# Triumphant* Return

**Source:** NYC PinPod  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2021-09-13  
**Duration:** 10m 51s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.spreaker.com/episode/triumphant-return--46492903

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## Analysis

NYC Pin Pod, a pinball podcast covering New York City location pinball and tournament results, is being relaunched with Eric Sweetland as the new driving creative force. Benjamin, the original host, is stepping back due to time constraints but will contribute occasionally. The revamped show will maintain core segments (Ball One results/calendar, Ball Three essays) while reimagining the labor-intensive Ball Two venue reviews, with Lauren Lawrence and Theatre of Magic Milburn joining as collaborators. The podcast will resume coverage as Pinball NYC Team League and WPPR tournaments restart.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Team League is coming back and competitive pinball is coming back in NYC with WPPR approvals — _Eric Sweetland opening statement about the timing of NYC Pin Pod's revival_
- [HIGH] Lauren Lawrence and Theatre of Magic Milburn have committed to help contribute to NYC Pin Pod — _Eric explicitly states he has spoken to these collaborators and they are excited to join_
- [HIGH] The Ball Two segment (venue reviews) was the most time-consuming aspect of the original podcast — _Eric describes it as 'so much work' and calls for collaborators to help with venue reviews_
- [MEDIUM] NYC Pin Pod covered Orange County pinball results initially, suggesting broader regional scope than NYC alone — _Benjamin mentions Tim Sexton conversation about 'Orange County pinball results' when starting NYC Pin Pod_

### Notable Quotes

> "Team League is coming back. Competitive pinball is coming back. WPPR (World Pinball Player Rankings) are being approved again."
> — **Eric Sweetland**, early in episode
> _Sets context for NYC Pin Pod's revival timing; competitive pinball infrastructure in NYC restarting_

> "If you're doing a project like this, a media project for the internet, just do it for yourself. And if it's good for you, it's going to be good."
> — **Tim Sexton (quoted by Benjamin)**, near end of episode
> _Advice to Eric about maintaining authentic motivation for podcast; credited as best advice Benjamin received when starting original NYC Pin Pod_

> "No matter your gender, keep your balls on the table."
> — **Eric Sweetland**, final sign-off
> _Original NYC Pin Pod sign-off; Eric recalls it 'with some embarrassment' but delivers as requested closure_

> "I'd like to encourage those other people to contact me, Benjamin, or the podcast email address... nycpinpod at gmail.com"
> — **Eric Sweetland**, mid-episode
> _Call for volunteer contributors for venue reviews and other content; establishes email as contact point_

> "I'm totally flattered by the possibility that people were excited enough to say, you know what, we want to do at least some of this."
> — **Benjamin**, mid-episode
> _Benjamin's gratitude for community interest in continuing the podcast despite his reduced involvement_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| NYC Pin Pod | product | Podcast covering New York City and surrounding area pinball, location reviews, tournament results, and WPPR rankings; being relaunched with new leadership |
| Eric Sweetland | person | Pinball community member taking over as primary creative force and host of relaunched NYC Pin Pod; securing collaborators and reimagining show format |
| Benjamin | person | Original creator and host of NYC Pin Pod; stepping back due to time constraints but remaining as occasional contributor and technical support |
| Lauren Lawrence | person | Pinball community member committing to contribute to revived NYC Pin Pod |
| Theatre of Magic Milburn | person | Pinball community member excited about contributing to NYC Pin Pod's continuation |
| Tim Sexton | person | Pinball community figure who gave Benjamin advice about doing projects authentically when NYC Pin Pod was first launched; quoted as inspirational guidance |
| Pinball NYC Team League | event | Competitive pinball team league in NYC that is restarting; will be primary source of content for NYC Pin Pod 2.0 |
| IFPA | organization | International Flipper Pinball Association; WPPR tournament approvals and results to be covered by revived NYC Pin Pod |
| WPPR | organization | World Pinball Player Rankings; rankings being approved again as tournaments resume; will be covered in Ball One segment of NYC Pin Pod |

### Topics

- **Primary:** NYC Pin Pod Revival, Leadership Transition / Editorial Handoff, Pinball NYC Team League Restart, Podcast Format and Segment Redesign
- **Secondary:** Community Collaboration and Volunteer Contributors, Competitive Pinball Infrastructure in NYC

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.85) — Upbeat, celebratory tone about podcast revival; genuine gratitude exchanged between Benjamin and Eric; enthusiasm expressed by incoming collaborators. Eric optimistic about revamped format and community contributions. No negative sentiment detected; discussion is constructive and forward-looking.

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** NYC Pin Pod relaunching as collaborative, distributed effort with multiple community contributors (Lauren Lawrence, Theatre of Magic Milburn) stepping in to sustain weekly podcast coverage of local tournaments and venues (confidence: high) — Eric states 'I can say I talked to at least a couple of collaborators who are excited to join in' and Lauren Lawrence and Theatre of Magic Milburn have explicitly committed to help contribute
- **[event_signal]** Pinball NYC Team League restarting immediately (matches beginning next day) with WPPR approvals being reinstated; indicates return of competitive pinball infrastructure in NYC after period of inactivity (confidence: high) — Eric: 'Team League is coming back. Competitive pinball is coming back. WPPR (World Pinball Player Rankings) are being approved again' and 'we get ready for the beginning of Pinball NYC starting tomorrow'
- **[community_signal]** Benjamin transitioning from primary host/creator role to occasional contributor and technical support; Eric Sweetland assuming primary creative and hosting responsibilities for NYC Pin Pod (confidence: high) — Benjamin: 'Eric is going to be the driving and creative force and a voice that you'll hear a lot more' and agreement that Eric will be primary respondent to podcast email
- **[product_strategy]** NYC Pin Pod 2.0 redesigning Ball Two segment (venue reviews) from weekly in-depth format to occasional reviews combined with separated strategy content, reducing creator burden while maintaining core value (confidence: high) — Eric: 'we could reimagine a Ball Two segment that might involve less work...Those could be separated into different sorts of things, and we could have occasional location reviews. We could also have occasional strategy tips.'

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## Transcript

 I Happy Sunday, pinfolk, or whatever day you're listening. This is NYC Pin Pod, in which a dude talks location pinball, or actually, in which not just this dude talk location pinball in New York City and nearby surrounding areas. That's part of what I'm here to talk about today. Eric Sweetland is with me, and he is going to talk about the future of NYC Pin Pod. I'm not saying I won't be involved at all, But I think Eric is going to be the driving and creative force and a voice that you'll hear a lot more. Eric, tell us about what NYC Pin Pod, how you envision NYC Pin Pod from here, please. All right. Thank you, Benjamin. Yeah, well, Team League is coming back. Competitive pinball is coming back. Whoppers are being approved again. And what I was really looking to find out was if NYC Pin Pod would come back. because it was like a primary source of information for hearing about how stuff was going in New York City and the nearby surrounding area. So in my conversation with you, Benjamin, learned that you weren't exactly going to be putting in the great amount of time that you were doing, bringing it to us every week. And I expressed that I would like to help bring NYC Pin Pod back. Which, incidentally, I'm sorry to interrupt, but incidentally was very gratifying for me. Thank you for that, too. But please, you're saying. Yeah, so I had started having a couple conversations with some other people and determined that maybe this could be a collaborative effort to keep bringing NYC Pin Pod weekly with results from Pinball NYC Team League and all of the IFPA tournaments around. that's uh that's a big part of what excited me about it i've always loved the ball one segment that you did with the results and the upcoming calendar and then uh all of the extra parts of the podcast is where i was like oh boy i think i might need some help here and so uh i can say i talked to at least a couple of collaborators who are excited to join in Lauren Lawrence has said that she happy to help contribute. And I also talked to Tom Milburn, who's excited about the podcast continuing. And so the future of NYC Pin Pod is at least I and a couple other people are committing to bringing results and the ongoing calendar and hopefully some uh occasional thoughtful essays as in the the ball three segments from nyc pin pods of the past those were always great benjamin's thoughtful essays were like so good uh i don't know that i can come up with those all the time and hopefully some other people can come up with those we're going to be open to anyone joining us to keep this ongoing. That actually turns it from maybe an editorial to an op-ed at that point segment, right? Yeah, that's an interesting way of putting it. Yeah, for sure. And I do know that one of the most time-consuming things that went on with NYC Pin Pod was the Ball 2 segment in which Benjamin would visit a different venue every week, gave a very detailed critique of their interior decor, and their unnecessarily gendered bathrooms if they existed, but also would run through the pinball lineup at that bar and give strategic tips on how to play those pinballs. It was great material, but that is so much work. And so I really want to put a call out. If other people really loved those location reviews, I'd like to encourage those other people to contact me, Benjamin, the podcast email address? Oh, yeah, it's nycpinpod at gmail.com. And you will reach... It's not that I probably won't see that because I imagine that a phone will probably notify me of it until that email address is uncovered by future civilizations. But I will not be the primary person probably who responds to that or sees that. I imagine Eric will be that. That is one of the many handover things here. Yeah, that's great. So yes, encourage people to contact through that email address or any other methods you might find of finding NYC Pinpot on various social medias. Or if you know any of my contact points, let me know. Join in for venue reviews Join in with your op Help out by sending in results from various matches you might be involved in Let me know about your upcoming events. I want to keep all of this stuff going. And I especially want to find a diverse set of contributors to NYC Pin Pod's second life. Yeah, amen to that. Yeah, I like to hear that. I will say, Eric, thank you for gushing about me. Flattery will get you everywhere. But I appreciate, I'm totally flattered by the possibility that people were excited enough to say, you know what, we got to do at least some of this. And I appreciate it. I did, to be fair, I did put in some time, but also when you say like, you know, and I gave you tips about how to play the game, to be fair, most of those tips were probably something that you taught me or that at least you and I had talked out at some point. So I don't, let's not pretend that you can't be a source for that kind of information about games. all right i'll cop to that and in fact that um you know we could reimagine a ball two segment that might involve less work it's you know it was sort of a an alchemy of location review and game strategy tips those could be separated into different sorts of things and we could have occasional location reviews we could also have occasional strategy tips sure uh If people out there have ideas about how you want to hear those things, please let me, let us, collectively, the group of us who are going to bring NYC Pinpod ongoing, let us know. Indeed. Is there anything else that you want to say about the future life of NYC Pinpod? I've been thinking of it as NYC Pinpod 2.0, but I don't want to brand it that way for you. uh that's it is yours to brand as John Youssi fit that's the closest to the term i've been using in my head in thinking about it so you know that works fine enough but uh i want to say you know this right here is this is an off-the-cuff discussion as we get ready for the beginning of pinball nyc starting tomorrow yeah there's already there's already details and things that could be interesting to talk about with team shuffling and bar shuffling and things like that But I don want to get into those weeds tonight That the sort of thing that will be coming when we get the results from the first set of matches tomorrow Monday and then on Tuesday And I start putting together what all is going to go into that first detailed report. Sure. Sure. Excellent. Well, I want to wish you the greatest luck and also let you know that I will be listening. And, you know, as I've told you, I'm happy to sort of help out as best I can with technical things or, you know, if I've got a burning something to yap about for what would have been a ball three segment or, you know, an op ed, an editorial, however you'd like to refer to that. I will maybe send you a note and say, hey, I got something to get off my chest. but short of that I want to wish you the greatest of luck and also say to you exactly what what Timmy Sexton said to me when I reached out to him at the beginning of this when I started NYC Pin Pod and was like hey I need somewhere to get Orange County pinball results and told him what I was up to and he said hey man I want to say something to you about this that someone said to me and it's the best thing anyone told me about it. If you're doing a project like this, a media project for the internet, just do it for yourself. And if it's good for you, it's going to be good. And I think I want to say that to you specifically because, you know, I know that you will do exactly what you, you will do the thing that you want to do and that will be the right thing. And I hope that, you know, in finding collaborators that you can all find a way to do that as well. And frankly, I hope to return as a collaborator from time to time. Yeah, that's great advice from Tim. And thank you, Benjamin, for hopefully some future contributions for the technical help that I know will be bringing you up on, taking you up on, and also for the entirety of NYC Pinpod 1.0 that got us excited enough to want to see this continue. Well, thank you. I don't exactly continue. I don't exactly remember, but was there a specific classic sign-off from NYC Pinpod and could you give it to us now? Oh, I hadn't thought about this in a long time. I'm actually a little bit embarrassed about this, but I will. I just have to remember the exact wording. No matter your gender, keep your balls on the table.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: d8bbebc6-4b5d-47c3-8ab8-9cfd7f20988b*