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Welcome to the second edition of our tournament pinball news roundup, where we bring you the latest major happenings in the world of competitive pinball. Last time, we covered multiple IFPA National Championships and a couple of Stern Pro Circuit events, which kicked off the year with a bang. Things have remained busy over the past month, with another world championship and several big-time events wrapped up. Let's waste no time and get right to the results!
The IFPA 2024-25 Women's North American Championship and Women's World Championships were held at Port City Pinball in Portsmouth, New Hampshire over the last weekend of March, capping off the 2024 Women's IFPA season. This is only the second Women's North American championship, but the event was still highly attended, with women from all fifty states and four Canadian provinces showing up to compete. Streamed live on Twitch by BackhandPinball, the event was abundant with positive vibes, leading to satisfying competition for all involved. Speaking on the location and her perspective from competing, Krista Liem from Ohio stated “The staff and volunteers put on a well-run tournament...I liked the variety of machines to choose from. It was a great experience.”
Every competitor put in their best effort, but it all came down to two players for the best-of-seven finals: Miriam Nadler (New York) and Kaylee Campbell (North Carolina). Miriam got off to a strong start with back-to-back wins on The Shadow (Bally, 1994) and Johnny Mnemonic (Williams, 1995), but Kaylee quickly answered back with two wins on Tron: Legacy (Stern, 2011) and Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast (Stern, 2018) to tie things up. However, Miriam regained the lead with a win on Paragon (Bally, 1979), and then clinched the series with 303,780 points on Viking (Bally, 1980), making her the new IFPA Women's North American Pinball champion!
The 2025 IFPA Women's World Championship kicked off the day after the North American Championship, starting with a 24-game group Match Play qualifying session. 32 women competed for a shot at the title, which was further reduced to 16 players for head-to-head playoffs, all leading up to a final best-of-seven series between Kaylee Campbell (North Carolina) and Keri Wing (Missouri).
Kaylee dominated early with three straight wins on Viking (Bally, 1980), Jack's Open (Gottlieb, 1977), and Frontier (Bally, 1980), but Keri refused the sweep in momentous fashion. Staying alive with a win on Foo Fighters (Stern, 2023), Keri continued to claw back, picking up more momentum with a massive, 850 million point ball 3 comeback on Deadpool (Stern, 2018). Following another win from Keri on World Cup Soccer (Bally, 1994), the series was tied at 3-3, leaving everything up to Game 7 on Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast (Stern, 2018). Kaylee held the lead throughout most of the game, but Keri could not be stopped, and with a 100 million point ball 3 comeback, she secured the reverse sweep. After seven games of incredibly intense and dramatic play, Keri Wing emerged as the 2025 Women's Pinball World Champion, marking the third World Championship win of her competitive career.
Now that Spring is here, pinball and arcade conventions are in full swing, hosting a variety of tournaments for the competitively inclined. The 2025 Texas Pinball Festival was held in late March, in Frisco, Texas, bringing together thousands of attendees for fun, flipper action. In addition to surprise announcements, TPF hosted the Texas Wizards tournament, which is the fourth Stern Pro Circuit event of the year. Streamed live on Twitch by Wormhole Pinball, qualifying was split into two sessions of 20-round Match Play, leading to 3 divisions for the finals. Over 160 players showed up, battling for a bounty of nearly 175 WPPRs, with everyone putting in their all. The weekend also held the 2025 Texas Takedown Women's Pinball Championship, which saw over 65 players competing in 3 hours of Match Play qualifying, whittling the field down to a single round, top 4 finals.
March also brought the 14th annual Louisville Arcade Expo, and though primarily focused on retro arcade games, this player-favorite convention still has some competitive pinball to enjoy. In addition to the infamous late-night tournament at Recbar, LAX 2025 also had a card-based tournament, which drew in over 80 players. Streamed live on Twitch by WTRPin, only 24 players made it to the PAPA-style playoffs, leading to an exceptionally close final round.
As always, there's a slew of upcoming pinball tournaments and conventions in the coming months, so if you're eager to get involved in competition, look no further. There are three Stern Pro Circuit events in April, starting with Cactus Jack's Silverball Showdown, held in Oklahoma City, OK, on April 5. Just days later, from April 10 – 12, is the Silverball Rumble at the Pintastic New England expo, followed by Pinball at the Zoo in Kalamazoo, Michigan, from April 17 – 19.
For more upcoming pinball, check out the pinball events calendar over on Pinside, the IFPA tournament calendar, or the list of IFPA-sanctioned leagues. Now get out there and play some competitive pinball!
Matt Owen is a lifelong gamer and overall media fiend. He can often be found playing endless hours of games or watching an absurd amount of movies and television: action, horror, mystery, and sci-fi in particular. When he's not bingeing entertainment media, Matt enjoys reading and writing fiction, playing pinball, broadcasting, and attempting to cook.
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