Fairfax Pinball Open

The Fairfax Pinball Open (FPO) was founded by Fairfax attorney Paul Liam McGlone, who also ran a local league for the Free State Pinball Association (FSPA).  The first event was held in 2004 at a local bar called “John’s Place” and continued there for the next 8 years.   In the early years, FPO was one of the first events to be included the World Pinball Player Rankings that is maintained by the International Flipper Pinball Association (IFPA).  

As one of the only regional tournaments in those early years, FPO immediately began to attract players from neighboring states, as far away as Ohio and New York. 

After nine years at John’s Place in Fairfax, the bar closed and FPO was moved to the Best Western in Fairfax for the next two years.  After the first year at Best Western, leadership of the monumental task of running the FPO was taken over by Kevin Stone.  Kevin is the founder of Pinholics Anonymous and he organizes and runs dozens of pinball tournaments every year under the Pinholics umbrella.  Kevin ran the 11th Annual FPO at Best Western in 2014, before taking a break on FPO for a few years.  

The landscape has changed greatly for Competitive Pinball since the first FPO in 2004.  Now, there are dozens of regional events every year, with something happening almost every weekend.  This revival of the Fairfax Pinball Open is poised to take it’s place as one of the leading regional tournaments, beginning on Columbus Day Weekend in October.  

The 2018 Fairfax Pinball Open is being hosted by CarPool in Fair Lakes and is being held in October for the first time.   CarPool is a sports bar in the Fair Lakes Center, where our local Pinball League has been hosted since March of 2018.  CarPool is open 7 days a week, with 8 to 10 pinball machines on location all the time.