The ninth annual Borås Pinball Classic Open was held over the weekend of March 8th-10th in Borås, about an hour’s drive/bus or train ride inland from Gothenburg on the west coast of Sweden.
The tournament is held at Pinballseye in the centre of the town. The location boasts a collection of about 120 pinball machines and 60 arcade machines.
About 80 of the pinball machines are set up and functional at any one time, with the remaining machines in the workshop or at other locations around Sweden. All 60 arcade machines are up and running, some in the pinball part of the location, but most in the adjoining arcade and laser tag area, including some rare and interesting machines. In the pinball area, there is also a pool table, a shuffle board, a bubble-hockey machine, a retro-gaming corner, and other diversions.
The main star of this amazing venue, though, is the pinball collection. Machines range from EMs such as Gaucho and Wizard! to the latest Stern, Spooky, and Jersey Jack machines, with a wide selection from every era represented.
The event drew over 100 players from five countries. It was the ninth year the tournament was held and the second time in Pinballseye’s new, more central location. With four 100% TGP tournaments in two-and-a-half days, this is one of the most intense tournament events I have been to.
Cool custom trophies for first places in the tournaments – it is lit by an LED, the battery can be changed out, and there is an on/off switch
With this being a primarily classics tournament, the main event was the Classics Tournament that ran all weekend. But the weekend started off with a bang on Friday as the Borås Monthly Tournament was held as a pre-tournament.
There were tournaments on the classics and the newest games too
The Monthly Tournament was a three-hour Frenzy competition with 74 players competing. After three intense hours where every single machine at the location was used in either the main tournament, the golf tournament, the sideshows, or in the frenzy, the top eight players went into four-player groups with 7-5-3-1 scoring on their
