To play at any of the UK Open tournaments a UK Open main ticket must be purchased. We have a special early bird ticket is available with discount, early bird tickets are available until 31st of July. There is also an EPC only ticket and juniors tickets.
14 and under can enter the junior tournament free of charge on Saturday afternoon, but if they wish to participate in the main tournaments it’s £65.
The tournaments at the UK Open consist of open card-based qualifying and match play final rounds and are open to all players attending the event. During open qualifying, each player may purchase as many cards as they like to attempt to qualify for the final rounds. A point system is used to rank each player’s score on each machine. Those who possess the highest ranking cards at the end of qualifying will participate in the match play final rounds. Note, restarting any game is not permitted – to combat this we have a new system in place to detect this those caught restarting a game will be disqualified from that tournament, repeat offenders will be disqualified from the entire event.
This year we are using Matchplay. Please ensure you have a matchplay account with your IFPA number registered in it.
If you have a smartphone or tablet it will make your enjoyment of the tournament greater and we strongly advise brining a smartphone. With Matchplay you can login to the tournament website and queue for games and analyse your own and your fellow competitors performance. With matchplay you select the game you wish to play, you are placed into a queue and when you are next in the queue the scorekeeper will call you. Play your game and when complete put your hand up and a scorekeeper will take your score. At the end of a card you can tell the scorekeeper to submit the card or void it (note once a card is voided thats it its gone). If you are unable to queue, check that you are logged in, then check if you have any cards left. Cards can be bought at the front desk.
In the final rounds, qualifying players play against each other in multiplayer games. A [different] point system is used to determine who advances to the next round and, ultimately, who wins the division. Full description of the formats can be found at the schedule section of the UK Open website. Once the final is completed we will hand out the trophies for that event.
Please note no food is permitted in the main pinball area. Help us by placing all your rubbish in a bin.
Drinks are permitted we will also have bottles of water for sale at the main desk.
Also the stage area is off limits to everyone, we will have a zero tolerance policy on this and anyone found there will be asked to leave the event. The venue is a no-smoking venue. There are many places to eat and drink around the venue.
There are 7 Tournaments at the UK Open / EPC 2026
UK Open Main Tournament – ECS qualifying, Stern Pro Circuit Event: 5 game card qualifying, PAPA Style Matchplay 3 game per round finals top 40 players for A final, Next 16 (that are appropriate) for B final. This is an IFPA Certified+ Tournament.
European Pinball Championship – The format will be 5 game card qualifying, PAPA style Matchplay 3 games per round finals for the top 72 players. This is an IFPA Majors tournament.
UK Open Classics Tournament – 5 Game card qualifying, top 32 plays for A final – PAPA style Matchplay 3 game per round finals. This is an IFPA Certified+ Tournament.
UK Open – Ladies UK Open – 5 game card qualifying top 8 players for A Final Papa Style 3 game per round finals
UK Open – Juniors tournament – 14 and under Tournament – Free to enter.
UK Open – Sunday Target Matchplay – Another Tournament for those who did not qualify played on the UK Open Main bank.
Ticket purchases will open up Wednesday 1st July @ 20:00 BST (16:00 Eastern 21:00pm EU) for general sales on Ticket Tailor. Tickets are not transferable. 300 spots are available.
Owing to the large scale nature of this tournament, all players will be required to do 2 hours of scorekeeping – we will shortly anounce how to book your slot. You can avoid this by buying our non-score keeping ticket but this is priced accordingly. Players can do a further hour of scorekeeping for an additional card. In order to help us we are pricing early bird tickets aggresively – this allows us to manage the operating of the event well and cover our costs/suppliers etc. We are operating in London which whilst being the most amazing city in the world also means its expensive to run. Moving 100 pinball machines half way across London plus venue costs are significant. Entry fees cover these costs anything left over goes in to the prize fund. All card purchases goes into the prize fund. You will have the opportunity to play more pinball at a UK Open Weekend than any other tournament in the world (verified by Matchplay).
Cards for each tournament can be bought for £5 each or 10 for £45. Note these cards can be used for any of the tournaments – EPC, UK Open Main, UK Open Classics and Ladies.