Pin Diemen's Land

For its very first edition, Pin Diemen's Land set out to do something TAPP had never tried before: a full weekend of pinball, with four tournaments across three days under one roof at Deep South Brewing Co. We're thrilled to say it delivered. On nearly every measure (players, days, hours on the flippers and ranking value) it was the biggest competitive pinball event Tasmania has seen.

Fair warning: this write-up is a doozie. So was the weekend, and we didn't want to leave out any of the fun details, so buckle in, it's a long one! 🎢

Photo credit: Lynden George

Thirty-four players took part across the weekend, plus plenty of spectators, friends and curious passers-by who dropped in to see what all the noise was about. They played on a 14-machine lineup running from 1960s electromechanicals right through to the latest modern games, thanks to our generous machine contributors. The main event hit a full 200% TGP, the highest ever for a Tasmanian event, and across the weekend a total of 43.31 WPPR points were distributed, enough to cause a shakeup in the state finals race. Most importantly, the vibe was fantastic all weekend. It was a room full of beautiful people, friendly rivalry, loud cheering and plenty of laughs.

We were also very happy to welcome a few interstate visitors (our affectionately named "interstate interlopers"), and we hope they had a great time. Our northern Tassie friends were missed, as it's a busy time of year on the calendar, but we hope to see them at a future edition. Even with some of the local pinball community missing, we couldn't be happier with the turnout :-).

Friday: Friday Night Strikes

Friday night was all about warming up. Players got their eye in on the lineup, caught up with friends, and settled into the venue before the serious business started. A fair few games came down to bonus. Early on, Operation Thunder handed out a tough lesson: Julian played out of order with extra balls switched on, which we hadn't realised either, and copped a DQ for the game. It's a rough one, but it's a rite of passage every competitive player goes through at some point.

The final was a proper nail-biter between Joe Wade and Josh Hesketh on Operation Thunder. Josh put together a big comeback on ball 3 to set the target. Joe drained his last ball short of it, so everyone watched the bonus count. Bonus alone wasn't enough. Then the Captain award landed for another four million, and Joe edged it 21,516,600 to 21,462,820, a margin of just 54k. It was swings and roundabouts for Josh, who had won a game on Foo Fighters earlier in the night by an equally slim bonus. Our top finishers picked their prizes from the PDL swag table.

We also found time for a fun party round of Barrel Ball on Labyrinth. It's Barrels of Fun's take on the party game stall ball: players line up and take turns trying to trap the ball in a safe shot before the next person steps up, and if you drain, you're out. The sound gave up on us, so sadly we missed Tim Kitzrow's (the NBA Jam voice) commentary, but it was still loads of fun. Lee Davey outlasted everyone to take a TAPP mug and an AMD shirt. Congrats Lee!

We then drew our first two door prizes of the weekend, courtesy of Hobart Tattoo Collective, which went to Kaleb Southwell ($50 HTC voucher) and Beau Burton (HTC tote bag).

Saturday: Main Event Qualifying

Photo credit: Lynden George

Saturday kicked off the main event with a full afternoon of group match play: standard 7/5/3/1 scoring, with 8 rounds of 2 games for a total of 16 games, using Swiss pairing.

Before a ball was plunged, Kev and Wes came in early to get Genie repaired and working. It turned out to be one of the favourite games of the weekend, so a huge shout-out to them both. At the other end of the spectrum, Godzilla's tilt was set tight all weekend, so there was a lot of "feather fingers" nudging on that one.

Lily McShane had a stellar day, finishing second in qualifying just behind the top seed. The A-Division cutoff came down to a three-way tie for the final spot. It was settled with a three-player playoff on Cyclone, and Royal Murray took the last ticket into the A-Division bracket. Somewhere in the middle of all this, the Lions won the AFL grand final. A few people checked the score, but most were far too busy flipping to care 😅.

We of course drew more door prizes, which went to Patrick Hewitt (HTC shirt) and Zac Romagnoli-Townsend ($50 HTC voucher). Thanks, Hobart Tattoo Collective!

Saturday Night: Tribal Throwdown

Saturday night belonged to the teams. Tribal Throwdown, presented by Tribe Caandi, brought six teams together for a full double round-robin, with every team facing every other team twice. Each match sent two players from each team into a four-player game. Points came from finishing positions, plus a bonus for the team with the higher combined score.

The real magic was the meta-game. Teams took turns locking in their players for each round, all on the big TV so the whole room could watch the round take shape. Nominating later meant you could see who you were up against and pick your counter. Add in coaching, which was allowed for this event only, and every game became a team huddle around the machine. Everyone loved it.

The costume department also delivered. Royal turned up as a pirate 🏴‍☠️, Beau made matching bandanas for Tom's Hot Mum, and Brad Nichols worked through what felt like a million different shirts across the weekend. Good luck finding him in the photos.

Ghetto Pinball League came out on fire, winning their first six matches straight and leading after every round. Their only loss came in Round 4, and it came with a twist. Ghetto captain Ace had originally recruited Joe, but Joe moved to Tom's Hot Mum to balance out the teams. You can guess who put up 111 million on Foo Fighters to hand Ghetto their only defeat. Joe also posted the biggest score of the night: 251 million on Foo in Round 1.

Other highlights included Kaleb's monster 290 million on Godzilla for Bean Steady, and Lily blowing up Flash. The comeback of the night belonged to The Tilters. They were sitting fifth after three rounds, then won their last four matches straight to snatch second place. In the end, though, nobody was catching Ghetto, who finished on 114 points to claim the very first perpetual Tribal Throwdown trophy 🏆. Ghetto, remember the deal: that trophy comes back next year for you to defend, or for someone to try and take it off you. The full round-by-round results are on the Tribal Throwdown page.

This was a new format for us, and our first time running a team event. The feedback was very positive and the balancing worked extremely well. We might make a few tweaks, but we think we'll be seeing this one again!

Sunday: Main Event Finals

Photo credit: Lynden George

Sunday picked up where Saturday afternoon ended, with the top 12 going into the A-Division double-elimination bracket. A loss in the primary bracket dropped you into the elimination bracket, where one more loss ended your weekend. The winner of the elimination bracket earns their way back to face the primary bracket winner, still in contention for the title.

The bracket had plenty of drama:

Sol took game 1 of his match against Josh on Godzilla. Josh answered later in the match with over a billion on Foo Fighters, then declared, tongue firmly in cheek, that "he took it personally".

Ace had some truly rotten luck on Labyrinth. With two balls locked in a crucial deciding game, a ball search released both of them, and they bounced off each other for an unavoidable double drain.

Julian beat Joe to be crowned "king of the interstate interlopers". Joe insisted that if he'd known titles were on the line, he would have played better 😅

On Flash, Lily played out of order and copped a DQ for the game, the second lesson of the weekend in the same vein. Patrick made the tough ruling and Lily took it like a champ, not letting it dampen her spirits on an otherwise solid run the whole weekend.

Midway through finals, Avengers needed some attention, and Brett Cooke jumped in to get it running again. Thanks, Brett, for always being willing to help out and make sure the machines are operating like they should!

The storyline of the day was Patrick Hewitt's run. Simon Voigt knocked him out of the primary bracket, but Patrick fought his way through the elimination bracket and got his revenge on Simon there to earn a spot back in contention in the final. Waiting for him was Joshua Hesketh, who had come through the primary bracket undefeated. With the TDs playing in the final, Julian stepped in as neutral interstate adjudicator. A big thanks to Julian for his fair rulings (of which he had to make a couple during the final game). Patrick needed to beat Josh twice, but Josh closed it out to take the title, then put his winnings on a bar tab for everyone to enjoy 🍻

Over in B-Division, Wes Keys took the win, with Brad Nichols in second and Ben Wiedman third. Special mention goes to Lynden George. He couldn't make Saturday's qualifying (he had a fair excuse with his sister's wedding; congrats to her, but thankfully that excuse only works once, so we expect to see him at the full event next time 😂) and started finals day as the bottom seed, yet still climbed all the way to fourth place and a trophy. A massive thanks to Jacob Mackay, who jumped in to help run B-Division, drawing rounds and making sure machine assignments didn't clash with A-Division. It was a critical job, and it made Sunday run far more smoothly.

Sunday Night: Closeout Max Dinner Matchplay

To send the weekend off in style, Deep South put on an amazing spread: grazing platters, Korean chicken, chips and pizzas (plus a few drinks on Josh's tab). Everyone ate and played through the evening, and the trophies for A and B Divisions were handed out during the night.

The Closeout ended in two tiebreakers. A three-way tie for the top spots was decided on Moon Flight, and Kaleb Southwell took the win ahead of Patrick and Joe. His prize: glory (and pizza 🍕).

Then came the showstopper: an eight-way tie for fourth place, settled on Sweet Hearts. It's a five-ball EM, normally played one ball at a time, and it's a tough game at the best of times. Because it's so old, though, you lift the balls from the trough into the shooter lane by hand, which means you can bring up any of your five balls whenever you like. So for the tiebreaker, each player had to load all five balls into the shooter lane and play the whole lot as a five-ball multiball. It's definitely not how the game was designed to be played, and that's exactly what made it brilliant.

What followed was absolute chaos in the best possible way. Balls went everywhere and the whole room crowded around Sweet Hearts, cheering every save and groaning at every drain as the eight players took their turns. Aaron Bloodnut emerged from the mayhem with fourth place, and there couldn't have been a better way to close out the weekend.

Lastly, Sunday's door prizes went to Aaron Bloodnut ($50 HTC voucher, perfect timing since he'd already been talking to Tom about a tattoo idea) and Ben Lambert (HTC tote bag).

Ones to Watch

Photo credit: Lynden George

A few players had weekends worth calling out.

• Kaleb Southwell has only been playing for about a year. He qualified fourth for the main event, dropped 290 million on Godzilla in the Throwdown, and won the Closeout. He's now sitting solidly in the state's top eight. Keep an eye on him.

• Patrick Hewitt finished second in A-Division, second at the Closeout, and captained the Tilters to second in the Throwdown, all while co-directing the whole weekend. He also got not 1, but 2 centre-post saves on The X-Files in one game (with no rubber on the post!), earning him the title of Postman Pat!

• Zac Romagnoli-Townsend came to his very first competitive event and played incredibly well across the weekend. Just as impressive for a new joiner to our little community, when the weekend was over, he turned up on Monday to do the hard work of bumping out machines. That's the unglamorous job after all the fun is done, and it was awesome to see. Thanks Zac, and welcome to TAPP!

• Joe Wade, one of our interstate interlopers from Queensland, won Friday Night Strikes, finished fifth in A-Division and third at the Closeout, and helped Tom's Hot Mum hand Ghetto their only loss. This isn't his first visit to the island state, but his weekend has lifted him to 12th on the Tasmanian leaderboard, inside the state finals cut, and he's already told us that if he qualifies, he'll be back. Our locals may have to defend the state title from an interstate interloper! 😅

Thank Yous

Pin Diemen's Land simply doesn't happen without a lot of people pitching in.

Our sponsors:

Tribe Caandi was our financial supporter for the event and the presenting sponsor of the Tribal Throwdown. Tribe Caandi is a Hobart-based community care provider focused on helping people live full, connected lives. Those values line up perfectly with what this weekend was about, and we're so grateful for their support.

Deep South Brewing Co. were our incredibly generous hosts. Not only did they open on a Sunday, when they're normally closed, just for us, they were also endlessly accommodating while we took over their venue and wheeled machines in and out. A huge shout-out to Warrick, Siobhan, Dave and all the staff for their hospitality all weekend. We can't thank them enough.

Hobart Tattoo Collective supported the event and sponsored all of the door prizes across the weekend.

Our crew:

Wes Keys was our machine curator, and the weekend ran on his work. He coordinated the contributors, handled logistics, rented the truck, and put in days of work to make sure the games played well. Thanks Wes!

Tom Fonda put together our amazing art package and logo for the event. He did multiple revisions to work within printing restrictions and other requirements without complaint. Things wouldn't have looked nearly as professional without him. Thanks Tom!

Patrick Hewitt was co-Tournament Director for the whole weekend. He had to make some tough calls, but never shied away from the challenge. He read up on the rule book and directed with fairness! We really appreciate it and the attention to detail, thanks Patrick!

Our machine contributors were Wes Keys, Royal Murray, Kev Mills, Adrian "Ace" Evans, Ben Wiedman, Brad Nichols, Bennet McComish and Mick. A special shout-out to Brad, who stepped in at the last minute when Andy Paul's machine couldn't make it, and thanks to Andy for offering his in the first place. It goes without saying that we simply couldn't have done this event without them. Plus, they didn't just lend their machines; they bumped them in, helped set them up, looked after them if they needed repairs/fixes, and generously gave their time packing up. We can't thank you all enough!

Photo credit: Lynden George

We needed some extra muscle to help move the machines and get things set up and packed down. In addition to the contributors, thank you to everyone who helped move machines and worked behind the scenes: Patrick, Lynden, Kaleb, Royal, and Andy. A special shout-out to Zac, who at his very first event spent all of Monday helping with bump-out like a champ.

A special thank you to Kev and Brett who helped keep the machines running with their on-the-spot repairs and decades of pinball knowledge.

Another shout-out to Jacob who, unprompted, offered to help keep B-Division running smoothly. And to Julian again for graciously accepting the role of deputy TD.

Our photographers: we completely forgot to take a group photo, but thankfully Brad, Patrick, Lynden, Ben L, Royal and Joe captured some great action shots. Thank you!

So many people chipped in over the weekend that we've almost certainly missed someone. If that's you, our sincere apologies, and a huge thank you. Whether it was picking up rubbish, assisting in a repair, helping move the event along smoothly, or something else entirely behind the scenes, every bit of help made a difference! This was a team effort and really saw our TAPP community come together to pull it off ❤️.

And of course, a big thank you to every player who came along, whether for one event or the whole weekend. You made it what it was.

Keep an eye out for our regular events, and for more special events coming soon. Hopefully we'll see you all at Pin Diemen's Land next year!

Photo credit: Benjamin Lambert