If you thought 2016 was packed full of major events, 2017 has swaggered in and said 'hold my beer' - there's 6 huge tournaments on the calendar and it's not even the end of January yet!
The 2016 Brisbane Masters was one of many major tournaments held last year. Photo by Matthew Venables Photography http://mvenables.com
The 6 tournaments not to miss! Click on the links to see further information and location details.
Coogee Flip Frenzy - 26th January - Sydney
Now in it's second year, the Coogee Flip Frenzy is set to unleash chaos on pinball players once more! An absolutely frenetic style of tournament and a hell of a lot of fun, get ready to flip fast and meet a lot of people - very quickly!
IFPA Australian Championship Series Final - 9th - 12th February - Melbourne
The event that a lot of people have been waiting a whole year for - mainly to see if they qualify! Unlike other tournaments, this calculates every tournament and the participants results for an entire year, and the best of the best (top 32 IFPA World Pinball Player Ranking point tallies) gets a special little golden ticket - or perhaps just an email - into this invite only event! This is not just an event that happens in Australia but all over the world!
2017 Pinball HQ Marathon - 20th - 26th February - Sydney
This annual event has been a staple on the calendar for a number of years now. And as the title suggests - it is a bit of a marathon or at least, it can be if you plan to qualify! Allowing an entire week for the qualification period and as many games as you care to do so. This can be very tough as only the largest scores will possibly compete with some of Australia's top players. And this year, like others, the Pinball HQ Marathon will play host to France's number 1 (and ranked 56th in the world) Franck Bona who attends once more.
New Zealand Kiwi Pincade - 2nd - 5th March - Auckland
Arguably the greatest pinball and game room tour in the world, the 2017 New Zealand Kiwi Pincade is on again and celebrating it's 10th anniversary! Don't take our word for it - just ask Gary Stern - CEO of Stern Pinball - who came along last year. Rumour has it some other Stern people may come along to this one too!
2017 Australian Women's Pinball Championship - 31st March - Gold Coast
The first of its kind! We are all very excited that this has been organised after many years of speculation. You can read all about this inaugural event in the blog post below this one!
Timezone Cooly Pinball Classic - 31st March - 2nd April - Gold Coast
There are no less than 5 pinball tournament events planned for this massive 3 days in the Gold Coast - including the Australian Women's Championships. If you are a tournament pinball player chasing those world ranking points, you would not want to miss out on this one!