When Bang Back Pinball Lounge first opened, owner Frederick Richardson said he wanted to make sure he built a space for women and children to play pinball, an activity which, in his experience, often drew a largely male crowd.
Bang Back, located in Five Points, regularly holds pinball leagues. It is open to all, but it often hosts tournament nights held for women. Richardson said he also wanted to make sure that kids were safe and welcome there, so he designated time on Saturdays that families are encouraged to bring their children to learn how to play.
Columbia Belles and Chimes, a chapter of a group for women and nonbinary players, also encourages members of those demographics to hone their pinball skills.
"When we first started (leagues), first of all, we were women only... and that was by design," Richardson said. "After that, we grew from 24 to 32 players and then to 40, and we went pretty quickly, but we like 40. It's a nice number."
Belles and Chimes got its start in Oakland, California, in 2013 before spreading chapters across the country over the years, including Columbia.
Mia Henderson and Brittney Matto, managers at Bang Back Pinball Lounge, are both members of Belles and Chimes. Henderson is the fourth-ranked female player and the 109th-ranked overall player in the state of South Carolina. These rankings are maintained by the International Flipper Pinball Association, also known as the IFPA.
When Henderson and Matto started working at the lounge, they would sometimes stay after their shifts to learn how to play pinball on various machines. Their favorite at the time was a Star Wars-themed machine.
"Usually, my favorite thing was take a little bit of research and more in-depth learning to figure it out. Once you figure out how to play it, then you do really well," Henderson said.
Now, Henderson and Matto travel around the country for pinball tournaments and will soon head to Atlanta to compete.
After getting hooked on pinball around three years ago and starting to play competitively, Henderson and Matto set their sights on learning how to maintain pinball machines, which requires a very technical and sometimes complex skill set. They have each shadowed a pinball technician to improve their craft.
"When it comes to setup and breakdown for either pinball expos or gaming expos or being the tech on hand during the tournament typically, there's not a lot of women involved," Henderson said.
Despite the discrimination they sometimes face, it is important that they are seen as capable pinball technicians, Henderson said.
Columbia is a unique space for pinball in part because of Marco's Specialties, a pinball supplier in Lexington that sources parts for pinball collectors and technicians.
"The owner and I were friends. He said he wanted to open up a pinball museum in Columbia, and I told him that was a terrible idea," Richardson said. "So, I came up here and said 'Let's open a restaurant lounge.'"
The lounge hosts a variety of events, including events for charity, team building and children. Kids still sometimes participate outside of children-specific events and tournaments.
"You're seeing a lot of women — any gender, for that matter — being brought in a little bit more. It's a lot more inclusive to everybody," Matto said. "We even have tournaments all the time — we do every third Saturday — and you probably have one or two kids that join those."
The 13th league hosted at the lounge started on Tuesday, July 16. Leagues run for eight weeks and are marketed as beginner-friendly. Around 40 people gather at Bang Back once a week to compete.
Matto said the growth of female players she has seen in Columbia and South Carolina matches a larger trend in pinball nationally, where more and more new players aren't men.
"It's more so about breaking those boundaries that people have put into like a male-dominated sport. Any of our professional sports at USC, throughout the country, everything like that, it's hard for women to break into certain categories," Matto said. "That kind of has shone a light in pinball in some ways. However, there are a lot of people that are working to break down the barricade, break down those walls and be involved and be a part of pinball."
