Pacific Pinball Exposition Tournament Results!

This year, Jeannie Rodriguez ran the PPE tournaments with lots of help from Eric Kos.

The format was slightly non-traditional but I only heard positive things about it.  What was the big difference?  Well, in most “major” US tournaments, the qualifying round allows players to purchase as many entries as they want and/or can afford.  At the PPE tournament, $10 got you the first round of entries, but after that you could buy just two rounds of entries at $15 each.  This means the most you could spend was $40 and you got a maximum three tries on each game.

If you don’t play in tournaments, you might be scratching your head wondering why unlimited entries (or even multiple entries) are allowed in some formats.  The two main reasons are 1) to build up the prize pot (Pinball isn’t exactly sponsored by Budweiser) , and 2) to give players (particularly those who traveled)  as much “tournament play time” as possible.

There are a lot of players who don’t like the unlimited qualifying format though.  I’ve heard it called “pay-to-win”, and for anyone but the top players it requires a huge time investment – you can easily miss most of a pinball show just grinding out entries in the hope of qualifying.

No matter what you think of either format, one thing was definite: several players entered that otherwise would not have.  I don’t doubt that a few top players may have declined to participate because of the capped entries, but overall, many more jumped in than jumped out.

From the Tournament Director:

Hi everyone, 

Below are the results for the two main tournaments held at the Pacific 
Pinball Expo, September 21 – 23.  Locals Tim Hansen won the Match Play 
Tournament and Andrei Massenkoff and Alex Samonte finished 2nd and 3rd in 
the Open Tournament. 

Thanks to all who played, volunteered, and/or stepped in when extra help 
was needed – from scorekeeping to advising on how to handle game 
malfunctions. 

Big thanks to Playland for donating prizes and for their endless support of 
competitive pinball.  Hope to see you all at the Playland tournament on the 
21st! 

Thanks, 
Eric & Jeannie 

*Match Play Results:*
*
*
1 Tim Hansen
2 Jeff Gagnon
3 Julie Gray
4 Johnny Modica
5 Josh Warren
5 Nicole Anne Reik
7 Eden Stamm
7 Dave Stewart
9 Andrei Massenkoff
9 Karl DeAngelo
9 Matt Willmarth
9 Devon Kelly
13 John Kremmer
13 Jon Olkowski
13 Chris Lindboe
13 Nick Fitzpatrick
17 Chris Heilig
17 Chris Lammi
17 Darren Ensley
17 Per Schwarzenberger
17 Jonathan Abrams
17 Seth Kleinberg
17 Joseph Perry
17 Alex Lambert
25 Damien Charléty
25 Alex Samonte
25 Walter Hurwitz
25 Scott Davids
25 Mark Fitzpatrick
25 Leonard Gottlieb

*Open Results:*
*
*
1 Jeff Gagnon
2 Andrei Massenkoff
3 Alex Samonte
3 Karl DeAngelo
5 Johnny Modica
5 TJ Beyer
5 Salem Ayoob
5 Jeremy Williams
9 John Kremmer
9 Eden Stamm
9 Walter Hurwitz
9 Joe Scaletta
13 Chris Heilig
13 Scott Davids
13 Jim Vierra
13 Kevin McCabe
17 Dave Stewart
18 Per Schwarzenberger
19 Darren Ensley
20 Chris Kochan
20 Josh Lehan
22 Jeff Fehervari
23 Jon Olkowski
23 Tim Moyers
25 Devon Kelly
25 Josh Warren
27 Eric Wagensonner
28 Chris Lindboe
28 Danny Rockholt
30 Matt Willmarth
31 Joseph Perry
32 Damien Charléty
33 Chris Lammi
34 Chris Harkins
35 Richard Leavitt
36 Garrick Stoner
37 Andreas Haugstrup Pedersen
38 Benjamin Liggett
39 Rod Bogart
40 Kenley Fritts
40 Kevin Riekki
42 Edwin McCarthy
43 Julie Gray
44 Marcus Petersen
45 Martin Ayub
46 Seth Kleinberg
47 Joe Miksits
48 Warren Schwader
49 Erin Ray
50 Jonathan Abrams
51 Edward Dobson
52 Nina G
53 Jesse Petersen
54 Pat Choy
55 Rod Olsen
56 Nathan Stellhorn
57 Matt Tyrell
58 Danny Dawkins
59 Nicole Anne Reik
60 Dylan Eichenbaum
61 Brittany Shoot
61 Myong Choi
63 Bob Rog
64 Stewart Katz
65 Glenn Bedford
66 James Gerlach
67 Mitch Tunick
67 Tiffany Brittman
67 Tim Lobes
70 Evan Frank
71 Erica Riekki
72 Izzy Schwartz
73 Alex Lambert
74 Jake Nielsen
75 Erich Fritts
76 Ed Zipp
77 Jeanette Rog
78 Peter Bogdanov
79 Shon Dolcini
80 David Rockholt
81 Doug Hogue
82 Laura Rog
83 Emily Courchesne