# Part 04 | 2018-19 IFPA NA Championships & 2019 Women's World Championships

**Source:** IE Pinball  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2020-05-22  
**Duration:** 94m 37s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVjuKzmFpT8

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## Analysis

IE Pinball streams coverage of the 2018-19 IFPA North American Championships and 2019 Women's World Championships from Grand Line Games in Las Vegas. The broadcast features tournament commentary, player interviews, machine setups (Tron, Star Trek), and bracket updates, with hosts Sal Ayoub (former Nevada State champion), Joe Anthes (current Nevada State champion), and Kyle providing rules discussion and play-by-play analysis of competitive matches.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Sal Ayoub was the first person to bring the Nevada State pinball championship title to Nevada — _Sal Ayoub stated directly: 'You're the first man to bring the title, actually, to Nevada.'_
- [MEDIUM] Bob John Matthews from California took the Nevada State championship title away from Sal's region in the first year of competition — _Sal recounts: 'the first year we were in it, Bob John Matthews from CA took it away from us, so we kind of swore we'd never give it up again'_
- [MEDIUM] Sean Stewart took the Nevada State championship title for two consecutive years after Sal Ayoub — _Sal: 'Sean Stewart took it the two years after I had it, and then Joe's it this year'_
- [HIGH] Joe Anthes is the current Nevada State pinball champion — _Sal: 'and then Joe's it this year' in reference to the Nevada State championship_
- [HIGH] A Tron Limited Edition machine at the venue uses drop targets instead of stand-ups, which affects gameplay — _Sal: 'I tutored on this game over at the Hall of Fame back in the day, and that is really the only L.E. Tron I've ever played on... that is really the only L.E. Tron I've ever played on. I haven't even seen one. I'm sure they're out there. But, you know, that makes a huge difference when you're the drop targets for T-Tron instead of these stand-ups.'_
- [HIGH] Sal Ayoub has not visited Pittsburgh, his home, in over a year and a half — _Sal stated: 'I haven't even visited the family in Pittsburgh in over a year and a half. So, I'm going to try and get to Berg this year, maybe.'_
- [MEDIUM] The pinball hall of fame is moving to the Las Vegas strip — _Discussion about Hall of Fame moving: 'Are you excited for the Hall of Fame to move onto the strip? Not my concern... I hope they make it, man'_
- [HIGH] Emily Sam May is from New Haven, Connecticut but plays in a pinball league in Vermont — _Kyle reading from profile: 'She's out of New Haven, Connecticut, but she plays in the pinball league in Vermont'_
- [HIGH] Amy Kesting has been playing competitively since 2013 with an IFP rank of 292 — _Kyle: 'Amy Kesting... IFP rank 292. She's been playing since 2013'_
- [HIGH] Maureen Hendricks has been playing since 2016 with an IFP rank of 1573 and women's tournament rank of 7th — _Kyle: 'Maureen Hendricks... Playing since 2016... Her IFP rank is 1573. And her women's tournament's rank is 7th.'_

### Notable Quotes

> "You're the first man to bring the title, actually, to Nevada."
> — **Kyle**, N/A
> _Recognition of Sal Ayoub's achievement as the first Nevada State pinball champion_

> "I haven't even visited the family in Pittsburgh in over a year and a half. So, I'm going to try and get to Berg this year, maybe. Miss everybody, though, man. All the good pinheads out there."
> — **Sal Ayoub**, N/A
> _Personal sentiment from Sal about missing the Pittsburgh pinball community_

> "When the Games are this hard, man, you keep the ball alive. I don't disagree. If you can't hit your shots, you keep the ball alive. If you can hit your shots, then you can decide your strategy, man."
> — **Sal Ayoub**, N/A
> _Tournament strategy philosophy emphasizing ball control over aggressive mode stacking_

> "I tutored on this game over at the Hall of Fame back in the day, and that is really the only L.E. Tron I've ever played on. I haven't even seen one."
> — **Sal Ayoub**, N/A
> _Scarcity observation about Tron Limited Edition machines in circulation_

> "If they can have a hot dog eating contest every 4th of July, it's only a matter of time before pinball is on the scene at ESPN."
> — **Sal Ayoub**, N/A
> _Optimistic speculation about pinball's mainstream sports legitimacy_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Sal Ayoub | person | Former Nevada State pinball champion, tournament commentator and streamer at IE Pinball event, based in Pittsburgh area |
| Joe Anthes | person | Current Nevada State pinball champion, co-host/commentator at IFPA championships |
| Kyle | person | Technical operator and commentator at IE Pinball streaming event, operates machines and manages tournament setup |
| Adam Barajas | person | Proprietor of Booker's Bill Underground arcade/venue, helped maintain Tron machine for tournament |
| Emily Sam May | person | Competitive pinball player from Connecticut, plays in Vermont pinball league, Halloween/pinball costume enthusiast |
| Helena | person | Competitive pinball player competing in Women's World Championships, noted for humor and personality |
| Amy Kesting | person | Competitive pinball player, IFP rank 292, playing since 2013, 4th seed in women's bracket, from Columbus Ohio |
| Maureen Hendricks | person | Competitive pinball player from Seattle, 20th seed in women's bracket, IFP rank 1573, women's tournament rank 7th |
| Zach Sharpe | person | Competitive pinball player competing in men's bracket at IFPA championships |
| Grand Line Games | company | Arcade/gaming venue in Las Vegas where IFPA championships are being held, curator Chad manages diverse arcade inventory |
| IE Pinball | organization | Tournament streaming and content organization covering IFPA championships |
| IFPA | organization | International Flipper Pinball Association, organizer of North American Championships and Women's World Championships |
| Tron | game | Limited Edition pinball machine being used in tournament, features drop targets and high-speed gameplay |
| Star Trek | game | Pinball machine used in tournament sudden death playoff, shooter-focused game with mission modes and spinner |
| Flipper Spiel Underground | company | Arcade venue combined with gaming store/gamer's paradise in Las Vegas north side |
| Jim Farr | person | Bouncer/member of arcade venue community, custom glass maker (IFPA Pin Masters 2019 glasses), cyberball club organizer |
| Bob John Matthews | person | Competitive pinball player from California, won Nevada State championship in first year of competition |
| Sean Stewart | person | Competitive pinball player, won Nevada State championship two consecutive years after Sal Ayoub |
| Fred Richardson | person | Competitive pinball player competing in men's bracket at tournament on Tron machine |
| Carlos De La Cerda | person | Competitive pinball player from Ohio competing in tournament on Star Trek machine |

### Topics

- **Primary:** IFPA North American Championships 2018-19, IFPA Women's World Championships 2019, Tournament streaming and commentary, Competitive pinball strategy and gameplay
- **Secondary:** Nevada pinball championship history, Tron Limited Edition machine specifications, Star Trek pinball rules and strategy, Pinball community and player profiles

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.78) — Enthusiastic tournament commentary with celebratory reactions to good plays, nostalgic appreciation for community and venues, some humorous banter and camaraderie among commentators. Minor frustration expressed about logistical/venue constraints but overall tone is upbeat and celebratory of the event and players.

### Signals

- **[event_signal]** Cyberball championship tournament organized by Las Vegas arcade community (Cyberball single-double championships on Labor Day weekend) (confidence: medium) — Jim Farr and Joe discussing cyberball club and 'ultimate Cyberball smackdown' held annually on Labor Day weekend
- **[community_signal]** Pittsburgh identified as significant pinball hub with established competitive player base; Sal Ayoub's nostalgia and extended absence from Pittsburgh community noted (confidence: high) — Sal: 'I haven't even visited the family in Pittsburgh in over a year and a half... All the good pinheads out there' and references to Pittsburgh players in tournament
- **[community_signal]** Women's pinball competitive infrastructure development with detailed player profile documentation and organizational support (confidence: high) — Detailed player profiles distributed for women's bracket (names, IFP ranks, playing history, locations), organized by 'Summer' per streamers; Kyle notes: 'that's the kind of infrastructure that needs to be set up'
- **[competitive_signal]** Star Trek pinball positioning as shooter-focused game requiring spinner technique and mode stacking strategy; tournament discussion emphasizes ball control over aggressive play when shots are unreliable (confidence: high) — Sal strategy discussion: 'When the Games are this hard, man, you keep the ball alive... If you can't hit your shots, you keep the ball alive'
- **[event_signal]** IFPA North American Championships and Women's World Championships event in progress in Las Vegas with tournament bracket play, machine setup, and streaming coverage (confidence: high) — Direct broadcast of tournament matches, bracket displays, player introductions, and championship-specific infrastructure (player profile sheets)

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## Transcript

 Oh for half a second. And then let's transfer it into another double L-Way. Into a double catapult super. What are we witnessing here? Let's flip all of this. Oh, great, got it. Clark. Is it Clark? Clark got it first. Oh, what? What? What just happened? That was Adam Barajas, the proprietor of the Booker's Bill Underground. Oh, we're in for a treat. Yeah, I just don't want to knock it over. That's why I'm holding on to it. Should I get in here or what? Who are you talking to, Joe? We have the former... Check, check, one, two. The former Nevada State pinball champion, Sal Ayoub. Ayoub. Ayoub. Mr. Anthus, sorry you couldn't make it. What was that? You sent me that text, but hey, congrats anyways on making it. Hey, everybody, this is Sal Ayoub. Sorry I've been out of the scene for a couple years, but congrats to everybody here. Welcome to Vegas. Welcome to Grand Line Games and the 2019 National Championships. All right. Did you make it into pin match tomorrow, kind sir? No, I got too much going on this weekend, man. I apologize, but it should be fun. Sad. Too much going on, man. Magic ditto. Carl is still waiting patiently to get on the front. Oh, Anonymous. What's up, kids? Everybody's streaming along here. Who do we got? Let's pick out a game, man, and get some action going, huh? Hey, he's getting ready to set the rig up on Tron. Very good, huh? He's waiting for that guy to drain and he'll move in. Yeah, Adam and Jay spent some time on that, fixing that trans to get those lights going good. It should be playing nice and fast, too. It is so fast. I was here that night helping him troubleshoot those lights, the column. Oh, my gosh. Not necessary to play, but it does help, you know? Yeah. In this kind of an environment, you'd want, you know, our goal, obviously, is to have every machine in the best possible condition heading in. Horseproof bacon. You've got to love some of these. Zappletree. Pinballs for life. Ijacku. How's Project Pinball doing? You know what? You've got to give a shout to Daniel Spolar. We haven't done much out here with the moving around. We've got to start getting some stuff going. But, yeah, we're still set up over at Sunrise. I put a clean on that machine a few months ago. We got the Avengers over there at Sunrise Children. So I apologize to Daniel. I haven't talked to him in, geez, it's been about a year now. But we'll see if we can't get some stuff going soon. Get a brand new pin in there. Thanks to Adam Barajas for putting that machine up for us two years ago, July. Here comes Kyle. He's got it set up, so he's going to dial it in right now. and we'll get some action for you. Somebody tell Travis from Oak. Yeah, that's right. Travis was here a few weeks ago. He was, yeah. Yeah, man. I had to run the table on that kid. Me and Joe and him were, what, the last three in the finals on that tourney? We were. Yeah, that was a fun one. All right, here we go, folks. So we got Fred Richardson stepping up to the plate on Tron. He's got some wood to chop. Looks like Peter put up a big game, 37 million. Not bad, not bad. Let's see what Fred can do here. He's starting with 5.2. He's got to make a run. He's got one ball to go. This is it. What do you figure? He might try to stack some. If he can get that core lit, then he can go after his light cycle. Maybe stack a couple here. Dead flipper with the pause. Wrister. Off the right. Missed shot. Oh, he's trying the post pass. Pretty tough. Does that game have super bands? I think they took it off. Okay. I think it has the regular rubber on there now. Nice. Oh, almost for a nice combo move. There it is. Oh, get up there. Backhander. Great shot. Good catch. He's looking for that right ramp. That right loop, sorry. Scoop. Right, scoop. Yeah, there he is. Yeah, well, now he's lit. Yeah, but he's trying to get his light cycle first. There you go. Now he wants it. Oh, he hadn't even played one light cycle yet. Yeah, that's right. So now he's getting them both. Yeah. A little post pass here. He takes a pause and a breather. Oh, he's trying to reset off the left ramp there, huh? Come on, Fred. Brutal. Yeah, dude. And he makes a beeline outside to go beat himself up. We are at the Flipper Spiel Underground Arcade Club in Las Vegas, Nevada. We are at Grand Line Video Games. Well, it's Grand Line Games. They do everything from it. Chad's the curator here. We do everything from Magic to Nintendo, PS, Xbox. He's got everything. Maybe he'll pan around some. You can see what's going on in the background there, folks. We need an Aussie there. Fair dinkum. Pins rule. USA sent two over to our championships. We needed an Aussie there. That's what they say, huh? G'day. Where in Vegas is this being played this year? Yeah, we're at Grand Line Games. Funky fresh. Yeah, that's a good... You've got a nice stream going, huh? Very nice stream. It is. Very nice. Saddest Aussie accents ever. Okay, Sheila. Looks like we have Helena and Emily coming up here on Tron. Whoop, whoop. Emily is in a do or die situation. Win or go home. That's three to two. I like Helena. She's funny. Great accent. Great personality. Welcome. Good to see you again. All right, here we go. Ball one. Practice. Warm up, warm up. Yep. Ball one, practice. So what's your strategy here, Carl? What are you thinking? It's left ramp, Cora, side ramp, scoop all day. Yeah, that's right. That's basically what Tron is. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's your out-of-ball feature, too. You're going to get more off that than you will off light cycle. Look at that. Alright, so don't do that. I was talking earlier about the double clue lane. So when the ball is coming down the ramp, it tends to bounce here. And you can get two lanes if you switch it as it comes down. That's good to know. On both ramps on this one in particular. I was saying ACVC is another one that does that. There's a couple of Stern games from this era. Mr. Lefkoff throwing it in. Good to see you, buddy. Adam's on the stream there. That sure pops. Yeah, dude. Hey, man, you'll love this, hockey fans. Might have to do the new Doc Emmerich pinball. One-timer. Because he does use that, you know. That's one of Doc Emmerich's lines. Pinball's off the back glass. And they clear it. And they clear it. Yeah, we'll see. Maybe I'll have to get up here for the finals, man, if it's fast action. Something like, what, Attack from Mars, Thrones? Your X-Men super fast, your Star Wars is super fast. Yep, that Star Wars is brutal. Gotta love it. Here we go. Colorado pinball, baby. All right, here we go. Atlanta's in it. Ramp. Nice little wiggle there. Yeah, I saw the wiggle. Get that under control. Got to get it off there. Got to get it off there. Ingenious, the double return lanes on most games. G. Dunlap, who is on the mic? We got Carl, the tech guy, running the show. We got our Nevada state champion, Joe Anthes. And I'm Sal, Sal Ayoub. Former Nevada State champ. Yeah, a few years back, though. Had my shot. You're the first man to bring the title, actually, to Nevada. Yeah, because the first year we were in it, Bob Matthews from CA took it away from us, so we kind of swore we'd never give it up again, and we've kind of held to that. Sean Stewart took it the two years after I had it, and then Joe's got it this year. So hopefully we can deter everybody from coming here, but we'll take as much as we can get. So welcome. Bring it. Look at those slings. Beautiful. Get it under control. Yeah, tough ramp. Nice catch. Great drop. Yeah, she's got beautiful timing. Post pass. Yeah, very hard to do a little bump, too, on these types of flippers. Oh, nice. Flirting with disaster. Is that a Molly Hatchet reference there? So you're saying, Carl, that the C and the U in clue, if it's feeding from the ramp, you can kind of flip through and maybe get two? Yeah, exactly. Is that common on Ultron? Gotta love the backhands. Gotta love the backhands, man. It's all about backhands anymore. She's looking for Quora. There it is. 904 pinball into hers! Yeah, I miss everybody, man. Sorry I've missed everybody. Haven't even visited the family in Pittsburgh in over a year and a half. So, I'm going to try and get to Berg this year, maybe. Miss everybody, though, man. All the good pinheads out there. Get some. I think she's got, what, one more shot on that Cora? I think two to get it lit, yeah. Yeah, two more on Cora. Okay. Light tackle flip. I'll tell you what, that disc is dangerous. Dead flipper. Boom. Get up. She's got some skills, man. I'd love to see it. Where is Emily from? It doesn't say that, does it? She's got a 1570 rating, 87 events played. She has a good ball one. She's set up for big ball two, big ball three. You know, Saul, there's a packet right there with women's profiles in there. Gotcha. That's fantastic. Yeah, let's see. Oh, beautiful. Did you put this together, Carl? No, I didn't. Summer did. Oh, my gosh. Props there. Oh, yeah. She's coming on the mic later. For sure. Yeah, that's the kind of infrastructure that needs to be set up, you know, that will help everything get pushed along. I mean, everybody will get involved soon, I'm sure. Listen, if they can have a hot dog eating contest every 4th of July, It's only a matter of time before pinball is on the scene at ESPN. It has to be. I mean, total sport. Everybody knows that. I think it is going to be on ESPN this year, isn't it? Write your favorite congressman. We need to do our own lobbying. Beautiful. Look at this. You got total profile here, pit mug shots. Oh, my. Very nice. All right. Elena Walter Higgins. In the light cycle here. She's not too far from Cora either, so let's see. Let's see. Emily May. Let's find her. When we know Louise, going through that one. Emily May, there she is. Started playing competitively in 2016. She's a big fan of Halloween and have done pinball-themed Halloween costumes for the past couple of years. So she's out of light cycle, but I'm still thinking she's going to want Clute. She's in Vermont. She's out of New Haven, Connecticut, but she plays in the pinball league in Vermont. And she's still got the ball in action. Oh. I guess I just schlep rocked her there. Didn't mean to, folks. She had a good bonus. Helena's got some work to do. Yeah, sorry, Ravioli. You pulled that one out. That's true. Dude, Lobster Ravioli. Come out to Vegas, bro. Or whoever that is. Ravioli Monster. I got Lobster Ravioli's. I know the best place to go. All right. Helene is letting it settle down for a bit. Nope. That's it. That was it? That's it. Oh. That was three balls each already? Yeah. Man, what am I doing, man? Woo! Looking through the profile sheets. All right, next match is Amy versus Maureen. Yeah, Desperate Tim says, Stern's got a tournament that's going to be on ESPN Ocho in August. ESPN Ocho? Why are we on the Spanish channel? Is that like a beta test? You haven't heard of that? No, I haven't. Did you ever watch the movie? Shoot. It's dodgeball, right? I think it is dodgeball. That's what it is. Yeah, it was a joke in there, and then the ESPN actually started doing it. Yeah, that's what it is. The general just let us know. Yeah, that's what it is. Dodgeball, yeah. So who's next on T-Run? It's going to be Amy versus Maureen. T-Ronderspiel. That's what we named that machine. T-Run. Another 3-2 game? Another 3-2 game, yes. Amy Kesting, right, versus Maureen Bart Hendrickson. Number four seed up against number 20 seed. Number 20 has to win to stay alive. Let's see what we can find here. Amy, Amy, Amy Kesting. They're not. Oh, they're actually. They are. They're in order of rank. Yeah, they're in order of seed. So I was going to say they're not alphabetical. So the fourth seed, Amy Kesting, IFP rank 292. She's been playing since 2013. Arcade Super Awesome League in Columbus, Ohio. Level 1 Silver Ball Silver League, Super League, Columbus, Ohio. MOFO, the Mid-Ohio Flipper Organization in Columbus, Ohio. Very good. Very good. So we're going to be looking forward to watching her. And then we got Maureen. Maureen Bart Hendrickson. Maybe if it's somebody I know personally, but there's a 20th seed, 21st. Boom. Maureen Bart Hendrickson. Playing since 2016. Babes in Pinland out of Seattle, Washington. Her IFP rank is 1573. And her women's tournament's rank is 7th. so they're practicing up right now we'll see all right yeah just starting to see everybody again there's some pittsburgers here there are a few pittsburgers here just a couple how you doing all right yens i know you're the only two huh yens what's her social Ha! What's her mother's maiden name and then the three digits on the back of her card? That's the CVV1, brah. Still got to have the zip code. All right, it's showtime for Tron. All right, here we go. Oh, the headphones get popped on. Wonder what's playing. Now, I don't know about you guys. A lot of people soft plunge on this game. I like taking the loop with the left flipper down so I can pop that right ramp. What do you guys do? Are you a soft plunger on this, Carl? Yeah, typically. No, I want to plunge up to here. Oh, you're trying to hit that switch? Yeah, I want that free, the right orbit. Yeah, I got you. Try and get the gym shot. There you go. There you go. Nice. Nice. Super nice. Unfortunately drained, but yeah. Yeah, it was. Hey, there's Jim Farr, one of our members here. The bouncer. Yeah. Always bringing something in from some mom-and-pop restaurant. Yeah, part of our cyberball club, too. We've got a monster cyberball club out here that we throw every year in case anybody's interested. We have the Cyberball single-double championships out here. What is that, every Memorial Day or is it Labor Day? Labor Day. Yeah, Labor Day weekend, yeah. The ultimate Cyberball smackdown if you want to go with it. That's right, that's right. Yeah, so anybody that wants to play robot football from, what, 89, 90? Yeah, from back when you were my age, so. Oh, shoot. Booyah! Yeah, that's my last name backwards. So nobody can steal that. There we go. Ramp into Cora. That's right. Oh, nice shot. Nice wrister. She did the double clue. There it is. Bang. Oh, a little late on that. A little late on that. She's safe. Oh, trying a little skip shot. There it is. She's got Lifecycle ready to go. Yep. A couple shots left on Cora. She can get into the stack. Get him out of those bumpers. There you go. There it is, light cycle. She's going to have to core it right now. Yeah, she can add it in. Yeah, you can do it. Not cosmic. Go trap it up. Yeah. Nice, nice. She's got clue running. Just got to get that right. There we go. Got to get that left loop. Left inside loop that is come on get some trappage trappage trappage plays like you man run again I love the running gun. Yeah for sure. I mean you can't it's hard to get away from that man when your adrenaline's going oh She was not prepared for the scoop eject brutal freight trainer Great ball one She is certainly putting the pressure on Marine. You know, one thing, too, is I got tutored on this game over at the Hall of Fame back in the day, and that is really the only L.E. Tron I've ever played on. I haven't even seen one. I'm sure they're out there. But, you know, that makes a huge difference when you've got the drop targets for T-Ron instead of these stand-ups. I mean, you can bounce off of that to hit your gem shot. I didn't know. It's easier to bounce off those when you've got the drop targets there. Look at that. Brutal. Brutal. I don't know if Tim Arnold gave lessons on how to play pinball. Yeah, you've got to clean it. You wipe the game down and you learn. That's all. He doesn't teach you? No, he can play, though, man. He can play. Oh, dude, he's a sleeper. Come on, you're not around these things for 40, 50 years and not know how to play them, man. Come on. I don't care what you do. Are you excited for the Hall of Fame to move onto the strip? Not my concern No? Nope As a pinball aficionado, I'll ask you I'm not much of an aficionado, but shoot, what do you got? You happy for the Hall of Fame to move? Yeah, sure Rebuilding? I hope they make it, man, you know I think she's got one shot left for Cora. But if I was her on ball two here, I would start thinking about, how do I get my light cycle ready to go for Cora and light cycle stack? One more shot on the lights. Three more to light. Three more to light. Yeah, because this is her second go, huh? Yeah, this will be her second go for light cycle. You got to slow that ball down. You got to slow it down. She doesn't. She plays like you and I do, man. It's all run and gun. Yeah, but we're going to win. Yeah. there you go there you go left shot she's trying to are you you know what I love it trying to backhand that chorus shot is beautiful I'm gonna backhand any shot oh there we go to go to for this Wow there we go three to go I think you go to go tough tough tough tough she's good she put the pressure on that's right up for a big boy not even have to play ball three might not even have to play Thank you All right Maureen's got a good ball going. Even if there was one shot left, it might have been good to get it in there. She's still good. Yeah, there you go. Now she's going to lay it up. Cora's ready to go. Yeah, that'll get it. Yeah. Get into Cora. Trap, trap, trap. There it is. One-timer. There it is. There it is. Good shot. That was a wrister. So she's playing clutch under pressure. We'll see if she can. Ah! So while you're in Cora, this is your at-a-ball. and this is your jackpot. Nice. Did you see that one? That was a nice ricochet. She's putting in work. Still hasn't caught that 10 million catch. She'll get there with the bonus. Even though bonuses on this game aren't that big. There you go. She's got clue lit now. Lighten up. She's got quite a good, oh, she's got six to go on disc. She didn't give up easy, though. She's making it, oh, what a bad break that was. Big bonus, two and a half. So she did not go down quietly. She's making Amy work for it. so i'm thinking sal she's gonna have ball safe turned on here at the beginning i think maybe not but you're going for disc right away right two shots to the disc well what else is gonna get her the money right away i mean zeus targets how many left three yeah it's gotta be out oh my goodness oh no maureen lives to fight another day all she had to do is hit a few shots. What a tremendous ball three comeback from Marine. Look at all the wows. Wow, what? OMG. Wow, wow. No, wow. Another 3-3 faceoff down to the wire. Yeah, there we go. There we go. Get your hair nice and nice there, guy. Yeah, I'm letting it grow out again, kids. Why not? Woo! Here we are at Grand Line Games. Carl's getting ready to move it. I'm guessing he might go for Star Trek. Star Trek's got a big queue. We have some sudden death games coming up on Star Trek, it looks like. Let's take a look at the... He needs backup lights on that thing or something. It's updated here. Beep, beep. So people know he's coming through. What do you got there, Joe? Show us the brackets. Women's bracket. So Zoe and Micah, they're going to play Star Trek for their showdown game. And Robin and Hannah, let's see where they're at. Howard Stern. I get that. No, but the John Lennon one's even. But here, I'll give you John Lennon. Hold on. Bring that camera back over here. Oh, here we go. You got that camera? It's coming. There we go. You want John Lennon? There you go. There's your John Lennon. There's your John Lennon right there with the sunglasses on. Take a look at the men's bracket. So, Chris has advanced into the third round. He's going to go up against the winner of Garrison and Zach. Yep, and they are at 3-3 right now, I believe. Let me look. Yeah, it looks like Donovan Stepp out of CO, Colorado. He's already stepped up. He's waiting for the winner between Fred and Pete. Garrison's up 2-1 on Zach right now looking at the other spreadsheet. Let's take a look down here. Daniel Roan, where was he from? He was the Oregon Stepp champion, yeah. Well, West Coast. At least you got tanked by West Coast. I know. On your own games. Darn it. Dude, dude. I didn't mean to send you that text, man, you know, but I mean, shit, it was just like, well, what do you do? What do you do, you know? Kind of a little bit of a crowd here. We're making do with the room we got. It doesn't look as busy when you look at the camera as it does when you look at the. Yeah, for sure, because we're sitting. Yeah, but we're sitting down, too. If we were standing up, we're both tall. We're actually sitting behind the crowd there. Here comes John Replogley. He's stepping up on Tron, but we don't have the camera there anymore. Let's go, Berg. I haven't seen Steven Bowden in a while. He's letting that grow out, looking a little Sasquatchy there on the right side. He's got a great jersey. Crang from Turtles. A lot of love for the Crang jersey, Steve. And Mr. Meeseeks, look at me. Hey, Mr. Meeseeks. Again, this is the IFPA North American Pinball Championship and the IFPA Women's World Pinball Championship. Out in Las Vegas, Nevada at Grand Line Games. We're on the north side of the city. It's a beautiful day out, a little breezy. The Flipper Spiel Underground. That's right. The Flipper Spiel Underground crossed with your gamers like, what would you call it? It's like a gamer's store. It's almost like gamer's paradise, you know, pretty much next to the Hall of Fame. It is. And I'm guessing we're going to see some Star Trek next. This is a game that Sal is intimately familiar with. Yeah. I saw him put up about 980 million once. It was pretty good. It was pretty good. All right. Yeah, if somebody else wants to jump in, I could use a break, man, you know? I'm heading out for lunch right now. Okay. Well, somebody will jump in. So I'm just going to get the setup since there's a long line on Star Trek. Let's see. Carlos versus Mike. Carlos has one win. Boy, is that thing bright. All right. You going to be here a little? I'll be here. We'll swap out once we come back. You've got to love that, huh? Mike Lund out of Utah. Up against Carlos De La Cerda out of Ohio with one win on the scene here. A little bit of practice here. Yeah, that thing's raised up pretty good. They're dropping pretty heavy there. Oh, it's so fast. So what's your strategy for this game, Sal? Like if you're in this format, you know how hard the games are. You're going to get big points up right away. What mission are you taking? What are you thinking when you're starting the game? This is definitely a shooter's game. You know, you can get your combos up there. You got to be able to hit that warp ramp because sometimes you got to be able to finish modes there. But no, just start a mode, any mode, except for what's the yellow one? Space jump? Yeah, that's the only one when you hit the, what do you call it, the away team. It kind of finishes it off, but you've got to get into away team on every mode. You have to learn that shot as well. Yep. And then you're thinking, what, cling on multiball? Oh, yeah, if you get that during multiball. Nero's good points when you go into away team. But this is one of those games you can easily backhand the left spinner. It is, this game in particular. Yes. Yes. No, but just definitely try and get a mode started before you either go into multiball or vengeance. So you're stacking something. Yeah, I kind of slipped one time. That's all. I love that name right there. Looks like we're getting the end of practice here and I imagine there Carlos and Mike are going to play for real. In just a minute. Yeah. Anybody wanted you Jim, why don't you jump in here? What do you got? Did you have that made? Oh, nice. Our bouncer, Jim Farr, making some custom Pin Masters glasses. Looks like a rocks glass, huh? It does. Yeah, it's nice. What does it say? IFPA Pin Masters 2019, huh? What is that, a smoked glass? Nice, beautiful, hand-printed, everything. All right, so let's see what he's got here. That's a one-timer. Still warming up. Oh, he is on two players? Oh, maybe not. He might be playing for real. Yeah, I think they started already. Right, right on those flashers, man, on the pop bumpers. Yeah, see, normally here I'd go for the ramp. Oh, man, you've got to defend. Left flipper up. The ball's on the left side. Left flipper up. Yeah, I guess that's the only thing that's different is we only have one machine capability unless he moves it, huh? Yeah. It's all good. Steve's starting off with Nero. There you go. See, that's another thing, too. I like to go all the way around on this one, too. Hold the left flipper down, you know, the left button. You like the super skill shot? Yeah, why not, man? That's a one-timer shot. With no ball save? That's risky. It's risky no matter what you do as long as you plunge it, you know? Well, I think that you can, you know, short plunge it and get control without qualifying the play field. So he's going after that. Going after that. Perfect. Spinner, yep. Locks are ready to go. Need to get that away team, especially in Nero. A lot of points. I would say the Nero away team is one that I would not go for because the targets are so small compared to shooting the. Well, that's why you get them before you go into multiball. I mean, you're looking at this, you know, this. Well, it's no different than... I mean, look how small those targets are. Yeah, but it's no different than Thrones. You get the Lannisters before you go into multiball and let the balls do the work. You don't even have to aim. If you're lucky. Well. But he's obviously getting ready to start a new mode here. Watch out, yeah. Great save. Great nudge. Yeah, beautiful slap. Beautiful. So, silver medal on Nero. That's good work. Ball two locked. He's going to start, what, drill probably? Carlos is putting in work. And then he's going to go right up the middle, and we'll be in multiball in theory. Wow, he went Nero 2, Sal. That's the strategy that I use. That's gutsy. Okay. Well, it all depends on which way you want to go, I guess, there, huh? I don't disagree. I don't know that if I was in this format, I would be going for the, you know, obviously he's looking to get the double scoring on that orbit. Oh, yeah, I don't know what Nero's stack is. Okay, everybody's an expert sitting at home. Well, here's Mike. he's going for... Those are the Pops captain chairs. If he does drill, cling on, and whatever the blue one is is escaping my brain right now. I'm sure someone in the chat room can help me out for what the blue mission is. You mean Prime Directive? It is Prime Directive, right? No, the light blue or the... This one. Yeah, that's Prime Directive. The other one is Destroy the Drill. Yeah. But this captain's chair is Pops, and this captain's chair, I believe, is ramps and this captain's chair, I believe, is spinner. Okay. That I did not know. Yeah. And the way the pops work on this game, it's probably not a bad strategy because they're super energetic. Yeah, but you've got to look at it this way too, man. Everybody gets technical. Oh, I do it this way. I get the most amount of points. You know what? When the games are this hard, man, you keep the ball alive. I don't disagree. If you can't hit your shots, you keep the ball alive. If you can hit your shots, then you can decide your strategy, man. But everybody's saying, oh, you've got to do this to go this way and this and that. You know, come on, man. You play whichever way you feel comfortable. It's easy when you're sitting back. So this is definitely a mode that you want the away team in. That's perfect right there. And now if he can get the multiball started, the multiball will shoot into those lanes at the top, And you're going to get basically a gold medal just for playing the multiball. I think he's going to be on ball two locked. If he gets another lock here. Yeah, he's ripping that spinner, though. Good job. He's already at the silver. Look out. There it is. Great save. So certainly. There he goes. Ball two locked. And then I expect it's going to come out. And he's going to want to go right for that scoop. on the left. It's all about this right here. Yeah. Get out. Oh, brutal. Good ball. He jumped up to like 24 million though, so he's... And he's got the captain's chair, so he's got three in a row. So he's going to plunge into the super pops. That's a smart play. Because I think each pop is 50,000 or 100,000 now with super pops. And that's a pretty significant difference on points there too, huh? What's the amount? What's the amount you get? Well, I mean, does it jump up your levels faster? It's like ten times the amount for the pops. For like 10,000 a hit to 100,000 a hit, something like that. All right. So here's Carlos. Carlos is working the three deep Nero strategy. I expect you're going to see the... Oh, brutal. He knows better than that. So Mike can really put the pressure on right here. to the right of Star Trek LE is Black Rose. All right, so he's got the captain's chair. Look, he's in the pops. He's just getting paid $105,000 a hit. That's big money. That is. And then in the pops again at $105,000 a hit with how energetic those pops are. they're still kind of relaxed though they this their first game of the match Mike's got a significant lead here away team maybe not he's got to get that lock going vengeance is ready bang there you go Mike is playing perfect Star Trek strategy right now. Okay, yeah, he might be up 1-0. We just haven't updated that yet. It's coming. You doing it? And Carlos was up 1-0. Okay. Thank you, kind commentator. Thank you. Thank you, kind chat. The pinball narcissist. Thank you. All right, so we're in vengeance right here. you want to get the black hole lit so you get your add a ball ready to save and then this gives you these yeah but that's he's fine he's got the mission ready to go he's got to get in the left scoop if he can yep there it is or go to away team first Yeah, so you wanted to start a mode, though, right? Well, I mean, you got no choice. No, you take it, yeah. You take what you can get when your light's on the line. That's right. All right, now it's just basically rip shots. This is it. Rip shots. Anything that's lit, rip it. That's right. Any red arrow. Every red arrow, you need two shots, and then the super comes at, like, eight shots in, and then 16 as a super. And if you can, the goal here is to get your super jackpot on a lane that has got the score double order on it. The game that's to the right of Star Trek is Black Rose. So he's still alive here. He finished off the super pops. Oh, that's bad luck. Bad luck. You've got to love the ramps on this one, yeah. He's all right. He only has Nero and Space Jump left, so that's purple and yellow. If you're taking bets, is he going to get to Kobayashi? What do you think, Jack? Will he make Kobayashi here on the end of this ball? He's still got two left. That's hard to say. Nice. Great save. Packing on the surface. Just by a hair. Just by a hair. So if I'm going for Kobayashi, I'm gonna get my one shot away team up the middle and get out of the space jump as Fast as I can that's right. That's right. That's right And then on Nero or at least get a shot or two and then go to away team. Yeah, there you go You got to love that successive ramps Boom there you go slow it down ramp. Oh Look out great ball Carlos has got his work cut out for him. This is ball three, huh? This is ball three. Ball three, he's got to go 57 million at least. Actually, just a little bit over 57 million will do it. So he definitely needs it. Oh, he's going for Nero too here. Now his multicolored shots are going to be worth more. Well, they're all, you know, that's right. Some are purple, some are green and purple. So the green and purple are the shots you need for your medals. Done. So that'll even it up right there. We're looking at a 1-1. Mike Lund takes that match on Star Trek. That's it. Up next on Star Trek will be Zoe and Micah in an elimination match. Rest in pieces. Too bad we don't have an Iron Maiden on the scene, man. That would have been some, you know, crank that. This would have had some killer music in here. It is a great game. Nobody else is stepping up to the mic, huh? You need a break, too. I'd like to jump out for a minute. It's fine. This is the home court, though, so I guess we could fill in. let Carl get a bite. Jason Werdrick just walked into the door with Mr. Donovan's step. You must have just got off a plane from Chicago. If you're just tuning in, this is the IFPA National Championship and the IFPA Women's World Championship. We are in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada at the Flipper Spiel Underground Arcade Club located within Grand Line Games. So it looks like the next match on Star Trek is going to be Zoe up against Micah. And this is loser leaves town. That's right. It's a 3-3. This is do or die here. This is do or die. And they're taking it down to the wire. And may the best young lady win. Both excellent players. Yeah, I'm going to bug out for a second. All right, everybody. Sorry about my bad curse word before, but we'll try and stay more informed here and give you a good update as we go along. Joe's going to stay on the mic. We'll catch you in a few. It's like Micah stepping up to do her practice. Give a quick shout out to all the wives and husbands out there who allow their significant other to come play pinball here in Las Vegas. I'm sure it's a big trip for some people. I sure my wife is at home watching me now Mocking me Hello How you doing Super Who are you I Donovan Stepp Nice to meet you. Who are you? I'm Joe Anthes. Hi Joe. You're playing in the Nationals? Yeah. What state do you represent, sir? Colorado. Are you still alive? Fred Richardson to his match with the Delaware representative. Roger that. So I'm the Nevada champ. Congratulations. This is my home arcade. Nice. Pretty good stuff, huh? It's pretty great. It's nice to have a little bit of a feel on everything when you go into a tournament like this. I'll tell you what, it sure didn't help. I got smoked for nothing. Oh, well. On the games that I brought from my home, I got beat on all my games. Wow. So what's this on Star Trek? We are up with Zoe and Micah. This is the women's tournament. They are each tied at three wins apiece. So winner moves on, loser goes home. Okay. And this is? This is ball one. Is this the semis over there? I believe this is a round two match for them. Okay. Which I think is round of 16. for the women. I think there's 32 women. Nice. Moving along. Or it's a 32-woman bracket. Yeah. She's playing pretty good. She's got Destroy the Drill lit. Kind of an unfortunate drain there. She'll get it finished. And we've seen quite a few different strategies on Star Trek, so if you were stepping up to play, what do you like to do? Oh, man. Here we are on ball one. I think, you know, I like to start out with Nero, kind of like that, and try to work one of the lines of three in a row on the thing while working towards your multiball. Brutal. Boy, with no ball save like that, that's tough. Yeah. Do you like the deep Nero stack where you're going to Nero three to get your doubler lit here? You're not doing that here, I don't think. Yeah, I think it's a little gutsy. But, I mean, I just started playing around with that out for fun, and it's a pretty cool thing when you get that kind of going and it lines up. Yeah, I think my best score in this game was when I did that Nero stack, but in a competition like this with how the games are set up. I'd be working the, oh, man. Brutal. I would be working the center, you know, just trying to get some good action up there. Yep. Get your Klingon multiball going. and try and work those locks as much as you can over there to do that stuff and play a couple multi-balls and stack it with a mode, you know? Yeah, definitely. You've got to get the multiball with the mode if you can. But, I mean, some chances or some points you're not going to get the opportunity. Wow. Man, this game. This is a one-ball game right now, ladies and gentlemen. It's cold. What do you think about the soft plunge? uh you know i would i'm i'm going up towards the top lanes and usually the feed comes down to that flipper i try to actually loop out get yourself a loop and then kick over into the lock target that's what i like as well you hold the flipper up and it gets you those two bottom lock targets yeah that's certainly uh an ideal strategy i think yeah at this point in a game like this though boy you're you're reaching for any kind of points you can get yeah you got driving towards any multiball you can find. You got one ball left working this mode. There she goes. There's a lot. Clicking an opportunity here. Oh good tip pass. There you go. Really nice. It comes right back down to that flipper second lock. Oh, I kind of didn't realize this was a premium that kicks it down to the in lane. This is an LE. Oh, it's limited. There you go. That'll work. So she's going to get Save the Enterprise going. And if she lasts long enough, obviously she's going to get that Ramps captain's chair. Or the spinners captain's chair, I should say. Yeah. Oh, rough break. Rough break. On this game in particular, I mean, even if it's not set up by the sharps to, you know, melt ants this if you're up here it's almost always coming right down here so you got to be thinking hey if i'm up in this warp ramp you got to nudge it right around here to get it out of there boy she just had one that almost followed the suit oh that's that's the way it goes that's brutal but uh looks like zoe is moving on well congratulations to her up next looks like we have Luke and Daniel. They are each tied at 2-2. Let's see if I can find them here. So Daniel's the guy who KO'd me on my own machines. You know, sometimes when they come in and they throw the wax down, it's tough. You can actually... Whenever Carl gets back, he'll make that decision. You think you know a game, and then they wax it, and you actually come in and play it horribly. Yeah, these games, they're set so difficult. Yeah. And, I mean, they took some lessons from last year, because the Nationals and Pinmasters were here last year as well. And they really worked to try to reduce the ball times, because I think Thursday of last year, it was almost 12 hours of pinball or 13 hours of pinball. It was just a marathon session with Pinmasters the next day. Yeah, so you've got guys who are here playing until 1 o'clock in the morning, going back to the hotel, get in the app, wake up to come play in the 10 o'clock tee time for Pin Masters. Yeah, that's a brutal, brutal, grueling schedule. Have you guys on the air here been talking about next year's tournament since the IF? Yeah, it's going to be in Denver or something, right? Yeah, maybe. Is that your arcade? No, it won't be at my arcade, I think. It's going to be at the Game Exchange, our distributor out there. So I wasn't sure if that was something being discussed or not yet. But it's pretty exciting. I'll maybe have the home field advantage or disadvantage, whatever you'd like to call it. Yeah, I got to say that the home field has not been an advantage so far for us Nevadans who've made it. Okay. I think all four of us that have won from Nevada have been bounced in like the first or second round. This is a practice still. Oh, yeah. All right. Gotcha. I almost forget to take practice when I'm over there at the machine. I mean, so you see how crowded it is, right? I think it's so advantageous to get your 30 seconds just to see what is a tilt, what have they physically changed on the game, what rubbers are out, you know, what do the settings look like, because I think people who don't play in this kind of format, they play at their home arcade or they play in their house and they're used to it playing a certain way, and when they come here, you know, it's night and day. It's a rude awakening, that's for sure. So, got Luke stepping up for his practice? You know, you're always kind of wondering what do you actually practice during your practice, too. Obviously, everybody's trying to find the tilt. Yeah. But, you know, would you rather try to find out about kickouts or try to find out about shots, you know? Yeah, I think the biggest things that will change is, you know, can you post-transfer? Obviously, how sensitive the tilt is. Yeah. And then, you know, like here, you know, hey, can you get into multiball and torture? Oh, wait, you can't. Yeah, or a flipper strength or something like that. All right, this is practice is over. Practice is over. It's showtime, Daniel and Luke. All right, what's he going to pick? A lot of guys are going for destroy the drill right away. Does that, if you complete that first one, that's, I mean, it's just some points. Yeah. No real advantage until you get the lines on any of the first level modes. And then destroy the drill. If you can get that spinner shot down, you can get quite a few points from it there. And this is a game that you can backhand that spinner. Oh, backhand goes real well. Yeah, it does. Yeah, this is nice. I'll play next round. My opponent last round picked mostly the EMs, so I'll be stepping up and touching some of these games for the first time in my next round. Yeah, Carl was commenting that if you look at the queues for the games, it's almost all moderns and very few EMs. Yeah, most people are just picking the modern stuff. I think at 95% of the arcades you're going to go play pinball at, you're not going to have as many EMs as you will moderns. Yeah. I played Mark, and he was going EM on me. Yeah. So it's not bad, though, because you never know when you're going to run into those later in the tournament either. That's a true statement. And there are certainly players who will gravitate towards the EMs. Yeah. But I think a lot of it depends on when you start playing pinball, you know. Yeah. What are you used to? Yeah. Yeah, some of them. Everyone has an area that they like. If you're playing Bob Matthews, he's going to take you to an EM. Yeah. So, rather lackluster ball one there. Yep. He got his mode done because he got the away team, but, you know, it was like $250,000. Yeah. Is the away team kind of an addition? So, the away team changes what the goal of the mission is, right? Yeah. So, for example, on non-Away team, every level one mission is essentially the same thing. You shoot the lit, you know, like in this case, whatever the lit blue shot is. And then as time passes where you haven't made a blue shot or a lit shot, it adds more or it moves them around. For Prime Directive in particular, if you get the Away team, and that's right here under this flipper. Yep. the away team for prime directive has these lanes. Basically every time you complete the lane, you're going to get a metal. Ah, so this is a, it's a great mode to have in multiball because you know, your balls are draining and they're coming right back up to the lane just over and over and over again. Same thing for destroy the drill that Daniel played on the last fall. He, uh, turn the spinner on. Huh? Yeah. I, I'm just always kind of, do I want to actually go with the away team and kind of do the second tier of the mode, or do you want to just try to get in and out of there and continue trying to complete all six? So with the code change from the early game to the way it is now, Kobayashi Maru, the shots pay on how well you did in the mode leading up to Kobayashi Maru. Okay. So the better you can do and the more points you score in each mode, the more valuable Kobayashi Maru would be. That was a great shot. Yeah, nice lock. So we'll see if he's going to go for pops or if he's going to go for ramps. And it looks like he's going to go for ramps. So space jump is bang. The away team here. So, again, you're coming under here. If you get the away team lit, it's one shot, instant silver medal, minimum, up the middle. So he's got his ball locked. Yeah, would you be using the three weapons here to try and get Klingon at this point? Um, I say that... Like that? Me, personally, I don't think Space Jump has a good multiball mode. but if I had Klingon or Prime Directive or Drill, yes, for sure I want to have a multiball with those modes. So strictly in whether you want to stack or not. Correct. See, I'm always just in a panic mode. It's like, oh, if there's a multiball there I can get, I think I'll just go there and try to play the multiball rather than the mode. Yeah. And the multi-balls can be lucrative, but if you have a multiball with a mode, You know if you have a good multiball almost always you'll have a good mode depending on you know What the objective of that mode is so it looks like Daniel is going with Nero Which is gonna give him the super spinner if he gets the captain's chair, you know, these three will give him super spinner And that's that's a pretty good shot Just like we were saying, you know you do the ramp and hold the flipper up and bang Nero isn't a mode that I like to go into the away team because I feel that the stand-up targets are too small, and it's too hard to get big points in them. Well, the stand-up targets are coming back out of control. Any ramp, I would always prefer to stay with the shots that return to the flippers. I have a rough right-side drain on there. Yep, it's a little brutal, and I agree with you. Yeah, stick with the ramps and the orbits, and avoid getting into stand-up targets, except for the lock targets, obviously. You've got to take the risk. Same thing with Game of Thrones in Lannister, if you're working the stand-ups. Luke's waiting for the tilt pod to settle. It says these guys have both played in about 250 or 275. I think it said Luke's played in 280 events. Well experienced tournament players. Yeah. So again, he's got the vengeance lit at the ship. Yep, it's time to get that on. There we go. Yeah. His space jump is done. Oh, that was the way team was ready to go at the ship. And vengeance. So... Yeah, single with no stack on the mode, but... Working some lanes, some nice control to trap up. He's got his add-a-ball lit, so he's going to be pretty safe there. That's a nice little kick. See if he can do that all day. There you go. There you go, that's points. He's got a long way to go on damage on the ship, but... but, I mean, he's in position. Playing nice control. Very nice. There you go. Oh, that'll bounce. Tip. And everybody's partying now. Very patient. Somebody got out. He's back. He got the out of ball just in time. Oh, nice. Yep. So he's actually going to be, he's going with four balls now. Okay. And then he's trying to take advantage of his, you know, ball save and do damage on the ship there. Ball save looks gone. It is gone. But there's damage that's getting close. I think he's like one shot away from that ship maybe. Oh my. That was tough. That's a bad beat. That was tough. You can see he's processing it. Thinking about where do I need to go next because there ain't nothing I can do about the past. He took back So he's going to go for a mission. There you go. So we get saved the Enterprise. I think this is going to be ball two locked. Oh, this is ball three locked. So he's in a mission and he's in Kwanzaa multiball. Yeah, that was a good decision to shoot on the side rather than straight up the middle where he wouldn't have started the mode. Correct. That's good thinking. I would have shot up the middle, I think. Depends on what flipper you're on, you know. A lot, yeah. And how confident are you? How clearly are you thinking at that moment? Oh, did he get it? Did he get it? Oh, he's so close to restarting that multiball, but it looks like he did get a super. He got some nice points. Yeah, 24 million on Klingon. That's a great multiball. He's going to finish save the enterprise here and he'll be halfway to Kobayashi. Interesting ramp shot. That's doing it the hard way. Is he thinking away team? No. Right up the ramp. He's going to just play it out. Yep. Good decision. Boy, Daniel's going to have a tall order coming here on ball three. I know. The pressure is on for sure. So he's thinking, you know, what do I want to do? I've got to get into another mission. Tried to do a couple of. Just getting some spinner points. Yep. So he's got his captain's chair, and he's got super ramps. Super ramps. So. Get some super points. Perfect. It's hard to not just shoot ramps when those light up like that. But he's, you know, good decision, right? This is the ramp mode. There you go. So you're going to get double scoring essentially for shooting those Klingon ramps. So it's going to be probably left ramp backhand into a way team maybe? He seems like a player that's really got this game sorted out in his own way that he likes to play. Yep. He's able to actually get to play that way in this game. He's got it dialed in. So, bang. good catch right to the ramp right ramp he is just piling it on yep he's got another lock lit see at this point the game's probably just shooting real nice for him oh he's you can you can see that he's feeling it right yeah absolutely i mean the the pressure's off you know this was a successful yeah ball no matter what. And he's still player two. That's right. Should Daniel actually... 4 of 6 ready for Kobayashi? So again, I'll go to the chat room. Is he making Kobayashi? He's 66% of the way there. Have we got odds on this? Got a ball lock. Imagine he's going to come out and backhand that ramp again. There you go. Nice. He's got the ball locked again. Oh. Very good ball, though. I mean, that is. That's a tremendous ball. Just putting pressure on like crazy. Maybe Daniel's got a lot to think about. Daniel's got $100 million. That's a big tree to climb. Not that it can't be done. We just saw Luke put up basically $80 million on the one ball. I'm rooting for him. I mean, I hope he does it. No, he didn't qualify the play field. That's the advantage of the short plunge, right? Yeah, I guess so. Smart play. I'm always scared. I don't trust that stuff very much. There's lots there it is. Is it regular? Water and. Fancy work. Yeah, so he's thinking you know I gotta get into a mission. I gotta get my lock. Because he doesn't have Captain Sherry. I mean, he's not even going to have a chance really. Can I post past this? I think I'd just be throwing it up in that lock on the ship right here. Great little tip pass there. I mean, you can see he really wants it on the right flipper. Yeah. There it is. There's the post pass. Made it. Took advantage. I hate when you go to all that work to get that pass and you break it he's got a lot of work to do he's only on uh you know he's he's only on ball one locked unfortunately he's feeling this game a little more with every shot he is shoot enough of them all of a sudden you don't even remember that you're down by a significant amount yeah you look up and you're like whoa i just did you know i had a crazy ball this really could happen oh got a little bit unlucky what a save you got a little unlucky in the ship. You can see that it was trying to give it to him. Yeah, there's a kickback. Here we go. Trap. Regroup. Lock on the left. Regroup. He is not going down without a fight, gentlemen and ladies. There you go. Making some nice saves and keeping control. So I would be thinking... Yeah, now you're thinking, how am I going to light that third lock? Oh! That's too bad. Nothing you could do. You know, he went down swinging. So, good for Daniel. And nice game by Luke. Yeah, Luke played tremendously. All right, I'm going to go see where I'm at. So, thanks for letting me spend some time with you. Good luck. Yep, thanks. Have a good day. Carl's moving over to Thrones. Let's take a look at who's up. We have an elimination game Fred and Pete And the winner of this game will play the gentleman who was just on commentary This is a winner advances to the Sweet 16, loser advances to go play craps at the Santa Fe. Again, if you're just joining us, This is the IFPA North American Championship and the IFPA Women's World Championship. Here in beautiful, fabulous, tremendous, amazing, sunny Las Vegas, Nevada at the Flipper Spiel Underground Arcade Club located within Grand Line Games. I have someone joining us. How are you? I'm well. How are you today? Good. Watching some epic pinball. Indeed. Who are you, sir? This is a light show. I'm Derek. What's your name? Joe. Joe, very nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, Derek. Absolutely. Derrick Price. Derrick Price. Derrick Price. Thanks. All right, so who's starting on here? This is Fred. Fred and Pete. And Loser Leaves Town match. Winner moves on, loser goes home. I've got the pleasure to watch a few of their matches earlier. Lots of emotion from Fred, which is always the case. It's been a good battle. this is just their practice time so the way this game is set up Derek what's your strategy here so my strategy is definitely three shots to the right orbit for Martel and pick off your locks and I'll play Martel in single ball play it's nice I'll try and get it on the left flipper I'll try and half hit the left orbit because when it rolls back down over, you get two shots for it. It's very catchable from the left side, and then that one final shot, that'll put you at about 80 to 100 million if you can do that on its own. Yeah, Marketel can be very lucrative. Yeah, and it's a lucrative single ball. The rest of the modes are a little dangerous single ball. Yeah. That one's friendly. Especially the way this game is set up, the left flipper backhand to the left orbit, like you said, it really pays. Yeah. And it keeps the ball in control, which I think is almost the most important thing for the way these games are set up. And if you do get it all the way up, it's fine, because it goes into the rollovers, and wall multiball is just as friendly. It's a good backup, too. If you don't have more than two locks already on ball three, you might as well just go wall, because that feed, they tried to put the fat rubber on it. It's still not that bad. It comes down to the left flipper. A little catch. You know, it's pretty safe. So he's got his great rosary lit. Still practicing. Still practicing. Yeah, this is true. I was practicing my commentating. Go Santa. Hey, Colorado Pinball. I think this will be showtime. Yeah. So you can take advantage of the zero-point ball save on this game, which was nice to know. Sometimes the ball will miss that rubber and kind of come down a little wonky. As long as it's not one of your major switches, you can just let it drain out. No harm, no foul. Yep. Yeah, Sharp had a really good game on Star Wars. He was up half a billion last I knew. Ooh. Yeah, and so that pushed the game seven. We only got two game sevens going on this time. That's a great game for Star Wars, the way that game is set up. Yeah, I didn't play it. I enjoy the game, but I avoid it at any Stern event because I know it's no outlanes, no rubbers, no ball saves. So I tend to avoid it. Alex Harmon's match. We'll get you an update. Referring back to the trusty Google Sheets. All right, so let's see what strat he goes for. He kind of shook it so that it wouldn't hit that rubber. That little nudge gets it off the wall. Yep. So he's more comfortable from the right flipper here. That's absolutely fine. No, he didn't do anything there. Nice. What a save. Oh. And it would have stayed up, too. I thought that that was danger, danger, tilt. This game has a little bit of a delay on that. On the second danger to tilt we've noticed on stream here today. Yeah, you could move it. You get a little bit of a continuation depending on how you shook the game. That's good nudging. Are you wanting to go for the Lord of Light? That's coming back. He knows. I think it's smart, but it's also really dangerous. Same thing with going for the lock shots. we see a lot of, you know, you're hitting the upper lock shot, and bang, it's going right to the left outline. Yeah, if I have one of the Lord of Lights. Just like that. Yeah. Thank you. He displayed it for us. That's great timing. If there's one Lord of Light target, I may go for it, you know, because if you hit it in your drain, it's coming back. Yep. A lot of that also, for me, depends on which Lord of Light target is up. If it's the lower target, I would be less apt as opposed to the upper target. Ouch, that's tough. So that's why I do not go for the upper skill shot because any bad feed is... Disaster. Yeah. I'm surprised. He's not waiting for the dangerous or the tilt bob to settle at all. He likes to go. All right, so this will force him into Greyjoy. Sorry about any language that you might have. We have some very sensitive microphones, and Fred isn't very sensitive, so it's... Or, I mean, whoever said that. He who shall remain nameless. Yeah, we won't name last names. We'll just the first name. All right, so he took a... This isn't a terrible mode if you can combo it. The shots get multiplied. He's got ball two locked. All right. This tells me he's not worried about stack here. He's seen the first two balls, and he's going for multiball. He thinks that's going to win it for him, and it's a pretty good shot. He lit lock three, which is perfect. If you're going to drain on ball two, you're set up for ball three. Yep. He knows about the zero point, so he can get it on a flipper, take one shot. So now if I'm Fred here, I'm trying to mode out. You're 14 million behind. You know that the next guy's got a multiball ready, but I don't think he's locked anything. You're not going to sell out to go for the multiball? No. I'm probably going to try and light Martel and at the same time get really close to wall. Yep. And depending on how nice the pops are, I might light wall and then start it and combo it. but this is a position where I'm trying to get myself to 35, 40 million, and I'm saying, all right, you're going to have to beat me. That multiball, the ball save is really short on the multiball, so it's not guaranteed. You know, a 10 million multiball is feasible at this point. Yeah, the way this game is set up. Yeah, by the time all, because of virtual locks, by the time all three come out of the plunger lane, the ball save will be gone by the time all three balls come out of the plunger lane. Fred was out taking a break, and he looked up at the stream, and he was kind of like, who's playing the stream right now? And then he realized it was him that's supposed to be playing. And he had, like, the exclamation point bubble just appeared over his head. You almost could see it in real time. Nice, nice. So 1.5 there. Let's see his strategy. On this game, that's a tough shot. We've been seeing from the left flipper up the center ramp. It's very tight. All right. So he is going mode, and he's comboing for decent points here. Yeah, 6.5, so... His next shot, if it's a red arrow, would be about 12 million-ish. Now more. Oh! There you go. If he hits the dragon while it's lit right now, that would be a 16 million. Yep. Either one. There you go. Did it time out on him? I don't think the mode did. It gave him needle, so you couldn't see whether the points were scored for the shot. He's at 30 million right now. Yeah. Just making him play for it. I mean, that's the best you can do, right? Yep. Yeah, with no ball save, you just never know. And then if you're Pete, I mean, immediate into multiball, yeah? Yes. Yeah. Anything you're not comfortable with on the flipper, you let it drain and you just re-plunge. You just keep doing the same thing. That's perfect. Right off the top of the joint. Playfield's not qualified. You're in multiple. You're going to get Greyjoy going. Oh, you're going to get two modes going probably. Yeah. You should stack them. And now you just, you know, you hit center ramp first here because it's a good feed. It might not be multiplied, but it's a quick couple minutes. And it's free. Yep. And if you miss it, you hit the gold and then you light other shots. Roger that. No problem. And it goes back to what you said when you drained on ball two. I mean, he perfectly set himself up for a good ball three when he, you know, yeah, he drained making that lock, but this is the fruits of your labor. Yep. You went for the 50-50, and that's exactly what you were doing on ball two. All right. Like we said, no real big ball save timer, but the four million, I think he should be okay. He's done. Oh, yeah. GG. Yeah. Oh, that'll put Peter on. Into the Sweet 16. Grats to him. I think he just realized where he was at, too. Yeah, there's so many animations in that game that you just can't tell. Well, and you're also, you know, you're so focused on the job at hand, yeah. All right. Yeah, that was a tough game. I can't think of any specific. And the thing was, is Fred picked that game, I would have to assume. Yeah, because he was playing first. Yep. Yeah, the other options, well, you can see all the, yeah, it's all about the Yeah, not going for the free ball, you know, zero-point ball save, that's where you get in trouble. Even if you drain off of hitting one shot, at least you've maybe lit that lock. You know, if you hit the skill shot is worth so little, 500,000, 1 million, 1.5 million. In the grand scheme of the game, that's not worth it. And you're not getting enough pops to kind of get back up. If these pops were a little more active and it was getting more wall, I could see it, but... And I don't believe when you hit the skill shot rollover, I don't believe you get credit for that lane towards wall. So there's no benefit that I see from full plunging. So we got Carlos and Mike up again. And... Very nice. and we'll go through the 30-second practice. Let's see. Carlos won. Mike, two. Carlos's favorite game is one that would bring a little debate. His favorite game is Star Wars. I actually like it. I own one. I have no problem with it. I know a lot of people don't love it. What's your opinion? I own one. I like it quite a bit. Wow. Some rare company up here. Yeah. I think it's a difficult game, but I think there's a lot of ways you can play it to get a big score. Yep. And that's what I kind of like is that there's no one set way that you're going to be successful at it. Now, do you feel like because of the layout that the top of the game is kind of worthless? Like the pops are just kind of wasted space? It depends on if you have bonus hold or not. Yeah. If you've got bonus hold. If you can backhand that spinner on the left-hand side and you have spinner level like seven, people don't realize that thing will be like a million points of spin. Plus you're getting your hold. Plus you're getting your... Yeah, it's very lucrative. So on my personal best, I've had bonus hold of like three and a half billion and then four billion on the next bonus. It's just silly. That's not bad at all. That might be better than my best game at some point. Yeah. And if you play the Star Wars here, that's on loan from me. Oh, nice, nice. I should have picked it in my round. I really wanted to, but I was afraid because I didn't practice on it. Yeah, I picked it. I felt I had a good game for how hard it is. and my opponent stepped up and he put up like $250 million just in one ball. Yeah. So did you lose that game? I did, yeah. How does it feel to lose on your own game? I shouldn't ask this question. It's the worst. Yeah. And I thought it was bad when you owned the game and you lost. I have an Iron Maiden and a Star Wars, so when I go to my local tournaments and I lose, everyone's like, oh, I beat Derek on a game that he owns. Yeah. They play completely different. And even now, you know, I have four of my games are here, and the games that I have are completely different than the way they are at home. So it's almost like a disadvantage of playing my own games. Yeah. And there's a lot more pressure. That's how I feel. If you're playing your own game, like, you're expected to win. So it's... Mike got a brutal ball one there. this was not practice anymore no no my apologies to everyone in chat i thought we were still in practice they're crazy games yeah it's it's playing tough if you're not used to this the only reason i knew how to play this was from pin pin masters last year it was set up the exact same way and everyone strategized this was the most talked about game for how do you approach the game outside of Aerosmith, which is the one that I would put in place of Star Wars. I do not love my Aerosmith, but that's okay. Yeah, I'll be interested to see what the lineup for Pinmasters is tomorrow. I think they'll make the determination based on how the game scored today, yeah? I will say that Stars is out. That's unfortunate that that one is having a switch reset problem. Yep. And unless they make Star Trek a lot harder, I don't think that's going to be in either. No. That one will take too long, I believe. Well, it depends on what target you set it for, though. True. Yeah. I know, I know. So you've been watching on stream, Carl. What would you set Thrones at for target score for Pin Masters? Well, it's typically the average of the games today. Yeah. They're very low. Last year it was $100 million. It was around $100, yeah. Last year it was $100 million. I'm thinking 100. Well, especially if you're playing five balls. I mean, you're thinking you're pretty much guaranteed a multiball at some point. Mike's doing pretty well here on his ball two. He gets the sword. That'll help. Carl's had a little bit of a house ball on his ball two, so he'll have some work to do here. That's the second one we've seen from the left flipper go up there. All right. He's got another lock ready to go. He can get control. And Greyjoy is an interesting mode. Like, if you're going to play it poorly, you only want to hit one shot and then time it out. If you're playing it well, then it's not too bad. It's worth a lot of points. But if you're thinking about taking this into multiball, you want more shots to start comboing and getting more points on it. It's like if you get halfway done with it, and then you restart and play, it's not really worth that much. It's worth a lot more if you get four or five shots in a row. He's got his outlanes lit for a ball save. This is a game I never trust the ball save on this game. At lower to late, don't get a danger when you go over lower to late. Most of the time it will not register it. He's got just Martell there for a super jackpot set. Boy, the pops were really nice to him. They gave him a ball add. That's excellent. Yeah, we were talking about that earlier, about how you get the add-a-ball on this via the pops. That is on tournament mode. Will it always give you an add-a-ball, or is it a rando? I honestly don't know. Maybe someone in the chatroom knows. But I would say it's somewhat random. All right. more gold increases your chances for the out of the ball okay good to know he's got two dangers he's got a good ball put the pressure on carlos so during that multiple he's actually only one shot away from starting that playfield multiplier he started it just afterwards that's that's my first goal bash that target three or four times But 151 is absolutely acceptable Okay, so hit the two Tyrell stand-ups And then the next pop award will be out of all Good to know Wow I will trust Jared and Ray Day This will put him right in gray So he's Ball one locked He's got a long way here What are you doing if you're him? I mean is this this is the strap trying get them on nice They gave him credit for one more shot and then said no, all right All right, I'm gonna take a break. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. See you guys tomorrow tomorrow. Yes. Alright. We're going to stick on this game for the Helena versus Maureen match, which is up next. Is this game one? This is the first game. Yep. And this is top eight, right? This is top four. Let's see. This is top eight for them. We're going to have Jessica DiNardo coming on the mic now. Perfect. All right. All right. Let's take a look here. The crowd is dying down as the round this morning was packed in here. Yeah, standing was difficult. Just finding a place where you weren't in anyone's way was very difficult. So how do you like the new building? How do you like the new venue? It's nice. I like it here more than the other spots. Yeah. I've enjoyed it. Yeah. Oh, Jessica will be joining us. Welcome. Thanks. Thanks for having me. Thanks for coming on. I mean, I wish I was on the other side of the camera, but it's nice to be here. We're going to be watching some more Game of Thrones. Did you play this Game of Thrones today? I did not play it today. I played it yesterday in practice before it got modded out. It was playing really nice, actually. I had a great game on it. But I chose all older machines today. I feel like this one's playing really fair. It is a little bit brutal, and if you're not used to no ball save and stuff, yeah, it's playing a little different. But the shots are where you think they're supposed to be. Everything's makeable, all the ramps. I don't see Helena anywhere. I saw her just a minute ago. Okay. She might be outside. Thank you.

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 647d89d9-64a5-4d33-a63b-dffe49fcd1a2*