“Special When Lit” will be opening the Second Annual Chicago United Film Festival at 7:00pm, Friday, September 10th, at the Music Box Theatre. The Music Box Theatre is located at 3733 N. Southport Ave. Chicago, IL 60613. Details of the film festival can be found HERE.

All film screenings are $10, All Access Passes are $70 & Mini Passes are $35. Purchase advance tickets HERE.

With Chicago being the heart and soul of everything pinball, Connell Creations is giving away 3 pairs of tickets for FREE! To win a complimentary pair of tickets simply be one of the first three people to correctly answer the trivia question. Please send all answers directly to the IFPA at ifpapinball@gmail.com.

The trivia question focuses around the testimony of IFPA Co-Director Roger Sharpe during the pinball legalization hearing. Part of Sharpe’s testimony was to play a machine, helping to show that the game was truly a game of skill and not chance. Two machines were brought into the courtroom with one designated as the backup should any problems arise. Fearing that the original machine was somehow rigged to work exactly to Sharpe’s expectations, one of the judges threw out the original machine and requested the use of the backup game. The game Sharpe played was Gottlieb’s Bank Shot. This leads us to the trivia question:

What game was Sharpe SUPPOSED to play as part of his testimony at the hearing?

TRIVIA CONTEST IS OVER - CORRECT ANSWER WAS “EL DORADO”

Over 400 players from around the world arrived in Pittsburgh, PA to attend the year’s largest pinball event, with multiple divisions of play available to suit each individual’s skill level, and Division A being the competition for the very best pinball players in the world, and the battle for the PAPA crown! After 3 days of qualifying, the 16 top players started the road to the finals. 4 groups of 4 players played off on 3 games, and the top 8 players over all moved on to the semi-finals. From there emerged the top 4: Reigning back-to-back champion, Keith Elwin, coming off a tie-breaker win over Donovan Stepp to make the cut, previous 2-time PAPA and 2-time IFPA World Champion, Bowen Kerins, previous PAPA finalist, Andrei Massenkoff, and first-time PAPA finalist, Cayle George. After the 1st game of the finals on Cheetah, Keith was leading the pack, with Andrei just behind, Cayle next and Bowen sitting last. The 2nd game was Addams Family, and going into ball 3, with Keith already finished his game and in the lead, it was critical that Cayle, Bowen, or Andrei win to prevent Keith from locking up the championship. Cayle fell short of Keith’s score despite an exciting final ball. Bowen started his third and final ball, and after getting to about 23 million, with approximately 50 million more needed, his ball headed down the right outlane… but with what may be the greatest save in PAPA finals history, he double-bounced and double-dangered the ball back up and into the right INLANE, reflex shooting it up to the ‘lock’ to have multiball ready on the next plunge! Well Bowen DID come all the way back to pass Keith’s score, and made it so going into the 3rd and final game on Creature from the Black Lagoon, the championship was still wide open! The bar was quickly set by Cayle on his 1st ball, and then later raised by Bowen, but on Keith’s final ball, he scored himself a large Jackpot AND Super Jackpot to post a lead that, despite their best efforts, none of the competitors could catch… and so, Keith Elwin took PAPA’s highest honor for a THIRD YEAR IN A ROW! 2nd place went to Andrei Massenkoff, 3rd to Bowen Kerins, and 4th to Cayle George.

This year’s Classics 1 Championship went to Dave Hegge, with 2nd place going to Josh Sharpe, 3rd to John Kremmer, and 4th to Keith Elwin. The next day, the Classics 2 Championship went to Josh Sharpe, 2nd to Robert Gagno, 3rd to Keith Elwin, and 4th to Brian Bannon. This year also saw a remarkable feat in the B Division with pinball wunderkind Josh Henderson locking up the win after just 2 games in the final round. This makes Josh the youngest player to ever win the B Division, as well as the youngest player to ever be forced to play in the A Division (next year). Josh is only 12 YEARS OLD!

With his A, Classics I and Classics II performance (1st/4th/3rd), Keith not only firmly secured his spot back atop the World Pinball Player Rankings, but he also topped his own previous record of most WPPR points at any event in competitive pinball history. He earned a remarkable 126.80 points besting last year’s total of 125.85. Full detailed results can be found HERE.

The Downingtown Pinball League began their Summer 2010 season on May 20, 2010 at the Pinball Gallery in Downingtown, PA. Thirteen players competed in a 10-week season with the top 3 players from each of the two divisions earning spots in the playoffs. The playoffs were held on August 19, 2010 and it was a back and forth battle to see who would come out on top. In the end in Division A, a new champion was crowned: Frank Egitto. Gabe Patterson, last season’s champion, was runner-up in Division A this time around. In Division B, Bill Disney came out on top as champion, with Kevin Davis, a new player this season, winning runner-up.

The UK Pinball Open culminated in an exciting and tense final in front of an audience of dinner guests at the first ever UK Pinball Party on 14th August 2010.

The field of 86 entrants had been whittled down to the final four;
Janne Toukkari, Frank Bona, Peter Scheldt and Brenn Oosterbaan (pictured, left to right)

Their final game on Darren Ball’s beautifully restored White Water was overseen by the game’s designer, Dennis Nordman, who was the evening’s guest speaker.

Brenn’s total score of 320M appeared to be serious under threat as Peter passed 300M on his final ball. But an unexpected bounce sent the ball into the drain, leaving Peter on 301M and making Brenn the UK Pinball Open Champion for 2010.

Brenn received his laser-etched crystal trophy from Dennis, along with a winner’s medal, certificate and GBP200 ($300) cash prize. All the finalists received trophies, medals certificates and cash prizes. Full results can be found HERE.