Also a great example of how an amazing programmer can get around expected mechanical deficiencies of a game.
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I will say, I was honestly surprised and taken aback when Red Hot didnāt light up again after freestyle was lit. I thought you could complete the targets again to spot him, but I guess thatās ONLY if the Hill is completely dead.
The characters will light for completion after a set number of failed attempts on Freestyle (I think itās 3). If the game knows Freestyle is dead, it will light for completion immediately.
Sometime recently I finally pulled off the multiball jackpot from the ramp, which you can get by lighting all 12 targets during multiball (a very similar rule as High Speed). Brilliant!
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I lit and collected the jackpot on the ramp at the first or second Pinburgh. A complete flail/fail during multiball, then I noticed the #1 arrow lit at the ramp. It was the only time Iāve ever done that.
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Heavy metal meltdown - ball 1 as player 3, I lock 4 balls up in the ramp, and only need to plunge the 50k saucer to start the Meltdown. It rims out and goes outlane with no opportunity to save it. Player four steps up and plunges the meltdown and throws down 2.7m. UGHHHH!
Ball 2 is a quick drain and ball 3 I am sitting last place (but not by much). I hit a couple shots and pass players 1 and 2, and am down over 2m on player 4. I lock up 4 balls and plunge the saucer and start my meltdown. I come out with a virtual tie. Now I have a decision to make, and since leaving balls locked against player 4 wonāt really hurt me terribly (I have to decide whether to try to pull way ahead or grind a slight lead) I go for another meltdown. Lock up 4 more and plunge the saucer and finish ball 3 with 5.5m for the win! Note - There were inverted cones in front of the captive balls, so anything less than the full 5 ball multiball was extremely risky.
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The magnitude of pinburgh was such that I ran into people sat night that I had no idea had come out to the tournament.
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I didnāt know tmac (who obviously is quite tall) was there until I wound up in a group with him.
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My whole weekend is my awesome pinburgh story. Not really exciting for anybody but me though.
Iām a nobody in competitive pinball. I donāt play tournaments in general, but I really like the pinburgh format. Iāve only done it the last 2 years. Last year, I did better than my average on thursday and ended up in C and finished at the low end of the division.
This year, thanks to a few really shameful mistakes and rounds, I ended up just under the line for D. I started off Friday morning at 18th seed in D and put up a really solid (pathetic) THREE in round one. So I rocketed to the bottom in the 140s. The rest of the day I spent clawing my way up the ranks a few positive points at a time.
In round 5 I was pretty far out of the qualifying cut, but knew if I had a stellar round I just might make it. Game one of round 5 was kiss and I got killed. 0 points. Then this crazy thing happens. The guy who won Kiss puts down zeros for his other three games, signs the sheet and says heās taking off. The guy who started off strongest in our group just straight bailed. Crazy! I managed to win all three of the other games and come out with a 9. This got me in the playoff tie to make finals.
The game I got to play for the playoff was Batman: TDK ā which I had just finished crawling through with a fine toothed comb while I worked on the ColorDMD, so I knew what I should be doing and made it through the playoff to the final.
Coming in to the finals seeded 40th, The bank the bus driver chose for me was Flintstones, Dragon, WCS and Firepower ā all of which Iām pretty familiar with. What luck! Our whole group ended up tied at 6, so we had to play a one game 4 player tie-breaker on gameshow. I JUST BARELY scraped by on that one.
In the next round, the entrant off the bye that was driving chose the same bank ā WOO! Again, I survived. Second byes come in in the next round and the driver in my group choses the same group. Now Iām not only familiar, Iām well warmed up. I survive AGAIN!
Semi-finals I had to play on a new batch and it was ugly, but I managed to stay alive. Last round was on another fresh bank (that the other players had already played) and I couldnāt hold it together, so I finished 4th. But HOT DAMN, I finished 4th! Not bad for a generally casual player.
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Waking up at 7pm on Saturday
I love this story!
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I was in the last 2 rounds with Keefer and got to see that craziness. Jorian grinding out that GC on Radical without any jackpots was amazing. Come to find out thatās one of the first games he learned to play on. Before he started to play ball 1, I left my Coke by the game. He picks it up and hands it to me and says youāre thirsty. He then proceeds to blow it up, lol! Also in that round, I had a major ball 3 comeback on Centaur to almost take first. John Filton was in this group also and I had him last year in the last group too. He advanced last year while I didnāt. Also on that last game of WOF, Filton came up short and didnāt pass me. That resulted in 1 point for me to qualify. Everyone in our group qualified and he did not.
In one of the earlier rounds I stopped Ryan Spindler from playing out of turn on Haunted House in our group. Thus resulting in me taking a zero on that game cause I got the lowest score. I later played him in the finals and was in a tie break with him on FG to get to the 3rd round. All I could think of is how I got screwed so many times at the Gameworks tournaments on FG with that ball 3 lard multiball beer can rule. We both had shitty games on FG and got lard but my game was slightly better to advance.
Best moment came in round 1of Finals. Me and Jerry Benard had both 4 points going into last game. I had just won Batman so I had to go first on High Hand. I didnāt know how to play this game. Went over to Bob Mathews and asked him how to play. Played and did everything he told me to do. I rolled it and put up a 159,000 which was even more than KMEās epic game. Jerry said to me that was the most heās seen anyone score on that game. I proceeded to thank the man upstairs and of course Bob. Went on to play High Hand in the next round and had a non flip, non switch hit first ball. Was a little frustrated after that first ball and had a decent 2nd ball but moved the game a little too much and tilted on my 2nd ball, ouch! Thankfully won that tie break to move on after that.
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Thereās a fb group for that.
Is that first stance called the Manspreader? 
I think theyāre both manspreading, one is just manspreading in a slightly less annoying direction! Itās hard for tall people to get a good angle on the game 
My usual style is closer to the Dunlap Stance. Speaking of: Iād still like a diagram or annotated photo from @heyrocker!
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I had a stuck ball on Countdown at the post-PAPA party a few years ago. I paused to take a picture, of course, and coincidentally my beau texted me āwhere are youā just then, setting up the best response ever:
āPurgatoryā (with the pic)
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Amen.
6ā4" here. Iāve been trying to settle in to a play angle that works for me and doesnāt cramp the heck out of at least one leg or leave me with a horrible hunch forever. I donāt have enough heft/muscle to go the Todd MacCulloch route and just stand up straight with a birds eye view and still be able to nudge.
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Not being superjetlagged on last 2 rounds each day => epic feeling 
Apart from that AC/DC with 2 fast tilts on first balls and panicing into multi on 3rd to save the situation was kinda nice. Not scoring 0 in group with Elwin and Cayle was also an ok situation for a rookie like me.
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I really liked the idea of this thread last year, so as I sit waiting for breakfast I thought I would share my best moments of the rounds.
- Walking up to POTC on ball 1 and nailing the 10M skill shot. I could hear a bunch of discussion behind me when I pulled it off.
- Walking up to POTC on ball 2 and nailing the 10M skill shot.
- Walking up to POTC on ball 3 and resisting the urge to try to show off, and instead walk the plank for victory.
But more than anything, the people were again amazing. Thanks to everyone I have been meeting around at tournament stopping to say hello. And this year more than others, I was amazed at how many people I met in rounds that stopped to chat later in the tournament. And I say way fewer tantrums (really only 1 I witness, but this is a possibility thread), which is way better. People seemed to take the be excellent to each other to heart.
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Coming last at 250K on LOTR on last ball to win the round!
And then being super pissed off with how shite I was at ToM to having an epic last ball - my wife caught my upbeat mood the music is always there by incognito/Jocelyn Brown 
What an epic event!
Upset cause I have the game and know usually how to play it