All right, just like Matt Damon said about poker in Rounders, pinballers remember with excruciating detail all the bad beats they got over Pinburgh weekend and never the really good things that happened.
So, let’s hear your happy stories, keeping in mind with each happy story there is an unhappy story. Here are some of mine:
Grinding out 2.9M after starting with 500K on ball 3 of Banzai Run. Not enough to catch @FunWithBonus and his 4.9M, but enough for 2nd without a working Cliff Jump that broke during Steve’s ball.
Lucky bonus break on the very last game of qualifying. It didn’t really matter other than which group we wound up in, but I ended up beating Jorian by 4K on a 9M+ game of WOF.
Personal best games that I remember being solidly happy with were 3M+ on Sorceror and 5.5M on HS. Any other game I won was probably more relief than happiness.
A happy memory for someone else, watching Jorian grind out 38M on Radical! was just absolutely nuts. Completely had that game nailed.
It’s funny because Day 1 was one of my best days of pinball ever, but I don’t have a lot of noteworthy games, and the ones I did have I lost.
This was probably most notable in Round 3 I was in a group with @ChrisBasler. I put up 1.1B on Congo playing what was probably the best multiball I’ve ever played on that game, and Chris just came up next ball with 100M and ground out 1.3B to pass me, and I failed to catch him on ball three with Skill Fire two ramps and a scoop away. I didn’t feel bad about it though, I played an amazing game and just got beat. I have no issues with it. We also both rolled Jungle Queen, he just did it about 10K better than I did. It was probably my favorite round. I tied Chris with each of us getting 8 and felt blessed to have done so.
I also … I’m not sure I can say I “enjoyed” it … but it was cool to absolutely destroy Ready Aim Fire! in round 5 with 2.1M. I don’t think anyone else in that round got more than around 500K.
I’m not sure I’ve ever felt better after a day of pinball as I did after that round. Took a 39 into Day 1, completely pumped. The less said about Day 2 the better (although I did enjoy getting a grace period Double Super a couple Lyman Units after the end of Batpod Multiball in Round 9 for one of my only wins of the day. Sorry DNO.)
Watching @sk8ball take apart High Hand and @kdeangelo take apart Doodle Bug might be my favorite games from finals, along with that insane game of Paragon in semis.
I played some of my best games, and most fun pinball, on Spanish EM games Saturday. I could not be beat on Prospector/Butterfly/Faces/Poker Plus. Just destroying those machines. SO GOOD.
One good story of actual tournament play- for some reason, I have always played terribly on Jack*Bot in competition, but this round I finally took a 3 on it. Not a particularly amazing game, but also not the usual 200M no-multiball no-or-one-casino-game I normally put up in tournaments.
Starting Friday morning with the dread of having to play DE Star Trek.
Getting to the bank to find it was actually Riverboat Gambler.
Checking the flippers before plunging to find the left one chattering badly.
Tech says he should be able to fix it quickly.
Tech isn’t able to fix it quickly enough, so we’re being moved!
We get put on Banzai Run and I put up 4M+ for a big win.
I got to Scared Stiff in Round 9. Normally not much of an accomplishment, but it was set up with a pretty tight tilt and lightning flippers.
My plan was to only go for Coffin MB pretty much, but I got Beat the Crate trying to get the Coffin MB Extended award, so I took some potshots at the crate thinking it might get me some useful small points and possibly Crate MB progress. It did and I started Crate MB first. Once that was over, I got the actual Coffin MB Extended award, which also started the MB. Somewhere in there, I finished Leapers and Deadheads (and, of course, Bony Beast).
After ball 1, all I needed was Monster’s Lab to qualify Scared Stiff. I didn’t know how many hits I needed, and I was afraid of wasting 2 balls trying and failing to get to Scared Stiff for low points when I could have just grinded out some more Coffin MBs, with shots I was relatively dialed in on.
Between balls, I asked Eden Stamm and Escher (playing on the same bank but not in my group) for advice and we all eventually agreed that Monster’s Lab and Scared Stiff was the way to go. And I made it happen. Of course, I was able to use the Lab Hits spider award to start my ball. It turned out I only had 6 hits left, which was much lower than I was assuming. I started Scared Stiff on ball 2. I survived the first crate kickout and hit a ramp, then drained.
On ball 3, I got Double Trouble and grinded out right ramps.
It occurred to me after the game that this was the first time I ever played Scared Stiff in a real competition, so I thought that was pretty cool too.
Round 10 - 1M all ball 3 on that brutal Jungle Lord followed by 1.7 billion on Congo. Of course this was after a 1 and 0 on the first two games, so it didn’t really matter - ha.
My round with Eden, Al Thomka and @FunWithBonus had a few memorables, both good and bad: first, Al puts up 36.8K on El Toro - he’s feeling really good, us not so much, since that’s enough to win most games. I put up 39.8K as player 2. Whew! Then Eden grinds it out on ball 3 and goes over 40K as player 3. Poor Steve as player 4 puts up a “normal” score and gets a zero, and Al and I get less than we expected. [Nice playing, Eden!] The second one was our Cyclopes game. Player 1 finishes with 127K; player 2, 119K; player 3, 117K; I’m player 4 [the previous loser chose to go third], starting ball 3 with just under 100K. I make the double skill shot - - lock 10K + center saucer 5K - - then the ball goes bumper-standup-SDTM, finishing with 116K. But hey, it inspired me for game 4: I was in last place on Godzilla with only one multiball lit, then worked my way to New York for the win. Of all the groups I was in, this was the most under-pressure-yet-still-felt-loose; must be the good company.
There is no truth to the rumor that I bribed anyone on the choice of the tiebreaker game.
Playing my first ever game of Mata Hari and scoring 200k for a 3, with the next best score being around 60k.
Overhearing @pinwizj say to Lyman “Okay, so you know Monster Bash?” while describing Austin Powers rules. Sort of taken out of context and possibly misheard, but it put a smile on my face
Completely playing over my head/running hot/luckboxing/etc. my way into the finals of the pre-Pinburgh tournament. IFPA rankings of that final group were 4, 22, 145, and 1516 (me). A huge thanks to everyone who helped out a relative rookie to serious competitive play. Watching Jorian step up as player 1 and put up 500M in STTNG in under 30 seconds was pretty amazing.
Also after going into the day 1 lunch break at 13 wins and pretty much thinking it was over. Made C and had rounds of 11 and 12 in the day 2 morning session (I followed it up with 4 and 5, but this is a thread focusing on the positive, right?)
My first Pinburgh and if anything it surpassed the hype. Everyone involved did an amazing job.
My best playing moment was qualifying on Metallica for IPC. Ball 3 under 2 million to start. 2 Sparkys, 1 grave marker, 2 great slap saves. Finished with 50M, crank it up lit, seek and destroy one hurry up away. One day I will learn to hit the scoop on purpose, but the game felt great. Ended up 3rd best score.
I had a lot of awesome moments that revolved around meeting and talking to people. Chatting with Greg Defeo during my most depressing round was awesome. My final round with @haugstrup and group collectively figuring out faces like we were hanging out in a bar, not like we were in the biggest pinball tournament in the world. Too many awesome people I met this weekend to mention them all.
best moment for me was stepping up to Freak Out at the very start of qualifying in the IPC @ 10:30am and watching my #1 score hold until 1:30am. though it would have felt way better on a DMD and not a luckbox, it was still a small personal victory
"20th Million"
147m ball 1 on the finals Spider-Man
Getting the robot on Genesis without making a ramp
Full Dragon Meltdown
Guessing a Wheel of Fortune puzzle with only one letter
Clearing an Alien Poker rack in 4 shots
10 jackpots in WCS multiball
moving on from playing Old Chicago
scoring all 9 lights and then an orbit on Cosmos
figuring out how to play El Toro
melting a sweet Big Game spinner many times
realizing Solar Fire and Grand Lizard shouldn’t be in the same group
DOODLE BUG
getting a nearly impossible stuck ball on Party Zone
plunging 2/3 skill shots on X’s and O’s
Thanks for the topic Keefer. One of my awesome stories involves you.
Round one, playing with Colin’s 8 year old son Gavin. Gavin has to stand on a stool to see/play the game properly. On AFM he went for a nudge and fell off the stool and it hurt his leg. He had the composure to make a save and trap up while he was falling to his knees. What a save!
Round eight. Playing a game in competition that I own and not having it kick my ass. Instead, I crushed it and put 34M on CV.
Round nine. Watching Joe Schober(who was in a different group but on the same bank) put up 10M on Radical and thinking “Man, I wish I could do that”. Then stepping up myself and putting 13M on it!
Same round. We’re playing WOF and Keefer is playing on the bank next to us. When I see Keefer’s likeness on the DMD I pointed to it with both hands and then looked over at Keith. Later the other players in my group asked me what that was all about, as they had no idea who Keith was or what the hell I was doing. I got to explain to them how the guy who programmed the game you are playing, and who’s bobble head is on the playfield is standing right there! They all appreciated the info and got a big kick out of that.
Round 10. My “Not like this” moment. After a pretty dismal Pinburgh performance and sucking out loud on game 4 of Banzai Run, went into the last ball with like 200k and proceeded to get to 3.8 million and win the game. Nailed the captive ball jackpot on the upper playfield for the first time ever. BTW, thanks Josh for the “Not Like This” moment on Paragon. Priceless!
getting to see my boys enjoy their first Pinburgh, and hearing from others that they enjoyed playing with them or watching them play.
my last round, needing to play well to make A finals: Slick Chick was, well, a slick zero. But then managing a 2nd on Robocop by 40K even after tilting ball 3. And following that up with a ball 3 comeback on Evel Kneival for 1st, and finishing with a 2.5B jump fest winon No Fear.
Come from behind in Round 1 on Joker Poker to deny a medallion to DDR.
Come from behind on F14 by starting 2 Mbs on ball 3 to make up a 2 millions point deficit.
Post Pinburgh game on Checkpoint that set the loop champ score and put me on the board. Have played that game the last two years and haven’t been able to get that stupid ramp dialed in.
