Squamish held its first womens-only pinball competition on Sunday Aug. 25.
Femme Flip–a Vancouver-based female pinball group brought the tournament to Squamish which saw other like-minded gals compete in seven rounds of flipping good fun!
Femme Flip co-founder Nicole Goodacre gave The Squamish Chief all the details ahead of the event which she hopes will become a monthly tournament.
“It's going to be seven rounds of match play, so that means seven, three or four player games, because on every pinball machine, you can have up to four people playing at a time,” Goodacre said prior to the tournament.
“Everybody will play one game in their three or four player group, and then each person from each game will get points, depending if they come first, second, third or fourth.
“Then, for the next round, we do Swiss pairing, which means if you lose in the first round, you'll be with the other people who lost in the second round.
“So it's really great if you're nervous and you have no idea what you're doing, and because we match with equally skilled players the whole time,” she said.
The finals were held in a ladder format to determine the top four places.
Cynthia Rose took out first place, with Joanna Jedrzejczyk claiming second, Ellen Bowles in third and Chelsey Syvret in fourth.
Goodacre and her co-founder Cynthia Rose started Femme Flip last year as a way to create a safe space for female pinball players in Vancouver.
“Currently, myself and Cynthia host the only women’s pinball tournament in Vancouver. I am rarely in a gathering of all women, so it feels pretty special to be playing pinball with a bunch of incredible, passionate women,” she said.
“Three of the female players that we have in Vancouver here are in the top 100 women in the world.”
Goodacre said that all players who took part in the tournament left with a world-wide pinball ranking.
“The [Squamish] tournament is an IFPA ranked event, so every female player will get a world-wide pinball ranking.”
The tournament was the first event at the recently reopened Chieftain Pool & Pinball located at 38005 Cleveland Avenue, Squamish.
For newbies who want to get involved with Femme Flip, Goodacre says the group allows player coaching for game growth.
“It does help with new players when they don't know the rules because you are just flipping like crazy,” she said.
“You have no idea what you're doing, you're just trying not to drain your balls!”
Pinball games at the Chieftain Pool & Pinball include Deadpool, Godzilla Jaws, Jurassic Park, No Fear, and Terminator 2.
For more information on future events visit the Femme Flip social media pages.
Please note, this story has been updated since it was first posted to include the winners of the tournament.
