Tag: smackdown

March 8 was the final regular night for Season 15, and so it would determine the final standings for the playoffs on March 22. As a result, the competition was really heated, especially for the top seed positions in A division. I had been allowing anyone who came late to still play their league games provided they arrived before Joseph and I left for the night. This night pushed that to an extreme, as both Mike and Danny were held up at work. Because of the tight competition, neither one was about to give up a night’s points. Mike ended up arriving around 10 pm but Danny didn’t know when he would be able to come. Joseph volunteered to wait as long as it took for Danny to make it, but that ended up being nearly midnight. I actually left as Danny arrived, leaving Joseph in charge, because I had things I had to do before bed and school in the morning. According to Joseph, by the time Danny and thus the league session finished, the bar had turned off most of the pinball machines and they were about to start closing up.

Even if not for that, it would have been a late night. First, league was unusually long for our new format. My group ended up backed up for ages behind Joseph’s group as he played a huge (I mean, not Eric Stone huge, but Lansing huge) game of Batman ’66. In retrospect, I really should have just skipped over them to KISS, but I was held back by knowing that in the past skipping groups caused problems and backups. This was a time I really should have made an exception: we ended up waiting probably 45 minutes. Sorry, Lexi and Nate!

Then there was the Smackdown. We had just gotten a new game, Rush, and so as is my usual habit for new games, I made it the Tuesday Night Smackdown game. When “Rush” was first announced as Stern’s next pinball theme, Joseph joked, “I’m looking forward to the guaranteed 17-minute play time.” When we arrived and set up the Smackdown tournament, we quickly discovered that the joke had come true, it is a really long-playing game. Only four people (playing together) managed to get a qualifying game in before league started. During finals, on Ball 3, Jason (player 2) had played a really huge game, putting him far in the lead, and Brian (player 3) was now up. It had already been going on for ages at this point. Then the game decided to completely crash and reset. I had written down a 4th place already for Player 1 (Joe) as his position was already determined, but no one else’s was, and I had not recorded any scores. As a result I had to rule a complete restart of the game between everyone except Joe. After another long game, Allen emerged the winner.

Around the same time that Rush reset, Mike was playing his league game of Batman ’66, and that also reset. I wondered at first whether the two issues were due to a power fluctuation, but it turned out that Mike’s reset and the Rush reset were about five minutes apart. Fortunately, Joseph was observing Mike’s game and was able to attest the approximate score, and so I ruled that Mike could keep that score and add compensation balls to it.

Finally, sometime after 12:30 am, Danny was finished and Joseph went home. Season 15 was in the books, except for playoffs tonight. It was an eventful season and it should be an exciting finale. I hope to see you there.

Our penultimate meeting of the regular season happened on October 9.  We were all surprised not to see Lupe and Caleb.  Just as league was starting I got a worried message from Lupe: she had misunderstood and thought league night was the following week, and would not be able to make it on short notice.  Fortunately, I was able to reassure her that if she made our final regular meeting she would still qualify to play in finals.  So let this serve as a reminder and warning: you must play at least four meetings in the regular season to qualify for finals.  There is only one meeting left, #8, and it will be tomorrow, October 23.  The meeting after that, November 13, will be finals.  (Note that there is a three week gap between our next meeting and finals.)

The most notable event of our last meeting was not during league but rather the Smackdown finals.  The league had voted, narrowly, to do Attack from Mars rather than Iron Maiden again (I offered the option for the sake of giving more chances at the Stern “Up the Irons” tournament).  Danny blew a raspberry as I announced that we would not be doing Iron Maiden.  It didn’t stop him from trying Attack from Mars, but despite throwing in several extra attempts and paying the tax for that, he still ended up at around a billion, which put him into the Undercard (B) division.  As the main Smackdown tournament proceeded on Attack from Mars, the Undercard played off on Monster Bash.  Thanks mainly to Danny’s 700-plus-million score, the B division – which included Oscar in his first Smackdown appearance – ended up wrapping up at almost exactly the same time as the A division.

And oh, was it ever a Smackdown in the A division.  Chris usually goes home before the Smackdown happens but this time he was determined to win it.  He finished Ball 3 at nearly 10 billion, causing Jason to work very hard on his last ball, stacking up billion after billion himself, but draining at around 8 billion.  It was very exciting for the last few spectators to watch.  (Everyone else had gone home as the hour had gotten exceedingly late.)  I said to Chris, “enjoy your plastic medal and 0.8 WPPRs.”   When I saw him the next week at Grand Rapids Pinball League, I mentioned that I had been wrong; it ended up at over a full point.  He yelled, “YES!  ONE POINT!” with an Oscar-worthy level of enthusiasm.

Tomorrow, as I said, we will have our last regular meeting at 7:30.  I want to remind everyone that on Wednesday we will be having our annual Fear and Trembling charity pinball tournament.  It benefits the Capital Area Humane Society and has a unique (as far as I know) format.  It’s pingolf, but on each hole you choose between two objectives, and have to stick with the one you chose even if you get the other one by accident.  The cost is $10 plus coin drop.  It’s IFPA sanctioned and there will be custom spooky trophies (I’m finishing them up right now and I am very pleased with them).  If you love Halloween or pingolf (and that’s what we logicians call “inclusive or”), you will love this tournament.  Please come if you can.

We had our 7th and penultimate night of the regular season on April 10.  I should have been happy because we were going to play Indiana Jones, which is one of my strengths. Instead, I was filled with trepidation.  The previous day when Joseph and I went over to test the games, I had a single runaway game of Indy that finished just over a billion points.  I predicted this would doom me to a terrible league score since everyone knows a great score in practice presages a bad score in league.  Mike predicted I would have a great but not fantastic game of 300 million.  Who was right?

Sadly, my prediction came true as I had a game in which I started no modes, had no multiballs, and ended with 19 million points.  At least I can say that I finished ahead of Chris T. (and that’s all that counts, right?) since he managed to get a slam tilt – totally unjustly, by the accounts of all witnesses, but still I have to call it a zero.  Wait, a slam tilt at league night?  What is this, 2015?  That wasn’t the only “old school” moment, though, since for the first time (!) this season we had a catastrophic game failure.  Jack-Bot decided to reset on two different groups, resulting in it being removed from league play for the night.  Since only four people had yet to finish playing it when it got pulled, I subsequently decided to just have those four put a score on it sometime on or before next league night (tonight).  Derik thinks he may have discovered and fixed the culprit, so here’s hoping.

This night also saw us crowning a new Smackdown champion, first-time winner Tim, who triumphed over Mike S., Derik, and Danny on Getaway.  The Rookie Challenge ended up being played by the only two certified rookies still on site, Karen and Bryan, and Karen took home the medal.  Unfortunately, most of our top rookie qualifiers had already gone home by the time qualifying ended.

Our next league night is in just a few short hours and it will be the final night of regular season play.  The scores as of the end of league tonight will determine seeding for the final tournament.  (Remember that people must have played at least 4 nights to qualify for finals.)  Note that the current scores in our league spreadsheet are not quite accurate since four people have to make up Jack-Bot.  We will also have a Smackdown game as usual: Attack from Mars.  Since a Game of Thrones LE has just been moved into the Avenue (replacing, sniff, Revenge from Mars) we will be playing that along with the four M games: Medieval Madness, Metallica, Monster Bash, and Mustang.  There are a few long playing games in there so you might want to bring some coffee.  See you soon!

We’re now halfway through the regular season as 2/27 marked our fourth league night of Season 10.  Remember that we voted to allow people to play in the final tournament only if they were present for at least four nights, so this is the last chance to join and play the last four meetings of the season!  Night #4 was our highest attended this season and possibly our highest attended ever, with 19 people including two new players (Kyle and Jules) and the return of previous season player Mike B.  Chris won the night again and continues to lead the league standings.  You can always check our Google doc spreadsheet for the latest full standings.

We had quite a few high scores this night including Chris, Karen, and me (if I say so myself) on Revenge from Mars, and Mike S. and Joseph on The Addams Family.  The latter provoked the Quote of the Night from Mike, who declared, “If this doesn’t win the night I’m quitting the league” after he scored nearly 400 million and got all the way through touring the mansion.  Later in the night, Chris came over to tell Mike he might be quitting the league: “Go look at Joseph’s score and what ball he’s on.”  Of course Mike and I went over to look, and Joseph turned out to be around 250 million on Ball 1 and had not yet toured the mansion.  Later on, when Joseph finished, we went to check his score.  It was 395 million.  Mike said, “What was mine?  392?”  I looked at our score card and said “No… 396!”  Poor Joseph!  But I guess we’ll be stuck with Mike S. for a while longer.

The Smackdown game was Theatre of Magic.  (I hope everyone got plenty of practice in because it’s going to be an actual league game tonight.)  This time Chris managed to keep his eyes open long enough to play in finals and won the coveted plastic medallion, though I should have cut the ribbon longer as it barely fit over his head.  Or maybe that’s really a problem with his ego.  Mike S., in a moment of failed situational awareness, tilted away a bonus that would have gotten him 2nd place, leaving Joseph to take that position instead.  Mike had to console himself with 3rd and a whopping .08 WPPRs from the IFPA.  Derik took 4th.

Since part of the point of the Smackdown tournament is to give newer players a chance to get tournament play experience, I have decided to open up a second division for the Smackdown to give more people a chance at the hardware.  The top four qualifiers who are new to the league this season and did not qualify for the main Smackdown tournament will play off on a second, randomly-chosen game, concurrent to the main Smackdown.  It’s going to be called the Rookie Challenge and comes with its own medal.

Hope to see you all tonight!  League starts at 7:30, but come early if you want a chance to qualify for the Smackdown or the Rookie Challenge.

February 13 was our third league night of the season and my first after returning from my trip.  The main news of the night is that we started our new Tuesday Night Smackdown side tournament series.  Every league night for the rest of the season we will be having a side tournament on one game randomly selected that day.  Players can put in as many qualifying attempts as they want before league starts and after league if their group finishes early.  Once all league members are finished with league play, we have a finals game among the top 4 qualifiers.  The original idea of the Smackdown series comes from Mike S., and I worked out the details.  In addition to being some extra fun for players on league night, it is a way for our newer players to get some tournament experience under their belts.  The winner each night gets an amazing plastic medal and the burden of defending their title as the Smackdown Champion.

Our first Smackdown game was Iron Man, and our first Champion was, uh, Joseph.  (I didn’t know I’d have to take that medal back home… I would have made it nicer!)  Mike came in 2nd, Terry 3rd, and Danny 4th.  It is worth noting that Chris was the top qualifier by a good margin, but he has an early bedtime and had to leave prior to finals, so he had to forfeit his position.  Mike ended up wishing he hadn’t had his second Long Island Iced Tea and I had to turn the timer on someone for the first time in my tournament directing career as he debated whether standing up to play his next ball was a good idea.  He eventually jumped up to play with 30 seconds left on his countdown, and had a solid 2nd place finish.

Chris continues to be at the top of the league after night 3, though Danny won the night.  (You can check the current standings on our spreadsheet here.)  Tonight is night 4, the halfway mark of the season, and we will be playing games starting with R and S, finishing in the early T’s.  We will also be having another Smackdown tournament, this time on Theatre of Magic.  Yes, yes, I know.  “Left loop all day.”  See you soon!