SWISS OPEN 2015
AND EUROPEAN
CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
2014 FINAL


Date: 6th - 8th February, 2015
Location: PinballEd, 1 Weisslingerstrasse, Kollbrunn, Switzerland.

Additional pictures: Edy Flammer

The IFPA European Championship Series was founded in 2014 to tie together the largest national tournaments held in various European countries.

Players who competed in the nominated competitions across the continent earned WPPR points as usual, but those points were also added to their ECS account. At the end of the calendar year, the thirty-two players with the most ECS points automatically qualified for this ECS final. The fourteen places from those who couldn't make it were quickly filled by lower-ranked players, and the field was complete by the start of the 2015.

For its inaugural year, the final was held at the PinballEd facility in Kollbrunn, Switzerland - one of a number of pinball clubs in the country - on the same weekend as the Swiss Open.

Kollbrunn is about 30km northeast of Zurich, and although PinballEd is close to the centre of the town, it's not the easiest place to find unless you already know where to look.

In the icy car park
In the icy car park

There are no external signs. Entry is through an anonymous light industrial unit, round a corridor, up some unlit stairs, through a door at the top, along another corridor, and there's PinballEd.

Down here...
Down here...

...we're getting close...
...we're getting close...

...not far now
...not far now...

...and we're there!
...and we're there!

Once inside, you quickly discover two large rooms filled with pinball machines, a bar, a smoking room, and an additional room with a number of practice machines.

The first pinball room at PinballEd
The first pinball room at PinballEd

This first room contained seventeen pinballs - all modern dot-matrix machines.

AC/DC Premium
Attack from Mars
Batman - Dark Knight
Corvette
Creature from the Black Lagoon
High Speed 2 - The Getaway
Jackbot
Lord of the Rings, The
Metallica Premium
Monster Bash
Scared Stiff
Spider-Man
Star Trek Limited Edition
Terminator 2
Transformers Pro
Whitewater
X-Men Pro

More machines in the first room
More machines in the first room

More machines in the first room
More machines in the first room

As you walk further into PinballEd you pass a smoking room (fumoir) on the right.

The smoking room
The smoking room

Smoking is not banned outright in Switzerland. There was a national referendum in September 2012 where the option was rejected by a significant majority. Instead, individual regions (cantons) make their own rules. In practice that means many restaurants, bars and public places have a separate enclosed section for smokers, as does PinballEd.

At the end of the corridor is a trophy case filled with awards, several bearing the name of Robert Sutter.

The trophy case
The trophy case

Alongside is a memorial to local legend Christoph Kapusta who died of a heart attack in April 2013, aged just 49.

The tribute to Christoph
The tribute to Christoph

To the right is the second pinball room, this one containing another seventeen dot-matrix machines.

Austin Powers
Avatar
Congo
Demolition Man
Doctor Who
Iron Man
Junkyard
Medieval Madness
NBA Fastbreak
No Good Gofers
Revenge from Mars
Ripley's Believe it or Not!
Tales of the Arabian Nights
Terminator 3
Theatre of Magic
Star Trek: The Next Generation
WWF Royal Rumble

The second pinball room
The second pinball room

More machines in the second pinball room
More machines in the second pinball room

On the opposite side of the trophy display was the entrance to the bar.

The bar at PinballEd
The bar at PinballEd

Dracula and Frankenstein's monster took a break from Monster Bash to hang out in the bar
Dracula and Dr. Frankenstein's monster took a break
from Monster Bash to hang out in the bar

The bar served soft drinks, beer, coffee, bottled water and energy drinks. Prices were a little on the high side, but then generally everything in Switzerland appears expensive to non-Swiss visitors.

The bar menu
The bar menu

In addition to drinks, hot dogs and other sausages were available to purchase, while each day had a new selection of food, ranging from salads to pasta dishes, bread and cakes.

Franck Bona enjoys some French mayonaise with his sausage and bread
Franck Bona enjoys some French mayonnaise with his sausage and bread

To reach the final room, you had to leave the main area, turn right and walk down a short corridor, where you would find the practice room.

The practice room
The practice room

Eight machines were available, although you would often find that not all of them were fully working.

Black Knight
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley's
High Speed
NBA Fastbreak
Rollercoaster Tycoon
Space Invaders
Whirlwind
Whitewater

So those are the various areas and the forty-two machines available at PinballEd. But most of the guests visiting this weekend were there to play in the two tournaments, so let's see how those went.

The final of the 2014 European Championship Series began first, with play starting around 7pm on Friday night.

Thirty-two qualifiers took part by pre-registering and paying the €55 (US$62) entry fee. The format paired up players according to their ECS ranking, so that the #1 ranked played the #32 ranked player, the #2 played #31, and so on.

Each pair played a best-of-seven match on machines chosen by the players. The highest ranked got to choose machine or position for the first game, after which the losing player had that same choice for the next game.

The first player to win four games moved on to the next round of the winners' bracket, while the losing player joined the losers' bracket where they played best-of-five rounds instead.

Match results were recorded on paper with the progression through the winners' and losers' brackets shown on the wall.

ECS first round matches in the first pinball room
ECS first round matches in the first pinball room

ECS first round matches in the first pinball room
More ECS first round matches in the first pinball room

ECS matches in the second room
ECS matches in the second room

Progress was shown on a wall chart
Progress was shown on a wall chart

Trophies for the ECS
Trophies for the ECS

Play continued until midnight on Friday night, at which point they called it a night so that the ECS matches could continue on Saturday.

The players who were already knocked out of the ECS final began their matches in the Swiss Open at around midday on Saturday, while those still playing in the ECS could carry on with their matches, before starting their Swiss Open games later in the day.

The Swiss Open cost another €55 (US$62) and featured 64 pre-registered players who were split into four groups of sixteen. Everyone played a best-of-three 3-ball match against each of the other members of their group.

Swiss Open games on Saturday morning
Swiss Open games on Saturday morning

play in the Swiss Open
Play in the Swiss Open

When all the games had been played, the eight players with the most wins in each group moved on the play-offs. A projector beamed the results of the matches onto the back wall of the bar.

Progress in the Swiss Open
Progress in the Swiss Open

Trophies for the Swiss Open
Trophies for the Swiss Open

Machines were allocated by random draw. Once a game had been completed, one of the pair reported the result to Daniel at the tournament desk who would record the win and pick the next machine.

The tournament desk
The tournament desk

More Swiss Open games
More Swiss Open games

More Swiss Open games
More Swiss Open games

The first player to score two wins progressed to the next round of the winners' bracket, while the losing player joined the losers' bracket where the matches became a single head-to-head four-ball game with the highest scorer continuing.

At lunchtime a buffet was served featuring soup, chilli, salad, bread and a selection of tasty cakes. This was free for Swiss Open or ECS players.

It's lunchtime!
It's lunchtime!

Robert Sutter and Daniel Harzenmoser check the results
Robert Sutter and Daniel Harzenmoser check the Swiss Open results

As the afternoon drew on, the number of competitors remaining in both tournaments dwindled until we were down to the final two in each.

Daniele Acciari was in with a chance of achieving the double - making the final in both tournaments.

Daniele made both finals
Daniele made both finals

In the ECS he was up against Marcus Stix, while Jorian Engelbrektsson was his opponent in the Swiss Open.

Daniele on his choice of No Good Gofers in the ECS final
Daniele on his choice of No Good Gofers in the ECS final

This time against Jorian in the Swiss Open
This time against Jorian in the Swiss Open

Jorian on Avatar in the Swiss Open final
Jorian on Avatar in the Swiss Open final

After games on No Good Gofers, Terminator 2, Jackbot and Tales of the Arabian Nights, Daniele was leading Marcus by 3 games to 1 in the best-of-seven final.

The score card in the ECS final
The score card in the ECS final

Proceedings were briefly brought to a halt by a stuck ball during Marcus's first ball on game five - Congo.

A stuck ball on Congo
A stuck ball on Congo

In the end though, Daniele was unstoppable and became the inaugural IFPA European Championship Series champion. Marcus Stix was second, Jan Anders Nilsson was third, and Roberto Pedroni fourth. Trophies were awarded by the ECS final organiser, Michael Trepp.

ECS 2015 winner, Daniele Celestino Acciari
ECS 2015 winner, Daniele Celestino Acciari

Second place, Marcus Stix
Second place, Marcus Stix

Third place, Jan Anders Nilsson
Third place, Jan Anders Nilsson

Could Daniele make it a clean sweep and win both events?

Only Jorian Engelbrektsson stood in his way, and Jorian proved unbeatable in the Swiss Open final to take first place ahead of Daniele in second. Albert Nomden was third, while Marcus added fourth place to his ECS runner-up position.

Swiss Open 2015 winner, Jorian Engelbrektsson
Swiss Open 2015 winner, Jorian Engelbrektsson

Second place, Daniele Celestino Acciari
Second place, Daniele Celestino Acciari

Third place, Albert Nomden receives his trophy from PinballEd himself, Edy Flammer
Third place, Albert Nomden receives his trophy
from PinballEd himself, Edy Flammer

Fourth place, Marcus Stix
Fourth place, Marcus Stix

The top players in both tournaments and the winner of the best female player trophy, Sabine Breu
The top players in both tournaments
with the winner of the best female player trophy, Sabine Breu

Here are the full results for the ECS 2014 final:

Pos Name
1
2
3
4
5
5
7
7
9
9
9
9
13
13
13
13
17
17
17
17
17
17
17
17
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
Daniele Celestino Acciari
Markus Stix
Jan Anders Nilsson
Roberto Pedroni
Robert Sutter
Franck Bona
Paul Jongma
Marcus Hugosson
Lukas Romanowski
Jorian Engelbrektsson
Roland Schwarz
Albert Nomden
Dirk Klaver
Ramon Richard
Olli-Mikko Ojamies
Linus Persson
Levente Tregova
Martin Janczyk
Giuseppe Violante
Peter Blakemore
Jérémy Reynaud
Norman Heikamp
Gabriel Ortiz
David Mainwaring
Marcin Krysinski
Helena Walter
Jonas Johansson
Cesare D'Atri
Greg Mott
Martin Ayub
Philippe Bocquet
Michael Trepp

And here are the full results of the Swiss Open 2015:

Pos Name
1
2
3
4
5
5
7
7
10
10
10
10
14
14
14
14
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
28
33
34
37
37
37
37
37
37
43
43
43
43
43
43
48
48
48
55
55
55
55
55
55
55
55
55
55
55
61
63
63
63
63
Jorian Engelbrektsson 
Daniele Celestino Acciari 
Albert Nomden 
Markus Stix 
Greg Mott 
Martin Ayub 
Lukasz Romanowski 
Roberto Pedroni 
Gabriel Ortiz 
Cesare Datri 
Alex Zimmermann 
Robert Sutter 
Giuseppe Violante 
Martin Janczyk 
Marcus Hugosson 
Paul Jongma 
Beat Egg 
Levente Tregova 
Linus Persson 
Peter Schmidt 
Olli-Mikko Ojamies 
Michael Trepp 
Roland Schwarz 
Dirk Klaver 
Mario Kertels 
Lorenzo Orselli 
David Mainwaring 
Norman Heikamp 
Sabine Breu 
Rafael Masedo Rodríguez 
Phillip Eaton 
Franck Bona 
Marcin Krysinski 
Ronald Peier 
Jérémy Reynaud 
Edy Flammer 
Frank Goeltl 
Jan Anders Nilsson 
Robert Von Keller 
Barbara Sprenger 
Peter Lange 
Karin Weilenmann 
Anatol Pante 
Christoph Korrodi 
Niklaus Stirnimann 
Helena Walter 
Roy Broger 
Jonas Johansson 
Lukasz Dziatkiewicz 
Stefan Schwarz 
Gianluca Baiocco 
Philippe Bocquet 
Ramon Richard 
Reiner Wolf 
Alessandro Cacialli 
Lachnit Ernestine 
Aldo Pancaldi 
Jürgen Letzel 
Peter Blakemore 
Andreas Salathé 
Simon Neukom 
Marta Janczyk 
Bruno Wildhaber 
Denis Füglistaler 
Matthias Reinhold 

PinballEd is a great place to play in tournaments of this size, and the organisers obviously had experience running this format, as their timings for the completion of each round were often spot-on.

Edy, Robbie, Metti and the whole team were very welcoming and hospitable, dealing with machine issues in a calm and equitable way. Despite the stakes, there was no drama from the players and the whole event had a positive vibe.

The ECS got off to a good start and it will surely become a regular part of the European pinball scene.


Like this page? Share it with your Facebook friends: