# Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Stern Heads-Up Pinball Invitational

**Source:** Stern Pinball  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2020-09-23  
**Duration:** 44m 9s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-Ii82BOCvQ

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## Analysis

This is Stern Pinball's official broadcast of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Stern Heads-Up Pinball Invitational, a competitive tournament featuring eight elite pinball players competing in rapid-fire challenge matches on the new TMNT Pro machine. Hosts Jack Danger and Tim Sexton commentate matches that progress through quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals, with Raymond Davidson ultimately advancing to face Escher Lefkoff. The tournament showcases advanced gameplay techniques, specific rule challenges (Ninja Pizza Multiball, LAIR/Training sequences, Turtle Power Multiball), and culminates in an all-player challenge where Jane Verwise wins a Schecter guitar in 30.46 seconds.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Keith Elwin has been playing competitive pinball since the 90s and has been dominating for the past 30 years. — _Jack Danger, introducing Keith Elwin as a competitor_
- [HIGH] Escher Lefkoff is the youngest ever world pinball champion. — _Tim Sexton, analyzing competitors_
- [HIGH] Raymond Davidson is the number one pinball player in the world right now with the highest ranking. — _Jack Danger, introducing Raymond Davidson as a semifinalist_
- [HIGH] Snow Galvin got into pinball just five years ago. — _Jack Danger, providing competitor background_
- [HIGH] Raymond Davidson is only 27 years old and has been playing since he was very young. — _Tim Sexton, discussing Raymond Davidson's background_
- [MEDIUM] Keith Elwin didn't do a lot of homework on the TMNT machine rules and the first time playing this game was at this championship. — _Tim Sexton, explaining Keith's poor performance against Snow Galvin_
- [HIGH] Zen defeated Escher twice in last year's Heads Up Championship but Escher still moved on to win the whole thing. — _Tim Sexton, providing context for Zen vs. Escher rematch_
- [HIGH] Jane Verwise completed Turtle Power Multiball in 30.46 seconds to win the all-player challenge and a Schecter guitar. — _Jack Danger and Tim Sexton, announcing Jane's victory_

### Notable Quotes

> "Keith Elwin, known as the GOAT, the greatest of all time, he's been playing competitive pinball since the 90s, and he's been dominating for the past 30 years."
> — **Jack Danger**, ~4:00
> _Establishes Keith Elwin's legendary status in competitive pinball_

> "I expect this to be a very intense, very competitive matchup. Both of these players are known for never giving up and always putting 110% into what they're doing here."
> — **Tim Sexton**, ~12:20
> _Sets expectations for Snow Galvin vs. Keith Elwin match_

> "I'm under good authority to let you know, he didn't do a lot of homework on this. He didn't really learn the rules too much. In fact, I think the first time playing this game was this championship."
> — **Tim Sexton**, ~18:30
> _Reveals Keith Elwin's lack of preparation contributed to his upset loss_

> "Revenge, that is what I wanted to hear. I'm ready for some blood."
> — **Jack Danger**, ~29:45
> _Demonstrates hype around Zen vs. Escher rematch with past history_

> "Raymond Davidson is the number one pinball player in the world right now. Highest ranked, no one higher, it's Raymond Davidson."
> — **Jack Danger**, ~36:30
> _Establishes Raymond Davidson's dominant ranking in pinball_

> "Very quickly, with all the technology we have, all the videos, all the resources, she's become so good in that amount of time that she's here battling in the semifinals for a brand new pinball machine against the number one player in the world."
> — **Tim Sexton**, ~37:45
> _Notes how modern resources enable rapid skill development in competitive pinball_

> "It feels like magic when you make that shot, and he made it look like magic."
> — **Tim Sexton**, ~41:15
> _Commentary on the difficulty and satisfaction of executing the training shot_

> "30.46 seconds. That is so fast. And that was the amount of time it took to win a brand new Schecter guitar for Jane Verwise."
> — **Jack Danger**, ~59:00
> _Highlights Jane's exceptional speed in the all-player challenge finale_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Jack Danger | person | Co-host and commentator for the tournament broadcast; Stern pinball machine designer and tournament player |
| Tim Sexton | person | Co-host and commentator for the tournament; pinball player and tutorial content creator |
| Emoto Arcade | person | Tournament commentator and co-host on the desk |
| Keith Elwin | person | Legendary competitive pinball player, known as the GOAT; eliminated in quarterfinals by Snow Galvin; 30+ year career in competitive pinball |
| Snow Galvin | person | Competitive pinball player from Denver, Colorado; upset Keith Elwin in quarterfinals; reached semifinals |
| Raymond Davidson | person | Number one ranked pinball player in the world; from Seattle, Washington; age 27; reached finals |
| Escher Lefkoff | person | Youngest ever world pinball champion; age 17, from Longmont, Colorado; reached finals |
| Nick Zendejas | person | Competitive pinball player from New York, New York; referred to as 'Zen'; returning champion; beat Escher Lefkoff twice in last year's championship but eliminated in semifinals |
| Jane Verwise | person | Competitive pinball player from Chicago, Illinois; reached semifinals; won all-player challenge and Schecter guitar in 30.46 seconds |
| Kim Martinez | person | Competitive pinball player from Columbus, Ohio; eliminated in quarterfinals by Raymond Davidson |
| Stephanie Guida | person | Competitive pinball player from Middletown, New York; plays frequently at Rock Fantasy; eliminated by Jane Verwise |
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | game | Stern Pinball's new Pro machine used for this tournament; features challenges like Ninja Pizza Multiball, LAIR/Training, and Turtle Power Multiball |
| Stern Pinball | company | Manufacturer of the TMNT machine and organizer of the Heads-Up Pinball Invitational tournament |
| Stern Heads-Up Pinball Invitational | event | Competitive tournament series organized by Stern Pinball; TMNT edition features heads-up format with rapid-fire challenges and eight elite players |
| NECA Toys | company | Tournament sponsor; providing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys to all competitors |
| Nuclear Blast Records | company | Tournament sponsor; providing In Flames vinyl records to all competitors; band recorded 'Pinball Map' song ~20 years ago |
| Schecter Guitars | company | Tournament sponsor; providing a custom guitar as prize for the all-player challenge winner (Jane Verwise) |
| Warnstar Clothing | company | Tournament sponsor; providing branded shirts to all competitors |
| Super 7 Toys | company | Tournament sponsor; providing vintage-style Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys to competitors |
| Nickelodeon | company | TMNT IP owner and tournament sponsor |
| Rock Fantasy | person | Venue where Stephanie Guida plays frequently and has studied the TMNT machine |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Competitive pinball tournament format and rules, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball machine gameplay and strategy, Elite competitive pinball players and rankings, Heads-up challenge match mechanics and difficulty assessment
- **Secondary:** Player preparation and machine knowledge impact on performance, Upset victories and competitive surprises, Pinball shot execution techniques (backhand, forehand, post passes)
- **Mentioned:** Tournament sponsorship and branded merchandise

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.85) — Broadcast is energetic and enthusiastic about the competition. Commentary highlights exceptional play and competitive drama. Mild negative sentiment when discussing Keith Elwin's upset loss due to lack of preparation, but presented as part of exciting tournament narrative rather than criticism.

### Signals

- **[event_signal]** Stern Pinball officially broadcast the TMNT Heads-Up Pinball Invitational featuring eight elite competitive players in rapid-fire challenge matches (confidence: high) — Official Stern Pinball video production with professional commentary, multiple camera angles, and formal tournament structure
- **[competitive_signal]** Raymond Davidson confirmed as #1 ranked pinball player globally at the time of tournament; Escher Lefkoff identified as youngest-ever world champion (confidence: high) — Jack Danger explicitly states 'Raymond Davidson is the number one pinball player in the world right now. Highest ranked, no one higher'
- **[gameplay_signal]** TMNT machine features multiple distinct challenge modes (Ninja Pizza Multiball, LAIR/Training, Turtle Power Multiball) with varying difficulty and execution requirements; shot consistency and ball control are critical (confidence: high) — Detailed commentary on shot mechanics, post-pass techniques, backhand vs. forehand approaches, and strategic adjustments across multiple matches
- **[sentiment_shift]** Snow Galvin's defeat of legendary Keith Elwin created narrative surprise; attributed to Elwin's lack of machine-specific preparation and rule knowledge (confidence: high) — Tim Sexton: 'I'm under good authority to let you know, he didn't do a lot of homework on this. He didn't really learn the rules too much. In fact, I think the first time playing this game was this championship.'
- **[product_launch]** Stern's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pro pinball machine used as centerpiece of major tournament; represents current flagship competitive offering (confidence: high) — Tournament broadcast on official Stern channel using TMNT Pro as exclusive competition machine; described as 'brand new'
- **[content_signal]** Stern Pinball producing professional tournament broadcast content with multi-camera setup, real-time commentary, and high production value (confidence: high) — Professional commentary team, multiple screen angles, sponsor integration, formal tournament structure
- **[design_philosophy]** TMNT machine challenges demonstrate careful balance between accessibility (simple objectives like ramp shots) and execution difficulty (precise shot timing, post passes, nudge recovery) (confidence: high) — Tim Sexton and Jack Danger consistently note gap between objective simplicity and execution complexity across Ninja Pizza, LAIR, and Turtle Power challenges
- **[competitive_signal]** Zen/Escher rematch carries narrative weight from previous year's championship where Escher beat Zen twice but Zen ultimately won the overall event (confidence: high) — Tim Sexton: 'Zen dominated the competition last year, except he had a little bit of a stumbling block. Escher beat him twice in last year's Heads Up Championship, but he was still able to move on'
- **[market_signal]** Stern promoting pinball competitive play through high-production-value broadcast tournaments modeled on esports broadcasting with sponsorships and merchandise tie-ins (confidence: high) — Official Stern broadcast, multiple corporate sponsors, merchandise giveaways (guitars, vinyl, clothing, toys), professional commentary team
- **[industry_signal]** Commentary notes that modern video resources, tutorials, and online learning enable rapid skill development in pinball, allowing newer players (Snow: 5 years) to compete with elite veterans (confidence: high) — Tim Sexton: 'Very quickly, with all the technology we have, all the videos, all the resources, she's become so good in that amount of time'
- **[gameplay_signal]** Elite players demonstrate mastery of specific techniques: soft plunges for control, post passes between flippers, nudge management, and situational shot selection (backhand vs. forehand) (confidence: high) — Repeated commentary on Keith's soft plunge strategy, Jane's trapless approach, Escher's aggressive nudging, and multiple discussions of backhand difficulty vs. forehand safety

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## Transcript

 Good evening Stern Pinball fans! Welcome to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Stern Heads Up Pinball Invitational. I'm Jack Danger, joined on the desk by Tim Sexton. Tim, how are you? Great, Jack. I'm so excited to be here. We've got some great competition, a lightning fast competitive format for pinball. It should be really exciting, really fun. We're playing for a brand new Stern pinball machine. Awesome. Glad to have you here. We're also joined by the awesome Emoto Arcade. Emoto, how are you doing? I'm feeling great, Jack. I am so excited for this tournament. we invited eight of the world's greatest pinball players to play on the brand new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pro Machine, and it's a heads-up format, which means they're going to be racing the clock and racing each other in randomly selected challenges. Each of the players will play at a best two out of three match. First person to get the objective wins. Win two, you move on to the next round. And let's take a look at our challengers now. Tim, who are you betting on? You know, really strong competitors in this competition. Favorites for me, I think Zen, returning champion. You have to think he's going to be strong in this competition as well. Escher, the youngest ever world pinball champion. He's going to be strong. Jane has been practicing a lot. She's very strong in competitions like these. But it's really any one of these players could take it down. Yeah, that's true. And you cannot count out the most award-winning, trophy-winning pinball player on the planet, Keith Elwin, is competing in this as well. Keith Elwin, known as the GOAT, the greatest of all time, he's been playing competitive pinball since the 90s, and he's been dominating for the past 30 years. I mean, there's almost nothing that can stop him. Every single tournament he goes to, he shows up, he's ready to play. And before we get started, we'd like to thank our sponsors. Of course, NECA Toys, Nuclear Blast, Warnstar Clothing, Super 7 Toys, Schecter Guitars, and of course, Nickelodeon. Well, with all the formalities out of the way, are we ready to do this? Yes, let's go to the player screen and select our first contestants. Well, it looks like our first team up is Kim Martinez versus Raymond Davidson. Hi, I'm Kim Martinez. I'm from Columbus, Ohio. I'm Raymond Davidson from Seattle, Washington, and I'm excited to play some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. So the first competitor to shoot three balls into the pizza parlor will activate Ninja Pizza Multiball and win the challenge. So the challenge is pretty simple, pretty straightforward. The trick here is going to be getting the ball on the lower right flipper and once you get it there Nailing that shot players who can dial it on the shot sooner are gonna have a much easier time starting this Players who have trouble getting the ball under control transferring it are gonna lose valuable time And we're off so we've got our points coming out immediately Raymond looking for some control Kim also still in the pops there and Ray nails that very first shot. That was a beautiful drop catch and just put it right back into the pizza parlor. Kim got a little out of control with that transfer. She's going to have to make up some time here on her second ball. Raymond bouncing around a little bit. Goes for the backhand with the left flipper. Doesn't quite make it in. He's trying another backhand. He really needs to get that ball on the right flipper. And a little tip shot into the pizza parlor. Kim looking for some control here. We got a warning coming out of her and a backhand doesn't quite set it off. We got the 3-2-1 foot stuff happening right now. And Raymond nails it. Well done, Ray. Absolutely. I mean, he did get a little out of control. He was taking some aggressive shots, but you could see him calm down, settle down, and then just wait for the ball on that right flipper and make the shot. Kim, unfortunately, some bad luck in the pop bumpers. Her backhand didn't make it. She lost some control there, but she did have that shot that on the right flipper she just couldn't get it there to set up the shot. To start episodes the player must hit the yellow light shots up the left and right ramp and then into the pizza parlor to activate. The first player that does it will win the challenge. And what's interesting about these shots is is the right ramp very backhandable. So that shot's accessible from both flippers. The left ramp, kind of backhandable. I have a little trouble with it. What do you think? You know, like we saw in the last challenge, players were more comfortable with the cross play field shot. So rushing it with the backhand may not be the best strategy. You might want to set up a post transfer to the other side. You might want to go for the safer play. I think that is the best strategy in this tournament, but we'll see. Yeah, fantastic. Well, let's see what happens here. Ready? Three, two, one. Both players plunging into the pop bumpers as usual. These can be pretty random. Kim's ball comes back down first and she has a nice shot set up on the right flipper. She chooses to go for the left ramp and nails it. Ray hasn't hit his shots yet. While Kim already has both of her shots lit, she just has to nail the pizza parlor and she is done. She's given Ray time to catch up here and she nails it right, right out of the gate. Like, no hesitation. Left ramp, right ramp, right into Pizza Party. I would say zero mistakes were made there. Kim took her time, she set up her shots, and she nailed it. It was a perfect way to play that challenge. Yep, absolutely. Well done. So we're all tied up, one to one. It's a best of three. We're going back to the random match generator to see what our third match will be. For this challenge, the players must shoot the left target to spell lair, then shoot behind the upper left flipper to start training. Now I'll tell you this, the left lair target is huge. It's very easy to hit. I have no problem spelling lair. It's shooting under that flipper to start training that I am just absolute trash at. Yeah, this challenge is definitely going to test players' patience, their recovery skills, just, you know, taking those shots, not giving up, because you never know what's going to happen with this one. Three, two, one. All right, and we are off for start training. Again, we are looking to smash that left target four times to spell a layer. Raymond with a quick drain. Kim already has one of her lights lit. She's going for a second, nails the A. Can she get that I? Ooh, just misses and gets a little half ramp up the left. We have an L on Raymond's side. He's also got the A and a weird little... Oh, gets another freebie. How do you even explain that? It just rolled back onto the target. So because we had a drain on Kim's side, she has to spell it all over again. Meanwhile, Raymond has it lit. All right, we had another rollback. Let's see. He just needs to get under that flipper. Who is going to get it? Kim's still trying to spell layer. Raymond's going to try the... He tried the little sneaky backhand. It doesn't quite make it in there. Can he get control? That ball does not want to cooperate right now. these little tip passes and oh what's he gonna do little baby flips he's stuck and it rolls out and just like that kim's almost caught back up one letter and under the flippers she'll make it and oh ray nails it moving on to the semi-finals raymond davidson well done ray that shot is difficult for me it looked like it was difficult for them and i congratulate ray for being able to nail that he tried the little backhand thing i talked about he tried it he tried tons of ways to make the shot. Unfortunately, Kim drained the ball, had to re-spell layer again. It is a really tough challenge. You really want to make sure you get all four of those letters in the same ball, but then Raymond missed it so many times she almost caught back up. Lots of drama there, but in the end, Raymond settled himself down, made the shot, moves on to the next round. Well done, Raymond Davidson. Looks like our next matchup is going to be between Snow Galvin and Keith Elwin. Hi, my name is Snow Galvin, and I'm from Denver, Colorado. Hi, my name is Keith Elwin. I am from Southern California. I expect this to be a very intense, very competitive matchup. Both of these players are known for never giving up and always putting 110% into what they're doing here. I expect this match to be no exception. And we're off. We've got our plunges coming in. Keith goes for the soft plunge for immediate control on the right. We have a little bit of chaos coming in from snow side here. We've got the right ramp already done on Keith's side. We're both missing the left ramp. Keith nails the left ramp. Ken, he put the ball into the pizza parlor. and without fail, just one, two, three. Wow, that was really quick. Keith got it under control and then he did not miss. And that's what we said about this challenge. If there is so little room for error that if you mess up two shots, that's it. You're done. Absolutely. And Snow did have a little bouncing around there and that was costing her precious time while Keith was just lining them up and knocking them out. She was close, but one missed shot put her a little bit behind and Keith just capitalized on that opportunity and took the challenge down. Absolutely. So for Turtle Power Multiball, the player just needs to hit that right ramp four times and it activates. Seems like a pretty simple task, just hitting one ramp four times in a row. How are you feeling about this approach? Well, like you were saying before, this is the right ramp. It's backhandable and forehandable. You've got two flippers you can hit it on with pretty much the same consistency. The only thing the players have to watch out for is how they going to handle the ball coming around the ramp and back down the playfield because it is wicked fast If you played Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball before it comes around screaming out of there You can use the upper flipper or you can decide not to try to catch it on the lower flippers That's going to be the difference maker, I think, in this challenge. Control is going to play the biggest role in this. It's just can you get control of that ball after you've made this seemingly easy ramp shot. Three, two, one. Both players starting the challenge. Keith goes for the short plunge again. Snow goes all the way around. Both players don't get control very easily, although Keith has his first shot set up on the left flipper, and he nails it. Snow looking for the control there. She shoots her first shot and drains right down the middle, but that's not too big of a setback in this challenge. Nope, it's really just keeping track of how many times you've shot it. Keith, unfortunately, starting another feature there and drains out on purpose so that it doesn't affect his starting of that multiball. But it has set him back, as Snow just made another shot. She is well on her way to beating this challenge. Keith, wow. Nope. That was so fast, I missed it. Nothing to say. Yep. Just nailed it. Snow, congratulations. I didn't see too many backhand shots going on there. No, it looked like players were definitely favoring the left flipper. Really nice, smooth shots, though, to that left rip. It was all about coming around, getting the control again in the middle of the play field, and not having the ball bounce around. wildly in the middle. So we have one more challenge left. Let's go over to the random match generator to see what it will be. Remember at home, folks, that when you're spelling layer and you drain before you light training, you have to start all over again. So if you think you're going to lose control, make sure you get layer spelt because training will remain lit after you drain, but you gotta light it first. And here we go. Let's see if Keith does not go for the soft plunge. In fact, he holds the left flipper down to go all the way around. A little tip flip there to try to keep control. We finally have a layer shot coming in from both players. Keith did drain, though, so he lost that progress that he had. We have Snow with an accidental rollback. Actually, I don't think that's too accidental. She has one more shot to hit to complete layer. There it is. Training is ready to go. That's key because now she has it lit. She can take all the shots. And Keith is so far behind. He's got to restart again with another drain. Snow just has to make this one really difficult shot. What's her approach? Looks like the forehand. Yep. She's just trying to post pass to get it to the right flipper. No one trying the backhand. And she nails it. Direct well done, Snow. So, wow. Snow is a great player. But this is a huge upset. One of the best pinball players in the world is out of this. And I'm under good authority to let you know, he didn't do a lot of homework on this. He didn't really learn the rules too much. In fact, I think the first time playing this game was this championship. Well, I don't want to give him too many excuses. I mean, he was up against a strong competitor in Snow, and I have to say she just went out there and nailed those challenges. And I don't know anyone who could really come back from that. That was a pretty incredible performance. Keith, yeah, I have to say he looks rusty. It's upsetting that he's out at this point for a lot of Keith Elwin fans, but, hey, that's pinball. Well, before we go any further, and what a battle we've had so far, we want to thank Super 7. Every competitor today is going home with a vintage-style Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toy. So let's get ready for our next matchup here. We're going to have to go to the random generator. Well, it looks like it chose Stephanie and Jane. Hi, I'm Stephanie Guida, and I'm from Middletown, New York. Hi, my name is Jane Verwise from Chicago, Illinois, and I'm ready to play some pinball. So it was an interesting interview with both players. Jane was more nervous for the interview than I think she is when she plays pinball because she is such a fierce competitor. She's always so focused and dialed in. Stephanie seemed pretty confident. You know, she's playing at Rock Fantasy. She's been there a million times. She's played this game. She's studied up. I think she's ready for the competition. so again turtle power multiball we've seen this go down we're just shooting the right ramp four times seems like an easy ask but what do you think you know i think the players will get this one it's it's like we said right ramp both flippers just comes down to what your approach is going to be. Speed and accuracy really comes down to this. Both players full plunging around the playfield. Jane has the ball right up the right ramp really quickly. Stephanie's still waiting for the ball to come out of the pop bumpers. All right, we are both trapped up. We go for a backhand over on Steph's side. Jane does hit it with the backhand there, so she's used both flippers to make her shots now two shots for jane zero for stephanie so far another shot for jane there and you saw her nudge it away from the three two one combo and she gets it anyway but still progresses forward with her shots drains it out maybe on purpose to get rid of the feature of the three two one i think it was because she would have made her fourth shot there but she had to skip that feature in order to actually make that fourth shot count to start the feature all right lining up a backhand on jane's and she nails the shot, the backhand. Perfect, perfect backhand. Again, it's just such a clean... For me, it feels safer to backhand that shot. Like, you can't miss it. There's like a magnet that just drags it up there. You know what Jane's strategy looked like to me? It looked like on either flipper, left flipper, nail the shot, right flipper, nail the shot, it was just about getting the ball stopped, trapped, under control, wherever it was, and then making that shot. And she had it dialed in. we go full plunge on both sides here we got the three two one combo coming in on jane's side i don't know if she wants to be inside of there but she does have a layer shot already uh looks like We drain. Oh, no, we got a pizza lock on the left coming in from Steph. So Jane's got her two shots. Stephanie is yet to make her first shot. Almost gets her fourth layer shot there. Stephanie's still getting the control. She has some time to make up time here. Jane is out of control. So Jane did drain, but she drained with training lit. So all she has to do is shoot under that flipper. She has one goal. It's blinking. Put it in there. Stephanie's not making her layer shots. This is time she really needs right now because Jane is so close to making that shot. All right, we're just waiting for some lineups here. Stephanie has one more shot to make towards layer to get her training going. All right, we have training lit on both sides. Jane needs to put this ball away. She's shot at it four or five times. Hasn't quite gotten there, but so close. Stephanie is still setting up her first shot on that training shot. It looks like Jane is using the left flipper, and she nails the shot. Finally, what worked for her was just going with the technique, settling down, calming down, getting the ball on the right flipper, dropping that left flipper at the right time to force the ball behind that training area. That is a key that you'll see players who are really good at timing it can just inch the ball back into the training area and not have it bounce out because it was a little early or late. We almost saw Raymond sort of tap it back into place during his attempt at that, but yeah, that's tough. So that's 2-0 from Jane. She's moving on with lightning speed to the semifinals. Congratulations, Jane. All right, well, that leaves us with our final two competitors. We have Escher Lefkoff and Nick Zendejas coming out of New York, and we just have to see what they're going to do now. Hi, I'm Escher Lefkoff. I'm from Longmont, Colorado, and I'm 17 years old. Hello everybody, this is Nick Zen Zendejas from New York, New York, coming at ya! Jack, I have to tell you, I'm so excited for this matchup. Zen dominated the competition last year, except he had a little bit of a stumbling block. Escher beat him twice in last year's Heads Up Championship, but he was still able to move on, Escher from the other side of the bracket, to win the whole thing. I think Escher's going to be hungry, I think he's going to want revenge, and this is where he's going to get it because if Zen's eliminated here, he is out of the competition. Revenge, that is what I wanted to hear. I'm ready for some blood. Let's see what they can do. Ninja Pizza Multiball. This is going to be a quick challenge, Jack. I can tell you that. It is three quick shots right into the Ninja Pizza parlor. Two, one. Players both starting with full plunges here. Escher takes a big nudge, but it helps him get that first lock. Zen has a nice trap on the right flipper, and he nails his first lock, too. It is very close. Wow, look how close. Wow. Escher was able to get the ball from the left flipper to the right flipper so fast. Zen has a nice in lane, and he makes a second shot, too. This is so close. We're one shot away from both competitors. Let's see who can get control first. Escher's in the pop bumpers. He's got to get it out of there. Zen coming around. Oh, he's out of control, too. Both players out of control. It is so close right here, and Zen nails it! Just in the nick of time to win. That was neck and neck that entire fight. That was a great matchup, Jack. I mean, you saw just that one mistake. Escher was up in the pop-up burst. Okay, now Zen has the advantage. Now Zen's out of control. Now Escher has the advantage. It just went back and forth so quickly, until finally, right flipper, like you said, three shots. That was what it took. Boom, boom, boom. Well done. So that puts Zen up 1-0. Let's check the random match generator to see what our next challenge will be. All right we go all the way around from both competitors A half ramp there for Zen We getting some big shakes coming out of Escher on the left there We got two in a row Oh goes for the third Doesn quite make it Zen looking for some control. An unfortunate drain there. We've got our third shot coming in from Escher. Can he nail that fourth ramp shot? It's blinking, and that's it. Done and done. Alright, so after two battles, it's tied up one to one. So I think we need to move on to the random generator and see what's next. So, because we're one-to-one right now, the person that wins this is moving up. And I would recommend to everyone watching to get your blinking in now, because this challenge is going to be over like that. Yep. Three, two, one. Both players plunge, and Escher nails the right ramp right away. but he's a little out of control. Zen misses his right ramp. That's going to hurt him. There we go. Nails it there. Escher making some key moves, trying to get control. He wants the ball on the right flipper so bad right now. Now, you see Escher has been moving his game around a lot. That is not illegal in pinball, as some people may think. You are encouraged to shake the game a little bit. He's just trying to guarantee his control. He just decimates that left ramp, looking for the pizza parlor. If he can nail this before Zen, and he does, that is another win from Escher, and Escher moves on. The left ramp shot did hold the players back in this one. It was not easy. Like you said, it's such a tough backhand. They were going for the forehand almost too hard, I think. I think some backhand attempts may have helped them there. As this tournament moves on, I think players will adapt their strategies and change it so they do have more opportunities to make their shots. Before we move on to the semifinals, we do want to talk about our sponsor, Nuclear Blast Records. They've been so generous in this tournament We're giving in flames Vinyl records to every player In this tournament That's a pretty cool prize Heck yeah it is They even have a song called Pinball Map That they recorded like 20 years ago Before any of this stuff It's very telling, telegraphing Science stuff It's almost like they put pinball on the map, Jack Oh god, alright Guards that buy the pinball map The driver is still unknown to me And who was sent to glorify Before we injected this drum on pride All right, well, we got Raymond Davidson versus Snow, and Raymond is the number one pinball player in the world right now. Highest ranked, no one higher, it's Raymond Davidson. And he deserves that spot. I mean, he's a multiple-time champion of so many pinball events. He's a world champion. He's been dominating the tournament scene. Young guy, only 27 years old. Wait, he's only 27? Okay. I didn't know that. That's great. And he's been playing since he was very young, too. Snow got into it just five years ago. She hasn't been playing for as long. But very quickly, with all the technology we have, all the videos, all the resources, She's become so good in that amount of time that she's here battling in the semifinals for a brand new pinball machine. Against the number one player in the world. All right, let's see what kind of plunges we're going for. Both going all the way around. Again, you achieve this by holding the left flipper when you plunge. We've got... A really quick drain from Snow. She's going to get back into it, though. Ray gets his first letter there. Looks like we have... No, okay. Ray has almost all of his letters. Looking for that rollback. Doesn't quite make it. Oh, he nails Lair. His start training's lit. Snow needs to make up her time here. She could do it. Four shots to the Lair. The ball could bounce out, hit it. It could get you really close. Raymond drains out the right out lane. This is Snow's opportunity for a comeback. Yep, she just needs to make a few more shots to layer. There you go. Two more layer shots. An unfortunate drain, and she has to start layer over again. Raymond's in the driver's seat right now. All he has to do is make that shot. He goes for the backhand and nails it. Yep. Oh, it's so clean. It feels like magic when you make that shot, and he made it look like magic. Well, I think we're not going to waste any time. Let's see what the random generator has to say. All right, start episode. It's three shots, real easy. Left ramp, right ramp, right up the middle. And Snow is behind, so... She's down one match, best of three. She has to win this one and the next one. No room for error right now. Three, two, one. And we're off. We're going full plunge here. Again, we're just trying to shoot left ramp, right ramp. You can see the yellow arrows. We have the right ramp coming out of Snow's side. Left ramp for Raymond. They're switching up on us here. We need to... Ray nails the right ramp. He just has to put the ball into the pizza parlor. He does miss and hits the pizza target next to it. Snow nails the left ramp. They're all tied up, and Ray pulls it out. Last second. She just had to creep it in there. It didn't quite make it in, but that would have been a photo finish. That would have been measuring frames at that point. We would have had to go to a replay, but because that shot didn't make it all the way, Raymond clearly 2-0, strongly moving on into the finals right now. The next matchup we'll see who his competitor is going to be. Before we get to the next match, let's thank our sponsor, Warnstar Clothing. Check out me and Jack's awesome jackets by the way. They are giving all the players an awesome Warnstar shirt. Thank you all so much. So let's jump to our random match generator to see what Escher and Jane's first match is going to be. Jane starting with the short plunge Escher goes all the way around Jane losing time, missing the short plunges here She's got to get it over the ramp And she does finally Luckily Escher, now he makes his first shot Jane has not made a shot yet Escher coming all the way around on the play field Gets the ball on the left flipper. Will he go for the backhand? No, he transfers, and he misses the shot, though. Jane makes her first shot. It's all tied up right now. Yeah, that short plunge faux pas really set her back, but she has tied this up. Now we just need to... Oh, and Escher gets his second lock. He needs one more shot. We are inside of a weapon hurry-up on Jane's side. I'm not sure that affects anything, but she just needs to get that ball right there. Unfortunate shot does not make it into the pizza parlor, and Escher just puts it away. really quick win there from escher straightforward he was just going to the right flipper he was a little cleaner with his post passes that is key when you got the ball in the left flipper if you can put enough power into the ball to hit the bottom of the slingshot and make it across to the other flipper and get all the way to the top of the flipper you have a much better shot of making that shot all right let's see what the next battle is We're off. Both plunges coming out of both. An unfortunate drain for Jane, but she didn't really have any progress, so she's good. But Escher is just nailing layer shot after layer shot. He has one more. There it is. Training's lit. So he drains. He is safe here. Just got to shoot under the flipper. Jane looked to catch up, and Escher just does not miss a single shot. And check out, Escher's second layer letter came from shooting the slingshot. He shot the right slingshot, and it shot the ball into the layer target. So many ways to hit that. He did it faster than we thought was even possible. He was double dipping. Because he used the whole play field to his advantage. And we want to take a moment to thank another one of our sponsors, NECA Toys. Every single player is getting a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toy from NECA. Just everyone's getting everything. We have a special challenge. We're bringing back all the players to duke it out. Eight players on the screen. Head-to-head battle. It's going to be crazy. This challenge is sponsored by Schecter Guitars. And whoever wins this randomly selected challenge, they win a guitar. And it's a beautiful guitar. A whole guitar? So, Jack, if you weren't jealous already about all the toys and records and cool clothing swag they're getting, why am I sitting on the desk? Someone's going home with a guitar. Why am I not playing in this? I wasn't invited. He wasn't invited. Get it together, Jack. We have to be professional. Got it. Listen. Wow. A guitar. This is a surprise to us. Eight players at once? Yeah. This is going to be chaos. And the random challenge is... Jack, it's your favorite. Turtle Power multiball. Turtle Power multiball. That's an easy one, right? Heck yeah. You know, easy peasy. Right ramp all day long. Don't hit anything else. And we're off. All eight players going at the exact same time. This is the fastest competition we've ever seen here. players left and right are missing players left and right are making their shots looking at the top we've seen a few lock shots we've seen oh Keith Ellen makes a shot Jayne makes a shot we see Escher we see Zen we see snow we see Kim making a shot we see Stephanie making a shot wow pandemonium how many locks are left it is almost impossible to tell looking up at the top right screen Is that it The final shot No One more for Jane at least We do have Turtle Power blinking in the top right. We still have a lot of progress. And that is it. Turtle Power has started for Jane. The machine goes off like a slot machine showing that she won. That was incredible. I looked away and she had already gotten it. 30.46 seconds. That is so fast. and that was the amount of time it took to win a brand new Schecter guitar for Jane VerWise. All right, so you know what that means, fellas. It's time for the final. Let's go. It's time for the final battle. We are so excited for this final battle here. Escher Lefkoff, Raymond Davidson, the fastest players up to this point. Only one can win, and like we saw in the last challenge, it'll come down to seconds, maybe even half seconds, quarter seconds. It could be so close in these competitions, or it could be a big blowout. Well, we've seen these two competitors battling this entire tournament, and I think it's time we learn a little bit about these two. I think they deserve it. Finalists, let's see what made them the great pinball players they are today. Currently ranked number one in the world at the IFPA official rankings. I got the G Fuel sponsorship. You know, Raymond Davidson is really, really good. Raymond? I like to call him the wonder kid. I first started playing because my grandparents had a machine. My dad showed me how to play. I was just probably like four years old. It's barely tall enough to reach the flippers. I fell in love with it and then found it in arcades, restaurants, pizza joints. I just fell in love with it. He's always been really good, but I think in the last three or four years, he has gotten the confidence. And I think that confidence boost has kind of just put him above almost everyone else in the field. I started playing when I was two years old, but I would always watch my dad play. I'd just like stand like on a stool and watch him. I just drool all over the play field. He's competed standing on boxes because he couldn't reach the flipper. And beating adults, making adults cry. I won the world championships when I was 13. And the world's youngest pinball champion lives right here in Longmont at the ripe old age of 13 years. The kid's just unstoppable. He's definitely fun to watch. He yells a lot too, which is funny, but it's all clean, it's all fun. His father is very, very quiet, wears headphones, doesn't talk much. They're a dynamic duo. At home, I usually beat him, but at tournaments, he's really consistent. At tournaments, he doesn't give himself enough credit. To be able to share the passion, your hobby, with your son, it's a blessing. You know the drill. I think this is a great challenge for the finals because it's been one of the fastest challenges. It is one of the easier shots to make on the play field, which means a miss really sets you back. Yep, you're going to see precision is mega key here. You spend too much time on the pops. If you fumble a shot, that gives the opponent an opportunity to really put a lead out on you. I think to make up time, no short plunging. You're going to go all the way around to the upper flipper. If you could pull off the loop pass, if you could pull off the one-time shot, like Escher was trying for, that would really speed up this challenge. If we could see those, that'll be amazing. Here we go. We are going for full plunges all the way around, and Escher nails the one-time, as Tim was pointing out. Amazing shot. Goes for a little half-ramp there. Doesn't quite make it around. Ramos is the backhand. That's uncharacteristic for Raymond, but he makes the forehand shot. He's not trying the one-hand like Escher is. He's just going for it, getting it under control. Nice live catch there. He's at two. Just misses that third one. The creep up there. I think Escher needs maybe one more shot. Doesn't quite get there. And Raymond pulls it off. Wow. 32 seconds. Super quick, like we said. And it came down to who made those misses. one thing to keep in mind too jack this match could decide who wins the new stern pinball machine if raymond wins here he will win his second heads up championship and he'll win a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball machine. I'm ready. Both players going for the full plunge again. Both players getting to the right flipper quickly. Escher misses his first lock shot. Raymond misses his first lock shot. Raymond's out of control to slingshots, and Escher makes his first lock. Got to wait for that animation. Gives Raymond time to catch up here, but he doesn't have the ball in the right flipper. The backhand fails for him. He's still out of control. Yeah, surprise. Guys, that is the second, third backhand shot Raymond's gone for, and no one has successfully made that shot. Escher is ahead still. Raymond did make a lot. Escher makes another one, and he wins. Boom, and that is what he was looking for to stay in this. It is now tied up one to one. The next winner is the winner. Is that the best way to put that? This is do or die. This is it. But let's talk about that match. Incredible. I mean, it was so close. it came down to both players did make mistakes. They had the room to maneuver. Raymond had to give up on his backhand strategy. Escher wasn't making his early forehand shots. He was in the pop bumpers, costing him valuable time. I will say, Ray hung out with the backhand strategy a lot longer than I think any other competitor did. He seemed like he was confident he was going to nail that shot. Three times he missed that, and it just did not connect. You know, maybe playing a bit with his food. He had that ball on the left flipper. He couldn't get it over the right. He was hitting in the slingshots too much He wasn't controlling the ball Settling down and focusing on making the shots from the right flipper. Well, good job Escher It is now tied up one to one. This is going to be awesome because you know We've seen players so focused on hitting these shots now The world is their oyster the world under glass, of course and they have to come up with the plan to get the most points and execute that plan, they may need backup strategies. Is it going to be going for a multiball? You have to wait for those animations. Is it going to be starting an episode? Is it going to be going for training? Are we going to be training on purpose? This is choose-your-own-adventure at this point. Someone might have seen that, like, hey, I'm actually able to bang out this multiball really quick, so I'll go with that thing that I've been doing this entire tournament. Number to look at, the score, the bottom left of the screen on both players' playfields. Whoever has the higher score after two minutes wins. Three, two, one. And here we go. We're both plunging into the pop bumpers, getting our bonus shot up there. We're looking for some control here. Both of them not quite hit anything. Escher drains first, as does Raymond. If this was a race, Escher just won that. So two drains, ten seconds in. but Escher's right into his multiball by shooting the right ramp. Just one shot with Donatello to make that right ramp and start Turtle Power multiball. So you'll see the playfield is just lit up right now. We have our Bo Staff hurry up on the left coming in from Escher, which starts his character's skill shock. Again, we made everyone start with Donatello. The interesting thing about Donatello is one shot to the right ramp starts your multiball, and that's why we're seeing multiball action from both competitors. Right, so they're on the four ball multiball with turtle power multiball here. Both making jackpots, both with opportunities to make super jackpots at some of these tougher shots here. Jackpot, where are you? Oh geez, falling over. So a few things going on in the play field right now. Escher has a lot of shots towards April, as does Raymond. If they can spell April, it lights up a hurry up on the right ramp. We'll see if that is activated by any of our players here. Escher's playfield going nuts with a bunch of jackpots. He does have a slight edge here of a Raymond, but Raymond is not far behind at all. So we have a super jackpot for both players under the left flipper, the upper left flipper, but it looks like Raymond has drained out of multiball. Escher just drains out of multiball there too. Nails the jackpot at the last second. Super jackpot for a million points, which is huge in a game with scoring like this. Raymond does get the ball save out the left out lane. He misses his upper playfield shot there. He does make a ball lock. He hit the backhand. Raymond hit the backhand. Oh, he needed that in his other challenge. He hits a side ramp there, too. That's some good points. Can he get back ahead of Escher? Four, three, two, one. Hands off the flippers. All right. They get to collect these points. Still bouncing around, Raymond. Put a ball in the pop bumpers. Let's see if it's enough to clinch. Wow, this could get some bonus acts. This could be really good. Look at all these points he's getting. Not even touching. Arms crossed. Oh! That's right. Escher with 5 million. Raymond Davidson only pulling out 4.1. Congratulations to Escher Lefkoff for winning the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Stern Heads Up Pinball Invitational. All these folks were invited. They were invited for a reason. They're amazing competitors. And Escher bested them all. Congratulations again. I can't wait for the next Stern Heads Up Invitational tournament. I think it's going to be a blast. I think people are going to be really excited to play in these. And, hey, who doesn't like winning a brand-new Stern pinball machine? I want one. So stay tuned because you could be invited to the next Stern Heads Up Pinball Invitational. Until then, see you guys later. Love you, Internet. you

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 1b53926b-5e81-4558-af51-312a25f61d7b*