So I've just been reading an article on the front page of the IFPA website
https://www.ifpapinball.com/arvid-flygare-ifpas-2021-player-of-the-year/
about a young man called Arvid Flygare who is now the 6th highest ranked player in the world. He is 13 years old. I have played Arvid 8 times
https://www.ifpapinball.com/players/compare.php?p1=9560&p2=49549
over the years, he has never beaten me. In our last meeting, I do actually remember playing him on Twilight Zone and thinking he had some excellent skills, he put up around 350 million, this was at the UK Open in 2019 at Flipout, he was 11 then.
In 2021 what he has done is frankly miraculous. The leap he has made between the ages of 12-13 is staggering. Sweden is a hotbed for pinball, with some of the very best players in the world. Last week was the Boras pinball open, he won 4/5 of the tournaments that took place, including modern tournaments and classic tournaments. He beat Jorgen Holm, past world champion and past world number 1 player, in every tournament. That level of consistency, is astonishing.
We have also seen similar rises in other players, most notably in Escher Lefkoff who won the PAPA world championships at the age of 13 and Johannes Ostermeier who between the ages of 13 and 16 destroyed all the best players in the world and rewrote how to play the game, winning the IFPA world championship.
As a teacher I have sited machines at school and it's very clear that between the age of 11 and 13 is where there is the biggest interest in the machines. I have also always been very interested in watching documentaries about child prodigees and the journeys they go on.
In each of the above examples, these boys grew up in households where they had parents who loved pinball, loved competing in pinball and had machines at home. They all started playing in competitions from a very young age. They all travelled to play in big competitions from 9/10 years old. At that age they all had great skills, but lacked consistency, lacked the experience, but in a few short years, from 10-13 , they amassed enough experience of playing against excellent players and gaining consistency in their play. It's also clearly an age where you can become completely obsessed with things, most commonly I see it at school with boys playing Xbox or PlayStation games. Clearly in the above cases, these boys have become completely obsessed with getting better at pinball, learning the skills and rules to the games.
I was completely obsessed with pinball between the ages of 13-16, I so wish I had known about competition at that age! My high score of 13.1 Billion on Roadshow that I got when I was 16 still stands, I haven't been able to get near it since!
I do think it's fascinating. As we have seen at some of the high profile tournaments in the USA, tournaments are being dominated by young boys who have been brought up on Pinball from a very young age. It's interesting from a pedagogical perspective, when the learning takes place, when we are most susceptible to learning and when we are able to make big advancements with things. It's also clear that after the age of 17/18, when life all of a sudden becomes real, perhaps it's trickier for these advancements to be made and priorities change, we are already seeing this with Johannes and in the past with Joshua Henderson.
Names to watch out for
Johannes Ostermeier, Escher Lefkoff, Arvid Flygare, Paul Englert, Zach McCarthy, Jared August, Colin Urban, Aleksander Kaczmarczyk, Viggo Lowgren.
Whether these guys go on to join the cannon of pinball greats like Keith Elwin, Bowen Kerins, Jorian Engelbrektson etc will be interesting to see.
https://www.ifpapinball.com/arvid-flygare-ifpas-2021-player-of-the-year/
about a young man called Arvid Flygare who is now the 6th highest ranked player in the world. He is 13 years old. I have played Arvid 8 times
https://www.ifpapinball.com/players/compare.php?p1=9560&p2=49549
over the years, he has never beaten me. In our last meeting, I do actually remember playing him on Twilight Zone and thinking he had some excellent skills, he put up around 350 million, this was at the UK Open in 2019 at Flipout, he was 11 then.
In 2021 what he has done is frankly miraculous. The leap he has made between the ages of 12-13 is staggering. Sweden is a hotbed for pinball, with some of the very best players in the world. Last week was the Boras pinball open, he won 4/5 of the tournaments that took place, including modern tournaments and classic tournaments. He beat Jorgen Holm, past world champion and past world number 1 player, in every tournament. That level of consistency, is astonishing.
We have also seen similar rises in other players, most notably in Escher Lefkoff who won the PAPA world championships at the age of 13 and Johannes Ostermeier who between the ages of 13 and 16 destroyed all the best players in the world and rewrote how to play the game, winning the IFPA world championship.
As a teacher I have sited machines at school and it's very clear that between the age of 11 and 13 is where there is the biggest interest in the machines. I have also always been very interested in watching documentaries about child prodigees and the journeys they go on.
In each of the above examples, these boys grew up in households where they had parents who loved pinball, loved competing in pinball and had machines at home. They all started playing in competitions from a very young age. They all travelled to play in big competitions from 9/10 years old. At that age they all had great skills, but lacked consistency, lacked the experience, but in a few short years, from 10-13 , they amassed enough experience of playing against excellent players and gaining consistency in their play. It's also clearly an age where you can become completely obsessed with things, most commonly I see it at school with boys playing Xbox or PlayStation games. Clearly in the above cases, these boys have become completely obsessed with getting better at pinball, learning the skills and rules to the games.
I was completely obsessed with pinball between the ages of 13-16, I so wish I had known about competition at that age! My high score of 13.1 Billion on Roadshow that I got when I was 16 still stands, I haven't been able to get near it since!
I do think it's fascinating. As we have seen at some of the high profile tournaments in the USA, tournaments are being dominated by young boys who have been brought up on Pinball from a very young age. It's interesting from a pedagogical perspective, when the learning takes place, when we are most susceptible to learning and when we are able to make big advancements with things. It's also clear that after the age of 17/18, when life all of a sudden becomes real, perhaps it's trickier for these advancements to be made and priorities change, we are already seeing this with Johannes and in the past with Joshua Henderson.
Names to watch out for
Johannes Ostermeier, Escher Lefkoff, Arvid Flygare, Paul Englert, Zach McCarthy, Jared August, Colin Urban, Aleksander Kaczmarczyk, Viggo Lowgren.
Whether these guys go on to join the cannon of pinball greats like Keith Elwin, Bowen Kerins, Jorian Engelbrektson etc will be interesting to see.
