# SDTM Competitive Pinball: 2019 Pincinnati Pinball Matchplay Tournament **Source:** Straight Down the Middle **Type:** video **Published:** 2019-11-25 **Duration:** 716m 13s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyMXrL_kHLQ --- ## Analysis Live commentary from the 2019 Pincinnati Pinball Matchplay Tournament Day 2, featuring an 76-player competitive event with match play qualifying (8 rounds), followed by A and B division finals. Hosts discuss tournament format (7531 scoring, group play progression), the innovative wireless mobile camera rig built by Eric Wartenberger, and recap the previous day's women's tournament which featured a rare points tie in Big Guns. The broadcast emphasizes accessibility, diverse machine selection (EM, solid-state, modern), and community engagement. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] 76 players registered for the 2019 Pincinnati Matchplay Tournament — _Straight Down the Middle hosts discussing live player count during setup_ - [HIGH] Tournament uses 8 rounds of qualifying with 7531 point-based scoring, then splits into A division (top 16) and B division (17-24) — _Hosts explaining tournament structure and rules to chat/viewers_ - [HIGH] A rare points tie occurred in Big Guns during the previous day's women's tournament finals — _Hosts discussing the statistical improbability of ties, referencing Big Guns as a System 11 solid-state game where players tied on a single-ball playoff_ - [HIGH] Keith Elwin is fourth on the waiting list for the tournament and may play if spots open — _Host stating 'Keith is fourth on the waiting list. I know he's hoping to play.'_ - [HIGH] Eric Wartenberger built a mobile wireless camera rig with three cameras, microphone, and all wireless transmission — _Hosts discussing the technical setup and praising Eric's engineering of the portable rig_ - [HIGH] Carl D'Angelo of IE Pinball on Twitch pioneered the wireless streaming rig format about 1.5 years prior, which Eric and others replicated — _Host crediting Carl D'Angelo: 'Carl D'Angelo of IE Pinball on Twitch. He was kind of the person that first started this setup probably about a year and a half ago.'_ - [MEDIUM] Maya played approximately 13 games of pinball over 6 hours to reach the women's tournament finals — _Hosts discussing Maya's path through qualifying rounds and finals in the Amazing Race format_ - [HIGH] Jane Verweis is now a two-time women's champion after winning the 2019 Pincinnati women's tournament — _Host stating 'Jane Verweis are now twotime women's champion. Yes. So, congratulations for her on that.'_ - [HIGH] Finals banks feature one old machine (EM), one mid-range machine (1980s or late 1970s), and one modern machine (1990s DMD or newer) per three-game group — _Hosts discussing the finals format and machine curation strategy_ - [MEDIUM] The previous day's coverage lasted approximately 34.5 hours of continuous streaming — _Hosts joking about attempting to match 37 hours, saying 'Got to 34 and a half, maybe. 34 and 12.'_ ### Notable Quotes > "So, this is very similar to what we've seen previously in his Northern Kentucky Open uh the tournament last year as well. So, think of it a little bit like three different tournaments." > — **Host (Scott or Justin Masterson)**, Early in content > _Explains the three-part tournament structure (qualifying, A division, B division) to viewers unfamiliar with match play format_ > "He's a stern designer and a top 10 player and he's on that weight list. He designed one of the machines in the tournament and he still doesn't get into the tournament because this is it's first come first serve and it is no preferential treatment. It's for everybody." > — **Host discussing Keith Elwin**, Mid content > _Highlights the egalitarian nature of the tournament, emphasizing that even prominent industry figures must wait like everyone else_ > "If you gave me a week and a a partner to try and reproduce that trying to tie, I couldn't do it. You gave me a month. I don't think I could do it." > — **Host discussing the rare points tie in Big Guns**, Early-mid content > _Conveys the statistical improbability of a points tie in a modern solid-state machine_ > "Every year, if you go and look at the Pinberg standings, and that's one of the most complex pinball tournaments in the world. It is the most complex pinball tournament in the world." > — **Host referencing Elizabeth Cromwell and Pinberg**, Mid content > _Establishes Pinberg as the benchmark for complex tournament structures in pinball_ > "You know, we've got enough juice here we probably could stream wirelessly for 36 hours on that rig just with battery power." > — **Host discussing the power setup for the wireless rig**, Mid content > _Details the technical infrastructure supporting the marathon streaming effort_ > "And that was 13 just in the actual amazing race. Yeah, there were nine games in qualifying. if you count her two uh qualifying rounds, right?" > — **Host discussing Maya's tournament path**, Mid-late content > _Illustrates the endurance and mental demands of the Amazing Race format_ > "imagine, so if if you're in bank six, and you come in and you're like, 'Look, World Cup soccer is my jam.' Yeah. What are the odds that you're going to play World Cup soccer and Sweethearts, which is an old single player EM, right? You can't." > — **Host discussing finals bank design**, Late content > _Explains the philosophy behind mixed-era machine banks to prevent specialist play_ > "So, we're taking our cues from you on, hey, did we get a rule wrong? Can you give us more information about the machine? We are not necessarily experts on every machine." > — **Host addressing chat/streamers**, Mid content > _Demonstrates community collaboration in live tournament coverage and rule adjudication_ > "And the competitors feel the same way. I can't tell you how many times, especially like Tim Ston um was was very much guilty of this. And I say guilty in the best possible way. When his ball was done, he didn't stay around the machine." > — **Host discussing viewer engagement at tournaments**, Mid-late content > _Shows how tournament broadcasts become a learning tool for competitors themselves_ > "So, it's like there was nothing else going on. you know, you were watching this, you know, the women had everybody's full attention as they should." > — **Host reflecting on the women's tournament finals**, Mid content > _Captures the intensity and engagement of the tournament experience, even at 2 AM_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Eric Wartenberger | person | Tournament director for Pincinnati 2019; built innovative wireless mobile camera rig for streaming | | Justin Masterson | person | Co-host of Straight Down the Middle, appears to be at tournament venue | | Keith Elwin | person | Stern designer and top-ranked player; fourth on waiting list for tournament entry | | Jane Verweis | person | Chicago pinball player; two-time women's champion (including 2019 Pincinnati); finalist against Maya | | Maya | person | Competitor in 2019 Pincinnati women's tournament; reached finals after 6+ hours of play | | Tim Ston | person | Winner of 2019 Pincinnati Day 1 tournament; engaged viewer of tournament streams | | Carl D'Angelo | person | Operator of IE Pinball on Twitch; pioneered wireless pinball streaming rig setup ~1.5 years prior | | John Delapo | person | Potential top-100 ranked player; tournament rule exception: cannot win B division prize money if seeded there | | Elizabeth Cromwell | person | Director of Pinberg tournament; runs Replay FX | | Bo Pendleton | person | Representative from Tilt Amusements; competing in 2019 Pincinnati tournament | | 2019 Pincinnati Pinball Matchplay Tournament | event | 76-player competitive pinball tournament with match play format; Day 2 coverage in this broadcast | | Pinberg Tournament | event | Described as the most complex pinball tournament in the world; 10 rounds, 40 games, ~1,000 players; reference point for tie frequency | | Northern Kentucky Open | event | Prior tournament with similar three-part format (qualifying, A division, B division) | | Straight Down the Middle | organization | Pinball streaming show/podcast; providing live coverage of 2019 Pincinnati | | Arcade Legacy | organization | Cincinnati-based arcade/bar chain; sponsor of Pincinnati; where one host got their pinball start | | Tilt Amusements | organization | Pinball distributor based in Delaware, Ohio; sponsor of Pincinnati | | Pin Stadium Lights | organization | Cincinnati-based manufacturer of speaker light kits; sponsor with booth at Pincinnati | | IE Pinball | organization | Twitch streaming channel run by Carl D'Angelo; pioneered wireless rig format | | Stern Pinball | company | Manufacturer; Keith Elwin is a designer for Stern | | Big Guns | game | Williams System 11 solid-state machine; featured rare points tie during women's tournament | | World Cup Soccer | game | Modern machine used as example in finals bank discussion | | Sweethearts | game | Electromechanical single-player game; used in finals bank as 'leveler' machine | | Fast Draw | game | Old electromechanical machine; new addition to 2019 Pincinnati finals banks | | Game of Thrones | game | Modern pinball machine where coverage was parked at end of Day 1 | | Chicago pinball community | organization | Strong representation at 2019 Pincinnati including Jane Verweis, Aaron (last name not given), and others | ### Topics - **Primary:** Match play tournament format and rules, Wireless streaming technology and infrastructure for live pinball coverage, Women's pinball tournament and Amazing Race format, Machine diversity and multi-era gameplay (EM, mid-range, modern) - **Secondary:** Statistical rarity of tied scores in solid-state pinball, Tournament accessibility and egalitarian rule-making, Pinberg as benchmark tournament structure, Community engagement in live tournament commentary ### Sentiment **Positive** (0.85) — Enthusiastic, celebratory tone throughout. Hosts express genuine excitement about tournament structure, community participation, technical innovation, and competitive play. Warm acknowledgment of sponsors, volunteers, and especially the women's tournament performance. Minor frustrations about technical issues (camera shake, microphone pickup) are quickly resolved and treated matter-of-factly. ### Signals - **[event_signal]** Live coverage of 2019 Pincinnati Pinball Matchplay Tournament Day 2 with 76 players, match play format (8 qualifying rounds), A/B division finals (confidence: high) — Detailed discussion of tournament structure, player counts, format mechanics, rules enforcement - **[technology_signal]** Innovative wireless mobile camera rig built by Eric Wartenberger with three wireless cameras, microphone, battery power system capable of 36+ hours of operation (confidence: high) — Detailed technical discussion of rig components, battery stacks, wireless transmission, comparison to Carl D'Angelo's IE Pinball setup - **[community_signal]** Strong participation growth with 76 players and enthusiastic engagement from regional communities, particularly Chicago pinball scene (confidence: high) — Hosts noting Chicago representation, discussing multiple participants from same region, referencing prior year's Northern Kentucky Open - **[gameplay_signal]** Finals format deliberately mixes machine eras (EM, 1980s, modern DMD) to require diverse skill sets and prevent specialist dominance (confidence: high) — Detailed explanation of bank structure with examples: World Cup Soccer, Sweethearts, Fast Draw representing different eras/styles - **[competitive_signal]** 7531 point-based scoring system creates potential for ties; rare but documented (7-way tie in women's qualifying); playoff rules established for tiebreakers (confidence: high) — Extended discussion of Big Guns playoff tie, Pinberg tie statistics, explanation of tiebreaker procedures - **[venue_signal]** Pincinnati hosts multiple game banks suitable for tournament play across different eras; venue accommodates 76+ players simultaneously with dedicated tournament setup (confidence: high) — Discussion of multiple machine banks, switching capability between games, tournament bank specifications - **[content_signal]** Straight Down the Middle producing marathon live coverage (34.5+ hours Day 1, continuing Day 2) with real-time chat interaction for rule clarification and community engagement (confidence: high) — Hosts acknowledging chat contributions (Loader Breath, others), requesting community expertise on machine rules, discussing streaming duration - **[personnel_signal]** Keith Elwin (Stern designer, top-10 player) on waiting list for tournament entry, subject to same first-come-first-serve rules as other participants (confidence: high) — Host noting Elwin's status as designer and top player, emphasizing egalitarian tournament access policy - **[sentiment_shift]** Strong positive reception to women's tournament, with hosts expressing particular enthusiasm for late-night finals energy and competitive quality (confidence: high) — Hosts recalling 2 AM finals as most fun moment, discussing Maya's 6+ hour endurance, celebrating Jane Verweis as two-time champion - **[historical_signal]** Amazing Race format gaining traction nationally; previously primarily used in Ohio tournaments, now expanding to multi-state tournaments (confidence: medium) — Host noting 'new one' for Amazing Race, stating 'something we've done in Ohio on a very regular basis, and we're love the fact it's starting to, you know, get some traction around the country' - **[market_signal]** Multiple local and regional sponsors supporting tournament infrastructure: Pin Stadium Lights, Arcade Legacy, Tilt Amusements; distributors and operators actively involved (confidence: high) — Listing of sponsors, discussion of sponsor booths and representation (Bo Pendleton from Tilt) - **[design_innovation]** Deliberate inclusion of 'leveler' machines (Sweethearts, Surf Champ, Grand Prix) designed to reset competitive advantage and require adaptive play (confidence: high) — Host explaining leveler concept: 'these sort of leveler machines like like sweethearts that just they and Grand Prix is another one where they just kind of reset you' --- ## Transcript Morning, Scott. How are you? [Music] This morning, ready to dive back in. I I could not wait. I I wasn't quite sure I had I had Yeah, but there's like six holes up there. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Should we do something really dangerous here? Put us on. Yeah, that's dangerous. Let me here. Let me adjust this camera. Yeah, that sounds good. Watch as Justin Masterson does all the things with the See, that was highly technical. Yeah, I'm going to have to charge labor dollars for that. Uh oh, man. I'm glad I didn't wear my Cincinnati shirt today. That would have been embarrassing. Yeah, I know. What are the odds? Actually, I I have it over there and was going to put it on, but now I can't. Now it's too much. It's too matchy matchy. What shirt are you wearing today? This is uh from Labowski Fest, a now defunct Big Labowski festival in Louisville. Oh, okay. And uh it was so much fun. It sounds I mean it sounds fun. Yeah, it was. So, at one point uh my favorite activity was they had the exact car that Labowski drives. Uh-huh. Uh not the one from the movie, but the exact model. A replica painted green. And then um you got in that car and from the passenger seat, you had to fling dirty a bag a bowling bag of dirty undies onto a mannequin of a nihilist. And it was tricky, but if you hit him, you got like 50 bucks. Oh, heck yeah. Yeah. So, not only do you get to really live Big Mowski, you get money to do it. You can even get money for it. You get paid. It turns out nobody did. It's very, very hard. But, but you could you had the opportunity. And just the fact you have the opportunity says it's worth it. Yes. So, we're back. We're back. Cincinnati day two. We were on what uh 10 hours ago. Yep. If I believe my math is correct. We were on four 11 hours. 10 hours ago. 11 hours. about how we did about 11 hours long. 11 hours long. 10 hours. 10 hours ago. Yeah. So, we were on, but you can imagine how it would be if you didn't. That's right. You totally can. Yeah. We're back on. So, uh today is the match play tournament. Yep. Um I believe the number of people we're looking at right now is 76. Uh if we get everybody checking in, I'm watching the number grow as we speak on match play. Uh let me pop that matchplay link into chat for you guys today. There it is right there. We'll have another match play link when we get to A division finals and B division finals. Um I believe not having looked at the rule set in a minute or so, I believe we're looking at eight rounds of group play today. Okay. Um probably a 7531. I will verify all of that for you. Yeah, we'll bring Eric over to check in on that. But yeah, we will. And then I think we're going to have an A division and a B division. Um so this is very similar to what we've seen previously in his Northern Kentucky Open uh the tournament last year as well. So, think of it a little bit like three different tournaments. So, you've got you've got your qualifying, which is one, which is one, which and again, for those who don't uh play pinball tournaments, match play is when you are matched up with another group of players for a game. Correct. And depending on how you score in that game, your position is what matters. First place, second place, third, and fourth. That's how you award points. Exactly. The the uh better you did. So, if you got first place, you're getting more points. last place, you are getting fewer points or less. That is correct. So that's essentially the idea. And then you get rematched to a new group based on your standing. So you continue to play either harder players if you are doing well or perhaps easier players or players who are not doing as well um if you're not doing well. So it's really nice because what it does is it it pretty quickly tends to sift out so that you're playing players of an approximate skill level or having a similar date to you. Correct. So, so that's number one. Number two, once we are done with everything today, the top 16 players will qualify for A division. Y and the top eight players and the eight players below that 17 through 24 will qualify for B division. Y um the only limitation as far as rules, you know, are, you know, because a lot of these tournaments will have some restrictions as far as if you're too good, you can't play in B. We don't have that. But if you're a top hund player and you make B division, you're not always going to win the prize money from it. You can still play. You can't win the money. Can't win the money. Yeah. Which is, I think, a really great rule. I'm sure it's very frustrating if you happen to be a top 100 player, but it is intended to give players like me a chance. Exactly. Right. Who wouldn't stand a chance against a top 100? And in this case, I think the only potential top 100 players I think that we have here, I don't think James Scott is in the top 100. I It was close. Nope. Um I know Tim Ston, our winner from yesterday, rocking an Iron Maiden shirt. I just saw him walk in. Pretty He's looking nice. I I like the look. Um I don't believe he was top under. So we might be looking at just John Del Zapo. And Keith Elwin may be playing. Yeah, Keith is fourth on the waiting list. I know he's hoping to play. And um if it happens that four people don't show up, then Keith is in. So he would certainly be one of those top 100 players. So the ultimate proof that these tournaments are really for everybody. They really are first come first serve. is a stern designer and a top 10 player and he's on that weight list. He designed one of the machines in the tournament and he still doesn't get into the tournament because this is it's first come first serve and it is no preferential treatment. It's for everybody. It really really is. So, we're psyched about that. Let me turn that off here. We don't want to have any drop frames. So, we talked about the qualifiers and then we divide into the A and B. And you will see if you're following on match play that we switch to a different match play link for that. It's a totally different setup for that. Same idea as far as your scoring per game. It's first, second, third, fourth, 7, 531. The way each of the rounds go is you are broken into groups of four based on your seating and then you play three games. So in that sense, if you were watching with us last night and looked at how each round of the women's qualifying went, it's a very similar setup to that except it's one round. you're playing three games and you're um you're you move on or you're eliminated based on that. Top two players in each group move on. The bottom two players do not. So, we will go from 16 to 8 and then down to four. And obviously, when we we have a final four, that is our finals. And in the B division, we just have a semis and a finals, 8 to four. And that's how that will go. Um if there are ties in that um obviously very possible that we see ties as far as points goes. Um we'll have a oneame playoff to see who moves on if it is a a place depending position. Y um so that would even you know be if we have a tie for second and third or first second and third um we would have a playoff for that in the finals if we have any ties whatsoever. Uh we would have a playoff to see who finishes first, second, third and fourth. Yep. So, all of that matters for for prize money, but from a move on perspective, it's top two until you hit the finals at all times. So, we'll do whatever kind of tiebreers we have to make that happen. If there are folks who are thinking, how in the world do you tie in a pinball game? The the the way is because we use points, right? We're not using scores. And so, it may be that you have two people who have the same number of points, three people. Last night, there was a seven-way tie in the women's tournament, but this is where it got really weird. It's normal to have a few people tie. Seven's a lot. It is. And I would expect we're going to see some ties in this because you're only playing three games. Y um and obviously, you know, it's going to be in some sort of multiple of two based on 7531. 21 197 15. You you get how the math kind of works with this. And it's very possible that, you know, we're going to see people tied at 11 or 13 points after three games are played. It's not about your in-game score, as he said. It's about your placement. And you get points based on placement, right? And what happened last night that was really odd for those who tuned in for the women's tournament was not only did we have a tie in that sense. Yeah. But we had this never happens. We had a points tie on a playoff game. I have never seen I I have I've seen it. No, I maybe I have never seen this. To give you an idea of how rare a tie is, I'm going to kind of lean back to Pinberg. And I've asked Elizabeth Cromwell, who is one one of the main directors of the Pinberg tournament, runs Replay FX, about this. Every year, if you go and look at the Pinberg standings, and that's one of the most complex pinball tournaments in the world. It is the most complex pinball tournament in the world. 10 rounds, 12 games per round, or four games per round, I should say. So, you're playing 40 games, a thousand people playing it. Um, and Black, I don't know what the first game is. That's going to kind of be a surprise. We'll see where the random number generator does. See who he wants to focus on here. We'll let you know. Yeah. Um, so literally thousands of games of pinball are being played as part of that tournament and they have tech usually just on points maybe one tie every two years, right? Like you'll see a.5 in there every now and then and that tends to be because someone had to drop out of the tournament. It's usually not because of a score tie. And just as crazy, the score ties tend to happen on older solid electromechanical machines. mechanical real machines. You look at a game like Sweethearts, you might expect a tie because you're literally counting by ones on those scores. Like if you finish with a couple hundred points, that's a decent game, right? Yeah. Almost every time the tie has been in a game like that. Y last night. That was not last night. Last night they were playing big game or sorry, big guns, which is that's a game where you're playing in the hundreds of thousands of points, sometimes millions if you're playing well. It's a system it's a system 11 game. Yeah, it's a William System 11 game. Yeah. um solid state. And so you're you're talking about what are the odds of two players having the exact same score at the end of three balls. It's nuts. Was it three balls or one? Even one. Even one. Even one. I think it was one. Same difference though. The amount of, you know, variation in shots. One switch can make the difference. Your bonus makes the difference. To have a tie in a game like that, you basically have to have two people play almost a mirrored ball, right? you know, hit the exact same switches almost in the same order because that matters too. You saw it last night. If you gave me a week and a a partner to try and reproduce that trying to tie, I couldn't do it. You gave me a month. I don't think I could do it. I mean, really, it's amazing. And that's playing 6 hours a day. That's amazing. So, we are just about ready to start up. You might hear our tournament uh director, Eric Wartenberger, in the background. He's getting things started shortly and we are going to uh figure out which game we're going to start on. One thing I do want to call out is that today we are using a fantastic rig that Eric built. Yes, he did. Um that is totally mobile. So, we're going to be able to switch games just about every round. Instead of being sort of stuck to a game and then waiting for a break, he's going to be he could switch between balls if he wanted to. And we've seen it happen. And we've done it, right? Yeah, we have. All we do is we take this portable rig, we move it down two machines, and we push it back in. Everything is wireless. There's three cameras on the rig. There's a microphone on the rig. It is genius. And I haven't seen another one uh like it before. So, I'm really excited to go back to that today. Uh trust me, every time that I am at one of Eric's shows at his house, I am taking pictures of that rig, even though I probably have a 100 pictures of the rig put away in my iCloud library because I want to take notes. I want to learn how to do that. You know, it's not the cheapest thing in the world to set up, but boy, if I if I have the money and the time to do it, I would love to do that for my own pinball streaming. And and really the wireless rig is where a lot of places are going. Um, you know, shout out to Carl D'Angelo of uh, you know, IE Pinball on Twitch. He was kind of the person that first started this setup probably about a year and a half ago, uh, with equipment and his blueprints have become the format that Eric and a lot of other people use. That's where he got it from to make this happen. That's where he got it. Oh, that's great. Thank you, Carl. So, um, yeah, if you see IE pinball, it's probably going to be a very similar type setup. You see a lot of people do this now. Um, the tech has become affordable enough that, you know, hobbyist enthusiasts like like us can can get some cameras. Really, the really the cameras are the least expensive part of the whole deal, right? You know, you just have to have something that's USB powered, but your transmitters, uh, your capture cards on the back end and enough computing power to handle multiple dig. was the big investment I think was he's been he's been upgrading cards and upgrading computing power just to make this happen. We're talking about all of these video streams simultaneously and wirelessly. Yeah. Takes a lot of juice. Yeah. And I I you have Let Let me Can we grab a few batteries here? You want Can I have some batteries? Yeah. So, we have just stacks of these. There's two. There's I think we have seven over here. Three. I see three more plugged in. Giant USB batteries right here. Y the kind of things that you buy from Monorice that you know they advertise charge your iPhone 17 times or however many times it does. It's not 17. I think it's more like six, which is still stinking impressive. Those are the batteries that are on the rig running the transmitters, running the cameras and everything. So, you know, we've got enough juice here we probably could stream wirelessly for 36 hours on that rig just with battery power. And I think we almost hit 36 hours yesterday. I think we were pretty close. I wish my man Wolf man, he's one of our regulars that comes in chat in in level one and he always says we're cranking it up to 11. And his joke about our our man Carlos laser loss is that Carlos is when he streams he is streaming 37 hours a day and we simply can't compete with that. I think we tried last night. Yeah, we gave it our best shot. I can't beat 37. Wolfman would have been highly proud of our efforts. I really think he would have been. But uh unfortunately we didn't quite hit 37. So, uh, sorry to disappoint him. We We tried. We tried. Got to 34 and a half, maybe. 34 and 12. The half hour matters. The half hour. It was a big difference. Yeah. Actually, that last I will say the last half an hour of last night. So, it's 1:30 in the morning. Scott and I are getting horse from having commentated all day. How do I have a voice right now? Yeah. And it's 1:30 in the morning and we're starting the finals of the women's tournament. And it was from 1:30 to about 1:50 in the morning that I had the most fun of my day. Yeah. Because at that point, most of the show had cleared out. We had closed the show part. We were just doing the tournament and all of a sudden it amped up. We had this magnificent uh set of playoffs, working its way up to the finals. It came down to uh nailbiter on the finals, and I was as energized at at 2:00 a.m. as I was at 2:00 in the afternoon. We just finished um you know and and we we were all a little bit slap happy. We had a great group of people here in the building watching it too. You know the show floor itself had closed but we still had you know operate machine operators that were in here. We had a lot of the players who stuck around to the very end of course Eric tournament organizers. So we probably had 25 people watching that final even though every other machine other than the tournament banks were turned off at that point. So it's like there was nothing else going on. you know, you were watching this, you know, the women had everybody's full attention as they should. Yeah. And it it came down to two players from Chicago and it was I mean it was for me a nailbiter because the So we had um Maya was up against Jane and Jane and they're they're friends they're play they're on the same team in Chicago and Jane uh sorry Maya had started at the bottom of the pack. So there were how many games to get to the end of it? How many games did she have to play? Do you There were 18 games. She wasn't completely at the end of it. So she probably played 11. I would say maybe 13 games of pinball. Yeah. Grant you, not all of them were full games of pinball. But nonetheless, you still have to focus yourself on different machines out of that eight or nine in that bank over and over and over again. You can't get comfortable. And that was 13 just in the actual amazing race. Yeah, there were nine games in qualifying. if you count her two uh qualifying rounds, right? Cuz she started she didn't get a buy in the first qualifying. So, she had been playing pinball, Maya had for 6 hours. Yeah. To get to that final game. That's right. And then Jane came up. Jane won it uh with absolute ferocity. They celebrated together and then it of course it's 2 in the morning so we were like, "Yes, okay, get out everybody." And we all went to bed. We had Jane come over. We talked for about five minutes. I mean, she talked about she's still very much learning and becoming comfortable with the Amazing Race format. It's a new one. It's something we've done in Ohio on a very regular basis, and we're love the fact it's starting to, you know, get some traction around the country. By the way, Aaron Black, thank you for that host. We appreciate it. Yeah. Um, oh, Lra, thank you for watching last night's stream. You were with us all day yesterday. So glad to have you back today. Thank you, Lo Breath. One of our rules experts that we had in chat last night. So helpful. So, it's kind of strange, right? Because we're in this room. I know we look like we're in a dark corner somewhere, but we're in the the big conference room with all these pinball machines, but you guys are our little community here. Like, we can hear and see and converse with you easier than we can with everybody else. So, we're we're taking our cues from you on, hey, did we get a rule wrong? Can you give us more information about the machine? We are not necessarily experts on every machine. So, we had some great help from Loader Breath and some of our other streamers yesterday on and I appreciate it so much. I learned so much. I learn more, I think, watching people play pinball than I do actually playing it myself. Mostly because people are better at pinball than I am. So, I get to see things that I don't necessarily see when I play myself, unless I'm playing virtual pinball. That's right. Which takes away a little bit of the randomness out of the physics that you get on real machines here. Yeah. And I I'll also say that getting to watch from this angle, we get to see a bird's eye view of the game. If you're playing in a tournament, you don't you can't see over the shoulders of the people in front of you. You can't. It changes everything. It changes everything to be able to see. So, I feel like I'm getting a master class on every game that we watch. And the competitors feel the same way. I can't tell you how many times, especially like Tim Ston um was was very much guilty of this. And I say guilty in the best possible way. When his ball was done, he didn't stay around the machine. Obviously, you want to give plenty of space for your players. You know, it's a respect thing that you step away from the machine, you give some space, but a lot of people still stay close enough to the machine that they can see the DMD, they can see the scores. Tim would come over to the TV just to the right of us. I know we're pointing left. Trust me, it's right. Um, thank you. Mirrors. Yeah. Justin Timberlake songs, if you will. What's that? Mirrors. Mirrors. Yeah. I'm not going to sing it for you. No, we don't get to hear you sing. All right. If you guys give a thousand bits today. Oh, okay. Yeah, I'll sing. There's a price for everything. There's a price for everything. Everybody has a price. Deviosi is in Royal Oral, I believe. Oh, nice. Yeah. The Milliondoll Man. Don't worry, I only charge 10 bucks for singing, so it's okay. Um, he would come over to the television set and watch the broadcast to see what's happening with the other players as opposed to saying by the machine. So, people even inside the venue are taking advantage of the local stream of the broadcast to look at it. Load of breath has begun the effort. There is a hundred bits right there. Thank you so much. 900 more and I will sing and embarrass myself on straight down the middle pinball. Um I have no idea if I'm taking requests yet. Um we'll get to that at a at a point in the near future. So you can pay me not to sing. I think it's probably probably a better fundraiser. Um, the bad thing is I always said if I get to 500 followers on my personal Twitch channel, which I have not used in the longest of times, I got to 250, I think. That's pretty good. Um, I I just I haven't had time to string myself personally, that I would do a karaoke stream. So, oh my god. I guess this is my compromise today. If you give 10 bucks in bits, I'll give you maybe a minute of singing or something. So, right now, uh, I'm going to turn up Eric so you can hear him for a minute, but he's basically talking to all of our players, giving them the rules. Let's listen to Eric for just a minute. I don't want them to give everybody the best experience. Oh, he's probably pretty hard to hear from the new thing I came up with. So, please let me know. I don't think that's probably picking up very well. It probably isn't. I did look just for uh the sake of fun. Um our entire Chicago crew that we were talking about, Aaron, uh Jane Jane Verweis are now twotime women's champion. Yes. So, congratulations for her on that. They're all in the tournament today as well. So, Chicago is continuing to represent and uh and show out here. And I have no doubt, you know, they will do quite well today as well. Chicago showed up big time. They did. So, Loader Beth, the format for today is match play and uh it's going to be qualifying first. Eight rounds. Eight rounds of qualifying. 7531 scoring. Yep. And that's going to be is it three games? No, it's single game. Single game. These are singles. Okay. Um and then we're going to obviously award 7531 points for first through fourth place in each game. And then uh points totals will move on. So then we have our uh A division and B division. How many in the A's and how many in the B's? 16 in A, eight in B. Okay. And then uh those folks will also have match play going into the finals. Those will be the three game rounds. Yep. to move on once we hit elimination for A division or B division. Um there are no limitations as far as who can play in what division. The only limitation is if a top 100 player ends up in B division, they can't win cash. Yeah, that's the only thing. So I if say John Delapo ends up in 17th place, comes back and wins B division, he won't get any of the B division money. We'll push that down to second place and let them get it. I would imagine he gets the trophy. I guess we can ask I think you get the trophy. We'll give him the trophy. He he he played to earn a trophy. Yeah. But no money for you. But but no cash for you. All right. John has won more than his share of of money and and he's earned it. He's a damn good player. So we're we're glad to see that. That's why I think yesterday was one of those heartbreakers. Right. Another thing I want to show you guys is and I believe we'll go through this here. Yeah. We'll talk about um player selection, order selection, and bank selection later on. This is something that's really cool for the finals is there are banks for all these machines. You can see a quick change in there that he did for fast draw. Um, every bank that you're going to see in the finals, every three game group has an old machine, a mid m, what we call a mid machine, something from the 80s or very late7s and a modern machine. And in this case, modern can be anything from, you know, '90s Williams, we'll call it a DMD machine or newer. So basically when they pick a machine, they're going to have to play one of each and be proficient at every single type of machine. I love this format. I I love it, too. I mean, imagine, so if if you're in bank six, and you come in and you're like, "Look, World Cup soccer is my jam." Yeah. What are the odds that you're going to play World Cup soccer and Sweethearts, which is an old single player EM, right? You can't. They're two just wildly different play styles. and then Stars, which is a mix of really both of those, place really fast for a for a mid-range machine. So, you've got the speed of a World Cup, but you've got the, you know, the the idiosyncrasies of a classic machine in there, too. A little bit of both. And I I love to see these, we talked about it a little bit yesterday, but these sort of leveler machines like like sweethearts that just they and Grand Prix is another one where they just kind of reset you. Surf Champ is a great leveler where if even if you are just absolutely killing it on AC/DC and you move over to Surf Champ, you have to re you have to level set again. You do cuz it is not going to be the same game. And Fast Draw is our new addition I believe for today. I actually we both played a shared game of that last night when we were not streaming. Uh you played ball one. I think I played ball two. I don't even remember who played ball three, four, and five. All I know is I had a very good ball, too, and I was happy with it before I went and called Veronica because I wanted to catch up and tell her I loved her. Um, she's wonderful. When we get to that one, fast draw, then you're going to have to be our expert cuz I booed ball one. So, you can speak to how to win at fast draw. I will do my best. I did not do well. I I will do my best to talk about the places to get 5,000 points, which is, you know, the magic number on a lot of those old machines. You know, light your shots, get your 5,000 points, and you're in good shape. We'll take it back over here. It's on Game of Thrones right now. Do not assume that we're going to be on Game of Thrones, however. So, that could change. I think that's just where we left it last night at the end of the women's tournament. Eric is getting ready to hit the big red button to to say go. So, if you're looking at the bottom of the screen, you're probably wondering what's all this white space for down here. It's about to fill up. It's about to fill up with all kinds of names and brackets. We might also see this camera move as our first game comes up, but we have to see uh Eric is in charge of choosing who we're watching, so we're going to let him make that that choice. Absolutely. And a reminder for all of you, um hopefully that will not glitch when we move it. That simply could be a little bit of a transmitter issue. Um I didn't mean Oh, thanks for pointing that out. I didn't notice a glitch. So, thanks for pointing that out. Yeah, it's not drastic, but there's enough of a movement with it that we can Yeah, we're talking about the shake there. The shakiness cuz no one's playing it right now or they're letting it drain. Yeah, that is confusing because it looks like somebody's nudging and they're not. Yeah, it does. We'll have Eric look at that and we'll see how it looks once it moves. Yeah, thanks for pointing it out. I hope nobody gets seasick in the meantime. Yeah, we don't want that. If it continues once we move the machine, we'll um we'll maybe have him reset up the transmission. Yep. Um that's something he can do probably independent of our stream efforts here. While we're waiting, switch it off to that so that we save save your uh That's right. We save your vertigo from uh from certain doom. While we're waiting on those brackets, maybe we could talk through some of our sponsors. We should. Oh my goodness. This So, you'll see you'll see our sponsors sort of flashing through here, but we we've said it before, but this thing doesn't happen without volunteers and sponsors. That was not Chuck Vision, by the way. We had to turn that off. The Chuck Vision. Yes. So, here are a few of our sponsors. Pin Stadium Lights base right here in Cincinnati, Ohio. Speaker Light Kits and Speaker Light Kits has a booth here. So, if you happen to be in the area, you're coming to Cincinnati, come check out their work. You can put your hands uh right on their prototypes and their examples. Comet, pinball, lights, LEDs. Uh Arcade Legacy is a series of arcades and bars here in town. And uh actually, Arcade Legacy is where I got my start in pinball. Uh because the Arcade Legacy crew has opened up pinball to so many folks who might not otherwise see it. So, glad to have them as a sponsor. Tilta Amusements. Um, you may know Trent Augustine up in Delaware, Ohio. Trent is a distributor of all kinds of great pins and he's not with us today, but we do have representation from Tilt. Bo Pendleton is here and he is going to be playing in this tournament as well. So, uh, yeah, Bo helps him out. Um, many of the women's players know Deborah Talman, who helps with, uh, Tilt Amusements as well. I'm familiar with all of them being in the Columbus area. Oh, yeah. Great, great bunch of people. Um, and obviously one of the one of the the big the biggest Stern distributor in the country. So, uh, if you need a Stern machine, he is your guy. We've got also What the Flip, which is a fantastic pinball stream that you can tune in for. You may see Lindsay and Kevin in today's tournament who do the What the Flip pinball stream, and Reck Bar down in Louisville. Uh, Rec Bar now, I believe, has two locations, hundreds of pinball machines. They have expanded in massive ways this year. So, we get a chance to uh play with some of the RecBar folks up here. And if you're down in the Louisville area, um go play at Recar. Those are our sponsors. We're going to bring up now our games are starting to post. Our games are up and we are off to the races on this tournament. Pinball Nerds podcast says, "Love watching what the flip." Absolutely. By the way, for our friend's answer as far as the camera right then there is an explanation for what you're seeing. I don't think you're going to love the explanation for what you're seeing. The floor is literally rumbling a little bit. There are so many people over here. The floor is moving. What? The flip is now hosting the channel. Couldn't have timed that any better. I am trying to get the match play up right now. I'm having a little bit of an issue with it. I don't know why it's not letting me pick things. I may have to may have to reset that. Yeah, I'm going to try that here. So, that's all right. We uh we've got plenty of pinball ahead. So, we're going to we're going to keep an eye on both the standings and we're going to move the camera around to a bunch of different games. Right now you happen to be watching Game of Thrones and this is the uh this is the premium model. We've got the the uh upper playfield up there and that upper playfield even just on the skill shot was a game decider last night where we had a number of folks who when we were doing our amazing race format that's better. Oh, we're able to beat the low score just on the skill shot. There's a bunch of points to be had on that upper play field. All right, there we go guys. Sorry about that little bit of a delay there. A lot of breath. It's the Pinberg stage. You're not wrong about that. Oh, was that happening at Pinberg as well? I very well may have been. And yeah, I mean, we've got the majority now of 76 people in a very enclosed space. Basically, all of them are on maybe a 40ft by 10 ft. Yeah. Space right now. You know, it's it's it is a bit of a sardine pack in here. Yeah, it's a little packed over here. So, you know, understand that might be a little bit of what we're dealing with as well. Oh, Nikki Miller rough drain there. Oh, I was saying that from Pinball Nerds podcast. I wish they were playing Earth Shaker. That was my That is the only pinball machine I've ever owned. A Earth Shaker is an Earth Shaker. That's a fun one. I bought it from a friend of Larry's and sold it to Larry back in like 2003. Oh, really? Yeah. It's a fun one. I would definitely own an Earth Shaker. I have a lot of fun with that one. It's sunny drive time. All right, you're watching Kit Burke play right now and let's see what Kit can get started. So far, no big no big runaways again. You can pick up a couple million on just the skill shot alone. Uh five is there 5 million point skill shot if you're bunch of shots. Yeah, 3 million up there. Yeah, no one really rocking this thing to start with. Nobody killing it yet. Rachel's back up to play now. No, Rachel is ahead at 8 million, but a lot of work to be done on ball two. Um, so that if anybody's going to get a runaway, they're not going to get it at 8 million. She's going to have to produce agreed quite a bit to keep that lead. I think that's going to trap left, pick her shot. Looks like she was going perhaps for that lock. Had the right idea, but unfortunately that drain on the left side there. And there is not a ton of ball save by Game of Thrones standards on this machine. It is definitely set down for tournament play. Yep. It's not impossible, but it's it's not probable. You'll see that across all the machines where uh Eric and the TDS have set this to be really difficult play. I mean the tilts are tight. There are rubbers removed on the posts uh where helpful. So it's none of these are a cakewalk. And if if you look at something like this game, you go, "Hey, look, I know Game of Thrones. I could do way better." Wait till you get in a tournament. Everything changes. Yes. We're playing an interesting strategy right here. He short plunged it almost as you would on a pro machine. Didn't want to mess with the upper playfield in any way, shape, or form. This kind of makes sense. Yep. You know, he's a Columbus player. Um, we don't have a lot of premiums up that way. We have a lot of um pro machines. Yeah. So, I can understand why he would go with the strategy that he is here, you know, going with what's familiar. That's what I would do, too. And and there is wisdom, too, on this one. If you if you plunge, short plunge, you can do a dead flip off the right flipper, catch on the left, and immediately qualify your lock. You can you can lather rinse, repeat that. If you're good enough at backhanding the ramp, you can lather, rinse, repeat that, and start your Blackwater multiball almost immediately. Very true. Very true. So, yeah, Robert, off to a tough start right there at uh 779,000. And there there's the upper playfield advantage that Nikki just got. Get the archer shot. You know, that one was worth 5 million points. Oh, wow. That one just missed and that was a big right down the middle there. Ouch. So, Stephan will be Kit Burke here in just a moment. It was similar with Rachel. So Rachel takes this ramp shot. She hits that spot target just to the left and immediately to the right out lane like a bullet. There's not much you can do about that. When you get a straight brick like that, unfortunately sometimes it can't be saved. That's very true. All right, Kit Burke back up to play in the number four slot. You can see she's trying to make the most of that upper playfield. was not able to get the shot in time and now working on those locks for Blackwater Multiball. Now, your your best bet if you can is to stack a mode or two with Blackwater Multiball. Uh but in a tournament, that's a hard choice because if you're not sure if you're going to make Blackwater, for instance, you're on ball three. Um you might want to just go ahead and take the mode and that's what she chose to do. Yes. So, we're on House Martell mode and you can see the the lit shots of two orbits. Oo. Oh, all that movement that, you know, in that right that right side of the machine right there. Just not able to get good control of it and it ended up biting it right there. Yep. So, that's a that's a tough situation. Um, and I will say it looks like they're shaking the machine a lot. They're not. Yeah, that is the floor rumbling the um the the rig. Y So, yeah, the players are not, you know, nudging the machine. We do not have a minor earthquake going on. Although, don't don't sit on Ohio. I mean, it is there is a fault line over there. And there's enough people in a small space here. We could start one if we all jumped at the same time. We didn't start the fire. We didn't start. No, I said I wasn't going to sing. Ah, almost got you. Almost gotcha. Rachel's having a good run here. 17 million without really having done a lot so far. Yeah, she's just she's done the right few things that needed to get done to keep a lead. And in a tournament, that's all you need, right? The way you earn points is not by high scores, it's by best scores. Yeah, she is getting, you know, not high multipliers on Tyrell, but is getting points on Tyrell. So, with that bonus, she should be right about the 20 million point. Y not stupendous on the new code, but it's first place so far, and that's all that matters. You just got to be first. Now, here comes Robert. You'll notice Robert does something that, you know, better for him and perfectly allowed to do, but we don't see a lot of people play. He plays with a stool. Yep. He likes to sit and play. He likes to sit. So, you know, the advantage you lose there is you lose the ability to use your legs to drive nudging. Y um doesn't mean you can't nudge. It just means you're you're doing it all in your arms and your wrists. Oh goodness. No, he did not hit a switch, I don't think. Yeah, he got that one back again. Yeah, he's short plunging and just not qualifying anything. Yep. That's three in a row. Wow. I mean, it would be hard to hit to not hit for three plunges. I haven't seen this since we tried to. But he's trying the same He's trying the same thing over and over. That's four. He's almost Yeah, he's laughing at me. He knows. I'm going to turn his mic up. I hope he doesn't swear. Let's see. All right. So, he's in play here. Sometimes I have to turn the mic down quickly because I start to see the words forming, you know. I I think we're okay for the occasional cuss word. I think we're trying. I don't think the FCC is going to shut us down. Yeah. The FC I We're We're fine on Twitch. We're fine on Twitch for that. And so now he's got some stuff working here. Um, question is, can he can he do enough of it in order to make this happen? I was going to jokingly say the last time I saw this many balls be plunged was when you're trying to plunge your uh extra ball in Monopoly. I Man, I haven't played Monopoly in forever. When was the last time you played a Monopoly? We have one at level one, but it doesn't really get used in tournament play very much. So, it's been quite a bit of time since I have. That Stark value is now up to 19 million. 26. Hit it one time. 53 million. That's the comboing that you're looking for. That's the shot he needed. He set it up. He executed it. So now he's in first place. So those combos, I think we talked about this yesterday on Game of Thrones, but Steve Steve Richie and company, they will reward you for combos. They want you to to play fast pinball. They don't want you to trap up every shot. Yeah. And uh so they will reward you and that was a big reward. That was a 2x shot multiplier for a total of 53 uh he got to 53 million points at that point on one shot. He's winning this game on the strength of a single shot. Yeah. Now he had to build to that shot, but because he chose to combo, that's what gave him the the doubler. High risk, high reward. Got the reward for that. All right, he's going to see. Let's see if he picks up a battle. He does. He goes House Lannister. Now he's got a pretty solid lead at this point, but he wants to hold on to it. And uh we still have Nikki and Kit after him to play. So he's knock. Thank you for that bit, man. Appreciate it. And he's got Black Water. He's got Blackwater. He saved his mode for for the multiball. Yep. The Blackwater jackpots, at least they don't start very big. You saw it was only about 1 million right then. There's another one. Drain on the right out lane. Another one threatening there. Yeah, we're on ball. Just about done though. Yeah, he's probably Yeah, there it is. So, he may get that last one back. He will. Y. So, I think he's going to be operating now in two ball multiball. Down to one. Is he down to one? I think he's down to one. I think he got that right out lane. Oh, no. It came back. Yeah, it did come back. It was up there. I was wrong. Ball save. When you think you're done, you've got about another night second and a half. Yep. And those two middle shots, he's got up to a 4x multiplier. He just got the save. That's mode. So now he's going to be over 100 million, 135. This is the kind of comboing that we've come to know in this game. It's a little easier to do with the new code than it used to be, but it's just as lucrative. So again, it might be tempting in a multiball like this to trap one left and just keep the other one moving. Uh but the combos really pay off in this game. And so if you want, they don't last forever. He had that combo on four of those five shots up to 8x right there. Oh, I mean that's a huge point. He had an opportunity to hit the motherload. A shot that probably was in the nine figures if he would have got it. Didn't get it, but nonetheless, 150 million right then. That is a great score, a great move on ball three for Robert right then, setting himself up to maybe get those seven points. Rodcom, thank you so much for those bits. Really appreciate you supporting the uh the stream. So now Nikki is inhouse. Lannister does not have big multipliers though. those same shots right now only about 340,000. So now she's got a couple modes. Bring back Marcela is lit. So I really like this combo. You can see there's a lot of shared shots in this mode in this mode combo. Yes. Um so getting getting the right few shots ends up paying off double. And if you can do it in combo, then you can really really get big points. So let's see if she can if she can get those combo shots, keep the ball moving, and pick up the mode shots that are shared. keep it out of the outline. There does successfully do so. Same at 8.7 not and working on the black water here. This would be obviously an amazing time to be in multiball. Still has 27 seconds left on the mode. Plenty of time to make the two shots she needs to get going. There she goes. There's ball two. Come on. So, she still has to get one more uh ball lock and it needs to qualify that ball lock. The qualifier spot targets are on the right. You can see the green uh circle. Nice job right there playing where that ball's going to drop. Another 13 million right then. So Nicki, that's a great save. Nick making a run at this here. 30 million right now. It's funny because at the beginning of this game, things were starting off pretty slow and we were talking about two and three and 5 million. Now people are cashing in these 20 million point shots. Another save. Marcela for seven. So she is done with Lannister did not get the mode. Now let's see if she hits that shot. Will she be able to bring a mode in with the multiball? Will she get to select before multiball starts? Let's see. Is she qualified for the next mode? She's working on She switched her strategy a little bit. There's a Martell shot. You think she's going to try and light Martell before she goes to multi? You're right. She switched her strategy up. It must be It must be so tempting to pick up that multi straight away or even to go for the uh the battering ram there. She's got great control of the machine so far. She really does. has not really seen very much anything go towards the in lanes or out lanes now that ball getting stuck up there those four bonuses that's nice everything's got one or two more to light she's really spread the shots around the entire play pass and there's your third one so now she has an opportunity to play a battle in Blackwater multiball exactly the strategy Robert used if she can keep the ball moving on those combos and hit the shared shots it's going to be a really big winner for her she absolutely has an opportunity to make all of this space back. She's about 100 million down. It's a lot closer than you think. And she's playing up top. She does not have the benefit of her ball save right now. Lost one center. She did get one back, I think. Oh, she got one back. Yeah. So, she's still got two balls in play. Up to 69 million. Everything except the center shot right now is lit for 2x. And now it's lit for one. I was gonna say that would have been a great time to strike, but you have to wait till you have control. And I think that was a wise choice. I see you guys saying that's much different than what I was seeing. So I'll uh I'll reset some cables over and then we'll see if we can stop. Eric did say when his games when the game is over, he's going to reset some cables. We're going to see if we can't make that a little bit better. What a great ball for Nikki right now. Just a smidgens under a 100 million points. Now, in terms of in terms of ball handling, control, and play, she and Robert played very similar balls. The difference was is that Robert was able to take advantage of just the right shots, just the right combos, and finish them out. A little bit better on the multipliers. That's really the only difference. In fact, I would say Nikki hit more point making shots, but Robert's shots were more lucrative, and that's why Robert's winning in this game right now. So, you've got Kit Burke up now. She's got to make up quite a bit to catch up and uh try and overtake into second place. to start with. She's got Oh, she may not get enough work in here to get out of four. She was 3 million trailing when we looked. I don't think she's going to have earned enough points to do it. Get out. We're going to find out right here. She It looks like Kit Burke is going to take fourth place. Rachel Wallace in third. Nikki Miller in second and Robert Gaines walking away with the win in this first round of qualifiers. It is a strong seven-point showing for Robert right there. Great ball three to make that happen. So, great job for him on that. So 7531 are the points they are. We do have a bunch of other games actually that have already finished. Um looks like Josh Noble wins on Sweethearts. That's a tough group that was playing up there on Sweethearts. The players, a lot of the people that we saw that were uh the top players yesterday. Ross Bergettino. Hey, Ross is in the house. Hey, nice. Good to see you. We were talking about him when when his uh Uncle Joel was playing yesterday. Yeah, Joel, I believe, is playing in this tournament as well today. So it's a family. I hope the Bettinos play each other. I would love to see it. Yep. I I want to see blood. I want to see blood. I won't be satisfied until there's blood. I want to see blood and I want to see bananas. What are the bananas for? Ross Ross has the Ross is all about the bananas. He likes bananas. He likes bananas. I like a good banana for me. Yeah. Yeah. Here. He has a picture of him uh with Jack Danger holding a banana. Really? Yeah. It's a thing. I don't know if we can show it on stream or not. It's It's I mean, I enjoy a good banana. It's safe for work. Don't think any otherwise. It's It's fun shenanigans. Um what do we have here? Looks like Storiswonger took Argusy. Um Matt Goslin took Stars. World Cup Soccer goes to Ben Patrick. Larry Scott takes Medieval Madness. That is a remake machine of it. Iris Nun takes WWF Royal Rumble. Um Fast Draw goes to Steve Leven. Harlem Gars to Greg Kennedy and Grand Prix is taken by Diane Spackman. So it looks like we're probably about 2/ird of the way through round number one here. We can already take a look at the standings here so you guys get an idea of how this all is going to work. Um, in fact, I assume this will uh crunch in just a little bit right here as soon as we get No, actually that might be everybody. Yeah, it's pretty updated. Yeah, we're going to have a few more names here in a few moments. So, in this case, are we going to have more people than we have room to display them? Are we going to have to scroll the screen? That's a very good point. We may have a couple names off the bottom of this list. We'll see. Um, I always knew that's when I wasn't playing well at a big tournament is when my name didn't make the top page. You know, you had to scroll to find me. I understand. Yeah, that's a bummer. Understand. So, I'm hoping that we get uh Iris Nun picked up first place on Royal Rumble and we haven't seen Royal Rumble on this stream. Not yesterday, not yet today. So, hopefully we'll get over to Royal Rumble and get to see one there, too. We've since moved to Stars. This is a Stern machine. 1978 I believe it is. And um I love early Sterns. I love this machine and this machine uh played some pretty deciding roles yesterday in both tournaments. So, this particular game you can see um has already been played. Uh Eric is doing a little bit of work right now on that camera shake issue. Yep. He just came over I believe his exact words were, "This is a new one, boys." He takes it in stride, doesn't he? He does. At least 500 times a day, somebody comes up and goes, "Eric, there's a problem." And it could be anything. It could be from the hotel. It could be from one of the machines. And every time he's like, "All right." I think once things get rolling, he, you know, we're all pretty good with it. We're good with it in the moment. It's when things don't get off the ground, like we're having some trouble getting the cameras showing at all. Yesterday, that was driving us a little crazy. Yeah, that that that part gets you anxious. That part gets you super anxious. But when it's something like this where the stream is running, you know, we can talk, we can work through it live and in person, that's not bad. We can deal with that. So, this is the Eric's elbow cam that we all tuned in for. Oh, so he's doing repairs on the fly and uh hopefully we'll get that camera back up and running on stars. We are not going to switch this one over to the chuckle vision right now only because we want to get the word from him when we can reactivate that playfield cam or when we see the playfield cam come back into play again. So, plus full screen Chuck Evision might be a bit jarring while he's working on it. Yeah, you know, we don't want to scare the the the watchers. We have 32 fine fine people watching right now and I we want to thank all you guys for being a part of this right here. That looks that's a little chuck of vision. Well, we're still getting some glitches in there. We're getting some artifacting. I wonder the other thing is could it be a function of having so many people in the room with so many mobile phones that were somehow we're just disrupting the the airwaves. I I'm thinking more so than necessarily the cell phone traffic, just the, you know, line of sight. What about Yeah. Come back later, man. We appreciate you being here. Thank you for all your support of the stream. See you in a little bit. We appreciate it so much. Everybody else, stick around. We're not signing off for you. That's right. We said goodbye to Loader Breath, but you stay here. We're getting another camera. There is a bit I'm I can't believe what I'm going to suggest right here. There is a big lots like within walking distance of here. If we need another HDMI cable, we could. I just don't know if a Big Lots H I know HDMI cables are generally the same. More or less. Yeah. But don't tell that to the people who sold me like an $80 monster cable the first time HDMI came out and I was like, "Oh, it must be better." Yeah. But all the same. Aon Black says, "I give I gave up on streaming with wireless. It's too inconsistent with line of sight with Wi-Fi conflicts. Too much traffic on Wi-Fi channels." Yeah. Yeah, that's all definitely, you know, considerations for sure. Now, yeah, we are streaming on Wi-Fi as well. You know, we are actually using the hotel Wi-Fi. It's been nice and stable. Um, I can speak for sometimes that doesn't work the way you expect it to. Um, I have personally had to stream on um wireless power all day, though. There you go. Um, I have streamed on mobile hotspots for 8 hour pinball tournaments before. When I did the Wow, really the Clein Royal Rumble, which was a women's tournament uh back in September. uh my Note 9 phone. This bad boy right here. That was your That was the internet for the whole time. Wow. That's cool. Um also used it in Pittsburgh in in the Replay FX building. I couldn't get the latency down far enough on there was enough bandwidth, but the latency wasn't real good on the wireless. Again, the Note 9, that's what got you there. So, all of if you were watch my buddy Chris Bidwell, he is BSG 4000 on Twitch. All of the classic Tetris World Championship and Dr. Mario coverage on that on his channel was done on that hotspot. There were hundreds of people watching a Twitch stream running off a cell phone. This stream is brought to you by his Galaxy Note Sprint. Where is my sponsor? Where's our sponsorship? Where is my money? So, a brother up. Like, so we know that wireless has its its trouble spots, right? the the trade-off that we're making this year by trying the wireless approach is that we can freely move this camera back and forth between machines and with this many people in such a small space, it honestly wasn't practical for us to move wires and cables and take them down. We would have had to sit on the same game for an entire round and we didn't want to do that. I can talk to you guys for days about stories about, you know, things that happen with wires. Sometimes things do not go as planned. Sometimes wires don't move. When you have to put a camera in a certain spot, things can happen. I've had, you know, a camera fall in the middle of a tournament one time or, you know, it was going to fall, we we stopped a game to move it. Very similar to what Chris Stevens had to deal with in Pinberg finals if you dealt with that. They had to to stop that for about 10 minutes and he had to hold his ball that whole time due to a technical error. That is just a frustrating. It's frustrating. People got frustrated. It was not pretty. It was not a great moment and it sucked. So yeah, wires wires are not foolproof. Wires are not foolproof either. It's there's no perfect answer to all this stuff. So, you know, I I have all the respect in the world for Eric and and everybody when they're doing these these kind of very complex setups. It's super hard to get everything just right. That looks good. Looks a lot better. That looks amazing, actually. Um I just heard Gilly talking. That means round two is up. I think we're going to keep it on stars here. I think that's the logical play. The machine's on stars right now. Oh, hold on. Now you can see him. That's good. Yeah, Eric, you got it. You got it. All right. So, yeah, we are golden now for stars here. Um, this is our group we got here. Bill Wahburn, Rachel Walsh. We're going to see Rachel again, second time. Uh John Reams. John Ree, I don't know him as a player. John is a a a big-time Columbus player. One of the better probably one of the top dozen players or so in the Columbus area. He's,200 ranked numbers that start with 12. Um and Jeff Wester Camp, who of course we know this area, you know, super competitive, very good at, you know, the newer machines because that's a lot of what the Columbus has is obviously sterns and newer things. John John is good at the newer ones. John's good at new. So Jeff is a pro on older machines. He is fantastic on em and early solid state. So this will be match up. We have a Hakuna Canata in chat right now. That is Kim Martinez. Oh hello Kimuna. What up? Afternoon to you. Playing all day. We were just uh we were bragging about you yesterday. We were quite a bit. We were talking about uh how magnificent it is that owners of arcades and bars and barcades work together and collaborate and encourage and support each other instead of seeing each other as competition. And that that has been growing the pinball hobby so beautifully. And I you were just one of those. Oh no. There's Bill Walborne right there. He's going to step up to Stars and lead us off on this four player match play. So talk about your go-to strategy on Stars right here. Yeah, you bet. So stars, while we remind Kim, we only said good things. I promise. Yes, we only said good things. The the basic strategy I take on stars is this. You've got these stars that light up on the playfield, and you can see Bill has already hit a couple of them. Each time that you hit uh one of the stars, almost that was a true Lazarus, too. Did not even hit the center post. Nope. It went right by and almost popped back up. In that case, the center post might have slowed him down. He might have gotten it back on the flipper if it weren't for that post. You saw he was kind of playing with the right flipper a little bit right there. If he would have left the right flipper up, he might have had an opportunity then to catch it on the left one. But it takes so much patience, so much diligence to do that. You know, never going to fault anybody who can't pull that shot off. No. So, what you're trying to do on stars is you're trying to light the stars that lead uh to the spinners up top. So, you can see there are two spinners, upper left and upper right. That basically represents sort of an orbit shot. And those spinners when they get juiced, that's where all the points are. So you you hit the drops in order to light the stars in order to nail those spinners. Get the stars, rip the spinners. Get the stars, rip the spinner. That's that's your strategy on this all day. The other thing is the upper playfield is pretty safe. So you've got that one jet bumper up there. It's not terribly strong. It's not going to throw any major surprises at you. So you can always sort of dump it back up there when you Oh, right off the center post. He didn't even flinch. Did you see that? not it's like the it was the plan the whole time. Yes. In and out of the right in lane. Little bit of a tip. And another one. That's a bang shot. Oh, but he tilted it. And something to keep in mind on this machine. We found this out yesterday. The tilt light does not work. This was throwing us for a loop yesterday, especially during the typing. Did they get it back? They might have gotten it back on. It typically is right next to the player count. I believe it's like a red light next to the player count. So they may they may have gotten it back on. I can't tell. But yes, that did throw us off yesterday. I mean the the tiebreaker difference in score was 300 points. Y 300 points is what decided in the women's qualifying whether you made the amazing race or not. It was that tight. Isn't that Isn't that awesome? Yeah. So this is Jeff Wester Camp as I said. Oh no. Jeff, I didn't even see a move. Did you see a nudge? I didn't see a nudge at all. I didn't really see a nudge either. He's just walking away from it like what the heck just happened. This is very interesting. That's almost a John Tiltstein. That hurts. Yeah. I Yeah, John. I saw a nudge with I didn't see nudge. I'm wondering if we're seeing a similar thing to what we saw yesterday. No, you can't tilt through a stern machine. You can't tilt through, but that thing could still be swinging in there. The tilt bob could still be swinging and it may not take much to get it over to the edge. So even what you might consider a very small nudge or even leaning on the machine, if it's already swinging and you happen to add to that momentum, you can get a tilt. It's not really a tilt through, right? It's it's your tilt. You just have to let it calm down. I think we had Eric talk about that yesterday with some of the players at that very end of it cuz I feel like Andrea's tilt was very similar. It was a nudge, but it was maybe helped by an already slightly active tilt bob once the ball had started. Yep. So, Bill Wahburn, if if he could juice that right spinner, he has the strategy down. Hit the spinner, let it come back to the left flipper, drop catch it, hit the spinner again. Uh the the trick is you have to juice that spinner first for it to be worth anything. So, he's he's got the he's got the motions down. He can repeat that pattern forever, but he has to get the spot targets that light the stars to juice that spinner. So, he's going to start making some choices here. How am I going to get more value out of these shots? Nice. There's I love when I see those. He got a double post. So that again, you talk about discipline. Imagine being in a tournament and just leaving it to do that. Nice pick up off the post. Steph Curry would kill for that kind of bank shot action. Right. Right. So So you see Bill's got his shot down. Oh. Oh, and I think he thought he was going to get one more. Yep, he did. The problem was the sling there. He did. I don't think he expected that sling to sort of half fire, so it happened to shoot it right past the post. But, you know, not a bad ball. And you can see Bill, he's got his routine. If he can get that thing juiced first, that would have been a a game changer right there. Yeah. And Black makes a great point. Tilt bobs often move a lot longer than people think. Y um so no doubt here. I think you know if there's any machine where we're going to you know we're not going to fault anybody for saying hey take take 90 seconds take a minute or so to get on the machine you know till you're feeling comfortable with it if especially if there's a good good nudge yeah this would be that kind of game you know cuz we can see just how active that till Bob is so y you know that's that's definitely something for Jeff to keep in mind you know if he's watching John play either on our stream or in person right then I can't see where he is in terms where the other players are, but where Bill is where Jeff is. Well, where Jeff is. Yeah. Because he's next up right here. But knowing Jon does have a tendency to nudge the machine, he won't this time because the basic not quite a house ball, but not far off of it. I'll tell you what, it it you will never regret waiting to plunge a ball. That star's tilt is super. I have never once regretted waiting a few seconds before I plunge. So, let's see if Jeff is going to do it. He's giving it a few seconds. And Eric's giving us Eric's giving us some good feedback right now from what he seen. Anyway, you want to bump it higher. All right, Jeff. Oh, no, Jeff. He didn't quite get the swing he wanted on that. Right off that post. Couldn't pick it up. That center post did not treat Jeff well. And we got some really great bounces out of it for the other two. We did. Eric's feedback when I told him how how much it was moving. Um, up and down is going to cause it to tilt very quickly, but it's also, you know, in his mind how you save the ball. He said in his mind, there's just no side to side effort that will save you a ball on this machine. Really, which makes sense because that playfield is so open in the middle. You know, it's not like you're going to run into any other thing there to save you, right? Yeah. That's a that's a lot of real estate in the middle there. And I love games with that kind of real estate in the center, but there's not there's not a chance to have any friction to work against. There's nothing to bump against. So, we got a good tip here from Delaware Pinball. Thank you for clarifying that. So, at up front I had said it was the drop targets that juice the spinner and then later I said it was the spot target. So, it's both. The drop targets are going to uh light the left spinner value. The spot targets are going to light the right spinner value. It just so happened Bill was shooting right. Uh-oh. You just got a message. I got a message that my sorcerer is down. I'm sorry, man. Fix it real quick. Jump on that. I'll tell you what, right after this game, I will absolutely do that. That sounds good. One of the things we try and do at Pincinnati, we put the the names and numbers of every owner on the machine so that if something goes down, people will text you. And we have our own volunteer mechanics force right here so that you don't have to deal with down games for long. We replaced two coils yesterday. This morning, I replaced an EOS switch and it was all because we want to keep the games up and running. Exactly. Rachel Wallace, unfortunately, up and then straight down on that one. That was not the ball she wanted to have. She sit at 43,000. So, right now we are on chalk. 1 2 3 4 is also our positioning. 1 2 3 4. John is sitting at 18,000 at the moment. He would love to change that that order, I'm sure. 25,000 for the next place. Probably about 40. Oh, it just rolls from one flipper to the other. Thank you. Some lightning reactions there. Yeah. All right. So, look look at Oh, no. John can see his reaction there. Feels like he's doing everything right and just not able to cash that in. Cannot tell you how many times I have done that exactly. Yeah, it was enough points though to get him into second place at 51,000. So, not a complete drain out for John right then. That will earn him points in qualifying and that's huge. So, you saw Rachel got some serious points in a short period of time, the the magic is the spinner. Yeah. So, even though it wasn't a long ball, if you can get a decent spinner rip with a juice spinner, it's it's going to pay off. It's sort of like Meteor that way where if you can juice the spinner first, it only takes one good rip to win the tournament. Agreed. There you go. Look at Jeff. That's a nice rip. So Jeff Jeff unfortunately didn't have the the balls one and two that he really really wanted. So he's got to get something done here. Oh no. Right up on that post on that center post just to tanalize you even though you know with no momentum at all there is nothing you can do. So it falls it falls out. I think Bill is going to be coming in first. John in second at 51. You're going to see Rachel in third at 43 and Jeff Wester Camp unfortunately cleaning up at 23,000. I would not have thought in a million years we would have seen Jeff come in fourth place on this for sure. I wouldn't have either. If if if you were a bet man, you'd have lost some money right there. I bet when we get to fast draw, if he plays fast draw, things are going to go his way. He was practicing it last night. As we said, we were practicing it right along with him. Yep. So, yeah, no doubt. If he's playing that machine, it could be a completely different equation. I'm going to go check in on that sorcerer. Yeah, go for it. Uh while we're doing that, we can go over and look. I think I see uh Eric working on Genesis as we speak. So maybe one machine down. He's had to work on that a couple of times. That has been giving us some trouble, hasn't it? It has. But I I keep reminding myself and others, pinball machines, I always tell people, pinball machines are like aquariums. They require constant upkeep and attention. They're not just machines. They're almost like living things. They are. And there's 3,000 parts, 2 miles of wire in a pinball machine. You're things are going to break. You're going to have to replace stuff. You're going to have to replace stuff. And when you're at shows, you can expect some of the some of the tournament games are going to are going to go down. That's why we have replacements. Yes. Uh Kim, you can see that match play link in uh the chat right there. Um I will see if I can It's not letting me click on that unfortunately, but I will do a copy paste for you right here. Throw that in chat right there. If you go there, you will be able to get all of the results. Um you can look at that link in there as well. matchplay.live/q205. 5/q205X. Since I do think we have a break in the action, now is a good time to look at our matches right now and see what is completed in round number two. We can tell you looks like Robert Gains, he's got two wins in two rounds here. That's a win for big game on him. For him, Ken Gunther takes Harlem Globe Trotters. Uh Stars, we saw Bill Wahurn take that just a moment ago. James Scott takes Firepower. Uh Scott Crawford takes big big guns. That's the machine we were talking about that had the tie yesterday in qualifying. And uh Sweethearts goes to Jesse Baker. So we're probably about 40% done with this particular round. We can tell you looking at the standings right here. Looks like we can show you about 65 of the 76 names right here of the people that are playing that have put up numbers so far. Robert Games and Ken Gunther are two for two. They have 14 points. That is a perfect score through two rounds for them. The numbers we're going to be looking at here are obviously who is in 16th place and who is in 24th place to see about your A and B division cutoff points. It's going to be a lot higher. I think a a second place average is going to need to be considered an absolute minimum for being able to to make these entries here because I mean we're going from 76 down to 24. That's a pretty significant drop off from what we've seen in the past because we've had so many interested players. So, expect some people are going to have to have some very very good games in order to uh to make this up. And we've got possibility we're going to have at least a couple more players have a perfect score here. You can look down at that 16 point. Uh you see Greg, Matt, Larry, Ross, for example, all the players that have seven points. Most of them are grouped together. So, expect to see at least two or three more names in that 14point list by the end of it. Kim, thank you for the 10 bits. Very much appreciate it. I love that bit emoticon, by the way. That is very, very cute. I love it. Thank you for supporting the stream. We very much appreciate that. We'll switch back over there. We can see that Stars is sitting and relaxing at the moment. Um, like I said, Eric is running around, especially in these early rounds, doing a lot of stuff. And he's fixing Genesis as we speak. actually talking to Larry Scott about it as we speak. So, I can't imagine we're going to be switching games until we get to a round three type setup. Um, reminder for everybody, um, we will have new match play links when we do hit the finals. I'm sure we can almost guarantee we're going to have some very spicy tiebreers as well, both for, uh, a for a division and B division play, you know, with this many players. I would be shocked if we had a clean 16 and then a clean 17 through 24, you know, once eight rounds of this are done with. And I'm also curious if we're going to see anybody, you know, how close is someone going to get to a perfect score? We've we almost saw it at the Enky Pinball Open. I think we had someone in eight rounds of qualifying win seven of them and get second and one. Like about as close as you possibly can can to the perfect score, which in this case would be a 56. You know, 8* 7 56. Yes. Um, it's possible. You know, we've seen players absolutely run the table in these things and and do amazing things. But remember, all that does is get you one seed. It doesn't guarantee anything once you hit the elimination rounds. Um, and reminder, too, we are going to be broadcasting tomorrow morning the gauntlet tournament. So, if you guys have never seen how the gauntlet tournament works, it is a six-minute challenge. There are six pinball machines that will be placed next to each other. I'm not even sure what the six pinball machines are because I know there is a change from last year to this year. Last year we had a Game of Thrones Pro. Now we have a Game of Thrones premium. So maybe the lineup's going to change. I don't know. But the idea is very simple. You have six six minutes to complete one relatively simple task on six different pinball machines. say relatively simple in the sense that big game would be spell bi on the top drops. Um World Cup soccer it would be lock a ball, you know, think or light the soccer ball and get your lock lit. Um and you have to do it as fast as you can. You can do it in any order you want to. You can run around from machine to machine. You can play two machines at the same time. You can do I'm not going to say all rules are off. We no death saves obviously nothing like that. but to the point where you can even turn a machine off and turn it back on to reset your progress if you feel like that's the fastest way to reset a game to do what you want to do. It's that crazy of a setup. So, expect to see all kinds of crazy shenanigans at that tournament. It should be a heck of a lot of fun and I can't wait for us to bring that to you tomorrow. It should be a really, really good time. Um, so we've got that coming up and uh hopefully we'll be able to bring some more players over here too. Uh, while Justin is off doing a little bit of repair work, let's see if we can round anybody up. Anybody has a minute to come talk about the first couple of rounds here. Oh, the gauntlet is a lot of fun. I have let you and this is the first year that we're going to be truly streaming the gauntlet as well. Um, you know, obviously last year when we did this tournament, we had more of a wired setup than we did wireless. So, moving things around was quite challenging. We couldn't do it. Um, and obviously trying to do the gauntlet in that sense is basically impossible. There's not much you can do. Um, this year with the wireless cam, uh, Eric has already kind of promised me he has a special setup in mind for the gauntlet. So, if there's a way that he can show all the machines at once or even just show the movement of the people trying to play the gauntlet complete with timer on screen, I am very anxious to see how that looks. It's going to be, you know, a neat thing and it's not something you see at at a regular tournament. It's it's maybe the most unique thing that I think we do at Cincinnati every single year. So, super hyped to to see that come to fruition and come together. Chad over there real quick. Maybe see if I can No, he moved. I He's not looking over at me. Chad Hobs, one of our local Northern Kentucky players here. Uh he goes by Ace Pinball in Twitch chat. if you happen to see him there. I'm actually Let's go back and look at the standings. I would be shocked if he wasn't playing in this tournament. He probably is. Yeah, he is. He's got 10 points so far, so he's playing quite well. And yeah, we can see these standings start to kind of work themsel out a little bit. Looks like we've got two games left strictly of players who have seven points right now. While we're uh I'm going to look for the Ross game right here. Which game is his? Yeah, there you go. That is the group of people that is playing Medieval Madness right now. Uh Rory Richie, who in Okay, this is interesting. We saw John Ree a little bit ago has an IFP rank of 1200. Rory Richie also has an IFPA rank of 1200. Are they truly like they con they count these whopper points down to you know 01 points. I'm very curious to see how that works. So hold on. Now we're getting fancy. I'm looking at my side computer, so forgive me. Have a minute to do some things. I'm literally going to pull up the latest IFPA standings and see if I can see that they're truly tied or if that's maybe just a glitch in the script. That's also very possible. Yeah, I don't know if it's a glitch in the script. Maybe it's something where it's just not very up to date as we're going to watch uh Bo Pendleton play a fun game on the machine here. So, that'll give us a little bit of content to work through while we're looking at that. Um, according to the rankings as of today, uh, Rory Richie is 1209 and John Reen is 1213. They are separated by, if my math is correct, 0.4 whoppers. It's interesting that whatever it's pulling out of the API shows them at the exact same ranking point, though. I don't think I've ever seen that before. What happened? What did I miss? Oh, we're having a Yeah, match. There you go. Hipsmart has the answer. Match play pulls the IFPA every few days. Remember how we were talking about John Reeon's ranking a little bit ago and it was 1,200? Yes. And now I just pulled up No, I just pulled up Rory Richie over here who was still playing his game so we could take a look at who was there. Who was playing? They're both 1200. They're both 1200. They're the same person. You know, I've never seen them in the same room at Oh, wait. They're both here. Never mind. They're both here. Yeah. Yeah. Ry doesn't have a beard though, does he? No. He's very clean. Sometimes he lets it grow a little bit. True. True. So, they're both 1200. So, something changed between the last time we checked and now. No. Um, HipSmart hit it. Match play pulls the IFPA every few days. So at some point a few days ago they were apparently tied at 1,200. No, that was a thing it would seem precisely. That's what I'm thinking because now the interesting thing is I don't see ties anywhere here in IFPA rankings at least at that level. Maybe they were though at this exact moment Roy Richie is 1209 and John Reeon is 1213. Oh interesting. Well that is really curious. So they are close enough that a tie would be rationally able to be destroyed. It's possible. It it is possible. Huh. Fun with there are lies. There are damn lies and there are statistics. Fun with statistics. I don't remember where I heard that quote from. Probably something political. That's good. I like that. But I have heard it before and I do think there's a lot of truth to it. You can, you know, stats can be turned to to make them look a lot of different kind of say anything you need to, you know, and sometimes they don't tell the whole story. And IA whopper points are that, too. Look at Larry Scott. We talked about it yesterday. He's 2,000 in the world. Trust me, he is not the 2,000th player in the world. He is much better than that. He just doesn't play enough tournaments now to have that be a determining factor for him. Well, and remember, the way whopper points are calculated are not just a function of what position did you place and how many people were in the tournament. Though, those are two factors. It's also who is in the tournament and what's going on with their IFPA rank. So, for instance, if you're Larry Scott and you play against some of Cincinnati's best players who are not constantly playing tournaments, you're not even if you win that, you're not going to get a bunch of juice out of it because they're not highly ranked. Exactly. Even if they're great players, it only has so much information to work off of and it can do what it does. And him smart. There you go. Per player that is is what I think. So, they were both 1,200 but at slightly different times. Isn't that something? Ah, the wonderful good eye to both of you. Hipsmart is our resident statistician and I trust his statistics. Those are not lies or damn lies. Those are good statistics that we get from Hipsmart. So, very cool insight, I think, into the backend systems and everything. I'm going to see about moving this camera real quick and see if we check out a new game. Sounds good. I know Eric's been very busy with that. So, if you can move it, that'd be wonderful. Big thanks to Justin for all the work he's doing on moving equipment. Um, I mean, we've got a team of stuff and now Eric, you know, kind of acting as a tournament director, also fixing machines, making sure to keep things in the running here. Um, God love him for everything he is doing in this right now. Uh, gamewise, that's still running. We have Iron Maiden, we have Surf Champ. Not sure if we're going to be able to move to either one of those machines. So, we may be looking at something where we're setting up for a potential round three. Um, I don't think we want to necessarily, you know, mess up either one of these groups. They're probably on a ball three or in the case of Surf Champ, a ball four or five. So, you know, I've actually been really impressed with how, you know, easygoing the player base has been when we've wanted to move a game into a system, you know, during the game. Um, it helps that the wireless rig is so fast. Uh, we can have a game on a machine within 30 seconds if need be. So, it's not something where, and trust me, I as we talked about from the tech side, I've experienced this before. Um, um, we can try Surf Champ or Iron Man. They're running, obviously, make sure it's good with the players. So, yeah, we'll check with them and and make sure it's good. Um, the last thing we ever want to do is get the tournament players out of their groove. Um, everyone certainly understands we're we are streaming it. We want to broadcast it to everybody, but we want to show proper respect to the players as well. Um, I think Justin is kind of scouring the situation right now to see what we're looking at here. He's coming back over to me, so it might mean they're just about done. Sorry about that. So, yeah. So, we are going to move the camera to a new machine as soon as this uh round is over. Okay, we are gonna wait because we don't want we don't want to interrupt a mid round. I think it could throw some talking about that that thought. And actually yesterday, you know, a few of people were cool with us moving it mid round and they were great. And I actually appreciate their, you know, the fact they were gracious about that. They they don't have to be. They can say no. For sure. And and that is that is not only okay, but if they're if they're not comfortable with getting a camera on them mid game, you know, that's acceptable. More than acceptable. You bet. Yeah. For for me, I know that concentration is such a big deal and and if mine gets shaken, that's hard. Yeah. So, I'm going to see if I can get it out of there and get it down to you said maiden was the goal. Let's see if I can do it. I I I want you to read what just got put in chat right now. Dirty Toes is entirely too nice. You got to read it out loud. I'm going to I have to stop laughing real quick. I appreciate it so much. This is Pat Green right now playing on uh Stars. He is up. All right, let let's hear for everybody who's maybe not looking at chat right now. You guys are so pleasant to listen to. You can announce just about anything for me. Hold on, I got to put on my announcer voice for this. Get the get that mic just a little bit closer. Get that sound just right. As you can see, with the help of the wireless rig, she's gone for the underhand cross stitch in this case. This allows for a little added flexibility in where she will stitch from there. How'd I do that? Sound pretty good. I I thought it was okay. Oh. Oh, wait a minute. No, we're not starting soon. This is Chuck Vision right here. We always love to show off some Chuck Vision cuz we appreciate everything he does. We love the rig. We want to show him some love for that. We'll give him that. Hey, I I read it and I got a well done. So, did you get it done? I got a well done. I think I think I'm happy with it. Now, now I want a challenge. That's so fun. That's so fun. I think soothing is a great word for your voice. It is soothing. It's calming where I get I start to get all and I yell a little bit and I get excited and then you sort of bring us down like golf clap style. Just fourth hole is going to try a little putter here. Are you implying I have a little bit of gymnance in my style? Oh, that's nice. Hello friends. True story for a uh there's a fun event that I that I've done in past years called Hexodathlon. That is a retro game event. My buddy Chris Bidwell, we've talked about him for Tetris stuff. 120. No, 16. Hexa is 16. Hexa Decathlon. Hexa Decathlon. So, it's a decathlon in the sense you got to play everything. Oh, okay. It's a 16 game event as opposed to a 10 game event. Um, one year we decided to do wrestling themes or wrestling intros and and cut some promos. So fun. Because everything in life is better, one with entrance music and two with promos. If you can cut a good promo on someone. True. Yes. Give Justin a good one to say, please do it. I would love a challenge. Yes. Um, and it started out with the master's music playing in the background and me going hello friends and saying something very majestic and then using my unbelievably limited skill with video software, I turned it into a black and white video and just went off. Love it. Love it. Wait, so what's your entrance song? Um, if I had an entrance, there is there is a band called there is a German industrial band called Scooter. Okay. And I I credit to for Game Junkie owner, former Matt Matson, who I hope is watching, but probably isn't. He's in Arizona. He might still be sleeping at this point. Um, and he found a song that was called Faster, Harder Scooter. Oh, nice. And it is it is classic good industrial music. And it it it's fun. I think that would be Faster, Harder Scooter. That would be my next time that you leave this the stream for a minute, take a break, and come back. I'm playing that as you sit down, I'm going to get my phone out. We're going to do it right. Faster, harder, scooter. Faster, harder, scooter. Yeah. Oh my god. I think mine would be the just the opening part, which by the way does not fit my personality at all cuz I do think I tend to be I've gotten much more mild and I was going to say calming, right? Isn't that the word? Soothing. Just don't ask me about that when I'm doing my IT work cuz I get flustered and frustrated and I'm probably not calm and soothed in any way, shape, or form. I am bringing up faster harder scooter right now. So is that the beginning of it? Would that be appropriate? I think it's chorus. You might have to listen to it for about a minute. All right, I'll queue it up. All right, ceue it up. All right, fine. So mine would be Sad But True by Metallica, but only the intro. Okay. With that big drum riff, so it's just our That's what I want to walk into. I want like explosions on wrestling style explosions on either side. Okay. rip rip off the shirt to reveal rippling six-pack and uh huge packs that I don't have. But that again, we're in fantasy. Rip off the shirt to show a Cincinnati shirt. To show another shirt. Show another shirt. It's It's the It's the David Caruso meme where he takes off the sunglasses. Oh, that's right. Just to show another pair of More sunglasses. More sunglasses. The David Caruso style is you rip off the sunglasses and then you have to say the sort of the punny the punny opposite of whatever the other person said. Yeah. Yeah. It's like or maybe he hit the bullet. Yeah. Yeah. So, we're we're looking at uh you guys don't get anymore. You are exactly 750 bits away from me singing. So, we're getting too close. You're getting close. Back it off. So, you're looking at uh the Medieval Madness remake round between Roy, Stu, Ross, and Darren, but the playfield you're looking at is World Championship Soccer because we're getting ready for the next game on World Championship Soccer. So, we're going to go over to that game. That is the group of people that just played it. Um I'm going to guess Anna came in with the win right there. Uh Tim Ston has eight points through two rounds, Nathan six, and Caleb four. Oh, very cool. So, that is what you just saw right then. Oh, by the way, Dirty Toes, you have a challenge. Oh, a challenge. Dirty toes. Be nice. I don't want to mess with you. So, I'm going to mute my mic and let you have this in all your glory. All right, here's the challenge. Now, it's important to note that he switched to 6-in nails on this support beam, allowing some extra tension strength when compared to the 4-in nails he used in the previous challenge. Oh, I am being notified. Yes. Yes, one of his nails has bent. This is inevitably going to take away from his time. This is disappointing, Scott. I love that. That's really fun. You hate to see that happen to see the 6-in nails. We've seen him be a pro all day at the 5 in ones, you know. So, I would installation has been stellar all day, right? But just taking it to that 6 in, anything can happen. And you see that right there. When you're doing a pro installation, you know the classic phrase, hindsight is always 2020. I would have gone with a 3 and a/4. He might have used a 6 and 5/8. When you're when you're dealing with a ballpeen hammer approach like this, it truly it is up to the wielder of the tool. Did he measure twice? That's the key here. Did we catch the second measurement to know if he really had this one the way he thought he did? Yep. It's so easy to rush. It's so easy. You know the old saying. Mhm. That saying, cut, cut, measure once. Oh, that's what it was. Okay. I was trying to remember. It had something to do with measuring and cutting. I thought it was cut seven times and never measure once. Yeah, that's kind of how I tend to do it. My stuff. Nobody goes full six. Nobody goes full six. Del, it's a risk. It's a major major risk. All right, we're just waiting on our next round to start. I think we are ready. We're going to show these standings. Yeah, all the rounds have finished. So, I think we need to let Eric know he's running. He's still working on Genesis over here. Gilly. Gilly and Holly has been helping with our work as well. So hopefully Gilly knows that the rounds are up and we should be ready to call that next round. I still see some players playing. Oh, it got called. You can see the dots right there. I think we're good. So round three is up. I speak and good things happen. Look what you made. Look what you made. You made it happen. So here's world championship soccer. We've got Tim Ellis, Darren Martin, Jesse Baker, and Jason showing. This is a very good group right here. By the way, props to Jason. You can see he does not have an IFPA rank by his name, which means this may well be his first tournament. And he's playing with Darren, Jesse, and Tim. How do you like that? He's already got points in two rounds is sensational. So, he's showing himself quite well. Strong showing. Great job. You know what it is? It's Keith Owen in a fake nose and mustache. He couldn't get in the tournament, so he decided to go as Jason Showin. I I am looking up right now just to make sure it's you because you do see this with match play, too. There's always the possibility that No, I do not see a show in the database. Well, that's exciting. Maybe we'll see a brand new tournament player pull off something incredible. I would love to see it. So, there's a couple of machines, Firepower, Junkyard, World Cup that are right under this big light. So, you are going to see a little bit of glare on this one. We're going to do our best to let you know and sort of keep commentating in real time to let you know what's happening. Hopefully, you can you can trace the ball and see the ball. Okay. Yeah, this one's not too bad. I think the the only place I'm seeing that glare is in that bottom left side. You know, the main thing I think we'll need to keep an eye over there is obviously the potential for a kickback. Yes. Yeah. So, there is a kickback on the left. You can see it lights with like a light blue uh light over there. So, you may not be able to see it, but you'll know because the ball will kick back into the playfield. There's a Magnus save on this as well. We did not see anybody that we in a ton of World Cup soccer. This is a great game. I freaking love it. So, is this World Cup or World Championship? This is Okay, World Cup. Because there was some debate on this. Um, here's the reason you may be thinking of the debate. Uh, it's World Cup soccer cuz this is the original. Yeah. Uh, when this got brought to Farsight's Pinball Arcade, that's what it is on Pinball Arcade. um they could not use the World Cup license cuz let's be honest, if you want to have that license, you have to pay set bladder about $5 million and bribe the crap out of FIFA just to have a chance to use it. Nobody wants to do that. So, they did a little bit of DMD work, a little bit of backend stuff. And with all the emulation that's out there, it's totally doable that they can go in and make DMD changes. Farsight can. It's one of the great things about, you know, emulation. Oh, he got an out of bounds, so good for him. Wow. This game has a very tight ball save, but if you don't actuate a lot of switches, it will give it to you. Tim Ellis taking a shot on goal right off the bat. Just missed. Oh, no. So, so I wonder if that was an if that was an accidental flip. It was just so so fast and so errant. It would have been strange to think of that as purposeful. Yes. Which I've done many times where you you just get excited, you accidentally sort of trigger and then boom, it's out. Yeah. So, yeah. so that they could release the game on Pinball Arcade and not have to pay the licensing fee. They changed enough of the DMD. They changed a little bit of the field. I don't think it says World Cup anymore. I think it says champion, even though the cities are exactly the same. Just the bare minimum they had to do to make it look different. Um, yeah, you really do have to look. They did a nice job on it. Um, you know, even though I'm really happy with everything that Zen Studios is doing with Pinball FX3, you know, I I had a great relationship with a lot of guys at Farsight, and it is sad that the only thing they have now is Got Leap, but I I do miss that. Yeah, I I made sure and buy all the licenses I could so I could keep my games for Williams and um and Valley, but those are now technically, you know, delisted on Steam. So, you got them. Yeah, I try to get them in early. I a lot of people sort of poo poo Farsight because some of their followup and support wasn't the best. But I'll tell you what, if you are a pinball purist, sure, it doesn't play exactly like a real table. But do you know how I learned how to play pinball on on Faright's pinball arcade? Absolutely. That's where I learned rules. That's where I learned strategies. And then I would show up in an arcade cuz I might not play a World Championship or World Cup soccer for 3 years after the first time I played it on Pinball Arcade. And I agree. I think that is the greatest thing. You know, a lot of hardcore purists would be like, "It's not the real thing." No, but you should still play it and you should still try it because you learn the rules. You learn everything you need to know so that when you do go to the real thing, you have a plan in mind and then you can adjust it for the fact that you know your physics are not predictable like they are going to be on any sort of virtual pinball. Yep. I could not It has great value. I can call out a little bit of strategy here. Um, so Oh, shoot. I'm going to Can I try and tell a straight? I think I got to fix that. I'll go real quick. He's got his lock lit, by the way. He does have his lock lit. Um, all ramps, all orbits, including the striker shot, which is just the the red light just blinking to the right of the goal. That is a tough shot. It's a tough shot. Not able to do anything with that, man. Tough break. That was a That was a big old brick. That was hard. All right, we'll get you a window here so you can tell us straight. Oh, thank you. Um, yeah, that first lock for all of them. You know, pretty much anything you hit lights the soccer ball in the middle of the playfield. You light all five of these, you get your lock lift. Um, the locks on this one are pretty simple in the sense of you lock one ball and then you got to make this shot right here. It's your TV award, but it's also your final draw shot. And final draw is your main multiball in this game where you've got to run the gauntlet of teams. Depending on how well you've done in your ball leading up to it, you may have a little bit of an easier route. Yep. Smartly for Jesse right then. He knows this machine like the back of his hand. He's already got two goals. Yeah, Jesse knows his way around this one. He knows to start off with a goal, then go for your lock shots. Yes. And we're going to see. It looks like he's still going for goal from the left flipper, lock from the right. Oh, that's a tough break. And he is not happy about it. Jesse got his there. Every goal you score to get the goal, you have to light all these targets. They're rollover targets. You light them, you get your goal lit. Um, from there you make a shot into the goal, you get it past the goalie, you get a goal. Um, the goal grants you many, many benefits. It's 5 million extra bonus points for every single one you get every single ball. It also grants you ultra bonuses either by hitting a goalie, by going a ramp, or spinners and jets. And the spinners and jets are super nice for building score. You don't see the points until your bonus. And you can stack them. So, if you go through all four, if you get five goals in a single ball, you can get ramps. In this case, he got ramps. You can get it again. Y um it tops at 40, you get 30 million and then it gives you a bonus 10 cuz it thinks you're really good at pinball, which you are at that point. You are. You are good at pinball. Um but then you can stack it and get it to 80 or 120 and you can just make it ridiculous. And that that's the strategy it looks like most everybody's taken so far, which is can I activate my ultra ramps first? to be a goal or at least a couple of the ultras. Yes. Can I get some of those those uh goals that continue to pay off? There he goes. Qualified the goal and then start going for the ramps and the lock. Yes. Because once you're in multiball, obviously those ultras are really going to pay off. You're going to find yourself up in the jets. You're going to find yourself on the ramps. You're going to find yourself at the spinner. Yeah. And it makes your multiball that much more valuable, right? And you can see he got for every ramp and goldie hit you get, it's 5 million towards your ultra. Um, so if you hit it six times, you get to 30, then you get your bonus. Y um, on the spinners, every spin counts as a mill. On your jets, every jet hits a mill in ultra. In ultra. Y. Yeah. So, you got to hit it top bumper 30 times, but it's doable in one shot. And those the spinner on this is juicy. It is one spin away. Is he going to get it back? He He will. That was super fast. Boy, that's his second throw in so far. I bet he is he is not pleased with his start on this one. Another strategy that you'll see in lower point games we I think this is a good amazing race strategy for example or maybe even you know depend if you're player four and you've seen everybody else's score is that TV award shot can start what's called big goal round to start your game which gives you basically free three free shots at the goal not free shots but pointbearing shots at the goal 15 15 30 and here's a great chance right here for early points there it is there is penalty kick 30 million. The goalie doesn't get out of the way, but he doesn't move. Yeah. So, he drained out there. Still got some points on that one. Could have been could have been much worse. So, one of the things I really like about this goalie shot in addition to the moving goalie, which is so fun and adds an element of surprise, right? Oh, yeah. But the goalie shot, he's on a little basically what amounts to a stand-up target. So, he's got some give. So, if you hit the goalie dead on, he actually drops it right back down. Oh, yeah. And he it poses a real threat. So, if it's it reminds me of firepower. There's that center target and firepower. It's very hard to get to. It's in between all the pops. You have to shoot straight up the center, but if you hit it, you're rewarded well, but you're also risking an immediate drain right down the middle. This goalie is the same way. The the designer of this machine, John Papaook, he does designed some of my favorite machines in pinball. He also did Tales of the Arabian Knights. He did Theater of Magic. Great. All three of those I love. And this one is a real outlier for him, right? So, a soccer theme not really in his his uh the center of his cannon there, but he did such a good job with this machine. And one one of the things that he does is really innovative ways to keep the ball in motion. This spinning soccer ball, which is counter rotating against the playfield right now, that thing adds a lot of confusion. Similar to the rotating um a lot of spin, there's a lot of English on the ball that can throw you off because a silver ball, you're not necessarily going to see that English. And he has got it. He back started the final draw. The final draw shot. Really nicely done. I think extra balls are turned off, but if we do see them unless specified and mostly on classics, it is let drain. And he is starting on Austria. So, the plan here is very, very simple. You get a goal, you get your jackpot. And I thought he got it there just too. He's taken all these shots at goal. Did get a drain. And there is no ball save. You can lose it fast. Yep. Kickback is now used up. So, he's not going to get that kickback. And let's see if he can get the goal. Boy, the goalie is just blocking him. Look how beautiful that goal. Tim Howard is behind goal right now. Pretty good, huh? Yeah, he's This is a good goalie. There you go. He got it. So now to relight it, any ramp. Yep. There's your 40 million point jackpot, but he's going to No, he lost it. He He had to make a command there and he let one drain. He can. That is the one exception to that. If you hit the penalty shot, the penalty shot overrides and gives you a jackpot. No kidding. So he got a second one. He got Canada. He picked up the striker. Another That's his first one. So that's a penalty. Now let's see if he can get this 30 million point goal. He'll maybe get No, he won't get another shot at it. Not bad though. 267. No. Good ball. Um if you hit I believe both the left and right ramp. Also, you can qualify. And this is the other way you get to the wizard mode at the end. You qualify cities. Um, if you look on the left side of the field as Jesse is starting to play right here, there's your cities World Cup. They all actually represent and he just got one of those cities. He moved to Chicago. Get a TV award. Got the TV award for that shot. So, here's big goal. We'll come we'll come back to cities to the cities. So, so here you want to shoot three goals, 15 mil a piece, total of 45. And he's got lock to go with it. I believe lock will stop the big goal round. You cannot combo them together. If I were him, I I would have gone for the same thing. I actually don't think big goal is usually worth it to me because you can get a 30 million point shot by itself on goal. Three 15 million point shots for a shot that risky not worth it to me. It feels like one of those hurry ups that you just it's it's tricking you. Very fair. You can see that soccer ball counter rotating, throwing a lot of weird spin on the ball. I don't I think he's going to have one shot at that third one. Oh, he gets a striker goal. Striker. Yep. Penalty kick. This would double if he gets it real quick here. He'd get the 30 just about had it. But then the momentum, that was a great save because that momentum did exactly what you said. It was that perfect center rejection. Another striker shot. Yeah. And he gets three freebies. Wow. So that would qualify six. I believe the second mode is striker hideout, which that's an extra ball mode, which I would avoid like the plague at this point. N definite avoid. And he gets his final draw. He's done a lot on the board. So, he's starting at Holland. 50 million point jackpot if he can get it. His ramps are lit. His goalies are lit. So, this is a great chance to build up ultra jackpot as well. Oh, he's got a center drain there. He's got two uh left. He goes for a ramp and then a shot on goal. Everything he's hitting is worth points right now. He got it. 50 million for that shot. Well done. So, now any qualify ramp just missed it. If you don't get a jackpot at all, you get a chance to relight your multiball. Um, if you have gotten a jackpot at any point, fair enough. I don't I don't know my my international goalies as well as my American ones. So, Tim Howard is my go-to. Yeah, I guess Zack Stefen if you're a Columbus Crew fan because he was very good for them for years. If it's any consolation, I can't name a single goalie in the history of soccer. Those are literally the only ones I know. Okay, fair. Ple was not a goalie, right? No, he was he was a striker much like our our our favorite doggy here named our fall dog. What do you call him? Striker. No, but you called him doggy ball. What did you call? Our favorite our favorite soccer doggy. Soccer doggy. Soccer doggy. Let's play soccer doggy. Ah, okay. He's real solid length. There you go. Striker shot was lit and then unfortunately out to the left. So you got two very good scores here. Darren with 287 is good. Jesse with 428 is excellent. Tim's got some work to do, but he's got everything in front of him. He needs just one more shot to light his lock, give himself an opportunity for a multiball right here. Tim got off to a rough start, but he had some good play on the last ball. So, if if he can keep that momentum up and get something done, I mean, he could This penalty shot was super helpful. He's a good player. He could he could get a run here. He could. All right. He's got final draw lit. This is the time. He's got one more shot for the skill shots. We never came back to the cities. Basically, if you get through all of the cities, um, you get a wizard mode. Oh, nice bounce up there. Oh, and he missed the shot. You don't see that out of the penalty kick. Yeah, he was in a hurry right there. Did not give himself enough time to let the penalty shot sit. Y little anxiety. I think that's I think that's really common. You know, you get you get amped up for something like this, especially if you didn't start out the way you wanted to on a game. No doubt. And you start to get a little antsy and pretty soon you're taking pot shots and things. And the bad part about that is not only did it cause him to miss the the usually surefire goal, but it caused a bad rejection, which I think caught too much lateral movement on the bottom. Bad break. Yep. And if you end up So one of the bummers about missing a goal is let's say you're taking a shot on goal and you end up this way. You're basically aimed right at the center of this right sling. That's going to send you to the left out lane. The bumpers on this one are very active. It's never good to see the ball go there. So, he's got ultra goalie here. Did not complete stars, but that's not the worst play ever because it sets up stuff like this. So, he's It looks like he's going to try and relight his multi with uh ramps and orbits. Now, second time around, not everything is lit. You can see the right ramp is lit right now. Uh the left ramp is not. So, this is not an easy shot. I mean, I think watching the overhead cam, it looks like ah, just shoot the right ramp. This is not an easy shot. It's a dangerous shot on the right ramp. A brick will send you straight down uh the the center drain. Yes. Basically, that ramp just becomes a setup. Oh, he'll There he goes. He got the flipper just in time. The left ramp shot basically becomes a setup to put it on the left flipper to give you the right ramp. That's it. And I find the right ramp actually difficult from a trap. I almost have to on this one. I have to keep it moving to get up the right ramp, which makes the shot even more difficult. That's very fair. Little ramp pass so Darren can get over to the right and then he had to kind of flip it away. Let's see if he can get the ball back under control. This is a game that will make fun of you if you don't uh hit the right switches. It'll say it looks like he doesn't have control or whatever. And uh he can't seem to get control of the ball. Yeah. And that uh that annoys me is what I'm saying. Usually that right before I'm draining. Yeah. It's like can't get control of pod. There's my bonus. Thank you for those who have subscribed. We have three subscribers uh on right now and 49 viewers. We're so glad to have you. Thank you for super hyped to have all of you here watching with us. Thank you so much. So, you're watching the Cincinnati 2019 matchplay tournament. We have a series of tournaments over the weekend. My guess is this might be the biggest one in terms of numbers of people playing, but I'm not sure. But we've had tremendous uh attendance yesterday. We had our strikes tournament in the afternoon. Then we had our women's tournament which was done amazing race style. Now we're in a match play tournament. You're watching the qualifying round of round three out of eight. All right. He's got the flipper. Jesse needs about 60 million points on this ball in order to get back into first place. Darren got it up to about 488 million. Pretty darn good. And he's already most of the way. He might have it on goals. He's got a running head start. And those goals continue to pay off. He does have it on goals. We can confirm that he has eight goals. That's a guaranteed 40 million bonus. Notwithstanding cities he's finished. Cities are worth 10 million. Oh, what do we have here? This is new. Oh, what happened there? Can somebody go grab that? Let's see. Okay, good. Oh, Jesse's on it. I'm not sure what that was. I don't know. That was strange. Maybe a top. That was very good of Jesse to grab it the way he did. I would not have expected him to have to do that. That would have been a fair trap up point um to take a moment especially at this point in the game where he needs the points. Yep. You know, this is high high strategy stuff. So, he's taking he's taking the lead, but he's trying to build some pad against Jason showing. Is that right? Oh, okay. Glare protector. Oh, the glare protector. Interesting. That's ironic, isn't it? Don't you think? Yeah, don't you think? Oh, just too fast. Oh, now the advantage here. He did get past the number. The bonus is nice. 111 million right then. So he's at 607. What are you looking at here? Oh, I was just going to point out something. So in terms of angles, again, remember that this is as much a game of physics and design as it is of art and skill. And this right here right off that sling, there is a there's a piece that is aimed kind of like this, whose only job it is is to take this 45° angle and add that 45° angle. And at the speed Jesse was moving, there was no saving that ball. It did exactly what it was built to do, which is drain you. Take your money. Yep. It is the black knight in disguise. It wants to take all your money. It just wants all of your money all the time. Yes. Here, I'll let you fix that. You're fine. You're fine. I'm just going to move that back up here. Keep Yeah, I think we're good. Um, so yeah, Jason now has a heck of a road to run here. I think multiball is the best play. It gets you there the fastest. Oh, he's got the TV. Not TV. I don't think that inhibits him from going for whatever he gets. If he gets a couple goals here, great. But if he doesn't, it's not the end of the world. So, he's all lit up in the middle. Is he qualified? Oh, it won't matter. Not able to save that ball. So, I believe that I think he's got a decent bonus here. 46. Yeah, that's enough to get him third place. So, he'll get three points out of that. He will not get any more. So, in order, Jesse Baker, Darren Martin, Jason Showin, our new entrant into the tournament world, we think, and Tim Ellis and Tim Ellis game by all players. Give us a chance to look at almost all of the rules of the machine. Love that. I, like I said, we never finished talking about the cities. The cities does present one of my favorite little side trips, which is the Boston Tea Party. The Boston Tea Party. I love that mode. Poor Striker going, "Oh, he's trying to drink all the cups. He's trying to drink all the tea." Coming down the the assembly line there. Ridiculously cute. It reminds me of that scene from I Love Lucy where she's trying to do the chocolates just can't keep up. Yeah. The the compare the comparator I think would be if you're playing Road Show and you hit Atlanta and you have to hit the thing for the worker that's trapped. That's right. That would be the best compare that I can think of, you know, except the worker blows up. The the striker gets to wipe his brow when he's done drinking all that caffeine. Wait, so when you if you hit the worker trapped in the in the blast zone, are you killing the worker when you get it? Are you blowing him up? You're blowing him up, but he does survive. But he's okay. He's okay. All right. Cuz it got real dark there for a second. Cartoon physics, my friend. Okay. Very good. Very good. He just has like a funny hair and a puff of smoke and puff of smoke. Everybody's fine. Okay. Yeah, that and that's right. That was the glare guard that came down right then. I guard's gone wild. So I imagine that's going to stay off for the remainder of the day. Well, Jesse Jesse handled that like a pro. I mean, that took class to just keep playing your ball. Yeah. Reach up, get rid of that glare guard. Yeah. and and you know how much it was affecting his play as opposed to what we're seeing is really the important thing here. You know, we'll be fine no matter what. It's a matter of making sure he can do what he needs to do. Well, and again, this game is so much about focus and it is so psychological that anything that disrupts you. That's why we don't try and move the cameras mid game if we can help it because anything that disrupts you has an impact on your play. It does. It does. We can see most of the games of this round have finished up. We'll go down here. Jungle Queen goes to Storcewonger. Uh Ben Patrick takes Harlem Globe Trotters. Adam Adam Robinson comes in with the Sweethearts win. Uh we just saw World Cup soccer. Uh Junkyard is still going. AC/DC is still going. In fact, I see uh looks like over there, that is Steve playing that right now. Uh Royal Rumble goes to Chad Hams. Uh Diane Spman, that's the second time we've seen her win, so she's off to a very good start here. Wins Grand Prix. Uh Medieval Madness goes to Josh Noble. That's a That's a rematch of last night. Josh and Tim were the final two in our strikes tournament. So, a little bit of a rematch. I'm not surprised to see both of them going up against each other. Argusy is still going as well as Iron Maiden. Fast draw goes to Todd Dennis. Mouse, is that Mouse? Yeah, that is mousing around that got brought in. I did not see that Mousin was brought into the equation today. I'm not sure. Is that all the way down at the end there? I'm trying to look for it. Yeah, that definitely says mousing around. Anna Neil uh wins that one. Big game goes to Nathan Straz. Stars to Jennifer York and firepower to Jeff Westerkin. That's more what we expect to see out of Jeff in some of those uh mid and older games. We expect to see him dominate in those and I think that was the case there. So looking at the numbers right now, we have exactly one perfect game left. That is Storcewonger. He is in first place at 21 points. And we have a log jam at 15 points right now. So 15 and 13 is where you need to be to get one of those spots. And we would have amazingly high amounts of tiebreers for both of them. Expect to see the tiebreaker amount stay very high as the day goes on. That is the nature of the Swiss format. You're going to be playing people who are very similarly, you know, scoring as much as you are. So, you know, expect we're going they're going to have to do a lot of work to play some very good players and make it past that. Um, looking at some notable names right here. There's too many surprises here. I'm a little surprised to see Tim Ston down at 11 points. Same for Holly Costkin down at 11 right now. But that's kind of been her MO the past few tournaments we've seen Holly play. Slow starts and big finishes. So, you know, don't count her out in any way, shape, or form. She may well just be warming up at this point. Same for Lindsay right now sitting at 11 points. A little surprised to see her down there. Jane Verweis, our winner last night, just at nine points through three rounds. So, lot of work for her to do as well to make a comeback in this. And uh we'll see where uh who wins that game between Dusty, Michael, Ross, and Willie. Uh the winner of that game will be at 15. And I think the winner of the unless it's Anna, the winner of the other game, the John Steve Roy will be up to 17 points. What are my thoughts on Mr. USA? H I don't know if I've seen very much on Mr. USA right now, to be honest with you. So, I'm going to look it up real quick and make sure I'm looking at the right thing right here. Yeah, tell me more about it. Tell me more about Mr. USA. I do see a potential wrestling reference in there, which if that's the case, also I am horribly rusty on my wrestling right now. You'll have to forgive me. Oh, Mark Smith. Ah, there we go. I assume Smith is his middle name. Mark Smith USA. I know I'm going to assume there's another Mark Smith somewhere playing in the world is why we're seeing that as we get ourselves a little bit of Chuck Vision right now. Let's see where he's running this thing to. Actually, this is not Chuck Vision. This is Justin Vision. But in honor of that, we're going to call it the Chuck Vision cam anyways and show our Chuck Wart proper love and affection right then. And we're going to see where that's moving. It looks like it might be moving to Royal Rumble. Um, is that game still going? That game is not going. So, they're definitely doing a practice game on it right now and we're going to play that next. Um, don't know a lot about Mark Smith, unfortunately. So, don't have a lot of thoughts there. I said I think the reason you're seeing what you're seeing is there's another Mark Smith who's an international player. Um, we see that a lot in the states, uh, because of players who have, uh, you know, there might be a a James there, for example, there's a J James Scott is in there at James Scott O. Um, which means somewhere in the country there's another James Scott that plays pinball. I came up a little short. You are so close, man. It's crazy. Um, and somewhere else there's a James Scott that plays. Um, there's cases like that. So, we'll see who gets pulled up for the next round here. Yeah, that'll totally work. I've been so excited to see this game. We haven't yet seen it on the stream. Not Not yesterday, not today. I have been so excited. I may need you to move it up literally like a quart of an inch. I know that playfield. That was my first time moving the rig. I I need I need my some practice, I think. Dude, nothing wrong with that. It t You got it. It's an art. It's an art. Whether you're moving webcams like I tend to do back up home y or whether you're moving a rig like this, it really is an art form to get everything just right. It's not easy to do. Hey, what up car the hobbit? It's Car the Hobbit. He's here. I just saw him a second ago. Yeah, we were just talking about his place. There he is. I see his phone. I can see him right there. I can see the screen by which he is typing on chat. That's kind of That's kind of trippy. I know it's Twitchion. The thing is, see, he doesn't have audio up over there, so he doesn't know we're talking about him. He has no idea. I'm looking at him, so he probably does know that I'm talking to him by the fact in Yeah, he's in on the bit. It's a bit not a Twitch. It's a Twitch bit except it's not a Twitch bit cuz there's no Twitch pitch given. Speaking of Speaking of Twitch bits, did you get to your thousand yet? Do we get to thousand? I have I have I have not done it yet. Yeah. How How close are we? We were at a couple hundred last last night. I think we've got about 250 over the 250. Okay. All right. About 250. If we get to a thousand, you're going to sing what? We haven't determined that yet. All right. I'm going to keep thinking about it. Maybe maybe I'll start doing pin maybe I'll figure out like uh improv pinball reps. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Start making up some lyrics. Pinball or just go with pinball wizard. But I don't think it's the same. No, that's not a great karaoke. But it's not a great karaoke tune. I I improv pin barbarous would be fun based on certain machines. I I'm ready to start writing. I I have on multiple occasions changed TNT to DMD. That's fun. Yeah. How about uh Billy Joel Solid State of Mind? Oo, I get excited about that one. Yeah, it's all out lanes to me. Perfect. Actually, the way I play it often is all out lanes. Yesterday I played uh defender for for about 40 minutes and every single drain so I played three or four games. Every drain I had was right out lane. Every single one. Oh my goodness. What what's it say? Say thank you for being here. We appreciate it. It's It's never too late. It is never too late. Skip Natty, thank you for that raid. We appreciate you guys being here. What up? Appreciate you trusting your viewers with us today. Very much appreciate it. So, we've got uh right now we're just about to start I think the next round. We'll see how everybody's doing. We're very close. We'll take a quick look at the matches right here and we have one game of AC/DC going. We got a junkyard and I think Rory is on ball three right now. We're going to switch back. Yeah, we'll show you that multiball if it's still going. I don't think it is. Crap. We missed it. Sorry about that, Bazooka. We're back. We're back. Oh, we don't know what happened. It's probably because we switched off of it. Look at us trying to be everything. Dag darn it. you, if you guys are new, you are watching Cincinnati 2019 based out of Cincinnati, Ohio, as the name would suggest. Hopefully that was intuitive, but it may not be. Yeah, you know, we might have some international people who don't know don't know the the Cincy the way we do. That's true. Um, we're actually in the the Eastgate suburb of town at the Holiday Inn. Uh, the show goes uh from yesterday 22nd to tomorrow the 24th. So, if you are local to the area, come on down. We've got 120 pinball machines on free play. You pay your daily fee to get in. You get to play them all. We've got, you know, vendors here that you can talk to. We've actually got some pinball machines for sales. Yep. Yeah. There are pinball machines and their owners all over the place. So, it's really fun because if you're looking at a machine, let's say you've always had your eye. Last year, for me, it was a theater of magic. I've always had my eye on a theater of magic. But I want to know what's the down and dirty of this machine. What's it really going to be like? Well, chances are good the owner is right here somewhere. And all the pinball machines here have the owner's name and number on them. You just text them and say, "Hey, what's up? Let's talk about your theater." Even if you're not trying to buy it, even if you've just always wanted to know what it's like to own a machine or play a machine, you can just text the owner and we will just come over and hang out. Like, we want to talk about pinball as much as you do. This is an amazing community show. It really is. And you add on to it some highly competitive tournaments and stuff that we're doing. Oh, Dirty Toast might have a suggestion. We're going to need some more bits to it. Can we riff TLC waterfalls for a pinball purpose? So, I What's the movie? The Other Guys, where the guy keeps talking in TLC quotes. Michael keeps talking in TLC quotes for no reason. I love it. Hey guys, guys, don't go chasing waterfalls. Okay, just stick to the rivers and lakes that you're used to. If you haven't seen the movie, one of my favorite recent comedies. So, I don't think I know any other TLC songs where I would quote them. I think that's the only one I got. Well, but but I think I'm trying to think. I can't do it. Can't do. You haven't given me enough bits. I'll be right back. think some something or nothing at all, but I think you're going too fast. Which would also be a very appropriate pinball take right there. All right, he's going to change it right here. Oh, that's good. I'm good with that. Just enough to see the lights up there is key. suggest I don't want no scrubs. So my wife Haley when she was growing up thought that the song was don't go Jason Waterfalls that was his name and it was like Jason don't go please stay here with the rivers and lakes that you're used to. There was a a a Twitch streamer by the name of Crumps 2 that used to uh play a lot of baseball, played a lot of MLB the show and his chasing waterfalls was trying to hit the curveball in the baseball game cuz it's a waterfall of a pitch. Uh, that's good. It was well phrased. Don't go chasing them. Don't go chasing those waterfalls. I get you every time. Leads you to the dugouts and the lakes that you're used to. Now, car the Hobbit has joined in our our textbased singalong. There we go. I think you're moving too fast. Us. We're not chasing waterfalls. This This is the fun you get between rounds right here. This is maybe why we're happy that Eric keeps this moving. Probably why the people watching are happy that Eric keeps it. They don't have to keep listening to us. Now, Del Fin. The only appropriate to think is the old Snickers commercial where it's where the guy the the quarterback gets hit. Yeah. And and then he's like, "How many fingers am I holding up?" Two. What's my New York? Who am I? I'm Batman. I am Batman. I am Jason Waterfalls. I'm Jason Waterfalls. What are you? I am Jason Waterfalls. Hungry? Grab a Snickers. Or grab Michael Dawn brownies. Oh my gosh, that guy makes good brownies. Michael Dawn brought his parents and the first thing everybody wanted to say to him was, "Can I have the brownie recipe?" It wasn't, "Hey, your son's a great pinball player. Hey, we love hanging out." It was, "Can I get that brownie recipe?" Any word if it was disclosed or is it still trade secret? I think it's still a trade secret. I think I think it's going to die with their with their children's grandchildren. I see. I see. So, that game was the last game. So, I think I know Rory is talking to Eric right now about something, but I think we're just about ready for round four to kick off right here. Yep. And um we should share a little bit about where we are and where we're going in case you're just joining us. We said this is the Cincinnati tournament, but this is one of several tournaments that are happening over the course of the weekend. This is our matchplay tournament and we're about to start round five. Is that right? Round four. Uh round four. And also for your knowledge, uh we will be taking about a 45minut break after round number four. We'll keep the stream running. Uh keep everything going for you, but we will take a little bit of a break just so you guys can get something to drink. Maybe we can get a little bit of food. Make a quick food run. Um or you can just bring us some. I'm just saying if you're in the building and you want to bring us food, that's fine. Talk about I'm good with talking about I'm not picky. No, no. But I am in Cincinnati Chili is great. Yeah. Skyline Chili. So, I just met, by the way, we said before, if you're local, come to Cincinnati. I'm going to extend this this concept of local. I just met a guy from uh Orange, New Jersey. Oh, we'll keep the light on for you. There's 100 bits towards Coop. Thank you for those 100 bits, man. Appreciate it. Coupe, that is really nice. Coupe graphics with 100 bits. Eric, we ready for four? That brings you to 350. 350. 350. So, we're getting closer to singing. Getting there. So, um I met a fellow uh named Max who drove here from Orange, New Jersey yesterday night. Yeah. He got off of work and he said, "I really want to play some pinball." He drove to Cincinnati. Wow. And his first question for me was, "What is this chili thing I keep hearing about?" Yeah. And I said, "I you know what, buddy? It's one of my favorite foods in the world, but I got to warn you, if you're thinking chili, you're going to be disappointed." You are. You're right. It's more of a sauce. It's more of like a Greek meat sauce. So, I prepped him. He's going to go out and get some at lunch. And I made him promise he would tell me what he thought. That's awesome. So, we're just about ready to start round four and then we're going to do a break. Okay, now I just got six, I think. Oh, nice work, dude. Awesome, man. I may not have locked it back down. It doesn't necessarily need it. It's kind of a precaution. It's more important on like hard. It'll just kind of drip when Eric built that stream. Oh my god. Here we go. Here we go. Some pizza shooter shrimp shrimp poppers. Hey, you guys hungry? Maybe some pizza shooters, shrimp poppers, extreme fajitas. Nice. I love it. Dirty toast. Are we at shenanigans? Oh, we are to make sure you guys know after next round we'll have a break. Oh, we are totally at shenanigans. I am a shenanigan fan. Let me ask you something. Ask me what. What do you think of a person who only does the bare minimum? Like how many pieces of flare are you currently wearing? All of them. So, you know, I know that the minimum is 30 pieces of flare. Yes. But, um, we ask our employees to maybe show a little bit of extra flare. I only have one piece of flare on. I have one, two, I have the badge. Badge is kind of flarey. I I I kind of think my contact lens case in this case is kind of fl because it helps me see. That's true. Um, I like I like vision flare. Big fan of that. I've got a hat. Does that count as flare? Headphones. We have headphones. I went back and watched Office Space, by the way, the other what, two weeks ago, by the way. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to have to work the weekend. Yeah. That was Eric telling us about this weekend. Yeah. I'm going to need you guys to go ahead and come in on Saturday. Yeah. Sorry, Delaware Pinball. Oh, hey guys. What's happening? What's happening? Hey, Delaware Pinball, you were in a position to have as many as four people working directly underneath you. That movie, by the way, stands a test of time. So, some of the technology is outdated. The fashion, of course, is outdated. It is still as funny today as it was in Laser is not outdated, though. No, that's still pretty fun. That's still amazing. I have one at at my mom's house that I need to beat up right now. Really? Yeah. I had Bring it over with a bat, man. I I might do that. So, this is a true story about the movie I learned is that so you know the iconic red Swingline stapler? Yes. It didn't exist. They spray painted a black Swingline stapler red so that he could have a red stapler for the movie. And then Swingline started making red staplers because everybody was calling like, "Where can I get the red stapler?" Yeah. And now it's their number one bestselling stapler. Oh my god. Isn't that great? That's amazing. That movie invented the red stapler. You're welcome, world. So, you are not yet watching the round. You are watching some practice by Holly for the round. And you may have seen Holly in last night's women's tournament uh in the Amazing Race format, but in just a minute, we're going to get our new round and you're going to see um you're going to see uh Rumble is what we're playing. Royal Rumble, WWF, now WWE, because I believe the people from the World Wildlife Fund uh ended up winning that particular copyright war. Okay, moment laughs there. No one told Eric all the games are done. Even with all of us working so hard, we can't we forgot the one most important thing. I thought Kelly was looking at all that stuff. Gilly. I blame me. We are going to There we go. Sorry about that, guys. Round four is up. All right, let's check in on our standings here as we move into round four. Here we go. So, you've got Stu Niswonger out front with 21. Now, it's not uncommon to see ties here. So, to have somebody by themselves in first place has got to be encouraging for Stu, Ben, Adam, Roy, and Aaron. Three rounds. Yeah. How do you like that? That's not bad. Yep. Three rounds. Perfect game. Love it. Uh Ben Patrick, sorry. Ben Patrick, Adam Robinson, Roy Richie, and Aaron Malia. Am I Malisa? You know, I say males up, but I think we're right either way. We'll have to ask uh all tied for second, third, fourth, and fifth, respectively. And uh Jesse and company right behind taking us all the way through 12. Yes. In fact, right now, as it stands, 15 points, we would have the tiebreaker to end all tiebreers because that would constitute everybody in A and everybody in B. Oh my gosh, that's so fun. We all of these players would play for for four spots in A and then the remaining players would play for all of the B tournament. So So if we were to stop right now, it would be every player for themselves in the B tournament. Yeah. Just to fight for their spot. I I I believe the answer is Eric. That's so Yeah. Like that's the whole thing. Eric would just cry tears of pain and sorrow. Just the playoffs alone to get to that point would take another hour and a half. It would be You'd have to give everybody a tenth of a ball. Everybody, you get one plunge. Iron Maiden if you don't hit the skill shot. Yeah, the only people who move forward are the people who hit the skill shot on Iron Maiden. And only the 20 million one. We have standards here. I believe that's that is the third time we're going to see Jeff on stream. The second time we've seen him on uh we've seen Tim. We've seen Tim as well. Nick and Kyle are new to today. Yeah. So 13 and 11. These are players that are working to get into that mix. So, we did see Kyle Ko yesterday on the stream and I'll tell you what, he in the last what 6 months has all of a sudden started stacking up tournaments and stacking up IFPA points. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw him next year in more of the 1500 range because he has just been really playing well and playing a lot. We might see him at this point next year in the 1500 range. Yes. Now, one thing to remember about how the Whopper points work is that it gets harder the closer you get to number one. Not only because you're playing harder people, but you're playing people with more tournaments. You are. So, in the early days when you first get your first tournament or your first couple tournaments, you might go from 8,000 to 5,000 or 4,000 with a simple tournament, you know, midplace finish. But once you get past, you know, the 2000s range or so, it gets harder and harder to work your way up to number one. So when you see somebody in those coveted top 100, that's somebody who has played a lot of really great pinball. It is Kyle, unfortunately done at about 37 million after ball number one. Did not see him unlock a lot of stuff here. That's a tough start. This has the classic date east choice for your shot right here. You see it with like Tales from the Crypt a little. I think you see it in Star Wars as well. Now, this is a really easy skill shot. You've got a lane selector up top. You can see Jeff is still up uh in the pops by the lane selector, and you get to pick what you're getting out of it. Yes. Uh that's that data east selection he was talking about. Then you're going to go for ramps and orbits to try and get your multiball going. The way you start multiball is by getting all nine of your wrestlers qualified. Yes. And that'll get you to multiball. And you do that by hitting the ramps and orbits three times a piece. So, it looks like this mode does stump the progress. You can only do the mode while you're in it. That being Yoguna's bonsai mode. Okay. He was getting 5 million for life ramp shot, but did not do any much with it. So, yeah, that's the other thing is if you don't want to go to multiball, you can do the modes. And you can see the mode entrance shots, I believe, are just to the left of the center ramp. Yes. And where's the other mode shot? I'll have to look for it. Hold on. So, the Hulkster selects 3 mill. They get the 10 million shot up there. 30 million for now. He only got 20 million for that. It looked like he was going to maybe get have a possibility at more. Looks like that 20 to 30 mil to start each ball for these players is going to be fairly a bit of a given. Now, you can see up top you've got sort of haunted house style, this extra little playfield that you're trying to hit these drop targets and get those little mini orbits up there and it'll give you a light to let you know what are we going for. He's going for the ones in the middle right off the bat. Yep. Why not? So, there's all three wrestlers. Lex Luger. Hacksaw Jim Dugen. Hacksaw Jim Dugen. Right. I love I I remember watching him growing up. This one really does. This gives me nostalgia. I love good early '90s wrestling. So, what he's doing now, it looks like, is not just trying to qualify those wrestlers, but going for Macho Madness. Yeah. If he gets those sleeper, if he gets it up into the pumps right there. Yeah, he's going macho. I think he's going Macho Madness. One shot left. Game is turning into center ramp simulator here. Yeah. Did he get enough shots? I think he did, but I think he's already in the sleeper pops mode. Yeah. So, so he may not be able to start monster get the 30. He got the 30. He got the 30 million. Way to get up in the Kennedy McMahon. Happy to hand out 30 million points for him. Is it Vincent Kennedy McMahon? That's he he'll go by that on occasion. Wow. And that's Nick Kennedy playing with Vincent Kennedy McMahon. Could be a relation there. We don't know it. Is he a Kennedy Kennedy? Not a Kennedy. No, no, no, no. Not that kind of candidate. Not that kind of Not that kind of candidate for sure. So Tim Ellis will step up on the machine right now. We haven't seen anybody get past three rushers. Really that middle that center ramp has been the play so far. Hulkster for him selects the 3x as well. That seems to be what everybody's waiting for. Oh no. Wow. And house ball. And there is no ball save on this whatsoever. And I don't think he got anything out of that skill shot either. No. That was brutal for Tim on ball number one right there. That hurts. So Kyle will step back up. I believe Kyle is in I think I don't think he's in first. Might be in second with that 37 million right there. Yeah. So Kyle is leading the pack in terms of tournament points so far by a couple of points which is a a pretty good start. Yeah. A couple of the targets up there for 10 mil each. Yeah. Let's see if he can kind of even the score out. Oh no. No. That is he lofts it over. That is such a tempting move, right? You want to take a little bit of energy off the ball. You want to sort of calmly flip it up and you just don't put enough or you put a little too much and all of a sudden you're just lofted to the right out. Yeah. Not much you can do about that. So Jeff Wester Camp stepping up here. He is at 11 points with the exception of Kyle who would be in that massive playoff. All of these players are jockeying for a good game to get in position. Yeah, he got house ball too. Nothing out of that. Wow. Player three, ball two. Great opportunity for Nick and Tim to make some hay here. Yep. Nick is in first place. He has 113 million on this. Of course, we saw him destroying the Macho Man ramp. Destroy the center ramp to get Macho Madness. Yeah, gets a lane up there for another 10. Did he wrestlers? There's the Heartbreak Kid, Shawn Michaels. Did he activate Macho Madness? I don't think I don't think it kind of it seemed to get lost somehow in the other in the pops mode. Look at that great nudge. So, that was that was a really wise choice on his part. Instead of trying to nudge left, right, and take that 50/50 gamble, he nudged up because what that did was that took the rubber on that the top of that sling and pushed the ball up into the deflector to push it out. And he couldn't manage to do it a second time. Couldn't do it a second time, but that was a really clever nudge. It was a good play. And just with that little bit of play, he's up to 160 million now. Good solid lead. Now, let's see if Tim can do something here. Only 7 mil on ball number one. not even able to take advantage of some of the basics we saw earlier. Yep. Tim and Jeff, good job up top there. Got about 30 mil off the plunge. Yep. So, he's already quadrupled his score on the plunge. Yes. He's got a lot of work to do. You really didn't get those qualified points. Go. Uh-oh. Nice. That's a single. Oh, but then goes down the middle on him. That hurts. This machine for a newer DMD machine playing a little bit floaty right now. Dies always did play a little floatier than the Williams did. Yeah, not dramatically so, but a little bit. Oh, three skill shots. That's a 20 mil bonus for Kyle. Look at that. All right, now let's see if Kyle can get this ball under control. He's taken some pretty hard shots and I don't I don't know what his intent is, but it seems like he's not able to get the ball. We're not going to find out cuz not able to get the control he wanted. So, he's going to end at 125. That's enough for second place right now. And yeah, it is a widebody machine. You're right. Good to know his rig can handle the widebody machines just as well as it can the non-wides. So there's a 10 mil. There's the three skill shots. So Jeff gets his 20 million bonus as well for consistently hitting skill shots. And it's not a hard skill shot, but it's an easy one to overlook. It is. Oh, too. This has been a tough game for everyone. has just been punishing. Now, Jeff did do enough to move himself past Kyle. He got past Kyle and he's in second place right now. Nick is in the lead with his 160 million right now. So, he's playing add-on pinball. Got to put up a decent score to try and hold that 57 points here. And he's got a wide lead over Tim. So, I mean, he even if he has a bad ball here, assuming Tim doesn't go on a run, he's still probably in good shape, I would think. So, but Tim, you know, Tim's a good player. could absolutely come back on this. Tim just kind of needs to get a little bit of the feel for this machine. I don't think he's been able to do it just yet. Don't know if any of the players have truly gotten a good feel outside of a little bit of center ramp action. So, he did just sweep those drops and got the next letter in RIP for the Undertaker. So, good quick point scoring there. 221 is not horrible. This is a makeable amount. I really think it is. If Tim can get on just a little bit of a roll, you have to. And I and I wonder if he's if I'm him at this point, I go for modes. So, as tempting as it is to try and get a pop bonus there now, he's getting a million for every pop or at least a lot of them. Yeah. 100k a pop. Yeah. The standard data e super pops option. Mhm. Yeah. He's got his pops lit. So, it's not a bad option to just stay up in the pops for a while. These aren't dangerous pops. Until that happens, it rejects off the center ramp. He just could not get a feel for that machine at any point. And unfortunately for Tim, that means he's only going to take two point one point and he'll be at 12 out of round four. That's a big move in this part of the event. Wins in the second half. Nick Kennedy, Jeff Wester Camp, Kyle Ko, and Tim Ellis is bringing up the rear on this one for only one. So we will go to 18. Um Jeff and Kyle will be at 16 and Tim will be at 12. Wow. I got to tell you that went fast. That went a lot faster than I was expecting it was going. Yeah. I'm going to see if I can move us over to another game and Yeah. Let's see what we can make happen here. I know there's a little bit of action happening around you. It looks like Eric is working on stars right now. We may have a something in the back glass actually. So, there may be some kind of more wide ranging issue on stars. Maybe the tilt light went out again. I don't know. Interesting. One minute. Yeah. Go see what you can scope out here. Maybe we can get a little bit of a tech cam. This is where we need tech cam, too. We have Chuck Vision. We need Tech Cam for all of this here. Thank you guys for for joining us today. Thank you guys for watching as we're approaching break time uh after this round, but we will see if we can get you in another game in the meantime here. We'll see if any other games have finished. Looking at the matches that might No, that was the very first game that finished out of the whole group. You get a little unlucky sometimes in when certain games finish. And we've got another machine that's being worked on right here. So, little bit of assistant TD work right now that is on Jungle Queen, it looks like, is being worked on. So, Justin's got the camera. We're going to We'll show you that cam here, but he really doesn't have anywhere to go. Um I mean AC/DC is an option. Um if if everybody's cool with that, that being Stephen, Michael, Austin, and Rachel, um obviously we're going to, you know, check with the people in that group and make sure we're good. The last thing we want to do is cause any sort of game issue, any sort of competition issue, uh by bringing the check of vision into play here. We don't want to mess with things. And I think that is what we're going to do. We are going to move to ATDC right here where they're going into ball number three. Very much appreciate that group uh letting us move everything into place for them right here. So big props to these four players. Uh we will switch our camera here to that. Uh this is a group of players who are all looking for a big finish right here. Steven Shelty, Michael Dawn, Austin Purcell, and Rachel Wallace. So uh Steven is up and he has a sizable lead. You know, has 2X on the Devil Horns as well. So, let's see what he's able to do. Looks like he's he's going TNT based on what we're seeing right here. He will get his ball save, but that's what it looks like. It looks like his play is the TNT mode here. We'll take a little bit of the ambient sound from the game. See if we can hear. This is such a great game for audio. Let's see if we can hear something. It is. He's got TNT and now he's got it lit for 786,000. So now if you do that first thing, classic Steve Richie type play here. You get the first thing done, then suddenly everything gets really good. Looks like he's got it locked in place of 536,000 for every shot on the board. Does take a danger, but that's okay right now. And he drains, but he has a sizable lead. added a few million to it right there. Bonus will get him just a little under one more. So, he's at 37. So, do you have a strategy you like on AC/DC? My starting mode is usually whole lot of Rosie and it's for nothing more than the fact that even though it's not a highly lucrative mode, everything's in play. Yeah. So, when I'm wanting to get a feel for the machine, that way I'm going to get points as I do it. Um I've seen a lot of people go rock and roll train. Um, I've seen people like Trent like to do War Machine cuz they can rip the spinner all day. Y, but that's my approach. I tend to go war machine. The problem with rock and roll train for me is that I am not reliable on the right ramp. And in order to make big bucks on rock and roll train, you got to be able to get that right ramp. That is very true. So, Mike Dawn starts us off in is he doing Thunder Struck? Is that what I'm watching? That is Thunderruck. Oh, he's going to be very He is not happy. He aggressively hits the button for that last point. That was like a That was a rage hit. That was That That was That was rage points. Yep. He can do no better than third in this game, unfortunately. Let's see what Austin can do. Austin also looks like a new player. Does not have a IFPA rating that we can see here. Well, with with nine points so far, he's still well in it. No, he got a ball saved. Good job on him for paying attention. Yeah, that would have been easy to walk away from. Yeah, especially Drop there would do a lot of good. Yeah, this you don't want to take you don't want to take a rushed center shot in this game because both the bell and the post to the left of the bell that leads to that left ramp are absolute killer shots. If you hit that bell dead on or that post, you're just begging for for an outlane drain or a center drain. Feel like if you hit the bell and you know it's going to be a bad return, you have to nudge it high and fast. Yeah. And you have to do it before it gets to the center playfield. You have to get it right off of that post. Yeah. Once it's in the center playfield, it's like we talked about with stars. It's so wide open. You know, anything you do is not going to make an appreciable difference to where that ball's going to go. Well, and remember, as you're as you're nudging, there's really two ways to to impact the ball when you're nudging. One is by running something from the playfield into the ball, which is the most common way, right? I'm going to use I'm going to nudge off the top of a sling. I'm going to nudge off a post. The second way is to move the playfield under the ball, right? So, sometimes you can move the play. So you see this a lot in left and out lane uh left and right out lane where it's going to drain and you move the playfield so that it gets under it a little more uh to your advantage. Technically the ball is not moving the playfield. The playfield's moving under the ball but there's almost no friction on the playfield, right? Especially if it's a good playfield. So bad luck for Rachel right there. Now Michael is going to end up in fourth place right here. That's actually a really good bonus right there uh for Rachel. That will get her second place. So that that five point is helpful for her. So that goes Steven, Rachel, Austin, Michael I think in that order. Big time for Steven. Gets him up to 16. Big time helpful for Rachel. Gets her up to 12. She was at seven. So gives her an opportunity to make a run here in the final four rounds to do something. Uh tough break for Michael. 10 points over the course of four rounds. That is less than a third place average. Ouch. You know, not what we expect to see out of Michael. such a good player that look at his IFA rank. He's 341st. He's a very good player. And that's all been earned in a 2-year period there. There's no backup backtracking to that name. Hey, Eric, we haven't watched Genesis yet. All right. Are we going to switch to Genesis? What's What are we doing? Eric is trying to get us another game to pick here. We'll take a look at the matches again. It looks like we're at about about 40% of the way there. I'd say uh Genesis is done. Adam Robbins takes another win in that. Diane Spackman with another win in World Cup soccer. Man, Diane's playing really well this afternoon. Nathan Straz in Argusy. Larry Scott in Firepower. Nick Kennedy, we saw that one. Um, Sweethearts goes to Brenina. Yep. Um, AC/DC, we saw that one. Good win for Steven. Dale Nun in Harlem Globe Troters. And Tyler Becker. Tyler Becker. I don't know Tyler. I don't know Tyler as well, but he takes place on big game. Nice. Good job for him. So, there are a couple games going. I don't know if we're going to get a move on it or not. I know Eric might be trying to organize that right now. Sometimes if it's ball three on a game, we just won't bother moving because we don't want to disrupt the players or even middle of ball two. So, we may wait until we start the next round to move something. It's a fine line to run. Yeah. You know, to to say we want to give content, but we want to absolutely represent, you know, respect what the players are trying to do, too. Job number one in the tournament is to make sure everybody at the tournament has a great tournament, right? So, we have to respect that first. Amen. And then we get to do our thing, right? So, we try not to interfere too much. Exactly. Wow. Wow. The smallest margin possible on that. No, I actually think the 10 is just as cool cuz it's a three ball game on a three ball game. That's crazy. And Jesse said the the lowest amount of points that you can get for doing anything on stars is 10 points, right? That's that's when you roll over a sling. You know, you you tap a sling. You hit one of you hit a left or right bumper. That's it. Yeah. So, um, we are going to go to a break here in just a minute at the end of round four. We're going to look at all of them. We're going to look at all of the the rankings and all the standings and then we're going to go to a break and then we're going to pick it back up at about 3:00. 3:15 was the official name I heard. We're going to leave the stream running. You bet. Um, but we will Hello everybody. Thank you guys for being here. We didn't introduce ourselves. I'm Justin Masterson. I'm Scott V. Yep. That's not Do you have what what is your Twitch handle? Uh JM Masterson. JM. I am I am Sav 2880. SAV2880. So feel free and give us both follows if you want to. But more importantly, follow SDTM if you are not already following. In fact, I see there have been many many followers over the course of the day. The channel is nearly at 900 followers and that is thanks to you guys being a part of what we're doing today. All of the the clips, all of the bits, everything. You guys are showing great support and I am super super appreciative of everything that you are doing today. You I mean we said this at the top of today's um stream, but you are our community today, right? So we're surrounded by all these great players, but you're the ones that we're connecting with. So thank you. And we've really enjoyed our dialogue. We've enjoyed learning from you and all the pinball facts and rules facts over the last couple of days. Please keep that coming. We're going to be streaming for the rest of this tournament and believe me, it's going to be a while. So, yes, we're coming back at 3:15, but don't check out. Absolutely. Go grab a cup of coffee. Come back. Get a burger. Perfect time to get that burger. Some Cincinnati chili. Some some skyline. Some gold star if you are so inclined. If you like your gold star. I like gold star. I like them both. This debate only makes sense if you're from Cincinnati. We've totally ruled out everybody else. We have totally ruled out 40 of the 50 people in Twitch chat right now. They're like, "What is Skyline and Gold Star? I don't understand this." When we come back, we're going to start round five of the qualifying events. And once we get through the qualifying events, we're going to divide into 16A, 16B, and we're going to go to our championships. So stay tuned. We're going on break until 3:15. Here are our standings as it is right now. We have a couple of games still going. Stewart's game is still going with Ben, Roy, and Aaron. If Ben, if Stewart is able to win that, he will maintain first place by himself. A second place finish would have him tied with Adam Robinson at 26 points and eliminate the possibility of anybody having a perfect game today, which would be shocking just because of the quality of players anyways. Um, a big game down there for James, Matt, Robert, and Darren. Whoever wins that game is going to move up to 22 points, which will put them really in the top position. Whoever loses that game is going to be at 16 points and would be out of the tournament at this point. We're not even in a tiebreaker situation. What a big difference. You're either leading B division or you're out. You're you're solidly in A or not in anything at all. Or not in any. Sorry. You're solidly in A or because we're going from 76 players down to 24. It's going to be a major drop off when that happens. And you can see right there we would have we have close to Are we doing 24 or are we doing 32? Is it 16 or 12 and 12? I think it's 16 and 8. 16 and 8. Yes. Oh, wow. Yes. Yes. Wow. 24. So 24 moving on out of that. So right now if if it ended right now, we would have some movement here uh with this game and we would have some movement right there. I think we would have a tiebreaker probably at the 18 point mark would be the magic point. Uh or actually no, I think it would be a 20 because of people moving up. You would have to have 20 points through these four rounds. Okay, so the second place finish. Car the Hobbit saying 24 and 16. Are we Is it going to be higher? We'll get clarity from Eric. Let's get that from from Eric right now. If we can, let's tune into the remaining game. All right. See where everybody is and we'll get some clarity from Eric on that. Yeah, we're going to switch that over to Junkyard. Junkyard is done. They have entered their points. So Aaron got the win in that. That moves Eric up to 26. Okay, so this is a much bigger number than we thought. We made the change. Got it. I've been looking at the old rule set since we have all these players. Eric, Adam, thank you for that correction. very much appreciated. I I would expect the number one player to give you the proper crutch. Adam Robinson, he's like, "Look, either way, I'm good. I'm just saying." 24 guys, I'm kind of a big deal. I'm kind of a big deal. 24 in A division, 16 in B. So, that is going to open the field to 40 players that are going to make it. So, that means now our A division cutoff would be at 18 points and we actually would have a a safe point. 16 points is what gets you in B. So one standing in one game is your difference right now between that. Look at that. Um I mean right now be a heck of a tiebreaker right now. The point differential between let's say 55 and 40 is three points. It's not much. I mean that is one game. That's a third place finish. The only thing working against you in this situation is the fact you have to climb over so many people. Right. it becomes less of an issue of how many points but just climbing position. So for I think for people down in that I would say 12 and under right now looking at people like Gileian Holly, Tim Ellis, uh Nick Delahanty who played really really well yesterday was near the top most of the day you got to start thinking about wins now. Y you know not just getting second place just not having a good standing wins. Seven points per is going to be huge here. Um, if someone like, you know, Jane down down down there at 10 points right now were to sweep through, that would put him at 38 points based on what we're seeing right here. 38 points would get you probably into a division or a tie for a division. Yep. Um, but that might be what it takes. You know, we have 18 here. We're going to multiply that out. That's 36. So that means Jane would maybe need to get about 26 out of a possible 28 points to have a shot at a division and probably maybe 22 I would say out of a possible 28 in order to qualify for B. Jane is and Tom are in tough positions right now. Yeah, you really have to win. Yeah, they're they're going to have to turn it on. And you know, use that same logic and math for the people that are underneath it. You know, Holly for example, 14 points to get to that 36 position. That's 22, right? You know, that is averaging a little better than a second place finish every single time. Yep. To move up there, it's very doable. And especially the way that we talked about this earlier. Holly has been playing. She's been a second half of match play, second half of tournament player, you know, really for about the last month or so. This is where she really kicks it into gear. This is where she really kicks it into gear after a couple of games have been played. So, I would absolutely not be surprised to see her win, you know, two or three of these next games, but if she doesn't win them all, second place finishes are going to be very, very important for her to move up. And yeah, if if you're at and the flip side of it is, yeah, if you're at them, you know, yeah, you don't need tons of points to qualify at this point. You maybe need 10 points over four rounds, but you want to hold that, but you do have to hold them, right? And with 24 people moving into finals as well, that means the top eight players are going to get a buy. That buy is so valuable. Let's talk about that buy position store. Um, we're going to update. Let me click here. Refresh cash on the page because then we can show you a proper update with that. There. There we go. Um, that buy position would be would definitely be something we would have a tiebreaker for. So many players at 22 points that would be in in route for that. It looks like Aaron picked up the win on that one. Yeah, Aaron did pick up the win. So that means Aaron is now tied with Adam for the top position. Wow. So that jump was huge for Aaron. Yeah, a lot of local players in there. Diane we saw with I think three wins. She must had three wins and a fourth place finish. So great to see Diane playing really really well today as well. And to think I was ready to sign off and take a break with all of this great pinball action right in the middle cuz I missed that they had that one game still outstanding. I'm so glad we stuck around for that. Thought we stuck around for a few minutes and now we have a chance to go figure out something to get in East Skate real quick because I may actually run out and get some. Yeah, go get some food. You know, I I did not get dinner last night. That that's a faux on my part, especially blood sugars and things. We were streaming through the whole thing. I forgot to eat two meals in a row. Did you bring your ribbon, by the way? Yes, of course I brought the bourbon. And guess what we're doing at lunch? By the time we get back, this is going to be unintelligible. This whole conversation is just going to be Y'all think I talk a lot right now. I've been called very talkative drunk even though I've only been drunk about four times in my life. Three of them with Veronica. Three of them were yesterday. Three of them were yesterday. So we will see you guys. This much verb. That's all it took. 3:15. We're going to put a little flag up that says when we're coming back. We'll see you at 3:15. Stay tuned for the second half of qualifiers at Cincinnati's Match Play tournament. All right, back at 3:15 p.m. All right, we're going to hit okay on that. We're going to do that right there. There you go. Well, there is your information. Something slightly more interesting. [Laughter] All right, we will be back in just a couple of minutes. Hi guys, you see me over there? Hey, you see? Hi. See how you're going? We'll be back in a couple of minutes, guys. Get some food. Get something to drink. Enjoy it. We'll see you in a minute. Oh yeah. moment you wish yours, man. I wouldn't know where to post it. Oh no, my baby. I don't want to have to do math all day. Can't keep the games working today, lady. I'm not doing anything so I can have all this stuff. rate. It's supposed to, you know, those big ladders or bonus. It's supposed to reset all the way back to the first light and every wall, but it was getting caught and staying. So people are starting with bonus they didn't have or shouldn't have had it just that certain things are supposed to advance your medicine here that aren't but two features are so only those two features will same for everybody because I'm not I got to keep integrity of the whole Yep. We'll take another short break so I can set up. Oh, top 24. So, top eight out of those. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to hanging around. Uh, it is going well enough. How are you doing, man? It's going to be out for now. The thing with Big Indian, pay attention to that card I have on there. Say what? Big Indian. We had some issues with it yesterday, but it's playing fine. Just the game has various targets. They're supposed to advance that aren't doing it. So, the the card is telling you the only things that will advance Just pay attention to that. Don't expect anything else to advance. Yeah. First kill your So easy. I have a combined 10 million points per You should really stop going for super skills. I do it. You nudging, kid? What? You nudging, kid? Yeah, I've nudged. I've not nudged. What's uh How is this game free? This sucks. I don't know. I had a lot of fun when I hit that. Maybe I heard it's a snowflake. I haven't got danger yet. That's an So biased. Yes. Okay. All right. Yeah. Don't flip this. Oh my god. Elvis's frozen over. Do you actually feel like you need to figure out? That was literally out of like I think like five games I played on this the first time I Okay. No big deal. [Applause] [Music] We have to clean. I'm just going to start buying. It's like a small Indian. call that seems bad. Yeah, I mean professional opinion. I think overall I I think that would be the general consensus fun I'm having playing AC/DC. Jesse, you wouldn't even believe how much fun. You wouldn't believe how much fun I'm having. I love Florida. Yeah, it's like my favorite game. I love Machines. No, it's hard. Very nice. Canon. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I should probably practice the actual jackpot shot. Yeah, all of the newer ones are standards. [Applause] No, no, no, no, [Applause] No, that's not [Applause] [Music] here. Yeah, he's playing. We're on a break right now. He'll be Friday at the fair location. We just have a bunch of new machines like this stuff. All of this is all of this is a tournament. So once the tournament starts back up, you have to Yes. You got about 30 minutes. This looks awesome. See how bright the LEDs are? Really Did you see that? That button lights up and you fire. [Applause] I think they have something. [Applause] Oh. Nice save. How do you get the bell? [Music] Let's play this again cuz we can't get to this. Dude, you're kicking my butt right there. What is it? Okay. [Applause] We're not like [Applause] Yeah. Fire [Applause] [Music] Yeah, I figured out for like five minutes. So, [Applause] Wow. Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Nice. Nice. am single. [Music] [Applause] I [Applause] report. I don't know. [Applause] Heat. [Applause] It's the fire. Actually, I already played that [Applause] [Music] so yesterday. out I was just like I guess maybe it was just faster than people used to Oh, I liked it. I played it. Yeah, it's fine. It doesn't feel like over 20,000 on it and I finally have my first I heard somebody else had to do that. I Did you get a warning? Two warnings. I heard it was real sensitive. That's why I wanted to get a flip [Applause] right, guys. as it is about that time. Welcome back. It is 3:15. We are on AC/DC right now and welcome all you guys back here. It looks like we've got a game already queued up and I'm going to think we'll stick with it here for the fine purpose of streaming for you. Welcome back. Thank you guys for hanging in there. While we took the break, I was able to run across and get some food. Makes me very, very happy. is there anybody playing on ACC? Yes. Yeah, we just got to fix camera. There we go. There's our camera fix we were looking for right there. There's our group. Robert Gaines, Nathan, Shawn Davis, Nathan Straz, and Steve Leen. That should be good to go. I think we can see the stuff at the top there. So, that is a win. Justin's gonna be joining me in just a moment right here. Oh, yeah. Here, let's move that. No, we're good. I can move this. I was uh trying to do some stuff on the tech end for a few minutes after getting myself some fine gold star chili. Yes. Oh, yeah. Turn you up, too. I do. Check one. Check two. I do enjoy a good We were just talking about the Gold Star skyline debate outside. We were. If you're not a native Cincinnati and there's really two big chili parlors in town. Oo, rock candy. Oh my god. Guilty pleasure. Other guilty pleasure. The PEZ. Did you get dispenser? You just eat them straight out of the pack. You're just mainlining PEZ. Mainlining PEZ. Yeah. I mean, yes, it sounds great to say, I'm going to put it in this dispenser and do this. But then, but then it's slow. You only get one at a time. I I don't have time. Ain't nobody got time for that right now. Ain't nobody got time for a PEZ. Nobody got time for a PEZ dispenser. That is going to be my next bumper sticker. Ain't nobody got time for a PEZ dispenser. Don't tell Z Don't tell my friend Xan that I said that cuz she is a Pez collector. So is Eric Wenberger. Eric Wberers, too. There you go. That's right. Quite the collection. So don't tell him I said ain't nobody got time for a PEZ. Ain't nobody got time for a PEZ dispenser. Well, put it this way. I don't have time for PEZ dispenser that I would not be showing off. I'd rather just eat the candy, enjoy the candy, and that is my goal right now. So, what do you think Robert Gain's goal is here? Let's take a look. He has indeed started his game. He is player number one in this group. Um, I did not see what he started, but it looks like based on that, we'll find out here in just a second. Yep, he is doing War Machine. So, War Machine. So, again, War Machine is all about the spinner and it's that left spinner shot that qualifies the other shots for the big points afterwards. You want to juice that spinner and the more you play it, the more points you get. So, let's see if you can get a big old orbit. There you go. Look at that spinner rep. That's nice. Up to 16k per spin. And that's a lot of spins. About 400,000. Look at those spins. Perfect. Boy, every time he spins it, it's worth more points. Robert is wise to pause. Let that spinner do its thing. I've had more than once that I've I've hit a fan. Look at that juice spinner at 21k for days. He might be trying to get the multiplier off the bell there. Yeah, next shot 2X. So, if he gets a good spin on that nice save as well. Nice drop catch. So, he's he's feeling it as far as his ball control right now. Dialed it right in. Really doing it nicely. Hello to our 39 streaming viewers. That's right. Justin Masterson, Scott B. Scott B. Yes. And on your screen, Crocodile Dundy, otherwise known as Robert Gates. That's right. He's got his hat and his stool everywhere he goes. He does. What up, pinball mafia? Hey. Hey. Robert Gaines with a drain, but a really decent ball. Starting off with 12 million on ball one. Not a bad start. Agree. 12 million is an excellent start on this game. Nothing to be ashamed of right there. Oh, you brought goodies, sir. To our streamies. Now I've got food on board. We can enjoy this. That's right. And alcohol lowers blood sugar, so it's a good it's a good uh offset for the Pez. I like the way you think. In many ways, it's a health drink, but in most ways it's not. Let's see if he goes for the bell. No, he goes for the orbit. He wanted to get more of those war machine points. Not a bad choice. You can see the bell's lit right there. But that bell is a dangerous shot. it when it sometimes it hits that bell and it just deadens, flattens right out and goes straight down the middle. I agree. A lot of good things can come from that bell, but there are bad things that come with it, too. He's going to pick up the spinner again. He has his spins up to 18k. Oh, double danger. Double danger. Double was that a little bit of an upwards nudge? Yep, he did. He nudged up and he got a little bit more out of it than he bargained for. And that is a consistent thing. You know, I think with this camera rig, we can't get quite as good a picture of some of the nudges, but that upwards nudge is going to be the bigger thing almost every single time. Yeah, the camera rig's a trade-off because we don't necessarily cuz we're not attached to the table, we don't see the nudges, but at the same time, you're also not getting motion sick every time somebody nudges. Yeah, we don't want you to get motion sick. We had to fight that earlier today. We thought we were playing Earth Shaker. You call that a spin? This is a spin. Look at that little I love those little tap passes. He's got great control right now. Nice save as well. That thing came all the way over to the left flip, but didn't look like it was going to. Look at that. Great shot. So, he's going to load his cannon again and he's going to start a multiball. He's got multiball, but he's got a nice song jackpot, too. He won't get it here. He take the ch. He chooses to take that uh multiball shot. So, that's it. It's a little bit of a tough decision because if you hit the bell there, you can start a 2x playfield multiplier shooting straight at the bell. But, it's a little bit of a harder shot. I tend to see more people go for album and jam multiball shots as opposed to song jackpot shots. And really, if he can qualify the song jackpot now, it's up to 4.6 mill. Oh, I think multiball is over from He has almost exactly matched the score outside of like two digits. He's about 50,000 trailing. Those shots should easily take him over that point. So, he's going to be in first place here up to 14 million. And he's one more shot away from a jam multiball as well. He's got jukebox lit. Going for the bell. Not able to get it. Good little safe drop catch there. There's jam. I was thinking he might pick up the bell there. There you go. Jam multiball. Let's go. Let's go. Round two. Multiball here. Not. Look at that. That time he went bell. Is that two jam multiballs? I think he had an album in a jam. An album and a jam. Okay. Yeah. So, it is multiball number two, but he has done both varieties of it. And he's got one more shot for another album multiball. That's right. If he gets that spinner again, he's going to pick up an album multiball. Every single one of these is coming back on his ball save. So, he's doing the right thing. Smartly taking advantage of the ball save. He might get that back. He might not. It's going to be a no, it looks like. So, he's playing with two ball right now. Not bad. We noted earlier that uh newer sterns tend to be pretty generous with the ball save even after the ball save light turns off. That's not the case on this AC/DC. We've noticed a couple of times that this AC/DC when that ball save light turns off, you've got maybe a second. Not even that, maybe a half second. Maybe a half second. I would say on the more generous machines, even a kiss would qualify as that. Even though we don't have it here, you know, you have probably I think a second and a half. Iron Maiden is that generous. Yeah, Iron Maiden quite generous. I've had I've had an Aerosmith that I swear to you. Yeah, we got a song jackpot. 12 mil. All right. Takes the 12 million point jackpot. Jackpot. He's up to 38 million right here. That was a great choice. Insanely good choice of taking the song jackpot right there. It's tempting for us to call it. The only thing that would have been better would have been a playfield multiplier. Right. Right. And it's tempting for us to say, "Hey, he should have gone for the playfield multiplier." It's hard to turn down 12 million in a tournament scenario cuz 12 million is a really by itself a healthy ball score in a tournament game. I would have even thought about going for it when he had it down to 5 million. Yeah. You know, if he got that thing up to 12, that's a really really good effort. And this is going to be a nice bonus on top of that. One song played three. So he will be over 40 million million. Nathan Straz is in all the way from Portland, Maine, part of the New England Pinball League. Oh, nice. And uh I am a fan of the I don't know if you listen to the Pinball Players podcast, but um Jeff Parsons hosts that. He's one of the New England Pinball League guys, and he does a great job talking about the playing side of pinball. So tournaments, casual play, all of it. A lot of times in pinball we focus on collecting or we focus on new machines. He spends a lot of time just talking about the playing aspect. So if you're a competitive pinball player, you just like playing pinball, I'd recommend the pinball players podcast with Jeff Parsons. Yes. And a friend of Nathan's uh as well and a friend of Nikki's who we saw last night in the women's tournament. We did. I think we even saw her I think in our first round today uh playing a game as well. Doing quite well on um oh god what was it? Game of Thrones. Mhm. Uh-oh. Good save. So many rounds it's starting to blur together. The bourbon is probably not helping now that we're starting to Jeff Fox got to interview him at Pinberg. Love his podcast. I would love to have to to interview for that podcast. That that is a badge of honor to be on that podcast. To be on to the Jeff. Yeah. Yeah. So you've got you've got two Jeffs in the podcasting game. One is Jeff Tiolas from the pinball uh pinball profile. profile. And then you have Jeff Parsons from the Pinball Players Podcast. Being one of them, I would be honored. Absolutely. Toolus is out of Canada. Yes. Jeff Parsons out of Portland, Maine. And both Parsons you were talking about. Yeah. Parsons and uh but I I had a chance to be on Jeff Parson's uh pinball players podcast and it was just such a delight. I felt so lucky to get to do that. Yeah. I'll have to go back and listen to that episode. I feel like I've been slacking that I haven't. Not a bad ball one right there for Nathan, too. Nothing to be ashamed of. Steve I know is a regular player. He is a regular at Arcade Super Awesome. Uh which has an AC/DC machine at it. So I expect he's got a very set strategy on this game. We'll see if he can execute it. And goes Highway to Hell to start this thing out here. I rarely see Highway to Hell picked as the first mode in a tournament. I'm I'm going to be really interested in the strategy. And is he going to go for the song? He goes for the song jackpot. So, he's not messing around. I I think it sounds like he's perfectly happy getting what he can out of the song here. Yep. Maybe going for a multiball per chance. Might be. He also has his multiplier lit. He might take that dangerous center shot. He does not. He's going for the right ramp. So, he's got five different shots lit right now. He could pick up. And struggling to get control, struggling to get that aim down. Just Oh, nice grab. That little spot target to the left of the right ramp can be a real killer. picked it off really well. He is not, it doesn't seem to be not too tempted by that bell. He says, "I'm going to stay on my rams. I'm going to start myself a multiball and then we can worry about that bell." He's also got super loops going. So, if he wants to loop around on the far sides, that could be very valuable. Keep that in play. Definitely take the single danger for that. Not bad. I mean, that this is a really tightly tuned machine, so he could have easily gotten a double danger or tilt out of that scenario. He managed to keep it in play. Only get a single danger. Nice try. See the speed on that one. Almost got the better of him. He did get it. Oh, thought he had tilt. Tilt out. Loses the bonus. Probably about a million worth of bonus. Yeah, he didn't sacrifice a ton there. He did not. So, third place right now definitely between Nathan and Steve. Let's see what Robert can do right here. We talked about this yesterday, but having danger warnings um is not a bad thing. Having danger warnings are really an asset. It's something you keep in your back pocket and you know how many you have. And so you might take a danger or two. Oh, and it's easy to look at that and say, "Oh, that's a mistake." Well, no, it's not. You're using your danger warnings in order to keep your ball in play. So, use them wisely. But by all means, use them. Yeah. Does it change the way you have to play after that? Absolutely it does. You bet. But a lot of times, that's a risk you absolutely should be willing to take. So Eric is checking something on this machine right here as Robert gets ready to play. I'm not sure what it is. He's either he might be checking that. Yeah, he's definitely checking AC/DC. Let's see what he's looking for. I'm not sure if they had a a ruling or something they're waiting on. No, I mean they're they're playing ahead. So it must not be too controversial whatever he's looking at. Definitely a play on. Maybe we can find out from Eric at some point soon what the question was. Robert, we've not seen anything out of the ordinary. Anything strange? No. Thunder Struck is his pick here. Yep. Good choice. And let's see what he can do with it. I believe he's on a 2x Playfield multiplier. Is that right? No, he's not yet. Not yet. But he does have his multiball ready and activates the multiball. So, he's going into jam multiball. Hey Neil, how you doing man? Good to have you in stream today. What up Neil? And Robert gets a left outlane drain, but ball saver on. So he'll get that one back. Not the worst thing ever. Yeah, not so bad. Looks like we've got two ball right now. Yeah, he's in two ball. Again, when you start your ball save, that's the time to take risks. You start a two ball multiball with a ball saver blinking like he's got now, that's a great time to try things you might not otherwise try, like the center shot. Now we got three. There is everything in play. Does he have Yeah, he's got three. He's got three in. He could go for an out of ball there. I don't know where the out of ball is. Oh man, double drain. One out in each outland there. Tough break for him. Gets one more jam for the road and we are back on the Thunder Struck bandwagon. Also, Jukebox ready if he does want to change it up. So, I'm not sure he wants to right now. That song jackpot is really good at 8 million. So, if he can make the required shots to get a shot at that one more time, that's not a bad play. Let's see what he's going to pick here. And good to have you in here, man. Glad you made some time to stop in and say hi to everybody. Good to see Loader back, too. Yeah, I love Loader back in here. And now I believe this is his album multiball. No tour, excuse me. He is just checking them all for that right away. As we said earlier, it seems like most players are very anxious to do the the tour or the album multiball shot. Oh, that almost Lazarus back up. Yep, he almost got that back. But the song jackpot people seem to be a lot more picky about. Interesting. He's not taking any of these dead flips. He's getting a lot of action on the left flipper. I figured he would sort of like let it bounce and pick it up on the other side, but he's he's he had his ball save on, so I think he was just trying to take the risks he could take. Song jackpot up to 10 mil right now. Probably not the tour multiball he wanted to have. No, but a little bit of TNT progress. Scoring some more points and he's got his album lit now. So, another multiball one shot away if he can get it. Good stop. Oh, no. Nope. Nope. Nope. He is disappointed. I'm You can see in his face he felt like he should have had that one. But nonetheless, 37 [Laughter] 37 mil is not bad. You can almost see us behind Robert back here. We're back there somewhere. Um, Joseph adding in Adabal is getting the five notes, loops, ramps, belt, or use VIP to spot your one. Ah, there you go. So, that's where your VIP, your button comes in handy there. VIP passes. Yeah. Oh, no. Oh, no. That is Gilly's drink. For some reason, I thought that was my drink, but I had one just like it when I was at Gold Star. No, I left it in the car. In cold weather, that means you're going to get back to a delightful drink. It's still So, let's see what Shawn decides to go with here. He's already ahead at 43 million going into the ball. So, he's he's got a a little bit of cushion, but he wants to increase that lead obviously as much as he can. Yeah, TWW Rex said it there. Switch to TNT to get that song bonus and not able to take advantage of any jackpots as a part of it. Oh, so smart idea. There's that upwards. Oh, that's a double on the upwards there. Boy, he's just not getting that bell. I think he's He's taken a couple of shots at that bell. He just hasn't been able to do it. It's the only lit shot right now. He is definitely wanting it from the right side now. He's going into this one. Doubled 1.5 on the the jackpot. Go. Let's start that multi. So, he's in an Alba multiball. And don't worry about those drains. He's going to get those back. And I've seen many players who use the strategy of just look, if it drains, it drains. It's fine because then I get some isolation on the one ball to get the one shot that I need to worry about. Yes, I'm going to get him back. Why not clear the playing field so that I can get an easier shot? You got to read Del had on this machine. I've definitely seen harder AC/DC's in my day. Now that was wild. We just saw two balls stack up on the right in lane outlane divider and then both come down the in lane. I love love when that works out. I think he might have lost one of them, but nonetheless, still decent points in the album right there. Up to 58. And now everything lit for TNT if he can get it. Nothing to sneeze at at 58 million. Not at all. There's one right there for 318. Song jackpot is building again. Up to 6 and 12 now. See if he goes for that. Super targets though. See if he's able to ding a few points on that. Oh, little tip pass. Trapping up on the left flipper. Orbits for days right now. Uh-oh. That is going to stay in. Oh, he's looking for that orbit. Just missed it. Try it again. Trap up and take the left orbit. No, take the left ramp. Jam. Multiballs lit. Take the right ramp and start that multiball. Oh, that was close. Nice bounce. Yeah, good dead flip. [Music] All right, Song's done. He's going to pick a new one. And he is still lit for jam multiball. Lots of options at play here. Song jackpot. I'm sure not quite on the back. Good try, but nice play soon. He is dead bouncing in this game like a pro. Yep. He had a couple of little flail shot. What was that pass? That was fun. It was a little uh post pass off the right sling. There's your jam right there. Yep. That is my jam. Oh, he missed it. had two chances to get that shot. Not able to. Beautiful drop catch on the left. Should have another chance soon though. He has not struggled to maintain control of the ball. I've seen him over and over again get a really nice little drop catch and just trap up. None of these ramps are proving to be challenging for him either. Dead flip on the right and backanded the ramp. Very nice. In true Steve Richie form. Yep. To play his game well, you have to be able to backhand shots on the playfield. Yep. Showing a great example of that there. Now, he could get some uh real value out of some combos here. He's choosing to trap one, play one, but he could get some real value out of the combos, especially during a ball save. Why not? He's got super combos lit. Yeah, this is the time. I mean, it's tempting to want to trap two and play one, but if you can get the combos going, the problem with trap two, play one on this machine is that if you're hitting the ramps, it's going to feed back to where the other two are. So, all of a sudden, you're going to splash those other two and you're going to have to play And he's realizing that here. Get the balls in play. At least try and keep them separate from each other so collisions won't go trap two. Play one. Okay. Lost one. So now it's a two two ball game. In some ways I find that a relief when I end up in a two ball game in a situation like this because now I can play both balls. When when I'm at three, things just get a little bit overwhelming. Understandably. So 75 million made good use of that multi. Anyway, 3.5 million. Probably not what he was going for, but he got some points out of it. And still working on the song, too. Hey, Tish is in chat. Hey, Tish. How you doing? Hola, Tish. Hola. Hola, pinball folks here. That's right. Now, song jackpot. This should be Oh, target bank. 5 million for it. There he goes. Smartly goes play. I see pinball narcissist in chat as well. Good to see you as well. So that puts him up to 82 means. He could be threatening a 100 here. This would be the first 100 game we've seen on stream. Yes, it is. Yesterday or today. And we're only on ball two. So he's looking pretty good to clear that 100 mark. Plenty of chance to do this. But I never take anything for granted in pitball. All right. He's playing the lower play field now on Highway to Hell. You can see he's trying to get these orbits first. More challenging than you would think. Uh especially because the ball wants to keep going in the direction it's going. So once you start going to the right orbit, you have to really disrupt something to get that left orbit. And he's struggling to do that. It's it's there you go. Now we're going for the middle shots. There's three targets. There's one in the center and one left and right of it. If you complete those, you go back to the orbits. He does it. Now you get a strobing shot. Can you follow the strobing? What that song jackpot's up to? 16 million. Oh, and he wanted it. It's a really nice ball. Yeah. Yeah. TW Rex noticed the same thing. Yep. The play there was definitely for cashing in that song that song. Big bucks and no whammy. Yep. He got the whammy. He got the whammy. Joseph, thank you for those bits. Appreciate it, man. Thank you, Joseph. I think we're 500 bits away from me singing at some point tonight. I can show you the world. I don't know why you'd sing Aladdin. That seems only if I can pinball riff it. We're not even playing Tales of the Arabian Nights. No. Oh, tap pass. I just can't I You cannot overestimate how hard it is to do a good tap pass. I mean, when you see those little tiny little taps, that's like the leaf switch that uh the button operates is so sensitive. You have to get that down to the micrometer to get that right. It's got a jam multiball lit. Picks up the right ramp to start that jam multiball. Backhand to make that happen. And he starts her up. Let's see if he goes for the song jackpot. No, he goes for the bell. He doesn't neither. Both were in play right there. He might be just trying to up that playfield. He is. He's absolutely trying to up that playfield. He's got the bell shot locked in. Yep. Perfect time to go for it with the ball saver on. Maybe he's out of chances for it. I'd say you're one away from you got to make that happen. Oh, Joe soap with the 400 more bits. Joe Soap. We're so close to a song. He went singing. Thank you so much for those. You understand what you're asking for? I hope you do. We're going to go from 50 viewers to five. Yeah. And they're all going to be like, I'm here for the train. All right. Good trap. Again, when you've got those things blinking at you begging for that left orbit, it's so tempting to take a pot shot at it. But he was willing to pause. Just that would be me. Yeah, I am not singing. That requires 5,000 bits. Yeah, it's going to be 5,000. Oh, there's another official. Delaware pinball edge later on. What are you talking about? Later on. We're going to show you the Wait, no. You picked a song earlier that was pinball themed. It was DMD. Oh, that's right. Perfect for AC/DC. DMD. Score is Dino M. DM. that till Bob's a fright. All right, but I want a full minute. We're going to do a full minute later. Hit it right. DMD. I need another Ike. That tilt set time. Wow. Scott be on this stream. Oh, that's only appropriate to do AC/DC during AC/DC. Poor Steve. We totally missed this game, unfortunately. Oh man, we were too busy singing. Thank you everybody for the Thank you so much. Thank you for those bitties and thank you for getting Scott to sing. I've been I hope someone clipped that for the love of God and put it on his start clipping. All right, Robert Gaines back up now. He started out with a pretty commanding lead coming out of ball one, but boy, it didn't take long for Shawn Davis to just lap him. And he's going to try and make a big old comeback here. needs about 56 million points to do it. Yep. Song, jackpots, multiballs, the path is absolutely there to make it happen. Now, this is actually round five of qualifying. We have come back from break. We have eight rounds of qualifying and then after that we're going to go to an A division and B division final. We have 76 players in the tournament today. Top 24 are going to be uh in a division. the next 16 that will make B division. So that's 40 of our 76. So we're going to say goodbye to 20. No, to 36 of our players. 36. They will go out to the floor and play the other 105 or so. Yeah, we've got 120 pinball games here. So no problem. So we're sorry you didn't win. Go play a whole lot more pinball cuz pinball is awesome. And what are they paying for the right to play that pinball? Are they paying for every game? No, sir. Not a bit. They are all set to free play. All you got to do is walk in, pay an admission fee, and you get 120 pinball machines at your disposal. Look at those backhand shots. Three in a row by Robert right then. Well done. Cashes in the rock and roll for 530. He's lit for two multis right now. Oh, the ry laughing smile. The look he just gave. Ever there were a moment. Oh, yeah. Look. Thank you. There you go. If ever there were a moment to hit the right ramp, that was it. Lo, everything but the one thing. Lo giving us some lyrics right there. I love that. That two bobs tight. Double danger tonight. Yeah. That almost sounded Aerosmith like. Yeah. Eat your heart out, Stephen Tyler. Yeah. I mean, if you're going to do AC/DC, it's mostly just high pitch screaming. That's true. It's mostly things that are going to make our uh our mixer go very red very fast to go wrong real quick. So Shawn Davis, he is playing add-on pinball right now. I think Robert has an excellent chance of coming out of this with five points. Nothing to be ashamed of with that. His his game was very good, even feeling like he left some points on the playfield. And it is it's a very rare occasion that I'll say somebody has a lock. He does not have a lock. Uh pinball is always anybody's game, especially on a game like this. So, it's a high-scoring game with a lot of multiball options and some good ball saves. So, even when you're ahead 96 million over, you know, 42 or 15, there's a lot that can happen in one ball. Yeah. The only player that's really safe to not have to play in this format is player four, and that's if you're winning. That's right. Everybody else, y play it out. That's what you got to do. There are other games, there are em and things where I'd say, well, it's really hard to make a comeback like this. But on a game with this many multiball options, big song jackpots, I think you could make this up. I agree. By the way, Tish, it's another thousand bits to stop. Sorry. It's a faucet and you have to turn it back on. That's right. I'm sorry about that. Look at going maybe for Oh, a post pass. I was going to say that's going probably the right ramp. Well, at least an attempt at the right ramp. He's going to try and start that tour multiball, I think. Tis, thank you for those bits. Appreciate it. And if you get the tour multiball, perhaps then you can start those multipliers and combos. Those are not safe jet bumpers, by the way, because if it as it just did, if it kind of hits the center like that and deadens, you can end up with a straight down the middle. Nothing you can do about it. Drain, we're looking at double danger now. And I think that he knows it. He's trying to do a post pass. Oh, he's going to backhand that ramp. No dice. So close. Uh he took a couple of hurried hurried shots there. Look, when in doubt, drop catch and shoot the orbit because that kind of gives you a moment to reset. Beautiful tap pass. Which one is this going to be? Looks like one bonus there. Nope, two bonuses. 9 million and I think he had the 2.9 on top of that one. So, he's over the 100 million point now at 106. Still lit for tour. He's still trying to get that right ramp and he is just not able to get the shot he wants there. He might backhand it here. Everything he can. No, he's going to post pass and try and get it from the right. He must not be too confident in that backhand shot. Decent post pass. Gets it under control up the ramp and we're starting to multi ball. Tish, thanks for all those puppy dog bits. The kibbles and bits. We like puppy dogs. We do like puppy dogs. Yeah, he does not trust his backhand. And I think you're exactly right, TWWRX pinball. I think um some people have got that shot down, others don't. I actually don't trust my backhand on this one only because of the steepness of that ramp. If you if you half ramp that, you're looking at a a potential center drain danger. So, I also struggle to trust my backhand on this one. And to answer a previous question, extra balls are turned off. You just saw the 2.5 million bonus for collecting it. Yep. That's where it gets a little tricky cuz typically an extra ball is like that's a destination shot, right? like you're going to go out of your way to get it when it's only worth 2.5 million. Usually those extra ball shots are dangerous shots. Don't bother collecting it unless you absolutely need it. You can see how he's feeling about this game as well. He was very willing to let both of those balls drain, not do anything. Double danger obviously a big piece of that puzzle. Not worth it to take the chance and possibly lose, but at this point would would be a decent bonus. Pretty healthy bonus. Yep. He's still in song jackpot as well. And he's got another multiball lit. That's also why you can easily make it go away. You know, you're going straight into album. He went bell, it looks like. Didn't get it. So, at this point, Sean is just opening up the gap. He is just making first place even harder to get to for our remaining two competitors who have yet to play their ball three. Both of the competitors have nine figures on ball three to make this happen. Nice juggling. This is a show for Shawn Davis right here. A show putting on a tap pass clinic right there. If you didn't uh it was he really was so fast, but he was cradling a ball on the right. Had another ball come in that kind of splashed it and managed even in cradle. Look at that. Oo, that drop catch on the edge. Even in cradle, he managed to tap pass one ball over to the left flipper. That's somebody who has put practice into their tap pass. trying for maybe a quick extra shot before it's over. And I think that's all we're going to get. Still another three on that. 140 million points on this machine. An absolute clinic on it. Yep. Now, this is one where, you know, you could look at an album multiball say 3 million. Glad to have it. If you could use your combos and multipliers, that 3 million could have easily been 30. Yes. But you have to be able to turn on those multipliers and get those combo bonuses. They are huge on AC/DC. We were talking earlier from the Steve Richie perspective. This might have even been Now here's that shot at 19. Oh, he missed it. Legit went for it. Just barely missed the shot. That would have put him at 160 on the dot. Oh, he's going to have to play this out. See if he can get another shot at here. He is playing with fire right now. Wow. Well done. Great ball. Great ball by Shawn Davis. See what this adds up to. Should be nice. Yep. Yeah. Another six. So he glad he held on to his bonus. 48. So bear in mind that entire most of that ball he was playing in double danger. Yeah. So he couldn't nudge. This is a tightly uh tuned machine. And that tilt is really sensitive. So he played really well in double danger. Making subtle moves, small nudges perhaps, but did not get a tilt. You could see him make tremendously good concessions over the course of the game. And now unfortunately, yeah, Nathan already has a double danger as well. I think he put too much into that given that he still had a ball in play. Yeah, it's the right and just flipper issues. Nothing he could do. Yep. Yeah, he That was an interesting uh little bit right there. Why did those War Machine flippers go off the way they did? Which if you notice at the end of his ball, he had two random War Machine spins. Oh, two War Machine spins. It's possible that he just nudged well enough that he got a little bit of a click out of the spinner. That must have been it. The way the spinner operates, um, if you've never seen one up close, is that you've got the spinner itself, but then under the spinner, you've got a little basically a wire that touches a leaf switch underneath. And so, it doesn't need to rotate much to get that to plunge. And every once in a while, if you get a rock back and forth, you'll get two switches out of it. That's exactly what he got. He got the two switches. Yep. Steve needs 11 million on this ball to get into third place. critical for him is he's at 18 points. He's played well. He flailing do it. He was flailing. I think he wanted that right ramp and I think that might have been it too comes in with good knowledge right here. The also would give a spin. Was he just hitting the center? He may have been hitting his center button just to get rid of it. Oh, there you go. Makes sense. Yes. Nice job, guys. Once again, we rely on our stream for this kind of uh knowledge. Thank you. This is why you guys are great. You guys give us knowledge that sometimes we don't think about oursel and I appreciate it tremendously. Can I just point out, by the way, Joe Soap has been so generous. 1,300 bits to support this stream. He's awesome. Thank you so much to everybody who gives us bits and Joe especially, 1300 bits. So grateful. Subs and followers. And congratulations to Straight Down the Middle. They are now over 900 followers. There you go. I love that. Thank you guys so much for giving this channel 900 followers. We very, very much appreciate it. And we're doing this for the same reason you're doing this. We just love pinball. So that's not that's not money in our pockets. That that's money that goes to pay for the stream. That's how we pay for things like this computer and that rig and so grateful that you're willing to support streaming pinball. Thank you so much. I promise you we are not using it to pay for the bourbon, but we are going to drink the I had to use my own money to pay for the bourbon. U fortunately I took a gamble on a relatively inexpensive bourbon and it paid off. All right, that was the last game of the round. Everybody played so well on now on round six. That was a fast round for sure. Fast. So round six of eight. Let's see if ER where Eric is going to move the rig to. I'd love to see our standings. Let's look at that right now. Currently, the tie is still between Adam and now Rory Richie at 31 points. We've got three players, Matt, Ben, and Aaron at 29. Uh, if we're looking at cutoff points, we have a huge A division tiebreaker at 25 points right now. Basically, all but no, actually 24, I forget, is the point for that. So, that would be at 23 points. We'd have a heck of a tiebreaker. And then I think we'd have another one at 19 points for a couple of spots. Look at all the people at 19 points right now. It is a log jam right now at that position. So I have a feeling in about three rounds from here, we're going to have some absolutely hellacious. Hold on. This is indeed the chuck of vision right now. High quality mouse clicks for all of you. No, we're doing it. And I believe we are putting this on Jungle Queen. Yeah, we are. This is the first time we've shown Jungle Queen in more than a few minutes right here, Meg. Thank you for the kind words on the stream. Very much appreciate that. Going to dig out my personal Jungle Queen notes right here. I am not about having a little bit of cheat sheet action in any way, shape, or form. And looking at this, we have had the A 21point group right here. All of these players would be in I believe division if everything ended right now. And it's a good group of players. Jeff Wilson, Todd Dennis, James Scott, and Dale Nun. Dale Nun has been shooting very, very well up to this point, too. So, let's see what Jeff is able to do here. Obviously, ABC for double bonus if you're able to hit those. B can only be collected up top right there. Um, top saucer is always worth 5,000. So, be on the lookout for all the lit shots that are worth 5,000. That's really the play here. He does get that out lane which gave him some points and some bonus as well. So, 10,290 for him. Mafia coming in saying, "Just learned Jungle Princess existed yesterday." Jungle Princess. There's a Jungle Princess. It's like the sequel to Jungle Queen. Maybe. Oh, I'm thinking so. Tell tell us more. I want to learn more. All ears. So, this one's a little dark, but um I think we can more or less see what's going on. Yeah, I have a good idea what's going on. That's the three-player version of the same game. Oh. Uh-oh. Oh, that's such a bummer when that happens. Tim must have mistyped. Yep. So, uh Todd Dennis just had a trying to grab that on the left flipper and I have done that a thousand times where you just overestimate a little bit and you end up dropping right down the middle. Here comes James Scott. We see 134, probably one of the four highest ranked players in this tournament. So, as high ranked as he is, someone I would always consider a prohibitive favorite. Y to potentially win it. But first, he's got to get into a division and he's got three rounds to do it. James Scott Ohio or O, which must be a nice way to think of your name is like James Scott. O, as Tish said in chat, go Mr. Go Mr. Row. It's the same with Mark Smith USA. Yeah, I think that's such a cool name. Mark, someone was saying that say, "Hey, hey, what what are your thoughts on Mr. USA?" And I had to think about it for a minute. It's like, are we talking about the network? Is this something I don't know? I had I looked it up on Google, not realizing, oh, he's just talking about Mark. Didn't even think about it. Mark Smith USA. So, Jungle Queen isn't one we spent a whole lot of time with, though. We did get uh yesterday quite quite some discussion on the lower flippers versus the upper flippers. And the Oh, look at that. I love when that happens. You see it just stick there and the Lazarus. The Lazarus we're looking for. Way to go, physics. So, we do have a lit third bumper. It's a little You can see the lights are flickering in and out, but it is a lit third bumper. And uh quite some quite some bonus growing in the middle there. Neither of those side shots are lit for 5,000 yet. Is that one? That one sure is. I don't know if the light's not working, but that right side shot is 5,000 per hit right now. Oh, is it? Well, he seems to know it cuz he's heading right back for that saucer. So, those drop targets are a little bit uh they look safer than they are. So, if you can get at them from the upper flippers, take a more direct angle, you're less likely to have an immediate outlane drain. Very solid ball number showing 5,000. That is a bonus game for sure. We watched that bonus build in the middle. He was able to collect it at the end without a tilt. So, he had the double lit and a ton of drop targets on top of that. Great combination as Here comes Dale Nun. 55,000. He's got a hell of a good chance of of rolling this machine. Yeah. And he's got four balls to get 45,000. That's a pretty good proposition. I would absolutely give him great odds of doing that. Little hard to see that player four score. Looks like 2,240 right now, I think. Yes. Oh, keeps it in the in lane and collects that A. So, what's interesting about this game is that the I believe the A and C lanes are collectible down on the in lanes. The B lane, the only way you're getting it is up top. Is up top. So, you kind of have to get that on the plunge or hope that the jet bumpers will push something up there because there's no really great direct way up to the top. We end up around 10,000 it look like. Yeah, it's respectable. Try to tell the best I can on that. Yeah, that's respectable. Jump back up. Also, yeah, that is 10,740. We have a good view of the machine. You do better than I am. I can just look over my my shoulder. You are tall. Jeff Wilson, I don't know if you can tell from the stream. He is a hos of a man. He's just a very large human. Shouldertosh shoulder. I can't see around him to look at the scores. So, he just is he's like a weightlifter. He's just massive. Doesn't matter how they are, the ball treats everybody exactly the same. And by exactly the same, I mean brutal. Yep. So, here is Todd Dennis. It's like about 6,000 points on ball number one. That wasn't the ball that Jeff was hoping for. No, it was not. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Yep. Yep. Yeah, every bit of momentum died on this is just nothing that Todd could have done. I mean, that's another one. If you hit the bottom of that bumper, that's what you're left with is if you're coming off the the flippers straight to the bottom of the bumper, you're going down the middle. Nothing you can do. So, James is stepping up. Humongous early lead. Four balls to play. Plenty of time for everybody to do something here. Yep. This is a five ball EM and we are playing extra balls on this one, I believe. Yeah, we are. So, um, don't don't write somebody out if they're on ball five. If they can pick up one of those extra balls, make a huge difference. In this case, how do you do it? If you collect all the drops and hit the red shot, that is what gives it to you. Yep. Could be either out lane or either saucer. It rotates when certain switches are lit. So, look for the red shot. Now, that does require hitting all these drops. And he's taken a really concerted effort at doing just that. We talked about it, but I like to get if I on this game, I like to get the drops off of the upper flippers. The lower flippers are quite a liability straight at the drop because they're going to want to deflect and come straight down on you. Agreed. He's going to trap up. Take a breath. Looks like he's going for that saucer up there. Nice save. Good save. We'll see what these things are lit for. We can see the Owen drains down. Nonetheless though, not bad. He's going to get another nice little bump on the bonus up to 82,000 on ball number two. Not bad at all. So Dale Nun stepping up right here. Right about that 10,000 point. 82,000. The lead right now is 65,000 points. That is just such a big gap. Two balls in here. And we talked about this when we were watching AC/DC a minute ago, but 65,000 points on this game is a whole lot different than when you're playing something like AC/DC where you can activate a multiball, get combo bonuses, that sort of thing. These EM don't have that sophisticated scoring. So, that's a much bigger gap. Essentially, right here, you're looking at two different things. You're looking at 5,000 point shots, and you're looking at building up your bonus as high as you possibly can. That's how James got to this point in the first place. His ball one bonus was worth more than his entire ball in the first place. Y and there there are great points to be had in those drop targets, but boy are they dangerous. There you go again. Bottom of that bumper. Yeah, you cannot hit a straight shot in this game because that's going to happen every time and only a couple thousand of botus right there. Yep. Not a lot to show. So 17,000 I believe that is still enough for second place for Jeff going into ball number three here. Jeff Wilson gets a bit of a balancing act. There you go. Good choice. Now, you're fairly safe coming off the tip of the flipper to the lower drop targets. It's when you hit them dead center that you are setting yourself up for misery with that deflection. Yeah. Up into the scoop. Got to like that. I think that was a 500 point scoop, not a 5,000, but we'll see. 27 though, doing quite quite nicely. Looks like both those bottom dropins are set at 5,000 as well. Well, at least one of them was, but they're not easy to get by any stretch. Oh, nice save. He's going to get a shot at that. He does. Oh, no. He tilts out. Oh, you hate to see him lose that bonus, too. All that hard. Did not tell how much bonus he had, but it's enough. I'd be worried about it. And this one has a tilt through possibility, too. So, he doesn't want to tilt it too terribly badly. I think that this point Todd is wise to take it slow working. Yeah, take your time. No rush. Yep. He's just going to look at it for a minute and take it all in. Let that tilt pop settle down and take a breath. Smart play by Todd right here. He's wearing a WB Bar shirt. Recar is one of our sponsors. Reck Bar is uh you can see the sponsors rolling along in the bottom right side. Speaker light kits up on your screen is one of the sponsors as well. They have a booth over here if I remember right. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yeah. And actually, if you haven't yet made it to Cincinnati, there's still a day and a half of Cincinnati left and you can just come for the day. you don't have to buy for the whole weekend. Come check out the booths, check out the games, obviously, and spend some time talking to these players. People who play pinball tend to love Oh, to talk about Oh, that's a tough break for Todd right there. Yeah, that was a half flip that unfortunately just sort of ramped it right down the middle. By the way, I love the tiki bar design of the special one lit podcast shirt. I just want to state that for the record. Oh yeah, that is pretty sweet. It's a cool shirt. Pretty sweet. Yes. I don't know if there there's any out there still. I'll have to see if I can track one down if that's the case. It's cool design. So, we are on ball question mark. Let me see. Ball three, I believe. Ball three. Yeah, this is ball three. Okay. If James is able to roll this thing right now, I'm I'm almost willing to say I think he has a nearly insurmountable lead. I do love to see a roll in a tournament game. And this would be our first. We have not seen any. We almost saw a Grand Prix roll yesterday. Tim Saxton got that thing up to 900,000. Just on the verge of a mill. Oh, we won't see it yet, but still hunted right then. 89,000. He's playing it smart enough that he's getting about 5 6,000 a bonus every single ball, which is better than even the other players have been able to do. So, even when he's not flipping it correctly, he's gaining benefits. So, if the extra ball does light, it lights up at those scoops. And I think it rotates scoops and the out lane. So, you have it's not just like it's a guarantee. It's going to move around depending on the switches that you hit. So, if you do see an extra ball lit, that's not at all a given that somebody's getting an extra ball. You have to chase it around the play field. And it's after you hit those 10 drop targets, five on the left, five on the right. Yep. Easier said than done. He picks up the A. Probably hoping for the B. Picks up the A. Cleared a couple drop targets there. Oh, nice. Love it when it gets back up there. Not a bad time to nudge if you do get it back up there to see if you can get it through the B cuz you can pick up on an in lane. Not bad though. That does put him up to 37,000. Puts him into second place by himself. Yep. As Jeff Wilson walks around. He was one of the people who was watching on the broadcast next to us. Yep. That's how I noticed the special when lit podcast. That part's really fun. If you happen to be playing playing the game that is being featured on the stream, a lot of them will come over and watch it over here cuz you can see it a lot better than trying to look over somebody's shoulder. That B lane. That's nice. Get the A and C. You can get that on in lanes. I'm sure he's not wanting to necessarily play around on those in lanes very much, but if you get him, you get him. Oh, just off the just nicks off the top of the right bumper. And a tough bounce right there. So, he will be at 34. Still sitting in third place right now. Todd sitting, I believe, at 12,000 here on ball number four. Now, if you collect all AB and C, that's a double bonus. That is a double bonus, which I'm sure is what James did to get his big Yep. his big bonus. Uh, top saucers are always top saucers, I guess, are always worth 5,000. Oh, they're always 5,000. Okay. I thought they were 500 and lit for 5,000. There's our answer. Todd gets the beat. That's huge. Oh, but he and house falls after that. Todd thought he may have had a play on the upper left flipper, but not able to do it. A lot of That is a tough tough break. A lot of these older electromechanical machines, you can almost count on a house ball or two every game. Oh, yeah. because they they are built to drain you and there's no ball save and so you're going to have if you just let gravity do its thing you're going to have a two in five chance of just draining the ball right off the plunge. No doubt there was one right then he had a shot at it. Not able to do that there. So very little bonus 90,000 at least a sliver of an opening for the other players here. I was hoping to see a roll. We're not going to see a roll on this one. Well, we got a chance. This was ball four, right? Or is this ball five? I think this is four. Oh, that was ball four. So, we still have an opportunity at making that happen. Yep. Here's Dale Nun. He's going to try and nudge it into B. There he goes. Oh, he's toying with us. Ever so slight nudges. You could tell them right there. It almost looked like the camera shakes we were seeing earlier in the day. Those totally nudges. Got two bumpers lit. And TWW Rex with a great reminder. Double bonus because it's ball five. That's right. Everybody gets a double bonus on this one, which means this it is moving time. That's one of those tricks that a lot of BMs do to keep things exciting is going into ball five, everybody's playing double bonus, which is a great time to make up some points. You don't have to worry about the ABC anymore. Just plunge it. Put it somewhere where you think you can get a good shot and make it happen. Just around the saucer there. That 5,000 would have been nice. I'll tell you what, I I so appreciate uh knowing about that 5,000 scoop because we have a handful of EMS in the competition and we've been swapping out machines. Got 19 different machines. Keeping them all straight can sometimes be a little difficult. It's not the easiest thing. And I love when when uh we can get clarification like that. So, one of the things I just Oh, he tilted it. That's a tough break, man. Y Oh my goodness. That's a tough deal. So, this one Yeah, you're definitely going to want to let this one sit for a minute. Todd will y that could Oh, the tilt on the double bonus. He He's frustrated. Yes. And I That was his second tilt of the game. Yeah, Todd. Very I I think Todd even talked to Jeff on the way through. Yep. Ball Todd knows. Ball five is not the ball to tilt on. No, not even a little bit. When you're starting on a double bonus scenario, you try and just build your bonus as much as you can and don't tilt. You got two jobs. Build your bonus and don't tilt. Unfortunately, he was working on the one. Didn't do the other thing. Yeah, it it it's a tight tilt, Bob, on this for sure. Yep. They all are. I mean, all of these machines are set really tight, and I think that's part of what keeps the competition moving and part of what keeps it fun. That's why we don't tend to have huge stacks of people on, let's say, Maiden or AC/DC. Oh, and Todd can't do anything with that. I would have understood trying to tilt that thing back in. Why not at that point? No, he didn't have much on bonus. He is going to be locked into fourth place. He will not get but one point right there. I think Jeff is locked into third at 35. James is going to play this. James Scott O. He's playing for the roll over here. Appropriately nudged right there. How do you like that? Not be not bad. He put the O back in James Scott O. Oh. Oh, good little drop. Get it back under control and straight down the middle. Let's see what he picks up on bonus, though. Is he going to clear? So close to it. 98,6350 points short. Very close. Great game for him on this. And so now it comes down to this. It's double bonus time. So Dale can absolutely put something together. We saw James get 30,000 on his bonus. Wouldn't that be an upset right there? It's possible. Yep, it sure is. You know it. Dale has hung in there close enough that it's not insurmountable. It's tough, but it's not impossible. Oh, nice save. That thing looked like it was heading down center. And if I remember right, there's not only do you have the drops, which are lucrative in their own right, but you have a 5,000 target behind the drops. Is that right? Isn't there a target behind there that you can uh I think the target is under, you know, bottom left. Like if you lodge it in there, you get 5,000. Okay. Definitely trying to keep that ball in play right there. Yeah, you're right. On these machines, you got to see what that bonus is going to be. He has not gotten a If he gets ABC, I don't believe it quads the bonus. So, is it is the target? It's the lane behind the drops. If you can get that after the drops are down, that's 5,000. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, that one. Yeah, behind the bar lights. It's like there. If you're able to drop it in there, which is hard to do. Y, that's the 5,000 shot. And it'll light, I think, if you get all the drop targets down. But let's see. Let's see if we can do it. Oh, that's a great saucer shot for 5K 61. Now we're starting to get into range. He's got it looks like 11,000 on bonus. That would double the 22. He's got to take it easy here. He's going for the saucer. He wants those 5,000 point. Well, a couple of saucers would make the difference between a first and second place finish. He would come out right now at about 84,000. He's about 14,000 short by our calculations. Oh, nice drop. Oh, and it goes tilt. Oh, he tilted it. Did he tilt? No, no, no. Did he? He did. That was a tilt. Yes, he lost the bonus. That was I didn't even see a nudge. Oh my goodness. He tilted as it was going down the right out. That just hurts. That hurts so bad. Oh, I don't know. I did not look to see I would love for someone to clip that. I didn't see it. It would have been closer. I don't think he had it, but I think he would have been up around the 86 87,000. Okay. He didn't have So So he was right to tilt so much as it didn't matter. Yeah. Uh that's that's good thinking on Dale's part. Yeah, max bonus is 30. So even if you got max on it, okay, he would have been at 92. Good to know. Yeah, he was close to max. He wasn't quite there. Max bonus is 30k. Thank you, Siege. So, but still nice comeback on the part of Dale Nun to make that thing very for real. We thought that lead for James was insurmountable. It turned out to be, but he made it very very interesting and a great effort by all parties. Yep. Let's take a look at the matches right now. See what has finished up. Uh, Firepower is done. That goes to Robert Gaines. Nice win for him. Uh, John Delapoa wins Game of Thrones. Not a huge surprise there, I would say. World Cup goes to Cory Stup. Medieval Madness goes to Kyle Ko. Uh, Stars goes to Lindseay Rogers. Bo Pendleton takes Genesis. Genesis back in the rotation. Harlem Globe Trouters to John Reen. Uh, Big Indian is back in. That goes to Tim Ellis. And the rest of the games are Oh, big game is done. That goes to Ben Patrick. The rest of the games are still in motion. We're starting to kind of see how this is going to shake out now as far as points. Uh Ben Patrick is currently your leader in the clubhouse of 36 points. Uh the only person that can get there is Aaron. She would have to win her match to get there. Uh so Ben is going to be looking sitting pretty here. Uh looking at where the 24 point mark is going to come out. I think it's gonna end up right here at the 26 point mark. Um, yeah, I think it's going to be a 26. So, Tony, Lindsay, Iris, Bo are there right now. They're going to be joined by some others. And probably the 22 or 24 point mark is where you're going to have to be in terms of B division right now to get into that top 40 positioning. So, we're starting to see kind of how many points it's going to take. It's going to maybe take four points a round to get you in the B division and 26 over six rounds. I mean, if you're averaging five points a round, you're in you're in rare company right now. You're looking at the, you know, the John the Nick the Cory's of the world right then. But maybe another half point average is all it's going to take to get you up to that next position. Um, we are looking at a potential camera switch here. We're going to switch over and show the beard of one Justin Masterson right now. uh Here you go. Chuck a Vision lives. Even when Chuck Word is not on camera, it is still Chuck Vision. And I think we're waiting for a moment if all parties are okay with it to bring it in. Uh we may even be setting this up for the next round would be my guess. Looks like the game is done on here. We will bring you the special Genesis Cam 2. We have a special camera setup specifically for this machine. That is an interesting look at that camera right there. I know that is a hand on a leg, but you know, just saying. Uh, so yeah, he's coming over to take a quick peek at it right here. Um, so we're going to do Genesis next round. Yeah, we haven't seen Genesis yet. So, this is our I've been No, I've been looking forward to watching Genesis today. We haven't seen it yet. And Genesis is a weird game. Oh, look at that. I We're going to have to We got to lower the score. Let's go lower the score cam on it. And Oh, it has a special setting for it, doesn't it? It has a special setting. I'll go do that. So, yeah, lower the score cam a little bit and I think you'll be good. I'll give you a thumbs up on it as soon as we're ready. Perfect. Awesome. Yeah, there are two things you've got to pay attention to obviously on this one. You got to pay attention to score for one, but also to the letters. Uh, your arms, your legs, your brain, your body. Um, arms is what we're going to see, I think, the majority of players go after here. Oh, yes. Yes. Nope. No. There. There we go. That is 100% perfect. He could not have put that camera on there any better than he just did. Let's tell him that when he gets back here. Justin, that was a 10 out of 10 camera drop right there. Oh, thank you so I'm I'm doing double time today because Eric uh has so many other responsibilities. I am both camera person and commentator. I appreciate it very much. This other c this other camera is confusing. It's It's basically the bottom of the score cam that Why for these? That's so fun. Yeah. I didn't even know there was another camera mounted that way. There's not another camera. It's the same camera. Oh, that's fun. It's just using transforms. You guys are clever. Eric made that happen. Looking so You guys are so clever. Tish, thank you for those extra puppy dog bits. Appreciate it so much. Hey to all 50 of you who are tuned in, thank you so much for joining us for Cincinnati's match. We appreciate you guys so much right now. It really this has just made my weekend to have so many wonderful people in the chat and on the stream uh sharing wisdom, sharing bits, sharing love, and sharing jokes with us. It's been so fun. Every single one of you. Now, the game, this is the game that just completed of around six. There was a Genesis game on here. So it looks like Bo Pendleton moved up to 26 points, Tim Ston at 24, Jason Shoen and Pat Green I think would be out of the mix right now at 22 and 20. Y where Bo Pendleton and Tim would be looking at likely tiebreaker games uh for the points that they are. Yeah, this Genesis has clear ramps on it as well. Um now this is a weird game. So most people most people I would say have never played a Genesis. It's a it's a gotap solid state machine. It is um the kind of the core idea behind Genesis is you want to build a body. You're you're sort of doing a Frankenstein kind of thing. And the way that you It's not Phil Collins Genesis. No, no, no. Yeah. There there's no uh what's his name? Um Peter Peter Gabriel. Who who was the other one that was in Genesis? Peter Gab. Come on streamies. Help me out. Hold on. There's Phil Collins. Yeah, you're right about that. Not Peter Frampton. Not Peter Satara. Peterson's hair was Chicago, right? He was Chicago. Who was the singer before Phil Collins for Genesis? Back when he was the drummer. I don't know, but it got tremendously better when Phil Collins Oh, you guys are going to you guys are going to scream at me on the stream. I know it and I deserve it. No, we totally deserve it. All right, hang on. Peter Gabriel was a past member. Peter Gabriel, thank you. Good gra. I forget that Peter Gabriel was in Genesis. Thank you. Yes, I actually loved his time with Genesis. I thought it was awesome. I think about him from the solo career more so than I think of him from Genesis. So, man, if you guys can't get enough of watching Robert Gaines play pinball, boy, have you come to the right place somehow. So, we are we are picking machines based mostly on what we haven't seen much of cuz we want to share a really wide variety of our 19 machine bank with you. And it just so happens Robert Gaines has been on every single one. He he might be scoping it out to practice in which case I don't Yeah, this may not be his tournament game. No, it's not his tournament game. We have not gotten round seven pulled up yet. Um, by the way, for the record, I will not be singing Sledgehammer. That I I don't feel like that would be a good Yeah. Uh, you we're going to have to make pinball lyrics up for it. So, uh, my Robert Gaines 247. That's the That's the channel I'm going to subscribe to. The Nothing But Robert Gain show. He has a channel, I believe, on YouTube. It's good flip pinball. Yes. But is it 24/7? It's not 247. What only Straight Down the Middle can offer you is 24/7 Robert Gains. That's right. As opposed to Laser Los, which as we discussed yesterday, is 37 hours of pinball all day. 37 hours in the 37 hours of pinball. That's right. Where is Wolf Man when I need him? I'm going to kick his butt when I see him in level one chat next for not being on this. And bringing some uh bringing some 37 hour chat. All done d all night. Hey, Wombat. Uh we will bring you some Iron Maiden. Thanks for that request. You know what? You guys are directing this. So, if that's what you want to see, that's what we're going to give you. So, after uh after we watch some Genesis, maybe we can get up on Maiden next. Yeah, next round will be seven. It'll be a fun round, too. And really, it it it's worth mentioning that for round eight, I I think we might also try and influence the pick based on something that we think might have major ramifications for qualifying places on round eight. You bet. For round eight, I now I I brought the machine uh the the streaming rig over to uh Big Indian. Yeah. Right. when some of the top four players were playing and uh one of them turned to me and said, "Don't stream me again." Like, "I'm not ready." I was just on the stream and I said I said, "I can respect that." Yes, I can absolutely respect that. That's a lot of It's a lot of pressure. It's weird having that rig around you. So, we'll give you a little starting the game or was that mid game? That was starting the game. Oh, wow. Okay. But I understand. Look, when I walk up to a machine and it's got the streaming rig on it, I get a little nervous. Yeah, it takes getting used to for sure. It does. You know, you've got people watching. you know, it's being recorded. So, I said, "Absolutely. I can honor that." People like Lindsay and Robert as well, when he's done his good flip stuff, uh Carlos when he does, you know, his laser low channel, I think the streaming, this is one place where it gives them an advantage. The camera doesn't bother them because they've gotten used to the fact that people are potentially watching them. Um that the they're okay with the camera because they've trained themsel to be used. That's right. It doesn't bother you so much after a while. Yeah. I'm not going to say it doesn't bother you. Pressure is still pressure no matter what, but it is a reduction in the amount of pressure that you deal with because you're learning you're learning to train yourself for the for the potential possibility. So, let's up. Let's talk a little bit of strategy on this machine. Yes. So, maybe we can teleustrate for a second and we can kind of draw this one. We're going to have one familiar face on here. That would be Dale Nun. We just saw him. All right. We just saw Dale. Bill Wahburn, Cincinnati guy, is back. Lindseay Rogers also from Cincinnati. about her and what the flip. That's right. And Bo Pendleton, our Tilt Amusements rep. Yep. That's here today. So, good for him. Down from Columbus. Down from That's right. We already set up. We're good. Yep. We did Genesis. So, um, let's talk a little bit of strategy on Genesis. U, if you don't mind bringing up the teleustrator, I'm still not good at it. Please do. I've got to bring up the We got to bring up the extra special Genesis teleustrator right here. Oh, yeah. We've been We've been holding on to that one. I see a Mike Trombetta in chat by the way. Mike, I hope you are doing well. And speaking of of of Columbus, I'm going to be serious for about two seconds here. Speaking of our guys in Cleveland, our buddy uh Earl up at Super Electric lost a close family member. So, I want to make sure we from all of us in Cincinnati, we send out all of our prayers and thoughts to him and everybody up in the Cleveland community. Earl, we're praying for you, man. Hope you're doing okay. very sorry for your loss and uh you know hope you're able to get through this week and anything we can do as a pinball community for you consider it done just ask us we'll make that happen so you know from all of us to you my man we got you got you for sure thank you for that and you talk about the community I'll just reinforce this is a hell of a community this is a hell of a community this community has got me through some serious tough times too it has yep and it's not just support on a pinball front it's support on a personal front we've had other tragedies in the community that everybody shows up for they say how can Can we help? How can we serve you? And sometimes it's it's, you know, just talking. Sometimes it's getting together to play. Sometimes sometimes it's nothing more than just getting together and just getting a hug from somebody when you really really need it. And everyone here is so friendly and kind and and personable. You know, this is a hell of a good bunch of people. You know, don't ever don't ever sit on that. Yeah, that's right. And we may we that's why that's why I love doing these things, the community. Yep. We may do a little friendly competition, but boy, when somebody needs something, we are there. No doubt. No doubt. So, let's talk about strategy on Genesis if it's all right. Yes, let's do it. Um, so here's what you got in Genesis. Right there. So, your goal is basically to collect body parts. So, you can see the body parts are listed right here. Right. Arms, brain, body, and legs. That's right. So, if you want to get the arms, you are going to come up. I think this is arms up here. Yes. No, that's body is the red top lanes, right? Green one. So, it's lit green right now, but that's what I see that that grants arms. That's right. That's that's the that's the legs, I think, is the green right ramp. The legs, right? Where's my Where's my cheat sheet for this? And then over here is blue, which is going to be your left ramp, which is the arms. Yes. And if you can build the brain, which is the orbits, those are right here. That's right. So, you basically are trying to build all of these shots in order to build the body. sort of Frankenstein style. And you'll see those denoted right here on this special camera pointed right at the back box. Correct. Um, you can also spot those body letters cuz they're not too easy to get if you can hit the drop targets in order. One, two, three. You can spot those body letters, which is going to come in really handy for the ones, for instance, that are really hard to get to. I think in particular, the ones up top are pretty hard to get to. I you're going to see a lot of people going arms on a very regular basis. The multiball is unlocked by arms. Yep. So that's what the big points are. By the way, hi V. How you doing? What up V? M. So if you're collecting body parts, other than being a weirdo, why would you collect body parts? Well, every time you collect a body part, you're increasing your scoring by an X. So for instance, if you collect legs, you're now on 2x scoring and it's time to move on to and that's until the end of the ball. Yeah. So it's time to move on to the next body part. So you can get up to arms, brain, body, legs, 4x scoring on this, which as you can imagine quite lucrative. And you can you can go multiples here. You can say, I'm going to collect arms twice and get extra multipliers that way, too. So if you're comfortable with that arm shot because multiball is is what your groove is, and I have a feeling for most people it will be. Yep. You know, go go go over and over again. Get your two, get your three, get your 4x that way. And when you're in multiball, it doubles again. So, if you have a 2x multiplier, when you're in multiball, it becomes a 4x multiplier. Um, if you look at the VOD from yesterday, Jesse Baker had a sensational game of this where he had the score multiplier up to five. I'm pretty sure he had it in multiball for just a minute, which means he was getting a 10x play field on everything while he was in multiball. At that point, it doesn't even matter what you're hitting. Everything is lucrative. Yep. I mean, shoot. Yeah. At that point, a 10x score multiplier is just a a ticket. So, the other thing you can do is you can start the multiball by collecting a body part and all of a sudden one of these ramps is going to flash. Yes. You shoot that ramp and you're in a two ball multiball and the scoring automatically gets doubled, right? So, if you are in a let's say a 3x playfield, so you've collected two body parts, right? You've just finished the second one. Now, you've got a ramp flashing. You hit that ramp and remember you're already on 3x playfield at this point. And he now you're doubling that score. Very interesting he went so quickly at brain right then. Not sure exactly what his play there just maybe he felt comfortable with the shot or he was going got a bunch of points for arms instead. 176,000. Not bad. Here is Lindsay local player. We know we know probably all of these players. Dale Dale I don't think has much. Bill and Lindsay have probably played this Genesis many many times. Bo probably just in tournament play or if he's gone down to Eric Swer twice. Look at that. The ball hung up at the top of a bumper. Didn't quite activate the bumper. Hung up at the top. Tough break. So, this game is all about multipliers and which means collecting body parts, which means you have to keep hitting those targets over and over again. It doesn't do you as much good to shoot around the playfield. You want to get the body parts in order if you can because that activates the multiple scoring multipliers. Yes. And here's the big story. If you collect all of the body parts, then you start a very target. A very target is a target that uh accepts varying velocity. And if you hit it, it goes back a certain distance. If you hit it back all the way after collecting all the we saw that had that. Was it Big Indian? Big Indian had a very target. Very target. Yes. I think it was Big Indian. Um if you hit it back all the way, then you get a big points. You get a big light show down here. You get all kinds of fun stuff. Um, that's more rare because you have to collect all the body parts and and nail that very target. Yeah. Not sure we're going to see any of the players here decide to play it quite that patiently. Oh, tough play from right there. That would be a pretty unique approach in a tournament game. I mean, I think that's more of like trying to get a wizard mode versus trying to get points. Yes, I would concur with that statement. So, we are already on ball two. This could be a very quick game. It's only a three ball game. So, here is Dale. 26 point wins for all these players. They are playing for a win here could solidly put you into either A or B division without thinking about it too terribly much next round. Oh, another rough bounce on those outlanes. Now, here if you're wondering why are these outlanes so punishing? Let me point out something. See this height versus this height. Right there is the problem. And it's happening on both sides. Because if you can imagine, if you have a ball coming in that hits right here, right here, anywhere in this area, it's going to want to favor the out lane. It is built to drain. Absolutely. And this one is particularly punishing in that respect. Some of them, they're almost even. These are really quite offset. And that's factory. That's not even anything's been done to the machine to make it harder. No, Genesis is just hard. Gen is just hard. So, here is built here. I think I've activated the full light show. Maybe once. Wow. Just missed that brain shot right there. The rejection from that brain shot is right down center. Tough play if you miss it. Looks like it did give him credit for one though. So, he's got three of the letters of brain. There's an A for arms. Yep. And you can see he's going for body parts first. You can also go for um the numbers 1 2 3 in order if you are feeling a little dodgy about trying to get the body parts or maybe there's one you can't get to. If you complete 1 2 3 in order, it's going to spot you one. And I think he may have just got Yep. Oh, he got two of them. In fact, he's got his score multiplier all the way up to 3x right now. He had a nice little sweep. Oh, there's another one. There's arms 4x score multiplier. So, he just had a great sweep of those drop targets twice in a row. He's now up to a score multiplier of 4x. 5x. He just got to now. Look what that has done to his points. 1.53 stuff that wasn't worth a pittance before he started his multiball. multip 10 x 10x. This is the big play right here. I think Bill knows where he's at. Now remember, a multiplier doesn't matter if you can't keep the ball in play. So in this two ball multi, he's going to do everything he can to rack up those points while in 10x. It's going to last until the end of the multiball. At that point, it'll go back to 5x. Nonetheless, he did not get as much as he wanted off of it, but he's going to have a little bonus. There it is. 2.5 million. That is a formidable score on this machine. Again, look, he spent all of 30 seconds in 10x, probably 10 of which he was actively flipping, getting points, and it added up to 5% of his points. Yeah. Yeah. So, this game is all about the multipliers, which starts with body parts. And TWWRX has called it. He is now reveal ready. So, he has a possibility to get the reveal unless that does not carry from ball to ball. Don't remember if it does or not. We'll ask TWWX if that's indeed. TWWX. Yeah. Does that carry over ball to ball? That's a good question. By the way, hi Sibble. How you doing? Hello. That's who is with me in Florida. In Florida. In Florida where it's 80° and sunny. Yeah, it's sort of the same here. Yeah. As long as you double the temperature. As long as you half the temperature and add a whole lot of misty rain. Add a whole lot of gross rain. Yeah. There's a reason that we're inside playing today cuz it's 42 and drizzly. But you know what? If it were 70 and sunny, I'd feel weird about being indoors. This is the perfect time to be in playing pinball. And this is the time. There you go. Picks up that ramp. Nice. That is letter number two for legs. Legs. All right, score multiplier still set at one. Nice job right there getting arms. First take a for arms. Now, Bill made short work of these body parts by sweeping those drop targets. I wonder if there's a strategy. You really don't want to shoot him directly if you can help it, but I wonder if there's a strategy where you can kind of glance those or get a sweep on those. I think if anybody showed us how to do it, it probably would have been built. One letter left for legs here. Now she's shooting around in the field a little bit. She's not locked in on one target. She's trying to spread it out. If nothing else, at least for the ramps. Seems like she's got the ramps locked in for arms and legs. Yeah, she's definitely not interested in any sort of backhanding here. It's just if it's on the right flipper, I'm going to go arms. If it's on the left flipper, I'm going to go legs. And that was a tough hit off that top where the drop targets are. Just caused it to go right down Broadway. Lindsay is a very intentional player. She traps, makes a choice, takes a shot. Traps, makes a choice, takes a shot. And Chad has confirmed. Yes, it does carry over. It carries over. Great. Thank you. Bill is reveal already. And we'll see if he can make it happen. Which chat was that? Uh Twitch chat. Uh Twitch Chad. Hello. Twitch chat. I got Twitch chat snuck over here because we can't see it on our big screen right now. So I have a laptop on the side. Yep. Yeah. That's not just me like staring weirdly at right, Sabo sitting at 62,000 points right now. Good. Good play. Good way to trap that. That thing was getting out of control. You managed to get it under control. That should have been a body shot right there. I'm not sure why I didn't give it to him. I did body shots once on spring break, but that was a long time ago. No one wants to see me do body shots. That would be very that would be bad for stream man, bad for Twitch dos. That's all I'm going to say. I think I'm past the age of body shots. I think I've done that. No doubt. No doubt. Second arms right then for Bo. He has moved into third place with 99,000. Dangerous shot taking on those drop targets. Yeah, it is. I I almost never shoot him directly. The one exception is if you can get on that on that very target maybe. All right, back up to the top. And if I'm if I'm not mistaken on this era of got you're deselecting letters up top, not selecting letters when they lit. When they're lit, that means you haven't hit them. I think you're right about that. Yes. One more shot. He'll have arms. Oh, he tried for it on the fly right then. Wasn't able to get it. Oh, nice catch off the rejection there. That actually was very favorable. Hit the bumper and there it is. Good trap. That's what he needed. Arms is done. We're now in a 2x multiplier. is going to multiply the score. I guess it's legs that does it. I mix them up if it's arms and legs. It must be legs that does what? That does the multiball. I think any of them gives you a multiball option the second you complete it if you hit the right ram. Okay, got it. So So it'll light a shot for you. You have to hit that shot if if I remember correctly. Again, this is a pretty obscure game, so it's not when I have the rules nailed down. If we have any godly rule nuts, you can let us know if we're right. By the way, wombat, how the hell do you know that I ended up getting White Castle last night when I left at 2:30 in the morning? Oh, that's a creepy thought. Is he spying on me? Does he work at White Castle? We don't know. I don't know. I don't know if I did. He come to the show and then go to White I I have so many questions. Tough play for Dale. So Dale is guaranteed now only the one point in this round. He will be at 27. Tough time to lose it here on round seven. Not what you want on round seven. He would have to have a bit of a miracle to come back. going to put some serious pressure on him. Yep. Oh, I did talk about I talked about it on stream that I was thinking about it. It's like the only thing open in East Gate at 2:30 in the morning. What are you going to do? I can't say there's any better food at 2:30 in the morning than White Castle. It didn't tear my stomach up, which actually is the amazing part. Well, that's good. Right. It's the small blessings in life. Oh, and Bill will not be able to get the reveal. 3 million though is not bad. That's a great score in this game. Now, I think I pointed to the wrong target earlier. That very target is in between the drops and the left ramp. Okay. So, it's actually that's probably what he was going for with that blinking light. Did not get it, but it would have meant a hell of a light show for us. But that's all right. Bill has so far kind of a runaway going. So, comment is now a good time to tell you that I had gold star for lunch because I can't get that in Columbus. Um, so wait, White Castle for dinner, gold star for lunch. I'm trying to obviously kill my stomach. Oh my gosh. Yeah, you're going to you're going to want some Pepto or something. I will pick some of that up at Jungle Gyms on the way home. Yep. All right. So, Lindsay, it's huge for her to be able to get past Bow here, get these five points. Even if she's not able to get all the way to 3 million. That's a big ask. It's not a big ask to do what she's done right now, which is pass B. Even only by a couple hundred points, it's going to put some pressure on B to play out that ball for and get back into second place. There you go. The difference between three and five points right here is monumental. Yep. As far as what it's going to make you have to do in round number eight. She is going to need this score multiplier. You see those flashing targets. Oh, did not get much. No. Little bonus to help right there. So, B now knows what he needs to do. And B has a score multiplier. I know. That's why to match. Yeah. B would really have to have a short ball here. It's possible. Yeah. It's pinball. Anything is possible. He needs about 60,000 points. There's 10 of it right there. Exactly. We're talking about three or four good flips and and you're done. There you go. He got it. That's it. All right. So now, can he make the grind all the way back? He's going to try and chase up to 3 million. I mean, he's in second place right now. Oh, that'll be it. So, in that case, Bill will go to 33 points. Um Bo will end up at 31, Lindsay at 29, Dale at 27. Yep. Well done everybody. Well done games for all the players. Tough game. That was one where Bill just came out of the gate strong. He got his 10x multiplier up. He cashed it in even with short play. He got two and a half million out of it. I mean, Bill Bill had that one wire to wire. I agree. So, let's take a look at our matches. See what has finished up if any other games have. There have been some. Uh, looks like Dusty Cigretto took Stars uh over on Big Guns. That goes to Storm Swunger. Continues some very good play that he's had today. Uh, Willie Allen takes firepower. Um, fast draw goes to Nathan Strauss. We just saw him on stream very, very recently. Dana Studebaker takes Harlem Globe Troters on tour. And Royal Rumble goes to Tyler Becker. World Cup soccer to Michael Dawn. Yeah, that was big guns. Did I say big game? It's very small text. What can I say? Paisley James, thank you for that correction. Thank you for all the people watching as well. You guys rock. Cannot tell you that enough. How much we appreciate everything you guys are doing. There are those scores entered in. And let's take a look at where that puts everybody in the standing. Oh, no, I did. Oh, thank goodness. I'm glad I did. It's easy to question myself when I've been doing this for 5 hours now and 11 hours yesterday. You you start to question everything just a little bit. Um, so of people that have finished, Dusty is sitting at 35 points right now. Um, we've got a lot of games going on that certainly have interesting, you know, ramifications. I would say the games to look at right now, the people that are at 28 points right here, that's going to move them up to 35. Um, the top two players should move into an A division position there. Um, and the game down here with 24 points. That looks like it's a Steven, Gilly. It's very tough. They're both blue. Looks like Maja and Wayne are maybe in that game. Um, if Stephen and Gilly are able to win that thing, get to 31 points, that would be a huge win for them. Uh, going down the list a little bit, someone like Jane would probably have to win out u the people that are at 20 points right now. Even 22, I think winning out is what they have to do right here in order to have a shot to make either A or B division. So, a lot of work that they got to do to make that happen. If you're above that, you get a couple wins. I think you can solidly put yourself in a If you are not at that point, got to do the work. Got to make it happen. So, we're waiting on a couple of games right here. I think uh we've got someone playing a fun game of Genesis right now. That would be Nathan Webster who was doing that. Very cool. The big guns was your very first game. We I think we've asked that question before and I have two answers to it really. Um, what is the fir first game that got you into pinball? And it can be either the first game you ever played, maybe the first game you ever owned, cuz I'm going to give you in my case each of those. First game I ever played was Joker Poker because my parents owned one. Um, and um, the first one I ever owned, the only one I've ever owned was Earth Shaker. So, special place in my heart for both of those games. And I'm curious for those of you, you know, what is the first game of pinball you have ever played? Do you remember what that first machine was? And if you don't, it can be the first one you remember or you remember enjoying more than any other machine. So, you know, be creative. You know, we got we got a couple minutes to talk about that while Justin is doing his thing here. We'll wait for him to come back as I drink some water to calm my stomach apparently. Don't worry. Sorry, I didn't have a lot of gold. Sorry, I just had a little bit. Wombat Pinball says, "Hang glider. My uncle owned one." Very cool. I don't know if we have a hang glider here. If I ever remember even seeing one. Oh, we're on the move. I don't know where we're headed. We're going to switch you to that Chuck Vision right now featuring Justin. I think he's officially in wait mode right then. So, we'll leave this there. show you a little bit of background as we're waiting for this thing to get positioned right here for wombat pinball. It's Iron Maiden. I assume that's the first one you owned. Um Oh, player Kim being a little bit funky right here. Oh, look at that. He's showing a little different angle. He might be showing some pe some side angles of people playing right now. Uh who can we see down there in the distance? I think that is Aaron. Aaron Ma. That's Matt Goslin. We do know that for sure. I don't know who that is on the far right side. Um, oh no, maiden someone may fall in love. 1977 got Bronco. I have seen a Gotly Bronco before. So there you go. In Meg's case, first game was Monster Bash and yeah, Doodlebug. You got all the the Doodlebugs up at the up at the barn up there. So plenty of chances to play that, which is really cool. Um, no, I don't think that's Andrew. Andrew is not here. At least that I've seen. Someone finds them, tell me. In the case of NH Polar Bear, it's 4 million BC Fireball Classic. Fireball with that plunge shot and the skill shot. We were talking about Super Electric a minute ago. That's where I first played that machine was up at Super Electric in Cleveland. So, yeah, Wombat's got that. He's got Walking Dead Premium, a Monster Bash remake. So many good choices here. Something I didn't even know um for Tish. Flip-flop first game that loved and then F-14 combat. Is the F-14 up at level one working right now? I haven't seen it played in a while. If it's not working, God, I would love to see that game get back into rotation. It plays so so fast. But it's so much fun to see that in play because it's such a good challenge game. It really really is. So, I think we're Justin's waiting over here to kind of see what shakes down. We're showing you kind of the the end row of the machines right here. You see the one classic machine over there which finishes out our bank of machines. I'm sure he's waiting to see how things are going to shake. We'll look back at the standings right here. There are still a few games going. Um, a little bit of a change right there. Looks like Robert won his round. So, Robert up to 39 points right here in a great qualifying position. I would say right now, looking at these numbers, knowing we're going to get some bump ups. The only people I would designate as safe, I would say you have to be over 35 points to be safely in a right now. I mean, the worst case scenario for any of those players is you're going to be a 36. Yep. So, I mean, you're 36. I think you're going to be Yeah, pretty healthy. And out of the number of players we have right now, that's going to basically represent seven or eight players is it. Wow. You know, which means maybe six or seven people can go into this round knowing that they can win. And even fewer, maybe Robert is it. Maybe Robert and Scott would be it. And then whoever wins the game between Ben, Matt, Ray, and Shawn, maybe one or two people can say they're comfortably in top eight. And doesn't that make for fun competition when you know that most of the players here could go either way depending on how it goes. You know, nothing is set in stone right now because of how the Swiss format works. Yep. You're always playing people who are close in competition to you. You're never comfortable. Even at the very top of the scoreboard, people can move up and move down, you know, at a whim. So, it makes for great competition. Now, how will pairing work? Do you know in the first round? So, let's say you've got, you know, your seed coming in to the um quarterfinals. That would be an excellent Eric question. What I've tended to see in these kind of tournaments is that you tend to have like if you had a four player group, you almost would have it be like say you were looking at a an NCAA basketball tournament bracket. You took the top the top two games in your bracket would be a 116 and an 89 game. Y and I'm imagining those are the four people that would play together. Yep. So, you're playing one person from the bottom seat, two people from the middle, one from the top, right? Yep. So, yeah, that would be the best way. Yeah. And Load Breath says it. Tim Sexon won eight rounds yesterday, I believe, was the total number, and he has yet to win a single game today. That's pinball. That is pinball. And that's always heartbreaking for a player who is as strong as Tim Saxton is. But everybody has bad days. And sometimes you just can't turn that bad juju off. Something we have not talked about as far as prizes is something now Tim would be the only person who is eligible to win and that is the Cincinnati Triple Crown. Oh yeah, we've not talked about that because it is very very hard to do. Um it is a very cool horse trophy that Eric brought. I Is it over there somewhere? It's not on this table. Yeah, I don't see it on the trophy table. It's heavy as heck. I mean the thing probably weighs 40 lb. I don't see it but I know it's here. It's a serious piece of hardware and it's it's more it's a pride trophy. There is a little money associated with it. Um this year it's $200. Um every year that it is not won, $100 is added to for that trophy. So no one won it last year. I think it's on shelf above coat rack. Oh, thank you. Ace ace pinball with the win. Chops. It's one thing to tell us where it is. It's another to just go get it and bring it over. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. Chsobs, what are you doing? right now, man. Yeah. No. So, this is really fun. So, uh, so I have a Silver Ball Mania at home, and Silver Ball Mania does what a lot of some of the older solid states would do, which is it builds this big jackpot over multiple games, right? And then one person collects it, you get all these points. This is sort of a similar version. The Triple Crown carries over year to year to year with this big trophy and this cash prize. And the longer it goes unclaimed, the more valuable it gets. If we need a solid state example of that, Swords of Fury, Swords of Fury, you can pick up that jackpot, get a little Iron Man in your life. I think Hurricane had one of those, right? Hurricane right over there, too. So, it's very similar. Um, I will say the Triple Crown pretty damn difficult to get. Oh, sensational players. You got to win them. The Friday night tournament, the Saturday tournament, and the Sunday gauntlet. Yeah. And Tim, that's not looking too good. No, I mean if we're looking at Tim's score right now, let's take a quick look at the standings real quick. We just have this last game between Ben, Shawn, Matt, and we're going here. So, we can accurately tell you that 30 points is what it's now, this game's still going on, so there will be some movement here, but this is for 25 positions. It's going to take 31 points right now to be in a division. Um Tim Sexton going down the list right here, trying to find where he is. If you don't see him on page one, he's at 29 points. He would be in B division right now. There's column two. There he is. Would not do it. Yeah. So, I think for Tim to have a shot at this, obviously, right now, the only goal is get an A. Yep. You can't win the Triple Crown unless you get an A division. And you can't get in a division unless you qualify, he's going to have to win his next game. And maybe I don't think he's going to have to get help. I think that will put him in a playoff. 36. 36. I think he's going to have to win a playoff to go to a division. Yeah. Wow. I mean, wouldn't that be a story though? Wouldn't that be an amazing pinball story if he ends up coming back and then running a gauntlet, not getting a buy? He would defin He's definitely not going to get a buy. He's not getting a buy in round number one. So, he'd have to run the metaphorical gauntlet today and win the not at all metaphorical gauntlet tomorrow. Yeah. In order to get the triple crown. That is very very Good luck, Tim. Agreed. And if anybody can do it, he can do it. Yep. He can absolutely do it. Looking too at some of the numbers here. I just saw John Del Zapo pop over and look at the standings page. Yeah, he's done with this game. Oh, wow. That caught my eye for this reason and this reason alone. He just took a fourth place finish. Ouch. So, he's at 31 points. And right now, we've got 25 players who are sitting at 31 points. After this game down here, that would be three more players would be 35, 33, 31 that are going to be in that mix. So that is 28 players. 31 will have a hellacious tiebreaker the way things are going right now. And that's just to get in. Um there there are only 10 points separating the 13th place from the 64th place. Yeah. In this game. 10 points. And you've got all of three points separating those who or four points separating those who right now would make it from those who don't. Yeah. Into the AB division. It's unbelievably tight. I mean, it's taken us eight rounds to get to the point where there you can even say there's one game's worth of differentiation between a lot of these groups. And I don't think there's any doubt we're going to have I would be shocked if we had tiebreers of less than four players for each of the positions. Maybe for top eight because we're we are going to see the best players, the people that are playing best rise to the top. Yep. But for qualifying for A and qualifying for B, expect some uh expect some craziness. It's going to be tight when we do these tiebreers. These tiebreers walking by, by the way. He's right there. Can we get it? I don't We're not Chops. Where is he? Right there. Oh, Chops. Chops. Chops. Chops. He's going to walk right by. That's right. If I really want the trophy, I could just go that way and get it. It's harder to get there than it looks. It's a heavy trophy. I just don't want to drop the thing and I'm short. The triple crown. We'll We'll bring it out. We'll bring it out. We'll show it to you at some point today, tomorrow, whatever, because it's a cool trophy. Let me see if I can get up on Maiden. I think Maiden might be ready to move. I'll be right back. Wonderful. Yeah, I think we were talking about Iron Maiden. I would love to see that as our next game. Uh let's switch over to matches right here. See if they are done yet. We are just waiting on that last game. That is Jungle Queen in fact. And you know what? It looks like that game is done. So, we may simply be waiting on a score to be entered on this game right here. I'm going to refresh it. See if it has. Yeah, Ross is walking over. So, I'm going to refresh one more time. I'm expecting to see that score be entered at any given moment right now cuz they're not playing the game. As far as we know, it has not moved. So, we're waiting to see someone give the score. It was Rob Smith, Jesse Baker, Ross Burgettino, and Jason Kelly were the four participants on that game. To give you guys an idea of where they were score-wise, these are all players that are at 28 points. That's a tough group, right? Then, you know, three 500 plus players in the group. And then Jason Kelly who I think plays well well above that 2591 threshold. He's a far better player than that in my opinion. So tough tough group right there. Refresh one more time. Ross is just standing over there. So like I said I'm expecting with Ross over there this score is going to mean there it is. So the winner of the group it was Rob. Rob Smith takes the win. We will update that. He is at 35 points and round eight with that is now up. Let's see what we get on Iron Maiden. Yeah, we definitely want this group. CBJ fan, how are you, man? Good to have you in here. Yeah, we definitely want that group on here. Um, we're going to use the EMSS only because it gives us a full picture of the LCD screen. Um, I hope we don't get this thing started. Oh, yeah. Wayne is fixing it as we speak. Do we want one through four? Um, junkyard. Junkyard. Want to go to the junkyard? Okay. Wayne is trying to fix it, but I think we are going to switch this thing over to Junkyard. What's that? And there is that top group right there. Matt Goslin moves into first place at 41 points. So Justin is working his way over there. He's trying to move some things. Yeah, I think he might have moved the rig out. He did. Why did everything get flipped? Everything got flipped there. So yeah, we're I think we're going to show you this top group right here as a showdown on Junkyard. We haven't shown you a lot of Junkyard today. We're going to switch this over right here. Yeah, Robert's playing well, man. So, you know, I think that's why we're getting some more robber gains. I'm not sure how we ended up with the cameras the way we did here. I'm a little confused about that. Yeah, this might take us a quick moment right here because we've got some Wayne's going to have to do some camera shifting here. Something happened on the cameras. Justin's coming over. I'm going to have to recruit him. Justin, I need you over there. He's got the cameras all whacked. Oh, okay. Oh, no. You know what it is? It's our setting. Can we go to Oh, weird. Yeah, they're all whacked. Why is I don't know. Did he move him by accident? The rig's not in. Yeah, but it was backwards anyways. He might have it backwards. All right, great. All right. Yeah, I'm wondering if something didn't get bumped. We might need to recruit a little bit of Eric time in here as well. I might even need to recruit a little bit of Eric time here in just a minute cuz something got whacked on those cameras. The playfield. Yeah, Tim is going to have to play well just to make playoff here for sure. He's a super nice guy. It was so fun to talk to him yesterday. I'm gonna bug Eric real quick. He stepped away for a second. Give me just a moment here. Yeah, exactly. The rig is backwards. No, Eric just confirmed the rig is indeed backwards now. Some Yeah, he's got the rig backwards. Oh, he's got it backwards. He's totally got it backwards. No wonder. There we go. Yeah, he's going to have to switch the DMD cam around a little bit. Any There we go. That looks better. We had our cams flipped. Hey, look at that. There we go. By now, folks at home are motion sick. Grab your nearest trash can. God love you, Wayne. and settle in. Thank you, Wayne. All right, that is okay. We got to move. Oh, yeah. Eric will get them all set. Yeah, he's got it. Move that score down. And and these things have viewfinders on them, which is that's helpful. It's very helpful. The only problem is when we set it up in in Twitch, sometimes they're not perfectly lined up in Twitch the way we've got them framed. So, yeah. And all right, Eric's got it worked out. Yeah. Tim Balls has it 24 to A and 16 to B. Yep. So this is round eight right now. We've got the top group over here, Ken Gunther. Good showing by Ken again today. He had a good showing yesterday, too. So this is kind of wild. We haven't seen Ken all day on this stream. Somehow we've been living the Robert Gaines lifestyle 24/7 all the way around the clock. Robert Gains. We've been following him. He has played well enough to earn it all the way around. Ken Gunther has been sort of under the radar for us. So we're going to get to see him play. We get to see Matt Goslin, who we haven't seen too much of on the stream today, and Shawn Davis is back on the stream. So, this is going to be a really fun eighth qualifying round. There's Ken Gunther right there stepping up to Junkyard. Now, this is Jesse Baker's jump junkyard. Came in to us from Arcade Legacy, one of the sponsors of Cincinnati. And I have played this Junkyard many times, and I can tell you this tilt hurts. You can't barely lean on this machine. So, watch for really clever nudges, left, right nudges instead of back, forth nudges, etc. I am working right now on getting you guys some information about how everybody's been playing. Ken Gunther starts off picking up already got a toaster gun assembled. Not bad. That'll that'll light those modes. Let's see if we can uh I think he's going to probably go for center shots. The way Junkyard works is see that swinging ball in the middle. It's a really unique physics dynamic. Uh it's a toy that is I don't think I've seen it repeated uh anywhere else where you have this double double with it. But it's got this swinging ball on a chain. Yeah. That even is if you've played Batman or any of those where they have like a a ball. This one's even more pronounced in that it swings all over creation. If you hit it enough, you qualify multiball, that ball will lift up a little bit and open up a channel directly down the center that will start your multiball. It's certainly the way to go. He does have multiball qualified now. So, he's going to try and do a center shot. Yep. Right down the middle to start that multiball. You have to get a little bit of a skill shot. A little lucky to have that that crane ball not interrupt your progress. Right now, what's nice is on the multiball, that was really close. The crane ball will lift up. So, you you're less likely to hit it. Nice. Yeah, you have to hit it. Look at the distance on this shot. You have to hit from the flipper to the very back of the machine. I mean, you are almost to the backbox by the time that ball sinks. By the way, to talk about how Ken has played today, he has he's had a very interesting day. He has four wins and three third places and they literally go like a bell curve. 1-1 333 1-11. He's won the last two games. Right now, I take it that he's a hot he's he's playing the hot hand. Yeah. Now, there's his jackpot right there. Nicely done. That is 1.7 on this game. That is a significant amount of points. Now he's lit for a super I think in the middle, but he did just lose that ball. That might be the end of that one. So that mode is done. Not bad though. So there is another multiball mode which basically consists it's a two ball multiball that consists of almost the same shot. You just you hit the wrecking area a lot and then you get to start a two ball multiball. Yes. We'll see if he's going to go for that or if he's going to try and start with the modes. Little bobble around the flippers and King Gunther's out on ball one. Yes. Now the other thing to note about Junkyard is that you you are assembling these junkyard parts as you go. So there's a little bit of a story to trying to escape the junkyard. You're trying to get out of the junkyard. You're trapped in the junkyard. And as you're assembling these parts, those parts add up every time the ball is over. So if you've assembled five or six parts and every time your ball ends, you get credit for all of those. Those all go to your bonus. Take that a multiplier. Those parts really matter. The other thing the parts do is they light modes. Now, most people that I watch in this game don't play the modes nearly as much as they play the center, but we'll see. Once you've burned your multiball and your two ball, those modes might be pretty appealing. To give you an idea how well these guys are playing, and by the way, this has throwbacks to other games. Here is the Mimushka from Adams family. So, this game kind of, as you would imagine with a junkyard, gives you a little bit of a treat from every other Williams game of the era. So, this is one of my favorite features of this game. I feel like this game is an homage to pinball lovers. I feel like this game isn't just for your your player who walks in the arcade, although it would certainly be fun for them. And this motion mode for him is sensational. But the time machine actually calls back to earlier games and says, "We're going to take you back to 1994, 1996. We're going to play something from Creature from the Black Lagoon or Adams family." Yeah. And all of a sudden, you're playing a different mode. And it works just like Mamushka, right? That's a switch mode. Yeah. It's sort of a frenzy style. It reference it changes the points slightly to match what you're used to seeing in Junkyard as opposed to Adams. And you saw there the difference too. It doesn't give it to you in bonus. It gives it to you right then. And that was really well done for him. 2.6 million in that mode. Gets him to 3 mil. Has him in the lead. So it's tempting. And this is my strategy tends to be go for that center ball, go for the multiball right off the bat, which is exactly what Ken did. Robert Gains took a different path. He managed to qualify time machine off the bat. He nails time machine. starts the mode and made good use of that mode. So, to give you guys an idea of how all four of these players are playing right now, um they either have three or four wins across the rounds each. Uh three of the players have four wins, one of them has three, and there is one consistent among all of the players. And I don't think I have to tell you what that is except that it's happened one time among their 4* 7 28 placements. Wait, there's one consistent thing among all four players. It has only happened one time in their 28 placements. A fourth place finish. A fourth place finish. Yeah. Yeah. The consistency is what has put these guys at the top of the list. Each they all have second and third place finishes except for Ken who just has first and third. Yep. Yeah. And and Teresa is right. This is a Midnight Madness kind of game. You know, you get you get shenanigans across the board from all of the other games of the era. So that is guaranteed only to happen for the second time amongst these players is a fourth place finish. You know, not getting one point for all of these players is the key to making sure they're at the top four. As long as you're doing what you need to do each round, I mean, if you average a second place finish, you're at 40 points when this thing's all said and done. Not bad. And the worst any of these players can be now is 38. Consistency wins the day. That's right. And this is one of the things that we that we talk about a lot, which is that pinball is part luck and part skill, right? And the more you play, the more skill it is than luck. But for a while there, you know, there was an idea that like, oh, especially when I was first starting out, it's like pinball's all luck. Well, it's not because it's not about the performance on one ball. It's not even about performance on one game. It's about consistency. Yeah. And these are all players who can play not just have a big ball or a big game. they can continue to deliver those first and second place finishes because they're playing consistent pinball across eras across solid states emds. To make a little bit of a baseball reference for it, you know, it's you know base it it's oldtimey baseball in the sense of consistently getting singles and doubles sometimes as opposed to home runs and strikeouts how the game's generally played right now. Yep. So there is a chance to restart multiball. He gets 10 seconds and nails it. Got it perfectly hit. Look at that beautiful shot on the fly right down the middle. Matt Goslin dials it in and manages to restart a two ball. No, a three ball version. Yep. Oh, look at that tap. Did you see that beautiful tap? He used a ball on top of a ball and tapped both of them to the left flipper. That was gorgeous. Oh, that was right there. He did get it. He got the jackpot. 1.75. Everybody's playing really nicely on Junkyard right here. Right to be excited about that. All right, good. Landed right in the end. Be happy for that. Look at that cradle separation. Matt Gosler, you know what you're doing. Want he super right here. This may be a super. Let's see. I think when you've got two red arrows lit, that may indicate a super. Let's see. Nope. He couldn't get it. He wanted that last shot at the jackpot. Did not. Oh, he did get it. He had one shot at it. Nailed it. 3 million points. He goes into the lead. He ended up in the grace period. It hadn't quite cleared the trough or maybe he had an extra second. Manages that 3 million point super. I would say what the modern stern era and now he's got the crane multi the other one. Yeah. Yeah. So the crane multiball is just you've been you've been bashing the crane enough. Why not keep hitting the crane? He is going to get that one back. Got a little bit of a ball save right there. Not much. Nice move on the cradle separation there. Look at that little ball. Nice post pass done beautifully. Nice. That that was a post pass with a ball touching. Yeah, that was awesome. That's ridiculous. He is at 7 million a month. He's just going to keep bashing. By far the best games of Junkyard we've seen all day. Why not one more shot? Unfortunately, did not get what he wanted, but he didn't tilt. He walks away with a really decent first ball. Let's see what he's going to have this second half. All of that with only one item acquired. He only acquired the toaster. Well, so that was his move, right? Again, it's either you play multiball strategy or you play modes. He decided to go multiball strategy. Now, he may go he may decide to go modes next time. We'll see. But started off with with great effect. Shawn Davis up next. And again, you are watching players. This is group one, right? So, we're watching the top four players right now. Yes. And uh we're going to see who can come out at least in the qualifying rounds in the best spot to start the quarterfinals. Yes, I would say based on everybody's score right here. If you come in first or second in this group, I would even say first, second, third, you're Thank you, Nap Arcade. Appreciate it. If you are first or second, I think you're going to get a top eight position. Yeah. If you're third or fourth, I don't think that's an assured thing. The exception of that being Matt, because he has that two-point lead over everybody else, he has a little bit more room to spare. I don't think he can get a last place finish, but anything else and he's okay. Yeah. Yeah. Two points is a big help when the spread is this tight. And obviously, if he gets a second place finish, he is guaranteed no worse than a tie for first place. Not so bad. That works. Not so bad. And I'll tell you what, he's off to a pretty good start. 7.5 mil on ball one of Junkyard is a very very good score. That's a good three ball score based on what we've seen. Yep. Yeah. Shawn Davis is up to play in the number four slot. Big old smile on his face. Yes, the top eight will get by. Bonus. Nice way to start. So, we will go from 24- 16 to 8 to four. Ball saved. All right. There is a ball recycler too on this game which amounts to essentially an outlane save. Yeah. No dice. No, he got it. He got it. He doesn't know it. He better get He doesn't know. He has no clue. Oh, he managed to get a flipper on. Someone must have He must have heard something. He may I Somebody somebody on that. So, he got a ball save back to back, meaning he may not have hit a switch on that initial one other than the uh than the auto launch. Oh, Shawn Davis knows that an angel, a guardian angel just showed up for him. And for the record, you know, we were getting a little excited about it. We are not even close to close enough to tell you that. And Twitch chat would not the delay would be way too far. So that wasn't from us. That was from someone over the tournament area. We we are very careful not to interfere in game play, but that is really amazing. So right now, all the way at the other end of the room, we just saw Shawn Davis turn around, pick up his second ball save, and jump right back in the machine. And he's already in multiball and he got a jackpot. So he's got two million points. He's back in this thing. He's back in this thing by Oh, he drained everything. There is the karma coming back right there to him right there. The fact that he drained out all three balls. You think Karma came to get him? Yes. Yes. I'll tell you what. Now, again, we talked about how great this community is. I bet somebody queued him in. Possibly even one of his competitors. Oh, I bet I I would not be shocked if it was one of the people he's playing with cuz they don't want to see that happen. No, nobody wants to see you lose that way. No, not Nap Arc. Not only from drain to multiball, from drain to multiball to triple drain on the multiball, right? That was a roller coaster all in and of itself. That was a really favorable inlane roll. All right, so he is starting his crane multiball now. Bam. Not quite as lucrative as Matt was, but still should be pretty good here. Yep. and he's got a ball save on. So, it's okay if we see a couple drains. Now, the difference between uh multiball and the other multiball, uh you are still going for that center shot, but on this one, you're only playing in a two ball mode. Yes. And your scoring and jackpots are very very different. Uh you're just trying much more available to you. You're trying to cause a bunch of havoc all the way around the crane. Yeah. All right. So, Ken gets a uh a little bit of a bump there from that crane. He does have his recycle lit. You can see that blue triangle on the right side. That's a ball recycler, meaning it's essentially an outlane save. Yeah. So, what's your next play here? Well, we have it. It's the video mode. Video mode. So, he's going to try and outrun Spike the Dog. Save the girl. Yep. So, he's going to Oh, this is shooting the toast. Boy, this is one of the most frustrating video modes. He's firing using the flippers, trying to guess where Spike the dog's going to go. I find this mode so He doesn't know. It's just so frustrating. When is Spike going to show up? You don't know. This is one of those modes where you can really tell the people who are hardcore video gamers because I do see some people nails destroy it perfectly. It's like they they have the reflex in their brain to say, "I see the dog. Bam." And you go within maybe one to two frames of animation. Um other people who are more pinball players, this was a little challenging for because the reflexes are they're different enough that you don't necessarily get it as a given thing. Sure. Now, that mode is not I mean the save save the girl level one it is just not a huge points winner. It's not. But fun to play and then and it's and it's safe. I mean if you fail you're right back in play. Exactly. So he gets a hairdryer, collects a little bit of a junk as the statement says, and he starts his crane multiball as well. Starts it right away. Hits the crane. So he's Oh, look at these numbers. 250. He's comboing the mode all the way up to 250. 50 100,250 it looks like. So you can see if you hit that crane hard enough that crane swings around and hits the other targets for you. Yeah. And if you combo that, get more than one hit. It's almost like an attack from Mars thing. Although it Mars doesn't multiply it. It just gives you the number of hits you get. Yep. Boy is that helpful on attack from Mars when you're trying to destroy a spaceship and you get three out of it. That feels himself a television right here. That's an out still. 5.2 puts him in second place. All right, next up we've got Matt Goslin coming back. Matt is our current leader on ball two. 7.5 million, which is a nice lead, but it is by no means a blow. I mean, this could be or runaway rather, a blowout runaway. Not with the players we're seeing right now. Uh so he uh he absolutely is going to do his best to open up a gap here because this is just too close to call on ball two. Matt's taking his time. You can see that ball in the middle is still moving. So this this machine takes a whole lot of uh kinetic energy to play. You're you're seeing this thing swing around a lot. It's kind of wild and he might just been waiting for it to settle down. That's what he was opting to do. Yep. Because if while it's swinging, it's very hard to predict how you're going to hit it. Uh when it's dead in the center, it's a little bit of an easier shot. Look at that. Three letters of his multiball right there. That's going to help. Two left. One more sneak in and he would have it lit. Oh, Matt didn't want that at all. So, he didn't get a whole lot done on this ball. But he did get he got closer to a multiball and that puts him closer to another big run. Mhm. Another thing to keep in mind as you see here, this is not a bonus heavy game at all. No. Yeah. I mean, if you're playing modes, you can do a little bit better, but no, this is not a huge bonus game. I think Sean this time is going to absolutely know. Don't walk away. I think Shawn's best friend is the ball saver on this one. It is. It is keeping him in this game. That is essentially a house fall on his crane. Hurry up. All intents and purposes, he got one good flip at it. That is a very tough break for him right there. Yep. And Shawn was already not strong points wise going into that round and he just could not produce anything there. So, it's all going to come down to ball three for Shawn for sure. So, if this ends the way it does right now, Matt will be a convincing number one seed, have a four-point advantage over everybody in the field. Y Now, the benefit of the number one seed is that you, at least the way that we we believe it's structured is that you're going to play the bottom seated person in a division. That's right. In your forsome and you're going to play two middle- seated people. And in fairness, that may not necessarily be number 16. It would be whoever comes out of the game that's at that point of the qualifier, right? because you will have a buy and you'll be playing whoever comes out of the round before that, right? Yeah, that buy is worth its weight and gold. Yeah, it is. Nice sneak in. He's going to add three letters to his multiball total. He needs four more hits on the center to start that multiball. And I can tell you that's going to be the key for Ken Gunther to come back on this one. This might be the strategy that everybody's playing. Just ignore the modes. Go straight for the multiball. He's going to trap up. He's going to wait for that ball perhaps to settle down. I mean, having this ball dangling from a little chain in the middle of the playfield is like having a tilt bob in the middle where sometimes it benefits you to wait 15, 20 seconds for that thing to really calm down so that you can take your shot. If that's the thing you're aiming for, you want to get it right. He took that shot pretty quickly there. Let's see if he can recover. There you go. Nice choice. Very calm, very collected. Uh-oh. He did not count on that sling. And unfortunately, he is not going to start get the shot. That's got to be frustrating. He had that multiball ready to go. We already saw him hit that center shot like clockwork. It's got to be frustrating. Couldn't pull that together. So, pointwise for him, that did move him into second place. Robert is going to have to do a little little work here to see if he can push Ken back a position. And those two points could be very valuable, especially for Ken because he came into this in a big group of players at 37 points. Yep. Theres, I have to agree with you. It does seem like anybody's game at this point. Anybody can take this. And Shawn is not out of this by any stretch of the imagination. Anybody but Ken. It is definitely not. He's definitely out of Ken's hands. That's very true. But Ken can still get second place. I think he needs those five points. If he gets only three or one, we could be looking at him not getting a top eight. He's looking at He's looking at three right now. I think he just just is about to just drop right into that third spot unless something really ridiculous happens. Do you think Shawn might try and play a mode? He might try and get a time machine mode and see if he gets a good drop of mush. It worked for Robert. It did. It got him basically half the points he has right now. Well, so on bonus, Robert already has it if he doesn't tilt because he already has a couple of junk items. He does. And those junk items you don't think of much until it's time to come to bonus time and you have to win until you need just a wee little bit. Yeah. And he's got his multiball lit again. He's got the recycler as we said. No, he's going to play video of shoot the dog. See how his skills are on the uh on the old video games. The old shoot or save the girl. I called it shoot the dog. That's the girl. Yeah. Don't shoot the He's got it time nicely. I can see in how he's playing it. Comment. Oh, I thought he did. We are aboard the Gaines train right now. There it is. Specifically Robert Gaines, not Chris Gaines. Nice. Yep. You got it. Did you make a Chris Gaines reference? Yeah, I was just singing some Gar Brooks. You got to Oh, that wasn't Gar Brooks. That was somebody else. Anyway, well, it's not Chris Gain. Gar Brooks. All right. He's starting to volleyball number two. That was just textbook drop, catch, and shoot. And he had it absolutely dialed in. Well done for him. Let's see what he can do here. Multiball. Did he get it on first shot? Yes, he did. Almost 2 million. That is enough to catch Matt. This is the thing about that is that if you can catch cuz it always gives you the ball. This is a weird machine this way. It always gives you the ball from that feeder on the left. Yeah. Almost regardless of how you start the ball, it always gives it to you from that feeder on left. If you can get that shot where it's always going center, you can just keep hitting jackpot. Oh, he got it after a double drain as well. That's going to be worth 3 million. He is in the lead. He just took the lead. 5 million point and a radar adventure to go with it. How do you like that? Great job by Robert. So, he built his radar from parts, which means his mode approach is paying off right now. Yeah, it is because now he gets to play mode two. So, this is one of those nonlinear games I really appreciate um that you can play this any number of ways depending on what you choose to build and you're going to have a different experience and play different modes every time. Oh, beautiful. Boy, does he have his drop catches down. I'll tell you what, if I could work on one skill, if I could perfect one skill in competitive pinball, it would be my drop catches. Weirdly, the drop catch is one thing I think I do pretty well. It's just trying to flip it once I do drop. Yeah. Where does it go after that? That is a real problem. It's like I can put it on the flipper. Once it's on the flipper, I'm in big trouble. He's going to take a pause and he sets off a few fireworks here. He just got all of his fireworks collected. Fireworks are part of big points, too. He's up to 15 now. Yep. There you go. Great toilet jackpot. He's going to pick some junk. Let's see what he can build. So, there actually is a little guide on the playfield to how you build junk. Yeah, he takes the fishbowl here. Doesn't look like that got him anything specifically. Curious what you put together with the fishbowl. Well, so if you look on the on the left and the right, you can see these squares that are lit up. The squares are colorcoded. Yes. To show you which parts make which things. So he built the radar, I believe, from those three squares on the left. So now maybe he's starting down a new path. Maybe he's starting a new build new thing. Good dead. Nonetheless, this is a clinic of a ball right here. Magic magic. That's your That's your mystery shot. I think it's going to be save. I think it's going to be save the girl. Yep. Level. If he gets all of the above, does he get to play 2, three, four, and five? Good question. That would be awesome. I don't think you do, but it's That'd be pretty great. All right, so now it's going to get a little bit harder. Dogs going to move a little faster. The pathway is more narrow. Yeah, on the right side, too. I'm not sure why she's running behind. What is that? A fridge? I don't know where what's going I don't know. Nice job right there. Another million for him. Yeah, we'll take that. And a fan. And you get a fan out of it. Not the only fan. Robert Gains has today. Am I right? No. He is playing some of the best pinball we've seen him play in quite a while. We haven't seen him play as many tournaments lately. Taking a little bit of a respon, but boy, it looks like it's paid off. Look at this. He just assembled something. Yeah. Yep. He got that whole thing assembled. I didn't see what he made. Light jackpot. All right. For sure. There's the center jackpot lit. He gets it. Light nothing. It's almost another three mil. Well, now he doesn't have to put another quarter in. He got a replay out of it. Way to go. # freeplay on the replay on the free play. Replay on the free play. Oh, little tab. Come on. Well done. Love it. I am feel like he's just toying with you. And I think we've hit that point. This is essentially practice for him. Yeah. For the next round. It's just I'm feeling pretty good. And by the way, if he is able to be the top seed, um, he would be able to, and this is a ball recycle. This is still in play. Still in play. And he still has a ball recycle on the right side. To be clear, yeah, this is not an extra ball. Think of it like a like a glorified kickback except instead of kicking back, it just cues up another ball for you. He also has a recycle lit on the right. So all he has to do if he is going to drain is drain right. He'll get it back. And as Rex says, uh, two adventures lit. The dog is lit as well. So, here comes round three of this. Save the girl. Round three. Dog's going to move a little bit faster. We'll see. Dog's getting a little ticked off. Yeah, he's showing us round three. He wants us to know exactly what he's achieved here. Only nine ammo left. Yeah, you're better off sort of wasting ammo if you can on this one because it just feels so random by the time you get to level three. Nope, he's not going to get it. Oh, just missed. Nice attempt though. And nine 900,000. Not bad for only hitting one dog. You know, they give you they give you a pretty good little reward. All right, center. Tough break right there. Well done by Robert right there to run this thing up to almost 22. He's going to get a nice bonus here, too, with all these items. So, we've got a break coming and we're going to restart after 605 is finals. We're going to restart after this game. So, we're going to finish this game for sure and then we're going to take a break and we're going to restart at 6:05. So, if you're starting to plan your evening, are we going to do tiebreers before that point though? Uh, he said this last round and then a break. Okay. So, we will stick around for tiebreaker action. You bet. Uh, a lot of the players, if you know you're in, feels good. Go get some food. Go get yourself some dinner. So, take a little break. I think Robert's earning himself a nice bite right now after that big bonus. Sensational round for him. Yep. Great job. Now Matt is So here's Matt. He's gonna wait for Eric to finish. Give you the impression. He is like right in front of Matt right now. Yeah, Eric is about 3 feet from Matt yelling at a microphone. So wise to wait. Smart play. Appreciate all of our viewers, all of the bits, all of the support you guys have offered the stream today. We can't do this without you and we appreciate it so so much. We're so proud to have all 63 of you currently watching. That's right. As a as a loyal Twitch viewer myself, I know what it's like. You've got lots of things you could put on that TV or that computer or that phone. And I'm just grateful you're staying with us. Amen. Appreciate it so much. Thank you for supporting. So, here's Crane. He's got he we know the path he's got to do. It's a combination of many many things. Um yeah, and Van Vander Guten's right. He almost had junk champion and that would have been another 5 million right there. Oh, look at that. There's that shot again. That's the second time he's done that. And he got it inside the crane. So that's where the 250 comes from. Getting made that look easy. Try and get a couple. I don't think he's going to restart that one. No. So 500 for the crane and then the drain down the side. So that is going to end competitively lock him into second place. Second place though would get him a tie with Robert at 46 points. Um which means we'd be looking at a playoff for first. They may do a one ball tiebreaker for first place. In either case, they're both going to get a buy. So, they're both, I think, in I I would say in excellent position. Wow. Cuz no other player has more than 37. So, they can't get higher than 44. Good for them. So, the only thing that would get in the way of this is Shawn Davis, who needs some points. Right now, he's in fourth place. He would end up at 40. But if he could pass anybody here, even Ken, I I think this would most affect Ken for sure. If he's a 38, we'll have to see if that ends up in a top eight position. Nudge stays in the in lane. Nicely done. Picks up a sneak in for three extra letters on multiball, which means he has five hits left before he starts that junkyard multiball. Like he was for right then. He's got it lined up nicely. Call that three. So, the sneak in is fun because you uh you hit the ball to get it moving and then you you get one right in behind it. So, now he's working on his crane multiball. He'll get both of those back. Yep. And again, if you'll notice, it always feeds from this mechanism on the left. So, if you're good enough at that shot, you can drain them even on uh with a ball save on even intentionally and then just take a clean shot from the left. It's not the worst play ever. Another 250. Another 50. He is having a great crane multiball right here. Oh, dropped right into that in lane. Good little tap. Well done so far. Two half ramps at the same time. Handles it well. A little bit of chaos. He's about a million off of Ken's score right now. So, he's going to he's going to trap and grab. Nope. He decided to send both into orbit at the same time. We'll see if he regrets that choice. He probably does. went to his reign, but that's okay. He is he is qualified for a multi right now. Mander Guten, thank you for those 250 bits, man. Appreciate it. Thank you so much, Commander. Thank you so much. Really appreciate you. All right, 5 million right now. So 700,000 away. He's going to get some of that on bonus. I did not I don't think he received a 3x bonus on his plunge. This is about the point where that would really come in handy. Vander, are you in the Netherlands per chance? So with a name like that, I thought perhaps multiball is lit to sneak in to do it. So if he can have another shot at that, then he's making a second place run right here. Second place for him would put him at 44 points and probably he starts multiball. That was the shot he wanted. This is a great comeback considering what we saw from Shawn in balls one and two. A little bit of fortuitous luck, a good catch. He just doubled it up on two shots. Jackpot plus super. 5 million. Just like that. He's at 14 mil now. It's game on for Robert. Look at that. Got the super lit. He's coming for him. Lost one. Fling a little bit, but kept both. Another shot on the center. Look at these. Wow. Good little trap there. There's another super. That's three more. Keep those supers coming. We got a game moving here. I don't know what game it is. Whoa. Is that what I think? Is that the royal flush? Oh, I was going to play that. Oh, I know. Maybe it's maybe it's Oh, it's moving into the rotation. 17. He is getting close. He is getting close. 17 mil. This is This by I think by points is the best ball anybody's had in the group. And he's really done it strictly on multiball here. Robert had a lot of points, but I don't think he had that many on a single ball. This is another example. We've seen this a number of times in this tournament where somebody sets a bar that seems impossibly high, but once they've set the bar, everybody else goes, "Okay, that's doable. I'm going to run at that." And then you see somebody come all the way back up. Robert Gaines was not or sorry, Shawn Davis was not in a favorable position. No, this machine was not agreeing with him in any way, shape, or form. And that is it. But nonetheless, that is a second place finish for Shawn. He will go to 44 points. He climbed Robert. That will give Robert I believe 46. Matt and will give him the win by himself. Matt Goslin falls to 44. Is it 44? Oh yeah, he gets three. Yeah, 44. So that means Robert is now for sure our number one seed in the event. Good job by Robert there. Sean made a hell of a good run back at this thing. Great job by him. The scores have been updated. I think that might be it. This turned out pretty fortuitous that we've been following Robert through the entire journey. And here it is. Here's our numbers. So, look at this. We have on AC. AC/DC. Yeah, let's move right now. Are they Have they already started? I think we're going to move over to AC/DC for a one. Let's get that over there super quick. I'd love to see that tiebreaker. Justin's going to try and make that happen. And like I said, we have a clean 24. Um I don't think we have a clean eight here for the tiebreaker. Um it did indeed knock Ken out of a buy. Um he is at 38 points. He's tied for 11th. Um but 36 is what it took. Uh Bill John Delapo comes through with a second place finish to get in there. Lindseay Rogers is in. Kyle Ko is in. Uh Ross Bergettino in there with 38 points. That this is a solid group. A lot of local flavor as well. You know, knowing these machines that makes perfect sense. surprised to see this. Jesse just missing. Gilly making the division. That's good for her. Cody a little surprised he missed as well. Um but yeah, the thing I did not think we were going to see, we are indeed seeing a clean 24. I had no idea that was going to happen here. None whatsoever. So Justin is working on getting the camera in. This is a nine player one ball tiebreaker. Um to give you guys an idea while they're setting this thing up right here. We look back at the standings. One, two, three, four, five, seven, eight, nine, 10 players. Actually, it's a 10 player. 5 6 7 8 9. Bottom two scores are going to go. So, we're going to try and track this as best we can. This is not going to be easy to track. I mean, there are no tie breakers for a division qualification. Um, I figured someone was going to be qualified, but there is a clean break at the 24 position. So, 36 points, 24 players have that. That's what I mean by that. Um, to give you an idea what we're talking about here. So, if I'm reading it correctly, it is 10 for eight. 10 for eight spots in B. If I am reading this correctly, obviously take that with a grain of salt. And I imagine we will have a qualifier of some sort for the buys and that will be between Stuart Niscewalker, Aaron Ma, and Cory Stoop. Uh the top three there, Robert, Matt, and Shawn were all able to avoid that as a benefit for what they were able to do. We're getting it in play right here. So, we're two players in now. We have a seven and a nine. Um I might see if I can rely on Jeff here to tell me who has what score we can put him in. Hey, Jeff. Jeff, can you tell me who's played so far? If you don't know, it's okay. I'm trying to follow as best I can to give people an idea. All right, Nathan Webster. All right. How you spell that? S. All right. What was his score? The first one. on AC/DC. All right. Who has played so far? I'm trying to figure out who's played so far. Can I have one of the top? All right. And Steven. And that's the 9 million one. All right. And then for a full game on full game for the buy on fast. Okay. What about B? Oh, this is B. Oh, that's right. Got it. Got it. Got it. All right, I think we got everything going here. We'll try and get you these names as we get them here. I know it is very fast and furious with all of these people playing right here. So, we'll do our best keep track of this. I believe this is I actually don't know who this is right now playing here. Jeff. Who was that? D. That was Dana. I don't see Dana listing. She goes from like to play in order. Dana's only got 32 points. Hey, Eric. Eric. Eric, is that Dana Studebaker? I'm sorry. Is that Dana Studebaker? Yes. He's only got 32 points. He shouldn't be in the B division tiebreaker. What? He's only got 32 points. He shouldn't be in the B division tiebreaker. Are you sure you're looking at? Yeah. Or Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Never mind. Eric. Eric. I'm looking at the wrong group. I'm My bad. My bad. My bad. We're good. See, this is why I'm This is why I'm trusting people. This gets a little crazy here. All right. So, this is Tony. I'm trying to follow these names best I can. I think yeah, it seems to be holding. So, I think we are playing in a direct order right here. Tony, Jeff, I think is going to be next. We have Anna Neil, Steve Leen, Bo Pendleton, and Chad Hobbs as all of the people that are playing in this thing right here. So, I believe this is indeed Tony Stark, not that Tony Stark. So, the banks screen. Uh, sweethearts has been changed to big deal. Okay. So, if you can put some text over which game got changed. It is big deal. Sweetheart has been changed to Big Deal. All right. So, we are now watching the playoff. And is this Tony? Tony Stark. Tony Stark. Not that one. It's a name you may be familiar with. is trying to put up the best you can in one ball. They're playing for their lives here. 8704 570. And like we said, it is 10 for eight spots right here. So basically now if you are Tony and you are Steven, I think you know you know you're at least in Y because you are not going to have one of the bottom two scores. It is 25th place. There are 10 people in that spot. Okay. So, I think I see Stephen over there looking at the screen. He now knows he's okay. Whatever happens, he's got a spot in the fin in in the group. Or I'm sorry, I looked at this wrong. I keep mixing it up. It is 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. So, next up is Jeff Wilson. Also tied at 32 points. He goes with Whole Lot of Rosie. lot of Rosie is not a bad choice on a one ball playoff because everything is points. Nine for six. That's the correction. I am mixing up my groups badly. The whole 24 thing is totally messing with my head. Nine players, six spots. So, you want to just not end up in the bottom three. Yes. So, that means out of this group, Steven Schulty still took the picture and he is right. He is still safe. Yep. We don't want to mess with Stephen. He's watching the screen right here next to us. I don't want to screw with him too much. You can mess with him a little bit. He's not playing anymore. I know that, but I want to make sure he knows he's in. It's the kind thing to do. So, Jeff Wilson here is trying to see if he can get above the bottom three players, and he's looking at what he's got to beat 7.2. No, he's got to beat 8.7 right now, right? To to to absolutely ensure it, but there's a lot of play left. So, looks like he's going to be up around three, maybe four, two, four, five, five, six, four, three, 10. All right, so right now, appreciate Jeff's help in making sure I knew who was who was doing what here. Yep. Big props to him. Yep, that was really helpful. This is Is Bo standing up? Um, I think this is Anna's play right here. Anna Neil is up next. Anna Neil is for sure it. I think B might be writing down a score. Yeah, I think B is simply writing down a score here. So, they're doing the same thing over there that we're doing here. Yes, sir. Thank you very much. A little ice for you. Thank you very much. A little ice for me. A little ice for our friends at home. Anna is also going with a whole lot of Rosie here. So, we have we have our friend uh Vanderton who is writing to us from Darn Netherlands where uh I know about 10 words of Dutch and uh they're not I'm not good at it. I remember learning needs. I thought she had that shot. That was a tough break to not get the song jackpot. And my Dutch. I do not know very much Dutch. I know a little bit of German. Parts of it sound very similar. They have they have a little bit in common. Right. Yeah. Um Oh, got picked up the orbit. Nice shot right there. All of the drop targets up top are back in front. She is going to I mean, you hate to shoot the bell. She's going to want to shoot the bell here. This is one of those times you maybe have to shoot them. But you don't have to. You don't have to because the other targets come back. They do. But if you can finish all of the shots, then you get a big old point bonus. Be a great time. Let's see if she can get a drop in there. You just really you want some control on that right flipper if you're going to make a bell shot. Yes. We'll take a ramp. So she is lit back on all shots. And if she can relight the song jackpot, that would be huge right now. 6.4 million for that is really good. Do you try now jukebox to get it? Not necessarily. Not with the score she's got right now. She's almost there. Let it bounce. There you go. 7. Going to trap up, I'm assuming. Try right ramp. A little bit of a graze off a spot target there. It's okay. And oh, another shot at it. You can't go wrong on the right side here. She's lit for both. And adding another ramp to your collection would also start your multi. So backhand that ramp. There you go. And we're starting multiball. I believe this is a jam multiball. That is. Yeah. So Anna is putting herself in sensational position right now. Not so bad. And remember, even if she is in a qualified position, the score is going to determine your rank. So she's playing this all the way out. There is no stop here. You know, there is no, hey, I'm past the point where I know I'm in. I'm going to stop. You know, you're playing this bad boy out all the way because you want to have the top score in this. If you do, you will be the 35 seed. Yeah. And every bit of that seating makes all the difference in the world. That is a great backhand right then. Little jackpot right at the end. That's a great reminder, Scott, that they're not just playing to get in. They're playing for seed, right? So, you don't stop playing just because you've cleared the bottom three. That's right. You want to you want to get as high of a seat as you can so that you can have the optimum uh players in your first group. Right. And not only that, if you are the top seed in your group, we haven't talked about this yet. Now is probably the perfect time to talk about it. While Anna plays, if you're the top scene, you get to pick the bank of games that you're going to play. You get an you get the opportunity to pick that bank. And isn't that a massive advantage? That is a huge advantage. Other players will get to pick positions and how that works. But you get to pick what games you're going to play. Now, all the banks, we talked about this here. We'll show it here in just a minute. Y um as we got to put in the score here. Let's see if we can see Anna's 134 304210. Is that right? Yeah. Yep. There it is. Great score by Anna on on on a one game and really great dead passes. I agree. I love dead flips. I really do. I depend very heavily on them. And it's funny because it sounds like the easiest flip in pinball to not flip. And it is not. It requires patience, discipline, and a whole lot of practice. It is super challenging. I agree. So, we're starting war machine mode, it looks like. Is that right? Yes. Oh, but the drain. This could be very bad for Steve. That's going to hurt. That's going to hurt. He is going to be just over the 1 mil point. 1.417510. That is not going to put him in an advantageous position. In fact, we've already had enough scores that I think we can safely say that Steve has been eliminated from the tournament on that result. So, it is Bo Pendleton. You might hear the voice of our uh other tournament director, Gilly. Gilly has been instrumental not only in in running the women's tournament, but in trying to keep everybody on track with these playoffs. It's not an easy task. You know, we're trying to keep track of everything that's going on here. Sometimes we're kind of finding out things third party because the people who are running it are very, very busy. Oh yeah, they've got plenty of other things to do. They got other things to worry about than worry about two mad men talking around a microphone. And yesterday, by the way, our Streamies were super helpful because they were answering questions about things that just happened that we missed. Yeah, Bo did not have a great ball either. He might be eliminated, too. Wow. Even worse. 1.172550. And we only have what, one player left to go. That is Chad Hobbs. That is what is Chad Hobs? Shabs himself. He's fighting for it. So, the lowest three scores, the third of those scores was Dana Studebaker at 2,283,730. That is the score to beat 2,283. So Chad has to beat that. Now I have seen Chad Hobbs absolutely destroy on ACVC. I have I have as well. So I Bad news for me. The bow is eliminated unfortunately. Yeah. Sorry. At the same time, there's a reason Chad's in this group. He's not have the best pinball day. He's not. So it if it were as easy as you've done it before, just do it again. Chad would be in the A division. Correct. But with a bullet. That's correct. Coerc uh that player is in. They're going to keep playing though because with every player that they pass, they move up in the seating and Rex definitely talking good one ball strategy right here. Helen a bad place to be might be good. Immediate lower play field. Get the skill shop and VIP for notes and early song. I would not agree with that. What's funny about that is I would never start Helen a bad place to be on a full three ball game. But if all you've got is one ball and you want to pick up those advantages, it's a really good choice. Yeah, it is. and early song in case you get album or tour. Yeah, he did. He was trying so hard to play better today than he did yesterday. He said the same thing to me. Yeah. So, tough break for him not being able to make that qualifier. You can see Chad right there. He's getting ready as uh as Gilly's plunging. He's just waiting for his ball. You can see me right behind Chad. Hello. And you can see all of our pinball friends back here who are in the tournament watching the screen. That's right. Waiting in order to know what's going on. is watching that. I see Bo over there. He's probably texting me about that right now. We're rocking his uh awesome hoodie right there. I do love the hoodie. I just want to state that. We've seen some onpoint fashion from Bo. And who who was it that had the great Iron Maiden? That was Tim Saxton. Tim Saxton. Yep. I expect a Stern employee to have a good Stern hoodie. Yeah. And he definitely did. Gilly's playing a great plunge game right now. Uh just want to call out how strong her plunge game is. The plunge game is so strong. This is the downside of a four ball playoff or a one ball playoff on a four ball or sorry you could hold the you could hold the start button down and it would do a full reset of the game. Oh, really? Some of them it does. Maybe there's a technical there's a rules-based reason why you can't do that. I'm sure there is. And I'm you know I'm not going to question the TV on that. Whatever the most effective way to do it is the best way to do it. In this case, they know more than I do. Yeah. Which is why I was triple checking everything and making sure when I was trying to figure out who was playing in B and looking at the wrong list cuz still got to wrap that in my brain. Yeah. There's the other feature we got to add into match play is cut off points. Yes. Why can't match play do something staging? Somebody call match play. Yeah, I know. Actually, who runs match play? I used to know this. I don't know who runs match. Whoever it is is a saint. I'm amazed. Match play has adapted to this to the hobby of pinball so beautifully, constantly adding updates. And I and I I'm going to look this up because actually, you know who would know is Jesse Baker. Jesse probably would. I'm going to ask him cuz we owe a huge debt of gratitude to match play. It has helped the scene in pinball so much. Hey Jess, who runs match? Do you know Jesse did not know? we said Andre maybe some that name sort of sounds like oddst drop maybe maybe you guys know but match play is such a gift to the world of competitive pinball. I don't know what we would do without it. We'd still be on Excel sheets trying to type as fast as we can on a 64 person tournament. Yeah, we would. art this job would be impossible or we'd be using some sort of format for it that you know we we'd be relying on never never Dreams I know never Dreams is is used for a little bit more specific stuff never Drains gets all the format stuff yeah I mean there really it would be so hard to run things it would with any complexity the flipper frenzy the amazing race it would be very very difficult to do correctly busy streaming at some other tournament at the moment sorry that's Carl ah might be at the tournament the European tournament that was talked about. He may be there. Oh, so by the way, here's chat. Has he been reading chat? That's the question. Is he going for Oh, he look at that ry smile on his face. Are you at the tournament in Sweden right now? Yeah. Are you at the Swedish tournament? That's so cool. If so, hello from the US. Hello from from Ohio. To all of our friends in Sweden. He opted for War Machine. Yep. Again, that would have been my choice. That is a way to make sure the war machine on War Machine and Tish is right. Backaloupe was a good play. There was really old software that I used to use. Let's see if he takes the orbit. No, he goes for the song Jack. I would have gone for it, too. Yep. Cuz that shot qu guarantees you get it. Yep. That shot's going to come awful close. Yeah, that shot probably does. Oh, he saved it. I don't think it he's in. Now it's about placement. There you go. So Dana Studbaker unfortunately is done with the tournament. Great run for him. I don't know how many tournaments he's played before now, but he's he's done a hell of a good job. Not at the moment. Yeah, Brackal was good. That was good. The one that I used in the Dave a lot for headto-head stuff, it was local software called Turnney Master. Oh, was very good. So I think Chad Hobs finishes at 4.9. We'll take it. He's in. And um I I will say there is so much infrastructure to pinball that you don't think about and we've addressed some of this today, but things like match play is is somebody has poured so much time and you don't think about it every day, but if it weren't for match play, we couldn't do what we're doing. You think about the design on this streaming cam. Yeah. That was somebody else's design that Eric Eric picked up and because of that, we're able to offer this stream. people who spend the time figuring out computers, people uh figuring out sound, figuring out how to run a show. These are all sort of infrastructure pieces. Absolutely. That operate in the background that you don't think about that make tournament play possible. It does. I mean, and it makes tournament director's life easy. Previous tournaments, I think you would have had to have someone act as nothing more than a statistician. That's all they would have done. And I'm sure they did. Yeah. And even then, how would we get the information in a timely way? How do they keep up with all the people? Match play has made it so much easier. And Tish has another good one. Shaolange is very good also for roundroin head-to-head type events. Y fighting game community loves that. Smash.gg is a great one for fighting game events as well. That I'm a fan of. So a lot there there's good tools out there, but match play has uniquely positioned itself for the pinball community that I don't think anybody else has really been able to to accomplish the same way. That is a beautiful picture. That is beautiful. Coming from Florida. Coming from Florida. So, in about 15 minutes, we're going to start. And of course, what are they doing in Florida? They're watching. They were watching this. Oh, you got to watching football. We're going to start the next part of our stream. So, hang in there. We're going to take a little break. Yeah, it sounds good. We now know who's playing in the quarterfinals. We're going to come back and start our A and B division matches in at 6:05. 605. So, we're gonna have about a 15minute break here. We will have that. We will also at that point send you guys Oh, JDL Pinball is streaming the the folded one. So, yeah, JDL Pinball does a lot of streaming European market. We're happy that they are on board for pinball streaming as well today. Yeah, go visit. We've got 15 minutes. Go see them. Go see what's going on. Absolutely. Make it happen, people. Make it happen. Absolutely. So, we will do our best to show you guys the results of what's coming. Road to Pinball there. Oh, Road to Pinball. That's the documentary. I will let Chad talk amongst themselves. The US. Hi. Glad to see you. All right. All right. We're going to stretch our legs. It's been too late. See you at 605. That sounds vunderbar. Oh, she sent me his text, too. That's awesome. We'll be back. Can I point this camera at your head? Can I point this camera at your head? right, Eric is making the announcements. Welcome back everybody. He is making the announcements right now. I think you guys saw Eric doing his thing, setting up all of the brackets for everybody. And we are looking at the quarterfinals right now. And I think that is the quarterfinals for this a semis and finals. [Music] Feel like we should have another grouping up there. Yeah, we have a first round grouping. Uh those are in play right now. Um we can tell you who those four groups will be. I don't see them here. I don't know if he made a new scene for that or not. So, we may not be able to show you an overall link for that or at least that I can quickly show you. Yeah, we may not be able to get you that quickly because we did add that on after the fact. So, this is how the quarterfinals No, is that showing it right now? Quarterfinals. Yeah, that's showing the right groups. I feel like we're missing something here. semis finals. We'll look at this as we go cuz we have 24 players. So, we're going to have two of these groupings of 16 players right here. But this is what we have right now for first round. We'll figure it out as we go. Not the end of the world. We can always switch this up as we start. I think that is a graphic, so we can't really change that. But this is first round for a division. What you're seeing right here, these are the groups. Stewart, wait a minute, that can't be right. Did Stewart fall all the way? I guess he did. Stewart Niswalker, Ken Gunther, John Dozaba, Willie Allen. That is a tough tough group to start with. Uh Cory Steppp, Rory Richie, Bill Wahborn, Diane Spackman, um James Scott, Ross Bertino, Jack Copeland, Larry Scott, and Greg Kennedy, Josh Noble, Kyle Cook, and Lindseay Roger. Yes, the other eight got buys. So, this is not 100% accurate. It's more first round as opposed to quarters, but we are kind of changing that stuff up on the fly here. So, forgive us. We're trying to make sure we show you guys the most accurate information possible. Um, the arenas have also not been entered as of yet. Hoping that information will be entered in a couple of minutes. Let's show you guys those groups right now. These are the banks. Um, I think there was another change and that is that Sweethearts is out and Big Deal is in. So, is that text we have right there? Yeah, that is text. Um, I'm going to make a copy of that. Paste a duplicate of that should say that right then. And I think it just said it on that one group right then. Group number six. So, let's move that ever so slightly over. Yeah, that's perfect. Bank six will be Big Deal Stars and World Cup soccer. So, what's happening right now is the top seeds in these group, I can't necessarily easily tell you who those are. I'm going to guess it's the top person in each of these is getting their pick of what they want. So, eight of these 10 banks are going to get chosen right here. I believe it's Stewart, Cory, James, and Greg that are choosing there. And then Jesse Jesse did make it. I I kept getting confused on whether Jesse was in or not. You could tell I was getting confused at the numbers there. Apologies for that, guys. Um Tim did make B. So, Tim will have an opportunity to get at least a trophy for B division. a little bit of uh little bit of revenge on everybody. Dale and I believe Gilly might be that other top seed in B division, but that process is happening right now. I don't know if we can show that on camera or not. We're going to go to the Switch games cam now. We're kind of showing the floor right now as far as what's going on with that. So, I would say we're probably about two or three minutes away from getting this thing really, really rolling here. So, hang tight with us for a couple of minutes. We will be right back. I need to blow my nose again. I'm sure you guys wanted to know that fact as well. And we can turn that off as well too because we are indeed back. So hang tight. Just a couple of minutes and we'll be there. Hang on. I was admittedly a little unprepared. I know Justin had stepped away. Had to move a camera, make sure we were good. This is the group we are going to be following here. We're going to be following them to Big Indian and then Firepower and AC/DC. Should be a fun group of games that we're going to get to watch here for these uh for these competitors. Let me see what we got here as far as this goes. And it's a like we said a very talented group. John Delapo, Stowonger, Willie Allen, and Ken Gunther. Xan is in chat. How are you Xan? Hopefully you are having a great evening. And I believe as we said here, Stewart is player number one. He is ready to go. Definitely got our rooting interest here. We have some people rooting on, I'm sure. Uh, Sir John Stewart, Ken, don't know Willie as well, but should be a fun group to watch here as Stewart is getting this thing rolling right here. Gets that first shot. That in lane looks like it's worth about 500 points. Out lane is worth that same amount. So, no bonus to speak of unfortunately at all for Stewart right there as Here comes Willie. He is player number two. So, we have begun our finals. I'm going to update one more thing here. And I lost my dashboard. It's after midnight here in Holland and I'm filled with cheese. Now I get to watch. It's a good night to be you. Anytime you have cheese, cheese is a beautiful thing. I would agree with that. 120%. So good to have you on here. Here is John. Looks like Lily got about 2,100 points. No one able to get those saucers right off the bat here. Let's see what John's able to do. He definitely talked that the classics have been giving him a little bit of a hard time as of late. Um, it's what did him in in the strikes tournament yesterday. He just got stuck on classics and did not have good finishes on them. So, he's certainly hoping for better results this time around than what he had yesterday. Not the results he wanted with getting B division. I would definitely say for him a little disappointing to not have top finishes in any of these tournaments, but nonetheless, it's a nice comeback to come through this one, get a B division, take a trophy home and do that. Yeah, Diane did make a division final. She is playing great pinball today. She won a bunch of games in a row. So, really well done. Yeah, only 1750 right there for Jon. He has his His trap ideas are good. They just don't seem to be doing the job just yet. Yeah, definitely rooting Diane on just on a personal level. I would love to see her have a good good good finish in this right here. Just checking a couple things real quick here. There we go. So Ken is up now. 1610 so far. No bonus to speak of really for any of these players as of this point. And then the drain on the side there gets a little bit on that 2,00. So things to know about this particular game. Shoot drops and roll over lanes for that bonus advance. Verit target advances as well, but is death save for the double bonus ball five. I think that Yeah, that's the the verot I think is what that meant to say. That's the Vera shot you see on the left side right there. Yeah, one year and already qualifying for a Diane is a beast at these pinball tournaments. No doubt. This one is a fiveball game. Nice in lane shot right there and not able to save it for anything. The 10-point switch is also turn this. No, that's the other machine. Try and plunge that eye. Only ways to get it up top. If you spell big up there, you get the double bonus lit as well. You get B and G from the side lane. So, in that sense, it's very similar to other machines that we've seen where the B and G is available or the AB, A and C are available, but you got to get the B, that middle one on the top. Willie got it. So, you can see the B and the G on this one are not quite as accessible on, you know, the bottom lanes, but like those side lanes are what you're looking at for those. He also has a little bit of bonus work in here. Good to see that. Is that the That might be the double bonus. I don't know if that is or not. Can't get a good enough grip on the camera to tell you if that is the double bonus or not. Doing a good job of keeping this play up to 4,300 points right now. And drains down the side. But that was a 5,000 point drain. another thousand for the bonus. So, just like that, Willie is up to 10,000 points, doing all right. So, John stepping up. 1750 so far is what we're looking at here, goes. These classic machines right now are absolutely eating John alive. Not something we're used to seeing with him. Is any situation where, you know, the machines are kicking his butt, not the other way around. And while we blinked, Ken Gunther is done also at 2710. So with that, we move on to ball number three. Fluffy, you're not wrong about that in any way, shape, or form. You know, these machines, you know, the tilt on the the angle on them is not nearly as deep. It's designed that way. Um, everything bounces off it just so much differently than it does on any other machines. But, and you're not wrong. Nice save right there by Stewart. Really nicely done. Lot of lateral movement though and not able to save it just too much when it finally came down to the bottom of the playfield and he will be a 4,970. So Willie with the lead right here in this first round matchup. This is I believe yeah this is a B division match. So is it B division or did John make A? No, this is first round. So this is A division. God, I'm having a hell of a time following this all right now with the changes. We're doing our best with it for you people. We're doing our best. We'll get you some match play links in chat here in just a minute as well. That'd be a good thing for me to do for you. Willie not able to really do much on that one. 12,000 at that. In fact, I'm going to work on getting that stuff for you right now. Um, let's see here. division. That is B division for you. While John is doing his thing here, he's finally starting to put a few things together, but did not have the 5,000 lit on there, unfortunately. And this is a division right here. So, we'll put that in chat for you. You can actually see that one live in the stream as well. So, you know, you can get that one, the RV3Y2. So, Ken is up here right now. John is in second place. If you can come out of this with a second place, considering how the classics have been treating him as of late, that's maybe not the worst thing ever. It's really not. kind of bouncing around there. 10-point shots all over the place. And Ken, nothing he could do about that. You're just slowly watching that ball fall into the playfield. It is a horrible feeling to watch that happen in essentially slow motion like that. It's it's the last thing in the world you want to see. And we saw it right there. So with that watching Stewart step up right here. Sorry about that. This is Stewart nice. This is ball four for him. 4,970 points. He is in last place as it turns out. Ken did just barely pass John for second. Super tight. And just with that one set of movements right there, he's already into second. Um, still Willie with about a 6,000 point lead on him. But with the right shot on this machine, you can make that up. He got the Vera shot right then. It's dangerous as heck. He got it and lived to tell about it was worth 3,000 points. believe the value of that can raise as high as 5,000 depending on how accurately hit it. He's I can't tell if he's going for it right now or not. No one There's a rollover. So, we finally got a little bit of bonus build in this game. We haven't seen that from any player up to this point. And yeah, they're chatting about it big time trying to get a grasp on what's going on with it. No one can seem to get a really good feel of the machine so far. I will see what I can put together. I can promise nothing. And I think this group we're following, but we'll try and give you updates on the other groups as we go along here for sure. And Willie able to do nothing on that ball right there. 13,000. So Stor made up most of the difference there on ball number four. And double bonus coming up. So Willie is still in first place, but it is very close right now as far as how this is going. John Stepping up, gets the plunge right then. Will not get the eye. You can only get that from up top there. Not able to get that rollover either for would be a,000 points of bonus. That'll be 2,000 later on on ball number five. He's trying like heck to get that G ramp as well. Maybe work it up. Yeah, that's what he's working up for. He got the the eye. That helps on bonus up to 3,000. Oh, is he going to lock it in the eye? Yes, he is. That is a double bonus shot right then. Gets the drain over there. That's not the worst drain ever considering it meant he got double bonus and he got 5,000 for that drain as well. So, just like that, John has moved into first place at 17,000 points. Really nice ball for this machine. So, here's Ken to close out ball number four. He will get the B. That be light is working up there. It's a little dim. I can see a difference when it's lit compared to when it's not. He's trying to work that ball up to the upper playfield as well. John's strategy was definitely to do that off of the upper play off the right side. And not a good drain right there. He is sitting at 8,000. So now everyone has gone over the 10,000 point with the exception of Ken Stewart. I stronger 12,860 points sitting in third place right now right about 5,000 points behind. So, if it's the right shot, that's essentially a one-shot lead. We'll see if it maintains. That's a good start to get the eye. You can get the B and the G a little easier. Double bonus is lit. And I think this is a play extra balls game as well. He will get the 5,000 drain over there. So that at least temporarily puts him in first place at 19,420. The question is, are the other players going to get that same shot? Here is Willie. He's been leading the entire game up until ball four. Willie on the strength to make good ball one drains down here. Nothing on the drop shots. Worst case scenario for him there. See if he can work a little bonus up here. That would be hugely helpful for him. Looks like the bottom roll over the three is the one that's going to light bonus as well as I believe some some drop lanes up some lanes up top will do it as well. The other question, we saw this kind of in our our game notes. Is he going to try or is anybody going to try to go for the Vera target here knowing how dangerous it is? He's at 15,000. A perfect shot on the verit target would do it. Now he's not even trying it right now. This should be a good nicely done. That's going to light those outlanes for him. So that's the shot he was looking for. Suddenly an outlane is not the worst thing ever for him here. No bonus. I think the outlane's better than a center drain. He'll get that in lane for now. Sitting at 19,000. And so he is now passed past pass Stewart without benefit of it. He's playing a really nice patient ball number five right here. Well done for Willie. He is approaching the 20,000. He has hit 20,000. Bonus is three. So he'll get at least 6,000 off that. He's got a pathway really with a drain to potentially get as high as 30,000. Now it's 26. He hit one of the 5,000 shots. Well done. Did not clear the drop targets. So, still in play. An outlane drain right here. Wait. Did he clear them again? No, he did not. He did that time. That got the clear. He's up to 34,000 now. And that is not bad. That's another five. That'll be another eight on his bonus. 47,000 points. A great ball right there for Willie. Really, really well done. Spider pin, how are you tonight, man? Good to have you in chat as well. So, here is John now suddenly in third place after taking the lead on ball number four. Double bonus in play for him with being ball number five. It's up to 19. I don't think he has the entire bank cleared yet. Nice just touch pass over there. Did not get the clear yet. Oh, that's headed towards the center. Nothing he could do. So, 20,000 no bonus. That was enough to get by Stor though, just barely by less than a,000 points. So, he's in second right now. And it's up to Ken to see how far he can run this back. Even if he only gets it back to a second place finish, which is about 11,000 points away. I think that would be considered a positive here. Get five points out of this game and really push Stewart all the way down to just a single point. I would view that as a positive for Ken and his uh future efforts to win in both firepower and AC/DC. So, we're going to be following this group the entire round. So, you'll get to see their progress all the time we go along here. And nothing he could have done about that. Doesn't even get to 10,000 points. So, we can mark it all in here. We'll see who does here. We'll get this refreshed in just a minute. Uh, firepower is their next game. Uh, we do not have a player on firepower right now from the looks of it. So, we should be able to move the rig over. I am going to go do that right now. Um, I believe points are being entered. There they are. So, we will switch it up to game number two of the group and I will be right back once we do a little camera switching here. Hang on just a second. All right, camera has been moved. Good. Stewart is putting the credits in right now. And I believe we have a move camera. Yeah, this rig is easier to move than I thought. I need to figure out the models of the camera cameras he's using for that cuz that's the real key for me is the cameras are so dag on good and easy to use. That's the key. So, first time in a while we've seen full games of Firepower. We saw this as a tiebreaker game earlier yesterday or I should say as an amazing race game earlier. So certainly changes things to see it in this format as opposed to that. 15,000 points for Stewart right there. Pull out our notes here. See what we got here to talk to you about couple. I mean this is one of Steve Richie's initial machines. One of his most popular machines even to this day as the order will not change. It will always be Stewart, Willie, John, and Ken across the board. That's how the format works for this. Top player picks uh the bank they use. Second player and third player and fourth player get to pick the position they want. And then the remaining position goes to the person who picked the bank. So here's John Delapo. Only 19,600 as a first ball right there for fire. It's enough for first place, but it's not a lot. If you get all of those targets, you shoot them again to light two locks. You shoot them again to light the third lock. You shoot all the locks, you get the multiball. There is no lock stealing in this game. The game is smart enough to remember who got what lock. If you hit all the center targets, you light the spinner. You rip it at all costs as always. Yeah, this is Eric's camera setup. He just brought it with him. Man, not a good ball again for John right then. Just he he got five points. pulled five points out of the classic game. You wonder if he's just kind of holding on to get to AC/DC cuz I feel that's where he's going to dominate amongst this group of players. You know, have good enough finishes to get there. And remember, he doesn't have to win this thing. He just has to come in top two. That is a house ball for Kent. Good lord, what bad luck for him. And spelling fire in the top lanes is your bonus X, which is what we saw a lot of people going for pointswise last night. uh get those bonus multipliers. You spell it five times. It lights extra ball at the center spot target ramp. That is the target when you're going in between all of the pop bumpers. It is a makeable shot, but it is not easy in any way, shape, or form to do it. You can see the ball can go in and out. If you get it on the fly, man, you have made one of the most precise shots in all of pinball. At least in my opinion right now. So, here is Stewart back up. Amazing. comes out of that first round of balls in first place. All right, he's hit all six. So now he's got two locks on the board if he can get them. Question is, is he going to go for him? I don't see why he wouldn't at this point. It's ball two. Just miss probably needs a little more momentum on that shot. Firefire certainly an older game, you know, has a little bit of a classic sensibility to it. That's why we've got it marked as a midame, you know, as far as ourh systems here. Not a classic by any stretch. Oh, and Stewart not able to save that one. Nap Arcade, thank you for that host, man. Very much appreciated. Got John Delapo really standing here right next to me. Watching this on our screen um as opposed to standing at the machine. Obviously, having a little extra space for the players is beneficial as well. So here's Willie sitting at 19,000. Even with the bad drain right there for Stewart, he's sitting at 77,000. It's not great, but it's not bad either. Drives it up in that lane. He gets the first fire. So that is a 2x multiplier just like that. And quickly he's got it up to 3x. So now suddenly bonus is a good play. You can see the bonus looks like it's set to 9,000 right now. So, as long as he doesn't tilt, he's got it at 10. He's going to get good points off that, it's going to triple. He's going to be at 73,000. So, just on the strength of those bonuses, Mighty Squirrel, thank you for that host as well. Appreciate it. That was a good play strictly based off that right there. That is good. So, here's John following along with what's going on here. Don't mind Eric over there. He's actually giving a ruling on big game right now. I saw that. I will get a response to you probably tonight or tomorrow if that's okay on that. While we were looking at that player cam, it does look like John John did get his 2x. He's got his bonus up to about 6,000 points right now. So, he's got 12,000 a bonus. Something's up. He's asking John about something. We can't tell what it is right now. We're going to find out what that potentially may be. Can't tell if it's a play on. Um it appears like it might be. Maybe something he noticed about the machine. Maybe a light out. Um don't know. And maybe maybe that threw him off. It's hard to say, but it looks like he's at about 35,000 points right now. We don't know what that was about. We're certainly not going to ask John about it right now. If Eric pops over, we can ask him about it, but we'll kind of get back to that when the opportunity presents itself. I'll try and round up Eric. He is just taking a moment standing over here. Curious what John was asking about. Um, I've been having an inter it seems like some kind of an issue. I don't know if the light of the kickback or what, but when you complete half the center targets on firepower, it should like the kick back on the out lane, but it hasn't been doing it all this time. Okay. Always experiencing it. I don't know if it's the game, but I agree with him. I think it should light. It should kick back, but I'm almost positive if it doesn't light, it's not going to do anything. So, okay. Um, I just want to play on and just We think it's a play on because it affects all the players. If you hit three, it doesn't light up. So, okay. So, it sounds like that's going to be treated as a play on. I don't know if you guys heard it. If you hit three of the center targets, it should light the kickback, but from the looks of it, it's either not doing it consistently or maybe not even doing it at all. Um, and SD Daniels coming in with a little info. He might have wondered if the kickback wasn't supposed to light for the first three set of standups software setting. So, that's true. This could be something where it's not a broken thing. It could simply be a software number. Um, something maybe we can have John look at it or have Eric look at, I should say, at some point or another. By the way, thank you, Level One Bar. Thank you for hopping those emotes in here. We appreciate it. Um, but it seems like the potential thing here is it is affecting everybody evenly. if it is a software setting. So, that would I think would be a play on type thing. Um, I'm sure Eric will go back and look at the chat and that'll be something he can look at in settings after the fact, but that is the key. If it's playing the same way for everybody, it would probably be a play on type deal. Start ends up at 193,000. He gets a lot decent ball right there. Hey, we're I'm having a good time, man. I'm a little tired. I'm not going to lie. Justin should be back joining me in just a few minutes. But, uh, we're having a good time with everything, watching the finals. We've got some Columbus people in there. So, certainly some people for our our friends up at level one to root on. We're excited for that. Nice save by Willie right there. He's at about 80,000 points right now. Doesn't have a lot working yet. He's got I He's got the locks ready to go. There is the kickback. So, it did shoot for him. That's something we'll have to keep an eye on. I don't know. Maybe we are getting that inconsistent kickback play that John was talking about. We'll see if that affects things going forward. But at least for the moment, I don't get the impression he's viewing that as a major malfunction type issue. So, you know, if that comes to be an issue later on, we will see. He's got the bonus up to 20,000. No multipliers on it, however. So, he will end up at 141. John definitely like I said right here watching the stream very intently looking at it. So I don't know if he's going to mention anything to Eric about it or not. Sounds pretty chill dude in general. He may just be uh okay. Looks like it was for all six. So good call out Rex. We appreciate that. And that might be the answer. Just set that way. Cool. trying to get control of it here. And just a tough train for John right there. You wonder if he was ever able to really get into this game, unfortunately. Maybe that affected him a little bit from a mental perspective, which is hard for me to say for John cuz I never see that in his game. He is so comical, collected, and sometimes the shots just don't go your way. Yeah, that's what we're thinking. We're thinking it's a setting either half of them, all of them. And from the looks of everybody, you guys in chat watching, it looks like it's set for all six right now. So, I think we can say for sure that's it. And Ken is having just as tough of a go on this machine. He drains out essentially a house ball right there. So, it ends up being very beneficial for Jon. Unfortunately, is probably means Ken is going to be playing this last game really for Pride. Only two points. Uh, Stor will get seven, Willie will get five. So, Willie will have 12 points, Stow will have 10, John will have eight, and Ken will have two. So, we're going to switch things over to AC/DC here really quickly. The order will change ever so slightly for that game. And I will be right back. We're going to do that swap over right now. Hang tight. All right. I should have changed it to the uh the the cam thing. By the way, great job by S. Daniels [Laughter] Va Vision. No, I Okay, scooter vision. I'm in Cincinnati. I used to be called Scooter when I lived down here. It absolutely should be called scooter vision. I I I'm I'm calling it right now. I feel like that's what it should just be. Yeah, we're doing what we got to do, man. We're making it happen. So, Stewart is leading off here. And let's talk about the possibilities right here. It is a three-horse race for the two spots. Ken, even if he wins this thing, cannot do any better than nine points. So Ken right now is strictly in spoiler mode. If Willie or Stewart win, obviously they are through. Jon can get up to 15 points with the win. And that is a tough first ball right there for Stewart. Not a lot of points under 2 mil. That's not going to get it done. Jon can get up to 15. If he does, it starts to become a little dependent on what happens with everybody else. There is even the possibility of a three-way tie amongst the players, in which case we would play one game for three of them. I think Eric would be the determiner for what that game would be. Yeah, that was a brutal drain for sure. I might have gone a little bit none right there for the camera, but I think I can deal with it. I'm okay. Ken trying to put on a good show right here. you know, get himself a good finish. Dirty Nav Arcade, I saw the bits. Thank you very much. We did the singing earlier. We got to it. Joe Soap gave like uh like 500 bits to make it happen. Meg gave a bunch of bits to make it happen. So, yeah, we did a little singing earlier. We were riffing some pinball tunes and taking some AC/DC and turning it into it. Some Please tell me someone clipped it. I'm very sure someone clipped it. If they didn't, I will make it a point to go back and clip it myself. I was gone being an adult. I'm obviously not being an adult. I'm singing pinball tunes to the tune of AC/DC. That's obviously not happening. Um, so here we go with AC/DC for Willie. He's at 12 points. He's in the lead right here. Um, a second place finish would most assuredly get him through. 17 points would make it happen. Um, then it would be on Stewart to try and have to get a win or um to see what happens. But second place will assure Willie movement to the next [Laughter] round. Maybe when I do a personal stream at some point in the future, I will bring it back and I won't charge everybody crazy amounts of bits for it. Or maybe I won't charge you crazy amounts of bits cuz bits are kind of nice to have. You were supporting this on pinball which I appreciate. Not much he could have done about that tough break. So he's 5.25. That is enough for first place though for Willie. No one has really blown this machine up just yet. We'll see if that does prove to happen at some point in the near future. Yeah, someone sent some bits to make the singing stop. That's That's fair. I I I don't know if I want to acknowledge that. I'd like to think I'm not horrible at this stuff, but you you could claim that was the case. I think I think Tish did that. Tish, come on now. be nice to me. Here is John. As we talked about, Jon really needs a win in this round to assure himself his way through. I think a second place, there is a possibility of it, but first place will give him. I can't see any way he would not be in at least a tiebreaker um if he gets first place cuz then if Willie gets there, yeah, first place would guarantee him passage. I'm doing the math on it right now. And you're right, this is the kind of game that he absolutely will blow up. I think he's kind of been, you know, holding on with baited breath on the mid game, on the the classic game, and he's not bad at classics. They just haven't been playing nice for him this weekend. The Stern games like this, I'd almost prohibitively make him a favorite every single time. Nice shot right then for the train. Is he going to try and backhand it? No, he's going left to right to left to right. He's got a song jackpot. It's only 18. Yeah, did not even opt to go for it. Tried his hand at the bell. Didn't get it. So, he'll have to continue to work at that. Now, with what he's doing here, I wonder if he's trying to time something out to make more shots available because now all those shots are available for Rock and Roll Train. Nice dead bouncing right there as well. quality play. There are very few times where when he puts the ball, lines it up on the flipper like that, good things are not going to happen. More times than not, they will. Extra pinball is not a bad thing. I would wholeheartedly agree with you about that. So, he's got jam. Now, is he going to go for No, he doesn't go for jam either. Advantage there when he goes for the bell. and he is continuing to go for the bell now consistently. Do it while you got that ball saver. Do it while it is essentially a safe shot. Nice jackpot there when he it's done with. So now Oh, he's able to save it. Nicely done. Still working on rock and roll train jackpots as well. He's got the jukebox ready if he wants to switch it up. He needs one more bell for 2x. Is he going to go for it? Not yet. He's not. He is in first place, by the way. He's got 7 million now. Just thinking this through very cautiously. This is more the John Delapo play that we're used to. We didn't really see it on firepower. You almost can't see it on a classic machine just because of the nature of the machine. But yeah, this this is John right here. Classic, slow, meticulous, slow in a good way. Patient. That's probably a better word for it. Slow makes it sound like it's bad. Patient makes it sound like it really it really is what it is. Every shot is well thought out. Loader bets off the leaderboard. 100 bits will get you back up there, my man. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. All the bits you're doing are going to support the guys at Straight Down the Middle and all of their streaming efforts. So, thank you so much for everything you're doing. You know, we're not getting paid for this. We're We're helping them out. We're helping Eric. Eric's a big helper with straight down the middle pinball. So, we're super happy that uh we can be deliberate. Tish has the best word for it. Deliberate play. And the play is working. He's up to 18 million. It almost happens. He's playing so deliberately. It almost happens when you don't even realize it. We've just been talking about the style of play more so than the actual results of it. And there you go. And he's looking and and taking in all that information as well. Deliberate. Never knew I had the ability to say things like that. Trust me. Is he going for it this time? He is. 9 million on that shot. So he's up to 27. And he's back on the rock and band's face. Oh my goodness. Yeah, he is fun to watch play. Thank you for those bits, Joseph. So appreciate it. Zach, I take back all my bits. Did you know that's how this was going to be? Multiball in play right here. This one is jam. It's 1.25. Yeah, not enough for him to make a play at it. I He doesn't matter what the multiball is. If it's a low number right now, he is not even trying. It's He'd rather go for Bell. He'd rather go for Playfield. When we last looked at that, he was one short. I did not see if he got the shot in at some point. Um at this point, it's more about comboing. It looks like he's just continuing to rack up Rock and Roll Train. Not even worried about playing another song. He's got the rhythm down on it. He's getting good points. whole thing where it's like don't even mess with don't even mess with something if it's working. That is a great save right there, too. Using the collision of one ball against another. Wasn't able to do it a second time, but he still got a really nice save off that thing for a ball that was going down the center. And just like that, two more shots, he'll have an album multiball on the table. And still two balls in play. Yeah, fantastic save. I agree. He might have got an add ball at some point cuz he's back to three. I did not think he had ball save left at this point. So yeah, this this deliberate play that we talk about right here is working to perfection. The other thing that this does and and I say this having it have it's happened to me at Super Electric playing against him in tournament play. The fact that he's playing so deliberately so well, it ch it Yeah, he's still Oh, he had the VIP pass. There you go. Used it for Adabal. That makes sense. He is so deliberate with the shots. So accurate with them. It And now you see this happen on ball one. It puts pressure on everyone else who's playing the game. Is he going to go for it at 10? He is. And he got it. Good shot. He's up to 53. Just like that. There he goes. Yep. Use the VIPs. So now that pressure is put on every single one of the other players. This is third game and he's the last player on it. He is in the ideal position to apply this kind of pressure cuz they know they're going to have to every other player's got to look at that score. Great save moving the playfield as opposed to the ball and they know they got to catch that score or else John Zelapo is moving on to the next round. That's a lot of pressure and we're back to seeing John be. It's demoralizing. It really is. That's the best word for it. the example. [Music] Stewart does not agree with it. Stewart is uh Stewart's smiling right now. He's he's not phased. He's not fa Not of all the people in the world that are not going to be phased. Stewart is not going to be phased by any of that. He's played enough games against Jon to know exactly how this works. That said, Stewart is walking around, not really looking at it very closely. He knows John is taking his sweet time with this pinball nerds calling it out too. Now if anybody can't I mean Stewart is Stewart's about as relaxed as they come to you know you don't see him get you see him maybe get frustrated but most of the time he's a very chill player so yeah Stewie can can come up with you know the kind of play to match this for sure and and this kind of weight is not going to affect him. Willie I don't know Ken I don't know nearly as much. But yeah, so uh if you want to say hi to hi to Steu for anything, he is watching the broadcast on the TV next to me here if you want to say something. And thank you guys for the 80 viewers that are watching the drain finally happens. This should be a hell of a bonus right here. 6x 5 mil for it. 70 million just like that. Great ball for John right there. putting himself in position to move on even with and and I think he would tell you this. Those first two games were not even close to his best pinball, but he's putting it together. He did enough in games one and two that he's in a good position and this is what happens. This is definitely someone who's played a lot of formats like this, a lot of tournament pinball. He is the number one player, at least by current IFPA standing in Ohio for a reason. You're looking at that reason right now. still took a completely different route on his shot. He went spinner as opposed to going for it. Oh, he tried the upwards bump. Got a danger. Not the worst thing ever right there. Yeah, these guys are all talented. They can all run this thing back, but it's going to take some serious work to do it. quick and he talking to him about one of his uh quick saves right then. Trying to listen into it a little bit. Not getting a whole lot. So there's Stew 6 million right now. I don't understand why it's like right and I do it again. Tried to backhand that orbit, but that is a super I mean backhand shots are available in this game. That is a super hard one to do. Just wasn't quite able to do it. And there's that little bit of frustration. It's certainly not at the weight. It's at the fact that he did not get that shot. So Stewart will sit at 8.6 million. Certainly has to feel like there was a little bit of a lost opportunity right there as Ken is now stepping up. Ken suddenly and unfortunately back in last place in this group. This this this has not gone well for me. Got off to a really good start today. played well yesterday as well and you know was in the top four going into round eight of the qualifying but wasn't able to pull that game out. Dropped out of the bot. It's it's a very precipitous drop. We hate to see it cuz we love Ken. Ken's a great guy, but having basically a round eight and then rounds like this where it's like three last place finishes in a row could take him from potentially being a top one or two seed in the tournament to being out of it after the first round. I mean, he will be out of this. We know that much already. So, it's a question just of where his placement is going to be. Can he run this back and uh spoil some games for other people. If he wins this thing, it absolutely would spoil the day for Jon. It would potentially, depending on how people finish, cause him to not go through or more likely cause a a potential tiebreaker between Willie and Stewart depending on how they finish here. as Justin is back and joining me on the microphone. Welcome back, my friend. Thank you. Hello, my long- lost friend. So, I How did How did your games go, by the way? Uh, so I I finally decided I wanted to play a little pinball this weekend cuz I've been enjoying the stream so much and I was like, you know, I should probably play a little bit. So, I went and uh met a friend for a couple of games. I was not great. Two reactors on uh TNA was about as good as it got for me. Spider pin noticing as far as the standings go. Needs him to finish second. Yeah. soup. You talk for a second. Are you Are you getting the Are you getting tournament plague? No, I'm eating pez. Oh, you're eating pez. Yeah, you don't want to do that stuff directly. Why not? It's fun. So, um I'm sort of popping back into the action here. And and you're right. Um 7531 is the scoring for the games. Um I don't think John needs Ken to finish second. If Jon wins, he'll be at 15 points. I mean, I think he's going to be in good shape no matter what because then it would be Willie. If Willie came in second place in that situation, he would have 17. If Short would come in third, he would have 13. So really the the potential bad situation for John here is Yeah, it would be John 1, Stewart 2, Willie 3 because that would create the 15 15 tie. Then we'd have to do how what do you do when when everybody's at 15 at the end? Well, I guess we're only on You would have a one You would have a one game tiebreaker. A one game tiebreaker, not a one ball tiebreaker. When we're doing quarterfinals, we're doing a one game. I think these I think these are game tiebreers from what I understand. We talked about that at the outset. Yep. Yes. So, right now is the way it went. Willie would be in second place. That would give him 17 and John would be through. that. Yeah. He He just understands like I can't get them all. Yep. So, still in very good position. I mean, 73 million. Yeah. He's sitting all right going into sitting pretty into both since B has eight less people. They're obviously going to finish one round ahead. Yes. When it gets to that point, we're going to show them that entire round instead of A. And then we'll go back to A for the final four. Does that make sense to you? Just remind me who you want us to follow. You bet. Yeah. It'll be Yeah, you bet. All right. Eric's giving us a little direction on who we're going to follow. So, we have B has less people in it. So, we're we're going to follow B and then go back to A. Yeah, we'll do B finals and then we'll go back to A. That's what I understood that to be. Yep. So, right now, we saw Stu just start a brand new album multiball. This is a huge ball for Stu. He's got to get to a point where he can make a second place run here. If he does, that's 15 points. That means he's going to be looking good. That really sets up. This is the most important ball in the game if he can run this thing like crazy. Yep, he got his third ball back. So, he's still playing a three ball now. A two ball. I suspect he's not getting that one back, but let's see. Uh, he is not. Don't know if he has VIP passes available. Oh, and he drained everything. No, no, no. Oh, you can see he just realized that he drained everything. Just realized they were all He thought he was starting a fourball multiball, I think. Did he not? I think he might have thought he had VIP pass shots. Yep. Hit the button and he didn't have enough. Yep. Wow. Yeah. I mean I I that is Wow. Yeah. I don't blame him for being surprised. I was also surprised. Yeah. I saw them all drain. I didn't think he realized it. I think the shock comes from maybe he thought he had hit enough VIP passes to do it and it doesn't look like he did. And I'll tell you what, the confidence that comes from hitting that VIP pass, starting your fourth ball, and restarting your ball save, huge, huge, huge. And so if you hit that button with confidence and then you can't get that fourth ball. Yeah. And and Rex calls it. His notes weren't even up for most of the multiball. So yeah, the m Okay, maybe this is big. Ken cannot win it, but he can certainly have a huge effect on what happens here. Y depending on what he does. He's got to at least get to the 9 million point first. I would say more importantly to the 14 million that Steuart has because Willie still has game to play and he's going War Machine and suddenly just like that the 15 is now in play. All of a sudden Ken just four straight last place finishes. That is really unusual for I talked about that coming in as hot as Ken did. That's going to make him feel feel really bad. I feel bad for him. Yep. But this happens. Yeah. He went from top four in the last round of qualifying, right, to out and not even getting a buy. Yep. Tough break. So, this is big for Willie. He's got to get to 14 million here. If he does, he moves on. Willy's going to get a ball. Taking the ball save. That was a late ball save. Lucky play. He has qualified for album multiball. So, he could always go to album here in order to extend uh his game. If he doesn't get there, we have our three-way tie. We will follow that game. So, he's starting album multiball. He needs and he wants to clear Stew's 14 million here which he's got to do. He's got three left to go. He can actually get a little bit done on this shot. There you go. There's one. Absolutely. You take that mill. Another one. He's got a ball Steve running. So now's a good time to play. 318. Whole lot of Rosie mode. This is a good mode to be using right now. So many things qualify you points. I think he's got it. He has it. Look at that beautiful little T. So Willie is going to end up at 17 points right now. Another great. So can he run it all the way back to 73? because that would affect John Del Zapo's points here. You know, this is not a stopping point for him. We just know that he's guaranteed at least second place. He will move on. But now he can play spoiler for others. It will not happen. So John will win 15 points. Willie will get 17 points. Stewart will come in third place. That only lets him three. He is out of the tournament. And Ken Oh, that only three points over three games. Yeah. So, no, this this will not end up as a tie. This will end up as Willie winning the group. And I think I think Stu was was in a tough spot there because he was really confident that he had that fourth ball. He was really confident he was really much so. That was his opportunity to to keep himself alive in this. It was Wow. What a finish right there. Yep. So, let's update some of the other groups right here. Um, we can tell you on stars they appear to be done. Um it looks like in that group it is Corey Stup and Bill Wahburn moving on. Rory Richie and Diane tied for nine points. There will not be a tiebreaker on that. We know our two players moving in the group down here. They are still playing their final game. Larry is guaranteed to move on right here no matter what. Uh Jack is guaranteed out. It really comes down to whether Ross Burgettino or um James Scott what they're going to do on their third game, which for them is firepower. Um I don't have any sort of update as to how they're doing right now. In fact, they may have just finished. They I think they just finished it. Yeah, Larry Scott. Look at that. The sweep 21 points. Boy, a threeame first place sweep. Yeah, that's not bad. Coming coming into a tournament like this with this many great players in your bracket and taking a sweep like that, that's got to feel good. James does take second place in this one. Um, and that means he'll move on to the next round. Junkyard, uh, that game is still going on. I'm trying to see if I can tell who's playing that right now. It might be It might be Gregory. It might be Greg. So, we might be on a ball three situation right there. He is winning right now. And Josh is way up there as well. And he just drained. So, we'll see what comes up next. The only potential situation here with the scores that we have right now is if Josh were to come in last place. As long as he does not come in last, he will move on and Gregory will move on with him. It looks like they're just starting ball two really on Junkyard. They're a little behind. I'm not going to interrupt that game. We don't want to mess with them. No, we're not going to mess with them playing. No, I don't think so. That would be a bad play. Ball two on Junkyard uh is just starting with Kyle Ko. So we we still have quite a lot of junkyard to play to see how that comes out. So moving on in the A division. Is it Can we see the the um Yeah, we can show you the whole thing right now. This is everything. That's everything. Okay. And now this is first round. This is not quarterfinals. Thank you for the bit, Spider Pin. Appreciate it. Thank you so much, Spider Pin. Love you guys fighting over the leaderboard here. very much appreciate that. It is great to see Gregory doing so well. I totally agree. It is. It totally is. We should also give you an update on B right now. Let's take a look at the quarterfinals there and see how all of those requisite groups are doing. Um there was a looks like there was a little order change. All of them are in their game three right now. Um, in fact, I probably should update that and see if they have started to play Stars yet. If they have not played Stars yet, that would be a great place for me to move the camera to. Yeah, I can move that right over. You bet. Yeah. Um, that group right there, we could follow them. We could watch get, you know, it's right by us. It's not a hard move. Um, Jungle Queen was picked in one of these groups. That would be the group with Jesse, Jeff, Nick, and Adam. Adam also had a strong start, but uh did not get the buy. So, we're going to move that over [Laughter] there. Gilly saying she don't want to be on. What are TD and she doesn't want to be on? Oh, shoot. We might be getting poo pooed on stars, unfortunately. One player said no. Oh, okay. We had someone say no. And that's cool. We're good with that. Gotcha. So, big guns is going on right now. We're not going to switch into that. Iron Man appears to be going. So, we may be out of luck for just a minute or so on games. It could be worse. It could be worse. They could be forced just to look at us some more. So, we'll stay on the quarterfinals. Uh, yeah, that's a very good point. You know, Dirty Toes, right now is not a great time. um to start doing super trooper stuff, but I feel like that would be tomorrow during the gauntlet tournament if you're gonna ask me the time to do the craziness. Look at JDL Pinball. You guys are streaming in Europe today and you guys and you guys are coming in and giving us your Twitch Prime subscription. Thank you. Thank you so much, JDL Pinball. We are going to return that favor as soon as I figure out exactly how that works. You know what? I may do that right now. Hold on, hold on, hold on. So glad to have you with us. JDL_Pinball because I believe I have a Twitch Prime subscription that I can give you back and I want to make sure to support you. Thank you for jumping on and and watching. We appreciate you so much. Let me make sure I'm logged in. I'm logged in. Hold on. Hold on. Let's see if I'm uh Where you going to put it? Right there. We have nowhere else to go. Where's my JDL sub button? Does JDL not have a You know what? JDL, can we not sub to you? Come on, JDL. Can we sub? Are you not a Twitch affiliate? I If you're not, I feel bad. I want to give you my Twitch Prime back. Thank you for giving us your Twitch Prime subscription. We appreciate it, man. Thank you so much. And hopefully your tournament in Sweden today was extremely successful. Yeah, it was so cool that we we got to sort of cross the Atlantic today and support each other's pinball. We did. S Daniels, you try. If you're trying as well, I'm trying to hook them up JDL pinball. I want to hook them up. So, in the meantime, I will say this is uh one of those things that we called out earlier. I want to call out again, which is, you know, we love to stream. This for me is like Christmas. I could not be happier. And um you know, it takes a lot of effort to build the stream. We want to reach out and reach more viewers just like you. At the same time, it's all about the tournament. So, job one for us is to stay out of the way of these players. And we hit a situation just now where we had a player who said, "I would prefer not to be on the stream. It makes me nervous. I don't like I don't like the way I play when I'm on the stream." And so, we said, "Hey, no problem." Hey, are we disappointed about it? Absolutely. We're human, but we respect it. And I would rather that than feel like I was interfering in the play. Absolutely. That's the big thing. until the day when streaming becomes somehow invisible. We're just going to keep respecting exactly what those players need and we're going to say no problem. We'll move on. So, in the meantime, you're stuck with the two of us, Scott and Justin, until then. And uh we are waiting for the end of Junkyard to see how that one comes out, as well as Stars, which is playing now. And I think I probably could put on Stars um because that player is not playing. We could put it on for just a minute or we could do the switching games. No, I have it the wrong way. No, that was me. Look, we have that beautiful picture of water. That's a great picture of some water. Hey, one of the sponsors, this is a true statement. As a H&R Real Estate, it's a a Markith Marksmith USA. He actually is on the sign. It's Mark Smith USA. I love the fact that his name USA. What am I supposed to say? I'll figure out something. Um, he actually sponsored water for all of the tournament competitors completely free of charge. So you're not having to run out, buy a 24 pack from Kroger across the street, figure out somewhere you got to put it. Um, thank you, Mark Smith. You the competitors and the streamers mostly just because we keep taking them. The streamers also tend to drink bourbon. I'm just going to put that out there a little bit from time to time. So, we're going to If you like super tasty burger, we're going to jump in right after the Oh, I got I got him to laugh. Yeah, there we go. Caught in the rain. So, uh, it's rainy, too. We're going to jump back in right after Junkyard to tell you um what's coming up next for those players. We also are watching Stars, but um we can't stream that right now. So, Gotcha. I We should talk a little bit about what's happening in the rest of the uh show. We should Let's talk about everything else that's at the show. Of course, uh you know, we have 19 machines here in for qualifying play. Yep. Um there's a lot more pinball to play here, though. a lot more pinball to play. Yep. So, right now we're still in the division A. You said not quarterfinals. Yeah, this is first round. We will update this for the next page as soon as we can, right? But for people that are attending the show, maybe for the people that just got eliminated from the show, there's about a 100 more pinball machines to play across this wonderful hall room that we have here. Yep. Uh there are vendors. Flipping Out Pinball has a huge setup inside the venue here. Um you can come play the new Elvra machine. I have not played it yet. I got to get a game on it before I get out of here tonight. I got to get a game. That's a must do. We also have a bunch of the new uh like October Fest, some of the brand new ones. Willy Wonka is here. So, if you haven't tried some of those newer machines, you can. Uh also a big lineup from Stern. So, if you haven't played the new Jurassic Park, and I hope you have, you're going to have an awesome time with it. By the way, um DI Silver Fox, let me know what wine you're drinking. I am very curious about that. As a wine drinker myself, a red wine drinker myself. I want I tell me more. Tell me much more. I I must know. I want to know everything. And also in the show, so uh we have tomorrow the gauntlet tournament. Yes. And a gauntlet tournament, if you've never seen one before, they are crazy fun to play. Essentially, what you have is you've got a whole bank of machines. Each machine has one task that you have to accomplish before you're allowed to move on from that machine. You can get there any way you want. You can play one ball. If it doesn't go well, switch the machine off. Switch it back on. There's almost no rules. You can tilt to your heart's content, but you must accomplish that one goal before you can move on to the next machine. Well, partially. You can try for multiple goals at the exact same time. That's true. You can play more than one machine. Yeah. The only So, it's not about moving on, it's about finishing the machine. It's about finishing each task. You can do it in any order you want. That's right. You can do two of them at once. Yeah. Thank you for clarifying. Yeah, you jump around. Very good example of that that you will get to see tomorrow. because I don't know the are the games the same as they were last year? Do you know this? I don't think we're doing the same gauntlet. Okay. I So, do you know if the game with the top lanes, I don't want to give it away yet, is still in the game? I don't know. Okay, that's a good question. That would be a perfect example of something along these lines. By the way, the other three groups are done in B division. We can give you standings. We have a three-way tie. Um, in group number one, that would be Jeff Wilson, Nick Kennedy, and Adam Robinson. Jesse Baker out in B division. Wow. That's a tough break for Jesse for sure. Wow. Yep. That's hard. Could not bring it back all the way on Royal Rumble. I don't know if it would have mattered based on the other finishes. Adam Rob number one on Royal Rumble. He He took a one. Yeah. Did not get a lot of points. Fourth place. Fourth place. Ow. Yeah. So, they I assume are playing a tiebreaker game. I can't tell what machine that's on right now uh to determine who moves on. In group number two, Tim Stex, Cody Web. Great showing by Cody. 19 points right there. They basically took all the first and seconds across all the machines between them. And there's Chad Hobs with the one. Oh, Chad did not have a good round that time. Neither did Nikki. So, yep, Tish Ruden on the Columbus Faithful. That would be Cody. Great job there. Uh in group number three, that was a very similar group to what we just saw on the exact same scoring. Uh Dale Nun and Nathan Straz move on. Um 17 and 15. Anna Neil with 13 points. More often than not, 13 is enough to move on unless you have what happened to Jason and you have three, you know, basement dwelling games at the exact same time. So unfortunately for Anna, that means her day is done. And we're not we're definitely not going to have any tiebreers on stars. In fact, I can tell you that player three is up right now. I'm I can't tell you the exact order of it. Ball three, player three. So we should have some results on stars probably in the next 5 minutes, I would imagine. Yep. Oh, I won't tell you I won't tell you who's ahead yet. I I don't want to let the cat out of the bag. Um, but I know I know as well. Okay, I'll tell you. It's Steven. It's Steven. Yeah. With the player with two points. So, you know, he's in the similar situation that Ken was in the last round. There's a three meow tie on group one. Oh, good lord. Yeah, you guys can you Oh, meow. I see what you did there. You can super troopers the chat all day. How many times can I can't say that one online? How many times can you get him to say that before he cracks? Oh my goodness. But yeah, the the gauntlet is going to be a heck of a lot of fun tomorrow. Uh because yeah, you're going to you're going to see pinball play that's so different than anything you've seen before. Um you know, it really is wild to watch. There's an athletic aspect to it from running from machine to machine and you've got that whole bank to yourself. So you're not you're not fighting other players. You just have to get through the tasks in the bank. There's one sort of famous machine where um your goal is to is to plunge the top lanes. Yes. And and oh, so we'll give that away. Big game was the one that the whole point of it is you have to get B.I. in the top lane. So as the day went on on Sunday, we saw people have crazy dirty toes. I'm going to be honest with you. I don't know. Yeah, we don't know yet. I think it's going to set up tonight. Yes, athletic pinball. Watch tomorrow. You will fully understand what we're talking about. Finally celebrating the athletes of pinball. That's right. By the way, it's also towel throwing because last year, whoever was doing the judging for it, we had six of these crazy the like towels that we were using to clean the glass. We would just throw the towel at the machine and throw it on the glass to say that's how you knew it was done. That's how you knew that that task was done. Yep. I got Game of Thrones done up. I got big game done. Throw the tells just like that. So big game started out people were playing it sort of straight, right? They're trying they're trying to shoot up into the BI lanes and then suddenly people tried some stuff. Then they figured out they some people did it different ways. Some people would reach down and power down the machine and start it back up because if you didn't get it on by ball number two, it was quicker to do it that way. Y other people, and I think this was the smart way to do it, would start a four player game. It doesn't matter which of the four players does it. You just have to get it on one of the players. That is so clever. I wouldn't I might have I think Trent I think that was a Trent thing that he I might have turned it off Mecca and I never would have thought just start a four-player game and just Yeah. So, and people would do this. They would plunge. Now, that takes, you know, 10 seconds for it to get up there and bounce around. They plunge, run to the next machine and just come back and see how it worked out. Oh, yeah. Because the goal in gauntlet is you only have a certain amount of time. You just have to get it done. Exactly. So you're not don't waste time waiting for that ball to go up. You know, the judge is the person that's looking at the machine and saying, "Did you do it?" You can go back and look at it later or poke a look at it 10 seconds later while you're doing something else. It is totally ADHD distracted focus crazed shenanigans of pinball. It's shenanigans. It is nothing but constant constant shenanigans. So did we get new results in? Was that um an announcement of um new results quarterfinals? There you go. I'm going to check something real quick here. It looks like I am seeing something here. Noting that there's a waiting on Adam, Nick, and Jeff. Hang on just a second here. So, he's going to go check and see what game we're playing with Adam, Nick, and Jeff. And if we can, we're going to move that camera rig into that position. Uh because we have right now Adam, Nick, and Jeff playing in what is I think a true quarterfinals and we want to see what they're going to play so we can watch if at all possible. But first, they have to get their machine picked. Meanwhile, uh it's worth noting that your A and your B brackets um are different sizes. So B is probably going to get finished a little bit earlier and then we'll switch over to A. So Adam, Nick, and Jeff, were they able to find their Yeah, they're playing fast draw. They're just about done with it already. So they are already ahead of the game, which we're happy about. Um, so what we're dealing with here is really a similar situation. There's going to be about a 5minute break because we have to go through the selection process all over again. As a reminder to those of you who maybe weren't here a little bit ago, these are the banks, uh, right here. So, all the games you see right there, um, basically the top seed out of these groups, and in this case, it's going to be the one, two, three, and four seeds. Um, in each one, whoever the top seed that moved on in B, and in A, because we're going to have another round, it's going to be that next top seed. I'm So, they're about done, Adam. Uh, yeah, we have a quarterfinals now. So, I will work on updating that other page real quick. Um, I believe those seeds will be Robert Gaines, Shawn Davis, Matt Glin, Ben Patrick. All right. They will pick between these 10 banks right here. And are they going to pick in that order? Robert gets first choice, I believe. So, Sean gets second choice. Okay. I believe so. Yep. Um, and then the other three players will get to pick which of the four positions they want to play. Do they want to be first, second, third, or fourth? And then the remaining position will go to the person that picked the bank. Yep. Yep. So, as you can see, the beauty of this format, you got to play an old machine, you got to play a mid-range machine, and you got to play a new machine. I love this mix. And the bank that you pick makes a big difference. So, it's, you know, it's one thing to say, "Ah, just pick one, but you may have real strength in one of these banks and real weaknesses in other banks. Now, each of them does have a mix of older and newer games, but there may be games like Harlem Globe Trotters, for instance, with those scissor flippers that could be kind of a a a pariah for you or albatross for you that you just can't get past it. It's a signal that you can't, you know, move on from. So, it's possible that um if you get stuck with a bank that you're not excited about, that could make the difference for you in this. Oh, yeah. No doubt about it. So, while we're doing that, I'm going to switch over to the A quarterfinals list right here. Actually, it did update quite nicely, so I'm happy about that. Oh, great. We didn't have to update it. It did. These are the groups of people that are going to now be playing. Spider pin's like, "Give me bank six. Let's look in bank six. Big deal stars in World Cup soccer." You know what? I'll take that any day of the week. For World Cup soccer, but I'm intrigued to play Stars, too. Oh, man. Stars has played a really an outstanding role in in this tournament. It has. Stars keep showing up as like a major deciding factor both today and yesterday in the women's tournament and in the uh in the first tournament from yesterday, the strikes tournament. So, who knew stars was going to play such a big role? Big guns also had a really crucial role in the playoff yesterday. I'd like to see more Royal Rumble and Firepower. I think I really enjoy watching both of those games and I'd like to see those as well. Dirty Toes coming in saying, "I think Bank 62, it's the only one of all these that I own." Oh, that's a good reason. That's a very good reason to pick it. And we'll see on our page back here. Um, I'm going to turn that camera around so you guys can see what we're doing here. At least we can show you what's happening on the field. Yeah, you bet as they do this determination. Hang tight. So, we're going to turn our camera around here. Hang tight to your seat so you don't fly off. And uh people are picking. They're selecting their banks right now. So you can at least see in addition to Scott Beat. Hello. Hello. You can see the selection process. You can see Robert Gaines from his hat back there. You can't miss him. Um so he's going to help make the selections. He gets the first pick of Banks. Oh, we got offline. Hold on here. Let's come back to it. Isn't that fun? Scott Cam. Oh my god, that is not a good picture. Hello. What happened? Scott, I did. Okay, hold on. We're going to studio mode that I I kind of love where I'm not going to lie. I love where it froze, but it's like what? It had to freeze right then. So fun. All right, let's reactivate that camera. It's possible that a cord pulled out or something. I don't know. Let me move it a little bit more right now. I love it. That's going to just be our new logo for the stream right there. Maybe that's the emote that they're looking for for level one, right? Then scooter vision. There you go. There's my emote. So, we need to we need to find out what machines they're playing and we need to follow them there. Let's see. I think they're making their selections now. We're going to follow them to the machines that they're playing and we can scoot the scoot the rig along with us. Let's see what we're finding out. It sounds like Eric is working through the choices with our competitors. Let me see if I can reactivate this guy. Uh, no, not that one. Yeah. Huh. Oh my god. So angry and I'm not angry. I love it. Maybe we poured some pulled something loose. I don't know. So, we're getting that player cam reactivated. But in the meantime, they are making their selections. Hang tight for just a minute and we will get um we'll find out who's playing what and where and in what order. This is where things uh go a little bit off the the grid in so much as there's a lot of player choice here. Whereas typically you're used to match play making your choices for you. It tells you what your order is. It matches you up with others. when we get into uh this format, you now actually part of the benefit of being highseated is that you get to choose your bank and the other people on your team get to choose their order. So, um it does slow down the process, but I do also think it gives a really tangible benefit to your seated location. All right, there we go. They're making their choices over there and we'll see as soon as we find out who's going where. We're going to follow him. Hello, Scott. Oh, it froze again. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. It did not. So, you can see our tournament director, Eric, back there directing everybody where they're going and why as they make their choices. That's right. They do pick the banks. The top seed picks them. So, Spider Pin as and now there are eight groups. So eight of the 10 banks will be picked. Once a bank has been picked, another group cannot pick it. So I think a division if only would it froze again, right? So right now you've got Robert Gaines, Shawn Davis, Matt Goslin, and Ben Patrick all making their choices for their teams on what banks they're going to play and they're going to choose them in that order. Let's see if I can find out what they're picking so we can set up. We can start to see some of the picks right here. Can I just say I am super glad that this tournament isn't split by gender. Hey, I love the fact we have awesome tournaments for an open tournament and a women's tournament. Absolutely. There are no bad things here. You know, this is this is a good thing. I had so much fun at the women's tournament yesterday. I had fun. Everybody was having having a blast. All right, we got it. Oh, we're we're going Big Indian. All right, here we go. Oh, this is a fun group to follow. I like this. We're going to be following the group of It's going to be on Big Indian. So, we'll show you the EMSS. Yeah. All the way over right here. Yeah, that's correct. Two of the banks will not get picked. Um, doesn't mean they won't get picked later, though. Jose, that's fair enough. I mean, like I said, I think we, no matter what we do, the key for me is I want to make sure whether it's an open tournament or whether it's a women's tournament, basically, I just hope we're kick kicking butt and making something that's fun for everybody to watch. Big Indian is all right. Everything looks good there. We can see scores and we can see all of these players watching. James Scott from Columbus, Larry Scott from Cincinnati. I don't know where Shawn Davis is from. I don't know where Scott Crawford is from, but I'm going to make the assumption it's Ohio. Three Scots in the same Yeah. Forsome. And a Scott calling it, man. This is so many Scots. I don't know what to do about all this. All the Scott right now. Great Scott. This is a lot of Scott. So Scott Davis, Scott, Larry Scott, and Scott Scott Crawford are all scotting together in this the Scottiest of all Scots. Beam my score up, Scotty. So, uh, we're getting ready to start off this now. Sean, I think had group two, so he would have been second seed. Oh, what's Matt doing right here? Oh, so meow, Scott. Well played. So meow, Scott. So meow. Tired big Indian wired giant Cherokee. Great Scott, Batman. So, they did have Would the woke version of this then be Indian Outlaw and just have a picture of Tim Mcgra on the front of it? Oh, yeah. Tim McGrath. That's who I was thinking of earlier. I was singing a Tim McGrath song. That's what it was. Tim McGra, by the way, I saw a commercial the other day. That dude's ripped now. Oh, dude's been ripped. Yeah. Oh, really? He's always like that. Yeah, he's always been like that, I think. So, um, we're going to watch now Shawn Davis. And we did have some issues with the bonus scoring on Big Indian earlier. Hopefully those issues won't repeat. Hopefully not. As with every pinball game, there's always a chance something mechanically gets a little funky or electronically, but we're going to hope this one holds. I could not be happier to see these EM quarterfinals. Agreed. I love it. And by the way, Matt, you're not wrong about what you're saying right there. Certainly, it talks about how things have changed from when this machine came out to how things are now. Yeah. It's a very very different world. Y very different. Y nonetheless, fun machine to play. We're glad we get to show it off. It is wild. So in in my home, I have a 1963 machine. November 1963. Yes. Um the world around pinball. Think about the changes in the world around pinball since 1963. And dramatic the context for that play. And that makes me even happier to think that we're still playing these games. Yeah. All these years later. Mhm. So, we're watching James Scott right now. All right, here he goes. He's 2200 points right now. We saw this one in the last round of games, too. So, we have a good idea kind of what they're going to shoot for. They want the B.I. up at the top there. Sure do. Um the B ramp reminder that light is working. It's dim, but it's working. So, the fact it's out right now tells me that he did get B. He did get that one. It also lights that top bumper. So, he's getting 100 points per bump on that top ber by by uh clearing the B lane. It seems like his route to get back up to the top of the machine. Yeah. Now, he's taking the route we saw Jon do a whole lot of. You know, either left or right. Right seems to be a bit more reliable, I think, because you can round your way up that curve. Physics are on your side if you can line it up. Plus, you get the potential rollover for bonuses. Yep. Yeah. And you can see they even gave us a little clue there on the playfield. You can see those three rollovers in that line that says, "Hey, if you want to get back up top, this is probably how you want to get. That's how you want to do it." No doubt about it. We've noticed most of the players are avoiding the very target today. Nice eye right there. Now, the eye that Larry Scott just got, that's going to open up the 5,000 outlanes for him as well. That was a very helpful thing we saw in the last game. So, yep. I'll tell you what, if you're going to drain, that's the way to drain, right? Oh, no doubt. that the drain for him, if you count his bonus, is an 8,000 point play right now. Not the worst thing ever. Nope. It's nice to get an outlane drain and feel like you're not, you know, hating yourself. Oh, yeah. Because you did that. It's like, shug your head. That's okay. Thousand points on the way out. It's not bad. Not at all. So, Larry Scott was trying to get into the into the upper probably trying to complete that G. Was not able to do it, but Oh, he got it on the bottom side. That's double bonus. So, now quite clever. Now, suddenly a drain for him is worth 11,000 points. Just don't drain down the middle. That's right. So, he's got 3,000 * 2 is his 6 plus 5,000 on the outlane. 11,000 point bonus. Yes. Oh, sorry. Make that 8 plus 13,000 if you count an outlane shot. 10 seconds. Yeah. This is where you're This is where you're clasping your hands and hoping when you drain, you're draining out lane. Yeah. Now, he does also up top. He's cleared all of those drop targets. He has pop back up again. He'll get 5,000 points for that bonus up to 5,000 right now. So he's provided he doesn't tilt, he's guaranteed, he doesn't tilt. And that's a big one. If he does tilt here, he would be sacrificing a huge chunk of his work. I may not have one for that game. Yeah, I was just thinking Darn it. Still going at this thing. 6490. Oh, just about worked that thing back up to the top. Although it's not as important for him. It doesn't matter as much anymore. Look at that. Went for the Vera shot. I think he only got it for about 500 points. Yeah, that very target is super dangerous, but it can also be super lucrative. So, at this point, he's adding 24,000 point bonus, not counting the out lane right now. That's going to be very helpful. Sweet. You almost just want to drain it now so you don't risk the tilt. You know what I mean? You almost just want to like just let it go to the out lane. Pick up those 5,000. Larry's as as stream player. There's the perfect plan. That was a dream. Now watch this bonus just rack up. Ding ding ding. 24,820. Great. I'm surprised that we didn't also see the 5,000 point addition there. We did see it. I feel like it didn't give as much bonus as we thought it was going to. Maybe it only gave a single single bonus. It might have Maybe that was the bonus issue we were seeing earlier. Yeah, we'll see if that affects all the players evenly. Yeah, it certainly should. Um, but I thought B.I. put us into double bonus there. it does put you into double bonus from what I understand. If it doesn't, we'll figure that out as we go. Feel free and correct us. We're Yeah, please let us know on the stream. You You actually have more freedom to look this stuff up than we do. You're right about that. We have one monitor. I brought a second one monitor watching pinball. That's right. Um but would be great to know if we're wrong about B.I. activating double bonus because we didn't see it pay off for Larry Scott that way. On other machines it definitely does. Yep. Oh, nice save. That looked like it could have been bad for Scott Crawford. Made it out from there alive. He's got that ball back up in the upper playfield. Has not been able to get the eye as of yet. He's got the right plan, the right idea in place. Oh, falls into the in lane. Not bad. Now, that one you could almost see from when that thing started going left, you knew it was going to come back right. almost felt destined to go into the out lane right then. So, not much he could have done about that. Reminder, this is quarterfinals for a division is what we are watching right now. This group is going to be playing actually a similar set of games that we just saw. They're going to do big Indian firepower and AC/DC. We're going to be following this group around. Might have to get a separate set of games for the next round if someone did see it. Lazarus ball. Oh, that is the second time today that Shawn has been bailed out. I don't know who or what he's praying to, but I want that address. My goodness gracious. Working. Wow. Can someone Can someone clip that and clip his game in Junkyard and be like, "Go buy a lottery ticket right now." Larry is about ready to give him all kinds of hell about it. I can see it on his face. He's got a smile on his face. Maybe he didn't even see it. I can't tell. Yeah, I don't know. He think I I He may not know about about that. Oh, another You probably heard our reaction. How could you not? Big Indian is very close to us. So So he does have that 5,000 points on the out lane lit. He does have that now. He got the eye. He does have what on bonus. He's got 6,000. We don't know if I thought that that is a double bonus indicator in the center. It is in the center. I can't tell what it is on the top there. He got his BI. Oh, and he misplayed it ever so slightly. very similar that time to what it was before where a little bit of a flip or misplay after the recovery. Wow. So, he didn't quite get the the giant bonus that uh that Larry had. He didn't, but 12,000 is not a bad score in this game going into ball number three. Not bad at all. And this is a five ball EM, so stay tuned. I didn't know if Larry could see what was happening with that. I think he assumes that I could, but I don't know if he if he actually did. I might have been making an assumption there. Big shocker. Oh, drops down. Not a bad play right there. So, in lanes, I think those are 500 point in lanes if I remember correctly. He just needs the eye. So, I'm going to I'm going to look this up because I am so curious about this double bonus situation. Please do. I I I need to be educated on this. Oh, and tough play on the flippers right there. Not much he could do. Does get to 12,000. So, he has about a 600point lead right now for second place. Larry Scott still sitting at 24,000 right now. what Holly wearing one of my favorite shirts. Look, it's It is a Burger King playoff that says Pinball King, home of the Whopper. That's awesome. I am surprised it took that long for that shirt to exist cuz it's so perfect. So, the double bonus indicator is, as we said, it's in the center of the the playfield in the bottom. So, if you look, it sort of looks like a a series of feathers with an arrow. It's at the bottom there. It's that unlit red insert. So, what is the top light? The top light is a uh add bonus 500 points indicator for that. There's a little spot target right there. A little bullseye target. That is you can only hit it from the front. Frankly, it looks like a serious drain hazard to go for that target. Oo. Ah, the very target. You took the very target right then. Yeah. And that is going to drop the ice. He is back in position again. So, that confirms it. Double bonus was not turned on, which is fine. Yep. sitting at 4,000 on his bonus right now. So that red target up to the upper left is a special. So you'll see that it says special when lit. Last target score is special when lit. Um I don't know what the special score is on this one. If it does grant you an extra ball, this machine is set to play all extra balls. So if you've earned one, you can play it. But I don't necessarily see the path right away to get it. Unless that is verat target control, which I don't believe it is. Can't see what he's still got up. It looks like he's got two targets up. So if you hit that last one, that may be the special. That may be your extra ball. He's got one target left up there. 33,000. Those targets should be worth 5,000 points. So, when those outlanes, the red outlanes are lit, that's 5,000 or it's 500 and add bonus if it's not lit. All right, he got it. That was it. 5,000 points for that. He's up to 39,000. Working on the targets again. Those drop targets are just they're just the whole game, but he does not yet have that double bonus. And and it sounds like there there's something about completing B.I. that's just not giving it to you. So instead, he's climbing the bonus ladder the hard way. We do know you get it on ball five. Double bonus no matter what on ball five. Yes, that's a given. Unless you tilt. Don't tilt. Don't tilt. We've seen some bad tilts on ball five today. We've seen some bad tilts on ball three today. Oh yeah, he is doing an amazing job of keeping this ball in play. Really well done. Just a little bounce out there. We've seen that play before, but look at that 51,000. He has gone over right about the 25,000 point mark on both of his balls and is playing really well right now. 59 51,000 on ball two. Really really that's a roll that's a rollover chance. This would be our second potential rollover chance on this machine. The other one I believe is by the player who's playing right now. That would be one James Scott. Well, how do you like that? So James has had a good day with this one. He has. Yep. Scott Crawford has not had a good day so far. Not horrible. 8,000 is not a horrible score, but these are great players, right? I mean, when we're looking at this rollover opportunity, that just means you really really have to have a great game. Oh, yeah. Nothing he could have done about that. Yeah, he didn't lose much if he uh tilts that one. So, now I'll tell you what, if I'm the next one up, I'm going to take a a pause before I start playing this machine. I'm going to take a sip of whatever the heck you want to sip. Yep. Yep. Yep. And that would be Shawn Davis. He has not even got He is sitting three seats next to me here and he is not even smile for a second. He's smiling. He says, "No, sir. Take it for a walk." No. Yeah. No moss. There's a lot of no moss right now. You can actually see Sean. And Sean, you're living a charmed life today, my friend. Right there on the You're living a charmed life. Sean has decided he's going to let it cool down for a minute. Take a drink of water while we drink bourbon. Man, it's it's great to see such uh high scores in a tournament like this on an EM because sometimes those EM just give you hell and they disrupt uh players who are on a tear. In this case, well, we're seeing them play the hell out of these EM. They're doing great. He's getting the hat, prepping everything. Yeah. If there is ever a time to say, "I'm going to take a minute and a half." Yeah, it's a good one. This is the time you do it. Yep. When a when an EM gets moving really really quick cuz that tilt bob that those I mean those things are made to move a long time. So here's Whose name is this? That's a good question. Is this Eric? This is not Eric, is it? Uh I don't know. I'll look. It's a good He's blocking us, but I'll look in a minute. We'll look in a second. So, here's what I've reached. The conclusion I've reached on this double bonus thing. B.I. lights the score special light under the drop targets. Yes. Not the double bonus. Correct. So, the only it seems the only way I can figure out to get the double bonus is beyond ball five. Okay. Which is common. That's fair enough. That's not uncommon. Yeah. Which would explain why uh Larry Scott did not get the double bonus early on. We thought he would. Very true. Well, a couple people did. Nonetheless, we will be there soon enough. We are looking at ball three right now. Is he getting the middle one? There it is. That eye is so critical in this game. Even if Oh, and the worst case scenario, you get it and then you drain down the center, right? I mean, you can see the B and the G on either side. You can pick those up in those lanes. That I you kind of have to plunge to or shoot up that right channel to get it. Very hard to get. Agreed. [Music] So, James Scott stepping up. He's at 12,000 right now. He's in third place in this group. James is the highest IFPA ranked player in this group. 134. One of the highest ranked in the entire tournament. Yep. But that doesn't mean every machine's going to treat you well, and it doesn't mean you're an expert on every era. That's right. And in this case, he had really struggled to get moving at first on Big India. But again, we don't know what's going to happen here. That almost had a shot to come back. That could have been a Lazarus ball potentially if that left flipper had been down. I'm not sure it had enough momentum on the ball to do it. It would have been tough. So here's Larry. 51,780 points. Dominant on this. And that's after last last round when he went three for three. So Oh, that drop catch. Look at that. Perfectly done. He is full control of this pinball machine. Yep. Look. Oh man, I thought he was going to clear that. Yeah, he really did. I mean, on his first ball, he managed to give a little bit of a masterclass in how to play this EM. He seemed to have full control on the drop catches. He was shooting the right uh channel really, really well. And uh he may he may put on another one. We'll see. It's very possible. Oh, just off the tip there. But still looking at 53,650 points on this one. So he still continues to carry a fairly commanding lead. He does on Big Indian. But remember the points, the bonuses all double on ball five. So, you're going to see the points kind of skyrocket on ball five. This is a bonus heavy machine. That's where you're going to make a lot of your points. Agreed. Uh, do want to let you know in B division, I do not see any results turned in as of yet. Our groups over there, Cody Webb, Nathan Straz, Adam Robinson, and Tim. That is a house ball for Scott Crawford. Ouch. Oof. That's a That's an That's a yikes. Yeah, that's an ouch. That is a yikes. Group number two, Dale Nun, Tony Stark, Nick Kennedy, and Todd Dennis. Nice comeback by Todd. We saw him having a little bit of trouble at certain points today, but he's a heck of a player from Louisville. We saw the recar shirt on there. So, yeah, no doubt he is a very, very solid player and uh just as formidable as everybody else who is in the finals right here. All right, Shawn Davis coming back up. Ball four. Yes, this is ball four. 20,000 right now. That's good enough for second place. And remember, second place, five points right here. So, yeah, he's going to try and get that ball to settle down. Yeah, it's not quite going to go back to the knuckle there, but close. Still a good enough position that he was able to do something with. That's not bad. A little backhand on the very target. Yes. I see pizza there. Trying to figure Oh, it's Marco's pizza. Okay. Oh, another good one. So, this is the this is the downside of trying to get back up into that upper channel is that if you kind of half shoot that, it's coming right back down toward the middle. But Sean had two really good saves there. He's going to wrap all 25,000. 25. James has not had the best luck with this machine today, but he is a very skilled player and he can turn a little into a lot fairly quickly. Not going to do it on that flip. Yep. He will go into famous 14,000. He's trailing by about 11,000 going into ball number five. Larry back up right now leading again with a pretty sound margin at 53. He's got double his next closest competitor score. And uh he really did it a lot on drop targets and bonus. Now he was playing the whole field, but he made a ton of those points up on drop targets and bonus. He did. Building bonus is so important in Big Indie End. You can see too something else he's doing. It's not just about when you flip. It's how you flip. You can see a lot of those flips are not full hits. He'll slap the button really quick. He'll give it about a 3/4 power shot as opposed to a full one. That thing. So that was a great example. Yeah. Of of what you're talking about with that three/4er shot. That ball came down hard on the flipper. It would have been tempting just to flip it away with a full shot. He didn't. He sort of released, caught, and then shot again. It wasn't a full drop catch. It was just take the power off the ball and keep it level at the same time that you do. Not just about the power, but about the angle vector. Yep. There's a great example of one, too. If he would have let that thing flip all the way up and down, there's a possibility by the time he went to flip it again, the flipper actually would not have physically been ready. Yep. So, not a ton of points right there, but some nice flipper action that we got to see. Great job of him keeping it alive as long as he did. So, 50 is Scott up against is that 8,860. Yes. No, another one. Oh, he is just getting so frustrated with this. I mean, you just can't. There's nothing you can say to make him feel any better about that. What are you going to do to improve that? I mean, EM's again notorious for doing that to you. But when you get three in a row, you're not going to be able to You're not going to feel good about that. And this is game one. The the the classic game is always the first game in the bunch. It's interesting. Do you feel like that sometimes can be a confidence booster or killer for the remaining games in your set? For sure. You know, I think more than any other era, I think EM tend to introduce a lot of uncertainty and a lot of luck. even if you are amazing at playing em um they tend to get a lot more house balls. You tend to get a lot wider little flipper gap uh errors and things that so you're going to you're going to have problems that you don't anticipate on machines that have a lot of ramps that will just return it back to the flipper over and over. Right. That's correct. So if that's what you're used to doing and most people are, it's a real confidence shaker to have three house balls. Even though that's very common with EM regardless of your skill level, that can shake your confidence going into the next couple of games. Apologies. Bless you. Bless you. Two. Bless you. Thank you. Welcome to allergies. Uhoh. Oh. Oh. Saved it. Saved that one. He's got about 11,000 he needs to get to second place. Getting a little more chaos, I think, than he wants here. That was a surprise. That was a surprise. So, 17. Oh, it almost came back. 17 plus a little bonus. Not much. Not nearly enough. So, he will be locked into third or fourth place here. Yep. Larry can do no worse than second. Shawn can do no worse than third. Although again, Larry's score is pretty dominating. So, he's looking at a at a good chance at first place here. 56,000 points on Big Indians. A lot of Big Indian. The question here is where is he going to go to get some bonus early on in the game. There you go. Yeah. I mean, this is all build bonus now, right? You've got a double bonus going. This is all bonus. Just missed. He's going to need to get up to those drops, I think, at some point. Oh, there he goes. Not building bonus just yet. I see the rollover shot. Just missed it. Gets the G. He's now the eye short of having VIG spell. And again, it's ball five. It's much more likely we're going to see people try go for that. Okay, there's the rolls. He's very reliably getting it back up. Oh, just missed all the drop targets there. That's a bad break. Got another little bonus points. And now he's at 6,000 just on bonus. Nice nudge right there. Good time to use it just to get the ball completely out of the lanes whatsoever. Look, that just bought him another 2,000 in bonus. It's just that one little tip he did. Yeah. Make that four. Oh. Oh, not able to get He will get 8,000 for that though. It'll put him 70,000 points. Great job. That is a very very solid score on this EM. I'm going to step away for just a quick second. You bet. Uh I need to take a phone call. I will back. I'll be right here. Hang in there, guys. With our 55 loving and loyal viewers, I can't promise you're loving, but I know you're loyal. You're still here. I hope you're loving. So Scott Crawford is here trying to ruin everything for Larry Scott, but he was not able to do that. So it looks like the way it's going to come out is Larry Scott, Shawn Davis, James Scott, and Scott Crawford, and 11 more Scots in that order. Scott Vice just stepped out, so that's one less Scott, but uh that's how this round is going to finish. This is the quarterfinals of the A division. And uh you could see on Big Indian that right now Larry Scott is uh looking at seven points for that win. Shawn Davis with five points, James Scott with three points, and Scott Crawford unfortunately only going to walk away with one point. Let's take a look at our standings if I can bring them up. I'm not that good at this. There you go. Um, so here's our division A quarterfinals. Big Indian 537 and one. You can see it reflected. That's the one we just watched. While we're moving cameras, you can also see what's going on in the other groups. So, we had Iron Maiden uh was the first group that uh group one picked. You saw Willie Allen pulled out the win on that, followed by Aaron Mousia. I hope I'm saying that right. I apologize if I'm not. Robert Gaines coming in third place for three points and Corey Stup fourth place with one point on group three. Gregory picks up the win on stars. Gregory is just kicking so much butt in this tournament. Rob Smith coming in second on that. Matt Goslin in third and Bill Wahborn in fourth. And if I remember right, Bill Wahburn had a great game of stars earlier tonight. So, it's again, that's pinball. That's how this works. And then lastly on Big Deal, Josh Noble, seven points right there. John Del Zapo second place with five, Ben Patrick third place with three, and Dusty Cigretto fourth place with one. Firepower is up next. And let's see if we can get to Firepower is going to be group two. So, that's Shawn, James, Larry, and Scott. Let's see. Scroll up. I got you. Let's go. Right here. There we are. You recognize this face? You should. We just watched him play big Indian. Sean is up next. And not uh Tell me, Eric, about the order here. Were they able to pick order? Yes. So, they should be in the order that they're going to Yeah, they should be in the order that they're going to play right now. Great. Yep. So, Sean's up first. So, Firepower was the first multiball game, right? This a William um I think solid state multiball game maybe cuz you got like balls of popping and like Humpty Dumpty like weird crap like that. But yeah, I'm not sure about the solid state games probably. I think it is. Okay. And so what most players or at least what I like to do on my game is get the spinner lit as quickly as possible, which is collecting all six targets in the middle. Yep. Uh Sean seems to be going for that. Uh he has two to go. whatever ones are flashing, those are the ones you still need. And he missed there and paid for it. Is there a benefit to getting the targets in order? 1 2 3 4 5 6. Um, however, we've been discussing this weekend about how mine behaves. You should light the kickback on the left out lane by completing either bank. So, once you get three on one side or the other, it should light in the out lane. However, my game doesn't always do it, but if it lights up, it'll work. If it doesn't light up, you didn't get it. And I don't know why sometimes you don't get it. What a fun element of randomness, right? Yeah. I mean, we were talking about this, but one of the ways that pinball is a little bit different than electronic gaming is that you do have randomness. Not only do you have physics, but every machine behaves slightly differently. Yep. And you can't necessarily do the same thing and expect the same. And even the same game can behave differently one game to the next. Absolutely. Wild. Oh. Uh, kickback is not the three blue standups on the right, as far as I know. However, those No, those are they may also they may also like the kickback, but I'm pretty sure they don't. It should be either side of the six bank in the middle. Yeah. So, that's one of the benefits you get from lighting up those three targets, right? Is that you relight your kickback and you get a a lock. You qualify a lock. So, we're already to Larry. Let's see what uh Yeah, James had a bad ball. Same with Larry. Uh, so Scott's up. So the three bank on the right may also do it, but I know for a fact either side of the center bank should do it now. He might get his ball back. Nope, he didn't. The full plunge is deadly on my firepower. I have removed the upper gate above the fire lanes. So you do not want to do a full plunge, as you can see right there. Sometimes you'll get lucky and enough switches haven't been hit and it'll give you the ball back, but not that time. I would have thought Scott would have had that down by now, but maybe he hasn't been selected on this game yet this tournament. So, it's highly it's it's definitely possible. So, back to Sean. So, you can see there he completed a three bankank and you can just see there he completed the the blue bank and he still didn't get the the outlane. So, like I said, not sure why my game sometimes gives it to you, sometimes it doesn't. But if it does light up, it will fire. You can count on it if it's lit. But it just doesn't always light up. All right, good drop catch there for James. He's going to want to work on some targets here because whether he's going for multiball or spinner, he's got to get those targets. That could be trouble. So, he nicked a target there. Hang on. Oh, did he tilt? Yeah, he moved the game pretty good there. Um, had he taken a little bit off that move, he might have gotten away with it, but yeah, that's that's going to get you in trouble. So, next up, Larry Scott. Hopefully he can uh bounce back from a very very quick ball one. He's letting the tilt bob settle down here. He's an experienced player. I'm interested to see how he goes here. Again, he's going to get his six targets, but after he gets his six targets, I'm interested to see where he goes. I just played Larry in our league finals on a firepower and he was going multiball all day while I'm a uh spinner all day kind of guy. So the multiball on firepower, if I remember right, does not give you 2x or 3x or score benefit. It's just more balls in play, right? So some people will wait to go for spinner until they have that safe trap up and separation. But I just I get spinner lit and I ignore everything else. That's all that matters, right? So a little too hard of a plunge, but he survived it. Got a good drop catch here. That can be so dangerous. So now he's got his kickback lit. Now you've got the gate removed on this one. Correct. Yeah. If it's a two plunge it all the way around, straight down the middle. Yep. Correct. And that's exactly what happened to Scott Crawford on his first ball. Great drop catch. Um Larry is a very very good drop catch control player. Now that's not the worst thing in the world. I know he's threw ball two balls with not much of a score, but he only needs one quick target and then he's got spinner lit and he can make hay pretty quickly once he gets that spinner lit. Yep. We were noting that earlier about Larry that he really has that drop catch control down. Yeah. So, he rarely feels out of control on the playfield. Yep. He can make good saves. Um he's a very good all-around player. I I It's hard for me to come up with what his strongest part is. Oh, that's a tilt. That's bad. That's a tilt. I don't know what he said, but I'm glad I didn't have the mic on. Okay, so Shawn Davis and Larry Scott are in the exact same situation right now. They have five of the six targets down and I believe the two target is the one that's left for each of Shawn and Larry. So it' be interested to see out of the two of them who can capitalize on their situation here. And in ball two, right, we're looking at ball three. No, we just started ball three. Ball three. We just started ball. Ooh, this is exciting. So what I'm going to do, I'm going to stick with this game through ball three and then Scott's going to tag back in with you. All right, sounds good. And I'm going to stretch my legs. But I'm not I love firepower. I love this era. I love Williams games from this period and I just love solid states in general. So, I'm not walking away on firepower. All right, let's see what Scott or see what Sean's got here. All three Shawn Davis, he wants target two all day his whole life. That all revolves around that one target. Yeah. All right. That flashing two target. I think he probably Oh, he went for the back of it. More control than that. There you go. That's your shot right there. So now he's got his bumpers lit, or at least two of them. You've got your lock lit on the left. Do you bother trying to reit all of these dangerous spot targets? No. Okay. He only cares about the spinner right now. Okay. And in a perfect world, he would rip a nice spinner through, get the top lock, and wait while his balls in the shooter lane as his spinner counts up because on firepower, the spinner will not award you points until it stops spinning. Oh, so if you have a quick rip through the spinner and it drains quickly, you will get zero points for that. I did not know that. Spider pin. Thank you for those bitties. Yeah, thanks for the bitties. So if he So that's why I said it's crucial. If he can rip through that spinner, he just missed the lock, but he's still going to get some good points from the spinner. And the lock isn't even really the big news. It's the spinner. It's the spinner. And then the lock up top is allowing him to let the ball rest, get those points, and then plunge his next ball. Right. So that was a good tip pass right there. Oh, he almost got a good Lucky bounce into the lock up there. Qualified fire again. Uh spinner rip. Oh, he went for the lock. Okay. If you light fire and power, what do you get out of it? Uh it advances a um a value in the center of the playfield. It each time it's an increasing value. It's not related to that target that's up there. It's just the first time you get firepower, it's like 20,000, then 40,000, then 50,000. It's just an increasing value each time you spell firepower. Nothing too crazy, but not peanuts either. Yeah, Sean is getting some encouragement from behind him. He's got a little peanut gallery cheering for him. He almost got the lucky bounce into the lock up top before and he just got it now. Yeah, you can definitely plunge into that lock. You got to get a You got to get a pretty lucky bounce off the rubber up there. But yeah, he did a nice plunge there and got it right in. Now, in order for him to light his final lock on the right, he's gonna have to get those two flashing targets. But again, if I was him, I would be ignoring that and going spinner all day, even though he's looking for it. Now, this is could be there. Okay, sometimes that kickback can be nasty. I wonder if he might want to try and get that kick back back by I would postp pass and go spinner, but I know he's going to go target. I tell you what, I would I would go target there because that kickback just saved his life and he's going to want to do that again. That's true. That's a good point. He did get his kick back back and now he's a multiple lock. Great shot. Great shot. Interesting. So for me, because you're not getting any kind of multiplier value out of a multiball, it's just get control of two of them. That's all you want to do and then go spinner from there. Don't worry about the first one you drink. Yep. Cuz then you have that that security of having another ball on trap. And if you rip a spinner and it drains quick, you got that ball on trap ready to go. You get all your points from the spinner and good to go. I think it's tempting to think about We'll say that one. Oh, that would have been a great separation if you could have hung on to it. It's tempting to think about multiball as a points bonanza, but it if you're not hitting anything, it doesn't matter. Yeah, it's just Yeah, you you want extra chances with this multiball. That's all you want. Y Okay, he got his kickback lit again. And he got it lit up right away again. So, he's still got his kickback. Now he's at a multiball spinner. Oh, I thought he was going to try and back. I thought he was going around the instant death. So, second time around, only one lock will light per six target completion. Oh, I see. Yep. Yep. So, he's he's only got your multiball. There you go. Hopefully, the ball stay up there for a while. Stay up there. Bonus right now. All right. He's right at 400,000. This is a great score. One of the best scores I've seen all weekend on it. Boy, he cannot tilt this though because he's got a really nice bonus bill. He's about He's about to max out his bonus at 3x plus. So he's got 3x and then it goes it goes up to 5x. So he's got two more bonus X he can go on the rights. Yep. Mhm. Okay. So he's not but I believe his base bonus is maxed out at 29. So around 150,000 you can get for full bonus at 5x. Oo nice nudge. So now in my opinion he's just playing with house money. So he's just trying to not tilt like you said and um yeah just take his He's very a very very solid fish to his game. Should be very happy with that ball. Yep. So, he'll get his solid bonus there. Right over 500,000. And putting putting people on their heels for sure that pressure is on in again in a tournament. Player two is around 22,000 then 29,000 and then 6,000. So, yeah, they got a lot of work to do. for the first player to come out of the gate with that kind of score in a tournament situation. It really and after two really like mediocre to bad balls like that was very very good. Yep. All right, he's going to trap up. James Scott going to take a breath. Looks like he was going spinner there. Um, spinner's not worth much. And maybe he's he's working on fire lanes. Could be. Extra balls are playable on this. So, and that's how fire lane's working towards that. So, if he feels safer at that. But oh, that's a tough game for James right there. All three for James Scott. So he's going to finish at 58 perhaps. Uh yeah, he's at 50 or 58. Yep. Yep. Sean has a little over 29. Now if you remember when Shawn stepped up to his ball, he was in the exact same situation Larry is here. So let's see who can who can uh do the best with that situation. Yep. Larry's an incredible player, but I'll tell you what, Sean made it very difficult on him. We are in game two of three here. So, we saw Larry walk away with seven points, but Shawn was right behind with five. If they were to save on ball, that was a great nudge off the sling with no I don't know if he got any dangers, but he definitely didn't tilt. So, now he got his spinner lit. If they were to trade places on this one, um then they'd be all tied up going into game three. Great shot. So, watch him wait. He's going to wait until he gets his points. He's going to wait till it stops spinning. Yep. See how his points went up super late after the spinner was done? I don't know what. Now he's going to play. What did you oil that thing with? It was just going for half an hour just now. Uh Zoom spout oiler. Amazon. Look it up. If you want to juice up your spinners, that's the stuff. Is that a sponsorship? No. They cost like $1 for a bottle that'll last 10 years. Oh, they can't afford to sponsor us. I love the alternating light colors on those bumpers. That's great. Yeah, it is cool. All right. I know he's going to go spinner all day cuz I kicked his butt at his house when I did that. Oh, man. Look at that. Hang on, ball. Oh, baby. Good. Too big of a tip. Oh, he's still got to get a hold of it. I was I'm surprised to see that he has had the most amazing tip passes today. Yeah. And he just missed that one. Okay. Yeah. Was too big of a tip. He had a hard time getting under control. We're going to try again. Post pass. Yep. A beautiful little subtle post pass. There he goes. He's got it dialed now. Just all day. If he can just And this is exactly my game right here. What he's doing right now is what I try to do every single day. Nice. Picked it up on the drop. Why not? Uh, love that little stucky. Oh no. It looks like I'm going to have to do something here. No, he's No, he's nudging. He's if he calls you over. But I'm not going to go over unless he calls me. No, he's nudging it. Oh, okay. I've gotten that. Oh, that's terrible luck. That's brutal. If he could have nudged, he would have ended up in the pops. He was on his way. That's all right. Solid effort, though. It is funny how after getting a first on the first game, if he gets second on the second one, he's still in great shape. You can have all this momentum in that moment and something like that, you have a weird pause and all that momentum like you were talking about before that the randomness of pinball. It is the randomness of pinball and there is such a psychological element. I do wonder like does it throw you off when something like that happens? All of a sudden you're not in flow anymore. And we saw he was in flow and that took him out of it. Y we saw this as well um with Scott Crawford where he got on big Indian and after a couple of house balls he couldn't turn it around. Mhm. It's very difficult. Oh that was a bad bounce out of the targets but a great save. Great save. Okay. Should feel good about that. So, right now, Scott Crawford is battling to hopefully get first place, but um we know that uh Shawn Davis can get no worse than second place, which means he's guaranteed at least five points here. But Scott would have to pull a real coup to beat that half a million. Totally possible, but I mean, he had to. His back was against the wall. He had to risk it. So, that's how it's going to finish. It looks like you've got Shawn Davis out in front. Then you've got uh who's next? Larry Scott then and they're going to be at AC/DC Premium. And I'm going to follow them there. So, we'll move that rig right now. And we're going to invite another Scott, Scott Beat, to come back up and hang out with us. We're going to follow him. We're going to stick with the Scots with all these great Scots. I think that sounds like an excellent idea. Yep. What' I miss? Well, quite a lot. I'd say we had a heck of a game of firepower there and it was just Shawn Davis ball three put up half a million points. Wow. Yep. He was having a rough ball. One and two. He shook it off, turned it around, put up half a million points on this one. And have those scores been entered yet? They have not. I assume that'll be entered momentarily cuz if Shawn Davis is able to pull if he pulled out the win there, he's up to 12 points. We're gonna have to see what Larry Scott did. And there we go. Yeah. Shawn Davis, Larry Scott, 12 and 12. Yep. So, the key for each of them in this next game of AC/DC is don't be last cuz as long as they're not last and James James Scott has to win. Yeah, we can switch. There you go. Looking good. Perfection. Yeah, we got this. Hey, Eric, are you willing to sit for a bit? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I got I got to go stretch. Uh yeah, sounds good, man. But we're going into game three of these quarterfinals, so this is going to matter a whole lot. As you said, the game is don't be last. And we called it in the middle of that last game. If Shawn and Larry switch places, they'd be tied. Here we are. And that's exactly what happened. James Scott is in the position of he has to win. Yep. And then he's got to get a little bit of help. So, we'll see if that comes. Scott Crawford, unfortunately, eliminated with the two losses, but we always play this out. We don't turn this into a three-player game at any point ever. So, he can still be a spoiler. He can make some things happen to create trouble for the other players that way. Um, let's take a quick look at our standings overall right here. Uh, all of these groups are three games in. Uh, in group number one, it is Aaron and Willie. Um, Robert struggling a little bit. A tough game on Argusy, only a third place on Iron Maiden and Cory Stuff with six points. More balls that had. That's right. uh in the group where you saw group number two. Group number three is coming down to the final game. They are four-way tied at eight points. So, World Cup soccer will determine who moves on in that group. And over in group number four, it is uh Josh Noble and John Delapo. They're in a very similar situation to what we have right here. As long as John Delapo does not come in last place, then it's going to be John and Josh moving on to the semifinals. We have a semi-finals over here in division B as well. Um Tim Ston currently winning. Uh Adam Robinson, Cody Webb tied for second. Uh and the first group we just have one game in. Nick Kennedy got the win in game number one. So we have started here in this game of AC/DC. Shawn Davis put up a actually was that Shawn? That was Shawn. Scott Crawford will be going number two here. Just 1.3 million. So continuing the trend of Shawn having a hard time on ball number one, but obviously that hasn't stopped him. He's got 12 points right now, but it's key for him. Cannot come in fourth place. If he does, then that gives an opening to James Scott to maybe turn this into a tiebreaker at some point or another. Scott Crawford just told you exactly how he felt about that ball. Even that said though, even with that, it is still a little bit better than Shaun's was. So, no harm, no foul, at least as of yet. You got to think he's feeling the stress though, having gone through a couple of fourth place finishes here. You know, just playing the string out on this. So, you know, tough road for him. As Eric is going to be joining us once again here for a few minutes, our uh tournament director, one of our event directors of Cincinnati. How you holding up? Oh, good. Thanks. Okay. Yeah, we're uh yeah, doing okay. Doing okay. We're dwindling it down. So there's I was telling guys before there's fewer and fewer opportunities for games to keep breaking. That's a positive. I feel like every round today I've been uh chasing some sort of issue. So but anyway, it wouldn't be pinball if we weren't having to fix something. I know. I think we had too much good luck yesterday that it all caught up with us today. So it happens. Um let's hope we don't have the same thing happen in the gauntlet tomorrow. So we had a quick first two players on this or do we need to switch it to AC/DC? No, we have switched to DCDC. We're good there. Um, yeah, we did have a couple of very quick play ball ones. James Scott trying to see what he can put up here. Okay, so it looks like Okay, so he picked TNT, which is what I like to call the all or nothing strategy. Very, very dangerous mode to play, but if you can survive the dangerous shots, it can be huge. Yeah, unfortunately he wasn't able to. Not for the reason that we were thinking. It wasn't the TNT targets in the middle that did him in. was not being able to make it up that left ramp. Correct. Yep. And the rejection missing some ramp shots. Um that would be that would be Eric over here. That is Chuck W. He is the one that would have been streaming this on his on on this channel. He he is straight down the middle. I am I am Scott. I am blessed to be able to come down here, help out a couple times a year for the tournaments, make the trip from Columbus. It's a blast, man. I appreciate doing it. So Larry is up right now. Hey, Rosie. It's the um I would say the safest strategy. It's the easiest mode to get all your shots lit. As you can see, everything's lit up all nice and pink right now. Yes. So any shot he hits is going to get him some song jackpot mode points. So, but man, ball one for everybody. It was pretty pretty quick. So, if you're Sean or Scott in this case, you got to feel okay because you're ball one now. It's, you know, it doesn't matter. Everyone did not have a two ball game right now. It's a two ball game. So get that first ball out of your mind. Don't think about it. You know, just put together a good ball, two, ball three, everything will be okay. Yep. And in the case of both Shawn and Larry, you know, one of them is going to move on for sure, but the key for both of them, as we said, don't be last. Yep. As long as they're not, they're going to get the requisite three points they need and move on to the next round. And James, he's off to a good start. He's leading after one ball, but I would never call a 5 million point lead in this game anything close to safe. And with these four, I know all four of these players very well, and they all know this game very well. They do. What? Okay, Eric's got to run because, as we just talked about, pinball machines like to break, and I think one maybe just had a very interesting issue right here. I appreciate that. I'm your spirit animal. That's very kind of you. One of the nicest things I've heard all day. So, here is Sean. Still has some ball save. Yeah, Chuck does a great job at everything he does up here. I am I am blessed and honored that he ha has me, you know, I can come down. I have family down this way as well. So, uh I'm happy that I can come down, see family and and and make a good weekend out of this for sure. So, he goes war machine spinner all day. Once you get that spinner activated, everything else comes into play here. Song japot 1.7 didn't go for it. Decided to try and get a spin. Got a decent spin about 375,000. Whoa, he saved that thing again. Sean has been all over the crazy saves and crazy things today. That almost was Um, I love Jurassic Park. I've gotten to play it quite a bit uh up at level one, kind of my home base. Really enjoy it. still haven't figured everything out on the machine yet. Of course, we watched a lot of people play the heck out of it. Um, we did do the tournament um did do the launch tournament up there at level one. So, starting to see a lot of strategies flesh and starting to see that balance in the game between modes, between multiball, between the the skill level it takes to get to a chaos multiball. Really good stuff. Elvra, I will freely admit I don't have an opinion yet because I have not played it and I need to fix that before I get out of here this weekend. That has got to be the second danger for him. Wow. Sean is living beyond a charge life. Yeah, Eric is Chuckworth. That's correct. Um I will tell you my you know I am I am post mine here at that time. He takes the multiball there. That's me. um as multiball has begun. He's got the ball saver with it over 10 million now. So starting to rack up a few points here. Still getting War Machine efforts as well. That ball will come back into play as the jukebox is ready to go. That one will too. By the way, if you want to follow me on whatever, I am sav 2880 on pretty much everything under the sun. So, go to town. Have fun. It's all good. Two balls trapped. Third ball up there. Still working on War Machine. Tour tickets like crazy. Here come the point. 17 million. Next shot. He's got combos going. That whole set of things that happened right there. 5 million points all right there. I mean, you can see it. He's getting great combinations of both War Machine spinners and tour multiball all at the same time with what he's got combined right now. So, 26 million. It was like barely any, too. It's weird how it does that. Hey, it makes for more exciting finals, right? So, all I heard before you walked away is a post has come loose. Yeah. So, World Cup soccer by the assist hole that kicks it into the goal up there. A post came loose, ball was stuck on it, got it out, tightened the post, all is good. Okay, good. And then when I got back to the desk, uh Larry Scott had mentioned uh that he appreciated me loosening up the tilt on AC/DC. He said, I guess Shawn Davis just made a pretty big move on it. And oh my god, it would have definitely tilted before. If he made that move earlier in the day, that would have been an insta tilt. Yeah. So I So I said, "Well, hey, it makes for a more exciting finals, I guess. Let's let them play a little more." And yeah, no doubt when it's something like this, as long as everybody has is is in the same position. They're playing the same game. Yeah. Loosen it up. Let's make this game a little bit more fun to play. You know, by herb scoring here. Yeah, Spider. Uh Scott's really good at this stuff, so I always appreciate when he can uh help us out cuz it makes the stream that much better. I am so happy with all the viewers we've had today. So, it's great. That's because of the quality pinball. If I bring one or two people with me, I've done something. There you go. Um, so strong ball too for Sean. That's a great job. Scott Crawford trying to trying to create some ruckus here. you know, get some points, you know, get out, you know, he won't be able to get out of the cellar unless James has such a bad game here, but he can definitely make things interesting for everybody else and certainly wants to show well on this machine, too. That's jackpot song. Jackpot 1.8. Is he going to go for it? No. Looks like he was opting for a potential bell shot there. If you can get it just I would say if I was in Scott's position and Sean had another poor ball too, I would have definitely just taken, you know, the the the pitily song jackpot points, get some points on the board and then keep going. I normally go bell just to work my way towards the playfield multiplier, but that's only when I'd be in a situation like this where I need more than just some pitily points to get back in it. Yeah. Is there a magic number when you're playing this game? And I'm sure it changes when you're playing at home or whether you're playing in a tournament that you're like for a song jackpot, I'm going to take this. It's too good not to. I would say when I'm playing competition and it's like 8 million or higher, I'm definitely taking it. Okay. You I I I'll probably waiver if it's a little bit under that. Mhm. But if it's like 5 million or under, I'll usually pass. Um if it's approaching 10 million, I'll always take it. Okay. Certainly an interesting question. Yeah. If you're playing this at home, all rules are off because Oh, yeah. At home, I I do the stupidest stuff. At at home, my goal is a 300 million song jackpot. So, I have to wait until I have over a 100 million built up and then get 3x playfield going in order to do that. So, that's a monster. And I've I've come close. Oh, man. But yeah, that's what I try to do at home. Wow. Those are numbers I only dream of. Maybe even in virtual. I haven't gotten there either, but it's just always something I've had in the back of my head. That'd be sweet to pull off. It would be. Make sure you're recording it when you do. That's all I ask. I I definitely try to. Heck yeah. All right. So, James has to take his ball saver here. Sitting at 8.4 million. Pretty much none of the other numbers on this machine that you're seeing matter other than what Shawn has right now. He's got to make sure he's in first place. Otherwise, he's done. Okay. So, he started his multiball. He needs one drop target to um to get his TNT done. Okay, so TNT is done. He needs the spot target behind it to light everything. And you saw he just took a pot shot at missed it. It's very difficult target to hit, but while you're in ball save of multiball is a good time to go after it. Now he has a decision to make. Sometimes I So he's still trying to physically hit it. He can. And there you go. He started it. All right. So now he's got all the shots lit for his TNT mode. And there goes multiball. But oh baby. Oh that's his double. But this TNT mode can get pretty valuable and your song jackpot jumps up pretty quick. But he just couldn't keep the ball going. You can see he had a pretty terrible multiball. Nothing really happened and he jumped up to 16 million because of that TNT mode and lighting all those shots. So you don't need to stay alive for too long to get a decent score in TNT. But fortunately James needs a win here to have any kind of shots. So hopefully, and it's probably why he went for the all or nothing TNT strategy to be honest. It makes sense cuz he could quickly jump up, maybe sneak a win, and then get Sean or Larry to take a last, but we'll see. We shall. Ain't over yet. Yeah, Larry currently in fourth place. Of course, has not played his ball number two. Be interesting to see what he goes for. He went a whole lot of Rosie on ball number one, so that mode should continue here. So, I'll be interested to see what he does here. Okay, he went bell. I think he knows that he just he needs more than a little. So, it's kind of he'd rather work towards a playfield multiplier than take the around one and a half million song jackpot. Yeah, with everything lit on Whole Lot of Rosie, that song jackpot has a great potential to grow very quickly. It grows very quickly. Now it doesn't grow. Uh, sorry. The each shot you make doesn't add to it as much as other modes because of the shots being less lubricant. Exactly. So there's they're always lit. So yeah. Yeah. You just got to make more, but it's easier to make them. Makes sense. Got one more for that. A nasty feed, but he saved it. That was good. Hang on. You'll have to go back and watch Sean save in this game. It was It was a juggle for the agents. All right. Sorry about that. Got to drink some water. Oh, yeah. Gets into multiball here. This is where Larry Scott can be deadly. He's an excellent multiball player, especially on modern machines. Oh wow. No dangers on that move there. Wow. Ah, it's a bad line here. He had VIP passes to get his attab ball. So that was smart. Well done. That's right. That would be Mark Smith. Mark Smith USA. Mark Smith USA realer to the pinball stars is responsible for all the water for all the players and people in the terminary this weekend. It has been a huge help to not have to know that there's a a bucket of water over there at all times. Cold water no less. Oh yeah. He's been on it reicing it, rewatering it, everything. He's been great. He's played some great pinball this weekend, too. Yeah, he's a he's a good player. Two more for album. Almost bad, but keeps it alive. That song jackpot now up to 7.3 million. Now it might be at that magic point where, as we said, he might start to think about, oh, he's not able to keep it. Oh, nonetheless, at least for the moment, Larry has accomplished what he needs to. He's in second place right now. Has a nice solid lead over Scott Crawford. So really what Scott does. Larry may be safe if Scott doesn't catch him because then he's it's impossible for him to get last. But then that would But if James ends up winning, then they could Well, wait. So he'd be 15 to 13. Yeah. So Larry just needs to survive Scott Crawford's ball and he's moving on. Yeah. basically, you know, Sean does here. Same for Shawn, cuz Shawn will get three if he ends up getting anything but last. So, yeah, at least three. So, Scott Crawford's going to have to climb out of a hole to possibly give James a shot at moving on. He is. So, Shawn right here, player one, it's just play out on pinball. Just get as many points as you can. You know, that's the advantage of being player one right here. You don't have to think about what everyone else is going to do. You get to play your whole game. Don't have to think about it. Just do what you were going to do. Rack up those points. Jam multiball now lit. Thanks for the bitties, Joseph. Thank you, man. Joseph has been on the bits all week and almost 1500 of them. Very much appreciate it. Missed on the multiball shot, but he has the multiball. That's the more important thing right here. Doubled up on the bell right then. Got both balls in the right spot. And he's working on TNT now as well. Did he get the ball save? He did. Now we're getting some lucrative shots on TNT. Over a million per hit right now. This was pretty smart with his lead. He felt very safe and comfortable to start TNT instead of continue whatever mode he was playing before. So now he can take that risk of getting those extra points cuz he doesn't necessarily need them. But if he gets them, oh baby, this is going for the dagger right there. Put it away. Make sure by Sean. It's a smart move right there. The risk is so low because you've already got a really good score. Yep. And the reward is unbelievably high because you're putting it out of range. Mhm. Great thinking here in tournament style play for Sean. I mean, he's getting 1.3 a shot right here. TNT can be crazy. And okay. Do you think he's switching now to something where he can have an easier pop shot at the song jackpot? And I don't know if you get a little bit more of a uh song bonus when you switch the song if you switch to a different song. Um I don't necessarily think that's true. I don't think it's true. So again, yeah, maybe he's just going with what he's comfortable with. Yeah, he's feeling hell's bells next, so he get the playfield multipliers. The question I have is does one mode give you an easier route to get to your song jackpot shot? No, the song jackpot shot is purely based off the the lanes that are down at the bottom of the playfield, the fire lane. Oh, he missed it. Wow. Everybody's in for that. He's got a crowd of people watching TV. Oh, would have been 42 million. Wow. And the reaction of the crowd. Oh my goodness. [Laughter] You should know better not to hit it these days. Tell Tim that. Tim, that's Tim's fault. He should know never you should know never to hit the song jackpot drop target straight on. Never do that. God God love you, Dirty Toes. Look what Dirty Toast just wrote. Oh, the bricking song jackpot target. The only argument I will hear for the AC/DC Pro to being better, it has standup targets. never have to worry about the song jackpot not registering. No. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Cuz that's what happened right there. He pricricked the target, right? The target didn't drop and he hit it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It looked like it was on It was on target. Okay. Yeah. So, that's unfortunate. Oh my goodness. So, here is Scott. He's at 9 million right now. Got to get another 7 million or else we know who's going to move on. He is not going to be able to do it. So, unfortunately for Scott, that means he's going to go fourth place all the way. A threepoint set for him. Tough break. That's so James can play this thing out if he wants to, but he will not be able to get the the necessary points because Shawn and Larry are guaranteed at least three points in this game. He will only be able to get to 13. So, I think at this point we can safely say they're playing this one out for fun. Yes. Yes, sir. Unfortunately. So, I think we're about ready to start the next round. So, I'm going to hop off and keep things moving. Eric, thank you for everything you're doing. We're going to be at the final four for B. That's right. And we're going to follow them as the next group. So, we will get you that finals. Let's take a look at the standings right now in B semis. Um, we can tell you in one group, Tim Ston did make B finals and it looks like Adam Robinson got it as well. Was able to get enough points in that last game to do it. So, it'll be Adam Robinson, Tim Ston, and we're waiting on who comes out of the group. Everyone still has a chance here. Todd Dennis has got to win firepower in order to do it, but he absolutely could still make it happen. Dale Nun and Nick Kennedy in the lead right here. We'll go back and watch the rest of this game for James Scott here. He's up to 19 million here. He's got TNT. Still going with the TNT. Not big points just because of not being able to cash in that shot quickly enough. And he's definitely doing his best. Now, that one registered for 1.8 million. And I'm sure Sean's looking at that saying, "Where was that when I needed it?" So yeah, Shawn and Larry will be in a division semifinals. They'll be in the final eight. And James Scott may not be able to make it here, but at least with a good finish here, that's going to help his final placement. And all of these, you know, these are not, you know, empty games either. Even though it's a pride game, you know, th this will maybe help determine how many Whopper points he gets out of this tournament if he's able to earn more points in this round. 11 points in this round would probably get him a a better finish as far as his Whopper placement and that could I mean it might be one or two points. It may not end up mattering for State because of his ranking. He's 134th after. Yeah. And Eric said the same thing. It is sneaky high scoring. Like you look, you blink and suddenly you've got big time points and what it does for the song jackpot just the same is just as important. He took I think he took a VIP pass to get himself an addabal there as well. Smart way to do it. You know, we're seeing guys who understand the rules very much. Hi, Holly. Holly, sit down if you want to. You're not allowed to be sneaky. You have to come over and actually say hi. We want you to By the way, show off that shirt to to the world right here. That shirt is so cool. Pinball King, home of the Whopper. I love it. I got to get me one of those at some point. All right, so James is playing this one out. Unfortunately, for fun, he's trying to catch Shawn Davis's score of 60 million. Um, he will not be able to make it to finals because neither Shawn nor Larry will come in last place. So, this is for fun. It's for some extra whopper points maybe if he can get it. Yes. H how you have amazing hair. Oh, Dirty Toe says you have amazing hair. Oh, thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, we try. What's this one going to be worth? 22 million. He nails the song jackpot. I believe that. Yeah, that puts him in first place in the group now. That's right. 2019 whip champion. We can never say that. James that never surprises me. No, I mean he knows this machine. He's played it on the regular. So he'll take one more shot for good measure here and he will end up at 75. So he passes Shawn on that machine. So provided Larry's not able to catch him, that means as this ends right now, James would get to 13, but Shawn will go to 17, Larry will go to 15. So there it is. It's a tough break. And yeah, Larry's just going to let this thing go, not worry about playing it out cuz I think we are near the end. Hi, Tish. It's Tish. But a great job by James to make the comeback on that. Great game on there by Shawn. He almost should have had 100 million points. I don't know if you saw the what? I I did not see the whole game by any means, but did you hear the hoot and hollerin? Uh, no, because Wayne and I were overchecking out the new Alvara. Oh, what do you We were just talking about the new machines. What do you think of the new Alvara so far? Do you like it? I I think it's good. The uh the ram shots are smooth. Uh the ability to lock the ball seems good. There's like the kind of the the I don't want to call it a hidden lock, but there's like a hidden lock on the left hand side. Okay, that's I'm still not quite sure like how that actually happens and how you actually get the ball in there. Fair enough. Um the hardest shot is the um like the little house shot that's right next to the right orbit. Okay, it's left of the right orbit. Um, so that that's a bit challenging, but you know, it's a it's a good game. The design, of course, the appreciation for the art alone, right? Yes. Um, is outstanding. Um, the modes are interesting. Okay. Haven't gotten through a lot of them, but then there was like some dance party fever mode and then there was like some makeout mayhem. So, I'm like I want to know what dance party sounds like from Have you played some scared stiff, right? Yes. So, you remember the dance party mode from Scared Stiff? Nope. You don't? No. It is something you earn on the wheel. Hold on. Let me try and do the voice. Put on your good shoes and dance with me. That's what it sounds like. It is a mode that you earn through spinning the spider wheel. I don't know if I've ever actually gotten that or I've never heard it because the volume's never up loud enough. That could be it. And now it's also a mamushka style mode and I'm partially deaf so there's that. Well, I'm kidding. Not really. just old. I I say it's a mammushka mode because I know that would turn some people away from doing that mode because even though it can be very good on your points and on your bonus, you know, there were a lot of games of that type where you had it and gives you that false we've talked about gives you the false sense of security that you need to hit everything and then you do a lot of stuff. Yeah, I forget what it's called. Let let me look it up real quick here. Scared stiff dance mode. Find out. Dancing boogeyman mode. Or at least that's what this Yeah. Scared S machine LED lit dancing boogeyman. So there you go. I normally once I get up into the spider area, I normally end up selecting everything that I wasn't going for and we just kind of have to haphazardly play with that. So, you know, but what do you think of what Dirty Toes is saying right now? Boogie fever. That's it. Wait, what? Did you ever do roller derby? Yes, I did. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Dirty Toes is saying you would do well at it. Having no idea that you have already done roller derby. Oh, yeah. I did that. I've been there, done that. Checked that box. Went to uh went to rehab for my rotator cuff. Um, how long did you How long did you do roller derby? M. Yeah, that was a long time ago. Did you ever do that against anybody from Cincinnati? Yeah. Okay. Um, that was in my early early 20s. I probably was I probably did that for like three to five probably three to five years. So, probably early as maybe mid odds. You probably know someone I used to know that did roller derby. We'll talk about that offline. Okay. Yeah, fair enough. Whatever. But yeah, no, I I I did that for quite a while and that was fun. I mean, let's face it, like, there's nothing like running into somebody with all your might full force and then knocking them over. Like, there's nothing like it. It's pretty good. It's pretty satisfying, you know. Not going to lie, just the sound of it, it sounds like a lot of fun. Well, and then we would also do these different uh we would also do these different fundraisers. So, we also did full contact musical chairs. Yes. So, that was a thing. Uh we did that in bars as like fundraising events. So the first year that we did it, we really were not quite prepared. So we're like, "Oh yeah, we're just going to use these plastic lawn chairs. Everything will be fine." Oh god. And there was no limit on drinking or anything else. So you had fans like buying shots and they were plastic lawn chairs. So people were like slamming into these chairs and it was like very WWE like theatrics of like plastic legs like flying off into the crowd. I can appreciate this very much by the way. Yeah. Yeah. So that was a thing. And um then we kind of got a little smarter about things and then we got we did folding chairs so there's more sustenance there. Yes. Um but the thing is it it wasn't like your normal full contact Well, I mean of course it's full contact using the chairs but right you know once the music stopped just cuz you had a chair didn't mean that you were safe because somebody who didn't have a chair could like dump you out. It's full contact. Yeah. So, it was it was a thing. But, um, yeah, we actually, if I remember right, we had, uh, we had somebody break some of their knuckles because they had grabbed the chair and straddled it backwards and then they got dumped out and like the where they were holding on to the back of the chair just kind of tipped forward and they they got injured. So, um, yeah, interesting times, but yes. Oh, jeez. Been there, done that. And Dirty Toes be saying, "My Portland roller derby team does an amazing burles show every year. I would do a full contact pinball tourney. I want to do a pinball attorney in the style of professional wrestling. Uh if we're doing a full contact pinball tournament, like sign me up. Pinball Mania. Uh yeah, we I mean yeah, we can make that happen. I won pinball mania. I mean, I've got these roller derby skills. I can't use them on like people I work with, so I've got to like do something else with them. I've done a retro game tournament before in the form of a wrestling event where we played nothing but old old school video old school wrestling video games. There you go. That should come back to level one. Chris, I know you're not watching, but you need to help me do it. Dude's busy with so much crap it's not even funny. And so am I, so I understand. Um, pinball in the style of a wrestling promotion. You know, Kim would be all over that. Tisha is all about it. She's like, "Oh, yeah. I'm all about pinball attorney." Yeah, we'd have to have people sign waivers. Yeah, waivers would have to be a thing, especially if we had it at the bar. Yeah, very much if we had it at the bar. Yeah. So when I did derby, I ended up being voted a fan favorite because it was it was interesting because you got to kind of play this this persona. Uhhuh. Um, so you know, I had 18 years prior experience of roller skating. So I was like way out ahead skill-wise of of most of the people there. So yes, I would just go out ahead and like taunt people and just act like a total jerk. So my nickname, ironically enough, ended up becoming jerkface. So, which is ironic because I do not think of you as a jerk face in any way, shape, or form. Thank you. Yeah. No, the persona part was really fun to play though. You know, you get out there and you're just kind of like this this giant arrogant turd, you know, who's is running around there and uh beating people up. So, heck yeah. Yeah, it you know, it worked out. Very cool. Day in the life. I love it. Full contact pinball. Let's make it happen. It's going to be the next thing. Yeah. We'll just have to get waiverss and uh you know figure out we got the the rules. That'd be the hardest part. Yeah. Like when does it go too far? Because at least in derby there were some things where it's like you know it wasn't like a free-for-all. It wasn't like a wrestling thing. It was you know if you you could not use elbows, you couldn't elbow people. Uh you couldn't kick people. I mean there were certain like there were legal ways to hit people. Makes sense. You know, it's like how do you enforce that? Like who do we have become referees? I mean, this is a whole thing. It is. We probably would need roller derby people to help us determine these things. Yeah, it's possible. We could I know we could find people. That is the Yeah, that's the whopper shirt. That is totally the Whopper shirt. Rage. It's Rage. There you go. Go buy your shirts. I want it. Not that this shirt's a bad shirt. It's just an, you know, it's a nice quality. Yeah. Hey, I did get my shirt, so I'm ready to go. What do we got going on here? That's the dude I need to go hunt down. So, I was looking for coffee earlier. Oh, Adam. No, there was just some dude from the hotel was walking by with coffee. I'm like, I need to talk to you. I could use some coffee. Sounds good. I have bourbon. It's watered down bourbon. Want to drink? There you go. Cheers. I got to drive some, but like I said, it's very watered down, so keep that in mind. Still all right. Still good. Still bourbon. It's bourbon. That's right. So, we got some game choosing right now. The finals are up. We can tell you it is Tim Ston, Nick Kennedy, Adam Robinson, and Dale Nun will be the group. They're going to be starting out on Game of Thrones Premium. Game of Thrones just killed me this week. I I apparently need to make friends with that game real fast. Um, I mean, it's it's playing very well. I was just playing very poorly, so there's that. So, had you played before this weekend a lot of the premium version of Game of Thrones? We have a lot of pros in Columbus. We the only premium that I knew of and it was very temporary. Yes, this is B Finals. Um, you see the link down here, the matchplay.link. I will post that in chat for everybody. Calling you out on your waste of water. Are you calling bourbon a waste of water? You said it was watered down though, so that's why they're saying it's But is it a waste of water or a waste of bourbon? Like, which is it? Neither, cuz there's still bourbon in it, thus I'm going to drink it. That's true. Look, it started its life as ice and it served such a wonderful purpose for me as as a drinker of the beverage. I feel like that's what I should have done this morning is like had a shot of bourbon. I'd wake you up. Well, just like loosen me up a little bit. played a little tense this week and it did not end in my favor, but you know, you live and you learn. Oh, dirty toes. You're not wrong. More bourbon, less water. I'm not disagreeing with that sentiment. Yes, I agree as well in any way, shape, or form. But if I don't get to the bourbon in time because I'm doing very important things like streaming pinball and you know, I got to drive at some point or another. So, I'm being very conservative. Well, you're not going back tonight, are you? I got to go back to Northern Kentucky. I got to drive a little bit. Okay. Not a lot. Well, worst case, we'll just like we'll get you a lift and we'll lift you home and then we'll lift you back here and then you'll be good. Hang on. Here. So, looks like we've got Tim up on a his first set of Game of Thrones. Sorry, guys. Sending a quick message. You're all good. Yes. Yeah. I found I I was after watching other people because I had not played this version of this game before. uh Game of Thrones. I'm I don't know. I'm just not I'm not I like the TV show, but like I'm just not a super fan of the game, you know? But then again, it's like that's that's kind of like the mentality that I have to take with it. It's like, okay, well, I don't really necessarily like this game because I don't necessarily play it well, so I just need to spend some quality time with it. But I did notice that when people were up in that top tier playfield and just kind of, you know, postp passing the ball back and forth to get up into that upper left uh that upper left corner or to hit the little targets that were out front without actually going all the way through. That's where you were racking up a point. Yes. 3x playfield right now for Tim. You saw the jousting award that he got just before Black Modern Multiball. That's there's another 13.7 million. So just like that, he's already at 124 million on this one. I have a feeling with him being player one, he probably had and I think he did have game selection. So I'm not shocked in the least that he went for Game of Thrones. I mean, if anybody knows this machine, it's going to be him. The exposure that he has this everyday working at CERN, it's a nice advantage to have. Yes. Well, and he played very well. He's played sensationally this whole weekend and it's a nice comeback to see him make B division finals here. He is ranked 133, so he is eligible for the cash if he wins it. Ironically, he could win a tournament every single day. This is the funny thing about the Triple Crown Award that we talked about earlier. If he wins this, he could win a tournament, a part of a tournament every single day and not win the Triple Crown because he didn't win A division, he won B division. Do we know what the cash prize is for me? Um, I do not. We can get that information from uh Eric. I'm sure we can get that. That thing came down so fast. Nothing could have done. But a super jackpot for 17 million on the black water. Well done. Got about 18 mil and 35 mil. Heck yes. We'll talk about the things in chat here in just a minute. Another super jackpot for him. That one. 35 million. Another one. I think he's already got the replay on the machine. Another one. Really? I need the Game of Thrones tutorial from Tim. Oh my god, this is ridiculous right now. Yeah, he got replayed like three shots ago. We just didn't have the heart to show you. Yeah, no big deal. Just on ball one. I've got like 43. Oh my goodness. This is a masterpiece right now. There's 2x with a playfield. There's 2x with a 6x on top of it. Three balls in play right now. 400. He's got the middle and the left middle shot at 9x right now. He's got them all at 9x and he knows it. He's putting everything into play right now. Anything he gets is going to be huge points right now. The Blackwater jackpots are up to 23 million. Tim is out of control. This is ridiculous. This show did we didn't know we were going to get this kind of show on ball one. Yeah. No doubt he knows the game, but not just he knows the game. I mean, he's making this happen. It's one thing to know it, it's another thing to execute it. And right now, he is doing both to perfection. Well, and he also knows that, you know, in any case, especially what from what I've seen in this tournament, like there there is no safe haven with any game that you're on. If you have a lead, there is no no significance that that's going to to stay that way. Agreed. So, yeah, he's got to put up a huge ball here knowing the players behind him. I would say Adam and Dale especially, absolutely can run this thing all the way back. I don't know Nick nearly as well, but a lot of Kennedy play a lot of people in that Kennedy family. 434 million just on Blackwater. Wow. Holy crap. 591 sitting right now. Wow. Side note, I feel like we need like we need like bourbon runners. Yeah. Yeah. Like to get us more bourbon. Hold on. Look over there. Where is there a bottle over there? Or did Justin take his bottle? I don't see anything. Oh, Justin took his bottle with him. I'm going to have to give him a hard time. So, if anybody has gotten our gifts Food, food, bourbon. We're not picky. It's all good. Yeah. No, it's fine. It's fine. There's a lot of good food around here. Everything's under control. Jungle gyms. Um Oh my goodness. What a ball for Tim Ston right then. So Nick Kennedy, congratulations. You You see the look on his face like, "God, I got to follow that." Yeah, I wouldn't want to follow that either. I would I understand that completely. I mean, you know, even and and and it's important now to remember this is only game one. You know, if you come out of this with a second place, you've got five points. You're only trailing by two. Yes, it's the finals, but the key here, don't fall behind badly. So, a second place finish here, if Tim Saxon's running away with this thing, that's not the worst thing ever. It's really not. So, they're running this like finals from yesterday, correct? Yeah, this is like the finals from yesterday. It's a It's three games. 7531. Got it. So yes, same exact idea. Three games like your qualifying rounds were. So imagine this is simply one of the qualifying rounds. Standard, you know, I think Papa IPA had to head three games like you experienced at the whip tournament. I do think that we need to uh we need to work on getting ourselves one of those fancy fancy rigs at level one. No, it just seems like it would be It is a wonderful, wonderful rig. I would love to have it for sure. Or Alex at this point, he's like, you know, under the machines constantly trying. And Jen, too, Jen's become an expert at that. We've gotten great at the setup, but you know, you can see how nice the setup is. And remind me before I get out of here, I want to take pictures of exactly what cameras he's using. Well, and that was the one thing that I did that I did comment on is that that the cameras to me would be a little bit nerve-wracking because I believe at Whipped Mhm. we didn't have them. There wasn't anything like at least there wasn't anything in my main view of cameras. So, I don't know. I can't remember if they were like more off to the side or if they had I think they might have even had other separate ones that the side ones because there was nothing like in my direct view of the game that had cameras for the front. They used to have a crap ton of very small HDMI mini almost mini cameras, okay, that they use for this machines. I don't know if they recycled them to use it for their wireless setup cuz this was the first year they had it fully wireless. You remember it used to be they had a setup on every single machine and had switchers across everything. So I mean probably miles worth of HDMI cables. All that play by the way for Nick Kennedy that you just saw for 8 million points. That is the advantage of knowing the rule set on this as well as Tim does. You know, the ball the ball lengths. Tim had a longer ball length, but not by drastic amounts, but the point difference is very drastic. Bad break for Adam right then to get that drain. That was kind of how my games went today. Tish's response. Hi, Scott. Wait, what? Tish's response. Hi, Scott. Hi, Tish. Hi. Hi, Tish. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Um, yeah. Yeah. If anybody wants to bring us bourbon, please feel free and do so. I will not stop anyone. Do we have bourbon runners? Anyone? I don't know. Does any I was supposed to run to the party source tonight. Those of you who know this area know if you want the good stuff, you run to Kentucky and you get the good stuff cuz it's cheaper and they have more of it. I hope we didn't just break federal law by saying that. Probably not. I don't think I'm going to have a chance to do it tonight. Yeah, probably not. I'm thinking not. Or if I do, it'll be like at 11:30 and they close at midnight. And God love that part of Newport. I don't know if I want to be there at 11:30 at night. Yeah, probably. No, probably not so much. But yeah, the bar on the inside here, they had like a minimal minimal selection, so you had to go to the the bar bar where they had like the Makers. That was the Well, that was Yeah, that's what I was drinking last night. Makers. It's not bad. Yeah. I mean, was hoping for Woodford, but we didn't have that, so we had to we had to go to Makers. Mind me to tell you off stream what I just got from my mom this weekend. Oh, it involves Woodford. Interesting. Double oak. 20 years old. Oh, fancy. Yeah. Your mom is a fancy lady apparently. Uh, my dad was. It was her bourbon. My dad was the bourbon guy. Gotcha. Yes. We'll talk about Al. We have Game of Thrones to talk about right now for Dale Nun right now. So, let's see where he's at. Getting saber cells. 9.6 million right then. Let's we'll see where he's at when the score pops back up or when this drain happens, unfortunately. see where he's at because I played Dale earlier and he had a really really good start even when when we played. So, it's definitely million definitely less than what his start was initially when we played. So, maybe there's some jitters there. Maybe not. But, I mean, who wouldn't be intimidated by 634 million on ball one? Agreed. So, there's that. Is he getting a ball save? He short plunged it. Did not activate anything. He did that time. So, he's not going to get that benefit again. He almost did the same thing there. Oh, nice. Very cool. Hamburger, that's awesome. Feel free to shout him out if you want to. If you don't mind, you know, saying your uncle's name on Twitch. If you don't want to converse that information, that's perfectly fine as well because this is uh this is the internet after all. Yeah, it's true. We understand. So, not a whole lot right there for Tim. Not a big deal. Don't think he's worried about it. I don't think he is either, nor should he be at this point. Again, with the way this new machine is playing, this is not an insurmountable number in any way, shape, or form, but someone's going to have to put some good things together to make it happen. It's going to take some serious work. Ah, Darren Martin, good dude. Very much enjoyed hanging out with him. So, what thing in chat was I going to mention a minute ago? Oh, that's a tough break for Nick. Just couldn't control the ball coming off that flipper. Lots of other low scores though otherwise. Yeah, very much so. Oh yeah, that's the thing. Uh Spider Pin was talking about sleeping under the pinball machine. I think someone almost did that at last year's show because of drinking a lot of fireball at the Cincy Pinball booth. Fireball. That's a That's a Have you not visited the white tent? That's a That's a rough choice. That's what they have a fireball thing over there. Adam with another tough drain on ball number two for him as well. Ah, keep voice down. I know nothing. What is this white tent you speak of? Yeah, it's over there somewhere. Okay, I will be taking a wander after I leave here. It has Jou Pinball. You want to play Jou Pinball? Okay, I will trust you on this. Yeah, Joust Pinball is great. It has VCON. It's the Phoebe tent and it has all the stuff that Phoebe has. Ah, look at that. And Vcon and all the good games. I don't know if she brought a rat race. Dale with a tough round as well there. Shout out to Kit Burke, my bringing me my uh my other little bubs. That's very nice. Do you want one? No, thank you. Okay. Appreciate it, though. So, we're going into ball number three. No one really able to do appreciable amounts of things on ball number two. So, we're in the same position. The the race here for second place, I think, is what we're looking at. Five points in this game is significantly important. It doesn't, as we said, it doesn't matter if you lose by 5 million or 500 million. If you're second place, you're getting those five points. Well, and I mean, especially on this game, there's there's huge opportunities to make drastic shifts upward. So, again, you know, yeah, Tim has a pretty significant lead here, but at the same point, can't count anybody out at this point. You can't. You definitely can't. And even if they don't run it all the way back, if you come out of this thing trailing by two points, you're in prime position on two games that can absolutely Yeah, we saw Darren play. Absolutely. We've had him on stream the last couple of days. Very, very good deal. Um there's opportunity here both in Surf Champ and Stars to make that up. Those are games that you know, Tim, maybe are very equalizing. Surf Champ especially Stars 2. We've seen some crazy things happen the past couple of days on Stars. So to see that as the deciding game for the B division finals, that's going to be a lot of fun. I was I was really hoping I would actually get to play that in tournament play today, but I I unfortunately did not. But I did get to play Surf Champ and I actually had played Surf Champ in Pittburg as well. And it's it's a great it's a great little machine. It is. I love it. And Nap's absolutely right. He's had a billion plus on Game of Thrones ball 3. We just saw Tim do it and really that was not with a super long ball. Now he just just rocked Tyrell there to the point of 129 million. So he's got the combos, he's got the multipliers down the way he wants it again and drains out. So about say that ball was moving real fast. Is moving super fast. One minute of really good momentum in there which was great but not sustained enough to get him to 862 though. So Nap has set the bar. All right, Nick has got some major ground to make up here. Let's see if he can get it done. He's going up her playfield. Nobody's really holding that upper play field too much right now. Kind of surprised. And with these low scores, everyone has a lot available to them as well. He is smartly choosing to put a couple modes in play. We're Lannister and Martell. And he has his Blackwater going. This is opportunity right now for Nick to put something together. Control and patience is a virtue right now. Yeah, it is. You can be a little reckless right now. You have a little ball saver, but you see how quickly it goes off the board. Yes. And he did start two modes with Blackwater right here. So, this is this is the time for him to make his big move. It's already starting. He's up to 51 value growing. We don't see what the multiplier is there. still just one X. So if he knows the shots, he wants to build those multipliers up a little bit. That is not a bad play. Oh, that is a tough drain on the right side. Good catch there. So unfortunately got the 2x multipliers lit at the absolute wrong time right when this thing became a single ball game once again. He's got that ramp is a little risky right now. 11 seconds in Lannister, 20 seconds in Martell. Not able to add to hard outlane drain. Yeah, to the left. That will get him to 126 million though. So that does put pressure on Adam and Dale to at least try and run this up to that score and not avoid a disastrous start on on game number one here. Get one or three points. Still a lot to play for for both these players. It is game one. You can absolutely come back and win this thing even if you get a fourth place on the first game. It's hard. Yeah, you probably based on the winning scores we've seen so far and the fact that someone has to win this thing, it probably will require two wins. Think he is done. I think he is too. Has it registered yet? No, he does have the ball up there. I lied. Sorry, folks. Because unlike the other rounds, this is final. So, it is determining whoever has the most points in the group. It's probably safe to assume if you if you come in fourth in this one. I mean, he does have his luck with He does. There you go, Tish. You just saw the shot right there. It is the right ramp that takes you to the upper playfield. So sitting at 12 mil. Did he get it? Think he's got ball two. That is ball two. See he's got one more that he's got to get that lock lid. Nice job of dead bouncing and ended up putting it back on the flipper, but he took a lot of the momentum off the ball to put it. He's got his lock lit. So, let's see if he can uh see if he can maintain control and get the multiball started. Nice shot. There it is. Got it. And just like the player before him, Nick, he's going into it with a pair of modes. Let's see if he's able to make this happen. Sitting at 27 right now. So, he needs to get about 100 million on this combination to pass Nick. Agree. Very good shot. And now he's got the multipliers up. He's got him up to 3x right now. Everything he gets right now is going to have very good value to it. Raoy over. But now he's got some 6x shots on the board, but drains out of multiball. Is he going to get that mode with it though? He did get one on the road. 9 million for that shot. He's up to 102. Boy, if he can get either of those shots for 9x right now, that could be really nice. He got one. That looked like a nine. 51 million big time points. Good use of the danger. He lost Greyjoy, but that's a nice recovery to get that 50 million point shot. That will put him in second place now. Another 94 million. So great Lannister mode up to 287. Wow. Nice nice work put in by Adam here. He did. He's got a danger on the board, but that is a nice combination of shots right there to make that happen. And he's still getting some 9x bonus points for for things he's getting. But now another mode would be really nice to have. That's his winter is coming at right now. He's trying for that ramp to get back up in that upper play field. He does collect it. Opportunity again for two modes here. Which two is he going to go with? Greyjoy and Tyrell. Greyjoyy's got a fast timer on it. Only 15 seconds. Gets himself a jousting award. Yeah, not a lot of time here. Did he buy? Interesting. That's a double. It's making me nervous with all those dangers that are happening right now. I think at this point he has to go for it though. He's not he doesn't have a choice but still, you know, player anxiety. No doubt. Another Justin award for 25 million. So had some huge chunks earlier in this ball. He's playing very well right now. Did not go all the way up. That should be another Justin award. 88.2. Wow. And ball two luck for Blackwater. Well, he's about halfway to Tim. And he's got some 8x shots on the board and added time for the mode. That was weird. It said 5 seconds added, but then that might have been after the mode was over. Weird coke glitch right there. Yeah, Adam is now very dialed in on this machine. He's making stuff happen. Two more for Targaryen. Is that it? That might be it. Back to Greyjoy and Tyrell again. No, he needs one more shot. Oh, it went down the center. Not quite. Still a great ball for Adam right there. Great effort. That'll get him to 461 million and solidly in second place in the group. Yeah, Dale's Dale's definitely got some work to do here. Totally doable, but no pressure. If nothing else, Adam accomplished what he needed to to make sure he's getting a good result. Yes. In this round, as we said, you can come back from last place. It is extremely complicated to do. So, the if he leaves this with five points, I think that's mission accomplished. Yeah, it would be different if if Tim Scmore was the only hefty one put up on the board and everybody was kind of buying for second, but yeah. Um, yeah, looks like Dale just not able to do anything for that. So, tough break for him on that one. So, we are going to move over to Surf Champ here. We will refresh the scores right now. I don't know if anybody's aware to move the machines. So, and by the way, let's let's show Tim some love. He is putting initials on the board in B division finals. It's a good time to put some initials on there. We'll go with his uh Twitch name, Tim Balls. Nice. We need We need to get him to come to Columbus and have some Tim Hortons so Tim Balls can eat some Timbits. I just went there and there is not a dag on thing you can do about it. Nope. We can't take it back. Can't take no takebacks. No takebacks. No, there's nothing we can do about that. No, not a thing. That's on record now. All right, I'm going to move this thing down to Surf Champ. Let's make sure it works. Okay, I will be right back. That's fine, Ali. Thank you. You can sit if you want to. I'm just going to move the machine and come back. I need to get up and walk around. Yeah, sounds good. And you know, ladies room. I get it. [Applause] I know. [Applause] I'm going to do Uhoh. [Applause] All right, just about to get this thing rolling here. Let's switch it over to the EMSS. That works perfectly. Wonderful. All right, so Surf Champ is up. We have our scores up there. Dale Nun will be leading off on this machine. Justin is back. I know he was taking a little bit of a break. Rest the eyes a little bit. this, you know, this this will mess you up a little bit sometimes. You got to be careful. Yeah, man. Well, I'll tell you what. I've had so much fun with it that I kept forgetting to blink and step away and stretch every once in a while. And after I got this kind of mini headache that was like, I probably need to go look around. Yes. Look at something that uh isn't glowing. So, I did that and now I'm feeling a,000% better. Yeah. An important thing, we did have to take an extra minute or so to move the machine and something we don't necessarily think about sometimes. Um, good call by Spiderpin. This was the first game that had a 3x bonus. Dale will unfortunately not get to see it because he had a very quick drain right there. No, not on that one. Um, here we Yeah, there we go. Get you in the camera there. That is Justin. I am Scott. We are so pleased for all of you to be with us tonight for this is the B division finals for Cincinnati's match play tournament, our Saturday event. We are watching Tim Ston compete right now. He won Game of Thrones very convincingly, although Adam Robinson made a heck of a run on ball number three to make it very interesting. Adam and his brother Daniel are mean ball three players. They are. They will they will shock you every time. You think you've got a runaway until one of the Robinsons comes up against you on ball three. And sure enough, that's what happened. He put up almost a half billion points on ball number three. It wasn't enough to catch him, but it was certainly enough to make for a good result, a second place finish. Yep. And in this format, it's it's three games. And Tim, we know, is very good at Game of Thrones. He's a stern guy after all. Um, so the fact you can stay with him and not lose ground. Something like this is a tremendous equalizer. Absolutely. Stars and Surf Champ are anybody's Oh, I just love this one. Surf Champ is up there in my top five favorite EMs of all time. That's a great shot, by the way. 5,000 points. If you can do it, that was almost 10,000, I think. Yep. Up in that scoop. Sometimes you can nudge it just right so that it pops back out, hits the bumper, back into the saucer, back out to the bumper, back up into the saucer over and over again. I've seen people collect that five, six times in a row. And he he he went for a two pack right there. Not bad. Oh, bounc. He's He's got the jet bump. He's got the pop bumper, but couldn't get it lined up just right. Very close, though. But important thing that that that is worth mentioning, it took me a minute to move the machine because when we're moving that rig, a lot of it's not just about the people that are playing the machine there. It's about the people playing the machine next to you. Well, that's right. And you really don't want to interfere with anybody's play. Yeah. I would in a perfect world, yeah, we'd have enough room so that there'd be a tremendous amount of m of space between each machine. That's not reality. We got to fit a lot of pinball machines in a in a condensed space. And the spacing on the machines in here is very similar to what you'd find, you know, at a barcade. Maybe slightly roomier, but still very very similar. Yep. So, yeah, you know, it was it was key for me when I was moving the machine. You saw me just kind of standing there and waiting, right? Then we wanted to make sure the game of Big Guns, they had just started their tournament game and we verified it was a tournament game. And then it's like, then we'll move it. We'll make sure everybody's cool with it. You know, ask Larry, hey, I got to move this. You all right? Yep. you know, commu communication. It's such a big thing, you know, and that's both as a player, a streamer, an organizer and everything. And we've all sucked at it at 1.2. Trust me, we've all been like, "Dang, I should have done that a little differently." We've all got our moments. I have already made errors on that in this tournament where I've presumed somebody wanted to be on the stream or I presumed it was okay to sort of move something when they were in the middle of what they were doing. I've never interrupted somebody mid ball, but if they were mid game, Yes. I don't want to distract them. Agreed. So, I'm glad that that we're conscientious about that because the the point is to come and have a great tournament and the streaming is our our sort of window to the rest of the world. Exactly. But but job one, get get the tournament right. We don't want the window to the rest of the world to mess up what's behind the window. That's right. Well, and the folks watching wouldn't enjoy it because now you've got players who are off their game. Exactly. Exactly right. Great ball by Tim Saxton. 26,000. So, this would be huge for him to get win number two right here. Especially depending on what happens with the other players. Yep. Oh, there you go. There's that. Great shot. That was worth 3,000. 4,000, excuse me. Another 3,000 points. So, he's up to 13. He got that three times. Not everything was lit. Doesn't matter though. You get it three times. That is Look at that. Look at that thing just sit there. So, I think he's got one uh two rollovers left before he can fully charge up that saucer. That center roll over his left, but it's a dangerous shot and I think Yep. Yep. He might have been trying for it. Nonetheless, good bonus. 17,000 right then. Solid ball for him. Here is Adam Robinson. Adam Robinson is back up and uh another exciting player to watch. He comes to us from New York City, originally Louisville, Kentucky. So, he's active in the New York scene and still quite active in Louisville every time he's in town. Yeah. Not a great ball for Adam. I know he's got to be disappointed with that, but it's a fiveball game. It is. So, you've got some time. Plenty of time. And this is also another one like the others where you do play extra balls. Yep. A lot of the EM over here are set like that to play the extra balls. Yep. And it's always a tournament director's choice. Do we play them or plunge them? In this case, we're playing them. Exactly. If you don't see anything written, the the assumed default rule is that you don't play them. You just plunge. Is that you plunge them? Yeah. You can set up your skill shot. You can do whatever you want to do pre-plunge to get yourself ready, but once you plunge it, it's hands off. Yep. Some games that proves to be very, very lucrative. Guardian, it really can. Guardians of the Galaxy comes to mind. Oh my gosh. Especially if you've completed modes in that, you know, you can get a very nice bonus. Again, that is worth two, I think, for Dale right there. each shot to get them up to 8,000. Yeah. You think of games like uh Junkyard or Guardians where you've completed modes or you've in the case of Junkyard, you've built enough items or collected enough junk. Uh it really adds up. Earth would be a game like that, too. If you've run 99 miles and you've done a lot of trips around the fault, Yep. you have a nice bonus coming to you. And all you have to do is plunge it. Yeah. Oh, got the rollover though. Not with full string. Not bad. Sitting at 13,000 right now. Oh, he had the right idea, but it came down just the same way off the pop bumper as it went up and that means it went down Broadway. Good ball though. 20,000. He is very much back in this game. Yep. Yeah, that's a shame on shorting that one because just a just a scoch to the right and he would have had a probably a healthy saucer shot or at least he would have worked around on the pops and got back up from the lanes. Everybody's going for that saucer, but it's not worth much right now. It's actually not It's not a fantastic choice until you hit those rollovers. And you have to hit those rollovers fairly directly. They're not You can't just glance them because the way that they're built, they're little star- shaped things. You kind of have to hit the center of the star if you're going to get credit for that rollover. So, he's looks like he's going for that. There you go. Charging up. Got that tough center one out of the way, too. Yeah. And there's nothing wrong with picking up that saucer with four charge. You don't have to wait for all of them. That is a 4,000. Is it 1,000 per saucer charge? That is a good question. You know what? I'm going to look that up. You should totally look that up. Look at our resident insider Justin Asterson right here on the on the Google food. Nice save by Tim right there. Hey, it's all you got to be. If you're a person with a phone, you know a lot of things and he will it will not matter for the point of this ball. He had a little bit of bonus though. A good bonus in fact. All the way up to 51,000. Wow. Look at that. So, could have been even better if he would have gotten the saucer shot, but no shame there. I'll tell you what, all of a sudden, after ball, too. Tim Ston's in rolling territory on this one. Yeah, 51,000 sets him up pretty well. Got off to a little bit of a tough start, but man, he is turning it around. He's playing now like he played at the end all day yesterday, you know, with the exception of a little bit at the end where he kind of had to hang on to get that win. He's back to feeling like he's got a good feel of things right now. Yeah. So each uh value is a,000. Okay, great. So you just want to hit those rollovers. Otherwise, that scoop or that saucer rather is only worth 100 points. It's not it's not worth shooting for. But if you can get even just three of them charged up, so worth shooting at. And it's not a terribly dangerous shot. Not at all. That shot there was 2,000 points. Not bad. Yep. You're off in a corner. It's not going to release straight to a drain. it. Now, that that spinner in the middle can be quite dangerous because if you miss just a little bit left or right or if the ball deadens inside the spinner, it's coming straight down the middle. We have not seen anybody try and rip the spinner, but in the same sense, we haven't really seen that spinner lit very much either. Y um what is it? Does it take drop targets up top to light them? Uh that would be our followup question here. What do you got to do to light that spinner to make it lucrative and worth your time? The green lights on the left side are lit as well. Uh I think that was only about 500 points. He will get some bonus on this one a little bit. 32,000. Not bad. Puts him in second place. That's a really good question on lighting the spinner. I'm going to ask our streameries if you know on Surf Jam how that spinner gets lit. Yeah. Or is it just a It's a ball thing. It's like ball ball five spinner. Could be. We'll find out. I don't think so. I think I think there's more to it than that. Uh but let's see. There's got to be got to be. So, three lights down for Adam right here. You know who seems to be working on Drop Eric? Jeff Westercam who owns this machine is right next to Oh, yeah. We should ask Jeff Westeram about that. Hey, Jeff. [Laughter] Look at Tim over there. I want another trophy so bad. He is in chat while he is competing right now. We we we see you, Tim. We see you over there. We know you want that trophy. I am watching you type into Twitch chat right now. That's so fun. Uh so it's rollovers. Completing the rollovers will also light the spinner. You roll. You can thank Eric for all those trophies by the way. That is the work of Eric Wenberger for sure. It's the the rollovers lighted. Okay. So, you know, here's what we have to do is every year we just need exactly the same games so that I know the rules after like year 11. I know all the intricacies of every game. That's all we need. What are we going to do about the fact that Stern keeps releasing new games? No. No. No good. No good. No, we're only playing EM. We're playing the same five EM from here on out for the rest of Pins. You don't want any spooky pinball in here? I mean, I want that, but then I'd have to learn all the rules. Jersey Jack, just not The Hobbit cuz it's not a good tournament machine. Gosh, can you imagine this tournament would be seven days long? Do you want to be here till 4 in the morning? And build a snowman. Didn't work out as well as I thought it was going to. Tournament. So, right now, you want to build a jackpot. Tim Ston's sitting pretty. 51,000. How do you like that? Nice score. If he comes through with this. Hey, I got a bit. I hope I got a bit bid for this thing. Thank you so much for that. That was a one bit. That was a one bit. It's probably about what that deserved. Do you know how many you get to get a shave and a haircut? Two bits. Two bits. Yeah. Two bits. Two bits. Two bits. All right. Dale nuns back up on Surf Champ. Very nice. Gold never bothered me anyway. The tilt never bobbled me anyway. See, there you go. These things write themselves. And that's a disappointing drain for Dale. Tough right for Dale. Hey, that even got a tish fit. I appreciate that so much. Thank you. Thank you guys for supporting the stream. Thank you guys for supporting Straight Down the Middle Pinball. We appreciate everything you do. Thanks for supporting competitive pinball in general. We love that you're supporting Straight Down the Middle, but these are I mean folks on the stream are folks who visit uh they listen to pinball podcast. They go and see other streams. We're just glad to see competitive pinball. Amen. So accessible and so available. We appreciate it so so much. So here is Tim ball three. That shot was worth 2,000 points. Uhoh. Uhoh. Yeah. Nothing he could have done about that one right then. Right. That's why that center shot is just it's it's so tempting. But if you get a little rattler there or even worse, if you come straight up and hit that bumper, it's coming straight down. Tish, as soon as Twitch sends the check. Yes. Tish bets to buy Tim bits. Absolutely. Isn't that what Tim Hortons calls our little donuts? That's right. Yes. I love those things. We were talking about the fact that Tim needs to come play in a tournament in Columbus. Oh, that is maybe savable by Nick, but there was a little bit of English on that. Nothing I don't think he could have done took at it. That would have been tough. Maybe maybe if you slap save right, but then you're running a risk of tilting. Yeah, you don't want to do that. Even worse, you don't want the risk of a tilt through. Oh, for sure. The last thing in the world we want to see is that in the finals of a tournament, we have to have a rule and give someone a zero. That is always a tilt through is always such a bummer because you know they didn't mean to and then you have to figure it out with the TD. What are we going to do about it? Can can really put a damper on the game. Tim, thank you for this bits, man. Appreciate. There you go. So, he's got one more to one more to light, but he's looking pretty good at 4,000. You if you can get that saucer, you're remember you're not just getting one saucer. Sometimes you're getting And he's got the roller. Now, that spinner is lit, by the way. You can see it. All the rollers in. Oh, it was in. There it is. That's 5,000 points. Okay, big time scores. Keep it alive. See what he can do. Boy, that one ran the risk of going right through the middle. Didn't quite caught a post. Soon nothing he could have done. Well, he was really well set up. Unfortunately, couldn't take full advantage of it, but did pick up 5,000 on that saucer, which is nice to have. All right. I would like to express right now how he feels about that shot in chat. Oh yeah, that is all I have to say. Oh no. And and there may we may need more salt bits for that one right then. Tough break for Dale on ball number four. I mean house balls are not uncommon, but how disappointing to have basically two house balls back to back in the finals. You don't want him right now, that's for sure. Oh, Tim Sexton with a great save. Lightning fast reflexes there. Nice little tiny drop catch. Exactly what was needed for that moment. Spin rip. Not worth a whole lot, but it was a good bailout shot. And unfortunately, this is what everybody is losing to are these little touches on the left flipper. Yeah. Looking at the machine from the angle we're looking at, the lift flipper does look a little bit further down than the other one does. But in the same token, it also looks like our camera might be at a little bit of an angle. I don't know if that's necessarily accurate. Oh, that's a good point. Yep. Yeah, could be. It might be just a little bit of a tilt on our camera. Oh, there it is again. Nick just looked at that thing, tried real quick. No, just this center drain is just eating them alive. Yeah, it is. We're not getting the the sling action to the right out lane or the left out lane. This is all center drain. We're definitely not right now. There you go. So, here is Adam Robinson. Uhoh. There you go. Trailing by about 30,000 points right now. Three rollovers. So, he's got part of the formula down right now. I'm surprised he didn't flip that one. I think he he might be going for drop targets instead of going for that saucer. I think he is at least to start out and then drop targets can again they could be worth a lot. That'll work. 3,000 there. Oh, just around there. All right. Almost double dip. See if he'll see if he'll take a moment here. So, his route to that saucer. He's choosing to go around the drop targets to get to that saucer. And it's working. I think he feels like what he wants to do is hit drop targets, benefit from that, and then have the ball naturally migrate over to the right side. And if it's going to hit the saucer, you get a little bit of an assist from the pop bumper to do it. Yep. Okay. So, he takes a more direct shot at the saucer there. Oh, that Oh, great save. Great save. He just grazed that drop target and it did not drop. Does he still have He still has one target up. It's one that's hard to hit directly. It really is. And unfortunately Oh, there it is. Nice shot. 4,000. He's up to 40. He's cut that lead down to 24,000 points. This is a makeable amount right now. Well, he has been flirting with that rollover target. He just keeps going right by. You really do have to hit him square if you're going to get a rollover. You do. There you go. Almost a direct hit. Just missed the drop target there, too. You feel like at this point he's trying both directions to try and get one or the other. There's great points in both directions. You just just missing. Oh, that's not good. Oh, that's precisely the rattle he did not want. You can't take the center shots on this one. And again, it is so tempting to go that way. So, here is ball five. Double bonus now in effect. A house ball now would be absolutely disastrous. But this is a great chance for Dale to rally. I mean, there is no better moment than on double bonus ball five of an EM to really rally. This is the biggest ball of the tournament for him here. One point has to have a good result here. And this is one where Dale's going to have to shake off those house balls. He's got to be willing to say it doesn't matter what just happened. All that matters is what's happening right now. I think at this point too, he's got to be not He can't be afraid to tilt, too. If he's going to nudge, this is when you nudge. You need those points. If you know that the, you know, pay attention to that bonus. If you know it's not enough. Right now, it wouldn't be. It's only about 4,000 points. Do what you have to do to keep the ball in play. Y Oh, no. And there was nothing he could have done about that unfortunately. So that is 32,000. He is guaranteed fourth place. So he will go into the next round with two points. That will probably eliminate him from contention for the championship of V division. That is a tough break for Dale. Tough tough games for him. Here is Tim. He is really setting up the score here for everybody else to go after. Um 37 and 46 respectively for Nick and Adam, especially with double bonuses. This is makeable and he left a lot out there. He's got some bonus. He's gonna get made some shots out of that 78. That gets him up to 78. Not a great ball, but not a wasted ball in any sense of the word. He did all right. Nick Kennedy is going to have to double his score, which again sounds a little nuts except you're on double bonus and this is a bonus game. It's doable. Oh, and he went dead center, hit the pop bumper, went back down. We were just talking about that. It feels like it might double whammy. Yep. It feels like it might work, right? You get in the pop, cause some chaos, but it's not chaos. It hits directly on the pop and shoot straight down the middle. And that spinner lane actually ends up becoming sort of a funnel to the center drain. Yep. Unfortunately, Adam getting saucer shots, but it's not lucrative saucer shots. He is guaranteed second place. Worst case scenario here, Adam has 10 points. Nick will have six and he is not going to be able to make it up. So Tim will now have 14 points going into the next round. Adam will have 10. Nick will have six. So Nick is eliminated from championship contention as well as Dale. So we have a pathway for what we're looking at stars right here. Let me move stars. I got it. Okay, wonderful. You've got it. Yeah, that center shot was the demise of quite a few players today. Quite a few players in this round and we saw the path for it right then. So, here's what we're looking at. Tim has 14 points. If he comes in second or first in this game, he wins. Let's show you this here. Switching game cans. This is the Chuck Vision. Actually, Gilly giving us a quick assist on moving the machine here. put on that whenever I move. She was playing in uh some of the some of the the B division tournament as well and was not able to move on unfortunately. So, she's given us a little bit of a hand on moving the rig here which we very much appreciate. We are very close. You know what? I'm good with that. I'm going to go with it. We're not going to hold these players up in any Yeah, there we go. That is perfection. They cannot see my thumb. They probably saw that one and said, "Okay, that's an actual good thumbs up. We'll go with that one." So, that's our situation here. Dale and Nick are playing for placement. Uh there is cash involved in that. So, they still have a lot to play for even if they can't win the championship. You know, if Dale can win this thing, get to nine points, that could move him up into third place. Oh, he's got the trophy out. I'll tell you what. So, Tim, when we started the evening, If you remember, we were saying, "Hey, uh, Tim started out a little rough. Is he going to make it?" Now, here here he is back fighting for this B division championship. He is. Unfortunately, because that is not the championship of the day. Yeah, he's not going to get the triple crown. He will not get the triple crown. Hey, Eric. Eric, we want to show So, we're going to share We're going to share this amazing trophy with you. the the Cincinnati Triple Crown Trophy. This is it right here. See this beautiful thing? It is the Cincinnati Triple Crown Tournament Champion. The only way you win this bad boy. Tough ball, by the way, for Dale right there. I am commentating as I am holding a giant thbred horse. This, I believe, is a first on Twitch. This thing is beautiful. We're finally debuting this trophy. So this thing along with its value which grows every year that nobody wins it, we add a $100 to the cash prize. So it's 200 bucks for winning. And this is going to be one of those years, right? Because last night's winner. That's right. Tim cannot win the A division today. So we're going to add $100 to this triple crown prize for next year. Next year you could win that same trophy. It will be worth $300. $300. How do you like that? We're going to put that somewhere safe. straight out of Chuck Wart's pocket. Don't quote me on that. Although, you know, he does help run the show. I assume he has the money put away someday. I hope so. I hope so. I hope it's not just an IOU written on a napkin. Signed, Chuck Wart. I hope it's not something that says, "Hold on, I got to run to the ATM." Yeah. I'll be right back. It's a Sunday morning gauntlet. Someone won the first two days. Oh crap. Okay, so I want to show you something. Oh shoot, I don't have the thingy up. I want to show you something on Stars. We've pointed this out before and I think it's especially worth highlighting in a finals like this is look at the remarkable difference between the height of this part of the sling and this out lane. So this lane divider right here, same here, this sling and this rail, the height difference just spells doom for anybody who has any velocity at all coming in this way. Because what's going to happen is it's immediately going to hit this and then duck around that. A lot of games it's a lot more even and so you can kind of play 50/50 in and out, right? Not this one. So you you want to avoid any kind of real velocity coming into those out lanes. All right. So Tim is back up. He is player two. This is ball number two. This is only a three ball game. So, this is going to be decided very, very quickly right here. It is. It's moving quickly and nobody's getting a lot done. Nice. The fact that they super even score right now, everyone between 11,000 and 16,000 points after ball number one. In the case of Dale, after ball number two, a traditional strategy on stars is to pick a spinner, light the spinner, not able to get it, and nail the spinner. And the way you do that is if you want to uh juice the lefthand spinner, that's the one in the upper left lane right here. If you want to if you're going to make that your spinner shot, then you have to knock down these drop targets. If you want to make this your spinner right here, then you have to complete the stars, which are standup targets that are spread out. One of those stars is already marked for you when you start. The rest of them you have to go get. And the which one is marked is random. Some of them are harder to get than others. This also, like a lot of the games, this the time, it is very bonus driven. He's already worked up 4,000 points in bonus on this machine. Look at that. Is Nick trying to play the role of spoiler? Maybe his way into second place here. Good little spinner rip there. That's going to pay off. You get second place. That might be a Yep. Now, we just talked about this. That was exactly why it is so dangerous to let that ball in towards an in lane. Even if it looks like it's going allin lane if it tips the top of that slingshot. It's going to go out. It's got room to go and everything is driving it in that direction. Agreed. So that will put Nick into first place right now at 49,000. Here comes Adam Robinson. Adam has to win this game and get a little bit of help right now. I mean, if he takes the lead here, he would be getting the help he needs. Mhm. Um, nice. Huge deal. Boy, I don't think I would have made that call. I would have chosen wrong. He saw a little opportunity to tip on the way by and picked it up. That was really smart. Look, that is some that is some dangerous bouncing. He managed to nudge and keep it in. Any of that. Oh, that drop bounce was so dangerous. It was on the edge of the flipper and he got the bounce over. That is amazing. and trust in the machine. Yeah. And trust in your knowledge of physics. That is a good spin. Already up to 32,000. His bonus is really good, too. Here. Work that bonus up to now 10,000 points. Any of that horizontal back and forth motion. Anywhere below the about the lower third mark on this machine is just danger. You're okay up top, but as you start getting lower, we're facing that same problem with the slings. He is definitely playing less spinner all day. That will give him a lot of added bonus though. So, he's going to be in first place here going into ball number three. Yeah, he may not. We are in a really interesting situation right now. We h It's brewing. Tim Sexton's in third place. If this holds the way it does right now, they would be tied at 17 points in the finals. Oh, that's fun. So, this is critical. And let's see if Dale and Nick can uh raise a little hell here and uh get themselves a better placement as well. Dale needs to have a very good ball right here. Otherwise, we're risking the third straight group of games where we'd have someone go three points in the finals. Yeah. Which breaks my heart to see. Yeah. I think, you know, in some ways everybody's kind of rooting for Dale to get some luck here because of that did not happen. Yeah. That score will get him. He is in third place by just by aid. Just a hair. Tim is probably Tim's going to pass this score unless he tilts right now. That is the sad truth in M. But then again, house balls happen on this machine. He does pass it. So what's going to happen here? This is the ball of the event right here. What is Tim going to do? How high is he going to run this score? Look at the strength on that. He is just absolutely He did not run it that high. Nope. So 52,58. He will not win. He cannot win this game. So now it's up to Nick. If Nick is able to pass 58,000 points, Tim will be guaranteed third place. He will end at 17 points. He cannot do it. Nick Kennedy has just gifted the championship to Tim Ston. How do you like? Gifted it to him on the course of a house ball. We should say Stars did it. It wasn't Nick's fault. That's the nature of these games. So even with a win from Adam Robinson, That's right. Adam Robinson will win the game. He will end up with 17 points. Tim Stexton will come in second place by the slimmest of margins to a,000 points after the bonus. That is so exciting for Tim and such a bummer, I'm sure, for Adam that it was so close. Didn't want it to be that way by any stretch. So, especially with a really great performance on that one. Yeah, really well done by both of these players. What a finish to go. 1917 in the finals. That is insane. That's exciting ball. I love it. I love it. And it really did come down to that third place finisher. It did. Isn't that fun? It came down to just a handful of points on that third place finisher. Waiting for the score to update right here. Wow. And again, for the se second straight day in a row, a very low amount of difference makes a huge difference in a tournament finish on stars. What is it about? What is it about stars? Stars just keeps becoming the the the leveler for everybody. The equalizer. It's the equalizer. Yeah. No one is winning stars by any appreciable amount right now. And as a result of it, that's what happens. So Tim, for the second straight day, there it is. 1917 Adam. That's a bad beat for Adam to get 17 points. And still nine out of 10 times that's gonna win a group. Yep. It just didn't happen to be this time. And this happens to be the B finals. It is. Oh my goodness. Thank you for those bits, Joseph. We appreciate it. Let's go back and look at A Finals right now. Um we're going to get you an update on how that's going. Uh, we can tell you Shawn Davis and Willie Allen are in the finals and Medieval Madness. I'm I'm kind of hyped about this. I don't know if we can move to it. It looks like they're mid game. Oh, they're mid game over there. Yeah, they're mid game. Uh, they're I don't know. They're mid game. They're definitely mid game. Oh, they are. You're right. Yep. Sorry. So, we don't want to mess with that. Nick did take third. That's a good finish for Nick. He came in and we'll look at how those finals played out there. I believe he took yeah he took third place every round. Dale took fourth place every round. So those are essentially when that happens that's the minimum the other player can get. If someone gets three, the minimum another player is going to have is nine. And that means you saw it the 19 and the 17. That's split between Tim and Adam. So close. 557 for Adam. 775 for Tim. All right, we're on the move. It's not Chuck Vision anymore. Now it's Gillio vision. It's Gilly Vision. It's Gillyam. Gilly cam. Gillyam. And you can see behind Gilly, things are still very much in full swing at Pensac. We are going to get a game on here. This is great. I did not think we were going to. We're on ball three. I guess they are cool. What could be more exciting? Very appreciative of this group of players right here. We are in the semis. Yeah, that they're willing to let us come in on ball number three. Huge props to Aaron, Rob, Larry, and John. Very much appreciate that. the two of us and our 64 friends watching and anybody who watches this later, they get to see the semi-finals conclude. That's right. On ball three, everything comes down to this. And John Delabo, not surprising that Jon is having a good run on this machine. I mean, 54 million on a tournament game of Medieval Madness is uncommon. Generally, you tend to see wins anywhere between 5 million and maybe 25 million. To see a 54 million point game Billy was just coming to tell tell me about that ball. It was an amazing ball, too, that made that happen. That is so rare this because Medieval Madness is a punishing game. And unfortunately, the only way to win Medieval Madness, if you really want the points, is to take the hardest, most dangerous shot in the game, which is that center castle shot. Castle all day. It's castles all day. And I think the only exception to that is multiballs in order to better make it easier to get castles, right? Because the multiplayer the multiball values are not great. Yep. That's the strategy I use is I I only go for the castle when I'm in a multi. And there are a handful of multis you can get, but once you burn those, now you're kind of on your own. Yeah. Cuz getting the next multi is going to be really difficult. Yeah, it is. It's basically then you have to get the regular multiball again. Yeah. And you have to do it by hitting the lock is lit twice as hard. Six shots. And I think for most people those six shots happen when you miss the gate, right? Yeah. You're aiming. It's like, "Oh, I missed the gate, but I got a lock. That's okay. I I'll take it. like that shot right there. She probably was going for castle, but you get the side benefit of a It's okay. We got that. That's all right. She might be aiming at that lock shot. She's super consistent. So, we're doing the the awards for B division and then we'll uh we'll invite our B division winner over to chat. I may let you talk to Kim after this game is over. Um cuz I know I talked to him a little bit last night. You'll have to ask him if he got his Cincinnati style chili today. I told him he needed to do it. Oh, I assume he must have. You have to start in troll mode. So, I'm going to talk to Adam, too. So, we'll see if we can get Adam on after a minute. That would be great. But we'll do that after this game. Aaron had a ton. Oh, and the Oh, the miss shot on the catapult got her right there. Yep. You can hear the clapping for the B awards happening in the background while A division semi-finals are continuing. That's right. So, we're giving away some trophies for the top four players here, I believe. Yep. So, Aaron, if I'm looking at that right, that says 8 million. Um, it's a Yeah, I think that's an eight. A three. That's an eight. Okay. That look I think the I don't think the three would look that conc. I would have called that a three, but you know what? That might be a three. [Music] Someone tell me what weird font they're using on the left side that doesn't look nearly as much like the font on the right side. Maybe it isn't. Um, unfortunately it's so far away from us. We're we're using a wireless streaming rig and that's actually on the other side of the hall. So we pretty great streaming rig. Don't get me wrong. It's a pretty great streaming rig. So here unfortunate. Yeah. Oh, look at that little tip. Rob Smith. Rob has no castles down by the way. So everything here presents an opportunity. But he does have two locks. So he may be doing the the strategy where you only use multis to go after the castles. Agreed. And we are in tournament mode. So every Merlin's magic is a mill. Beautiful drop catch. He handled that really well. Nav says it. It's an eight. It's an eight. Okay. Just the angle we're at. So that's an eight. Rob is lighting up the ramps. So, he already has two two madnesses ready or or two uh modes sort of ready to finish. He's got uh one on the joust mode and he's almost ready on peasant. And now he's one shot away on catapult as well. Yep. Now he is he's not pausing much. He's just firing away. Oh, he's trying to get to the He's trying to post pass to that right flipper. He picks it up. An immediate shot on the castle. Really nice little play there. And Tish says exactly why that's the case. She had a five when she started the ball, so it won't be a three. There's Castle shot there. Good call on everybody's part. Thank you, Tish, for that. You're exactly right. We've we've been looking at numbers so long that they just they're only there while they're on the screen and then they disappear in my mind. There you go. Great shot. That's the multi he wanted. So that multi, remember, he's just coming off blowing up a castle. This is the multi you use to blow up the second castle. And with any good luck, you can trap one or two on the left flipper and just take pot shots of the castle doors from the right. There's a center shot and still has some ball safes. Okay, ball save is now done. And the advantage too, the one more shot on the drawbridge that will feed down nicely. Yeah. After that, that's not a guarantee. Cradle separator. It's going to bounce over to the left and he's going to take a shot with the right up. Good shot. There you go. There it is. Yep. So, that's not so bad. Now, the problem with holding left here is that you have to hope it doesn't splash your ball right over. It did exactly that. He had that thought. Too much splash. No go. There you go. Oh, he is just he is just dialed in right now on that shot. Let's see it again. There it is. He's got the castle gate open. This this shot is going to mean a lot if he can get it. He started trolls. I don't think that was intentional. And unfortunately, the trolls are going to be a barrier to getting to that castle, but it's not insurmountable. You just have to be pretty precise to get between them. Uh un I wish I had a camera for the kid that's over next to us, but I don't know if we can get that. Yeah, he did hit the trolls and he did not die. Rob is not happy with that in any way, shape, or form. Those trolls, they're like the Scaleri brothers in Ghostbusters. Their only job is to ruin your day. So 88 and eight points in ball three on Medieval Madness. We're looking at, look how close these scores are. 8,894,000 versus 8,594,000. So now the bad news for Rob is he is going to miss out. Depending on what happens with Larry right here, he just needed one. He may miss out on the finals by 300,000 points. That's a tough That's a bad beat. That is and especially when he had his castle gate open. Yeah, he did. One castle shot. And if it weren't for that troll, I need a bumper sticker that says that, too. If it weren't for that troll, there you go. All right. Castle number one for Larry. Practically surgical on that one. Just straight into that open gate. By the nature of where we're at right now, John Del Zapo is assured passage into the finals. Uh that is now a given can be no worse than second. So we've been complimenting Larry's skill with with little tip and tap passes. Um and I think that was another great example where he really does subtlety well on those flippers. He can do small taps. That was nerve-wracking. Yep, that was a little nerve-wracking. Larry, I would say, is the four mill castle away from success. If he finishes the four mil castle, he's moving on. Uh oh. Right to the end of that flipper. He wise the uh encourages it back in. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. This is not Don't want that one. Uh-oh. Oh, nice nudge. And oh, and it drains and he's done. He did the right thing by pushing walking away. Yeah. Yeah. So that means he did the right thing. Aaron Mela is moving on to the finals by three almost exact 300,000 points. 300,000 and 200 points. Wow. Larry does not move on. He will end up in the semi-finals. That is a tough break for him. But great effort in this tournament. Rob was so close there, man. To lose to lose by one shot. Yeah. And not even a big shot. One single effort on a gate damage is all it would have taken. 400,000 would have been enough. That is brutal. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. But we do have on the other hand, John Delapo is probably feeling great coming out of that game. He must have had a monster ball and we weren't able to see it on the cam cuz we were watching the Binals. He must have had a monster ball. Let me grab um Tim. Well, I'll grab Tim for you because I want to get up and take a little break anyways if that's okay. Yeah, I'll wait chat with Tim. And and he had to have a great a second place finish in his last game to qualify for ADA vision to get into that top 24. Yep. He gets into the top 24 and now he's one round away from getting a huge whopper payout. Probably will help, you know, help him move up in the standings. Move up even higher than 38th possibly. Yeah, that might be close scores Facebook group. Jason, I trust you're going to do that for me. Yeah. Did we get Did we get Oh, I we probably didn't get a picture of it, but the 10point difference on Star That was not a stream game. Oh, no. No, it wasn't on stream. We had a 10. I need to go back and look at some of these games though for sure. I need to hit up Jesse Baker because he may have taken a picture of that. Okay. If you took a picture, it should put it on the Facebook group and yesterday's tie on stars. Now, I don't know if we got a picture of that either. It may not count because it was a one ball playoff. But does that count on the close scores Facebook group? Okay. Yeah, if it counts for a playoff game. Yeah. All right, I'm going to take a short break real quick. Uh, let I will see if I can get more Adam over here. I would love to get him back on the mic. Yep. I will be right back, guys. Thank you for watching so much. I will be back in a few minutes. We'll be here. Jess will be here. Oh, no. You're more than keeping this warm. You're keeping it highly entertained. That's what we want. I'll be right back. All right. We'll see you in a little bit. Stay tuned. You guys don't go anywhere. I'm not leaving. And we still have a lot more uh exciting finals action to to play here. The A division finals are coming right up. Um, it looks like we're probably saying goodbye to Rob and to Larry Scott, but not to Aaron and not to John. Aaron got it by 300,000 points. And we saw Rob Smith there with an open castle gate right before those trolls foiled all of his plans. So, that's exciting pinball right there. So, we we'll say goodbye to Larry. We'll say goodbye to Rob. We're going to see John and Aaron move on. Cannot wait to see these finals. And in the meantime, we're going to see if we can sit down for just a moment with Tim Ston, our winner of the B division finals. Not too sure what games are going to be played for the A Finals just yet. Uh but stay tuned and we'll keep you posted. right now they're uh everybody is being incredibly cool, handshaking, hugging the whole bit. It's so hard when you've gone through this many rounds of pinball together and you have to say goodbye and move on. But I think we're going to have a heck of a showdown in the A division finals. If you're just joining us, uh you are at Cincinnati. That is Cincinnati's pinball expo. This is our second year doing Cincinnati and just amazing after two years. So, this is only our second time. Amazing. We have a room full of pinball machines. People of all ages, people of all ability levels have come out in the last couple of days and they're going to keep coming tomorrow just for the love of pinball. And one of my favorite parts is watching people explore the hobby for the first time. And uh today I got to do that. I was walking around. I brought uh three machines to the show. We have a lot of collectors who brought machines to the show. They don't get anything out of it other than they get to share pinball with other people and play on other people's machines and enjoy the hobby. And my favorite part is when I get to see young people um and I'm talking everywhere from age 5 to 15 to 18 uh stepping up to a pinball machine possibly for the first time in their lives. Here, let me switch off that or everybody's going to get sick. Uh, possibly for the first time in their lives, stepping up to a pinball machine, flipping away at that first ball and just seeing the joy on their faces when they get to try this new hobby. And you can just see the these kids light up. Likewise, I got to see my other favorite thing today, which is I talked to a gentleman who was playing one of the old uh wedge heads, one of the old gotle wedge heads that had been restored to this perfect condition, and he said, "I haven't played a pinball machine in 30 years. You just couldn't deny the joy on his face as well. It was magnificent to see people young and old enjoying the hobby and people of all different ability levels." So, as much as I love doing tournaments, there is so much more to a pinball show like this than just tournaments. You've got absolutely great competitors from all over the country who come to play and you've got local folks who drive in from Cincy, Dayton, Indianapolis, Columbus, Chicago just to play pinball and some of them for the first time or the first time in 30 years. That's some of the benefit of a show like this. So Eric is getting ready to announce the A division finals. You can probably hear him in the background. And he's he's letting us know that we're getting started. It looks like our finals may be on big Indian. I just saw the rig move over to Big Indian. If so, I am stoked. These EM have played a super important role all the way throughout our competition over the last couple of days. And I'll tell you, I am not mad if we end up playing our final there. Tim Ston hopefully going to come join us here in a minute and sit down and chat. and uh maybe he'll bring his many trophies with him. He he is laden with them. He's burdened with trophies. And we're going to chat a little about his B division success. And meanwhile, I'm seeing Big Indian getting queued up. How fun is this? So stay tuned for just a minute. Tim is over getting his picture taken right now. Uh holding two what look like very heavy trophies. Oh, let me switch over there. Hold on. I'm going. There we go. We got the camera set up. We're ready to go. And let me hold on. Let me get reset here. We've got Big Indian up and playing. And we're just going to get our scores reset. I'm not quite as strong. Hey, Eric. Can you help me reset so that we're looking at the right thing here? I just need to reset so that I'm showing the right people and all that. I'm not the pro at this that Eric Wardenberger is, so he's going to help me get reset. Thank you. Thank you. So, we're going to update with the correct players as we watch this game. Oh, look at that Lazarus ball right back off the bottom. You got to love that. The finals in Big Indian. So, we're starting off game one of three on these finals. And you just saw Shawn Davis put up 14,500 on Big Indian. That's a solid ball one on this game. It's very difficult to accumulate bonus on this game. We had an issue with the game where certain features of the game that should award bonus advancements are not doing it. There's only a couple features that will do it. So, if you like the star rollovers on the right, that will do it. And if you push the Vera target on the left all the way back, that'll get you some bonus, too. But other than that, it's mostly points inside the ball. So, this is this is a game that we've come back to now three or four times. Big Indian keeps getting drawn for these important. This one is I don't know if it's because people necessarily want Big Indian or the other games that are associated with it, but yeah, it's been picked a lot. Wow. So, let's see what we can do on Big Indian. Again, we you know, we let the players pick the games, and I I'm a little biased, but I'm so happy to see these EM play such a crucial role. Yep. And that's the that's the whole point. I I you have to pick a bank of games and every bank has one new game, one middle of the road game, and then one old game. Love it. Got to be good at everything to win a tournament. I'm running. Yep. Yeah. Nobody's coasting on just all the new Sterns or, you know, all brand new tournaments have their places, too. You know, the the Chicago Expo is a great tournament. That's all in new games. You know, that's a whole different type of skill set, and that's fine. So, Big Indian. Any idea what year Big Indian is? Big Indian. What about it? Uh, any idea what year it was made? Oh, year. I'm going to guess like 74, 75, something like that. Yep. I'm now I need to know. Yep. 1974. Spot on. Nice work. Good save. Oh wow. I thought we might be looking at a tilt there. She got it. I always like to say most really good saves are followed by an immediate dream. Yeah, they are. Unfortunately, they are. Well, you know, most good saves end up sending the ball off at some weird trajectory. And it's just like and you're kind of in awe by the save and then it's like, oh, you're too busy admiring your save. Yeah. Yeah. And I've noticed too a lot of the saves, you know, if you got a slap save or just a little tip, it's going to send it in some weird direction at a weird speed. And so now you're into this thing and you're so wild you may still be alive, but the ball's wild. Yep. Oh, that's tough. Right there. It's kind of hard to see from this angle because it's directly overhead, but there is there's a little target right in the middle there that is built to do exactly what it just did. Yep. And it's a bear. This guy right here. Yep. You can't quite see it, but boy, if you're facing that Yeah, they're bounced off of it. If you're facing that uh playfield as a player, you can see it. And it's a bummer. The funny thing is it's not even worth much. Nope. Well, that's one of the features that isn't working properly. If if the target is lit, it will advance your bonus. But this one will not. Oh, okay. So, really don't aim for that, right? You probably never wanted to aim for it before, but you really don't now. Yeah. So, we know bonus is super important on this one. Yep. And as any EM really? Yeah. With any EM you can advance bonus on rollovers. You can advance bonus by target. Very targets right here. You have to hit this target that's right here all the way back here. And I just don't think this right flipper has enough power even from an in lane to get it all the way back. Now your other shot is to hit any of the three top lanes. You see he just got the B and this one lit. If he gets the other letters, they will light these rollovers. So you have a chance at rolling over all three for a 3,000 bonus. So that's a great So see how two are lit now. So really your best bet if you can is to keep shooting at that right channel because you're not only landing rollovers, but you're more likely to get up into the upper uh correct lanes. Just like most uh em just keep feeding it up top. Yep. Oh, hang on. Oh, good l. Yep. Got So D's getting some bonus advance. He get trickled back down those. Oh. Oh, you really do get to know these machines because I I wouldn't have been nervous about that in lane except I've been watching this machine all day and I've seen a 100 times it's tap the top of the sling and roll to the outline. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's a product of these these slings being higher than those lanes. And so it's just like the second it hits this, it's just going to go whoop straight out. One of the things we've talked about earlier today is that pinball machines are built to do one thing, and that's take your quarter, end your game, and beg you to play again. Yeah. And EM are a great example of that. You can see everything in the flow of this machine is targeted at center or outlane drains, right? Mhm. So it's its attraction is all the fun features and all the great art, but it is built to take your quarter and beg you to play again. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Yep. She either need to take a little bit more energy off the ball or add a little bit more on. So, did we just start ball three? I think that's a three there. Yeah. It's really hard to see. I know. Yeah, that's a I think that's a three right there. Yeah, right there. Yeah, I think we just started ball three. Oh, yeah. Oh, was Oh, I thought he tilted. Oh, no. Yeah, he's just disappointed. He missed the top lanes on the plunge. Yeah. Okay. I was like, "What?" That would have been really unfortunate. Yeah. All right. Sean Davis is going to get to settle down. Get on that lane. Get in there. There you go. All right. So now Sean, Aaron, Willie, and John. What a what a great line. And you got another pop bumper with that. I didn't realize those lanes did that as well. That's good. Yeah. And we This is game one of three, so we don't have to worry if somebody has a bad game, they can they can come back and get some points in some of the newer games that are coming. Far from over. Yep. You obviously don't want to take a last out the gate, but it's definitely not over if that happens. We just had two of our finalists, Willie and Sean, took third and fourth on the first game of the previous round and still advanced. So, you got to love that. It's possible. Yep. It can it can totally happen. So, one of the things that I've noticed that Shawn does that not every player does, but a lot do, is he will sort of warm up a flipper as the ball's on its way to the flipper. He'll give it three or four flips on the way in. Is that timing? It's a It's a timing thing. It's a timing thing. I I do something very similar on some games and it's really just like or you'll have players that if they're trying a repeatable shot, they'll have the flipper held up and then just as the ball's getting there, they'll drop then flip again. It's kind of this like cadence that it's like when batters will do the same routine. It's kind of like that like a like Gary Sheffield had a very timed like cadence bat swing. But anyway, so yeah, he's getting those rollovers lit. He's got he's got about seven or 8,000 in bonus. So, he's trying to complete those upper lanes at the same time so that he can get the that will light. Yeah, it is. That'll light the rollover so that every time he does that, he's more of a chance of advancing that bonus. Now, the real trick now is don't till Yep. he's sitting at 8,000. There is no doubler until the fifth ball. So, he's going to try and just drive that up to 10. And I can't remember when you get BI, you got I don't I don't know if you can earn double bonus on this, but that was a solid ball. Solid ball, Sean. Ball five, you ball five, you automatically get double bonus. There's no other place to get it. B.I. will light this uh drop targets light, but it won't give you a double bonus. Gotcha. All right. So, ball five only. Ball five only. There you go. Got that be light. The other benefit, I mean, there's so many benefits to those upper lanes, but the other one is it does light those bumpers for you for 100 points a pop. Oh, not what not what really wanted out of that. So, we're looking at 42,000, 5,000, 9,000. Yep. And,600. So, on ball four, no less. I mean, this is uh about getting close to the end of this game. But what but with that double bonus ball, I know it's hard to accumulate bonus, but nobody's out until that that final double bonus balls in the drain. That's exactly right. That double bonus ball is such a wild card. Yep. Because this is such a bonus heavy game, all EM tend to be. Then that double bonus really gets you. Yep. And I I have seen more than one ball five player come back on that double bonus. Does this uh does this max out at a 10,000 point bonus? Uh, no. It keeps going back up. I think it stops at 15. So, it'll go up to 10. That'll stay lit and then it starts adding and then it'll go up to five, I believe. So, max double bonus tip collect will be 30,000, I think. Nope. So, that's 5,000 on the way out though. Yep. With those lit out lanes, you're looking at 5,000 points. and and with how everyone but Sean is doing, that's a solid hold on second place right now. Yep. So, Aaron's stepping up, looking for some good mojo. She's getting some uh al alcoholic beverages in her to hopefully uh does nothing but help. Calm the nerves and blow it up. I'm ball four here. I've done some experimentation myself on what is the benefit of alcoholic beverages and it turns out one or two pretty helpful. Any more than that, not that helpful. And you'll notice nobody's shooting at that very target. Nope. I um when I was testing the game to see exactly what kind of issues we were dealing with, I hit it from a strong inlane feed flipper and it just wasn't getting there. It's not going to do it. And I think most of the players to this point understand that as well and they're just not messing with it. You know, even if it was, it's still a dangerous shot. Oh, good in lane there. See if she can capitalize on it now. You don't get too many second chances. All right, I I'll be back. I got to help with the work. Right on. Right on. All right. So, Aaron's going to settle at uh 2,600. It looks like we're back to Shawn with a commanding lead at 42,220 and let's see what he's going to do. Why not build on it? I brought people over. Did we get did we get a Tim and did we get a an You know what? We went so quickly to the A finals that we couldn't we didn't have time with Tim because we wanted to to sit down at this. But we are going to get a Tim. Great. Great. Assuming Tim's game. I I appreciate Adam so much. You know, he said, "Are you sure you want me to come over there?" I'm not sure that's a good idea. And I said, "Who said we were about good ideas at this time?" Why would he say it's not a good idea? Ah, you know, if you sometimes people get a little sketchy about being on the microphone, you know, I understand. And and speaking as someone who does this on a semi-regular basis, it's tough to hear your own voice. Yeah, that takes some getting used to, doesn't it? It takes a lot of getting used to it. Obviously, I must be doing okay today because I'm singing. That's true. That's true. So, as a reminder, I don't know if Eric talked about this too in terms of the bones. I don't know what ball it is. I'm just coming into this four. Ball four. There we go. Um coming into this late. Um I just completely lost my train of thought with that. Oh, sorry. They were asking about ball. It is ball four. And here's a clue that it's ball four is that you will see the double bonus on ball five. That's right. And that is not lit. That double bonus is right down there by the arrowhead at the bottom of the playfield. It is not lit. He did pick up 5,000 on that out lane. Not bad. On the way out, so it's pretty close. You just reminded me of my thought. Yeah, there is a note on the machine that reminds the players the only way to build bonus is the vera target and the rollovers. Yeah, that's it. Yep. Yeah, that that uh spot target in the middle is theoretically supposed to do that. It is not effectively doing that. So, we put Eric put the note out to let people know don't bother shooting at that spot target or don't expect that you're going to get something from it. Yeah, it affects everybody the same way which makes it a play on and that's why you don't shoot at that spot target. That's right. It's miserable. So that is 18 19,000 right now. Solid lead for Shawn Davis. And Shawn has been going back to this bank of machines over and over and again. Um it's why we've been showing it. We've been following some of the top groups. Shawn has been in that group. Yep. And we for for some reason this bank has been it's just been a favorite over and over. It has. And not just for for Shawn, we've just seen players playing this bank. Uh even even yesterday we saw um was it big Indian that kept getting picked or no it was Stars is the one I'm thinking. Stars kept getting picked. Oh, tough play for Aaron right there. Yep. By the way, props to Aaron for being top four in this tournament. She's going to get a great Whopper finish no matter how this turns out and I think she's got a good chance to win it. Look at the company she's keeping. Right. You've got Shawn at 448. You've got Willie at 407th. You've got John Delapo at 38th in the IFP rankings. is going to do very well with these whopper points. Aaron's going to move up as she played well enough today, both qualifying in the finals to earn a great finish. Boy, you light that 100 point bumper and just nail it a few times. That had a dipsy doodle feel to it. It did, didn't it? Yeah. Whatever you do, don't stop the doodle bug. Oh, love that little tip. Love it. I am just entranced by great tips and great drop catches. I could watch them for for days. Working the flippers is an art form. Yeah. Oh, there's the Lazarus that Lazarus ball. Add that to the mixtape. What's that? Number four for Shawn today. Well, there's another two in a row. Wow. Holy crap. Shawn is is Sean is living a charmed life. is Lazarus. He cannot He just keeps rising again. He cannot stay down. I kid you not. When I walked by, I said, "We're going to make a mixtape of this." The mixtape just got longer. Can somebody clip that for us? If somebody on the stream would clip those two in a second, someone just did. I saw the number go up. Thank you guys. Wow. I don't know if you guys heard, but there was an audible shriek. We've got a crowd of about 20 people right now watching the stream on the TV. They're watching basically our screen. So, they're not even looking at the stream in full screen. And it's like a quarter of the screen cuz that's how we view it in OBS. All right. Thank you, Ned. Appreciate it. All right. Now, how do we get double bonus lit there? Um, I don't know. How did that happen? Someone help me with that. I was so busy with the Lazarus saves I can use. I didn't see anything that would cause that. That's a hell of a question. It could be a light malfunction. I don't know that there's a way to earn double bonus. We're going to find out here real quick. Unless Unless it's an indication of having gone to over 10,000 bonus and it's not actually a double bonus. That is possible. That would be weird. And that will drain down. What a ball right then. [Applause] God damn. No, it's ball five. Sean Davis is player one. So that's ball five. There's your answer. Oh, that's why. Got it. I thought it just We were so entranced by the play. I thought we saw it light, but maybe not. But that we missed the fact that the the entire time. So, 70,000 points setting himself up for a win here. What happened there? There was no nothing got actu. Oh, no. It didn't matter. That was That was strange. Willy, what happened there? I thought that I had Oh, okay. Okay. All right. Yeah, he he just thought he hadn't actuated anymore. Yeah. So, he thought he had it. No. And yeah, you can get a zero. And he got a zero. Wow. Yeah, that's a bummer. I mean, that's a tough one. He had the right strategy. If you think he didn't hit anything, then you know, you can you can plunge again. Those upper lanes are really important. It's just he didn't notice that it had hit a switch. That's right. And he's right. Happens the best. You know, especially when you're playing classic machines, maybe you're not as familiar with them. I would not have caught that. I just learned that myself that that can be a thing. So, we'll see if that affects Willy's game here. He's still in third place. Arens got, I believe, 3,200 points right now. She's had a really tough go with this machine. So, it may not end up costing. We're going to have to find a save. Nice save for John. John, nice job. I think someone did. I saw the clip number go up again. So, wow. We're getting a master class today in, you know, things you you should do, things you shouldn't do. you know, not even in a bad sense, but just learning competitive play. Yeah, he lets that one go. Didn't feel like he could do much with it. He is in second place right here. So, again, like we've seen in previous rounds, you know, Delapo's not winning the classic machines, but he's getting points on them. He's staying in it, getting to the place where he can he can do his damage. Firepower to some degree, but AC/DC. And again, AC/DC is the finisher. Yep. In this that sets up real nicely as long as he's in a good position. AC/DC has just gotten a ton of attention on the stream today and I'm not sad about it. That was another house ball for one. That's a tough one for That's a walk away for her. Tough tough break for her on that. That's all right. We still have two more games of pinball to play. And as uh Eric was saying, we've had two other players today who went from uh onepoint starting games to winning and moving on. So, it is very possible. Firepower is next. So, we're going to we're going to give you Gilly Cam. Will bringing a good question. Is yelling out not to plunge in-game coaching? I guess the question is how the heck many people did that watching the stream at the same time? Here's Gilly Cam. Here's our tracking shot. Yeah, that would be a good error question. I I hope he sees it in chat. Is yelling out not to plunge in-game coaching? I would suspect it is. I would say so. So then if someone did that, if one of the other players did that, you know, should there have been the TD yelled it out. So I would say if the TD yells it out and the TD, you know, TD breaks the rules. We're a friendly environment. So I think if the TD breaks the rules, then we all just sort of move on with our lives. We move on with our lives, I would say. And and overall, you know, in in fairness, it's a pretty friendly environment. you know, we we're hyper competitive, but you know, classic machines like this, obviously, we should probably be following the rules to the letter of IFPA. Yeah. To perfection like that. That's a tough call. Very tough call. I mean, I actually don't know. I can see it both directions. What do you do if a TD does it is the question. It's not It's not is it in-game coaching? I think it sounds like it's in-game coaching. What do you do when it's the TD? Is it considered a direct a director's directive? or is it considered coaching? And I think Wol's got got the right approach to it. Um, and Tim Ball has a good take on it, too. This this is why I'm enjoying getting people talking about that at the same time. Tim is literally close enough he can hear us talk about it at the same time, which I appreciate cuz he's he can be part of the conversation. Um, you know, Wolf coming in saying, "I always do it." Gut reaction. And you're absolutely right. Gut reaction is very similar to people screaming ball save. Yeah, you know, just because that's your gut reaction to say, "Oh my god, don't walk away from the ball." Naturally, I have to fight my urge because we're so close to the competitors. I have to fight my urge to go, "Oh no, oh no, oh no." Kind of a loudmouth myself sometimes. I get it. And I have I thought about that earlier today because we had that very situation. We had a ball save and fortunately I was far enough away from the player, but I might have been the one otherwise who clued in. So we're switching up here. Sean is leading off here and Tim obviously mentioning if he had held the ball on the flipper and asked, no one could tell him. um saying it doesn't count as coaching, but Theres also given the point of saying yelling you're still playing when a player is turned away could be considered coaching. It's it's it's a borderline kind of thing. It's it's an interesting ruling. Where's Josh Sharp? Who knows? He's probably sleeping. He might be sleeping. No, he's probably at one of the the Stern Pro Circuit events. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, it'd be weird if he wasn't. So, uh yeah, I I I would think he traveled to to the Pro Circuit this weekend. So, with two of them happening the same weekend, I feel like he'd end up at one. Doesn't one of the podcasts have have rule discussions about such things? Yes. Uh the I know the pinball players podcast has a you make the call as one of my favorite segments. That would be a great Somebody get Jeff Parsons on the phone. Can we get Jeff Parsons on this? I would love to see it. Somebody send him a note on Facebook. Tell him to join the stream and we're going to ask him this question. And and Tim and and Wolf likes that too. Um no one was asking for the coaching by any stretch of the imagination. It would seem unfair to penalize not in their control. That's what I was saying. You can't penalize the player, but is there is there a penalty for the TD? Is there something? I mean, you can't penalize a TD. What are you going to penalize? And in the same sense, I don't think we want people to be golf quiet either by any no we want to be respectful to the players, but you know, reactions are encouraged. Could it be treated like a malfunction? Like, so a malfunction is nobody's fault or at least it's not something you can penalize for. Yeah. Could you treat it like malfunction if a TD So think of it like a if a referee in football gets in the way of a pass. Mhm. It It's sort of treated like a malfunction. It's a dead play start over. Dead play start. There you go. All wonderful points. I'm I'm enjoying this conversation tremendously. So many good there's so many good insights to it and and times where we've seen something like that happen before and you can reflect upon it too. So John is up. He is player three. Let's let's talk a little bit about what we're seeing right here. other than the glare, which I apologize for, but don't worry, we can see just enough of it. There is, unfortunately, a light we can't control that's overhead. You're going to get to see John Delapo's face twice. Once on the playfield and once on the player camp. That's okay. He's a good-looking dude. It's all right. So, the the basic strategy on firepower uh for most folks is you want to hit all of these flashing arrow targets. It doesn't matter in what order you hit it in this case, but you want to complete each bank gives you its own little special prize. And those prizes include such delights as lighting kickbacks and lighting lock balls. Oh, look at that live catch. And he got the center shot and got a catch off of it. That was a brave brave shot all the way around. An important detail that we've noticed on this machine. There is the kickback. Um, if you hit all six of those targets again, it will relight your kickback. And he did. So, he used the kickback to relight the kickback. That's right. It's very meta. So, I like it. He now has two lock shots. So now one of the best benefits of hitting those shots is that is a great bumper car style lock shot right there. Well done. Um the one of the best benefits is that he just lit the spinner in the upper left. You see it with the red arrow there. That spinner is worth a,000 points of spin. And I'll tell you what, if you're Eric Wenberger, all you do now is hit the spinner. Forget everything else. Live on that spinner. Oh, he almost had a good spin on that there. almost ripped it. Nope. Nothing he could have done about that shot. He had it lit. Unfortunately, a bad ball though. 53,000 points does put him in first place for the moment. Yep. He just could not take advantage unfortunately of that lit spinner. Here's Aaron Mills up. Getting comfortable, getting ready here. And here is the plunge. Yeah. Aaron's job at this point is to forget the last thing that happened. That last game was a bummer. She's got to shake it off. That was also a bummer. And that does not help you do that. The last thing you want after that is have a house ball that you don't flip. Nothing she could have done about that. Nothing at all. You you might have nudged is create a little bit of of friction for that not to go out, but who knows how that was going to go. And this firepower does not take well to nudging. No, that is something we've seen today. So Shawn is at 46,000. Uh needs to light those shots. And you can see the bonus growing by the way on the bottom of the playfield. Those white targets. Well, there goes the get the kick back. As now, as long as he can hit this arrow, he's going to get that kick back back. Yes. And then he's going to start Oh, that was close. He's going to start going for the spinner there. And those targets can be hit from the side, too. Yeah, they're very generous. So, he's building a little bonus. I don't I don't think the bonus is going to be the big story on this one. I think it's just going to be big points on uh on the spinner and I think it's going to be big points during the multiballs. I don't I don't think this is going to be a mostly bonus game like the EM. I would agree. Nope. Nice save right there. We did see a lot of people playing the bonus game earlier today. Y, but I agree with you. I don't tend to think we're going to see that right now. Got that bonus up to 20,000 points now. They're not necessarily trying to get up and complete the bonus X. It's It doesn't seem like a priority. None of the current players are trying to do that. And I'm not even seeing a ton of Well, that may have been a lock. I was going to say I'm not seeing a ton of effort on locking, but yeah. Oh, interesting. Interesting. Nice shot right there. Let it down. Yeah, I was going to say let it down. That was a great point shot. You saw the points bounce all the way up to 150,000. So, yeah, you get a little bonus out of it, but 178. Not bad. Yep. Not bad. If he wins this thing, we could see a very similar situation to what we saw in B Finals. Yep. If he wins this, John's only hope, anybody's hope really would be for Jon to come in second and guess to have another 14-10 scenario that we saw last night. Wild. Yeah, it's wild how many different similar scoring patterns we're seeing across these games today. Not what Willie Allen wanted out of that ball, that's for darn sure. Remember, in these early solid states, there is no ball save. So, or I don't think this one has any ball save. No. Right. Um, there is a kickback which is nice, but there's no ball safe. And if you're not careful on the plunge, there is a gate typically that would stop the ball when you plunge too hard, it'll just hit it and bounce off. Think like sorcerer or that sort of thing where it just bounces into the selector lanes. Uh, on this that gate has been removed as you can see right there. So, if you plunge too hard, you're going straight down the drain. You can have a a zero house ball. Yep. Or really really close. Yeah. Yeah. John had close to a zero house ball there. He did flip but not able to do anything with it. It is remarkable how different that was than his first ball where he was showing all kinds of confidence with small tips and things like that. He was really sort of owning the movement of of the ball across the playfield. And this one it just one shot didn't work out. Drop down the center. Now I am curious as to why he's going for that center shot. That that must be one that he's pretty excited about is building when you hit tap that center target up above the uh the pop bumpers. Agreed. Um because it is a dangerous shot because that exact thing can happen. It may have been that he wasn't going for that that he was trying to uh get the inside arrows. I don't know. Mhm. Oh, and another tough drain for Aaron right then just man same called it. John was going for the standup shot there. So trying to get the big points on the standup was his play. He was going for the stand up. The stand up. Yep. Ah, he had error number three left. Okay. Those are Bob Ross. It's a happy little accident. Happy little trees. That's right. Thank you, pinball narcissist. Yes. Uhoh. Uh oh. Stand up. Yes. Trying couldn't quite get through. There you go. He's got the turn. Oh, and it rolls over. Is always such a bummer. Nothing Sean could have done about that, but he does have good bonus. 210,000 score. Not bad. If you can see the competition at 22,57 and 23. 210's a healthy lead. Someone's going to have to really make something happen right here. And this is the crew that can do it. Yep. Ooh, strange. Nice. Nice save right there for Willie. That was the right thing to do. Now, let's see if Willie can can take a breath. Get out of the get out of the chaos. I assume Willie is also going for arrow number three and made that shot. Now, he's playing all this on the fly. He doesn't want to he doesn't want to trap up, which some people do very very well that way. Some people never stop. No doubt. Thought he was going to get air on the bank shot. There he goes. All right. Almost at the locker and it goes over. Ouch. That is a tough play. So, he will get to 54. Um, I believe Yeah, Willie does not trap. There is Jesse in chat talking about that exact thing. He is not a trap player in any way, shape, or form. Yeah, we've seen lots of others who do really well. Oh, Spider Pin, I'm on the fly. I am too. I I tend to play on the fly as well. a trap a little bit more drop catching or trying to drop catch more accurately than anything. Spiders do tend to be on flies. They do. Oh, that's basically a house ball for John. It does get him to 61,000, however, which is a huge benefit on the bonus. That would be a second place for him if everything holds out and a huge opportunity for Aaron. Now, let's see if Aaron can stay in this thing. Look, I mean, the door is open wide for Aaron. If she can run through it, she might be able to get a second place finish here. This is her time. It's not out of reach at all. Definitely the most important ball she's played in the entire tournament. I'm so hoping it's her time. I hope so, too. I want to see after a couple of disappointing games, I would love for her to get some uh some really happy moments out of this game. Target. There we go. Hits up the center. There you go. She's got all the targets. She's got her spinner lit. She's got two lock shots lit. Nice save right there. Oh, thought she had the lock shot on the left side. Just barely missed it. Owen drains over. She will end up with the bonus there at 56. So that will get her a third place finish in the group. Y. So Jesse is correct. Two good rips on that spinner and she would have had it. But couldn't quite get it under control. Was shooting right instead of left. There was absolutely a pathway to get there. So, let's see where we're at with these scores right now. We're going to have a very interesting last game. Yes, based on this. Yeah, third place. That means Aaron is going to move to four points. Willie is at four points. Um, here we are again. Yeah, the very similar setup to what we had with a little bit of a change. That is Willie and Aaron changing spots. So, Willie and Aaron are not able to win this now. in the right situation, they could make their way into a tie for second place. Or we would play it off, I would imagine, to see if they are second or third. One more look. Hello everybody. At Chuck of Vision with guest host Gillian Holly. Hello Gillian. Hello. Hello Gillian. There you go. You can kind of get a sense of where everybody is. So over here are all the other competitors who are no longer in the tournament watching the tournament on this screen. Everybody's watching. And Aaron has a great rooting party over here. The whole Chicago crew is over here. I see Anna. I see I see Maya. So, everybody from Chicago rooting around. John's over here talking to Tim. They're probably, you know, talking shop a little bit. Probably about 20 to 25 people watching this television set right now. Let's see if we can give him a shout out. See what happens. You guys know anybody from Chicago? Can I get a what? What from Chicago? Yeah, there it is. There it is. I got it. Thank you, Jose. I love it. All right, so our order. Shawn Davis again is going to go first, then Willie, then Aaron, then John. Interesting that Jon is player four in this setup. He's going to get to watch everybody else play before he gets to put up his score. I could not be more excited to see this happen. This is going to be fun. This is going to be fun. So we have we have sort of journeyied through the eras here from EM through early solid state up to AC/DC. And these are just three such different playing styles, such three different rule sets, such three different entire different pinball experiences. The skills of these players, what we've seen, what we know about what they're good at and what they like to play is going to make this a lot of fun. Oh yeah. You know, Shawn is in the lead spot here. Yep. Shawn starts off in war machine. Did Aaron take fourth last year? I got to look back and see. But two straight years in the last year for Aaron is a sensational finish. That's a heck of a lot of whopper points between both the events. Yeah, he he did not go for that one. Wanted some spins. Got a few of them in there. Aaron and John both from Chicago. No, John's from Columbus. Yeah, John is Cleveland. Cleveland John is a Cleveland guy. Ohio representing Ohio very much Chicago. And Willy's from here in Cincinnati. Look at that big old spinner rip. 20k. That's what you're hoping for in War Machine. Just spinner rips for days. All those ramps have lit some super lanes. Four of those. And we're looking at jam multiball. Hey Willie. Wilder, Kentucky. There you go. Not too far from my old Wilder, Kentucky is not an hour from Cincinnati. Jesse, come on now. He might be an hour from Forest Fair Mall. An hour from your part of Cy, right? I'm like, I live in Crest Hills. That's 10 minutes away. So, we're playing Jam Multiball. And let's see what he can do with it. making this stream the whole screen so we can see better. Oh yeah. Yeah, we can do that. Okay, so chat friends, just for one moment, we're going to go full screen and uh so we we're going to it may just take us a minute longer to respond to chat because we're going to be looking at two different places. So we can still see the chat. It's just going to take a little bit longer. And I'm going to turn off the matchup screen here because we can't see it. We know where everything stands. All right, I you guys can see this is for the benefit as well of the people locally here. We're not doing an extend screen. I may do that for tomorrow. Cuz I forgot that that's hooked up to the same computer. We can do that. We're not doing it live. That's for darn sure. I'm too busy watching Sean dominate this game. Yeah, we in a jam multiball that just will not end, right? Gotta love it. Yeah, we've got a crowd growing that is rivaling what we have on on the Twitch stream here. Good start here for Shawn. So, it's a little bit hard to see, but over Shawn's right shoulder is a big crowd of people watching this game on the stream. We are here in the A division finals in the final game of the A division. That's right. And we want to welcome Buffalo Pinball. Thank you guys for rating. You came at an amazing time back to Cincinnati. We are in the A division finals. This is the last game. Um Sean, I think Sean's from up in Pittsburgh if I remember correctly. He's wearing the kickback pinball league shirt. That's a good sign. That's a very good sign for that. So, we've got three states. No, he's from Louisville. I stand corrected. Sorry. We have Do we have four states represented in these finals? We have Kentucky. We have three states. Kentucky, Kentucky, Kentucky, Ohio, and Illinois. Great to see everybody representing. That spinner is getting real good. 32K per spin right now. And Alba Multiball in full swing. He's getting those balls back. So, you're going to see him right up top. He's got at least one of them back. to give you guys an update. We've gone full screen for the benefit of the people here. That did mean we had to turn off the matchup screen. Um the part the points that matter here, it is a three-game playoff for a division final. Shawn has 14 points. Jean Delapo has 10. Our two other players in this that would be um Aaron Ma and Willie Allen have four points each. Yep. Yeah. And those four points mean there's no way they can win. But really, this is a showdown between Jon and Shawn to see who's going to win. The other two players are playing for some placement. They're playing for trophies and cash. All very important as well. But I think the the big show here is definitely going to be Shawn versus John. No doubt about it. It's going to be a lot of fun. 39 million drains out. Good first ball for him. Well done. So 14 points to 10 points means if if John gets first place, he gets 17. He will go to 17. If Shawn gets third place, he will be at 17. He will be at 17. And we may look be looking at a tie. We may, which is exactly how we finish the B Championship. Uh almost could have ended up that was in 1917. And that's just as likely here. That's a strong possibility. Willie goes for the ball save. Doesn't want to mess with it. Decides to take it right away. So we could have sorry I meant to say we could have been looking at that for beers but it could have ended up in the exact going into the game 1717. This is a very similar setup. We could be looking at that as well. Going to need a little help. So that's why what Shawn just did here too is so immensely important. If he comes in second place, he he still wins this thing even if Jon blows the machine up, which we really think there's a strong possibility he could do. Well, and here's here's the thing. You know who's who the deciders of that are? It's not just Shawn. It's Willie and Aaron. It's Willie and Aaron. They are your spoilers here, right? If they just absolutely have an incredible game. They could make this very very difficult for Shawn. They could. And they can win more cash for themselves at the same time. I mean, this had 76 people with a pretty decent entry fee. There's a good amount of money on the line. You bet. For finishing in third place instead of fourth. That's enough to get you back to Chicago and make a little extra money and have some gas. Get some gas. Not to mention a Nice Chicago style pizza when you get there. That's that's what we're talking about right now. Not to mention a metric ton of Whopper points. All the whoppers. And that's a great point, too. Whopper points are in play here for this. So, you know, that might be worth another three or four Whopper points to come in third place as opposed to coming in fourth. And for Aaron, for all these players, that matters tremendously. Y Oh, yeah. So, I know we talk about the 1v2 quite a bit because we're excited to see it. Don't don't sleep on Aaron. Don't sleep on Willie in this in any way, shape, or form. And I'm rooting for Aaron, too. She's had a tough last couple of games here. I'd like to see her have some some serious success on this game. And again, in terms of whopper points coming into this match, Aaron is in the 1500 range. Is that right? She is. Yes. And she's playing against people in the 140 range. Oh man. And didn't get the bonus, unfortunately. Tough break for Aaron. So, this could be a really fantastic opportunity for her. It probably already will be. She has she has played really well all day. Oh, yeah. And I I just respect the hell out of that. Oh, she's she's done a tremendous job. The Chicago crew in general has done great and has been playing great. Of course, Jane Verweise, our winner from last night, now twotime women's pinball champion here at two years in a row. How do you like that? Two years of the show, two times she's been the champion. So, she's the all time in so much as nobody else has ever won it. All time. That's right. She's never once lost. Two time two time alltime champ. And uh Tim Ston won both the tournament yesterday, the full-on tournament and the B division today. And the B division today. So, a really great weekend for Tim Ston. Also driving down from Chicago as well, of course, with the Stern contingent. Yep. We've been seeing Keith Elwin hanging out with some people here at the show today. We're super hyped to have him here. Yeah. And also and a surprisingly tough ball right there for John. Only 1.3 million. Not able to put the shots he wanted to. So Sean's going to take just a minute. Think this one through. Let the machine calm down. Yep. As he starts his ball number two. You can see the crowd growing. You can see the crowd watching, even getting into the feed here and uh talking with us. Love that. got some great comments in chat right here. We can't see I can see them on my side screen right here. That's why I'm looking down. Um, we got Adam talking, Adam Robinson talking. Speaking as a former Louisville player, Sean is one of the people I never wanted to play in a tournament. He is consistently the first or second best person in any tournament. Way better than the IFPA ranking. And his IFPA ranking is very good. Very good. So, that's saying a lot. If you're saying he's shooting above that ranking, that's high praise. And I know Adam is is about as straight a shooter as there is and about as you know a good player as he's in that same range of IFPA ranking as well. And Jane, you know, the tournament she's winning right now, she won the pinball the women's tournament and pinball expo as well in Chicago. So that for her was really a home hometown tournament and she took that. So Jane is playing great very well. The results of all these tournaments may help her make it to the women's finals later this year. She is just such a consistent and talented player. She is, you know, she she gets her sight set on a goal and just pursues it until she's got it. Intensity in a big way in a great way. Yep. Intensity and happiness combined into one for sure. Look at that. He knows what he's doing. Sean's having fun right now. You see Shawn checked the status beforehand. He needed to know exactly what do I have to do, what's left to do, and then just went and did it. He's playing a thinking man's game of pinball right now. That's exactly right. That's the kind of intention and follow through that I have always hoped to play with. What's my strategy? Just go and do it. So, we'll see if this happens. Actually, there was talk in chat about how do you get the add ball? You have to make all of the five major shots during multiball, which would be ramps, orbits, and bell. You get them all, you get an add ball. VIP passes will will spot you one of them if you need it. War machine spinners. He's going for that orbit. Nice move. Sean at 51 million right here. This is not an unmakable score for anybody in this game. And with Shawn being player one, no matter what happens with the other players, we're going to get to see him play this whole thing out. All right, we're in train mode and blowing up those ramps and orbits. Mhm. Want to thank you to all of the viewers that are here, all of the support you guys have been today. Thank you so much. Thanks. We've been on the air with you since noon, 11:30 today. So, we're going on about what 11 hours of Yeah, thereabouts. Long day pinball action. And I have not uh regretted a moment of it. We had so much fun with you today and yesterday. We did 11 hours yesterday of great pinball tournament action and we got more tomorrow with the gauntlet. We do. We saw that he turned down the 7 million shot. So, you know, we had that conversation with Eric earlier. What's your What's your threshold? What do you do? He decided it wasn't for him. And with the score he's got right now, playing that riskreward game, you know, there's no harm in theory in playing for a little bit more risk. Yep. He's got a little bit of a wiggle room, but it's also the finals. It is. And do you That's one of those where you have to ask yourself if I miss and I get beat by 3 million, are you going to be mad? Am I going to be mad at myself later? Yeah. I think at this point, the way he's playing, what we've seen from him today, I don't think he's going to be mad no matter how this I don't think so either. He's had m what what I would call the perfect combination of a ton of skill and a little bit of serendipity. You put that all together and sometimes that's what you need to win a tournament and he's had a good run of it today. Oh, he's trying to backhand those ramps, playing on the fly, and turns the corner on that one. So, there you go. Nice job by Willie on that shot. And what a difference that makes cuz as soon as you finally clear that ramp, you're taking a few shots out of him, you can't get it done, but as soon as you clear the ramp, now you're you've got a gravity feed right back to your flipper. You're setting yourself up for some great combo shots. And combos are everything in this game. They are. That that ball is coming back to you with a ton of momentum. You know, you can trap it if you feel like you need to play control. If you're playing on the fly, whatever shot you make is going to have a ton of power behind it. It was a good save. A really good effort there. I think he qualified jam multiball, but couldn't quite get it started. So, Willy's going to end that ball at 95. Now Jesse comes in in chat saying when you only need second take the seven mil. We'll see if that comes back. Jesse makes a good point. He only needs second to win. In the same sense he might be playing the field here. He might be looking saying I I think I'm okay over Willie. I think I'm okay over Aaron and John I'll take my chances. But that said, I hope she had both. Yes, she does have the ball save. All right. Really want Aaron to have a really good ball here. Build that confidence back up. It's just been struggling to happen in the finals here. I want to see it so bad. We're on ball two, player three. Right now, Sean's got a pretty healthy lead at 57. But as we said before, AC/DC is the kind of game you can do three multiballs in in the space of a few minutes. She does for the jackpot, gets it, but gets a drain off of it. Unfortunately, always the danger. That is a tough break for her. Yep. I don't blame her for going for it, you know, try. Like I said, it's building confidence sometimes. At this point, her job is to try and go for gold. This is this is your Hail Mary pass, right? You're going into ball three at 9 million and or five in her case. Well, starting Yes. Starting uh 5 million. Um and she she has to do something here to disrupt the field. She has to. Yes. And with Willie at nine, she's not going to catch up to John. She's not gonna catch up on Sorry, not on points on total tournament points. On total tournament points. No, in this game she could. She has to disrupt. Yes. So, song jackpot. Yeah, John's definitely not going to go for that at 1 mil. I would have been I would have wondered about his sanity if he actually went for that one right there. And he is on the rock and roll train as well. Train mode. Yep. He's going to backhand that right. I think he's thinking about it. He He might also be waiting for the tilt bob to settle down. He gave a little nudge there. He might just be waiting out the tilt. Sorry, I was reading the chat over there. Okay. And Jesse said, "The shot's been draining people all day. Why go for it unless it's really juiced up? Also a fair point. Y, you know, I'd have to look and see how much of this game Aaron's played today. Maybe this might be one she hasn't played. Yeah, I was just thinking that if you don't know AC/DC really, really well. That looks like the only shot on the playfield. I mean, look, there's one thing lit, right? And just as importantly as knowing it, you know, have you played this one? Yeah, that's true. Have you Have you noticed that it's draining everybody? Yeah, cuz I trust that Erin knows this game. She's playing in Chicago. She's playing at all the places up there. Logan Arcade, the all the the the hot spots in Chicago. I'm sure she's played it, but she played this one. Yeah. Oh, how I love Logan Arcade. Every time I'm in Chicago, I make it a destination. It has been so long since I've been to Chicago. I may be going in March, and if I do, I it it'll be with V. I'm going to make sure I find a way to get to Logan Arcade for a little bit. Have myself some bourbon, have play a few games of pinball. I have it on my my bucket list to accidentally run into Jack Danger there sometime and play a game of pinball. I would love that. That'd be great. And Galloping Ghost, but we'll save that. Well, we can talk about that. They have pinball now. All right. I don't know. Galloping Ghost. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about that during tomorrow. Yes, we got some rock and roll train going on right now. Still in two ball multiball. 15 million. Starting to build the points up here. We got some John D to think about. And he refuses to just let anybody have a runaway victory. I think he's I think he's going to lose that right there. Nice backhand on the shot there. So now the song takes it gets it. 8.6 million and a nice save off. I'll say that's the call I would have made. Yeah. I think Eric's assessment of 8 million being the cut off point is a solid. There you go. Look at him. Look at him on these combos. Yes. So that's the second time that he's paused for that. I wonder what he's pausing for. It's very intentional whatever it is he is. He may be going through and looking at that status report just to see where he's at on everything. Taking inventory of everything. Yep. He is he is playing this mode to the hill. I mean, he is he's going to make this mode work for him. And there you go. Oh, that is such a dangerous shot. But it was it was ready for him. He's going to make that rock and roll train crash over and over again. Or you think he's going to back in? No, I think he's going to go for the right orbit. I think he's just checking his progress. He's got one target for Alvin. He's got one bell hit for 2x. We're getting a great chance here to see he's got a total bonus of 3 mil. So yeah, I think he's just assessing everything for what that next shot needs to be because if he plays it right like that he went for the multiball. Album's not a big number, but I think he thought if he could get that bell shot, he could go into it with 2x scoring. Wasn't able to cash it in, but now you got a ball saver. Now is when you go for the two for for the bell, get your 2x play field. He's aiming for it big time right now. Just missing. He's got four balls in play. It's absolutely a chance to take a couple of risks. Yes. And gets three trapped. This is a tough cradle separation. He gets it. He got it split away from he splashes your enemy. Nice ramp right there. Yep. Uh-oh. There he goes. That is great play. I love to see that juggling. That was skillful. There you go. Little taps. Little taps. The oo would pay for that juggling act right now and give you a 30 minute show. Look at look at these balls. Oh, how fun is that? Wow. He's he's he's performing at this point. He is. Did lose the one. Not the worst thing ever right there. Now he can get a one and one. That was a well done effort for quite a while there. Yeah. Now there's the belt. Did he get two? That's 826. He might have 2x going right now. He does. We can see the light in the bottom left side. That's right. That is not the time to lose. Nice double right there for 1.3. We'll take that. Every bit helps. Now he is really going after that bell in one ball mode. I think that he's trying to get his his bonus X up even further or sorry, his playfield X up. Maybe he might be. You hit it enough times you can get it to 3x. He's going back to rock and roll. Not changing. Yeah, 2x going. And uh Evan's absolutely right on this song jackpot. If he gets it with the 2x, he missed it. Yeah. So now does he try and build a backup? That song jackpot's up to 16 mil right now. Oh boy. That would be He won't get it with it. But I think jackpot is 18 mil. Oh, I think there might be a 3x lit here. No, he didn't go for it. Nope. What? Wow. That is very interesting that he chose not to make that play right there. The multiball then going still though. He'll get that ball back. You think he might be playing for the big one right here? I I think he's trying to build a huge jackpot is what I think. Yeah, I think he's trying to he's going to try and build a really big one and then go for it. But play this thing up to 30 40 million and see if he can just try and cash it in. Go for the jugular. Yeah. You think there's a mental aspect to this? I mean, there's I want to make a shot that's going to make Shawn go wow when he sees it. Oh, wow. If so, do you think he's thinking that right now? So devious. I I I enjoy it. I want to think that. I'd like to believe that. Yeah. And he does have a ball save on. So, he's going to get that ball back. Yeah. And Evans got it right. He's guaranteed to have a top two score right here. Obviously with the points he has, he needs to win. But the key is no matter what happens right here, if he wants to get a tie in this tournament, he's going to need to get a little bit of help from either Aaron or Willie. That's right. That's right. So, at that point, you know, maybe, you know, you take the blinders off a little bit, you say, "Ah, heck with it. Let's have some fun." That's right. Let's put on a show. And I would say he is putting on a show. He's put on a great show. So is Shawn. They've both played really well. I love watching him juggle like that. He is playing two balls as if he has six flippers. It's so fun. Tish had the word down perfectly today and that is deliberate. Yes. It is not slow play. I wouldn't even call it patient play. It's deliberate play. It's a beautiful word to describe what he does. And and it's one thing to show off with points. He is showing off with technique at the same time. He is. All right. Let's see. Lane jackpot 627. And this is a 33 shot and he got him. There you go. There it is. Nicely done. He's up to 95 million. Taking the lead. Nicely done ball right there. Really good ball. All right, Sean. He will go over a 100 with that bonus. 102. Well played ball. You know what? I'm standing up. I can't I can't I'm standing up. I got I This is too exciting. Can Can we have Gen flip? Can we have Ken move the camera up so we can see? Would you mind scooting that camera up? We got to stand for this. Angle the camera up for us. Right in front of you. Yeah, just tilt it up. Yeah, there you go. All right, perfect. That I can't I can't be seated for this. And we're watching Shawn over there as well. So, what Shawn really is doing right now, he's he doesn't even have to think about John score. John can go ham as much as he wants. He's thinking about put up as many points as I possibly can with the hopes that Willie or Aaron is not going to be able to catch as long as that happens. But you don't want to leave that in Willie and Aaron's hand. You want to make sure you open up such a gap that nobody's catching. He doesn't have to. He doesn't have to catch up to Jon, but he does have to stay so far ahead of Aaron that he doesn't have a fear in the world. He doesn't care that John went ham. He's got to go ham himself. Yep. I don't think we did, man. We got this. Sean has Shawn has played very very well today. I think he's got a heck of a chance at this one for sure. He'll get that ball back. So, we stay in two ball. He's got the 2x now. Now is a great time to put something big on the board. See if he can do it. He's going to pick up that ramp. That makes all the sense in the world. That ramp on that ramp. Another shot on the rock playfield. Yeah. Yeah. Super lane in lane time. 2x shot. These are not huge shots, but it adds up really nicely. Just million here, 3 mil there, 1 mil there, and suddenly there he is. 78 million points with a nice jackpot on top of it, too. 10 million on the board if he can get the song. So, he's going hell's bells here. Good rock. way to get it under control quickly. Ah, okay. Got the stuff lit. Oh, and it drains down the side. So, 82 million. That is not bad at all. I think he's done a formidable job of putting up something that's going to be tough for both Willie and Aaron to catch. And as we said, Willie and Aaron have a lot to play for. Whoever wins between the two of them is going to get third place in this tournament. That's a significant upgrade in terms of your whopper points. You bet. Just Just because you're not playing for number one doesn't mean you're not playing your heart out. I'm looking over right now at the prizes. The difference between I can't tell. Maybe I don't think I can get Eric's attention to tell me. You know, there's a nice little cash difference between fourth place and third place here. Yep. Get a little extra cash. No one's going to turn that down. Most of us are used to putting money into a pinball machine. They are going to take money out of one, right? I can tell you in all my years of playing pinball, I have not taken money out of a pinball machine in terms of winning a prize at a cash prize at a pinball. I made $34 once. Congratulations. Yep. Well done. Which I'm sure is uh only slightly more than what I've spent. That would be my gas money going home. Yeah. So, jam multiball is queued up and almost activated there. Not quite. Using a little air defense to keep that ball out of the gutter. And now he's got 2x going on his. So again, a great chance for Willie to do something right here. He's trapped up. Can't keep track of that. Clock is counting on the 2x. Yeah, that clock is ticking. And when you're sitting on a 2x, it's again, but the temptation is to start flailing away. So that was just long enough to take a beat and make some choices. And for a guy Willie that plays on the fly, I'm sure that that's a difficult thing to do. It is. Oh. Oh, and not able to do it with a bell shot. Nice ball there. 17 million. The bonus should make it no tilt 19. Just short. 19. All right. This is Aaron's opportunity to upset Willie. Here's where Aaron has to play for. And there's a lot on the line here. And yeah, we need to call out. This is not just Yeah. If Aaron passes Willie, third place for her, right? If Aaron runs this thing all the way back and catches Shawn, we have a playoff. That's exactly right. It all comes down to this. Right. We're on the final ball, potentially the final ball of the A division finals, and it comes down to Aaron. Yep, we got chat rooting for her. I see the people hyping it up in chat here. Let's make this happen. Plenty of people in this room rooting for two. I love it. We'll keep it a little quieter than we typically do. We're not that far away from AC/DC. Oh, and she wasn't able to make it happen. Just could not get a feel for the ball on that. That is tough. She will still come in fourth place in this tournament. That's a tremendous show. A great job for her. Great job by all these players here. We will bring this back real quick, the matchup for you because we can refresh it here in just a second. Go ahead and plunge. John will plunge. He will take second in this tournament. He will end with 17 points. And for the both of the final 17 points, which is almost always enough to win you one of these three-player games, was not enough to do it. Not quite enough, but we have a brand new Cincinnati Match Play a Division Champion. It is Shawn Davis. And it's Shawn Davis. He made this happen. Kentucky coming up coming across the border and representing. I love it. We're about to hear some applause, some celebration. You can't see what I can see, which is a bunch of people uh handshaking, hugging, and celebrating. Absolutely. Let's switch the cameras over, make this happen for you so that you guys can see it. But that was really exciting. And for the 90 folks who are watching with us, thank you guys. 90 of you. You are tremendous right now. This is really exciting. And to get to see that final ball come down to what was whether or not she was going to be able to sneak past. I that that was for me. Yeah, there was a ton at play for that ball for Aaron right then. And you know, even with not having a great run through the finals for her, you know, to run through this thing, a top four finish for the second straight year in a big tournament at Cincinnati is a great great showing. Nothing to be ashamed of right there. You know, those whopper points are going to help her build up that rating by a significant amount. They sure are. And we're about to transition to the celebration and the announcement. You can see Eric back there where you will in a minute. Oh, we got to get Hey, Gilly. Kelly play there we go. In fourth place of the division we have Melissa. All right. Aaron is getting her fourth place prize. her trophy or plaque for getting fourth place. Congratulations to her. Can we bring up just like get rid of this? No, sorry. Get rid of all these things. No, that that's all they said. Yeah, we're good. There's Willie Allen's prize. Willy Allen. There it is. And first place down from Blue Kentucky Davis. All right. All right. Shawn Davis accepting that first place trophy for the match play finals. Beautiful glass trophy that he wins. This thing's been 11hour tournament. Truly a a gauntlet in its own sense. We're running one tomorrow, but he had to run a heck of a lot of pinball tonight to make that happen. A great job on his part. Congratulations. He did great and he has been playing consistently great pinball all day long. He has. He rose to the challenge of the EM. He rose to the challenge of the solid states. He kept rising to new competitors all throughout the qualifying events, did great, and then just absolutely destroyed the end. He did, you know, the way I said in that last game, the the perfect combination of tremendous skill and just that little bit of luck that sometimes you need something good goes your way. You know, you get a ball that stays in longer, you look at the machine just the right way. Five Lazarus balls. Five Lazarus balls and a ball save on medieval madness that we will talk about for a good long time. That was amazing. Very long time. I want to know is is there a skill to the Lazarus ball? Like was it dumb luck or does he just know how to do that? Uh that is a great question. We should get him over here to ask that question right now. I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll get him over here. You chat with him. We're also going to see if we can get our B division champion to join us as well. Have Tim come over for a few extra moments and I'll sit with Tim. That sounds good because I got to talk to Tim yesterday and as as I mentioned to him jokingly a while back. We we need to find out if he got his Cincinnati style chili. You know, went in town. This is his first trip to Cincinnati. We know Sean's been up here many many times before just being about 90 minutes down the road in in Louisville. But uh yeah, a sensational job for him. A huge win that's going to help his Whopper score turn out here. He should be over in in just a moment or so. And uh I know we're gonna get uh Justin to try and get Tim Sexton here for just a few minutes as well. So a great job by all these competitors. Um we will probably see in the next few days how that affects things in terms of uh you know Whopper standings, Ohio State Championship that's coming up very very quickly um in the near future. So we'll see how all that shakes out here very soon. Um we're waiting for uh one of these guys to come over. I think we got Sean making the trip over here. So, we'll get him on on on the headset. Congratulate him on a job very well done. I can appreciate that hat tremendously. What's that? Oh, meat meat church. That's a cow. I thought that was a horse for a second there. Yeah. Come on over here. We'll get you in here. This is Shawn Davis, everybody. He is your Cincinnati Match Play A Division Champion. No, stand up, man. I got to stand up. You got to stand. I know you've stood for a while. So what? You've stood for 11 hours today. So what's another what's another five minutes? Right. Right. Get you on there. Sean, congratulations on a great job. Yeah, we're good. Yeah. Congratulations on on a heck of a finish. We we we talked about it before. It's like you had the perfect combination of skill and just a couple of good fortuitous bounces today that helped you when you needed it. I mean, tell me how you felt like your game was today and uh you know, just how you feel about everything. Good. Um, I often times I feel like I um I don't I don't play the way that I I expect myself to. Um, sometimes I kind of down on myself whenever I get playing if you have a couple bad balls and that will uh that can destroy your entire day. You know what I mean? You can't really shine whenever you're in your head and you're worried about it. And for some reason, I just felt comfortable. These are a lot of people here are my friends. I mean, I had a lot of supportive people. I got to play with people from Louisville, people from Cincinnati, people from Northern Kentucky. And uh uh the the pitball was going well for me, man. I had some good streams today. I had some some powerful moments. Uh I had a good game of AC/DC before they changed the tilt on it. Uh and then, you know, people were complain people were complaining about that and I was like, "Oh yeah, you should loosen the tilt for me on AC/DC. That'll be a good idea." So that went well. Um a couple crazy Lazarus balls right in a row. Let's talk about that on Indian. Is is there a skill to that or does it just kind of happen? That was just happening. It was slamming down so fast and it was hopping back in. But I mean I think the skill in that is um is being calm and responsive enough whenever it happens, right? You have to take advantage of the opportunity because a lot of times uh you can catch yourself where you're not paying attention and the ball comes back into the game and then you don't get it. Like people will be looking at the stream or people will be watching the game, the ball is sitting on a flipper and your back is turned to the machine and you can't do anything whenever your back's turned to the machine. That's true. That that game of big Indian was crazy, man. Like that felt really good. That was a sensational game and and gave you a tremendous confidence going into firepower getting the win in that. Yeah. Going into that final game with that four-point lead over John Delapo. You've seen what he's been able to do on AC/DC all day. Even though you've had tremendous success, you almost had a 100 million point game earlier today. Yeah, I had that target. That darn drop target would have locked in for you. It didn't quite do it. So, you know, obviously we knew you were not lacking for confidence on that game, but you know, I think again, you know, I picked it for I picked it so that I could play AC/DC. And earlier, I had good luck with firepower. I had a pretty solid game on that where I got into the multiball, which is something uh that's often just ignored, you know what I mean? Like just go to the spinner and do that. But I was I was there and I knew where the shots were there and I was comfortable. And I I played big guns like that, too. um you know, everybody's just trying to play up top for the multiplier and I I played it for the multiball. I played the game instead of uh ignoring that and just trying to get the quick like smash and grab or whatever. And that confidence does that, you know, like I just felt good and I so I was taking risks. That makes perfect sense. And the risks more often than not paid off. They paid off today. Well, you know, the fortuitous bounces that we've talked about before, it's also what you do with them. So, you talked about having that confidence to say, "Hey, if I'm getting a second chance on something here, something goes my way, I'm going to do something with it." And in almost every one of those instances, not only did, you know, the ball save or a kickback go your way, but then you were able to get millions of points off of it right after it. It wasn't an immediate sort of surge that comes from that, right? There's some sort of excitement that comes from that that allows you to flow or get into whatever kind of state, but also controlling it and being able to keep in the flow of the game. And I think you did a sensational job of that today and that's why you're here as the champion. A lot of very very good players as you are one of them yourself. I did tell you earlier uh one of these days hopefully I'll stop making so many of those damn saves cuz I'll make my shots. Well, today you get the best of both worlds. You got to make the saves and make the shots. We get to make the mixtape for you of the saves and the moments, but at the end of it you get to hold the trophy. You get to hold all the Whopper points. You get to hold some cold heart cash. The most Whopper points I've ever had, I think. Congratulations. It's going to move you up in the standings quite a bit, man. Very good. Enjoy it. You going to be here for the gauntlet tomorrow? I'm going to be here for the gauntlet tomorrow. Awesome. I can't wait for you to be here for it. We got Chad over here taking some pictures. Snapping the shots. Thanks for talking to me. Appreciate it, man. Thank you so much. That is Shawn Davis. He is your champion tonight. Very much appreciate him coming over for a few minutes here. I am going to get off the microphone for just a minute. I know we've got Tim Ston over here, our B division champion as well. We need to give another conversation to him. And before that, obviously, um, thank you guys as well in chat. We appreciate Tish with even more bits. We appreciate Joe Soap with another 100 bits. Your guys support of Straight Down the Middle Pinball has blown my ever loving mind tonight. So, I know Zack and and Chuck and all the guys, everyone who's a part of Straight Down the Middle, we very much appreciate it. So, you bet. We got Justin Masterson back. I got Tim Sax right over here. I'm going to hand this off. You guys have some fun. We will. Thank you. So, you just got to see your A division champion from today's match play. You're about to uh get a moment with your B division champion from today's match play in addition to being yesterday's A division champion from our uh from our uh strikes format. Right. You've heard from the best. Now, you're about to hear from the rest. This is Tim Ston. So, tell me about what it was like to battle your way to number one in the B division today. Well, it started out in match play with um not not my coming off my play yesterday, not not living up to that level. And then after the break and getting some food in me for the between the rounds, I kind of woke back up and I was I was ready to go again. And then I really liked uh a lot. I had choice of the banks every time. Uh except for the one time I was 30 seconds late and Eric handed it off. Oh no. Someone else, but it was still a bank I would have picked. And uh yeah, that was pretty sweet. And then just every game I was like, "Okay, now finally I was kind of becoming more comfortable getting the lead early, which I was struggling with earlier." So that's what it was like getting into to B. And I was right on the edge of of A and B. It was just one point difference. And then um yeah, it was awesome. It was and it was still like a good battle with everyone I think with you know having the match play qualifying like anyone could have made any division like you know good players were didn't even qualify and and some players who hadn't played in in finals before were up there battling and they were you know putting their heart into it and everything. So it was I love that. I mean so you mentioned that you got to pick the bank every time. Yeah and we were talking about this on the stream. It might be easy if you're outside of this environment to say, "Oh, what's the big deal?" Right? Each bank has an old one and a middle one and a new one, but it's a big deal to pick the bank. It is. Uh especially when big deals in the banks, especially when big deal is one of them. Yeah. So, what was your what was your strategy? How did you pick? Uh so, I first it I really like the banks just in general. I would recommend tournaments go to doing them like every everyone had an old, a mid, and a new. So, um, I'm most confident on some of the new games, especially the like the really modern Sterns. So, I'm looking for like something like a Game of Thrones where I I figure I've got like, you know, closer to a, you know, 80% chance of winning rather than like a a 40% chance. Like something where I'm like, okay, I can, you know, I I've got a strategy that no one knows here and I can do something. You've got a secret. You've got a leg up somewhere. And I mean I I have it on stream and people can watch and copy what I do of course, but I mean my thing on any format in Game of Thrones where they take the um outlane posts up higher. I've played the same way since before the code updated now where I go I pick Tyrell, I short plunge and I do lock Lannister, lock Lannister, lock Lannister, play them both. uh try to get those points just to get me likeund 150 million in the modes plus another 100 or 50 million from the multiball and then you already have so you're doing Tyrell Lannister at the same time in in Blackwater multiball and you can do that by passing on Tyrell the first time you lock the ball and then you can get them both and then after that I go for the two swords and then your combos with Stark, you know, like it kind of all leads into just I just love the uh the combo rule with the inlanes. where you can build the multipliers up and then since you're hitting that ramp twice right after that and then one more time lights it now you're in lanes um plus maybe if you have some multiplier from the super jackpot like you can you can get a huge and you're picking the combos back on those drill and feed shots back right back to the in lanes over and over again and then um and then Greyjoy being the fourth mode w with another sword and then you go into hand of the king and you you just have like you're talking hand of the king in a tournament setting Yeah, hand of the king, especially on a pro, this is a premium, but Hand of the King's uh pretty much the second multiball most people play on Game of Thrones. So, if you if you get two multiballs, it's usually not a second Blackwater, it's a Hand of the King. But if you're getting that in the tournament, you're having a good game. Yeah. At that point, right, which is pretty nice. Yeah, it is pretty nice. So, what about the older games? So, we talked we talked a lot about Stars and Big Indian today because they kept showing up in these really important games. Yeah. So, Stars is a great game. Um because uh it's it's a game with with so few flips matters so much. Yeah. And you know without kind of like getting the bonus up in stars is is not an easy feat which makes it really worthwhile going for. And then there's also like some some pie in the sky stuff you can go for later. So I just like stars. I like the technique of um shooting the in lanes because you usually get about 7,000 points um if it goes up and down twice. So you get the the three bonus advance 3,000 and then another thousand on the other way. That's very clever. So you know I mean you know your way around these rules. Yeah. And when you're picking your banks, you're going by what do I know? What's my strategy? Right. What happens when you throw a game like Big Game in there or or you throw even even you throw a game like Argusy or maybe one that you haven't played as much. We had Sweethearts in here. That one was kind of a surprise for a lot of people. Now what? So yeah, Sweethearts. So, a game like that, um, if the other game, I mean, with picking the banks, if the other games you feel like you're strong enough on, and then if it's a game like Sweethearts or, you know, something that's rare, you can probably expect most people haven't played it. And if they have played it, they probably only played one version in their basement or something like that. So, they don't have like an idea of how this sweethearts play. So, you're not necessarily behind because it's you're not terribly experienced. And if you figured out, I mean, the old games, it's it's pretty easy to pick up on on the rule set because um often times on an EM that's not like a Argusy, an EM that's like not a control EM, uh you're just figuring out the best shot angles to get the ball back to where points are, and usually it's like pop bumpers or spinners or something like that. You're not you're not thinking too hard about like if I do A and then C and then D. There doesn't level. Yeah. No, it's it's usually get it back up top and then you'll get points up there. Well, you can see why Tim Ston did so well this weekend. This is a guy that knows his strategy. He knows his ins and outs, and he knows how to pick a bank. So, Tim, congratulations both on today's B division champion and last night's strikeout champion. Well played here at Cincinnati. So, friends, we are going to be done for the day. Um, I encourage you come down to Cincinnati if you're in the area. Otherwise, tune in for the stream tomorrow. But we're going to find a way to televise the gauntlet, which is not easy because I'm excited to see the gauntlet is chaos. The attempt. We're going to find a way somehow to televise the gauntlet. And um I'm going to bring back uh my partner here, Scott Vith, in just a moment, and we're going to sign off for the day. But uh stay tuned for one moment. We will be right back to uh sign off and talk a little bit about what's coming up Yeah, man. Enjoy the rest of your night. You can relax now. All right, we got about 50 viewers. I think we should sign off with class and talk about what's going on tomorrow. Let's get some sound here. There we go. There we go. All right, we've got about 50 friends still watching and I thought we could sign off and let them know what's coming up tomorrow. We should. Uh, what time does the gauntlet tournament start? I was just wondering the same thing. You know what? Here's the thing is I'm just here anyway. So I just wait for things to happen. That's true. I actually do need to drive you not home but you know family home tomorrow. So that's right. I'm going to look this up quick enough to find the answer for you. So we're going to try and televise the gauntlet tomorrow. If you've never seen a gauntlet uh tournament before, it's wild. I'll give you the very brief description, but I encourage you to tune in tomorrow cuz it's a bit of organized chaos. The way it works is you have a bank of machines. Each machine has one thing you have to do on that machine before you can jump off the machine and move on to the next thing. You don't have to do them in any order. You just have to get as many of them done as you can. Hopefully all of them to complete the gauntlet and you only have a certain period of time. What's really fun about it is there are very few rules. So that's right. You can run from machine to machine. You can plunge the ball in one and run to the other. You can switch a machine back. You can switch it off and back on again if you want. if you think that's going to be the fastest way to reset it and try your goal again. It is chaos. No idea how we're going to put this on a stream. But Scott, we're going to try. Eric has talked about having a special setup. We're going to switch over to this for just a minute here. A special setup for this gauntlet tomorrow. I don't know how the heck we're going to do it, but I'm going to have a hell of a lot of fun figuring it out. And you're going to see a lot of things in a pinball tournament setting that you have never seen before. Oh my gosh. Uh the the qualifying starts at 10:00 a.m. right when the show opens. Perfect. We're going to be doing qualifying until 2 p.m. And the top 50% of the scores will go to the finals. Finals run at 2 p.m. 2 p.m. You can take multiple attempts at the gauntlet. You can sign up. You can put your put your money in, you know, more than once to run it, but if you have run it before, new players always get priority. So, kind of a standard thing with an herb style tournament. You know, if if if you haven't played it yet, you go to the front of the line. If you have played it, you got to wait a moment or so to make that happen. So, that all starts 10:00 a.m. is the qualifiers. 2 p.m. is the finals. That's correct. And the show opens at 10:00 a.m. for those who are going to come locally. That's right. And it runs until 400 p.m. tomorrow. So, if you've been to other shows where people start packing up their machines on Sunday morning, this ain't that show. I'm one of the people who would love to be able to pack up early. I've got three machines here. I'm not allowed either. We keep it all the machines are running until 400 p.m. when the doors closed. Absolutely. And then we just pack like crazy. That's right. Then we make this place empty by about 6:00 p.m. Yeah. You're getting your money's worth if you pay for the ticket tomorrow because you're getting a full day of pinball from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. You are. And you can come over and play in a fun, relaxed, slightly frenetic gauntlet tournament at the same time. Slightly frenetic might be a uh misconception. I can see it being extremely frenetic. It sounds like it. Um but it's going to be a lot of fun. So yeah, that'll be that'll be an all day event. I'm sure we'll have time to talk to people as well. Maybe have some fun in between qualifying attempts. We've got a lot of players, a lot of people that I would I would love I think for both of us, we would love to talk to and get some insight from. So, I could see tomorrow being a very, you know, interview heavy day as well, just chat and talking pinball, having fun, maybe having a few shenanigans behind the microphone, just like the shenanigans in front of the uh in front of the camera. There's plenty of shenanigans. Shenanigans for days right now. So, it's time for us to sign off. It is. But in the meantime, let's show our sponsors one more time. We'll have that page up a minute. Yeah, we've got Pin Stadium Lights. We've got uh Speaker Light Kits who has a booth here as well. Pin Stadium lights are on display here. Comet pinball LEDs are all over the show. Arcade Legacy, you see Jesse Baker in the tournaments. He runs a bunch of arcades here in town for Arcade Legacy. Tilt Amusements is uh also represented here. And Tilt Amusements is a distributor of pinball machines uh based in Delaware, Ohio, but distributes everywhere. What the flip the stream that is so much fun. It's a um run by people who are competitive pinball players and they're also super fun and hilarious at times. And uh you're going to see also Wreckbar is here and Recre Bar has um two locations down in Louisville. Hundreds of pinball machines. They have gone all in on their pinball game. They have. Yeah. War I have not seen it since they've added the latest round of pinball machines to the place. And I just had a quick chance to see it last year at Louisville Arcade Expo um after they had added the back room which took it from about 25 machines way up to about 75 billion to to a bajillion approximately a bajillion approximately 11 gajillion machines. So we started at 11:30 this morning. It is now time to be done 12 hours later. We have had a wonderful time. Thank you for being here with us. I'm Justin Mastersonson. I am Scott B. Thank you guys so much for all of your support, all of your watching today. We cannot do this without you. You guys are freaking amazing and we are so happy you are here. So, we'll see you tomorrow. We are signing off for the night 10:00 a.m. about again about 11 hours from now, just like last time. Oh, it's bedtime. It's totally bedtime. We'll see you. Good night everybody. _(Acquisition: youtube_auto_sub)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: e88b795a-6211-4395-b873-f928609ba8a6*