The Capital Combo
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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League Night Recap for 2/10/26
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…
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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…
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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.…
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Season 24 Results and Standings
This is a link to our league’s results spreadsheet for Season 24: Season 24 Results
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Deja VUK: Same winners, same runners-up for Season 23
The playoffs came to a quicker, but still late finale for Season 23 as #1 seed Danny C. defeated #3 seed Tim to defend his LPL championship. Unlike the two-round final match of Season 22, Danny needed only one round to secure the win. Meanwhile, #1 seed Heather defended her Season 22 B division title…
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