The July Monthly at Throne Brewing featured a 40-player Pace Match Play tournament with six guaranteed qualifying rounds. The goal after six rounds was simple: reach 24 points to advance. After that, the pace target increased by seven points each round as the field was trimmed down toward the finals.
Qualifying Rounds
Round 1 – Stranger Things Premium
🥈 2nd Place (+5)
A solid opening round put me on the board early and gave me a good start toward the qualifying target.
Running Total: 5
Round 2 – Star Wars Comic Art Premium
🥉 3rd Place (+3)
Not my strongest game, but earning three points kept me moving in the right direction.
Running Total: 8
Round 3 – Freedom
4️⃣ 4th Place (+1)
Freedom lived up to its reputation. The flippers felt incredibly weak and floaty, making ball control difficult. It was my toughest game of the day and the only round where I finished fourth.
Running Total: 9
Round 4 – The Mandalorian Pro
🥉 3rd Place (+3)
This game was much more enjoyable. I picked up several skill shots, made progress toward Spider Multiball, used the flamethrower, and kept the game competitive.
Running Total: 12
Round 5 – Night Rider
🥇 1st Place (+7)
This was my best game of the tournament.
I jumped out to a huge lead on Ball 1 with over 54,000 points and never looked back. Instead of chasing everyone else, I spent the rest of the game protecting the lead and closed it out with 62,670 points for first place.
Running Total: 19
Round 6 – Mata Hari
🥉 3rd Place (+3)
I found myself in a tight battle for second place throughout the game but ultimately finished third with 60,380 points.
Final Qualifying Total: 22 Points
Final Result
Unfortunately, 22 points wasn’t quite enough.
The qualifying cutoff landed at 24 points, leaving me tied for 25th place, just two points shy of advancing to the elimination rounds.
While it’s always disappointing to miss the cut, there were plenty of positives to take away from the day.
I bounced back immediately after my rough Freedom game instead of letting it derail the tournament.
I earned a first-place finish on Night Rider.
I stayed competitive throughout the afternoon with finishes of:
🥇 1 First
🥈 1 Second
🥉 3 Thirds
4️⃣ 1 Fourth
Perhaps the biggest win wasn’t on the scoreboard.
One of my goals this season has been practicing longer tournament play so I become more comfortable staying focused over multiple rounds. This tournament gave me exactly that opportunity. Every event helps build endurance, confidence, and experience for the next one.
Congratulations to everyone who advanced, especially my husband Andrew, who needed a clutch first-place finish in Round 6 just to survive qualifying. He delivered exactly when he needed to and earned his spot in the elimination rounds.
Sometimes pinball comes down to just a couple of points.
This time I came up two short.
Next month, I’ll be back to chase them. 🎯
Still counts. Always.
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