Delaware State Pinball Championships set for weekend in Wilmington

In order to win a new pinball competition this weekend, a Magnolia woman may have to channel the spirit of Rick James when he went viral for stomping on Eddie Murphy’s couch.

The annual and open Delaware State Pinball Championship is Saturday, followed by the inaugural Delaware State Women’s Pinball Championship on Sunday.

Both championships are International Flipper Pinball Association (IFPA) events and they’re held at the Delaware Pinball Collective in Wilmington.

Marianne Pangia, 45, of Magnolia, is the No. 1 seed in the inaugural women’s competition. She’s also the Delaware Women’s Pinball director for the state’s Pinball Collective.

While it’s common for players to jostle machines in order to save balls, Pangia said she’s not as strong as the average man and cannot easily shake a machine, which weighs about 250 to 300 pounds.

Instead, she relies on “kicking” machines to extend her score, which she said is acceptable in competition. She doesn’t go full Rick James, however; she just moves the machine enough to bump it.

Players never want to go overboard and tilt the machine, Pangia cautioned, because shaking it too hard can trigger it to shut down mid-play, forcing an individual to lose their turn.

‘It’s not just all luck’

Pangia became enamored with competitive pinball in 2016. It began after her fiancé Chad Hastings, now president of the Delaware Pinball Collective, told her he wanted to buy a pinball machine.

The pair took a trip to Allentown, Pennsylvania, to check out PinFest, a popular pinball convention that features hundreds of machines for sale, Hastings said.

The couple stumbled across a tournament there and got hooked on the hobby.

Pangia discovered there was more to pinball than she thought. “You can have a little more control over the game. It’s not just all luck,” she said.

Eventually, she learned there are techniques to slow the ball down or more accurately guide it where you want to it to go.

Hastings, her fiancé, is a more advanced player, she said. But he downplayed that.

“We’re playing a game that is essentially a big toy for kids and adults,” Hastings, 48, said about competitive pinball.”It’s not as cutthroat as some of these hobbies. Everybody is generally happy for everyone else when they’re playing. The vibe is all positive.”

It started in a Delaware basement

In 2017, Hastings began organizing pinball tournaments in Delaware. He met Mike Veith of Milford online, and Veith allowed Hastings to run tournaments in his home, where he had more than two dozen machines, Hastings said.

Hastings then met pinball player Joe Fox of Middletown, who volunteered to host tournaments at his home. He had over 40 machines, including the most valuable one — the game Stargazer from the 1980s, which is worth around $15,000, he said.

Veith, Fox and Hastings began rotating events in their basements. In 2018, the first Delaware State Pinball Championship was born.

But hosting 50 people elbow-to-elbow in their basements wasn’t a long-term solution. So the Delaware Pinball Collective was founded in January 2022. (Veith and Fox are both board members.)

Today, the Collective has close to 100 members. The fee is $45 per month for individuals. Families of up to six people, such as two adults and four kids, can join for $60 per month.

Members get access to over 50 pinball machines they can play for free at the Collective in Wilmington. Hastings and Fox said they loaned a generous number of their own machines to the group.

Championships are single elimination

The Delaware State Pinball Championship is open to all genders and features a total of 16 players competing for a cash prize.Top-ranked players play the lowest seeds in a bracket. The first person to win four games moves on to the next round. It’s single elimination.

The winner gets a chance to compete in the IFPA North American Pinball competition in Wisconsin on Thursday, March 9, 2023.

Just before that, the First State Flippers will present the sold-out 2023 Mid-Atlantic Pinball Open at the Delaware Pinball Collective from Friday, March 3 to Sunday, March 5.The Delaware State Women’s Pinball Championship follows a similar structure to the open championship, except it’s only open to women players.

Win or lose, Pangia said she’s glad she has a hobby that offers her an escape. And she encourages others to give it a chance, especially women.

“It’s just a fun thing to do. I think everybody should give it a try,” she said. “[Pinball] can be a fun event to go out and just hang out with friends and girlfriends.”

Delaware State Pinball Championship will be held at Delaware Pinball Collective (1100 First State Blvd. Suite 200, Wilmington) at 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 21. The Delaware State Women’s Pinball Championship will be held at the same location, beginning at noon Sunday, Jan. 22. For more info, visit delawarepinballcollective.com.

Delaware State Pinball Championships set for weekend in Wilmington

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