If you’re looking for some indoor activity this weekend, the New York City Pinball Championships might be just the event to hit.
Starting Friday, hundreds of competitors will pack an abandoned gym in Chelsea to compete on dozens of pinball machines, some of which are decades old.
“We do it not for profit, but for love of the community and furthering competitive pinball,” said Levi Nayman, one of the tournament’s organizers. “We make enough to pay the rent and not lose any cash.”
Pinball was invented during the Great Depression and has evolved in the decades since. Across the country there are leagues and tournaments dedicated to pinball. There are speed dating events centering the game. There’s even a movie about overturning the ban on the machines in New York City in the mid-1970s.
And for the city’s highest-ranking, most competitive players, there’s the New York City Pinball Championships, in which they compete for a cash prize. Last year’s grand prize winner took home $2,000.
Men and women compete against each other in the main division, while only women will compete in the Dahlia Rowan Memorial tournament. Players range in age from 10 to 60.
Competitor Lindsey Rhoades said she initially just wanted to learn certain pinball games’ complicated rules, but kept playing because she enjoyed meeting new people.
“They’re not just pieces of furniture in a bar or adding to a location’s ambience,” she said. “They’re there to be played and enjoyed and it’s kind of a fun icebreaker if you’re out on a date.”
“I wish that people throughout the world realized what a great sport it was, and that they treated it seriously as a sport,” said Sean “the Storm” Grant, a pinball player who has been New York’s state champion. “I’m hoping one day it’ll get more television coverage. I try to promote pinball as a sport as much as I can. I hope one day it’ll be in the Olympics.”
Gothamist’s Precious Fondren caught up with the organizer of New York City…
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