Skill Shot

The long running Seattle social pinball league is set to return in July with a new organizer and website

After long time SPL main-man Rod Olsen stopped organizing the league Stephen Donaldson decided to take the reins and has updated the website and organized three meet-ups for 2023. The first one happens on July 1st with the other two scheduled for September and November. Previous SPL members should have received an email a few weeks ago, so if you haven’t seen it check your spam folder. More info for everyone, both old and new can be found on the SPL website (which has a new address): http://www.splpinball.com/

During the MNP off season this new progressive tournament is happening at two capitol hill locations

The Monday Night Fight $1,000 Progressive Tournament began on May 1st and alternates between Time Warp and Raygun every other week. The top two players each week are entered into July 24th finals with the top 12 winning a share of the $1000. This week (May 15th) the tourney is at Raygun with next week’s at Time Warp and so forth. Details on the calendar!

Admiral Pub brings back their Music & Pinball tournament every monday until August 28th

During the Monday Night Pinball off season Matty PinPin will host a weekly 3-strike tournament at the Admiral Pub. The musical theme changes every week (May 22nd is 80s Night) but the tournament details stay the same: 7:30 start time, $5 entry, $75 pot splash, 21+

The monthly Thursday night tournament will be back in July

Registration for the event begins june 8th on their website

Although the NW Pinball Championships isn’t until September registration begins on June 8th on the NWPC website. Tournament director Germain explained that it is done this way so people can make their travel plans early. Since this is part of the Stern Pro Circuit expect some of the best players from out of the region to be there. For info about this event check out the listing on our calendar: Here

Registration sign ups happen on the NWPC site (June 8th at noon PST): https://www.nwpinballchamps.com/

The Airport Tavern weekly is moving to Saturday this week

Because the annual NWPAS After Party Tournament at the Triple Knock is happening this Sunday (June 4th) the Airport Tavern has moved their Sunday weekly to Saturday June 3rd. Along with changing the day, Airport Tavern host Anthony is also moving the start time back an hour to 8pm. Triple Knock host Altwin is also making a change to the after party, with this year’s event happening a bit later than years previous: 7pm. Details on the calendar.

If you are a facebook user and regularly attend Tacoma pinball events you should consider joining the Airport Tavern/Triple Knock Pinball Tournament Alliance group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/878516930086301 

Some website notes for both locals and visitors

If you are looking for somewhere to play pinball when you’re not at NWPAS this weekend take a look at our pinball list (link at the top). Tacoma now has it’s own section under the “road trip” link. If you’re from Seattle you may want to go to the Airport Tavern or the7 Seas Brewery to play the Jersey Jack’ Guns N Roses pinball machine since it’s pretty scarce in Seattle outside of the Seattle Pinball Museum. I’m pretty sure there will not be one at this year’s show. Note: the AAV next to a location’s name stands for All-Ages Venue (all of the rest are 21+).

Visitors looking for local tournaments should go to our calendar. We try to include all of the pinball related events from Tacoma, in the south to Bellingham, in the north and also Kitsap County, to the west (which includes Bremerton). While there are different catagory filters if you’re just interested in what’s happening during a short amount of time then clicking the main calendar link should be fine.

If you’re in Seattle without a ride to Tacoma (or back) here’s a link to our post on the public transportation options: Here

If you plan on playing in one or all of the tournaments at NWPAS and haven’t heard about the new formats yet you should definately take a look at them on the NWPAS site. There have been a number of surprised comments about the changes and pricing on Facebook. https://www.nwpinballshow.com/tournaments

Regular users of this site may have noticed that I’ve been changing the dates on some of the recent posts. This is done to bump the posts about past events down the page so the more relevant posts stay at the top.

If you see me (gordon) taking photos at the show be sure to say hi and let me take your pic for the collage in the upcoming issue of Skill Shot. (I’ll mostly be taking them in the lobby or outside). It’s been a while since we published an issue of the zine but there’s one planned for later this summer. Support Local Pinball!

Sean Irby built his own pinball machine and it will make it’s first public appearance at this weekends NWPAS

Sean Irby is bringing the pinball machine he built, Eight Ball Beyond, to the Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show in Tacoma. You can read all about it in the post linked below but he wants to give a heads up to those attending that he’s giving away four Eight Ball Beyond translites at the show.
To enter the giveaway, just play the game and scan the QR code that appears on the display once your game is over. That will take you to a form where you can submit your entry. You will need a gmail/google account to enter the giveaway. The form will contain all the details but the plan so far is to give away three translites randomly and one to the highest score over the weekend. Sean will message the winners Saturday evening and you can pickup your translite on Sunday. https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/eight-ball-beyond

Sean posted a rule card as well as some tips on “how to blow it up” in case you want to familiarize yourself beforehand. View the rules and tips: https://www.skill-shot.com/eight-ball-beyond-tips-and-rule-card/