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Editors note: the following is a guest post from Ron Richards, co-founder of Scorbit. In this article, Ron takes us behind the scenes of their recent work integrating Scorbit at INDISC 2025 with some interesting analysis of logged qualifying scores from the tournament. Enjoy!
For thirteen years, INDISC has stood as a testament to the enduring passion and community spirit of pinball enthusiasts. Nestled in the Inland Empire east of Los Angeles, this annual tournament has grown from a local gathering to a nationally recognized celebration of pinball culture. At the heart of this success are co-directors Karl DeAngelo and Jim Belsito, who have meticulously crafted an event that is part competition, part family reunion, and entirely dedicated to the silver ball.
When you first walk into INDISC, the energy is palpable. It's not just about winning; it's about connection. Zach McCarthy, this year's champion of The Open - IFPA World Championship Tournament, captures this spirit perfectly: "I feel like it's just seeing all the people, like this is like a big family gathering. Everyone's so friendly and nice."
This sentiment resonates deeply with Travis Murie, co-host of the Triple Drain Pinball Podcast, who sees INDISC as something far more significant than a mere tournament. "So many different personalities from so many different communities worldwide, and just getting to experience this here, it's fantastic," Murie explains. "And on top of that, the amount of games that are here from the different eras, it's a great experience to have."
Putting together an event like INDISC is no small feat. It requires a symphony of volunteers, pinball repair technicians, tournament directors, and scorekeepers working in perfect harmony. The logistics are complex: hundreds of players, multiple tournament events, and the constant challenge of keeping dozens of pinball machines in perfect working condition.
This is where technology has begun to play a transformative role, with Scorbit emerging as a key player in modernizing competitive pinball.
Behind the Scenes at the 2025 IFPA Open: World Championship of Pinball | Scorbit at INDISC 2025
"Connected Pinball" might sound like a buzzword, but it represents a fundamental shift in how pinball machines interact with players and tournaments. Simply put, it means connecting a pinball machine to the internet, allowing data to be collected, shared, and analyzed in ways never before possible.
When Jay Adelson, Brian O'Neill and myself founded Scorbit, one of our goals was to see how connected pinball could help tournaments run efficiently and INDISC was the perfect proving ground. We realized there was an opportunity to help make tournaments better from scorekeeping to the livestream to enhancing the player experience.
There are two elements to Scorbit’s connected pinball platform that make all this happen. The basis for everything is the Scorbit platform, a cloud based service that enables data to flow into Scorbit from pinball machines and down to our mobile app and integrations with other software platforms. To enable that connection, modern machines running internet enabled operating systems can connect directly to Scorbit, and for older machines the Scorbitron is a small device that is easily installed in the backbox of a pinball machine to connect the machine to the Scorbit platform.
Anyone who has participated in a traditional pinball tournament knows the pain of scorekeeping. The process has always been maddeningly slow and prone to human error. Christine Varney, an INDISC scorekeeping volunteer, walks us through the traditional method: "A scorekeeper will verify scores with the player. We see their final score, input it into a tablet or phone, and then put it into the system. We also call the next person up to the game to keep things moving."
Travis Murie candidly describes the player's perspective: "The worst thing about playing in a tournament, especially this size, is just waiting for the score to come up and waiting to give the score to a scorekeeper. Some of these older games take a while to scroll through scores. You're standing there, waiting, and you just want the convenience to be able to give your score instantly and go play more pinball."
Scorbit has dramatically streamlined this process by integrating with tournament management software like Drains Tournament Manager and Match Play Events. The result? An instant score submission process that saves time and reduces errors.
Karl DeAngelo, INDISC's co-director, is effusive about the benefits: "Scorbit helps us be more confident with the score-keeping software. The scorekeepers don't have to worry about typing in the right numbers. The numbers are just there... they see the score in the game, and hit submit, and that's it."
The speed and efficiency of avoiding the time it takes to manually type in a score as well as avoiding the inevitable human error helps to increase play across the board, but when interacting with older pinball machines that often take a while to scroll through the high scores for a scorekeeper to accurately find the player’s score, it can be a game changer as Karl explains, “On an older game, the score cycles, and we’ve got to wait to see the score. It takes too long, and people get impatient, and [as Tournament Director] I've got to deal with that…with Scorbit on a lot of these machines, and it's making it so much faster to get the scores and get people moving, which is imperative when you have so many people on games.” Further Karl sees the potential of connected pinball at tournaments as he shares his vision, “My dream, a scorekeeper-less tournament, could happen one day with Scorbit.”
The advantages of connected pinball extend far beyond simple score tracking. For livestreamers like Karl, who livestreams at twitch.tv/iepinball, Scorbit provides real-time data integration that transforms the viewing experience.
Take, for example, a machine like Mystery Castle. At certain points in the game, the display shows dancing skeletons instead of scores, making it challenging for viewers to follow the action. "Scorbit's extremely helpful because it just keeps us up to date," Karl explains. "If you can't read a score on the screen, I have an easy visual display on the lower third to see what the actual score was."
For players, Scorbit offers an unprecedented level of post-game analysis. Want to understand why your last game went south? Or curious about how a top player achieved their impressive score? The platform allows players to dive deep into game timelines, examining everything from ball duration to specific modes and jackpots.
The transformative power of connected pinball is perhaps best illustrated by Zach McCarthy's experience at the 2022 INDISC tournament. Zach remembered the experience for us, “I was on game five of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at about 30 million, which was more than enough of what I needed to qualify. Unfortunately, the game crashed on ball three and there was no score. We checked Scorbit because I had recorded the score, and because of that, I was able to recover my score and submit it.”
But wasn’t the only instance in 2022 for Zach. Later that day in the High Stakes tournament, Zach found himself playing Pinball Magic, when a potentially catastrophic failure happened, “The screen just died. No idea what happened. But again, because of Scorbit, they were able to keep track of my score and then I was able to keep playing from there, and that saved my qualifying card. So, Scorbit saved me twice in one day”
The 2025 INDISC tournament marked a milestone for Scorbit's tournament integration, with the largest install base on over 20 machines providing an unprecedented scale of data collection. From vintage classics like STARS and XENON to to 90’s era favorites like TEE’D OFF and JACK*BOT up to modern hits like JAWS and GALACTIC TANK FORCE, the platform processed over 7,800 scores across The Open, Women's division, and High Stakes tournaments.
For this analysis, we focused our attention on the qualifying rounds of The Open: the IFPA World Championship. By examining 11 Scorbit-enabled machines, we sought to understand game popularity, scoring patterns, and competitive dynamics throughout the tournament.
One of the most crucial factors for competitive players is understanding how quickly games can be played. The number of games completed per hour on each machine creates an interesting strategic dynamic – faster-playing machines offer more opportunities for qualifying attempts, but this speed comes with increased competition as more players can submit scores in the same timeframe.
In analyzing what makes a "good" score – one that could contribute to qualification – we examined several key metrics including average scores across all plays, lowest qualifying scores, and what we call the "qualification gap": the number of scores between average and qualifying threshold. This investigation revealed some fascinating contrasts between machines. Take STARS, an early solid state machine, which emerged as one of the fastest-playing games with an extremely high volume of attempts. The qualification gap on STARS was substantial, with 119 scores between the average and qualifying threshold. This meant players needed to more than double the average score to have a chance at qualification. In sharp contrast, the Sega GODZILLA from the late 90s presented the most approachable qualification curve, with only 5 scores separating the average from qualifying threshold, making it the most achievable path to a qualifying score.
We tracked score progression throughout the qualifying period across several key machines including JAWS (Pro), GALACTIC TANK FORCE, JOHNNY MNEMONIC, and GODZILLA (Sega). JOHNNY MNEMONIC proved particularly interesting in terms of competitive strategy. As competitor Derek Correia observed, "As a wannabe competitive player, I take a lot from these JM scores. It tells me there's some value in making sure I know the FULL blowup strategy, not just the basic one." This insight highlights the importance of mastering advanced techniques rather than relying on basic scoring strategies.
The JAWS (Pro) data reveals an intriguing scoring pattern across the qualifying period. While most scores clustered around or below the lowest average qualifying score, there were several notable high-scoring games that dramatically exceeded this threshold. The most remarkable performance came from INDISC Champ, Zach McCarthy, who achieved an outstanding score of 1,395,218,350, setting the bar extremely high in the middle of the qualifying period of the tournament. Throughout the tournament, there was a consistent spread of scores, with numerous attempts falling in the 300-600 million range, suggesting many players found paths to exceed the qualifying threshold. Derek Correia shared, “It's pretty rare to see a good player play a JAWS and not get over 200m, but that's right around where the lowest qualifying score was…I think this was an exceptionally fair and hard game but it's interesting the scoring was as tightly distributed as it was.”
The newer machines in the tournament provided their own fascinating data stories. GALACTIC TANK FORCE, running new unreleased code, demonstrated clear learning curves as players gained experience. The overall scoring trend showed steady upward progression as competitors became more familiar with the game's mechanics and scoring opportunities, from an average score of 58,775,386 on day one to an average score of 72,116,437 on the final day of qualifying. This pattern was similarly visible on less common machines like GODZILLA, where repeated plays led to score improvements as players discovered optimal strategies and refined their approaches.
As we look at the data, scores, and technology that shaped INDISC 2025, what stands out isn't just the numbers – it's how these innovations are enhancing rather than replacing the human element that makes pinball special. From Zach McCarthy's astronomical JAWS score to the learning curves visible in GALACTIC TANK FORCE's scores, every statistical milestone tells a story of players of all ages pushing the boundaries of what's possible on both classic and modern machines.
But what makes INDISC truly special goes beyond how things work and impressive scores. From the INDISC’s tournament organizers excellence in execution of an event to the camaraderie among players – INDISC represents the perfect blend of pinball's rich heritage and its promising future. In Southern California, for one weekend each January, the future of competitive pinball isn't just being played – it's being crafted by a community with a love for this game that brings us closer together.
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