Congratulations to Esther Ahronheim - Your first Australian Women's Pinball Champion!

The inaugural Australian Women's Pinball Championship went for a very long time, until around 2am in fact. But endure the ladies did and Esther Ahronheim comes out on top! 

Esther far right competes in her home country of Japan.

Esther far right competes in her home country of Japan.

Esther has been playing in the competitive pinball scene for quite some time and is no stranger to marathon events such as the Batcave Masters, Brisbane Masters, Melbourne Matchplay Championship, New Zealand Pincade, and let's be honest - just travelling in general - she's from Japan!

Top 4 below. Congratulations to all players and we can't wait for next years.

1st - Esther Ahronheim

2nd - Irene Watt

3rd - Hollie Mills

4th - Naiomi Goodwin

The Latest Game the System Player Feature Live! - Dana Pepcak In Depth on the Eve of the Australian Women's Championship

If you have played competitive Australian pinball in the last few years, or attended the long running Z Ball Pinball League, you would know the initials DNA - Dana Pepcak is arguably the most accomplished women's pinball player in Australian history.

Click on the banner to proceed to the Player Feature, and remember to scroll down to see the in depth interview!

Click on the banner to proceed to the Player Feature, and remember to scroll down to see the in depth interview!

Click on the banner above or click here to see the full feature.

Dana has not only won various league championships such as Z Ball and the Australian Pinball League, she also finished 2nd in the NSW State Championships behind the then Australian number 1 Richard Rhodes, and ahead of Australian number 2 Steven Edwards (and made Gary Stern sign her trophy, of which he was quite chuffed to do so!).

The competitive aspect of Dana's pinball play hasn't been much of a focus for her in the last year or so however, with the Z Ball league her one exception. But the good news is Dana will be attending her first major tournament in some time, and will be at the inaugural Australian Women's Pinball Championship which is just around the corner - tomorrow night in fact!

We wish Dana and all of the players good luck, and we hope you enjoy this new Player Feature on Game the System - a small departure from our usual format with an in depth interview included!

See the Best in Australia and the World - Women's Pinball Championships (and a Player Feature Teaser!)

Helena Walter is your IFPA Women's World Pinball Champion for 2017.

Helena Walter is your IFPA Women's World Pinball Champion for 2017.

Two events almost back to back that celebrate and promote women in pinball - and they can't get any bigger than these! The IFPA Women's World Pinball Championships just completed in the USA with Helena Walter taking 1st place. And the upcoming Australian Women's Pinball Championships on the Gold Coast on March 31st.

Game the System is very proud to have contributed to the IFPA Women's World Pinball Championships prize pool as diversifying and therefore growing the sport is one of our goals. So it is with great pleasure to see that the championship was live streamed on Twitch, and garnered great support and attention from the community and widespread media.

The fun continues past the World Championships though, and soon - March 31st to be exact - we will see Australia's very first Women's Championship, and we can't wait to see who is crowned the first Australian number 1 women's pinball player! As of the 17th March there are a massive 22 players registered for this inaugural tournament:

1. Hollie Mills
2. Esther Ahronheim
3. Naiomi Goodwin
4. Kirsty Watt
5. Irene Watt
6. Dana Pepcak
7. Michelle Clark
8. Vicki Wills
9. Mel Geeves
10. Chelle McIntyre
11. Lee Hutchinson
12. Christine Allgaier
13. Leolie Bayley
14. Shellie Mills
15. Alana Kelly
16. Michelle Wykes
17. Emily Cosson
18. Tanya Lowe
19. Sarah Bishop
20. Evelyn Singh
21. Cheryl Wright
22. Carole Quinn

To compliment the excitement and build up of this event, Game the System will soon be posting our 5th Player Feature, and while we can't give too much away until we are ready, we can at least say that it is indeed one of the incredible players on the above list! Would you like a hint? How about a teaser with the photo below!?

GTSTeaserMarch2017.png

The countdown to the 31st is on!

It's on! See Australia's First Women's Pinball Championship

After years of hope, discussion and speculation that a Women's Pinball Championship could be organised in Australia, we finally receive word that yes, it's on, and it's on soon!

Naiomi Goodwin - current number 1 Australian women's pinball player.

Naiomi Goodwin - current number 1 Australian women's pinball player.

Announced via the popular Aussie Arcade forum, Jason Lambert - one of Australia's greatest pinball players and tournament organisers - has detailed the inaugural tournament structure:

Introducing the FIRST EVER Australian Women's Pinball Championship.
This event will be a part of the 2017 TZ Cooly Pinball Classic, to be held at Timezone Coolangatta on Friday 31st March.
AUSTRALIAN WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP
Players will be able to pre-register or register on the night from 6pm.
Qualifying will start from 6.30pm, and we may consider late arrivals to join in until around 7pm.
Qualifying:
* All players will play 10 games (5 machines, 2 games on each), with scoring on each machine to be ranked highest to lowest.
* Points will be awarded for each game 100/99/98... etc.
* The top 4 points winners will advance to the finals (may go to Top 8 depending number of entrants)
* Ties for 4th place will be broken by a single game playoff on a machine chosen at random
Finals: (if Top 4)
* Top 4 players will play all 5 machines in a group of 4. IFPA Match play points will be awarded for each game (7/5/3/1)
* The winner will be the player with the most points won during finals. Ties for any placings will be broken by a single game playoff on a machine chosen at random.
Finals: (if Top 8)
* Top 8 players will be split into 2 groups of 4 according to their qualifying placing. Groups will be split as follows - seeds 1,2,7,8 and seeds 3,4,5,6.
* Each group will play 3 games using the IFPA Match Play scoring (7/5/3/1). Top 2 point scorers in each group will advance to the next round.
* Final group of 4 players will play a further 5 games together, continuing with the IFPA Match Play scoring. Points will NOT carry over.
* The winner will be the player with the most points during the final round of 5 games. Ties for any placings will be broken by a single playoff on a machine chosen at random.
Cost: $20 per player
As mentioned, players can pre-register and supply payment through the banking details to be listed above soon.
We have been looking at running this event for some time now, and we are pleased and very excited that this Women's Championship is coming to life. We all hope to see the best of Women's pinball on the Gold Coast at the end of March and see who will become Australia's first Women's Pinball Champion 
You can register here, via PM or via email dj_j2008@hotmail.com
Cheers,
Peter, Hollie & Lambo

Game the System is a keen supporter of diversity in pinball and would like to thank Jason, Peter and Hollie for taking the initiative and putting in the work to make this championship a reality. Just recently Game the System made a contribution to the 2017 IFPA Women's World Pinball Championships scheduled for March 16th in Texas USA. We also look forward to providing as much support as possible for the first Australian Women's Championship.

We contacted Naiomi Goodwin - Australia's current women's number 1 pinball player - and asked her thoughts on this exciting development;

"I think it's a pretty exciting opportunity to encourage women to play competitive pinball and I'm pumped to go head to head with the best ladies in the country.  I also appreciate that the male dominant nature of pinball can be intimidating for some women and an event like this may encourage more women to give it a go and hopefully eventually feel comfortable enough to transition into main comps. Personally I love playing against the guys but I'd also love to see more women in pinball and if an event like this can coax more women into pinball then I'm all for it!"

I would suggest going to the Aussie Arcade forum here to keep track of any announcement or up to date information. There is also information in the same forum regarding the other tournaments scheduled for the same time, with a total of five tournaments held over the three days!