CHICAGO AREA PINBALL
LEAGUE: SUMMER 2016


Date: Summer 2016
Locations: various around the Chicago area

Report by M. G. Brown

The Lake County IL 'Meetup' group hosted an informal pinball league during the Summer months of 2016. The reason for forming this league was to elevate awareness of the locations that have pinball in the northern Chicago area, and also to enjoy an evening of fun with people who were interested in playing pinball.

There were a number of people who said “it has been years” since they had played pinball, and a few said that they were unaware that pinball games were still being manufactured.

There were in excess of 15 players who participated in this league, each participant receiving a ticket good for the drawing of a grand prize at the last event. The more events that they attended, the more tickets a player received.

The games and locations in the league were:

  • #1 March - The Addams Family at Lake Villa Public House (game now removed)

  • #2 April - Iron Man at R.J.’s Eatery, Lindenhurst

  • #3 May - Ghostbusters LE at Kristoff’s Entertainment Center, Round Lake

Ghostbusters LE
Ghostbusters LE at Kristoff’s Entertainment Center

  • #4 August - NASCAR at Lighthouse Miniature Golf, Waukegan

Keith putting the moves on NASCAR at Lighthouse Miniature Golf
Keith putting the moves on NASCAR at Lighthouse Miniature Golf

  • #5 September - The Simpsons Pinball Party at Bill’s Pizza Pub North, Grayslake

  • #6 October - Metallica at Kristoff’s Entertainment Center, Round Lake

Metallica at Kristof’s was a fun challenge
Metallica at Kristof’s was a fun challenge

At the end of each event, a small 'fun' prize was given for high score of the night. At the October game there was also swag from the 2016 Pinball Expo in Chicago.

The grand prize was awarded following the October game. The prize was a translite from the Stern Pinball game Star Trek autographed by Gary Stern. Many thanks to Stern Pinball for providing this prize!

Steve Zivilik was the 2016 grand prize winner- he has the Star Trek translite already framed and on display in his recreation room
Steve Zivilik was the 2016 grand prize winner- he has the Star Trek translite
already framed and on display in his recreation room

Thanks to everyone who came out to participate and hopefully raise awareness of places to play pinball in the northern Chicago suburbs.

To be added to the Lake County Pinball League mailing list, please drop an e-mail to [email protected] or for more information visit the host meetup page at facebook.com/LakeCountyDiveBarsandPubsMeetup.


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