Holy smokes, y’all! That was awesome! As a tournament director, I could not have asked for a better event. All the games arrived in excellent condition. There were so many volunteers willing to help with set up. Even when games went down, our techs, Jesse Bodell and Mike Flanagan, got them back up and operational in short order. The players were respectful and jovial. The rounds started and ended on time. There were very few malfunctions or complicated rulings. And the finals…my goodness the finals. I’ve been on the tournament scene for over 10 years. That was, without a doubt, the most fun and electric finals I’ve ever witnessed. Legendary!

While I would love to take credit, the reality is none of that could have happened without there being such an amazing pinball community here in H-town and Texas. The positive energy this past weekend was truly special. I could not be more proud of what this scene has matured into. We’ve really come a long way.

Big congratulations to Wesley Johnson for taking the crown — the first Space City pinball player to do so! That final shot on Fish Tales was so clutch! Congrats also to Alice Young for earning the rhinestone hat in the Interstellar Showdown after a tough battle on Tron. Well played!

Thanks to Keith and the Houston Arcade Expo for trusting me to run the tournament all these years. Shout out to my assistant TDs: David Pollock, Marc Gammons, David and Elizabeth Dronet, Leslie Speights, Lee Balusek, Matt Quantz. Thanks to Jim Mueller for bringing the spare parts. I think we used most of them! Thanks to Jamie Burchell, Erin Anthony and Wormhole for streaming the tournaments! Finally, thanks to everyone else who brought games and helped with set up and tear down.

-Phil and the Space City Team