was a two-day event that Aviana competed in, and my husband Dwayne Smith was also in the tournament. Pin-golf is similar to golf. Players try to reach a benchmark score in the fewest number of balls. Do it with one ball and it’s a hole-in-one. Nine “holes,” pinball machines, played each day.
The winner of the pin-golf tournament was Escher Lefkoff. Another teen showing older players how it’s done. Here he is at one of the tees. Aviana was cheering him on.
Thank you to the Stern Pinball company and the venue, Game Exchange, for taking good care of players and supporters.
There were pre-funk and post-funk tournaments in the area open to anyone who wanted to play. More about those tomorrow.
~Debbie