Every ball of Blackwater 100 should start with the player plunging 3 balls. There is then a “skill release” by hitting a second flipper button at the correct time that can earn a non trivial number of points. The game then starts in multiball.
A player in my group stepped up to his ball 2 and plunged his first ball. The ball immediately entered the playfield and upon draining, his turn ended. The player did play the ball. The player had no opportunity to plunge the 2nd or 3rd balls, nor to attempt the skill release.
We called a TD. Ruling was loss of multiball is a minor malfunction, play on. On a normal game, I understand why this is the case. However, on an earlier round player 4 was not given a chance to choose a house in GOT. Bowen ruled that the player was denied a major feature of the game and therefore would be allowed to play a new game separate from players 1-3. I understand that ruling.
It seems to me that the player in Blackwater 100 was denied a major game feature. Even if you disregard the denial of the skill release, the player should have been able to plunge a 2nd and 3rd ball onto the playfield. He was not given the opportunity to so.
Afterwards the player asked Bowen if the ruling would have been different if he trapped up and called for a TD instead of playing the single ball. He was told that the ruling would have been the same.
The obvious difference, to me, is that in Blackwater you can play the multi ball on the next ball, but in GoT you only get one chance to pick your house. Plus the rules do explicitly call out “loss of multiball”, which is what this is.
This is exactly why the decision was made. You don’t lose anything game-changing due to the malfunction, unlike the GoT/Stern SW “locked in” malfunctions.
Song choice in ACDC is a minor malfunction since it is not permanent.
That was my son who was denied house selection on GOT and got to play his own separate game. His very first pinburgh and had never played GOT before. In fact, he spent quite a while talking to a couple of our friends on how to play it… which house to select and what to do when/if this game came up. It seemed to have paid off, as he got 3 pts on that pin.
Interesting part is that since he had never been on this pin, he said the lightning flippers didn’t seem to affect him as much as the other players. But I’m guessing that being able to play a full game alone really goes a long way toward helping you get a feel for the game. Seems to be a bit of an advantage, but unfortunately really can’t see any other way around it when you have a major malfunction like that.
The ruling would be similar for games where timed mode selections/features available at Ball 1 are present, such as Motordome.
Really have to give props to @ScoutPilgrim for bringing situations like those up to the TDs before Pinburgh, as I likely would have made the incorrect rulings without that little bit of knowledge.
To go further down the chain, props to everyone who throws in games you normally don’t get to see in tournaments. I wouldn’t have researched MotorDome (beyond the Level system) if it wasn’t for Level One Barcade/@PinballNarcissist for running The Amazing Race on it, for example.
Fortunately for AC/DC it’s pretty easy to get out of a bad song and into a better one. Combo shots advance your song progress as well as collecting their shots.
I think the game is fine as-is. One report in hundreds of played games classifies it as a bug at best and removing Multiball devalues the nature of the game in general.
Maybe I’m misunderstanding you, but can you explain how combo shots help you advance through the jukebox to change songs? I’m certain this is not the case on my machine.
