I held a tournament on Saturday and had several EMs in the lineup. Gay 90’s was one and it was set to three ball. It was announced before the tournament which games were on 3 and which on 5 ball.
During a game I was brought in to rule on an issue that Gay 90’s was having. The game state was showing that it was Player 1’s turn with the third ball about to played. Both players stated that they had already played 3 balls and at some point the ball count hadn’t advanced, players were not sure if this was from ball 1 to 2 or 2 to 3 but both agreed they had played 3 balls and each ball was played by the appropriate player.
Curious what others would have done as the TD at this point. My decision was
To end the game in the state it was in and used that score as the final score of the game. My reasoning was that the correct amount of balls had been played so the score reflected what the outcome would have been if there had been no malfunction and there was no guarentee that the malfunction would repeat. The game was pulled after this game.
We’ve encountered similar issue with our big Indian. Problem is players could of possibly player the wrong persons ball. If the player doesn’t advance, the ball count won’t.
Player 1 plays ball 1. It doesn’t advance the player. Player 2 steps up and plays another player 1 ball 1. Maybe it advances this time and player 1 then plays player 2’s ball 1. If it fails to advance again player 2 then plays his own ball 2. At this point both players would be ready to play ball 3 and the game on player 1 ball 2. Maybe it plays fine now and both players play there own balls and they think they are done with both playing 3 balls but game is currently at player 1 ball 3. .
In situation like that it’s a good chance they played out of order at some point. I pull the game and treat is as a major malfunction.
I’m hardly (definitely not) an EM tech, but I do know for sure that Gottlieb EM’s from that era can definitely get into a state where everything works fine, until the last ball won’t end. The video below shows a good example of this. The last ball relay is the key.