Lansing Pinball League

Category: News

  • Star Wars: Fall of the Empire Launch Parties

    We will be hosting two launch parties for the new Stern pinball, “Star Wars: Fall of the Empire”! The open launch party will be on November 18 at 6:30 pm and will be free to enter (besides coin drop). The format will be four strikes, head-to-head, with arena priority on Star Wars. The women’s launch party will be on November 8 at 4:30 pm and will cost $1 to enter plus coin drop. The format will be five strikes, head-to-head, with arena priority on Star Wars. Both events will be at The Avenue Cafe in Lansing.

    We will have random drawings for prizes including a Star Wars translite, and the winner of each of the tournaments will receive an official Grand Champion plaque. All are welcome, no tournament experience required!

  • Existential terror at the Avenue

    Our annual charity pingolf tournament, known as Fear and Trembling (not, as popularly believed, “Fear and Loathing”) after the classic work by 19th century existentialist Søren Kierkegaard, will be held on October 21st at The Avenue Cafe in Lansing, Michigan. This tournament supports our regular charity, the Capital Area Humane Society.

    In this format, you are scored golf style, according to how quickly you are able to achieve a goal. That goal might be something like “start any multiball” or “destroy two saucers.” If you complete it in one ball, that’s a hole in one. If you don’t complete it in three balls, your score is 4. The unique twist that as far as I know is only used in this specific tournament, is that you have to choose between two possible objectives, and are committed to that objective even if you accidentally achieve the other one. Hence, we make our dreadful choices with fear and trembling, knowing regret may be around the corner.

    This will be a 9-hole course and the best (i.e. lowest) four scorers will go on to a three-game final round with pingolf match play scoring. You can start on the course anytime after 4 pm when The Avenue opens, with 7 pm being the cutoff for starting on the course. If you decide to start your card over, you are allowed to, for an additional buy-in cost, but you have to surrender your current card (no further play will be allowed on it). You will be allowed to keep your best score if you play more than one card.

    The cost for your first card is $10, and additional cards are $5. The first $1 from each player is the IFPA sanctioning fee, and the rest goes to the designated charity, the Capital Area Humane Society. An additional $2 donation will be made by the tournament director on behalf of anyone who wears Halloween-themed outfits or a costume to this tournament!

  • Rocket Robin blasts back into town

    It’s time for Rocket Robin, the summer charity tournament to benefit the Capital Area Humane Society! The entry fee will be $10, with $9 going to the charity and $1 to the IFPA for sanctioning.

    The format will be straight up head-to-head match play in a round robin style. Because we almost certainly won’t have the time to do a complete round robin, we will instead use “Strict Swiss” pairing to do as much of a round robin as possible. At the end of 11 rounds the tournament will end and the person with the most wins (1 point per win) will be the champion.

    As far as I know this is the only IFPA tournament in Michigan to use this format, so it’s unique if nothing else! There will be trophies, a translite giveaway, and the satisfaction of knowing you supported a worthwhile cause.

    The tournament will start at 6 pm on July 22.

  • In Memoriam: Ethan Reynolds

    By now, most have already heard the news that league member Ethan Reynolds died unexpectedly last Tuesday. Below, I am reproducing the announcement of this that I posted in the league Facebook group when I learned about it on Wednesday.

    I am terribly sad to have to report that league member Ethan Reynolds passed away yesterday, suddenly and unexpectedly. […] As I am sure is also true for all of you, I was stunned to hear this news. It is incomprehensible to think of someone so vibrant being suddenly gone from the world. Although I did not know Ethan well on a personal basis, I did know him as an indispensable part of the camaraderie of our league. He quickly became one of the core members, the people who make up the league’s personality. He also contributed considerably to the growth of the league in recent years by bringing in friends, and he often recruited people to play in the charity tournaments too, sometimes people who just happened to be at the bar that day! His outgoing nature was legendary to the extent that his name became synonymous with courageous extroversion. If I didn’t have enough people for one of my tournaments, someone might say, “If only we had Ethan here to do his thing” or “We need someone to be an Ethan and go talk to that person playing Medieval Madness.” […]

    I am so sorry to lose Ethan and his joyful, fun, and welcoming presence from the LPL, but I know he will never be forgotten by the membership.

  • When the March Hare gets mad, does he rage tilt?

    The annual Stephen T. Kendrick Memorial March Hare Madness tournament, a charity tournament benefiting the Rabbit and Small Animal Rescue of Westland, returns to The Avenue Cafe on March 18, 2025. The tournament is named in honor of Stephen (2006-2016), the greatest rabbit ever to hop the earth, a giant among rabbits.

    This will be a timed group matchplay tournament using the Critical Hit deck. If you haven’t played a Critical Hit tournament before, you’re in for a treat! Every player is dealt cards that allow them to “cast spells” during the tournament. You could force someone to play a game without viewing the display, shake the game to give someone tilt warnings, or even trade scores. It’s a wild time fitting for the name March Hare Madness! Plus, rabbits and magic… it’s a whole thing.

    The tournament kicks off at 6 pm and we will play rounds until 10 pm at which point the top four players will play a three-game finals match. The entry fee is $10 which goes 90% to RASA Rescue and 10% to the Sharpe cartel.

  • Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant’s Eye Coming to The Avenue

    The Avenue Cafe will be receiving a limited edition model Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant’s Eye! We will be holding two launch parties.

    The open launch party will be on March 4 and will start at 6:30 pm. It will be a 4-strikes, head-to-head tournament with arena priority set to D&D, meaning one match every round will be played on it.

    The Lightning Flippers women’s launch party will be on March 8 at 4:30 pm and will use the same format as the open launch.

    Both launch parties will give away a translite as a random prize and have an official launch party plaque for the winner! The open launch party will also give away a banner by random drawing and Stern Insider Connected users who log in during the tournament will receive the virtual launch party badge.

  • Uncanny X-Men Launch Parties

    Lansing will be hosting two Uncanny X-Men launch parties, one open to all and the other open to all women. Both will be four-strikes tournaments with arena priority set to Uncanny X-Men, meaning one match each round will be played on the launch party game. The cost to play is $1 and there will be door prizes and the grand champion plaque to give away!

    The open launch party will be November 19 at 6:30 pm at The Avenue Cafe in Lansing. The women’s launch party will also be at The Avenue and will be at 4:30 pm on November 9. Hope to see you at one or both!

  • It’s Fear and Trembling Time!

    Our annual pingolf tournament is returning to support the Capital Area Humane Society on Tuesday, October 29. This is a spooky themed tournament and costumes are encouraged! Anyone wearing a costume or Halloween gear will get an extra $2 donated to the Capital Area Humane Society for them by me, your TD. The 9-hole course will be available for play starting at 4 pm with last cards started at 7 pm. Bring a friend because groups must be 2-4 people. Once everyone has finished we will have a 4-person pingolf finals. The twist for this tournament is that each hole will offer a choice between two objectives to shoot for. Whatever objective you choose, that’s the only one that counts for you, and you will be scored according to how many balls it took you to get to it. (Last year’s 5-ball tournament ran way too long, so we are going to go back to setting the games on 3 balls this time.) The top seed will get to choose either bank or objectives (whichever of the two objectives they choose will have to be shot for by everyone in the finals group), and the second seed will choose whatever the top seed did not.

    The cost to enter is $10. $9 goes to the Capital Area Humane Society and $1 to the IFPA. You will also be allowed to void your first card and start a second one for an additional $5 provided it is not yet 7 pm. All of that $5 will go to the Capital Area Humane Society. There will be prize drawings and the top four will get spooky trophies.

  • Rocket Robin Tournament for the Animals Returns in July

    It’s time for Rocket Robin, the summer charity tournament to benefit the Capital Area Humane Society! The entry fee will be $10, with $9 going to the charity and $1 to the IFPA for sanctioning.

    The format will be straight up head-to-head match play in a round robin style. Because we almost certainly won’t have the time to do a complete round robin, we will instead use “Strict Swiss” pairing to do as much of a round robin as possible. At the end of a designated time period the tournament will end and the person with the most wins (1 point per win) will be the champion.

    As far as I know this is the only IFPA tournament in Michigan to use this format, so it’s unique if nothing else! There will be trophies, a translite giveaway, and the satisfaction of knowing you supported a worthwhile cause.

    The tournament will start at 6 pm on July 10, and the last round will start at or before 10 pm.

  • Magic and madness at March Hare Madness

    The annual Stephen T. Kendrick Memorial March Hare Madness tournament, a charity tournament benefiting the Rabbit and Small Animal Rescue of Westland, returns to The Avenue Cafe on March 12, 2024. This will be a timed group matchplay tournament using the Critical Hit deck. If you haven’t played a Critical Hit tournament before, you’re in for a treat! Every player is dealt cards that allow them to “cast spells” during the tournament. You could force someone to play a game without viewing the display, shake the game to give someone tilt warnings, or even trade scores. It’s a wild time fitting for the name March Hare Madness! Plus, rabbits and magic… it’s a whole thing.

    The tournament kicks off at 6 pm and we will play rounds until 10 pm at which point the top four players will play a three-game finals match. The entry fee is $10 which goes 90% to RASA Rescue and 10% to the Sharpe cartel.