Good Luck to Our Local Players at OCMA This Weekend!

It's state tournament time. The 2026 OCMA/VNEA State Pool Championships kick off tomorrow, April 23, at the Canton Memorial Civic Center in Canton, Ohio, and run through Sunday, April 26. To everyone from our local leagues making the trip down to Canton this weekend — good luck, shoot straight, and have fun out there.

For anyone who doesn't know: OCMA (the Ohio Coin Machine Association) runs the state tournament every spring at the Civic Center downtown, bringing Ohio's VNEA leagues together for four days of team and singles play. It's one of the biggest pool events on the state calendar, and the top finishers typically carry that momentum right into the VNEA World Championships in Las Vegas next month (May 21–30). So this weekend isn't just about hardware — for a lot of players, it's also a chance to punch a ticket to Vegas.

If you've never been to the Civic Center during OCMA weekend, it's a sight: rows of tables packed onto the event floor, brackets running all day, side matches going late into the night, and the usual mix of nerves, trash talk, and hugs-after-the-handshake that makes league pool what it is. Win or lose, it's a good time to see friends you only see at state once a year.

A few thoughts for anyone heading down:

  • Get there early, warm up on the table you'll be playing. Those Civic Center tables don't always play like your home bar tables.
  • Eat something before your first match. Adrenaline plus no food is a bad combination when you're trying to make a tight cut shot.
  • Be good to the scorekeepers and the staff. They're volunteers and they've got a long weekend ahead of them too.
  • Have fun. State weekend is supposed to be the reward for a long league season — don't let the bracket ruin the weekend.

To our crew specifically: you put in the work. You earned your spot. Go show them what our league looks like.

Bring home some hardware. We'll be watching for updates.

Good luck, everyone. Run the table.

2026 OCMA/VNEA State Pool Championships Canton Memorial Civic Center — 1101 Market Ave N, Canton, OH 44702 April 23–26, 2026