I can’t possibly boil it down to one awesome Pinburgh story. I’ve been playing pinball seriously for about two years, and soon after I got into it, competing in Pinburgh became a life goal.
I have two kids and finding time is always a struggle, so this was my first large competitive tournament, for all intents and purposes. So, what was awesome about Pinburgh?
Getting there! Flights were cancelled, and even getting to play seemed bleak at one point. Just being there on Thursday, after an overnight drive, was amazing.
Having a good round on day one. I had 4 pretty crummy rounds! But I had one 9-3 round on Thursday, and that gave me confidence that I could play on games and machines I’d never heard of before.
Coming back on Friday, rested, as a participant in E division, and playing my best pinball ever. I put up a perfect round that day, and qualified 10th in E.
Introducing myself to @bkerins and letting him know how I wouldn’t have even been there if not for his efforts to spread the love of pinball to anyone and everyone. Thanks, Bowen, for your gracious response!
Playing even better pinball on Saturday, going 22-2 in my first two finals rounds, and making it to the semi-finals. Scratching and clawing my way back to a three way tie break after taking a 0 and a 1 on my first two games in the semis.
Getting recruited into a game of High Roller Casino as part of the TTI podcaster bloodbath; it was a thrill to play a match with all these folks I listen to regularly!
Even though I didn’t make E finals, I came away from the event more energized than ever about pinball. Pinburgh was an incredible experience, and I want to thank all the folks at the Replay Foundation who put this event on.
Pinball goals for the next year are to do what it takes to become an NEPL hosting site, in order to give back to my local community, to earn my way into playoffs in some of the local tournaments we have in New England, and to qualify in a higher division for Pinburgh next year! (…and ha, I guess that means somehow getting tickets again before they sell out!)
After surviving round 1 of finals, I was disappointed to learn that I would have to face Tommy Skinner (@Tsskinne) in round 2. Tommy is my OG pin pal, we got into the hobby together about 6 years ago. This was both our first times playing in A-Finals, and we would unfortunately be playing to eliminate each other. With Colin and Mahesh also in our group, it felt unlikely that we would both survive. Apparently all those hours we spent playing head to head at the arcade paid off, because we ended up topping the group and advancing to the round of 16. It was just an awesome moment when we realized we had both advanced on.
I was watching via the app as the results got submitted. Was so cool to see you guys advance. Only thing better would’ve been being able to see it on stream.
This year, I think the most awesome, or at least shocking, thing was I was never in a group that needed a ruling or even a tech except the very last game of qualifying when Andy Rosa got a stuck ball in Iron Man.
Other than that, getting a Satellite Champ on Goldeneye for the first time in decades (that thing never works well enough, usually dropping the ball randomly during multiball), starting (though tanking) Eye of Ra, and almost 160K on Hokus Pokus were my highlights. There weren’t many this year ;(
Two of my gameplay highlights came in the same round
Aerosmith - Going into ball 3 with under a million, scores to beat are 22M, 17M and 5M. Scoop is lit for Same Old Song CIU. Soft plunge to live catch, hit scoop, then pick off enough standups to walk off with 30+. Worst to first in about 15 seconds.
Heavy Metal Meltdown - Went into ball 3 with about 2M. 45 minutes later ended with 29M. That left ramp needs some fat post rubbers!
I always knew the team that runs Pinburgh is fantastic - always tried to thank the TD’s, Techs and Staff I encountered when I played in the tournament in the past but until I joined their ranks I had no idea just how amazing the team is. I love being a TD at home but I’m generally all alone. It was a phenomenal experience because of the teamwork and support from the veteran TDs and all the techs.
My experience with players was outstanding also. DQ’s are never fun but all the players I DQ’d were respectful. Sometimes pinball screws you and while I saw a few people fighting their desire to blow up over getting screwed by pinball after a ruling, everyone I encountered seemed to win that battle. Whew!
I was also overwhelmed by the number of thank you’s I received and I hope the others on the team were receiving just as many heart-felt words of appreciation from players!
I had a fantastic weekend, and not just because I made it into A division (though not finals) after setting a goal of either C finals or perhaps slipping into the bottom of B. My opponents were overwhelmingly friendly, everyone I interacted with on an official basis was helpful and courteous and it was flat out fun.
One of my awesome stories actually comes from what started negatively. By Friday night, I was tanking after playing decently in the morning. I was pretty bummed though it was realistic. Anyway, I’d been excited to play the Blackbelt, Harlem, Dialed In bank in the 9th rounf, as I had fallen weirdly in love with blackbelt’s upper right flipper at the show in Tacoma in June. Of course, I largely tanked that round and was really getting in my head. One of my opponents said something that kinda ticked me off and I told him so afterwards. But after the round was done I was able to see that it wasn’t too negative, was not at all about me, but the reason I was bothered was that I was bothered with my own play. I told him so and that i was sorry for getting so mad and he apologized too for his comment. It was a really gratifying, cool-headed resolution to what could have left a really sour taste in my mouth. That he - Chris Tanaka - understood where I was coming from and didn’t take my own (silly) beef personally was classy and really diffused things. That kind of sportsmanship was present throughout the show in everyone of my groips. and tha particular instance was a good example to me to learn it myself. Though I was well out of finals, the good feeling of it helped me relax and just enjoy the last round, and of course I finishes strong there.
A side note: the related nice thing was that in just about every group every player was enthusiastic for the other players who played well and sympathetic to those having bad rounds. People who lost or were upset never seemed upset with their opponents, and they often just seemed wowed by a monster game or inspired to put up an even stronger one. That was a lot of fun!
I had a couple awesome moments that spring to mind from last weekend.
On Junkyard, I made a shot, bricked and drained. Ball save on many machines are off, and after having watched other players do the same thing as me I was expecting the bonus count. As I turn around to walk away I see the “he’s got a ball save but I shouldn’t say anything” look, turned around just in time to flip it and start crane hurry-up multiball. That hurry up multiball really saved me, too. Everyone was having lots of trouble starting the regular one.
On Hurricane, ball 3, player 4 I had to overcome 12 or so million points for first. I start multiball, and try to get the balls under control. I trap one on each flipper, and the third ball finds itself at rest on the inlane/outlane post on the left side. I thought that was hilarious and ask someone to take a picture since my hands were full. I forgot to ask them to send that to me, doh! After that I nudge the ball into the inlane and start crushing the Hurricane ramp until I won.
My personal highlight was finally getting to play TSPP in a Pinburgh bank; we don’t really have any on location around here so I rarely get to play it competitively. Managed to successfully complete Alien Invasion which felt awesome to do on a PAPA machine
Runner up moment was playing Batman (Dark Knight) as my final game on Friday night and blowing it up. Felt like a good omen since I put up a total turd on that game in A finals 2 years ago but alas my finals performance was just about as bad this time around
I mean this in the nicest way possible, but it always boggles me: WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE WHO LIKE AND/OR CAN PLAY TSPP??? I am hard pressed to think of another game I want to like and actually just completely despise. If you were to add the ball times of every game of TSPP I’ve ever played together, it would not break 10 minutes.
I kinda feel the same way. I like it, in that I like the Simpsons and think it’s pretty fun, but I am consistently horrendous on it in competition nad never seem to improve significantly.
It’s a game with a lot of subtleties that require situational decision making so being familiar with all the rules makes a huge difference IMO. My basic advice is to always shoot for the lowest hanging fruit (ie, don’t go out of your way to grind out a specific feature/MB when there’s another one only 2 shots away) and to always re-light mystery when you’re on the upper playfield~
Now that there’s been one on location near me in excellent condition, I’ve started to really enjoy it. For the longest time, it seems like every TSPP I had played on location was cursed with some major problem in one way or another (usually a useless upper right flipper).
After doing horrible on Day 2 and finding out I wasn’t going to qualify- I felt a huge weight off my shoulders in round 10.
I woke up Saturday feeling pretty good. I didn’t feel stressed out about Intergalactic because I knew how hard it would be to qualify. Last year I qualified and finished 20th. This year I was the 6th highest qualifier and finished 11th. I managed to flip the switch from day 2 to day 3 and played really well. Playing on the stage with other great players on Sunday was so much fun.
I like TSPP - for me, the depth of rules gives it a unique feel over a long game, and I love the stacking ability. In the beginning you’re working to stack as many modes as you can with the couple multiballs, but as the game progresses you gain the ability to stack some of the wizard modes together with the regular features or even with other wizard modes. Getting SMS and Scratchy’s Revenge can be incredibly lucrative, but also very hard to set up. So many ways to score once you get past the beginning. Set EB to points and stack Crazy EB with a multiball, etc. Crazy EB, SMS, Alien Invasion are all very unique and fun modes to play. Great use of Simpsons quotes throughout as well.
Loosen, rotate the UR flipper on the UPF about 5 degrees clockwise and re-clamp, will make that couch shot much harder and nerf this strategy. Conversely, if no one is making the lock on your home or location game, rotating that flipper a little counterclockwise puts the sweet spot close to the couch ramp entrance.
Set the garage door to ex hard as well to discourage trips to the UPF.
