This past Saturday, I headed down to Carnegie, PA for the annual PAPA pinball tournament. The field is divided into three classes (A,B, and C) and I fall into the C or casual player.
While I managed to get the #2 score on one of the machines, I tanked on the rest and ended the tournament ranked #39.
Here are the photos in all their geeky glory:
PAPA is now held annually in Carnegie, PA (Next to Pittsburgh). In previous years, the event was held in New York City and Las Vegas.
The PAPA building.
Early on Sunday morning, the registration desk was nice and quiet.
When you first walked in, to the left you could see the machines they were using for mini-tournaments. These mini-tournaments are more for fun than anything and include everything from one-hand play to having the flippers hidden (AKA Tommy mode).
Chris, one of my co-workers used Sunday morning to practice on some of the open machines.
The warehouse that the event is held in contains hundreds upon hundreds of machines. Both new and old.
The "Classics" finals were held on Saturday, but the area was still being used for both Junior and Seniors entries.
Ship Ahoy Playfield in the open machine area.
Junior and Senior qualifications
Another shot of some open machines. There has to be about 10 rows in this particular room.
Back in the competitive area, some A level players were trying to qualify at the last minute.
My co-worker, Chris, competed in the B level. He didn't do nearly as good as he would have liked finishing dead last in both of his entries.
More practice machines.
The Junior finals are now underway. Some of these kids were pretty damn good!
Senior finals also ran with the juniors.
They may not look like much, but these are some of the best pinball players in the world.
Circus Voltaire (Programmed by TPR member Cameron) was one of the machines used for the A Level Championship.
Break Area
More last minute A Level qualifiers.
Sorry, but I did not stick around for the finals (which I sure that Lyman won) but the event itself was a blast!
