Minding the bumpers and kick-out holes, pinball’s elite crown state champions at intense Concord tournaments​on January 22, 2025 at 2:15 pm

From noon to nearly midnight, they hunched over more than a dozen machines in Concord, trying to score as many points as possible before missing a critical flipper hit or losing balls rolling into the outlane and down the drain.   

CONCORD —It’s considered somewhat cliché among pinball enthusiasts to reference The Who’s 1969 rock anthem “Pinball Wizard” during high-stakes events like Saturday’s state championship tournament at the The Flipper Room in Concord.

At the same time, it’s impossible to refute that Daniele Celestino Acciari, a world-ranking wizard who was crowned as California’s champion, sure plays a mean pinball. Acciari — who is among the International Flipper Pinball Association’s top 10 elite players, and flew from his home in Rome, Italy to compete in the East Bay — beat out 23 other top competitors who took turns battling head-to-head for the title.

From noon to nearly midnight, they hunched over more than a dozen machines in Concord, trying to score as many points as possible before missing a critical flipper hit or losing balls rolling into the outlane and down the drain.

Acciari’s tournament qualifying score earned him a bye game in the first round, but the Italian fought down to the wire on Labyrinth, a 2023 machine based on Jim Henson’s musical fantasy film, to narrowly defeat his quarterfinal opponent.

After booking his ticket to the title game with a victory on Volley, a tennis-themed pinball machine, Acciari won the tournament in dramatic fashion — clinching game seven on The Walking Dead Pro with 230 million points after his challenger fumbled an accidental, last-minute disqualification penalty before the final two balls.

The uninitiated may think pinball is a game of sheer luck, but in actuality it’s no different than other “ball sports” like baseball and golf, according to John Tracey, who lost a seat in the quarterfinals to Acciari. Tracey, an expert-rated player, said pinball is a sport of quick reflexes as balls ricochet through each game’s unique maze of colorful bumpers, habitrails, poppers and ramps.

Watching a Twitch livestream of Acciari masterly hammering the flippers a few feet away, Tracey recounted how the three-time world champion ultimately “turned on the jets” to win their quarterfinal duel with a rouge,100-million-point ball.

“When I took Daniele on, we went to game seven, and he squeaked me off at the end,” Tracey said outside The Flipper Room on Saturday. “It was magical to watch, even though I was losing.”

Living in Monterey, Tracey joined a Monday-night pinball league hosted by Lynn’s Arcade. The 38-year-old also joined a league in San Francisco league, saying that the four-hour, roundtrip commute every other Wednesday is worth it to play different players and games that aren’t available locally.

Every pinball machine, he said, is unique. Balls zinging around identical machines will behave differently, depending on the slope of the floor and arcade lighting quality, as well as the game’s physical, internal mechanics that get damaged and worn over time.

“Think about it similar to a golf course,” Tracey said. “Pinball has all these variables, and it changes what happens throughout the game, and you have to anticipate it.”

Tracey said he never thought he’d make it this far when he dipped his toe into competitive pinball a decade ago. But what started as an escape from work and life stresses turned into a love for the kinetic art, tenacious challenge and inviting community of pinball.

• 

  Participants Dan Dempsey, left, of Concord, reacts after playing a game as Daniele Celestino Acciari, right, of Rome, Italy, competes during the IFPA California State Pinball Championship 2024 at The Flipper Room in Concord, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. Acciari, who has won multiple championships, including an international championship in 2013, won the state championship, $2500, and a plaque after 24 players competed in a head-to-head single elimination bracket. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

• 

  Gavi Greninger, 10, of Walnut Creek, plays pinball as his father looks on while professional players compete at the Flipper Room in Concord, Calif., during the IFPA California State Pinball Championship, on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. Daniele Celestino Acciari, of Rome, Italy, won the state championship, $2500, and a plaque after 24 players competed in a head-to-head single elimination bracket. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

• 

  Tournament Director Jared Garvey, left, Flipper Room Pinball arcade, art gallery, and custom framing owner Mike Moretti, and participant Andrei Massenkoff, of San Francisco, update the tournament bracket during the IFPA California State Pinball Championship 2024 at The Flipper Room in Concord, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. Massenkoff has won multiple championships, including a world championship in 2011, but this time didn’t make it to the finals. Daniele Celestino Acciari, of Rome, Italy, won the state championship, $2500, and a plaque after 24 players competed in a head-to-head single elimination bracket. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

• 

  Daniele Celestino Acciari, of Rome, Italy, competes on a tiebreaker against John Tracey, right, of Monterey, during the IFPA California State Pinball Championship 2024 at The Flipper Room in Concord, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. Acciari, who has won multiple championships, including an international championship in 2013, won the state championship, $2500, and a plaque after 24 players competed in a head-to-head single elimination bracket. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

• 

  Gavi Greninger, 10, of Walnut Creek, plays pinball as his father looks on while professional players compete in a closed door at the Flipper Room in Concord, Calif., during the IFPA California State Pinball Championship 2024, on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. Daniele Celestino Acciari, of Rome, Italy, won the state championship, $2500, and a plaque after 24 players competed in a head-to-head single elimination bracket. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

• 

  Daniele Celestino Acciari, of Rome, Italy, competes on a tiebreaker against John Tracey, right, of Monterey, during the IFPA California State Pinball Championship 2024 at The Flipper Room in Concord, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. Acciari, who has won multiple championships, including an international championship in 2013, won the state championship, $2500, and a plaque after 24 players competed in a head-to-head single elimination bracket. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

• 

  Andrei Massenkoff, left, of San Francisco, shakes hands with Dan Dempsey, of Concord, after Dempsey was eliminated by Massenkoff during the IFPA California State Pinball Championship 2024 at The Flipper Room in Concord, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. Massenkoff has won multiple championships, including a world championship in 2011, but this time didn’t make it to the finals. Daniele Celestino Acciari, of Rome, Italy, won the state championship, $2500, and a plaque after 24 players competed in a head-to-head single elimination bracket. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

• 

  (Teresa Crawford/Associated Press)

  In this Oct. 13, 2017 photo, Escher Lefkoff poses for a photo at the Pinball Expo 2017 in Chicago. Lefkoff won the Professional and Amateur Pinball Association’s World Championships last spring. Interest in pinball has skyrocketed over the last decade or so, with the number of players and competitions growing worldwide, according to the International Flipper Pinball Association, or IFPA. (AP Photo/Teresa Crawford)

Show Caption

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Participants Dan Dempsey, left, of Concord, reacts after playing a game as Daniele Celestino Acciari, right, of Rome, Italy, competes during the IFPA California State Pinball Championship 2024 at The Flipper Room in Concord, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. Acciari, who has won multiple championships, including an international championship in 2013, won the state championship, $2500, and a plaque after 24 players competed in a head-to-head single elimination bracket. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

Expand

“It’s two flipper buttons — you can do that,” Tracey said. “People are really nervous, but if you just get them to play and see how welcoming everyone is, they usually get hooked right after that.”

During the women’s California state finals on Sunday — also hosted by The Flipper Room — Louis Wagonsoner earned first place, representing SFPD out of San Francisco, while Lisa Buhrmester from the So Cal Belles and Chimes took second. Several women-only championship series have been formed in recent years to help meet the growing demand.

Jared Garvey, California’s state tournament director, said the Concord arcade’s collection of 30-plus machines provide the perfect place to host the single-elimination bracket play, as well as introduce casual players to numerous styles of play.

“Pinball has been having a big resurgence in the past 10-15 years, and just keeps getting bigger,” Garvey said. “A lot of the bars and breweries that have games will have a handful of the newest titles, but a place like (The Flipper Room), they have games from all eras.”

The Flipper Room is tucked away in a sleepy business park off Shary Circle, located near the Costco in Concord — where the arcade’s 30 machines line the walls of The Art of Picture Framing, a wholesale-turned-commercial frame shop and art gallery.

“It’s goofy, but I’m in the art world,” Mike Moretti, the shop’s owner, said on Saturday, nearly seven hours into the California state championship. “That’s my hook that brings people into my frame shop.”

More than seven years after Moretti renovated and powered up his first machine on Halloween of 2015, the 46-year-old said the popularity of his collection has grown organically, attracting players of all skill levels drawn to the classic challenge and beauty of pinball.

“Have you ever played it on a piece of wood with a ball before? It’s that interesting, but when you add the art, it becomes something entirely different, Moretti said. “The other part of it is chasing the idea of control — racing against gravity, you’re never going to win. But how long can you keep going?”

Originally Published: January 22, 2025 at 6:15 AM PST

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CONCORD —It’s considered somewhat cliché among pinball enthusiasts to reference The Who’s 1969 rock anthem “Pinball Wizard” during high-stakes events like Saturday’s state championship tournament at the The Flipper Room in Concord.

At the same time, it’s impossible to refute that Daniele Celestino Acciari, a world-ranking wizard who was crowned as California’s champion, sure plays a mean pinball. Acciari — who is among the International Flipper Pinball Association’s top 10 elite players, and flew from his home in Rome, Italy to compete in the East Bay — beat out 23 other top competitors who took turns battling head-to-head for the title.

From noon to nearly midnight, they hunched over more than a dozen machines in Concord, trying to score as many points as possible before missing a critical flipper hit or losing balls rolling into the outlane and down the drain.

Acciari’s tournament qualifying score earned him a bye game in the first round, but the Italian fought down to the wire on Labyrinth, a 2023 machine based on Jim Henson’s musical fantasy film, to narrowly defeat his quarterfinal opponent.

After booking his ticket to the title game with a victory on Volley, a tennis-themed pinball machine, Acciari won the tournament in dramatic fashion — clinching game seven on The Walking Dead Pro with 230 million points after his challenger fumbled an accidental, last-minute disqualification penalty before the final two balls.

The uninitiated may think pinball is a game of sheer luck, but in actuality it’s no different than other “ball sports” like baseball and golf, according to John Tracey, who lost a seat in the quarterfinals to Acciari. Tracey, an expert-rated player, said pinball is a sport of quick reflexes as balls ricochet through each game’s unique maze of colorful bumpers, habitrails, poppers and ramps.

Watching a Twitch livestream of Acciari masterly hammering the flippers a few feet away, Tracey recounted how the three-time world champion ultimately “turned on the jets” to win their quarterfinal duel with a rouge,100-million-point ball.

“When I took Daniele on, we went to game seven, and he squeaked me off at the end,” Tracey said outside The Flipper Room on Saturday. “It was magical to watch, even though I was losing.”

Living in Monterey, Tracey joined a Monday-night pinball league hosted by Lynn’s Arcade. The 38-year-old also joined a league in San Francisco league, saying that the four-hour, roundtrip commute every other Wednesday is worth it to play different players and games that aren’t available locally.

Every pinball machine, he said, is unique. Balls zinging around identical machines will behave differently, depending on the slope of the floor and arcade lighting quality, as well as the game’s physical, internal mechanics that get damaged and worn over time.

“Think about it similar to a golf course,” Tracey said. “Pinball has all these variables, and it changes what happens throughout the game, and you have to anticipate it.”

Tracey said he never thought he’d make it this far when he dipped his toe into competitive pinball a decade ago. But what started as an escape from work and life stresses turned into a love for the kinetic art, tenacious challenge and inviting community of pinball.

“It’s two flipper buttons — you can do that,” Tracey said. “People are really nervous, but if you just get them to play and see how welcoming everyone is, they usually get hooked right after that.”

During the women’s California state finals on Sunday — also hosted by The Flipper Room — Louis Wagonsoner earned first place, representing SFPD out of San Francisco, while Lisa Buhrmester from the So Cal Belles and Chimes took second. Several women-only championship series have been formed in recent years to help meet the growing demand.

Jared Garvey, California’s state tournament director, said the Concord arcade’s collection of 30-plus machines provide the perfect place to host the single-elimination bracket play, as well as introduce casual players to numerous styles of play.

“Pinball has been having a big resurgence in the past 10-15 years, and just keeps getting bigger,” Garvey said. “A lot of the bars and breweries that have games will have a handful of the newest titles, but a place like (The Flipper Room), they have games from all eras.”

The Flipper Room is tucked away in a sleepy business park off Shary Circle, located near the Costco in Concord — where the arcade’s 30 machines line the walls of The Art of Picture Framing, a wholesale-turned-commercial frame shop and art gallery.

“It’s goofy, but I’m in the art world,” Mike Moretti, the shop’s owner, said on Saturday, nearly seven hours into the California state championship. “That’s my hook that brings people into my frame shop.”

More than seven years after Moretti renovated and powered up his first machine on Halloween of 2015, the 46-year-old said the popularity of his collection has grown organically, attracting players of all skill levels drawn to the classic challenge and beauty of pinball.

“Have you ever played it on a piece of wood with a ball before? It’s that interesting, but when you add the art, it becomes something entirely different, Moretti said. “The other part of it is chasing the idea of control — racing against gravity, you’re never going to win. But how long can you keep going?”