The Score Card 14: Europe's Champion and April Intensity

The Spring portion of the tournament pinball schedule is particularly hefty, and just like March, the month of April was practically non-stop. In this edition of The Score Card, we're jumping between three Stern Pro Circuit events, including New England's big Silverball Rumble, a classic weekend of pump and dump at the good 'ol 'Zoo in Michigan, and a brand new tournament for the 2026 season: The Mid-Atlantic Pinball Open. If that wasn't enough, a new champion has been crowned across the pond following the astounding 2025-26 IFPA European Pinball Championship. Let's dive in.

Silverball Rumble at Pintastic New England

The first stop in April for the Stern Pro Circuit takes us to Marlborough, MA, for the Pintastic Pinball & Game Room Expo. A yearly convention that pulls in tons of pinheads from around New England, Pintastic also hosted the annual Silverball Rumble, a card qualifying affair that drew nearly 250 players. Playing on a notably varied bank of games, which surprisingly only featured one modern Stern title, hundreds of players put in their best cards, with the top 28 qualifiers moving on to A Division finals and the next top 16 in B division.

The Silverball Rumble A Division playoffs bracket featured quite a few notable players, including Jason Zahler, Eric Stone, Jason Werdrick, Dante Oliva, and many other names who have frequently graced The Score Card. Streamed live on Twitch by Backhand Pinball, the playoffs offered intense, best-of-seven, head-to-head battles, and you can watch it all back on Backhand's YouTube channel. Four players in total fought their way into the semifinals, including Jason Zahler, Liam Bradley, Eric Stone, and Noah Sicard, but Eric and Liam performed at the peak of their game and moved on to the finals, while Jason and Noah competed for bronze.

The grand final face-off between Eric and Liam was a stunning back-and-forth battle, which began on Star Wars: Fall of the Empire (Stern, 2025), and while both scored over 200 million points, Liam squeaked out his first win by roughly 20 million points. Moving onto Game 2, Black Jack (Bally, 1978), Eric fired back with a huge ball 3, nearly rolling the score and tying things up, as Liam struggled to answer back. However, in Game 3, Diner (Williams, 1990), Liam found his groove and put up a huge 22-million-point game, while Eric only scored 5 million. Yet, Eric refused to let Liam heat up, grabbing another win on Game 4, Magic Castle (Zaccaria, 1984), once again tying things up. From there, Eric locked in and picked up back-to-back wins on Operation Thunder (Gottlieb, 1992) and Evil Dead (Spooky, 2024), earning the overall tournament win despite Liam's solid play.

Silverball Rumble Winners List:

• A Division – Eric Stone (Fort Myers, FL)

• B Division – Ryan Belisle (Bristol, CT)

• Women's Silverbelle Brawl – Anna Siembor (Easthampton, MA)

IFPA European Pinball Championship 2025-26

Taking a quick break from the Stern Pro Circuit, let's take a jaunt to Lund, Sweden, for the 2025-26 IFPA European Pinball Championship. Here, 64 players, representing 15 different European countries, flipped for their chance to be crowned the 2025-26 European Pinball Champion, hosted by the Lund Pinball Academy and streamed live on their Twitch channel. Following the round robin qualifying round, 32 players made their way to the best-of-seven, head-to-head finals bracket.

Following four long and impressive playoff rounds, two familiar finalists emerged: Sweden's Viggo Löwgren and Belgium's Timber Engelbeen. This epic match between two titans of the EU kicked off on Jurassic Park (Stern, 2019), where Timber got off to an electric start, winning the match with excellent Raptor Multiball play and a 750 million point ball 3 walk off. In Game 2, Demolition Man (Williams, 1994), Timber picked up another win, clearing over 1.4 billion points, while Viggo still had an impressive game with 500 million points.

At this point, Viggo shrugged off the pressure and he started to heat up in Game 3 on Congo (Williams, 1995), picking up his first win of the series. In Game 4, Dirty Harry (Williams, 1995) Viggo locked in to say the least, scoring over 3 billion points by ball 2, causing Timber to concede the game. With the series tied at 2-2, they moved onto TRON: Legacy (Stern, 2011) for Game 5, where Viggo continued his dominant performance, picking up another ball 3 walk-off win. All that separated Viggo from the European Championship was Game 6, Attack from Mars (Bally, 1995), and after Timber struggled to overcome Viggo's 11 billion point score, Viggo earned the championship with yet another ball 3 walk off.

IFPA EPC 2025-26 Top 4:

• European Pinball Champion - Viggo Löwgren (Sweden)

• Second Place – Timber Engelbeen (Belgium)

• Third Place – Arvid Flygare (Sweden)

• Fourth Place – Pontus Qvarfordh (Sweden)

Pinball at the Zoo 2026

For our next tournament, we move over to one of Michigan's longest-running pinball conventions, Pinball at the Zoo. An always affordable and entertaining weekend, PATZ 2026 was also the home of the next Stern Pro Circuit competition: a $1 per play pump and dump extravaganza, with all proceeds going to the National Alliance for Mental Health in memory of Lyman Sheats Jr. Over 200 players showed up to compete, putting up big scores that would make LFS proud, with the top 24 players moving on to A Division finals and the next 16 occupying B Division.

The roster of players in the 2026 PATZ A Division finals was a fun and eclectic bunch, with some of the very best players in the Midwest representing their region, including Dominic Labella, Andy Bagwell, John Inman, Cody Webb, Logan Foley, Preston Currie, Tyrus Eagle, Ethan Smilg, and the IFPA 2026 Rookie of the Year, Jaden Rich, just to name a few. However, following three rounds of playoffs, four other fantastic players fought their way to the finals: Sterling Mitoska, Matthew Stacks, Nick Weyna, and Andy Rosa. This made for an excitable finals match, all streamed live on Twitch by YpsiPinball.

Kicking off the three-game, PAPA-style finals was Wrestlemania (Stern, 2015), where Nick Weyna took the lead early with over 150 million points, but Sterling was able to surpass him on ball 3, picking up his first win in the process. The competitors then blasted through Game 2, an incredibly punishing Eight Ball (Bally, 1977), and while Sterling and Andy suffered continuous unlucky drains, Matthew and Nick both scrounged up over 100,000 points, picking up first and second place finishes respectively. With the standings relatively close between all players, the competition mostly came down to the final game on Creature from the Black Lagoon (Bally, 1992). Capping off a great tournament run with a strong 200 million ball 1, Nick Weyna persisted, outscoring everyone else and taking home the PATZ 2026 first-place finish.

PATZ 2026 Winners List:

• Main A Division – Nick Weyna (Des Plaines, IL)

• Main B Division – Jason Magnuson (US)

• Classics – Michael Walker (US)

• Women's – Dori Zielinski (Milwaukee, WI)

Mid-Atlantic Pinball Open 2026

The last Stern Pro Circuit tournament of April was also a new entry to the event list this year: the 2026 Mid-Atlantic Pinball Open, held at the Delaware Pinball Collective. A quality competition that has been steadily growing in recent years, the Mid-Atlantic Pinball Open (or MAPO, for short) pulled in over 100 players for unlimited pump and dump qualifying, with main, classics, and women's tournaments to enjoy. Ultimately, out of the 100 qualifiers, the top 32 moved to A Division, while the next top 8 progressed to B Division, with the entire competition streamed live on Twitch by Delaware Pinball Collective, with replays available to watch on YouTube.

Thanks to MAPO's addition to the Stern Pro Circuit, several top world-ranked players wound up in the A Division finals, including Zach McCarthy, Carlos Delaserda, Jason Zahler, Eric Stone, Steven Bowden, and several more, making for a particularly brutal playoff battle. Similar to Pinball at the Zoo, playoffs were three games, PAPA style, albeit with slightly different scoring, which put a greater emphasis on consistent play rather than squeaking out one big win. After several rounds of playoffs, the final four faced off: Zach 'Zmac' McCarthy, Alex Kelley, Anthony Lambos Jr., and Carlos Delaserda.

Things got off to an absolutely ridiculous start in Game 1 on Torpedo Alley (Data East, 1988), as Zmac stunned with remarkable multiball play, rolling the machine's 10 million point score limit on his very first ball, ultimately granting him an early win. After that extremely long game, the players were definitely ready to dive into Game 2, King Kong: Myth of Terror Island (Stern, 2025), producing some surprising results. Echoing Zmac's performance from Game 1, Alex Kelley blew up King Kong with nearly 500 million points on ball 1, pushed over 1 billion by ball 3, giving him his first win of the series. Things were close coming into Game 3, Stars (Stern, 1978), with Zmac and Alex ahead of the pack, while Anthony and Carlos hoped for a big comeback. Once again, Alex had a huge ball 1, surviving long thanks to two Lazarus balls, and scoring nearly 200,000 points, enough to bag him the overall tournament win and his first Stern Pro Circuit victory.

MAPO 2026 Winners List:

• Main A Division – Alex Kelley (New York, NY)

• Main B Division – Justin Bath (Greater Landover, MD)

• Classics A Division – Anthony Lambos Jr. (East Stroudsburg, PA)

• Classics B Division – Eric Russell (North Syracuse, NY)

• Women's – Terri Morton (Chesterbrook, PA)

Upcoming Pinball Tournaments and Events

After the craziness of March and April, the Stern Pro Circuit slows down a bit in the coming months, but not too much. Things pick back up in mid-May with the YEGPIN Pinball and Arcade Expo in Alberta, Canada, followed by the Silverball Super Showdown V in Stone Park, Illinois, come late June. Pinburgh and The BEAST are the two big competitions for July, while the District 82 Summer Pinball Classic and the Northwest Pinball Championships will keep us busy in August.

Between these big-time tournaments and the many others cropping up from weekend to weekend, it seems like this summer will be another stunning collection of months for competitive pinball. If you're looking to get involved, we recommend checking out the events calendar on Pinside, competing in an IFPA-sanctioned tournament, or joining a local pinball league for some casual fun. As they say, “it's more fun to compete”, so try to get out there this summer and test your skills!