Off the back of @Taxiturn's excellent self evaluation as a newer player to tournaments, I wanted to share a quick update 5 months in to the 2024 pinball season. It really has been an interesting year from a UK standpoint – at least since I have been involved in tournament pinball, I’ve never seen such an even playing field.
The results speak for themselves – out of 28 tournaments held of 10 or more players (Leagues and High score comps not included) - we have had a whopping 19 distinct tournament winners which I find quite remarkable:
Will Beynon
David Tucker
Nick Hamill
Kirk Sadler
Simon Peacock
Nick Marshall x2
Jack Burden
Yuen Aw
Greg Mott x3
Nathan Garwood x4
Martin Bedford
Punk Stig
Max Welch
Matt Vince x2
Josh Iles x3
Brad Attwood
Keith Burden
Gareth Arnold
Gene Aw
We’ve had a couple of excellent underdog victories, and many people making the playoffs for the first time and/or achieving personal bests tournament finishes. I think it’s a great time for UK pinball, and hopefully the above disproves any perception that the same people always win. Sure, certain people are more likely to win, but everyone has a chance, and every round and every tournament is a new opportunity. It’s obviously fun to win, but it’s also tremendously enjoyable watching others succeed as well – especially when someone perhaps less fancied goes on a big run or causes a big upset… and there’s always a lot of support during the tournaments when this happens, as well as support for newer players. Everyone loves an underdog!
Clearly we are missing some of the big venues like PBR and Electric Circus but the UK tournament scene has carried on strong and hopefully PBR will return soon bigger and better than ever. It will certainly be a great few months ahead with the World championships next month, and the European Championships and the UK Open rapidly approaching along with the upcoming local summer tournaments.
Hope to see many of you (old or new) at one of the upcoming ones – could there be a surprise 20th name added to the list above?
The results speak for themselves – out of 28 tournaments held of 10 or more players (Leagues and High score comps not included) - we have had a whopping 19 distinct tournament winners which I find quite remarkable:
Will Beynon
David Tucker
Nick Hamill
Kirk Sadler
Simon Peacock
Nick Marshall x2
Jack Burden
Yuen Aw
Greg Mott x3
Nathan Garwood x4
Martin Bedford
Punk Stig
Max Welch
Matt Vince x2
Josh Iles x3
Brad Attwood
Keith Burden
Gareth Arnold
Gene Aw
We’ve had a couple of excellent underdog victories, and many people making the playoffs for the first time and/or achieving personal bests tournament finishes. I think it’s a great time for UK pinball, and hopefully the above disproves any perception that the same people always win. Sure, certain people are more likely to win, but everyone has a chance, and every round and every tournament is a new opportunity. It’s obviously fun to win, but it’s also tremendously enjoyable watching others succeed as well – especially when someone perhaps less fancied goes on a big run or causes a big upset… and there’s always a lot of support during the tournaments when this happens, as well as support for newer players. Everyone loves an underdog!
Clearly we are missing some of the big venues like PBR and Electric Circus but the UK tournament scene has carried on strong and hopefully PBR will return soon bigger and better than ever. It will certainly be a great few months ahead with the World championships next month, and the European Championships and the UK Open rapidly approaching along with the upcoming local summer tournaments.
Hope to see many of you (old or new) at one of the upcoming ones – could there be a surprise 20th name added to the list above?