Tag: Pinball Leagues

Upcoming Leagues – January 2019

Happy 2019! Kick the year off right and join one of the 4 leagues starting up this week:

Weekly Monday Night Leagues starting January 7th

Blizzard Mountain: Season 5
Meets every Monday at 7pm from January 7 – March 18
Cost to join: $40
Conifer, CO

Gunbarrel Pinball League
Meets every Monday at 7pm from January 7 – February 25
Cost to join: $15
Boulder, CO

Weekly Tuesday Night League starting January 8th

The Flipside Pinball League
Meets every Tuesday at 7pm from January 8 – March 12
Cost to join: $10
Loveland, CO

Weekly Wednesday League starting January 30th

PBJ Pinball League
Meets Wednesdays at 7pm from January 30 – April 10
Cost to join: $20
Ft. Collins, CO

Fort Collins Beginner’s League – Padawan Pinball 101.2 – Starts Tuesday November 6th!

Padawan Pinball 101.2 is a pinball league in Fort Collins devoted to new players looking to gain skills and gameplay strategy. Each week will feature a seasoned player who will go over technique and rules for different machines. All are welcome to play and it’s FREE to join, only quarters are required to play the machines even the featured game(s) each week is set to freeplay! (You’ll need quarters to play the other machines.) You can’t be too green for this league!

This League will run for 6 weeks at various locations around Fort Collins and the 7th week will put those new skills to the test in a friendly tournament – aka League Finals. 

League Schedule - Tuesdays at 6pm

Week #1 – November 6 – Location: Pinball Jones Campus West
Introduction, history of pinball and basic skills with Dave Andersen
Week #2 – November 13 – Location:  Pinball Jones Old Town
Brian Sanz will go over strategy for Attack From Mars and Theatre of Magic
Week #3 – November 20 – Location: Pinball Jones Campus West
Jake and Natasha Kalda will lead this week’s agenda
Week #4 – November 27 – Location: The Lyric
Featuring: TBA
Week #5 – December 4 – Location: Pinball Jones Campus West
Featuring: TBA
Week #6 – December 11 – Location: Pinball Jones Old Town
Featuring: TBA
Week #7 – December 18 – Location: Pinball Jones Campus West
League Finals! A friendly tournament to put those newly learned skills to the test!

Gunbarrel League starting Monday November 5th

If you’re free Monday nights, live in or around Boulder and can commit to 7 weeks of pinball playing with some pretty neat people then this post is for you!

When: Mondays at 7pm 
November 5 – December 17, 2018
Cost: $15 to join

The regular season will last 6 weeks and Finals will take place on the December 17th.

If you’ve never played in a pinball league – never fear! Ryan Wanger who runs both the Gunbarrel and Press Play Leagues is always eager to welcome new people into the mix. Feel free to shoot him an email if you have any questions.

Stay in the loop with all Boulder pinball discussion on their Facebook group: Boulder Pinball Enthusiasts.

Lyons Winter League Starts This Thursday, November 1st!

The 27th Season of Mile High Pinball League is starting up this week! 

When: Thursdays at 7:30pm from November 1st – February 7th
Where: Lyons Classic Pinball
Cost: $40 +quarters for games

See full league schedule here.

All the pinball regulars know that Lyons is the place to play in Colorado but due to the fantastic influx of new players we’ve been seeing at monthly tournaments, I thought I’d go into a bit more detail than I do for my usual upcoming league announcements. Actually, a lot more detail. Here’s what you should know about LCP and why you should join.

About Lyons Classic Pinball

Lyons Classic Pinball (LCP) is ground zero for Colorado’s modern pinball renaissance. Kevin and Carole Carroll opened LCP in 2003, filling it with exceptionally maintained machines from the 1960s to the present. And not just any games – rare ones, LEs, the kind with great rule sets,  the kind with good tunes and the kind that are just fun to flip. Iron Maiden LE, Centigrade 37, Blackwater 100, Swords of Fury, Joust..even a Hercules.

This is one cool couple and LCP definitely reflects their vibe – pinball & rock n roll memorabilia clad the walls and solid tunes are always playing (but quiet enough that you can still enjoy the machine callouts and actually have a conversation with your friends). They don’t sell food or alcohol. Just snacks, soda and water – but Oscar Blues is right next door with food, beer and more pinball machines to play. So that means LCP is all ages and a respite for those who don’t dig the bar scene.

Read more about the Carrolls and how LCP got started in GameRoom Magazine (April 2006). Pinball News also did a thorough write-up you should check out.

Meet the Mile High Pinball League Players

The Mile High Pinball League (MHPL) is the official name of this league. It’s run by Chicago Expo 2018’s champion Adam Lefkoff (way to go ABL!) – father to PAPA 20 World Champion and IFPA Power 100’s champ Escher Lefkoff. Needless to say, if you’re looking to learn from the best – this league’s got it.

BUT NEW PLAYERS! – Don’t let that scare you off!

It’s also filled with some of the most laid back, fun-loving people you could ever want to spend your Thursday nights with. There are total newbies, players that just like to destroy castles on Medieval Madness for that satisfying rattle,  those who could give a damn about some esoteric rarely seen situational strategy and those who actually want to fill their head with all that nonsense.

Check out some of the players from the 2018 Summer League below.

Summer League 2018 - A Division Winners

1st – Ryan Wanger (left, $360)
Ryan runs the Boulder & Gunbarrel Pinball Leagues as well as the one stop shop for all your pinball LEDs – Comet Pinball (checkout their adorable commercial)

2nd – Escher Lefkoff (right, $180) 
Dude, what happened? 😉

3rd – Zach McCarthy (right, $90)
aka Z-Mac, is 1 of 4 phenomenal players that makeup the McCarthy family, owners/operators of Blizzard Mountain Pinball

4th – Adam Lefkoff (left, $45)
League Director and our current IFPA representative

Summer League 2018 - B Division Winners

1st – Smith Patrick (left, $240)
Authentic & charming mountain man, seen here in a rare moment without his brown leather vest. Best to avoid him on Bally’s 1978 Playboy

2nd – Greg Nelson (right, $120)
Relative newcomer and Ryan Wangers’s right hand man at Comet Pinball (nicely done!)

3rd – David Schaal (right, $60)
Lead Multimedia Instructor at CU’s ATLAS Institute (pretty cool!), pinball enthusiast and total genuine guy.

4th – Carole Carroll (left, $30)
The woman ultimately responsible for LCP. Had she not bought Kevin a Bally KISS all those years ago, that guy would still be a plumber. Don’t be fooled, the pinball obsession is a his & hers thing. She’s just sagely quiet so you’ll never suspect her. My kind of lady.

Winter League Schedule 2018-2019

Nov 1: Week 1
Nov 8: Week 2
>> Nov 15: LCP Monthly
>> Nov 22: Thanksgiving
Nov 29: Week 3
Dec 6: Week 4
Dec 13: Week 5
>> Dec 20: LCP Monthly
Dec 27: Week 6
Jan 3: Week 7
Jan 10: Week 8
>> Jan 17: LCP Monthly
Jan 24: Week 9
Jan 31: Week 10
Feb 7 : League Finals

Blizzard League Season 4 Starts Monday September 24th!

The regular season will run for 10 weeks, meeting every Monday at 7pm from September 24 – November 26th. Finals will be held Monday December 3rd at 7pm with the top half playing in A Division and the bottom half in B Division. It’s $40 to play in the league plus the cost of games.

For more information check out Blizzard’s website or their Facebook event page.