# Avengers: Infinity Quest Stern Heads-Up Pinball Invitational

**Source:** Stern Pinball  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2021-03-13  
**Duration:** 55m 27s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-FzWxRnTis

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## Analysis

Stern Pinball's Heads-Up Invitational tournament features eight top-level competitors from the Chicagoland area competing in head-to-head matches on Avengers Infinity Quest for a chance to win a brand new machine. The tournament uses a bracket system with random challenge selection, showcasing competitive pinball skill across multiple game modes. Round one results: Andy Bagwell defeats Jason Wardrick, Rebecca Hinsdale defeats Rachel Karlick (her sister), Anna Neal defeats Nick Wayna, and Zach Parks defeats Jane Forwise.

### Key Claims

- [MEDIUM] Andy Bagwell is top 500 in the world in competitive pinball and has only been playing competitively for two and a half years — _Andy's self-introduction in player profile segment_
- [MEDIUM] Jason Wardrick has been playing competitive pinball for 30 years and is the most experienced player in the tournament — _Jason's self-introduction in player profile segment_
- [MEDIUM] Nick Wayna's father has been making pinball machines for about 25 years, and his mother was one of the first female tournament players in the 1990s — _Nick's self-introduction in player profile segment_
- [HIGH] Jane Forwise competed in a previous Stern Heads-Up Invitational and won a super secret challenge on the pinball machine — _Tim Sexton's commentary about Jane's prior tournament participation_
- [MEDIUM] Zach Parks has been playing and winning competitive pinball tournaments since age 12, and his mother is a pinball world champion — _Zach's self-introduction and Jack Danger's confirmation about attending his bar mitzvah_

### Notable Quotes

> "I've only been playing competitive pinball for about two and a half years, but I'm already top 500 in the world, and I'm also Chicago's best competitive six-foot-six pinball player."
> — **Andy Bagwell**, ~4:30
> _Establishes Andy as a fast-rising competitive talent despite short tenure in tournaments_

> "I've been playing competitive pinball for 30 years, and I have a wall full of trophies to prove it. I'm the most experienced player in the group, and winning this is going to be a walk in the park."
> — **Jason Wardrick**, ~5:30
> _Illustrates overconfidence that leads to Jason's first-round elimination to Andy_

> "My pinball mantra is 'it's fine.' That's so I don't get in my head. I gotta remember it's fine."
> — **Nick Wayna**, ~23:00
> _Reveals mental strategy for managing competitive stress in time-pressured challenges_

> "When she gets locked in, she's one of the hardest people in pinball to beat."
> — **Zach Parks**, ~32:45
> _Establishes Jane Forwise as a formidable competitor despite her relative inexperience_

> "I think training actually helped her settle her down. She was missing that shot, plunged it, went right up there on that plunge combo, nails it."
> — **Jack Danger**, ~37:15
> _Highlights importance of preparation and knowledge of game mechanics in clutch moments_

> "Rebecca just destroying the spinner on there... Rebecca made that look easy. One super strong shot to that spinner."
> — **Tim Sexton**, ~51:00
> _Emphasizes Rebecca's dominant semifinal performance against Anna Neal_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Avengers Infinity Quest | game | Recent Stern Pinball release used as the competition game for the Stern Heads-Up Pinball Invitational tournament |
| Stern Heads-Up Pinball Invitational | event | Head-to-head tournament organized by Stern Pinball where eight top competitors play challenge-based matches for a prize of a new pinball machine |
| Andy Bagwell | person | 35-year-old competitive pinball player from Chicago area; top 500 ranked; defeated Jason Wardrick in round one |
| Jason Wardrick | person | 47-year-old from Park Ridge, Illinois; 30 years competitive pinball experience; eliminated in round one by Andy Bagwell |
| Rebecca Hinsdale | person | 38-year-old from Chicago; competitive pinball player; defeated sister Rachel Karlick in round one and Anna Neal in semifinals |
| Rachel Karlick | person | Rebecca Hinsdale's older sister; competitive pinball player; eliminated in round one by Rebecca |
| Anna Neal | person | Competitive pinball player; defeated Nick Wayna in round one; lost to Rebecca Hinsdale in semifinals |
| Nick Wayna | person | 18-year-old from Des Plaines, Illinois; lifetime pinball experience; father makes pinball machines for 25 years; mother was one of first female tournament players in 1990s; eliminated by Anna Neal in round one |
| Zach Parks | person | Competitive pinball player since age 12; mother is pinball world champion; defeated Jane Forwise in round one |
| Jane Forwise | person | Competitive pinball player; previous Stern Heads-Up Invitational participant who won super secret challenge; eliminated in round one by Zach Parks |
| Tim Sexton | person | Stern Pinball representative and tournament commentator providing analysis and rules explanations |
| Jack Danger | person | International pinball personality; tournament commentator; not permitted to play in the invitational; attended Zach Parks' bar mitzvah |
| Stern Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer organizing the Heads-Up Invitational tournament |
| Sideshow Collectibles | company | Sponsor providing Hot Toys One Sixth Scale Thanos collectibles to tournament competitors |
| Funko | company | Sponsor providing Infinity Saga end credits scene boxes with collectible figures to tournament competitors |
| Mondo Fandom | company | Sponsor partnering with City Creative to provide limited edition Ant-Man and Wasp prints to competitors |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Tournament competition and head-to-head gameplay mechanics, Avengers Infinity Quest game rules and challenge strategies, Competitive pinball player profiles and skill development
- **Secondary:** Mental performance management in competitive pinball, Pinball shot execution technique and flipper control, Commercial partnerships and tournament sponsorships

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.82) — Tournament coverage is enthusiastic and celebratory of player skill. Commentators express genuine excitement about competitive moments. Players demonstrate good sportsmanship. Coverage emphasizes the quality of competition and highlights dramatic moments without negativity.

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** Tournament format includes multiple sponsorships and prize integration (Sideshow Collectibles Thanos figures, Funko collectible boxes, Mondo Fandom limited prints) (confidence: high) — Multiple brand partnerships acknowledged; competitors receive branded merchandise from sponsors alongside primary prize
- **[event_signal]** Stern Heads-Up Pinball Invitational tournament format bringing together top regional players for head-to-head challenge-based competition with broadcast commentary (confidence: high) — Official tournament with professional commentators (Tim Sexton, Jack Danger), sponsorships from major brands, structured bracket system with specific game modes
- **[community_signal]** Chicagoland area established as significant competitive pinball hub with top-tier regional players (confidence: high) — Tournament features eight players 'from the Chicagoland area' with multiple described rivalries; Tim Sexton emphasizes 'these are all top competitors'
- **[announcement]** Avengers Infinity Quest confirmed as recent Stern Pinball release being actively promoted through tournament play (confidence: high) — Tournament is played on Avengers Infinity Quest; winner receives new machine of this model; Tim Sexton describes it as 'Great new game from Stern Pinball'

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## Transcript

foreign welcome to the stern heads-up pinball invitational a head-to-head challenge based tournament where the winner takes home a brand new stern pinball machine i'm imoto and at the desk tonight we have stern pinball's tim sexton and international pinball sensation jack danger tim how the heck are you i'm doing great jack i'm so excited to be here again today the competitors are playing for a brand new avengers infinity quest pinball machine jealous absolutely jealous that they still don't let me play in this dang thing sorry jack you still can't play we're gonna see some great competition today we have tons of challenges we are playing on the avengers infinity quest pinball machine and it is a blast great new game from stern pinball this is gonna be a ton of fun the stern heads up pinball invitational features eight top level players going head to head randomly paired against each other in a best two out of three matchup they play on various challenges on the game chosen by a random challenge generator the first person to win a challenge earns the win and the first person to win the best of three moves on to the next round thanks tim now let's take a look at the player list all of these players hail from the chicagoland area they've battled each other so many times and let me tell you now there are some fierce rivalries going on here tonight that's a great list of players jack these are all top competitors all of them love avengers too i know they've been studying they've been playing this game like crazy we've also seen some unique approaches to how to play this and defeat some of the challenges so you're going to learn a lot here as well as just you know sit back relax and be entertained by some hot pinball action can't wait to get started we randomly selected the player matchup and first up is andy bagwell versus jason wardrick let's learn more about these guys now my name's andy bagwell and i'm 35 years old i've only been playing competitive pinball for about two and a half years but i'm already top 500 in the world and i'm also chicago's best competitive six foot six pinball player yeah i've only practiced for this tournament for one hour but i've spent uh about a hundred playing avengers already best six foot six pinball player in chicago huh well it's good that my best six foot seven pinball player trophy still stands yeah unfortunately i came in a dismal 17th place at the five foot six pinball competition last year so no trophy for me sorry hi my name is jason wardrick i'm 47 years old and i'm from park ridge illinois i've been playing competitive pinball for 30 years and i have a wall full of trophies to prove it i'm the most experienced player in the group and winning this is going to be a walk in the park jason is experienced but he's been playing these old school trap up take your time tournaments the heads up pinball invitational is lightning speed you have to be hitting your shots not missing and taking no time to think all right it's time to head to that challenge generator and see what's up first start gemquest to start gemquest hit the doctor strange slingering disc to spell strange and open the portal drop the ball right in that portal scoop and you're good to go yeah yep oh god i'm up to annie badwell first oh jason in round one love it i didn't expect to play any until the finals all right so the objective here is just to hit the sling ring the spinning disc there spell strange it'll come up and just put a ball inside it looks like jason is already there it's already up can jason's backhanded i can't believe you got that in one spin jason puts it right in yeah that's how you do it so glad i did that the fastest against andy 15 seconds that was so fast i didn't even have a chance to talk i was just watching did you see jason's excitement there also he exploded he's like he knew he nailed that i think he knew that was a time no one could be in this whole competition so he was happy fantastic work holy smokes that was fast let's go to the challenge generator and see what the next one is to collect black widow just shoot that left ramp three times if you just try to shoot the ramp three times in a row it goes uh you gotta hit another switch first then come back around and shoot the black widow ramp again three shots right off the middle though should be pretty quick both players take a full plunge here which feeds to the right flipper and both players miss the left black widow ramp looks like andy hit his first one there and he's going to shoot the orbit actually to set it up to the right flipper and he nails it again wow only one shot left another perfect shot to the orbit excellent work andy bagwell boom it's all about those combos when it comes to knocking those black widow ramps out well i think that helped him because that rule didn't come into play he shot that right orbit every time that hit his switch reset the count he didn't get blocked from advancing his black widow shot perfect execution didn't miss a shot even though you can hit that ramp from both bottom flippers i feel like it favors the right foot yeah and that's a really steep ramp too sometimes you shoot with the left flipper if you don't nail it just right it'll come right back down those players sure do make it look easy let's go to the challenge generator start thor multiball to start thor multiball shoot the thor captive ball five times and you're ready to go yeah this one a lot easier to hit it from the left flipper almost impossible to hit that thor captive ball from the right flipper may technically be possible on a perfect setup but players are going to want to be transferring the ball from the right flipper to the left a lot and hitting their thor captain ball and it can get frustrating if you miss it because the ball can get out of control super easily i'm excited to see if we get some right backhands into that multiball though they are fun when they happen but i think the left flipper being controlled with it is going to be the way to go for this one all right this is see who moves on a full plunge we're on the right pass over to the left flipper and they both nail it at the same time all right we both got a t we're looking for some control here andy does miss the shot and jason's a little out of control here and he goes for another shot of the left flipper does not make it goes for the live catch we're both looking for something you can tell jason is very frustrated with what's going on right now so that cool light show happens every single time you get another hit andy's out all the way up to his oh that's three shots jason's still looking for that second thor shot he looks like he's going for it on the back end and that didn't work oh we are one shot away from andy goes for the passover can he nail it and he takes it home well done andy for moving on replay that was so cool at the beginning where both players hit that first thor letter at the exact same time if that was the race we'd need to go back in frame by frame then i think andy may have had a micro second advantage on that first door hit that's what carried him to victory oh yeah he knew he was in the lead and jason started getting a little crazy with it those back hands from the right flipper were missing a little too late wasn't hitting it andy kept going for the passover to the left flipper and then nailing that shot and it looks like from that match andy is our first player moving on to the semifinals jason unfortunately is eliminated in round one good run buddy yeah told you jason yeah and then we all know with pinball anything is possible it's balls wild so you never know so you never know so definitely want to definitely come back and prove i am the best uh you know and can win this so let's go oh you'll get them next time jason and now for our next player match up rebecca hinsdale versus rachel karlick i'm rebecca hinsdale i'm from chicago illinois and i'm 38 years old i happen to know one of the competitors pretty well rachel she's my sister my strategy for this tournament is to stay calm and cool i'm gonna hit the shots and i'm gonna win hi i'm rachel i'm rebecca's big sister and i taught her everything she knows about pinball my strategy for this tournament is to be a little more in control and reserve with the ball because my sister's in the tournament and i have to beat my sister at pinball rachel's better than me but i'm gonna win you know jack i'm an older brother i taught my brother everything he knows or so i thought until he starts beating me at every competition we've had so sometimes the younger sibling can uh pick it up quick and before you know it they're the better sibling the student becomes the master it's true collect hulk to collect hulk shoot that left orbit spinner spin it 80 times and you're good to go pretty straightforward yeah i wonder if any players will try the secret shooting through the pop bumper strategy it's not as easy and it's way harder to get a lot of spins so i don't think anyone's going to do it but it does help you if you need eight spins 10 spins 12 spins left that might be the way to do it yeah that sounds like a nightmare i'm wearing green hulk better be friendly because i'm supporting i'm supporting your whole look dude okay so i'm ready hulk i'm ready for a hole both players take that full plunge and both of them nail the spinner right away both get down to about 60 spins remaining and now rebecca takes a shot oh didn't quite get it just a couple spins there and rachel's a bit out of control all right we're looking to get another 60 spins essentially out of both players here a good comfortable shot there it is coming in from rachel feeds down to the left flipper we're just trying to get some control rebecca throwing it off to the right there there it is on the right flipper smashes that spinner we're up to 30. uh who's going to get control here they're keeping it neck and neck this is as tight as it can be yeah perfect set up there and rachel well is she going to get it oh four left oh and she drains down the middle so that gives rebecca an opportunity to catch up here oh oh she's got four oh come on come on come on come on rachel's not there yet she's uh waiting for some animations to play does not have the ball in play rebecca still has not hit that spinner yet oh we need some control on that right flipper here you go rebecca set up rachel needs to get the ball over and misses unfortunately again who is going to be the first to get this i just need four more spins come on you're starting all kinds of features but not the four hulks but she needs one more quick cracking rebecca catches up down to four and she nails it right there beautiful i know you were my man i knew you were my man wow that was head to head neck and neck the entire time sister versus sister and rebecca walks away with it i think rachel knew she only had that one shot left and then you start thinking oh it's just this one shot i just gotta make it i gotta make it i gotta make it and you just psych yourself out of it that's nerves coming into play that's everything you gotta settle down and really think okay how am i gonna make this shot what kind of technique do you use when you have one shot left uh i flail a lot and miss a lot which seems to be the case with a lot of people sometimes it works yeah all right well let's get to another challenge let's hit the random challenge oh i got this one you've got this one rebecca you got it a lot of spinner challenges here this time they're going to spell strange by rotating the disc it's going to pop up get a ball inside of it by shooting it from any of the flippers and you're in gemquest i am ready for the gym rest when you guys i'm so ready let's do this all right last time we saw this this went pretty quick we just got to hit that sling green spinning disc and a great shot coming out of rachel's side she just needs maybe one more good whack at it rebecca looking for anything to hit that i'm so nervous there you go right flipper for rachel can she smash it from rachel though she's got it open waiting for it and oh beautiful shot that was a great shot right off the post back into the disc she wins come on it's squeaked in there on that one rachel had a big league but rebecca had a crazy shot to spell strange in pretty much one hit and both of those discs came up the right time well they both came up at the same time but it looks like rebecca may have missed this was just a matter of half a second that rachel was able to get that ball in there rebecca missed it a little late and that was the difference in there in that challenge it's all tied up one to one let's head back to the challenge generator to see what the tie-breaking challenge will be all right so black widow we saw this before it's just hitting that middle ramp three times to take it home the black widow to black panther was a combo that i practiced the most so i'm really hoping that if memory serves me well but i didn't totally watch this one but we'll see we'll see you're only as good as the shot that you make oh natasha you better be nice to me girl widow you better be nice to me girl all right i'm ready let's do it i'm ready and we're off we got a full punch from both competitors we're shooting up the middle ramp and both missed that was the side ramp there coming out of rachel uh we need a little bit of control rebecca finally gets the ball another unfortunate miss up the middle there yes the ball is still a little out of control once these players dial in the shot i think this will go a little bit better they're just looking for that black widow wrap right now now hitting anything when there's a time constraint is always nerve-racking so we've got something coming in there we go the first one skis it over and oh just misses her second shot there rebecca finally hits her first shot rachel has one left one to go hey oh but that one's not going to count because she has to hit another switch first oh she's going for it again does she know this still didn't count oh rebecca gets a chance to catch up now rachel you can see it's frustrated both down to one it hasn't hit the shot yet look for those right flipper shots oh a little in the middle there backhands it from rebecca and she's moving on to the next oh my god i got it man i like never beat rachel oh rachel at the end there pointing out oh yeah you gotta hit another shot before you hit the black widow ramp so she had two shots that didn't count because that split second she forgot that little nuance of the rules that cost her that allowed her sister to catch up and take away the entire challenge i think she did really well because i taught her how to play pinball rachel you put up a good fight you did i got it next time i'm coming for you little sister as i predicted the younger sister is moving on to the semi-finals before we move on to the next matchup we'd like to thank our sponsor sideshow collectibles they gave all of our competitors a hot toys one sixth scale thanos collectible have you seen this thing jack i was told that i'm not allowed to touch it because i'd probably destroy it from playing with it yeah it looks amazing fully articulated hands and it's just very detailed that's an awesome prize for our competitors thank you so much all right let's get back to it there's four more players left let's see our next match up we have anna neal versus nick wayna hi i'm anna and i work hard and i play harder when it comes to pinball and i'm ready to win this tournament i i just like to be i just like a a competition my pinball mantra is it's fine that's so i don't get two in my head i gotta remember it's fine i drained everyone drains it'll be fine it's fine it's just a pinball machine yeah yeah whatever it's fine my name is nick wayne i'm 18 years old and i'm from des plaines illinois my dad's been making pinball machines for about 25 years and my mom in the 90s was one of the first female tournament players i think playing pinball for my entire life will give me a big advantage in this competition yeah he no longer needs a step stool to play he is one of the top competitors in the game right now let's see what their battle is going to be off to the random challenge generator collect hulk again is just shooting the left orbit to collect 80 spins or whatever tim said earlier yeah my weird impossible strategy probably won't see that shoot the left wow that plunge did not work out so well for nick actually worked out great he nails the spinner on his first go oh drains it right down the middle so anna's still looking for her first shot all right a nice little hit there to the left spinner doesn't really do too much but nick does manage to smash it to collect a whole bunch of spins yeah he actually had the pop-ups help him there push it behind and back through the spinner again and anna makes another nice shot there oh we are keeping this close again i'm loving these hulk challenges so now the player's got to set it up and if she's a little early a lot early there seven spins coming in from nick can he get it anna does smash it and she gets it wow just on the last second there it looked like her spinner may not have had enough juice but it just took her over that threshold and she collects hulk that matchup was really interesting to me because the players were kind of all over the place with their strategies they just wanted to keep the ball going and hope they picked up some spins it's a little different than the settle down and shoot strategy we saw some other players yeah i remember i i struggled to get that last seven spins and in my mind i was like oh i only need seven more that's so little whew i got one on him at least so that's 1-0 anna up on nick let's go to our random challenge generator and see what our next challenge is going to be to start the hawkeye challenge hit the three hawkeye stand-up targets that get that ball to the avengers tower as fast as possible yeah there's an insert that lights up when it's ready so you know the player has that ready all you have to do is shoot to the top of the tower get the ball stuck on the magnet and that starts the hawkeye challenge hot guy coming in from both players nick goes for the black widow ramp anna does nail her first hawkeye target up the middle there nick now has his top one as well we are two targets away anna does get a nice bounce into the hawkeye target on the far right she just needs the middle one which happens to be one of the most difficult shots to make yeah you can usually only hit it off that upper flipper she's going to try to set it up with those right ramp shots there that's the hot guy combo instead oh going for another hawkeye combo uh they're using feeding up that flipper up top oh wait so okay oh she got it there so when you make a hawkeye combo that's a one in six chance to light all your targets she has it lit and i think if she notices here off this plunge she just has to hit the tower to start it and she there he is does she notice does she go she does it she got it she didn't get it she got it hey there we go did i win can we watch it again oh there's so many sneaky ways of getting these awards yeah this game's a little bit crazy with the rules you can hit so many weird special awards random awards and stuff and she just happened to light her hawkeye combo she was going for that target over and over again by accident gets it lit she noticed she started it and she's moving on to the semi-finals that was great timing we'd also like to thank our sponsor funko for supplying to all of our players the infinity saga end credits scene box that has a nick fury funko pop a captain america funko pop all sorts of swag inside so shout out to you funko thanks guys that's awesome and now we are at our final match up for round one which leaves us with zach parks versus jane for wise let's meet these players now hi i'm zach i've been playing and winning competitive pinball tournaments since i was 12 years old although i think the only reason i'm in this tournament is because my mom invited jack danger to my bar mitzvah my mom is a pinball world champion and she actually taught me how to play pinball and now i love it like true story i did go to his bar mitzvah and hooked him up with some cool pinball stuff that's awesome hi i'm jane i can't believe i've been invited back to the shoopies i was really nervous last time but this time i've been practicing and i have a lot of new tricks up my sleeve i don't like playing games unless there's a score being kept so i guess you could say that makes me a competitive person yeah so last time jane battled all eight players in the competition and won the super secret challenge on the pinball machine and she's back here we know she's a great competitor she knows how to win i'm going up against jane jane is such a good competitor um when she gets locked in she's one of the hardest people in pinball to beat this is the moment we've all been waiting for to start black panther hit that right orbit three times i think this is one of the few challenges where you can say for sure you can only hit the shot with the left flipper at least almost only hit it with the left flipper but you want to set that shot up super late on the left flipper goes all the way around the orbit doesn't have to make it all the way if it even comes back into the pop bumpers it still counts oh you don't have any like super secret different way of getting this not for this one jack i think it's just three shots to the right orbit perfect and ready i'm ready both players taking a full punch here it sets the right flipper zach passes over to left flipper and he shoots his first shot right away oh ski passes it over hits his thor captain ball jane's still looking for her first shot all right so who's gonna get the next shot here zach does manage to hit another one he's one away you just need that far right orbit a great little bounce pass there looking for control oh does he get it yes he nails it that counts halfway halfway up the ramp as long as it goes around wow so 23 seconds that was super quick to hit the right orbit three times i don't think zack missed a shot there he did exactly what he wanted to do absolutely one down i did not beat zach it's a quick 1-0 for zach now let's go to our random challenge generator and see what's next all right so start hawkeye as we saw before is hitting those three hawkeye targets it'll light up the light on the tower shoot up there but we did see something interesting where there was a bingo grid award that you could collect to give you all three yeah so the key thing to pay attention to in this one is is that insert lit you want to check that because you might get it off of the grid award or you might get it from the combo or you might just hit those targets and not know it so make sure that insert's lit shoot the tower all the way up to the magnet you'll start hawkeye challenge i'm ready okay i'm ready and we're off wait jane's not plunging okay here she goes this was a really tough challenge when she locks into a great target there actually exactly two oh no he didn't he's still rotating so he's going for the targets and he's got one of them so far jane looks like she's going for her grit award yeah isn't bothering with the actual target she's trying to complete it and she did she just has to shoot the tower oh hits the flipper she get control zack's going for that target from the bottom flipper as well he's only got the one more target left still in this thing he's going for it the setup there oh just missed again jane using the black widow ramp to transfer the ball that momentum to do a ski pass and shooting up top and oh it didn't count and it went right down the middle too so she's gotta wait for this bonus animation zack drains two he needs to hit that last target oh wow boom what a shot from jane that was a that was a whole lot of like it was there the whole time go okay that made me happy it was really close i think training actually helped her settle her down she was missing that shot plunged it go right up there on that plunge combo nails it what's interesting is jane knew about that grid thing the whole time yeah i was wondering why she wasn't plunging but she was actually waiting for her roving award to lock in on the spot bullseye award and then completing the target bank spotted all the targets for her and gave her the hawkeye challenge lit on the tower that's doing your homework collect hulk uh-oh i'm ready jane's a really great competitor so she's going to be really locked in okay we got 80 spins to collect full punches coming from both players zach does manage to smash it to grab a good 25 spins there 20-ish we got to get some control jane still looking for a shot to that left orbit does manage to pick up a good amount of spins there we're keeping it close neck and neck 57-54 tied it back up so players are looking for that left orbit this on the fly stuff has been difficult for both players a lot of them have been hitting the slingshots chain tickles it there gets a few spins not too many more spins all right we're keep we're within two spins of each other both trapped up on the right great shot from zach and a decent shot from jane those little sort of half shots you're getting some action but you're not getting everything you need boom oh and zack nails it there and he moves on with a great spinner rip at the very end yeah what's interesting about the the hulk shot especially for me my brain doesn't connect with that shot all the time and i do also hit the tip of that flipper or those drop targets constantly so the fact that they're getting consistent shots kudos replay yeah jane was making sure every single time she would settle down with the ball trapped on the right flipper and hit it and that was working for her but zach was able to nail those shots on the fly and that's what moves him on to the semi-finals well sometimes practice doesn't make perfect now before we get into the semi-finals we'd like to thank our sponsor mondo fandom city creative designed this beautiful ant-man and the wasp limited edition print and mondo is giving each one of our competitors one tonight thank you all so much well welcome to the semifinals one of these four players is going home with a brand new avengers infinity quest pinball machine let's see what our next player matchup is rebecca hinsdale versus anna neal oh this is gonna be good i can't believe it oh my god that's great anna anna i'm sorry i'm gonna have to knock you out it's gonna be me rebecca you hear that uh rebecca versus anna two great competitors so far and definitely two ladies that have battled each other plenty of times in tournaments throughout the midwest here yeah and i think these two players came in with the least experience and they crushed it in round one now they're up head to head let's see who moves on i'm ready i'm ready ready to see what's next start gemquest this is the one where you can use any flipper to spell strange by hitting the disc once it comes all the way up and you gotta wait for it to come all the way up or you might not get it in there then you'll start your gem quest and that's how you win the challenge semi-final ready both competitors doing a full plunge we got a strong hit coming out of an aside but she does manage to stop the disc from spinning with her own upper flipper shot does get a little under shot there she's trying to sort of spin it to put in a good place to nail it rebecca finally just destroying the spinner on there and i believe she's ready it's coming up rebecca just needs to shoot inside and she does rebecca made that look easy one super strong shot to that spinner spelled strange all the way and then lets it trap up shoot right right in the disc and it starts the gem quest in the bucket amazing and sad for me i'm feeling good i'm feeling good i mean just getting to the second round is exciting oh no okay you're multiball pretty simple challenge you spell t-h-o-r and then hit the captain ball one more time to start thor multiball bring the hammer down on thor and i'm ready she is ready alex she's got her game face on one all right the player's taking their full plunges to that right flipper both try the ski pass and it doesn't quite work out for either player gets her first shot on the captain ball so she has one shot so far rebecca's still looking for her first thor hit rebecca unfortunately drain there so she's gonna have to come back all the way around nice ski pass there from anna doesn't quite connect rebecca finally gets her first shot we are tied up t to t you better get crack-a-lacking girl you gotta lose all right another drain coming in from rebecca she's hopefully this is strategic well anna's pretty close there and she hits her last shot so thor is completely spelled she just needs one more to start the actual multiball oh trying to get control an unfortunate drain that gives rebecca time to catch up falls a little out of control it's bouncing between the slingshot she doesn't have the flipper and she a dreams oh and anna had it set up and nailed it she gets the win there in 55 seconds starting thor multiball beautiful shot we are all tied up now one to one in the semifinal match great competition so far we have to go to our random challenge generator to see what the tiebreaker will be so black panther as we've seen before is just the right orbit three times done and done yeah pretty easy one all you got to do is make sure you're getting the ball of that left flipper either by shooting a shot or by transferring the ball over and make sure you hit that shot nice and clean get the three black panther shots you'll move on both players go with the full plunge and the ski pass they both like that technique but it does not help them make a shot yet and is close here has the ball on the left flipper and she nails her first shot rebecca getting some good dead flips going in there has control on the oh nails that right she has two more to go we are tied up two to two we have more controls there well done one to one we're just looking for that left flipper control rebecca's got it first what's gonna happen oh she misses anna's got a shot right now what's she gonna do oh great comes back that she made it there we go anna's moving on to our finals congratulations anna neal did i just do it amazing i can't believe i am i in the finals down to the very last minute it was that one shot that i missed if i would have hit that shot i would have gotten through wow so exciting to see there anna's the first player moving on to the finals she has a now one in two chance to win a brand new stern pinball machine she has to feel good about how she's played so far i'm in the finals for real uh she's been showing up and taking names and her gameplay has been pretty stellar so far and i'm excited to see what she does in the very last battle so before we see the last semi-finals match up we want to thank diamond select toys for all the cool marvel collectibles that each player is winning today which means our next player matchup is gonna be andy bagwell versus zack parks let's get it oh my god i i knew it i knew it it was it was meant to be i'm really good friends with this guy he's fantastic he is my local arch-nemesis uh we're good friends but when we're playing competitively it's it's all business we've been trying to get a match against each other like in a serious playoff for a long time so so let's see what their first challenge is by heading over to the random challenge generator black widow remember you can't just farm that shot out you've got to hit something else in between shots and andy's technique in round one to shoot the ramp and then the right orbit to feed it seemed to be working really well let's see if that works for him here i'm ready okay ready when you are three one okay full plunges again seems to be the way to go we both go for a straight shot for a black widow and he does manage to nail it zach is looking for a little bit of control here i'm missing black widow wow i cannot hit that but andy does make a left flipper shot there and he's going to go for that orbit but he didn't make it but he's got a trap in the left flip and we'll just do it and it does oh that was quick yep and andy gets a quick win there 1-0 on zach it looks like andy may be steamrolling his way through the competition here i don't think he has looked like he is missing any of these challenges well he is the best six foot six pinball player in chicago boom i don't i don't even know that was that was too good both players of course are looking for this key first shot and they hit their spinners perfectly in sync there wow both at 58 57 spins that was awesome nice zach manages to hit another shot he's down to 30 so far andy also manages to hit it again we're keeping it neck at 33 to 33. this could not be any closer i love that we're tied 33 33 right now a little flutter flip there all right we're both trapped on the right there another great rip from zack parks down to eight spins he only needs one more will he take my crazy dangerous route or will he go for the regular shot don't do it hey nelson great win zach parks tying it up one to one whoo i was getting nervous there andy early on was really nailing that i want to take spinner look at the very beginning of that challenge one more time as soon as we said go both players take a full plunge and they nail their spinner perfectly in sync ending up just one spin different from each other wild it almost looked like the exact same screen being played and then later they tied it up again at 33 spins each it was neck and neck until zach made some great shots to pull ahead these gentlemen showing why they're in the semifinals right now so once again we're all tied up one to one this is the last match whoever wins this is moving on to the finals well let's not waste any time getting to the random challenge generator and see what the battle is i think it's going to be really close i felt confident on this challenge but based on how andy's been playing i'm pretty nervous thor spell thor then hit it one more time just do it ready all right we're looking for the captive ball shots on the far right great ski pass from both players they both hit the captain marvel ramp missing the shot this is ignored yes oh my god that was very funny we both chose to backhand i found that to be a really safe return yeah so the slingshot's coming to play a lot of this oh zach nails the backhand to tie it up but andy hits another thor shot oh looked like he tried to go for another backhand there didn't quite pan out but a good direct shot from the left flipper both players are trying to get these live catches down zach is getting these backhands this is crazy we haven't seen anything like this but andy's still in the lead he's just got one shot left and he nails it squeak it out zach was ready he got it nice nice job andy oh yes replay one thing i want to go back to real quick andy made a textbook perfect live catch in that one he flipped the flipper at exactly the time of the ball there and it stopped it dead to set him up for the next thor shot oh it's gorgeous he he may have gotten me this time but i'll be back for revenge so now we know who our final match up is going to be andy moves on to face anna in our finals for a brand new stern pinball machine this is going to be an exciting matchup wait wait before we move on to finals we have to do the super secret challenge this is seriously my favorite part of the competition and this time our sponsor is arcade one up and we're mixing it up a little bit this time for our pinball players because we're gonna make them play a video game yep that's right marvel superheroes on the arcade one up cabinet whoever beats captain america first wins their very own arcade one up cabinet wait so we're playing a video game in the stern heads-up pinball invitational yeah if i heard correctly not only playing the video game the winner gets to bring it home and this is a special limited edition arcade one yeah this it's beautiful it's got thanos like kicking everyone's it's amazing well this is gonna be pretty cool i think because it's a fighting game you got the health meter yeah very easy to follow if your health is gone you're done it's the best two out of three you gotta beat captain america twice when i found out that it was a video game challenge i immediately my throat dropped because if there's anything that i am not good at it's playing a fighting game um i was shocked uh first off because i thought it was going to be like the other tournaments where it was just you know a random challenge i didn't know it was going to be a video game but luckily during quarantine i've been playing video games so it didn't intimidate me as much oh man okay well all right let's see what we got going on here everyone elected their players everyone's battling captain america we got a lot of wolverine on the screen the berserker come on wolverine you got this all i know is to watch the health bars yeah we're looking for some good hits on captain america there no one's pulled away with it yet i i don't think i'm gonna even finish round one but it was so much fun playing this jason's looking pretty good right now he's already gotten down half hell okay it looks like jason's actually got something down here captain is more than halfway gone he did take a big hit there uh jason seems to know com combos in this game oh but he looks like he might uh get hurt a little bit here jane is super close as well and rebecca's catching up too oh nick almost super low nick has him on the ropes as well let's see oh cool i got him first super armor who's got super armor what oh he got me right there i was about to kill him okay so nick jane andy right now are our top three all right looking good i see wolverine wins up my screen right next to jane so am i still in the first round sweet rachel is now moving on to round two anna's throwing rocks and flying around the screen like i think she's underground here jade's just like comboing like punches left and right jane's up against a powered up captain america right now he loses to captain america he's got to go into round three so it's between jane andy and rachel i think james almost got it one hit and jane takes this oh and jane gets it there ko magneto wins jane takes it with magneto congratulations jane jane got it she she did it super fast jane's good at gaming man she's she's a tough one i won again so this pinball thing doesn't work out you know maybe fighting games are in my future so it turns out it doesn't matter what the competition is as long as it's up against eight players jane takes it home jane's gonna win well congratulations jane for winning the arcade one up challenge and taking home her own marvel superheroes arcade cabinet yeah that's awesome i am really happy for her and she's proving why she's one of the best competitors we have in pinball competitors yeah she did welcome oh no no welcome to the stern head-to-head pinball invitational finals championship thanks jack we are here with the last two competitors it is andy versus anna in our two minute drill competition the most points after two minutes is the one who's going to win a brand new stern pinball machine yep the only rule here is to get as high a score as you can before time runs out should be straightforward i can't wait to see the approaches each player takes so let's talk about how this works the whole play field is open up for you now you need to go for multi-balls you're going to go for modes so you're going to just collect your avengers that could be a strategy too there were some points mystery awards drop targets there's all sorts of ways to earn more score in that two minutes not very long of window nope not at all especially with some of the things that require some build up to actually get this game sort of humming but we have seen some pretty good scores coming in from the challenges too so uh yeah i'm just excited to see what they do our final match up andy bagwell versus anna neal let's get it oh it's anna awesome oh no it's andy i said i wasn't nervous when i played but i'm nervous right now so well let's see how the players approach this match in this final match up the two-minute drill winner wins a brand new stern pinball we are off with the two-minute drill both players going for their super skill shot oh andy misses and anna gets it that gets her a million points in the lead over andy but it does keep the ball up there for a little long time well a million points was actually quite a big deficit there andy did manage to catch up pretty quick but missing the skill shot also give him a few letters on strange for his gem quest so i don't see anyone going after that captive ball yet it looks like players are collecting their avengers getting some points off the miscellaneous features no one spelled strange yet either yeah we got some work to do here uh we got into the mystery hole over on anna's side what does that give her spot captain marvel shots that's huge yeah that actually spots you the points from all those shots as well too so it's safe for doing all that extra work that gave her a nice catch up and andy is ready to start his gem quest what all he has to do is put the ball into the sling ring he manages a captain marvel shot doesn't quite make the shot and shakes the game looks like he may be trying to get some stuff set up here before he goes into his gem quest and it looks like anna all right andy makes it in he just has to choose a gem he's wasting time by not picking one immediately and just rolling with it you know he seems frustrated i think he wanted to get that portal 2 ball started so he had two balls going into the gem quest and he took a bad ricochet to get into there that's quite unfortunate but he's still going in that mode yeah he has to focus this is for everything the brand new pinball machine all right so he's back on the sling ring spelling strange again we have 30 seconds left and the players have kept it neck and neck this entire time oh where are we going to go where are we oh anna snags 2 million so now anna has spelled strange and she's going gonna go right into there to start her quest why did i do that i don't think that was smart andy started going for his thor multiball maybe too little too late he only has five seconds left he is getting points out of nowhere here but anna's keeping that lead and she manages to maintain that lead oh but it's going to come down to bonus here will andy have enough to pull ahead 147 not enough bonus does not do it holy cow anna is the winner did i win holy moly that is amazing that is flipping i can't believe it what the whole thing this is so exciting i can't believe that um we were so neck and neck in that thing oh congrats anna i can't believe it i can't believe i won yeah congratulations anna congratulations i think she's excited she's gonna be taking home a brand new certain pinball machine i don't think she's ever won a brand new stern pinball machine before well she better figure out where to put it because she's getting one and anna came in super nonchalant to this whole competition and just kept her focused remember it's fine everything's fine uh congratulations also to andy for making it this far an awesome competitor for sure but anna cannot be stopped jack this entire thing has been a blast i'm so happy we get to do this i'm so happy to we get to see these amazing competitors and this great competition what an amazing format to compete during this whole thing it's been awesome yeah it the the heads up tournament styles it's fast it's furious uh and hopefully it allows you at home a way to understand things a little bit better and um yeah shout out to all of our sponsors for gifting all of the players awesome swag and again congratulations to anna neil for walking home with a brand new pinball machine we'll see you all at the next stern heads up pinball invitational

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 3b9d05cf-7d8a-48af-8481-bbb9075ef0fa*