The silver ball was flying at a breakneck pace this past weekend inside the warm, welcoming confines of Glendale’s premier pinball battleground. Throne Brewing, a beloved neighborhood haunt heralded for its tight-knit community feel and famous raspberry wheat ale, served as the ultimate coliseum for the June 2026 IFPA monthly showdown. A robust field of 34 competitors rolled up their sleeves for an eight-round Pace Match Play crucible, ensuring that seasoned tournament veterans and fresh-faced local players alike shared the same heavy-metal gridiron.
Yet, amidst a phenomenal 16-machine lineup ranging from classic early-80s solid-state tables to bleeding-edge 2026 releases, the true emotional anchor of the afternoon was a legendary relic celebrating its 20-year anniversary: Stern’s 2006 masterpiece, Pirates of the Caribbean. Released exactly two decades ago this month, the masterfully architected table proved it still has the teeth to reshape a tournament standings board, providing the perfect stage for calculated short plunges, cinematic multiball stacks, and the absolute grit of high-stakes local competition.
The Anniversary Legend Sets the Trap
Twenty years after it first arrived in smoke-filled arcades, Stern’s Pirates of the Caribbean remains an absolute marvel of playfield geometry and kinetic risk-reward. During tournament play, the machine didn’t just sit there looking pretty; it actively punished reckless flipper work while richly rewarding clinical accuracy. Competitors looking to unlock massive scoring sequences had to focus on lighting the center stand-ups to prime the compass award, creating a high-pressure bottleneck right up the gut of the table.
The real tactical chess match, however, occurred on the plunger lane. Savvy veterans completely bypassed the auto-plunger during Tortuga multiball setup, opting instead for precise manual short plunges to feed the ball smoothly to the flippers rather than letting it careen randomly into the chaotic top lanes. It was a beautiful display of mechanical appreciation meeting raw tournament execution, proving that this twenty-year-old masterpiece still commands the utmost respect from the modern competitive circuit.
Heavyweight Collisions on Metallica and Deadpool
While the phantom ships of Pirates loomed large, other legendary arenas hosted their own share of athletic drama. Round 2 treated onlookers to a spectacular four-player grind on Stern’s Metallica (Pro), where the lower-ranked but relentlessly determined Adam Langley put on a clinical performance. Langley managed to survive an aggressive 22-minute battle, engineering an absolute masterpiece of an upset by edging out the rising Brandon Norris and local powerhouse Bubba Budvitis to sweep the maximum 7.00 points.
The tension reached a boiling point by Round 7, where the tournament’s eventual podium finishers found themselves locked in an elite, 36-minute staring contest on Deadpool (LE). Jared Harris, andrew kohtz, and the formidable state number-three rank Mark Pearson traded brutal blows right at the threshold of the elimination cut. Harris weaponized the Snikt target multiplier with devastating efficiency, keeping his cool to capture the game victory and solidify his path toward the ultimate prize.
Kohtz and Pearson Ignite the NACS Chase
The localized drama was heavily amplified by the race for the Arizona National American Championship Series (NACS) standings. Andrew Kohtz entered the arena on an absolute tear this season, sitting at an impressive IFPA rank of #742 and climbing. Kohtz was an absolute machine through the middle brackets, stringing together four consecutive round victories on tables like Freddy: A Nightmare On Elm Street and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to assert his dominance.
Meanwhile, Phoenix native Mark Pearson—the highest-ranked player in the building at national #157—played with the seasoned elegance of a master architect. Pearson, who has been riding a massive wave of momentum with three top-3 finishes in his last five tournament appearances, routinely backhanded his way out of danger. Despite a minor stumble in the third round, Pearson rallied furiously, closing out his night with a spectacular triumph on Star Trek (LE) to remind the room exactly why he belongs at the top of the state hierarchy.
Jared Harris Sweeps into the History Books
Ultimately, the afternoon belonged to Washington native Jared Harris. Harris put on a modern clinic in adaptive play, displaying an encyclopedic knowledge of rulesets across vastly different pinball eras. On his blistering march to the top of the podium, Harris achieved an incredible arena milestone, securing the absolute top score on 4 of the 8 different machines he touched throughout the grueling afternoon.
From controlling the chaotic pop bumpers on Legends of Valhalla to executing flawless loops on the newly minted Star Wars tables, Harris looked completely unflappable. Even a minor fourth-place hiccup in the final frame couldn’t derail his massive point cushion. It was a career-defining milestone for Harris, who capitalized on his mechanical depth to conquer a fiercely competitive local field and capture a well-deserved title.
As the machines fell silent and the smell of cajun fries and fresh IPA wafted through the bar, players gathered around the glass to dissect the day’s wildest drains. It was a tournament defined by the enduring legacy of mechanical marvels like Pirates of the Caribbean, proving that no matter how much technology evolves, the timeless allure of the silver ball will always keep us coming back to the arcade floor.
The Throne Brewing June 2026 Podium
- 🥇 1st Place: Jared Harris (Puyallup, WA) — IFPA #3272
- 🥈 2nd Place (Tie): andrew kohtz (Phoenix, AZ) — IFPA #742
- 🥈 2nd Place (Tie): Mark Pearson (Phoenix, AZ) — IFPA #157
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