It’s time for another League Night, the second of Season 4. As usual, Matt has randomly chosen our games:
The Simpsons Pinball Party. Arrrrghhhhhhhh….
World Cup Soccer. This one seems likely to get switched with something else, since recently the left flipper has not been staying upright when held. That’s fine; I’d hate to break my perfect failure streak. My preview post has never once successfully listed all the games we ended up playing, and this time will probably not be the exception.
The Walking Dead. Joseph is not looking forward to this after playing a Grand Champion game of it during the off week. He says, “I am going to be completely humiliated every single time we play Walking Dead at league forevermore.”
Tales of the Arabian Nights. I’m looking forward to this one: the lamp has been spinning very well and now that there are some lights in the alcove, Lightning Lamp won’t be quite as terrifying. If I’m lucky, I’ll play it after SPP to get the bad taste out of my mouth.
See you all at 7 p.m. tomorrow (Tuesday) at the Avenue!
After a short break for the holidays, league play resumed with the first meeting of Season 4 on Tuesday. The usual suspects were joined by a couple of new members: Kristen, whom I previously met at the Arcade and Marvin’s Leagues, and Sam, a Grand Rapids League member coaxed over to Lansing by Jake. Russell, who was absent for nearly all of Season 3, and Eric, who abstained from Season 3 due to work obligations, made a return.
Kristen and Russell playing in the downstairs alcove. Note the overhead lights reflecting off the tables.
We were scheduled to play Austin Powers, Theatre of Magic, Monster Bash, and Junk Yard. Prior to the meeting I had asked Mike to please use his gremlin powers to break Austin Powers for me. While Matt was feeding Austin Powers, it stole several of his quarters, so he decided to strike it from the day’s schedule and substitute Attack from Mars. When I next ran into Mike, he greeted me with, “You’re welcome.” The streak continues unbroken: I have never yet written a League Night Preview that actually included all the games we ended up playing.
Speaking of Mike’s machine-wrecking tendencies, no one slam tilted Junk Yard tonight. To make up for this, Matt helpfully slam tilted Attack from Mars, thus sparing Chris from the burden of having to rule the universe. I was downstairs and didn’t witness this event, but Joseph did, and he reported to me that Matt just slid the table a few inches. In Joseph’s opinion, it deserved a tilt, but was not nearly aggressive enough to merit a slam tilt.
Russell explains to Matt why yoga is more important than pinball.
Joseph had a particularly good league game of Junk Yard, and got to put his initials in as the Junk Champion. He got to enjoy this for maybe as much as an hour before noticing that the Junk Champion had gone back to CST. According to Mike, this happened during Chris’s league game too.
As for my group, I ended up with James, Danny, and Alex. I edged out the narrowest victory over second place James in our group’s Theatre of Magic game, but came in a distant fourth in all other games, while my group-mates performed admirably, especially in a high-scoring game of Monster Bash. I believe this was James’s best-scoring night since he joined the league.
Since I hate league night being over for two weeks, I almost always linger until everyone else gives up and goes home. This time I was joined in the late night lingering by Jake, Sam, Joseph, Greg, and Mike. We hung around until about 11:30 – which might be the latest I have managed to drag the evening out – and then Jake said, “Let’s all go to Theio’s!” I thought this was a brilliant suggestion. We all piled into a booth at Theio’s, where we discussed, among less printable things, roller coasters. As I have been a roller coaster enthusiast since long before I discovered pinball, it does not take much to encourage me to talk about them at length and in excessive detail. The only thing better than amusement parks, in my book, is playing pinball at amusement parks, and the only thing better than pinball is amusement park themed pinball. My life may have peaked last summer when Joseph and I played Cyclone in the arcade at Rye Playland.
It was great to see everyone again, and I’m also quite happy to have Theatre of Magic added to our selection of games at the Avenue. It was my original favorite pinball machine, and though it has been surpassed in my affections as I’ve become acquainted with more games, it is still easily in my top 5. The Avenue has it turned up good and loud, too, which is a nice change from the barely-audible Addams Family it replaced. The Avenue has also turned the lights back on in the downstairs alcove and though no one would say it’s bright in there, it is certainly an improvement.
I have posted the complete results as well as added a few photos to the gallery, though I’m sorry to say most of my photos this time didn’t turn out well. See you January 27 at the next league night!
Season 4 of the Lansing Pinball League starts tonight. It’s traditional for any new addition to the Avenue’s games to be included in the next league night, and this time the new addition is Theatre of Magic. ToM was my original favorite pinball game, back in the days before I discovered FunHouse, and it’s still near the top of my list. The volume is up nice and high so you can hear the great voices and music quite well. I think it is going to be a welcome addition to our lineup.
Matt has announced the games for tonight as the follows:
Austin Powers. I have asked Mike S. to please break it for me so I don’t have to listen to its awful yammering.
Theatre of Magic. If there is any justice, my affinity for bunnies, even devilbunnies, ought to help me.
Monster Bash. A lot of people in the league are really good at this one. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some Monsters of Rock action during league play.
Junk Yard. Handle with care! And hope Mike isn’t in your group.
It’s also been decided that we are going to be changing the league format a little this season, with points determining seeding for an end-of-season playoff for final standings. The exact format for the playoff tournament is still being determined.
Super-Ball III, the post-season tourney for Season 3, happened December 16. Shortly afterward I got broadsided by the holidays and failed to write a recap. I’m a firm believer in “better late than never” but this is about as late as it gets, with Season 4 starting tomorrow!
Danny and Aaron, teamed up on Attack from Mars.
As in previous seasons, the competition took the form of a “Zen” tourney, with two players per team, each playing one flipper. This is a very fun format that evens out the skill levels and really challenges players to concentrate and anticipate partners’ moves. Communication is key, as players need to agree on a strategy ahead of time and constantly negotiate with each other during play.
The bracket was double elimination, and each round was best two of three. The assigned games were Attack from Mars, Monster Bash, and (as the tie-breaker) Medieval Madness.
Although it briefly looked like I was to be paired with Joseph again (just like last season, when we won the tourney undefeated together), a latecomer ended up changing the team pairings and I instead got paired with Mike “The Gremlin” S., while Joseph ended up with Greg. Mike and I have played a lot of pinball together over the last six months, so I think it was my next best pairing after Joseph.
When we beat the Chris and James team, Mike and I agreed (after some goading by others) to both walk up to Chris and say “In your face!” I resolved to do it, and walked toward him with my finger jabbing the air… at the exact moment I noticed that he had stuck his hand out to shake. It was too late to stop the insult from coming out of my mouth, and he stood there with his hand out and a rather startled look on his face. I’m not going to lie: I felt like a heel. “I was trying to show some professionalism,” came Chris’s reply. Oops.
(The pangs of guilt didn’t stop me from rolling down the car window and yelling “In your face!” at Chris again as we pulled up at the tournament in Fremont two weeks later.)
We did quite well, and got to the semi-final round to be knocked out by Joseph and Greg, who were tearing through the competition despite being the low seed. They went on to victory, after having to beat the formidable team of Aaron and Danny twice in a row in order to knock them out of the tournament. Joseph and Greg won four straight games in a row against them to finish the night and take the Zen trophies.
Joseph and Greg with their Zen trophies. Not pictured: Chris with his Season 3 trophy.
We also received new T-shirts for the season, designed by Sarah S., and Chris got his Season 3 championship trophy. The trophy was, once again, a very nice silver cup attached to a marble base. I remarked on how heavy it was and suggested to Chris that if a burglar ever breaks into his house, he could grab it to use as a weapon. He replied, “I’m confused. I’ve only got two hands, how will I grab all three of them?” Unfortunately I failed to get a picture of Chris with his trophy, but I’ve got two other photos like it, so that’s fine.
That’s it for Season 3! You can find all the photos from the Zen tourney and the rest of Season 3 in the Photo Gallery. See you tomorrow at the opener of Season 4!
As I have not yet completely worked out my strategy for quitting my job and devoting myself to a life of pinball hedonism, I have been kept busy by the end-of-term crunch. As a result I sadly did not find time to write my usual League Night Recap for 12/2/14. This is too bad especially since it was an exciting finale that saw the third place position decided by a mere 5 points. (Joseph still cannot believe he has gotten good enough for third place, but I don’t think he’s about to give it back either.)
Joe Cool, hanging around the change machine.
Speaking of Joseph, remember the League Night Preview for 12/2/14? The one in which Joseph was said to be scoffing at the idea we would play Getaway, due to its track record of breaking every league night? Well, during practice, the launcher broke again. Matt responded by yelling “damn it, Joseph!” and accusing him of having jinxed it. Naturally, I rushed to Joseph’s defense by blaming Mike the Gremlin instead, which Matt was willing to agree to. Mike pointed out that he had not been playing it, but I said that his mere presence is enough to cause things to malfunction.
Anyway, it’s official: we have not once actually played all the games on my League Night Preview. Man plans, the gods of pinball laugh.
Matt laughing at the existential futility of it all. Either that or something to do with the new Star Wars trailer.
Getaway was replaced with World Cup Soccer, which I was initially excited about — Getaway usually hates me, WCS usually treats me gently — but in the end my generally bad night did not take a break. I had finally started to recover on my third ball of WCS, when I got too desperate to save my ball and tilted, losing a bonus that was probably 100M or more. Joseph told me to remember what Chris told me: “If you’re not tilting, you’re not playing.” Unfortunately, as a trained logician, I know that this does not entail that if you are tilting you are playing and I am pretty sure I was not playing. On the bright side, my group’s game of WCS did lead to a remark by Aaron that gets my coveted “Quote of the Night” distinction. While (or possibly just after) losing a ball, he hit the Magna-Save, and I remarked that I never think to use it. He replied, “I only use it ironically.”
Alex thinks, “This is my chance to sabotage the Magna-Save while Aaron is distracted.”
Our other games for the night were The Walking Dead, Junk Yard, and Monster Bash. As far as I know, no one slam tilted Junk Yard this time, so there’s a small victory. I am all too familiar with The Walking Dead — in fact with that exact table since the high score table betrayed it as the one that has just left The Arcade in Brighton — and as usual the magnet threw the ball straight down the middle for me. Or that’s my excuse, anyway. A semi-decent game on Monster Bash is the only thing that saved my pride.
Tonight also saw the return of Russell at long last, whose single night of play will guarantee him a high-ranking partner for the Zen Tournament, which was surely his plan all along.
Although my disappointing night lost me the 10th place finish I was hoping for (as it would equal my last season placement), this has been a great season for me overall, and a great year of learning the joys of pinball. Thanks very much to Matt for starting and organizing the league, without which I would never have discovered this amazing hobby.
Jake found a new favorite chair.
Tonight is our traditional post-season Zen Tournament. Two-person teams are set up by pairing the highest and lowest ranked person, then the second highest and second lowest, and so on. Then it’s one person to each flipper for a double elimination tournament. Part of the fun is that no one knows who the teams are going to be until it starts, since it’s impossible to predict exactly who will show up. Well, except for the people who are guaranteed to show up; you would need dynamite to keep me away.
See you all at 7 p.m. at the Avenue for the Zen Tournament! And don’t forget you can see my latest League photos in the gallery page and the final standings summarized here.
The final standings for season 3 are in! Congratulations to Chris for winning the third season in a row, to Rodney for a runaway 2nd place finish, and to Joseph for taking the hotly contested 3rd place.
Final Standings
Chris
Rodney
Joseph
Matt
Mike St.
Danny
Aaron
Sarah
Jake
Mark
Heather
Christine
Alex
Mike G.
Greg
Terry
Shila
Todd
Amanda
James
Samantha
Russell
Jamie
Sam
For more detail, look at the results for the final league night. It’s been a great season thanks to all the great players in the league. See you at the Zen Tournament!
It goes without saying (but I’m going to say it anyway) that tonight is going to be a very exciting league night. It’s our final night of the season, and the points accrued by the end of this meeting will determine final standings. There will be one more league night, but it will be our post-season, unofficial tournament (traditionally a “Zen tournament”) and party.
Although the previous meeting saw Chris beaten out by an impressive tie between Danny and Joseph, he is still nearly a shoo-in to win the season, and Rodney to take second. The real action is still the #3 position. Joseph is currently #3 (he still insists, incredulously, that he is overvalued) but Matt and Mike are very close behind. Danny, despite being a mid-season joiner, has come up very quickly in rank and is also in range of a #3 finish. Many other positions have fewer than 10 points separating them so there could still be a lot of place-swapping.
The games chosen for this week are:
The Walking Dead: Well, of course. Our venue’s newest game generally gets chosen for league night. Matt reports that it has had a code update installed.
Getaway: If the launcher holds out, that is. (“We’re playing Getaway,” I told Joseph. “Suuuure we are,” he said.)
Junk Yard: “King Kong” Stewart will just have to rein himself in.
Monster Bash: A popular game that I don’t expect to hear a lot of griping about.
