Date: 11th-15th March, 2015
Location: 100 Keystone Drive, Carnegie, PA 15106, USA

Report by David Mainwaring

Eleven hours of travelling and two flights later, I arrived from the UK at my sleeping HQ. I was already familiar with the hotel following last year’s Pinburgh tournament.

The Courtyard by Marriott, Pittsburgh Airport Settlers Ridge

They have nice rooms and you can generally get a good night’s sleep if you don’t get one of the rooms facing the highway.

Check-in the hotel and then check-out PAPA

Right, off to dump the suitcase and head to PAPA for the Circuit Final.

Trophies on display at the reception as I entered the building

Precisely one hour later - that’s how long it takes to get a taxi round there - I arrived at PAPA HQ to be greeted by two well-known players and friends of mine. They look happy to see me.

Bowen Kerins, Priyanka Kochhar and a U.F.O. in the background!

I just made it in time to see the winner of the PAPA Circuit Final receive his belt. It was none other than Jorian Engelbrektsson.

Jorian, winner of the PAPA Circuit Final with the winner's belt...

...and it fits!

Now for a sneak preview of the machines for each division for the upcoming three days of qualifying. There were all subject to change as mentioned on the PAPA 18 website, and as you can see some changes were made for technical or arbitration reasons.

It's the top A Division

Machines for the A Division

The B Division

Machines in the B Division section

Next comes the C Division

The C Division section

The fourth bank of machines was used for several divisons of play

The Juniors/Seniors/Split Flipper and Division D section

Thursday, Friday and Saturday were spent qualifying in your chosen division. An entry consisted of playing your choice of five from the ten available machines. You could then decide whether to enter or void your entry.

The top 24 in each division made it through to the finals on Sunday. Some divisions were larger than others:

Basic registration, which was required to be able to play in any division, cost $5. Entries were then priced according to the division as follows:

Qualifying ended on the Saturday at midnight. Your last game of the set of five had to be started by midnight or your entry was void, even if you had completed four of the five games.

Papa 17 champion Cayle George on Cactus Canyon

Another important part of PAPA is the Classics Division

Thursday also saw the start of the Classics I tournament. Qualification started at 9:30am and finished at 6pm so the finals could start. Pick any four of the ten machines to play an entry. You could play as many entries as you liked, but they cost $15 a shot. Those lucky enough to be in the top 24 qualified.

On Friday the Classics II tournament took place with identical rules and times but with a different bank of machines. Classics III took place on Saturday.

People lining up for the Classics on Thursday - queues got longer as the day progressed, with as many as 165 players entering on peak days

Keith Elwin and Zach Sharpe are keen to get their entries started

Josh Sharpe taking a picture to certify his score
after a possible machine problem

Classics under way and in full-flow

Frank Goeltl enters his score; next up, Robert Sutter

Adam Lefkoff waits for a spot as waiting times are short at the early stages
of the competition; as it heated-up, waiting time on popular machines
could be as much as forty minutes

Roy Wills and friends have got the right idea and grab some coffee
- it’s going to be a long day

Advertising the new ReplayFX event

Don’t forget ReplayFX and Pinburgh later this year. Pinburgh has sold out with all 700 places taken. It’s going to be amazing for the people who get the chance to go. But let’s get PAPA 18 out the way first!

Meanwhile back at the ranch... err... hotel, we grab a couple of night caps
at the bar before retiring ahead of the full-on day on Friday

PAPA HQ 9am Friday: chatting about yesterday’s games
- "if only I got that last super jackpot before draining"

So the queue begins for the Friday morning with people buying entries for both the main tournament and the Classics II event, along with T-shirts and other goodies

People starting to size-up the bank for the Classics II today
- note the 'no flash photography' sign

The Classics II bank

Josh Sharpe and Jim Belsito work out their strategies for the day ahead...

...while Derek Fugate and Zach Sharpe do the same

Big thanks to the janitor who kept the toilets flowing
and so clean you could eat your grits off of them

The Project Pinball stand welcome you!

The Project Pinball charity is dedicated to providing recreational relief to children and their families at local children’s hospitals by locating a pinball machine on site. A pinball machine being a powerful instrument that offers therapeutic benefits to keep patients active and mobile while also providing entertainment.

Project Pinball also provides the upkeep for the machines and supplies regular maintenance at no cost to the hospital.

A truly fantastic idea and support from
the pinball players has been overwhelming!

You can visit their website at www.projectpinball.org to learn more.

The $5 Charity Challenge offered you the chance to win several prizes, including a basket of Norman Love’s chocolate.

Put up a high score on F-14 Tomcat to win the prize

Roy Wils wins and gets a chance to put on a few extra pounds

The Papa HQ with over 450 Pinball Machines available to play

As expected a few machines bore these signs.

OMG!!! It's the OMG!!! sign

Mind you, they didn’t stay there for long. The repair team were very efficient and were easily winning the battle of resurrecting problematic machines.

Cayle George and the author of this article, David Mainwaring,
chillin' out after playing in the main tournament

Sean 'The Storm' Grant being nice to the machines in after-hours party play

Koi Morris and friends having a friendly game

A nice example of a Genesis that played exceptionally well
- we have one of these machines at our local club

PAPA HQ have added to their video game collection this year.

Both the kids and grown-ups seem to be very happy

This long bank of games was very noticeable
as soon as you came in through the main entrance

If you want to be on TV, this is where all the action is

The view from the PAPA TV commentary seats

Various wall art was nicely displayed around PAPA

A painting of Roger Sharpe. "It’s a skill game, honestly. No luck here!"

Division C trophy and plaques waiting to be claimed

The best players competed in Division A, so here are some pictures of the PAPA 18 Division A final.

Keith Elwin on The Addams Family

Bowen Kerrins

Adam Lefkoff

Keith Elwin awaits his turn in the final...

...and wins PAPA 18

Raymond Davidson is in second place

Bowen Kerrins takes third

Adam Lefkoff is in fourth place

The top four group photo

So here are the results from all the different tournaments and divisions.

PAPA 18 World Championships Tournament

CONCLUSION

This was the first time I had attended the PAPA tournament and I was extremely surprised just how well it was run. There were no hiccups or problems that I saw during the whole five days.

The machines were excellent and played well. The PAPA staff were polite and professional (and were usually volunteers). There was a different fast food van parked outside the main entrance every day, serving hot food and drinks - something different every day.

There were tournaments for all levels of players from Pinball Wizards to newbies, with the Classics, the senior and junior tournaments, along with the video games to keep the kids happy.

Something for everyone and highly recommended for all!

PAPA 19 here I come!

I leave you with this image from PAPA TV

© Pinball News 2015