ITALIAN PINBALL
CHAMPIONSHIP 2011


Date: Saturday April 30th, 2011
Location: Shopping Mall Le Torri, Via Sacro Cuore 9, Rovigo, Italy

Report by IFPA Italia

The fourth edition of the Italian Pinball Championship was held this past April 30th in Rovigo, just like the previous editions.

The poster for the event
The poster for the event

This year the location was the centre of the main square of the Shopping Mall Le Torri in downtown Rovigo. The designated area was spectacular, with plenty of space and ideal for setting up many pinball machines. The area was surrounded by bars, mini-restaurants and a supermarket for the last minute necessities.

The Venue for the IPC 2011
The venue for the IPC 2011

Thursday night we (Nicola Pierobon, Daniele Acciari, Matteo Pontarollo) arrived in Rovigo to be greeted by the mind behind the IPC, Marino Milan.

After pizza and a good sleep we were ready to set everything up on Friday morning.  Stefano Aldrighetti joined the group and at 8am we started to get the machines into position.

Organisers deciding how to set everything up
Organisers deciding how to set everything up

Some people brought the machines inside, while others immediately started to clean them up, adjust them, ensured they had the correct settings, leveled them and made sure they were working properly.

Marino putting the machines in position
Marino putting the machines in position

Testing the 1966 Gottlieb “Hyde Park”
Testing the 1966 Gottlieb “Hyde Park”

Within half a day, all the pinballs we had were in position.  We were then only waiting for the others which would be arriving early Saturday morning, brought by some of the collectors participating in the tournament.

The line-up was quite impressive, with a total of twenty pinballs for the competition, plus eleven more machines on free play available to the public.

The machines for the competition were:

Monster Bash, Williams 1998
Cirqus Voltaire, Bally 1997
Funhouse, Williams 1990
Pinbot, Williams 1986
Doctor Who, Bally 1992
Bram Stoker's Dracula, Williams 1993
The Who's Tommy, Data East 1994
Theatre of Magic, Bally 1995
The Addams Family, Bally 1992
Indiana Jones, Williams 1993
Devil Riders, Zaccaria 1984
Locomotion, Zaccaria 1981
Road Show, Williams 1994
Demolition Man, Williams 1994
Swords of Fury, Williams 1988
Black Knight 2000, Williams 1989
Tales of the Arabian Nights, Williams 1996
Indianapolis 500, Bally 1995
Hyde Park, Gottlieb 1966
The Simpson Pinball Party, Stern 2003

And on top of that we had eleven more machines in free play:

Apollo 13, Sega 1995
Road Show, Williams 1994
Demolition Man, Williams 1994
Bram Stoker's Dracula, Williams 1993
The Rolling Stones, Bally 1979
Stargate, Gottlieb 1995

Star Wars, Data East 1992
Tales from the Crypt, Data East 1993
Twilight Zone, Bally 1993
Ball Pool, R.G.M. (a copy of Gottlieb's 1972 'Play Pool')
Devil, Nordamatic 1978

The start of the lineup
The start of the lineup

Some more pinballs in the tournament
Some more pinballs in the tournament

Some of the machines on free play
Some of the machines on free play

Overview of the IPC location
Overview of the IPC location

Saturday morning and everything was ready, with the players checking in at the registration area. The Italian players (all the top ranked Italians) came from many different locations around the country, while three more players arrived from Germany.

The final number of competitors was forty, a perfect number for the format utilized for the qualifying round.

In the tournament area there was also a stand for Smile Africa, a non-profit organization who received all the funds collected from the player’s registrations.

Smile Africa’s stand
Smile Africa’s stand

At 10:30am we started the first round, dividing the players in ten groups of four players who were sent to play a single four-way match on each of the ten designated pinball. Players were continuously grouped in four-player teams to battle on the different machines, gaining points that were cumulative over the rounds of the qualifying session.

The total of ten rounds took until 4:30pm, when the top sixteen players moved on to the final rounds.

Players waiting to be assigned to a pinball
Players waiting to be assigned to a pinball

Jörg Schwegmann playing on Locomotion
Jörg Schwegmann playing on Locomotion

Qualifying session
Qualifying session

Qualifying session
Qualifying session

When qualifying ended at 4:30pm, these were the overall standings and the sixteen qualifiers:

Position Name

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40

Daniele Acciari
Mauro Spiga
Mario Anzini
Nicola Pierobon
Gianluca Gasparetto
Alberto Paolin
Davide Delprato
Manuel Mazzaretto
Marino Milan
Matteo Pontarollo
Valentino Trere'
Luca Simionato
Alessandro Cacialli
Alberto Fabrissin
Jörg Schwegmann
Paolo Bertocchi
Alessandro Gasparetto
Enrico Venuti
Mauro Favaretto
Manuele Cereda
Cesare Datri
Enrico Giorgio de Stefani
Gianluigi Macchi
Morgan Bena
Claudio Melone
Andreas Weiblen
Dario Armanetti
Federico Croci
Andrea Stradaroli
Tommaso Calzolari
Stefano Aldrighetti
Marco Frosi
Aldo Pancaldi
Matteo Filippin
Jürgen Hähnel
Massimo Maffi
Alessandro Maffi
Andrea Fantuzzi
Daniele Barile
Marco Piccinini

Unfortunately the youngest player of this IPC, nine-year-old Alessandro Gasparetto, just missed the qualification with his seventeenth place. But he showed a very good knowledge of the machines and a great technique.

The sixteen qualifiers were placed in a single elimination bracket, where each match was a race to two wins, on three different pinball chosen by the players.

Matteo Pontarollo on Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure
Matteo Pontarollo on Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure

Nicola Pierobon and Alessandro Cacialli on The Simpson Pinball Party
Nicola Pierobon and Alessandro Cacialli on The Simpson Pinball Party

After the first round of play-offs and the quarters-finals which followed, the top four players from the qualifying section all made it to the semi-finals. 

Here, Nicola Pierobon faced the top seed Daniele Acciari, and Mauro Spiga had to deal with Mario Anzini.

The semi-finals bracket
The semi-finals bracket

The first semi-final saw Acciari winning his first game against Pierobon on The Addams Family, then losing on The Simpsons Pinball Party, before winning the tie-breaker game on Doctor Who.

Nicola Pierobon playing the second game of the semifinal against Acciari on The Simpsons Pinball Party
Nicola Pierobon playing the second game of the semi-final against Acciari
on The Simpsons Pinball Party

Daniele Acciari playing the second game of the semi-final against Pierobon on The Simpsons Pinball Party
Daniele Acciari playing the second game of the semi-final against Pierobon
on The Simpsons Pinball Party

The other semi-final saw Anzini prevailing over Spiga, in three games as well. Spiga took the first game on Demolition Man, but Anzini came back first winning on his loved Doctor Who and then the tie-breaker on Tales of the Arabian Nights.

Then the battle for the IPC title had Acciari choosing the first machine: The Addams Family, where Anzini was able to take the win over the favourite Acciari.

Then the looser had to pick the following game: Acciari picked Doctor Who, where Anzini played the perfect game, not giving any possibility of Acciari coming back and hoping to win a tie-breaker game.

Acciari and Anzini shaking hands before the final
Acciari and Anzini shaking hands before the final

Congratulations to Mario Anzini - the “Zar” - who takes home the home-made trophy (by Stefano Aldrighetti) and the nice first prize offered by the organizers: the pinball machine The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends.

Mario Anzini wins the Italian Pinball championship 2011
Mario Anzini wins the Italian Pinball Championship 2011

The first place trophy
The first place trophy

The Zar takes home his prize “Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends”
'The Zar' takes home his prize: The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends

The IPC 2011 was a beautiful day of pinball, with many pinball enthusiasts meeting together, a tough competition with great players, and a wonderful job by the organiser to make the day as smooth as possible.

Hope to see you at the 2012 edition.

Final picture with some of the players, those who stayed until the end of the tournaments
Final picture with some of the players, those who stayed until the end of the tournaments

Finally, you can watch a video of the day's highlights on YouTube by clicking here.


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