# 031 - Don't Be A Dick, Double Header, State Finals

**Source:** Punk Rock Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2026-01-19  
**Duration:** 53m 1s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://share.transistor.fm/s/0b512cdb

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## Analysis

Punk Rock Pinball Podcast Episode 31 covers community guidelines updates emphasizing inclusivity and respectful conduct, a successful double-header tournament weekend in Bloomington with 29 players in the first event and strong performances from emerging players, and the launch of their Punk Rock Pinball Association (PRPA) point system with plans for future scene-based leaderboards. The hosts discuss attendance at the Illinois Women's State Finals in Elmhurst and reflect on the competitive pinball landscape.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Punk Rock Pinball Podcast Association has already run 33 events in its first month with over 400 players participating — _Stephanie, discussing PRPA launch metrics_
- [HIGH] Kat Davis has participated in 18 of 33 PRPA events and leads the PROPERS leaderboard with 232 points — _Stephanie, reviewing PROPERS leaderboard standings_
- [MEDIUM] Kevin Johnson (KJ) cannot beat the hosts in heads-up dollar matches and consistently loses — _Mike and Stephanie, joking about KJ's performance vs. them specifically_
- [MEDIUM] IFPA did not pull points from a North Carolina event that the hosts believe warranted point removal — _Stephanie discussing IFPA's handling of an unspecified North Carolina event_
- [HIGH] CJ from Central Illinois reached 7th place at the Illinois Open State Finals, losing to Zach Sharp in the quarterfinals — _Stephanie, discussing state finals bracket results_
- [HIGH] Josh from Sterling participated in both PRPA tournaments at the double-header after missing the Open tournament alternates — _Stephanie and Mike, recounting Josh's tournament participation_
- [HIGH] The Women's Illinois State Finals had 16 total participants in Elmhurst — _Stephanie, discussing seeding and participant count at women's state finals_
- [MEDIUM] Chicago Water and Fire has approximately 150-200 pinball machines that are 'immaculately maintained' — _Stephanie, commenting on venue machine collection quality_

### Notable Quotes

> "Just don't be an asshole. So that's our number one rule, really."
> — **Stephanie**, ~3:30
> _Core community values statement for PRPA; encapsulates the organization's inclusivity and conduct expectations_

> "If people aren't having fun anymore doing pinball, they should probably just find another hobby instead of being like, salty about it."
> — **Dave Heggie (quoted by Stephanie)**, ~5:45
> _Philosophy on community negativity and toxic behavior; reflects broader perspective on maintaining positive pinball culture_

> "Punk Rock Pinball Podcast Rankings points, PROPERS. They're PROPER points. Not WAPPER points, they're PROPER points."
> — **Stephanie**, ~15:20
> _Introduction of PRPA's acronym for ranking points; playful distinction from IFPA's 'WPPR' system_

> "Only God can stop Kat Davis."
> — **Stephanie**, ~22:30
> _Humorous recognition of Kat Davis's dominance and commitment to grinding PRPA events_

> "CJ versus Stern Pinball. That's so cool."
> — **Mike**, ~30:15
> _Reaction to CJ's bracket pairing against multiple Stern employees at state finals; underdog narrative_

> "Be nice and everyone else is super nice and it just takes a little bit to warm up."
> — **Stephanie**, ~31:50
> _Encouragement for new/nervous players attending tournaments; addresses barrier to entry in competitive play_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Punk Rock Pinball Association | organization | Community-run pinball tournament organizing body founded by Stephanie and Mike; launched PROPERS ranking system with 33 events and 400+ players in first month |
| Stephanie | person | Co-host of Punk Rock Pinball Podcast; founder/organizer of PRPA; competed in Women's Illinois State Finals as 16th seed |
| Mike | person | Co-host of Punk Rock Pinball Podcast; created PROPERS acronym; player in PRPA tournaments |
| Kat Davis | person | Top-ranked PRPA player with 232 PROPERS points; has participated in 18 of 33 PRPA events; travels to tournaments across Illinois and adjacent states |
| Kevin Johnson | person | PRPA player from Farmer City, Illinois; placed in top finishes at double-header (3rd in strike tournament, 2nd in match play); currently ranked #8 in PROPERS; nicknamed 'KJ' |
| Joe Sharp | person | PRPA player; husband of Shelly Sharp; competed in Illinois Open State Finals; ranked #2 in PROPERS with 230 points |
| Shelly Sharp | person | PRPA player; ranked #3 in PROPERS with 216 points; attended Women's Illinois State Finals in Elmhurst; is part of the Sharp pinball couple |
| Luke Sheehan | person | PRPA player from Champaign; won the strike tournament at PRPA double-header; attended Women's State Finals |
| Josh | person | PRPA player from Sterling area; first alternate for Open tournament who drove to Bloomington to play double-header; placed in top 4 of both tournaments including 1st place finish |
| CJ | person | PRPA player from Central Illinois; reached 7th place at Illinois Open State Finals; defeated Zach McCarthy 4-2 before losing to tournament winner Zach Sharp |
| Joey McAdams | person | PRPA player from Bloomington, Illinois; placed 2nd in strike tournament at double-header |
| Nick Greenup | person | Technical architect of PRPA point system and leaderboard; created database and ranking infrastructure |
| Dave Heggie | person | Stern Pinball employee; attended Illinois Open State Finals at Stone Park; quoted regarding positive community engagement in pinball |
| Zach Sharp | person | Winner of Illinois Open State Finals; Stern Pinball employee; defeated CJ 4-2 in quarterfinals and Zach McCarthy 4-0 in semifinals |
| Aaron Seiden | person | Female PRPA player from Champaign area; attended Women's Illinois State Finals; traveled to double-header tournament |
| Penny Epstein | person | Female PRPA player; attended Women's Illinois State Finals; established competitive player that Stephanie found somewhat intimidating |
| Luke Pierowski | person | PRPA player from Central Illinois; attended Illinois Open State Finals; reached second round |
| Zach McCarthy | person | Stern Pinball employee; competing at Illinois Open State Finals; lost to Zach Sharp 4-0 in semifinals |
| Mike Ravelli | person | Manager of pinball collection at Chicago Water and Fire arcade venue; maintains 150-200 machine collection |
| Chicago Water and Fire | venue | Chicago-area pinball/arcade venue with approximately 150-200 well-maintained pinball machines; hosted Women's Illinois State Finals players for practice |
| Illinois Open State Finals | event | 2024 competitive pinball championship event held in Stone Park/Elmhurst area; featured Central Illinois players competing against established Chicago-area competitors |
| Illinois Women's State Finals | event | State championship tournament in Elmhurst with 16 female competitors; Stephanie competed as 16th seed alternate; won by Jane (seed #1) |
| IFPA | organization | International Flipper Pinball Association; PRPA operates under IFPA framework; subject of community discussion regarding handling of North Carolina event and point allocation |
| PROPERS | product | Punk Rock Official Pinball Rankings point system; acronym created by Mike; tracks player performance across PRPA events with scene-based leaderboard expansion planned |

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** PRPA updates community guidelines to emphasize inclusivity and establish clear conduct expectations after incident with disruptive member criticizing IFPA (confidence: high) — Stephanie updates PRPA website with explicit statement: 'welcomes players of all races, ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations' and prohibits behavior that makes others 'feel unsafe, disrespected or unwelcome'
- **[community_signal]** Stephanie articulates that competitive state finals tournaments create intimidation barriers for newer or less-established players, distinct from casual league environments (confidence: high) — Stephanie explicitly states she felt 'outsider-y' despite having Shelly present; acknowledges state finals differ from casual league nights where 'there ain't nothing intimidating'
- **[market_signal]** PRPA demonstrates explosive early growth with 33 events and 400+ players in first month; trajectory suggests rapid expansion of local tournament infrastructure outside traditional IFPA framework (confidence: high) — Stephanie reports '33 events' with 'over 400 players' in approximately one month; dozen more events scheduled for current month
- **[product_strategy]** PRPA planning to restructure leaderboards from state-wide to scene-based (Central Illinois, Eastern Iowa/Quad Cities, Milwaukee, etc.) to address regional tournament density imbalances and reduce travel burden (confidence: high) — Stephanie and Mike discuss filtering by 'scene' rather than state; cite example that Central Illinois hosts more tournaments than Chicago currently, skewing leaderboard representation
- **[design_philosophy]** PRPA explicitly frames tournament participation as accessible and non-intimidating for casual players, contrasting with high-stakes competitive environment of state finals (confidence: high) — Stephanie encourages new players: 'be nice and everyone else is super nice and it just takes a little bit to warm up'; distinguishes casual tournaments from state-level competition
- **[gameplay_signal]** CJ from Central Illinois demonstrates significant skill progression, reaching 7th at state finals and defeating Stern employee Zach McCarthy 4-2 despite being regional/non-Chicago player (confidence: high) — Stephanie notes CJ 'took him 4-2' against Zach McCarthy; bracket included 'all the Stern employees and CJ from Central Illinois'; appears to be first top-8 finish
- **[industry_signal]** Community discussion indicates IFPA decision-making on North Carolina event point allocation viewed as questionable by PRPA hosts, though hosts maintain collaborative relationship and 'assume positive intent' (confidence: medium) — Stephanie states she would have 'pulled those points' from North Carolina event if PRPA-run; IFPA chose not to; hosts avoid escalation and emphasize human fallibility of leadership
- **[content_signal]** Punk Rock Pinball Podcast expanding media presence to Twitch streaming platform; planning regular streams though schedule not yet finalized (confidence: medium) — Stephanie and Mike announce Twitch channel 'punkrockpinball' with zero streams to date; discuss potential weekly streaming but admit scheduling uncertainty
- **[venue_signal]** Chicago Water and Fire operates high-maintenance arcade with approximately 150-200 pinball machines representing significant investment in game preservation and player experience (confidence: medium) — Stephanie praises venue's immaculately maintained collection; notes Mike Ravelli 'works his tail off' managing collection; venue hosts state tournament warm-up play
- **[competitive_signal]** Central Illinois players (CJ, Stephanie, Shelly) demonstrating competitive capability at state-level events dominated by Chicago-area Stern employees, suggesting skill distribution outside traditional power centers (confidence: medium) — CJ reached 7th and defeated Stern employee; Stephanie made state finals as alternate; Shelly competed; hosts note Chicago has 'a lot of really, really good players' but Central Illinois holding own
- **[rumor_hype]** Community discussion identifies cryptozoology as significantly underutilized theme in modern pinball despite historical usage; Spooky's Planet of the Apes referenced as in-development title from 2-3 years prior (confidence: low) — Kevin WK poses question about underutilized themes; Mike responds with 'cryptozoology' listing Bigfoot, Yeti, Dogman, Mothman, Skunk Ape; Stephanie references 'Planet of the Apes' in development by Spooky
- **[design_innovation]** Mention of arcade-themed machines like Ripley's and Roller Games in tournament play; players developing preferences and skills on specific titles (confidence: low) — Stephanie discusses playing Ripley's and Roller Games in match play tournament; Mike joked he was forced to play games he doesn't love

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## Transcript

Well, that was an intro. Hello. Hi. This is the Punk Rock Pinball Podcast, Episode 31. I'm Stephanie. I'm Mike. Welcome. We're the hosts of the show. Thank you for joining us. If you're new, welcome. If you're not new, welcome back. Hey, and there's a thing that nobody follows yet that's like new that we're going to be doing. Oh, yeah? We have a Twitch. Oh, yeah. I think we have two followers. We've never streamed. They might be us. It might be us. I don't know. I'm not because I am Punk Rock Pinball Twitch. That's my account. Well, which is not the punk rock pinball one. So if you're a Twitcher, it's just punk rock pinball one word. You can follow us on Twitch there. We're going to start streaming sometime. Maybe this week. Regularly. I don't know what day of the week. I mean, we could do it during league. We could do it during league. I think it'd be trickier during league to have it be good. I mean, we could start. We could start. I feel like maybe we need to do like Wednesdays or something. I don't know. Okay. But follow us there on Twitch and we'll be streaming eventually. We will be. Yeah. Welcome the star of the show. We have a special chair here for Marshall Dog and we thought he would sit in it because he usually likes to sit in this chair. And he was sitting in it before. So I'm bribing him with a biscuit that he is just taking to the floor. Maybe you can hear him chomp on it. And that's cute. Crunching it up. That's cute. But yeah, we had some house guests and they made the suggestion to give Marshall a seat. And he loves this chair. Yeah. So we have this red chair that I usually sit in. If you're listening on Apple or Spotify, you can't see any chairs or us. But I sit in a red chair typically. And usually when we're setting up, Marshall sits in the chair and I have to ask him to move. So we've got him his own chair. Now he's camera shy. And now he's not in it. He's just going to do what he's going to do. But we've had a big week in pinball. We sure have. We've had a really big week in pinball. We made a little update to the website. Oh, you want me to read that? Yeah, why don't we start there? Okay, we updated the website just on the about the Punk Rock Pinball Association part. Now I've got to pull that up. I didn't know I was going to read that straight away. So if you go to punkrockpinball.com and you click on Punk Rock Pinball Association, I just updated a little section about what is the Punk Rock Pinball Association. We had some people in our Facebook group this week or an individual that kind of came in real hot and was like, F this, F that. And like all kinds of negativity. Well, specifically around the IFPA. Specifically around the IFPA. But if you're going to come in hot in the group, we do have guidelines. We've got guidelines. The number one rule in our Facebook group, and this individual did not click to accept the rules, is like be kind and courteous and respectful. And it kind of got to the point where that wasn't happening. So we've kind of updated like what is the Punk Rock Pinball Association? What is it about? And I don't really want to read all of it, but the main thing I edited here, and it has said similar to this, but I made it a little bit more clear. It says, the PRPA, the Punk Rock Pinball Association, welcomes players of all races, ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations. If you love pinball, you belong here. And I go on to say what we don't welcome is behavior that makes other people feel unsafe, disrespected or unwelcome. Be yourself, take up space and belong here. Just don't be an asshole. So that's our number one rule, really. Yeah. Like, be you, be whoever you are, however you want to be, and interact in our group, and play in our tournaments, and do what you do. Don't be an asshole. And one more piece to that is that it says, We expect our players to spread positivity and not negativity. When issues arise, we ask that they're handled in a constructive and respectful way rather than a destructive one. So just be cool. Don't be a dick. Be cool. If you have problems with things, whether it's our things or someone else's thing, So like maybe try to be part of a solution rather than just raging against about a problem. Don't rage against the machine. You can rage against the machine if you have a solution that's going to prepare the machine. I will just say that statement is Marshall approved. Yes. He did sign off on that. Uh huh. So. He co-wrote it. That's why he got back in the chair. He's like, oh, this is my part. Yeah. He was like, oh yeah, you guys, I totally fully support this. So don't be a dick. Yeah, because like, yeah, we're, I know there are a lot of people angry about the IFPA, about some some events from earlier this year. And do I think the IFPA handled all of that perfectly? No. But the IFPA is run by human beings, as is the PRPA. And by nature of that, like, we're not going to do everything perfectly. So I think they tried to do the best that they could. I wouldn't have handled that what was the North Carolina event. Like if that North Carolina thing from the IFPA would have been a punk rock pinball event, I would have pulled those points. They chose not to. I still don't think the IFPA is like an evil entity. We host their tournaments, we play in their tournaments. Yeah, there's enough bullshit going on in the world. Like sometimes you just have to assume positive intent. And if you're, it's funny, I was talking to Dave Heggie today. And, and he said, you know, we're, we weren't talking about that in particular, we're just talking about pinball. And, you know, he was at the state finals, the open state finals yesterday, up in Stone Park at a new venue. And he was like, yeah, it was really fun. And, you know, everybody's going to be a fan of the state finals. Everybody was cool. And, you know, if people aren't having fun anymore doing pinball, they should probably just find another hobby instead of being, like, salty about it. And I'm like, yeah, it's kind of as simple as that. So if something isn't bringing you joy, go find joy. Yeah. Right? 100%. Because we do pinball because it brings us joy. And it's like an escape from the other bullshit that's going on in the world. Yeah. And like in our pinball tournaments, you're playing like you're just in the pinball world for this period of time and not worrying about everything else. Yeah, not worrying about work or what's going on at home or anything. It's just like hanging with your friends, playing some pinball, celebrating some good scores and like, yeah, it's fun. Yeah. So yesterday was a really big day. Today's Sunday. The Bears are playing in a couple hours. So we wanted to squeeze this in. Yeah. And yesterday we had a doubleheader at the HQ. We did. It was a long day. Long day. My feet hurt. Yeah. It was a really long day. Our first one kicked off at 1 p.m. Warm-ups were at noon and we had people there before noon starting to warm up. We had people coming from all over the place. We had Aaron and Gavin came down from Chicago. Mm-hmm. We had John from Cincinnati. Yep. John from the Dopamines. Yep. Came and played our tournament, stayed over. He, yes. And he, um, he brought some really cool prizes to give away some Dopamines hot sauce or some, some kind of hot sauce. Yeah. I think the soothsayer stuff, maybe it's for the Dopamines. I'm not sure, but that's in the prize bucket for future stuff. I forgot to give it out yesterday. Also some, uh, vinyl. We had a Black Knight sort of Rage Vinyl that came out last year, Record Store Day, I believe. J.B. Yep, J.B. John brought that. Thank you, J.B. John. J.B. That was super cool. And we had 29 players come out for that first one, which was awesome. It was a strikes tournament, four strikes, and it was awesome. It was awesome. We had some new people show up that hadn't played in a tournament as well, some friends from Champaign, Matt and his family, and this fellow Tom who lives in town showed up. He had a punk rock pinball underneath his quarter zip. It was awesome. And so that was really cool. And our top winners on that were Luke Sheehan from Champaign, Joey McAdams from here, KJ. Oh, wait. No, I'm saying that wrong. I can't read my writing. Luke won. Luke did win the strikes tournament, though. Luke did. Who came in second? I can tell you. Joey, no? Did Joey not come in second? I can go to punkrockpinball.com and I can click on the past events and I can pull it up right here. The knockout tournament was won by Luke Sheehan. Yeah. Second place, Joey McAdams from Bloomington, Illinois. Third place, Kevin Johnson from Farmer City, Illinois. Fourth place, Josh Slunwhite from where he's from Quad Cities somewhere. No, he's by like Sterling. Sterling? Mm-hmm. Yeah, those were the top four. Chris Glowitzer and I were tied for the next position. So that was fun. Yeah. Then our second tournament was match play and four-player match play. We did five rounds and the winner of that, the number one was Josh, again from Sterling. Chad, KJ, and Rosie. Yep, that's Chad Udell. Yeah, Chad. From Peoria. That's cool. I think that's his best ever finish. Congratulations, Chad. Rosie's first ever finals. Yeah. Rosie from Bloomington. Who else was in there? KJ. KJ again. Kevin Johnson was on fire yesterday. Yep. And he's supposed to be doing a drinking game every time he mentioned his name on the podcast, he's drinking. Yeah, I know. One more KJ. Is there something he can't do? There's something KJ can't do. What? And it's beat me when we play heads up for a dollar. He cannot do it. He can't? No. It's like a curse? It's like a curse. I play KJ for a dollar, I win a dollar. He's like an ATM. Every time. Thanks, Kevin, for the dollars. Oh my gosh. Also, I just want to say, so we started that first tournament at 1pm, and Josh from, I think it's Sterling, he's over that way by Dixon over there. Okay. Correct us if we're wrong, Josh. He was up in the Chicagoland area. He was the first alternate for the Open tournament. And everyone showed up, so he didn't get to play. So he hauled ass down to Bloomington and played a doubleheader. Yeah. And qualified, or like placed in both of them. Yeah, he was top four in both. He's a good player. One in one of them. He's very good. And a nice guy. Good guy, good player. So that was a really really long night And then we had a sleepover We had oh because I didn mention MXD and his lovely lovely gal Chris who she was the birthday girl yesterday Yeah. They came down and played in the second tournament. Yep. And I think he thought that I rigged it, that he had to play both Ripley's and Roller Games, which he doesn't really love. Uh-huh. I think he should learn to love them, though. He should learn to love Ripley. Roller games is great. He doesn't like roller games. I beat him on roller games. And I have an MXV coin that I have not earned. He just gave me one. He said you can hold it till you earn it. I can hold it till I earn it. And I beat him on roller games. I'm like, oh, Mike, I've earned the coin. And he's like, no, it has to be on a stern. I was like, shit, let's play Fall of the Empire, because we just got to follow the empire. And then he just crushed me on that. It was like a hundred million to almost 600 million. He's a really good pinballer. He's a good pinball player. So I have yet to really earn that coin from Mike. Well, Mike also this morning had brainstormed overnight, I guess. Yeah. What do you tell you? I think Mike had trouble sleeping, as did we. So if we're hopping and skipping around today, we didn't sleep much last night. I got like two and a half hours. Me too. But Mike, when we announced the Punk Rock Pinball Association, Mike was like, call them POPPER points because the people call the IFPA points Whoppers. And then I was talking to him last night. I'm like, well, what does POPPER, what's the acronym, what's it stand for? And he's like, I don't know, I didn't think beyond calling them poppers. So that kind of ended there. And then this morning I was sitting at our counter in the kitchen and Mike comes down and I said, good morning, Mike. And the first thing he says to me is like, oh, hey, I've got your acronym for your for your punk rock pinball points. They're called PROPERS. TM. Uh-huh. Okay. Punk Rock Official Pinball Rankings. So now and forevermore, your Punk Rock Pinball Association points, you can refer to them as PROPERS per MXB. I love it. Punk Rock Official Pinball Rankings points, PROPERS. PROPERS. They're PROPER points. Not WAPER points, they're PROPER points. Thank you for that, Mike. Yes, thank you. I found it very amusing that it was like the very first thing he said. He's like, I got it. Oh, hey, good morning. I've got your acronym for your points. We've got propers. That's awesome. So we've got propers. And speaking of propers, who is at the top of that leaderboard right now? This is funny. It's the number one right now, Punk Rock Pinball Association player, is Kat Davis. And if you recall, like, I don't know, six months ago, three, maybe not six months ago, three or four months ago, we did an episode where we were kind of just theorizing how we would make this point system. And we both said this would really favor a player like Kat Davis. Mm-hmm. Because Kat, she's local to here. She's a Champaign, Illinois resident. But Kat goes around everywhere. She said she goes to tournaments in Illinois and any state that touches Illinois. Illinois, any state that touches Illinois, you may find Kat Davis at your tournament. She gets around. Especially if you host the Punk Rock Pinball Association tournament. There have so far been 33 events. Kat has played in 18 of the 33 events. I'm making Kat a t-shirt that says, proper whore. So Kat's got 232 points, just edging out Joe Sharp with 230. Shelly Sharp is number 3 with 216. I'm number 4 with 182. And Mark McCulpin, I think a KC guy, still number 5 with 179 from those big events they had. And KJ, you're number 8. You're catching up. Drink. Catching up. So yeah, that's kind of the top leaderboard on the association right now. I knew Cat and players like Cat as this grows. I'm sure every region has a Cat Davis type that gets to all the tournaments. So if you host more tournaments, you're going to have your Kat Davises of America getting up there on the leaderboards just because they grind. One thing that we didn't talk about, about the leaderboards, that this is a little glimpse into the future of the vision. I mean, we're, this is a, like, crowd-supported, I mean, Nick Greenup is, like, has a real job, but he's brought this vision to life and has contributed to more ideas, too. But eventually, at some point, we want to kind of break this up a little bit. Mm-hmm. And we want to do it, I don't think we've talked about this, have we? We've mentioned it here and there, just sprinkles. What we want to do is be able to filter, not by necessarily state, but by scene. Yeah, and I'm waffling, like, should it be by scene or should it be by, like, location or both? Define what a scene is. A scene would be, for instance, our scene would be Central Illinois. So that would include like Punk Rock Pinball Association's tournaments played in Bloomington, in Champaign, in Peoria. Galesburg. If there were any in Springfield, there are some in Galesburg. Right now you can play in them I believe in Champaign soon, Bloomington obviously, Peoria, in Galesburg. Springfield has some locations, so we should get some Springfield stuff going. Mm-hmm. That would be the central Illinois scene. Yep. And then you have kind of an eastern Iowa and Quad Cities scene where they've already, they're pretty established. They've had a lot of tournaments with Jay and Emily Gross and Dennis Kepi out there running the bulk of those. We have a few other folks out there running tournaments, too. So that would either be called like Quad Cities or Eastern Iowa, which include parts of Illinois. Or maybe both. It could be two separate scenes. Could be two separate. You guys would have to tell me if that's one. I feel like that would probably be one scene they probably all play in each other's tournaments. So that it's because the state rankings, I feel like, is a little bit can be skewed. Now, you know, keep in mind this Punk Rock Pinball Association, we've been rolling for like a month. Right. But there have already been like 33 events and over 400 players, so it's been a great first month. There's like a dozen more events this month. But especially for like an IFPA, people from Chicago earn the most points. Right now for PRPA, people down here earn the most points because we're running the most tournaments. There are some coming up in Chicago. Yeah. You know, we have Jamie who runs them in St. Charles and Cheryl's starting to do some in Chicago and Rob at ORD. So they're going, they're having more opportunities, but we, we've, we do more than, than they do up there. So that's, that kind of, those scene leaderboards would kind of take out like the advantage that certain regions would have over others. Mm-hmm. Where, like, let's just see who's got the most in Eastern Iowa. And let's see who has got the most in Wisconsin or Milwaukee area. Yeah. And then there's Northern Wisconsin because there's folks that do events in, like, Superior. Mm-hmm. But would that be lumped in? Would you lump that in with, like, if you got Minneapolis going? I know they're not that close, but it's like, would you call that, like, the Great North? I don't know. It's TBD. We're building this together. So input from you guys, input from our tournament directors, like we'll probably email them. And the scene names could probably change as this grows. Yeah, and I think that like the scene, calling them scenes is also kind of a nod to music scenes. Like growing up in the Chicago area, like there were different scenes in different parts of the Chicagoland area. Yeah. Even different parts of the city had different scenes. Yeah. So just because you live in Chicago doesn't necessarily mean maybe that you're part of the same scene. Right. Could be. I don't know. TBD. Yeah, because we had like a whole scene in the northwest suburbs in the 90s. And then there was like a Chicago scene. There was like a western suburbs scene. And like we sometimes would go to those shows, but it was like a whole different groups of people. Yeah. When you're a teenager, it's kind of it's a hall. Like an hour away. Yeah. So we had like a Crystal Lake Elgin scene that was kind of this one, but then like that was way different than like the Downers Grove area scene versus the Chicago scene. Yeah. So that's kind of the vision because we know that like, yeah, like you said, there's stuff happening in like, you know, the Fox Valley around Plainfield and Aurora and down in Tinley and all that stuff. So more to come on that. It's going to be really fun. Yeah, because you might start with a Chicago scene, which would include, even though ORD's not in Chicago, the ORD stuff and the Logan Arcade stuff might all go in Chicago, but that might split eventually if you add more locations around. It might be western suburbs and northern suburbs and Chicago proper. Yeah. But yeah, that's something that we're kind of looking forward to. That will be a lot of work for Nick when we- It's down the line. ... decide to roll that out. And we need to get to probably like a couple thousand, couple two, three thousand players before that happens. Totally. A couple two, three thousand. But I just wanted to share that. Like, the leaderboard seems like, oh my god, it's everybody. And it's a couple pages now that we have a few hundred people that have participated. But I just want everyone to know that the vision is that at some point you'll be able to view it differently. Yeah, so if you're thinking about hosting a Punk Rock Pinball Association tournament where you are, and then you see Kat Davis up there and she's played 18 events, you're like, how are we ever going to catch her? It's like you'll eventually have your own leaderboard for your scene. So we have to worry about Kat because she's in our scene. Yeah. So she's our problem. She is our problem. We've got to catch Kat, but you don't necessarily have to in the future. So start hosting your events. There's a form on the website if you go to punkrockpinball.com and click on the page about the association. There's a form. You can sign up to start hosting these events. And don't worry about Kat Davis because she's going to outwork all of you, but you'll eventually have your own scene leaderboards. So only us in central Illinois have to worry about Kat Davis. And will never play more events than she does. Yeah. Only God can stop Kat Davis. Oh my gosh. All right, so I woke up at like 4 o'clock in the morning. I think it's like almost 4 p.m. now. Yeah. And I woke up at 4 o'clock in the morning and I thought, I am the first alternate for the Women's Illinois State Finals up in Elmhurst, about just under two hours away. And at four in the morning, I almost emailed and said, take me off the list. And then I fell asleep for a little bit and my alarm went off and I thought, today's the day. I'm going. I'm going up there. Shelly's up there. And I'm going to support Shelly. If I don't make it in, I don't make it in. So I got in the car at 8 a.m. Nobody was moving really in the house here. I got a car, fed the dog, put on the same clothes I wore yesterday, and I drove up. And I got about a half hour away when Shelly sent a text saying, you're in. There was a gal, unfortunately, I feel bad, she had to put her cat to sleep. And so I'm like, that sucks. Oh my gosh, that stinks. So I made it in as the lowest seed, I guess at 16. It was a total of 16 ladies. And I saw my friend Shelly up there Yeah And she was up there because her husband Joe and her friend CJ played in the Open finals yesterday And Luke Pierowski was up there too. Yep. And CJ made it to 8th. I think 7th. 7th? Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah, CJ kicked ass. He really did. Because he got to the third round. Yeah, CJ did great. And kudos to Joe for just making it. And Luke got to the second round. Luke P. Congratulations, Luke. It's a tough group. Like you said, there are a lot of players in Chicago and a lot of really, really good players. So to be able to make it, being outside of that scene is a massive accomplishment, I feel like. Yeah, like I looked at, because CJ eventually lost to Zach Sharp, who won the championship. Zach Sharp beat Zach McCarthy 4-0 in the next round. And CJ took him 4-2. So CJ beat Zach in two of the games. That's pretty awesome. And I looked at the list of names in that round that CJ got to and you got Raymond Davidson, you got Zach McCarthy, you got Zach Sharp. It's like all the Stern employees and CJ from Central Illinois. That's so awesome. That's basically what it was. CJ versus Stern Pinball. That's so cool. So cool. So yeah, really proud of CJ and Joe and Luke. That's just super awesome. And Shelly and I played at Chicago Water and Fire, which is like just a treat to get to play those machines and saw a bunch of friends that we knew, met some new friends too. I do. But Mike Ravelli and Dave Heggie, Dave's from Stern, and Mike Ravelli works at Chicago Water and Fire and really manages that pinball collection of, I think it might be close to 200 machines, I don't know, 150? Something, there's a bunch. I don't know, but they're maintained immaculately. Yeah. Did I say that right? Yeah. Yeah, they're gorgeous, and he works his tail off there, so it was a treat. And I got out in the first round. I went up against Jane who was seeded number one. She is a very, very good pinball player and a really nice person too. At the end, I was asking her for tips and stuff on what are you doing when you get a 30 second test your ball situation before you play your game. And I kind of thought like knew what I was doing, but it's always like, ask the number one lady, what are you doing? So it was cool. And I did want to tell everyone, you know, we talk about going to tournaments and like, just go do it. It'll be weird the first time. And I felt a little of that today, even though like, I had Shelly there and Joe was with with Shelly to, you know, cheer her and I on. But you know, you're kind of going in by yourself. And I didn't know most of those ladies. I knew Aaron Seiden and Penny and Kayla, but most of those people I didn't know and I kind of felt a little outsider-y, so I get it. It's intimidating. It is intimidating. Everyone else knows each other. It's like being the new kid. Yeah. But, you know, be nice and everyone else is super nice and it just takes a little bit to warm up. Yeah. And I think going to the state championships is a little different. Like, I feel like the people there probably really have... You're going in, they're serious pinballers. They're at the state championship. I know, it's probably the least serious. Well, Penny Epstein was there. So it's probably like a little more intimidating than just coming to... Like, if you came to the league night at the Punk Rock Pinball HQ, there ain't nothing intimidating there. Because we're just all having a good time. Even though four of our members went to the state finals, we're still just having a good time. Yeah, I felt like Aaron and Penny were just having a good time. Although they were ranked higher than I am. They've been playing a lot longer, too. They're very good pinball players. But I kind of felt kindred spirits to them that they were just like, happy to be there and just, you know, it's a day of playing pinball with your friends. And, you know, no fault to you if you're going to the state championships and you've got your game face on that day. Oh, gosh, no. Because, like, you played probably, like, 100 tournaments this year to try to qualify for this thing. So if you want to go there and, like, be dialed in and serious, like... You earned it. Yeah, do what you want. You totally... Well, I guess maybe part of it is I didn't try to do it. You didn't have the goal set to become a state qualifier. No. And we're kind of shocked when you found out you were like the alternate. Yeah. Because you weren't, a lot of these ladies were on like a mission to make this. And like that's their goal throughout the whole year is like, I'm going to make state finals. And I know CJ, like on the open side, I think he was very driven this year to like, because I think he's maybe made it before. He's never made it this far before. I don't think he's ever finished in the top seven. But I got the vibe from CJ all year that he really practiced before all the majors and was on a mission to make it to that thing. He did it. And he was probably all business when he was up there that day. I bet he was. Probably not dicking around, going to be serious and dial in and play pinball. So if you make it there, at that tournament, you don't need to be a fun person to be around. Oh, no. At like a local weekly league or like a local monthly tournament, you should probably try to be a fun person to be around, but like at a state finals, do what you gotta do. Yeah, do what you got. No, no, no, totally. Yeah, I totally agree. So that was really fun. So I did that, hung out for a little bit after I got knocked out and drove home and I'm exhausted. Yeah, me too. Marshall's tired. I don't know if you can hear him like moaning. He like moans and groans when we pet him. He like purrs. And I'm not sure if the mics are picking it up. He's like, mmm. He's like, it's like a moan purr. Yeah, he's like purrs. But yeah, we had, uh, that was the week, that was like a long, it was like half hour of updates. So maybe we won't get into like a big topic. We know the answer real quick. What's the? The question. Yeah, I was going to read these two questions from our discord. Or it's one question and then there's one person answer the question and we'll have an answer to the question. And then we'll wrap this one up. If I can find the Discord. I gotta find a fresh Discord. I gotta put a fresh Discord link into the video description here too. We have a podcast section on the Discord. So Kevin WK, the fellow that kind of introduced me or connected me and Nick Greenup, thank you Kevin. He had a question for the next episode. He says... He says. Kevin says. He says to me. So he says. Games would touch on space travel, medieval battles, natural disasters, etc. While today, he's talking about past games. While it seems today's games are mostly licensed themes or band influence, like almost every new pin now is like a music pin on a band or a movie theme. What is a theme that you guys believe is underutilized in modern pinball? Do you want to go first or do you want me to go first? I can go first. Cryptozoology. Okay. Where is it? I don't know. I don't think I've ever seen one. Give me a adventure with Bigfoot. Bring in a Yeti. Bring in the Dogman. Mothman? Mothman. Skunk ape? Yeah. Skunk Ape. Skunk Ape? Mm-hmm. When's the last time any pinball company talked about the Skunk Ape? You know what? I don't know. They talked about Planet of the Apes. I know that. Yeah. Spooky was working on that. Might be a couple, two, three years. It's in the hopper. Yeah. It's in the hopper. Cryptozoology. I got a song for them. You do? Mm-hmm. So what if it was, well, that would be licensed, but still it's cryptozoology. What if they, the show Monster Quest? We're putting a link to it. Oh yeah, there's a video for this. Yeah. I have a song about the show MonsterQuest. It might be the best song I ever wrote. We'll put a link to it in the comments. Yeah, put that in the description. Now you have to tell a short story. Well, okay. There's a show MonsterQuest. What network was that on? I don't know. History Channel or something? This was like 15 years ago, maybe longer. Yeah, 15 to 20-ish years ago, MonsterQuest. A show about cryptozoology, like where people would go to try to find Bigfoot or try to find the Mothman or the Skunk Ape. We loved it. We watched it all the time. Mm-hmm. Watched it all the time. And I historically have a hard time writing lyrics to songs like I'll just run out of ideas. Mm-hmm. And you says... Write a song about MonsterQuest. And I said, okay. So I wrote a song about MonsterQuest. And I took that song, I think, right? I think you did, yeah. Yeah, I took that song and I sent it to the producers of MonsterQuest. And maybe I also sent it to like a supernatural podcast that I was listening to at the time, like a haunted podcast slash whatever. Somehow the song made it to the desk of the producers of MonsterQuest. Yes. Right. And those guys then went on to, I think the show was like kind of wrapping up at that point. Yeah, they loved the song. They loved the song. I can't remember the guy's name. I've emailed with him back and forth over the years. Mm-hmm. Uh, they made a video for it. Yeah. And I love that they put some clips from the show where like, uh. With the voiceover? Yeah, the guy's like, like a, I don't remember exactly what it said, but some down in the woods, I hollered, it hollered back. It's so good. And I still use hollered to this day like when we're outside the club the other night and I was being loud like oh shoot I was hollering. I hollered. It hollered back. Oh my God. Yeah, we'll put that link in. And those guys, man, I feel bad I forget this guy's name, because they went on to make a pilot for a different network. So good. The show was called Squatchers. So good. This is like so true. This is 100% true. I'm not making this up. And that song. And I think to this day there's like a podcast like something like Minnesota Bigfoot Society or some shit. They use it? They use it. No, they do not. Like that guy wrote me like years ago and then followed up again like several years ago and then a couple years ago like, oh, I've lost that file. Do you still have that song, Squatchers? We Are Squatchers. Yeah. I think it's called We Are Squatchers. I don't know. I wrote it. So I think it's still the theme song for this podcast, or at least part of the song. Maybe they use the chorus. I can't remember the name of this podcast. Something along the lines of Minnesota Bigfoot Society or Minnesota Bigfoot Research. So great. That guy loves it. Because it's a great song. But the producers of Monster Quest were pitching a show called Squatchers and they made a pilot. In a sizzle reel. And my song was going to be the theme song of the show. So I was really hoping it got picked up. It didn't. It was great. It was a great... Anyways, whoever wants to make this a homebrew or whatever, we got the song. I've got a couple songs for you. I've got a Monster Quest song. I've got the Squatcher song. I could do more. I could do all the music for this pin if you need songs. You need a Skunk Ape song. If you need a Skunk Ape. Like, I could do a song about each critter or being or whatever you want to call them. I could do a Skunk Ape song I could do a Mothman song I could do a Slenderman song You know whatever you need Slenderman is not good He not really a cryptozoology No I don know But yeah Let keep it to the basics Yeah, let's keep it to, like, you know, the big ones, the big ones. Bigfoot. Like, Bigfoot and Skunk Cape are kind of the same, but kind of not. Yeti is different, but similar. Yeah. Yeah, you could do a whole Bigfoot pin where it's all the different variants of the Bigfoot. The areas of the playfield are like, there's a forest and you're going to find the Bigfoot in there, but then there's Whitecapped Mountains on the back right ramp and that's where you find the Yeti. And maybe there's a lower playfield in the swamp where you find the skunk ape. There you go. Done. Next. All right, so what's your answer to the question? So I think an underutilized type of theme in modern pinball, and I feel like with the original themes of the 90s, they did do this. I don't know if you were looking for original themes, because original themes just don't sell. KC Kevin, you mean, not Kevin Johnson, don't drink. No, this is KC Kevin WK. I think his question was, I don't know if you're looking for original themes. I don't think original themes are a great idea because they don't sell, but a type of theme underutilized in modern pinball heavily is a good idea. Yeah, comedy. Is it thematic? There are almost no comedy-driven themes. I know it was like a year or two ago on April Fool's Day, Stern teased, cruelly teased. It was mean. The I Think You Should Leave pinball machine. With Tim Robinson. That's just like rude to even throw that out there if you're not making it. That is a tease. I mean, and we knew it wasn't real. I know, but... But it's like now you're saying... You're breaking my heart. You could do this. It's right there. Like you have the mock-up right there already. And I'm pretty sure Tim Robinson would be into it. Tim Robinson would be into it. He's a good Midwesterner. Yeah. Fun guy. Detroit guy. Yeah. Come on. I think you should leave Pinball? Or just something with him? The chair company? Or just like come up with something with him? Like an original theme? Now see an original theme written by like a Tim Robinson, created by Tim Robinson, because he's- He's a name. Big. He's got an Allen and Ginter baseball card. Yeah, he does. But it's not baseball. Or a sport- Collectible card. It's like a baseball card set that has other people in it. He's in it. I think there's a Chuck Reagan is in one of those. Really? Hot water music. Huh. There's a Chuck Reagan card. And you get the signed one. You get a Tim Robinson signed one. Yeah. So, comedy in general, like the homebrew people do it. Like, there's the Happy Gilmore one. That would be a hell of a theme for Stern Pinball, I think. Yeah. Happy Gilmore. Me, myself, and Irene. Oh my god. Office space. The office. Yeah, comedy. I think you should leave. Like, comedy would be great. Everyone loves a one-liner. Because there's all this, like, Marvel stuff. It's fine. You got John Wick. You got Jaws. Like, horror is covered out the wazoo. And then, like, bands. But, like, where's the comedy? Make us laugh. Let's laugh. Let's have fun and laugh. Because I feel like a lot of the original themes had a lot of humor in them. Like Cactus Canyon is like kind of funny. You had like Dr. Dude's kind of funny. The Bad Cats is like kind of goofy. There was a lot more silliness in the 90s. Yeah. Like original themed pins. Yeah. A lot more silliness and lightheartedness. And the modern, it's like really deep in like, this is an iconic epic adventure in this world under glass. It's fine. Like, FALL OF THE EMPIRE, it's like this epic space battle and John Wick, like they killed his dog and now he's back. He's John Wick. John Wick. Yeah. Earmuffs. Marshall. Jaws. We love Jaws. Mm-hmm. But it's all serious stuff. So, comedy. Give us some comedy. Yeah. Namely, I think you should leave. Actually, do that pin. I mean, we're buying. That would be a perfect thing. And I'm sure that Stern can't afford to do this all the time like that. But you look at the success of the Winchester Mystery House and the excitement that that generated for Barrels of Bun. That's not because it's a comedy theme, but because it's by a unique brand new designer, Carl D'Python Anghelo, and that's where the hype came from. And the fact that there are 500 of them. And it sold out instantaneously. And there were $500, but they weren't charging like $18,000 for it. It was like, I don't know, whatever Dune costs is like the same price. You know what they'll call it? A cash grab. A cash grab? Mm-hmm. It's a cash grab, Tim. Just do the older stuff and not this kind of stuff. Yeah. So you could do the same thing. Yeah, sorry. It would be cool. Just do like a surprise announcement kind of like what they did. Nobody knew saw that thing coming. Maybe they're going to do it with the Jack Danger thing he's building out, you know? That Jack Danger thing is super cool, but it's like it's in the open though. Everybody knows that that's coming and I'm sure they'll produce that thing. They're leaving it open, but it seems like, yeah. They're not going to do all this work and have him promote all that and then not make a thing. I feel like they're going to do like a Winchester deal. And that's super cool. I think so. I think it's super cool because the idea, if you're not familiar, is Jack Danger from Stern. He is going to be creating a series of content of how a pinball machine is developed, basically, from concept to finished product. And they're saying right now that it isn't meant to be a commercialized product, but we'll see about that. Yeah. We'll see about that. But it's kind of cool to see a little peek behind it. And didn't like Rivers Cuomo do stuff like that with writing songs way back on too, where it was like, he was kind of crowdsourcing ideas and... Yeah, and that song ended up on the Hurley, like, collection of songs, like an album, but he wrote a song, he would do it on YouTube, and, like, people would come up with these different bits and pieces and parts, and he'd put them all together. That's cool. And I can't remember which song it was, but it was a good song. Yeah, because Jack Danger, he showed like kind of the layout on a VR tool that he uses. Not VR, but it's not virtual reality. But like the virtual, so he's playing it like a video game where he's got the layout and the layout looks really cool. And then he's kind of teasing different theme ideas. Yeah. Because he teased like a tank girl. Mm-hmm. But now he's talking about Elvira. Yeah. So the last post was like, would you want like another Elvira thing? But like cartoon. Cartoon Elvira would be super cool. They also could consider, I think you should leave. Jack Danger is probably not listening to this, but you should think about that. Yeah. I mean, throw it in the ring. So I think you should leave in the ring. And I just don't think there's any way they don't make this thing like a 500 units or something. I think it'd be super cool. It'd be super cool. So my only fear is that like if they're doing a 500 unit thing, it's going to be like however much that bond 60th was. Well. And I don't remember how much, but I guess we can't control what they charge for it. And that's just a big what if. And it's a big what if. But it would be so cool if they made $500 and it was like no more than a regular LE. But it would be cooler if it wasn't even an LE, if it was just a premium and it was $9,500 and there's $500. It's for sale. And if it's the right layout and the right theme, it will sell out immediately. And I just think it would be so cool. It would be kind of like doing the old stuff. Yeah. Not this kind of stuff. No. Back when you were like, fuck you, man. Oh my god. Oh my lord. There was one suggestion though from the Discord about me too. Oh yeah, Joey. Yeah. Barbie. I mean. Barbie in the Dreamhouse. He said specifically Barbie in the Dreamhouse, but I feel like Barbie in the movie, the movie Barbie. Lots of humor. Yeah. I think you could have success with either, but I think the movie is probably bigger than the Dreamhouse. Because I just don't know how many little girls play pinball. I don't know. But it would be nostalgic for girls, like women of your age, it would have nostalgia for adult women. Yeah, I wasn't really, I had lots of Barbie stuff, but I wasn't like super into Barbie. But a lot of our generation of women were, right? Yeah, I mean, I had all the Barbie stuff. Because it's always like the dudes, like Top Gun, you know, Big Trouble in Little China. It's like all these dude movies. And I get it. It's mostly men that buy pinball machines. But if you want to target people in their late 40s, early 50s, Barbie would do that for the women. But I think that, like, they should probably target a little bit younger people. I agree. But, like, we're not the target. Well, we are, but we shouldn't be. Right. Mm-hmm. Well, like we talked about in the music episode about all the boomer bands, now they need the millennial bands. I mean, it is the cynical Gen Xers that get overlooked. Mm-hmm. It's part of our life, always. Yeah. But go younger. But if Pokéman is the next one, then that's gonna do that. Yeah, for sure. That's gonna do that. For sure. I'm excited. Jocomines says... He's ready. He's ready for Pokemon. Like, oh my god, you guys were nerding out about your cards. Yeah, I was showing him a Charizard. Yeah, I mean, that's personal. Yeah. And you're married. Jeff Weed, our buddy Jeff, he's ready for Pokemon. We're ready for Pokemon. Kevin Johnson's ready for Pokemon. KJ? Shocker. Yeah. Drink. Drink it. Take a shot. A lot of people are ready for Pokemon Pinball. But like, yeah, lots of people that I was kind of like shocked would that would be. Oh, we'll see. We'll see. Yeah, we'll see. I'm very excited for that, though, or whatever's coming. I'm just excited. And you could almost think about the Pokemon, how you do where you catch them and you catch them and you catch them. You could do that with your cryptozoology. Yeah, you could. You got to catch all those critters. You got to spot them. You got to take a particular picture. Oh, my God. Or you get the footage. Like there could be some kind of loop shot where it's like the more times you hit this loop consecutively, the better quality is of your big foot. Oh yeah, of your cast? Because like, like you hit, like thinking about the upper loop there on Foo Fighters or the upper loop on like No Fear. And like if you hit the loop once, your foot is just like real crunchy and you hit it again and now it's like, you know, You hit it three times, you're at DVD resolution. You hit it one more time and Bob's your uncle? Now you're HD and then boom, 8K footage of the Bigfoot, undeniable, you've caught the Bigfoot. I love it. And it's actually, the Bigfoot is actually Tim Robinson? It's actually Tim Robinson. All right, we gotta wrap this up. We gotta wrap it up. Marshall says time. He probably wants his... He's ready for dinner. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you. If you've made it this far, double thank you. If you haven't liked and subscribed and all that good stuff, it would actually be awesome if you did that. Yeah. And if you want to leave a review on your podcast thing. Yeah, on the Apple or Spotify, review it. That would rule. Give it a rating. We'd appreciate it. Mm-hmm. And we'll catch you next week. Yeah, thanks for watching.

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-08-04 | Item ID: 8928c924-2815-41bf-b639-7b1c272fee06*