Ian Crusan Wins the Pinsomniacs July Open

Crusan Turns a Third Seed Into the Pinsomniacs July Open Title

Ian Crusan walked into the finals of the Pinsomniacs July Open seeded third of four, two spots back of the player who had run away with the qualifier. Three group games later, the Jacksonville regular had won two of them, finished ahead of the qualifier’s runaway leader on every board they shared, and walked out with the trophy. It was his third straight podium since June — and the first of those three to come with a win on top of it.

That the win landed here, on a July Saturday at a Kings Avenue brewery with the heat index reading 104°F, is how a good afternoon of pinball becomes a small local milestone.

Tepeyolot’s Twelve Machines and a Fourteen-Player Field

Tepeyolot Cerveceria doesn’t read like a tournament hall. It’s a Jacksonville cervecería that brews its own beer, runs bright murals across the walls, and keeps a rotating bank of pinball down one side — the kind of room where a serious bracket shares floor space with tacos and a couple of TVs. Organizer Nick Byrd built the day around a lineup of 12 machines spanning two decades, from a 2004 Ripley’s Believe It or Not! to cabinets that shipped this year.

The field was small but entirely ranked — all 14 entrants carry IFPA numbers, though the pecking order on paper didn’t hold much water once the flippers got going. Jokton Strealy, of Valdosta, Georgia, came in the strongest-rated name in the building at IFPA #666. Tank Koscinski, of Ponte Vedra Beach, held the best Florida state rank in the room, #22 of 860. Crusan, at #4449 and only two years into competitive play, was the third-best-ranked name in the field — high on paper, if not the favorite.

Koscinski’s Eight-Win Qualifier

The qualifier was head-to-head match play — 14 rounds, 98 two-player games, a point for every win — and for most of it, it was Koscinski’s afternoon. He reeled off eight straight game wins on his way to the top seed and posted the high score on 10 of the 11 machines he touched, dropping only two of his own 14 games all day. In a format that rewards steadiness over any single blowout, that’s about as close to untouchable as a qualifier gets.

Behind him, the bracket sorted itself out. Strealy took second, Crusan third, and Derrick Smith — a Jacksonville player whose three career top-3 finishes have all come in his last five outings — slipped into the fourth and final finals seat. The undercard had its own beats: over on Dune in Round 11, Ryan Phelps edged Frank Sanabria in a tight one, while on Star Wars: Fall of the Empire, Strealy got past Smith — a preview of the company they’d both keep in the finals.

Three Games, Two Crusan Wins

Group match play resets the math. Four players, three games, points by finishing position within the group — and suddenly Koscinski’s qualifier dominance was worth nothing but a good seed.

Game one was Foo Fighters (Pro), Stern’s 2023 title designed by Jack Danger with art from Jeremy Packer’s Zombie Yeti studio and callouts by Brendon Small. It’s a machine that rewards players who can stack its 2x playfield — three shots up the right orbit into the Rock-O-Meter lane opens a 40-second window to double everything. Crusan took it outright, Koscinski second, Strealy at the back of the group.

Then Smith reminded the room why the fourth seed still gets to play. On Dune — the Barrels of Fun release designed by David Van Es and Travis Moseman, wrapped in Jonathan Bergeron’s art — he won a 36-minute grind, with Crusan second. That kept the afternoon honest.

It didn’t stay open long. The finish came on Dialed In! (LE), the Jersey Jack machine that had been the qualifier’s workhorse and the single most-played title of the day. Crusan won it — his second victory in three finals games — and that was the tournament. Across all three finals boards he finished ahead of Koscinski every time; the man who’d dropped just two games in the qualifier never once got out in front when it counted. Crusan closed on 19 points to Koscinski’s and Smith’s 11 apiece, the two of them tied for second, with Strealy — the highest-rated player in the field — finishing fourth.

A Third Podium, With a Trophy This Time

Three events now, running back to a pair of third-place finishes at Stern Army Fridays in June and early July, and Crusan hasn’t stepped off the podium yet. What’s changed isn’t so much the ranking — that’s climbing, but slowly — as the habit of still being in it when the last ball drains. In the July heat, at a brewery that treats pinball as decoration, he turned that streak into something with a trophy attached, and he did it by getting past the field’s most dominant qualifier on the games that decided the day.

Final standings at the Pinsomniacs July Open:

• 1st — Ian Crusan (IFPA #4449)
• 2nd (tie) — Tank Koscinski (IFPA #1931)
• 2nd (tie) — Derrick Smith (IFPA #17533)