Welcome back pinball nerds to episode 671 of your fifth favorite pinball podcast. My name's orbital Albert and on today's show I'm so excited to have Emily and she has quite I've been calling her Emily R but I'm gonna get the pronunciation of her name in a second. I gotta start though with this grand entrance okay. We have here not only the British Columbia Open champion but the Canadian National Women's Pinball champion We're also here with Emily, who is the North American Women's Champion, as well as after last weekend, the North American Women's Champion, and now also, I believe, possibly the first time ever from Canada, the Women's World Champion. Emily, welcome to the show. Thank you for taking some time out on your Easter Sunday with me. I really appreciate it. Maybe start just by telling everybody, how do I pronounce your last name? All right, yeah, okay, cool. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. Yeah, so first things first, my last name is pronounced Rayan. Rayan, okay. It's French. You can ignore the L in there. It's irrelevant. Yeah, it's a bit of a little bit of a unique name. Awesome. Yeah. Okay, well, Emily, thank you so much for taking some time to come on my show today. I remember watching you not only of course I believe on the Thursday when the North American Women's Championship which was so cool because after Canada lost in hockey or at least the men right after we lost hockey to the good old United States it was it was nice that at least you gave us a little glimmer of hope there us Canucks watching now about 75% of my listeners are from the United States so we're very So you're very American friendly here and I'm sure you have so many awesome American friends who are pinball nerds as well. But what did it feel like to not only win for North America, but then go on to win Worlds all in the same week? Yeah, it was completely, completely nuts. I was sort of going into the weekend fairly optimistic, like I was feeling good, I was excited just kind of to see everyone again. I had never been to Lions. I had never been to Colorado, let alone Lions. So I was just like enjoying the trip and hanging out and talking to people and it was super cool. And then unfortunately, I think like basically as soon as I got there, I noticed that I was feeling kind of sick. Oh no. Not good. I think I caught it from my mom right before I left, but I was like, Okay, well, hopefully, you know, that's fine, whatever. And then it's, I kind of just felt kind of tired and a little bit sick. And I was like, Oh, well, I mean, whatever, I'll just play like, as well as I can. And like, you know, if I don't do well, it's fine, because I'm not feeling the best. And then it just sort of started happening where I was just kind of kept doing well. And then, as it got towards the end, I was like, wait, Yeah, this is actually like maybe I'll actually it started to seem like I might win and then yeah it was it was pretty crazy I still kinda doesn't feel real the whole weekend kind of like blended together and like I'm like I feel like my memory is so bad I'm like wait who did I even play like oh my god it was crazy it was absolutely amazing and one amazing it's such a privilege to be able to go to Lions like that place is so such a great place one of my favorite places. It was a great place, one of my favorite places I've ever played pinball at before. But yeah, it was nuts. And then, yeah, and then to do it again the next day at Worlds, I was like, okay, what is going on? This is crazy. Incredible. So like, I'm just thinking to myself going into it, I like to really kind of, you know, guess at all the numbers and that sort of stuff and nerd out about that. And I'm thinking like, you know, you had a really good year. You got like second in the Canadian National Championship pre, like the warm-up tournament with like, out of so many incredible Canadian players. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, so like I knew you were playing well and then you won Canadian Women's of course, not of course, but I mean you won that as well. And then you won, even before that, you know, for not just Women's Champ for British Columbia, but you won Open as well, taking out tons of awesome, British Columbia's got a lot of awesome women and men who play, so just to even win that. So, you know, I thought maybe you had a chance of winning, you know, the North America one or maybe even the world's, but I don't think a lot of people, yourself included, thought, can I win both of them? So to do that, to just be that consistent, congratulations to you. And that just, that must have taken like a lot of, you know, staying power because after you win the first time, you almost feel relieved. And then I guess you're thinking, well, I can't do it twice and then to have done it twice. So, yeah, anyways, that was so cool, just as, not just as a Canadian watching, but just someone who was like, wow, like, I got to watch you be on fire at the Canadian National Championships and then go do it there on the world stage. So, congratulations to you. And to find out that you were doing all of this with being a little bit sick is now even more incredible. So, yeah, yeah. After I won North American, I was like, okay, like, there's no way I'm even gonna do that well in worlds. I'm so tired. It was a full day and then it was going to be 12 hours or something of qualifying. I was like, oh my God, I just need to stay awake and whatever. But I don't know, maybe that ended up helping me not be stressed because I was just like, whatever, I'm sick. I just need to get through today. And then I was just like, wait, I'm doing kind of well right now. Wow. So what do you think? I'm so curious because in the span of about a year you went from being like a really really good pinball player to like you know just like incredible. What do you, do you remember a specific tournament that you started to feel like wow I can do this or like was it actually not this year, was it this year at the Canadian National Pinball Championships or even the pre-warm-up where you started to think wow like you know I'm able to like when was it because it seems like I know you've been playing it says on IFPA for like 13 years so you're not new to this at all. All but wow like like did something change for you in the last year that started to really click with your either your accuracy or your rules knowledge or did you dig in did you have more time to dig in even harder to to play more tournaments or something like what really changed in the last year or two for you yeah I think it was a combination of a lot of different things I think I because I took a bit of a because I I separate my like pinball life from like pre-covid and post-covid because during I basically played no pinball and then I kind of like happened to get back into it and then at that point I was I could finally go to the bar tournament so I was like getting into that and I was like oh yeah like I'm still good at pinball like I should still you know maybe take this a little seriously whatever and like reconnecting with people I knew when I was like a little kid and like that would have been cool um I'm still part of the same league that I had been in since I was like 10. um but I think definitely it started I mean yeah I've I've been definitely improving the past year, but I think maybe like what sticks out to me is the women's rodeo weekend they had up in Victoria that I went to where they had an open tournament as well. And I ended up winning the open tournament and that kind of made me feel like, oh yeah, like, whoa, I just won this fairly like big tournament at this place where like I'm not a regular. So I was kind of like, whoa, okay, it's doable. Cause like once you pass that threshold of like winning as possible, it stops feeling like such an impossible task to like win. Because I do get that a lot, like depending on the format, like I think a lot of the time, like, um, I guess it seems like bracket, the bracket format of like the head to head, I think seems has seems to be agreeing with me more than like the typical, like, I guess Papa scoring finals. Like I feel like that's so much harder for me to do well in but I feel like but anyway. You're kind of like a one-on-one match play specialist like that's something you yeah your style of play tends to do well. Yeah it seems like it. That's awesome. The so I do want to talk briefly some people get all like oh let's not talk about the pinball origin story too bad go listen to a different pinball podcast nerds you're here I want to talk about it I look back you've been playing for 13 So, for the last 15 years, your fifth tournament that you ever played was a Stern like launch tournament. Oh yeah. And Robert Gagnon won that and Raymond Davidson got second and you were two spots behind of like 30 or 40 players. You got fourth in your fifth tournament ever. So you've been playing incredible pinball for a long time. But I guess my question is, A, do you have any memories of this tournament? And B, which launch party was this? Was this like Game of Thrones or something? Like this is a long time ago. I do have memories of this and this is a really funny story. It was kind of if you okay anybody who was there will know it was like it was like controversial there was like something with the points of like they wanted to like make it its own thing so that it'll be worth more points and then it didn't work out so then the people that came up from Seattle were like mad because it was worth less or something I don't remember. Oh no, ray day! It was the Metallica launch party. Okay. Um, and so yeah, so I was like 10 and I, and it was some weird format. I don't even remember, but there was so many people and then basically everybody was supposed to just get two chances to play the game and then they would take like your best score and then that would put you in the finals or something like that. Right. Um, so I, but then it was like annoying because there were so many people showed up. Some people didn't even get to play it twice. Oh no. And I was one of those people that only got one turn, so I guess it was like just barely good enough. Because then I was in a tiebreaker with Chase Nunez and I beat him to make it into the top four and then obviously didn't do very well in that field of play at the time, but what can you do when that's your top four? And it was like, yeah, my fifth tournament ever or whatever. So I won like a Stern shirt, but I was like, Whoa, this is pretty cool that I did so well. And I wish, I wish there was a top four photo of that. That'd be hilarious, but I don't think there is. I've looked. Um, but yeah, so that was that story. Wow. That's so cool. And you're, you're getting to play with like, you know, future pinball royalty there. I mean, Robert Gagnon probably by then was already a very good player that was well known and I'm sure Ray Day was well known in that whole area by then as well. So. Absolutely. I'm looking back because I'm like, I didn't know who they were. I didn't know this was going to be such a significant group of people. So yeah, it's really funny looking back. Good for you. Tell us a little bit more, I'm curious, just the Coles Notes version, I guess, of your pinball origin story. Who first brought you out? Was it parents? Was it friends? And then sort of now you've been playing now through League for so many years. So, kind of just tell us about the come up, I guess, like pre, everything pre-COVID up to there. Yeah, totally. So, the story is, in 2009, my dad saw some article or saw a thing somewhere about Eden at the time, who was the number one pinball player in Canada. Eden Stan? Yes. And he was like, oh, he, cause it wrote about, I guess our league, like BRPA or whatever, like he was a part of that league. And my dad was like, oh, I played pinball, like in my youth. I like pinball. I'll see if I can join this league just for fun. And then at the time, the requirement to be able to join the league was that you had to own at least one pinball machine. Cause it was like a home league. So he was like okay well I want to prove that I serious about this So sure I buy a pinball machine And he ended up buying And I very thankful he did Because when he was looking around for a pinball machine to buy it it was between roller coaster tycoon and Bram Stoker Dracula And he said he he played the Dracula and he was like this is awesome And then he went to go play the Rollercoaster Tycoon and he played one game of it And he was like, no, I have to buy the Dracula. We bought the Dracula. And that was when I was like six. Good choice. That was a good choice. There's a pinball machine in my basement and I'm like, what the heck is this? This is, first of all, scary because it's Dracula. But I was like, this is awesome. um so yeah and then a couple years later he started bringing me to tournaments um and like he was like oh like yeah like there's other kids there like you know you can just hang out with other kids like you know it's fine because yeah there's a lot of basically a club with some dads and then their kids so that was a lot of fun that's and i still i'm still like friends with them to this day so it's really cool that is so neat so this is my title tiny little uh I'm originally from London, Ontario. A guy that helped get me into pinball when I had, you know, I always had played a pinball machine if I saw it at a bar or at an arcade or wherever. But the guy who really got me back into pinball was my buddy, Sean O'Hare. I'm not sure, have you heard of him or do you know him at all from the BCC? Oh, I definitely, that name definitely rings a bell. I'm bad with faces and names, but I know a lot of names. You'd recognize him. He's pretty tall. He's like six foot six or something. I don't think he's much in the scene anymore, but he actually was playing in one of the Vancouver Leagues with Eden. Actually, yes. Okay. I do know who that is. Sorry. Yes. I think I saw him very recently and he had different hair or something. And then everybody around was like, hey, that's Sean O'Hara. Do you remember him? And I was like, maybe. But yeah. Anyway, sorry. Continue. Yeah, so he's like really good at fixing pinball machines and he was originally from London, Ontario and friends with a lot of my good friends. And when we were, I was going up to visit my best friend in the Yukon and we had a three day layover in BC and Sean thankfully told my best friend Eric that it was cool if we stayed there. And we get there and he goes, by the way guys, just to let you know, my entire apartment is littered with pinball machines. And I was like, dude, I used to play pinball all the time. I love this. So for three days straight, whenever we weren't checking out Vancouver, we were back there and like literally I was just playing. He had Twilight Zone, he had so many, he had like his bedroom was like nine pinball machines and a bed in the corner, you know, like his living room was mostly pinball machines plus a couch and a television. Even his kitchen had one in the corner, you know, so like or just the end of it. And anyways, he ended up coming back to London every Christmas and would always like go out and play pinball with us because I end up getting into pinball because of Sean. And he gave me the best tip I've ever got which is what he said every single time that the ball goes out, he said that Eden taught him this, every single time the ball goes out, if you didn't get a double danger, especially if it went down an outlaner down the center of course, but where else is there to go? But if the ball goes down and you didn't at least get a double danger, you're not trying hard enough. I like that. So basically that totally changed my nudge game because at that point I would try to do the odds, you know, slap save but I couldn't figure out which way to nudge on an out lane and stuff so that totally changed my game. Totally, yeah. And for years since then whenever he comes back to London he comes and plays, would play Monday Night Pinball in London with us and whenever I would go out there I would get to play with him so it's been, it's really cool. That's really cool. That's my tiny, tiny little connection to BC Pinball. And that is all to say, can you tell me a little bit more about the scene there in, do you play, you play mostly in Vancouver? Yes. So yeah, I live pretty close. I just live right outside of Vancouver. Mostly now I still do our VRPA league. Once we have eight tournaments a year hosted around, around the cities, different people's places. I know Eden's place a lot, which is super fun. He has a Dracula, which is always fun. I still love Dracula very much. Yeah. Yeah, it's super fun. There's some like bar tournaments and stuff. Obviously I don't go to those as much anymore. There is a new arcade that was recently opened up that's now the biggest arcade in the Lower Mainland. It remains to be seen if there are going to be any tournaments there. I really hope that there continues to be. We've had one big one. It was a lot of fun. So I hope that that keeps happening, but it's up in the air. So we'll see. But yeah. And what about... Not a huge scene. Not huge. Yeah. It's, I mean, it sounds like it's kind of like it's a little bit fragmented, right? Yes. So... Yeah. Tell me everything about the Neon Ranch, because I know that that was really So, you've been working on this for a while, and then I think they were looking for a new location. Is that over in on Vancouver Island or Victoria or something? Correct. I don't know much about the new location. I know they have a spot and they've been working on it. I see them post on Facebook. They're like, oh, we're painting this wall and like updates and stuff. Awesome. It looks like everything's going well with that. I'm optimistic. I think from what people are saying, the location, it's going to be even harder to get to for the mainlanders. But so it's going to be a situation probably of like, we're going to go, we're going to plan to spend the night because it's going to be tough to get home the same day. But that's fine. I love Neon Ranch so much. The group on the island, I love them all. They're amazing. They're so friendly and I love going over there. I wish it was closer. I'd go more often, definitely. But yeah, I'm very excited for whatever they're cooking up because it's going to be awesome. I bet. Who am I thinking of that? Who are the two original people who started Neon Ranch? Carrie and Ashley. Oh, yeah. And Ashley Kala. Oh, yeah. I had to play Carrie at I won New Brunswick a couple of years ago and I had to I had to play Carrie because she was there for BC and she, uh, we were at Lumberjack Johnny's for like one of the extra tournaments. Oh yeah, yeah. And she destroyed me. She kicked my butt. I think she gave me my, like my final X and kicked me out of the tournament. But I was fine. I was like, wow, you're an incredible player. Just watching her, I was like, wow, she can play like that. Yeah, Carrie's so good and she's so nice. I love it whenever we end up in the same group or playing head to head at a tournament. It's always the most fun. Well, she did pay me one nice compliment. I used to be from London, of course, which is a much larger city, and I'm now from River Hibbert, which is like a 400 person village, like an hour from a town bigger than 5,000. Moncton's like an hour away, which is the first actual, like, I don't know if you call it a city, but large town. So anyways, I said to her, like, we were there playing and she said, oh, yeah, like, I don't, I had a couple beers, I'm not gonna lie, I don't remember how the conversation came up, but I said, All right, we've got a question here. We've got a question here. So we're going to start with the first question. This is a question that comes in from the YouTube one. We had a question here from a viewer named Grace Kodoski. She said, oh, well, guess what? Because she said everybody here is from a state or a province. Basically everybody was, like 80 percent of the people weren't local. They were from out of town, playing in this big lumberjack Johnny's Tournament. And I said, so, well, guess what state or whatever I'm from? And she's kind of looking me up and down. She's like, okay, tight jeans. This is what I'm guessing she's thinking in her head. And then she goes, I don't know, I don't remember the state, but she was like New York or California You know, you think of someone from New Brunswick, maybe like, I don't know, like not necessarily, you know, that metropolitan dress or so and such forth, but hey, I grew up an hour and a half from Toronto, so I know enough. I don't consider myself a fashionista, but geez, that was the nicest compliment I ever got because everyone else knew. They were like, nah, I know this guy. He wants to put on his, you know, his flannels again and go cut down some trees, but I do like cutting down trees. I'm not going to lie, but I try to replenish them, of course, because, you know, you got to do that. All right, so I did want to ask you here, this is a little bit of a silly question, and maybe you just don't think about this at all, but how high do you think you could get ranked ever? Like, in an ideal world, if you kept playing and you even traveled more and more and more, you're 240-something right now. Do you have aspirations to break into the top 100? Do you think you could be the highest ranked woman or like higher than any woman's been ranked before? Do you even care about any of that? Does that really matter to you? Or do you just love playing pinball and kicking butt at tournaments? Like you're obviously somewhat competitive, right? But does that thought ever come up? Like how high could I ever get ranked in open? Yeah, totally. And that is I think that is a good question because I am I am pretty competitive and I'm also kind of like I'm a bit of a perfectionist. So I feel like I have like high standards for myself and it kind of I mean this weekend's also helped me be like yeah I am pretty good I should keep going to big tournaments um but I have like you know people that I know like being in my ear like see like you're so good like you won all these things like I knew you would win like now you're gonna win all everything else um so it's hard because I obviously I'm not like I mean, I am maybe too humble where I'm like, oh, I don't know. Like, I'm good, but like, you know, whatever. Like, I don't know. I think I have to be, I mean, I am like confident, but sometimes I'm not maybe as confident as I should be. But I definitely do think with more big tournaments under my belt that I could be ranked even higher. I do like, I do like the idea of like maybe being top 100 one day. Like, I think, I think it's possible. We'll see. And I think, yeah, I mean, one of my sort of faraway goals was to make to be able to go to Worlds one day. And I was kind of like, well, I don't know how long it's gonna take me to like get that highly ranked. So I was kind of thinking like, well, maybe I could someday win the women's world, then that will be my ticket to Worlds. And then, yeah, I was kind of thinking, I wasn't thinking that it would happen so soon. But Wow. Yeah, I definitely, I have big dreams for sure. Yeah. So when is that? So you got your ticket to Worlds. When is Worlds? Now are you waiting for next year? Sometime in June. Okay, oh my God. I think it's going to be at District 82 if my information is up to date. Well that's not like, that's, you know, that's not I guess too, too bad for you if you can find a cheap flight to Toronto and drive up to there. Totally, yeah. Something like that, right? Totally, yeah. Cool. Oh, this is a, I didn't even have this written down of one of my questions, but I just remembered watching the very end of the stream from the Lions Classic Pinball on Twitch, and they mentioned that you won not only one, but two new in box Stern pinball machines. So have you decided which Stern pins you're going to get yet? Um, I am still a little bit in the dark about that. Everyone, I've had dozens of people, it seems like, ask me, so which machines are you getting? And I'm like, I don't know, I think maybe like, I'm supposed to wait for like an email or something. Because like, I assume that's what's gonna be happening. But yeah, we'll see. I was kind of under the impression that I would, you know, they would just have some set aside and I would just like, you know, get whichever ones they were. Right, pick from a list or something. Yeah, we'll see, we'll see, but I'm excited. I have one pinball machine right now currently, Timeline Gottlieb from 1980, which I love dearly, and everyone's like, well now you can get rid of it and play some, and get some real pinball machines. And I'm like, oh, but I kind of like it, like maybe I'll just like, yeah, we'll see. Real pinball machines, tell them to get out of here. If I was going to keep two more machines. Yeah. Well, good for you. That's so cool. That's got to be like a, I'm just, I wonder if you now have to like, I'm assuming you might even have to claim that on your taxes now. I have no clue how all that works, but you'll figure it out. The point is, is that you won two pinball machines. That's just incredible. Has anyone else ever won the North American Championships and then in the same year won Women Worlds that you know Um I don know I know that possibly I think I the first Canadian to win Like, yes. Um, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, but yeah, I don't know if anyone's ever done the double. Wow. Well, I wouldn't doubt that maybe like a Carrie wing or someone like that did it at some point. But I mean, either way, congratulations. That is that even if it's not the first time it's still incredible to have being done so and good luck at worlds that's gonna be at in June at Lumberjack Johnny's so we'll be making sure to watch you there and cheering you on I'm curious I'm curious and you don't have to make like a political statement or anything else here but I'm just curious you know I know that even in the ten years I've been playing competitive pinball I'm seeing way more women's pinball events and more bells and chimes and just even other offshoots of that where they're getting together and it's it's really good i think it's great what can all of us do uh to just make pinball more more welcoming for women oh good question um yeah it's it's definitely been getting a lot better like i definitely i definitely feel that and it is really lovely to be able to go to these women's tournaments Because it is, it is kind of a different vibe and like locally especially when we do our, we have a bi-weekly women's tournament that happens. Cool. There's, it's a different, it is a different crowd of people that show up and like there's a lot of women that show up that don't go to the regular bar tournaments which frankly I can completely understand. Um, but yeah, it's just, it's really nice and it's, it's just like, you know, it's a nice safe space and it's, it's really cool. Um, but yeah, and it's, it's really cool. I've been approached, I think by a couple different people who have said to me specifically, like that it's been really cool to see me do well because they were like, oh yeah, like my daughter plays pinball and like, it's cool that you're doing well. So you can so she can see like like me as like a role model which is like crazy to think about but like that means a lot to me and that's really cool. Well you are now. I think women's pinball is very important so yeah. Can you think of any themes that because I do think there is you know a very large percentage of the themes are more slightly more I think we're doing better the last few years between Stranger Things and being at least more you know there's There's a little bit more equalness to them, but can you think of any themes that would really draw in more women at all or themes just personally that you would really love to have? It's kind of a question I ask everybody who comes on, but I'm wondering if any of those specific themes you think would help draw in more women because since I've been in pinball, we've never seen or heard really of a ... I'm trying to think. I'm sure there's been one or two, but there's never been something that would be considered You know, maybe, uh, I don't know. Princess bride arguably is like my, my wife's favorite theme. So, you know, that she was huge for that. And I would say that one, probably the princess bride. There you go. So more women were probably into that theme than men, I would guess. And that is, yeah, that is cool that that even got me because I remember like five, 10 years ago thinking of like my dream themes for pinball. And I was like, oh, well, like I love the Indiana Jones movie. So that's, you know, that's been done. Cool. Yeah. And then I was like, well, I love Princess Bride and like, oh, there's so many good like opportunities like for theme integration with that movie. Like it's such a funny movie, like it would make such a good pinball machine, but like, that's, that's probably never going to happen. Like, you know, oh well, but then it happens. So that's really cool. Have you played it? Yeah, I don't know. Um, sorry. Have you played it? Have you played Princess Bride? I haven't. I'm not sure if I had the opportunity to because I haven't seen a lot of Multimorphics. Yeah. Like at Yagpin last year, I think there was a Weird Al and I meant to play it and then I never did so I still actually haven't even played a Multimorphic yet. I'd be curious to try. We'll see. Yeah, my friend... Do you have any other themes? Sorry. No, no, go ahead. No, no, tell... I wanted to know if you had any other themes. I think... I mean, like stu ff like D&D is pretty cool. I think that'll definitely like get in a wider sort of broad fan base maybe that'll help more other people get into pinball and like Pokemon super popular like yeah Pokemon is bringing in a lot of a lot of people totally yeah so yeah I don't know in terms of like women specifically I don't know I I think those would be good ones like it is true like it's a lot of like Dad Rock pinball. Yeah. And like, which is fine. Like, I like a lot of them. But yeah, I don't know. I think, yeah, sort of nerd related ones are good. Yeah, I still, my one, my dream theme that I get if this was like some rumor or whatever, if it's even never ever gonna happen, or maybe it's like a right thing. Okay. I wish so badly because my favorite era of pinball is like the Bally Williams of the 90s. Right. I wish that there was a Matrix pinball machine. Okay, come on Keanu. Mm hmm. Yeah, and I know I mean, I guess it's like 99. So that was already kind of like past the prime. It was already kind of moving into the late. Well, I don't know, like 99 was like the dead zone, where there's like nothing and then there was like the Sterns of the early 2000s. I don't know, but it would have been cool because I love the Matrix, so yeah. Well that could still happen, I mean they already worked with him for John Wick, right? So it depends. Exactly. I don't know which, I don't know if that's a Warner Brothers or not, I don't know who has Matrix now, it's probably Sony or something. Yeah, true. Whomever has it, like, you know, if someone gets a relationship with it, I can guarantee you like either, you know, like someone has, someone has, someone in a boardroom somewhere, we're either Jersey Jack or Stern or one of these people have definitely talked about getting the Matrix. I just... Exactly. No way no one brought it up. Oh, God, no. They're 100% they've been talking about it. So, okay, I only have three questions left for you because I promise not to keep you too long. Anyways... It is Easter Sunday, but I wanted to ask like, what was the feeling? What was the vibe? I'll be honest, I was really, really jealous. So like three years ago I finished first managed to win New Brunswick and then I finished third and then I finished maybe like I tied for ninth this last year like I went out the first round so whatever it's all good I lost to Quinn and he went on to do really well and go to the I think he ended up third or fourth for the province and so I'm very proud of all the the New Brunswick people that went from my crew the Fundy Flippers here which is really awesome so shout out to Dylan and Did you meet any of the New Brunswick crew when you were there at all? Yes, in Edmonton I met Dylan. We were in the same pinball group. Oh, that's awesome. Okay, cool. So yeah, Dylan, I really credit Dylan for basically helping pinball. Not only Tom, of course, our provincial rep who's done a ton as well, but really Dylan has done for Fredericton, has started that bar in downtown, and he's really made it a cool, fun vibe. And I'm like 40 and I'm the old man there basically there's maybe two or three dudes older than me it's all like 20 to 25 year olds, maybe like the average age is like 27 to 28. And I'm like, Dylan, what did you do here? You made pinball fun, you made it cool, you made it interesting. And you know, there's cool pinball related drinks that are there. He has a really good fun welcoming vibe. They have a really good women's league that plays there. They've even tried to do the Howdy Doody tournaments, I believe, where at least once or twice that they do at, they used to do at Neon Ranch and they also do in Halifax at Propeller, where you can kind of do coaching. You always have like one novice player in your group. Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, and so he's just made such a cool environment there. So I've gone off track here, but we're very excited one day hopefully maybe Fredericton will get to in a couple years down the road get the Canadian National Pinball Championships. But tell me how awesome it was just to see all the Canadians together. What was the vibe like? And don't you think it's so rad that like Jeff Teolis and all the other provincial reps worked so hard to put this together? Definitely, yeah. It was such an amazing experience. I had never been to Arcadium before. That was super cool. I got to go with a friend of mine who'd never been to Alberta before and my sister who like last minute got in for women's. So and it was, yeah, it was just so cool. We got there and I met Doug Parsons in the lobby. From Halifax, showed up. Yeah. And you like knew me. He was like, are you Emily? And I was like, oh my God, who are you? But so that was such a cool experience and like getting and then like the next morning like coming down to the hotel for breakfast And it's just like the entire breakfast room is just full of pinball people. It's just like oh my god This is so cool like our little our little niche thing and we're all here and we're all travel to be here and we're all just sitting in a hotel or gonna Make our way through the snow to this arcade and just play pinball like it's the coolest thing ever I'm so jealous, you know, again, if this had happened last year or the year before, I would have got to go nudging into the top four, but it will happen. It will happen one of these years. There's so many incredible pinball players that I used to play with in Toronto and Hamilton and Guelph, Kitchener, Waterloo, London, and I don't get to see them anymore very often. I do go to Maple Pinball maybe every year, year and a half for a tournament, but I have never been to Yagpin. I'm really excited to go to Yagpin one year. I'm not going to go into that much detail because I don't have a YouTube channel or anything like that. But your nudging is incredible. Thank you. Your rules knowledge is impeccable. But what I'm so curious about, when I watch you, the thing that makes me just go... The thing that I don't think I could have ever done in a million years of practice is your accuracy. I think you were playing Medieval Madness and I counted nine times in a row, you were like, left ramp, right ramp, left ramp, right ramp, right ramp. You did that on quite a few different machines. You could just ramp out seemingly whenever you wanted to. Obviously, it's harder than it looks probably, but how the heck can you try to give me someone who is the most... If I wasn't decent at nudging and saving, I would be horrible because every ramp takes me like three or four tries. How are you so gosh darn accurate? Is there anything you practice on purpose to get that accurate? Are you that accurate because you know those particular pins that well? Or can you just step up to Pokemon, your first game, and be accurate? How are you so darn accurate? I gotta know, Emily. That is a good question. I'm gonna... Okay, let me think about how I can answer this, because I think, like, there's no doubt that a lot of it is just that I have been playing pinball since I was little. So there's like so much of it that kind of comes naturally. But there definitely is like, you have to learn each particular machine. Like, throughout the whole weekend, when I was whenever I would have to play John Wick, because people kept picking it against me. And I was like, Oh, Oh my god I don't want to play this I was pretty bad at hitting the ramps and I would half ramp up the right ramp like twice in a row and it came back down the middle and killed me And I was like oh my god I just cannot hit anything And like the center ramp to like lock balls I was like this is impossible I can't hit this And then on like my second or third or fourth time playing it, I was finally getting better at hitting it. So it does, it still does like, you know, no one's perfect. It does still like take a while for me to get used to a game that I don't know. Especially a game like John Wick that I'm not used to playing. Right. Like I think maybe, what's an example, like Congo also. I love Congo. I've played it so much. It used to be at a place here locally, so I put a ton of hours into Congo. So I kind of, I kept picking it because I was like, I know the rules. And just the left ramp took me so long to get used to because it was so much later than I thought it should be. So I missed it early like a million times. So I guess a lot of like you also have to be good at kind of recovery when your shots don't work because you have to get ready to try again. Um, but yeah, I don't know. I think a lot of it is just how long I've been playing pinball. Uh, that it kind of, it kind of like, it, it sort of, it's natural. It speeds up the process of learning because I already have so much like stored knowledge. Um, so like, for example, I took a bunch of a group of people to this bar that none of them had ever really played pinball. um and i they had the new Star Wars there and i had never played it and then a couple of them started playing it so i was like okay i'll join um and they were like standing over watching me like asking me questions and stuff and i was kind of explaining like okay like i don't know this game i don't know the rules like you know that light's flashing i guess i'm gonna try to shoot that and then i would kind of like miss slightly and then miss again and then finally hit it and then they'd be like whoa like i can't believe you hit that shot like that's crazy So yeah, it's just, it's such, it's so interesting to like, see the perspective of new people also, because I mean, it's also kind of fun, because you make any shot, and then they're like, immediately impressed. So it makes you feel good. But it's cool to be able to also show them that there is so much skill involved. Like so many people are like, I didn't know what pinball was, I thought you just hit the thing. And then you know, watch the ball and then nothing else. So it's cool that there actually is such a high level of skill that you can be acquired in these games, but yeah, I don't know if I answered the question, but no I think that was good like I'm just picturing like as you're explaining that the look on someone's face That very first time that you you either you start a multiball Or you explain to them like look at this multiplier and you get like a 20 times multiplier Or you know you have this the first time you have this big moment and their eyes open up like oh This isn't just random chaos with people slapping buttons This is like a real thing that you're controlling. Like, I think people think it's just like a slot machine and then they go to play it and then they realize, no, this is much more like, I don't know, playing pool or bowling or something where it's like, it's, there is obviously even in bowling or pool or something, there's like two or 3% luck, but it's still like, you know, 90 to 95% skill, right? And people just, their brains can't really figure that out. So, okay. This is kind of a two part and this is your final question, uh, here, but, um, uh, so So have you ever heard of a pinball content creator called Retro Ralph? I have not. You have not, okay. Check him out. I will fire you off a link. I'll try to remember tonight. I'll fire you off a link. He does YouTube content. He came from the arcade world, but, and he's kind of new and he's following, not kind of new now, but like a year or two ago when he got started into doing pinball podcasts and stuff. So he did a call-in show this weekend and he said guys call in this phone number and so I called in and I told everybody they have to go over to the Lions Classic Pinball Channel on Twitch and watch and I said and you know Emily Emily from Canada has already won you know the the North American Women's Championship but now she's trying for Worlds and I believe you guys are at the quarterfinals or that maybe even the semifinals and I said, so I said I think I think, and Ashley hadn't won her side yet, and I said, I think Ashley Weaver is gonna go to seven games against Emily, and Canada's gonna take it down, and Emily's gonna win in seven. And I was wrong! You won it in five! So that's so cool that you did that. You! Yeah, I'm just, shout out to all the women that were there, and everyone that did so good. I love watching Ashley play as well. She does that fun thing where she like leans back and does like the rocker symbol before she plays. Like she's so such a fun interesting player as well. But shout out to everyone there who did awesome. I'm curious before this kind of why it's a two part question. Do you listen to any pinball podcast? Do you listen to you watch much YouTube like content creators? Do you watch do you more so watch like tournaments live on Twitch? Like how so do you interact? This is basically the time for you to give some shoutouts to anyone you'd like to give shoutouts to or even any leagues or local places you like before I let you go. Mm-hmm. Honestly, I kind of... it's kind of embarrassing, but I honestly like don't. Like, there's so many like, yeah, podcasts and stuff and I just kind of don't... I'm not in that realm, kind of. I mostly all watch streams and stuff. I watch a lot of Icebox streams. I love their streams. They're so funny. So much, such a huge amount of really talented players at Icebox. I love going down there. Haven't been down there in a while. Hopefully one day I can get back down there. Because they're also amazing. And it's so fun to be in such a highly competitive zone with people that are just like so fun. So yeah, love them. Their commentary is always hilarious. And yeah, Neon Ranch, super fun. They did great live streams. Their live streams are always incredible. All the work that Corey has done to putting into the streams to make it so amazing is so impressive. And he does the funny little edits of like big events and stuff. And it's just that's one thing that I think is really important to like get pinball out there is like the short form content, like the edits. And like, you know, to make it look really cool and fun and like, what even is this? And like, cut down all the craziest saves and like make a compilation and like stuff like that. I think that's really cool. So yeah, go check out the Neon Ranch YouTube channel. Also, they post like compilations of various things and stuff. Yeah, that's pretty much it. That's awesome. And what about like, let's say that I'm just visiting Vancouver and I'm only there for a couple days. I don't have time to play in the tournament. Tell me at least the, like, is there one place that has pinball machines in decent condition and has some good craft beer? Because that's all I need to have a good time is a place that has, if it has good food, that's even better. But is there at least one location that has like some craft beer and some decent pins? Mm hmm. Um, I can't speak in terms of quality of beer because I barely drink. Right. Um, but one place that I like to go is Library Square Pub. Um, sort of in the heart of downtown Vancouver, that's kind of the only place like downtown Vancouver. Um, good lineup. It's usually not super busy unless there's like a crazy event there. Um, the American on Main Street is kind of also another main place they I think they just got a Pokemon. So that's cool. That's kind of where the launch parties that's are like the newer games are there. And yeah, then there's the Van City Arcade, which is The big arcade on Commercial Street. There are breweries along that street. You won't have to be you won't have to be completely dry. But yeah, the arcade itself, that's like that's the current hub. And going back to what we were talking about before, it was really, really exciting to me going to that tournament at Van City because it was also open to the public at the same time. It was so busy with the public, even with the tournament going on. There was like 70 people in the tournament, but there was still so much, so many random people there and so many young people there, like middle school, high school age even at this pinball arcade. It's like, it was so cool to see. I was like, oh my God, the young people do know what pinball is after all. This is crazy. So yeah. Yeah. We just, we just gotta keep making a pinball fun. Like, I think, I think it is a big thing of theming. Like you mentioned a lot of the dad rock. I have a 21-year-old son, a 17-year-old son, and when they were first starting to get into pinball, they were like, Aerosmith who? Metallica what? They're not going to listen to any of that stuff. And then all of a sudden, Stranger Things came along. And both my sons were like, okay, well, that's one of our favorite shows, you know what I mean? And then Rick and Morty came out from Spooky, and that was my oldest son's favorite show at the time. So they're doing better about getting more themes that more younger people are into. Even Barrels of Fun came out with Dune, and my youngest son is a massive Timothée Chalamet fan, so he's like hugely into like Dune and really anything that he does. It'd be great to see a Marty Supreme pin, but I've gone off topic. Listen, Emily, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. And if I can just say one last thing, thank you to your dad for bringing you deposits, we'll get to play pinball. I mean, I don't want to play pinball with you in competition. No, thank you. But you know, maybe just for fun, like a toonie game or something, but nothing for, I don't want to see you in finals or anything like that. You know what I mean? But congratulations on everything and just keep doing your thing. I hope that you stay involved in pinball. I will say this, in the 10 years I've been into pinball, I have seen a number of players who get really good between like 18, 19, 20 and the early 20s and then maybe they fade out or they get busy, life happens and then they're not playing as much and I just, I hope that you stay involved and keep playing because, you know, we love having you. You're a great representation for women's pinball, great representation for Canadian pinball and you're getting out there and just crushing it. It doesn't matter if you're playing in Open or women's, it doesn't matter, you're just, you're kicking butt and having fun and just seem like a great player. Do you have one sport that you would particularly like to play with? For the most part, uplifting, motivating, and enjoying the hobby. I'm going to get some arrows in the back here, but I'm going to call it a sport. The sport of pinball. Because when you play as hard as you do for 12 hours back to back to back, to keep the mental mindset in there. I think it is kind of like a sport. So anyways, I've gone on too long. Play more pinball! If you're like, oh, maybe it sounds interesting, but I'm like scared to like go to a place and join a tournament. Like don't be don't be scared that if you're not good, everyone is always happy to have new people. It doesn't matter if you're not good. The only way to get better is to play. So go play pinball. Go play. And a lot of newer tournaments too, they'll even ask like, have you been here before? Have you played a pinball tournament? And if you put up your hand, everybody's gonna be, for the most part, so kind, so welcoming. In the last place, the last place always gets a fun prize. Even at our local tournaments here in Hub City and Moncton, last place always gets a fun prize. It's not as hyper-competitive as if you've only seen tournaments on Twitch and they're Stern Pro Circuit tournaments and you're thinking, oh my god, these are so serious. No, go out to your local bar league, start with something simple, you'll love it, get out there and have fun, meet the people, play the games, that's what it's all about. Until next time, pinball nerds, say it with me if you know it, remember to eat, sleep, and breathe pinball.