Pinball Players Compete For Maine State Championship

16 of Maine's top pinball players competed Saturday in Gorham for the title of IFPA Maine State Pinball Champion.

Pinball has seen a surge in popularity over the past decade. Here in Maine, Arcadia National Bar and Coast City Comics in Portland as well as Schemengees Bar & Grille in Lewiston have several pinball machines ranging from classics to brand new games like Jurassic Park. And those are just a few locations you can find pinball. Many people in Maine have large collections in their home as well.

Pinball play and competitions are even streamed live on Twitch.

Competitive pinball is a big thing in Maine too as part of The New England Pinball League, where nearly 300 players compete all across New England for three seasons a year.

The International Flipper Pinball Association (IFPA) keeps track of the results of pinball tournaments all over the world and compiles rankings of over 40,000 players. I'm currently ranked 1827th of those players.

The top 16 players in each state and province in Canada are invited to play in their state or provincial championship with the winner getting a cash prize, a trophy and an invitation to Denver, Colorado in March to play in the IFPA North American Championship.

Maine's Championship was held Saturday at John Retuer's home in Gorham, ME where he has over 70 pinball machines in his converted garage and basement. News Center Maine stopped by to cover the championship.

The winner was Nick Destefano of Massachusetts. Now I know what you're saying. How did a guy from Massachusetts win a Maine championship? The tournament isn't for the best Maine players. It's for the best players who have played in Maine and Nick is one of the best in New England who happened to play tournaments in Maine in 2019.  He's ranked 211th in the world!

If you are interested in playing pinball, meeting a great group of people who love this game and just plain having fun, let's talk. I'll even teach you how to play, because believe it or not, there's a lot more to the game than just flipping.