Lansing Pinball League

Author: Heather

  • League Night Recap for 3/24/26

    New player Cody attacks Mars in the Smackdown finals.

    We finished up our rotation of banks 5 and 6 at the last league night. The banks are named Berkeley and Hume. Berkeley is Bishop George Berkeley, is an underrated (in your league director’s view) 18th century empiricist known best for his claim that esse est percipi, “to be is to be perceived.” There is a famous pair of limericks by Ronald Knox about Berkeley’s subjective idealism:

    There once was a man who said “God 
    Must think it exceedingly odd 
    If he finds that this tree 
    Continues to be 
    When there’s no one about in the Quad.”

    “Dear Sir,
    Your astonishment’s odd.
    I am always about in the Quad.
    And that’s why the tree
    Will continue to be
    Since observed by
    Yours faithfully,
    God”

    There, don’t you feel more erudite just from having read that? Hume, meanwhile, is David Hume, the 18th century skeptical empiricist, about whom I do not know of any limericks. They make a good pairing; actually, they are considered part of the classic empiricist trio along with John Locke, but that’s bank 7.

    Mackenzie watches Tim play in the Smackdown finals.

    Sorry, were you hoping to read about pinball? All right then. We had a pair of guest players join us, Kathy and Cody. (At this point in the season we only allow new players to join as guests, since they don’t have a possibility of qualifying for finals.) Cody ended up playing in the Tuesday Night Smackdown tournament on Attack from Mars and made it to finals, taking third.

    At the end of the night we were now three-quarters of the way through the season. Top honors on Bank 5 (Berkeley) went to Brian, and the champion of Bank 6 (Hume) was Danny. In the overall standings, Brian is now on top, 12 points ahead of second place Danny. Peter has been having a great season, especially the last few weeks, and is now in third. The rest of the people currently swimming above the cutline are Tim, Joseph, me (!!), Derik, and Devon. Joseph only has two lousy points on me, I feel obliged to point out. Top of the B division is Chris. With two nights left a lot can still change, especially with some of the tight jockeying around the fourth-through-sixth and seventh-eighth positions.

    Our Tuesday Night Smackdown, as previously mentioned, was on Attack from Mars. The champion was Tim, and the B division champion on Venom was me.

    Smackdown champion Tim and B division winner Heather, i.e. me. What the heck is going on with my left thumb?! That don’t look normal.

    After an unusually long break due to the calendar this month we will be returning to league in just a couple of hours. I hope to see everyone soon!

  • Lansing Lightning Flippers Recap 3/28/26

    We finished up the front half of Season 1 on March 28 with, unfortunately, a much smaller turnout than the previous meet. Linda was living it up on the JoCo Cruise, Mackenzie and Sarah were in California, and we were also missing new players Beatrice and Jen. The up side is that with eight players we were able to have four-player groups for everyone.

    Tim is hoping that witches are eligible to try out for the Monster Bash band.

    Tim made sure it was a pretty long night for their group by completely blowing up multiple games. I know that at least Indiana Jones and Fall of the Empire were huge games and the others must have been good too as Tim took all firsts in their group against Abby, Lexi, and Marnie. Unfortunately, Marnie had been told by her mom that league would only run until about 6:00 and was very much over it by the time her group finished another hour-plus later.

    Abby, Marnie, and Lexi hang out while Tim plays.

    In fact, because we had a (relatively) long league meeting, everyone who was qualified to play in the Lightning Rater finals on The Flip Side decided to go home instead, except for Tim. Because the IFPA doesn’t allow any tournament to be submitted that has no direct-play component, I dropped a quick score on the game and actually was the top qualifier. Tim and I then played a two-player finals which they won.

    In my group, which included Amy, Dana, and Stephanie, I had first choice and chose Attack from Mars. Second game choice went to Amy who chose Stranger Things. I pointed out, “That’s basically the same game!” Amy hadn’t thought of it before but conceded, yeah, the playfield is pretty similar. This gave me the chance to reuse a joke I learned from Tim and call Stranger Things “Vaporwave Attack from Mars.”

    Lexi takes her turn on Monster Bash.

    I’m hoping to see everyone back at our next meeting in a few hours. New players are also still welcome! I have really been loving the format and chill vibe of this league and hope you are (or will) too.

  • Lightning Flippers Recap 3/10/26

    After a promising start to the season, our second meeting upped the ante even further with a record turnout of 14 members. Our newest joiners were Mackenzie’s friend Jen and Lexi’s kids, Marnie and Beatrice. This was Jen’s first pinball competition but she came in second for the night. Congrats! But that means she is going to end up in the top group next time so, uh, good luck with that. Marnie was another high-finishing novice, and currently has edged yours truly out in the league standings by one point.

    I’m going to be honest, I’m not quite sure who this is. Dana, maybe? I’m sure someone will tell me but either way, I love the action hair shot!

    We had our usual fun making the newer players play their side tournament “rater” games on The Flip Side, my American Girl pinball machine. Or maybe I should say letting them play, since some of the players who really don’t need to be rated keep wanting to do it too. I’m a little surprised – I’d let them play it for fun for free, but if they do it for the tournament I gotta collect a buck for the IFPA! Tim won the honors on it this time.

    The gang’s all here: Tim, Christy, Mackenzie, and Stephanie (I’m not sure who is partly visible in plaid).

    Now that we’ve had two meetings we can actually see the “correct” standings for players with their one drop night (instead of everyone being tied for first place). This should make it quicker to get the correct Swiss pairings for the next night, which held things up a little bit at the start of the last tournament. I did a bit of experimenting and I believe it randomly breaks ties when choosing groups for tied players.

    Abby playing The Flip Side – just for fun, I think.

    See you soon for our next meet!

  • League Night Recap for 3/10/26

    Our last league night started the second half of the season with a rotation of banks 5 and 6, named for Bishop George Berkeley, the underrated and often misunderstood empiricist-idealist; and David Hume, the probably-correctly-rated and mostly-understood empiricist-skeptic. This is also the last night a player can still officially join the league this season, because it’s the last time it is still possible to make the minimum number of league nights to qualify for playoffs. From this point forward, we welcome guest players but don’t charge them any dues, and their games do not affect the final season standings.

    New member Alex plays Pulp Fiction in my group.

    We did get several new players, all Grand Rapids-scene players of my acquaintance: Clyde B., Jaysin W., and Alex H. I should also mention that in my last league update I failed to mention another new player, Mike C. This was caused by Joseph mistakenly classifying him as a guest player, which caused me to overlook his name when writing the update. Sorry, Mike! Anyway, the result of this influx of new players is that this was the largest ever league night in the history of the league. We made use of the rarely-seen “A2” and “B2” group designations. Could this be a sign that the league is growing again? Only time will tell. The last time we had a big surge of players (which is when we began splitting into two banks by necessity) it proved temporary, and the league shrank back to its typical size the next season. Maybe this time it will be more permanent.

    Devon is saying something to Chris like “Heather’s taking a picture, so pretend you don’t see her.” Then he told me I need to work on my technique since I’m not subtle. In my defense I can’t be subtle with my Canon ELPH, it has a slow-ass autofocus and shutter. My PEN Lite is in the shop.

    At our league meeting I was excited to announce that we had finally gotten T-shirts organized and that I had talked with the T-shirt printers and they had confirmed that we can have everyone choose their own color shirts as it will not affect our volume discount. League members can use this Google form to order a shirt to be paid for by Pinball Pete’s. Non-members should contact me (Heather) if they would like to order a shirt (payment will be required).

    Since we are only halfway through each of the two banks, it’s a little premature to rank everyone. Still, I would be remiss not to mention that Peter had a huge night on Bank 5 and is currently leading the half-of-the-pack by a comfortable margin. On Bank 6, Danny is currently leading with an even bigger night. The problem for Danny is that no one is surprised when he does numbers like that. It’s a dog-bites-man situation.

    Peter plays the winning Smackdown game on Rush.

    Our Tuesday Night Smackdown was on Rush and continuing his stellar night, the winner was Peter. (For a moment I actually thought I might win, surprising since Rush isn’t a particularly strong game for me, but it wasn’t to be.) Joseph won the B division on Pulp Fiction.

    Peter and Joseph celebrate Smackdown wins.

    I’ll see you tonight for our next league meeting!

  • Lightning Flippers Recap 2/28/25

    My longtime dream was finally realized: Lansing now has a true women’s league! We previously held monthly women’s tournaments under the Lansing Lightning Flippers name, but they have now been transformed into a semi-monthly league. The league uses match-play scoring instead of best-game scoring (like the open league uses). Everyone plays five games against two or three other people, and is scored 7/5/3/1 or 7/4/1 based on their finishing position on the game. Game choice rotates, but everyone can only choose a given game once in the season (until finals). The lowest night is dropped, and after the end of the sixth qualifying night, there is a finals phase that happens immediately, which will use a ladder format.

    Abby tries to get scared stiff!

    I was worried about whether we would get enough people to avoid having any two-player groups because then we would have to use 7/1 scoring, which is really suboptimal. The only way this would happen would be if we got five total players. Fortunately that was averted and handily: our turnout was a healthy nine! I had figured if we could get at least six people coming regularly the league would be successful. This did mean everyone played in a three-player group which is a bit less fun than four, but I’m sure our population will fluctuate over time, giving people a chance to play in a full group.

    Dana watches Amy play Indiana Jones.

    Some of our usual Flippers players attended, including Tim, Mackenzie, Stephanie, Christy, and Linda. We were also joined by Abby from Grand Rapids and Dana and Amy who played in a previous season of the open league. Lexi had planned to attend but had a family emergency, but she is hoping to attend starting tonight.

    Linda plays The Flip Side. People couldn’t decide whether standing or sitting was worse…

    As a side tournament, we will have something called the Lansing Lightning Rater every night. The purpose of the Lightning Rater tournament is to get people “rated” for IFPA purposes, which requires having played in five prior tournaments. If all our players are rated, it will make the league more valuable to the IFPA. The Lightning Rater tournament is the most minimal possible tournament: one ball qualifying on my American Girl pinball machine “The Flip Side” followed by a single four-player game for the finals. This is intended just for the unrated players but is technically an open tournament so I did not anticipate how many people would want to play. I figured I’d just get the unrated players to do it in our spare moments, but instead most of the rated players attending also participated. Ultimately Amy won, which I think will be her first officially recorded IFPA tournament win. The record of your wins doesn’t distinguish ridiculous from non-ridiculous tournaments, so congratulations!

    Abby and Stephanie have some cooldown time.

    Overall I think the league got off to a great start and it seemed to me that people really enjoyed the match-play format. I have always wanted to run a match-play league but for various reasons I think the open league will be resistant to changing. Starting a second league ex nihilo gave me the canvas I needed to run a league the way I’ve always wanted to – and it seems like I’m not the only one to like the new format. It was a relief to have our first meeting go so well as I had been very worried about it being a flop.

    That’s all for the first night’s report, but we’re about to have our second night very soon! Our league uses Matchplay and so you can view the results for the night and the season there.

  • League Night Recap for 2/24/26

    We finished up the first half of the season at our last league night. We had a couple of new players, Eric and Sarah, although Sarah has previously played in some tournaments, just not league. Eric kept being confused every time I called out “Derik” in the megaphone because between the amplification and my mask the consonants get a little imprecise. Greg, who briefly played in a past league season, also returned (not the Greg who was one of the original league members back in the 2010s, in case anyone is wondering, but Greg K.). Edit: I totally forgot to also mention Mike C.! Who is also not the Mike who used to play in the early days of the league, or the other Mike who plays off and on in the league.

    Tim playing Metallica in the Smackdown finals.

    We were supposed to have Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for our Smackdown game, but it started getting confused about locking balls and had to be substituted for Metallica, unfortunately after Joseph had a really big game on it. Devon commented, “Well, at least TMNT managed to last through one league rotation.” I had previously put TMNT On Notice and I think this means it’s now officially on the Dead To Me board.

    Derik playing Uncanny X-Men in the B division Smackdown finals.

    This turned out to be an especially long-running league night, in part because Elvira’s House of Horrors had an issue and had to be taken out after one group had already played it, and in part because of some long-playing groups. After TMNT got switched out, I didn’t have a chance to play Metallica before league started and my group was the last to finish, so I sneaked out after my last game was over just to put a quick qualifying attempt in. Somehow – probably due to the deadline pressure phenomenon – I blew up Metallica the biggest I’ve ever done, finishing with a score around 350M. The game just kept going on and on, giving me that “can’t lose the ball” feeling. I was actually kind of mortified because I knew league was already running late and everyone was waiting for me to finish to play Smackdown finals. At one point I successfully shot the scoop for extra ball and said “Oh no, damn it.”

    Stephanie playing X-Men in the B division finals.

    In the Smackdown finals, no one was doing very much including me, and I figured I was going to pull one of my typical moves of having a great qualifying game and then completely, uh, messing the bed during finals. Then I did manage to get a decent multiball going on my third ball, rallying me enough to take the lead, even if it wasn’t exactly a stellar game. Still, the night left me with the feeling that maybe Metallica is one of my strong games. I proceeded to get beaten on Metallica Remastered by a child at a tournament in Grand Rapids this past weekend. The B division played on X-Men, and I didn’t get much of a chance to watch that match, so all I can tell you is that Derik won.

    I’m feeling very proud of my Smackdown win here. Derik is less excited to celebrate his B division win on X-Men.

    With the first half of the season now behind us, Danny leads the league with a mere 3 point lead over Tim. Peter has a strong third place. The rest of the people currently above the cutline are Tim in fourth, Joseph in fifth, Devon and I tied for sixth, and Derik surprisingly down in 8th.

    I’m writing this perilously close to our next meeting in a few hours so I’ll be seeing you all soon!

  • March Hare Madness Returns

    It’s the return of our annual March Hare Madness pinball tournament, held in March or April of each year. This tournament, in memory of my beloved rabbit Stephen, benefits the Rabbit and Small Animal Rescue of Westland, Michigan. The cost to enter is $10 plus coin drop ($.75-$1 per game). The entry fee, not including coin drop and $1 for the IFPA fee, goes to the charity.

    We will play 6 rounds of group matchplay using the ever-popular Critical Hit deck (cast spells to interfere with your opponents or help yourself!), followed by a three-round matchplay finals.

    The tournament will begin at 6:00 pm on March 31, 2026, at The Avenue Cafe in Lansing.

  • League Night Recap for 2/10/26

    Charlee plays in my group, on Black Knight: Sword of Rage (or as I would like to call it, S-word of Rage).

    At our last league night, we embarked on the second set of banks, known as “Hobbes” (Bank 3) and “Spinoza” (Bank 4). Thomas Hobbes was a 17th century English philosopher known for his social contract theory, particularly its basis in his conception of the state of nature as “nasty, brutish, and short,” which very well describes almost every game I had playing on this bank. Sadly, no social contract could save me from one of my worst league nights in ages and I can only draw some solace from the existence of drop nights. “Spinoza” sounds like the name that Gottlieb would have trademarked for some ill-considered spinner gizmo in 1992, but it is actually Baruch Spinoza, a 17th century Portuguese-Dutch rationalist.

    Abby takes her turn on Uncanny X-Men.

    The night was enhanced by returning visitors and a new player. My friend Jake, who played in some of the earliest league seasons, made a guest appearance. I knew he was coming but had been made to promise not to tell Joseph so Jake would be able to surprise him. Later I heard the sound of Christy’s voice coming from downstairs so I went down to demand to know why she wasn’t playing in league. She reminded me (to my embarrassment) that she had already told me she would not be able to play this season but hopes to return in the fall.

    A group of likely-looking characters.

    The new player was Abby D., whom I know well from Belles and Chimes Grand Rapids. She has played in some tournaments at The Avenue, but had not played in the league before. In fact, she told me she had never played in any multi-week league before. I’m a big fan of the league format and hope she will enjoy it too.

    David writes a score down.

    Only half of the results for each bank are currently in, but right now Brian K. has the lead on Hobbes, with Danny in second and Tim in third. On Spinoza, Devon has the top spot, and there is a tie between Jason and Derik for second and third.

    Smackdown winner Derik and B division champ Joseph.

    Our Tuesday Night Smackdown game was on Iron Maiden, which returned to the Avenue after a long absence, replacing Willy Wonka (sorry Joseph). Derik won the Smackdown championship and Joseph won the B division on The Mandalorian.

    I’ll be seeing everyone very soon at our next league night, when we’ll finish up banks 3 and 4!

  • League Night Recap for 1/27/26

    Our league night on January 27 wrapped up the first bank rotation, consisting of the banks named “Kant” and “Descartes,” the two philosophers who ended and started the Early Modern period, respectively. Stephanie asked, given I have made reference to owning a “Kant Touch This” T-shirt, why I didn’t wear it. I had thought of it that day, and then realized I already played Kant during the first league night and would be playing Descartes now, so it wouldn’t match. I probably should have done it anyway.

    Chris plays Game of Thrones.

    We had a couple of new players join this time. One was Karrah, who previously played in a Lightning Flippers tournament. She did not realize league was going on but Stephanie spotted her and asked her to join, which she did by joining in on the last game with that group and then finishing the rest of the bank on her own. Greg, who previously played in part of a league season a couple years back, also made a return. Greg was very enthusiastically talking up Danny’s abilities to me – as though I needed a reminder! The last time I played A division in LPL, Danny is the one who took me out when I brought a knife to an H-bomb fight on Rush.

    Linda plays TMNT, which she is undoubtedly thrilled about.

    At one point I wandered over to Derik and asked what I thought of the new league logo I had commissioned from a graphic designer. He said “pretty sweet” but obviously knew that I was leading up to asking about T-shirts. We are currently planning to get shirts done soon and just need to work out acquiring some art assets from Pinball Pete’s so we can include their sponsorship.

    Either I was being arty, or Devon released so much energy playing Godzilla that it caused local disturbances to reality.

    Now that the two banks are complete, we can declare the winners on them. Joseph held on to his top position on Bank 1 “Kant” (and I kept my #2, because Joseph always has to one-up me). Danny took top honors on Bank 2, “Descartes,” ahead of Brian K. Right now there is still no way to declare an overall frontrunner because everyone drops two nights, so we’re all tied for first. Get your screenshot in now!

    Our Tuesday Night Smackdown game was Godzilla, and the random number generator chose TMNT as the B division game, because of course it did. Anytime it can pick TMNT, it does. Tim was our Smackdown Champion and Joseph won the B division.

    Smackdown champ Tim and B division champ Joseph, both indicating that they are #1.

    I’ll be seeing everyone very soon for our next rotation, in which we will be playing Banks 3 and 4, known (to me and maybe Joseph and no one else) as “Hobbes” and “Spinoza.”

  • League Night Recap for 1/13/26

    Our 24th season opened on January 13 and we had several new players join us. Gabe and Fred, already known to many of us for their great performance at Super-Ball XXIII (the split flipper tournament) and for playing at Silver Balls, officially started with the league. New players Charlee and David also made their debut. Karrah, who previously played in a Lightning Flippers tournament, happened to be around at the end of the night not knowing the league was on, and we invited her to join us and play her games late.

    Derik attacking Mars. What’d they ever do to him?

    We reorganized the banks this season to account for the games’ new physical positions and also to change up the order a bit from last season. The banks also received new names. Last season they were ancient Greek philosophers, and this season the banks moved forward a couple millennia and took on the names of early modern philosophers. There is at least one game that is supposed to reflect something about each philosopher in the banks, except poor Berkeley who just ended up with the remaining bank after I assigned all the other names. Our first two nights we’re playing “Kant” and “Descartes,” the two philosophers who are considered to end and start the early modern period, respectively.

    We had a big change to Tuesday Night Smackdown this season which is that I am requiring all scores to be put in on Matchplay rather than written down, to save time organizing things at the end of the night. There is also a new rule that you have to be present and ready to play when I hold the Smackdown finals. I will be calling your name three times with the megaphone and if you do not show up you’ll be disqualified. This is to save time on my running around the bar finding everyone as we get to the end of the night.

    Mackenzie on Stranger Things.

    Right now the overall standings show everyone tied for 1st, which will be the case until after the third night, since everyone drops their two lowest. The current bank standings also don’t mean too much until everyone has finished playing both banks after tonight’s meeting. I felt like I had a great night on Bank 1, “Kant,” appropriate because I wrote my dissertation on Kant. I bragged about my night (especially my big John Wick game) to Joseph who was too polite to respond by telling me he had beaten my John Wick score and, as it turns out, my entire bank score. Joseph took first so far on Bank 1, and I got second, above third place Danny Clark (how did that happen?). On Bank 2, “Descartes,” the champ-so-far is Brian K., followed by Tim and Peter.

    Smackdown B division winner Devon “The Pinball Wizard” and champion Derik “The Red.”

    Some amusement (for others) and embarrassment (for me) happened when I could not seem to get my megaphone working, and then it turned out that I had somehow put it in a recording mode. After that, every time I tried to push the button to turn it on, I instead regaled the bar with me yelling “It’s on but nothing seems to be happening,” which caused some mirth in the bar.

    Our Tuesday Night Smackdown was on The Addams Family, with the B division playing on Monster Bash, appropriately enough. Derik took the champion title for the night and Devon was the undercard winner.

    Our next night is just in a couple of hours now, so come early if you’d like to start qualifying in the Smackdown tournament, but be careful because I’m hearing the roads are not great!