# Episode 278: Morten Söbyskogen, Norway IFPA Director

**Source:** Pinball Profile  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2020-09-08  
**Duration:** 33m 38s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.pinballprofile.com/episode-278-morten-sobyskogen-norway-ifpa-director/

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## Analysis

Jeff Teolis interviews Morten Söbyskogen, IFPA director for Norway, discussing COVID-19 restrictions and their impact on pinball tournaments, Norway's growing competitive pinball scene, and Morten's personal journey through his wife Sandra's brain cancer diagnosis and death. The conversation covers pinball clubs in Oslo, tournament travel, streaming, and machine maintenance during lockdown.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Norway has COVID restrictions including 1-meter social distancing, recommended face masks on public transport, and bars closing at midnight with table spacing requirements — _Morten describing current Norwegian government restrictions during pandemic conversation_
- [HIGH] Norway's pinball scene has grown consistently since 2014, expanding from Oslo-only activity to clubs in Bergen and Trondheim with competitive focus — _Morten describing growth trajectory of Norwegian pinball community from tournament entry point in 2014_
- [HIGH] Morten is ranked second in Norway's IFPA rankings and has qualified for IFPA World Championship — _Jeff stating 'Right now you're ranked second in your country. So being ranked second the top two players from every country get an automatic invite'_
- [HIGH] Kristiania Flipper Selskap club relocated to basement location of Andromole with 130 square meters of space — _Morten describing new club location: 'we just moved to a new location which is lying in the basement of Andromole'_
- [HIGH] Sandra was diagnosed with grade four brain tumor in August 2014 with initial life expectancy of two years, and passed away in March 2018 at age 31 — _Morten recounting: 'the doctor says that it's a grade four tumor and the general life expectancy is two years' and dating death to March 2018_
- [HIGH] Morten's first pinball machine was a Sega GoldenEye purchased in 2014 — _Morten stating: 'I ended up buying, behold, a Sega Goldeneye' as his first machine in 2014_
- [HIGH] Norwegian government implemented total lockdown on March 12 when COVID-19 appeared in Nordic countries — _Morten: 'The Norwegian government reacted very quickly in March when the corona started appearing in different Nordic countries. So they went on total lockdown in, I think it was the 12th of March'_
- [HIGH] Morten's planned memorial tournament for Sandra's birthday (March 14) was cancelled due to COVID concerns just days before the event — _Morten: 'we took the decision a couple of days before to cancel it because of COVID and felt wrong to still arrange a tournament'_

### Notable Quotes

> "everyone is actually touching the same, you know, the same few centimeters with the buttons and the lock bars. And there's a lot of physical interaction."
> — **Morten Söbyskogen**, ~4:30
> _Explains the physical contact concerns specific to pinball as a barrier to reopening IFPA tournaments during pandemic_

> "I would probably like to see a stable, like the situation being quite stable for a couple of months at least."
> — **Morten Söbyskogen**, ~7:00
> _Sets conservative criteria for reopening IFPA in Norway, indicating cautious approach to pandemic policy_

> "It's been really growing. And we are very close, as you say, to Sweden. So there are several times a year where many players are going over to a small city called Borås."
> — **Morten Söbyskogen**, ~12:00
> _Describes regional tournament ecosystem connecting Norwegian and Swedish pinball communities_

> "I'm very easily going into the, you know, like each pinball machine has to be, you know, set up the same and it has to be the same for every player."
> — **Morten Söbyskogen**, ~35:00
> _Expresses preference for tournament-style equipment standardization over casual play during pandemic_

> "My friends hate me and my club mates hate me, yeah. I mean, when I'm buying a new game or acquiring a new game, the first thing I'm doing is opening the outlanes, removing rubbers, tightening the tilt, removing ball save."
> — **Morten Söbyskogen**, ~36:00
> _Reveals tournament-focused machine setup philosophy and competitive mentality affecting casual play experience_

> "I feel like the achievement of getting to the end mode is so much bigger when you know you've done it without any, you know, assists. Maybe I'm a bit tournament damaged when it comes to that."
> — **Morten Söbyskogen**, ~38:00
> _Self-aware acknowledgment of competitive mindset overriding casual enjoyment of owned machines_

> "And yeah, we met, we got along, we fell in love, and chose to, you know, commit to each other. So we had a two-year long distance relationship where she finished her studies back in Austria, and she always wanted to go back to Norway."
> — **Morten Söbyskogen**, ~18:30
> _Personal background on relationship with Sandra, establishing emotional context for later discussion of her illness and death_

> "But we didn't talk too much about the fact of her life ending much earlier than it should be but we kind of chose to continue living with a sense of normality in our lives"
> — **Morten Söbyskogen**, ~22:00
> _Reflects on coping strategy and life philosophy after terminal diagnosis, informing his current perspective on priorities_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Morten Söbyskogen | person | IFPA director for Norway, competitive pinball player ranked #2 in Norway, pinball club co-founder in Oslo, musician (Frail Grounds, Death of Giants project) |
| Sandra | person | Morten's late wife, Austrian-born, diagnosed with grade 4 brain tumor August 2014, died March 2018 at age 31; will be honored with memorial tournament |
| Jeff Teolis | person | Host of Pinball Profile podcast and Final Round Pinball Podcast, based in Canada, interview moderator |
| Kristiania Flipper Selskap | organization | Pinball club in Oslo founded by Morten and five other members; recently relocated to basement of Andromole with 130 square meters space; offers tournaments and rentals to companies |
| Tilt | organization | Barcade in Oslo where Morten first entered competitive pinball in 2014; serves as community venue for Norwegian players |
| Oslo Pinball Club | organization | Earlier pinball club established in Oslo in 2015 that Morten was part of; operated differently than Kristiania Flipper Selskap with more public-facing model |
| Borås Pinball Open | event | Annual tournament held in September in Swedish city of Borås that Norwegian players frequently travel to; described as legendary event |
| Austrian Pinball Open | event | Tournament near Sandra's family home in Austria that Morten and Sandra attended together with friend Tom Andre |
| Dutch Pinball Masters | event | Tournament in Netherlands attended by Morten and Sandra as part of international tournament travel experiences |
| IFPA World Championship | event | Originally scheduled May 2020 in Florida, postponed to November, then further delayed; Morten qualified as top-2 Norwegian player |
| Pinberg Challenge | event | Virtual pinball challenge event on Final Round Pinball Podcast where Morten was sole European participant, played at 4am Norway time |
| Jack Danger's Iron Maiden Challenge | event | Streaming challenge event that Morten participated in; described as chaotic but funny |
| EPC (European Pinball Championship) | event | Major European tournament held at PIN Lab in Denmark; preceded by Pinball Profile world tour event where Morten participated |
| Sega GoldenEye | game | Morten's first pinball machine, purchased in 2014; described by him as underrated with good modes, multiball, flow and combos |
| Game of Thrones | game | Pro version owned by Morten; he achieved wizard mode the day after streaming it; removed extra balls for harder challenge |
| Iron Maiden | game | Stern game owned by Morten; in his home, hasn't reached wizard mode due to playing without assists |
| The Walking Dead | game | Premium version owned by Morten; in his home, hasn't reached wizard mode despite ownership |
| KISS | game | Game owned by Morten mentioned in context of tournament preparation and machine setup |
| Stingray/C-Ray | game | Electromechanical machine owned by Morten; previously stored for a year before troubleshooting via Pinside forum with help from user Howard |
| Pinside | organization | Online pinball forum praised by both speakers as resource for technical help, machine troubleshooting, and community support |
| Tom Andre | person | One of Morten's best friends who traveled to tournaments including Austrian Pinball Open with Morten and Sandra |
| Flipper Kellern/Flipperkellern | organization | Pinball venue in Copenhagen/Denmark run by Peter Anderson and Saren; location of Pinball Profile world tour event before EPC |
| PIN Lab | organization | Venue in Copenhagen, Denmark that hosted European Pinball Championship (EPC) |
| Frail Grounds | organization | Band that Morten is part of; musical project |
| Death of Giants | organization | Solo musical project by Morten that includes tribute song about Sandra with lyrics about receiving grade 4 tumor diagnosis |

### Topics

- **Primary:** COVID-19 pandemic impact on pinball tournaments and IFPA, Norway's pinball scene growth and competitive community development, Morten's personal story: Sandra's terminal illness and death
- **Secondary:** Pinball club operations and economics during pandemic, Tournament preparation and machine setup philosophies, Virtual pinball and streaming during lockdown, International tournament travel and community connections
- **Mentioned:** Pinball machine maintenance and technical troubleshooting

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.55) — Conversation balances uplifting discussion of Norwegian pinball community growth and international connections with heavy emotional content regarding Sandra's death. Morten maintains reflective, measured tone discussing loss while showing resilience and forward-looking perspective. Cautious optimism about tournament resumption tempered by health concerns.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Kristiania Flipper Selskap club deliberately structured to be economically sustainable independent of tournament revenue, reducing vulnerability to external circumstances like pandemic (confidence: high) — Morten: 'it was very important for us, we're choosing a new location that we were able to take the rent and the economical aspect without depending on having tournaments and events. So in that regard, we've kind of secured us a bit against being in economic danger due to external circumstances.'
- **[community_signal]** Pinside forum recognized as valuable community resource for machine troubleshooting and technical help; users willing to provide live remote support via Skype for complex electrical/mechanical issues (confidence: high) — Morten describing Pinside EM forum experience: 'he offered to call me on Skype. And I had this live Skype session with him while troubleshooting the machine' and earlier noting Pinside posts received helpful responses
- **[event_signal]** Pinberg Challenge demonstrated feasibility of virtual multi-international pinball competition involving participants from Europe, North America, and Australia during pandemic lockdown (confidence: medium) — Morten participated in Pinberg Challenge 'at four in the morning' Norwegian time representing 'the only person from Europe' in cross-continental virtual event
- **[community_signal]** Norwegian and Swedish pinball communities are well-connected through regular international tournament travel, particularly Borås Pinball Open in September (confidence: high) — Morten: 'we are very close, as you say, to Sweden. So there are several times a year where many players are going over to a small city called Borås. Yeah, they have the Boros Pinball Open that's legendary in September'
- **[community_signal]** Norway's pinball scene has expanded geographically from Oslo-only activity in 2014 to competitive clubs in Bergen and Trondheim by 2019, with consistent growth trajectory (confidence: high) — Morten: 'from there on, it's kind of been growing really well. It's never been kind of dipping down again. It's just been a constant growth since 2014. And at that time, it was, I guess it was only mostly an active scene in Oslo. And if you fast forward till 2019, then there are several clubs in Oslo. There are pinball clubs in Bergen and Trondheim.'
- **[competitive_signal]** Tournament-damaged mentality: competitive players trained to expect difficult machine setups (tight tilt, no ball save, open outlanes) apply same settings to home machines, making casual play for others challenging (confidence: medium) — Morten: 'My friends hate me and my club mates hate me, yeah. I mean, when I'm buying a new game or acquiring a new game, the first thing I'm doing is opening the outlanes, removing rubbers, tightening the tilt, removing ball save.'
- **[design_philosophy]** Morten applies tournament-standard machine setup (open outlanes, removed rubbers, tight tilt, no ball save) to personal machines to maintain competitive edge, despite limiting casual enjoyment for other players (confidence: high) — Morten: 'when I'm buying a new game or acquiring a new game, the first thing I'm doing is opening the outlanes, removing rubbers, tightening the tilt, removing ball save. But I need that in order to get the excitement... I feel like the achievement of getting to the end mode is so much bigger when you know you've done it without any assists. Maybe I'm a bit tournament damaged.'
- **[event_signal]** IFPA World Championship originally scheduled for May 2020 in Florida, postponed to November 2020, then rescheduled to TBD 2021 due to COVID-19 disruptions (confidence: high) — Jeff: 'world championship which was supposed to originally happen in May in Florida then postponed to November now to be determined in 2020'
- **[event_signal]** Planned memorial tournament for Sandra scheduled for March 14, 2020 was cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic concerns; tournament details included four-tournament weekend format with themed trophies (confidence: high) — Morten: 'in March, I was planning to have a memorial tournament for my late wife... I bought in really nice trophies and really kind of themed it up for being a memorial tournament. And then... we took the decision a couple of days before to cancel it because of COVID'
- **[personnel_signal]** Morten serves as IFPA director for Norway with vote on whether country is ready to reopen IFPA tournaments; adopting conservative stance requiring stable conditions for couple of months (confidence: high) — Jeff: 'you being the IFPA director for Norway, with the IFPA right now suspended because of the pandemic, you are one of the people that vote on whether or not your country is ready to reopen.' Morten: 'My personal opinion is that it's not ready.'

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## Transcript

 it's time now for another pinball profile i'm your host jeff teels you can find everything on pinballprofile.com past episodes all your subscription needs everything right there on that website you can also find our facebook group we're on twitter and instagram at pinball profile and you can email us pinball profile at gmail.com almost a year ago i first met our next guest i recently talked to him on my other little side project final round pinball podcast when he joined us for our pinberg challenge representing all of europe and it was pretty neat to have a bunch of north americans australians and this man from oslo norway joining us right now ifpa director for Norway, Morten Serbiskogen. How are you, Morten? Hi, I'm quite good under the circumstances with COVID and everything, but it's good. Well, I don't know what it's like there in Europe and certainly in Norway. I know what it's like here in North America and other parts of the world. How are the COVID restrictions? Well, we are enforcing something called the meter, like the social distancing. The government has been really clear on like stay one meter from each other. And they have started to recommend wearing face masks in certain situations like public transport. And the bars are also closing at midnight. But they are open. They are open. Any capacity that they enforce? I'm not 100% sure of the exact rulings there, but they have to have like several meters, I guess, between the tables. So it depends on the bar and they have to kind of do some enforcement. Morten, the reason I ask you about restrictions, you being the IFPA director for Norway, with the IFPA right now suspended because of the pandemic, you are one of the people that vote on whether or not your country is ready to reopen. So is it safe to say right now Norway is not ready to reopen? My personal opinion is that it's not ready. And that is partially based on the physical nature of pinball. Like everyone is actually touching the same, you know, the same few centimeters with the buttons and the lock bars. And there's a lot of physical interaction. And also we are now in a period where it's slightly under control. There are some small outbreaks in different parts of Norway at different times, but they manage to contain it quite quickly. And personally, I'm very cautious about opening up different elements in society too quickly just because it seems to be going okay. Because then suddenly it kind of boils over. So in my opinion, it's worth waiting a longer time and see how it goes. Do you need to see the numbers come down? Are you looking for a vaccine? I know that's what a lot of people are looking for. Well, the vaccine would be the best thing, of course. Then I think it's probably safe to open IFPA again, the whole ranking system. But are you thinking about what would be required for me personally to kind of condone IFPA in Norway? Sure, yeah. I think at a point, I think maybe I'm a bit more conservative than some other countries. I would probably like to see a stable, like the situation being quite stable for a couple of months at least. What guidelines are you using? Would it be the WHO? I believe so. The Norwegian government reacted very quickly in March when the corona started appearing in different Nordic countries. So they went on total lockdown in, I think it was the 12th of March. and that was a really that was really strange some strange weeks like no one knew what was going on and what was going to happen and people were kind of staying inside and yeah you got the feeling like is there going to be a zombie outbreak or is it you know felt really serious i wouldn't be surprised if that happened if i saw zombies walking through the streets i mean that's how crazy 2020 has been so far but it looks like norway you know is one of those many countries and along with many states and provinces that are really taking a look at what the stats are. And right now, we're just not ready to open up the IFPA. But I do want to talk about Norway. Let's forget the pandemic. Let's pretend it just doesn't exist. We're in a different time. We're in 2019. That sounds great. Good year. Good year. So what is pinball like in Norway? Tell me about, first of all, some of the players, some of the locations. How easy is it to get access to pinball? because you're right beside Sweden there in Norway, and I know Sweden is a major pinball hotspot. Absolutely. I came in quite late into the hobby in 2014, and I was kind of pulled into a tournament. It was the first tournament at a barcade in Oslo called Tilt. It's a really cool place, and that was the first time the organizer had a tournament. It was a knockout tournament. and from there on, it's kind of been growing really well. It's never been kind of dipping down again. It's just been a constant growth since 2014. And at that time, it was, I guess it was only mostly an active scene in Oslo. And if you fast forward till 2019, then there are several clubs in Oslo. There are pinball clubs in Bergen and Trondheim. And the cool thing is they have a really competitive focus, which I personally love. I mean, for me, competitive pinball is kind of, I guess, the reason why I'm playing pinball. And so it's been really growing. And we are very close, as you say, to Sweden. So there are several times a year where many players are going over to a small city called Borås. Yeah, they have the Boros Pinball Open that's legendary in September, and then they even have the Classic Open, which you were fortunate enough to get to at the 1st of March, so right before all this outbreak. Yeah, that was really lucky. And also, I played quite well there. I racked up some whoppers and left feeling good, which was a really comfort now that the IFPA ranking system has been frozen. but the DK has not been frozen. Yeah, that's true. So you're getting those big points and you got some good ones there at the end of February and March. Those are gold now. They're like worth so much as everything else decays. Yeah, but at the same time, the more points you have, the bigger percentage you'll lose. Well, I find if you play in a lot of different tournaments and have some other options, it's going to help you. And that's certainly the case with you. You have many active events. in fact, over 130. So that's pretty impressive. So you're getting a lot of pinball out there. Yeah. You have a lot of different events that you have at your disposal for your IFPA card. So that will certainly help you. I know decay affects everyone, but when you have a lot of different events, I put my hand up. I'm one of those people too. It certainly helps you a little bit, especially with the decay. Yeah. As mentioned, I'm very grateful for the points I have. Of course, I've worked for it, but it feels like you're losing more points than other people, but in reality, everybody's losing points. So in a way, I guess, if the IFPA ranking is back up again, some things might be a bit more leveled for some players, but I think that, in the end, it's a positive thing. You'll just have to show that you're the best and regain your points. Well, in Norway, you're almost the best. Right now you're ranked second in your country. So being ranked second the top two players from every country get an automatic invite into the IFPA World Championship which was supposed to originally happen in May in Florida then postponed to November now to be determined in 2020 You have qualified for that. Is that something that you would be going to? Oh, yeah. That's a sad story. But, yeah, this summer I was planning to have a real pinball summer. I was going to Fulda. In Germany. In Germany, yeah. I was going for the pinball Olympics for the whole pinball party there. It's like five, six days. And then it would finish on Sunday. And on Monday, I would travel directly from Frankfurt and all over to Florida. Wow. And have a couple of days in the sun. And then the IFPA World Championships. But guess what? Yeah. COVID happened. But yeah, I'm definitely going there next year. Good. Fingers crossed. So am I, and it'll be a lot of fun because that world championship is a real treat. I had a real good world experience seeing a lot of different countries at another event, and it was almost a year ago when I first met you in Denmark. It was right before the EPC, a wonderful event at the PIN Lab. I put on this little pinball profile world tour event, and we were in the Flipper K. Lardin basement. It was pretty crammed. I didn't want to say no to anyone because everyone's coming in from different countries, so it got a little nutty there. I mean, we had a lot of people and a lot of different representation, but that was a lot of fun seeing that location, seeing all those different players from all kinds of different countries. That was a lot of fun. And I actually changed my flight from Friday to Thursday to be able to participate in that event. and also I'm quite used to some pinball tournaments being held in very close quarters. You can't really have an intimacy problem. No, no, no. But that's cool. And the great thing with that location, Flipperkellern, I think it was called. Yep. They have a lot of different machines, a bit like my club in Oslo, the club I'm in in Oslo. They have a good variety of Paul Williams and Stern and Gottlieb and some older 80s machines. And I really like the diversity. Yeah. Peter Anderson, Saren, those guys run that Flipper K. Lardin. It was nice to see the variety of games. But you mentioned your pinball club. Tell us about your club in Oslo. Yeah. Currently, the club I am sharing with five other wonderful individuals is located very close to the center of Oslo, like 50 minutes with the metro. And we're called Kristiania Flipper Selskap. That would translate to Kristiania, which is an old name for Oslo. Kristiania Flipper Company. But yeah, we just moved to a new location. which is lying in the basement of Andromole. So it's really close to shops and restaurants. And there we have 130 square meters to our disposal. Okay, that's good space. So again, you talked about the different variety of games, but with the pandemic going on, is that closed right now? Is it limited people? What are the options that you can do with the Pinball Club? And how do people contribute to that? Is it a monthly sponsorship? Is it a league fee? How does it work? In 2015, I was part in establishing a pinball club in Oslo that was called Oslo Pinball Club. It was a really great place for having tournaments and events and a place to hang, meet up and drink some beer and play pinball. But after several years, it was a minority of us who I would say we supplied kind of most, the majority of the machines there. We kind of wanted something different. Let's call it just different philosophy. We wanted a bit more private thing where it's a kind of closed club where we have our machines, but it's open for the public when we have events and tournaments. So the whole idea of our club is basically being a small core of good friends And having tournaments and also hopefully when this whole pandemic settles down, we'll have some rented out to companies and other interested parties. And also it was very important for us, we're choosing a new location that we were able to take the rent and the economical aspect without depending on having tournaments and events. So in that regard, we've kind of secured us a bit against being in economic danger due to external circumstances. Okay. But we have, I mean, the plan for, we had grand plans for this year for lots of tournaments. And also, we were actually, in March, I was planning to have a memorial tournament for my late wife. And everything was kind of lining up perfectly because her birthday was the 14th of March. And we're like, oh, yeah, it's on a Saturday. That's a perfect day for a tournament. Let's make it into a weekend tournament with like four tournaments. And I bought in really nice trophies and really kind of themed it up for being a memorial tournament. And then it gets closer and closer to the tournament. and we realized something weird is going on in the world. And apparently we took the decision a couple of days before to cancel it because of COVID and felt wrong to still arrange a tournament when we had no idea of how serious this pandemic was. But it was a really difficult decision to cancel it. I can only imagine, but hopefully it's not canceled and just postponed to a later date when we are in safer times. But you did mention your wife, Sandra. It's been a couple of years since she passed away. A young woman, 31 years old, and sadly taken due to complications from a brain tumor. This is something that Sandra dealt with for a few years. And I guess the first diagnosis from what you were telling me was about five years ago in 2015? It was, closely, it was August 2014 when she was diagnosed with brain cancer. Well, I met her in 2010 in Oslo. She was from Austria, and she had an exchange year in Oslo as a student. And yeah, we met, we got along, we fell in love, and chose to, you know, commit to each other. So we had a two-year long distance relationship where she finished her studies back in Austria, and she always wanted to go back to Norway, and the plan was for her to move here after her studies. which she did. And we lived together in Oslo. And two years after she moved here, she was diagnosed with this horrible disease. Yeah. But the surgery went very well. But unfortunately, it was a malignant tumor and kind of the most aggressive one. And she got the chemo treatment after that. And luckily, she responded well to that first treatment. and it was staying, you know, it was stable all until 2017 when she had a relapse and followed by another round of chemo again. But unfortunately, it didn't work this time around. I've only known a few people who have gone through the horrors of having a brain tumor and brain cancer and it's just the aggressiveness, as you described, is unbelievable. and I unfortunately didn't know your wife, Sandra, but I can only imagine how your outlook on life is when you're given that diagnosis, when you're given that outcome of what reality may be. How you look at things each day is a lot different especially how precious time is Yeah it is I can only speak for myself of course But I was just, I'm working on a solo project, a musical project, and I was actually recording some vocals today for a song. And part of that, part of the lyrics is about when we're sitting at the pathologist of results from the tumor, like what type it was. And it's really indescribable sitting there and the doctor says that it's a grade four tumor and the general life expectancy is two years. And yeah, I only know how I reacted, but I can't imagine how it is being the one who actually get that information. but we didn't talk too much about the fact of her life ending much earlier than it should be but we kind of chose to continue living with a sense of normality in our lives so she continued to work you know going back to work slowly and I guess some people they sell everything they quit everything and just travel the world But I believe we wanted a sense of normality. And we traveled a bit more than usual, I would guess, and enjoyed some extra restaurants each month. And really remembering, being aware of the moment and aware of what you're spending energy on. But luckily also, she was mostly in very fine all up until March 2018. So I know some people suffering from cancer, they are really suffering, you know, for many years. But we, I would say, we lived life as best as we could all the way until the end. And it was very, of course, it was very brutal in the end. But in the grand scheme of things, it was still, you know, a couple of months. And I'm trying to keep on, you know, holding on to the seven years and 10 months, you know, which was great. A lot of people don't even have that. So that is one positive way of looking at that. You know, it's better to have had the years you had as opposed to never that wonderful experience with Sandra. So I love that you honor her memory, the tournaments you talked about. You talked about your music project. You've got Frail Grounds as your band, but you said your Death of Giants project is kind of a solo work and, again, a nice tribute. Yeah, it's become very important for me to bring on her memory. I mean, she meant so much to me. And of course, I'm still here. I'm managing to move on in my life or like continue living. But she was always be a great, you know, big part of me. And I want to, if I can have a memorial tournament now and then, and it makes people like, oh, who is she? She had to mean a lot to you. And, you know, I want people just to be aware of it. And also we traveled, you know, to many tournaments, Like me and her and also one of my best friends, Tom Andre, we traveled to Austrian Pinball Open. That was close to where her family lives in Austria. And that's a great tournament. I mean, the whole mood in the tournament is fantastic. It's serious, but it's also very chill. And also we've been to the famous Boros over several years. And also at the Dutch Pinball Masters in Netherlands. Yeah. That's been a great experience. And, of course, when Norwegians go down to the Netherlands and Austria, for that sake, and you realize how awesome beer they have and how cheap beer they have. I have played some tournaments quite hangover, I must admit. But I think we always focused on making these international tournament travels, making them memorable more than just the actual playing. It was all about the social part and the dinners and the good drinks and the playing, of course. I think that's important. Well, you do a lot of playing. You can watch Morten on Twitch, Drain Morten. How fun is Twitch for you? Well, to be honest, I kind of invited some people and started the Drain Morten Facebook page as, you know, mostly as a way for friends and family to kind of follow me, and I can keep them updated with the Pimble stuff I'm doing. It's always fun with Pimble stuff in your Facebook feed. I was planning on doing much more streaming, actually, before the summer, because I had one Game of Thrones stream, and also I was part of the Jack Danger's Iron Maiden challenge. It was very chaotic, but very funny. But I guess after that, life kind of happened, both work and other stuff. And suddenly it felt like everybody was streaming pinball. But what I like about that is we get to see so many different people like yourself. And because we're kind of trapped, if you will, in some ways with this pandemic, it was a way of really opening up and feeling like you're a part of it. Just like doing this podcast with different people here. I'm talking to somebody in Norway, you know, even though I'm in Canada. And I enjoy seeing the different streams and different personalities. Yeah, that's encouraging to hear. One aspect of streaming, which I think I also missed, was the ability to kind of bring friends over and stream and have, you know, this, I love competition. I need competition. I need the nerves and I need the being behind on ball three and needing to really work to get that multiple to be able to, you know, to beat my friend or beat my opponent. And just playing alone, I don't know, it was okay. But I think now that hopefully the pandemic is a bit, it's becoming a bit more safer to invite friends over, like not many, but, you know, one or two friends. That could be a very cool thing to stream because you get the competition and you get the interaction. Sure. There are other options to the ICR, which is a big part of IFPA. The challenge matches. Those are interesting, too. So there are Zoom calls that you can do where you can challenge people that way and get that kind of competitive bug to fill that need. You mentioned what you did with Jack Danger on the Iron Maiden Challenge. I mean, that was quite impressive as well. And I've had different people tell me how they are getting that competitive fix. And I started doing something. I had a guy named Howard Dobson on a program just a little while ago, and he kind of set up his own pin golf in a way, kind of almost like a solitaire pin golf competition thing where you basically try to better yourself. One of the things I find I enjoy about going to tournaments when they will come back is when you're in a pump and dump or when you're in the old pop a ticket format. So pick a bank of games, let's say four games, and you only get one crack at each of them and try to put up a good score. Or maybe it's an objective like pin golf. And you just try to beat those. You get that kind of pressure feeling again that we enjoy when we're playing competitive pinball. Even though you're by yourself, it's still there. So maybe some options for you, and maybe when you get up and do some Drain Morton on Twitch, maybe some things you can consider. Yeah, it's true. It's much down to the creativity. I've listened to many of the Final Round podcasts, and you and Marty have been talking about actually having a physical versus digital tournament. I see our challenge. I was playing on pinball FX or pinball arcade, and that's very creative and very cool that it's actually possible to do that. Personally, I think I'm a bit, I wouldn't say old school because I'm a bit too young for that, I guess. But I mean, I like competitions to be, and I'm overthinking the whole, I mean, ICR is about keeping pinball still fun and keeping the interaction up in a crisis, which we are in right now. But I'm very easily going into the, you know, like each pinball machine has to be, you know, set up the same and it has to be the same for every player. Yeah that true when you in an actual physical live competition but we can have that right now But can you do this with your own games I know you mentioned Game of Thrones You have KISS as well Do you set your games up a little more difficult so that when you go to a competition, you're not surprised when they play a little tougher, maybe rubbers are off or tilt settings are a little tighter or ball saves are a little less? What do you do with your games? Oh, my friends hate me and my club mates hate me, yeah. I mean, when I'm buying a new game or acquiring a new game, the first thing I'm doing is opening the outlanes, removing rubbers, tightening the tilt, removing ball save. But I need that in order to get the excitement. But the problem is that, I mean, behind me now in my room here at home, I have like Game of Thrones Pro, Iron Maiden, and Walking Dead Premium. Okay, I made the wizard mode on Game of Thrones the day after I streamed it, actually. Ironically, but I mean, on Iron Maiden and Walking Dead, I haven't been close to the wizard mode because I'm not putting on extra balls, which is kind of stupid because it's my game. But I feel like the achievement of getting to the end mode is so much bigger when you know you've done it without any, you know, assists. Maybe I'm a bit tournament damaged when it comes to that, but I believe that the harder the machine is, the better you will be suited for actual tournaments. I agree completely. It's just during this pandemic, I've kind of, okay, I can't really go anywhere. So I have actually gone the other way and not really changed the tilts. Tilts I've kept the same, but as far as ball saves, extra balls, things like that, I've turned them back on just to see how deep I can get into games. So I know once we start opening up, I'm going to have to go back the other way, but it's just really to explore the depth of the games that I have. And I've enjoyed it. It's fun. and also challenging myself not to be so much score-based, but really shot-based and trying to do other things as opposed to what's the best way to maximize the score. In a lot of games, there are one or two or three shots, and that's all you focus in on. Well, if you look at most playfields, there's probably seven, eight, nine shots. And how many competitive players ignore five or six of them? I'm trying not to ignore them and taking riskier shots. And anyway, we'll see how that turns out once we get back to competitive play. But you mentioned final round and different ways of playing. One thing we did on final round, and that's where we talked the last time, was we did the Pinberg Challenge. We couldn't have everyone together, certainly not a thousand people in Pittsburgh, but we put a bunch of people on that Pinberg Challenge. And you were the only person from Europe. And my goodness, it was like four in the morning, but you were a trooper. You were there to play. And it was a lot of fun. I appreciate you coming on for that. You know, that's what we're seeing a lot of people do, do kind of some trivia challenges on Kahoot or some of the other discords and things out there. We're finding ways to certainly mingle virtually, if we can, and kind of keep that pinball spirit alive. Is there any of that in Norway? Not as much. I am not aware of that much, actually. Now that the bars started, you know, they were closed for a while, but now they have opened again. So I know many of the players living in Oslo, they are starting to go out to tilt again and playing pinball, which is a good thing for the business and keeping the place alive. But I haven't seen much other activity besides that. I mean, currently we're still in the phase of moving into and getting our new club set up. So I'm spending more time at the club fixing my endless row of machines not working. You know, there's always things to fix. And if not with the machines, then with the actual room, like lightning or tidying or everything. That's one thing we've decided to do here during this COVID-19 pandemic is learn other trades, if you will, learn other skills. And the one skill I need to learn a lot is any kind of electrical trades or any kind of ways of fixing some of these machines. So we're starting some courses on that. And I don't know what your skill set is, but it's kind of a must when you own pinball machines to know a little bit about electronics. Yeah, that's totally true. My first machine, I bought that in 2014. After going back and forth a while, like what game should I choose and saving the money, I ended up buying, behold, a Sega Goldeneye. Oh, wow. Which, in my opinion, is a very underrated Sega machine. I agree. It's got modes. It's got multiball. It has a lot of flow and combos, and I really, really liked that game. One of the first things I had to do was change the EEPROM to get the latest software. I was taking this screwdriver and trying to get the EEPROM out from its socket, but I was very afraid of damaging the machine, so I really freaked out and posted on Pinside, like, it's totally stuck, I'm never getting it out, what can I do? But, of course, it was just to actually use a bit more force. But that's the great thing about Pinside, is that you do get a lot of help there when you post on there. That's one of my favorite things about the forums. I know there's a lot of negativity and stuff, but not when it comes to game help and information. Great resource. Yeah, absolutely. I've spent a lot of time on the EM forums with my EM games. People there are so helpful. And also, there was a time I was struggling with my C-Ray. Have you played that one? C-Ray? I know Stingray. No, I don't know that one. It's an amazing machine with really cool artwork. It's got depressed fishes all over. Yeah, it's really brutal and fantastic. But I got the machine at the point I gave up, so it was standing like one whole year in storage until I finally got the balls to actually post on Pinsight and get some help. It was a guy on Pinsight called Howard. I don't remember more than that, but his name was Howard, and he offered to call me on Skype. And I had this live Skype session with him while troubleshooting the machine. And in the end, we discovered that the problem was a motor score switch, 8D. It was a little bit out of adjustment, and that fixed everything. So that's the beauty and the horror of electromechanical pinball machines, I would say. It's right in front of you, but you still need to be able to troubleshoot to find that one switch. And you just gave a perfect example. I bet you somebody at home listening right now or in their car is going, I've got a machine that's been idle for a long time. I'm afraid to tackle it. Well, there's a good path on how to fix a pinball machine and keep it in the rotation and certainly get a lot of enjoyment out of it. Morten, I've really enjoyed talking to you, and I certainly wish the best to you and everybody in Norway. I look forward to seeing you at IFPA 17 when that happens. And all the best to you and your countrymates. Thank you. It's been a real pleasure being here on Pinball Profile. And I'm sure we'll meet again very quickly after the pandemic is over or as soon as it's possible to play tournaments internationally again. Well, I certainly have to say Europe is my second favorite place, my home away from home and a place I love to go to. I have not been to Norway, haven't been to Sweden, so I might be looking for a tour guide in the near future once we're able to travel again. Yeah, absolutely. When you're coming to Oslo, I'll make sure to take you to our club and we'll have some challenges and buy you some beer. And also we got a drop by Tilt, the barcade in Oslo, as mentioned. It's a real good experience. See, with an invite like that, how can I not show up in Norway in the near future? It's going to happen. Thank you very much, Morten. All the best to you, buddy. Thank you. Bye. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find everything on pinballprofile.com. Check out our Facebook group as well. We're also on Twitter and Instagram at pinballprofile. And you can email us, pinballprofile at gmail.com. I'm Jeff Teolas. you

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