DUTCH PINBALL OPEN 2004
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May 15, 2004 Sunday rolled around and even those who stayed playing the games until midnight the previous day turned up for the 10am start to the second day. Sunday would provide the finals of the Dutch Pinball Open, the women's tournament and the veterans' competition. The 28 top scorers from Saturday were joined by another 30 players who had qualified in previous NFV competitions around The Netherlands to produce the 58 players for the first round of the finals. This was a single four-player game with random opponents and random machines. The top three went through to round two which was a three-player game with the top two going through. Round three was another four-player game with the top two proceeding to round four and so on. Of course with all these rounds and some talented players, some rounds lasted a considerable time and naturally, things started running late. There's not much you can do about that apart from reduce the number of rounds by being more ruthless about who progresses.
If you are knocked out of any round all is not lost. There is a bonus section where you can continue competing with others who have been knocked out, with the chance to still make it to the final. Meanwhile the 22 players in the veterans' tournament and the 23 in the women's competition played their games. For the women it was the same points scoring system employed on Saturday but for the veterans there were five machines for each competitor to play one game with the highest scoring player on each machine scoring 22 points and the lowest earning just one point. The highest four scorers went through to the final. There was a pause in competing while the stage was set for the final rounds. Five games were set up - Star Wars Episode 1, Monster Bash, Lord of the Rings, Cirqus Voltaire and Scared Stiff - for the finals of the veterans' tournament and the semi-finals for the Dutch Open and the women's competition.
A video camera was positioned on a stage above the games and projected onto a large screen so the crowd could see the action on the playfield (and in the case of the Cirqus Voltaire, see the scores).
The veteran's competition was played out on the Star Wars Episode 1 and was won by Thomas Ziegler who triumphed over Bert van Ingen, with Max Jansen and Daniel Crompvoets in third and fourth places respectively. After the semi-final rounds, four finalists remained for the women's tournament and the Dutch Open.
In the women's tournament, Conny Hofman reigned supreme on the Cirqus Voltaire with Mila Groot placed second, Aurélie Bona third and Myrthe Moserman fourth.
While the women were playing the Cirqus Voltaire, the Dutch Pinball Masters finals were taking place on the adjacent Lord of the Rings.
Mark van Duinen effectively won the final on his second ball producing a score that the other players could not match.
The winners were presented with their trophies at the awards ceremony which followed the finals. The Dutch Finance Minister - a keen pinball player and fan - was there to present the prizes.
There were also a number of raffle prizes awarded and some other competitions on some of the games in the recreational hall. Speaking of which, there was still the wide selection of games to play there plus a number of vendors.
The NFV had a stand selling plastics, books, magazines and posters amongst other things. Wizard had an equally large stand selling parts and featuring the range of LED replacement displays from PinLED.
Jurgen from PinLED said that the 6 and 7-digit displays are available right now and the 128x16 replacement dot-matrix displays for Data East games would be available in four weeks' time. We shall be reviewing the 6 and 7-segment displays in the near future. For those planning ahead, Flipperwinkel were offering a board repair service and selling some parts too. On Saturday, Karin Kolbe was there selling a range of pinball parts and spares. And so we come to the end of another Dutch Pinball Association show. This was an important show for the association because they managed to hold an event of similar size to previous years without the support of Fun4You who had provided the bulk of games in the past few years. This time they had to rely on members much more and they achieved what seemed impossible after Fun4You's decision. It becomes harder to find fault with the show as the years progress, but I heard comments about the lack of sound on many recreational games, plus it might be a good idea to hold a flea market in the sports hall's car park outside where visitors can bring a few spares and parts of their own to sell. Also, it would be nice if the shorter route between the two halls could be used. If you're swapping between the competition and recreational areas many times, it would be better to not have to walk through the changing rooms each time. But the trivial nature of these reinforces how well run the event is. Now if only some of the local shops and restaurants would open on Sunday......
© Pinball News 2004 |
