2020 Stern Pro Circuit Championship Game 15

Stern Pinball·video·16m 44s·analyzed·Sep 10, 2023

Analysis

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TL;DR

Stern Pro Circuit Game 15: Raymond Davidson eliminated after strong start on Mandalorian pinball.

Summary

Game 15 of the Stern Pro Circuit Championship features a ladder finals format where four elite players compete on The Mandalorian pinball machine. Jason Wardrick, Carl D'Angelo, Alexander Kasmaracik, and Raymond Davidson compete in elimination rounds, with the lowest-scoring player being eliminated each game. Raymond Davidson, despite starting strong, falters under pressure and is eliminated, leaving three players to continue toward the championship finals.

Key Claims

The Mandalorian was released in 2021 by Stern Pinball, designed by Brian Eddy with software development by Dwight Sullivan
high confidence · Host Tim Sexton provides official game credits at match opening
Raymond Davidson states he has been working on his world ranking for 15+ years and was number one for 2-3 years before Escher Lefkoff took that position
high confidence · Raymond Davidson personal interview segment during match commentary
The Stern Pro Circuit Championship uses a ladder finals format starting with four players, eliminating last place and bringing in new players until two remain
high confidence · Tim Sexton explains format rules at match introduction
The championship winner receives a championship belt, a brand new Stern Pinball Machine, and a five thousand dollar cash prize
high confidence · Tim Sexton announces prize structure at match opening
Jason Wardrick had the lowest seed in this match and was required to pick the game, choosing The Mandalorian
high confidence · Match setup explanation by host and player selections

Notable Quotes

“I was off to a good start I got my Jetpack multi-ball and I had my super double doubled so one shot and I would have gotten everyone else's scores and I missed it and drained. I fell apart cracked under the pressure”
Raymond Davidson @ post-elimination interview — Reveals psychological pressure dynamics in high-stakes tournament play and Raymond's self-assessment of performance failure
“I've been playing in tournaments for I don't know 15 years or more I've been working on my world ranking uh I was number one for uh two or three years before now Escher lefkoff has taken that spot I'm still fighting trying to get it back”
Raymond Davidson @ mid-match commentary — Establishes Raymond's competitive history and current standing in the competitive pinball hierarchy
“he decides to defer and then the next two people also deferred so it went down to Jason wardrick who was the lowest seed he had to pick a game and he ended up picking Mandalorian so that was kind of not what I was hoping for”
Alexander Kasmaracik @ match setup — Demonstrates game selection strategy dynamics where deferring can force unfavorable game choices

Entities

Tim Sextonperson Jason Wardrickperson Carl D'AngelopersonAlexander KasmaracikpersonRaymond Davidsonperson Stern Pro Circuit Championshipevent The Mandaloriangame

Signals

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community_signal: Pittsburgh is represented as significant competitive pinball hub; Alexander Kasmaracik from Pittsburgh PA demonstrates high-level play in championship finals
medium · Alexander Kasmaracik identified as Pittsburgh player competing at elite Stern Pro Circuit level
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competitive_signal: The Mandalorian shows specific strategic elements including flamethrower timing (double scoring activation), multiball sequencing, mission mode prioritization, and super jackpot conservation—players employ different strategies (immediate flamethrower vs. saving for super jackpot)
high · Multiple players employ different flamethrower timing and mission approaches; commentary emphasizes the strategic choices around when to activate double scoring
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personnel_signal: Brian Eddy (legendary designer) designed The Mandalorian with Dwight Sullivan on software development, demonstrating continued collaboration on major titles
high · Official game credits provided by host; both designers named in opening match setup

Topics

Competitive Pinball Tournament FormatprimaryStern Pro Circuit ChampionshipprimaryThe Mandalorian Pinball Machine GameplayprimaryHigh-Stakes Tournament Performance and PressuresecondaryPinball Player Rankings and Competitive HistorysecondaryAdvanced Pinball Techniques (Post-pass, Live Catch, Flamethrower Strategy)secondaryGame Selection Strategy in Tournament Playmentioned

Sentiment

neutral(0.45)— Broadcast maintains professional, analytical tone typical of esports commentary. Raymond's post-match interview shows frustration about pressure-induced failure, but overall tone is respectful and focused on gameplay analysis rather than emotional drama.

Transcript

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foreign of the stern pro circuit championships I'm your host Tim Sexton and I'm here to bring you up to speed with everything going on in this circuit final so far Stern pro circuit Championship is an exciting ladder finals format this means starting with four players we eliminate the last place player and bring in a new player until we're down to just the final two the winner of that game wins a championship belt a brand new Stern Pinball Machine and also a five thousand dollar cash prize let's take a look at our field my name is Alexander kasmarcik and I am from the Pittsburgh PA area my name is Jason wardrick I'm from Park Ridge Illinois I'm Carl D'Python Anghelo and I'm from Fontana California hi I'm Raymond Davidson I live here in Elk Grove Village Illinois in each match the top seeded player has the opportunity to choose the game or choose their order on the game so I decided to defer and then the next two people also deferred so it went down to Jason wardrick who was the lowest seed he had to pick a game and he ended up picking Mandalorian so that was kind of not what I was hoping for but you know you gotta gotta make do and we'll see if we can survive game in this match is the Mandalorian released in 2021 by Stern Pinball designed by Brian Eddy and software development by Dwight Sullivan now we are starting the 15th game of the stern pro circuit championships with player one Jason wordrick interesting because Raymond Davidson is our new player as the second seed in the stern pro circuit competition but he has chosen to go last so Jason starts us off with a soft plunge a shot up the middle a second shot up the middle okay since played this game a lot he's played 15 games in the storm pro circuit championship and he's making very quick progress right now but now a little out of control and ah couldn't get it out of the slingshots bounces into the left out lane so that's a quick bowl in for Jason but quick progress he's only two shots away on his multiball Carl has been putting up top scorers on all these games in this competition playing an amazing game of Godzilla now getting into the Mandalorian here shooting up the middle gets the ball trapped in the left flipper uses this opportunity to shoot the scoop try to one time it out of the scoop hadn't seen that before now makes a great live catch again another shot to the scoop looks like it's left flipper scoop for Carl and a live catch there now up the middle now he is one shot away on the multiball he's thinking what to do here Carl's not liking the forehand I can tell he tries a post pass that does not work for him sends the pawn to the tip of the left flipper off the River on the right side and into the left Outlet a very unfortunate combination of shots but I saw in Carl's eyes he did not want to take a forehand shot at that scoop was looking for another option and that post pass option did not work out for him Alexander soft plunges gets the ball now oh he misses early on the shot of the middle misses early again but he actually hits the razor Crest Target hits it again so only one more shot to get the multiball ready Alexander decides to backhand the ramp now he shoots up the middle and uh it takes an orbit shot kind of a bailout shot on a live catch that rolled a bit too much here backhand is the scoob this will make it ready and try to forehand there almost set the ball in the left Allied he's recovered not quite still in the Slick shots and into the right out lane getting into these deadly silly shots for these players sending the ball to the sides of the game where they can't recover it Raymond Davidson third seed of the third pro circuit choosing to go last on this game decides to take a soft Plunge that bounces around a little bit in the pop bumpers and her able to try to get control trying to make sure it doesn't get into the slingshots it's in the slingshots he doesn't want that uh finally a trap on the right flipper and shoots up the middle and a great live catch there a little bump off the orbit rail oh what a save that was going left out lane he bounced that out the middle again a bump into the slingshot a little bit one more for razor Crest he's gonna get razor Quest ready is he gonna go for it well he has the trap on the left flipper makes the scoop easier he's going for the scoop tries to catch it bails out to the orbit wow bails out to the other ramp his mode is actually lit now uh he's in a hunter mode I don't think he cares too much about the hunter mode I could be wrong no he tried a forehand shot to the scoop did it work but wasn't too dangerous now has started the mission at the scoop to see if the magistrate shoot the yellow shots oh into the slingshots again bails out though okay he's safe he's going up the middle Raymond player four is our first player to start a multiball and he has stacked it with his mission and he has chosen not to use his flamethrower yet does not have the double scoring on all the shots right now looks like he is going to be saving that for some time later in the game so what's going on Raymond is getting control he's got one ball bouncing around waiting for it to do something he likes there he goes bumps it over okay three on the left flipper pops one up into a slingshot that goes into an out lane because that's where the slingshots doesn't fall right now in this game and there's a shot up the middle he's in the upper Playfield off the upper Playfield uh two balls out leg down the middle so that's it uses the flamethrower now with the Super Jackpot lit and this will be a double value Super Jackpot shot there if he can hit it no it didn't go all the way around oh in the back end did it work so I've been playing in tournaments for I don't know 15 years or more I've been working on my world ranking uh I was number one for uh two or three years before now Escher lefkoff has taken that spot I'm still fighting trying to get it back but Raymond is now in first place by a little bit Jason wardrick is back to the plunge and he goes a little high and comes back down and gets the ball on the left flipper so Jason Goes for the scoop goes for a live catch back has the scoop a little bit on the Fly again it worked and now he's got to make a scoop shot from the red flipper now does he want to die the way Carlton by trying to post fast no but he also doesn't want to shoot it on a forehand so what is he gonna do is he going to try to back in the right ramp and then roll the ball over on The Flipper I've got plenty of time to think about what Jason's thinking about because he is currently scratching his arm looking around thinking about what does he want to do with this ball on the right flipper he shoots the middle okay and uh that worked fine didn't have the multiball ready yet so he didn't go into the multiball now backhand's the scoop now how is he gonna let this ball return from the scoop is he gonna try the live catch sometimes players won't know he's holding up the flipper there he goes live catch up the middle into multiball and we're looking at yes we are looking at a flamethrower activation or not no it looks like he moved his hand over there and Away did not activate the flame thrower for double score I got all the shots but now shooting some Mission shots and jackpot Scots scores up to 15 million and that puts him in first place now this is one ball but he has two trapped on the right flipper tries to separate off the targets that goes straight down the middle this game is not like incredible separations he's gonna do the same as Raymond using the flame turret but he hits the Super Jackpot collecting it for 25 million points and he is still in his mission so those yellow shots can award points but that ball will drain out the right out lane Jason shakes his head as disgust but he is able to collect his bonus base bonus wow no Super Jackpot in the bonus perhaps I'm wrong about how this game will Dole out bonus points it is very much still anyone's game here on ball 2. I do not see any of these players having a huge uh advantage or disadvantage yet but we'll see how it goes here with Carl's next ball he has his missions lit he's in this position again he tries to post pass again okay this time he bails out to the orbit and he does a slap save taking a danger but landing in the scoop Carl using a lot of uh the machine on these post passes trying to get the ball off the right flipper oh he postpass again tries to post pass again he just needs to shoot the middle is he gonna shoot the middle no he's tried to bring in a multiplier before he starts multiball I don't know what he's doing he's shooting for the targets on the right he has multiball lit up the middle but Carl has some 12d chess plan doesn't work out for him he makes a massive slam unlocked up there I know very tiny joking slam on the side armor of the game not a big problem there he's going to go into a multiball he's going to have a chance to get points and if those balls do not return he is out of multiple he is out of multiball he is going to take the doubled Super Jackpot he is going to hit the doubled Super Jackpot he hits another right Ram shot while the animation plays another shot at the middle 20 million this puts Carl in second place but only a few shots away from Jason's score that's an orbit shot that puts him in first place completes his child Lanes and bouncing around in the slingshots okay back to the left flipper Carl shoots into the scoop for double nothing and shoots up to the ramp all the way around the ramp for a six and a half million point Awards it's the other ramp tries to shoot the orbit post pass on the Fly shoots into the Scoop from the right flipper completes finally asset with a little 225 000 time bonus and he is in a hunter mode does he go for it yes he shoots the right orbit has to shoot the left orbit now uh oh he knew that was trouble and did not get that red flipper down in time drains down the middle not before taking first place over on this very very challenging game what will Alexander decide well we will see right here he decides to take a short plunge lets the ball bounce on all flippers pretty much all flippers whoa out of control okay makes a great nudge to keep that we're going out the left out lane and now traps the ball shoots up the middle uses the flame thrower now but the ball did not start multiball it did not stay in that ramp there okay the flamethrower still carries over while he starts this multiball um so he has double scoring on his jackpot and Mission shots that are running now which other players had just been saving them for the Super Jackpot and he's not an Ice Spider so he does not have unlimited super jackpots he just is going to have the same situation as everyone else with the super lit after he's down to one ball at play more shots up the middle Alexander now with that double scoring running and hitting these Jack boxes up to 90 million points on Wave three of his Pirates multiball tries to shoot the targets on the side but that leads to an untimely death for Alexander did not have a chance to collect a Super Jackpot there means very little bonus player four and now we are back on ball two with Raymond Davidson in fourth place after ending ball one in first place and he has these hurry UPS now lit in the middle uh hurry ups at this stage of the game will not be enough to catch up to any of the other players but they will help progress him to the next bouncy ball which is likely why he's going to take these uh the risk is of course not getting a great trap on the left flipper and losing control into a slingshot but Raven's doing a pretty good job until there did not get enough flipper under the ball and trains down the middle in that hurry up round is gonna have a lot of shots left to get to the next multiball Raymond's not close to any of those objectives so he will have the most work to do on his ball three meanwhile all these other players ahead of him are looking to increase their score before Raymond comes up to play especially Jason werdrick here who is currently in third place Jason is thinking about what to do he could go for some hurry UPS he could go for the scoop and just try to bring in a mission it looks like he's thinking about Mission it might be the safest and fastest way to get some points that lets two shots on the right ramp s the ball and shoots up the middle shoots around the orbit off a slingshot traps the ball on the right flipper very nicely tried to backhand the right ramp that didn't work and was dangerous but he recovers shoots up the middle again and that ball is out the left out lane so now we know what is going to happen either Jason wordrek or Raymond Davidson will be eliminated and now here comes Raymond Davidson Raymond is looking at the Playfield and he is thinking about what is his best path is it going for multiball is it going up the middle it looks like that's what he's thinking about saves the ball into the in Lane that was very dangerous four more shots for razor crest multiball three more shots for razor Quest multiball oh no into the middle takes a tilt warning the ball is in the Slate shots he's not gotten control of it shoots it up the ramp okay goes around there but does not hit the target to advance this razor Crest multiple hits the target there oh man this ball is coming slow off the orbit hitting the slingshot he's able to recover it again he only has one tilt warning remaining two more shots now there's the shot and now does Raymond think about needing the mission or is he just gotta go for it there he goes just goes for razor Crest multiball has a ball saver has a chance now to pass Jason warger he has used his flamethrower already so these jackpots will not be as high value as they could with that flamethrower award but he doesn't care he's just got to shoot the waves of pirates and down to two balls in play he's looking for control but that ball because balls are just be lighting down the middle and a third ball down the middle Raymond is eliminated looks like this just wasn't raised day let's check in with Raymond see how he felt about the tournament I was off to a good start I got my Jetpack multiball and I had my super double doubled so one shot and I would have gotten everyone else's scores and I missed it and drained I uh I fell apart cracked under the pressure this was another match of the stern pro circuit Championship let's see if any of these players can make it all the way to the finals foreign