Ep 35: Pinburgh with Doug Polka
Episode 35 is here! Everyone has questions on their mind about Pinburgh and we have the guy to answer those questions! Doug Polka joins us to talk about their decision in cancelling Pinburgh 2020, what it takes to run the event, and the biggest question of all...what happened to Scott's leg?!?!
Kineticist’s take
Doug Polka on canceling 2020 Pinburgh, tournament operations, and Pittsburgh's pinball growth.
Synopsis
Doug Polka, director of Pinburgh tournament and co-owner of Kickback Cafe in Pittsburgh, discusses the 2020 cancellation of Replay FX and Pinburgh due to COVID-19, the operational complexity of running a 1,000-player tournament, the evolution of Pittsburgh's competitive pinball scene from near-zero games on route to a thriving ecosystem, and the differences between the match-play Pinburgh format and the ticket-based Papa format. The episode covers game curation, setup philosophy balancing competitive difficulty with casual accessibility, and tournament logistics.
Entities
- Flippin' Out Pinball· business
- Stern Pinball· company
- InDisc· event
- New York City Pinball Championship· event
- Papa World Championships· event
- Pinburgh· event
- Replay FX· event
- Alien Star· game
- Andromeda· game
- Doodlebug· game
- Jurassic Park· game
- Pittsburgh Penguins· organization
- Replay Foundation· organization
- Bo Catalano· person
- Brad Hunter· person
- Doug Polka· person
- Karen Catalano· person
- Keith Elwin· person
- Mark Steinman· person
- Scott Larson· person
- Steve Zumoff· person
- Zach Sharp· person
- Kickback Cafe· venue