NORTHWEST PINBALL & ARCADE SHOW 2018: SUNDAY

The final day of the NWPAS is a shorter one, opening earlier at 9am but closing at 3pm.  As a result it’s also the cheapest day to attend, costing $20 for the day compared to $25 for Friday and $30 for Saturday.  Those are the adult prices.  For kids it’s $15 for Friday and Saturday, and $10 for Sunday.

The Match Play Tournament play-offs and finals take place on Sunday and we will be reporting on the results of those a little later, but as we take our last look at the show floor for this year, we decided to go up and bring you an elevated view.

Shortly after the scheduled time of 1pm, the closing ceremony was held in the seminar area.  As usual, Byron Raynes was hosting.

The purpose of the closing ceremony is to recognise those who contributed to the success of the show, award the $5,000 scholarship and make the draws for the daily prize and the major show-long prize machines.

After three representative awards to members of the list of 106 show volunteers and details of the Beads of Courage charity which the show also helps support, the recipient of the $5,000 scholarship was announced.  Megan Taylor was not able to be present at the show, but she sent a video message of thanks to the show committee and explained how the scholarship would benefit her studies.

Then came the draw for the daily prize machine which for Sunday was an Asteroids upright.

The draw was made by a child from the audience.

After a ticket was drawn for someone who wasn’t present, the eventual winner was Rick who presented his winning ticket and claimed his prize.

Then came the major prize draw.  Entries for this cost $20 but game the opportunity to win a new Houdini pinball from American Pinball.

The winner was not present, but they were not required to be.  After a phone call to the winner resulted in a redirection to voicemail, the attempt was abandoned and the closing ceremony brought to a close.

By then it was 2pm ad just an hour remained before the power to the machines would be switched off and the  break-down began.

There was still the matter of deciding the winner of the main Match Play Tournament.

After several rounds which reduced the field, the eventual final three were Bowen Kerins, Keith Elwin and Todd Rafacz.  They played the final in the same way as the play-offs, buy using three machine – Attack from Mars, Aerosmith and Jackbot.

After all three games had been played, there was a tie for first place between Bowen and Keith.  Keith had won on Attack from Mars and Jackbot, but came third on Aerosmith which Bowen won. With time running out before all the power was switched off at 3pm, Tournament Director Dave Stewart got the top two to play a single ball decider on the game Jackbot.

Keith had a decent ball, getting to Casino Run and cashing it in for 300+M to finish his single ball on 1Bn+.  Bowen then stepped up but had a quick drain, making Keith the winner.

So Keith Elwin was the winner.  Bowen Kerins was second and Todd Rafacz third.

Full results from all the tournaments and divisions can be found in the Live Results section of the WA Pinball website.

With that, the show came to an end and the tear-down could begin.

The 2018 NWPAS was a very slick, professionally-run operation, with nobody involved appearing to get stressed.  During the closing ceremony, prizes were awarded to three randomly-drawn show helpers which revealed a list of 106 people who donated their time and experience to work on the show.  Not many pinball events can hope to match that level of volunteer effort.

Next year the show returns to its previous slot in the show schedule – a week earlier, making it the first weekend in June (31st May – 2nd June, 2019).  This should avoid the clash with the Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown and the Souther Fried Gameroom Show as happened this year and in 2017.

Don’t forget you can check out all our reports from Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the main NWPAS page.