Episode 105 – Triple Jackpot Seven

TL;DR

Raymond Davidson discusses Northwest Pinball Championships win and collection; Stomp 2 tournament coverage.

Summary

Key Claims

• Raymond Davidson won the Northwest Pinball Championships at Linwood Bowling Scape, taking first on Shadow and Addams Family in the finals.

  high confidence · Ron and Bruce discussing tournament results with Raymond as first-hand account

• The Women's division had 23 competitors and was won by Brooke Borcherdinger with a $500 prize.

  high confidence · Ron reading tournament results

• The Classics division had 90 competitors (with a top-16 cutoff) and was won by Robert Gagnon, who defeated Chris Chin on a Old Chicago tiebreaker.

  high confidence · Ron and Bruce discussing tournament results

• Raymond won $2,980 (approximately $3,000) in the Open finals by taking first on Shadow and Addams Family, second on Dialed In.

  high confidence · Tournament results discussion with Raymond

• The SIM card hole protector on Dialed In made a measurable difference in playability when removed.

  medium confidence · Raymond's first-hand experience with his personal Dialed In machine

• Chase from Geek Gamer TV streamed the Northwest Pinball Championships and previously streamed one of the first pinball tournaments (6 years prior) that featured Jackbot and Daniele.

  high confidence · Ron crediting Chase's streaming work and production quality

• Stomp 2 at Level Zero Arcade ran three simultaneous Stars tournaments: Heads-Up Challenge, Match Play, and High Score tournament, with 25 total participants and 20 signing up for Heads-Up.

  high confidence · Ron and Bruce discussing Stomp 2 logistics and participation numbers

• Chuck Webster won the Heads-Up Stars Challenge at Stomp 2, defeating Jason Plourde in finals after sweeping three prior opponents.

  high confidence · Ron announcing Stomp 2 results

• TNA (game title not fully explained) arrived Wednesday before the Stomp 2 tournament and was integrated into the event schedule.

Notable Quotes

• “I only played Dialed In in the finals, and I got second on it. I got first on Shadow and Addams Family.”

  Raymond Davidson @ ~10:00 — Clarifies Raymond's performance breakdown at Northwest Pinball Championships despite bringing three machines to the tournament.

• “I was so mad I didn't get to play it finals because I was in group four and so I got to choose or not choose the three games that nobody else wanted to play including me and basically just shat the bed and got eliminated”

  Bruce Nightingale @ ~12:30 — Illustrates frustration with tournament format constraints and competitive impact; also shows Bruce's self-aware humor about performance.

• “Iron Maiden is just so fun. And every game is, like, different. And it's just, it's long playing, but I don't feel like it's long playing.”

  Raymond Davidson @ ~25:00 — Personal endorsement of Iron Maiden as favorite game in collection; highlights gameplay feel and pacing advantages over complex games like Simpsons.

• “Triple jackpot seven! It's just such good call-outs.”

  Ron Hallett @ ~32:00 — References memorable Lord of the Rings callout; becomes episode title anchor and personal memory marker tied to Nick Zendejas sighting.

• “We can't do both. Because what we did, our original idea was we were going to have a double elimination heads up tournament.”

  Bruce Nightingale @ ~85:00 — Reflects on Stomp 2 operational learning—running multiple tournaments simultaneously caused logistical failure that will inform future event planning.

• “Where else do you get three stars? Yep, where else do you get three different tournaments?”

  Ron Hallett @ ~78:00 — Highlights unique aspect of Stomp 2 event design and resource utilization with three separate Stars machines running simultaneously.

• “So we were dual streaming. Beat that.”

  Ron Hallett @ ~87:00 — Pride in technical achievement of running simultaneous streams from two different Twitch channels to cover both tournament finals.

Entities

Signals

• ?

  competitive_signal: Northwest Pinball Championships results across four divisions: Women's (23 competitors), Classics (90 competitors, top-16 cutoff), Rookie (1000+ IFPA rank threshold), and Open (finals: Raymond 1st, Kaylee 2nd, Colin Urban 3rd, Chad Bruhog 4th). Raymond takes $2,980 in Open prize pool.

  high · Tournament results announced and discussed in detail with division winner details and prize amounts

• ?

  competitive_signal: Raymond Davidson established as consecutive/habitual tournament winner; hosts note it's become 'a tradition' to have him on podcast after each Northwest Pinball Championships win

  high · Ron: 'It's the normal winner of the tournament, and we always have him on after he wins'; Ron texted Bruce confirmation Raymond won before asking him to appear

• ?

  event_signal: Stomp 2 tournament attempted simultaneous execution of three separate tournaments (Heads-Up Double Elimination, Match Play, High Score) with 25 total attendees and 20 signing for Heads-Up. Organizers concluded double elimination impossible; plan to separate formats in future events.

  high · Bruce: 'We can't do both. Because what we did, our original idea was we were going to have a double elimination heads up tournament.' By 11 PM, only first round completed.

• ?

  venue_signal: Level Zero Arcade in upstate New York demonstrated streaming capability with multiple camera rigs (5 cameras via Zach's and Ron's setups, plus Steph's backup rig for finals). Internet infrastructure sufficient for dual simultaneous Twitch streams at different endpoints.

  high · Ron: 'So we were dual streaming. Beat that.' Finals streamed to twitch.tv/pinballprincess; Heads-Up to twitch.tv/slamtiltpodcast

• ?