Lansing Pinball League

Tag: finals

  • Deja VUK: Same winners, same runners-up for Season 23

    The playoffs came to a quicker, but still late finale for Season 23 as #1 seed Danny C. defeated #3 seed Tim to defend his LPL championship. Unlike the two-round final match of Season 22, Danny needed only one round to secure the win. Meanwhile, #1 seed Heather defended her Season 22 B division title 2-1 against #3 seed Dan N. Both divisions had the same first and second place finishes as the previous season, but a different third.

    The A division podium pose with their trophies: Joseph, Tim, and Danny C.

    The playoffs got off to a hectic start as TD Heather arrived at the very last minute due to being held up at work in Mt. Pleasant. She apologized for being flustered as she began rattling off the instructions for the tournament. At the end of the preliminaries, assistant TD Joseph sat down by her and declared his intention to forfeit, allegedly to better manage traffic. Heather replied with her suspicion that this was actually intended to allow her to move up into A division as she was just below the cutline, and insisted that as TD she was refusing to allow him to forfeit, although this is not in fact within the scope of her authority as a TD. After some argument, Joseph eventually agreed to play, which was evidently a good choice since he finished third, his highest finish since 2017.

    Taking home hardware in B division are Devon, Heather, and Dan.

    Danny’s journey to the top started with a 2-1 win against #8 seed Peter, the only person besides Tim to give Danny a loss. Danny then swept #5 seed Joseph into the second-chance bracket, followed by his first matchup against Tim, whom he defeated 2-1. He then had his long wait while the second-chance bracket played out.

    After being knocked into the second-chance bracket, Joseph went on to win against #6 seed Derik 2-0 and then to achieve a major upset by defeating #2 seed Brian K, also 2-0. This set up a semi-finals match between Joseph and Tim, which Tim won 2-1.

    Mackenzie plays Godzilla.

    Danny and Tim’s match started with Danny’s choice, King Kong. Danny won, so Tim had next choice and choice Game of Thrones. Tim proceeded to completely light up Game of Thrones, ending ball 1 with a score of about 1.8 billion. Danny had a very disappointing ball 1 and so, in a surprising move, he chose to forfeit the game and move on. The game choice moved to Danny who pulled out his ace, Godzilla. Danny finished close to a billion, and Tim made up a lot of ground on ball 3 but ended up a couple hundred million short, ending the finals at around 12:45 am, to the TD’s relief.

    Dan plays Indiana Jones.

    With A division limited to 8 people the past two seasons, B division has become a larger bracket. This season, 11 people played in the B playoffs, giving several players a bye. Heather started out by sweeping #9 seed Linda into the second-chance bracket and then faced off against Mackenzie. In the second game of the match, Mackenzie chose Godzilla and, as player 1, ended with over 130 million points. Heather was lagging behind severely at that stage and had very little set up, but managed to get Mecha and Godzilla multiball on the last ball. During what seemed like a very good Godzilla multiball, Heather was waiting for the scores to come back up on the screen due to believing herself close to overtaking Mackenzie, when the game started to behave strangely, first killing the music and then several seconds later the flippers. It then totally reset, and did not preserve the game scores. Heather called Joseph (as the backup TD) who referred to a clause in the written rules that state that estimated scores should never be used in case of a catastrophic malfunction, and ruled that both players should completely replay the game. This time Mackenzie finished with over 180 million and Heather was once again in a deep hole. Heather proceeded to start three multiballs during her third ball. The first two were merely adequate but the last one, Bridge Attack MB, was stacked with a mode and that was the push that allowed her to overtake Mackenzie’s score.

    Danny watches Tim play King Kong in the final match.

    Heather then played her old rival Dan N. and won 2-0. In the second-chance bracket, Dan played #2 seed Devon 2-1. It was their second match, since Dan was the one who sent Devon down into the lower bracket. Dan won again 2-1, sending Devon home with the third place trophy.

    In B finals, Heather led by choosing Tron, and it did not work out for her, as she took her first game loss in the tournament. Heather got another choice and went with Scared Stiff, which she won. Choice went to Dan, who picked Foo Fighters. Heather won the game and thus the B division tournament.

    Season 23 of the Lansing Pinball League is now in the books. The post-season split flipper tournament variously known as the Super-Ball or Zen Tournament, a tradition dating back to Season 1, will take place today.

  • Danny is back: Tim takes 2nd for Season 22

    In a late-night two-match finale, number one seed Danny C. wrested back the LPL championship title from number two seed Tim Treichel. Derik took third in A division. There would be no repeat of Double Dan-ger, though, as Heather defeated Dan N. in B division finals, and Bryan got third in the division.

    Derik plays John Wick against Tim in A division semifinals.

    This was our first season using the new rule capping A division at eight players. This was an attempt to avoid having another very late night and having to resume the last round at a later date as in the past. It was not wholly successful, since the tournament still did not wrap up until around 1:30 am and could have gone even longer. By the time things finished, bar staff had turned all of the pinball games off upstairs, leaving the players to turn Foo Fighters back on during the match.

    Danny playing John Wick against Tim in the first of their two-round finals.

    Danny, as the winner-bracket winner, had a very long wait before finals started. There is always a big delay as the second-chance bracket finishes playing out, which is why some leagues have single-game matches in that bracket. The league may be forced to institute that change for next season because the players keep getting better and matches keep taking longer. The tendency for some of the modern games to have long ball times is also a contributing factor. The league director was very worried when one of the games chosen in the second round of the final match was the infamous tournament-wrecker James Bond.

    Third place Derik poses with Tim, who had not yet played the final match.

    In the first round of A division finals, Tim swept Danny, winning on both Danny’s pick (Foo Fighters) and their own (John Wick). Since Tim was in the second-chance bracket, this sent them into a second round. This time Danny picked Bond (to the TD’s silent dismay) and won. Tim made an unexpected choice for the second game, taking Danny a couple of steps over to play Medieval Madness. An old saying about Medieval Madness goes, “Madness for show, castles for go.” In other words, stacking up Madnesses on the saucer is flashy, but the real points in the game are all in knocking castles down. Danny disproved this by playing Madness for show and go. To the delight of onlookers, he lined up four Madnesses on the saucer with Trolls lit. This allowed him to defeat the trolls during multiball, thus bringing Troll Madness into it for the complete set of madnesses. It was the highest-scoring Multiball Madness this reporter had ever seen, totaling about 27 million points. Neither player ended up with a gigantic score, but the Medieval Madness at The Avenue has not been known for huge scores in recent times. Danny took the win and the championship, commenting that he thought Tim was going to take him out.

    Second place Tim and new-old champion Danny.

    Eleven players played in B division, which finished a couple of hours ahead of A. Due to the awkward number of people, there were a lot of byes in the first round. The rule was that only important ties for seed would be broken, which means ties to get into A division or to get a first round bye. Otherwise, ties would be broken automatically according to which player had the highest scoring single night. The only two players who tied this season were Devon and Heather who tied for the top of B division. It turned out that they both got byes, sparing everyone the wait for a tiebreaker game. The automatic tie went in Devon’s favor so he got top seed in B division.

    Dan plays Dungeons and Dragons against Heather in the B division final match.

    The final match in B division was between Heather in the winner bracket and Dan in the second-chance bracket. Heather chose Dungeons and Dragons and rode a good set of multiballs to victory. Dan then chose Deadpool, and neither did all that well, but Heather managed another win to take the B division without having to go into a second round. Despite having expressed disappointment at not making A division this season, she later commented, “It’s better to reign in B than serve in A.”

    The B division podium: Bryan (third), Dan (second), and Heather (first). Photo by Joseph.

    The Tuesday Night Smackdown side tournament was also contested, on The Beatles. For obvious reasons a lot of people did not play in finals, so we had only a two-person B division. The Smackdown champion was Danny and the B division winner was Peter.

    Although Season 22 is officially concluded, the post-season split flipper tournament known as Super-Ball XII will take place tomorrow at 7 pm. The format is the same as for league playoffs, except there will probably only be one division. A Tuesday Night Smackdown tournament will also be open to all. The Best Game, Worst Game, and Most Improved awards will also be given out at the Super-Ball.

  • Finals Recap part 2: Tim’s Long Winter Is Over

    The long-predicted new champion of the Lansing Pinball League finally emerged on December 17 as Tim dethroned season 20 champion Brian K. in a two-round final playoff match. Many in the league had been predicting “the season of Tim” for a few seasons now, but in Season 20 Tim was defeated by Brian K. in a similarly hard-fought match. Both times Tim came up through the second-chance bracket.

    This final round took place immediately before Super-Ball XXI, popularly known as the Zen Tournament. After the dust of the final battle on Godzilla settled, the attendees finished making up their pairings for the tournament. As neither Tim nor Brian had arranged a partner, the tournament director (this reporter) suggested that they should get together and form a champions’ team, and they did. Christy, who as yet had not participated in league activities but had often visited the league, decided to play and paired with Nathan. Past league participant Orneal also stopped by, offering to play only if someone was needed to even up the teams, but we ended up with an even number this time. It was a festive tournament, being so close to the holidays, and Christy also brought candy sleighs and Christmas cards for everyone.

    Ultimately, the Dream Team of Derik and Danny defeated the Champs Team of Tim and Brian in a final match that ended up Black Knight: Sword of Rage. This is the second consecutive win by the Derik-Danny combo.

  • Finals Recap Part 1: Biff Gets Away with B Division

    Derik poses with his third place trophy. He wanted Tim in the photo, but whether Tim will get first or second remains undecided.

    Finals night for Season XXI on December 10 finished with Biff winning the B division championship and A division still left with a final match to go. This season the plan was to break before the final match and run it by appointment, since we would likely be unable to finish the 11-person bracket before closing time, as happened in Season XX. Brian, who progressed through the winner bracket, left before the second-chance bracket finished, leaving Derik and Tim to battle it out in the loser bracket until around midnight. Tim prevailed, leaving Derik to go home with the third-place plaque and setting up a repeat of last season’s Brian-versus-Tim finals. Notably, Danny was unable to attend league finals this season due to being on a cruise. Derik remarked that he was probably playing pinball on the cruise, because there is no way Danny would agree to go on a cruise ship that had no pinball machines.

    Linda plays in the Tuesday Night Smackdown tournament while Brian plays in the main tournament.

    In B division, Peter finished his first season in LPL with a third place plaque and Biff clawed his way up out of the second-chance bracket to challenge Bryan, who had already beaten him once in the winner bracket. In the first round, he defeated Bryan 2-0, so it went into a second round. It was getting late by the end and Biff decided he wanted things to get over with so he chose the league’s closest thing to a coin-flipper, Getaway. This paid off for him as the B division tournament ended with Biff winning the final round 2-1.

    Christy and Dan take a break at the bar.

    Heather also presented the usual end-of-season awards. Two of the three went to league newcomer Nathan, who won Most Improved and Worst Game. The Most Improved award is determined by looking at the growth rate of a player over the season and the likelihood that this statistical growth exceeds what would be expected by chance. Joseph runs the numbers and presents a few likely candidates and then Heather makes a final judgment about the award. The other two finalists for the award this season were Danny and Ethan. Worst Game is given to the player whose score on a game is the furthest below the mean on that game for the night, and Nathan won it for a 164M game on Attack from Mars. I’m not sure if it is unfortunate or fortunate that Nathan was ill and unable to attend finals, because when I read the score Derik made me repeat it and then reacted with considerable astonishment. Everyone agreed that it is actually difficult to get a score that low on Attack from Mars, so it is a kind of achievement.

    The Best Game award is given for the person whose score is the highest above the mean for a night, and this season it went to Brian, who scored 627M on Stranger Things.

    A Tuesday Night Smackdown was also played off on Uncanny X-Men in order to allow people to get the Launch Party badge that was mistakenly not activated during the actual launch party last month. Peter was our Smackdown champion, which also gives him his first official IFPA tournament win. Linda won the B division on Scared Stiff by a very narrow margin.

    Smackdown B division winner Linda and champion Peter.

    Brian and Tim are set to play off the final match of A division tonight at about 5:30 pm, after which we will have our post-season split flipper tournament, Super-Ball XXI at 7 pm.

  • Brian defends league title for Season XX in epic two-day battle

    Season XX ended with an unprecedented two-day league finals as Brian took two long matches to triumph over Tim. The hour grew so late that the bar began closing and the tournament director had to call time and reschedule the last match for another night.

    Season XX champion and second place Tim.

    Some had predicted that this might finally be Tim’s season, but it would be a tough battle for them, as they had already taken a loss going into finals against Brian. This meant that Season XIX champ Brian would only have to win one match to prevail, but Tim would have to win two. Tim had previously defeated Josh 2-1 to come out on top of the second-chance bracket, giving Josh third place.

    Josh, expressing his delight with the third place trophy.

    The first match between Brian and Tim went to three games, eventually giving the victory to Tim and putting them into a second match. As the last game of the match ended it was around 1:50 am and the bar was shutting down, so tournament director Heather (yes, that is me) declared that the last match would have to take place at a time agreed to by both of the other parties.

    B division champion Devon and second place Donny.

    That ended up being two days later on Thursday. The two competitors met in the comparative quiet bar around 7 pm to resume, and after a brief warmup period they resumed the battle. It went to three games again, meaning that they had to play the full six games in order to settle things. Brian came out on top this time, retaining his title as the league champion and giving Tim second place.

    Biff shows his B division third place trophy.

    Meanwhile, back on Tuesday night, the B division also had some hot competition, but as there were only eight players it did not run nearly so late. Biff and Devon went to three games, leading to Devon moving on to finals and Biff taking home the third place trophy. Devon then played two matches against Donny which also went to the full six games, 2-1 for Devon in each match. During their last game, the tournament director checked in to see the status of the match and Devon declared that it was as good as over since he had probably just lost to Donny on Ghostbusters. Instead he rallied, winning Ghostbusters and a very hard-fought B division title.

    The Tuesday Night Smackdown side tournament was also held, despite the usual low participation for finals night. The arena was Foo Fighters and the winner was Ethan, who wrote another IOU on behalf of Heather for a button. Heather, however, declared that this time it was not marked with the phrase “official signature” and was therefore invalid.

    Tonight is Super-Ball XX, the split flipper tournament colloquially known as the Zen Tournament. The format will be the same as for league finals but the tournament director has expressed the hope that it will not need to take two sessions.

  • Brian Triumphs over Danny in Season 19 Finals

    Brian K. is the new Lansing Pinball League champion after dethroning two-season champ Danny in a late-night final bout on December 5. This is Brian’s first time as LPL champion. The tournament went only one round in finals, with Danny fighting from the second-chance bracket. While a two-round final match is more dramatic, it would have been very inconvenient in this case, as it was nearing closing for The Avenue and the staff were already going around shutting off the pinball games. Third place went to Josh.

    Looks like someone made Dan play Turtles. I know that couldn’t have been his pick.

    In the B division bracket, dark horse Biff defeated Grant for the top trophy. Ann-Marie got third. Many league players don’t even know who Biff is, because he makes liberal use of the rule that allows players to start the night late as long as they are present by 10 pm. He often comes in around 9:30 and runs through his games on his own. His final match with Grant was very exciting and after it was over, Biff declared that it was the most fun he had ever had playing pinball.

    Dan and Tim with their Smackdown buttons.

    There was also a very small Tuesday Night Smackdown tournament on The Simpsons Pinball Party, which was not being used in finals due to recent issues with it (though Derik tells me they are now fixed). Tim won the Smackdown and Dan won the Undercard.

    The B division finalists: first place Biff, second place Grant, and third place Ann-Marie.

    There was no chance of a Double Dan-ger finish again this season, as both Dans were in the A bracket this time. Instead, the Double Dan-ger was all mine, since I got knocked from the winner bracket to the second-chance bracket by Dan N., and then knocked out of the tournament by Danny.

    Linda, Grant, Cyndi, Ann-Marie, and Ethan, hanging out after B division finals.

    We also gave out the Best Game, Worst Game, and Most Improved awards for the season. Pat won Best Game for a blowup on Ghostbusters that was way above the night’s mean. After some comparison of candidates based on Joseph’s statistical analysis, the Most Improved award was presented to Dan N. Joseph noted that Brian K. had also been a strong contender for Most Improved, meaning that somehow, as good as he was, he managed to get even better.

    Brian walks away as he wins Game of Thrones against Danny in finals.

    The league’s post-season tournament, Super-Ball XIX, also called the Zen Tournament, is tonight, and the next season will start on January 9.

    Josh and his third place plaque.

    First place Brian and second place Danny.

  • Season of Dan: Clark and Nelson win Season 17

    Season 17 ended on March 14 with Danny Clark winning the double-elimination playoff and Dan Nelson taking home the B division trophy. Ten people qualified to play in the top division and the tournament wrapped up shortly before midnight, helped out by Danny going straight through the winner bracket to victory and sweeping Derik in the final match.

    Danny and Derik, the new champion and second place winner, respectively. Danny looks very happy about his win.

    The league voted to continue using the new rule, adopted last season, that allows each player to choose the same game only once during the entire tournament. This required everyone to choose their games carefully, either using their best games early on to avoid an early knockout or saving them for harder rounds later. In the final match, as the lower seed, Danny ended up not getting any game choices. Derik chose the first game, Tales of the Arabian Nights, and then after a loss, chose Indiana Jones, which Danny also triumphed on.

    In the B division finals, Dan battled out of the loser bracket to a second round against Jake, winning four straight games in the process. The score sheet for their first round must have been filled out by Jake since the winner on The Beatles is listed as “Fucking Dan!” and the winner on Tales of the Arabian Nights is recorded as “FUCKING DAN!”

    Jake finishes his final game and expresses what we all have felt about Getaway at one time or another.
    B division trophy winners Jake (2nd), Dan (1st), and Mark (3rd).

    Third place in the A division went to Tim, and in the B division it went to new player Mark Cutler, taking home hardware in his very first league season. Last season’s champion Mike, hampered by having missed a few qualifying seassions, went in as the #6 seed and finished fourth, defeated by Derik.

    Tim with their 3rd place plaque. I guess they were open to fae pacts but not too open…

    We also gave out a few end-of-season awards (or “awards”), including the Best Game award, given to the player with the score highest above the night’s average on a specific game, which Danny won with a Deadpool score of 617 million. Mark won the Most Improved award, given to the player whose scores showed the strongest upward trend across the season, and Bryan won the Worst Game award for the score furthest below the average for the night. The score that secured Bryan the coveted “LOSER” ribbon was 382 million on Attack from Mars.

    Danny plays the final game of the night on Indiana Jones.

    In order to avoid blocking any games that might be chosen for finals, the consolation tournament was held on The Flip Side, the miniature American Girl pinball machine. I won, not surprising since I’ve had a lot of chances to practice it.

    Linda tries to learn something from watching Tim play The Flip Side.

    That closes the books on Season 17, but we do have our traditional post-season tournament, Super-Ball XVII, the split-flipper tournament. That will be tonight and Prime Time Awards has supplied beautiful (and splendidly cheesy) trophies for us so I am hoping a lot of people turn out for the competition.

  • Mike Threepeats League Championship

    Mike won his third straight league championship in the Season 16 finals on September 13, coming up out of the second-chance swamp to defeat Tim in two consecutive matches. Mike had to defeat Danny in a clash of the Titans that left Danny going home with third place (but not the third-place trophy, which he forgot to take with him). Pat won the B division championship, with Joseph taking second place and Donny third.

    Tim and Mike with their second and first place plaques.

    When people arrived, we set out the trophies from PrimeTime Awards for everyone to see, but I mentioned with mild disappointment that they had given us a different sized Zen trophy than our usual. I hadn’t noticed that when I picked up the trophies. These had no pedestal, just a figure on a base. Josh responded, “Yeah, that’s not going to look as good next to my other trophies.” Whether that proves to be a problem for him remains to be seen.

    Josh playing Tim on The Mandalorian.

    We had the fewest people qualify to play finals in the time that I’ve been running the league, resulting in our smallest A bracket. The seven-person bracket meant that the top seed, Mike, got a first-round bye. I thanked him for making me (the lowly 7 seed) play Danny in the first round, although Joseph pointed out that I wouldn’t want to play Mike in round one either.

    Danny playing me on Indiana Jones.

    This was the first time using a new rule that only allowed each player to choose the same game once in the entire tournament. I was advised to absolutely not pick Godzilla or Rush against Danny, which I certainly wasn’t going to do in any case. I was actually honored that Danny chose Rush against me. If he thought I was a guaranteed cake walk, he wouldn’t have used one of his best games on me. I did beat him on my own choice (Indiana Jones) but I lost the match 1-2. It feels good to even go three against one of the top players.

    Allen in Total Hysteria while playing Ghostbusters against me.

    In the loser bracket, I played Allen, once again losing 1-2, but I did get to watch Allen absolutely destroy Ghostbusters. I was player 2 and hadn’t even finished a mode when Allen was in the high 3 billions. Mike was waiting to play the winner of the match, and when I walked up to play my last ball of Ghostbusters I overheard them talking about Mike’s game choice. I yelled “Hey, I still have a ball!” with mock indignance.

    Derik taking a break while Joseph coins up on Cactus Canyon in the background.

    I periodically checked on Joseph and found him progressing through B division, though he ended up losing the final match to Pat, who went through the winners’ bracket without a defeat.

    Joseph and Pat with the second and first place awards in B division, respectively.
    Donny with the B division third place award.

    In the second and final battle between Mike and Tim, Mike chose Godzilla and won, and then Tim chose Attack from Mars, which Mike also won. I always like seeing league finals go to the last possible game, but this time I was somewhat relieved that it ended. It was after midnight and Loren from the bar had already come over to ask if they could start turning the upstairs games off. I also had to get up early the next morning for work. I presented Tim and Mike with their glass award plaques, and then realized I hadn’t noticed Danny leaving. He had hung around playing a bit after his loss to Mike and I failed to ask him if he was going to stay for winners’ photos. At some point he must have slipped out without saying anything while I was wrapped up in watching the final matches.

    Mike photobombing his own photo.

    There was also a Tuesday Night Smackdown on The Munsters, a game I chose because I thought it was less likely to be something people would want to choose for their league game. Participation was very low, and in the end the only two people who were willing and able to compete in finals were Jason and me. Jason thought I should award myself the Undercard medal since there was no B division and he took a picture of me with it.

    Jason has both his Smackdown medal and an extra hanging decoration that he took from the bar ceiling around his neck.

    Season 16 is at an end, but we have one more event, the traditional post-season “Zen” split flipper tournament, Super-Ball XVI. That is starting in just a couple of hours now, and I am hoping for a good turnout.

    Photo of me by Jason Magnuson.

  • Mike defends his title again in the Season 15 playoffs

    The season 15 final playoffs on March 22 ended with Mike successfully defending his Lansing Pinball League champion title in a final match against Derik. Allen finished third and was gracious enough to wait around until the very late final match played out so we could get a winners’ photo. (A couple of times we have staged two photos so the third place could go home, with the first and second place swapping trophies, but Mike developed a superstition that it was unlucky to touch the first place trophy before the end of the tournament, so that brief custom has been retired.) Allen hadn’t seen one of our special etched glass awards before and was impressed by them. Someone (maybe Derik) told him, “you can take that to Texas with you,” referring to the upcoming Texas Pinball Festival.

    Various players play finals matches in the alcove.

    This was our largest finals ever, with A division comprising 12 people, an expansion made possible by having an unprecedented 24 people play at least half the season. This resulted in a very long tournament, with Mike, the leader of the winner bracket, going out to his car to take a nap while the second-chance bracket dragged on. I began to have very serious concerns that the tournament might not finish before the bar closed at 1 am and I was having to think about what to do if that happened. We would have had to postpone the end of the tournament for a night that Derik and Mike were available.

    Allen, Derik, and Mike, with their third, second, and first place awards, respectively.

    Instead, when the final match came around, Mike did me a solid by picking The Beatles (one of the very few shorter-playing games left in the venue). He won the game and so Derik picked Tales of the Arabian Nights. On Mike’s last ball, he tilted a huge bonus and figured that it had likely cost him the game. It was a very surprising tilt because he hadn’t made any big moves with the game. In the photo, you can see how surprised and offended he was.

    Mike reconsiders his life choices.

    Derik had a good last ball and at a certain point Mike and Joseph began saying that he certainly had won on bonus. I told them not to say anything because it would be “coaching” and we had to wait until he actually passed Mike’s score. Moments later Derik tilted, causing Mike to cry out, “No! Derik!” This ended the night without having to go into a second round. For me this was good news, because another round certainly have resulted in us failing to finish before last call. Mike was rather distraught, saying he didn’t want to win that way, and Derik said he didn’t care: “I’ll sleep like a baby tonight.”

    Derik plays Mike in the first game of the final match.

    I think Joseph would want me to mention that he actually knocked out the number one seed, Josh, in the second chance bracket. Despite this, Joseph finished only a modest fifth. As this was his starting seed, he said that he had made technically the least improvement of anyone.

    Todd poses with his third place B division award.

    Over in B division, things also ran long but not quite as long. After securing third place, Todd had to take his photo and leave, because he was in danger of turning into a pumpkin at that late hour. That left Donny and Bryan to have two final matches, a fitting match-up because Bryan was the number one seed and Donny the number two. Donny came through the second-chance bracket and won the first round, but lost the second, making Bryan the B division champion for Season XV.

    B division champ Bryan and second place Donny.

    We did also have a Tuesday Night Smackdown on Getaway. I put up a great score in my one qualifying attempt, which later led me astray when I decided to pick it during finals and thoroughly faceplanted. Jason won the Smackdown but he had me get in the photo as a fellow finalist so you can see a very rare selfie by me. Unfortunately we had only one person available to play in B division so Jen won by default, playing a solo game of Indiana Jones for the title.

    Jason wanted a group photo but two of the finalists wandered off, so we just got Jason’s winner photo with me trying for a selfie (badly).

    That concludes Season XV, except for Super-Ball XV: The Zen Tournament, happening tonight. That is our traditional post-season, just-for-fun-and-a-corny-trophy split flipper tournament. I have already heard that defending Zen champions Josh and Mike are both out, so we will be crowning a new champion.

    Jen shows off her B division Smackdown medal.

  • Season 14 is over at last: Mike wrests back the title from Danny

    The top three for Season 14: Mike (champion), Danny (2nd), and Derik (3rd).

    The interruption-protracted Season 14 of the Lansing Pinball League finally came to an end on September 28 with an exciting – but mercifully short – final playoff tournament. In the 8-person A division tourney, Danny climbed out of the second-chance swamp where he had been knocked by Mike, to face off against him a second time in the final match. I was in the process of setting up the Tuesday Night Smackdown finals on Guardians of the Galaxy when Mike came over and said I was going to hate him but that he wanted to pick Guardians for the third game of his first match against Danny. I let the main tournament take precedence while the Smackdown finalists waited. Danny needed to win on Guardians in order to move on to a second round against Mike. Mike prevailed, ending the tournament without a second finals round (which to me is always a little disappointing, even though I also needed to go home as I had work early the next day) and ending Danny’s chances of defending his Season 13 championship title.

    The top three in B division: Pat (winner), Donny (2nd), and Bryan (3rd).

    We resumed the Smackdown tournament, observing that this was the first time the Smackdown had finished before the league finals. This was partly due to having to wait for Mike and Danny to play Guardians and partly due to my scheduling Smackdown finals for 11 pm (I think I may have made it 10 pm in past seasons). Nevertheless, finals did get done at least an hour earlier than is typical, and it is almost certainly due in part to my unilateral decision to disallow playing extra balls. In past seasons whenever I took a vote, a narrow majority of players favored continuing to use “Lansing extra ball rules” for finals (which means playing a maximum of one extra ball).

    Derik playing against me on Iron Maiden.

    Meanwhile, the 6-person B division tournament had already ended a while back, with a win for Pat in the final match against Donny. Pat ended up the tippy-top seed in B division after losing a single game tiebreaker on Lord of the Rings (a random choice) to Todd at the beginning of the night. They had ended the regular season with a tie for points – actually a three-way tie that also included Biff, who hasn’t returned to league since the interruption.

    Josh playing me on Batman ’66.

    We also gave out some traditional end-of-season awards: Best Game, Worst Game, and Most Improved. Joseph handles the calculations for those. Best Game indicates the game that was the highest above the mean for the night, Worst Game is the furthest below the mean, and Most Improved is based on an average gain in points per night over the season. Most Improved went to Dan N., Best Game was Joseph on Elvira’s House of Horrors, and Worst Game was Jason on Stranger Things. (I was certain it was going to be my TMNT game in which I hit about two targets in three balls.) The three of them got generic red “WINNER” ribbons, and everyone else (except the top three in each division who got the nice glass trophies) got the famous green “LOSER” ribbons. Matt had a batch of them made years ago when he ran the league and he later found the leftovers and gave them to me. Sadly, there are only a couple left, so unless I manage to get enough surplus league money to get another run of them (unlikely given that I ended this season in the hole after dues and expenses were accounted for) this is the last season everyone will get one.

    4th place was my highest-ever finish in Lansing Pinball League after playing all 14 seasons, so I’m a proud loser!

    After Jason got knocked out of the tournament, I gave him a Loser ribbon and apologized, because I had made him a double loser for the night with his “win” on Worst Game. When he won Tuesday Night Smackdown, he hung the Loser ribbon on one side of his jacket, the Winner ribbon on the other side, and tried to put on the Smackdown medal. That’s when we discovered I had cut the ribbon too short for him to fit over his head.

    Looks like winning Tuesday Night Smackdown has given Jason a big head.

    We had two new players attend, Brian and Michele, though as they could not play in finals they just watched the tournament and played in Tuesday Night Smackdown. Michele put up a quite good qualifying score on Guardians but unfortunately had left before I started the finals for it. She would have qualified for A division. Brian did play in A and took 2nd place in his first Lansing tournament. Brian recently moved to Lansing from Grand Rapids, and has previously played in a season of the Grand Rapids Pinball League. Michele is a longtime pinball player but new to the competitive scene. I also have heard we may get at least one more new player this season. I’m looking forward to getting to know everyone when we start the new season in less than a day.