This came up this weekend … as last player, last ball on Addams Family, I lit Tour the Mansion…
… and ignored it, trying to start 3x multiball. I was down 475m - 275m at the time, trapped up, and I think it was the right decision – I figured playing Tour by itself wouldn’t be enough to win, and multiball is locked out until the full Tour is over. (And how often do people last through the whole Tour!)
Any decisions on other games that felt surprising? The only other weird decision I can remember making on Addams is shooting for the GRAVE targets on purpose in the PAPA 11 semifinal, since I needed 3M to catch up.
To avoid a strike on TSPP, needed 1.5 mil on my last ball, I kept plunging and draining until I made comic book guy skill shot (500k), which happened to light left and right orbits. Hit left orbit for 400k, then right orbit for another 400k + collected nuclear value and then drained quickly after with just enough points ha
Very close game of big game. I plunged 3-4 times and tilted before the ball went down a lane I didn’t need, until I lit BIG which lights the right spinner for 1k a spin. This game was a very safe backhand to that spinner. Got the lit spinner, and went from last to first on 2 backhand rips.
Wild Fyre - Intentionally draining ball 3 as last player with 5x bonus lit when it’s enough for a win. I’ve seen players unaware of this rule many times and end up switching it back to 2x bonus and fall short. Probably commonly known to most reading here, but I think choosing to drain a live ball still qualifies as an unusual decision.
I’ve always wondered the reason for that rule. Slam tilts I can see, but skillfully tilting on a classic stern is no different than short plunging for a million years on whitewater. Or letting a non validated playfield ball drain over and over to get another plunge.
I thought it was for games that have software bugs like Addams. But maybe I’m missing something, which is common.
Tilting BEFORE validating playfield will result in loss of ball.
We have several classic sterns, and a few years ago we had a person tilt for like 3 minutes trying to hit the correct lane. That was the last time that was ever done.
To win a match on Counterforce, I intentionally drained when I knew I had enough multiplied bonus to clinch the win. I had many multipliers that were at risk and wasn’t confident I could save them.
Similar to several of the examples above:
It can make sense for the last player in a game of Tron to drain with double scoring running to get double bonus, but I’ve never seen it or heard of it happening. Anyone out there?
If pingolf or some other formats, it wouldn’t even have to be the last player doing it.
I don’t see why tilt isn’t allowed. But if you’re holding up a match, I can see why it’s a rule (even though there are other shenanigans that are allowed that can hold up matches too). But I have no idea if that’s why it’s the rule, hence why I asked.
I saw someone lose on Counterforce by having the ball get stuck on the insert above the left outlane. As TD all you can do is drain it, but by waiting they lost all those multipliers and fell short.
Was trying to avoid getting a strike during semifinals of a tournament on Monster Bash. On ball 3 I was able to nail the Big 6 stack for the first time on a real life Monster Bash machine and quickly jumped past everyone.
I was very pleased with myself when I knew to intentionally do this at Nationals in 2015 in Vegas. I think I got about 13M more bonus (base bonus included Portal and a ton of bonus multipliers) for doing this, a 13M I doubted I could grind out by playing. I likely was player 1, so it wasn’t to get to a win; it was just to extend my lead more
… and someone made an intentional drain against me during Pinburgh 2013 round 10 on Swinger to get or maximize his triple bonus
Of course it’s allowed. It’s just not allowed in competitions that are using the stock PAPA/IFPA ruleset. Feel free to refine the rules for your own events!
Not new, but more and more these days I find myself strategically not flipping during multiball. Seems like every game comes with six balls now and add a balls can be gotten in multiple ways. More modes adding balls after completing phases of modes and ball savers can be extended. Six balls is too dam many. If ball saver is running, I’ll let several drain to get better shots. I know I didn’t invent this, but it sure seems like it’s a strategy I use more and more lately. I do see plenty of casuals enjoying six ball multiballs, so I understand why they’re there.
