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It is official! We will be having our first tournament on Sunday, 2021-01-24, at Speedy’s Fast Track, 11440 Hempstead Road, Houston, Texas (see map below). Check-in/warmups start at 1:00 pm, tournament will begin promptly at 1:30 pm.

Entries will be limited to 16 players. Format will be a five-round group match play with a three game playoff for the top 4 finishers. No entry fee as such, $8 toward a group use game card for tournament games plus one warm-up game per player. No prizes or physical awards will be issued for the results of this tournament; however, this is something we will be offering in later tournaments and leagues. Since the IFPA is still not endorsing and ranking tournaments, this will not be a WPPR ranked tournament; however, this too is something we will offer when the IFPA resumes.

Machine lineup: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Iron Maiden, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Deadpool, Batman, The Munsters.

The league rulebook as will be used for this tournament will be published on or before 2020-12-18 (Friday).

It’s now July, and not a whole lot has changed. Arcades have re-opened at reduced capacity, bars were open for a while but have since been ordered to close again. Perhaps most importantly, the IFPA has not reinstated endorsement of tournament and league play, and has started up something else called the IFPA Challenge Rankings to fill in the void. That we have been without IFPA-endorsed tournaments for this long and that the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be nowhere near over both suggest we could be in for a rather long wait for competitive pinball in general to return to normality, let alone for BCPL to finally officially launch.

At minimum, I’m waiting for arcades and bars to return to operating at 100% capacity. Meanwhile, with the downtime, I have been working on the league’s rulebook, which I will finalize and put online at least a couple of weeks before our first tournaments and/or league nights.

But for now, we wait. Hopefully, not for terribly long.

Shawn K. Quinn
Founding Commissioner, Bayou City Pinball League

Hello fellow Houston pinball players,

Since my previous announcement, further emergency measures have been enacted to address the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Most notably, here in Houston/Harris County, restaurants have been ordered to shut down their dining rooms and only serve food to-go (or deliver) and bars and nightclubs have shut down. It is reasonable to expect locations likely to have pinball machines not falling in those categories to follow suit.

I do still plan to go ahead with our first tournament when the crisis has passed; I’m just not sure when that will be. Any announced date should be treated as tentative, though I will endeavor to announce any necessary rescheduling at least 48 hours out.

Future updates will be posted here as they become available.

Shawn K. Quinn
Founding Commissioner, Bayou City Pinball League

Due to the growing uncertainty regarding medical issues, the cancellations of large-scale events here and elsewhere in the state, and other miscellaneous non-medical issues, I have decided to postpone our first tournament(s) until at least early May. The safety of our players comes first.

More details will be announced here as they become available.

Today, Monday, 2020 February 17, the Bayou City Pinball League has commenced operations. Tournament and league start dates will be announced soon. Expect the first tournament in early April with a weekly league to follow later that month.

Shawn K. Quinn
Founding Commissioner, Bayou City Pinball League