Space City Open

Once again, Space City Pinball League will host the Space City Open pinball tournament at the Houston Arcade Expo on November 15th and 16th. Online registration will begin on September 22nd at noon.

The Space City Open is a matchplay pinball tournament. There will be four distinct qualifying sessions (A, B, C, and D), during which players will play six randomly selected machines against groups of randomly selected opponents on each game. The top six players from each session will move on to the finals. Each player is permitted to play in up to two qualifying sessions. Please see the tournament website for the full rules. 

The Belles of Space City will also host a women’s knockout tournament at the Houston Arcade Expo on Saturday, November 16th. Online registration will begin October 5th. Details may be found on the tournament website.

Strike Out Cancer: Benefit Pinball Tournament

Space City Pinball will be running a tournament at the Game Preserve North on September 28, 2019 at 4PM.

All proceeds will be donated to a local member of the Houston arcade/pinball community who is currently battling cancer.

Entry fee for the tournament is $10 for adults, $5 for youth 17 and under. Prizes will be awarded to the winners.

SCPL Raises $900 For Project Pinball

Wow! What an awesome tournament! Space City Pinball League in conjunction with Project Pinball’s Love Across America Tour 2019, changed our July monthly match play tournament at The Game Preserve to a Project Pinball Charity Tournament! Thank you to everyone who came out to make our fundraiser an overwhelming success! On the pinball side, Phil Grimaldi took home The Grimaldi in a close playoff against Craig Squires, Lee Balusek and Rob Torres, while Preston Moncla triumphed in the B division.

The real story for Space City though was how our community came together to raise $760.00 for Project Pinball plus another $125 online for a total of almost 900 dollars! Thanks to all of the players, especially those of you who bought tickets to the raffle and who bought our silent auction items. A huge thank you to Rebecca Cook, who rallied everyone into donating items for the auction, organized the silent auction, and was the force behind the fundraising! She really made this happen; thank you Rebecca. Thanks also to the folks who donated items: The Rodon’s, the Nebeker’s, the Cooks, Raleigh Palis, Hair by Sarah Rollings, Over the Top Cupcakes, Trixie’s Coffee, Emergent VR Encounter, Killer Kaiju Comics, to Michael Cook, who gathered donations. A special thanks goes to The Game Preserve for paying our IFPA fees and for donating a 3 month family membership for our gift basket, won by Russ Kalinowski. Our efforts truly make a difference in our community. Over the last year Project Pinball has donated two machines to Houston-area children’s hospitals. Incredible job Space City Pinball League!

New League Dates Announced for Hurricane Season

Attention Space Cadets: Get over your tropical depression by attending this Category 5 event. The 1820 League mini season will start next month on Monday, August 5. Beware, the fierce winds of competition will force you to hunker down and hope the only drains you witness are the storm tides flowing in the bayou.

The wonderful Charlie Kalas will again host us at Eighteen Twenty Lounge. The force majeure begins at 7 PM and it will only cost $10 for the whole season.

Planning to win it all? Look over the list of past league champions to check out the competition.

Below are the dates:

August 5
August 12
August 26
September 2
September 16 (finals)

Summer League Results

And that’s a wrap! The 2019 Summer season is officially over. We had a record this season with a total of 51 players who qualified by showing up to at least 2 of the 4 weeks! Y’all make this group amazing! Our finalists are as follows.

A Finals
1st place: Phil Grimaldi 
2nd place: Jim Mueller
3rd place: Erich Stinson
4th place: Chris Palis

A Division

B Finals
1st place: Tim Hood
2nd place: Gina Low
3rd place: Tandy Lofland
4th place: Christopher Heskett.

B Division

Thanks again to the wonderful Charles Kalas for hosting the league! You make this happen and we couldn’t thank you enough! Thank you to all the players! See y’all in a month.

Bat City Open

Over 30 Space City players attended the 2019 Bat City Open in Austin. Congratulations to our finalists:
A Division: Phil Grimaldi, Bryce Revnew, Jack Revnew
B Division: Jim Muller (1st place!), Tim Hood, Cory Westfahl
Novice Division: Christopher Heskett

1820 Summer League Nights

Attention Space Ballers: The new 1820 League mini season will start next month on Monday June 3rd and will go for 4 weeks with finals on July 1st! The wonderful Charlie Kalas will again host our league at the ole
Eighteen Twenty Lounge. Like last season the festivities begin at 7 PM and it will only cost $10 for the whole season. Cant wait to see everyone and start back up! Planning to win it all? Look over the list of past league champions to check out the competition.

Below are the dates:

June 3
June 10
June 17
June 24
July 1 (finals)

Join Space City Pinball League at the Houston Qualifier on May 19th! The Texas Pinball League unites the leagues in Austin, Dallas and Houston, to create a massive, Texas-sized pinball showdown and party at Finals.

General League Overview: Each major region of Texas hosts a qualifying event, each following the same format with the top 5 players from each event advancing to the finals. The finalists converge in a single city to represent their region. Finals coordinates with the three major Texas events (Texas Pinball Festival, Houston Arcade Expo, Bat City Open) to reduce travel burdens. The winner are immortalized on the TPL cup and possess the cup until the next TPL season.

Full rules at: texaspinballleague.wordpress.com

Space City Pinball Family at the Texas Pinball Festival 2019!


Most of the traveling crew from Space City Pinball League pause for a picture on the floor of the festival in Frisco, Texas on Saturday afternoon. In this picture are volunteer tournament directors, tournament officials, scorekeepers, tournament players, trophy winners, collectors and other folks that just came to enjoy the show and the camaraderie, as the Houston group brought their well known community spirit to Dallas.

We offer a hardy congratulations to our champion tournament players:

  • Ben Horstman – 2nd in Wizards B division
  • Elizabeth Dronet – 3rd in Wizards Women’s division
  • Dora Li – semifinalist in Wizards Novice division
  • Christopher and Eric Heskett – 3rd in the Parent-Child tournament