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Episode 404: Sweeper City Pinball

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·19m 36s·analyzed·Aug 31, 2024
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.028

TL;DR

Sweeper City Pinball Championships coverage featuring Ohio tournament scene, player interviews, and pinball restoration showcase.

Summary

Pinball Profile Episode 404 covers the Sweeper City Pinball Championships in Canton, Ohio, featuring interviews with tournament organizers, competitive players, and community figures. Jeff Teolis discusses the local pinball scene, interviews distributor Jeff Cernova from Mad Pinball about first-time buyer trends, highlights player Laser Wills' ambitious tournament schedule, covers the pinball prom fundraiser for Project Pinball, and features restoration expert Stephen Peruso's playfield rebuilding work.

Key Claims

  • Mad Pinball focuses on selling first-time games to new players and emphasizes theme appeal as the primary driver for attracting new audiences

    high confidence · Jeff Cernova (Mad Pinball distributor) discusses their sales strategy: 'we sell a ton of first games to people... they're always looking for theme... something that they can connect to'

  • The pinball prom at Super Electric raised over $500 for Project Pinball through $10 event fees, with donations from Kid Force Pinball ($100) and Super Electric matching all donations

    high confidence · Nick Shako details: 'we raised over $500 for Project Pinball at the end of the day' with Don Johnson and Kid Force Pinball donating $100 and Super Electric matching donations

  • Stephen Peruso has spent four years developing playfield restoration techniques, including transferring mechanical components between playfields and hand-wiring entire playfields based on schematics

    high confidence · Peruso states: 'over the course of four years... I took a play field that was a really beat up Lost World play field... you can take all the switches... and switch them over to a new play field'

  • Laser Wills has tournaments scheduled for August including Buffalo Beast, Chicago (Interim SSS3), Wisconsin District 82, and planned West Coast travel to Portland and Seattle for Northwest Pinball Championship

    high confidence · Laser Wills outlines schedule: 'First weekend, going to Chicago... Pocketeer for the Beast... District 82 in Wisconsin... then going out to West Coast... Seattle... Northwest Pinball Championship'

  • Nolan Lim traveled to Rotterdam (Dutch Pinball Museum) for a Taylor Swift concert and views the pinball museum visit as a secondary component of the trip

    high confidence · Nolan Lim: 'I actually went to Amsterdam, but I took a train to Rotterdam... It was really for a Taylor Swift concert... the trip to Europe, that's nothing'

Notable Quotes

  • “Sweeper city so this is the home of hoover all of the famous vacuum cleaners... well yes and we're proud of it quite literally”

    Jeff Cernova (Mad Pinball) @ ~2:30 — Explains the name origin of Sweeper City Pinball Championships in Canton, Ohio; reference to Hoover vacuum manufacturing legacy

  • “we sell a ton of first games to people... they're always looking for theme... something that they can connect to, something they can resonate with”

    Jeff Cernova (Mad Pinball) @ ~5:00 — Key insight into distributor strategy for growing pinball market through theme-driven game selection for new players

  • “don't tell steven he can't do it because he'll prove you wrong and make great pinball machines”

    Jeff Teolis @ ~42:30 — Characterizes Stephen Peruso's motivation and skill; references his contrarian approach to restoration challenges

  • “It was basically a tribute, something out of a movie. It was basically a movie script.”

    Dalton Ely @ ~58:00 — Reflects on winning North American Championship as tribute to recently deceased mentor Scott Kuthais; emotional resonance in competitive context

  • “Living the dream. That's why he's one of the best players in the world and best streamers in the world”

    Jeff Teolis (about Laser Wills) @ ~20:30 — Validates Laser Wills' status as elite player and content creator; connects tournament schedule intensity to professional standing

Entities

Sweeper City Pinball ChampionshipseventJeff CernovapersonMad PinballcompanyLaser WillspersonLaser WillspersonNick ShakopersonSuper ElectriccompanyProject Pinballorganization

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinball prom at Super Electric combined charity fundraising with competitive play and community celebration, raising $500+ for Project Pinball with matching donations

    high · Nick Shako: 'We raised over $500 for Project Pinball at the end of the day... Super Electric matched all of our donations'

  • ?

    event_signal: Sweeper City Pinball Championships successfully launched as first major card format tournament in Cleveland area at Lodge venue in Canton, Ohio

    high · Nick Shako: 'This is like the first kind of major card tournament we've had in the Cleveland area... I think it's going really well'

  • ?

    community_signal: Ohio pinball community demonstrates significant strength across multiple cities (Canton, Cleveland, Columbus, Akron, Denton) with established league play and tournament infrastructure

    high · Jeff Teolis: 'Every time I'm in Ohio, I'm just shocked at all the different communities that have such a big scene... Columbus has their scene, but here in Canton, pretty impressive'

  • ?

    community_signal: Volunteer tournament organization and community support networks (Mike Bear/Hoover Pinball League) driving successful tournament infrastructure in smaller markets

    high · Jeff Teolis: 'Mike Bear here. He runs the Hoover Pinball League here at the Lodge, and he got us involved from day one, buying games, loaning games, everything else'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Card format tournaments becoming more prevalent and viewed as essential competitive experience for players; Dalton Ely specifically attended Sweeper City to gain card format tournament experience

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.059

0:00
it's time for another pinball profile i'm your host jeff teels you can find everything on pinballprofile.com we've got a great facebook group as well we're on twitter and instagram at pinball profile you can email pinball profile at gmail.com if you'd like to show your support on Patreon. That would be wonderful. Keeps the show going. Don't worry, it will always be free, but we do appreciate all your support, including GME Law, Jerry S., Jake C., Bart V., Derek S., Dave M., and more. I'm always interested to try out a new city, a new pinball tournament. That happened recently in Ohio, and why wouldn't I go to Ohio with everything that goes on there between Rob Burke's wonderful pastimes, Trent's big barn events, there's Pinsonati, Klee Pin, the amazing race this time i went to canton ohio here at the sweeper city pinball championships in north canton ohio i didn't know what sweeper city was but this guy helped me out jeff cernova yes sir from mad pinball why is it called sweeper city sweeper city so this is the home of hoover all of the famous vacuum cleaners and all of that fun stuff so i mean you must have heard the old jokes oh north canton sucks well yes and we're proud of it quite literally exactly but hey mad pinball's here and you've brought a ton of games here to this event obviously you're a distributor but i'm looking at barrios i'm looking at godfather i'm looking at all the great new sterns you brought ninja eclipse which i really got a lot of time on here it's in free play fun game from turner our absolute amazing partners down in texas chris turner huge shout out for shipping this up here. This is the second event that we've had it at. It's going to be following up here a couple weeks up in Akron, Ohio, over to Pittsburgh, and then it's going to spend a little time in Buffalo. Every time I'm in Ohio, I'm just shocked at all the different communities that have such a big scene. Obviously, I know about Cleapin and what they do there in Kid Forest and stuff. I hear about Denton, Ohio, and what they're doing. Of course, Columbus has their scene, but here in Canton, pretty impressive. Talk to the football hall of fame. I mean, huge shout out to Mike Bear here. He runs the Hoover Pinball League here at the Lodge, and he got us involved from day one, you know, buying games, loaning games, everything else. And he runs leagues that are for top-notch state champs all the way down to kids that are just playing their game for the first time. I always enjoy talking to distributors to find out what are the hot movers and what are the consumers really looking for in pinball. Maybe give us some insight. So I think we're different than a lot of other distributors in the fact that we sell a ton of first games to people. So, like, we're trying to grow this as much as possible. You know, historically, all the peaks and valleys in pinball, we want to avoid these valleys. We want to get pinball growing and adding people to it. So whenever you ask about first-time pinball people or people that are trying to get into this for the first time, they're always looking for theme. You know, they're looking for something that's fun, something that they can connect to, something they can resonate with. And that's the big thing that we try to do. Okay. Madpinball.com. Check out Jeff. And if you're ever here in North Canton, Ohio, check out his wonderful collection of great games and maybe pick one up yourself. Absolutely. Definitely reach out. Jeff at MadPinball.com anytime.
Nolan Lim
person
Stephen Perusoperson
Dalton Elyperson
Scott Kuthaisperson
Cleapinevent
Turner Pinballcompany
Zombie Yetiperson
Mike Bearperson
Dutch Pinball Museumorganization
Pinball Profilemedia
Portal Pinball Venuecompany
Kid Force Pinballperson/organization
Kristaperson
Freddy's Pinball Paradisecompany
Rob Burkeperson

medium · Dalton Ely: 'I wanted to come up here because it was card format. And ever since Indus, Indus was my first card format tournament, I figured I needed to get some more experience in card formats'

  • $

    market_signal: Distributor strategy emphasizes theme appeal and emotional resonance as primary driver for converting new players, suggesting theme licensing and IP selection critical to growth

    high · Jeff Cernova: 'first-time pinball people... they're always looking for theme... something that they can connect to, something they can resonate with'

  • ?

    community_signal: Laser Wills maintains elite competitive ranking through sustained travel schedule with back-to-back weekend tournaments (Buffalo, Chicago, Wisconsin) plus international travel (UK Open)

    high · Laser Wills: 'Every weekend, I've got something going on... Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday... Then I'm going out to the West Coast... then back to Trent's Barn'

  • ?

    community_signal: Nolan Lim represents younger generation (age 17) of serious competitive players with international travel capability and integration into professional pinball ecosystem

    medium · Nolan Lim attending IFPA 19, pinball prom king, planning Pinball Expo attendance, European travel to pinball museum during Taylor Swift concert

  • ?

    community_signal: Stephen Peruso has established himself as specialization expert in playfield restoration and conversion work, leveraging Facebook/Instagram marketing to build clientele

    high · Peruso: 'the more you restore, the more you take pictures and post it on Facebook. You've got to have that kind of baseline to then have that clientele'

    • 3:28
    Turner Pinball, Jersey Jack, American Pinball, Stern Pinball, Pinball Brothers, you name it. If it has a pinball, we sell it. All right. Thanks, Jeff. Yep. No problem. Thanks, Jeff. It's not a surprise to see this guy at any tournament, but especially, basically, when it's in his backyard here in Ohio, maybe two hours away from Columbus. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Lazer Wills. Hey, Carlos, how are you doing? Doing well, how are you? Good, you're full plunge and swatting. Full plunge and swatting, yeah. You have a busy schedule. I know I just saw you, obviously, at the IFPA 19 at Jim Bell. See, what a place that was. Yeah, that was great. We, in fact, did a stream together. I always enjoyed that. I mean, I saw people light up when you were on there. You do such a great job on your own channel and whenever you're doing comedy. So thanks for that. Yeah, thanks. But then here, and then you told me about your August schedule, and I went, this guy's living the dream. What do you do in August? Every weekend, I've got something going on. The first weekend, going to Chicago to play at Interium for the SSS3. Then the next weekend. Pardon me, you missed one.
    4:34
    Would you like to redo that, sir? Would you like to correct me? Before that, yeah, there's some kind of small Buffalo tournament I'm going to. Oh, dear you. We'll see you at the Beast. But, yeah. So, first weekend, yes, at Buffalo at, what is it, Pocketeer for the Beast. I excited about that Last year was a good time Then the next weekend going to Chicago Then from there going to District 82 in Wisconsin for their summer pinball classics Nice that they're back-to-back weekends. Yeah, and then I can kind of just go along the way. Then they're doing stuff throughout the week as well. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Like it's open Tuesday? Yeah. Oh, my gosh. All week, baby. And then I'm going out to the West Coast. I'm going to fly into Portland and visit some friends. Second place Andy and Allison Hang out with them, they'll kind of show me around And then from there going to Seattle To play in the Northwest Pinball Championship Have you been there before? Yeah, to Seattle? Yeah, I've gone the last two years Oh, so good isn't it? Yeah, it's always fun doing the Rage Lane You know, they'll have the bowling alleys right there So you can toss a ball If you're feeling mad about a house ball or something And then After that Going to Trent's Barn for the summer pinball thing. I think it's like the seventh annual or something. They have a pin golf and a giant 18 strikes progressive strikes on Saturday. And then there's that little Papa tournament. Yeah, going right into September. Yeah, the first. And then Cleveland. And then Cleveland after that, yeah. No, rest for the wicked. I love what you're doing. But I'll have a couple weeks off and then go to England for the UK Open, yeah. And then sprinkle some local stuff here, you know, wick launches and whatever, monthlies and whatever weeklies. Living the dream. That's why he's one of the best players in the world and best streamers in the world, too. Carlos, I'll be watching you, I'm sure. Cool, thanks. I appreciate it.
    6:24
    You can't run a tournament without great volunteers and people giving up their time to make these things possible. That's the case here at Sweeper City Pinball Championships. And, in fact, I see this same guy doing it at Cleapin, Nick Shako. How are you doing, Nick? Doing great. How are you doing, John? You having fun here? This is kind of the first time I've been to this venue. this lodge here, and I've got to say, you've done a great job. The games are playing great. You've got the never-drained software. It's everything you want in a big tournament. Yeah, it's really cool. This is like the first kind of major card tournament we've had in the Cleveland area, even though we're in Canton, which is about an hour away. And I think it's going really well, so I'm excited about it. Now, I've got you on here not because you're wearing a pinball profile shirt, although you look handsome. I mean, you're the best-dressed guy here by far. It's something you did, I don't know if it was last weekend or the weekend before. We had the pinball prom at Super Electric. I ran it with Candy Freed and Kelly Carr, and it was a really great time. Basically, we wanted to redo Promo with pinball, and it was sweet. We had people come. We had a split flipper tournament. We had a big photo area set up. We had music going. We made boutonnieres for everyone. I made cookies for everyone who was there. You had me at cookies. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. The coolest thing, in my opinion, was we raised money for Project Pinball. So we charged everyone $10 and took our expenses, which wasn't that much. And then Don Johnson and Kid Force Pinball donated $100 towards the cause. And then Super Electric matched all of our donations. So the whole event was a lot of fun. Everyone loved it. And we raised over $500 for Project Pinball at the end of the day. Nick, great job. And what a fun tournament. I love Split Flipper. By the way, who was your king and queen? Our king and queen were Krista and Noah and Liam. And so they were basically the way we became part of the court was being one of the top four scores. And they were one of the four, along with Greg and Nick Kennedy and Sarah and Mark. And I can't remember who the fourth was. I'm sorry, the fourth. But they all did awesome. And then out of those four, the people voted, and Chris and Nolan were proud sovereigns. We also had a best dressed, and that was Jen Rupert and Fiona Kelly won best dressed. So it was just a lot of fun. Some people took it really seriously and wore some amazing outfits. Some people were just there to have a good time, and everyone was just awesome. Again, a great cause doing what you did for Project Pinball, and thanks to Kid Forrest, Don Johnson, and Super Electric for all those matching. Sounds like a lot of fun. If there was a best dress here at Super City, you've got my vote, Nick. Thank you very much. You're looking pretty good with your Cleveland Guardians gear yourself. There you go, Jose, Jose, Jose. All right, talk to you soon, buddy.
    9:01
    Speaking of the king and queen here at Super Electric, They're here right now. Here's Krista and Nolan Lim. How are you doing? Good. Very good. Good. Nolan, I watch you play pinball, and I've got to say, every time I watch you, it makes me happy because I love seeing people like yourself who have so much fun playing all these different games. You really love pinball, don't you? Yeah. What's your favorite game? Deadpool, DP. What do you like about it? I like Zombie Yetis. Oh, he's a good artist. Actually, we've got a picture of you right here in front of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He did this. He does great work. And that. And Avengers, too. Yeah. So that had to be fun for you, Krista, at that prom. Oh, yes. Yeah it was a split flipper tournament too And then they had the prom court So the top two qualifiers of Foo Fighters which is what we qualified on And then the top two of Paragon. Then there was a prom court, and then there was a whole voting process. And we won king and queen of the pinball prom. That's pretty cool. It's nice to win something, isn't it, Nolan? Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And I know you've been traveling a little bit. In fact, I think you told me you flew out of Toronto just recently. Yes, I went to the Dutch Pinball Museum in Amsterdam. Rotterdam. Rotterdam, yeah. I actually went to Amsterdam, but I took a train to Rotterdam to see that. Oh, that must have been great. Actually, it was really for a Taylor Swift concert. What the what? So we did all the whole trip, but I had to go pinball. You know what? When you're going to Taylor Swift, that's the expensive part. So the trip to Europe, that's nothing. Yeah, that's right. With Elena. That's right. I did not take Nolan, but I took his sister Elaine. Nice. I bet you had a lot of fun. It was awesome. Everything about the trip was awesome. Well, I'm glad to see you here at Sweeper City. Maybe I'll see you at Cleveland. Yes, we're definitely signed up for Cleveland in September. Yeah, we're going all three days. All right, I'm going to watch you get a bunch of high scores, Nolan. You're really good, buddy. Yeah, and then I'm going to the Pinball Expo. Whoa, you'll love it. The 40th anniversary? Yeah, after my birthday. Oh, how old are you going to be? 17 years old. Well, I'll wish you a happy birthday at Expo. You'll have a lot of fun there. So many machines. You're going to see machines you've never seen before. That's kind of cool. Krista, alright. Nolan, thank you very much. Thank you.
    11:23
    He's checking here at the Sweeper City Pinball Championships, but I'm going to steal him for a little bit. Stephen Peruso, I've been watching you on Facebook, and when I see you with games that look like they belong in a graveyard, you bring them back to life. You're the reanimator of pinball. The reanimator? That's a good word to say it. It's more or less, man, over the course of four years, it was like, man, what can I do with pinball? I took a play field that was a really beat up Lost World play field. And then I found a Voltan Escapes Cosmic Doom that CPR made. And you take all the switches, you take all the parts over, not the wire harness per se, but you can take all the mechanical parts, the coils, the metal pieces, the in-lane switches, all those different pieces and switch them over to a new play field. and then you can wire up the play field based on the schematic. But there's a lot that happens with the play fields, but at the same time, if you go in a step in an orderly fashion, you can get these projects done in a small amount of time and feel proud about doing it at the same time too. God bless you. Everything you just said there sounds like work, but you take a lot of time to do this, and I've seen some of your wonderful projects. What's your favorite project that you were able to complete and go, wow? It was the first project I ever did. So I took a Stern Magic and I bought a Star Gazer play field, and I took everything off that Stern Magic. From someone on Facebook telling me I can't do it, and then going out and doing it and giving me that confidence and the strive and the drive to do something based on someone telling me not to do it, and then four years later here we are teching out a tournament, restoring games, going to people's houses, fixing games. at the same time having that communication to people to say, hey, I'm out here. This is what I do. Instead of, you know, not having that communication and getting the word out, your name spreads out, the more you talk about it, the more you restore, the more you take pictures and post it on Facebook. You've got to have that kind of baseline to then have that clientele. I forget that I called you the reanimator. You're the little engine that could. I think I can. That's you, but I wonder what you're working on currently. Okay, so I built a Medieval Madness from scratch. And right as we speak, there's a wire harness sitting at my house, ready to be a brand new wire harness, ready to be soldered onto the Medieval Madness play field. So I got that. And then I have another Stargazer that I'm working on, number two of four that I have that I'm planning on working on. And then I have a Game Plan Andromeda that I'm working on. Yes. And then I have a Gottlieb Eclipse that I'm going to bring back. I don't know that one. from a Gottlieb, it was a conversion kit, just like the Dark Rider that's here that I did. But yeah, so I'm using a Gottlieb Panthera, and I'm taking the Gottlieb Eclipse, and I'm transferring everything over just like I did with Stargazer or Dark Rider that's here now. On Facebook or Instagram, I've got a picture of myself and Steven with that Dark Rider game. I first saw that at Freddy's Pinball Paradise in Germany last year for the World Championships IFBA 18, and I'm like, hey, wait a second, that looks a lot like Star Trek. and it is the Star Trek play field but that kind of conversion kit and uh I think you actually bought one from Germany yeah so some guy on the Germany pin side had listed something saying hey I got one no one reached out to him I messaged him just saying hey I interested in this play field and he sent it to me and I took a really beat up Star Trek like you said and all the drop targets and all the coils, I put them on the new plate field after cleaning them up. I used the schematic from the Star Trek and I wired up the plate field myself based on the schematic. So every wire, every screw, every switch that's on that plate field or all the other plate fields that I work on i do by hand by me it's it's wild to think about but yeah don't tell steven he can't do it because he'll prove you wrong and make great pinball machines i'm sure i'll see you at cleapon and keep up the great work thank you please tell me i can't do it then i can go out and do it more thank you so much you can't find me an attack from ours for 500 there's your challenge you got it have pinball will travel that's the case for dalton and his dad steven ely how you doing dalton Hey, how's it going? Good to see you. You're up here in Ohio. Your dad said, what, maybe a 12-hour drive? Oh, yeah. It's about 650 miles, but it was mainly interstate driving, so we figured we might as well save a little money and drive up here instead of fly. Well, you need the car to do other things. While you're here in Canton, I heard you and your dad went to the Football Hall of Fame, which is back. The Pro Football Hall of Fame, yeah, outstanding place. It was a very informative, very fun place to go. If you're ever there, you've got to go see it. What's your favorite team, Falcons? Well, I mean, I'm a Falcons, you know, being a Georgia guy, I root for the Falcons. But I really like the – I'm a Raiders guy. Oh, okay. Even if they move from Oakland to L.A. to Oakland to Vegas? Well, you know, the Raiders have got history. Even though there's some hardships and teams, you know, it's like any sport. You know, you've got to go through hardships before you get to the victory, you know. Long before you were born, one of my favorite players was Marcus Allen. Marcus Allen? So skilled and just what a real talent. But anyway, you're here at the Sweeper City Pinball Championships like myself. First time here. I got to say, for a first time big tournament, they've done a really good job. Hey, I just I wanted to come up here because it was card format. And ever since Indus, Indus was my first card format tournament. I figured I needed to get some more experience in card formats. You did all right in the high stakes, if I recall. Yeah, you could say that. And I think, wasn't it Batman Forever that screwed you in the main? Oh, yeah, Batman Forever. I had the double super jackpot at the side ramp, and we hit it too hard that it did not register the switch, which was unfortunate.
    17:11
    You took it well, though. Oh, yeah. Well, also, another thing in the finals of high stakes, who could forget that F-14 Tomcat Phantom tilt? Yeah. That was heartbreaking, but luckily it wasn't too much of a... Everybody's got one of those stories, right? You're almost initiated in pinball when you can say, yeah, that happened to me, and everyone can say we've all had that happen once. Oh, yeah, for sure. But it's tough. You still did well in this, so I'm glad you like the card format, too. You still on a high after that North American Championship victory? Oh, of course, man. It was a very hard-fought victory, and as a victory in tournament, I'm proud to have won. And it was a little bit more special this year because of the finals of my Georgia State Championship. I won against Scott Kuthais, who was my finals opponent in the state championship. He was a wonderful guy. He was a wonderful guy, and shortly after the state championship, he passed away. And it really was a shock.
    18:08
    One of the guys that helped me get into pinball, one of my teachers, mentors, if you will. But after his passing, I had to beat him in the state championship, and then going on to win the North American championship. It was really special, and it was basically a tribute. It was basically a tribute, something out of a movie. It was basically a movie script. Absolutely. I had the pleasure of playing Scott on Taxi at Portal for the Pinball Profile Played in America Tour, and he was very pleasant. So everything going well at Portal? Oh, yeah, absolutely. It's still running, still going strong. Ryan does a great job there. All right, Dalton, the best to you and Steven, your dad. All right, appreciate it, Jeff. Thanks a lot. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find everything on pinballprofile.com. We're on Twitter and Instagram at pinballprofile. We've got a great Facebook group as well. You can email pinballprofile at gmail.com. And if you'd like to show your support on Patreon, it would be wonderful. Thank you so much. It keeps the show going. Don't worry. It will always be free, but that's because of good people like Lua W., Nick N., Tony V., Dave S., Erica's Pinball Journey, Fox City's Pinball, and more. Hope to see you at a pinball event soon, maybe in Ohio, maybe at Cleapin. I'm Jeff Teolas.