Pinball

/Pinball
Pinball 2024-10-23T15:40:18-04:00

Games

Helicon Brewing has a very nice collection of 40+ pinball games including many of the highest rated games as ranked on the Pinside Pinball Top 100 list.

The full list of current games is available on the Helicon Brewing Oakdale pinside or pinballmap pages.

The full list of current games at the Helicon Brewing McDonald location is available at pinside or pinballmap.

We have pinball tech visits several times a month. If there are any issues with any game at all, please let our staff know so we can get it resolved asap.

Free Play Events

Helicon is closed on Mondays. From time to time the brewery hosts Free Play Pinball events on Monday evenings. Tickets are $20 for two draft beers and unlimited free play pinball on all 40+ pinball games from 5pm to 11pm. 21+ only. Tickets for upcoming dates and additional information can be found on eventbrite or the brewery facebook events page.

Tournaments

Helicon hosts monthly Pints & Pinball Knockout (3- or 4- strike) tournaments and also Launch Party tournaments for every new game that arrives. There is also the Helicon Open, a large multi-day tournament held at the end of each year.

All tournaments are IFPA sanctioned and open to everyone. At this time, due to local ordinances, there is NO cost to enter and NO payout for any tournament placement. The $1 IFPA Fee will be covered by Starport LLC and Helicon Brewing.

Tournament Schedule

All tournaments start at 2:00pm at the brewery in Oakdale unless otherwise noted.

10/25/24, Women’s WPPR Weekend III, 7pm, additional info on their facebook event.
10/27/24, Uncanny X-Men Launch Party
11/02/24, Bill W. Birthday Progressive Strikes, 1pm
11/03/24, Uncanny X-Men Launch Party — McDonald taproom, 2pm
11/17/24, monthly strikes
12/05/24-12/08/24 Helicon Open (times and details below)
12/15/24, monthly strikes
01/19/24, monthly strikes
02/16/24, monthly strikes
03/16/24, monthly strikes
04/40/24, monthly strikes
05/18/24, monthly strikes
06/15/24, monthly strikes
07/20/24, monthly strikes
08/17/24, monthly strikes
09/21/24, monthly strikes
10/19/24, monthly strikes

Knockout Tournaments

Head-to-head 3 or 4 Strikes depending on participation. Players will play in a 1-on-1 versus scenario with the player obtaining the higher score advancing to the next round without a strike. The player with the lower of the 2 scores will be credited with 1 (one) strike. The amount of strikes for elimination will be subject to the attendance of this event. If there are less than 24 participants at the beginning of this event, the format will be 4 strikes. If there are more than 24 participants, the format will be 3 strikes.

Players will be assigned random opponents and machines. Players will not play the same opponent in consecutive rounds. Should there happen to be a tie for 3rd Place at the end of the Tournament, one game will be played on a randomly selected machine immediately after the 1st Place Match machine is selected.

Practice will take place at the time of opening until 15 minutes prior to that start of the event. At that time Tournament Directors will determine what games are eligible for play during the tournament. The rules will then be explained to the participating players and any concerns prior to the start of the Tournament will be addressed.

Launch Party Tournaments

Unlimited qualifying is 2pm-6pm. Finals bracket size depends on participation and is expected to start at 6:30pm.

Best Game Qualifying. Each participant will have the opportunity to queue up and play as many games as possible during the 4 hour qualifying time. Players will put down their name on a list, when they are called it is their opportunity to play a 1 player game on the launch game. After they complete a 1 player 3 ball game, their score will be recorded and they are welcome to place their name on an open line on the queue list for another chance at bettering their score. When qualifying time is over, the player currently on the machine is able to finish their respected game and then qualifying will be complete. We will then eliminate half of the players in the qualifying field.

Head to Head Finals. A Bracket Style Tournament will follow. Seeding will be based on qualifying scores. The bracket will be single elimination except for a best-of-three finals.

HELICON OPEN

Our current hours of operation are:

Tuesday-Saturday:  11:00 AM to 10:00 PM

Sunday: 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM

Location

Helicon Brewing
102 Union Ave
Oakdale, PA 15071

Contact

Phone: 724-693-4204
Email: info@heliconbrewing.com

The Helicon Open 2024 will be held Thursday, December 5th through Sunday, December 8th. The format will be the same as 2023 and 2022 with only a few minimal changes:

  • The date has been moved up to the first weekend in December. This is based on feedback received from many players who had other holiday obligations later in the month.
  • All weekend tournament results will be submitted within one hour of the tournament completion on Sunday, 12/8. This will avoid the absolutely embarrassing situation of not filing the results in time for final PA state rankings.
  • The Main Bank will be reduced from 20 to 14 games. We received a lot of feedback that 20 games was entirely too much.
  • Main event ticket sales will end at 9:00pm on the qualifying days.
  • The daily “Classic” tournaments are still happening but are more like “Side” tournaments–each bank will include several EMs as well as several modern games.
  • The Charity Tournament has been dropped due to lack of participation.

Please direct any questions to info@heliconbrewing.com or message the Helicon Brewing facebook page.

*** Please note: The game banks are subject to change without notice. Every attempt will be made to keep all games running in tip-top shape, but pinball happens. ***

There will be four tournaments held over the 4-day tournament weekend:

  1. Main Tournament
    • Qualifying runs Thursday through Saturday 11am-10pm.
      • Entry ticket sales will end at 9pm each night.
    • A Division Finals will begin Sunday at 12pm. B Division Finals will begin at 1pm.
      • There will be A Division Finals, B Division Finals, and possibly C Division Finals depending on participation.
      • Players with an IFPA ranking higher than 2000 are not eligible to play in B Division Finals.
      • All finals brackets will be head-to-head, best-of-three games, with re-seeding each round. The final round will be best-of-5.
      • During finals, a game can only be chosen once until all games have been chosen.
      • All games in the Main and all three “Classics” banks will be eligible choices in the finals.
      • For the first game in each round of the finals, the higher seed gets the choice of game AND position. On subsequent games, the losing player gets choice of game OR position.
    • The entry fee is $5 per ticket plus coin drop.
      • 5 games per ticket.
      • Tickets can be voided. If a ticket is voided then all results do not count.
      • Once a ticket has been accepted, it can no longer be voided at any time and all scores will count.
      • The point system per game will be 100, 95, 90, 89, 88, 87, 86, etc.
    • Prizes:
      • 100% of all ticket entry fees will go to the prize pool.
      • The A Division prize breakdown will be:
        • 1st place – 40% of total prize pool
        • 2nd place – 20%
        • 3rd place – 13%
        • 4th place – 7%
        • 5th through 8th place – 5%
      • The B and C division prizes will be Helicon gift cards, free passes to pinball free play nights at the brewery and taproom, and pinball swag TBD.
      • All games are Pro/base models unless otherwise noted.
      • All games are set to Competition/Tournament Mode and no extra balls.
    • 14 games in the main bank:
      1. TBD
      2. TBD
      3. TBD
      4. TBD
      5. TBD
      6. TBD
      7. TBD
      8. TBD
      9. TBD
      10. TBD
      11. TBD
      12. TBD
      13. TBD
      14. TBD
  2. “Classics/Side” Tournaments
    • General Information
      • $10 per day entry fee plus coin drop for all games played.
      • The format is Herb / open qualifying. High scores will get 100, 95, 90, 89, 88, etc.
      • The best scores on 5 of 8 games will count towards the total.
      • Qualifying is 11am-6pm each day. Finals will begin afterwards as soon as the brackets are ready.
      • Finals are best-of-three each round.
      • Players will be reseeded each round.
      • For the first game of each round, the higher seed gets the choice of game AND position. On subsequent games, the losing player gets choice of game OR position.
      • During finals, a game can only be chosen once until all games have been chosen.
      • All $10 entry fees will go to the prize pool.
      • 10% of the prize pool will go to the top qualifier.
      • Note: All EMs are set to 3 balls per game.
      • Note: PLAY extra balls on EMs during qualification. DO NOT PLAY extra balls during finals.
    • “Classics” – Thursday Bank
      1. TBD
      2. TBD
      3. TBD
      4. TBD
      5. TBD
      6. TBD
      7. TBD
      8. TBD
    • “Classics” – Friday Bank
      1. TBD
      2. TBD
      3. TBD
      4. TBD
      5. TBD
      6. TBD
      7. TBD
      8. TBD
    • “Classics” – Saturday Bank
      1. TBD
      2. TBD
      3. TBD
      4. TBD
      5. TBD
      6. TBD
      7. TBD
      8. TBD
  3. General Notes
    • All tie breakers will be the high score for one ball played on a random game in the tournament bank. The tournament director will supply the credit to play the one ball and the game choice will be made with the google random number generator.

2023 Results

Main Finals

1. TBD

B Division Finals

1. TBD

Classics – Thursday

1. TBD

Classics – Friday

1. TBD

Classics – Saturday

1. TBD