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The Location;Come celebrate ten years of Firefly with an IFPA sanctioned pinball tournament! Firefly has been a friend of pinball and gaming from the very beginning, first hosting all 80's games like Pin*Bot and High Speed, then transitioning to 90's classics like The Addams Family and Junkyard, recently hosting the custom Charlottesville Derby Dames fund raising machine, and now sporting a fresh lineup of six modern Sterns like Godzilla and Mandalorian. Firefly is the absolute best place to play pinball using old fashioned coin drop quarters, partake in drinks from the full bar, and enjoy delicious food from the veg-friendly kitchen. No other place in Charlottesville offers such a convenient one-stop-shop to get your gaming, drinking, and food fix! The pinball community has been extremely grateful for Firefly's continued support of the silver ball and we wish them another ten years of prosperity!
The Tournament;
Doors open at 11:00am, tourney sign-up cutoff is 2:45pm, and the tourney starts at 3:00pm. $10 entry fee (cash only - ATM on site) plus coin-drop (estimated to be another $10 cash). In hopes of making for a more complex and engaging experience, this will be a two-stage tournament. The first stage will be a progressive fair-strike qualifier. We will play in groups of three or four players on assigned games. Winner gets 0 strikes, middle places get 1 strike, and the loser gets 2 strikes. 7 strikes result in elimination, until we are down to the final four players. Once we have four players, we will move onto an 'amazing race' finals round. The worst seed puts up a 1-player target score on an assigned game, and the following three players all attempt to beat that score. If you beat the score, you move onto to the next machine. If someone doesn't beat the target score, that becomes the new target score. The person with the lowest score on the first game gets eliminated. This will continue until three different games are 'raced' and we will crown a winner!
The Prizes;
All four finals qualifiers will get prizes. 100% of the $10 cash entry fees will be divided up; 1st gets 40%, 2nd gets 30%, 3rd gets 20%, and 4th gets 10%. There will also be a selection of Firefly merch to choose from. I may make a single trophy if time allows!
The People;
Dan Purdy is the tournament director and runs the pinball competition scene in Charlottesville, including a short-lived league at Firefly in 2016. Jennifer Mowad is the owner of Firefly since May 2023, the founder of Cocoa & Spice, and initiated the idea of this pinball competition celebration. Melissa Meece is Firefly's co-founder and previous long-term owner, along with Mark Weber (RIP) who was the driving force behind opening Firefly after a terminal cancer diagnosis in May 2014. Coin operators David Brizzolara and Mark Conley have owned and maintained the pinball machines at Firefly since their opening and will be on hand for technical issues like stuck balls and jammed coin mechs. With our powers combined, we hope to offer up a really fun tournament to celebrate an important milestone!
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
FIREFLY Charlottesville, Charlottesville, United States
