Ok – this is very late but I figure it is still worth posting to record such a great series of tournaments and for those unable to watch the streams who have been wondering how the action unfolded. Apologies if there are omissions or inaccuracies - this is not intentional. Will try and get through the others in due course if time allows:
UK Open recap – part 1
More than 150 top pinball players arrived in Croydon, London to do battle over the course of three incredible days to battle it out for the UK Pinball Open Championship – last held in 2019 pre-Covid. The defending Champion from 2019, Roberto Pedroni was in attendance, as well as 4 time World Champion Daniele Acciari and former world number one Peter Andersen. The big names did not stop there – Lowgren, Flygare, Stix, Kristensen, Volman, Teolis, Soriano, Moser, Nayman and Bona were also competing for the massive £5000 first prize amongst many more top players from across the world. Almost every serious competitive pinball player in the UK was in attendance – and the home country threat would be spearheaded by none other than the high flying Andrew Foster(world rank
24), the experience and control of Craig Pullen (ranked 171) and Pinball Republic co-founder and UK Hall of Famer Matthew Vince (ranked 185).
UK Open 2022 Day 1 – Classics 1 report
Fired up Johns slays Medusa on ball 3 to win opening Classics tournament
18 games were available for the Classics I competition, meaning queues were quick and the action furious. At the end of the first day’s qualifying period it was no surprise to see the Danish No.1, Peter Andersen at the very top, with Acciari a close second behind him. Levi Nayman qualified in 3rd, with 4 Brits taking qualifying positions 4-7: Jack Burden, Wayne Johns, Matt Vince and David Mainwaring. Roberto Pedroni took the 8th spot – and in the UK open tournaments, qualifying high would be key as the highest qualifying seed per group of 4 would drive the bus, selecting each game (or choosing position) with the restriction that they could only select a game not already chosen by a higher seed, or repeat a game they had already selected during the playoffs.
In the quarter finals, the featured match up on the excellent Backhand Pinball stream between Acciari, Teolis, Flygare and Engelbeen was of the highest quality – Danielle somehow taking a last place on Space Shuttle in the first game despite a solid 916K as all the others surpassed 1 million with Engelbeen taking first with 1.2M. Jeff Teolis took game 2 in Pinball Champ 82 with a strong 10M, with Daniele 2nd on 7M, setting up a tense decider on Wizard to see who would move on. Teolis was sitting on 6 points, Engelbeen had 4 and Danielle and Flygare with a precarious 2 points each. However Daniele was far from done and set out a statement of intent immediately with a double bonus and near 50K on ball 1. While Teolis and Flygare struggled, the Timber Engelbeen show began, as he racked up double bonus after double bonus, and extra ball after extra ball. Daniele also played incredibly, triple rolling the game and finishing on 330K, but Timber was just too good and scored an astonishing 397,720 points to knock out Daniele and move on to the semi-finals with a delighted Jeff Teolis.
The rest of the Classics I last 8 were Peter Andersen, Andreas Bernard, Yuen Aw, Levi Nayman, Wayne Johns, and Andrew Foster.
In the semis, Wayne and Andy made it two UK finalists as they edged out Belgian phenom Timber Engelbeen. The UK hopes both smashed Quicksilver after a game 1 Timber win on Cleopatra and Andy took the decider with a massive 543K on Paragon with Wayne doing just enough for both Andy and himself to go through with 7 points, with Engelbeen just behind on 6. In the other semifinal matchup, Andreas Bernard showed off some excellent play on Space Shuttle and Barracora to qualify easily, with Teolis putting up a huge 2 million points on Quicksilver to grab second place and the other finals spot at the expense of Peter Andersen and Yuen Aw.
Wayne was top seed remaining in the final and he chose Quicksilver for the first game. Foster took the early advantage after getting his bonus to 5X and ended with over a million points – Andreas took second, with Jeff 3rd and Wayne 4th after one game. After a Flight 2000 malfunction, Space Shuttle was selected as a replacement game and Wayne came roaring back with a win after Multiball and several juicy spinner rips to finish on 976K. Jeff took second with some great play on 793K with Andreas 3rd with 617K. A last from Andy meant it was all to play for on the final game with Andy and Wayne leading with 4 points and Andreas and Jeff on 3 points.
The final selection was Medusa and unfortunately the machine was not cooperating, with unexpected bonus points and stuck balls interrupting proceedings. Eventually these were resolved and Andreas Bernard with some top notch upper playfield play posted a strong 766K target. Andy could only score 363K, but the unflappable Teolis pushed ahead with 828K after some timely Shield of the Gods uses and an extra ball.
Wayne would have the last ball of the match – surely being over 650K behind this would be too much to overcome? However, he had other ideas – in a stunning display of clutch pinball, he somehow overtook Teolis using two incredible outlane saves and two amazing reflex central post saves – one trusting the central post without flipping as the ball hurtled towards the central drain, and one an outstanding use of Shield of the Gods to keep his ball alive once more. After securing the victory, Johns walked off with a triumphant flourish – securing the opening tournament win for the UK. Andy Foster managed to top Andreas Bernard in a high quality playoff on Paragon for 3rd.
Final result (top 8):
1st – Wayne Johns
2nd – Jeff Teolis
3rd – Andrew Foster
4th - Andreas Bernard
5th – Timber Engelbeen
6th – Yuen Aw
7th – Peter Andersen
8th – Levi Nayman
