Belgian Pinball Championship 2007

BFK logo Together with the organiser of the Collector Fantasies show we organised the Belgian Pinball Championship 2007. Contrary to the BPO 2004 that we organised together with the dutch pinball organisation and to which only DPO members could participate, this championship was open for every belgian.

The competition got a lot of attention in the media, here you find an overview of newspapers and even television programs (third item on the national news of sunday evening !) that talked about us.

The tournament setup was simple. Each player could qualify on saturday or sunday (until 3pm) and for that they had to play 1 game (3 ball setup) on each of the six machines. These pinball machines were:

Kiss
Junk Yard
Diner
Ripleys Believe it or not
Grand Prix
4 Million BC

BPC

We also had a Taxi and Fireball as backups, and a secret pinball machine that was wrapped up to only play the final on. That game was delivered on friday night by the show organiser and stayed wrapped up until sunday afternoon.

BPC

Het waren kasten van verschillende types, dat was een bewuste keuze. As you can see these are different types of pinball machines. The organisor of the show wanted to have at least one electro-mechaniscal (4MBC), one numeric (Kiss) and an alpha-numeric (Diner) machine, as a pinball champion has to be able to play on these older games too. We also provided some input about what games we preferred in the competition. No games on which good players could play for hours, so no Pirates of the Caribbean, and if possible games that were less known. Contrary to foreign competition we did not want a row of the known Williams games that everyone has at home.
We got a lot of positive reactions to our selection of games. Most people liked to play on the older games and even serious players that only play on new games did on pretty well on the older machines too.

Depending on the score on each machine, points were awarded and the best eight players could play the semi final on sunday afternoon.

BPC organisation

The amount of points that could be won on each machine depended on the number of players that entered the competition. Best player on a machine would get the number of competitors as points, next had 1 point less, and so on until the last player received 1 point for that machine.

BPC

This way of ranking cause for a lot of excitement on sunday afternoon. Each time a new player entered the tournament, more points could be won but small changes (up and down) in the positions were possible for each of the players.

BPC

Saturday already 20 players qualified and Kevin Roelants held first position.

BPC

Most of the 'better' players only showed up on sunday.
Although 48 players had pre-registered for the competition, not everyone showed up. Some visitors of the show did enter also the competition. Finally we ended with 42 players.
Here you see the final result of qualifications:

Naam	Kiss	PT	Junk Yard	PT	Diner	PT	Ripleys	PT	Grand Prix	PT	4 MBC	PT	Total
Baeyens Bart	122440	30	5794650	26	15932320	42	13845310	35	25731070	40	26850	37	210
Deturck David	48940	8	28615540	42	3098790	31	16832320	38	32000000	41	36200	41	201
Bostyn Andy	92900	24	20849290	40	9947940	40	14095730	36	5387100	15	26110	36	191
Baelen Edwin	82050	23	5702260	25	6003060	36	10742770	30	12505780	34	31180	39	187
De Koninck Joeri	167290	37	2595500	13	9421940	39	21360970	39	6588080	19	19920	28	175
Engelbeen Lieven	239750	41	8072170	33	3360180	32	2690860	8	5554550	16	44440	42	172
Quintijn Steven	143370	33	24097650	41	521530	4	26819340	41	5189740	14	21650	33	166
Roelants Kevin	77040	20	10947100	37	4862100	34	6525740	26	3239010	10	22660	35	162
Croes Anthony	262120	42	2940450	17	2831460	28	4341170	15	13541310	35	15520	21	158
De Kroes Werner	146260	34	4137540	22	1605270	22	9090970	29	5698990	17	21600	32	156
Brochez Evert	73020	19	12907770	38	1969540	23	3746810	11	11702640	32	20070	30	153
Verhoosele Glenn	116210	29	5840130	27	1238230	16	15623340	37	11166130	30	8730	11	150
Buysen Eric	69570	18	3928510	21	5774450	35	6898290	27	10287880	27	14540	19	147
Geneyn Tom	234680	40	6378410	29	1514040	20	2399000	6	19666230	39	10170	13	147
Keuppens Bart	94840	25	9476400	36	3095990	30	11882180	32	3115630	8	10520	15	146
Verleyen Dennis	183330	38	2831130	16	12800970	41	1146720	1	3649630	11	29430	38	145
Van Tubergen Harry	69440	17	5234950	24	957170	12	13836140	34	10452920	28	15780	24	139
Van Wonterghem Pascal	68030	15	13832710	39	6178010	37	8573850	28	1442780	2	12270	17	138
Vinckier Wouter	160200	36	1499690	5	369500	1	10916350	31	8660340	25	22070	34	132
Geleyn Kurt	62570	12	6791750	30	3425810	33	6062880	23	1700150	4	20010	29	131
Deboosere Jos	156410	35	3056970	19	7503210	38	2357260	5	10469480	29	5810	4	130
Van den Bergh Peter	40310	5	2750490	15	773530	8	47434080	42	6615440	20	32510	40	130
De Charleroy Peter	68590	16	7709000	32	2845920	29	2340140	4	7442750	21	17800	27	129
Verhoosele Dimitri	100500	26	6097340	28	754560	7	4507700	16	37066750	42	7630	9	128
Van Clapdorp Kris	125550	31	1143880	3	1081080	13	6329400	25	8615570	24	20530	31	127
Dubus Philippe	200030	39	2729580	14	483020	3	5661630	22	8505940	23	15550	23	124
Oversteyns Michel	42780	7	9056390	34	413080	2	6163080	24	11941720	33	8450	10	110
Vuylsteker Wim	108960	28	2404500	11	900540	10	12075650	33	8327470	22	6020	5	109
Verhe Aeneas	65180	14	2280940	10	2776860	27	26216050	40	3009470	7	6640	7	105
Janssens Alain	79020	22	4512120	23	929210	11	4297840	14	11684210	31	5200	3	104
De Block Kristof	62060	11	2514590	12	2388640	26	5156090	20	8852020	26	6530	6	101
Desmet Bram	31730	4	1923480	9	1401430	18	5130180	19	15194470	37	10510	14	101
Jacobs Cedric	77670	21	1350240	4	1523620	21	3894540	13	4183590	12	17640	26	97
Kennes Filip	41410	6	3630950	20	2032320	24	4833380	18	1350550	1	15550	23	92
Lenaerts Frank	133080	32	868030	2	1167220	15	1894520	3	13931740	36	3690	1	89
Proot Stefan	23820	3	7074850	31	1299040	17	3193670	10	6332240	18	7100	8	87
De Ruyter Michel	52880	10	9242420	35	1108530	14	1803310	2	3157750	9	11540	16	86
Winkeler Ben	20420	1	1760860	8	803570	9	2793910	9	19506330	38	14410	18	83
Brochez Ronny	103060	27	1698360	6	594030	5	5318950	21	1447550	3	8820	12	74
Jacobs Evlyn	64180	13	2977890	18	600000	6	2588900	7	2400460	5	16240	25	74
Vermeulen Wim	49860	9	571080	1	2199340	25	3765580	12	2557070	6	14710	20	73
Van Schil Isabel	20950	2	1754420	7	1434780	19	4717590	17	5040020	13	4240	2	60

As said the best 8 players continued to the semi finals. There were some surprises. Although everyone who qualified was a good player, some players could not qualify (like the previous belgian champion).

BPC

BPC trophy

Time to start the semi finals. These were played at the same time on a Ripleys Believe it or not and a Grand Prix pinball machine. Both were set on 4 pinballs. The other machines were set aside to make room, and the players draw numbers to decide on what machine they would play.

BPC Grand prix pinball
Most players didn't know Grand Prix well, so they took their time to study the playfield and rule card.
Left Andy, right David.

BPC
With two dozen viewers the semifinals started..

BPC

BPC
Steven Quintijn in action.

BPC
Andy and Edwin.

Results semi final on Ripleys:
Lieven Engelbeen : 28.371.120
Kevin Roelants : 11.946.850
Joeri De Koninck : 10.172.810
Steven Quintijn : 5.564.010
Each player did about the same. At the end of the third pinball, three players had scores 8 million. Lieven started as first with his 4th pinball and managed to start multiball twice. This resulted in a very nice increase of his score. Kevin also had a good multiball game.

Semi final on Grand Prix:
Edwin Baelen : 17.651.550
Bart Baeyens: 13.073.840
Andy Bostijn : 6.665.560
David Deturck : 3.367.920
Surprise here was the loss of David. During qualifying he was able to set a very high score on this game, but during this semi final he lost most of the pinballs very fast..

Then it was time to unwrap the secret pinball machine on which the final would be played. Unfortunately Family Guy did not arrive on time, so there had to be played on World Poker Tour. None of the finalists had ever played on this pinball machine. The machine was set to five pinballs, and each of the players could play 1 ball to get at least a bit of a feeling how the machine played. After this the tilt was set less responsive and on three tilt warnings.

BPC Bart Baeyens
Bart Baeyens

BPC Lieven Engelbeen
Lieven Engelbeen

BPC Kevin Roelants
Kevin Roelants

BPC Edwin Baelen
Edwin Baelen

Contrary to the semi final Lieven didn't play good. Half way through the game it became clear the battle for the title would be between Bart and Edwin. During the second to last pinball something also became clear to the organisation... Suddenly 'extra ball lit' appeared on the display of some.. but it was not sure if extra balls had been disabled ! Oops..
As the game had been wrapped up all weekend, only just before the start of the championship it was quickly checked and this was forgotten.
The championship went very smooth for the whole weekend but this one mistake could become critical for the final round !
So with the players there was agreed to continue the game, but an extra ball could not be played.

Bart used his last pinball to increase his score to 30.5 million points.
Kevin and Lieven couldn't come near.. so everyone waited in tension until Edwin had played his last pinball !
That one ended with 27 million points and some change.. But what we feared had happened, he had been able to get an extra ball. The extra ball was shot onto the playfield, let drain.. shot again by the ballsaver.. but even with the extra points this earned him, his score was just a little bit below that of Bart ! Final over, and the winner with the most points is Bart Baeyens !

Final on World Poker Tour:
Bart Baeyens: 30.550.630
Edwin Baelen : 27.000.000
Kevin Roelants : 13.876.310
Lieven Engelbeen : 5.717.740

BPC Bart Baeyens
Bart got the trophees and can call himself Belgian Pinball Champion 2007.