Yes, there is a doctor in the house! Dr. Tabbak, to be precise.
I decided to run a costume contest for League Night #8 as it was the closest night to Halloween and I love any chance to dress up and get others to dress up. I had hoped to create an entirely new costume, but I got busy and ended up using one I already have, my Stitch kigurumi. I did make new gloves for it by sculpting claws from Sculpey, painting them, and gluing them to a pair of blue gloves. I even wore them during all my league games. Joseph wore a similar costume, technically a red panda kigurumi but he promoted it as a coati because he likes them better. He took the additional step of painting his face with whiskers and an eye-mask, which was adorable, if I do say so myself. I set off to the Avenue with the costume contest trophies in hand, worried that Joseph and I would be the only ones to dress up.
Joseph plays a coati playing pinball.
But no! The league rose to the challenge and quite a few people were in costume. The winner, though, was obvious as soon as everyone saw him: Matt dressed as Chris, with a lab coat, stuffed turtle, and a trophy around his neck on a cord… plus a strategically shaved head. Jake also came as Chris, and had the one thing Matt forgot: socks pulled way up. Chris came as Chris also. (He did get one vote in the contest.)
Also receiving a lot of attention were Summer and Allyson as the twins from the film The Shining. Sadly Danny was not in attendance on this night, so they couldn’t ask him to come play with them.
Other costumes in no particular order included Alex as a golfer (“any golfer you want,” he said), Sarah as Sandy from Grease (specifically the bad-girl version of Sandy from the end), Mike as a mad scientist with a singing Gizmo that lived in his pocket, and Sam as an Indian bridegroom (real wedding attire he bought on a trip to India). Aaron claimed to be MCA and to prove it he held up a picture of MCA next to himself. There was, admittedly, a resemblance.
Sarah and Alex as Sandy (from Grease) and a golfer.
A vote for best costume was open to league members, with each person casting a single vote for best costume. The winner was Matt by a landslide. Second place went to Allyson and Summer, who were given a joint award, and third place went to me.
Oh yes, and there was also a league night, the last of the regular season, so the final results are now available. These results will determine the seeding for the playoffs. For the second season in a row, Alex narrowly edged out Chris for top seed. Chris had been steadily catching up for a few weeks, but despite a last sprint he was only able to narrow the gap to one point.
Here are some more photos of the night! Enjoy! Even more are available in the photo gallery.
Mike as a mad scientist.Three Chrises in a row. Photo by Joseph.Sam the Indian bridegroom.Come play with us!The winners: 2nd place Summer and Allyson, 3rd place Heather, and 1st place Matt. Photo by Joseph.
October 13 was the seventh meeting of eight for the season, leaving players with little time left to improve their seeding for the final playoffs. We were supposed to play Getaway, but Chris managed to break it (or, perhaps I should say, failed to talk it out of breaking) during a practice game, so Indiana Jones got moved into the rotation in its place. Then Todd managed to get a ball wedged irretrievably in Fish Tales. An attempt was made to turn Fish Tales completely on its side to get the ball loose, but Avenue staff put the kibosh on this endeavor. So it was out with FT and in with Monster Bash, joining Tales of the Arabian Nights and Lord of the Rings for the night’s lineup.
Damnit, Chris, we wanted to play that!
This was a night of homecomings, as Greg, Chris, and Todd all returned after absences. On the other hand, Alex and Sarah were both absent as the previous day was Sarah’s 21st birthday and they apparently needed some recovery time. Alex has missed (and made up) so many meetings this season (partly due to organizing tournaments elsewhere) that it led Jake to tell him, “You should try joining the league. It’s fun.”
The league also had a new player: Ally’s friend Summer. Summer had previously been a spectator and naturally anyone who watches the fun we have is going to want to join for real. She played in my group and I did my best to share my strategy tips with her. (“Shoot the castle!”)
Mmmm, fries. It’s all about the Nomad Sauce.
Aaron’s nickname for Joseph is “The Zen Master” due to Joseph’s typically stoic attitude toward pinball, but he risked losing that reputation this time. While my group played Fish Tales, I looked over just in time to see Joseph react to an unfair scoop shot in Monster Bash by running down the row of unoccupied machines and hitting all the lockdown bars like conga drums. Unfortunately, Monster Bash’s fondness for straight-down-the-middle kickouts has only risen since then and I suspect it may end up out of the rotation until that improves.
Someone else didn’t need to play the congas.
Lord of the Rings, according to reports, refused to let Todd destroy the ring. I heard that he made several shots right through it without it registering, so I think that switch might be bad. This wouldn’t be so bad — destroying the ring isn’t even worth that much — except that the mode can’t be timed out, so the only option at that point is to drain.
I had a night consisting of three bad games and one good one (on TotAN). As a result I am surely out of the running for playing in A division once again this season and that ambition will have to resume next season. Well, this way I can avoid peaking too soon.
League results aren’t in yet, presumably due to makeups still being played. (UPDATE: the results are now in, minus makeup games from Alex and Sarah.) I didn’t take quite as many photos as usual, but there are a few more in the gallery. Tomorrow is the last day of the regular season, and after that the total points for each player will be used to seed people for the final tournament. Tomorrow is also the league costume night, so wear something crazy that you don’t mind playing pinball in!
Our last league night was officially held on September 22, but so many came in to pre-play makeup games or just hang around the preceding Friday that it felt like league night was split into two smaller nights. I was one of the people who showed up Friday just to gawk, along with Joseph, of course. Greg, Chris, and Alex all came to play makeup games.
At this point I must pause for somber reflection, as it was at this pre-league-night meeting that I learned the awful news. For the few who may not have already heard, I have to report that the league has sustained a great loss that has left everyone in shock. I believe I speak for the entire league when I say that we are all struggling to come to terms with the absence of such an iconic part of our group. I speak, of course, of the shocking disappearance of Matt’s beard.
Matt? Is that you?What the…? Who is this mysterious, cherub-cheeked newcomer?
Yes, Matt’s been on the job market, and he has knuckled under to the Man. His hair was trimmed and he was clean-shaven and none of us can get over it.
We were supposed to play Indiana Jones, but it had returned to intermittently refusing to give up balls from the idol no matter how many ball searches it went through. Although as far as I know everyone did manage to play through a game of IJ, Matt made everyone doing makeup games play a backup game on Iron Man in case IJ ended up getting taken out of the rotation (which, in fact, it did). We were also supposed to play Austin Powers, but it is back to eating quarters, from the other slot this time. Matt left a note for Pete’s stating that we will be removing IJ and Austin Powers and, I think, also The Simpsons Pinball Party from league rotation for the indefinite future since the first two so often cause problems on league night and the last is just set to be so brutal that no one gets more than a hot minute of playtime. I’m disappointed about IJ because over the last couple of years that game has gone from “guaranteed bad score on league night” to “fairly reliably treats me well” in my books, but I certainly understand Matt’s decision, since the problems with the lock are longstanding and never seem to go away for very long.
Greg plays the “Indiana Jones malfunction” drinking game.
The actual league night on Tuesday felt a bit underpopulated due to the absence of a few regulars, but we were graced with a rare Terry appearance. Along with Aaron and Jake, he was in my group for the night, and they all took turns showing me how to play pinball since I apparently forgot.
Partway through the night, Chris appeared with his kids in tow. Since I was surprised to see him after he had already declared he would be absent, I pointed and said, “What the hell is that?” Jake said, “It’s a child.” I said, “I know that, I mean the other thing.” Although Chris wouldn’t stay for league play, he did stop by to say hello and introduce his son and daughter. He asked how my night was going and I said, “Well, I had a s—-y Fish Tales…” He cut in with, “You had a what Fish Tales?” I started to repeat myself then realized he was looking meaningfully at his son. Oops. “A bad Fish Tales,” is what I surely meant to say all along.
Terry tries to show me how to not suck at FishTales. It didn’t work.
Mike tries to teach Joseph how to be cool in photographs.
At the end of the night some of us did the usual Theio’s visit. Mike S. had to go take care of some stuff back at home, so we weren’t able to hang around playing Betrayal at House on the Hill until late like we sometimes do.
That’s all I have to say about the last league meeting, though I’m sure I’ve forgotten plenty of entertaining antics. I do have some more photos of both the pre-league night and the actual league night, and of course the results of the night (a tie for the Left and Right Trolls in first place!).
September 8th was the fifth meeting of the fifth season of the League, and was the first meeting Chris has missed since he joined during Season 1. In response to this historic non-event, some mysterious prankster posted a Chris-themed motivational poster in the downstairs alcove. “We can’t all be Chris Tabaka,” reads the poster, “but if you can be Chris Tabaka, then by all means, be Chris Tabaka.” The poster was already present when everyone showed up to start practicing, and the accusations soon started to fly. Several people seemed to think I had done it (I didn’t, and didn’t know who did, though I did take the photo used in it). Sarah floated the idea that Chris had done it himself, since he had the opportunity to put it up when he pre-played his “makeup” games the previous evening. Chris, via texts, vociferously denied it, and most people agreed that self-aggrandizement to that degree wasn’t his style. Since everyone accepted Matt’s contention that it was much too nice to be his handiwork, popular suspicion moved to Mike S. and stayed there for quite some time. Mike, for his part, insisted that he would not be able to keep something like that a secret for long. I admitted he had a point, since during the infamous Arcade League disappearing-FunHouse stunt of 2014 he wasn’t even able to go an entire night before confessing.
Ally learns some moves from James.
Chris was the most notable absence of the week; the most notable presence was Allyson, AKA Ally, a newcomer to the league. She was put into a group with me, James, and Sarah, so I had an opportunity to get to know her a bit. She told me that her boyfriend had gotten her interested in pinball and that the two of them had both just been starting to get involved in competitive play. Her boyfriend didn’t come to the league meeting, but I heard from Mike S. that he played in the recent Pinball Pete’s tournament in Ann Arbor and did extremely well, so we’ll have to hope he stays away joins the league! I was on my best behavior and definitely didn’t do any rage tilting this time so I hope Ally had fun and will keep coming.
I confess I didn’t have much reason to rage tilt this time as it was probably the best league night I’ve ever had. I started Monster Bash during my game of… well, you know. I think that’s only the second time I’ve ever done it at all, so having it happen to me during a league game means that the pinball gods Matt often speaks of were smiling on me. I got so over-excited that I jumped up and down and did the Pete Townshend windmill strum during the starting animation. Then I managed to get 4.5 million on The Simpsons Pinball Party thanks to a frankly lucky break starting Itchy & Scratchy. Believe it or not, Matt said that my score was something like the second highest in the league; Aaron almost doubled it, but I saw a lot of scores in the one millions. That really tells you how ludicrously brutal The Avenue’s Simpsons is. Sarah had extremely unfair bad luck as two of her three balls hit the center post upon launch and then drained immediately, resulting in a 10K score on each. There should be at least a brief ball saver on that game to stop the skill shot from being instantly fatal.
Mike B. reflects solemnly on the direction of his life in response to some straight talk from Russell.
Evan returned for his second league night as I thought he might, despite saying he was just going to drop by once. Once you go Lansing, you don’t go… uh, dancing? Nevermind. The point is, our league has a charm all its own and has a way of bringing people back.
After league, several of us went over to Theio’s for the traditional league night breakfast-dinner (brinner?) and then Mike, Joseph, and I went back to the Avenue to play a round of the board game Betrayal at House on the Hill. Over the summer, we had been in the habit of arriving early on league nights to play, but as of this meeting I could no longer do that. Sadly, class has started up again for me, which prevents me from getting to league meetings more than a few minutes early. So we hung around until the Avenue closed playing Betrayal interspersed with pinball.
Sam shows off his pinball muscles.
Chris had a great week (I guess without our hijinks to distract him during his makeup games) and Alex had a not-so-great one, resulting in Chris closing some of the gap between his second place and Alex’s first, but he still has a ways to go. As for me (hey, offer to write a guest update and you can talk about yourself too), I managed to pull 1 point ahead of my frequent league rival Jake (at 9th and 10th) but am still outside the magic number 8 that will get to play in A division.
For more detail, check the full results for this week. I didn’t take so many photos this time (not ones that came out, anyway; my clearest shots were of the bumper pool table), but there are a few more in the gallery for your viewing pleasure.
The league night of 8/25 was the fourth meeting of Season 5, putting us halfway through the season. League Night #4 also had the most players of any meeting yet this season (and, I think, any meeting for quite a while), 19, though some of those people were absent from the actual meeting and did makeup games. That brings us to 21 total players on the roster this season. The games of the week were Lord of the Rings, Iron Man, Tales of the Arabian Nights, and Junk Yard. Fortunately, no one slam tilted Junk Yard during league play this time, though I believe Mike S. did it during a practice game and then somehow acted surprised.
Bumper pool: the love child of pinball and pool.
Some recent rearranging in The Avenue has resulted in the bumper pool table, formerly located on the mezzanine, being moved into the downstairs pinball alcove. Conversations around the bumper pool table usually go something like this: “What’s that?” “It’s called bumper pool.” “Oh. How do you play it?” “I have no idea.” This time, however, Jimmy offered to explain how to play, and started setting up a game to demonstrate. This was quickly quashed by Matt cracking the whip and telling all of us to get to our league games already. (The next time we came to The Avenue, Joseph printed out some instructions he got from the Internet and left them sitting on the bumper pool table. I hope that helped someone.)
Mike G. made a surprise reappearance. Despite being one of the original members of the League and the source of a previous tagline of this blog (“The same thing as in every game: shoot the farthest target and every ramp three times,” the all-purpose strategy advice he once gave me), Mike had not made it to a league meeting in quite some time due to his work schedule, and it was great to see him again. For some reason he seems to have decided not to play any official league games. I think he may have decided he’d started drinking too early, but that doesn’t make sense. After all, it never stopped Aaron.
Mike G., Aaron, and Jimmy gather around the cocktail table – I mean, bumper pool table.
The other surprise appearance of the night was Evan, whom I know from The Arcade League in Brighton and the tournament he ran at Pinball Pete’s in Ann Arbor. This was his first visit to the Lansing Pinball League; he said he was just dropping in for the night. I hope he’ll be open to coming back sometime.
Chris repeats his mantra: “Don’t slam tilt… don’t slam tilt…”
The results for the night included a surprising three-way tie between Chris, Greg, and Mike S., for ninth place. Speaking of Chris, at the halfway mark of the season he is in fourth place after Alex, Mike S., and Joseph. Longtime members of the league may recall the days when Chris was an unstoppable force, nearly always taking an early runaway lead and staying at the top all season. Those days are certainly over as the reigning champ now has serious competition, both from newer members of the league and longtime members who have leveled up their games. It’s certainly going to be exciting to see how the rest of the season plays out. Since we now (as of last season) settle the final rankings with a tournament, the biggest battle in the second half of the season is really going to be who will make the cutoff for A division. If the same rules used last season apply, the top eight players will play in A and everyone else will play in B. Right now, Matt is ranked unusually low at eighth place, but has a healthy lead (17 points) over Jake in ninth.
Mike gives me and my camera the the hairy eyeball. Or, as it’s called in his case, the ginger eyeball.
After league play finished, Jake, Sam, Mike S., Joseph, and I had our after-party at Theio’s. It had been quite some time since our last visit, since at the two previous meetings folks had gone once each to the two Chinese restaurants on the block. If the Theio’s staff were offended by our infidelity, they didn’t show it. After we ate I tried unsuccessfully to convince people to come back to The Avenue for more pinball. I just wasn’t ready to give up my last league night before the start of school. Now that school has begun, I will arrive later (no more pre-league games of Betrayal at House on the Hill with Mike S. and Joseph) and leave tireder. Alas.
The next meeting is coming up very soon (Tuesday). In the meantime, you can have a look at the results from meeting #4 and some more photos.
I was not present for the league meeting of August 11. Instead, I was just wrapping up an amusement park tour of New England, with visits to six parks in Maine, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. At the end of the trip we drove to New Jersey in order to visit a couple of our old familiar haunts before I flew home and Joseph stayed behind for another week to call in at his workplace in Trenton (he has worked from home since moving to Michigan). So on the very evening league night was happening back home in Lansing, we were at the Silverball Museum in Asbury Park, New Jersey. We even played make-believe league games on all but one of the night’s chosen games. (We could not do a dry run on The Walking Dead, as the Silverball Museum doesn’t have that one. In fact, they have only two Stern games: The Simpsons Pinball Party and The Sopranos.)
A street in Belmar, New Jersey. Joseph and I had just eaten dinner near here and were about to travel to Asbury Park to spend the rest of the evening at the Silverball Museum.
So all of that is just an explanation for the lack of a League Night Update for meeting #3. I wasn’t there, and probably shouldn’t do another attempt at writing a recap of a meeting I didn’t attend. It was apparently a rather small crowd. I know that at least Alex, Sarah, Aaron, Joseph, and I were all missing. (Joseph and I did makeup games after Joseph got home.) And the standings show a shakeup in the upper echelon. Chris, though the week’s highest point earner, is still wounded from his slam tilt of Junk Yard during the league season opener, and Alex was set back by the missed week. As a result, Mike S. is number one in the overall standings for the first time ever, with a 13 point lead over Chris. Joseph is currently third, trailing Chris by 10 points. The season isn’t half over yet (though it will be by the end of the night), so there is still a lot of possibility for further position swapping at the top.
The selected games for the second meeting of Season 5 were Fish Tales (new at the Avenue), World Cup Soccer, Medieval Madness, and Getaway. Chris was so excited about the prospect of playing Fish Tales’ video mode that he kept saying “I want to shoot waterskiers!” in, for some reason, a Marvin the Martian voice. I asked him, “Why are you Marvin the Martian?” and he replied, in the same voice, “I don’t know.” If he doesn’t know I certainly don’t. It will have to remain one of the mysteries of League Night #2, alongside why I’ve forgotten how to shoot the castle and whether anyone has ever successfully used the Magna-Save in World Cup Soccer. (Joseph did in fact try to use it, which is more than I have ever done. Aaron once again asserted that he only ever uses it ironically.)
“Come hither, WCS, and I’ll whisper to you just what I think of you.”
Greg was absent this week, due to having moved from the area. Word on the street is that he will be coming to league meetings irregularly from here on out. I ended up running into him when he made up his league games the following week. (No, not literally, even if sabotaging his scores would have helped my awful performance. I swear, I wasn’t even tempted.) Mark, on the other hand, made a reappearance after missing the season opener.
After my rage-tilting during last League Night, I had pledged to show better sportsmanship henceforth. It took exactly one ball of Getaway to break that resolution. My group had begun with Getaway. I stepped up as Player 3 to play my first ball, and had an amazing ball by my standards, including a multiball jackpot and several consecutive upper loops. I thought I was on top of the world. When I drained I turned to my group, about to remark on my good fortune… to be told, “You realize you just played the third ball of a single player game, right?” Apparently, the first player accidentally started a single game, and no one (including the second player, and me) noticed until I was midway through my ball, at which time everyone was afraid to interrupt me to break the news. I was so crushed by this revelation that I shouted “What?” and then turned around and began shaking Getaway. Marrying Joseph certainly did not grant me any share of his stoicism, to my regret.
There’s never a dull moment at the Lansing Pinball League.
The last game of the night for my group was Medieval Madness. We had to wait a while for the prior group to finish. Eventually they were down to their last ball and the final player, Jake, was nowhere to be found. Someone looked around for him and eventually found him hanging around out back with a crowd of folks whose games had finished. It turns out he had pulled a Mike S., thinking his game was over when he actually had a ball left.
Chris had a strong first place finish this week, despite being cheated out of a ball of Fish Tales by a mechanical failure, but he still has a long way to go to make up the ground lost by slam tilting Junk Yard during the first meeting. Aaron and Mike S. tied for second, with Mark at fourth and Alex and Joseph tying for fifth. In the overall season standings, Alex is still on top, but with Mike S. only four points behind. Joseph has narrowly pulled into third, one point ahead of Sarah at fourth. The reigning league champion, Chris, has his work cut out for him at seventh.
Would you buy a used car from these men?
Instead of the traditional Theio’s visit, Jake and Mike S. wanted to go to the Chinese restaurant next door to the Avenue, so that’s where they ended the night, alongside Joseph, Sam, and me. There was some concern expressed that the Theio’s staff might have hurt feelings over our absence, but somehow I suspect they weathered any disappointment with grace.
The complete results from the meeting are up, as are some more photos. Mark your calendars: due to the new semi-monthly format, the next league meeting isn’t until August 11.
July 7 was opening night for Season 5. It’s amazing to think we are starting a fifth season already! In addition to most of the usual suspects, we had a new joiner, the Avenue’s own Jimmy, and the return of one of the original League stalwarts, Amanda, who had temporarily dropped out in favor of volleyball. What’s so great about volleyball, anyway? All you do is hit a ball around and try to stop it from falling. I don’t see the point.
Matt P. introduces Jimmy to the League. “Behold, these are my people!”
Mike S., Joseph, and I arrived early so that we could play a board game, Betrayal at House on the Hill. I had mentioned it to Mike at one point upon hearing that he is a horror movie fan, since the game pays homage to a lot of classic horror movies and novels. We brought it to play at the Arcade in Brighton once and since then Mike’s been hooked on it. Fine by me; I love playing it and don’t get to often as it requires more than just two people to play. The game’s plot is different each time, and this time I ended up being a mad professor who tried to summon an Elder God. Somehow, Joseph and Mike managed to seal the portal I’d opened and win the game. Admittedly none of this has anything to do with pinball, but it was a lot of fun. We got done in time for half an hour or so of warming up.
Our games for the night included the newly-installed Iron Man as well as Austin Powers, Tales of the Arabian Nights, and Junk Yard. Joseph and I helpfully powered TotAN up and down several times until we triumphantly got the sound working again. Later, when Matt P. arrived, he cried out in disappointment upon hearing the sound was back, as it turns out he prefers it silent. Well, tough. It’s not a game of TotAN unless I hear a crazed genie crowing about how she loves lightning.
I think someone noticed my camera. I have no idea how my wedding photographer got so many candids.
My partners for the night were Chris, Amanda, and Jimmy. Chris was having a rather disappointing night by his standards and things weren’t going very well for me either, outside of a decent start on Iron Man. Jimmy was mostly soaking things up on his first night and getting advice about rules, especially from Joseph, who has a deft touch for explaining strategy in a non-overwhelming way to beginners.
Whatever just happened in Greg’s game, it somehow offended Joseph even more than it offended Greg.
Our last game of the night was to be Junk Yard, but we had to wait for Mike S.’s group to finish. Mike S. had disappeared after ball two, leaving his group wondering where he was when it came around to his turn again. It was suggested that he must be in the bathroom, but then someone spotted him upstairs and went to ask him what he was doing. He came down and admitted that he had forgotten he had a ball left. His first two balls went so badly that, thinking his game was over, he went upstairs to sulk. Once he realized he had another ball, he managed to finish very strong after all.
I was keeping score for my group and had already written down the names and player positions for each game, rotating everyone so that people took turns going first. I had Chris down as player two, so when player two was up I said, “It’s you, Chris.” He just stood there. I thought he hadn’t heard me so I said again that it was his turn. He said, “No, I’m going to go upstairs and play Austin Powers.” I looked at him with confusion, unsure how to respond. He said, “That was my Mike Stewart impression.” He then proceeded to slam tilt during his first ball. I didn’t ask whether that was also part of his Mike Stewart impression.
Thanks to Chris’s slam tilt, the rest of us had to start a new game, and Chris, according to league rules, took a 0, which unfortunately got him off to his worst start ever this season. He’s going to really have his work cut out for him catching up with Alex, who had a stellar opening night.
I had three very bad balls of Junk Yard and in the end was so frustrated that I did something I ended up being rather ashamed of, which is that I rage tilted. It started as an attempt to save a ball, but then after it was clear I lost the ball, I just started shaking it out of spite, and when it looked like it wasn’t going to tilt before my bonus counted, I grabbed it and gave it one more hard shake just to make sure I lost my bonus, then said, “There.” It felt good for about 10 seconds to do it, then I realized I had acted like a jerk in front of our new member, Jimmy. I’ve resolved to show better sportsmanship in future. If I can’t play like a professional, I can still act like one!
Beer’s gone, time to leave.
Aaron had to work late and so didn’t arrive until around the time everyone was leaving to go eat at Theio’s. I asked him where he worked (a certain restaurant with a typically older, sedate clientele), and that came around to some discussion of Aaron’s workplace. Jake suggested we should all show up there sometime for carousing. Aaron replied that he doesn’t even think they have shot glasses.
Rather than make up his games that night, Aaron decided to come back and do it another day, and we convinced him to come to Theio’s with us. The discussion at Theio’s ended up being especially raucous and I had to cover my face a few times because I was so embarrassed by the stuff people were coming up with. Sam also told us the story of how his mother got his sister to stop pleading with her to buy Wonder Bread by telling her it was made out of toilet paper. (This story was still so funny to him that he had trouble getting it out for laughing.) So, in other words, it was a good night.
As I write this I am about to get ready to gather up Betrayal and head over to the Avenue to meet Mike S. ahead of league play. I’m sorry my updates have been coming late recently, but my motto for blogging/journaling has always been “better late than never.” As always, I have the results for you and some more photos in the gallery. See you all soon!
Regular readers know I am a strong believer in the adage “better late than never.” So with the new season beginning in just a few hours, what better time to report on May’s post-season Zen (split flipper) tournament? Look, I went to Europe almost right afterward on important philosopher business. And then the rest of June I… er… nevermind, let’s talk about the tournament.
A row of Zen hopefuls.
Super-Ball is a tradition that goes back to the first season of the Lansing Pinball League: a post-season, just-for-fun, tournament in which people are partnered up and each take one flipper. Since attendance was low, Mike S. suggested a round robin tournament instead of the previous double elimination bracket, followed by a final best-of-three playoff between the teams with the best record. Teams were formed by pairing the top seed with the low seed, the second-highest with second-lowest, and so on.
An odd number of participants left us with a problem which Mike S. resolved by suggesting that the lowest seed could be on two teams. The lowest seed, Greg, didn’t want to be on two teams, fearing he would have to stay too late. Matt made an executive decision: since it was Mike’s idea, Mike would be on two teams. Mike S. ended up paired with both me and Mike B.
Zen tournaments are as fun to watch as to play in.
Naturally this ended up with the most ridiculous possible situation. Both Mike S. teams ended up playing each other in the finals. Mike S. promised he would not favor either team but would play his best in each case, and he played the same flipper with each person. As a result the “Mike factor” was equalized as much as possible and it pitted me against Mike B. in a sort of grudge match, since Mike B. was the one to knock me out of the end-of-season playoffs in B division. Mike S. and I ended up narrowly edging out Mike S. and Mike B. to take home the trophies.
Chris calculates what went wrong for his team while others watch Mike B. and Mike S. playing one of the final games.
The trophies this time were topped with pseudo-Grecian athletes holding laurel wreaths. I have named mine “Alcibiades.”
Afterward there was a Theio’s after-party, which Chris failed to show up at despite promising he would get to Theio’s at least once this season. We’ll have to get him in Season 5.
Mike S. and Mike B. challenging Mike S. and me for the trophy.Nothing beats the wonderful feeling of accomplishment you get from ending a ball!
As usual, you can find more photos in the photo gallery. See you next season!
Season 4 came to an exciting conclusion on May 5, as Chris narrowly edged out Alex to continue as the league’s undefeated champion. Aaron, who kept merrily declaring that he did not care how he finished, nevertheless took third.
You’d be bored too if you were playing Austin Powers. Good thing Chris can play it in his sleep.
This was the first time the Lansing Pinball League has determined final standings with a tournament. Previously, ranks were assigned based on total points earned by the end of the regular season. This time, points determined seeding for the playoffs instead. The top 8 seeds played in A division and everyone else in B, with trophies given out for the top three in each division. A similar format to the one used in the Arcade and Marvin’s leagues was used: best two of three, double elimination. The rules for game choice differed a bit from those other leagues. Matt P. decided that the higher seed would choose game or order, the loser of the first game would choose second game or order, and the higher seed would again choose the last game/order if necessary. This resulted in some cases in the same person choosing all three games. There also was no rule against choosing the same game twice.
Russell looks intense as always, but refrains from punching Austin Powers.
This season resulted in the closest race for first that has ever happened in this league. Chris broke his regular season winning streak by finishing second to Alex by a few points, but the new tournament format allowed him to fight his way back to victory. After fighting his way out of the swamp (the second chance bracket), Chris had to battle Alex over and over for the title. At one point, Alex almost but not quite pulled off a third ball miracle against Chris on Lord of the Rings. At the very end, it came down to a deciding game on The Walking Dead. The winner would get first, the loser second. Alex went first and at the end of his Ball 3, he had 80-some million against Chris’s 18. I really thought it was over. Then Chris stepped up and, in the most amazing third ball recovery I have ever seen, came from behind to win. By the time it was clear that he had won and he let it drain, I believe he had crested 100 million. It was an extremely exciting finale to the season. Congratulations to both Alex and Chris for their wins and thanks for putting on such a great show for us spectators.
Yeah, baby! Actually, I take that back. No, baby, no, please make the Austin Powers stop.
B division came to a tense conclusion by a different route. After I got knocked out by Mike “the New Mike” B., letting me take home third, Danny and Mike had to battle it out for first and second. The double elimination bracket resulted in them having to play each other (if I understand things correctly) in three best-of-three rounds, the first one when Danny knocked Mike into the swamp, the second when Mike got back out of the swamp to once again play the undefeated Danny, and the third when Danny, with one loss now to Mike, got to immediately play Mike again for his second chance. The exact same sequence happened to me at Marvin’s League’s B division finals, so I know how crazy it gets. Unfortunately, they somehow lost track of how many games they had played and their recollections did not match. When the disagreement became irresolvable, Matt made a ruling that they were to play one more best-of-three on a single game he would choose at random, and which turned out to be Getaway. Danny won the final match and was crowned the B division champion, with Mike B. taking home second.
Chris with his first place trophy and Alex with his second. Aaron had already gone home.Heather, Mike B., and Danny, the B division third, second, and first place winners, respectively. (Photo by Joseph.)
The new style trophies – classy glass arcs with the league logo inscribed on them – were well received, and since they cost less than the previous seasons’ marble-based silver championship cup, Matt P. was able to get three for each division instead of just the one as in last seasons. And, so no one would feel left out, Matt brought out a box of ribbons for everyone else…
Good job, everyone!
I have the complete results for you too, and lots more photos. See you at the Zen Tourney tonight!
