# Resigned Discord or Hopeful Energy

**Source:** NYC PinPod  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2026-02-16  
**Duration:** 71m 11s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.spreaker.com/episode/resigned-discord-or-hopeful-energy--70071238

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## Analysis

NYC PinPod hosts Benjamin Furiga and Eric Sweetland recap January-February 2026 NYC pinball tournament season, covering state championships, league results, and venue updates. Dante Oliva emerges as dominant player winning multiple major events. The hosts discuss personal reflections on over-indexing pinball in their lives and invite community participation in future episodes. Significant venue changes noted at Gebhardt's and new machines arriving at various locations.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Dante Oliva won three major tournaments within one week (state championship, Oops All Mats, Barcade FIDE monthly) — _Direct tournament results from podcast; hosts independently verified details_
- [HIGH] As of February 13, 2026, there are 357 pinball machines in NYC at 76 public locations — _Data from Pinball Map creators; cited as official tracking source_
- [HIGH] Bells and Chimes NYC season had 44 players total participate — _Host Benjamin stated directly during league results recap_
- [HIGH] Winchester Mystery House is Barrels of Fun's first design effort by Carl D'Angelo — _Host confirmation during venue update; identified as Carl D'Angelo's first pinball design_
- [HIGH] Benjamin Furiga states he has over-indexed pinball in his life and needs to rebalance priorities — _Direct personal statement in Ball Two reflection segment_

### Notable Quotes

> "I don't need 3D nipples inside a pinball back glass"
> — **Benjamin Furiga**, Opening intro (~1:30)
> _Host's humorous opening establishing comedic tone about game design preferences_

> "One person in five rounds of pinball. He played 15 other people. One of them beat him. He beat the other 14."
> — **Benjamin Furiga**, Barcade Brooklyn League recap (~22:00)
> _Illustrates Dante Oliva's dominant competitive performance in league play_

> "I don't want to be the only voice around here. And I also might need to be less of a voice sometime soon."
> — **Benjamin Furiga**, Ball Two reflection (~47:30)
> _Host vulnerability regarding podcast sustainability and personal capacity; invitation for community participation_

> "The whole goal of the game is not to score more points. It's to get the fog machine to go off."
> — **Benjamin Furiga**, Venue updates, Bury the Strangers discussion (~35:00)
> _Clarifies unique mechanic of homebrew game; demonstrates host knowledge of custom pinball design_

> "I've been asking myself, what is this thing I'm doing when I go out and play pinball in particular?"
> — **Eric Sweetland**, Ball Two reflection (~46:00)
> _Host's personal introspection about pinball's role in his life and priorities_

> "The goal was to gather all of the pinball mats in the city in a special format"
> — **Benjamin Furiga**, Oops All Mats tournament recap (~14:00)
> _Describes novel tournament format attempting to use rare pinball playfield mats as tournament concept_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Benjamin Furiga | person | NYC PinPod co-host; tournament director; pinball player; initiials B-C-F; expresses reflections on over-indexing pinball |
| Eric Sweetland | person | NYC PinPod co-host; pinball tournament director in NYC; provides venue updates and league management |
| Dante Oliva | person | Dominant NYC competitive player; won IFPA NY State Pinball Championship (30.04 WPPR), Oops All Mats, Barcade FIDI monthly (21.96 WPPR), and Barcade Brooklyn League with 120 season points |
| Sean Grant | person | Won Scrappleshine Selfie League finals with bus driver gold strike victory; top qualifier Scrapple League A division with 126 points |
| Matt Grady | person | Won NYC Triborough series finals; competitive presence in multiple leagues; 106 points in South Slope Pinball League |
| Miriam Nadler | person | IFPA NY Women's State Pinball Champion; defending Women's North American champion; tied atop Bells and Chimes standings with 112 points |
| Scrapple Land | event|venue | Pinball venue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn; hosts Scrapple League, Midnight Madness, Superb Owl; received Winchester Mystery House installation |
| Bells and Chimes NYC | organization | Women's pinball league in NYC; season finals Feb 17 at Barcade FIDI; 44 total players; tight competition for top spots with three-way tie for first |
| Scrapple League | organization | NYC pinball league; first season 2026 finals Feb 18 at Scrapple Land; 39 players in week 6 qualifying; Greg Pavarelli, Benjamin Furiga, Woody Richman as directors |
| Pinball NYC | organization | NYC team-based pinball league; season starts Feb 16; Left Flipper Division matches at multiple venues including Buttermilk Bar, Rulo's, Gebhardt's |
| Barrels of Fun | company | Pinball manufacturer; released Winchester Mystery House; first design by Carl D'Angelo |
| Carl D'Angelo | person | Creator of Never Drain software; InDisc tournament organizer; accomplished pinball player; designer of Winchester Mystery House (first Barrels pinball) |
| Barcade Brooklyn | venue | NYC venue hosting pinball league and tournament; Pinball League Season 8 qualifiers; Bells and Chimes NYC finals venue Feb 17 |
| Buttermilk Bar | venue | South Slope Brooklyn venue; host to South Slope Pinball League and Pinball NYC Left Flipper Division; operated by Kate Martin for league |
| Gebhardt's | venue | Venue hosting Two for Oneers home matches; classical game collection including Congo, Indianapolis 500, King Kong, Pulp Fiction, Star Trek TNG, Whirlwind, Atlantis, Embryon, Farfalla |
| Greg Pavarelli | person | Tournament director for Scrapple League, Barcade FIDI monthlies; finalist in multiple tournaments; competitive player |
| Rachel Grimm | person | Won Brooklyn's last Woppertunity potluck competition with brown butter snickerdoodles |
| Jose Garcia | person | Tournament organizer; created 11-event NYC Triborough series by aggregating results from other tournament directors |
| Ali Bissett | person | Tournament director for Midnight Madness and Superb Owl; trophy maker for Scrapple League; third place Superb Owl finisher |
| George Underwood | person | Won Superb Owl tournament; 31 points in South Slope Pinball League week 4; plays at multiple NYC venues |
| Winchester Mystery House | product|game | Barrels of Fun pinball machine; licensed roadside attraction theme from California mansion; first Carl D'Angelo design; installed at Scrapple Land Feb 12 |

### Topics

- **Primary:** NYC competitive tournament results January-February 2026, League structure and format updates (Bells, Scrapple, South Slope, Barcade, Pinball NYC), Dante Oliva's dominant tournament performance, NYC venue updates and game inventory changes
- **Secondary:** Hosts' personal reflections on pinball's role in their lives, Winchester Mystery House machine installation and design, Gebhardt's venue redesign and collection curation
- **Mentioned:** NYC Pinball Map data and venue tracking

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.45) — Episode combines enthusiasm for tournament competition and community events with introspective melancholy about over-indexing pinball in daily life. Hosts express pride in NYC pinball scene while questioning personal life balance. Tournament results framed positively, but personal reflections reveal resignation about unsustainable engagement patterns.

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** NYC Pinball Map actively tracking 357 machines across 76 locations as of Feb 13, 2026; community providing detailed venue condition reports (confidence: high) — Regular machine condition updates via Pinball Map users (JNS, Syscum, Moss Passion, Flipper Fiend, Emma718); hosts encourage community reporting
- **[event_signal]** Multiple self-organized 'selfie league' tournaments running during Pinball NYC off-season (South Slope, Scrappleshine), indicating strong bottom-up community engagement between seasons (confidence: high) — Scrappleshine Selfie League finals Feb 7 with 24 players; South Slope selfie league ongoing; Sean Grant won Scrappleshine with bus driver format
- **[sentiment_shift]** Hosts express ambivalence and potential burnout regarding personal pinball engagement; Benjamin over-indexed on pinball at cost to other priorities; Eric questioning 'what this thing' he's doing (confidence: high) — Benjamin: 'maybe I've been playing I have over indexed pinball in my life'; Eric: 'I've been asking myself, what is this thing I'm doing when I go out and play pinball'; both express desire to rebalance
- **[community_signal]** Strong female participation in NYC pinball leagues evidenced by Bells and Chimes NYC with 44 total players and competitive top-tier performance; gender-inclusive community integration (confidence: high) — Bells finals includes Anna Wolk, Anna Frankel, Miriam Nadler, Lindsay Rhodes, Kate Martin, Amy Poulin tied/near-top standings; three-way tie for first at 112 points
- **[competitive_signal]** Bus driver tournament format (high-score games determining next matchup) appears to be standard in NYC leagues; used in Superb Owl, Scrappleshine Selfie, and league finals (confidence: high) — Multiple events using 'bus driver' format; hosts discuss strategic game selection during bus driver finals rounds
- **[competitive_signal]** Dante Oliva established as dominant NYC competitive player through concentration of major tournament wins within single week; 120-point season lead indicates significant skill differential (confidence: high) — Won state championship (30.04 WPPR), Oops All Mats, Barcade FIDI monthly (21.96 WPPR), Barcade Brooklyn League night (33 points, 15 opponents, 14 wins) within one-week window
- **[business_signal]** NYC pinball league ecosystem shows maturity through multiple parallel league structures (Pinball NYC team league, Bells women's league, Scrapple, South Slope, Barcade, monthlies) with coordinated scheduling (confidence: high) — Week of Feb 16-22 includes: Pinball NYC Left Flipper (Mon), Bells finals (Tue), Scrapple finals (Wed), Thursday Strikes, SSPL, plus Sunday FIDI monthly and community events
- **[content_signal]** NYC PinPod hosts expressing uncertainty about podcast sustainability and seeking community co-hosts/contributors; hosts indicate potential for reduced personal involvement (confidence: high) — Benjamin: 'I don't want to be the only voice around here...I also might need to be less of a voice sometime soon'; explicit invitation for listeners to contribute
- **[announcement]** Winchester Mystery House pinball by Barrels of Fun represents first design effort by Carl D'Angelo; licensed roadside attraction theme from California (confidence: high) — Machine installed at Scrapple Land Feb 12; Benjamin confirms it's Carl D'Angelo's first design; machine generated interest during league play
- **[venue_signal]** Significant venue consolidation and content curation at Gebhardt's; classical game collection now includes premium contemporary titles alongside vintage machines (confidence: high) — Gebhardt's now has Atlantis, Walking Dead, Congo, Indianapolis 500, King Kong Premium, Pulp Fiction SE, Spectrum, Star Trek TNG, Whirlwind, Embryon, Farfalla; positioned to host 10+ home matches

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## Transcript

 Happy Sunday, pinfolk, or whatever day you're listening. This is NYC Pin Pod, in which a panel talks location pinball in New York City. And sometimes nearby surrounding areas. There might be a little bit of nearby surrounding information here. My name is Benjamin Furiga. My initials are B-C-F. And I love Farfalla, the Zachariah pinball game, but I don't need 3D nipples inside a pinball back glass. My name is Eric Sweetland. My initials are HIP, and I'm a pinball tournament director in New York City. On this week's pod, we'll talk about local competition results since last season. We'll do that in Ball 1. We'll also tell you what's coming up this week, starting the first week of Pinball NYC action. And in ball two, we'll have venue updates with Eric. We'll have our pinball bullet journals since season five. That's a whole, that's a five to six. That's a big jump, it seems like. And in ball three, we'll have a quick, I think, update about what the IFPA has done in the wake of the bias incidents at OBX last fall. let's get started so while we were away a bunch of pinball happens here's some of the highlights on december 20th brooklyn's last woppertunity of 2025 took place 32 players attended alberto santana won and got 29.83 whoppers and i would also like to point out i believe it was Rachel Grimm who won the potluck competition with brown butter snickerdoodles the next day at the same private venue in Brooklyn the NYC Triborough series had its finals that's the uh the 11 event series that Jose Garcia put on and we talked to him several times about that yeah kind of in the background that that Jose sort of took results from things other tournament directors were doing and put together this series through that. It was kind of a cool idea. Yeah, well, the top 22 players showed up, and Matt Grady won that one. On December 26th, once you were just sick of your family and needed to be somewhere else, Red Hook's own Holiday Hullabaloo was happening at the Red Hook Pinball Museum, and one of the cooperators, Wesley Michalski, won the day and got a big haul. 17 players were there. 15 whoppers and change? Just after midnight on January 1st, 14 players gathered at Scrapple Land in Greenpoint, Brooklyn for Midnight Madness, directed by Ali Bissett and won by Ali Bissett. Nice. 4.34 whoppers. So we had the last WAP opportunity and the first WAP opportunity of the year. And then just at the end of the weekend, it was Tommy's birthday edition of Silver Ball Sunday 33 run by our friend Tommy Ortega. And Robert Wong went the whole way to Astoria to claim himself 14.86 WAPers, besting 31 other players on the day. On January 17th, at the Rochester Pinball Collective in East Rochester, New York, the IFPA New York State Pinball Championship was held. The top 24 players from New York State over the course of 25 gathered. Dante Oliva is our new state champion. And Dante will enjoy 30.04 whoppers toward this year's state championship. despite the fact that I believe that he should just be invited to next year's as the defending champion and not get whoppers for playing in the state championship. I sort of understand if you got 24th, those whoppers might actually make a big deal, make a big difference on your scorecard next year. I sort of get it. But I also feel like maybe we don't need whoppers for the thing that we all just spent a whole year getting whoppers to play. Maybe there don't have to be more at the end of the rainbow. The next day at the same venue, the IFPA New York Women's State Pinball Championship saw the top 16 women in the state gather. Miriam Nadler recaptured the Women's State Pinball Champion crown. And will go on to defend the Women's North American crown in Colorado in March. I would like to shout out to Collider's Captain Emeritus, Alyssa Newman, who won the Hawaii State Women's Championship. You know, you would think after the state championship, maybe everybody could take a week off. But it was exactly a week after the Open State Championship that in Brooklyn, something called Oops All Mats was convened. what the hell is that? do you know? I think the goal was to gather all of the pinball mats in the city in a special format there wound up being 8 mats out of the 33 players that's almost a quarter mat yeah there was a side mat tournament I didn't follow that part closely I did attend very good but it was in Brooklyn so it can't have been at FIDE and can't have had super panic ball as mat on mat crime Dante Oliva won oops all mats oh yeah didn't he? one week after his state championship yeah yeah week after one week later the first Barcade FIDE monthly was held at Barcade FIDE under the direction of Greg Pavarelli 35 players came out and Dante Oliva won that one also another 21.96 Whoppers that's three really big collections that Dante won three weeks in a row some really big Whoppers there have been a bunch of selfie leagues in this offseason look it's not, it isn't just the NYC pin pod that hibernates between the fall pinball NYC season and the spring pinball NYC season there have been some selfie leagues and it looks like there was a finals for one on Saturday were you there? Did you go? I did not, no. Have you played in any of these selfie things? So the South Slope selfie league is ongoing I think the finals are this weekend even? I can't remember. I believe they are Sunday. I believe that they were maybe originally put, I saw them in the match play calendar on Monday but I'm pretty sure that they do not conflict with Pinball NYC and instead are on Sunday is what I have been told when I started sniffing around questions like that. Yeah, I haven't been playing on the South Slope, but I did play in the Scrappleshine Selfie League directed by Harlan Aidalinda, which had its finals this past Saturday, February 7th, at Scrapple Land. the top 24 qualifiers from the selfie which did not include me showed up that's right and played a group elimination bracket papa style well with ifpa scoring though seven five three one okay papa brackets ifba scoring i was following along uh on match play from home and i saw uh the final four. They were playing four games per round. It looks like it was probably a bus driver situation. Just before the final game of the final round, three players were tied at 13 points. Hmm. And one player had nine. And it all came down to a game on Gold Strike. Huh! Drama! I think Sean Grant was driving that bus, and he won the Gold Strike and the Selfie League. Uh-huh. Looks like he also won the Deadpool before it, and even maybe as the bus driver did not succeed on his Elvira's House of Horrors, but The Walking Dead did him okay, and Deadpool and Gold Strike were everything he needed. Greg Pavarelli finished in second place, Adam Robinson in third, and Alberto Santana in fourth. Sean picked up 12.92 Whoppers for the Selfie League. That sounds like Sunshine League circa 2018 Final Four. Maybe not Adam. Adam might not have moved here quite yet by 2018. I might have to say 2019 for that to be right. But that's close. That takes me back, man. The next day, Sunday, February 8th, at the same venue, Scrapple Land, Ali Bassett put on the Superb Owl tournament in the afternoon in 16 players came out. We played five rounds of group match play and cut to a top four for finals, which was Dun Papa style, three games of 4-2-1-0 scoring. In the end, George Underwood took the day. He was driving the bus in finals. First they went to James Bond, and then they went to James Bond, the 60th anniversary one. Yeah, I don't know why he chose the dud first, but I'm with it. and then uh beatles i don't know why he chose the duds first and last except that he won he won mike pantino came in second ali bassett the tournament director came in third and matt gross came in fourth they had some amazing pinball machine trophies made by ali they were bright green and they had a little owl on the playfield oh cool very cool she's doing amazing trophy work and has been for Scrapple League now for a number of seasons where we really like them so much. This season we decided that the amazing pillows that she makes are going to go to the B division instead of the C division because they're just so great. Cool. Very cool. George got 5.34 Whoppers for the Superb Owl. On Monday Barcade Brooklyn Pinball League Season 8 had its sixth qualifying meeting they play five rounds of match play with IFPA scoring and do the whole thing that the leagues do where your best four count of the six you know you might think in the last week there's a lot on the line but the thing is when Dante Oliva is showing up for your league like it's nothing and he's playing the way he's playing, it turns out, then Dante finds himself winning with 33 points on this particular night. That is to say that one person in five rounds of pinball. He played 15 other people. One of them beat him. He beat the other 14. and he not only finishes in first for the night but he finishes in first for the series with 120 points so Dante is gonna drive a bus for sure at these finals on Monday Greg Fertel can drive the other one if he wants to with 107 points on the season Greg doesn't look to have had any duds either Grady that is to say of the Matt persuasion was just behind him with 106 Nint who Gabriel Chazanov Leland Kuykendall Christopher Caffaro and Alex Kelly and possibly Wes Ulfig round out the top eight Alex and Wes are tied at 94 on the bubble I don't know if they did a tiebreaker or not, but one of them will be in A and the other will be in B. The rest of B will be Matthew Torres, Jonah Shlaes, Kate Martin, Casey Johnson, Nitsan Gabai, David Potluck, and Jeff Slepian. Brady Torres will pick up the duties of one of those players if one of them is unavailable to fulfill the duties of their office. You know, Eric, you said you were watching something on Match Play, and I kind of thought, like, man, that's, like, how fucking boring are we that sometimes we might just, like, go to a website and look at, like, text of the data results, like, basically a spreadsheet of what's happening, and yet, on Tuesday night, knowing that we were going to record this episode tonight, I thought, you know, it's the last week of bells and it's probably pretty close to when they're wrapping up. And so I went and looked at match play and I discovered that it came down to Anna versus Anna or Anna versus Anna. I don't want to give either of them a preferential treatment but anna frankel and anna wolk were on were both on the bubble of a and i believe they were playing against each other at the time i also noted that some of the ogs of bells who were already in the top were fighting it out on medieval madness at the time Kate Martin, Miriam Nadler, and Lindsay Rhodes. It turned out, after it was all said and done, Anna Wolk won that match and made it in. Lindsay Rhodes and Miriam tied atop the standings. I'm not sure how they're going to figure that. Oh, and Andy. Lindsay and Miriam and Andy. My goodness. I didn't even see that it was three of them. So I don't know how they're going to fix that mess. But that's awesome. It's awesome. And by the way, I was just talking about what a big deal it is to have someone with 120. All three of them have 112. Wow. Yeah, all three of them have 112. And just behind them, Kate Martin and Amy Poulin with 110 in just the exact same scoring paradigm. So, like, these folks dominated. The top eight of this league pretty well dominated. Caitlin James Rees has 109. Anna Wolk and Ash Dittropani will round out the top eight. if any of them is unable to fulfill their office or the duties rather of their office. Danny Spagnoli and Monica Weidekamp, I imagine, would have to play a tiebreaker to figure out who would jump up. But if not, those two will drive buses in B and Anna Frankel will be in there with Jenna Altamirano, Cain Bloomfelt, Morgan Levinson, Michelle Collimer, and Michelle Capobianco, that is to say Michelle with one L and then Michelle Capobianco, Sam Hall and Courtney Wetzel are just under the line and would jump up if one of them didn't show up. I just want to point out 44 players played in this season's Bells NYC season. There was only one, I think, who played in only one match. Several who played in only two, but 44 players played. That's some. That's a lot. On Wednesday, 39 players came out to Scrapple Land in Greenpoint, Brooklyn for Scrapple League's first season of 2026, sixth qualifying meeting, under the direction of Greg Pavarelli, myself, and Woody Richman. we played five rounds of match play with ifpa scoring hoping to add to our series total in this last chance greg pavarelli did it the best with 31 points on the night adam robinson and cj smith picked up 29 and peter larson and dan merrill got 27 after the six weeks of qualifying The finals are set to be held next Wednesday. In the A division the top qualifier is Sean Grant with 126 points on the season Wow With five meetings only Right. Also with only five meetings, 116 points, Chris Caffaro will be driving the other bus in A. Nice. they'll be joined by Greg Pavarelli Joe Broccoli, Adam Robinson and CJ Smith and a four way tie break for the last two spots in A will be held between Sam Atlas, Tyler Convery Adam Kane and Peter Larson wow two of those people will be driving the B buses and taking for a ride Dan Merrill, Harlan Aida-Linda, Rob Bruno, Luis Veras, Casey Johnson, and Alex Weisenberger. Just outside the cut line of 91 for B. Ooh, I mean, it's a lot of players. A lot of points go around when there's a lot of players, but still, ooh. With 90 points, Woody Richman, Spica Geft, and Christian Klossner are all on the line if someone can't attend. Wow. There'll also be a C-Finals open to anyone for cash and prizes. Cool. Cash and prizes, just like the price is right. On Thursday, No Bro Presents Thursday Night Strikes was convened at Jack Bar. It says Strikes by Zach. I presume that's Zach Till. 24 players gathered at Jack Bar. and Greg Fertel bested the other 23. Adam Kane was just behind him. Travis Rosenberg just behind them. And Nint Hu came in fourth. And not unlike what I said before, that kind of sounds like what I might have heard, you know, in 2018 at Sunshine League some night. Also on Thursday, it was the fourth qualifying week of South Slope Pinball League. It was held at Buttermilk Bar, and 18 players gathered under the direction of Kate Martin. We played five rounds of match play with IFPA scoring, trying to get the most points for our series total. George Underwood got 31 points on the night. Wow. Matt Grady picked up 29. Scott Strong got 25, and Caitlin James Rees got 24. Mm-hmm. So with four weeks of qualifying, some players have played all four weeks, some have not. But at the top, Matt Grady has 106 total points, and Rob Wong has 104. Kate Martin, Caitlin James Rees, Courtney Wetzel, AJ Gould, Rob Adler, and Billy Vazine are above the cut line where the final is to be held right now. and Billy's the only one that only has three. Everyone else there has four meetings. I just want to point out that at the B cut line, like if you heard those eight names and you're like, oh, that's pretty permanent right there. At the B cut line, there's this guy named Matthew Carlson who's only been there twice so far. And if he shows up two more times, I think we're going to be talking about him above that line too. This week on Monday, February 16th, that's, you know, it's two days after Valentine's Day, and it's two days after Valentine's Gay, but we also, it's a day we love because it's the first day of Pinball NYC. This week, we're only going to do the left flipper. Next week, there's going to be some right flipper action, but this coming Monday, February 16th, the D-Lux horses will visit us colliders at Buttermilk Bar. Special when lit. will play host to the Mutants at Rulos. Parliament will coot alone in their bye week. The Pinbots will face the, I think, new team, Worms, from Milo's Yard. I like the idea. I say it that way because it's spelled with an E, Worms, not with an O, Worms. The two for oners will have what will be their first virtual away match at Gebhard's against the lesser players. Two for oners have moved venue this year to get or this season, I should say, to Gebhard's. But they are playing the lesser players who moved to Gebhard's last season. And so it is the Battle of Gebhardt on Monday in the first week that two for oneers play there for call their home. Rather, what are you going to do on Monday night? Well, our New York City Flipper Sport Association is headed to Midway to play Balls of Steel. The Pin Pals will host the Lion Persons at Skylark. and Commonwealth will see two of the old teams of this division in Park Slope face off against one another. I mean, I say in Park Slope. The Aristocrats were at Bar Great Harry for a hot minute. That's a nice way to kick off the season. On Tuesday, February 17th, the Bells and Chimes NYC season will have its finals at Barcade Fight Eye for A, B, and C divisions. On Wednesday, February 18th, Scrapple League's first season of 2026 will have its finals at Scrapple Land in Greenpoint, Brooklyn for A, B, and C divisions starting hopefully promptly at 8 o'clock. If you were like, hey, did they waste any time in getting a season in this year? it's obviously the seventh wednesday that they're playing pinball and it's the third wednesday of february you can do that math that they wasted no time getting scrapple league going on thursday at jack bar no bro presents thursday night strikes will be convened it it'll be the thing it's been it was the first thing back after the pandemic and man they just keep doing it and i love it and it's strikes it's the great thing about strikes is when you are defeated you get to go home you don't have to feel like oh i have to stay here for integrity when you just got three third places because when you just got three third places you're gone get out go home also on thursday the fifth qualifying week of SSPL's first season of 2026 will be held at Buttermilk Bar in South Slope at pinball 8 o'clock. After a big weekend of what will hopefully be the biggest Valentine's Day ever. Jess Warren is going to have another big weekend next week. We didn't talk about it, but there's now a FIDEI monthly tournament on Sundays, I think, right? That's going to affect some of the scheduling for some of the other monthlies, I imagine. And one of the things that might have happened because of that is that on Saturday, Jess Warren will run at Rulo's South Slope Strikes. and then on Sunday Jess Warren will run at Rulo's Stern Army's February RWI so two days two tournaments the same Jess but twice I imagine Bart's going to make something tasty at least on Sunday maybe he'll treat you on Saturday and if he doesn't then you know they got the hot dog roller they'll give you some spicy pickles on a hot dog Also on Sunday, February 22nd at 4 p.m. at Scrapple Land in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Toppers, the queer pinball club, will be having a casual get together. And hey, after you go play your Monday night match or after you go have fun at Bell's on Tuesday or whatever you're doing this week, if you want to tell us how it went, you can email us at nycpinpod at gmail.com or could leave us a voice message by going to speakpipe.com slash nycpinpod. You can find those links at nycpinpod.wordpress.com. As of February 13th, 2026, there are 357 pinball machines in New York City at 76 public locations. Thanks to the creators and users of Pinball Map for this data, here are machine updates from the past week. On Friday, February 6th, user JNS went by TheGutterBar, L-I-C, and said of their The Who's Tommy, pinball wizard, still plays fine, right flipper a little twitchy. Some lighting is out, Union Jack and the stand-up banks. On Saturday, user Syscum played the Elvira's House of Horrors Premium at the Randolph and said the Vuck from the Crypt is weak to the point that it causes some issues, plays well otherwise. User Moss Passion inquired about a place to bury strangers, which normally lives at Wonderville. And they report, still not on the floor. Asked the staff, they said they're still working on it. It's a one-of-one pin, so it's pretty hard to find parts for, I imagine. It is. I also believe that it is based on a wood rail. I forget. I knew it at one time. It's it might be called Aloha or something. It's it's a Hawaiian theme. But I will tell you this. And I've told you this before. If you listen to the podcast, the whole goal of the game is not to score more points. it's to get the fog machine to go off. There's a fog machine in the back glass, and that's actually the purpose of playing the game. It is not to score more points. It is to, once you have collected, and I think it's the actual sequence from the original EM game, Wood Rail EM game that they based the thing on. But once you've completed that, the fog machine goes off for a while, and then you can do it again. Also Saturday, user Flipper Fiend advises us that the Simpsons Pinball Party at Scrapple Land has a non-existent ball save. Sounds like the game and the venue. On Sunday, Flipper Fiend also commented on the Congo at Scrapple Land to say wildly sensitive tilt bob seems to be triggered sometimes just through gameplay. On Monday, February 9th, user Moss Passion was at Barcade in Chelsea. Both Stranger Things and Bad Cats got a plays well comment. For Pulp Fiction, Moss Passion said Super Skillshot Diverter still doesn't open up. Leans to one side quite a bit. Plays well otherwise. And the Cactus Canyon was turned off. Best state of repair for Cactus Canyon. on Tuesday Flipper Fiend was at Gebhardt's Beer Culture and commented on their Pulp Fiction ball shooting out of pawn shop seems to lack the usual force and precision they're correct I was there on Tuesday too and I align with exactly that or at least let me say this it kicks out and hits off the top of the left slingshot that's exactly what it did every time it came out of there for me And user Emma718 let us know that the Led Zeppelin at the Chinatown Fair Family Fun Center is no longer available. Not sure what available quite means. Well, I don't, as I, I opined to Eric when he mentioned this to me earlier, that I'm, I assume that, you know, there are tough teenagers who are playing the dancing game next to it, who are using up all of the space. I was, the time that I went there to play that game, I did, well, one of the couple of times, I did kind of feel like if someone was playing that dancing game that they might tilt my game accidentally without trying to, just based on how tight the quarters were there. Well, they don't use quarters. They use a swipe card. That's right. Good work. On Wednesday, Scrappleland got a Winchester Mystery House from Barrels of Fun. Peter was setting it up as League was starting and we were all watching with great interest and then it was not in League but everyone got a chance to play it in between rounds and stuff and staying afterwards. Do you have any thoughts about it? I didn't get to play it. I watched a bunch of other people play it. No one was quite sure exactly what's going on just yet trying to figure out the rules and stuff. Couldn't really tell. that sounds unlicensed to me is that an unlicensed theme well it is in fact licensed the winchester mystery house is in california okay it's a it's a different kind of license isn't it right is this like a roadside attraction it is uh the house of the widow of the winchester rifle fortune okay I might say firearms because I think they made handguns also probably apparently after her husband died she just started adding rooms onto their mansion sort of haphazardly and at whims she would hire people to come in and build strange things there's staircases that go to nowhere a door into the air and it's purportedly haunted and is now an attraction that you can go and visit. Okay. Yeah. I don't imagine you pay a lot for the license for something like that. If anyone knows Pittsburgh, Randy's Place, which is just like this artist who made his yard into an art installation, roughly, bought a place on the north side of Pittsburgh when it was very cheap to do so and then made his yard into an art installation. I don't imagine you'd pay a lot for that license if you wanted to license that for a pinball game. And it sounds to me like roughly the same idea here. I'm looking forward to getting to try it out. It's the first design effort of Carl D'Python Anghelo. Oh, that's interesting. The creator of the Never Drain software and one of the people who puts on InDisc. Yeah, that's interesting. Also, a really, really, really accomplished pinball player. On Thursday, the special force at Arcade Fidei was taken out, and a strange science ballet in 1986 was added. And when I heard the news, I knew that Benjamin would be bummed. This is what I said when the news was given to me in the Colliders chat. this is a worse trade than Donchish for Davis. And if you're an NBA fan, you recognize that as a trade that happened last year at the trade deadline. No one saw it coming and was the worst trade ever. And on Friday, February 13th, user wingnut707 said of the Jaws at Sunshine Laundromat, As of last night, Upper Playfield Flipper is temperamental and does not flip about half of the time. Also, on Friday, a 1963 Williams Beat the Clock was added to the Red Hook Pinball Museum. I just want to say, because I was at Gebhard's this week, and Eric just did the updates from this past week, because it would have just been too much. If we had done all, whatever, it's been six or eight weeks between the last episode and this episode, it would have just been like a wall of text. Yeah, it would have been worse than reading the IFBA rules. and I just want to point out that it seems to me like one of the sea changes in the city's collection, in the pinball culture, such as it were, based on where games are, is the collection at Gebhard which now contains several of the games that were there for Classics this past year at Harvest Atlantis is downstairs in the back. There is nothing in the solarium up front. That's all seating now. and Atlantis is back in the place where at the first harvest there was a card game and I've forgotten what the card was. Diamond Lady. Gottlieb and there was something else back there. Mousing around. It's back where you'll be right in the way of trivia if they're still doing trivia where they were doing trivia before but you could be playing pinball downstairs and also watching TV that isn't pinball. And you could also be upstairs and play, you know, a lot of the games that were there before. Congo is still there. Indianapolis 500 is still there. The premium King Kong is still there. Pulp Fiction SE is still there. Spectrum is still there. Star Trek The Next Generation is still there. Whirlwind is still there. But The Walking Dead has replaced Tommy. and in those two spots where they put games for the classic bank before, Embryon, right at the top of the stairs. If you walk up the top of the stairs and take one step forward and turn left, that wide-body Embryon is right there. Wow. And if you took a step to the left of that, stepped forward twice so that you were beyond the stairway and turned left and took another couple of steps, you're right at Farfalla, the Zachariah, which was part of my update from this week. And Spectrum is still up in the mezzanine. It was quite a thing to be in this place and have all of those games. It's going to be a great place to have two home pinball teams in Pinball NYC. It's going to be a great place to host 10. home pinball matches. All right. So look, we do this other thing in ball too, and it's the bullet journal. It is actually based on a practice that I'm not the inventor of by any means, but I personally partake. I write down my schedule by hand. I feel a little bit better connected to it and a little bit better understanding of what I do. and within that I also you know just write down a couple of points about any given day throughout the day or when I go to bed or whatever and I think it makes me a little bit more aware of how I spend my time such as it were and I found myself not wanting to spend a lot of time playing pinball between last season and this season. Yeah, I hear that. I've been asking myself, what is this thing I'm doing when I go out and play pinball in particular? Because we're right near the turn of the year. And one of the things I do with this bullet journal is I kind of try to review at the end of a year, at the end of a quarter, at the end of a, you know, some kind of period sometimes, what did I get done? Did I get done the things I was supposed to get done? And I feel like last year I didn't. And I, there's a part of me that feels like the amount that I insisted on playing pinball was the reason. Now, pinball friends, I'm not breaking up with you pinball friends i i love you i'm gonna come play pinball with you but i also feel like maybe i've been playing i have over indexed pinball in my life such as it were that's that's what the the data nerds at work would say you've over indexed pinball uh and i you know i gotta i gotta correct a little bit i also uh man i love nyc pinpod uh i i'm I am proud of NYC Pin Pod is probably the right thing to say but I also want to take this moment right now when in the off season people have talked to Eric about NYC Pin Pod, people have talked to me about NYC Pin Pod about what they want to hear, what they want to talk about also I see you people who want to talk to us we're coming to talk to you about talking to us but I just want to say I don't want to be the only voice around here. And I also might need to be less of a voice sometime soon. And so if any of you out there listening are like, you know what? I want to talk about this sometime. Give us a shout, please and thank you. I've also found this winter, this brutal cold that we've been going through, it seems like week after week, highly demotivating for getting my butt out of the house and going to pinball. Yeah. No, there was, I mean, that weekend that like all, I mean, it was just like two weekends ago or last weekend that like there were warnings. It was, you know, it was the second week in a row that, I mean, there have been, we live in New York City and roughly 20 people, I think the last death toll I heard was 18 people. The coroner has said that 18 people have died with a cause of death that is directly related to having been exposed to the cold here over this cold snap of a couple of weeks. It's been brutal cold. And also, like, I see you, you know, Mainers. I see you. Like, there are people, if you're trying to play pinball in Wyoming right now, I see you. it's worse I get it you're in the Rockies now I get it but like it's been hard yeah so a couple of the highlights since we last bullet journaled I went to visit my family in Seattle for the holidays I was a good long break there I didn't actually get to play any pinball while I was out in Seattle Wow. Yeah, never made it into the city. Okay. But just before I left, it was one thing I had mentioned I was going to do. Yeah. Me and my pinball friend, Eric Rubinsky, went to see the... A Murray Little Christmas. A Murray Little Christmas, the Murray Hill Christmas show at Lincoln Center. Boy, was that just a lot of fun. and in a surprise move at the end of the show murray got married on stage it was that's cool that's cool it was really cool my holiday travels i i didn't play it but i saw a led zeppelin pinball machine in a highway rest stop en route to chattanooga for christmas i have absolutely no recollection of like what highway rest stop or even what state i was in i was in virginia for a million years that those of the 16 hours that we were on the road a million years of those 16 hours were spent in virginia so probably virginia but i don't it could have been uh you know pennsylvania or new jersey or probably it definitely was not in new york we did not stop in any highway rest stops in New York because when you leave New York City and go in that direction, you just leave New York City and go into another state. You don't go through some other part of New York State. I guess maybe if you were far north in the Bronx, but probably not still. There used to be a couple of pinball machines along the tollway in Massachusetts. And one time I spotted one in the baggage claim area of the airport in Rhode Island, in Providence. That's fantastic. Yeah. I started playing it, but then our ride came and I had to be pulled off of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a... Yeah, sure, yeah. I mean, your bags show up sometimes when you're in that place. Pretty sure it was a Stern Pirates of the Caribbean, if I remember correctly. That was a long time ago. Yeah, and also you would have been standing there for a long time if you were playing it at all. into the new year scrappily picked up right away and i've been mostly doing that every week and then not so much of the other stuff i spent uh one really cool sunday afternoon at scrapple land with collider ben h just going around and playing the games there were a couple of young children running around, which was fine because there was a huge collection and there were only a couple of young children running around. But it was a lovely day and to just get out and see all of those machines in the same place. It was the first time I'd been there since they'd gone over probably 45 or so machines and it was it was great and to you know experience the ems with my homie who also really loves ems but also sort of all of the greatest hits of like you remember when we used to go to that one bar and they had this one machine in it and And it's this one right here that Peter had sort of everything in his collection that could possibly scratch that itch for you to just go play pinball with your homie for a minute. And that was so fucking cool. Nice. I will also just add that I generally had several pinball sort of brunches on Saturdays and Sundays throughout the time in Prospect Heights or Crown Heights. I, you know, Charlene's and Bilt Bar and Franklin Park were kind of my haunts for most of this time. And it was really only that is most of the time I spent playing pinball was just like, oh, it's Sunday. I haven't played pinball once this week. I'll go get chicken and waffles at Franklin Park and then, you know, see if I want to go to another venue after that. one of the early weeks of this season of Scrapple League Drisana works behind the bar on Wednesdays and pointed out a flyer that had been hung up on Scrapple Land's wall advertising Toppers, a new queer pinball club and Drisana asked if I knew anything about it and I'm like no I don't know what this is going on and then Harlan came walking by and I said Harlan do you know anything about this? What is it? and harlan said no i don't know uh so i went to their first meetup it was held at scrapple land and uh it was really cool uh fun time just it was a casual pinball get together uh i think maybe there were a dozen 15 people there uh cool i think mostly very new to pinball but the the three people putting it on i i talked to them a bit and uh they they said they had started getting into pinball maybe about a year ago and they live just a couple blocks away from from scrapple land cool so they've been going there a lot and getting really into it and wanted to start a queer club and get all their friends to come out and try it out and it was really neat and they were uh raising some money for a trans charity and I saw they had a book full of Game of the Week notes or something. Oh, cool. And then I brought along some flyers for Valentine's Day because I wanted to make sure they got to see that. And I walked in and I spotted obviously the group in the back and who was talking to them? It was Jess. Jess had showed up with some Valentine's Day flyers. Nice, nice. Of course. Yeah, of course. very nice yeah so then jess and i had a nice time and met a couple of the other people who showed up for the club and just played some casual pinball it's a fun time they're uh doing it again uh it's going to be i think like every other week or something so on sunday because i knew that it was you know a pinball week and i not only because there was a bullet journal thing coming up it's a chicken or egg thing. There was a bullet journal coming up and pinball NYC was happening. I'll let you determine which one is which, but I was going to do both of those things in the following week, which meant I should maybe go play some pinball. So on Sunday, I ran up the block to Franklin Park and did exactly what I said before, got me some chicken and waffles. I'm sorry to say that I did not feel like it was crafted as well as I thought it was the last time I had chicken and waffles there. But their burgers are excellent as long as you can tolerate a smash burger. And I can always get a burger. Their chicken sandwich is pretty good too. But I did that. And that, as I think I just said, like that's probably three of the six times that I went to play pinball in the, you know, six or eight weeks since we recorded the last podcast. was doing roughly that. So a couple of times I met somebody, a couple of times I was just there by myself, but I did that on Sunday. Yeah, I went to the Superb Owl tournament at Scrapple Land on Sunday. It was a fun time there. And then wrapped it up. I came home and watched some Taskmaster that evening. interest to some pinball nyc folks into taskmaster casey johnson is a huge taskmaster fan and i forgot earlier like a few weeks ago adam robinson and i went to go see uh tom cashman's show he's a taskmaster related person from australia who's in town okay and then yeah it was freezing cold and I declined to to go outside Monday or Tuesday so because I went to work and I work on the Upper West Side I went on Tuesday to Gebhard's because I get on the subway and off the subway at 72nd Street and I work needed pinball after it and I played some Farfalla and I failed to play Embryon because when I dropped coin and pressed the button the ball did not come out of Shooter Lane, which unfortunately happened to me twice on Classics this week. I played several games of Indie 500 because I really like the way that that one plays, and if you get a multiball and no one's been playing it well with adaptive difficulty, you can play several games if you just pay for one. So I did that, and I played a couple of games of Pulp Fiction, and as I said, can confirm ball shoots out of the, uh, of the feed. What they called it the crypt, I think, but out of whatever the feed is right above the left slingshot and just bounces off the left slingshot might go out the left out lane. If you nudge it just right, it might not. Also, it might go into some slingshots. It's a little sad, but it was, it was a great day to go play at Gebhard's anyway, because it was barely out of the way. Well, then Wednesday night was Scrapple League. I had missed a couple. It was going to be my fourth week. I was talking with Adam Robinson, who had also had to miss a couple weeks. It was his fourth week. And he surmised that if he got about 25 points on the night, he might be able to break into the A finals. And he suggested that perhaps if I got 25 points, I might be able to break into the B finals. He succeeded. I did not. And the 25 wouldn't have done it anyway. The B finals cutoff was at 91, so I was 11 points out, even having gotten my lackluster 19 this Wednesday. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You would have needed over 30. Yeah. To do it clean, at least. well last night on the way home from work I because the same train that I get on at 72nd street as you might imagine goes through Fulton street I went to Barcade Fi to play a couple of games and I just want to say boo for taking special force out. I, and for putting strange science in its place. And, uh, you know, I, it was, it's fun. It's, it's a fun place. I, there, there were, I gave Eric some game notes for Valentine's day this weekend. Thank you for that. Well, last night I was at, uh, South Slope Pinball League and that reminds me that I did have an awful lot of fun Wednesday night because I was really feeling it Thursday. Feeling pretty rough and boy, I had just about the worst week of league I've ever had. It was 11 points. I got four fourths and a first. And it just, I mean, Every game was pretty rough. I think I finished NBA Fast Break with 14 points. Oh, wow. Yeah. And that was a big ball three comeback because I finished ball two with four points. Big ball three comeback. Yeah, yeah. I think I got the backboard game. Right, right, right. Those extra 10 points. Right, and if it's actually working, yeah, you get about 10. Yeah. If it's not working, you might get 30. but if it's actually working you can get about 10 well today I didn't think there was going to be any pinball in my day I thought there was just going to be NYC pinpot in my day but when I was about to enter a long meeting at work I for the first time in a long time got a text from Madeline who yeah who told me something that I did not know before having received this text, which is there is a Pokemon table. As she says, she likes to call it table. I might have called it a game in this instance, but I have a kind of particular way that I use game and table and machine. And I think Madeline, they're all just table. And that's okay. But I asked her permission to read this text or these texts. And she said, Benjamin, there's a Pokemon table. Stern picked a new IP, not even one piece, a shonen, but literal Pokemon. They pivoted hard from 40 plus to the widest known IP ever. outsells Disney, Hello Kitty, Marvel. The table is going to be the bridge, the make or break of pinball into the younger demographics. My response was a simple, tremendous news as I was about to go into a meeting. And then before I got back to her many hours later, she said, I might actually buy a table now. I never considered buying my own table before. When I got back to her later and asked her permission to share this, she actually asked that I emphasize that part that like this is seeing this and knowing that pinball sees her, sees someone who's interested not in the Black Sabbath machine that this could have been, you know, or the Grateful Dead machine that this could have been or the Wolverine versus Deadpool machine this could have been. but something a little bit younger and a little bit more international of just of a more general interest appeal that this is actually something that is it is inspiring a potentially capitalistic urge that like that like Madeline is like I am actually thinking about spending money on this like supporting the idea that this happens. and that's cool. I'm most delighted to have heard from Madeline, our former NYC Pinpod co-panelist. That's right. Indeed. Let's follow up, I think just briefly probably, but we'll see, on the fallout, the continued fallout, and in fact maybe the reformation of the IFPA in the wake of the bias incident at OBX last fall. As I understand it, if you recall, you might have listened to our last several episodes last season, and if you didn't, to just briefly catch you up, somebody who went to OBX in South Carolina, North Carolina, North Carolina. Outer Banks, North Carolina. Outer Banks, North Carolina. Was very specifically discriminated against because of their gender. was told that they could not use a restroom that aligned with their gender and were threatened and reasonably felt threatened by actions taken by the employee of the venue at which the tournament was occurring. the tournament director to his credit admits drastically that he fell you know that he fell way short of what he maybe should have accomplished uh the ifba even recognized that they fell short of how they should have protected these people who were participating in this tournament several people opted not to participate in the tournament because they felt not safe and the ifpa's decision to hold up the whoppers for those tournaments wherein according to their guidelines their bylaws their rules an open tournament is a tournament that is open to everyone and i'm sure that we can all agree that there would be certain exceptions related to legal matters. You've got to be 21 to get into a bar. You've got to be 21 to get into a bar, and as I think I've also pointed out in the past, if I'm having a pinball tournament in my home and I've got a restraining order against someone who happens to be a part of a pinball community, I imagine that there's probably... No one's going to say that that person has to participate in my... I'm sure that there are less extreme versions of the example I've just given here, but I'm sure that there are ways in particular if you're having something in your home or if you're having something in a place where people are restricted there is a necessarily restricted access there are a few workarounds to the idea that absolutely everyone but the thing is that none of the acceptable restrictions are what bathroom you use or what your gender is I wouldn't have felt safe as a cishet dude. If I knew that that was going on at a pinball tournament that I was playing in, I think I would have walked out because I don't think I would have felt safe if someone was arbitrarily exercising bias against people and it was being sanctioned by the rules of the place and the rules of the tournament, that that was acceptable. I don't think I'd feel safe there. And so I can't fault someone who actually does have stake in the game for having felt unsafe there. I don't know another way to express that. But after a big disagreement and the Women's Advisory Board resigned because of the big disagreement over whether or not those results should be sanctioned, mentioned, the IFPA has made some changes. Eric, I think you're better prepared to speak to what these changes are than I am. I read Colin's article. I refer everyone to Kineticist as always for news about pinball, including the thing that Madeline sent me earlier about Pokemon. Like 100% when she sent me that, I went to Kineticist to see what Colin had to say. But in this instance, Colin has to say something much more important than has anything to do with do with some toy or card game or whatever around the last time we had recorded about this the the last the ifpa had said on the matter was that they were going to be adding new board members and that would take a while and they'd let us know who that would be in the future right since then they've let us know who that would be okay they announced three new board members not part of an advisory board or anything, just actual people at the IFPA. Being Kaylee Campbell, Travis Murry, and Ashley Weaver. I think those are great additions. I only know Travis of the three to look in his face and say, oh, we've met. I know you. That he would look back at me and say, yeah, you're right. We've met. He's the only one of the three that I'm sure that would happen with. But also, I've never seen anything but kindness in Travis Murie. I like that. I've never met Travis Murie. He seems like a decent person. He makes some good instructional videos for competitive players. Well done. I know Ashley Weaver, a tournament director out by Seattle. When I do go and visit my family and do make it to pinball, I make it a point to go to Ashley's tournaments. Right. Also, very good competitive player. I respect her. That's a good choice. And Kelly Campbell is a trans one from North Carolina. Okay. That is a great choice. so this I think was a good move by the IFPA it's caused some optimism where you know we were just all sort of an offensive state of I don't know about this thing I've talked to a number of people and we all like it's okay that's good this is a positive step at least the tournaments that Jess runs she's going to start resubmitting them for sanctioning by the IFPA. So we like that. To Jess's credit, when she had already submitted IFPA tournaments and I was, if you recall from last season, I was very quick to be willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Our last episode, we had Polly Jean Vernon on and she was calling for a boycott, but a very specific one that like, boycott a tournament if there isn't also a women's director, or also a woman. If there isn't a woman directing it. Who is a part of the team. A part of the directing team, yeah. Boycott, that's not an open tournament at that point. Someone won't feel safe, yeah. interestingly you were choosing to opt out of the tournaments jess allowed me to opt out of a tournament before she stopped submitting them to the ifpa just to clarify slightly what we mean when we say i was be allowed to opt out of the tournament is that my results would not be submitted to the ifpa if i got first whoever got second would be the winner according to the ifba a couple of weeks after the ifba announced their new members they put out a rule change which will no longer allow a tournament director to allow opt-outs previously that was up to the tournament director if they wanted to or not friends in this case i you know allowing people to opt out if they wanted to i think was good and a way to send the message. Yes. To send the message that we understand we did some shit wrong. Yeah. We understand we done fucked up. So that's no longer allowed and that is being received rather negatively on the trans pinball blue sky that I read through. Yeah. Not happy about this one personally. I don't like that. Also, around just recently, NBC National News picked up the story out of OBX. No shit? It's a very good article. I recommend it. It's well done, but it's also like OG's the national news is looking at this now. yeah well what's the dateline and reporter yeah on uh january 31st 2026 reporter joe yerkaba released the article how a trans woman's removal from a restroom tore the world of competitive pinball apart and this is on nbcnews.com well uh uh Monsieur or Madame Yerkaba, you are welcome on NYC Pinpot anytime you want. Now, Kelly Campbell, one of the new IFPA directors, is in the article quite a bit. Very good. Very good. So, I was sure when we left this last season that I was going to, not like, you know, I wasn't going to be Che Guevara or anything, but I thought that I was going to make a little something where a couple of cities might get together and have some pinball championships between them but around about the time that I finally got my act together from really wanting to not go out of my apartment or see people or play a lot of pinball for a couple of months it turns out that all of this kind of resolved itself that's not exactly correct it's not right to say that it has resolved itself but it you know it's reached a steady state of i guess this is you know okay right now ish it's reached we're we're yeah i don't know a state of resigned discord of hopeful energy. I mean, it's moving ever so slowly, but the new IFPA staff members, that's positive. That's all for this week's pod. You can reach out to the show via email at nycpinpod at gmail.com or you can leave us a voice memo at speakpipe.com slash nycpinpod. You can find all the information you want about the show at nycpinpod.wordpress.com. Join us next week when hopefully we'll have some folks who have just completed a series to talk with locally here. We'll see if that comes to fruition. And if not, we'll do something else in Ball 3, but we'll do the usual things in Balls 1 and 2. And what I really want you to do is to have a hell of a lot of fun if you're playing on Monday night, either at Barcade or in Pinball NYC. And for the whole rest of the week, whatever you're up to, go get them, pinfolk.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 52947438-aac2-445e-bb76-de05309e371b*