The Score Card 20: SPC Championship, Expo, and SLAPC

Stern Pro Circuit 2025-26 Championship

Regular readers of The Score Card should be intimately familiar with the Stern Pro Circuit: a 20-tournament gauntlet around North America (and a bit of Europe) sponsored by Stern Pinball and Mountain Dew. This circuit culminates in the all-important SPC Championship, an event where the top 32 players compete for a prize pool of over $30,000, including a brand new Stern pinball machine. This final battle for the 2025 circuit was held on October 14 at the Pinball Capital in Stone Park, Illinois, which continues to be a hotspot location for major competitions like this. As usual, the competition was streamed live by Stern in association with Backhand Pinball, with commentary from Jack Danger, Elizabeth Gieske, Tom Graf, Andy Bagwell, and more.

One of the most interesting aspects of the SPC Championship is the speedrun challenge format: a style of competition very rarely seen in other tournaments. Instead of your usual phase qualifying and playoff phase, the SPC Championship features a bracket of best-of-11, head-to-head battles, where, instead of a high score, players fight to secure the fastest times in a variety of game-specific challenges on Stern machines. For example, competitors might race to start the main multiball on Godzilla, start an NYC mode on King Kong: Myth of Terror Island, or start a Bulbasaur mode on Pokémon. Generally speaking, this format keeps the pace up, both for players and onlookers, putting an emphasis on flipper skills and accurate shooting over endurance or grindy scoring strategies.

Over the course of the first 5 rounds of the bracket, there were quite a few surprises, as most of the top-seeded players were eliminated long before the final round. The semifinals brought more underdog upsets, as the top seed and defending champion, Zach 'Zmac' McCarthy, was eliminated by Viggo Löwgren, while the #6 world-ranked Escher Lefkoff was eliminated by Preston Currie. With all other opponents out of the way, the final showdown was between Viggo and Preston, leading to one of the most intense grand finals in all of SPC Championship history.

In Game 1, Preston had a stunning start on King Kong: Myth of Terror Island, beating Viggo's time in the “Start King Kong Multiball” challenge by a mere 2 seconds, granting him the early lead. Preston's incredibly calculated play continued across the next 3 games, winning challenges on Godzilla, Metallica Remastered, and Jurassic Park, further pushing his lead to 4–0. Not one to be swept so easily, Viggo bit back in Game 5, Jurassic Park, finishing the “Start Raptor Multiball” challenge in just 33 seconds with some aggressive up-nudging, beating Preston's time and picking up his first win of the series. Unshaken, Preston responded with another clutch finish in Game 6, Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye, winning the “Start Transformers Multiball” challenge with 5 seconds to spare and putting him one win away from the tournament win.

Surprisingly, with the series at 5–2, Viggo sparked back to life, and echoing his performance at the 2026 European Pinball Championships, he locked in and did not let up. Over the next 3 games, with his tournament life on the line, Viggo played with razor-sharp accuracy and reflexes, speeding past Preston in challenges on Godzilla, Metallica Remastered, and Pokémon, tying the set up at 5–5. This paved the way to a final, winner-takes-all Game 11 on King Kong: Myth of Terror Island, where “Start King Kong Multiball” would be the challenge to decide the championship. Thanks to some perfect plunges and clean ramp shots, Viggo finished in 36 seconds, and though he played hard until the end, Preston finished just shy at 39 seconds. After winning 5 games back-to-back, Viggo once again proved that he could perform under pressure, netting him $2,500, a brand new Stern pinball machine, and the title of the 2025-26 Stern Pro Circuit Championship.

SPC 2025-26 Championship Winners:

• SPC Champion – Viggo Löwgren (Furulund, Sweden)

• Second Place – Preston Currie (Fishers, IN)

• Third Place (TIE) – Zach McCarthy (Conifer, CO) / Escher Lefkoff (Queensland, Australia)

Pinball Expo 2026 Flip OUT

Without a doubt, Pinball Expo in Schaumburg, Illinois, is the premier pinball show in the United States, best known for its enormous show floor of rare games, legendary panels from designers, and of course, one of the biggest tournaments on the Stern Pro Circuit. In addition to classics and women's circuit tournaments, Pinball Expo also hosts the “Flip OUT”, a stand-out competition that often garners 200+ players, and is the next stop on the Stern Pro Circuit. The qualifying section of this tournament utilizes a Best Game format, where players compete in single-player games for the highest score on 15 different machines (all current Stern games), with their best 12 scores counting towards playoff placement. That said, everyone qualifies for finals, with the top third of players progressing to A Division, while the rest are split between B Division and C Division.

Though playing your qualifying games is a good time, it kind of feels like practice for the main event: a massive, double-elimination bracket consisting of head-to-head matches, leading to one final showdown for all the glory. Since Pinball Expo is so renowned, players travel from far and wide to attend, making the Flip OUT playoffs a great place to play 1v1 matches against opponents from across the globe. For spectators, this makes for brilliant late-tournament matches featuring the best players in the world, and for players, it's a great way to identify your strengths, meet players from beyond your local scene, and get in some serious competition.

As always, Fox Cities Pinball was there to stream the entire competition live on Twitch, and after two full days of playoffs, it all came down to a battle between two titans: #3 world-ranked Zach 'Zmac' McCarthy and #6 world-ranked Escher Lefkoff. The pair first met in the winners' bracket finals, where Zmac reverse-swept Escher in a close 3–2 set, pushing Escher down to the losers' bracket finals. There, Escher defeated Raymond Davidson, granting him another shot at Zmac in the overall tournament grand finals.

In this final best-of-five series, Zmac started strong with back-to-back wins on Star Wars: Fall of the Empire and Stranger Things, but Escher managed to turn things around on Jurassic Park and John Wick, tying the set at 2–2. In an incredible Game 5 on King Kong: Myth of Terror Island, Zmac pumped up his Crash the Gate mini-wizard mode for a total of 1.6 billion points, but Escher did the same thing on ball 3 and finished with 3.3 billion points: a score that Zmac could not catch.

However, since Zmac was the winner of the winners' bracket, this pushed the set to a sudden death match on Stranger Things to decide the entire competition. Zmac set the pace by picking up a five-way combo and looping the left ramp for a total of 443 million points, but by ball 3, Escher had yet to breach 1 million points. Despite a valiant effort on his last ball, Escher finished with just 130 million points, putting the ribbon on an extremely long grand finals and making Zach McCarthy the 2026 Pinball Expo Flip OUT champion.

Pinball Expo 2026 Flip OUT Winners:

• A Division – Zach McCarthy (Conifer, CO)

• B Division – Dave Lawton (Meredith, NH)

• C Division – Matt McCarty (Neenah, WI)

• Women's – Ripley Kalyn Smith (Louisville, KY)

• Classics – Sterling Mitoska (Brooklyn, MI)

St. Louis Area Pinball Championship 2026

For our final stop on the Stern Pro Circuit, we head to the St. Louis Area Pinball Championship, which makes its debut on the circuit this year. Held at The Pinball Company in Chesterfield, Missouri, this event serves as a climactic tournament for many leagues around the St. Louis area, bringing together all the various pinball communities of the region for one big bash. This year's affair garnered 87 players for two tournaments: a card-based qualifying side competition and the Stern Pro Circuit main event utilizing the hybrid best game format. With a bank of 15 games that consisted of classic EMs to flashy moderns, players attempted single-player, high-score runs, with their top 9 scores counting towards playoff placement. Overall, 40 players progressed to the A Division playoffs, and once again, Fox Cities Pinball was there to broadcast all of the tournament action.

Coming into the playoffs, five players had risen above the pack in qualifying, consistently scoring over 1 billion points on several games in the bank. This included Preston Currie, Andrew Foard, Andy Bagwell, Luke Nahorniak, and Steven Bowden. However, these top qualifiers started to slink away with each passing round of the playoffs. Both Preston and Steven were eliminated in the quarterfinals, while Andrew and Luke met their end in the semifinals. This left Andy Bagwell as the only top qualifier to make it to the grand finals, where he was joined by three other fantastic players: Steven Skochinski, Tyler Hund, and Neil Graf.

The grand finals kicked off with Game 1, Judge Dredd, where Neil Graf consistently led the group on each ball, eventually beating every mode and finishing the Ultimate Challenge wizard mode for a first-place finish, trailed by Steven in second place. Game 2, Fallout, was brutally punishing on ball 1 for all but Andy Bagwell, who scored over 165 million points, thanks to a great Deathclaw multiball. Over the next 2 balls, everyone did their best to catch Andy's lead score, with Neil having a high-scoring ball 3, but Andy could not be stopped, pushing his score to 345 million points for a walk-off win.

With only Game 3, Joker Poker, left to play, Neil, Andy, and Steven all had a path to the overall tournament win, but Tyler was mathematically out of contention. With that in mind, almost everyone got hosed on ball 1, except for Andy, who slap-saved his way to 5X bonus, nailing drop targets and surviving thanks to a lucky Lazarus ball, scoring 186,000 points. Balls 2, 3, and 4 were mostly a wash for all but Tyler, who racked up bonus with aggressive play, and though Neil dug deep on ball 5, it was not enough to catch Andy. After falling short in Game 1, Andy had proved his prowess with tough back-to-back wins, wrapping up the finals and winning the 2026 St. Louis Area Pinball Championship.

SLAPC 2026 Winners:

• Main – Andy Bagwell (Elgin, IL)

• Side Card – Luke Nahorniak (Lonsdale, MN)

Upcoming Pinball Tournaments and Events

Although the year is soon coming to a close, that doesn't mean that the competitive pinball hype is dying down. Instead, you can expect a slight influx of local and regional tournaments in the next few months, as players look to accumulate as many WPPRs as possible before the IFPA 2026-27 State/Provincial Championships. If you're one of those people, definitely check out the IFPA tournament calendar for upcoming sanctioned tournaments, such as Fallout launch parties and more. This year's Stern Pro Circuit is almost done, too, but there are still 2 more tournaments left to play in December: Pincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Atomic Pinball Winter Bash in Wood River, Illinois.

For more casual play, be sure to check out the IFPA league calendar, as winter leagues should be starting soon as well. Either way, try to get out there and play some competitive pinball this winter, whether you're a seasoned veteran, slightly rusty, or completely new. There's plenty of time to hone your skills and prepare for the upcoming IFPA 2027 season, and with over 163,000 registered IFPA players, competitive pinball is more popular than ever. We'll be back in late December for an end-of-year roundup, but until then, keep your flipping fingers flexed and play more pinball!