Story By Todd C. Elliott • Photos By Chad Whited Creative
She’s taking the plunge, again.
For the second time, Pavlina Hunter of Lake Charles will represent the state of Louisiana in a national championship.
She’s what some may consider the golden belle of the silver ball.
Pinball had a big weekend during the last weekend of January, 2026, one that might have been lost on a quietly electric moment in competitive gaming. Across the country, the IFPA State Pinball Championships lit up arcades and breweries alike, as the top 16 ranked players from every state battled for pride, trophies, and a coveted ticket to the national championships in Denver this March.
It was a coast-to-coast showdown of reflexes, focus, and nerves of steel — proof that pinball still commands serious respect.
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The International Flipper Pinball Association Louisiana hosted the showdown and got the pinballs rolling in January. Louisiana’s spotlight shone brightest for the Women’s State Championship in Arnaudville, where the women’s division finals unfolded at the Bayou Teche Brewery, a fitting blend of local flavor and high-stakes competition.
After more than seven grueling hours of match play, the field narrowed to two formidable competitors: Hunter and Ariel Dutton of Baton Rouge. What followed was a tense best-of-seven series that kept onlookers riveted until the final plunge.
When the dust settled, Hunter emerged victorious, earning the Louisiana state title and securing a return trip to nationals for the second time — a remarkable achievement in an increasingly competitive field. The weekend also marked a strong showing for the Lake Charles pinball community, with Jessica Davies advancing to the semifinals and Jennifer Pugh finishing an impressive fifth overall.
From Arnaudville to Lake Charles, Louisiana’s women are not just playing pinball — they’re shaping the future of the statewide tournament scene.
Hunter said that pinball is a game of skill. While some argue that pinball is merely a game of chance, the history of the game is an interesting one.
“It is a common misconception that pinball is a game of chance since it originated as one,” said Hunter. “But the introduction of the flipper ended pinball being a game of chance, in reality if not perception. Pinball is a fight against gravity and a game of angles and millimeters. Anyone relying on chance in competitive pinball won’t win any matches. If you can’t aim and hit your shots when you want to hit them, you simply can’t win matches.
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Pinball has been widely recognized as a game of skill since 1976, Hunter says.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the game of pinball was huge in many cities across the USA. It had reached a fever pitch when the song Pinball Wizard was released in 1969 as part of Tommy, The Who’s rock opera. It isn’t just a song, it’s a three-minute hallucination wrapped in electricity and teenage sweat — a manifesto disguised as a novelty hit.
Pete Townshend took the dumb, blinking machinery of pinball and turned it into a savage parable about obsession, transcendence, and the American sickness for mastery through repetition. The Wizard wasn’t blind, deaf, or dumb — he was everyone who ever stared into a flashing machine and believed, briefly and dangerously, that salvation could be won one silver ball at a time.
Pinball was hugely popular in New Orleans. However, in the early 1970s, then-Orleans Parish district attorney Jim Garrison famously charged a brigade of enforcers in the Big Easy to wipe out the illegal gaming devices known as pinball machines. The argument was that pinball, although it did not pay out like slot machines, was a game of chance that drained money from hapless pinball players as a perceived form of gambling.
In fact, it was typical for a New Orleans restaurant or bar to make more money from one machine than off the combined food and beverage sales. That was, of course, after splitting pinball proceeds with the Carlos Marcello Mafia family in New Orleans. As a result of the crackdown on pinball, many pinball machines were destroyed.
Even major cities throughout the 1970s adhered to the belief that pinball was an unsafe bet for young people. There was a great debate in 1976 as to whether pinball should be legalized, which was immortalized in the 2023 film Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game. On April 2, 1976, a 28-year-old Roger Sharpe played a pinball machine before the New York City Council and proved that pinball was a game of skill.
It’s hard to imagine that pinball, at one time, was illegal in some cities in the U.S. For most, it has been a part of our childhood and pop culture, a multi-generational amusement, and we’ve bestowed the designation of “wizard” on anyone who is good at it.
“I started playing in 2014,” said Hunter. “My first competitive tournament was in 2015. Louisiana didn’t start hosting women’s division tourneys until 2023, so I played in the open division only until there was a dedicated women’s division.”
There is no Hogwart’s School of Pinball, and Hunter denied that she is a wizard. But after winning the state women’s division twice, she prefers the title of state champion.
PAVLINA AFTER WINNING HER FIRST LOUISIANA STATE PINBALL CHAMPIONSHIP IN 2025
“I won the 2025 Louisiana State Women’s championship as well, but I was not satisfied with my performance at the national championship in Boston in 2025,” she said. “Having this second opportunity to represent Louisiana and go to Denver for nationals in 2026 is going to be a lot of fun. I have one goal —have a better showing at nationals in 2026 than I did in 2025.”
Since there’s no high-school or collegiate pinball teams — yet, coaching and training is on the shoulders of the player alone. So, how does one train for a national pinball championship in Denver?
“Once the games that the finals will be played on are announced, I’ll be watching YouTube videos of the machines to learn the software,” said Hunter. “If I can find copies of some of those machines nearby, I will go practice on them. Since my national rank is only 416 currently, I will almost assuredly be among the lowest-seeded players at nationals, so I’ll only be able to select three of the seven games we will play in the tournament. I will know which three games I’ll pick beforehand.”
THE SW LOUISIANA WOMEN’S DIVISION MONTHLY TOURNAMENT HELD AT THE HUNTER HOME IN EARLY FEBRUARY
The 2025 Louisiana State Women’s championship was held in Lake Charles, yet Hunter felt she had a “homefield advantage” of sorts, as Lake Charles is in her comfort zone. She’s got a better feeling about her chances now that she has proven herself in Arnaudville.
“Playing in tournaments outside of your comfort zone in other cities is always challenging, as they have machines you do not encounter frequently and you do not know how they are set up,” she said. “Every machine, even ones that are the exact same game, will play very differently from one another based on how they are set up.”
And now another road to victory awaits Hunter in March. Until then, she moves across Louisiana like a silver pinball, loosed from the plunger of fate, flashing through parishes and back roads with the highway lights scoring points against the night. When the road to a championship calls her out onto the asphalt warpath, she answers instinctively, knowing which highway exits hide the familiar hum of a working machine.
In small bars, old arcades, and unexpected corners of the state, she and her husband pull over, not to rest but to play — palms steady, eyes sharp, letting steel and gravity speak their ancient language. Each stop is a nudge, a bonus round, a reminder that the journey itself is part of the game, and that every clack of flippers and ring of chimes carries her closer to the tilt-free moment when the championship finally lights up.
“My husband, Edwin, and I play together all the time, and we try and learn the rules of a new machine together,” she says. “He is always among the top players in the state’s open division. Playing in tournaments together is always a lot of fun. When we travel, we frequently look for a Barcade or some place that has pinball en route and make a point to visit those locations.”
Though the national women’s division will exclude her husband, Hunter won’t be alone. She has a sisterhood of the silver ball. Enter the SW Louisiana Women’s Pinball League. Jessica Davies of Sulphur is an active player and ranked in the top 1,000 worldwide. She also won the SW Louisiana Women’s Pinball League tournament three times in 2025. However, having made it all the way to the semi-finals for the state championship this year, Davies was eliminated by Hunter and finished fourth in the state. She is set to join Hunter in the Mile-High City and will play alongside her in some of the ancillary tourneys held in Denver during that three-day competition.
Davies said the number of women in pinball is trending upward.
“When I started playing a couple of years ago, we struggled to get eight people for a tournament, and recently we had more than 18,” said Davies. “For me, it’s mostly about having fun and hanging out with friends. It can be easy to get more competitive than you’d think, but it’s important to not lose that fun edge.”
Davies said that Hunter is more of a friend than a friendly competitor. She says Hunter’s playing ability is something to marvel at.
“She’s a consistently wonderful player and host, and she’s also an incredible teacher, willing to share all of her tips and tricks,” said Davies. “And despite her small frame, she sure can nudge the machines around with ease. It’s exciting to be a part of the group here in SWLA bringing our local flair to the national championship. I am thrilled to be able to support Pav in person and cheer her on in Denver.”
The third annual Women’s North American Championship is set for March 27, 2026 in Lyons, Colorado (a suburb of Denver), to be followed by the ninth annual Women’s World Championship on March 28 and 29. Rounds begin as early as 8 am each day.
At some point, it all comes down to not just the players but the pinball machines themselves. Over the years, pinball themes have varied — from a Playboy Magazine pinball machine to the KISS pinball machine in the 1970s to the Flash Gordon movie and the Black Knight machines of the 1980s. Since the 1960s, there have been more than 1,200 different themed machines based on anything from pop culture to sports. Hunter says her favorite machine is the Dune pinball machine.
CHAD WHITED CREATIVE PAVLINA
“Dune is based on the book series by Frank Herbert,” said Pav. “Dune (machine) is manufactured by Barrels of Fun out of Houston, Texas. Barrels is the first major pinball company to call Houston home, and Dune is the second game manufactured by the company. According to Pinside’s top 100 ranking, Dune currently sits at number five for all-time, but it is number one with me.”
Davies said that she also has a favorite machine. For her, it’s the Twilight Zone pinball machine. This could mean that as the ladies travel to Colorado for the national championship, they may enter a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. The competition dimension now is far beyond that which is known to man. It is now a dimension known to women, who seek to be queens of the machines.
“I’m just happy a Louisiana lady will be representing Louisiana,” says Hunter. “There were some very good players from Texas that were competing in Louisiana for the past year, and it would have been unfortunate to not have a Louisiana resident represent our state.
“Lake Charles had a total of seven wonderful ladies qualify for the women’s championship held in Arnaudville at Bayou Teche. All six of the other ladies are good friends of mine that I play and compete with every month. I had a great semifinal match with my good friend Jessica Davies. I was so proud of her making it all the way to the top four. It is fun to get to play in the tournaments with your friends and cheer each other on.”
The number of women players is up like a high score, which could lead to more competition. Hunter, for one, welcomes and encourages it. The pinball enchantress offered some words of advice to any aspiring young lady who quests for pinball glory.
“If you are in a city that has a group, reach out to them and let them know you are interested in playing with them,” said Hunter. “If there is no group where you are, look for a location that has machines in the area and start playing there. Find other good players; they will be easy to find as their initials will be all over the machines. See if you can get a competitive group going in your area.”
In March, Hunter will roll into the national finals in the Denver area like the “pinballer” that she is, wearing Louisiana on her back.
What will other others make of her skill? What will she make of the competition?
“Hopefully I’m there long enough this year to leave an impression at all,” she said. “I will happily take that outcome.”
CHAD WHITED CREATIVE PAVLINA
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