# Episode 317 - The Most WPPRful Time of the Year

**Source:** NYC PinPod  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2024-12-23  
**Duration:** 76m 7s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.spreaker.com/episode/episode-317-the-most-wpprful-time-of-the-year--63440253

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## Analysis

NYC Pin Pod hosts Benjamin Furiga, Eric Sweetland, and Madeline Lin discuss New York City pinball tournament results from December 2024, including local league finals, WPPR standings updates, and player competition for the NY State Finals. They review Minnie's Bar in Sunset Park as a pinball venue, noting its Medieval Madness machine and vintage Ghostbusters in an unplayable position, plus upcoming tournament opportunities. Ball 3 predicts which players will qualify for state finals based on current WPPR standings.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] As of December 21st, 2024, there are 275 pinball machines in New York City at 81 public locations — _Directly stated with attribution to Pinball Map data_
- [HIGH] Zen Zokniak won the Sam Stern Army December RWI tournament, winning all three games (James Bond, Pulp Fiction, Banzai Run) — _Tournament results directly reported by hosts_
- [MEDIUM] The Ghostbusters machine at Minnie's has never been updated and runs original code from a very old version — _Benjamin Furiga's assessment based on gameplay experience; not independently verified_
- [HIGH] Benjamin Furiga is holding on by a thread trying to get into the state finals (WPPR standings) — _Stated by Benjamin Furiga at show opening_
- [HIGH] Minnie's Bar hosts karaoke nights on Saturday run by Cyclone Jack Jim Sullivan — _Directly reported by hosts who attended the venue_
- [HIGH] The Ghostbusters machine at Minnie's is positioned in an unplayable location due to a wall that juts out on the right-hand side — _Detailed description by Benjamin Furiga from firsthand observation_
- [HIGH] Medieval Madness at Minnie's is the specific machine previously at Bar Great Harry with named trolls — _Benjamin Furiga and Jess Warren visited specifically to play this machine_

### Notable Quotes

> "If I were going to stand there, my crotch would be touching the pinball machine, I think, based on where that wall is."
> — **Benjamin Furiga**, Minnie's venue review section
> _Humorous but serious critique of Ghostbusters machine playability at Minnie's Bar_

> "40 effing million! And then karaoke was starting."
> — **Madeline Lin**, Medieval Madness score discussion
> _Celebrating achieving 40 million score on Medieval Madness before karaoke disrupted play_

> "I was too socially anxious. I did not want to try and get in that space."
> — **Eric Sweetland**, Minnie's Ghostbusters discussion
> _Acknowledges the uncomfortable positioning of the Ghostbusters machine_

> "Just find any queer or raging homos, Venmo and send us a direct subsidy. You too can contribute."
> — **Benjamin Furiga**, Valentine's Day tournament charity section
> _Humorous appeal for charity contributions to support LGBTQ+ causes_

> "Would we all agree that the code is also unplayable? It is."
> — **Multiple hosts**, Ghostbusters code discussion
> _Consensus that Ghostbusters runs old, unplayable code in addition to poor physical positioning_

> "It's kind of like either the mail bathroom urinal problem or any stall bathroom where the door just reaches the toilet and you're like, well, wait, how am I supposed to get in there or out of this thing?"
> — **Benjamin Furiga**, Medieval Madness alcove discussion
> _Comparison highlighting the tight quarters of the Medieval Madness placement_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Benjamin Furiga | person | NYC Pin Pod co-host, tournament player, WPPR contender for NY State Finals |
| Eric Sweetland | person | NYC Pin Pod co-host, pinball tournament director in New York City, rules official |
| Madeline Lin | person | NYC Pin Pod co-host, pinball player, recently discovered co-worker plays Game of Thrones and AC/DC |
| Jess Warren | person | Tournament organizer (South Slope Strikes, RWI, Valentine's Day charity tournament) |
| Matthew Grady | person | NYC pinball player, tournament director, stream commentator/technical operator for tournaments |
| Zen Zokniak | person | Top NYC pinball player, won Sam Stern Army December RWI, multiple WPPR finishes in December |
| Robert Wong | person | NYC pinball player, won SSPL 7's sixth meeting, finalist in multiple December tournaments |
| Chris Cafaro | person | NYC pinball player, top finisher in multiple December tournaments including Thursday Night Strikes |
| Gus Gonzalez | person | NYC pinball player, SSPL A Finals winner, won all three rounds |
| Kate Steven Martin | person | NYC pinball player, organizer of SSPL league, Pinball NYC end-of-year tournament winner |
| Nint Hu | person | NYC pinball player, chasing Benjamin Furiga in state standings, Sunshine Winter League winner |
| Cyclone Jack Jim Sullivan | person | Karaoke host at Minnie's Bar, Saturday nights, noted as having pinball community connection |
| Minnie's Bar | product | Pinball venue in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, features Ghostbusters (unplayable position) and Medieval Madness, hosts karaoke, has back patio and event space |
| Rulo's | product | NYC pinball venue hosting South Slope Strikes and RWI tournaments |
| Jack Bar | product | NYC pinball venue hosting Left Flipper Championship finals and Thursday Night Strikes |
| NYC Pin Pod | organization | Podcast discussing NYC location pinball, tournament results, and community |
| Pinball NYC | organization | NYC pinball league and competitive organization, going on hiatus until mid-late February |
| Medieval Madness | game | Classic Williams pinball game at Minnie's Bar, previously at Bar Great Harry with named trolls |
| Ghostbusters | game | Pinball machine at Minnie's Bar in unplayable position, runs old unupdated code |
| Jurassic Park | game | Pinball game at NYC venues, Alex Jim Kelly scored 500-600 million in tournament play |
| Attack from Mars | game | Classic pinball game played in NYC tournaments, referenced in SSPL finals |
| Game of Thrones | game | Pinball game Pro version, played by Madeline Lin's co-worker at lunch |
| AC/DC | game | Pinball game Pro version, played by Madeline Lin's co-worker at lunch |
| Metallica | game | Pinball machine at Buttermilk, has snake shot registration issues per Pinball Lizard |
| IFPA | organization | International Flipper Pinball Association, manages WPPR rankings and tournament calendar |

### Topics

- **Primary:** NYC tournament results and competition, WPPR standings and NY State Finals qualification, Minnie's Bar venue review and pinball machine placement
- **Secondary:** Pinball machine maintenance and code updates, NYC pinball league structure and scheduling (Pinball NYC, SSPL, Thursday Night Strikes), Charity pinball tournaments (Valentine's Day for LGBTQ+ causes), Machine availability and condition reports in NYC venues
- **Mentioned:** Tournament formats and WPPR point structures

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.72) — Hosts express enthusiasm about tournament activity, competitive play, and community venues. Criticism of machine conditions (Ghostbusters position, Theater of Magic condition) is constructive rather than negative. Positive tone about Minnie's Bar despite venue challenges. Some frustration about WPPR qualification pressure but framed humorously.

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** Matt Grady streaming NYC pinball tournaments on NYC Pinball YouTube channel, providing accessible replay content for community analysis (confidence: high) — The match was streamed on Twitch by Matthew Grady with commentary by Dante Oliva and is now available to watch on the NYC Pinball YouTube channel. Matt Grady streams both of the Quit Talking and Start Chalkings and they can be watched on the NYC Pinball YouTube page.
- **[community_signal]** Pinball NYC league going on hiatus until mid-late February, with alternative weekly/monthly tournaments filling the gap during winter season (confidence: high) — Pinball NYC is going to be on hiatus until mid to late February. In that time, you can expect to see some weekly and monthly events.
- **[community_signal]** WPPR qualification pressure driving tournament participation decisions; players choosing between different tournament options to maximize points in final weeks before state finals (confidence: high) — I went to that specifically because I thought it would be easier for me to get WPPR there than in the B division of SSPL on the same night. If you're like me and you're right on the edge in states and you're trying to get those last WPPR.
- **[community_signal]** Intersection of NYC pinball community with broader arcade/gaming culture (Fighting game venue Level Up near Minnie's, Industry City recent host of NYC Pinball Championship) (confidence: high) — catty corner from minis is that fighting game spot...Level Up or level one. And also Industry City, which is a recent host of the New York City Pinball Championship.
- **[community_signal]** Active NYC pinball competitive scene with multiple weekly and monthly tournaments across different venues (Jack Bar, Sunshine Laundromat, Rulo's, Barcade Brooklyn) (confidence: high) — Thursday Night Strikes, SSPL meetings, Sunshine Winter League, Quit Talking and Start Chalking tournaments all meeting regularly in December 2024
- **[event_signal]** Upcoming charity tournament: Valentine's Day pinball tournament (approximately February 16th) benefiting James Cameron Avatar Center and Transgender Law Center (confidence: high) — Roundabout February 16th. Keep an eye out for Valentine's Day...raising money for both the James Cameron Avatar Center and the Transgender Law Center.
- **[event_signal]** South Slope Strikes December 7th tournament with 23 players; Left Flipper Championship finals between NYC FSA and Mutants at Jack Bar on December 9th (confidence: high) — On Saturday, December 7th, Jess Warren gathered 23 players at Rulo's for South Slope Strikes. Alberto Santana came out on top. The Left Flipper Championship was contested between NYC FSA and the Mutants at Jack Bar.
- **[market_signal]** NYC pinball venue landscape: 275 machines across 81 public locations as of December 21, 2024, with venues like Minnie's hosting multiple entertainment options (pinball, karaoke, events) (confidence: high) — As of December 21st, 2024, there are 275 pinball machines in New York City at 81 public locations. Thanks to the creators and users of Pinball Map for this data.
- **[product_concern]** Multiple machine reliability issues reported at NYC venues: Guardians of the Galaxy Groot and Orb shot registration problems; Metallica snake shot registration issues; Theater of Magic flipper unresponsiveness (confidence: high) — Groot shot does not register...Orb shot doesn't work...the snake shot often isn't registering...Left flipper unresponsive.
- **[sentiment_shift]** Venue quality concerns: Ghostbusters machine at Minnie's in unplayable position with outdated code; multiple machine condition issues reported (Metallica registration, Theater of Magic flipper problems) (confidence: high) — Ghostbusters positioned so player crotch would touch machine; runs original unupdated code. Theater of Magic at Alewife described as unplayable with unresponsive left flipper and trunk positioning issues.

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## Transcript

 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. My name is Benjamin Furiga. My initials are BCF, and I'm holding on by a thread trying to get into the state finals. My name is Eric Sweetland. My initials are HIP, and I'm a pinball tournament director in New York City. Hey, y'all. My name is Madeline Lin. What pronouns are she, her, hers? My initials are MXL, and I found out that one of my own co-workers got to play Black Knight at lunch. On this week's pod, we'll run down local competition results, we'll review minis as a pinball venue, and in Ball 3, we'll run down who we think the people who are actually going to be in the New York State Finals will be, based on the most recent standings updates. Let's get started. On Saturday, December 7th, Jess Warren gathered 23 players at Rurlo's for South Slope Strikes. Nice. Alberto Santana came out on top. Aaron Dick Hamill, second. Greg Pavarelli, third. And tied for fourth, Stephen Flynn and Robert Wong. Yowza. Some big talent at that tournament. On Monday, December 9th, in Pinball NYC, it was the finals. The Left Orbit Championship was contested between NYC FSA and the Mutants at Jack Bar. After three rounds, our associates took it away at a 9-3 result. Ooh, nice. The match was streamed on Twitch by Matthew Grady with commentary by Dante Oliva and is now available to watch on the NYC Pinball YouTube channel. Any highlights we should watch for? There was an amazing game of Jurassic Park that Alex Kelly put up. Five or six hundred million. Jesus. Yeah, in the third round, that was one of the clinchers for us. In the left in-lane playoffs, Intermission Dolores, we believe, beat the two-for-oners. Unfortunately, when I went to write my script, the pinball NYC, or rather I should say, nyc.silverball.city the app that gives us all the results for the league was down. Eric was at the party and is pretty sure that Intermission Dolores won based on the fact that we didn't notice any of the two-for-oners around and I think they would have showed up to accept a trophy and have that kind of fun. On Tuesday night, in the right in-lane playoffs, No Quarters for Laundry bested Neptune's Treasure at Gebhard's Beer Culture. Eric also played in the right in lane playoffs. How'd it go? On that night, we butterballers played the schlubs at sunshine laundromats. It was a close match. The butterballers took it nine to seven. There was a final round game on attack from ours at the front of the laundromat that was decided by a few tens of millions of points in three billion point total. yeah tens of millions of points is not a lot in attack from mars unless it's uh unless it's a terrible terrible game on wednesday december 11th the inaugural quit talking and start chalking jonah schlaes uh runs the match play matt grady is the tournament director eric were you there for the inaugural also i know you were there for the second one yeah i was 11 players came in an interesting format where 8-Ball Deluxe and Bad Girls were forced into every round. With only three groups, it was a little much, but the second time around, it worked out better. And after a timed set of qualifying rounds, the top four went on to play a Papa-style finals. Matt Grady won the first one. Chris Caffaro came in second. Nint Hu and Ian Leone made third and fourth also that Wednesday the fourth meeting of the Sunshine Winter League was convened under Francesco La Rocca's guidance six players gathered and Dan Merrill and Fred Cohen tied atop the standings with 26 points apiece on Thursday December 12th we're going to talk about some kind of small counts for these two tournaments because there were a bunch of people who went to Rochester. But on Thursday, December 12th, No Bro Presents Thursday Night Strikes was convened at Jack Bar. 21 players gathered. Chris Cafaro came out on top with Adam Kane in second, Matt Fisher in third, and Cam Bloomfield in fourth. That same night, just 11 players went to SSPL 7's sixth meeting. Robert Wong came out on top. Our very own Eric Sweetland came in second with 25 points. Rob Adler, third, and Zen Zotniak tied with Rob. That is to say, after everything but the finals were handled, that the top eight for the series were going to be Robert Wong in first, Matthew Carlson in second, Taylor Connolly in third, Eric Sweetland and Matthew Grady tied for fourth but eric unfortunately you you traveled in the finals week right that's right yeah i wasn't able to make finals kate martin came in sixth aj gould seventh zen zhokniak eighth and Janos Kiss gonzalez is worth mentioning as the ninth seed since eric was unavailable on sunday december 15th the stern armies december rwi that stands for rob wong invitational and i assure you you are invited was gathered under Jess Warren's steady hand. 14 players showed up, and again, kind of a small number for their usual turnout, but a bunch of people were in Rochester at the Royal Rumble. Zen Zokniak took all comers in the finals, taking first place in all three games on James Bond Pulp Fiction and Banzai Run. He left everybody in the dust so much that each of them had a second, a third, and a last, And it was the tiebreaker at the end of it that determined who got second, third, and fourth place. So the second, third, and fourth place money in Whoppers were determined by a game on Johnny Mnemonic, which Roby Rowley won. Roby. Roby Rowley won. Sorry, Roby. Rob Bruno came in second. And Taylor Connolly came in third. On Tuesday, December 17th, the Bells NYC end-of-year target match play tournament was convened at Rulos. Kate Martin came out on top, Monica Weidekamp in second, Miriam Nadler third, and Courtney Wetzel fourth. On Wednesday, December 18th, the Sunshine Winter League 2024's fifth meeting was convened under Francesco La Rocca's leadership. Twelve players showed up this week. I have a feeling that some of them think they're going to get whoppers for this, despite the fact that they're probably not going to get whoppers for this who showed up later. They've only had six or eight in their first several meetings, so I don't think any of these folks are going to get points who showed up of the additional 12. But Nint Who came out on top. He's chasing me in the States. Joel Lasner came in second. And Harlan Kelleway and Dan Merrill tied for third. That same night, Quit Talking and Start Chalking number two was convened at Barcade Brooklyn under, again, Matt Grady and Jonah Shlaes' leadership. And Eric also made some rulings. I attended, as obviously did Eric, if he was making rulings. We were two of the 17 players there for the night. Again, as Eric said, for the last one, it was timed number of rounds. There would be a time at which the last round was called. In this instance, it was kicked down. The can was kicked down the road 10 minutes. It was supposed to have been 1015. And then we were told as 1015 was rapidly approaching that it would be 1025 because we started 10 minutes late. Christopher C.J. Smith won the day. Matthew Grady, excuse me, Matt Grady who appears by the name that he does not prefer to be called in match play, I apologize Matt came in second Jose Garcia came in third after beating me in a tiebreaker after the first playoff round and David Patlak came in fourth What time did that finish up? It was not still Wednesday when I left and I don't know I think it was around 1am when we announced the first one of these I wrote in the script something akin to be ready for a late night and I believe I had that it was great fun but if we're going to play eight people in three rounds of playoffs after having played match play until 10-15 be ready to go home tomorrow also as it's becoming more and more common here in the city Matt Grady streams both of the Quit Talking and Start Chalkings and they can be watched on the NYC Pinball YouTube page. Yes, right. That's true. I will probably find a great deal of helpful analytical information about my own games about my own play there because I was on the stream for a lot of the last bit. I think not only was my finals group on the stream, but also the last two or three games of match play I was on the stream. I should be able to see something, you know, be able to analyze some stuff about my play based on that and i'd like to thank matt for doing that on thursday december 19th 18 players went to jack bar for noah bro presents thursday night strikes sam hall led the way for the evening connor calista won the day besting nint who yours truly and chris cafaro respectively in the rest of the top four i went to that specifically because i thought it would be easier for me to get Whoppers there than in the B division of SSPL on the same night. But on the same night, the league that I usually play in was playing their finals down in South Slope. In the A finals, Janos Kiss Gonzalez came out on top, again, winning all three rounds in the final three games. Robert Wong came in second, Matthew Carlson third, and Zen Zokniak second. that's a big whopper week for Zen Zokniak between RWI and that, that's pretty big in the B finals which do I believe at this point increase your whopper standings or not they did not used to do that but now I believe they do, Thomas Milbert came in first Rob Adler and Caitlin James Rees tied for second, Caitlin won a tiebreaker on Godzilla and Billy Vazine came in fourth Tom Milburn is someone that I've been chasing for most of the year in the state standings, and I think that's still true. Pinball NYC is going to be on hiatus until mid to late February. In that time, you can expect to see some weekly and monthly events. We're going to be on hiatus for most of that same period, or at least from regular events. But I want to outline a few schedule things. The last opportunities of the year. If you're like me and you're right on the edge in states and you're trying to get those last whoppers in, Thursday night strikes on the 26th, the day after Christmas. You can go to Jack Bar and get some whoppers. Brooklyn's last whopper-tunity, which was a pre-registration tournament. So if you're not registered, you're probably not going to get in. There's probably a wait list, but you can probably find some information about that if you look around and see if you can get on the wait list if you haven't already. That is on Saturday the 28th. now on Monday the 30th the Sunshine B Open tournament which is theoretically the B division to the Sunshine Laundromat League I have a feeling that this one on the 30th there might actually be a lot more Whoppers in B than there are in playing the A tournament in the Open tournament that everybody can just show up for on a Monday night at the end of the year trying to get those last Whoppers in I got a feeling there's going to be more Whoppers in B than in A on that one you can look for weekly tournaments. It looks like there's a Tuesday night weekly at Gebhard's in January. Looks like that's coming up according to the IFPA calendar. Wednesday night Sunshine League, I think it's going to return to their new location. Eric, you know more about that than I do probably. The new NYC Match Play League is slated to start on the 15th at the new Sunshine location. That's January 15th. January 15th. Very good. Wednesday evenings. Also, Monday evenings will be the new iteration of the Barcade Brooklyn Pinball League. Oh, and that I presume is only... Starting in January. Yeah, only during the period that Pinball NYC is not happening. Is that right? That's right. Okay, very good. Good to know. Thursday Night Strikes will continue, I'm sure. Although, I believe I've been led to believe that once a month, they're going to start doing a split flipper tournament in lieu. I think it's the third Thursday of every month. I think that's what Gabe told me. That's what I heard. If you think IFPA tournaments are bullshit, but you really want to go play some split flipper, one Thursday a month is just for you at Jack Bar. Nice. I assume that Kate will continue SSPL at Buttermilk, but it looks like at least for the winter, there's like a selfie league with finals in February. I have a feeling that that's because of some pinball tournament travel schedules. I think Allentown's coming up in a weekend that it might be inconvenient for people to be playing late on Thursday night. I think InDisc is going to be in the next few weeks. So I have a feeling that the Selfie League is going to replace SSPL at least for the winter. But I imagine that Kate will bring that back after the winter period is over. Silver Ball Sundays at Single Cuts begin again in January. There wasn't one this month, but they begin again. At least there's one on the IFPA calendar for January, and I assume Tommy will keep doing that. That seemed to have been a pretty successful monthly event. Thanks, Tommy. The Rob Wong Invitational, you're invited, at Rulo's, will be happening monthly. I think that usually happens the second Sunday, like the Sunday that follows the single cut each month. And South Slope Strikes will continue to meet monthly. or at least there are January listings for those. So I presume that the February and March ones will be renewed very soon thereafter. But by the time March rolls around, we'll be telling you all about it. Roundabout February 16th. Keep an eye out for Valentine's Day. Oh, yes. That's a great tournament. And also, can you talk for a minute, please, about who that benefits? Jess Warren and I put on this tournament every year. It is a charity tournament raising money for both the Ali Forney Center and the Transgender Law Center. thank you uh a great deal of fun uh also might be i i got somewhere in the top four last year and that might actually be my highest whopper hall of last year was that tournament that's it's it there there are great reasons that have nothing to do with whoppers to come play that tournament uh that you know the the all of the ancillary fundraiser things are of course wonderful and unfortunately needed but still desperately needed but we you know that's great but it's also just a great pinball tournament if you were just looking for a great pinball tournament it's also that you get the added benefit of helping vulnerable people when you do that and if you can't make it don't worry just find any queer or raging homos venmo and send us a direct subsidy you too can contribute as of december 21st 2024 there are 275 pinball machines in new york city at 81 public locations thanks to the creators and users of pinball map for this data here are machine updates from the past week on saturday the 14th user zt arnold one went to boat bar and played the guardians of the galaxy they said Groot shot does not register so you can't start that multiball orb shot doesn't work so you can't start that multiball either also on the 14th user pinball lizard was in the south slope and said of the metallica at buttermilk i think the snake shot often isn't registering and snake sometimes still spits it down the middle and visited the monroe and played the creature from the Black Lagoon that showed up recently and said, the pop bumpers pop and bump. Nice. On Friday the 20th, user JMS played the Theater of Magic at Alewife and said, unplayable. Left flipper unresponsive. Trunk angled out of position. Dirty and disappointing. And user Grimer went to Arcade Chelsea to play the Black Knight 2000 and lets us know the upper playfield flipper is weak. Let's talk about minis in Sunset Park. You want to take the train to 36th Street. And when I say the train it could be the R it could be the D it could be the N As we talked about you still get to get resuscitated there And unfortunately this is for those of you who are news watchers who are local news aficionados, this is the station where that dude set off a smoke grenade six months or nine months or a year ago, and there was a manhunt for the dude. But you go to that station and walk a couple blocks north, on 4th Avenue to Minnie's. It's between, am I right, it's between 33 and 34? I think that's right. Or 34, 35? Yeah, one of those. It's right there. Yeah, it's more than a full block away from the 36th Street stop. You walk past two different ways to get into Greenwood Cemetery on your way there, I believe. No, actually, you walk past one. I walked to Rulo's after that and walked past another one. That's why I'm getting confused. it's a pretty cool bar up front it is dimly lit it is the kind of place that you feel like you could sit down either at the bar or at one of several i think it's just like bars along the walls i don't remember seeing any tables up there and all you know tall stools and you can have an intimate conversation with someone just sitting next to them there it seems like that kind of joint. I was there on an afternoon. So maybe late afternoon vibe works like that. And maybe at 11 o'clock at night, it doesn't. I can't say for sure. But I kind of thought that that front room was warm and inviting and would be just a nice place to sit down and chat with someone if that's what you were up to for your Sunday afternoon. The bar's there up front and they have all the offerings that you would expect a bar to have. I don't believe there's a working kitchen in this place, although there's a space that it looks like there used to be a mini pantry kind of prep food area in the back, but I don't think they have a menu. Did either of y'all see anything food related? No. What did I worry about? At the back of that front room on the right hand side and in a position that I could only refer to as unplayable is a Ghostbusters pinball machine. Did both of you also try to play it? I got too socially anxious. I did not want to try and get in that space. Understood. I've played it there a few times. The reason I say it's unplayable is that it is tucked into this little nook that I personally cannot stand with the center of my face between the center of the flippers, between the center drain, because of a wall. that is on the right-hand side that sort of juts out. If I were going to stand there, my crotch would be touching the pinball machine, I think, based on where that wall is. I don't think that there's any way for me to do that other than either that or twist my torso to the side in some way that looks like a Bob Fosse dance move. I don't think that it's particularly playable. I also... Would we all agree that the code... actually eric you've played it uh and madeline you haven't i guess that would we agree that the code is also unplayable it is i believe the original code i don't think that it has ever been updated as near as it's old code yeah very old code well there have been two what i would say what i what i perceived as two major revisions to the code since the the way that this one plays to my mind I played it once. I twisted my torso. I mean, I didn't hurt myself. That's what I had to do to put my face in the right position. That was enough. Now you go past that Ghostbusters, and there's a bigger open room in the back. And Madeline, I think you might have seen it in one of its purposes that isn't just a bunch of tables and places for people to sit down and hang out. There are signs on the wall that advertise events there, but I've never seen it active as an event space. I definitely want to talk about that. There's a lot of stuff that goes on at minis. It's a pretty cool place. I saw a poster for a burlesque event in the bathroom, I think. It was passed by the time I was there, but there's definitely some burlesque stuff going on there. In terms of decor, the bathrooms are wallpapered with board game rule sheets. That's right. That's cool. That's a lovely touch. And there is a big stack of board games in that back room right next to Medieval Madness. You just might hit your left hand off that shelf or stack or whatever it is when you're playing Medieval Madness. That's right. There was a Saturday night sometime earlier this year, shortly after Medieval Madness was added to Minnie's bar, when Jess Warren and I went there to play it specifically because it is the Medieval Madness for which the trolls are named and had previously been at Bar Great Harry. And while we were there playing it, we didn't know this was going to happen. It turns out Saturday night is karaoke night hosted by Cyclone Jack Sullivan. Oh, big pinball connection with Cyclone Jack Sullivan. I'm going to call him a collider in law. Well, that's cool. That seems like a fun happenstance. Madeline, you shared a video with us that was a very funny thing that someone did at a karaoke that you seemingly were there for. what what what was your experience with whatever karaoke was going on there that night well i didn't know about any of this when you said minis and me being me having never heard of the place and i walk in and i see the first room and i'm like this is the whole bar and it's just the first room where it's like the bar and then a narrow space behind it and i was like wow what a big place and then i walked past that i'm like oh there's a second room okay this is all right and I go over to the to the medieval madness and it being in its own sort of uh alcove or nook I actually kind of liked it turned all the lights off which I usually don't like because I like being able to see but because it doesn't have the leds the the distance between very bright and no lights isn't as great and also I'm by myself so I'm not bumping into anybody and you know when you're in the alcove but into my like sixth or seventh game they started announcing that karaoke could be starting in seven minutes. And I'm like, oh, God, I'm not that autistic. I don't know that this would be really obnoxious. So we need to finish this up. I was doing a $10 challenge after going to Industry City and visiting Micro Center. And so I wrapped up my 10th game really quickly, figured out my slide save, which I had practiced the previous week at a work event. And then I sat and enjoyed some karaoke when people were singing the Nine for Blonde song, not the He-Man version, but the original. I was in the back with somebody else, and when Skeletor sings it in the He-Man version, I went, and then the person next to me laughed. I'm like, yes, yes, we got a fan. And then I did this whole pan thing where I panned from all these, like, 40-year-old millennials singing to the pinball machine, showed the high scores, and then I slowly panned back. I wanted to time it to show HIP or MXL, but I wasn't that forethought. So what I thought was funny is that I believe someone was singing the song Tequila at karaoke. That's what struck me as being hilarious about it. That was pretty funny. I forgot about that clip. In the back room, it doesn't have quite that sort of dimly lit, intimate environment. It is a bit more open because it is a bigger, wider room. it also has a back patio and if you're there during daylight-ish hours which might be more possible over the summer for a bar that opens at three or four o'clock most days like it's not in the winter if you go in the next month you're not going to see a lot of light in that back room but i was there pretty much right when they opened and it was still kind of bright outside and it was kind of a bright open room in the back i i wrote down that the instead of the uh the up front there was like black wallpaper with silver palm leaves on it that was part of what sort of added to that atmosphere but in the back at least when it's daylight the walls are this like institutional green i wrote calm institutional green that may have resulted from the stanford prison experiment around the back room. It is just an institutional green color on the walls. But on the focus wall in the room, there are a bunch of photos that are like wedding photos. Plus, one of Barbra Streisand, and for some fucking reason, I think one of Betty Page. So like a bunch of family wedding photos, and one of Barbra Streisand, and one of Betty Page. It's awesome, but I don't know why. In that same back room had that little like pantry area right off to the left. That's the thing that sort of creates the boundary for your little medieval madness nook in the back. That medieval madness is eminently playable. Everything about the environment that it is in makes it playable. Madeline, you even say you could get some slide saves on it, right? I mean, the tilt is fair. It was a pretty grippy floor, but I could go for it and I didn't have to worry about bumping into anybody. It's kind of like either the mail bathroom urinal problem or any stall bathroom where the door just reaches the toilet and you're like, well, wait, how am I supposed to get in or out of this thing? Yeah, it needed to open out. Yeah, indeed. Indeed. But yeah, I really liked the joint. I thought the decor was pretty cool. I will also say that back patio, I stepped out there for a moment when I was there just to look at it. And it's a pretty cool little spot. If you were looking for somewhere to go outside and have some drinks in Sunset Park, or for that matter, just, I mean, you're one express stop from Atlantic Avenue. That's one of the wonderful things about this part of Brooklyn, about Crown Heights where I live, that you can go one express stop from Atlantic and be somewhere else in a very different neighborhood than you were just sitting in. And that is a place that you can get to very quickly. It's got a couple of machines, but it's also got this great back patio. There were a lot of tables in the back room, and a lot of them say, do not move table. and I felt kind of bad because a couple were immediately touching the front of the pinball table and I'm like I just got here I'm gonna try and get kicked out but also I'm gonna play this thing so I'm gonna scooch this six inches over and hopefully no one's gonna notice but probably someone who works there is very much going to notice and then afterwards when I was trying to leave they were singing karaoke and I tried to time it so they attended the end of the song and then I would leave but there was such a line that by the time I got to you know being about to leave the next song started and i'm just standing in the middle of the karaoke room while someone's singing and i'm like no no this is no where i want to be right now but then someone else was like at this i'm going through and so i went behind them so thank you thank you so much uh the karaoke happens in such a way that it is difficult to get back out to the front room is that right without without feeling like you're disturbing the proceedings you you got to be a little bold it's kind of fun because they run the the the the mc runs it out of that little sort of deli counter area. Yeah, that's a good DJ booth. That's a great DJ booth. No, it's a vibe. You just got to be there for the vibe. Right on. I hear there's something of a competitive backgammon scene that plays out of minis. Interesting. Also, Caddy Corner from minis is that fighting game spot. Oh, that's right. The spin-off from what had been going on at Chinatown Fair. Oh, wait, really? Yes, level one or level up. Yeah. Is just a few blocks away. Yes, that's true. And also Industry City, which is a recent host of the New York City Pinball Championship. Madeline, I'm looking at your graph right now. You had a game over 40 million. Yes! I feel like I do the same things. I always talk about the history of the arcade. I always talk about fake sponsorships. and I always talk about graphs. I feel like that vine of the Nickelback song where the guy says, look at this photograph, but they edit out photo and the dude's just holding a line graph and the vine says, look at this graph. And so I feel like that here because when I was doing my 10 game challenge and you look at the graph, sometimes for a game where I know it, pretty quickly I can put up a decent number and then it drops and it goes higher and it drops sort of like teeth graph that we saw in Jaws. for this table when I was sort of figuring out the flippers and the stickiness of the button versus the flipper and the grippiness of the floor and things it took me a while but uh towards the ninth and tenth game I started to figure things out and maybe there's an implication there that if I'm at a new tournament or a new table or a new venue it's going to take me a good ten dollars or a good freaking hour maybe to figure out a good number and that has some interesting implications for practice or for time tournaments versus pump and dump tournaments. It's very interesting. It seems like the first four just sort of go down while you're trying to figure it out. And then you get one up around 10 million. And then you have your three game cycle where down a little, up a little higher. 40 effing million! And then karaoke was starting. I can see where karaoke he was starting on the graph. I was very pleased I did make it onto the number three scoreboard right alongside fellow co-host HIP. Felt pretty proud of myself. Nice. Oh, it got even more awkward because literally the last game, I think I tilted finally. I found the tilt, Bob. But the trolls were up and so the ball got stuck perfectly behind one of the trolls and so then the troll couldn't close and when it would try to do the ball search the ball wouldn't move and so every 30 seconds you hear and while someone's singing and i'm like and then i'm like okay maybe if i just like pick this up an inch you know and then go and then the table doesn't move and this person is still singing and then it's just going and i'm like fuck fuck fuck fuck and eventually the ball drains successfully and the machine stops making noise and I'm like fuck I'm just gonna sit here and go on my phone and pretend I'm not here for a bit and then it was a nice vibe of karaoke but I think you know we as experienced and responsible location pinball players it's you know okay to you know lift a machine up if you've got a ball stuck in a weird spot or if it's making an incredibly annoying mechanical noise and could possibly hurt itself. I think it's okay. We can turn the machine off if we need to do a reset. There's that too. Good stewards of location pinball. Yeah, that's right. We're part of the equation. That's right. Ball three. Y'all, it's ball three. Let's talk about getting high. I don't mean getting high in the CBD or THC way. I mean talking about getting high scores and standings for New York State. Today we're going to talk about the current player standings for the North American Championship Series. Eric pitched this segment, although it's near and dear to my heart, because I started this year knowing that the state finals were going to be in New York City, and with a plan for what I was willing to do to make it. eric also uh i think eric i think yours might your strategy at trying to make it might have been much more just about participate as much as possible is that that was basically you'd go to everything right i i told myself i was going to play two events a month in addition to the thursday night league so that was at the at the beginning of the year that was what i told myself like I'm going to do the the Sunshine League and two events a month this is part of why I have not been in a lot of the like South Slope Strikes or or Rob Wong invitationals of late is that I felt like there were other events that could get me more whoppers in those months and so I went and got them you played just as much as you could though right yeah I mean to be fair it was it was not a change of strategy because of the finals being in New York City let's play as much as I can get the highest rank I can. And yeah, I did that all year and it was not enough. Unfortunately, my play was not strong enough. Yeah. Well, look, you also did not go to the beast. You also did not go to Rochester and these two tournaments are going to play heavily into the standings so much so that the question that we actually have to ask ourselves when we look at the rankings as they currently exist is how many of the people who are on here because of a finish at the beast are and and are not coming down to new york city for the finals are you know are excluded like the the cut line is 24 people but not all of the top 24 people are going to show up so in looking at the state's standings both the open and the women's standings i've been using this awesome tool called the state's speculator from a website pinball.monster It will pull in the current state rankings. You choose which state on the dropdown and it'll pull them in and it'll show everyone's name and the points they've gotten. And then also any other states or provinces where they have qualified. and you can then you know speculate oh this person nick greenan who is ranked seventh in ontario and ninth in manitoba is probably not going to come to the new york finals you click a little button says they're going to decline new york it'll take them out i mean they still show up you know sort of grayed out but then they not consuming one of the 24 spots that new york gets as a super state as opposed to the 16 for smaller states So then going through and deciding who going to decline out of you know, currently the, the New York top 24, if you decline everyone that you think is going to get it knocked out, I, I make the cut line falling just after Chris Cafaro qualifies at 24th place. and Benjamin, I see at about 27th place. Where were you imagining, Benjamin? Well, I was unfamiliar with this tool, although I'm now looking at it and it's hard for me to disagree with what you're saying. I think that, or I thought rather that I was probably one below. I think Bob Swan is a question mark for whether he would come in for this. let's call it 50-50. Let's call Bob a 50-50. I didn't have him there in my head. I guess that... How sure are you that... Do you think Jason Zahler goes to... Delaware. He goes to Delaware? I think Jason... Where he's the seventh seed and there's $1,000 prize money? versus California where he's the sixth and there's $8,000, almost $9,000 of private money. I mean, Jason could travel anywhere, couldn't he? There's a big purse in Pennsylvania where he's fourth. Yeah. But do I think Jason's coming to New York City? No. For me to get in at this point, I need something big in one of those three last opportunities. And I'm going to tell you right now, I will be out of town on the 26th. I ain't getting the Thursday Night Strikes one. So at either the last Woportunity or at the Sunshine Open event, I need a big number of points there, I think. I had it in my head that I had to get past Tom Milburn, who's at 123, and I'm sitting at 117 right now. There's a big pileup, though, right there at that cut line. There is. There's a big pileup such that if a certain set of results, because look, I think the top result at the last opportunity, I think that's probably worth 15 to 20, somewhere in that range at the top, the person who wins it. and if Chris Caffaro, Thomas Milburn, and Benjamin Furiga are all in the final group, then I think that all three of us are above the line, and we're talking about Francesco being out or something like that, or I don't think JT is going to lose out, although he's only a couple of points in front of Francesco, but I think there's a world in which that event can change that but now that I'm looking at exactly what you're looking at I think you're right, I thought I was the first alternate today and I now think I'm the third alternate depending on whether Bob Swan is a possibility let's lay out the numbers having looked at the speculator I don't want to read through the whole list and I encourage anyone to go and use the tool it's pretty easy. You know, I'm seeing Kate Martin as the 21st seed at 140 Whoppers is clearly in. She's in. And also, it's at her home this year. We always just describe it as a private location. There are other private locations, but it's in Kate's home. So I hope that... Are you serious? Wait, that's so cool! It's very cool. It's an amazing collection of more machines than you could believe. I didn't know that until halfway through the year. My strategy might have been three tournaments a month if I had known that I would be playing at Kate's. Holy cow! So, Kate's safely in. Everybody should be glad. Then I make the rest of the qualifying top 24 for open. JT Harrison in 22nd, 127.5 whoppers. Francesco La Rocca is 23rd at 125.7 whoppers. And then Chris Caffaro, 24th, with 124.7 whoppers. Those are all within three whoppers of each other. JT out at 127 is a little bit more of it. So Francesco at 125, Chris Cafaro at 124, Bob Swan at 123, Tom Milburn at 123, Benjamin Furega at 117. And also David Barber, who I imagine would play in D.C. because he'll probably have a better standing, but he may very well be at this last Wopportunity. Most of his Whoppers, he's only played 11 events. a lot of them have come from tournaments at this location. So there's a good chance that he will be there and be in the mix. Similarly, Nint, who is seven points behind me, and he might need a first place finish for this, although he got second. That doesn't show up on these standings yet. He got second at Thursday Night Strikes last night. So he's got a little bump coming. That's probably, you know, I'm not looking at everything on his scorecard, but I don't imagine he's getting more than two more points where he's sitting at 110 right now. But he might get up to 112 now, and that last opportunity, he's in this conversation too, I think. A giant win for Nint makes it possible. I think then in the rankings, you've got a couple people who aren't going to show up here, and then Mark Gessioro? Yes. Nine-d-nine whoppers? Yeah, co-owner of the Rochester Pinball Collective, in fact. And I played him in the finals there, or in the playoffs there, in both rounds I was in. He went on to his last eight. He has 99.45 whoppers in the state. That's, you know, we're at 25. I don't see that happening by the end of the year. I think that's out of the conversation. Yeah. I also, I'm actually looking at this right now. I think that I'm wondering. Oh, no. Okay, that's the same. I was going to say Janos Kiss Gonzalez shows up a little bit lower, and I thought he had just made a good move after winning SSPL, and I think that's reported in this. So I thought he had made a little bit bigger move, but I thought he might still be in it. But, yeah, I think you're right. I think Nint is the lowest person we'd possibly be talking about here. Janos Kiss's uh south slope is in at 22.2 whoppers right and so yeah that's reflected in those 98 that's right and he's already got 20 events too so it's not like it's not like everything is gravy for him right uh for those uh what i just said might be a little confusing if you didn't know your top 20 events from within the state are counted whether or not they're on your open standings, you only have 15 in your open standing scorecard. I think I'm ranked 1800th or 1801 or something like that right now based on my top 15 Whopper results from anywhere in the world that I've played. But my top 20 from New York only in this year are what we're talking about when we're talking about this. No one who's at this cut line has fewer than 20, except for Bob Swan. Bob Swan has only 11, and so if he found himself, like, everything's gravy for him. Every single event that he plays, he can't play nine before the end of the year. So if there's something happening in Rochester that gets him eight Whoppers for winning, he's absolutely a favorite to be in this top 24. I mean, yeah, if he gets two Whoppers and, you know, other people don't move, he jumps up easily. Chris Cafaro, Francesco, Tom Milburn, and myself are all playing in that last Woportunity tournament. I think Nint is also. I imagine David Barbaroos. That will probably be where it actually shakes out. JT might even be coming down for that. I didn't look to see if he was registered, but he's come down for a couple of tournaments in the city this year, I think. He's a Hudson Valley guy, and he has been dominating at Rock Fantasy this year, by the way. He's been killing it up there. But, you know, Levy could make a move for standing, because he's only got six events at 19th seed. Same Ron Hallett, Paul Karras, Zach Fry only has 16, Sean Grant only has 17. These folks, whatever they get, it's all gravy. Jerry Bernard, he's at the eighth seed and he's only got seven. If he can get a couple of random rock fantasies in before the end of the year or something, he may move up to a four seed. I think in terms of the cut line, you're right. The conversation is those folks. And honestly, I don't know what to say about how it would play out other than to say that that tournament is going to be the deciding factor at this point. I personally chose to go, I think I said this earlier, I chose to go to Jack Bar last night instead of playing in the B Finals at SSPL, specifically because I thought it was a better opportunity. I went to quit talking and start chalking this week, specifically because it was an opportunity that right now when I'm on this bubble, I really wanted anything that could get me any little bit of something. I think in fifth place, it was just off my scorecard. It was very close. I think I'll get half a point's bump when Thursday night strikes are reported. I think it all comes down to that last one. And if Bob Swan can make a move, I don't know where he... I mean, he could go down to Rock Fantasy, or if there's something in Rochester or Buffalo that he could play. He could pick up a couple of points anywhere. the state speculator tool at pinball.monster is also uh you can look up the women's north american championship series standings for your state or province and i've got a really compliment the tool here it does a great job of dealing with the sort of unique way that the women's finalists are put together, which is eight from the open rankings and eight from the specifically women's rankings. And looking at that and putting in, again, you know, there's a couple people that, you know, maybe they're going to go somewhere else because they've qualified in a number of states. Here, let's look at the rankings straight through. Top seed, likely, speculating. Can you actually just explain? You said it takes women's and it takes open. Can we talk about exactly how it is determined, what the weighting is or how it works out? Yeah, absolutely. You'll take your list of women who have gotten open Whoppers in New York State in this year and your list of women who have gotten women's Whoppers in New York State this year. And the top seed of the 16 who can play in New York's finals will be the person who collected the most women's Whoppers from women's events this year. And then the second seed will be the woman who collected the most Whoppers in open events. Then the third seed you take from the women's rankings. And then the fourth seed from the open rankings. Now, a lot of these people are playing under both systems and collecting Whoppers on both of those leaderboards. E.g., Miriam and Kate are number one and number two in both of them. And Kate will be considered an open participant and Miriam a women's, according to this tracker. Is that right? Sure. Well, so, yeah, when you follow the process, the first thing that happens is we look at the list from the women's ranking system and number one is Miriam. Then you go to the open system and the number one there is Kate. You go back to the women's. The second place is Kate. Oh, wait, she's already been added to the list from being in the open. you remove that and go to the next person down anna wolk and a walk will then be the second coming from the women's side or the you know the third seat third overall seat right and then we go back over to the open and who's the second person that's miriam she's already been chosen for being the top of the women's is taken out you go down the next person it's stephanie guida She'll come in as the second open, which is the fourth seed. So with that, we're looking at Miriam Nadler as the top seed, Kate Martin in second, Anna Wolk in third, fourth seed Stephanie Guida, fifth seed Danny Spagnoli, sixth seed Sam Hall, seventh seed Lauren Berner Lawrence, 8th seed Lauren Dackness 9th seed Lindsay Rhodes 10, Caitlin James Rees 11, Monica Weidekamp 12, Kate Smith 13, Anna Frankel 14, Courtney Wetzel 15, Amy Pooin and 16, Morgan Levinson these are after I've gone through and done the speculations of declining who I think will decline and I only think of the Of the 16 that would have come in without the speculator, Stephanie Traub is going to play down in the DMV area. Right. And I have gotten confirmation that Nicole Turcotte will be playing in Connecticut, where she won last year and wants to defend that championship. Gotcha. So Morgan gets in, in theory, at that point. That's right. Morgan will then slip in as the eighth spot on the open side, the 16th seed uh morgan also i believe would have snuck in if anyone on the women's side had been out morgan was next up on both sides of that uh so okay so nicole torcott i i wasn't this is someone i've never met i don't think uh so i'm i'm glad you have had good information there yeah yeah i've uh i've met nicole a couple times uh plays upstate uh probably i think near the albany area was at one of the story screens cool a lot of new york city names what strikes you about either of these either the open or the women's do you see when you look at all of these things do you see something that sticks out to you as being a trend do you see a particular event that shaped you know dante did really well at the royal rumble this past weekend i don't know how i don't remember how he did at the beast dante also won the harvest that was a huge haul i mean at 531 whoppers for the number one seed i mean it's you know alberto had 461 it's a that's a 70 whopper difference and then another 70 whoppers down to Alex at 391. And then another 70 down to CJ at 319. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, those are some big collections of whoppers in a state in a year. Boy. Did the harvest inflate some numbers then? Would this have looked very different if the harvest hadn't happened or it's hard to say when it seems like you know the the same few are getting all the big hauls it's just making this big gap and then as we saw the big pile up around what we're speculating to be the cut line right right well and there's and there's another pile up to from about 9 to 16 or 18 there's like we just went through gaps of 70 points of you know and there's another big gap before fifth, but then at about nine as they stand, although it'll be probably sixth in the overall standings, you get to 230, and then you go down to number 14 or 12, I guess, six to 12, are all within 30 points from 200 to 233. There's a pack in the middle, and there's a pack running behind them. it actually almost speaks to the numbers of 16 and 24 being the perfect numbers to take to the state championships. The way that there seem to be three very clear divisions in that, you know, like one through eight, they did real work. Nine through 16, they played very well and absolutely deserve to be here. 17 down to about 40. are all... One big win made a big difference. Or one win or one second place when someone else didn't play or got zero, got a quarter of a whopper, makes a lot of a difference down in that area. It's interesting. What's the date? January 18th, I think. And is the women's the 19th? Yes. Open 18th, women's 19th. Well, I certainly will be following along, hoping this will be streamed. Matt Grady's rig should be there. Yeah, I'm imagining so. I think I have at least heard that as a rumor. I don't want to promise anyone that we know that that's the case, because we don't know that that's the case. But I think I have at least heard that as a rumor. And it's happened at enough recent tournaments that it seems credible. Yeah, given the chance, I'd happily commentate. I want to know the logistics behind planning an event like this at a personal living space I feel like is there like a fire code issue Like how many people can we have in the room or something So the good news is, in the city of New York, just about any room is okay for 75 or fewer people to occupy, according to the fire department. There is no such thing as a fire department's permit for a room that seats fewer than 75 people. so yeah i was gonna say 24 competitors is no stretch for yeah no 24 is easy 40 40 gets crowded but also isn't impossible it's not it 40 is uh no more crowded to me than playing in the long hallway at the most recent iteration of rock fantasy that i visited uh there's a very long hallway that is just pinball machine after pinball machine after pinball machine you know all at a bit of an angle so that there's hopefully enough room to sneak behind somebody. How is the venue chosen for things like this? In the general sense, each state determines its finals by the state director. Who's the state director? New York being a special case in that we've long had two state directors, Francesco and Eric Russell being the upstate director and had set up a system whereby one year the finals would be in New York City and the other year it would be upstate somewhere. And now Kate's a state director now too. And we still sort of got the rotation, but I think it's now a city middle and up. That's what I thought too. Rotation. And yeah, so this year it was in the city and the state directors between them chose Kate's place. That's pretty cool. see i didn't know any of the titles and things i just see like the facebook events go by so to learn more about the behind the scenes of how events like these are planned out and the the groundwork needed to put these events on is pretty cool this uh look the prize pool uh is made up of uh the one dollars that you've sent to the ifba every time you you've played in a tournament of the dollar 10 or less is credit card processing fees then the 90 is split up a chunk of it is sent to the state finals for the state where it happened and then a chunk of it is sent to the national finals i think about 50 goes to state 40 to nationals and 10 to credit card right whatever kind of fees something like that or maybe it's a little higher state but yeah wow so it's like Tax distribution. So yeah, every time you play in a tournament, some 50 cents or something, you're contributing to the state finalists pool. And all 24 finalists will get paid out. How do you get the winnings? Do they just give you a bag of ones at the end that are yanked out of the pinball machine? Do they throw them at you? Probably very state by state, but I've gotten cash in the past. I think I got a check. You got a check? Yeah. I think so. That's pretty cool. Do we know the size of the New York State prize pool or purse? $4,000 something. Jesus Christ. Yeah, $4,046.25 going to the open finalists. And the women's purse is a total of $251.55. Okay, well, that's some misogyny right there. But that 10% thing is super interesting. Like pseudo legit, like we need like a special like Stern credit card or like an IFPA coin or something so we can avoid, you know, and any of this like 10% surcharge or paying taxes on your winnings or something like that. You heard it here. Pinball crypto. That will be NYC Pinpod's next product. Pinball crypto. Dollar sign NYC PP. Hold and go big. Jesus Christ. Well, I do have to ask as a fellow co-host, both to Benjamin and Eric, and since we are going on our hiatus, there are two formats of the hiatus. There's the three-syllable, five-syllable, three-syllable, and the five-syllable, seven-syllable, five-syllable. I myself prefer the 353, but Benjamin, what format do you prefer, your hiatus? And Eric, what is yours? I'm way 575. I hadn't known there was a choice other than 575. There's a 353. Now I need to do some deep introspection. Indeed. Well, to all our lovely listeners out there, 373 or 575, please enjoy working on your hiatuses as we work on ours. And please share them with us at nycpinpod.gmail.com. And we'll see you in 2025. That's all for this week's pod and this season's pod. We will be back in late February. At least that's the plan. I'd like to thank everybody who engaged with NYC Pin Pod this season. And I am humbled to say that that list may be too long for me to simply read off here. But I am incredibly thankful for everyone who engaged, whether you were sure to send us an email or a text every week about how your match went or just dropped us a line every once in a while or whatever. I really appreciate it. And I think it's safe for me to speak on behalf of the panel and say we really appreciate it. Between now and then, I'm pretty certain that in the next month or two, I will run into a whole lot of you behind the lockdown bars of some pinball machines. Between now and the next time I see you, go get them, pinball. It's time for a word about our sponsor, Micro Center, the number one tech retailer in the United States, as rated by PCMag Reader's Choice in 2024. With over 22 million IT professionals, small businesses, and local governments relying on this organization, we thank Micro Center for sponsoring the podcast. Micro Center, the official sponsor of the New York City Pin Pod podcast. This show is not sponsored by Micro Center. sooner sooner or later madeline is going to get us money just because an algorithm hears some of that you you Thank you. Thank you. you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 58615f7c-e00c-4f66-b83b-71d117148f4d*