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2019 Brisbane Masters - August 17th & 18th **SOLD OUT**


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Just want to say my partner and I had a great time over the weekend and are already discussing next year's event! HUGE thanks to Jimmy, Lambo, and all the many scorers, techs, officials and other Behind the Scenes guys and gals who managed to pull off such a gigantic, fun event smoothly. YOU ROCK!!!!

 

Sent from my SM-A520F using Aussie Arcade mobile app

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How good was that!?!

 

Highlight for me was the two young fellas tearing it up.

 

Thanks Jimmi and Jas, and all involved.

 

Suggestion: As a follow up, it would be great to see a bunch of comps in AUS/NZ that feature Jordan, Johannes, Escher, and Colin, along with Belles and Chimes.

 

Cheers,

 

G

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I've managed to spend a few days reflecting over the past 2-3 weeks and it's still quite difficult comprehend everything that was BPAC 2019.

 

It was probably around this time last year when Jimmy and I sat down to discuss this year's festivities after the success of the Brisbane Masters weekend at Rydges Hotel last year. How do we make it even bigger and better than the last time? And through the brain child that is the maniac of Jimmy Nails & crew, the BPAC @ the Ekka was born.

 

As the months flew by, the crew assembled for numerous meetings, all with the common aim - to put on the best and biggest event for the pinball and arcade community alike.

 

I can't speak much for the arcade community as I wasn't involved with a lot of it, but I was nervous heading into this year's event. What were we about to undertake?? 10 days of madness!! Did we organise too much? Was it not enough? Hoping and praying that it would all run smoothly and on time.

 

Day 1 arrived and we kicked off the pinball side of things with the Pump & Dump comp. Thankfully this ended up being quite a fun little introduction for what lay ahead. It was also the start of the amazing run by 17-year-old Colin Urban from the U.S., being the first of many wins while down under.

 

On to the first of the main events of the weekend - the Classics Matchplay. Quite possibly the favourite event for many, as there is not a lot of Classics type events on the calendar. Unfortunately the event ran a lot longer than expected - but who knew? Something to keep in mind for future years. The Classics saw Colin take out this event as well, making it 2 from 2, with local Dirk Booy playing exceptionally well and taking out the runner-up spot in his best WPPR result to date.

 

Due to the Classics Matchplay running late, the Classics Frenzy started considerably late - something of which will be addressed for the future. Here, we had the one and only Aussie IFPA event victory over the 10-days - Paul Jones was named champion after the 3 hour event

 

 

On to my favourite event of the weekend (not called the Brisbane Masters) was the 10-strikes Fair Strikes event. Couldn't have asked for a better and more smoother event than that. Once again, Colin Urban was victorious, making it a perfect 3 event wins from 3 starts (did not play the Flip Frenzy).

 

The next 3 days saw main events move away from the Showgrounds and showcase some of our wonderful pinball & arcade venues around the South East. It is because of venues such as Pincadia, Netherworld and Timezone and many more, that helped put pinball in Queensland on the map and which led to the formation of the BPAC.

 

While the main events moved away from the Ekka, we were able to host a daily Under 16s competition, which ended up being quite well received. We were also introduced to young Mater, who fell in love with pinball right from the start. Mater, at just 9 years old, popped in nearly every day and couldn't wait to get a taste of the silver ball action whenever he could.

 

One of the other very important aspects of having the 3 days away from the main venue was that we got to see quite a lot of the general public come and check out 'pinball alley'. It was wonderful hearing the stories from people who used to own machines, or line up and play them at the local fish and chip store, for example.

 

Day 7 saw the players return to the Showgrounds for the Warm Up event, held over 2 days. Everyone had the choice of up to 15 different games to play, with Top 24 finals to be played on the Friday night. Would people play the games they liked the most? Was is better to get all games done as soon as possible, or wait for others to play? Was there some strategy involved to play certain games over others? It certainly made for some interesting results a long the way.

 

In the middle of it all was a traditional 3-strikes elimination event on the Thursday night. Both this and the Warm Up saw quite a number of extra players (in particular from interstate and abroad) join us at BPAC for the first time. Over 100 entrants in both events, hoping to get their eye in on the machines before the main event coming up.

 

Friday afternoon also saw the widely regarded as the 3rd main event of week and first ever QUEENS-land Women's Championship. This event was the brain child of the ever wonderful Jessica Denardo and Tanya Lowe. It was awesome to see 30 ladies part of this special event on the calendar, and I know everyone involved thoroughly enjoyed themselves. After a few rounds of chess-swiss matchplay, and a Top 8 finals,the event was won by the current women's World #1 player Danielle Peck, followed closely behind in 2nd by Lisa Conroy, with Hollie Mills and Emily Cosson taking out 3rd & 4th place respectively.

 

The 3-Strikes event was taken out by Colin Urban yet again, with local youngster David Loewy coming in as runner-up. Escher Lefkoff, another of the teenagers making the trek over from the U.S., won the Warm Up event, besting Colin Urban in the final. Bowen Kerins came in 3rd, making it a U.S. trifecta.

 

The final weekend of the Ekka saw the 5th annual Brisbane Masters take place. This event boasted a new record of participants for any pinball events in the Southern Hemisphere, and one of the highest quality fields ever in place for an event held in Australia. Round 1 kicked off with 160 participants, all vying for the $2000 1st place prize.

 

After 7 extremely long and gruelling rounds of Group Matchplay, the Top 24 qualifiers were determined, and were due to come back the following day and battle it out in a head-to-head best of 5 game elimination format. Earning byes into the finals were the Top 4 seeds - Colin, Escher, Bowen and David Peck from New Zealand - all of whom were playing in their first Brisbane Masters.

 

After seeing finalists eliminated over 5 rounds, it came down to final 2 - Colin vs Escher. These two (along with Bowen, who finished in 3rd place overall) had been putting on an absolute masterclass all week long, and it was probably fitting that the final came down to this. In the end, Colin prevailed 3 games to 2 in the final, and became the winner of the 5th annual Brisbane Masters, and first international player to do so in it's brief history.

 

After presentations were done, it was time to let the hair down, relax a little and enjoy the week or so that was, and finish off with the Flip Frenzy Party. The music was loud, the beer was flowing, the singing might not have been great (I know mine was terrible!), and the final games of BPAC 2019 were played. After 3 fabulous hours to draw the event to a close, it was Lisa Conroy of NZ who rose to the top and took out the Flip Frenzy Party. Well done Lisa!!

 

As always with an event of this magnitude, there are always so many people to thank along the way.

 

Sponsors - Hutchinson Builders, AMD, Pincadia, Netherworld, 1UP, Game the System, Ekka, and many more. Without your support of our vision,along with the sponsoring of each event, none of this would have been possible.

 

Machine/cab providers - There are way too many to mention individually, however it was almighty brave for each and every single one of you to let your babies and prized possessions get beaten up every day for 10 days straight. I am incredibly impressed with how well those machines held up over such a long period of time. Thank you again to all of you.

 

Scorers, volunteers, merch sellers, etc - To everyone who assisted in any way shape or form, no matter the size of your contribution, your help is what made the event what it was - an enormous success! It was truly wonderful to see the number of people willing to offer their services and off their own back without being asked. You are all legends.

 

Tech's - the main men Dave and Hugh. For all their absolute tireless work in getting machines in, levelled, working and fixed promptly. This event woild never have happened and ran so smoothly without you being there nearly every day for up to 4 weeks. I also can't forget the volunteer tech's throughout either - you guys took an incredible load of work off everyone's shoulders where possible. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

 

The arcade crew - As mentioned earlier, I didn't have much involvement with the arcade side of things, however it was great to be able to share te spotlight with you this year. I believe all events ran exceptionally well, and look forward to seeing what you guys have in store for 2020!

 

The players - thank you to everyone for believing in us once again. To the crazy ones who spent their entire 10 days with us, you are insane (but a good kind of insane!). To those who travelled far and wide to pop in and say g'day, and support our event again this year, we really appreciate it and hope you loved every minute. We hope you all got to take away some great memories of the 10 days, especially those who came along for the first time and met for first time as well and look forward to seeing you in the future.

 

The main man - JIMMY NAILS!!!!

You had the vision, the plan, and more than pulled it off mate. The amount of time I spent on this event came absolutely not even close to how much effort and dedication you put into it. The many many hours and planning that has gone into this is nothing short of phenomenal, and it certainly hasn't gone unnoticed. We started this as the Brisbane Masters in 2015, and in 5 short years, has now become a world-class event for all to come and visit. The biggest of all thank yous belongs to you, on behalf of the entire pinball and arcade community for providing us with such an awesome event.

 

I know I will remember this year's BPAC Showcase for a number of reasons. We went big, some thought we were crazy, some even thought we couldn't do it, but I'm glad we did. A few weeks before the event began, I was concerned we put too much into the calendar, but felt that it was just about right after looking back.

 

Many great memories, many great new friendships formed, not to mention many a time catching up with old mates. I love our pinball community for plenty of reasons, but none more so than the great friendly relationships I am a part of. A couple of personal highlights for me was finally breaking my Masters Finals hoodoo, plus being able to have matches against the big 3 in Bowen, Escher & Colin at some point. But most of all, I shall treasure all your wonderful feedback and reflect on the high and lows of a magnificent 2019 BPAC event.

 

IFPA points for all events (except Cooly Club and Closing Frenzy) are now up on the IFPA site. Congratulations to Colin Urban for breaking into the World 10, Escher on the World Top 20 and Peter Watt on World Top 50!

 

I look forward to hearing any feedback you may have. We already working on tinkering with the timing of some events for next year. Once again, thank you to each and every single one of you for your support this year! BRING ON 2020!!!

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He's a hugaholic. Nothing anyone can do about it ;)

 

I disagree...The best thing you can do is accept the hug and occasionally give one out yourself...You might be surprised at the outcome...

Read the link that Travis provides regarding the benefits...

A hug from any stranger is a little daunting the 1st time but Travis gets so much out of it. It is calming and if that helps then I am fine with that.

I saw him hug Bowen at Cooly after he tilted. Travis was welcoming. Bowen was like a dead fish. What I found funny was the reaction. I understand but if a chick came up to hug you then it wouldn't be as strange. But some people need to get over themselves and realise that the world would be a better place with a little more understanding and a few more hugs.

It is a simple way of knowing someone is ok.

R U OK....? I am...

 

Cheers to Travelhugs... If there were only more like him the world would be more pleasant...

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