Lansing Pinball League

Tag: season 22

  • 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.

  • League Night Recap for 3/25/25

    Peter plays his B division Smackdown finals game on Getaway.

    On March 25 we played our sixth league night of Season 22, wrapping up the bank rotation between Bank 5, “Argo Navis,” and Bank 6, “Cetus.” As I arrived, Devon told me he had been waiting for a recap of March Hare Madness and was disappointed not to see one. I actually felt really bad about this. I had just barely had enough time to write the previous league night’s recap but had not been able to pound out the MHM recap yet. I reassured him that I was still planning to write it. When I gave the night’s announcements, I thanked everyone for coming to March Hare Madness and commented that Devon was disappointed I hadn’t written the recap yet but that I hoped to get to it soon. Later, Devon came up to me and gave me a hard time for busting his chops about asking for a recap. I explained that I legitimately had not intended to come off as saying “Well Devon here complained about not getting a recap, what a whiner,” but instead was trying to be apologetic as I legitimately felt bad about it! Anyway, that’s the kind of misunderstanding that happens when your relationship is mostly built on trash talking. More on that later. As of this writing I still have not recapped MHM.

    Devon and Dan watch and wait to play their balls on Pulp Fiction in the Smackdown finals.

    In Bank 6, we had to substitute John Wick for Stranger Things, the latest in an unfortunate series of mid-rotation substitutions we have had to make this season. It’s been unlucky that way and while we have a way to deal with it in the league scoring, it’s not ideal. Bank 5 fortunately stayed intact and we will play both John Wick and Stranger Things in Bank 8 so everyone will still get to play them at least once (fingers crossed).

    Danny took the top score on both Bank 6 and 7, and is also number one in the overall standings. In second place is Tim, and in third is Josh, as we head into the final bank rotation.

    Tim plays Pulp Fiction on stream in the Smackdown finals.

    Our Smackdown game was the new addition Pulp Fiction, and Peter streamed it for us as he has been doing lately. During the finals, Devon commented that it was a “D heavy finals” since Dan, Derik, and Devon were all playing. I said, “Well, that’s only three people” and he said “three out of four!” I gestured at the B division game on Getaway that I was part of and said, “Excuse me, eight.” He replied, “Oh, well, I’m sure your little B division is very fun…” in the most condescending voice he could summon and I replied with something I will not write in this blog as Joseph would disapprove.

    Smackdown undercard winner Peter and champion Derik.

    Tonight we will be starting the final rotation of the season, with games that have either not made it into play yet or that have been switched out for backups earlier in the season. See you all soon!

  • League Night Recap for 3/11/25

    Our last league meeting started the second half of the season and a rotation between banks 5 (Argo Navis, “The Ship Argo”) and 6 (Cetus, “The Sea Monster”). An interesting fact about Argo Navis is that it depicts a ship and yet appears to rotate around the pole backwards. What the ancients made of this, I don’t know. Often such oddities are reflected in their myths about the stars, but I don’t know of any myth that involves the Argo moving in reverse. Maybe Poseidon backhanded the orbit shot.

    Devon plays KISS while my travel mug hangs out in the foreground. Yes, that’s Bam from Animal Crossing.

    Week 5 is officially the last week new players can join except as guest players, although I don’t believe we had any new joiners at the last minute. Erin made it out again, though, which is great. She thinks she might manage to make enough nights this season to play finals, but work makes it very iffy. Mike Stewart has let me know that he will not be playing the rest of the season, unfortunately, due to needing to budget gas money and other stuff competing for his attention. Mike is one of the league long-timers so I’m hoping he’ll be able to rejoin us next season.

    Tim plays the B division Smackdown game on Elvira’s House of Horrors.

    Joseph and I were recently talking about how the scores on Medieval Madness just never seem to have reached the averages players used to get on our previous MM that we had when the league was new. The first half results on MM are consistent with that observation: Dan N. was the only person to score over 15 million with 38.7, and the median was 6.8.

    Devon took this photo of me playing in the Smackdown finals. I like how you can see me in the monitor also.
    Danny plays the decisive Smackdown game on Dungeons & Dragons.

    Our Tuesday Night Smackdown game was on our newest game, Dungeons & Dragons, and the B division played off on Elvira’s House of Horrors. Danny won the A division and Tim was the champion of B.

    Tonight is, of course, our next league night. We’ll finish the bank rotation and play our brand new Pulp Fiction as the Tuesday Night Smackdown game. I hope to see everyone soon!

    Tim and Danny celebrate B and A division wins in the Smackdown, respectively.

  • League Night Recap for 2/25/25

    On our last league night, we finished banks 3 and 4 and the first half of the season. It was our first league night without Ethan, which made it a hard one for many league members. People kept commenting on how quiet the night was.

    Mark and Nathan chatting as I blast them in the face with a flash. Lexi points out that direct flash is very on trend right now, so there.

    We had another technical mishap as the flipper decided to fall off Indiana Jones mid-game. Joseph put up a sign saying “Indy has chosen poorly, go play Monster Bash” which was the chosen backup game. Since half the league had already played Indy, what happens is that we end up with two score tracks: there are two 100s, two 99s, etc., as people are only ranked against people who played the same game they did. It screws up the scoring for the season a bit but it’s better than making everyone replay a game from a past league night.

    Peter and Dar are hard at work mining points, while Dar takes a break.

    With the bank 3/bank 4 rotation now complete, we can say that Tim is the leader on 3 (Corvus) and Josh has bested 4 (Perseus). The overall winner at the end of the first half of the season is Danny C., with Tim one solitary point behind, and Josh 5 points behind Tim in 3rd place. The cutline for A division is below 8th place (a new rule this season), and right now Joseph and Mike are tied for 7th, leaving this reporter trailing 14 points behind them in 9th. I am regretting changing the rules to make finals shorter.

    Tim plays in the A division of the Smackdown while Scott plays in B.

    Our Tuesday Night Smackdown was on Medieval Madness, chosen because it was one of Ethan’s favorite games. Shortly after Ethan died, a sign reading “ERR RIP” went up on Medieval Madness (ERR was Ethan’s high score entry). Jason also has suggested that anyone achieving a high score in March should enter ERR. Jason ended up winning the Smackdown game. Meanwhile, the B division played out on Ghostbusters. This was Scott’s first time playing Smackdown finals. He had actually qualified in the past, but didn’t realize he was supposed to stick around for the playoff at the end of the night. Joseph won the B division game on Ghostbusters.

    Jason and Joseph, the Smackdown winners of the night, gesture at Ethan’s high score initials.

    We’re about to start another league night, which will open the second half of the season and provide the last chance for new players to join this season. After the 5th night, new players can only play as guests. If you’re thinking of joining, right now is the time! See you all soon!

  • League Night Recap for 1/28/25

    We had our second league night of the season on January 28, which finished our bank rotation between the first two banks (known to me and Joseph and probably no one else as “Ophiuchus” and “Lepus”). Due to an issue with Batman ’66, we had to switch in Ghostbusters for a backup game, which I don’t think very many people were excited about. When a game switch happens midway through a rotation, we don’t have the people who played the bank during the previous league night replay, since that would be impractical. Instead, we have two separate rankings on the games, each with their own 100/99/98 scores. This does result in the weirdness that for that given night the number of total points is inflated since there are two 100s, two 99s, etc., but I decided it was the least bad way to deal with it.

    Two Peters for the price of one: now that’s a Value Price!

    The league seems to be growing again as we had more new new players: Darien (Linda’s neighbor, if I’ve got this right), who has played pinball a long time but never in competition; Luc, whom I didn’t get to talk to very much yet; and mother-daughter combo Kim and Payton. Some of the new players were curious about Peter’s streaming rig, which made another appearance tonight, and I was excited to explain to them that people stream pinball on Twitch.

    Devon is presumably giving his usual helpful advice to Joseph, like “you should shoot that ramp that you keep missing” and “maybe don’t drain.”

    Our Tuesday Night Smackdown game was on Godzilla, so Peter set the streaming rig up on that. The B division was on Monster Bash. Smackdown champion Jason asked if he could wear what he called my “bunny hat” for the photo, meaning the hat that we draw numbers out of for bank assignments at the start of each league night, a tradition dating back to the Matt days. I said sure, but it’s a deer hat, to which he responded that he just assumed it would be a bunny since it was mine. I do own multiple bunny hats (as well as a bunny hoodie and a bunny-hooded cape) but, as I explained, the hat was actually an impulse buy at a gas station somewhere up north many years ago. It was either in Grayling or Gaylord, I forget which – somewhere it made sense to be selling a deer camp souvenir. I managed to prevail in the B division on Monster Bash to join my hat in the photo.

    Jason assesses the situation as he steps up to play in Smackdown finals.
    Jason wears my deer hat to celebrate being the Smackdown champion and I give a thumbs up for winning B division.

    After the first two weeks, the standings aren’t meaningful yet (since everyone drops the two lowest nights), but the final scores for the bank rotation are complete, at least. Right now our champ on Bank 1, Ophiuchus (“the Snake Bearer”), is Danny. Second place belongs to Josh and third to Tim. The winner of Bank 2, Lepus (“The Hare”), is also Danny, but this time Tim has second and Derik has third.

    We’re less than a day away from our next league meeting. Peter will surely bring his rig again and we’ll have the usual fun with our Smackdown side tournament, so come early to put some games in! See you all soon!

  • League Night Recap for 1/14/25

    Season 21 got off to an exciting start on January 14. The biggest development was that Peter brought the new streaming rig he had built. That’s right, after 11 years of existence*, LPL has joined the big league! It had its soft launch during the previous week’s Lightning Flippers meet, but we had trouble keeping the Internet connection live that time. This time Peter dropped the quality so we were able to stream all night, dividing time between The Beatles (one of the games in bank Lepus) and Cactus Canyon (the Smackdown game).

    Brian and Nick are hard at work in the pinball mines.

    Another source of excitement was the return of previous league members Mark C., Nick, and Todd, who were absent last season. Now if only Pat would come back, since people keep asking me about him and I don’t know where he disappeared to.

    Friend of the league Christy officially joined the league this season. We also were joined by new player Dar, who I believe is a friend of Nathan.

    Peter adjusts the streaming rig.

    Bank 1 (Ophiuchus) started off the same way as last season, with Black Knight: Sword of Rage having a malfunction (I don’t remember what it was last time, but this time it was the catapult giving unearned multiballs) and being switched out. The backup game chosen from Bank 7 was Venom. Unfortunately this did force a couple of groups to replay their league game, leading to a rather late ending.

    Devon keeping his snarky comments to himself as he watches Jason play in the Smackdown tournament.

    Our Tuesday Night Smackdown game was on Cactus Canyon. This was my first time trying out Matchplay as a way of running the Smackdown tournament, which allows me to more quickly see who is qualified for A and B division. As it happens, it also makes for a better streaming display, so Peter was happy. Our Smackdown winner was Jason, and the B division went to Joseph.

    Jason plays Cactus Canyon on the stream.

    Prior to league I made another attempt to get my button maker to press buttons to give out and it was once again misfiring, which we can’t figure out the source of, since it’s not really something with working parts that can go wrong. Some investigation seems to suggest it might be the printer paper I’m using so I’m going to experiment with that. Joseph and I have both been very busy and much of our pinball time has been devoted to getting ready for and then running the women’s state tournament, so I hope I’ll have more time to work on league stuff now that it’s over. That’s also what has put Joseph behind on getting the league scores entered.

    The Smackdown B division winner Joseph, and champion Jason.

    *To the best of my knowledge, the Lansing Pinball League is the third oldest league in the state, preceded only by the Grand Rapids Pinball League and Marvin’s Pinball League. There are other leagues that pre-date it, but they are no longer in existence.