Georgia Man Flipping His Way To Pinball Glory

A Georgia man flipped his way into the record books, winning his fourth consecutive pinball state championship.  

Dalton Ely, 23, began playing pinball when he was in elementary school and his father would take him to the movie theater.

“We wouldn’t even see a movie,” Ely said. “We’d just get some popcorn and drinks and play the pinball machine all day.” 

When he was 12, the Rockmart, Georgia, native's grandparents bought him his own pinball machine. 

Ely turned competitive when he was 18 and has been winning tournaments - and collecting pinball machines - ever since. 

“I've actually won two pinball machines as prizes from winning tournaments,” Ely said. 

Ely’s latest state championship win comes on the heels of another High Stakes Championship win in Riverside, California when he won $15,000 earlier this year.

His dad, who he credits with teaching him how to play, travels with him to competitions and acts as a kind of coach or “cornerman.” 

Ely said he likes the “randomness” and “chaos” involved in playing pinball as opposed to his experience playing video games. 

“There’s something satisfying about the physics of the ball rolling and using the flippers and shooting your shots on the game,” Ely said. 

“There’s definitely a whole new batch of skills when it comes to playing pinball.” 

Ely is currently ranked 17th in the world by the IFPA - the International Flipper Pinball Association. He'll head to Wisconsin in March to compete in the North American Championship and to California in June for the IFPA World Championships.