When the desert mercury hits 105 degrees in Mesa, true pinball athletes don’t run for the air conditioning—they step up to the plunger. On Friday night at Atomic Age Modern, Scottsdale’s own Jard Cassell delivered a dominant wire-to-wire performance that left the rest of the thirty-two-player field chasing shadows. Entering the arena with a sharp IFPA rank of #489 and riding a strong upward rating trajectory over the last year, Cassell treated the match play grid like his own personal practice facility.
Over two hundred and six minutes of grueling four-player group competition, Cassell didn’t just survive the cuts; he completely dictated the pace. He put up the top score on four of the six machines he played, methodically breaking down legendary tables and proving that his recent form is no fluke. In a competitive draw featuring twenty-two ranked veterans and ten hungry unranked challengers, Cassell turned a standard weekly tournament into a definitive statement of championship intent.
Desert Heat and Early Upsets on Flight 2000
The floor at Atomic Age Modern offered its usual magical atmosphere, doubling as a curated mid-century boutique where every silverball table is kept in peak mechanical condition. Competitors arrived with BYOB refreshments in tow—strictly moderate sips between balls—ready to test their reflexes against a lineup spanning fifty years of arcade craftsmanship. The draw was packed with Arizona talent, anchored by national heavyweight Jason Barre (#397) and state-ranking juggernaut John Magyar (#25 in AZ NACS).
Early group rounds separated the contenders from the warm-ups, but the real electricity struck during Round 2 on Stern Electronics’ widebody masterpiece, Flight 2000. Chandler’s Elaine Hecht stepped up as a heavy 1-in-5 underdog against rising IFPA #3,147 competitor Tommy Bizzi in a thirteen-minute four-player battle. Channeling absolute steel, Hecht ignored the ratings and put on a mechanical clinic. She repeatedly swept the right drop targets and juiced the advancing right spinner to capture a thrilling seven-point first-place finish, shrinking her twenty-tournament career deficit against familiar rival Dakota Jeane along the way.
Connor Kennedy’s Harlem Globetrotters Runaway
As the middle rounds tightened the standings, Connor Kennedy decided to blow the doors off the building. In Round 4, Kennedy stepped up to Bally’s 1978 solid-state classic Harlem Globetrotters On Tour, a legendary arena designed by Greg Kmiec featuring Greg Freres artwork. Working the inline drop targets with surgical accuracy to multiply his left orbit spinner values, Kennedy put together an absolute monster ball. He posted a staggering 533,990 points, carving out the widest scoring margin of the entire tournament and leaving second-place finisher Robert Kennedy stranded back at 225,890.
While Connor Kennedy was putting on a scoring exhibition, long-simmering floor rivalries kept the tension near the tilt bob. Scott Pobieglo (IFPA #4,016) showed tremendous grit in the middle stretch, finishing ahead of career nemesis Mike Fishell to narrow a fierce fifteen-tournament head-to-head history. Meanwhile, Kevin Curtis (IFPA #607) leaned on familiar mechanical instincts to conquer The Party Zone and John Wick, quietly stacking group points to keep himself firmly in the championship conversation.
The Eight Ball Deluxe Showdown
Everything boiled down to a punishing sixth round where the tournament’s top performers collided head-on. On Bally’s billiards-themed Eight Ball Deluxe (1984 edition), Bob Kennedy and Connor Kennedy squared off in a heavyweight fifteen-minute group clash. Racking up carried-over bonus values by relentlessly sweeping the right-side drop targets and nailing the elusive eight-ball standup, Bob Kennedy edged out Amber Valdivia for the seven-point win, forcing Connor Kennedy to settle for third in the group. That critical swing broke Amber Valdivia out of a dead-even career tie with Mike Fishell, giving her the upper hand across their nine shared historical appearances.
Over on Williams’ classic Whirlwind, Jard Cassell needed no dramatic comeback to seal his championship fate. Playing with the cold efficiency of a seasoned veteran, Cassell navigated the playfield hazards to capture his fourth machine victory of the night. Tommy Bizzi threw everything he had at the table to secure second place in the round, but Cassell’s commanding seven-point haul locked down an untouchable first-place overall finish.
The Final Podium Landing
When the flippers finally rested and the last mechanical chimes faded into the Mesa night, the scoreboard reflected a tournament defined by relentless consistency. Milliana Bizzi provided one last spark of late magic by taking Round 6 on Harlem Globetrotters with 75,610 points, but the evening undeniably belonged to the players who mastered the physical grind. Cassell’s four-machine sweep stands as a textbook example of how to dismantle a thirty-two-player field, blending aggressive mechanical knowledge with unshakable composure under pressure.
As competitors filed out toward the amazing Venezuelan kitchen next door to swap bad-beat stories over late-night dinner, the top three athletes etched their names into local IFPA lore. It was a night where personal bests were tested across forty-eight total games played, but only a select few climbed to the top step.
Tournament Winners:
- 1st Place: Jard Cassell
- 2nd Place: Connor Kennedy
- 3rd Place: Kevin Curtis