Despite the absolute wackiness that has been 2020, I wanted to take a few moments to document and celebrate the 10th year of PHASE II of FLiPS, i.e. the MMX through MMXX years.
Some may recall that PHASE I was the brief period of time from about mid-2004 to Hurricane Wilma in October 2005 where a handful of us would get together and play some pinball and usually throw in a tournament. After Wilma hit Florida, the gatherings went on hiatus.
Fast forward to November 2010 when the first Superhero tournament was held at Casa de la Corpse. The event was an invite only, featuring about 30 players, most from the tri-county South Florida area with a few players from around the state coming to join in the festivities.
This event was a casual tourney with prizes and maybe more iconic, this was the start of the Super Grover award-a trophy for the last place finisher.
The event was extremely well-received and the participants were excited to maybe make it more monthly event. A subforum and post looking for participants, announcing the creation/revival of FLiPS was placed on The Village and Ka-BOOM, it was off to the races.
For about the next 5 years there were numerous people anxious to play and host a FLiPS event and run FLiPS tournaments. In my database, I had well over 150 people that had been to at least one FLiPS event and there were about 20-25 people that were almost at every event and about 15 different unique hosting locations. Pretty impressive.
It was also nice to see that FLiPS served as a catalyst for the formation of other pinball clubs in Florida. Many clubs wanted to replicate what FLiPS was doing. There was an attraction of many players in the state to some of our larger events. At one time I think there were a total of 5 unique pinball clubs in Florida.
For FLiPS, it was getting challenging to accommodate both the amount of people wanting to play and to keep coming up with new ways to have tourneys that would end in a few hours.
Tourneys ranged from the ridiculous to the hardcore and included traditional style, 4-player team events, one handed, zen-style poker style, Olympics, baseball, the famous “You’ve Gottlieb be kidding me” style, pingolf, Drag Racing and many others. While people wanted the glory, Super Grover prizes were becoming as desired as the main prize. A few people even did some sandbagging. That’s how cool the Super Grover prizes were becoming.
As FLiPS was constantly exposing players to casual tourneys over the years and with shows like APE, GAMEWARP, SPF soon to be FPF gaining traction and the emerging PINBALL ASYLUM events, there was a rapid explosion of IFPA tourneys happening in Florida. In 2013 the first of the annual Point Monsters series was held and in 2014 the first IFPA State Championship was held. Things were getting heavy duty for Florida Pinball. They were only going to get heavier.
Over the years, the monthly casual FLiPS gatherings gave way to hosting more “serious” rated IFPA events. FLiPS had a consecutive monthly gathering streak of over 50 events before it became been obvious that there are only so many available weekends people have available to play. The same people were most likely going to be at each event, so in the end, IFPA tourneys were essentially the new FLiPS gatherings.
This trend undoubtedly alienated a few players and hosts, as it was perceived as taking the fun out of the casual meetings. On one hand, the irony was that for years everyone at a FLiPS event competed anyway, but once the IFPA and WPPR tags applied, it felt different to some. This is understandable.
FLiPS forged onward and casual events were still held at private homes and with the advent of the strikes tourney format and matchplay software, this reintroduced the spirit of randomness and fun at local tourneys.
As time went on, the fundamental problem for FLiPS or any pinball club is that there needs to be places to play that can accommodate the player base. Not everyone owns machines nor can host dozens of eager players. It was ALWAYS easy to find people to play. The same few people ended up hosting and it simply became too complicated to accommodate the demand.
And unfortunately in 2020, we have the global Pandemic issue and getting together is harder for FLiPS, or anything.
Even though FLiPS are not currently getting together in person, the energy has been steadily growing and has always been there. After 10 years, there is a clear presence of how expansive and well known is the FLiPS club. Players and supporters from the state and around the country and even in foreign countries have flown the flag showing support of FLiPS by wearing shirts. FLiPS shirts are a staple uniform at many local events and have been seen at the State, National and World Championships.
I would say FLiPS name is out there, and I hope to see it continue to grow. There are many people that have made it happen. Thank you.
Lastly: Those of you who are the FLiPS OGs will always be the OGs and that will never change. I and many people are so thankful for all the hosts, the food and drinks, the tourneys, the access to new games and fabulous collections, the conversations, new friends and simply helping create one of the best things for Florida Pinball.
You know who you are. Anybody who has remotely paid attention knows who the OGs are in Florida Pinball who helped make the last 10 years happen. And if they don’t, I certainly do and I appreciate you. Thank you, my friends.
Jeff Palmer
aka pinballcorpse
