Lansing Pinball League

Category: Recaps

League Night Recap for 8/21/18

Joseph playing Star Wars in the Smackdown tournament while the other finalists watch.

Our league night of 8/21 brought us through the halfway mark of Season 11. It also was a bittersweet night for me, as it marked the end of my freewheeling, early-to-league days. By the time we met again, I would have started my semester and would be back to racing in at the last minute fresh off an hour drive from Mt. Pleasant and still dressed for work. (In fact, that will be me on Tuesday.)

It was a night with unusually low attendance for this season. Two of our power players, Chris and Danny, were both absent. That allowed me to finish second for the night, possibly my best ever. I got a first place on two games, certainly the most I’ve ever done, and the most anyone did that night. Unfortunately some of my others weren’t as hot, so Derik ended up beating me by four points to be the top finisher for the night.

Lupe playing AC/DC in the Undercard tournament.

Since we only had 12 people, the night went quickly. Even Medieval Madness could not slow us down. It treated everyone pretty bad and the highest score of the night was Karen’s 48 million – respectable, certainly, but not the blowout we used to get with our old MM before it got replaced with the much harsher remake edition.

I collected the last few stragglers’ T-shirt orders and got them all turned in to Derik, who is coordinating things with Michigan Shirt Works. Last I talked to Derik, he was not sure when MSW would be finishing the shirts.

The Tuesday Night Smackdown game this time was Star Wars and the Undercard (B division) played AC/DC (chosen randomly from among the games in the area near Star Wars). Terry won the Smackdown and seemed quite pleased about it (he had me take a picture of him and his medal with his phone); Dan was the Undercard winner.

Dan checks to see what his medal is made out of. Yep, it’s real plastic!

Tuesday is the first night of the second half of the league season. This is the last chance to join the league and still qualify to play in finals, since finals are limited to those who have played at least four nights. Since Iron Maiden is scheduled to be a league game, we will also be officially recording scores for the Stern “Up the Irons” tournament on Tuesday. This is a worldwide leader board for Iron Maiden that is running through the end of the calendar year. The top ten scores at any given time appear (with your photo) on the leader board, and at the end of the year the overall top scores win prizes. You may only submit scores from the game you actually played in league, not from practice or just-for-fun games. Right now, you must beat a score of 265,754,990 to get in 10th place on the board.

The Smackdown finalists: Terry, Mike, Tim, and Joseph.

I’m looking forward to seeing you all again (after this extra-long three week break) at 7:30 on Tuesday at the Avenue.

September 10, 2018
League Night Recap for 8/7/18

Kristen watches Chris play Iron Maiden. Yes, I use this photo angle a lot. I don’t have that many options!

Our third night of the season, on August 7, began ominously. Our new scheme for rotating through the games had ended up putting us in an unfortunate cluster: Attack from Mars, Ghostbusters, Lord of the Rings, The Simpsons Pinball Party, and Theatre of Magic. While Ghostbusters and Simpsons aren’t known for being very long-playing at the Avenue, the other three are. Before league started, Theatre of Magic reset on Joseph as he was testing it, and so I made the decision to pull it. Everyone was relieved until they heard what the alternate was: Monster Bash, only a slight improvement in the matter of play time. Worse, several top players got put into the same group by the Sorting Hat. (It was, of course, the group in front of mine, so we got to wait for them all night long.)

Mike wonders when the hell it’s going to be his turn as Chris plays The Simpsons Pinball Party.

The night ran as long as expected, especially thanks to Lord of the Rings. Several players, including Joseph (I know he wants me to be sure to put that in) started Destroy the Ring, though I don’t know how many succeeded. Even Simpsons, which can be very fickle for players, gave up epic games for some. I don’t know how some people put huge games on Monster Bash, though, because the scoop kept spitting down the middle; I lost two balls that way. The last group did not finish until after 10:30, our longest night yet. At least one player (Ed) gave up and went home without finishing. And then I still had to run the Smackdown tournament!

Speaking of the Smackdown tournament, it was on Game of Thrones this time. I played in the B (“Undercard”) division, as did Mike S. For the B division, I always roll a die to choose a game from among those in the same “area” as the main tournament game so I can easily supervise both. When it was time for me to draw a random game from among the ones in the alcove, the die came up with Monster Bash. Mike S. strenuously objected, pointing out that we just had to play it, that the scoop was going SDTM, and other complaints. I held fast; I didn’t like it either, but I was following my own rules. Mike then tried to take a vote of the rest of the Undercard players, but I told him, “This isn’t a democracy!” We played Monster Bash and to my surprise, I won on a big third ball rally. My league game had been awful, so I yelled, “Why can’t this be my league game?” This was my first time getting a Smackdown medal of any kind. Meanwhile, Derik won the championship on Game of Thrones, a game I know he loves.

The Smackdown and Undercard winners, Derik and I, respectively. But not respectfully.

This was Kristen’s last night with the league, so we sang “Goodbye to you” to her at the start of the night. She is off to start an exciting new life in Boston, where there will be more than enough pinball, though not the certain Lansing je ne sais quois.

Tonight is our fourth night of the season. There are rumors we may be rejoined by former player Jason Magnuson, one of the old-time Lansing greats. I will also be taking final T-shirt orders, so don’t forget to let me know your color and size choice at league night, send me a Facebook message, or email me (heather@lansingpinleague.com). Also, keep in mind that Stern has a drawing once a month for a translite, and all you need to do to win it is take a photo of yourself at league night holding your Stern Army dogtag in front of the Stern Army banner or a Stern game, and then email it to Zach.Sharpe@sternpinball.com. You can do it every month. Here’s the one I took of myself at the August 7 meeting.

Yes, I was messing with them a bit by posing with Elvis.

August 21, 2018
League Night Recap for 6/26/18

Danny concentrating on Iron Maiden. Guest photo by Edward Hopper.

Way back at the end of June (July was a busy month, OK?) we had the second league night of Season 11. The new Stern Army banner had been moved to its permanent location, so as we came in, we were greeted by Uncle Gary guarding the alcove.

We had our first game switch-out of the season, as Tales of the Arabian Nights went down after the first group played, so we had to switch to World Cup Soccer. Joseph had put up 21 million on TotAN so he cried out in agony when I told his group they would need to replay their game on WCS. He ended up having a perfectly respectable 438 million on WCS, but I don’t think that did much to console him.

The final Smackdown scores. Player 4 won with a very lucky extra ball plunge.

I used the random number generator to choose a Smackdown game as usual, and it chose Star Trek for the second night in a row. I had previously been doing completely random drawings, so I decided I had to go with what the gods of randomness decreed. Since several people expressed a preference for this not to happen again, I changed the rules so that from now on, we will randomly draw only from games that have not yet been played this season. As it happens, that would have deprived us of one of the craziest tournament finishes I have ever seen. Player 4, Derik, finished the game about 6 million points behind Player 3, Danny. Derik had an extra ball to plunge off, which he did. That extra ball proceeded to bounce into the lock and start multiball. Balls kept hitting the kickback and going back into play, so that his hands-free multiball lasted a good while. Combine that with a good bonus multiplier and he managed to make up the difference and a bit more. When the scores came up showing Derik’s narrow victory, everyone watching cried out (so loudly that Mike S., who had retired downstairs to grumble after a bad last ball, heard the commotion).

The Smackdown finalists, minus Mike S. who was too busy having an epic game downstairs: Danny, Derik, and Lupe.

The Undercard competitors, in front of the game they played off on, World Cup Soccer: Joseph, Karen, Terry, and me.

Mike and Karen, playing in the Smackdown and Undercard tournaments, respectively.

This was to be our last league meeting for over a month. The league took July off due to Pinburgh scheduling complications, although we had two tournaments instead, keeping things as busy as always. Reports on those tournaments (the Rocket Robin charity tournament, and the Battle of the Bands/Iron Maiden Launch Party) will be forthcoming when I get another free moment. In just a few hours we will be having our third league night (yes, it’s tonight, not next week) so come on over after you vote and put a score on the Smackdown game, Game of Thrones. Don’t forget to say goodbye to league member Kristen, who will be having her farewell night with the league. She is moving out of state in just a couple of weeks. Thanks for being a part of the LPL, Kristen!

August 7, 2018
League Night Recap for 6/12/18

Season 11, league night 1 of 8

Games played: AC/DC, Game of Thrones, Iron Man, Metallica, South Park

Results for the night and the season so far

Mike sent me a message saying “Give Uncle Gary a hug for me and tell him I don’t like Game of Thrones.” So here I am giving him a hug…

…and here I am telling him that Mike doesn’t like Game of Thrones.

June 12 was our first league night of Season 11, and it brought with it an exciting development. The Avenue is now Stern Army location #104! Derik and Pinball Pete’s helped me get us enrolled, so now our league and tournaments are eligible for prizes (e.g. translites) from Stern and we can host official launch parties for new games. Members of the league will also receive Stern Army Recruit dogtags. Those who attended our season opener already have theirs, and I will be passing out more at our league night tonight. We also got the Stern Army banner featuring “Uncle Gary” (as I call him… but not to his face so far). Even though we are past the official window for Iron Maiden launch parties, Zach Sharpe of Stern graciously sent me an extra trophy plaque he had on hand so that we can have our first Stern Army launch party. That will be coming up on July 12; more on that later.

There was another unexpected development at The Avenue: Fish Tales and Jack-Bot were out (boo! I loved gambling with my points!) and Elvis and World Cup Soccer were in. Elvis is totally new to The Avenue, but World Cup Soccer had a previous term of residence before being removed for quite a while. Meanwhile, Joseph had chosen the league games for the night based on a new rotation scheme of skipping five between each entry in alphabetical order. A similar idea was suggested by former league member Todd as a way of ensuring we didn’t end up with games being played in the same blocks this season. When we arrived and found the alphabetical order now disrupted, we had to stick with the already announced games, but it set our new plan already in partial disarray. As someone or other said, “the best laid schemes o’ mice an’ league runners gang aft a-gley.” I think it was Gary Stern.

Chris playing Star Trek in the Smackdown.

We had 12 in attendance at our first night, not too bad of a turnout but a little low due to the conspicuous absence of several regulars including Lupe, Caleb, and Mike S. (Yes, Mike S. I can’t remember the last time he missed Lansing league.) We did have a brand new member, Bryce. Last season Joseph had attempted to work out a scheme for allocating groups that would avoid putting any of the top players together while also balancing the group in other ways, but in the end it did not appear to speed up league play in the way it was intended to, and it also meant people missed out on the fun of meeting new people in random groups. So I brought back the original group sorting method, famously employed by Matt in the early seasons of the league: I brought back “the hat.” Well, not literally the same hat as I assume Matt took that one with him to Kalamazoo. I actually used my hat with deer ears and antlers that I usually wear to the Silver Balls tournament. It’s a very “me” version of a venerable league tradition and drawing our groups from a hat seemed to be a quicker and more flexible way of allocating groups last time so I think we will be sticking with it for now.

Tim playing Demolition Man in the Undercard match.

The Tuesday Night Smackdown side tournament has also returned for Season 11, with a couple of changes. Since we probably won’t have as many people eligible to play as rookies this season, we are now just going to have an A and B division for qualifiers 1-4 and 5-8, called the “Smackdown Championship” and the “Undercard” respectively. The other change is that to help cover a possible shortfall from dues in funding the league’s expenses, we are now allowing everyone one free entry in the Smackdown tournament, with additional entries being $1 each.

Our next meeting is in just a few hours (yes, even in the summer I’m late with the recaps), and it’s still a great time to join since your lowest night of the season is dropped, so missing the first night won’t hurt you. We are going to be taking July off of league due to the league runners needing to get ready for Pinburgh, but we will be filling in the gap by having two July tournaments: Rocket Robin, the annual round robin charity tournament for the Capital Area Humane Society, on July 10; and the Iron Maiden launch party on July 17. The latter is also a celebration of our induction into the Stern Army, so it is going to have a Stern “Battle of the Bands” format. Competitors will qualify on AC/DC, Elvis, Iron Maiden, and Metallica, with the top 8 going to playoffs.

Smackdown finalists Derik, Chris (the Champion), Danny, and Terry, with our new Stern Army banner.

The Undercard finalists, Tim, Kristen (the winner), Joseph, and Tim.

See you all very soon!

June 26, 2018
Super-Ball X

We’re hours away from the start of season 11, so naturally there’s no better time to give a recap of Super-Ball X, AKA the Zen Tournament, which took place on May 22. Sadly, our turnout for the traditional split flipper tournament was very low. We ended up doing a round robin with the idea that the top two teams would go on to finals. Unfortunately, we ended up with a three way tie between three of the four teams (Derik and I were the unlucky fourth team), a tie which was played off on a randomly chosen game. That game? Game of Thrones. Danny and Karen’s team got eliminated, leaving the Joseph and Tim team and the Mike S. and Bryan team to go to finals.

Mike measures out his Addams Family skill shot while Bryan observes.

Although Derik and I lost the war, we won some very good battles, including a game of The Addams Family in which crazy shots that shouldn’t have worked kept happening. “That’s one way to do it,” Derik said after we somehow managed to shoot the vault with the upper flipper. “That’s another way to do it,” he said after a ricochet from a lower flipper shot somehow hit the jackpot. Crazy luck like that kept on happening until Derik eventually said, “Turns out there are many ways to do things.”

Joseph and Tim won Super-Ball X, making Joseph the second-ever three-time Super-Ball champion (Mike S. is the other).

Joseph and Tim display their classy, luxurious Zen trophies.

Meanwhile, we did have our last Smackdown tournament of the season, on Attack from Mars, which was complicated by the fact that teams that played in the Super-Ball finals couldn’t participate. We didn’t have a Rookie final this time because all the available Rookies were playing in A division. Ultimately I gave the Rookie medal to the highest Rookie finisher, which was Karen. Danny won the main Smackdown medal.

Despite the low turnout, the mood was festive and I think everyone had a good time. We will continue the tradition of the Super-Ball tournament after season 11. It’s never too early to start practicing your split flipper game!

June 12, 2018
Plus ça change: Chris wins season 10

Chris playing Iron Maiden in the finals… and valiantly concentrating despite the person walking by in his peripheral vision.

The league’s tenth season, and the first of the post-Matt era, ended Tuesday night with another victory for the undefeated defending champion. Chris made his way through the winners’ bracket of the A division playoffs, ending with a 2-0 win against Danny on Iron Maiden (which had just arrived at the bar that day) and The Walking Dead. Third place went to Tim.

Danny playing Iron Maiden in the finals while Joseph and Derik watch.

In the B division, I defended my top seeded position and paralleled Chris by finishing in the winner’s bracket with a 2-0 final match. I had to face league newcomer Lupe in the finals after knocking her into the second-chance bracket with a hard-fought 2-1 victory in the third round. The third place finisher in B, Chad, was also new to the LPL this season.

We did also have Smackdown and Rookie Challenge tournaments, though several of the would-be qualifiers were still playing in the main tournament and had to forgo finals. Joseph was the Smackdown champion, while the Rookie champ was Caleb.

A division winners Chris (1st), Tim (3rd), and Danny (2nd).

B division winners me (1st), Lupe (2nd), and Chad (3rd). Lupe is also wearing her “most improved” ribbon. Photo by Joseph.

I attempted to start a new tradition this season by giving out a pair of recognition ribbons for specific accomplishments. I asked Joseph to plot a graph of scores and use it to choose the person who had the best claim on being “most improved” over the course of the season. His calculations pointed to Lupe, whom I bestowed the ribbon on as we began the evening. She said she couldn’t wait to show it to her students, and wore it on her shirt for the rest of the evening. I also had long been planning to give a ribbon for the most catastrophically bad single game score of the season, but late in the season, Chris unintentionally went and stole the award by slam tilting Indiana Jones for an official score of 0. Fortunately he took the award in good humor (as did the rest of the crowd when I announced it). Derik surprised us with six T-shirts donated by Pinball Pete’s, which I did a random drawing to give away.

I was very nervous prior to running my first finals, but everything went very smoothly, helped considerably by the good sportsmanship of all the competitors. The only confusing ruling I had to make was about a glitch on Game of Thrones that resulted in Player 1 not being able to choose a house, but that was solved by plunging off Player 1 and having the opponents play as Players 2 and 3.

Dan and Lupe take time out from their match to mug for the camera.

Sadly, Matt was not able to attend finals, since he has already moved to the Kalamazoo area for his new job and didn’t want to make the drive. I am hoping that with a little cajoling we may still be able to get him to come out for Super-Ball X, the Zen Tournament. What’s that, you might ask? It’s our traditional post-season, just-for-fun tournament! We play as pairs, with each partner taking one flipper. It’s a rare chance to enjoy the camaraderie of team play in pinball, and it’s invariably very entertaining. There will be trophies for the top pair. I still cherish my first Zen trophy because it was the first pinball trophy I ever won.

Thank you to everyone in the league for a successful and fun season. I will see you all (I hope) on May 22 for Super-Ball X. All league members for this season, including those who did not meet the requirements to play in the finals, are welcome to play.

P.S.: Don’t forget to check out all the photos I have taken Tuesday night and all season! There are a lot more in the gallery than are posted in my recaps.

May 11, 2018
League Night Recap for 4/24/18

Mike plays the Attack from Mars remake for the Smackdown championship.

Our league night for 4/24 was the last night of the regular season. The total points for each player at the end of the night would be used to determine divisions and seeding for the playoffs. Although the pressure was on with it being the last chance to climb up a position or two for finals, most people were less concerned with that and more interested in checking out the new games. The latest addition is a Game of Thrones LE. I was quick to razz Derik about how Pete’s took out a relatively uncommon game (Revenge from Mars, my planned go-to for finals!) and put in “a weed that grows everywhere.” Nevertheless, Game of Thrones was new to many of the league players since they aren’t all crazy people who drive an hour or two in every direction to play in other leagues. This makes it especially funny that it ended up being randomly drawn for the Smackdown Rookie Challenge game. Sorry for throwing you to the wolves, folks.

Oscar playing Game of Thrones in the Rookie Challenge.

The main Smackdown was on our other new addition, the Attack from Mars remake. Being the crank that I am, I can’t stop complaining about how I want my “real” AfM back. I think everyone else loves it. I believe it was Immanuel Kant who said, “there’s no accounting for taste.”

Mike won the Smackdown tournament and Derik won the Rookie Challenge, leading to jokes about how it was the Night of the Gingers. They insisted I take a picture of them with their medals to use in their redhead propaganda campaigns.

Ginger Twin powers, activate!

The founder of the league, Matt, gave us the news that he has already landed a job on the strength of his recently-completed degree from MSU. As a result, he has already moved to the Kalamazoo area so this is officially his farewell season. A few of us stayed until the bar closed playing games with him and taking turns buying him celebratory beers. Sadly, I got news from him yesterday that he will not be making it to finals and “probably” won’t be at the Super-Ball tournament (but we’ll see if we can work on him a bit before then). I know that the league won’t feel the same without him (and the other founding member, his former roommate Aaron, who we already lost this season due to his work schedule).

Speaking of founding league members, I ran into Russell yesterday. He was playing his new favorite game AC/DC, which has evidently replaced Lord of the Rings in his heart. He said that his absence this season was due to having a semester from hell but that he expects to be able to join again next season.

I have to wrap up this report in order to go fetch the trophies for tonight’s finals. I hope I’ll see you all there. Remember, even if you don’t meet the requirements to qualify for playing in finals, you can still play in the side tournament. Good luck everyone!

May 8, 2018
League Night Recap for 4/10/18

We had our 7th and penultimate night of the regular season on April 10. I should have been happy because we were going to play Indiana Jones, which is one of my strengths. Instead, I was filled with trepidation. The previous day when Joseph and I went over to test the games, I had a single runaway game of Indy that finished just over a billion points. I predicted this would doom me to a terrible league score since everyone knows a great score in practice presages a bad score in league. Mike predicted I would have a great but not fantastic game of 300 million. Who was right?

Bryan and Joseph watch Karen play a game of Simpsons for the Rookie Challenge finals.

Sadly, my prediction came true as I had a game in which I started no modes, had no multiballs, and ended with 19 million points. At least I can say that I finished ahead of Chris T. (and that’s all that counts, right?) since he managed to get a slam tilt – totally unjustly, by the accounts of all witnesses, but still I have to call it a zero. Wait, a slam tilt at league night? What is this, 2015? That wasn’t the only “old school” moment, though, since for the first time (!) this season we had a catastrophic game failure. Jack-Bot decided to reset on two different groups, resulting in it being removed from league play for the night. Since only four people had yet to finish playing it when it got pulled, I subsequently decided to just have those four put a score on it sometime on or before next league night (tonight). Derik thinks he may have discovered and fixed the culprit, so here’s hoping.

This night also saw us crowning a new Smackdown champion, first-time winner Tim, who triumphed over Mike S., Derik, and Danny on Getaway. The Rookie Challenge ended up being played by the only two certified rookies still on site, Karen and Bryan, and Karen took home the medal. Unfortunately, most of our top rookie qualifiers had already gone home by the time qualifying ended.

Derik and Mike attempt to get revenge on Tim for his Smackdown win, while Danny (mostly not pictured) stays out of the fray.

Our next league night is in just a few short hours and it will be the final night of regular season play. The scores as of the end of league tonight will determine seeding for the final tournament. (Remember that people must have played at least 4 nights to qualify for finals.) Note that the current scores in our league spreadsheet are not quite accurate since four people have to make up Jack-Bot. We will also have a Smackdown game as usual: Attack from Mars. Since a Game of Thrones LE has just been moved into the Avenue (replacing, sniff, Revenge from Mars) we will be playing that along with the four M games: Medieval Madness, Metallica, Monster Bash, and Mustang. There are a few long playing games in there so you might want to bring some coffee. See you soon!

Who is that masked man?! It’s Bryan, fighting Karen for the coveted Rookie Medal!

April 24, 2018
League Night Recap for 3/27/18

Derik and Mike shoot the breeze while Joseph gets to work.

March 27 was the 6th league night of Season 10. We have eight total league nights, followed by a night of finals and another night for our postseason “Super-Ball” tournament. We had a somewhat smaller turnout this week, though our Fearless Leader Emeritus Matt P. was once again in attendance. I tried getting him to bring Aaron H., who was always such a calming influence on me back when I would get too worked up over a bad league night, but Matt said it’s just not going to happen because Aaron has to rise so early for work these days. I just feel sorry for our newer members who have never had the opportunity to enjoy the wisdom and wit of Aaron “HMZ.” We were also joined by Kristen G., a former member from the old-old days who has recently shown up again a couple of times when things aligned with her work schedule. But where was Oscar T., who was so enthusiastic about league the first time I met him that he paid in full for the season prior to ever attending a single session? Not in evidence this time, but we’re all hoping to see him back soon.

Mike playing one of our league games: Ghostdrainers, I mean Ghostbusters.

Our games for the night were Attack from Mars, Demolition Man, Fish Tales, Getaway, and Ghostbusters. That’s right: Demo Man! This was our first time successfully getting through a league night of playing it, due to Derik disabling the unreliable claw. It certainly worked out for me as I had my first-ever billion-plus game on it! And came in second for the night. Damn you, Terry! I shake my fist at you and your billion and a half!

Ghostbusters (or as Tim calls it, Ghostdrainers) had the most variable scores for the night, with people ranging all over the board. Fish Tales was also a highly variable array. I managed to have my biggest Third Ball Rally (apologies to Chesterfield Pinball League for the use of their favorite catch-phrase) ever on FT, going from about 5 million to 150 million on Ball 3, thanks in part to WATERSKIERS!!

Bryan looks to the heavens, asking the pinball gods why they forsook him on his game of Fish Tales.

After league we had the Smackdown playoffs. The game of the night was South Park and the Rookie Challenge game (randomly drawn from those in the vicinity) was on Fish Tales. Danny won his first Smackdown hardware for the main finals and Derik slummed his way into a win in the Rookie division.

Tonight is our next league night, so I hope I’ll see you all in just a few hours at the Avenue! Here are the Smackdown pictures for your viewing pleasure. And don’t forget that you can always view our Google doc of league standings for the latest results. Joseph generally updates it later the same night.

Smackdown finalists Terry, Mike, and Joseph, ganging up on the winner, Danny.

Smackdown Rookie challengers Bryan and Karen beat up on the Rookie winner, Derik “Slummin’” S.

April 10, 2018
League Night Recap for 3/13/18

Our last league night was the first day of the rest of your life… sorry, I mean the first day of the second half of the season. This also made it the last day for new players to join and still have a chance to fulfill the 4-night requirement to play in the final tournament. (Any player with dues paid in full can play in the post-season Zen tournament.) We did have a new player, too, in the form of Oscar, who was so confident about wanting to join us that he paid dues in full well in advance of his first meeting! Who can blame him? We are the best pinball league in town and I won’t apologize for saying so.

Bryan, Derik, and Tim, playing their league games on ToM and TotAN.

We were scheduled to play Demolition Man to make up for not being able to play it during what would have been its turn, but it went down during the first group playing it. I wasn’t told what was wrong with it, just a succinct “it’s broken” from Chris, but I later found out it was the claw having trouble once again. I asked Derik if he can’t just turn the claw off during league play so we can at least play it once, and he has done so. Tonight, then, expect to witness a historic moment as Demo Man (maybe) makes it through a whole league night for the first time in the League’s history. Those who have not played it with the claw disabled before should be advised of how it deals with this: the claw can still be lit in the usual manner, but shooting the ramp will bypass the claw and just come back around, the way it does when the claw is not lit. If the claw is lit, you will be given a claw award, but will not get to choose which one. It will start with Lock Freeze, then ACMAG, and continue in order from there. (I have played in tournaments in which the claw was disabled specifically to stop people from doing the Lock-Freeze-All-Day strategy.)

Chris and Dan playing league games on ToM and TotAN.

We had our first Rookie Challenge, which is a playoff between the top 4 Smackdown qualifiers who are literal rookies (new to the league this season). This did result in the ridiculous situation of seasoned pinballers Karen and Derik being called “Rookies.” The main fight was between Derik and Tyler. Tyler was already approaching 100 million at the end of his first ball on Monster Bash. Derik rose to the challenge and ended up with about 120 million, but that wasn’t enough when Tyler finished with something more like 150. Bryan and Karen were left in the dust to fight it out for third and fourth, respectively. The Rookies ended up playing much longer than the supposed Pros. Despite running up extremely high scores on Mustang in qualifying, including a long game by Danny at the end that had Chris threatening to pull the plug on him, the main Smackdown finalists were not able to repeat the performance in the finals. The scores topped out at 50 million and some were quite a bit lower. In fact, they refused to pose in front of the game lest the scores show. The finalists were Chris, Tim, Danny (who said “hey, I’m not last this time!”), and Mike S, respectively.

The Smackdown finalists: Tim (2nd), Chris (winner), Mike (4th), Danny (3rd).

One side benefit of the Smackdown tournaments is that some of our newer players are getting close to being “rated” by the IFPA, which means that they are considered as part of the calculation of our league’s “value.” Until people play 5 IFPA tournaments or league seasons, they are considered to not exist for purposes of IFPA calculations (you can see this by looking at past Smackdown tournaments and noticing how some of the names are grayed out). Tim is now officially a “rated player” thanks to the Smackdown tournaments, and Tyler and Derik will be coming to it soon.

We’re just about ready to start another league night shortly so I hope to see you all soon. League officially starts at 7:30 but remember to come a bit early so you can have a chance on the Smackdown game (tonight, I’m sorry to say, it’s South Park).

March 27, 2018