Well hello! Derek from TLP here, and I’m glad to be the one to introduce you to the Northeast Pinball Challenge. This spot will be a place to keep everyone up to date on the comings and goings of the league. I’m hoping to have a field report up here from our location leagues every week, and we’ll use the updates to keep you informed on overall news: like when we know times and formats for Grand Finals, the prize pools, and what’s going on. But since I’m writing this before anyone even really knows about NPC, we’ll use this as a bit of a launching off point.
So, why NPC?
Really, it’s four things:
- I wanted to have something competitive to do over the summer. I love league, and I’m happier when league is running. With NEPL taking the summer off, it felt like the right time to give it a go.
- I wanted to try some new things. I want locations to have bragging rights about the folks that play there. I want large league feel, small league competition. And so, here was a safe place to do all that.
- I love locations and location pinball. Home pinball is great. Location pinball is great. People who operate and buy and maintain machines for us all to play are great. I wanted them to be front and center and have the leagues play for them as much as for themselves.
- I like WPPRs. I need more state WPPRs. Others are in the same boat, so let’s roll.
There’s no 5th thing, but if there were, I like trying stuff. So consider this an experiment with the game we all love.
Where to find us
Any new endeavor is hard to get feet under because — well, no one knows who I am. But everyone associated with this have been active in the community for a long time. Building trust takes time — so I think you can trust us all.
This website should be the front and center spot for all news, but additionally, we are:
- On Instagram at @NPCPinball
- On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/npcpinball/
- On New England Pinball Discord, you can reach out to me as Derek (Fudd/TLP)
- Or if you wanna e-mail, send me a line at derek@npcpinball.org
What’s next
Well, leagues are getting set up with IFPA, who has already blessed our final format (not the team part, sadly) and what we’re trying to do, but the paperwork will be addressed in the next few weeks. After that, I’d really love to find some additional locations who would like to be a part of something bigger this summer, and earn the right to possibly be the Location of the Season by winning the team event at Grand Finals.
If you’re interested in helping, running, volunteering, or adding a location to this summer experiment of ours, please reach out above! We’d love to have you. We are going to cap this at 8 total locations for this trial run, so let me know and I’ll walk you through what we’re doing.
Other than that, more updates in a few weeks as leagues get entered, and hopefully people get interested and sign up! The biggest help you can be now is to tell the folks you see out on location, tell your friends, tell your clubmates, and spread the word. Let’s make this summer season something special.
Talk to y’all soon!
-Derek