Skip to content
Pinball Profile
Pinball Profile
200 episodes tracked since 2020 about →
Copied!

Episode 256: Derek Price

PodcastAnalysis updated 2d ago22 min listen
From the creator

One of San Diego's finest is also one of the best in the world. Hear Derek's quick rise to the top 100 in IFPA rankings.

Listen on Pinball Profile

Highlights

  • Derek Price was in the top 150-200 at the end of 2018 and reached top 50 by 2019-2020 through increased tournament travel
  • Derek Price finished 18th at Pinberg after winning 11 consecutive games in his last qualifying group
  • Derek won the Pinball Profile World Tour event in Florida and is one of only 10 total winners of that series
  • Derek has only 3-4 years of competitive pinball experience as of 2020
  • Derek won California North American Championship Series (NACS) the year prior to this interview, defeating locals Carl D'Angelo and Mark Schultz in finals
  • Derek qualifies top seed for California NACS with 350 points while second place had only 180-190 points
  • The Stern Circuit significantly increased competitive difficulty by enabling 40+ qualifying players for division A instead of ~10-12
  • Derek studied tournament archives from 2013 onwards to build game knowledge before traveling to events

Notable quotes

“I still feel like it's big imposter syndrome, like I shouldn't be here. I watch all these amazing players play, and I don't feel like I'm in their caliber.”
Derek Price
“I don't know how you can stand there and watch everyone play and be so jittery the entire time and still have enough energy to play your own ball.”
Zach Sharp (quoted by Derek)
“I feel like I'm the worst person to watch play pinball because I never look comfortable. I never look like I'm in control. But somehow it still works.”
Derek Price
“I only got three years experience and so there plenty of games that I do not know and that I need to hear everything and know what going on and see either the audio cues or the visual cues”
Derek Price
“The biggest thing that I can tell people who actually want to learn pinball and get better at it, I watched every archive video of tournaments from 2013 onwards”
Derek Price
“I finally feel like I can hang with the bigger players. It was a huge intimidation factor.”
Derek Price
“You could probably lock up 10 to 12 of those positions. Raymond and Keith and all these names and Bowden and all these folks that you know are going to take up at least a few of those spots.”
Derek Price
“I want to play the best field. If I'm going to deserve to go to nationals, I want to play the best field.”
Derek Price
“That was the first time that I actually thought, man, I belong. I can do this pinball thing. I'm actually pretty decent at this.”
Derek Price
“It's this integrity thing. That's the best part about pinball is people are honest people. They like to play and they like to compete, but they like to do it the right way.”
Derek Price

Entities

  • Free Play Florida· event
  • Indisc· event
  • Northwest Pinball Championships· event
  • Pentagogo· event
  • Pinberg· event
  • Stern Circuit· event
  • ZapCon· event
  • Pinball Profile· organization
  • Adam McKinney· person
  • Allison O'Neill· person
  • Bob Matthews· person
  • Brian O'Neill· person
  • Carl D'Angelo· person
  • Derek Price· person
  • Eric Stone· person
  • Jeff Teolis· person
  • Jim Belzito· person
  • Kaylee George· person
  • Keith Elwin· person
  • Luca· person
  • Mark Schultz· person
  • Zach Sharp· person
  • Corey's Pinball Spinner· product
  • Scorebit· product

More from Pinball Profile

→ All content from Pinball Profile
Pinball ProfilePodcast1w ago

Episode 439: Emily Reilhan

30 min listen

Talk about a banner year…and it’s only June! Emily has won everything under the sun so far in 2026 as you’ll hear, including the Women’s World Championship, the WNACS, the first ever Women’s...

Contact us about this coverage