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Episode 222: Captain 2, Josh Sharpe

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·36m 49s·analyzed·Oct 8, 2019
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Josh Sharp takes over IFPA presidency with plans for rookie awards, expanded circuits, and governance reforms.

Summary

In this episode, Josh Sharp announces he is taking over as IFPA president from Jeff Teolis starting January 1, 2020, and discusses his planned initiatives including rookie of the year awards funded by $1 tournament fees, expanding the Stern Pro Circuit from 20 to 25+ events, increasing the World Championship from 64 to 80 players, implementing four-year term limits for leadership positions, and adding a woman to the IFPA Board of Directors. The conversation covers operational challenges around tournament capping, international prize money regulations, qualifying process fairness, and sponsorship transparency.

Key Claims

  • Jeff Teolis is stepping down as IFPA president on January 1, 2020, with Josh Sharp taking over

    high confidence · Direct announcement by Teolis in the episode opening

  • IFPA has grown to over 73,000 different players

    high confidence · Josh Sharp states this figure when describing IFPA's growth

  • The Stern Pro Circuit had only 18 events in 2019, short of the 20 goal

    high confidence · Teolis confirms '18 events, correct?'

  • Pinberg (top 10 finishers) provides approximately 71 whopper points for a single event placement

    high confidence · Sharp provides specific calculation during Pro Circuit discussion

  • Five Stern Pro Circuit events in 2019 are capped: Pinberg, Pinmasters, Texas Pinball Festival, 24-hour tournament, and City Champ

    high confidence · Teolis lists these five capped events by name

  • The 75%-25% state/provincial-to-national split plus 5% admin fee did not fully cover IFPA expenses; Teolis was $1,281 short and had to supplement from sponsorship

    high confidence · Teolis provides specific dollar amounts and explains the shortfall calculation

  • IFPA has severed sponsorship relationships in the past based on business conduct deemed detrimental to the IFPA brand

    high confidence · Teolis confirms this practice when asked about sponsorship selection criteria

  • Sharp plans to implement four-year term limits for IFPA president and state/provincial/country representatives

    high confidence · Sharp explicitly states this as a planned change for January 2020

Notable Quotes

  • “I'm going to be stepping down as head of IFPA starting January 1, 2020, and you're going to be handling my role.”

    Jeff Teolis @ Early in episode — Major leadership transition announcement for the competitive pinball organization

  • “I think it's going to be a little more inclusive as opposed to whatever the Sharp family deems best for pinball.”

    Josh Sharp @ ~5 minutes — Signals philosophical shift from previous IFPA leadership under Teolis/Sharp family

  • “There are two words I want to teach you here, kid, called executive order. So everybody is going to be reviewed fairly. There will be no discriminations. I won't take a look at anybody's last name or anything like that.”

    Josh Sharp @ ~8 minutes — Directly addresses concern about Sharp family favoritism at IFPA

  • “I'm going to be taking a dollar fee for every new player... to have a Rookie of the Year for the IFPA and award maybe the top 10 some sort of monetary prize.”

    Josh Sharp @ ~25 minutes — Core policy initiative for new presidency; Teolis immediately objects

  • “Just to let you know if you finished in the top 10 in Pinnberg last year you would have received roughly 71 points... that just for one out of 20 events if you were a top 10 player. So those 71 points right now, just in one event, would put you in 22nd place.”

    Josh Sharp @ ~45 minutes — Demonstrates weight imbalance in Stern Pro Circuit point distribution favoring large tournaments

  • “I just think when you weight it in this short schedule of, sadly, in 2019, 18 events, it's a real difficulty if you didn't get in that tournament.”

    Josh Sharp @ ~48 minutes — Argues for expanding Pro Circuit events to address scarcity and weighting issues

  • “I was $1,281 short in our account. So I had to transfer funds from the sponsorship money in to cover that.”

    Jeff Teolis @ ~75 minutes — Reveals IFPA's tight financial margins and reliance on Teolis's personal contribution

Entities

Josh SharppersonJeff TeolispersonZach SharppersonIFPAorganizationStern Pro CircuiteventPinbergeventIFPA World Championshipevent

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: IFPA financial sustainability concern; current 75%-25% state/national split with 5% admin fee insufficient; Teolis personally funded $1,281 shortfall in 2019

    high · Teolis: 'I was $1,281 short in our account. So I had to transfer funds from the sponsorship money in to cover that'

  • ?

    community_signal: Underlying tension regarding Sharp family influence and favoritism in IFPA governance; Sharp explicitly addresses concern about non-discriminatory leadership

    high · Sharp states: 'I think it's going to be a little more inclusive as opposed to whatever the Sharp family deems best for pinball' and promises to use 'executive order' for fair reviews

  • ?

    community_signal: Sharp proposes adding woman to IFPA Board of Directors to incorporate diverse perspectives; Teolis reveals this was already planned

    high · Sharp: 'I'm adding a woman to the board of the IFPA Board of Directors'; Teolis: 'By the time you take office, you won't have to. Oh, really? That's good.'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Skepticism from outgoing IFPA leadership about feasibility and data-driven nature of sharp's proposed reforms; Teolis requests evidence-based analysis

    high · Teolis: 'the amount you really need to do your homework in terms of looking at the data and seeing exactly is the argument that you're sitting here trying to make, how big of an impact is it?'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Point weighting imbalance in Stern Pro Circuit: single top-10 finish at Pinberg worth ~71 points (22nd place equivalent) versus broader participation at uncapped events

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.111

0:00
1 dollar at a time, time, time, time, time. Josh! Ah! You saved me once! It's time for another Pinball Profile, a much better one. I'm your new host, Josh Sharp. You're welcome, everybody. You can find our group on Facebook. We're also on Twitter at Pinball Profile. Email us at pinballprofile at gmail.com. And please subscribe on your favorite podcatcher. We're excited today to welcome a former podcast host himself, Big Red from Canada, Jeff Teolas, to the show. Jeff, how are you doing today? Thanks, Josh. It's a thrill to be on the show. I'm a big fan of yours. That's all I had prepped, really.
1:03
So you're taking over the show? All right. Go for it. I figured we would let everyone in on what's going on, obviously. If they've gotten this far and haven't turned off the podcast yet, they understand what's going on here. What they don't understand is that I'm going to be stepping down as head of IFPA starting January 1, 2020, and you're going to be handling my role. and we're going to see how each other do, does. That's never good in English. Wow, great podcasting. I got a lot to, this is all practice for the next three months. So, you know, cut me some slack. I plan on cutting you some similar slack, but why don't you let everyone know what you have planned as new head of the IFPA coming up. I'm excited to hear the direction you'll be taking things. Well, first and foremost, I'd like to thank the former governing body for a tremendous job that they have done over the years to grow pinball. And I'm excited for the new things in the future. And I think you've left us in good hands. It's not like I'm taking over a train wreck by any means. This is going to be something new, something exciting. But I think it's going to be a little more inclusive as opposed to whatever the Sharp family deems best for pinball. I mean, you're still working with Zach. Don't get me wrong. He knows I'm leaving, but he's staying. I'm forcing him to stay to have to deal with you. So, I mean, yeah, I'm kind of curious how you see yourself working with him. Well, there's two words I want to teach you here, kid, called executive order.
2:39

  • “We've certainly severed sponsorship relationships in the past based off of conduct of businesses that we've found detrimental to the ispa brand.”

    Jeff Teolis @ ~82 minutes — Establishes IFPA has ethical standards for sponsorship beyond simple fee acceptance

  • “I want to leave this a better place for you to take it to an even better place.”

    Jeff Teolis @ ~70 minutes — Shows collaborative transition despite earlier tensions about policy direction

  • “I will be transparent. I will let people know where all money coming in and all money going out goes to, just so people know where their money is going.”

    Josh Sharp @ ~77 minutes — Commitment to financial transparency as incoming president

    • Pinball Profile
    organization
    City Champevent
    Pinmastersevent
    Texas Pinball Festivalevent
    Bill Masonperson
    Brian Shepardperson
    Raymond Davidsonperson
    Ron and Bruceperson
    Prince Edward Islandlocation
    Stern Pinballcompany
    PAPAorganization
    mybookie.netcompany
    Beckerperson

    high · Sharp demonstrates: 'if you finished in the top 10 in Pinnberg last year you would have received roughly 71 points...those 71 points right now, just in one event, would put you in 22nd place'

  • ?

    event_signal: IFPA World Championship expansion proposed from 64 to 80 players to reduce exclusivity and support broader competitive participation

    high · Sharp: 'my next move will be to increase the IFPA World Championship from 64 to 80 people'

  • ?

    business_signal: Transparency and financial accountability being prioritized in IFPA leadership transition; Sharp commits to full disclosure of money flow

    high · Sharp: 'I will be transparent. I will let people know where all money coming in and all money going out goes to'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: International IFPA tournament complications regarding prize money legality in European countries; no viable solution identified despite 5 years of attempts

    high · Teolis: 'prize money is mostly illegal for all of those countries, for all of those events that exist. I'd be amazed if you were able to pull that off'

  • $

    market_signal: Stern Pro Circuit undershooting targets (18 of 20 planned events in 2019); Sharp proposes expansion to 25+ events to increase participation and fairness

    high · Teolis confirms: 'through unfortunate circumstances, this year, the Sturm Pro Circuit was only 18 events, correct? That is so far'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Jeff Teolis stepping down as IFPA president; Josh Sharp taking over effective January 1, 2020

    high · Direct announcement by Teolis: 'I'm going to be stepping down as head of IFPA starting January 1, 2020, and you're going to be handling my role.'

  • ?

    announcement: Sharp proposes Rookie of the Year award program funded by $1 per tournament fee; plans monetary rewards for top 10 new players

    high · Sharp: 'I'm going to be taking a dollar fee for every new player...to have a Rookie of the Year for the IFPA and award maybe the top 10 some sort of monetary prize'

  • ?

    business_signal: Sharp proposing four-year term limits for IFPA leadership to prevent lifetime entrenchment and encourage contested elections for accountability

    high · Sharp: 'I think four-year terms is something I'm going to look at, too, as far as certainly the state and provincial and country reps too'

    • So everybody is going to be reviewed fairly. There will be no discriminations. I won't take a look at anybody's last name or anything like that. And, you know, it's time for review for everybody, myself included, too. because one of the things I'm going to do as the new president of the IFPA is four-year terms. You're probably familiar with that in the United States and other places in the world. So four-year terms. Do they have that in Canada or no? Do you know what's kind of flexible? I think you can go up to five years. I really don't know. You can call an election within two. Like if you think your numbers are really that good, you're going to go, you know what? The other party's in chaos. I'm going to call an election right now. And they've done that and just squeeze in another five years. That's the truth. Wow. We actually have a federal election coming up. Has that become somebody called it, or it's predetermined time? Our prime minister thought September 11th would be a brilliant day to call a federal election, forgetting that there might be something else on that date in history. So, bravo, well done. I look forward to Canadian leadership for the IMCA. Yes, go on. So I think four-year terms is something I'm going to look at, too, as far as certainly the state and provincial and country reps too, because if we hold a general election and we might see some new people that might bring some new blood in, or maybe we have, and it's not the case. In fact, it's probably rarely the case, as you found out when you were the president. There are some people that are disgruntled with certain reps, and I don't know how you get around that. How did you get around that? Because that was a case where you had people say, this is crazy, and you don't want to punish a state, a province, a country. We've always had good luck of, you know, if there's an issue of the state or provincial representative not representing their player base, their community, I have certainly gotten involved to speak to that as such. So with the hope of, as many people have seen, the power trips that come with any sort of perceived authority at the ISPA level, starting with the president at the top and my God complex, there's something that will impact, you know, various state reps who take their job responsibility sort of, I won't say too seriously, but can take it almost too intensely for their own benefit. And I think we use the community in positive ways to provide those checks and balances against, you know, what that state rep may want. So if the rep hasn't done what the players have been wanting to do, we've been able to steer that ship back on course. How have people been selected in the past when you were the president for state or country reps? We've had a very easy process. We reached out for volunteers of anyone who wanted to help, and most of the time there were no volunteers. And if we were lucky enough to get a volunteer, they got the job. What about multiple? We've never had that to start. I mean, it's one of those, they're all lifetime term volunteers, so we've never really had an instance of asking for help. Like Wyoming, a state rep, someone who wants to be the state rep just emailed us. And a lot of the growth over the states coming into the fold was always usually a higher-ranked player within that state or someone who was organizing events in that state as the person that was interested in starting. So it's easy to sort of fast-forward, you know, six, seven years that we've been doing the stuff and just assume that there were dozens of people knocking on our doors to help, but really that's never been the way. It's always been this one random person asks what it takes to get my state or my province included. I learned about a new Canadian province last week. Someone's interested in Prince Island? Prince Edward Island. Get it right.
    6:38
    I'm in great hands passing things on to you, I know you will get it right. Wow. Geography is the first thing you should learn, kid. At first I thought it was someone who was writing about a city in another province, and I Googled it, and I was like, oh, this is a province we're missing. This is exciting. But that's kind of where we've landed. And the best emails that I receive are, you need to fire this state rep, period. No, no, that's not constructive criticism. Okay, enough rambling on there. I know you're the host of Pinball Profile, but you're really talking about what was, what was. As the new president of the IFPA, I want to thank you for what you've done. But again, when you created this years ago, yes, it was small steps. Well, as you've seen, you've grown this to a base of over 73,000 different people. So I think putting in that four-year term also protects the person who is in that position in the sense that, okay, I'm not a lifetime member, and maybe I don't want to do this forever, and maybe someone else can come into the fold. And because there hasn't been an election, if you will, process in the past, maybe people just didn't know about it. But you're seeing more and more people become competitive and maybe offer different points of view. Certainly, some states are absolutely huge too. So some of the complaints I've heard is, well, why is it always in this city? It's hard for everyone else. You know, I think California is good. They switch back and forth from north to south. And I know now New York goes from west to the coast and they switch it up, which I think is good. That's been the norm. And again, when there's been community feedback within that state that X, Y, Z isn't fair, almost 100% of the time we've seen that state morph into something that's acceptable for those people that have those grievances. So Wisconsin rotates between three cities, and each city has their own state rep. So whoever happens to be the state rep for that year gets the next two years off until it rotates back to them. We're finding these states that are making those arrangements organically as the player base speaks to itself. Okay. I have a few other things I want to implement in January as the new president of the IFPA. Call me crazy, but I'm going to be taking a dollar fee for every new player.
    8:58
    And the reason for that is... Hold on. I've already told you to F off. It's a terrible idea. Yeah, go on. The reason I doing that is because I would like to have a rookie of the year for the IFPA and award maybe the top 10 some sort of monetary prize for these people And that's where the dollar would go in this collection. Again, promoting, wow, I didn't know I was that good in pinball. I didn't know this ranking thing happened. Wow, I'm pretty excited. So based on their year totals, they would be rewarded a monetary prize based on their Rookie of the Year status. I'm surprised it wasn't thought of in the past, but anyway. The tournament directors are then funding an extra dollar for those players? Yes. And how do they even know if they're new or not? Let's just say they type in Jeffrey Miola, and it triggers a new player because they mistyped your name. How do you deal with that process? TDs, you're going to have to do a little bit of calculation, a little bit of research, because just like you have to get their IFPA number or their correct spelling of their name, or if it's somebody like my friend Dave Smith, there are several Dave Smiths, so it's Dave Smith Canadian. You know what I mean? A little bit of research. It's not asking a lot of the TDs, I don't believe, for that extra dollar for the one or two or three or four people that show up to a new tournament that are now going to be part of this club, and they're going to have a chance to win this, and you relay that back to them. It could be fun. It could fund this. You know, I just met a person I hadn't heard of in a while, and I'm embarrassed. His name was Bill Mason. He's out of North Carolina. My God, is this guy a good player. And I asked him, how long have you been playing? Because he's 51 years old. And he said, a year and a half. And I just thought, this guy's come out of nowhere. Like, he was killing it at Cleapin. And I thought, you know, there should be a Rookie of the Year. Now, do you think that the idea of a Rookie of the Year needs to be tied to something financially? Or is it something that, like, you might just consider just a warning? Both are excellent ideas, Josh. It doesn't have to be financial. I always just think it would be nice to reward them something. I don't know what the – I'm about to find out as I get the books for IFPA to see how many millions and millions are in this. I don't know what the funding is for that, but it would be nice to reward them something. Maybe it's a trophy. Maybe it's some unique IFPA – by the way, even though you're not the president, you're still making the trophies. You're still making the state trophies. Actually, that was the one thing I was going to say. Yeah, yeah, no, no. Still got you on that. But it would be nice to give them something. It doesn't have to be financial, but – The reason I ask is how you deal with any countries outside of the U.S. and Canada and the tax issues that we would have to deal with collecting money from Europe and the issues that Europe has with any of this funding at all. How are you going to manage that? It's something I've been trying to manage for the last five years and haven't gotten anywhere. I'm just curious how you're just going to jump in and make all that stuff happen. What investigation? Again, you haven't forked over the books. You've been keeping them very close to the chest. But what kind of investigations have you done in pursuing these European countries and other places that aren't interested in the dollar? The country director's forum, which you'll be added to, you'll be able to read the history of various endorsement fee discussions in Europe. And, yeah, there's a reason why nothing's been enacted yet. And there's a pretty strong opinion from everyone on that side where prize money is mostly illegal for all of those countries, for all of those events that exist.
    12:35
    I'd be amazed if you were able to pull that off, but you're also one persuasive dude. You pitched me taking over this show, and I bought Hook, Line, and Sinker, so maybe you'll have better luck. How are they in the form of prizing? If it was, let's say, a $100 prize that you would give $100 to somebody, but instead, okay, that country doesn't allow it, So I'm going to give you a $100 gift card to Amazon or something. Is that permitted? Have not. Have not checked. Oh, really? I would have checked that. Again, I will check that. But I certainly would have if I were the IFPA president for a thousand years. But whatever.
    13:11
    Go on. No, no, no. Again, it's admirable what you've done. It's somewhat even cute. But it's time to take this to the big leagues. Yeah, I love it. Spinball on TV? What else you got? Oh, no. Well, you know what? As I see pinball growing, I want to continue that growth. So whereas you decided to maybe make the Stern Pro Circuit from 40 down to 20, I'm probably going to grow that back up to 40 and then maybe even more so. Interesting. And how are you going to do that? You get the IFPA vote. Are you just the lobbying of the Stern Group and the Papa Group? You're just no problem? You got that covered? I don't know that to be true because you're right, it is a three-headed monster. I would have to think I'm pretty tight with some people at Papa. I mean, I know what they say about you behind your back. I'm not going to put any names out there. Listen, I'm sure you're liked by some, just non-voting members. Anyway, again, as the people's president, I did make myself laugh there. You've got to leave that in. Oh, sure, yeah.
    14:18
    You know, you certainly have a close connection to Stern. and with this executive order that might hurt Zach down the road. I don't know what the Stern Pro Circuit is going to feel about this. But, again, all for discussion. But I think this is a wiser move to grow pinball, not reduce pinball. Case in point, my next move will be to increase the IFPA World Championship from 64 to 80 people. That'll help you, by the way. Yeah. No, I'm highly interested in this. Let's just do it. I really think you should do it, actually. It's not too late. Throw it in there. Florida's a big state. They can handle it. It sure is. Why hasn't that been moved from 64 to a higher number? And let me guess the answer. Because it's always been that way. We can't handle tournaments that have more than 72 players that participate. Oh, wait a second. 64 and 72 aren't the same. No, that's true. So why not 72 then, if not 80? The point is growth. The point is, for us, exclusivity drives the qualifying process. You had at IFPA 16, Romania sent a couple of people. God bless Romania, but what the hell are they doing there? As I'm about to go to Denmark and a mad Romanian crowd is going to be looking at me. all over the entire world. I can't wait for your engagements with the Romanian country director. Good luck with that. For me, and it's a similar discussion that we've had on the Stern Pro Circuit, is making the qualifying process throughout the year a meaningful one. And I dare say my excitement level that the Pinball Profile World Tour, which I'm not taking over for you, that's going to stay with you, I need those events in Chicago and in Florida to help get me over that hump. For me, this is the last hours of qualifying for Florida for me, these last three months. And to me, I think that's an important part of trying to create a season. It's so funny you should say that about the last moments of qualifying because through unfortunate circumstances, this year, the Sturm Pro Circuit was only 18 events, correct? That is so far. So the goal was 20. I'm going to suggest, since I've seen your lovely spreadsheet with all the participants, including the email addresses. Way to go, Einstein. Is that true? Yes. Where? Oh, shit. You should see all the websites I just signed Colin McAlpine up for. Oh, no. Sorry, Colin. Go on while I freak out. Anyway. Go on. He's getting all these PE ads. Anyway. No kidding.
    17:08
    Oh, I got you. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Seeing that there are so many events trying to get into this prestigious, and it is Stern Pro Circuit, why only 20? Why not 25? And the reason I think an increase needs to be is because one or two or more of these events are super weighted in the form of Pinberg, which is an incredible tournament, and now the Open. These are going to have 1.5 multiplying factors to their Whoppers. That isn't an even playing field, perhaps. I guess I would ask you, have you done your research to see how many of those qualifiers would have made it anyway without their Pembert point, assuming they got zero? We don't know that yet. I don't know that yet. Do you know that? Yeah. Go on. None. Explain. I'm just kidding. Yeah, you're wrong. Maybe.
    18:00
    Hold on. I've got to pull up the website here. You know what we can do? We'll be able to remind me when the season's over, or we can do it with 2018. I can put a filter on that runs the circuit standings, and then I can pull any event you want off the circuit, and we can see where those names fall and see who's out and who's in. Just to let you know if you finished in the top 10 in Pinnberg last year you would have received roughly 71 points Okay That just for one out of 20 events if you were a top 10 player So those 71 points right now, just in one event, would put you in 22nd place. One event for a top 10 finish. I'm suggesting... You're not in. What you're saying, that person that strolled into Pinnberg and did just that and then never participated anywhere else is not getting it. I'm just saying it's a little heavier weighted. So somebody who finishes first in two events at the Stern Pro Circuit is the same as finishing first in Pinnberg? I would certainly take a first in Pinnberg over a first in two other circuit events. But, hey, I'm just a guy. Well, you'd take a first anywhere. Let's be really honest. I think you're right about Pinberg being 1,000 people, no question about it, and nothing to take away from it. I just think when you weight it in this short schedule of, sadly, in 2019, 18 events, it's a real difficulty if you didn't get in that tournament. I also find pro circuit events that are capped very, very difficult. I realize there are space limitations. I do have a problem with that, and I would look into that. I'm being serious. If it's not a true open tournament... So you're talking about any capped number of players is not eligible, period. In years past, I've been concerned about City Champ and even the 24-hour sanctum. Two amazing events. Not concerned about are the events great, because they are. The concern was people wanted to get into them, and the wait list was huge. And through no fault of their own, other than a slow F5, they didn't get in that tournament. and in a way they're penalized and it hurts their Stern Pro Circuit chances. That's a problem to me. So you are proposing that any capped fields are ineligible or you're just riffing? How many of the Stern Pro Circuit events?
    20:29
    You're working from your heart here and I can appreciate that. I think what you'll learn as you step into my enormous shoes to fill is the amount you really need to do your homework in terms of looking at the data and seeing exactly is the argument that you're sitting here trying to make, how big of an impact is it? In your mind and in your heart, it's this huge deal. And we've learned this working with Brian Shepard over the five iterations of really just what the Whopper formula was, is we had these bullet points of what we thought were important. and as you run simulations of data and evaluate the data, you can see real-world impact that your thoughts and what were important wasn't correct. And you can either point to the data and say, well, you know what, screw it. I think it's important, so we're moving forward this way regardless. Or you follow the data and you say, you know what, maybe I need to take a step back and I think it's important, but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't make that big of a difference. It's funny. Actually knowing that before you make a decision on whether you're cutting off something here or you're adding this here or you're removing this there. Former President, do you mind if I say something? I'm always going to be here for counsel, any time. The transition of power, this is an important part of the process. So I would never leave you hanging. There are five events on the Stern Pro Circuit in 2019 that are capped events, albeit one of them is 1,000 players. What do you got? Pinbird, Pinmasters, Texas, 24-hour city champ. Yep, five events. Okay. So out of the other events that are not capped, what is the average number of players? I have no idea. I look forward to you providing that information as you pitch Papa and Stern as to your rule change. My point is, shouldn't these capped events be able to match the average of the other non-capped events? So therefore, Pinberg's going to be fine because they drive up the average. But if 15 events are not capped at the number of players that come in, why should five be capped? I think Texas will be fine. I think it was 160. That's definitely above the average of many of these other events. when you look at Bat City Open and Cleveland Pinball Arcade, those type things. But did City Champ come too low? Did Pinmasters? Pinmasters definitely did. I know that will change next year. Isn't it 144 next year? It's 144, yeah. So, again, I'm concerned about these capped ones being below the average of the non-capped ones. That's where I would make my argument. But that's for another point. I don't know if you'll be on the board meeting or not. Yeah, no. Do you really dislike that idea? I'll be lurking. Forget that you jokingly say it's from my heart, an organ you don't have. Do you not think there's some sense in that? I don't. Really? Because you have these other events that are trying to get on. Somehow City Champ, even with its limited availability, is earning significant whoppers more than these other events that aren't capped. So why? Why is that? they're at a disadvantage to be able to even make the circuit to begin with. Why aren't these other events just plowing them down? The metric you look at is whoppers only. Correct. Not people. No, but the quality of, like, if the chance of me not getting into City Champ because I can't F5, good players have just as hard of a time getting in as casual players. At some point, you know, the tournaments that have no cap, They have the luxury of being able to take in as many quality players as they want to drive their numbers up. And somehow they're not able to eclipse these capped events. The last item that I'm going to consider for 2020 as the new president of the IFPA. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Is it your no house ball rule for IFPA sanctioned tournaments? No house ball rule? You're talking about pin masters or just any of your stupid settings? I'm talking about house balls have no place in competitive pinball. determining who's the best. You've said that. I've never said house balls. I've known. That is bull crap. You have. Roll the tape back there, Mr. Pinball Profile. It never happened. You know what? Whoever's on the clusterfuck, go back to the chat if it goes back to post-Pin Master. You're talking about an email thread. Well, I'm talking about the group chat thread. An email thread. Well, that's not an email. Well, sorry, a Facebook Messenger thread in which I suggested that. I don't even remember what I suggested. But I didn't say. Houseballs have no place. I did not. You lie, Lord. I did. I'm not. I'm going to find it. Man, now I have to, like, dig through. Doesn't exist. Months ago. Doesn't exist. And there are a lot of great players on that thread. Raymond Davidson's on that. Ron and Bruce are on that. It never happened. Nice try. The head-to-head guys. We'll table it. I'll screenshot it. Okay. Okay, so forget that. We're your president. We'll pick it up. Doesn't happen. Didn't happen. Anyway, you jerk.
    25:45
    Oh, by the way, another thing I'm adding, I'm adding a woman to the board of the IFPA Board of Directors just to let you know that, too, because there are so many great women. I'd like to get their feedback. I got an idea. What if I say you don't have to? By the time you take office, you won't have to. Oh, really? That's good. Oh. What? Really? Really. Josh, I think that's amazing. I'm really proud of you. Thanks. We've got some good stuff coming. And we always have good stuff coming. Hey, I want to leave this a better place for you to take it to an even better place. You realize a lot of the IFPA championships are going to be in Canada now. You do realize that. I'm sure with Becker's help, he'll be on board. That'll be an easy sell. Yeah. No, I definitely, that tilt bob thing and pin golf thing that we talked about before, I don't really want to bring it up again, but that 100% is going to be corrected if you haven't corrected it by the time I take over in 2020. I'm looking forward to it. Are you looking at making that change, or do you want that to be like me being like Trump coming in and just firing everything Obama did? I'm waiting for you to be able to provide, you know, like a 3D printed thing, something that is like easy to use with the way of – it's hard to take a ruler in there with a plumb. I mean, you kind of have to have a very small ruler, and it'd be nice to be able to have something that, like, you could spin and it expands until it touches the... Like, something that's, like, custom for exactly this thing. Becker just sent me a couple of 3D-printed interlock switch clips, which is, like, great. You can disable your interlocks in, like, two seconds with this device that's made perfectly for it. And then did you see it at Kinberg, the thing that you can put the Playfield glass on before you set it on the ground so you're less likely to have it shatter. That made specifically for pinball machines I looking forward to the pinball plumbob measurement setting tool designed by Jeff Teolis printed and manufactured in Canada $8 Canadian.
    27:50
    I just, again, I don't really want to beat this, but when you can say, yeah, if a tilt bob falls off, we put it back on. But if a tilt bob moves, we don't touch it. Bad foresight. No, I'm looking forward to you convincing the pop of people that that verbiage should be added because we also don't make those decisions on our own either. All right. The last item I was going to table for consideration was the current 75%-25% ratio for state-slash-provincials going to national. So 75% state-provincial, 25% national. Exactly 20%. 20% national. That's right, because there's 5% admin fee, right? Yes. And believe me, just wait until you start getting some of those 5%. my friend. I don't know what kind of car you drive, but be prepared to upgrade. I will be transparent. I will let people know where all money coming in and all money going out goes to, just so people know where their money is going. I love it. I have the same thing. Do you? Yeah. Really? I have. Hold on. I can tell you. It's public? Before you answer, you don't have to if you don't want to. That's your right. Oh, thanks. Well, it's your company. You've created this. I love being transparent. So the 5% did not cover the fee. Where do you make up for it? On sponsorship? Yeah. That's right. Out of my own pocket slash sponsorship pocket. So we were down. In order for the expense calculation to have been neutral, as in we covered everything, it would have been 6.4%. Is that because IFBA was in Europe this year? Is that also a bigger expense than normal? No, that has nothing to do with it. This is just NACS money in versus money out. Remember, we're just talking about that 75-25 split. Right. That's just U.S. and Canada. Okay. So the amount we paid out at nationals per, you know, we guaranteed 20% to nationals. And so we paid out $18,950. When I went to my bank account to write a check for Nationals or write the 50 whatever checks to Nationals, I was $1,281 short in our account.
    30:08
    So I had to transfer funds from the sponsorship money in to cover that, which I was fine with. We did. It was close. I'm happy it was close. That was my dread as we started. I had no idea where it was going to end up, you know, 14 months later after we started collecting. And it's like, oh, my God, what if I'm off by 20? What if I'm off by double? Like the exposure was a little alarming, but it ended up being close, close. Well, thank God for mybookie.net. I'll just say that.
    30:42
    Do you want me to cut that out? No, you can leave it. You interviewed those guys. They said their stuff.
    30:51
    Did we just break the fourth wall that you're editing this? No, I'm not. No, no, no, no. We're good.
    30:58
    Sponsorship certainly helps IFPA, no question about it. Other than being able to write a check for money, are there any other factors that permit anyone to be a sponsor of the IFPA? Sure. we have severed sponsorship relationships in the past based off of conduct of businesses that we've found detrimental to the ispa brand how's that is that generic enough for yeah for that statement to exist and it's factual that is not a lie we're not just taking all checks we've certainly pushed back where i have deemed appropriate by the way i you know i don't know how this all came about i I just saw that it was episode 222, and I thought, you can't have any more twos in an episode. I've got to get Josh on. I know you were just on, and you screwed up the pinball profile karma with your god-awful performance at Pinberg. My God. Have you ever? You're allowed to use two hands.
    31:53
    I don't even know if it would have helped. Where did it go wrong? It went wrong everywhere. Was it just cockiness? Like, you know, I just have to show up to a few events? Was that it? That was mostly it. I don't know, man. I actually feel like I played pretty well. I just ran into some tough wrong side of a point here or there. And it's one of those things where Zach can say, oh, I played that bank two sessions ago, and I won the game with $80 million. And then I could be like, oh yeah, dude, I just played. I put up $170 million, and I got third. It's one of those things where I ran into some tough play. Felt like I played all right. Just wasn't good enough. it was a wrong side of the tiebreaker not enough i've been there it hurt oh man we were at dinner it was like i remember refreshing the standings and just seeing my like at first it was just like oh my god my name's on here okay and i was like oh it's oh god i'd rather not even be out there i don't want to be on there and be on the wrong side i'd rather have been a point short it hurt more it hurt more to be out there you did well intergalactic though i mean that's going to help you a little bit. I guess everything helps you, right?
    33:05
    Everything does. I think my 20th best result is like 7 points. So I'm pretty sure we can get together and play some matches and if I win I can get it on my resume. Yeah, you won't. Do you remember when we had the match? Do you remember that? You didn't win, so that won't help you. Although, we're going to be together at Dead Flip Headquarters the day before Expo. The Pinball Profile World Tour comes to Chicago. That's not the first event, right? It's the third event. Third event. You're doing this in Copenhagen. Copenhagen on October 10th. Peter Anderson and Soren's Basement Arcade. It's going to be great. That should be a lot of fun. But man, all custom ROM tournament.
    33:44
    That'd be awesome. Oh, I never thought of that. Why am I playing Radical for the 20th time? That tournament could help you. Although, I'd like to say, you know, you've got a few pushovers. You should see who's already signed up for the Chicago event. I mean, it's only 36 people, but already your brother, he's the better of the sharps. He has no doubt. Jason Werdrick, Phil Birnbaum, Zach Parks, Dave Stewart. I dabble once in a while. Jack Danger knows those machines. They're in his studio. It's not going to be easy. No, I'm looking forward to, yeah, I could probably take like third out of 36, and it'll still hit my card.
    34:21
    That'll be fun. But was there anything redeeming in Pittsburgh while you were there in August? I know you didn't finish in the top 40. Was there anything that was good there? Food was great. I have to tell you. The sleep. The sleep was wonderful. Yeah, I saw you sleeping on the cement. That's going to be the cover of this episode, by the way. I need to lose 15 pounds. That's what that picture was. By the way, speaking of pictures, the most liked picture in pinball profile history was the picture of your dad bear hugging. That was right after he kissed me, by the way. I'd vote for it. And then I said, let's go find Josh, see how he's doing. And we walked to your bank holding hands, and you just kind of... Oh, I love your dad. All right, Josh, please leave the office in good standing shape for me, will you, when I get there? I'm looking forward to this. I've cleaned out the microphone for you here. Everything's fine for you taking over Pinball Profile. Are you sure you still want to do the switch? Yeah, I look forward to your bull-in-the-China-shop mentality, of which you'll be coming in with these new ideas. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No? Okay. The ideas will be passed along. I am just one vote. I love it. Yeah, that's it, with the exception of the executive order for certain staff. Right, right, right. Other than that. That's a minor thing. Minor thing. As we're proving in the U.S. I don't want to have to use it, but if I do, I'll use it. Right.
    35:50
    I have the best executive orders. Josh, thanks for having me on your show. Why don't you, with this being, do your last sign-off, man. Sad day. This has been your final Pinball Profile with yours truly. You can find Josh's group on Facebook. He's also on Twitter, at Pinball Profile. Email Josh, pinballprofile at gmail.com, and please subscribe on your favorite podcatcher. You're not getting the show. I'm keeping it. I'm Jeff Teolas.
    36:20
    My wife won't let me play. I'll never win a major. Lemon, idiot. Lemon, idiot. Lemon, idiot.