Total Nuclear Endurance: Donelle Sauby Claims Pinball Victory

It took eighty-three grueling minutes to crown a champion on Total Nuclear Annihilation (Spooky Pinball, 2017). In Round 3 of the ladder elimination finals at Jacque’s House, Donelle Sauby and Tiffany Han found themselves locked in a two-player war of attrition that tested every ounce of their stamina. With the playfield multipliers lighting up during multiballs, every short plunge to a live catch on the right flipper became a critical maneuver to secure a long ball saver. The marathon match served as a fittingly exhaustive climax to a night where every single shot carried immediate weight.

This was not a sprawling convention floor where players could get lost in the crowd. The June 10th Belles & Chimes Madison event was an intimate, high-stakes gathering featuring a small field of just twelve participants. With a format consisting of Group Match Play for the qualifier, every single game visibly moved the standings, leaving competitors with absolutely nowhere to hide.

Nowhere to Hide in a Twelve-Player Room

The evening began with a five-round qualifier, featuring a mix of seven IFPA-ranked and five unranked competitors. The national field strength carried an average rank of 12289, with Han entering as the strongest player at a career-peak-adjacent IFPA #4279. Han has been quietly trending up over the past year, boasting a resume of 172 career tournaments and nine wins over the last three years. In a room this tight, competitors constantly crossed paths, making every four-player group a potential preview of the finals. Han immediately established her dominance, taking first place in both Round 1 and Round 2 on Total Nuclear Annihilation.

However, the rest of the field refused to concede early, bringing veteran experience to the flippers. Sauby, entering the tournament at IFPA #6697, brought seven years of active play and ten wins in the last three years to the table. She steadily found her footing after a fourth-place group finish in Round 2. Sauby rallied to take first place in her Round 3 group on Total Nuclear Annihilation, outpacing Lauren Malone, Amber Gerber, and Nichole Oster. She then repeated that top finish in Round 4 on Godzilla (Premium). By the time the final qualifying games arrived, the margins separating the top seeds were practically non-existent.

Godzilla Dictates the Qualifier

The tension peaked in Round 5, setting the stage for a critical matchup on Stern’s 2021 hit, Godzilla (Premium). Top finishers Brooke Nowaczyk and Han were drawn into the same four-player group alongside Emma Bernharchdt and Gerber. The machine’s sprawling layout demands precision, particularly the strategy of shooting both ramps and then the scoop to initiate a Kaiju Battle. Players who could master the difficult secret skill shot—plunging behind the upper paddle and hitting the scoop for an 11,000,000 point bonus and an Ally collection—held a massive scoring advantage.

In a closely-matched twenty-minute game, Nowaczyk managed to outpace the tournament favorite. She secured the first-place finish in the group, taking home seven points, while Han settled for second place and five points. Bernharchdt, ranked IFPA #16443, took third place for three points, while Gerber rounded out the group in fourth. Despite the slight stumble against Nowaczyk, Han’s early lead held firm. She finished the qualifier as the top overall seed, while Sauby, Nowaczyk, and Jillian Finucane rounded out the top four advancing to the main event.

A Brutal Ladder to Climb

The format shifted to a Seeded Ladder Elimination for the finals, a structure that heavily rewards top seeds. In this format, the lowest remaining seeds play first; after each match, the loser is eliminated and the next highest seed joins the fray. The top seed doesn’t play until only four players remain, granting a significant structural advantage. The field strength condensed dramatically, featuring an average national rank of 5488 across the final four contenders. Nowaczyk, despite her stellar Godzilla performance in the qualifier, was the first to fall. In the opening round on Total Nuclear Annihilation, she finished fourth overall, effectively ending her tournament run.

Finucane survived the first hurdle but found herself staring down both Han and Sauby in a three-player Round 2 matchup, again on the punishing Spooky Pinball deck. The fifteen-minute game proved to be Finucane’s final stand, as she took third place and was eliminated. Sauby claimed the top spot in the game with seven points, while Han took second with four points, officially locking in the final two competitors for the ultimate showdown. Finucane walked away with a highly respectable third-place overall finish for the evening.

Sauby and Han’s Nuclear Conclusion

The final round brought the entire night full circle, pitting Sauby against Han in a pure head-to-head battle on Total Nuclear Annihilation. The stakes were heightened by an ongoing rivalry between the two Madison-area regulars. Entering the tournament, Han held a commanding 4-1 lead in their shared head-to-head events. Sauby needed a victory not just for the tournament title, but to prove she could consistently topple the higher-ranked player when the lights were brightest.

What followed was the legendary eighty-three-minute game that tested the limits of both competitors’ focus. Players had to meticulously utilize frequent ball save opportunities, keeping in mind that in multiball, playfield values are aggressively multiplied by the number of balls in play. After over an hour of relentless scoring and strategic multiball management, Sauby finally broke through. She secured the first-place finish, taking the tournament victory and handing Han the runner-up spot.

The Belles & Chimes Madison event at Jacque’s House showcased the raw intensity of small-field competitive pinball. Sauby’s exhausting final victory narrowed Han’s rivalry lead down to 4-2, proving that in a room where every single game matters, absolute endurance is the ultimate tiebreaker.