I actually don’t find those shows funny at all, I find them pretty gross tbh.
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The one player that is currently banned by virtually every TD in the bay area never got physical that I ever saw. He cursed around kids, shoved games occasionally (like me and plenty of other players sometimes do) and ran out of the room when he lost, but never got physical.
I agree the gif is funny, and that anger in competition isn’t going away but I don’t actually think acting like a huge baby and kicking a chair with people standing around is funny
In this case, you need to consider the player in question. No one goes to more tourneys than Trent. And it’s been that way for 10 years or more. There’s likely thousands of hours of video featuring Trent competing, yet I bet you won’t find another incident like above. Shouldn’t his stellar track record up to that point be a consideration?
Trent is also a huge asset to the pinball community. He shook the winners hand before he kicked the chair. It wasn’t a split second reaction. It was a planned release of stress that he knew wouldn’t hurt anybody. If you were TD, what would you have done?
I didn’t think it was funny. I just don’t think it was worthy of a penalty.
Immediately hand him a yellow card, and tell him to go punch a pillow in his hotel room.
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There’s screaming and then there’s people-around-you-dont-know-if-you-are-going-to-punch-them-in-a-second-screaming. Sean Grant and Josh Sharpe engages in the former. I was talking about the latter, but wasn’t being very clear.
I will say that I appreciate Josh’s recent move from f-bombs to NOT LIKE THIS 
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Additionally, there’s a difference between high profile events with lots of space and a competitor pool that is used to high stakes competition and Sharpe Screams vs. more local events that are crowded and include players of all skill level and familiarity with competitive pinball.
I honestly hate with a passion players who yell every time they drain, both in tournaments and when they’re playing alone. I am someone who struggles with loud noises and crowded spaces, and while I’ve been around the pinball community long enough to grimace and bear it or wear headphones, I’ve seen poor player behavior really impact whether newer players enjoy being a part of the scene or even show up again. Screams and flails upon draining are distracting, they’re poor sportsmanship, and they can be intimidating. At least on the local level, where the mission of tournaments is to create a welcoming environment to get hooked on competitive pinball, screaming and kicking are counterproductive.
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Haha, do your deep knee bends all day! I’m talking about flails that involve spinning around and hitting fellow competitors or random bar patrons, or screaming like someone murdered your child.
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But that stuff is detrimental to the other players. Most I’m sure can shrug it off, but it’s not good for new players to see that. They will never come back. I’ve had players tell me they were turned off immediately when they saw someone have an outburst exactly like you just described.
I also understand that emotions can get the better of us. That’s why I think the yellow card red card system is more than fair.
So in your case, 5 of your 7 outbursts would’ve occurred at home. 
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I took some of my friends that don’t play pinball regularly to a weekly a while back. They all said the same thing of “It was fun but that guy that hit the machine really hard at the end of his turn made me uncomfortable.”
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All due respect Andreas, no they won’t. No one is going to look at people laughing at this GIF and then say, “oh, if I kick a chair at the tourney then I get the LOLZ.” This is why @Wizcat brought up what I said the other day. Some things just get taken way too seriously and all the joy is sucked out of the room!
My stance? I laughed at this many times. I saved the longer version in my happy folder so I can look at it on stupid days. It’s really funny to me because it’s unexpected. You see a handshake, a head shake, and then the poor chair gets punted out of no where!
Do I think this is acceptable just because I think it’s hilarious? Nope. We’re I there, I’d probably say something to the player that did it, no matter who they are. It’s still totally funny though, and even more so in retrospect. I heard that a certain red candidate supporter broke a chair at this event also? That’s probably worse!
@nicoleanne You do a fine job filtering out the jerks and keeping the peace. It’s your spot and you’re welcome to run your business anyway you see fit. I think the main point @Wizcat was getting at was to just chill for a bit and see the humor in this. Trent probably hurt himself more than that poor chair.
If it helps with any humility, I’ll share too. A few months ago I was playing against Chris “SPECIALS” Chinn at FFDD in a weekly. We were upstairs on Pinbot and I went for a slap save but missed my mark on the wind up which made me spin a bit and tumble right down to the ground. I fell over trying to slap save the machine. After he helped me up, and I lost the game, we laughed about it a bunch. This is supposed to be fun! And that’s why it’s kinda extra funny when someone lashes out that strong because they’re taking it too seriously!
I haven’t read every single post here, but there’s my take.
(hides from more pitchforks and torches)
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I really love your pump it up moves before multiball. They make me very happy.
Keep on dancing, dancing man!
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To what degree are people respectful of the rule and trying to avoid violating it vs people being trained that they have one warning and it is a commodity to be consumed like a tilt warning.
Not sure why it makes sense to compare physically violent/aggressive behavior outside of gameplay to vocal outbursts (obscene or otherwise) during gameplay, but ok…
Both can be obnoxious, but I’ll take 20 potty mouths dropping f-bombs during their game over 1 rootin’ tootin’ chair kickin’ SOB sparring with other people’s property at my tournaments any day of the week, especially if there are kids around!
Yelling and/or cursing loudly in a way that feels aggressive or intimidating to other players is not the same thing as an occasional outburst while playing.
Personally, anything like this kick (or the chair punch) would result in an automatic DQ from any tournament I was directing. “Leave it all on the field”.
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It’s a good question, and the answer is really unknown.
As someone who has received multiple yellow cards from PAPA staff over the years due to language usage, I can say that I personally don’t go into PAPA finals knowing I have one loud F-bomb to drop that I can use how I see fit.
As someone who is always out of control with my mouth, I’ve tried to move to PG or at worst PG-13 verbiage . . . but I would be lying if I said there won’t be another rated R outburst at some point in my future. That poop just happens! <— see what I did there
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I’m curious if that would be your ruling against Bowen in the PAPA19 final.
With Trent it’s easier to say you would DQ him because he was already eliminated from the tournament at that point.
With Bowen he was on ball 2 of the game, which I don’t believe was even the last game of the round. A DQ there is more meaningful because you’re actually ejecting him from a tournament in which he’s still eligible to win.
I’m not sure what the PAPA staff did to Bowen in that situation (warning or no warning). In no way would he have gotten a red card from me . . . I would have just handed him a yellow card without saying any words at all to him, with the impression that he understood why he was getting it.
For me it’d be a yellow card, maybe with a compliment that he at least put the jacket back after kicking it.
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I’m pretty sure that was his own jacket: http://pinballvideos.com/?v=1123&s=13283#trapped-ball-stuck-on-insert-trying-to-free-it-results-in-outlane-drain-and-bowen-kicking-a-chair
Go back a minute, and Bowen’s actually sitting in that chair.
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I’m guessing you meant comment, but that’s funny.
‘Officially, I’m forced to give you a yellow card. But damb, that was a nice chair kick!’
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