Hey Belles!,

On Thursday, August 8th, ten of us met up at The Kickback Bar for five rounds of pinball and a little photography shoot for a local magazine! Patrick Stutz of Madison Magazine hung out with us for a while, and we can’t wait to share the finished product with you all.

We had two newbies, including one who drove from Iowa!

🏆 Winners’ Circle 🏆

Qualifying ended with a tiebreaker between Cora and Tiffany on Pabst Can Crusher. Cora won by a narrow 100 points. The finals took place on Lauren’s selected game: Black Knight Sword of Rage. Final Results:

🥇 Cora

🥈 Lauren

🥉 Donelle

⭐ Sam (her second Belles event!)

Thank you to Donelle and her husband for the beautiful stands for our trophies.

Other big winners:

Sharkey got a dino drink marker,

Jillian scooped up a kitty bookmark,

and Sam won beer from Young Blood Brewing via ducky race!

📅 Upcoming Events – Pin-Golf at Aftershock 📅

Our next event is Aftershock Classic Arcade on August 24 for pin-golf. Registration begins at 11:30AM, and we start playing at 12:00PM. Entry fee is $5 which goes to IFPA dues and helps fund our fun trophies. Please note you’ll still be responsible for token drop during gameplay.

We encourage you to RSVP on Facebook. It helps the engagement on our page and can drive additional viewers to the event.

The September Wednesday Match Play event will be Wednesday, September 10th at DoubleTap Beercade downtown.

📢 Donation Shoutout 📢

We received a generous donation from one Belle and her husband. Thank you! In case you didn’t know, all money collected from sign-up fees goes directly back to Belles. This helps us craft trophies, buy filaments for 3D-printed items, purchase merchandise, and cover IFPA fees for our events. We do our best to balance expenses while saving a little for extra prizes.

We are always accepting donations for prizes whether it is from your own hobby, swag from your favorite business, or cash. We’ll even take crafty individuals who want to help craft unique creations for our next Belles event!

– Belles & Chimes Planning Team

Double the games, double the fun! This weekend, 6 Belles joined us at The Kickback Bar for our Stern Pinball King Kong Launch Party pin-golf, and 2 more jumped in for our bonus King Kong head-to-head tournament. We also welcomed 2 brand new Belles. Yay! 🎉

🏆 Pin-Golf Winners’ Circle 🏆

After 9 rounds of movie-themed pinball (shoutout to Jacque earned the only hole-in-one all day and scored a personal best on Jaws!), the top 4 faced off on a finals bank of Black Knight 2000, The Sopranos, and Foo Fighters. The final standings:

🥇 Tiffany (her first Belles win!)

🥈 Lauren

🥉 Jacque

⭐ Mackenzie

Our top 4 took home 3D printed gongs printed by Tiffany!

Other prize highlights:

🦆 Two ducky race winners—Tiffany took home a King Kong translite, Amber won a banner

😂 Amber also scored a Ralph Wiggum sticker for her head-to-head win mid-finals

🦍 The Revenge of Kong 🦍

Additionally, Laina grabbed a magnetic capybara clip and Becky grabbed a dragon drink marker from the prize table. Prizes for everyone!

And yes, there were puppy distractions during our finals and head-to-head tournament.

📅 Upcoming Events 📅

Our next event is at The Kickback Bar on August 7th (note this is next week Thursday). Registration begins at 6:00PM, and we start playing at 6:30PM.

Entry fee is $5 which goes to IFPA dues and helps fund our fun trophies. You will also be responsible for coin drop.

Bad news is that we do not anticipate any food truck. Sorry for getting any hopes up. What we do anticipate is a local Madison magazine to stop by to take some photos of us in action. Be sure to gussy up if yo want to serve extra looks for the camera.

We encourage you to RSVP on Facebook. It helps the engagement on our page and can drive additional viewers to the event.

Our next pin-golf event will be Sunday, August 24th at Aftershock Arcade.

🌟 Black Knight: Sword Of Rage Shield Saucer 🌟

Note that the saucer is not always accessible. The starting position of the Black Knight’s shield is down which blocks access to the saucer. Qualifying for the below will cause the shield to be lifted.

Monster Battles (modes): After shooting a center shot and shooting the ramp, the saucer will start a battle.

Multiball: After shooting the “light lock” target, lock 3 balls for Triple Knights Challenge.

Extra Ball: When lit, you can collect extra balls at the saucer.

Mystery: Completing RAGE at the inlanes and outlines will light Mystery at the saucer.

If you’re interested in adopting one of these cuties, pleases visit Fetch Wisconsin Rescue.

– Belles & Chimes Planning Team

Hey Belles!,

On Wednesday, July 9th, 12 Belles met up at Aftershock Classic Arcade Bar for our monthly match play tournament and played five rounds. No newbies this time, but we appreciate those who took a long drive just to come play with us!

Quick shoutout to Steve for the great bar service while we played! 🍻

🏆 Winners’ Circle 🏆

Dori qualified as top seed and brought Godzilla into the finals and it paid off. She held her ground and took the win at the end of the night! End results:

🥇 Dori

🥈 Ashley

🥉 Cora

⭐ Lauren

Other big winners:

Donelle walked away with a beer dog collar and ice cream coupon

Jacque snagged a 3D infinity cube fidget toy

Tumiracle scooped an ice cream coupon

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📅 Upcoming Events – King Kong Launch Pin-Golf 📅

Our next event is at The Kickback Bar on July 27 for pin-golf. Registration begins at 11:30AM, and we start playing at 12:00PM. Entry fee is $5 which goes to IFPA dues and helps fund our fun trophies. Please note you’ll still be responsible for coin drop during gameplay.

This is a special event as this is our King Kong Launch Party. 🦍 We will have a Grand Champ plaque for the highest score during pin-golf and a translite for a random winner. Top 4 after finals will get a 3D gong trophy with a pinball!

After we finish our pin-golf tournament, you’ll want to stick around for our bonus non-IFPA King Kong head-to-head tournament which we estimate to start around 3PM. The two King Kong machines will be rigged up together where the biplane ramp (right upper flipper shot) will cause the other machine to TILT! 🍌You have unlimited balls, so you can jump back into the action. You only get a couple minutes to score more than your opponent though!

👀 As loyal subscribers to our biweekly emails, you get a big peak at the 3D printed trophies for both of the tournaments. 👀

We encourage you to RSVP on Facebook. It helps the engagement on our page and can drive additional viewers to the event.

⚠️ Change of Schedule Alert ⚠️

📢 ICYMI: Ladies Flip Wisconsin Goes Apple Picking 📢

On Sunday, September 21, Ladies Flip Wisconsin will be hosting a tournament at Warm Belly Farm in Fort Atkinson. It will be a 13-round classics Matchplay with some apple picking and a potluck.

Fee is $10 and there is a side tournament that benefits Project Pinball which is a nonprofit that puts pinball machines in children’s hospitals and Ronald McDonald House charities. They regularly do raffles for new win box pinball machines on their website if you are unfamiliar with them. Give them your support!

If you have never been to the collection on Warm Belly Farm, we definitely encourage you to visit. It’s one of the largest classics collections we have in the south Wisconsin area near Madison.

🫶 Help Wanted! 🫶

We’re looking to design a Madison Belles t-shirt and maybe some custom sticker designs. If you or someone you know would be interesting in this type of graphic design project, please let us know!

Before you go… Look at this cute gumball pinball!

– Belles & Chimes Planning Team

Hey Belles!

It was a hot one on June 22nd pin-golf meetup at Aftershock Arcade, but thankfully the AC worked overtime for us. Six of us gathered for 9 holes of casual competition, including our newest recruit, Carolyn, who we met during Midwest Gaming Classic!

🏆 Winners’ Circle 🏆

Tiffany qualified as top seed and selected a finals bank of Comet, Funhouse, and Attack from Mars. The ladies faced off in a close match that led to not one, but two tiebreakers: one for 1st vs 2nd place, and another for 3rd vs 4th. Both were played on Pin*Bot, keeping things tense right up to the end.🤖 Final Standings:

🥇Donelle

🥈 Aimee

🥉 Tiffany

🎮 Jillian

Winners took home butterfly magnets as their trophies.🦋

And shoutout to our newbie Carolyn, who won her head-to-head match and scored a pinball keychain!

As for our extra prize giveaways:

🎡 Aimee won a magnetic capybara chip pin via the wheel of names

🦆 Jillian claimed victory in the ducky race and walked away with an official Stern limited edition Big Game desktop art

📅 Upcoming Events 📅

Our next event is at Aftershock Arcade on July 9th. Registration begins at 6:00PM, and we start playing at 6:30PM.

Entry fee is $5 which goes to IFPA dues and helps fund our fun trophies. You will also be responsible for token drop.

We encourage you to RSVP on Facebook. It helps the engagement on our page and can drive additional viewers to the event.

Our next pin-golf event will be Sunday, July 27th at The Kickback and it will be our King Kong launch party! We have something special planned, so you won’t want to miss it!

🌟 Pinball Tips: Pin*Bot Skill Shot & Multiball 🌟

When you start a game, the visor in the middle will be closed. If you watch carefully, you’ll see a column of lights flash left to right then cycle through the rows from top to bottom. If you hit the lit target, the visor will lower, giving yo the chance to lock ball.

To start multiball, you’ll need to lock a ball in each of the eye sockets (saucers). Once multiball begins, all scoring is doubled. Keep in mind there’s no ball save, so make those flips count! Try to relock one of the balls and shoot the ramp for some big points.

📢 In Case You Missed It 📢

On Sunday, June 29th, the Kickback 9 wrapped up their pin-golf series. Big congrats to Lauren, who took 1st place in Division B, and to Sara for securing 2nd! Sara went into the finals as the top seed, undefeated, and handed Lauren her first elimination. But Lauren battled her way through the “loser” bracket to earn a rematch. She had to beat Sara two out of three games in two consecutive rounds to clinch the win.

It all came down to a true nail-biter of a finish, and Lauren managed to pull it off! Both players played incredibly well. Huge props to them both for a hard-fought final.

Shoutouts go to Donelle, who repped as our only Belle in Division A, and to Jacque (5th) and Nichole (7th), who went home with some cool hardware of their own!

The Kickback is planning to kick off another series starting in July, and we’d love to see more of our Belles out there flipping!

Madison Lupus Walk

The Walk to End Lupus Now returns to the Madison area on September 13th at Middleton Firemen’s Park! With 1, 2, and 3 mile route options, it’s an accessible way to support a powerful cause. Funds raised go toward lupus research, resources, and outreach. Bonus: the Kickback isn’t too far for some well-earned post-walk pinball. 💜

Our very own Lupus Warrior, Tiffany, has started a team called It’s Giving Inflammation.

Use the link below to join her team or donate to support the fight against lupus.

What is Lupus?
Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease that can affect any part of the body—skin, joints, organs, nerves, and more. It has no cure, and symptoms can vary widely and unpredictably.

Around 90% of people diagnosed are women, with a disproportionate impact on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. On average, it can take up to 7 years to receive a proper diagnosis, making education and awareness, especially for (BIPOC) women, critically important.

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Thank you for always bringing such positive, fun, and supportive energy to our Belles events. Every time we meet up, there are so many smiles and so many tips and tricks shared. We love how open, welcoming, and generous our community continues to be!

– Belles & Chimes Planning Team

Hey Belles!

On Wednesday, June 11th, 18 Belles met up at The Kickback Bar for our monthly match play tournament. We welcomed 3 new folks and 3 fabulous visitors from out of state (MN, IA, and IL) for 6 rounds of pinball. 🎉

Big thanks to Maggie from Revolution Brewing for loading up our prize table with extra swag. 🍻

🏆 Winners’ Circle 🏆

We had a tie between Alley and Hannah for 4th seed in qualifying, which led to a showdown on Pabst Can Crusher. Alley came out on top!

Final playoff came down to Mary, Sharkey, Tiffany, and Alley. Mary chose King Kong 🦍 as the playoff game held strong at the end with a final standing of:

🥇 Mary

🥈 Sharkey

🥉 Alley

⭐ Tiffany

Other group winners were Aimee, Maya, Lauren, and Jillian. Each took home a Pride bucket with mini flags and fun goodies. 🏳️‍🌈✨

Our prize table was overwhelming with goodies and it wouldn’t be a trip to the Kickback without some ducky side quests.

Close your eyes and listen to the YouTube video below. Can you tell who won the second one by the screaming?

Spoiler: Yup! It was Lauren

📅 Upcoming Events – Aftershock Pin-Golf 📅

Our next event is at Aftershock Classic Arcade on June 22 for pin-golf. Registration begins at 11:30AM, and we start playing at 12:00PM.

Entry fee is $5 which goes to IFPA dues and helps funds our fun trophies. Please note you’ll still be responsible for token drop during gameplay.

We encourage you to RSVP on Facebook. It helps the engagement on our page and can drive additional viewers to the event.

The Wednesday event thereafter will be at the Aftershock again on July 9th.

📢 ICYMI: New Women’s Advisory Board Members 📢

The IFPA Women’s Advisory Board is excited to announce that two new members have joined the board. Jackie Olson, from San Francisco, CA, and Crystal Cory, from Salt Lake City, UT, joined the IFPA as Directors and Board Members in February 2025 and immediately jumped in to support the 2025 IFPA Women’s Championship Weekend in Portsmouth, NH. Jackie is the founder of San Francisco’s Queer Pinball League, and Crystal runs the Wasatch Women’s Series and co-runs the Utah Ballers League.

The IFPA Women’s Advisory Board was founded in October 2019 with the goal of representing the needs and perspectives of women pinball players in IFPA initiatives. The Board currently includes founding members Karyn Kiser, Kim Martinez, and Zoe Vrabel, as well as Samantha Bacon, who joined in November 2023. Questions and feedback for the Board can be sent to ifpawomen@gmail.com.

Taken directly from IFPA.com

Every player deserves a place and to be seen just as they are. We can’t wait to see you next time.

– Belles & Chimes Planning Team

Happy Pride Month Belles!,

We had 16 players geek out with us at The Kickback Bar for May’s Pin-golf! Ten were new to Madison Belles and several were visiting from Missouri and one from Indiana. Some even play in their own local Belles chapters! Bonus: we had multiple mother-daughter combos in the mix. 🥹💕

🏆 Winners’ Circle 🏆

Hopped up on Nerd Clusters (thanks, Jacque!) we played 9 holes. Tiffany landed top seed and picked a finals bank of Monster Bash, Ghostbusters, and Pulp Fiction. Jacque decisively earned 1st place but the other three settled things with a final round on Can Crusher, ending in:

🥇 Jacque

🥈 Lauren

🥉 Tiffany

🎮 Liz

Huge thanks to everyone for your patience during finals. A whole pack of cyclists zoomed through and made it a little wild! Big kudos to Jacque and Lauren for juggling both the bar and pinball like pros (and still ended up in the top 2!). 🔥💪

Duck, Duck… Go!

Yes! There’s Even More!

Those who did not qualify for finals got to play off for some additional prizes. We had so many things on the prize table, we just kept giving folks stuff! Don’t worry, there were plenty of stuff left to give away at future events.

Additional folks that won prizes include:
💚 Tamara – Gamora Funko Pop
🧙‍♀️ Aimee – Pinball Witch earrings

More earring designs to come soon!

📅 Upcoming Events 📅

Our next event is in Middleton at The Kickback on June 11th. Registration begins at 6:00PM, and we start playing at 6:30PM.

Entry fee is $5 which goes to IFPA dues and helps funds our fun trophies. You will also be responsible for coin drop.

We encourage you to RSVP on Facebook. It helps the engagement on our page and can drive additional viewers to the event.

Our next pin-golf event will be Sunday, June 22th at the Aftershock Arcade.

🌟 Pinball Tips: The Walking Dead Modes 🌟

So you know how to start at least one of the 3 multiballs on Walking Dead. Awesome! But does it ever feel like your multiball score was pennies compared to your opponents? It might be because they were able to start a mode.

Modes are the main ways to progress through modern pinball machines and can rack up huge points if you can stack it with a multiball. Many machines need you to start the mode before initiating your multiball (but not always). Depending on the game, you can be locked out of a mode or vice versa.

📢 Midwest Women Pinball Cheers 📢

Last moth was an exciting month for Belles pinball! Sarah Bradley hosted the first meetup for Fox Cities Belles at Lumberjack Johnny’s in Appleton, and Felicia Haakenson hosted the first meetup for Quad Cities (IA/IL) Belles at Midwest Ale Works in East Moline, IL. We wish both chapters success in growing their community and hosting awesome events.

Way to Slay

Congrats to Donelle! Not only did she win 2nd place at the Fox Cities Belles Pin-Golf tournament, she won the Grand Champ plaque for Dungeons & Dragons!

Big congrats to Tiffany who won her very first pinball tournament ever! She won $40 at the Tuesday Strikes tournament at Aftershock Arcade.

We are so proud of both of them!

Special shoutout to our visiting Belles. You were a joy to have! One player told us we’re a fun, welcoming, inclusive group and honestly, that hit us right in the feels. That’s exactly the energy we hope to bring every time: fun, safe, and welcoming for all. 💜 Thank you to our Madison members who help make that happen. You’re the heart of this crew!

See you soon!

– Belles & Chimes Planning Team

Hey Belles!,

Last week’s Match Play meetup at Kickback was full of good vibes and great games! We had 11 players including one newbie. Meghan back after about a year away! The weather was gorgeous, and the Kickback had it’s doors open to let the breeze roll through. In between matches the patio offered a sunny, laid-back spot to relax and enjoy a drink.

🏆 Winners’ Circle 🏆

Lauren snagged the top seed and picked Black Knight: Sword of Rage for the final showdown. The top four shaped up like this:

🏆 Lauren

🥈 Donelle

🥉 Allison

🎮 Jacque

Aimee and Meghan each won their respective brackets and took home cute little flower magnets!

Shoutout to Kami, who nailed the duck toss on her first try and walked away with a beautiful decorative flower! Click the video below to see everyone’s duck-tossing skills in action.

We had a brand-new mini Belle join us: Caija! She did an awesome job and also won a flower magnet. We hope she and her mom come back soon!

📅Upcoming Events – Kickback Pin-Golf 📅

Our next event is at the Kickback on May 25 for pingolf. Registration begins at 11:30AM, and we start playing at 12:00PM. You don’t want to miss this one because there are going to be puppies on the patio at 3PM!

Entry fee is $5 which goes to IFPA dues and helps funds our fun trophies. Please note you’ll still be responsible for coin drop during gameplay.

We encourage you to RSVP on Facebook. It helps the engagement on our page and can drive additional viewers to the event.

PS – Remember it’s Geek Day! Try to wear something geeky!

The Wednesday event thereafter will be at the Kickback again on June 11th.

Until then, keep your flips sharp, your ducks aimed true, and your flower power strong. 🌸🦆💥

– Belles & Chimes Planning Team

Hey Belles!,

We had a sweet time on Sunday the 27th celebrating Gummy Bear Day at Aftershock Classic Arcade Bar with a cozy crew of 7 players including one brand new Belle, Bridget! With a smaller group, everyone went home with a prize after 9 holes (the best kind of pin-golf, right?).

Special thank you to Brad of Aftershock for taking some time out of his day to tend to us at the bar and fix our mechanical problems during our rounds.

🏆 Winners’ Circle 🏆

With Mary as the top seed, she chose Fish Tales as our finals game. The final four placements were :

🏆 Donelle

🥈 Dori

🥉 Aimee

🎮 Mary

They took home glow-in-the-dark gummy bear trophies and scooped up bonus prizes:

Donelle – Bag of Haribo Gummies

Dori – Mystery golden egg (surprise: tiny poop trinket!)

Aimee – Unraveling mystery ball packed with goodies

Mary – sour  Albanese gummies

But Wait… There’s More!

Aimee also won a Belles & Chimes pin from Pawpetual Pins. (Be sure to check out Etsy for other cool pinball pins like the Psyduck one Tiffany had on.)

Tiffany did not pick a prize, but she said she walked away with the best gift.. The support and warmth of this amazing group of women.

Upcoming Events: Double Trouble at the Kickback

Our next event is in Middleton at The Kickback on May 14th. Registration begins at 6:00PM, and we start playing at 6:30PM.Entry fee is $5 which goes to IFPA dues and helps funds our fun trophies. You will also be responsible for coin drop.

We encourage you to RSVP on Facebook. It helps the engagement on our page and can drive additional viewers to the event.

Our next pin-golf event will be Sunday, May 25th at the Kickback. It will be Geek Day and their monthly Puppies on the Patio fundraiser. Consider dressing up “geeky”, whatever that means to you. You never know when there is an extra prize for best dressed.

Pinball Tips: Pulp Fiction Skill Shot

Super Skill Shot:
Hold the left flipper and plunge. The ball will drop toward your left flipper—be ready! Hit any Payoff shot (left/right standups or left/right orbits, they’ll light up rainbow) to score 100,000 points. You’ll usually get only one or two chances before it times out, and you can attempt this on all three balls. Watch out—the ball comes in fast!!

ICYMI: Dori’s Ticket to Pinburgh:

Over the weekend, Lumberjack Johnny’s in Appleton hosted a tournament where players had a shot at winning a ticket to Pinburgh in the Pittsburgh area. Pinburgh used to be one of the largest pinball tournaments and tickets are extremely limited.

Lady Luck was on Dori’s side, and now she’s gearing up to compete! We’re excited to follow her journey and cheer her on in the upcoming tournaments.

Good luck, Dori—and have fun!

It’s been a beautiful outside. Be sure to enjoy it!

– Belles & Chimes Planning Team

Hey Belles!

On Wednesday, April the 9th, we had our monthly Match Play meetup at DoubleTap Beercade downtown. Eleven folks joined us for the evening, plus one person who came just to soak in the vibes. It was great to see a couple of familiar faces we haven’t seen in a while, including Ashley, who made the trip from Beaver Dam, and Ann, all the way from Minnesota!

🏆 Winners’ Circle 🏆

Mary was top seed, and she chose Venom for the finals. Top 4 shaped up like this:

🏆 Donelle

🥈 Mary

🥉 Ann

🎮 Tiffany

The winners got to hop away with their choice of a bunny-in-a-box filled with assorted egg chocolates—because what’s better than sweet victory and sweet treats?

Additional congrats to Jillian and Ashley who each won their brackets. They got to choose from a selection in the prize pool. Jillian picked a flipper keychain, and Ashley went for the DoodleBob pencil holder (AKA “Me Hoy Minoy!”)

We had one duck race for the evening which ended with Cora scoring a Jersey Jack Pinball shirt! Congratulations! 🎉

The 3D-printed prizes were brought to you by Tiffany! She had some flipper earrings up for grabs as prizes and available for purchase as well. If you’d like a pre-made pair, they’re $5, or $6-$10 if you want something customized. Tiffany is generously donating $1 from each sale to the Belles fund to help keep our prize pool stocked and thriving.

Feel free to reach out to Tiffany if you’re interested, and don’t hesitate to share any feedback on the quality, orientation, or size of the 3D prints—she’s always looking to improve!

Upcoming Events – Aftershock Pin-Golf

Our next event is Aftershock Classic Arcade on April 27. Registration begins at 6:00PM, and we start playing at 6:30PM. If you missed it in prior communications, pin-golf of the 4th Sunday of the month is going to be a regularly occurring event!Entry fee is $5 which goes to IFPA dues and helps funds our fun trophies. Please note you’ll still be responsible for coin drop during gameplay.

Not familiar with the pin-golf format? No sweat! We’ll go over the rules before we split into groups. This is also one of those rare formats where you can choose who you play with, so if there’s someone you’d like to be grouped with, just let us know in advance and we’ll do our best to make it happen.

We encourage you to RSVP on Facebook. It helps the engagement on our page and can drive additional viewers to the event.

The Wednesday event thereafter will be at The Kickback on May 16th as we have yet to hear when NerdHaven will be back up and running.

Midwest Gaming Classic

Two weekends ago we had a boot alongside Madison Fliptastic Youth Pinball Club at the Midwest Gaming Classic. It was a great time hanging out with a bunch Belles from the Midwest area and talking to more people about the women’s division.

Thank you to everyone who pitched in. The women of Belles & Chimes who helped put chats together, discussed plans leading up to the event, and put in hours at the booth: Donelle, Dori, Emily, Erin, Frances, Leah, Tiffany, and Victoria (Apologies if we missed anyone!) Special thanks to Francis Wisniewski for securing this spot by the pinball tournaments and bringing the 6 pins, and Aaron Malone for helping him load and unload.

Special shoutout to Tiffany and Donelle. Tiffany got 4th during the Friday pingolf tournament, and Donelle got the high score on Firepower while playing cross armed at the Saturday night afterparty. Way to go you two!

We hope everyone else have fun at MGC!

In Case You Missed It:
PAPA22

The PAPA 22 World Pinball Championship is returning this year to Enterrium, September 4–7! This is the 2nd Annual Memorial Tournament for Suicide Awareness, held in memory of Lyman F. Sheets, Jr.

Last year, this tournament raised nearly $33,000 for the 988 Foundation for Suicide Awareness in Lyman’s honor.

All skill levels are welcome to attend, including spectators! There will be A Division, B Division, Classics Division, and Women’s Division. Please note: the event is capped at 300 participants.

To learn more about the event, register, or volunteer, please visit the event webpage. (Volunteers will receive free entries and swag, depending on the number of hours they commit.)

The tournament uses entry cards, which is a bit different from the match play format you might be used to. Feel free to reach out to Tiffany if you’d like more details on how it works!

Catch you on the flip flop side. Enjoy the holiday weekend if you are celebrating it! 🐰

– Belles & Chimes Planning Team

Hey Belles!,

Our latest meetup was an adventure of epic proportions as we celebrated the launch of Dungeons & Dragon’s: The Tyrant’s Eye! We had 15 players join in on 9 holes of pin-golf, including two first-timers—shoutout to Emily, who runs Belles tournaments in Iowa for making the drive out!

🏆 Winners’ Circle 🏆

Grand Champ of the launch event went to the person who got the highest score on Dungeons & Dragons during our 9 hole course.
Congrats to Mary!

Mary was top seed of the day, and she naturally chose D&D for the finals round. Top 4 were:

🏆 Mary

🥈 Donelle

🥉 Tiffany

🎮 Lauren

The awesome D20 trophies mark our first time offering 3D-printed prizes. A huge thank you to Tiffany for making that happen! She says to look forward to more 3D printed trophies for in the future.

More Treasure to Loot!

Along with the D20 trophies, we had some other cool things to win including the D&D translite, a baby Mind Flayer figure, and D20 earrings.

We had two virtual duck races to see who would win the Mind Flayer and the translite. The races were tense and our cheers could be heard echoing through the hall.

The Mind Flayer went to
Sharkey!

And a translite to Tiffany!

Dori, Shay, and Tamara won their respective groups during their finals, so they scored the D20 earrings!

📅Upcoming Events – Double Tap and…? 📅

Entry fee is $5 which goes to IFPA dues and helps funds our fun trophies. Normally coin drop is required, but this venue uses tap cards, so you may have a card handy in your wallet already. Otherwise, initial cost to buy a card is $5 and you can load as much money as you want on the card. Your Belles organizers (Jacque and Tiffany) have a joint Belles cards if folks want to share as opposed to buying a new one.

We encourage you to RSVP on Facebook. It helps the engagement on our page and can drive additional viewers to the event.

Additionally, we have to have more pin-golf on Sunday, April 27th. We are still securing our location, so please keep an eye on Facebook for updates. It will likely either be at Aftershock Arcade or the Kickback.

With that being said… Going forward, we plan to host regularly scheduled pin-golf meetups on the fourth Sunday of each month. Inclusivity and growing pinball are at the heart of our mission, and by offering a daytime event on Sundays, we can be more accessible to those with busy weekday schedules. Many of our interested players find it difficult to attend evening meetups due to work, school, or the need for an early bedtime. We hope this additional meetup day will bring even more lovely faces into our community!

🌟Pinball Tips: Star Wars Action Button🌟

Last month we shared a large master list of what the action button does on a huge list of games. We want to take some extra time to call out Stern’s Star Wars as it is imperative to understand how the action button and multipliers work to get consistently high scores. It’s one of the games where it is a huge disadvantage if you don’t know about them. If you’ve seen someone have a crazy 40x multiplier, this is how.

You’ll notice that there are arrows around the playfield with an X in them (two of them circled in lime green). Those are your multiplier shots when lit green. Keep in mind that it doesn’t increase your multiplier, it’s just a shot that has an applied multiplier. To increase this multiplier, you need to hit the three bank in front of the LCD screen. If you take the time to squint really hard or get a magnifying glass, you’ll see that it tells you directly above those targets (circled in white). You can see your current multiplier on the main screen.

If you hit the action button, the arrow will turn red and this will deactivate the multiplier shot, but it will allow you to move the shots around using your flippers. Most people cradle the ball before attempting this. To reactivate the shot, just hit the action button again, and those arrows will turn green again.

Downside to all of this is that the higher the multiplier, the less shots that will be activated to get said multiplier. Additionally, your built multiplier is on a timer and will timeout back to 2x unless you hit the 3 bank again. Multiplier does work for mystery awards and video modes as well. Use this knowledge wisely.

If you want to learn about the other functions of the action button, you can watch this short video where Pinball Jen does a high level review of the action button on Star Wars.

📢In Case You Missed It:
Women’s IFPA Championships📢

Over the weekend, the Women’s IFPA Championship took place at Port City Pinball in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, featuring both the North American Nationals and the World Championship. Miriam Nadler (NY) took home the Nationals title, while Keri Wing claimed the World Championship!

You can watch part of the tournaments on BackhandPinball’s Twitch page under their recent VODs. If looking for a monster of a comeback, check out game 5 of the World Championship finals between Keri Wing and Kaylee Campbell on Deadpool—at this point, Kaylee led 3 games to 1 in the best-of-7 match.

⏩ Jump to timestamp 09:39 if you don’t want to watch the full 30-minute game. At the start of ball 3, Keri sat at 52 million, while Kaylee had already finished with 930 million. (Spoiler: Keri wins the championship 😉) It only takes one ball. Truly inspiring.

There’s no official IFPA results page yet, but we’ll share updates on Facebook once they’re posted!

Catch you at the next meetup! Bring your A-game and your best boot saves!

– Belles & Chimes Planning Team