Lansing Pinball League

Tag: fear and trembling

  • League Night Recap for 10/14/25 (plus: Fear and Trembling!)

    Our last league night was the fifth of the season and we began the Bank 5/Bank 6 rotation. Bank 5 is named for Socrates, who needs no introduction. Bank 6 takes its name from pre-Socratic philosopher Anaximander, who along with Bank 8’s Thales is a member of the Milesian School. Philosophers from this school were particularly concerned with finding the fundamental origin or principle of all reality, which they often identified with one particular “element.” Anaximander had a particularly abstract version of this, identifying the fundamental principle with something called the apeiron, which is translated “boundless” or “indefinite.” I promise that each bank has some reason I connected that philosopher with that bank. Unfortunately, I can’t swear that I remember what my reason was in each case and Anaximander might be one of those cases…

    Peter, Devon, and Curtis watch Joseph and Tim play Smackdown finals games.

    Speaking of banks, we had originally created the banks this season with the idea of maximally spreading out the groups, so they were entirely based on game location. Sadly, the best laid schemes of league directors go oft astray, and our nice, neat banks have been overturned by the plough of a new game. When Star Wars: Fall of the Empire came in, Derik also did a fair bit of rearranging. While I lament our banks being in disarray, I do like the way he has put a lot of our Bally/Williams games together in a murderer’s row.

    Everyone was happy to see a familiar face at league night: Cyndi has returned, maybe just for a night and maybe for the rest of the season. I believe I speak for everyone in the league in hoping for the latter.

    Peter and Tim celebrating a B and A division Smackdown win (respectively).

    It’s our tradition to use any newly arrived game for our Tuesday Night Smackdown side tournament, so this time it was the new Star Wars: Fall of the Empire LE. Tim won the A division, and Peter won the B division on Scared Stiff (appropriate for Halloween season).

    Speaking of spooky, our annual Fear and Trembling Charity Pingolf Tournament happened the following Tuesday. This year, Joseph and I drew the nine games for the course randomly, to stop us from falling back on the games we’ve used in the past. Some of the objectives we chose ended up feeling a lot harder at the tournament than they did when we tested them; it happens pretty much every time. I gave away several prizes including a Stern “High Score” embroidered hat. Derik was very enthusiastic about winning it (he declared it “sick”) and put it on right away, despite the fact that he is usually never seen wearing a hat. I tried pointing out that at a pingolf tournament he really shouldn’t be bragging about getting a high score. I’m not sure if he didn’t get the joke I was making or if he just didn’t find it funny, but either way it fell flat and my repeating it three times somehow did not improve it.

    Tim went into the tournament as the returning champion, and they managed to pull it off again. Tim is now the four time consecutive champion of Fear and Trembling. Pingolf is evidently Tim’s format… though it doesn’t hurt that one of the games on the course was Getaway.

    The 2025 Fear and Trembling Charity Pingolf Tournament, supporting the Capital Area Humane Society. From fourth place to first: Joseph, Danny, Derik, and Tim (four-time champion!).

    Tomorrow at our next league night, we will be reviving the dormant tradition of the LPL Halloween costume contest. Wear your costume to league night and you might win a trophy or the top prize of a translite! Christy is bringing Halloween cookies. See you there!

  • 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!

  • 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.

  • Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom

    So said existentialist Søren Kierkegaard. It’s time for the annual Fear and Trembling Charity Pingolf Tournament, the only pingolf tournament that includes the terror of choice.

    Our annual spooky-season pingolf tournament will take place this year on October 18. The course may be started anytime after 4 pm, and the last entries will be permitted at 7. The early start time is to ensure the tournament can finish at a semi-reasonable time. The fee for the first entry is $10, and subsequent cards can be bought for an additional $5 provided they are started by 7 pm. All proceeds minus IFPA fees go to the Capital Area Humane Society. In addition to trophies for the top four finishers, there will also be random prize drawings.

    This will be a nine-hole, objective-based course. Competitors will choose one of two objectives on each game and have to stick with the one they chose. Players get a stroke for each ball it takes to reach the objective, up to four strokes for not completing the objective at all in three balls. The lowest four scores on the course will move on to a three-game final match (with non-pingolf 4/2/1/0 scoring).

    Please come and, as Kierkegaard said, make your choices “in fear and trembling.”

  • The return of Fear and Trembling

    Quarterly charity tournaments will return to The Avenue Cafe with Fear and Trembling, the annual Halloweelection pingolf tournament, on November 2. The course may be started anytime after 4 pm, and the last entries will be permitted at 7. The early start time is to ensure the tournament can finish at a semi-reasonable time. The fee for the first entry is $10, and subsequent cards can be bought for an additional $5 provided they are started by 7 pm. All proceeds minus IFPA fees go to the Capital Area Humane Society. In addition to trophies for the top four finishers, there will also be random prize drawings.

    This will be a nine-hole, objective-based course. Competitors will choose one of two objectives on each game and have to stick with the one they chose. Players get a stroke for each ball it takes to reach the objective, up to four strokes for not completing the objective at all in three balls. The lowest four scores on the course will move on to a three-game final match (with non-pingolf 4/2/1/0 scoring).

    This is our first charity tournament since the pandemic started. Please come and, as Kierkegaard said, make your choices “in fear and trembling.”

  • Time for Some More ‘Fear and Trembling’

    The annual Fear and Trembling pingolf tournament is returning to the Avenue Cafe in Lansing on November 6. This nine-hole course will have a unique twist, as usual: each hole will offer two objectives and you have to choose in advance which one to swing for. Hit the other one in the process? Tough luck, only the chosen one counts! The holes will all be objective rather than score-based to encourage you to learn new ways to play the games. This is the only tournament in Michigan with this format (and maybe anywhere).

    Fear and Trembling, as usual, will be a charity tournament supporting the Capital Area Humane Society. The cost will be $10 ($9 to the charity, $1 to the IFPA) and players will be responsible for their own coin drop. There will be custom trophies and probably translite giveaways. This will be an official Stern Army Circuit event, too.

    The tournament will open at 4 pm with players allowed to start a scorecard anytime between then and 7 pm. If a player’s first scorecard isn’t going well, they can toss it out and start a new one at a cost of $5 (all going to charity), provided they start by 7.

    For more information and updates, join our Facebook event page!

  • Announcing the Second Annual Fear and Trembling Tournament

    The Fear and Trembling Pingolf Tournament will be returning to The Avenue on October 25 beginning at 6 p.m.  As with last year, the theme will be “hard choices,” but this year there will be a new format and IFPA endorsement for WPPR points.  The registration fee is $10 (all of which goes directly to the charity) and players are additionally responsible for coin drop on the games.

    Each game on the course will have a choice between two objectives.  The goal is to try to meet your objective in 1 ball for a hole in one – or in as few balls as possible.  The catch is that you must declare your choice of objective before starting.  If you call one objective and accidentally meet the other sooner, tough luck!

    Four finalists will go to a three-game final series, and all four finalists will receive a Halloween-themed trophy.

    Stay tuned for more details as we get closer to the event!  If you’re on Facebook, join our event page.

  • Fear and Trembling: The Post-Election Hangover Tournament

    Fear and Trembling posterI’m proud to announce the debut of a new pinball tournament: Fear and Trembling, to be held November 9 at 6 pm (though late starts will be permitted) at The Avenue Café in Lansing (2021 E. Michigan Avenue).  Why “Fear and Trembling”?  Is it because I was going to hold a Halloween tournament and then realized I was too busy in October?  No!  It’s named for the classic existentialist work Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard.  The nature of the human condition is that we are terrifyingly free, faced with the inescapable responsibility of making choices.  Thus I present to you the first existentialist pinball tournament in which you must choose your path… in fear and trembling.

    Participants will play a bank of games and will be scored, “pingolf” style, according to how quickly they reach the target score.  There is, of course, a catch.  Players will choose from a list of special conditions, and will not be able to choose the same one more than once.  The conditions will include playing with a blinder over the flippers, playing one-handed, using sticks to press the flipper buttons, playing cross-handed, and others to be announced.  You get to choose, but all of the choices are bad.  Hey, sometimes life is like that.

    The entry fee will be $5, but players will also be responsible for coin drop on the games.  Trophies for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd will be awarded, but this tournament (for obvious reasons) will not be eligible for IFPA/WPPR points.  All entry fees will be donated to the Capital Area Humane Society.

    Because of the unusual format, this really could be anyone’s game.  If you’ve considered coming to a tournament but felt a little intimidated, this would be a great icebreaker for you.  The pro players are going to be just as mixed up as the novices, maybe even worse!  With no ranking points or prize money at stake it will be very low pressure and just for fun.

    For updates, please join our Facebook event!