We will be hosting two launch parties for the new Stern pinball, “Star Wars: Fall of the Empire”! The open launch party will be on November 18 at 6:30 pm and will be free to enter (besides coin drop). The format will be four strikes, head-to-head, with arena priority on Star Wars. The women’s launch party will be on November 8 at 4:30 pm and will cost $1 to enter plus coin drop. The format will be five strikes, head-to-head, with arena priority on Star Wars. Both events will be at The Avenue Cafe in Lansing.
We will have random drawings for prizes including a Star Wars translite, and the winner of each of the tournaments will receive an official Grand Champion plaque. All are welcome, no tournament experience required!
Lansing will be hosting two Uncanny X-Men launch parties, one open to all and the other open to all women. Both will be four-strikes tournaments with arena priority set to Uncanny X-Men, meaning one match each round will be played on the launch party game. The cost to play is $1 and there will be door prizes and the grand champion plaque to give away!
The open launch party will be November 19 at 6:30 pm at The Avenue Cafe in Lansing. The women’s launch party will also be at The Avenue and will be at 4:30 pm on November 9. Hope to see you at one or both!
Our last league night was the fourth of the season, so we finished up our rotation of banks 3 and 4, Corvus (the crow) and Perseus (the guy named Perseus). My notes don’t include mention of any particular shenanigans this week, but that’s probably just because I wasn’t looking. I’m sure they happened; it’s Lansing League, after all.
Curtis checks the score sheet as Tim plays.
The most notable thing about the night is probably that it marked the end of the first half of our season. Brian K. and Tim are tied for the lead, with Danny trailing them by 10 points. Tim also took the night’s lead in both banks 3 and 4. Assuming enough people qualify this season for a 12-person finals, which looks likely, the bubble for making A division is currently around Curtis in 12th and Biff in 13th, with Curtis 7 points ahead of Biff.
The Tuesday Night Smackdown game was on Black Knight: Sword of Raaaaaaage! according to the score sheet Joseph wrote out, and yes, I counted the A’s. I had made cool buttons with colored pencils depicting fierce horses surrounded by flames, and then the button maker misfired on both of them and I was out of time to remake them, so the champs just got flames instead. Sorry about that. That’s the problem with hand making them. Devon won in the main fight and Joseph triumphed in the undercard on Godzilla.
Undercard winner Joseph and Smackdown champ Devon.
The other big recent event was our launch party for the new Jaws LE, which Danny won in against Mike Stewart in a finals that wrapped up closer to midnight than I would have liked. The very warm day had changed to thunderstorms by then, and when Joseph and I opened the back door to leave The Avenue, a dramatic flood of water came cascading in until one of the staff ran over and closed it again. It seems appropriate, even if it meant we had to go out the front door and walk around to the parking lot in the rain.
Mike and Danny at the end of the Jaws launch party.
We’ll be having a launch party for Jaws on February 27 at 7:00 pm. This will be a 4-strikes head-to-head tournament with one match each round played on Jaws. The winner will get a plaque and translite and there will be another random translite giveaway. This tournament is open to everyone! The Lightning Flippers will have their women-only party on 3/9 at 4:30 pm, with the same format. Contact Heather for more information.
The launch party for Godzilla will be taking place at The Avenue Cafe on November 30, 2021, at 7 pm. It will be a three-strikes head-to-head tournament using all the games at the venue, but with Godzilla used for the final match. The winner will receive a Grand Champion plaque and (most likely) a translite. Further details to come.
The Lansing Pinball League will be hosting a launch party for The Mandalorian. Note: the finals have been rescheduled to May 3. This tournament is free except for coin drop and open to all. It will use a “selfie” qualifying method requiring a photo of your scores (but it does not have to include your face). Qualifying score photos may be posted to the Lansing Pinball League Facebook group or emailed to heather@lansingpinleague.com. Qualifying scores should be submitted within 24 hours.
Qualifying will be on a bank of 5 games and use 100,99,98… scoring. The best 3 of each player’s games (max one per game) will count toward their score. The game bank is:
The Mandalorian Star Wars Star Trek Star Trek: The Next Generation Attack from Mars
If any of the above games (except The Mandalorian) has to be removed from the tournament for any reason, the substitute game will be Junk Yard. (Players may record scores on Junk Yard just in case, but they will only count if the game ends up getting used.)
The qualifying will begin immediately and end at 7 pm on May 3. At this time there will be a match play finals using slaughter seeding, three games per round with 4,2,1,0 scoring, two people moving on from each group. Top seed will choose game or position, then 2nd seed, then 3rd seed.
“Significant ties” will be broken by a game of The Flip Side, except for a tie for first place, which will be broken by a game on The Mandalorian. “Insignificant ties” will be broken by highest qualifying score, then second highest qualifying score, and so on.
Our fourth league night of the season, taking us to the halfway point of the regular season and qualifying for finals, was on the bank titled “Girdle of Hippolyta”: Tales of the Arabian Nights, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Addams Family, Lord of the Rings, and Terminator 3. It was an action-packed night because we also had a Tuesday Night Smackdown on Star Trek: The Next Generation and the conclusion of our launch party for Stranger Things.
Josh leaning in for a picture to avoid disrupting a game Bryan was playing on Kiss.
I had an awful night. I don’t know if it’s because of coming right from school without warming up or what, but I have had a pretty weak season and this was more of the same. The less said about my Terminator 3 game the better, especially since the time it would take to say something about it would be longer than my game. But it was an up night for the league in general, specifically for attendance. We were just about to break into groups when a new player, Morgan, timidly stepped forward and asked if it was too late to play. Morgan’s last minute entry put us up to 20 people. I yelled, “Oh no! The dangerous number!” If we ever get more than 20, we will have to make an ad hoc change to our league format. We do have plans for how to deal with it if it happens, but it will be a landmark for the league. We also had a new player named Trevor, who has played a bit in Grand Rapids before. Trevor dropped a score in our just-about-to-close Stranger Things tournament when he arrived, and it got him into the top eight for the ladder tournament!
Pat shows off his excellent-crafted Tuesday Night Smackdown medal.
It wasn’t as long or congested a night as I expected for having our maximum capacity, which is a good thing because afterward we had to run the Stranger Things launch party. We did a ladder of the top eight, eliminating two per round and playing one game with the top four. Josh won the launch party, the first one he’s won. He was very excited to win it and said if he could choose any launch party to win, he would want it to be this one. He took home the plaque and the translite.
The following Sunday we had playoffs for Destrier of Death, the Black Knight tournament. Only Joseph and I showed up for what was supposed to be a four-player finals. We played one game and after my ball 3, I was losing 4 million to 6 million. Joseph decided to play his ball 3 anyway, so I stood there teasing him and posting updates to Facebook about how he was doing victory laps on me. He ended up with about 140 million and was on the verge of starting the Black Knight 2000 mode when he drained.
My B division medal, and my face, especially my glasses. I really love my glasses.
We also had the Tuesday Night Smackdown on Star Trek: The Next Generation at the same time as the Stranger Things launch. The A division ended up having to restart their game because TNG went haywire (so, you know, normal for TNG) and I randomly drew Junk Yard. So this was the first time the Smackdown champion won on something other than the Smackdown game itself. Pat won the medal; I drew a bunny on it to signify “leap day.” To my surprise, I won the B division tournament on Theatre of Magic. It hadn’t treated me well of late, but this time the left loop strategy came through for me.
Then on the off-week Tuesday we had the finals for the Super Tournament season known as Royal Rumble. It was another ladder tournament, but open to all comers, and I managed to climb up through two games to turn my fifth seed into a third place finish. I felt very good about that, especially a big rally on Kiss which ended when someone pointed out that I was already safe. Mike won the final game against Danny by choosing Star Trek: The Next Generation, which Danny was less than thrilled about. He had a few choice words to say about TNG, but I’ll spare Joseph by not writing them here.
Tonight we will be fighting the Stymphalian Birds and playing a Tuesday Night Smackdown on The Simpsons Pinball Party. See you soon!
That’s right, The Beatles are coming to the Avenue Café in Lansing, in the form of the new pinball game. We will be one of the few places in the state to have this game on location! And to celebrate we are taking part in the official Stern launch party. That means PRIZES! TROPHIES! FUN FUN FUN!!!
This will be run as Battle of the Bands II, the sequel to our Iron Maiden Battle of the Bands tournament. The format will be similar. Qualifying will be from 4 pm until 8 pm. The qualifying format will be “best game” on Elvis, AC/DC, Metallica, Iron Maiden and The Beatles, with the player’s best 3 of the 5 counting. Each player will be limited to two attempts on each machine. At 8 pm, the top 8* qualifiers will go on to to a 3-game semifinal match in two groups of 4, and then two from each group will go to finals and play a 3-game final match. The cost of this tournament is $1 per player to register, plus coin drop.
*If there are under 16 eligible players, defined as people who put in at least two qualifying games, this number will change as follows:
14-15 eligible players: 7 go to semifinals (3/4 groups)
12-13 eligible players: 6 go to semifinals (3/3 groups)
10-11 eligible players: 5 go to semifinals (3 play off, 2 get a bye)
8-9 eligible players: no semifinals, 4 go to finals
6-7 eligible players: no semifinals, 3 go to finals
5 or fewer eligible players: no semifinals, 2-player finals, I cry a little
