it's time now for another pinball profile i'm your host jeff teels you can find our group on facebook we're also on twitter at pinball profile email us pinball profile at gmail.com and please subscribe on either itunes stitcher or google play we head to ohio when you think of great cities like Cleveland and Cincinnati. Also Akron, home of LeBron James. Canton, the home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Even Toledo has baseball's mud hens. But what about the capital city? Columbus, Ohio. The Columbus Blue Jackets are doing very well in the NHL playoffs. The Ohio State Buckeyes certainly own that town. And of course, you can't forget Spoonful Records. But there's something else going on. It's called the Amazing Race 4, and here to talk about it, Bree Reynolds and Evan Bingham. How are you doing? We're great. How are you, Jeff? Thanks for having us on, Jeff. It's always good to talk to both of you. I just saw Bree recently at the Ohio show. She did very, very well in the women's event, finishing in the finals. That's correct. The reason we're talking about the Amazing Race 4 is registration is this Saturday. It's $40, 72 players max, and it's a format I've never seen before. Target match play. Maybe, Evan, you can explain what that is. Well, target match play is similar to Pinberg in that you have four player groups, but instead of a set number of rounds, you play until you hit a point value. So in this case for our tournament, when somebody reaches 18 points, they're considered qualified and they no longer have to participate in the tournament. So if you're a really good player, you could do this in six games, six times three, 18 points, boom, you're onto the finals. That's true. And that would be extremely impressive. I would like to see that happen. You've got some good players in Ohio though. It could be done. Both of you are good players. You've got Trent Augenstein, Andy Lee, John Del Zappo. It's tough, but it could be done. But the goal is to get to 18 as quickly as possible so you can make the final 24. And that's where the race kind of kicks in. If you've ever been in a survivor game where multiple people have played one game, you just don't want to be the last person with the lowest score. That's kind of the gist of it, isn't it? That's pretty much correct. They're all going to be one-player games. This is one of the things that I like about this format and why I think it's unique. is it kind of flip-flops the entire style of how pinball tournaments are. You have your four-player groups for qualifying, where you're all playing multiplayer games, and then the finals format is all single-player games. And as you know, people play differently when they're playing either single-player or multiplayer games. So it's interesting to see what decisions they make, how they go about with their strategies on each game. but the format itself was uh i don't know if it was invented by trent but trent is who first told me about this this format and we had tried it in the past a few times we just kind of did all amazing race a small qualifying and we had to do it by pen and paper and that wasn very fun at all but now we have a good google doc that we use to keep track of all the players and where they're at in the race and it's extremely simple to do a player goes up and plays their ball on game one so let's say a game one is guardians of the galaxy they put up 50 million points that's currently the lowest score on the game. Next player comes up, let's say they put up $55 million. They just passed $50. They move on to the next game. Whoever had put up $50 stays there. Let's say another player, three, comes up. They go up to the game, and they only put up $10 million. They are now stuck on that machine, and they have to wait for somebody to score lower than them before they could be moved on to the queue to the next machine. This goes on for players. We bring in players ranked in qualifying 9 through 24 to play their rounds first. Players 1 through 8 have what's kind of considered a first round buy where they do not have to play the first 8 games. They're brought in on game number 9. Game number 9 will have ranks 1 through 8 plus whoever's advanced from the first group. That's a good incentive. And Bree, you've played in this before. I wonder if you'll feel more comfortable going first or last with 16 different people playing the same game. Because if you go first, you have to sweat it out and hopefully someone will come under your score. But if you're last, you know what the lowest score is, but there's that pressure, especially if you get a couple of house balls. I wonder if it's better to be first or last in something like that. Yeah, I think in my personal opinion, I would rather go first than last. I think so too. I mean, you'd have to obviously be a little bit nervous there as you watch everyone go and maybe hopefully somebody gets a house ball. But then again, I was just at a tournament where so many people were playing Twilight Zone and some of the scores were under 20 million. So you could always just go three super skill shots and win. So that'd be scary too. But Bree, you're going to be running the women's event that takes place on the 28th. It's just a straight race. Correct. So every woman who comes will be in the race no matter what. I mentioned earlier some of the great Ohio players. Here's a few more. These are some outstanding women. And if you look at the IFPA women's standing, a lot come from Ohio. Amy Kesting, Megan Brown, Deborah Tallman. I know Kim Martinez is a great player and so are you, Bree. That's going to be a tough race for the women's side. Yeah, all the women who came out last year were very good players. It was a very fun race. It was really cool to play with some of these players I've never gotten to play with before because they are much better than I am. Don't cut yourself short, Bree. I know you're a great player. I know last year you had 60 players, you're going up to 72, but what kind of things have you learned from previous years and maybe some do's and don'ts? I am learning how to listen. So it's very important to take criticism and do what you can with it to make things better with the resources that you're given. So specifically things like putting rubber feet on the bottom of pinball machines is something we going to do this year We going to have better tilt adjustments Now are you going to be making this super ridiculous kind of like a Josh Sharpe tournament Like oh I don know maybe Pin Masters where the games just aren't fun and impossible to play? That's right. I know Josh is listening. No, no, it is not going to be one of those tournaments. It's going to be more similar to something like the Chicago Expo, where the games are set up, not necessarily factory, but we want to be able to showcase, especially in the finals, We want to be able to showcase abilities on how people play like a single-player game of pinball. And I think the best way to do that is to not make the games impossible. Plus, a good philosophy for running tournaments in general, I believe, is if it's something with limited playing, if it's not an unlimited format, then you want to give people a chance to play. Ridiculously tight tilts and slings are, I think, more suitable for tournaments where you just have a long time to qualify find a lot of experience on the same machine over and over again for a weekend. We're thinking of using that earplug mod. Well, it is better because you don't have to wait as long for people to sit and time things out after someone did a rage tilt or a double danger. The tilt bob settles much quicker. That's what I've heard. So how long does it take to run a tournament like this? I know the main tournament is spread out over two days, but the tilts aren't super tight. I'm just curious how long it takes to run this. Well, we actually had a schedule written out last year. I'll have a schedule written out again this year. And we were ahead of it the whole time. It doesn't take long, mainly because in the finals, you're pushing people along. Like if they pass a score, that's it. They don't get to play anymore. They go on to the next queue. That is a good point. I guess if the great players are blowing the games up, they won't be around for ball two or ball three if they've already passed a score. I never thought of it that way. I was thinking mistakenly that if 16 players are playing a full game and they're all great players. It's probably going to take three hours for that to be done, but not if they've surpassed the score. Okay, I get it. Bree, what have people told you about playing in these events before? We had really good feedback last year. A lot of people thought that the format was very unique and couldn't wait for this year. I'm excited to see how the target match play works out and how long we'll be there. Bree, out of all the different formats of tournaments that you've played in, is this one of your favorites? That's a really great question. I think it is just because you do get to see the different styles of how people play versus multiplayer games versus single player games. I just think it's really cool for like strategic purposes. I'm a rules person, so I know all the rules to games. And so it's nice to see like how I can use those rules when I go up to a game and I know what score I need to beat. And another thing too with match play, it's not like you're trying to get a grand champion score. You're just trying to get a nice base and pass the people you're playing against. Yeah, I definitely agree. I think a really cool format. I like doing it a lot. For those that have never been to Columbus Ohio what are some of the other things that you might be able to see there Pinball or other things Just everything If you showcasing Columbus Ohio you coming there because you have The Columbus Zoo. Buckeye Donuts. You see where our priorities are. Mine is with food. Mine is with cute furry animals. Oh, yeah, we also have Tim Hortons here. So if you're not in an area that happens to have Tim Hortons, I'm sure you are, but many people aren't. There are plenty of Tim Hortons in this area. Actually, in Canada, it's against the law if there isn't a Tim Hortons on every block. Right. So a question that a lot of people ask when they go to tournaments, what kind of cool prizes and trophies do you have? I just saw what Mrs. Pin did for Pin Fest in Allentown. My goodness. You probably have some cool things too. For us, we have a really cool thing in mind. So Tilt Cycle, Dan Burfield from Tilt Cycle, is making the trophies for the women's tournament. there will be a first place trophy and a second place trophy and we kind of know some details and all I can tell you is that it's going to be really awesome. If Dan from Tilt Cycle is doing it they're going to be great. He is an amazing artist. So the big event the Amazing Race 4 June 28th, 29th and 30th the women's event takes place on the 28th the main event on the 29th and the 30th. I know if you can't be there people enjoy watching pinball. Will this be the case for the Amazing Race? Both of these events will be streamed on twitch.tv slash level one bar. The Amazing Race 4, June 28th to 30th. Tickets go on sale this Saturday at noon. $40 a person, 72 players max. We have a link on our Facebook page. Was there a reason why you picked this date? There's a few reasons. One of the main reasons is getting Trent on board and working around his schedule could be a full-time job in itself. And another reason is I wanted to get the Pittsburgh players out here and they need some space in between Pinberg. They need some time before Pinberg to be able to come to a tournament because once it gets to be early July the entire city is getting ready for that big event. Good point. That is an easy trek from Pittsburgh to get to Columbus. Yeah, we're expecting people from the Rosa said they might come. Alex Harmon said he might show up. So some Michigan players, some Indiana players, Kentucky players, Midwest. Bree, Evan, I wish you all the success June 28th to 30th in Columbus, Ohio at level one. Thanks very much for spreading the word. Thanks so much. Thank you, Jeff. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find our group on Facebook. We're also on Twitter at Pinball Profile. Email us pinballprofile at gmail.com and please subscribe on either iTunes, Stitcher or Google Play. I'm Jeff Teel. © transcript Emily Beynon