# Episode 179: Elizabeth Cromwell – Pinburgh 1000!

**Source:** Pinball Profile  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2019-02-15  
**Duration:** 36m 16s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.pinballprofile.com/episode-179-elizabeth-cromwell-pinburgh-1000/

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## Analysis

Elizabeth Cromwell announces that Pinburgh 2019 will expand to 1,000 players—up from 840 the previous year—requiring 86 banks of machines and necessitating moves to a larger convention center. She discusses operational logistics, division restructuring based on IFPA rankings, expanded prize pools for E-Division, and the successful Women's International Pinball Tournament (WIPPT) expanding to 100 players. She also shares updates on Kickback Cafe and the closure of the original PAPA facility.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Pinburgh 2019 will have 1,000 players, up from 840 in 2018 — _Elizabeth Cromwell official announcement; tickets go on sale February 23rd at noon Eastern time_
- [HIGH] Tickets for Pinburgh 2019 sold out within 45 seconds in 2018 — _Show Clicks ticket rep communication; Elizabeth cites this data directly_
- [HIGH] No single person purchased the maximum five tickets at once in 2018; 541 people bought single tickets, making them the largest buyer group — _Elizabeth shared detailed metrics from 2018 ticket sales data_
- [HIGH] WIPPT (Women's International Pinball Tournament) is expanding from 64 to 100 players for 2019 — _Elizabeth Cromwell official announcement; tickets go on sale March 30th_
- [HIGH] Pinburgh 2019 will feature 86 banks of games, up from 72 in 2018 — _Elizabeth Cromwell specific statement about infrastructure scaling_
- [HIGH] Division restrictions are being simplified to use only IFPA rankings rather than multi-factor criteria — _Elizabeth explains new division structure: A-Division top 100 (was 50), B-Division top 200 (was 150), C-Division top 400 (unchanged), D-Division top 1,000 (was 1,500), E-Division unrestricted_
- [HIGH] Pinburgh ticket price is increasing by $10 — _Elizabeth confirms price increase tied to E-Division prize pool expansion_
- [HIGH] Elizabeth Cromwell had emergency gallbladder surgery over New Year's weekend while preparing for the PAPA facility move — _Elizabeth shares personal detail; move scheduled January 7th_
- [HIGH] Kickback Cafe currently has 22 machines and is at near-capacity for its space — _Elizabeth states they could use removing one or two machines due to crowding_
- [HIGH] The new PAPA facility has loading docks, which the previous facility lacked — _Elizabeth cites this as a significant operational improvement for moving machines to/from ReplayFX_

### Notable Quotes

> "Within 45 seconds, all of the tickets were in cart."
> — **Elizabeth Cromwell**, ~5:30
> _Demonstrates extreme demand for Pinburgh tickets; context for new ticket system changes_

> "Nobody bought five tickets at once, not one person... 541 people bought single tickets that is above and beyond the largest group of purchasers."
> — **Elizabeth Cromwell**, ~9:00
> _Refutes claims that the 5-ticket purchase cap is exploited; data-driven response to community speculation_

> "We're going to use that tie-breaker system to break it so that you are 435 and I'm 436 because that actually helps with submission to the IFPA a great deal."
> — **Elizabeth Cromwell**, ~44:30
> _Explains operational/administrative reasoning for tiebreaker changes; IFPA submission efficiency_

> "It was emotional... and over New Year's weekend I had emergency gallbladder surgery. It's like I'm packing up Papa and then I lost an organ and then I went back to packing up Papa."
> — **Elizabeth Cromwell**, ~60:00
> _Personal anecdote about closure of original PAPA facility and operational challenges_

> "The Pittsburgh scene is unlike, I'm jealous... the players really, really do support."
> — **Jeff Teolis**, ~87:00
> _Recognizes Pittsburgh as exceptional competitive pinball hub with strong community culture_

> "If you're new and you come in and you don't conform to that behavior, or if you're just being a big jerk, they will tell you... And then they either learn not to cough and drop machines, or they go away and stop playing."
> — **Elizabeth Cromwell**, ~85:00
> _Describes Pittsburgh community self-policing and norm enforcement; addresses machine abuse concerns_

> "Timing is insanely important to Pinburgh. Doug has lots of spreadsheets. He knows exactly how long it has taken to play every single game."
> — **Elizabeth Cromwell**, ~50:00
> _Reveals rigorous operational planning; game pairing strategy to optimize tournament flow_

> "When these people are putting these machines out and people are getting to play in the masses... that's the lifeline of pinball."
> — **Jeff Teolis**, ~2:00
> _Frames operator/location importance to industry ecosystem_

> "We probably have a machine, probably could use getting rid of a machine or two... But when you go to put in the monsters and you take out Lost World, people cry."
> — **Elizabeth Cromwell**, ~68:00
> _Illustrates operator challenge of pleasing diverse customer preferences; space constraints at Kickback Cafe_

> "If we're adding more players, then we require more games, which means we require more electric jobs, which means that we have to have an electrician come out and pull the panel at the convention center."
> — **Elizabeth Cromwell**, ~39:00
> _Explains non-obvious infrastructure constraints on tournament growth; addresses community expectation management_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Elizabeth Cromwell | person | Owner/operator of Kickback Cafe and PAPA (Pennsylvania Pinball Association); organizer of Pinburgh tournament and WIPPT |
| Pinburgh | event | Largest pinball tournament in the world; 2019 expansion to 1,000 players announced; held at Pittsburgh convention center |
| WIPPT (Women's International Pinball Tournament) | event | Women's competitive pinball tournament debuted 2018 with 64 players; expanding to 100 players in 2019 |
| Kickback Cafe | organization | Pinball cafe/bar operated by Elizabeth Cromwell in Pittsburgh; 22 machines; serves coffee and beverages |
| PAPA (Pennsylvania Pinball Association) | organization | Organization that ran Pinburgh; original facility closed January 2019; relocated to new facility with loading docks |
| Jeff Teolis | person | Host of Pinball Profile podcast; tournament organizer; community advocate for operators and location owners |
| Doug | person | PAPA staff member overseeing technical setup, game testing, timing spreadsheets, and lighting coordination for Pinburgh |
| Eitan Goldman | person | PAPA staff member responsible for TDs and tech recruitment/coordination for Pinburgh |
| Stephanie | person | General manager of Kickback Cafe; described by Elizabeth as deeply invested in the venue |
| Kate Martin | person | Involved in WIPPT planning and organization; met with Elizabeth in Brooklyn to discuss tournament expansion |
| Show Clicks | organization | Ticketing vendor for Pinburgh; provided sales metrics to Elizabeth |
| Stephen Bowden | person | Streamed game testing for Pinburgh 2018; well-received by community |
| Kevin Martin | person | Pinburgh participant; conversed with Jeff Teolis about tournament timing and duration |
| Tracy Lindbergh | person | TD/volunteer at Pinburgh; flew to Pittsburgh to help despite cost and missing their favorite tournament |
| Lee Clevens | person | Skilled pinball machine technician; reference point for specialized tech expertise |
| ReplayFX | event | Larger expo event surrounding Pinburgh featuring vendors, arcade area, and multiple tournaments |
| Intergalactic (tournament) | event | Competitive pinball tournament held alongside Pinburgh at ReplayFX |
| Pittsburgh pinball scene | organization | Described as exceptionally strong with 20+ year competitive history; self-policing community norms; strong player support for operators |
| Queen + Adam Lambert | event | Concert at PPG Arena in Pittsburgh during ReplayFX weekend 2019 |
| IFPA (International Flipper Pinball Association) | organization | Maintains player rankings used for Pinburgh division restrictions; receives tournament submissions from Pinburgh |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Pinburgh 2019 expansion to 1,000 players, Women's International Pinball Tournament (WIPPT) growth, Tournament infrastructure and logistics, Pinball operator/location sustainability and challenges
- **Secondary:** Community behavior and toxicity at tournaments/locations, Pittsburgh pinball scene culture and reputation, Division restructuring based on IFPA rankings
- **Mentioned:** Ticket sales mechanics and FOMO dynamics

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.82) — Elizabeth and Jeff express genuine enthusiasm about Pinburgh growth, WIPPT expansion, and Pittsburgh community quality. Discussion of operational challenges is presented as solvable and worth the effort. Even difficult topics (machine abuse, player toxicity) are framed with optimism about improvement. Personal health challenges (gallbladder surgery) mentioned with humor and resilience. No significant criticisms of manufacturers, games, or major community figures.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Operational complexity of scaling tournaments reveals non-obvious infrastructure constraints (electrical capacity, TD/tech availability, game timing synchronization, lighting optimization) (confidence: high) — Elizabeth explains electrical panel requirements, machine-moving logistics, and Doug's detailed timing spreadsheets for game pairing; addresses community expectation that adding players is trivial
- **[event_signal]** WIPPT expanding from inaugural 64-player event to 100 players in 2019, signaling strong growth in women's competitive pinball participation (confidence: high) — Elizabeth and Jeff discuss expansion logistics; tickets on sale March 30th; Texas Pinball Festival also announced women's tournament
- **[sentiment_shift]** Pittsburgh pinball community exhibits exceptionally strong self-policing norms and operator support; described as atypical and enviable compared to other regions (confidence: high) — Elizabeth describes 20+ year scene history; Jeff expresses jealousy; both note machine abuse addressed by peer pressure rather than management alone
- **[community_signal]** Pittsburgh positioned as exceptional pinball hub with mature, self-regulating competitive scene and strong operator-player symbiosis; contrasts sharply with fragmented regional scenes elsewhere (confidence: high) — Jeff compares favorably to other regions; notes multiple strong venues (Tilt and Pint Toronto, Pinup Arcade, Doogie's); praises Pittsburgh's 20-year history and cultural norms
- **[community_signal]** Emerging awareness of tournament director/operator burnout from player toxicity; multiple TDs stepping back from event organization due to negative player behavior (confidence: medium) — Jeff mentions friend recently ran two events and quit entirely; attributes to one or two difficult players spoiling experience for organizers
- **[product_concern]** Operator perspective on pinball bar sustainability remains dependent on ancillary offerings (coffee, beverages, atmosphere) beyond machine gameplay; suggests base pinball revenue alone may be insufficient (confidence: medium) — Elizabeth emphasizes coffee quality at Kickback; Jeff asks about necessity of drinks/food for sustainability; unclear whether question was answered fully in transcript
- **[event_signal]** Pinburgh 2019 officially announced expansion to 1,000 players (from 840 in 2018), requiring 86 game banks (up from 72) and reflecting sustained extreme demand for tournament access (confidence: high) — Elizabeth Cromwell official announcement; tickets on sale February 23rd at noon Eastern; $10 price increase confirmed
- **[market_signal]** Pinburgh ticket demand remains extreme (45-second sell-out in 2018) despite venue capacity constraints and price increase; demonstrates sustained FOMO-driven demand for largest pinball tournament (confidence: high) — Show Clicks rep communication of 45-second cart fill; new waitlist system implemented to manage demand; $10 price increase accepted without resistance indication
- **[personnel_signal]** PAPA facility relocated to new space with improved infrastructure (loading docks) following January 2019 closure; operational move completed over 3-day period (confidence: high) — Elizabeth describes New Year's weekend move; notes same 3-day timeline as moving machines to convention center for Pinburgh
- **[product_concern]** Lighting at convention center tournament venue remains ongoing challenge requiring iterative adjustment between years based on player feedback and electrician coordination (confidence: medium) — Elizabeth notes Doug coordinates extensively with electricians; overhangs in year 1 required relayout; feedback mechanism drives yearly tweaks

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## Transcript

 I'm a thinker, not a talker I've no one to talk to anyway I can't see the road For the rain in my eyes It's time for another Pinball Profile. I'm your host, Jeff Teels. You can find our group on Facebook. We're also on Twitter at Pinball Profile. Email us pinballprofile at gmail.com and please subscribe on either iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play. Now, I had set up this interview earlier in the month. I said, Elizabeth Cromwell, why don't you come on? I'd love to talk about kickback because I'm really interested in what's going on as far as owners and operators because, again, that's the lifeline of pinball. When these people are putting these machines out and people are getting to play in the masses, well, no place do you play more in the masses than replay effects. and coincidentally some big news that Elizabeth has to announce, and she joins us right now. Hi, Elizabeth. How are you? Hey, Jeff. I'm okay. This is very exciting. So you've got some big announcements to make, and I'll give you the floor. So by the time this goes out, the changes to Pembroke 2019 will have been announced. And so I guess the big question on everybody's mind is how much bigger it's going to get. And we're going to 1,000 players this year. that is huge yeah the first pinberg had less than it had like 170 something players it had less than 200 people and the main impetus for starting replay effects was because we couldn't fit any more people in pinberg at our facility so in order to make it there it was capped at 400 that's how many people we could accommodate at the PAPA headquarters. So moving it to the convention center was the only way to make it grow. So it went from 400 to 700, and now we're going to hit 1,000. Pretty exciting. It's very, very exciting, and especially considering, as you know, the demand for this tournament is huge. What did the tickets sell last year? How quickly was it? Our rep at Show Clicks told us that within 45 seconds, all of the tickets were in cart. And that's something that's interesting, too, about the cart thing. So when you go online... Yeah, so what would happen is if you would go in and you would put, you know, three tickets in your cart and realize you only needed two, and you would complete that purchase for two, the system would hold on to that third ticket, and then it would release it after 15 minutes back up for general grab. This year we're changing that behavior. So once all of the tickets are spoken for, people will automatically go to the wait list. And then when, in that same scenario, if a ticket were to be released, it will go to the first person on that wait list. It won't go back up for general grabs. So there's no need to sit there and mash your key to reload the page because it's not going to come back out. I just got a new F5 key. Well, you know, I appreciate your dedication, but it's unnecessary right now. Okay, no, that's a good change. That's interesting, too. How many tickets can somebody purchase? I know there are people that bring their kids. I did last year as well, and I'm sure there's some sort of cap. Yeah, and that's unchanged. So you can buy five tickets at once. And I know last year a lot of people thought that this was gaming the system in some way. And I would like to share with you some metrics I have from 2018 ticket sales. Nobody bought five tickets at once, not one person. There were five orders of four tickets for 20 tickets total. there were 21 orders of three tickets for 63 tickets total 108 orders for two tickets right so like i'm buying one for me and my friend jeff and that's 216 tickets to go out of it but 541 people bought single tickets that is above and beyond the largest group of purchasers and it'll probably be the same again this time too i mean yeah i would absolutely expect it to not change. Thanks for sharing those metrics too. That's anybody who thinks there's any kind of bucking the system, if you will, that's certainly not the case. And again, what you've done is you provided the opportunity for everybody who wants to bring, maybe they're bringing their family, their kids. Now you've got that chance. And I really am excited. A thousand players. I mean, the questions that have to be asked are last year, there were more people, there was more space, the techs and the TDs. I remember there was the big tech, almost like tech school, and you got a lot more techs and you had more TDs kind of come in and help out. Are you looking for more or is that looked after? You know what? Eitan Goldman and Doug are on top of that, and they handle it really well. I don't honestly know that they're looking for any more additional people, but if you're interested, you should definitely reach out to one of them. Would you just do that on papa.org? Yeah, if you just reached out to – If you're interested, reach out to me through email or on Facebook, or you can use the Contact Us link on the website, and we will definitely route that to the right. It really moved me to see people help out in this great tournament and even fly to Pittsburgh to help out as a TD or a tech. I talked about Tracy Lindbergh when I was... She's fantastic. No kidding, right? In so many different ways than one. And there's somebody who... That's an expensive trip to go fly to miss your favorite tournament, but really give back. And I actually know some local people where I'm around, too, where they're like, you know what, if they need help, I'm there. And that's so great to hear because, like, this stuff doesn't happen without help. Like, if we don't have people that are willing to, especially with, like, tournament directors and technicians, like, that is specialized skill. I can't tech a pinball machine the way that Lee Clevens can tech a pinball machine. We need people like that to be willing to step up and say, you know what, this year I'm not going to play, this year I'm going to help. And that's just fantastic. Okay, so we'll, again, reach out to Elizabeth or the people at Papa, and I'm sure they're looking for some volunteers. But I'm also sure that you're going to fill that too, because, again, this is the most wonderful time of the year. It is the event everyone looks forward to. And it's more than just a tournament. And I just recently on one of my pinball profiles talked about not really a regret, but it is unfortunate that I only get to see certain parts of it. I try to span out, and with my kids being there last year, I actually got to see a lot more of the music and some of the game areas. And I certainly have always checked out the vendors. There's so much more. And if it wasn't for ReplayFX, you know, the tournament itself certainly doesn't exist because you need that kind of participation. And really, it's nice to be able to see all the different things that is this wonderful ReplayFX. Well, I'm really glad that everybody enjoys it and comes out. I mean, there are people that don't play and have never heard of Timber. They're not there for that tournament. They're there to see all of the other stuff that we've built up around it. So it's always great to hear that people are enjoying themselves. That's really the only aim we have. If you want to play games, you don't have to be in the tournament. There's lots to do at ReplayFX. And even, I know there was last year, I'm asking without knowing, can I assume the Intergalactic is something that might happen again? Yeah. Okay, so there's a tournament for everyone. That's big. And last year, a huge success with the WIPPT tournament, the Women's International Pinball Tournament. And 64 women immediately signed up for this. I saw on Facebook you and Kate Martin might have spent some time in New York, and I assume there might have been some talking about this year's WIPPT event. Is there anything you can share on that? Yeah, in between drinking all of the whiskey in Brooklyn, we talked about WIP we're ironing out some final details but it's going to expand to 100 players and tickets for that will go on sale on March 30th pencil that in and we'll make sure we link that also on Pinball Profile 100 players, that's a huge expansion you certainly had the interest for 100 last year but of course in your first year and you did the right thing let's just see how this goes logistically with the people that we've got with the one day So you've found a way to make it 100 players now. That's good. Any kind of changes that you've done to make the accommodations for 100? It'll probably, I mean, it's going to have to involve a bit of a change in the schedule. We're still hammering out what that's going to look like. But as part of expanding to 100, we want to take more finalists. So it's just a matter of finding where we can squeeze in a couple extra rounds, you know? Yeah. Well, great. again if you need help with that uh again go to papa.org or contact elizabeth and i'm sure they could certainly help to see this whip tournament now probably one of the biggest tournaments it was nice to see texas pinball festival just announced one earlier this week so it really growing women competitive pinball is is certainly i thought it was a big increase last year looks like it going to be bigger even in 2019 I think that kind of what we do We just try to make everything a little bit better and a little bit bigger every year One thing you changed last year, and I know that you're keeping this this year, is you had the E-Division. But there's a bit of a change this year. Yeah, so we did actually add some money into the prize pool so that E-Division can get paid out. And last year, E-Division, there was no prize money in E-Division because it was just kind of an extra division because people wanted to keep playing competitive pinball. And so we just created it, but there wasn't any payout to it. There is now. The prize table should be available and updated on the website and in the rulebook, which is also linked from the site. So, yeah, money. Come win money. I don't play pinball for money. I never have. I do like the competition aspect of it. But that is a nice carrot at the end of the day to have a chance to win some money. And like you said, even last year, there wasn't anything for E, but there really was. It was playoff experience for a lot of novices. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of people really enjoyed it. And just kind of wished that there had been something more to it. So we went ahead and decided to raise that a little bit and throw some money at E. You have 1,000 players now. I'm curious what kind of division restrictions there might be. So, yes, we're changing the division. We're simplifying the restrictions. It's going to work off of the IFPA ranking and not, there used to be a whole bunch of stuff in there about, you know, if you placed in Papa at this or if you placed in that. We're kind of getting rid of that, and we're going straight across the board with the WAPA rankings. So A Division, top 100 ISPA ranks will be restricted to A Division. It was 50 last year. In B Division, it's going to be the top 200, where it was 150 last year. C Division is unchanged at the top 400 ISPA-ranked players. And then D Division is going to be the top 1,000 ISPA-ranked players. It was 1,500 last year, so that's the only one that kind of shrunk a little bit. In E-Division, there's no restriction. Sounds interesting. And I know that looking at some metrics from years before, if you were restricted to A, not a lot of people got bumped up because of poor play. Right. What I'm basically saying is you guessed correct. You had a good estimate. Yeah. And, I mean, just because we're expanding, then it's time to adjust the restriction changes a little bit. You're right that there are very few times that people get bumped up into a division when they haven't played at that level. Can you talk at all about maybe some of the feedback you receive? Because one of the great things that Papa does for not just this event, but all the events, especially even on the Stern Pro Circuit as this is, is you get a lot of information from feedback from the players. Well, this tournament has the most players, so I'm just kind of wondering, was there a common theme with the feedback? I assume it was positive, but maybe there were some things that you thought, But that's a good point. Maybe we can tweak that. We always read the feedback and we always take into account good and viable suggestions. You're right that a lot of the feedback is just like, I love this. It's so great. I wish we could do it more often in a year. There are some, there's some feedback as with anything that's just not productive feedback. It's not helpful. But I can't think of one specifically like this year that, you know, we looked at and said, you know, we should, we should change that. But it is definitely something that is constantly on our minds, and it is something that we constantly work towards fixing. I had a lot of feedback, and you're right. It was mostly positive and stuff, and it was kind of hard to figure out, okay, what can I write about it? And the only thing I kind of thought was there was one bank of areas where lighting might have been a concern. So it's kind of almost a petty concern, but was that something that had been mentioned at all, or is that something that is being looked at? Yes, that is absolutely, lighting is a really good example. That is something that gets brought up, and you wouldn't even understand the number of hours that Doug stands over there on the walkie-talkie with the electricians getting them to turn off this bank. Okay, now turn on that bank. Okay, now see if we can do it this way. And that's before we get the feedback, right? Yeah. So we get the feedback, and it does cause us every year to tweak it just a little bit more. If you remember the first year in the convention center, people thought it was way too dark under the overhang for the bank that was farthest against the wall there. And they were right. So we rejiggered how the layout was going to work and tried to fix the way that the light reflects off of the glass. I mean, it's a completely valid observation. So it's a valid observation when you say it like, hey, this bank had some lighting issues and it could be really hard to see the ball. There was a really bad reflection. That's valid feedback. That's valid input. What's not is when you say the lighting sucks. That is unhelpful. That's not a constructive piece of criticism because we don't know what lighting you're talking about or how you would like to see it changed. So, yeah, we take all of this into account. We listen to everybody as much as we can in order to try to make the experience the best it can possibly be. I can only imagine how long the setup takes to do something like this. I know it's days and truckloads and moving vans. It's unbelievable. And I know for sure, I mean, we've seen the stream of all the games being tested. Steven Bowden did that last year, and I thought that was really good. I know the fans of the tournament really were excited to see that too, and I imagine the viewership was fantastic for that. But also, knowing yourself, knowing Doug Polka, knowing the rest of the team at Papa, yeah, you're right. It's not your first rodeo. So it's not like you're dropping the games in, all right, we're good. That's it. Let's go. I'm sure they're being tested again. They're being leveled again. They're being, again, the lighting. All that kind of thing is something that is painstakingly just looked over, and so I have zero concerns. Not that I did last year. It's good to know that anybody who has any concerns about that, you'll be fine. Don't worry about it. That's another thing that Mark has brought up previously. Last year when we filled out so fast, there were a lot of people online who were like, just add more people. That's not always feasible, and here's why. Because if we're adding more players, then we require more games, which means we require more electric jobs, which means that we have to have an electrician come out and pull the panel at the convention center in order for us to add that number of games. We need to add techs. We need to add tournament directors. We need to consider how the light is going to play in that added bank that you're putting in. There are so many things that go into increasing the size of Stenberg, which is why we don't just tell you in August, like, hey, next year it's going to be X number of players because we have to sit and really think about how feasible it is. We talked about adding TDs and techs, and it looks like you've got a lot of that looked after. Going from the 840 players you went last year to 1,000 players, we talked about the need for more techs and more TDs. I think it's safe to assume there's probably going to be more games too. Yes, there will. It looks like it's going to be 86 banks of games for Pinberg. Wow, that's a lot. You had 72 banks last year, so that's a huge increase. Yeah, I mean, if you're adding 200 people, 150 people, you don't want to quad book the bank, right? So you don't want four groups of four players each on one bank. You need more games. There's just no other way around that. And that means more testing, more moving. That means even more spare games too, probably, right, for when something goes down. Yep. The other thing about Pimberg is that the games are all era-specific, right? So I can't just build a bank of nothing but Iron Maiden because that is not how this works. That's not how any of this works. So you need to get an EM and an early solid state and DMD and you have a modern game and you have to make sure that they all play right and you have to... Part of the reason that we do this testing is not only to find flaws in the machines, find things that need to be fixed, but timing. Timing is insanely important to Pemberg. This testing that we've been doing, Doug has lots of spreadsheets. He knows exactly how long it has taken to play every single game that they have played in Fight Club. So if you play Terminator 2 in our testing, if you play it six times, he knows how long each game took to play, and then he can figure out the average time it takes to play T2, and then he can pair it with other games that will play around the same length. Speaking of timing I want you to know that I adapted a new rule in any new tournament that I run to avoid really long long playing I just ran a tournament on the weekend and it went a little longer than I thought So after the tournament was done, I said, I'm going to adapt the Pinberg rule that came in last year. And it was, I mean, some people liked it, some people didn't like it. You're never going to please everyone, so really ignore it. And the rule is, for tiebreakers, you go to the round before. I'm doing that. That's awesome. I didn't realize how important the timing was until you have this crazy seven-way tie or something silly like that, and then everything just gets put back. I was having a conversation with Kevin Martin at Timberg last year, and it was like, do you remember when we used to run tournaments until 2 in the morning, and then we would start tiebreakers, and then we would get out of there at like 5 and have to be back here at 7? And he's like, yeah. Remember when we were 20 and we could do that? We can't do that now. Don't do that. It takes way too long. So we're actually going to tie-break everything all the way down. So let's say you and I have identical records and we're tied at 435th place. We're going to use that tie-breaker system to break it so that you are 435 and I'm 436 because that actually helps with submission to the IFPA a great deal. Yeah, you know what? I think we've talked about that before, just how long it actually takes to submit for the biggest tournament in the world because getting all the IFPA numbers, getting the spellings of names correct. Maybe they're new players, so you have to kind of register or make sure you're not putting someone else in. Somebody with a common name. I have a friend named David Smith. There's a lot of David Smiths. So you've got to put the country or find out. Yeah. Is that something that helps you at the time of registration, maybe having that IFPA number, or is that something done on site? No. We actually put it in the ticket purchasing process last year that if you want your offer points, you have to submit your IFPA number when you buy your Pembert ticket because we're not going to hunt you down. We're not going to go through and try to figure out which Dave Smith this was. You need to let us know up front because we're not going to track you down anymore. Good for you. That's good to let everyone know that. So when you're registering on the 23rd at noon Eastern time, make sure you have your IFP ID number as well. Very, very important. Thanks for letting us know about that. And for those, by the way, you and I were talking about this earlier, for those that are coming to Pittsburgh earlier, Queen and Adam Lambert are playing at the PPG Arena. Dude, I am so angry. Why? Because I can't go. Oh, because you're busy. Yeah, you're busy. That's a good show. I saw that. It's so good. I was second row when they came to Toronto. Jealous. I'll show you my pictures. Oh, yeah. Yeah, phenomenal. If you are coming in, everybody should go and see that because, I mean, it's just, it's clean, for God's sake. They're amazing. Yep. and everything fun in the city of Pittsburgh happens over ReplayFX Weekend, and I don't get to do it. It is a good show. I mean, there's only one Freddie Mercury, but, boy, I'll tell you, Adam Lambert puts on a hell of a show, and the guy's got a great voice, too. It all works for me. He even comes out and he says, like, I'm not Freddie Mercury, and I'm not trying to be Freddie Mercury. I'm just, like, the biggest fanboy. And then he proceeds to be the biggest fanboy. It's awesome. It's a really good show. So that's, I guess, the Wednesday night in Pittsburgh. Lots to do. My goodness. Yep. Pirates will be in town. Oh, I didn't know about that. I saw a Pirates game last year. I went on the Sunday. I had already purchased tickets for my son to see. He's a big baseball fan, too. So I had to go there. So, unfortunately, I missed kind of part of the whipped tournament. But not this year. Not this year. I want to see that. Tickets go on sale on Saturday, February 23rd at noon Eastern time. The price has been raised $10. Big deal because we just talked about that the prize pool is helping out E-Division. So I think everybody can agree. $10, here you go. Here's my money. Yeah, I still think it's a pretty good deal for Three Street Pays, a competitive pinball. And to be part of the biggest tournament in the world? Yeah, yeah, I agree. I did say I was going to originally call you about things like, well, there's been a lot going on. It's been a full year with the Kickback Cafe. You've had the Papa facility now closed. I mean, that had to be somewhat emotional as well for you with all the history that you've had there. So tell us, first of all, about, you know, that cold January day when all the machines said goodbye. Well, it was a series of cold January days. It took three days to move everything out and move it into our new space, which is also the number of days that it takes to move everything to the convention center, actually. So we're pretty good at that. We got that down, picking everything up and moving it out as quickly as possible. It was emotional. I would like to share that we were packing up through the month of December and on New Year's weekend. So the move was scheduled to start on January 7th and over New Year's weekend I had emergency gallbladder surgery. It's like I'm packing up Papa and then I lost an organ and then I went back to packing up Papa and that was not fun. I can tell you that. Is everything okay now? Yeah. Nobody liked that organ anyway. It's gallbladder. Who needs it? The other organs weren't talking to it. It was a whole mess. But yeah, it was like, oh, perfect timing because I have all of this other stuff that has to get done. But my gallbladder wanted to stay with the facility, and I understand. So we've parted ways. And we've moved on to a new location that's better suited for what we're doing right now. That's exciting. That's pretty good. Yeah. The new location has loading docks, which is amazing. Especially since you're moving in and out for things like replay. Yeah, that's very, very important. So, boy, oh, boy, with this announcement, with moving everything out, and Papa, and again, kickback, busy, busy year. How are things at kickback? Things at kickback are going great. We have a fantastic general manager named Stephanie who just really, she loves the place as much as we do, and she makes it so inviting and happy. We probably have a machine, probably could use getting rid of a machine or two. It's getting a little crowded in there. But it's doing really well. You have 22 machines in there. That is a lot. Yeah, it's not a giant space. But when you go to put in the monsters and you take out Lost World, people cry. Like, why are you taking away Lost World? I love that game. You can't have everybody's favorite game in one space. It's just never possible. Not possible, but what you do offer is great variety. We try, and great coffee. And great coffee. There was a thread, and a lot of owners, operators, TVs, and some of the general pinball people were talking on Tilt forums, and I know you were on there too, and I was as well, talking about, sadly, the toxicity of people on location at tournaments. I hope that's not the case at kickback. I know there's always a few bad apples out there, but it's got to be difficult when you see somebody cough and drop this $8,000 machine or kick a leg or something like that. I hope that's not the case, and I hope those people are weaned out. They are, because at least in Pittsburgh, the league and the scene have been here for so long that it is made abundantly clear very quickly what sort of behavior will and will not be tolerated. And, you know, obviously, machine abuse is one of them. And it wouldn't just be like me as the operator or the owner being like, hey, you need to knock that off. It would be literally everybody else standing around going like, that's not cool, man. Don't do that. Which is great, because I like it when, you know, the entire collective agrees that that behavior is bad and we don't want it. And that's the nice thing I've noticed, too, is that people are kind of self-policing, and the majority of people have the right intentions. So I think we're going in the right direction. Yeah, we're not there yet completely, but it certainly ignites to see. I ran a tournament this weekend. There were 42 people in it, and I have to admit there was a little bit of anxiety. Are people going to be upset about this and that? All I can do is lay out the rules in advance. Here's what we're going to do. Here's the format. You chose to sign up. You know what it is. Not everyone can make the playoffs. This is the way it's going to be. I didn't have one complaint, and boy, you know, I've run tournaments before where I'm like, I'm not doing this again. That's it. I'm so discouraged. After this one, I'm like, okay, all right, let's do another one. That's great. I mean, you're absolutely right. There can be tournaments that just wear you down, and you're like, I don't want to ever run another tournament. why am I wasting my time and my money to do this thing when people are going to be jerks But I think by and large I haven run anything in a long while where that been the case But a very good friend of mine recently ran two events that he was just like I'm done. I'm not running anything anymore. Because his scene and the players at those two tournaments were jerks. And I can't blame it. And it sucks because I think he's a really good tournament director. And it's usually just one or two people. I wasn't worried about 42 people I was worried about one or two that's it that's exactly what I was going to say the vast majority of people are thankful they will walk up and say thank you for running this I had such a good time even when you make a ruling they might disagree with it they don't become raging jerks about it but there's always one or two that just kind of spoil the whole bunch and they're the voices they're the fewest but they are often the loudest Yeah, you're right about that. But there are fewer and fewer, I think. And a lot of it is just education, I think, too, right? Experience, seeing what the norm is, what's acceptable, rules are clear-cut. Yeah, I think we're going in the right direction. I agree. And that's what's going to happen every time your scene expands a little bit. You get new people in, and the people that have been playing competitive pinball here for 20 years expect a certain sort of behavior. And if you're new and you come in and you don't conform to that behavior, or if you're just being a big jerk, they will tell you, like, hey, that's not how we do things in this particular scene. And then they either learn not to cough and drop machines, or they go away and stop playing. The Pittsburgh scene is unlike, I'm jealous. I wish there was something like that where I'm at. Now, where I'm at, there are a lot of different leagues. the locations aren't really there. There are some great ones too, like Tilt and Pint in Toronto. I've talked to my friends at Pinup Arcade Bar in Waterloo and Doogie's in Guelph. But Pittsburgh, my goodness. I mean, it's just the players really, really do support. So as an owner-operator, the key, is it just pinball or do you have to offer something else? You talked about your great coffee there. Is it having drinks? Is it having food? What is the best advice for the sustainability of a pinball bar, if you will? I mean, yeah, you have to offer something more than just pinball because you will get your pinball diehard. But, you know, there's a place downtown to play pinball, for example, but it's just a small arcade. All they have are, you know, a few arcade machines, but, like, there's no bathroom. So the amount of time that I will spend there is extremely limited because I require food and drink and, you know, bathrooms. Pittsburgh does have a lot of places to play. Actually, I was reading an article in the Washington Post the other day about how so many more bars across the country are adding arcade games and pinball because people want to do something else aside from just standing there drinking. And I think that's great. You do actually have to have something else in there to keep people coming back, though, in my opinion. But the other thing that can never, ever be overlooked is people aren't going to come there if your machines are crap. If you don't maintain them, if you don't clean them, if, you know, the flipper on Tron is constantly broken, people aren't going to come there to play Tron. They'll come and they'll go find somewhere else. And so at least a kickback, you know, the pinball is the draw. We have, you know, all of these machines. We make the most money off of pinball than we do off of coffee. But if we didn't have snacks and we didn't have sandwiches and we didn't have coffee, I don't know that people would come in there as much as they do or stay as long as they do. That's it right there, the staying as long. I think, I'm hungry. Well, I don't really have to go anywhere. I can just grab a coffee or something here. Yeah, that's a good idea. The fixing of the games, though, I've been to some locations, and I haven't mentioned any of them right now, but where... We'll talk off. No, but what I mean, like, I'm not, the ones I just mentioned are none of these, where games are down and it is so heartbreaking and disappointing. And that's, I guess, one of the difficulties of pinball is there are a lot of moving parts. A lot of things can go down. So having that expertise is essential. I mean, just even as an owner of games, if you don't know how to do the basic things, game at your house going down is just an eyesore and you know you might have to pay somebody to come fix it if somebody can fix it i mean it's that's the one thing in 2019 i have to do is learn how to fix games and well uh go ahead we're doing some we do some tech classes here in pittsburgh to teach people how to uh maintain and fix their machines so you're always welcome to come down and take a class. Might be a few hours away. Snowy days like today might be a little difficult, but if I am there in and around that time, you're darn right I'm going to take you up on that. The old Joshua Clay videos used to have some great tips too, right, for EMs and whatnot. Our tech classes were born out of two things. The first being that we need tech if we're going to continue to grow Pinberg. Just like you, there were a lot of people that were like, man, I really wish I knew how to do this. And as the leagues here have grown, you get more people that are like, I just bought a machine and I don't know how to fix it. And it's like, well, why don't we get the people that do know how to do this stuff and we'll start running some classes. And they have done everything from just like the basics of how a pinball machine works and then up to higher level understandings of electricity. And then this is how, you know, Again, you can go from the remedial, like this is how you change out a flipper rubber, and this is how you replace a bulb that has gone bad, all the way up to doing board work. So they are having people saw around the boards and things, which is an art in and of itself. If you don't have people that want to learn how to do it, you're just going to have a bunch of janky machines out in the wild, and nobody wants to play those. Seeing a machine out in the wild where it's something as simple as a ball being stuck and no one has the keys because it's a, oh, what a waste. Here's my money. I want to play, but I can't do anything about it. Oh, well. Not the case at Kickback, that's for sure. Well, yeah, we try to take as good a care of our machines as we can. We also have a little online system where you can report issues, and when you submit the problem, you say it's at this location and it's this game and here's what's wrong with it. it pages the text that we have under contract with us. So they will immediately get a page, and they're like, oh, well, I need to go down today or tomorrow and fix that. We try not to let anything sit for more than a couple of days, unless it needs a part, in which case we will let everybody know, yes, we know Popeye is down. We're waiting on a part. It'll be back up soon. Well, this has been very informative. I'm very excited, obviously, with what's been announced at ReplayFX. I know everyone's going to be happy. Not one person is going to go, oh, really? I don't have a chance now. There's 1,000. Oh, that's 160 more people I have to compete. No one's doing that. Everyone's like, yay. So thank you for doing this. I mean, you still need to be online on time. No, I'm going to wait a few days. No, I'm going to take some time off. Yeah, no. You're not going to get it. If you show up 45 minutes late, you're not going to get a ticket, man. That's true. But you've got to love that popularity. You've got to love that. There's just this crazy demand. for pinball. It's not like it's exactly in New York City or L.A. or a hot port. People are traveling to Midwest. They're going to Pittsburgh, and they're coming from all over the world because, again, it's the greatest tournament in the world. Greatest event. Well, I'm always glad that people enjoy it, and I love that it gets such positive feedback. Thank you very much, Elizabeth. I will play some organ music on the way out. to, it's my little donation, although you don't need a gallbladder, that's fine. Well, thank you. Thank you for the announcement. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find our group on Facebook. We're also on Twitter at Pinball Profile. Email us, pinballprofile at gmail.com, and please subscribe on either iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play. Make sure you're online February 23rd at noon Eastern Time to get your tickets to Pinberg and ReplayFX. I'm Jeff Teel. We'll see you next week.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 780a085a-e7ea-44c1-bc93-f40980eac240*