The Score Card: Season's Endings

Well, here we are, the end of the regular 2025 competitive pinball season. Following Pinball Expo in October, it's been a relatively relaxed final few months, with the holidays in full swing. Still, November and December held a trio of large-scale tournaments, wrapping up the Stern Pro Circuit with an appropriately festive bow. On this edition of The Score Card, we're recapping the final SPC tournaments of the year, jumping from Florida's biggest arcade expo to a cozy convention in Ohio, before crossing the finish at a beloved arcade in Illinois. As we close the book on another great year of pinball and with the IFPA State Championships just on the horizon, let's take a look at who dominated in the end-of-season WPPR rush.

Free Play Florida

Tucked in at the end of November, just before Thanksgiving, was Free Play Florida, the Sunshine State's largest arcade and pinball show. In addition to their expansive floor of arcade machines, FPF 2025 hosted a bounty of pinball tournaments, including a Classics tournament, Women's tournament, and the main Stern Pro Circuit event. Qualifying was Herb-style, with players offered unlimited attempts (based on their time and budget) to obtain the highest score on a bank of 11 games, with the 6 best games counting in the main tournament. The top 24 highest qualifiers advanced to A Division, with the next highest 16 moving into B Division, and with a total of 150 players, qualifying for playoffs was no easy feat. Luckily, all of the action was streamed live on Twitch and YouTube, thanks to Batcave Pinball.

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Playoffs were four-player groups (3-2-1-0 scoring), and with only 3 games per round, pressure was on for solid placement. After 3 rounds of playoffs, only 4 competitors remained, including Zach 'Zmac' McCarthy, Nick Mueller, Dalton Ely, and Andy Rosa. The competition got off to a tense start on AC/DC, as Dalton put up a massive 150 million point game, only for Nick Mueller to chase him down and close the gap on ball 3. In the second game of the round, Taxi, Zmac established his dominance early, scoring over 2.5 million points on ball 1 while his opponents struggled to clear 200,000. Though Dalton got within striking distance, no one was able to surpass Zmac's final score of 2.9 million, granting him the game win.

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Coming into the last game, Zmac, Nick, and Dalton were all tied in total points, while Andy trailed behind. This made for a heated final match on the notoriously unforgiving Eight Ball, as a win here was the only path to an overall tournament victory. On ball 1, everyone struggled a bit to find their flow, but Andy started with a slight lead. However, Nick dug deep on ball 2, pushing his score over 400,000 points with hefty rips of the spinner. By the end of ball 3, Nick's score still stood strong, handing him the overall tournament win, while Zmac, Dalton, and Andy took second, third, and fourth place.
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Free Play Florida Winners:

• A Division – Nick Mueller (Los Angeles, CA)
• B Division – Garrett Smoke (Orlando, FL)
• Classics – Eric Stone (Fort Myers, FL)
• Womens – Ailsa Riddell (Tampa, FL)

Pincinnati 2025

Two weeks after Free Play Florida, the Stern Pro Circuit continued in Cincinnati, OH, at Pincinnati, a comfy convention and personal favorite of mine. A relatively new addition to the Stern Pro Circuit, Pincinnati holds 4 fantastic competitions: a Junior's tournament, a Women's Amazing Race tournament, an objective-based speedrun challenge called The Gauntlet, and a Mega Match Play main event. Qualifying for the main SPC event was held over two days, as over 135 players competed in 20 rounds of Match Play group competition, battling on a mix of ultra-fast moderns, spinner-heavy mids, and some truly wacky EMs.

Though there was a bit of wiggle room, with 40 total players making it into A Division, the skilled field of competition made success in the playoffs notably challenging. As always, the entire tournament was streamed live on Twitch by SDTMPinball, who kept the broadcast running well into the wee hours of the night. After fighting through 4 rounds of playoffs, the finalists emerged for one last 3-game series: John Delzoppo, Andy Rosa, Ryan McQuaid, and Sterling Mitoska. In the first game, John Wick, sling-drains and tilts were common and frequent as most struggled to score, but Sterling put a decent ball 3 together to clinch the first win. The second game of the round was on a Pincinnati favorite, Big Game, where John Delzoppo had a stellar first ball, and though Ryan and Sterling got close, John's score held strong til the end.

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Stern's infamous Stars (set to 5 balls) was the final arena of the round, and with John, Ryan, and Sterling all having a viable path to victory, no one was taking it easy. As usual with Stars, it was a rocky start as the competitors got comfortable with the center post and drain-hungry outlanes, but Ryan took an early lead with some solid spinner rips. Answering back, John Delzoppo had a solid ball 3 pushing close to 100,000 points, but Ryan came back around on ball 4, making several clutch nudges to keep the ball in play and rack up over 170,000 points. That big ball 4 was enough to hold the lead and ultimately grant him the Pincinnati first place victory, while Sterling, John, and Andy finished in second, third, and fourth.

Pincinnati Winners:

• A Division – Ryan McQuaid (USA)
• B Division – DJ Toth (Cleveland, OH)
• Women's – Ripley Kalyn Smith (Louisville, KY)
• The Gauntlet – Dave Stewart (Carnation, WA)

Winter Bash

Bringing us over the finish line and capping off this year's Stern Pro Circuit was the 2025 Winter Bash, held at Atomic Pinball Arcade in Wood River, IL. A player-favorite competition, Winter Bash is a sociable, entertaining event, where the competitive pinball community gathers around for one last big tournament to wrap up the season. This year, over 115 players attended for a full day of group Match Play qualifying, for a total of 21 matches to play, with the top 40 qualifiers making it to A Division and the next 16 highest qualifiers occupying B Division. Just like with Pincinnati, the generous playoff cutline made for a more relaxed qualifying stage, but with some of the best players in the world competing for the last batch of circuit points, the playoffs were a ravenous affair.

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Both the qualifying and playoffs action was streamed live on Twitch by Fox Cities Pinball, who continue to deliver some of my favorite broadcasts in the competitive scene. The playoffs were notably stacked with talented players, including previous years' champions like Carlos Delaserda and Zach McCarthy, along with several top-25-ranked players. By the time the finals rolled around, 4 familiar finalists stepped up to the plate: Zach McCarthy, Gregory Kennedy, Steven Bowden, and Eric Stone.

The finals got off to a roaring start on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Stern), as Eric Stone handily clutched first place by scoring over 200 million points and reaching the wizard mode, while Zmac hung tough for second place. Looking to stifle Eric's fiery play, everyone came in swinging for the next game, Alien Poker. Though Greg and Eric had fantastic first balls, Zmac utilized excellent shatz passing to close the distance on ball 2, then secured the win on ball 3, leaving Eric to pick up second place. Moving into the last game, NBA Fastbreak, only Eric and Zmac had a path to the tournament win, setting the stage for a fierce fight. Ultimately, Eric kept his energy up and scored a whopping 414 total points, icing out Zmac, who floundered with only 12 points. Finishing just as strong as he started, Eric Stone held his own and walked away with the final Stern Pro Circuit tournament victory of 2025, while Zmac, Greg, and Steven finished in second, third, and fourth.

Winter Bash Winners:

• A Division – Eric Stone (Fort Myers, FL)
• B Division – Colton Morgan (Memphis, TN)

2026 Stern Pro Circuit Tournaments

Normally, we reserve this last section to highlight upcoming pinball tournaments and events, but given the holiday season, those are few and far between. While you can still find a list of upcoming tournaments by checking out the IFPA Calendar, we instead want to look ahead at the official list of the 2026 Stern Pro Circuit events, which features several additions this season. Though some dates have yet to be set, this is a good time to check out the various tournaments on the Stern Pro Circuit and start planning ahead. The first tournament of next season is already set for early January, and with how quickly these events fill up, don't wait too long if you're considering attending any of the listed tournaments. That said, here is the full list of the 20 tournaments that will make up the 2026 Stern Pro Circuit.

• Starfighters SPF: January 8 – January 11
• The Open IFPA World Championship (INDISC): Feb 26 – March 1
• IFPA Pin-Masters: March 6 – March 8
• Texas Pinball Festival: March 20 – March 22
• Past Times Mega Matchplay Spring: March 27 – March 29
• YEGPin Match Play Championship: May 13 – May 17
• NW Pinball Championships: August 27 – August 30
• Pincinnati: December 4 – December 12

Dates TBD

• Pinball Expo FlipOUT! Tournament
• THE BEAST: Main Tournament
• Silverball Rumble at Pintastic New England
• D82 Summer Pinball Classic
• CP Pinball Winter Bash
• Pinball at the 'Zoo
• Pinburgh
• Mid-Atlantic Pinball Open
• SSS4 Main Event: Target Matchplay
• St. Louis Area Pinball Championship
• PAPA World Championship
• UK Pinball Open

That's gonna wrap up this edition of The Score Card! There's still more pinball action soon to come, with the NACS IFPA State/Provincial Championships scheduled for January 17, 2026, to determine the winners who will move onto the IFPA North American Pinball Championship later in the year. Not to fret, The Score Card will be back next month to catch you up, but I definitely recommend watching your respective state championship (where broadcasts are available) and rooting on your favorite player.

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On a final note, I've had a hell of a fun time bringing you guys The Score Card throughout the entire 2025 season. Tournaments continue to be one of my favorite parts of the pinball world and I'm always ecstatic to share the latest happenings with our readers. Thank you to everyone who has continued to check out The Score Card, liked the posts on social media, or shared the articles with friends. Your support and feedback continues to be invaluable and I'm looking forward to continuing coverage for the upcoming season. Thanks again for reading The Score Card, and in the meantime, get ready for the WPPR grind to reset and go out and play more pinball!