So with that, another Texas Pinball Festival is in the books, for me and for everyone.

First, a review of the tournament. It has been long enough since the event that I now know my overall tournament standing for IFPA purposes: 112th out of 167 total players (one player withdrew before playing half of her games). I had hoped for at least a little bit better than that. This is even after It was obvious I was not improving on last year’s 60th out of 152.

There are a lot of things I dislike about the new format. The least of them is that a player now has almost no flexibility on when to play. There is an early group and a late group, and either way, a player will be in the tournament room for about 7 hours on Friday and 5 hours on Saturday, with very limited opportunities to get a break from the noise. With the old format, one could queue up for a game, play it, and immediately take a short break before the next one.

Now I get that this format is much more forgiving if a machine breaks down. Example: In 2022, as a registration desk volunteer I got to void out a bunch of scores when a game was removed from the lineup. Those players all got their entries back. When this happens, it can result in players thinking they are done qualifying actually having an entry or two or three to play again.

But in the end, it is what it is. I expect the new format to be what we will probably have going forward.

Anyway, it was nice to get to play the games on the show floor, including a couple of new titles. It was nice to meet some new people, both on the show floor and in the tournament room.

One thing was more obvious this year than the last. That thing would be the festival is running up against the size limits of the Frisco Conference Center. This is a good thing, but it also means at some point TPF will be looking for a new venue. I personally would welcome this change of scenery even though I have become quite familiar with this section of Frisco over the past four years.

I am still undecided about attending TPF in 2026. I have other options I need to evaluate. That shouldn’t be interpreted as a statement against the TPF team, including the tournament directors. It is more an acknowledgment of other goals I may wish to pursue.