Texas Pinball Festival Recap

What an incredible weekend at the Texas Pinball Festival in Frisco! We’re proud to say that Space City Pinball League was well represented, with around 50 of our members making the trip north to compete, connect, and celebrate the game we all love. The road trip itself was half the fun—plenty of pinball talk and laughs along the way—and once we got to the festival, it was even better getting to hang out together, enjoy some adult beverages, and play a ton of great pinball.

A huge congratulations goes out to Jack Revnew for an outstanding performance, taking home the win in the Wizards Tournament! And shoutout to Nick Gustafson for an impressive 4th place finish in the B Division of the same event—great playing! We love seeing our community show up strong on a big stage like this. Events like these remind us how special the pinball community is, and we’re honored to be a part of it. Already looking forward to next year!

League Returns to 1820 for 10th Anniversary!

The Space City Pinball League is celebrating a decade of drains in Houston! Let’s party with a reunion league at the Eighteen Twenty Lounge. Joystix will open an additional room for us to accommodate a crowd, so we invite both our new players and those with years of experience to join us to mark this milestone. Let’s reconnect as we gather around the game. Maybe there will be tamales!

Starting January 12th, we will meet on Mondays at 7pm for 2 rounds of match play qualifying at the original home of the Space City Pinball League! Each round will consist of 3 games with some old and new friends – points will accumulate (7,5,3,1) over the course of the six weeks of league play. Your best 5 weeks scores count towards finals. Finals will be on the 7th week for A and B Div using PAPA style playoffs. Trophy’s and money for the winners in A and B – $20 dollars to play in league – 5 to the League, a dollar to IFPA and the rest for trophy’s and cash prizes. Visit Weekly League: 1820 Lounge for complete details. Click here to check out the results of the first league season.

A Look Back on the First Few Years
1820 League

Houston Arcade Expo & Week of WPPRs Recap

WOW! What a week! Space City Pinball hosted 12 tournaments in 8 days with 265 unique players from Texas and beyond! We played pinball under the stars, sampled a menu of jello shots, and took to the stage for karaoke. Congratulations our champions:

  • Space City Open – Nick Mueller
  • Women’s Interstellar Showdown – Hope Love
  • Junior Space Cadet Best Game – Brandon Chapman
  • Go/NoGo Launch Readiness – Jonathon Morales
  • WOW Matchplay at EinStein’s Pub – Nick Mueller
  • 10 on Wen Won’t Win at EinStein’s Richmond – Kevin Sturhan
  • 3 Strike Tuesday at The Game Preserve North – Jonathan Henson 
  • 3 Strike Tuesday at The Game Preserve NASA – Erich Stinson
  • 3X & Whiskey at Poison Girl – Mario Garza
  • EinStein’s Drainiacs 4X – Wesley Johnson
  • Star Wars Fall of the Empire Best Game – Wesley Johnson
  • WOW Kickoff at Eureka Heights – Jonathan Henson

It takes a premier team to pull off such a fun week, and we’d like to thank all those who contributed to our success. This year our members provided 18 games for the tournament room and 24 games for the Space City booth. We had 15 tournament directors, 4 techs, and 30 booth volunteers sharing the love of competitive pinball in Houston. This community rocks!

A huge thank you also goes out to Carpool Pinball for streaming and our amazing sponsors for the support and prizes: PinHouse, Marco, Titan, Pinball Life, Trust Guss Accident Attorney, Hot Dog Shop, Ellington Law, EinSteins Pub, Jim Muller, Joshua Mitchell and Matt Quantz.

Space City Open 2025

The Space City Pinball League is proud to present the 2025 Space City Open at the Houston Arcade and Pinball Expo! Eventbrite registration will open on August 30 at 11am. More detailed information can be found on the Houston Arcade and Pinball Expo website. The women’s Interstellar Showdown registration will open the same day at 11:30am on Matchplay.events. This year, SCPL will also host a fun kids tournament in our booth with walk-up registration.

Here’s a little history. The Space City Pinball Open first began in 2016 with 14 players participating. It was hosted by Phil Grimaldi and Matt Quantz, but Matt actually had to attend his brother’s wedding that day. David Pollock recalls, “That was my first tournament. I didn’t know anyone there, but found out about it through Brian Foytik. Everyone asked if I knew Matt like he was this cool dude everyone knew.” The game list included Whirlwind, Firepower, Tales From The Crypt, Ironman, Diner, Dracula, Judge Dredd, Simpsons Pinball Party and Dr. Dude.

Super Saturday Showdown Series

Explore pinball around Space City on the first Saturday of the month! Space City Pinball will host all-ages, WPPRtunity tournaments at various venues around town with space for large groups. Each event will consist of 8 rounds of group matchplay that will be used to accumulate series points. Finals formats may vary depending upon the location.

Those who play in the Super Saturday Showdown Series will be eligible for an award given out by SCPL at the end of the year. While each tournament will be submitted to the IFPA separately, the final showdown will include recognition and awards.

Our first series will begin in June 2025 with six opportunities to play. Check the SCPL calendar for specific details:

  • June 7 – The Game Preserve NASA
  • July 5 – Eureka Heights
  • August 2 – Gandalf’s Arcade, a private collection
  • September 6 – Eureka Heights
  • October 4 – The Game Preserve NASA
  • December 6 – UpKick Pinball, a private collection

Mega Matchplay Women’s Weekend

The Belles of Space City invite women from near and far to explore the world of pinball with the Houston crew. Join us May 23 & 24, 2025 as we venture to The LOWer Level Arcade on Friday evening and then travel to UpKick the following morning for some Mega Matchplay estimated to be worth 200%! RSVP on the Matchplay events so these private collectors can plan for your arrival Friday and Saturday.

Texas Pinball Festival!

Our Space Cadets explored the Texas Pinball Festival last weekend in Frisco. We enjoyed playing the newly released games, competing in the tournaments, and hanging out at the Wormhole booth. Congratulations to Jack Revnew for placing 2nd in the Texas Wizards Tournament!