Welcome to the world of competitive Skee-Ball.
“People will come for the Skee-Ball, but they’ll stay for this insane story. ”
In 2013 we called Eric Pavony and said, "now is the time, we need to roll camera on this story" to which Eric replied, "Your timing is impeccable, I just last night decided to fight this lawsuit, I'm about to go public with the truth."
Cameras have been rolling for nearly seven years.
But first, competitive Skee-Ball?!?
2016 Rollers Championships
Yes, of course it's a thing, been around for a while actually. Eric Pavony started the first ever competitive Skee-Ball league in 2005. The East Village's Ace Bar was the original home to what would become a bar game played around the country, then the world, growing exponentially every year to the point that in 2020, ESPN finally called; they wanted to air the National Skee-Ball League on their channel.
Joey the Cat - 3 time Brewskee-Ball National Champion marches the Cream Jacket to the National Championships.
Joey The Cat from San Francisco is considered the best. He's the legend of these lanes earning THREE Cream Jackets. (Sidebar; win The Masters — get a Green jacket. Win The Rollers — get a Cream jacket). On its face, very silly but get into it and you'll find it's taken very seriously; stats, videos, Twitch streams, the whole thing but as the game’s popularity advanced so did the roller’s attention to detail. They’re attacking the lanes with the same devotion found in professional sports...
Mental — "I was in my head all week leading up to the 2019 Rollers tournament, should I play it safe with the 40's or do I push 50's?" - Trace-Face
Sport — "Like a golf swing, the goal is to minimize all mechanical variables" - Floater
Pressure —"It's hitting the free-throw with no time left, it's the 4-foot putt on 18, finding that 40-pocket is simple when you're alone but when there's money on the line and people in the stands, it's a game within itself." - Attila The Hundo
This thrust of our Skee-Ball story chronicles the 2019 Rollers Championship. The first ever Skee-Ball Invitational featuring a 17-City Qualifier (including Cologne, Germany) that concludes with a final (no-spoilers here) featuring Joey The Cat vs rookie upstart "The Skee-Ball Kid" that literally comes down to the last ball.
“But like any good story - this goes MUCH deeper.”
Admittedly complicated, the short version is this: Eric sees Skee-Ball as a sport worthy of ESPN; think Professional Corn-hole, darts, bowling, etc. Starting in 2005 he grew a successful league (and subculture) in multiple cities on the backs of old, outdated lanes — literally from the 80's and 90’s. To take his league to the next step and become a viable business/sport he needs a manufacturer to build uniform lanes fused with technology that would allow him to grow the league into a bonafide sport accessible to players around the world.
A few major publications have scraped the surface including NPR, NY Times, ESPN The Magazine, The Economist, LA Times, plus more.
An arduous but ultimately successful legal battle with the owners of the Skee-Ball Trademark left Eric with exclusive rights to competitive Skee-Ball, worldwide and in perpetuity. In 2016 Skee-Ball was sold to a manufacturer that appeared to want to team with Eric but in reality was scheming to take away the rights Eric had previously won. In the spirit of David vs Goliath but set in a modern day Donald Trump style “I’ll sue you to get what I want” era, we’re granted extremely rare access to Eric as he fights for his dream.
Have you seen Chappelle’s “Unforgiven” yet? Imagine cameras behind-the-scenes access to Dave while he was realizing that all his hard work was being taken from him.
Filming continues to this day as the legal drama heats up. The case is set for Brooklyn Federal Court in Spring 2022 with the same judge who oversaw the El Chapo case presiding.
The filmmakers are looking for partners/funding to help finish this film.
This story is developing...
Brewskee-Ball Press
Brewskee-Ball featured on SNL's Weekend Update
Dedicated skee-ball players are holding their national championships here in Austin this weekend.
WNBC newschannel 4's 11pm news
Ella Morton goes to Williamsburg to checkout the Brewskee-Ball headquarters, Full Circle Bar.
"The BROTY isn't exactly the Heisman. But the Best Roller of the Year award, given to the top skee-baller by the Brewskee-Ball league, offers its own cachet. Andrew Jackson Litz has three of them. What he doesn't have is a U.S. skee-ball championship - because the inaugural event is only now upon us. The March madnessy showdown features the land's 64 top rollers." - ESPN The Magazine
"In a world of Xboxes and streaming video and Spotify and so on, who needs skee-ball? Well, no one, really. And yet, the 100-year-old arcade game has not just presisted, but thrived: Skee-ball is, to a certain extent, the new darts, only less British and with just as much beer. Increasingly, old lanes have migrated from the boardwalks of places like Point Pleasant, NJ to dark corners of bars in Manhattan's Alphabet City." - Salon
"They began a small skee-ball league at a bar in Manhattan. Five years later, the sport has exploded. The Brewskee-Ball league has more than 400 teams in California, Texas, and North Carolina. Pavony even opened up what may be the first dedicated skee-ball bar in the country, the Full Circle." - NPR, All Things Considered
"Joey the Cat, a San Francisco startup guy who maintains an Instagram account under the guise of Mr. Skeeball, was one of 64 rollers in Austin this weekend vying for the BEEB, skee-ball's main event, a high-stakes NCAA tournament-style national championship... The competition comes at the behest of Brewskee-Ball league Skee-E-O Eric Pavony and his Brooklyn-based Full Circle Bar, a tiny haunt with four skee-ball lanes that doubles as Mecca for a league that, in eight years, has grown to include more than 500 teams." - Austin Chronicle