On January 18th, the Colorado State Pinball Championship was held at Blizzard Mountain Pinball in Conifer, where the top 24 players in the state competed for their spot in the IFPA North American Pinball Championship, with the women’s state championship following on the 19th.
This year, Donovan Stepp won the open championship and will attend nationals on March 6th. Summer Puente, who won the women’s, will attend nationals on March 28th.
By the end of 2024, I had placed 27th in Colorado, just short of the cutoff line. However, due to the subzero temperatures over the weekend, 4 people could not make it up the mountain and to the event, meaning I had made the state championship.
This championship had been one of the most adrenaline-pumping events I had been to, and every game was a battle against not just my opponent, but myself included.
Many times I got in over my head and played my games too intensely, and although being focused, it caused my games to end sooner, which led to my loss in the first round against Justin Hinman.
“You were a worthy opponent,” Hinman said. “Slow down your play, and once you can nail your shots, that’s when you can run and gun,” he told me.
Following my loss, the highest I could win was 17th, so I persisted and continued to play.
Despite the cold weather, many players came from across the Denver area, like Ryan Wanger who lives in Lyons, and owns Lyons Classic Pinball. Him and his girlfriend Cindy Grote came on Friday and stayed at an AirBnB in Conifer, practicing at Blizzard before the championship.
“I think we’re pretty fortunate. Everybody in Colorado lives within an hour’s driving distance, and it’s really cool that it [the championship] rotates in Colorado because some states don’t rotate and in some states, you have a four-hour drive,” Wanger said.
Wanger aimed to go to Blizzard throughout the year but didn’t get the chance to before state.
“I didn’t plan far enough ahead, but it was nice to go somewhere and not have to worry about running the event and the machines,” he said.
To qualify for state, players must accumulate World Pinball Player Ranking points (WPPRs) from attending International Pinball Flipper Association (IFPA) sanctioned events, like the 24-hour tournament that Blizzard Mountain held. The higher one finishes in an event, the more WPPRs they will earn.
Points are accumulated throughout the entire span of the year, meaning the sport is played year-round and players must continually attend events to qualify for state.
“Only 24 people out of the entire state are playing in this competition, and it’s such an achievement to be one of those 24 people,” Lehia Cadam said. “It’s a lot of practice [and] a lot of patience.”
Out of the 24 players, I was the only minor who qualified, the second youngest being 18.
“Younger players, just like with anything, your eyesight, your coordination, your reaction time, the genius of your brain to absorb all of these incredibly deep and overly complicated rules, you have a leg up,” Snow Galvin, the IFPA State Representative for Colorado, said. “Younger people are starting to play and that’s a really healthy sign for the hobby.”
Galvin, being the IFPA state rep, is the liaison between the IFPA president and the Colorado player base. She is part of the discussion about proposed changes to tournament format, WPPRs, and is responsible for hosting state.
Since 2018 when Blizzard opened, it has been part of the state circuit, which is the rotation of the state location every year.
“It’s Blizzard, then it goes to Lyons, then it goes to one of the 1ups,” Galvin said.
The 1up arcades are 4 locations across the Denver area, recently opening a new location in northern Westminster, which hasn’t yet entered the circuit for tournaments or state.
“Historically, it’s always been at Colfax. They haven’t hit me up about Westminster and getting that one on the circuit instead of Colfax, but I guess I’ll cross that bridge when they bring it up,” Galvin said.
All states but Wyoming held a state championship this year, representing a growth in pinball as it is normal for multiple states to attend other states’ championships. Both Hawai’i and Alaska, which normally don’t hold a championship, held one this year.
The women’s state runs alongside the open state, increasing over the past few years, although functioning slightly differently.
The open state championship collects its prize pool by receiving $1 per person per tournament or league over the course of the year, and 70% of that is used as the prize pool. However, since women can qualify for the open state championship through tournaments, their $1 does not contribute to the open’s prize pool.
“It’s sort of a difficult thing to navigate, and I did agree that we shouldn’t be doing that,” Galvin said.
As it grows, the women’s prize pool is still relatively low, so many women are designing pinball-based shirts and using those proceeds to fund the prize.
“I’ll say bake sales. It’s not really bake sales, but it’s anything that the players can do to build up their own funds,” Galvin said. “I’m working on a design that should be up in a couple weeks.”
The designs will be sold through Threadless, and are planned to be sold at events like the Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown in September and the Texas Pinball Festival in March.
Following a single loss in the lower bracket, I placed 19th and took home $30 alongside my achievement. Wanger placed 9th.
“Ultimately I don’t know how I feel. Part of me says I should spend a little more time playing and practicing outside of competition, working on my mental game, so my goals are to improve as a player,” Wanger said. “Most of the people that I’m close to in my life, I’ve met because of pinball. It feels like a whole group of people that I wasn’t getting to meet before.”
