Unfortunately, I was not at the league night of July 12 (the Season 7 opener) due to a family vacation. From what I hear from Mike S., it was as hot as the devil’s armpit. Matt tried to mitigate this by having a “downstairs party” consisting of Iron Man, World Cup Soccer, Jack-Bot, Metallica, and Getaway, but it was still miserable, and people spent much of the night standing under the AC vent above the ATM. I have also heard that some new people joined, and Matt expects yet more new people tomorrow. It’s great to see the league growing.
Because I wasn’t there, I have no photos this time, though I should note that photos from the Rocket Robin tournament of 6/28 (which earned $160 for the Capital Area Humane Society) are now available in the photo gallery. I do have the results for the night for your perusal.
We’re now coming up on the second night of this season, tomorrow (today, really) at 7 p.m. Matt will be absent this time, leaving me to run the circus for the first time. We will be playing whichever of the following are currently cooperating: Indiana Jones, Tales of the Arabian Nights, World Cup Soccer, Getaway, Monster Bash, and Addams Family. As usual, the number of games played will be determined by the number of players in attendance.
I know, I know. Your favorite pinblogger has been more than a bit quiet since Season 6 finished. That’s not to say nothing happened. First Sam and Matt won Super-Ball VI, the Zen Tournament. (This makes Sam the other two-time Zen winner, alongside a certain pinblogger.) At the Rocket Robin charity tournament, Chris took home a trophy to make up for the one he wasn’t able to secure at Zen night (despite his recruitment of a ringer in the form of Jason M.). Two new games also went in, a very wonky T3 and a reportedly great-but-pricey Metallica that I haven’t gotten my paws on yet. So things have happened. Just… uh, not here.
And now the biggest thing is about to happen – the start of a new season, lucky Seven! It’s tonight at 7 (or so) at the Avenue. And I won’t be there. You should go anyway. In fact, you should go, and then tell me in lurid detail what happened so I can write a recap. Make stuff up if you want. I won’t know, and there’s precedent.
Mike tries to teach Joseph how to be cool in photographs.
It’s time to start Season 6 – believe it or not! Tonight kicks off the sixth season of the Lansing Pinball League, and our leader Matt has announced the schedule of games:
Iron Man
The Walking Dead
Addams Family
Austin Powers
This list is very tentative and at this time appears likely to change, as TWD is acting a bit wacky and Austin Powers is still suffering from a fluttery flipper, in addition to everything else that’s awful about Austin Powers. One way or another, though, we will be starting the season tonight, so be there at 7 p.m.!
Matt would also like to remind everyone that attendance at a minimum of four meetings is required to play in the playoffs. Makeup games, though permitted if they are done before the next meeting, do not count toward this minimum.
Tomorrow night at 7 p.m. is the final night of Season 8, in which final standings are determined by a double elimination tournament. The top 8 seeds, based on total points for the season, will play in A division, and the rest will play in B. Each match will be best two of three. The higher seed gets first pick: either machine or order of play. The loser of the first game gets next pick: either machine or order of play; the same goes if a third game is necessary. The same machine may not be used more than once per set of 3 games per opponent. You may wait on a machine to use only if the current players are on ball 3, otherwise you must choose an unoccupied machine.
Players must have attended at least four meetings this season to play. Based on a review of the past league results, it looks like the following people are eligible (in order of seeding):
Alex
Chris
Mike S.
Aaron
Matt
Joseph
Sarah
Jake
Sam
Heather
Mike B.
Jimmy
Danny
Terry
Russell
Greg
James
Start deciding your game picks now! Good luck to everyone!
Tomorrow, October 27, will be the eighth meeting of Season 5, and will be the last chance to earn points for seeding for the final tournament. The game lineup for the night is to be determined. It will also be the league costume contest, and there will be trophies given for first, second, and third place costumes, determined by a vote of present league members. Hope to see you all at 7 p.m. at the Avenue!
After three long weeks, it’s finally time for another meeting of the Lansing Pinball League – the seventh of this season. The list of games keeps changing as games keep breaking down. Attack from Mars has a bad flipper. Addams Family is still unpredictable in regard to swamp kickouts. Austin Powers eats quarters. The Simpsons breaks kneecaps. Well, not really, but it’s out of the rotation due to general cruelty. And World Cup Soccer’s ramp diverter is screwed up, causing balls to get rejected intermittently from the ramp. Matt held a poll regarding whether we should go ahead and play WCS as planned and the prevailing opinion was “no.” Although the usual philosophy is “we all play on the same imperfect tables,” many thought that this situation is unfair in a way that other malfunctions aren’t: one player could shoot the ramp fine, then leave the diverter in the “wrong” state for the next player. As things have currently shaken out, we are scheduled to play the following games:
It’s time for meeting #5 of Season 5! Tonight’s games are the following:
The Simpsons Pinball Party: Mike’s favorite!
Austin Powers: everyone’s favorite!
Getaway: I guess no one hates it?
Monster Bash: This was originally going to be an overflow game if more than 16 people showed up, but instead it’s being put into service because Indiana Jones has gone down again.
See you tonight at 7! Don’t expect me to be bright-eyed and bushy tailed, though, because sadly the school year has begun again and I’ve spent all day lecturing people about consequentialism and nonconsequentialism.
In just a few short hours it’s time for pinball again. This will be your humble webmaster’s last league night before work starts up again, so I will be saying a bitter goodbye to arriving early and practicing… not to mention arriving early to play Betrayal at House on the Hill. Enough about me, here are this week’s chosen games (fickle machines depending):
Lord of the Rings
Iron Man
Tales of the Arabian Nights
Junk Yard
I spent some time practicing all of them last night and can report that all seem to be in reasonable working order. Everyone should remember, however, the ease with which Junk Yard will hand out slam tilts.
It’s time to begin another season of the Lansing Pinball League. It’s hard to believe, but this is going to be the fifth season. I joined during the third meeting of the first season, and it hardly seems like so much time could have passed already. The league is still going strong – growing, in fact. Capital City pinball is here to stay!
It’s traditional to play anything that’s new to the Avenue alongside the usual random selections. Iron Man has recently been moved into the Avenue in place of Monster Bash, which although I am sorry to see it go, had not been usable for league recently due to straight-down-the-middle scoop shots. Here are the selections for the night, barring contingencies:
Iron Man. Woe is me. This is the game that got me starting off the last Arcade League playoffs with a leaden thud.
Tales of the Arabian Nights. I hope the sound is working because it honestly throws my game off a bit when it isn’t. This is not a suggestion about how to sabotage me…
Austin Powers. Don’t feed quarters into the left slot. Or was it the right? One of them eats quarters. I’m going with left.
Junk Yard. Go on, Mike S. and Chris… give it a little nudge!
I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at the Avenue tomorrow at 7 p.m. for the grand opening of Season 5.
April 21 was the eighth and final regular season meeting for Season 4. As Addams Family had been repaired, and in keeping with the tradition of always playing games that are new (or in this case, newly returned) to the Avenue, it was selected to be one of the league games for the night. World Cup Soccer did not repeat the mid-game resetting issue that had hit Joseph and me three times in a row during our previous night’s practice, so it made the cut too. Indiana Jones, on the other hand, was now resetting instead (I blame the gremlin), so it got turned off and removed from the night’s lineup. Also in the mix for the night were Getaway and Medieval Madness.
Greg wants you to know he is definitely not up to no good.
We had not played Medieval Madness in a while and I was glad, but nervous. Although it had once been my best game, in recent times I have been in something of a slump. I decided to play a practice game on it. This broke my superstitious rule against playing a game in practice that I’m going to play in league (a good game in practice seems to predict a bad game in league), but I decided it was worth it to check on how the ball was hitting the flippers today. Then my game started going on a while. Then I hit a replay. Then I was on the fifth castle. “Joseph,” I yelled with genuine dismay, “my game is going too well.” Afterward, Mike S. reminded me that I had broken the rule against practicing games before league play. I tried to brush it off with a show of optimism.
Mark surprised me, Matt, and Joseph with some gifts from his pinball memorabilia collection. He had promotional plastics from The Machine: Bride of Pin-Bot and Fish Tales, and gave Matt first choice, with the suggestion that he could use it as a prize for the Zen Tournament. Matt chose Fish Tales, so Mark presented me with the Bride. I was delighted to have it, as I quite like that game, and touched by Mark’s generosity. He was apologetic because he had once offered to give me the plastic Rudy head that he knew he had somewhere, but ultimately was not able to find it. I told him it was just as well, because my brother had given me that very Rudy for Christmas. (It now sits on a shelf in my office, where it provides silent backup and moral support. My officemate has not yet complained of nightmares.)
“Um, Alex, I think Chris was just messing with you when he told you about the secret upper flipper buttons.”
Mark also had a small gift for Joseph: his very own pinball. Unfortunately, he has not figured out any way to add it to The Simpsons to make his own multiball.
Medieval Madness, or as I called it afterward, “Medieval Sadness,” proved to be cruel to a lot of people. Before I stepped up to play, Joseph tried to calm my nerves by pointing out that Chris had managed a score of around 11 million. Lucky Chris. I managed to get a score of about four and a half million – just about exactly a tenth of the score I had done during my practice game. I try not to be so superstitious, but circumstances keep encouraging me like that. I was so dismayed to end my night and my season on such a disappointing game that I almost went home without going to Theio’s, but Joseph convinced me I should go anyway and after a short time of chatting with the rest of the Theio’s regulars (minus Mike S., who had to leave early) I felt back to my old self.
Russell fueling up.
The regular season ended with Alex taking first place back, Chris knocked to second, and Matt P. in third. This is the first time the season has ever finished without Chris in first place, but this is also the first time final rankings will be determined by playoffs. In the first three seasons, the final rankings were based entirely on the number of points earned during the eight regular meetings. The end-of-season “Zen” (split flipper) tournament was just for fun. This time around, prompted by a suggestion from Mike S., we will instead have a double elimination tournament. Seeds will be based on points earned during the regular season; the tie for fifth will be resolved by a one-ball tiebreaker between Joseph and Aaron prior to the start of play. A division will be the top eight seeds, and everyone else will play in B division.
Will Chris manage to battle back to first place, and continue his undefeated reign over the Lansing Pinball League? Or will he have to hand his pinball crown to Alex? There is going to be a crown, right? Does B division get a tiara instead? Find out the answer to these questions and many others on Tuesday at the first ever Lansing Pinball League final tournament! You can view the seeds for the final tournament by checking the most recent results and sorting by overall standing.
