Lickashot
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Am I now mystic Glen?
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UK tournament pinball thread (+ Large international comps)
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Lickashot
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He is in the final, woohoo !!!
CONGRATS to Nathan for coming 4th in the classics! Such an amazing achievement 
Well done Nathan 
Great performance by Nathan
In today’s main finals we are represented by:
Craig Pullen
Emily Stokes
Josh Iles
Nathan Garwood
Pete Blakemore
Matchplay link: https://app.matchplay.events/tournaments/164114
Streaming by JDL_Pinball on Twitch:
Good luck and go well!
Craig Pullen
Emily Stokes
Josh Iles
Nathan Garwood
Pete Blakemore
Matchplay link: https://app.matchplay.events/tournaments/164114
Streaming by JDL_Pinball on Twitch:
Good luck and go well!
And Jim
Well done to all the UK entrants you did us proud. 
Leave it with meMy locked-in prediction for DPO2025: Simon Love on the list of entrants
might have to make a decision between this and trying to get a spot at EPCQuick recap:
So how did these predictions do?
Josh and Craig qualified strongly, but everyone would expect that...
Good/exciting performances from all the others I would say:
Gene played well - he was winning his group almost all the way and was unlucky to miss qualifying in a tie break; similar for Jmac who won 8 games and narrowly missed out - a strong European debut for him.
The People's champ Arnold was flying in his group, leading with a 6-1 record at one stage and wowing fans across the globe with his stylish play on stream. Sadly his run faded and he ended at 6-6. Still, an exciting outing from Gareth. Finally Reece had a creditable debut himself, staying in the qualifying hunt until a couple of games left.
Remember qualification was extremely tough with only the top 2 out of 13 qualifying and some of the 3rd place players in each group.
So in summary maybe a B or B+ for the predictions this time.
Very true, the commentary was great. Knowledge, insight and entertainment rolled into one, well played @Genotime
It was great to watch. I have watched other tournaments and there has been no commentary. JDL do a great job and @Genotime popping on to co-commentate was brilliant too!!
Not sure I'd agree with 'strongly' as it was so tough in that format and any lost game cost you. Josh needed to win his last game to avoid a playoff. Craig lost his playoff for Top 2 but then came through the 'best 3rd place' playoff.
I think the strongest UK qualifier was Emily, who smashed the group, stunning given how little she's played this year. Both Pete & Nathan getting out of their group were great performances too as was Nathan's run to the final of the classics.
After starting 5-0, a dodgy middle run put me in the same position as Josh and fate put my last game against Yvan with whom I was tied on seven wins, winner to go through - he played Lady Luck better than me and I dropped out.
Unfortunately, I did the same in the Flip Frenzy, starting 7-0 and went into the last game at 9-1 but losing and then watching the clock tick down with me 'next up' but missing out on a chance of a redemption game by 5 seconds
Emily played fantastically well, but not a big surprise to anyone who has played alongside her this year. She is a very strong player, and will be making Mystic Yuen's lists before too longNot sure I'd agree with 'strongly' as it was so tough in that format and any lost game cost you. Josh needed to win his last game to avoid a playoff. Craig lost his playoff for Top 2 but then came through the 'best 3rd place' playoff.
I think the strongest UK qualifier was Emily, who smashed the group, stunning given how little she's played this year. Both Pete & Nathan getting out of their group were great performances too as was Nathan's run to the final of the classics.
After starting 5-0, a dodgy middle run put me in the same position as Josh and fate put my last game against Yvan with whom I was tied on seven wins, winner to go through - he played Lady Luck better than me and I dropped out.
Unfortunately, I did the same in the Flip Frenzy, starting 7-0 and went into the last game at 9-1 but losing and then watching the clock tick down with me 'next up' but missing out on a chance of a redemption game by 5 seconds
After 20 rounds of 4 player matchplay in the KPO Main Event, the number one qualifier with 13 1st places, a streak of 8 wins in a row and a double bye - @BIGMAN Big Dave Fowler!
Joining him in the top 40 playoff finalists tomorrow... Ian Clarke, Tim Knowles and Gene Aw!
The good news doesn't stop there as Gareth Arnold has qualified for the top 16 of the card competition.... if lucky he might be on stream shortly... amazing race finals!
Phenomenal effort guys!!
Joining him in the top 40 playoff finalists tomorrow... Ian Clarke, Tim Knowles and Gene Aw!
The good news doesn't stop there as Gareth Arnold has qualified for the top 16 of the card competition.... if lucky he might be on stream shortly... amazing race finals!
Phenomenal effort guys!!
The European championship series (ECS) finals are going on in Belgium this weekend. The top 64 European players came and Craig and Josh qualified for the last 32.
Craig is currently battling in the last 16 - 2-2 against host Kurt Louwie.
And Josh just knocked out Arvid Flygare 4-3 in the last 16!!!
Streaming live on JDL pinball:
Tournament bracket here:
Craig is currently battling in the last 16 - 2-2 against host Kurt Louwie.
And Josh just knocked out Arvid Flygare 4-3 in the last 16!!!
Streaming live on JDL pinball:
Tournament bracket here:
The European championship series (ECS) finals are going on in Belgium this weekend. The top 64 European players came and Craig and Josh qualified for the last 32.
Craig is currently battling in the last 16 - 2-2 against host Kurt Louwie.
And Josh just knocked out Arvid Flygare 4-3 in the last 16!!!
Streaming live on JDL pinball:
Tournament bracket here:
Craig beats Kurt 4-2... will meet Josh in final 8 with the winner getting a spot at the World Championships!
Viggo and Johannes absolutely destroying TZ, staggering stuff
Great weekend - if you get a chance to go to Kurt's then I'd highly recommend it, the place is amazing, the machines are in great condition and play very fair, as I'm sure you could see from the monster scores being put up in so many of the games.
Gene was only one win away from a playoff to make the finals and Peter was a couple of games back in his group.
Josh was pleased to qualify well (getting wins against both Paul and Johannes) and after a long seven game first round match against Denis Ritter, showed real resilience to come back from 3 nil down against Arvid - I don't think many (other than himself) would have bet on him coming back to win that.
Making the top 8 in ECS for the third year running shows he's up around the right level and it seemed like this year he might go further but that dastardly Mr Pullen stopped his progression into the semi final with some typically excellent play. The great thing was that both of them played well on pretty much all the machines - it was great for all the discussion throughout the weekend to be about the decisions and skills and the players themselves, there was little chat generally about machine issues or being beaten by settings/tilts or setup.
Craig played amazingly well and was very close to making it into the final himself, having a great battle with Paul Englert. I'm sure Craig will smash it at the Worlds - we will have 3 UK players to cheer on again this year in Andy, Will and Craig.
Gene was only one win away from a playoff to make the finals and Peter was a couple of games back in his group.
Josh was pleased to qualify well (getting wins against both Paul and Johannes) and after a long seven game first round match against Denis Ritter, showed real resilience to come back from 3 nil down against Arvid - I don't think many (other than himself) would have bet on him coming back to win that.
Making the top 8 in ECS for the third year running shows he's up around the right level and it seemed like this year he might go further but that dastardly Mr Pullen stopped his progression into the semi final with some typically excellent play. The great thing was that both of them played well on pretty much all the machines - it was great for all the discussion throughout the weekend to be about the decisions and skills and the players themselves, there was little chat generally about machine issues or being beaten by settings/tilts or setup.
Craig played amazingly well and was very close to making it into the final himself, having a great battle with Paul Englert. I'm sure Craig will smash it at the Worlds - we will have 3 UK players to cheer on again this year in Andy, Will and Craig.
Excellent play by all, great comeback against Arvid for Josh and excellent performance by Craig
Josh will make it back again to the IFPA Worlds again no doubt with a generous dad by his side and keep hitting those comps world wide I'm sure he'll amass enough points to give Andy a run for UK #1 in whoppers for the spot.
The unfortunate reality is that the only way to break into the top 200 in the world is by doing the big overseas events. With such a competitive top 10 (or so) players in the UK, there’s no one player that is going to dominate and take all the points for the big comps they enter and so the sharing of the points, when most are far lower value just means no-one climbs the rankings.
Things have definitely improved over the last few years with more tournaments tweaking things slightly to improve the points on offer - I'm sure that's a pain for the organisers as the IFPA rules change but it is important. Big points events attract players from overseas to travel which further boosts the points available as well as giving our own top players more experience competing against the best in Europe - no-one improves much from playing people they can always beat, so the more often ‘big’ players come to these tournaments, the better. It's great to play them and something that is fairly unique to pinball.
There's no one 'right' format, and having variety is great, but top players won't come unless it is worthwhile. It'll also affect which UK players make it to the more distant tournaments as time (and cost) all factor in to those decisions.
I don’t fully understand the way the points are allocated but the PinFest main comp seems to be a good example of where huge improvements have been made. In 2024 Matt got 103 points for winning and Josh got 72 for fourth, that’s a really good return and will survive a couple of years reduction as the result ages in the rankings.
However, in previous years, the points were far lower which I assume is due to the format. The field was pretty much the same, but Craig got 32 points for winning the whole thing in 2023 and Greg in fourth got 21 points. Andy got 33 for the win in 2022.
Josh needs a result to be worth 45 points to count in his ‘best 15’ calculations, so a top 10 finish last year would make it whereas a win in 2022/2023 wouldn’t be of any use at all.
If we can keep these bigger events and we have more (like the Masters this weekend) then it would mean fewer overseas trips are necessary. They’re still fun and will probably remain the best way to ensure you are competing against the best in the world, but expanding and improving the UK events helps everyone and is a real positive change that I can see over the last few years.
The main factors which made Pinfest main worth much more last year were it being a five game card, which adds value in and of itself, and having 20+ hours of qualifying. With these two in place this meant the tournament could also be “certified” for a +25% points boost.
Having lots of highly ranked and rated players also helps the points. There is a diminishing return to adding more players once you get above 64 but having more highly ranked and/or rated players always adds more value to the pot.
One of the reasons that the UK Open dwarves all other UK comps in terms of points is that all three open tournaments are in certifiable card formats (they actually get a +50% boost as there are >128 rated players).