New Jersey Pinball Open 2010 Results

Ed Zeltmann (1st), Sean Grant (2nd), Frank Romero (3rd), Jim Fordham (4th)

Last Saturday, 25 competitors battled it out for the New Jersey Pinball Open Championship at Eight on the Break in Dunellen NJ. The National Pinball League (NPL) chose to run the qualification rounds as if it were a Monthly Masters event. At about 5:00 PM the top 4 groups (16 players) advanced to the playoff rounds. The top 8 players started in the winner’s bracket for double elimination play while the remaining 8 players started in the losers bracket for single elimination play. Each match was best two games out of 3, and if a third game was necessary it was a 2-ball game.

In the end, the winner was Ed Zeltmann, who went undefeated in the playoff rounds. His victory will give him at least 25 World Pinball Player Ranking points which will raise his world ranking considerably.

Jim Fordham, NPL New Jersey State Champion

Also at stake was the NPL New Jersey State Championship. Jim Fordham won the title since he was the highest finishing player from New Jersey. The top 8 players from New Jersey will be invited to the NPL Regional Championship later this year as will the top 8 players from each of the other State Championships.

Additional notes about the tournament:

• The format worked out extremely well. We were able to get in 7 or 8 Monthly Masters rounds, have each playoff match as a best two out of 3, and we still finished the competition before 9:30 PM.
• After the first two rounds, I was dead last and yet I still managed to make the top 8 by a fraction of a point.
• There usually are a bunch of older, non-working arcade cabinets in the pinball area. The Break moved those cabinets for the tournament so we could fit an extra game in there, and have a more manageable space for everyone to play and move about the room. I hope those cabs never return, or maybe I could at least take that Neo-Geo cab that was there, if it’s working of course.
• Even though the heat and humidity were close to unbearable, the pinball games themselves held up quite well with no major breakdowns.

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