Lansing Pinball League

Tag: lightning flippers

  • Lansing Lightning Flippers Recap 3/28/26

    We finished up the front half of Season 1 on March 28 with, unfortunately, a much smaller turnout than the previous meet. Linda was living it up on the JoCo Cruise, Mackenzie and Sarah were in California, and we were also missing new players Beatrice and Jen. The up side is that with eight players we were able to have four-player groups for everyone.

    Tim is hoping that witches are eligible to try out for the Monster Bash band.

    Tim made sure it was a pretty long night for their group by completely blowing up multiple games. I know that at least Indiana Jones and Fall of the Empire were huge games and the others must have been good too as Tim took all firsts in their group against Abby, Lexi, and Marnie. Unfortunately, Marnie had been told by her mom that league would only run until about 6:00 and was very much over it by the time her group finished another hour-plus later.

    Abby, Marnie, and Lexi hang out while Tim plays.

    In fact, because we had a (relatively) long league meeting, everyone who was qualified to play in the Lightning Rater finals on The Flip Side decided to go home instead, except for Tim. Because the IFPA doesn’t allow any tournament to be submitted that has no direct-play component, I dropped a quick score on the game and actually was the top qualifier. Tim and I then played a two-player finals which they won.

    In my group, which included Amy, Dana, and Stephanie, I had first choice and chose Attack from Mars. Second game choice went to Amy who chose Stranger Things. I pointed out, “That’s basically the same game!” Amy hadn’t thought of it before but conceded, yeah, the playfield is pretty similar. This gave me the chance to reuse a joke I learned from Tim and call Stranger Things “Vaporwave Attack from Mars.”

    Lexi takes her turn on Monster Bash.

    I’m hoping to see everyone back at our next meeting in a few hours. New players are also still welcome! I have really been loving the format and chill vibe of this league and hope you are (or will) too.

  • Lightning Flippers Recap 3/10/26

    After a promising start to the season, our second meeting upped the ante even further with a record turnout of 14 members. Our newest joiners were Mackenzie’s friend Jen and Lexi’s kids, Marnie and Beatrice. This was Jen’s first pinball competition but she came in second for the night. Congrats! But that means she is going to end up in the top group next time so, uh, good luck with that. Marnie was another high-finishing novice, and currently has edged yours truly out in the league standings by one point.

    I’m going to be honest, I’m not quite sure who this is. Dana, maybe? I’m sure someone will tell me but either way, I love the action hair shot!

    We had our usual fun making the newer players play their side tournament “rater” games on The Flip Side, my American Girl pinball machine. Or maybe I should say letting them play, since some of the players who really don’t need to be rated keep wanting to do it too. I’m a little surprised – I’d let them play it for fun for free, but if they do it for the tournament I gotta collect a buck for the IFPA! Tim won the honors on it this time.

    The gang’s all here: Tim, Christy, Mackenzie, and Stephanie (I’m not sure who is partly visible in plaid).

    Now that we’ve had two meetings we can actually see the “correct” standings for players with their one drop night (instead of everyone being tied for first place). This should make it quicker to get the correct Swiss pairings for the next night, which held things up a little bit at the start of the last tournament. I did a bit of experimenting and I believe it randomly breaks ties when choosing groups for tied players.

    Abby playing The Flip Side – just for fun, I think.

    See you soon for our next meet!

  • Lightning Flippers Recap 2/28/25

    My longtime dream was finally realized: Lansing now has a true women’s league! We previously held monthly women’s tournaments under the Lansing Lightning Flippers name, but they have now been transformed into a semi-monthly league. The league uses match-play scoring instead of best-game scoring (like the open league uses). Everyone plays five games against two or three other people, and is scored 7/5/3/1 or 7/4/1 based on their finishing position on the game. Game choice rotates, but everyone can only choose a given game once in the season (until finals). The lowest night is dropped, and after the end of the sixth qualifying night, there is a finals phase that happens immediately, which will use a ladder format.

    Abby tries to get scared stiff!

    I was worried about whether we would get enough people to avoid having any two-player groups because then we would have to use 7/1 scoring, which is really suboptimal. The only way this would happen would be if we got five total players. Fortunately that was averted and handily: our turnout was a healthy nine! I had figured if we could get at least six people coming regularly the league would be successful. This did mean everyone played in a three-player group which is a bit less fun than four, but I’m sure our population will fluctuate over time, giving people a chance to play in a full group.

    Dana watches Amy play Indiana Jones.

    Some of our usual Flippers players attended, including Tim, Mackenzie, Stephanie, Christy, and Linda. We were also joined by Abby from Grand Rapids and Dana and Amy who played in a previous season of the open league. Lexi had planned to attend but had a family emergency, but she is hoping to attend starting tonight.

    Linda plays The Flip Side. People couldn’t decide whether standing or sitting was worse…

    As a side tournament, we will have something called the Lansing Lightning Rater every night. The purpose of the Lightning Rater tournament is to get people “rated” for IFPA purposes, which requires having played in five prior tournaments. If all our players are rated, it will make the league more valuable to the IFPA. The Lightning Rater tournament is the most minimal possible tournament: one ball qualifying on my American Girl pinball machine “The Flip Side” followed by a single four-player game for the finals. This is intended just for the unrated players but is technically an open tournament so I did not anticipate how many people would want to play. I figured I’d just get the unrated players to do it in our spare moments, but instead most of the rated players attending also participated. Ultimately Amy won, which I think will be her first officially recorded IFPA tournament win. The record of your wins doesn’t distinguish ridiculous from non-ridiculous tournaments, so congratulations!

    Abby and Stephanie have some cooldown time.

    Overall I think the league got off to a great start and it seemed to me that people really enjoyed the match-play format. I have always wanted to run a match-play league but for various reasons I think the open league will be resistant to changing. Starting a second league ex nihilo gave me the canvas I needed to run a league the way I’ve always wanted to – and it seems like I’m not the only one to like the new format. It was a relief to have our first meeting go so well as I had been very worried about it being a flop.

    That’s all for the first night’s report, but we’re about to have our second night very soon! Our league uses Matchplay and so you can view the results for the night and the season there.

  • Lansing Lightning Flippers: a Women’s Tournament Series

    I’m going to be trying something new for the Lansing scene, a women’s tournament series called the Lansing Lightning Flippers. If it is successful it may become a regular monthly tournament. It will be free, novice-friendly, and eligible for women’s ranking points with the IFPA, which can be used to qualify for the women’s state championship (new this year). The format will be four-strikes knockout. Here are some answers to frequently asked questions about women’s tournaments in pinball.

    What’s the point of a women’s tournament? Can’t women compete with men at pinball?

    Yes, of course, women can and do compete successfully with men at pinball. However, the IFPA recognizes that women are underrepresented in pinball. The reasons for this are diverse and complicated, but one likely factor is that pinball has not always been a socially welcoming hobby to women. The purpose of women’s tournaments is to try to encourage greater participation by women and to bring greater attention to women in pinball.

    Can women’s-restricted tournaments be sanctioned by the IFPA? How does that work?

    The IFPA has a separate WPPR (World Pinball Player Ranking) points system for women’s -restricted tournaments. They follow the same rules as other IFPA tournaments except for being restricted to women. Because there is no prize pool, women’s tournaments are not charged the $1 per player sanctioning fee, which is why ours can be free.

    I’m a female player and I see myself listed in two different women’s rankings on the IFPA. What’s up with that?

    The IFPA keeps two rankings for women. One is the women’s open ranking, and one is the women’s restricted ranking. The women’s open ranking uses only points earned by female players in open tournaments. The women’s restricted ranking is based on points earned in women’s restricted tournaments and does not consider open ranking points.

    Which ranking is used to qualify for the women’s state championship?

    Both rankings will be used to determine the qualifiers for the state championship. The higher of the two will be used for each player, based only on tournaments played in 2022. There will be 16 slots for the state championship this year. The odd numbered seeds will be drawn from the women’s open rankings for 2022, and the even numbered seeds will be drawn from the women’s restricted rankings for 2022. Unlike in the open state championship, there is no limit on the number of events that can be used toward someone’s ranking.

    I’m a female player but I don’t see myself in the women’s rankings. Can I fix that?

    Yes! That means that the IFPA does not know you want to be included in the women’s rankings. You can email ifpapinball@gmail.com and tell them you would like to be included in the women’s rankings.

    Can men come to the event?

    Men are welcome and encouraged to come, watch, socialize, and cheer on players.