2020 Stern Pro Circuit Championship Game 12

Stern Pinball·video·23m 46s·analyzed·Aug 20, 2023

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.018

TL;DR

Stern Pro Circuit Championship Game 12: Louis Bevins dominates Avengers on superior Reality Gem/Thor multiball execution.

Summary

Stern Pro Circuit Championship Game 12 features four elite players (Carl D'Angelo, Jason Wardrick, Andrew Rosa II, and Louis Bevins) competing in ladder finals format on Keith Elwin's Avengers Infinity Quest. Louis Bevins dominates with a 125+ million point lead after executing a strong Reality Gem Quest with triple scoring and Thor multiball stack, while Andrew Rosa II is eliminated after struggling to qualify portal locks and capitalize on scoring opportunities. The commentary reveals advanced strategic play including portal lock sequencing, triple scoring pursuit, and quest stacking decisions.

Key Claims

Keith Elwin's designs give control players an edge in competitive play
medium confidence · Carl D'Angelo selection rationale for Avengers Infinity Quest: 'I prefer Keith Elwin's designs uh I find his games give control players a bit more of an edge and I feel I'm a control player'
Triple scoring on first Quest became standard late-game strategy by Game 12 of the championship
medium confidence · Host commentary: 'players are now it looks like going for a triple scoring on their first Quest because just the safety of double scoring and going for it might not be enough anymore'
Reality Gem Quest with portal lock triple scoring can generate 49+ million points in a single mode
high confidence · Louis Bevins achieved 49 million points in Reality Gem quest with 6X award multiplier before continuing to Thor multiball
Players choosing game order later in ladder finals have advantage of knowing prior scores but earlier position players have game selection advantage
high confidence · Host explanation of Jason Wardrick's position: 'Jason is the highest seed highest number seed remaining... Jason to pick between second and first so Jason's been taking seconds'
Carl D'Angelo played his first match after a very long wait in ladder format
high confidence · Host commentary during Carl's first ball: 'Carl is playing pretty quick here despite waiting very long time to play his first match in this ladder format'

Notable Quotes

“I prefer Keith Elwin's designs uh I find his games give control players a bit more of an edge and I feel I'm a control player”
Carl D'Angelo @ early in video — Reveals player strategy prioritization: design philosophy alignment with playing style influences game selection in high-stakes tournament
“players are now it looks like going for a triple scoring on their first Quest because just the safety of double scoring and going for it might not be enough anymore”
Tim Sexton (host) @ mid-video during Jason Wardrick's turn — Documents meta-game evolution: scoring expectations rising as tournament progresses, forcing higher-risk strategies
“Lewis smells blood in the water he is going to say okay all I need to do is really just do a great uh stack with my portal lock and my first Quest and if I can bring a Thor multiball I'm probably gonna put some distance between myself and Andrew”
Tim Sexton (host) @ Louis Bevins' turn — Commentary illustrates competitive analysis and strategic opportunism in tournament play
“it's just jackpots all around the playfield pretty much every shot is lit for scoring right now”
Tim Sexton (host) @ Louis Bevins Thor multiball + quest victory lap — Describes the multiplicative scoring potential when stacking Thor multiball with Reality Gem quest completion
“I just got to go to some more circuit events and try and qualify higher”
Andrew Rosa II @ post-elimination interview — Reflects competitive circuit structure: ladder finals format requires qualifying through circuit events to gain higher seeding

Entities

Carl D'Angeloperson Jason Wardrickperson Andrew Rosa IIperson Louis Bevinsperson Tim Sextonperson Keith Elwinperson

Signals

?
competitive_signal: Triple scoring pursuit on first Reality Gem Quest has become standard meta-strategy by late rounds of championship; players recognize safety of double scoring is insufficient to stay competitive as tournament progresses
high · Host commentary: 'players are now it looks like going for a triple scoring on their first Quest because just the safety of double scoring and going for it might not be enough anymore'
?
competitive_signal: Keith Elwin's Avengers Infinity Quest is recognized as providing strategic advantage to control players; game selection reflects designer philosophy alignment with player type
medium · Carl D'Angelo: 'I prefer Keith Elwin's designs uh I find his games give control players a bit more of an edge'
?
design_philosophy: Reality Gem Quest with disc spinner award multiplier creates exponential scoring potential when combined with portal lock triple multiplier (demonstrated: 49M in single mode), rewarding aggressive early stacking
high · Louis Bevins achieved 49M points in Reality Gem quest; host analysis shows 6X multiplier progression from spinning disc rewards

Topics

Competitive tournament strategy and meta-game evolutionprimaryAvengers Infinity Quest rule set and scoring mechanics (portal locks, quest stacking, multiball combinations)primaryPinball designer philosophy and game selection in tournament playsecondaryLadder finals format and player seeding/positioning advantagessecondaryStern Pro Circuit Championship structure and formatsecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.78)— Broadcast is enthusiastic and professional; hosts praise strategic play and exceptional scores; competitive action is engaging; no controversies or negative sentiment detected. Andrew Rosa's elimination is presented matter-of-factly without criticism. Overall tone celebrates elite play and game design.

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

foreign episode of the stern pro circuit championships I'm your host Tim Sexton here to guide you through all the action the 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 I'm Carl D'Python Anghelo and I'm from Fontana California my name is Jason wardrick I'm from Park Ridge Illinois Andrew Rosa II Flint Michigan my name is Louis Bevins from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania in each match the top-seeded player has the opportunity to choose the game or choose their order on the game I picked the Avengers Infinity quest uh absolutely I prefer Keith elwin's designs uh I find his games give control players a bit more of an edge and I feel I'm a control player foreign this match we will have Avengers Infinity Quest this comic book themed pinball release came out in 2020 was designed by Keith elwin here we are starting game 12 of the stern pro circuit Championship Carl D'Python Anghelo joins us Carl has selected to play Avengers Infinity Quest and he will be going first going for the super skill shot the secret skill shot hitting it immediately qualifying his portal lock and falling into the portal lock off a slingshot trial lets the game plunge the ball around to the right flipper takes a shot at the center ramp but does not hit it now he hits it tried to take a shot at the ramp there's a shot to the ramp looks like he's trying to use the upper flipper possibly to qualify his gem quest by shooting the spinner another chance at it here but no he's actually lit a second portal lock so he now has a 3X scoring if he goes into the portal for his next gem quest which he does there Quest scoring is now tripled that's something we've not seen yet on the stern pro circuit Championship nobody has got into uh triple scoring for their gem quest Alex's first ball for Iron Man multiballs so Carl's playing pretty quick here despite waiting very long time to play his first match in this ladder format Carl is playing very quickly wow another portal lock this is incredible and now he's gonna start his multiball and he can bring in Iron Man multiball to this he has the second ball lock now for Iron Man multiball already up to 17 million points let's see will Carl shoot for Thor multiball he hits the captive ball there he also has one lock shot left for Iron Man multiball that's all drizzed on the left Outland lots of stuff going on right now he has not sprought in another multiple yet he has the opportunity to do so 6X strange award for 10 million points already up to 80 million points here all right Carl's gonna try to get control of these balls loses one down the middle loses a second one down the middle he is not able then to stack the multiball together with this reality gem quest but he probably won't worry about it looks like just about one shot left fortunately it hits out the right outline there so a very fast start for Carl but a very quick end to both his multiball and his quest unable to actually complete it it looks like but still at the triple scoring able to get 91 million points so I've been saying this a lot Jason werdrick player two now because Jason is the highest seed highest number seed remaining in this competition he is the last choice on game or order every game being selected so with Carl picking the game Avengers Infinity Quest goes through the other players who picked fourth third and then that leaves Jason to pick between second and first so Jason's been taking seconds players going later have the advantage of knowing what the players before them have done and knowing what scores they need to be and it is a huge Advantage but some players feel that just having a game they're comfortable on especially for their first game is the most important thing they can do so is Jason gonna try to bring in the uh triple scoring to his mode as well it looks like he might be going for it and no ignoring the portal lock for now which by doing so means you won't be able to advance the disc to spell strange by accident all right one more combo to light the portal lock and it is awarded that'll be his first portal lock he's still never collected that first one but the disc stays up so you can take a second one here by shooting into it which he does right there Quest scoring triple this is a new strategy we're seeing now this late into the competition players are now it looks like going for a triple scoring on their first Quest because just the safety of double scoring and going for it might not be enough anymore with all of the way the players are playing Avengers Infinity Quest reality gem is still pretty standard for these players take it first take it during your portal lock multiball here Jason hits the disc gets his Awards up to 7x so 7 million for that award there the triple scoring really helping him right away uh looks like he's gonna try to bring in Thor multiball he needs one more hit to that captive ball he went for it there and shot a little late so wound up hitting around the orbits um nice separation there unfortunately didn't hit the cafe now he does so now he has ball saver back once again Thor multiball has started four balls in play making a lot of Thor multiball jackpot shots a lot of progress through this Quest uh halfway through the quest he's 32 million points now his disc is spinning a lot so those those Awards will be multiplied a ton if he can hit any of these lit shots use these middle ramps now there goes the ball 11 million just for that that award 7 million for that award sometimes the jackpots of Thor multiball stomp on those Awards I don't get to see how huge they are that's why people take reality jump quests add two balls go down the drain at the same time left out lane and Center drain all right here comes Andrew looking to take the grid skill shot there but he hits the ball a little high on the Trap Target Bank however if he does hit one more drop Target now you win for it a little high again there he goes that will light his first portal lock and that ball going down the out lane means his first ball is done he has qualified the first portal lock but he is behind the pace set by Carl D'Python Anghelo and Jason wardrick so far in this game Louis Bevis decides just take the safe skill shot up top get three ball save seconds and start shooting four combos players aren't afraid of combos to light his portal lock through the combo Awards thank you this has made some good moves here without taking a danger to get the ball in control shoots around the Hawkeye Loop oh and another left out lane that slingshot there is really just sending the ball into the Outland when it comes down that way so it looks like Carl's portal lock carried over from his first ball and he is likely going to want to take the portal lock and spell strange and get his quest going before he takes Iron Man multiball but we'll see maybe he's just going to go into the multiball last time he went for the drop Target bank for his super skill shot just going for that again hits it again 10 ball save seconds which he will use there now Carl has to actually hit that disc and spell strange it is in a position where if he misses it he may accidentally take that last Iron Man lock and start multiball but instead Carl drains out the right outline for a very quick ball too Jason's gonna use the button it looks like to take the Super skills out at the grid he's waiting for the award he wants to be locked in looks like he wants that middle award and he locks it in but does not get the skill shot so no ball safe here this is dangerous but he makes a nice nudge to get it out of the left out lane area Jason's trying a post pass here it's not letting him transfer the ball over to the right flipper yet he'll instead use the left flipper to shoot the ramp it's just a ramp again that will not let you combo that same ramp back to the left flipper still making combos looking for a portal lock here why not take the first lock there no danger of starting multiball yet starts the Hawkeye challenge so if you can hit the target or The Loop he will earn what a lock instead he shoots a little bit early and this sends the ball out of control he has now qualified his next Quest lets the ball come all the way down from the tower and no the ball save grace period expired before that ball hit the Adelaide switch now Andrew is up next followed by Lois neither leaves players have started their first Quest yet Andrew has qualified his first portal lock quarterlock is critical for that big scoring opportunity in the first Quest interesting that Andrew decided to forego all skill shot opportunities and just go for the portal lock all right this is a little out of control yeah he made a big move there he was not comfortable with how that ball was behaving on the Playfield now he can't make any more moves without tilting he's used both his tilt warnings you can now start his first Quest will he take reality gym Quest well he's thinking about something else no he went back to reality gem quest and we know the rules of reality gem quest it is shoot the disc and then shoot the ramps and the more you spin the disc the higher the awards values are on the ramps they are multiplied by how many strange letters are lit and Andrew is likely going to start thinking about Thor multiball he needs to make three more hits to that captive ball that ball will come back takes a shot to the Arc Reactor there keeps it out of play for a little while gives him a chance to hit the Thor captive ball he needs two more hits still to bring in Thor multiball he will not have a chance to do so and he will not have a chance to continue this ball because two balls go straight out the left out lane only six and a half million points scored in that first quest with the portal double scoring this puts Andrew in a very tough spot coming into ball three it's and Lewis knows this Lewis smells blood in the water he is going to say okay all I need to do is really just do a great uh stack with my portal lock and my first Quest and if I can bring a Thor multiball I'm probably gonna put some distance between myself and Andrew so that is what Lewis is going for here now he has now lit the quest of course he has to wait for the motor to raise the disc now in the backhand he can shoot into it he does and is Lewis a reality gem quest guy he is now he shoots the disc right away gets his Awards up to 6X takes one there so that's two million points for the first one they increase in value throughout the mode but he is quickly look at this 10 million points ahead of Andrew's score 15 million points ahead of Andrew's score just piling on the points now just in the reality gem quest this is why players like taking this as their first quest with the portal lock because the scores could just explode very quickly he has just completely destroyed that Quest 49 million points still has the multiball in play he's just taking Victory laps now on the quest and now starts Thor multiball so he'll have Victory laps running with Thor multiball so it's just jackpots all around the Playfield pretty much every shot is lit for scoring right now in the meantime if he really wants to you can focus on working on his drop Targets on the grid but he'll probably just take the points available in all these lit shots around the Playfield looks like he went for the orbit shot there maybe he's thinking soul gem qualify his Avengers takes the bonus multiplier by shooting through the pop bumpers that's what Lewis called out there take the X extra ball is lit that could be I believe 25 million points to be collected on the target wow gamma ray mode starting this is a very loud mode that means if you hit that far left spinner on the orbit you can get a lot of points a lot of players ignore it but it certainly is loud and bright and flashing and uh there he goes gets a few spins there two million points out of that still playing in Thor multiball still playing in Victory laps from the quest he's not shooting that captive ball for more Thor jackpots but he is just playing taking the points available he is at 78 million points that'll put him in first place now with that extra ball for 25 million takes more bonus sex of the Trap targets whoa and uh down the right out lane but not before a big bonus collect coming up here 47 million the reality gem quest 6 million from the bonus collects Lewis is in very good shape unlikely to have to play his next ball and all the pressure now really is on Andrew Rosa Andrew is to formulate a game plan of how he's going to get back into this game because Andrew has no portal locks he was not able to capitalize on his first reality gem quest opportunity Carl meanwhile is probably going to take his skill shot to the multiball start at the Iron Man no he instead takes the drop Target Bank for the Super Ball saver that's smart that'll give him kind of a permanent ball saver uh until the next ball drains and it might drain here and that'll give him the ball back so we'll go for Iron Man multiball now Carl is shaking his head Carl probably in the mindset that he has to do more uh being player one you just never know what you're going to need but the 25 million point extra ball there will put Carl back in first place 14.8 million Shield bonus that's a very big collect here in Iron Man multiball now I just Tower his Super Jackpot is lit he has to kind of make sure the flipper and the balls are not in the way when he shoots there and he has this timer countdown call out telling him yeah he needs to shoot the tower he's not gonna worry about it I'll have to qualify it again he knows it not gonna scramble to make that shot at the last second so Carl takes a shot at the left orbit which uh qualifies uh all but one Avengers now he's collected Hulk now he really has to start Thor multiball to interesting that he hasn't started it yet at this point in the game he has the portal lock though he'll take that episodes this is the ramp shot hits the ball all right he's probably gonna need to take some captive ball shots here if it does he has now assembled his Avengers for a nice five or so million points he can bring in Thor multiball here with one shot to that catch the ball he does starts to gamma raymo to only care about it he kind of aimed at it maybe at the drop targets uh it's so loud and bright and flashing that uh it really could distract what else is going on the Playfield there he goes hits some gamma ray spinners but did he just train both of those balls out yep he is complete with Thor multiball oh trades down the middle before he gets the chance to attempt his soul gem quest not before ending with almost 200 million points bonus will count up here for Carl with a 5x bonus multiplier 7 million added to his score now Jason knows he is safe only if he gets 200 million points it's a lot of work he has started some progress on his Iron Man locks he has his next Quest lit deciding between mind Gem and power Gem and Time Gym what's good what's Chase going to pick it looks like my gem looks like he's settled on it he is and he will try to take a shot to the Iron Man lock a little bit late hits the flipper great post match there though but unfortunately leads to a left out lane drain so that's about all Jason could do Jason is at risk Here Andrew has a lot of work to do here on this ball three to get himself in a position where he can attack Chase and score so Andrew is going to go right away for Thor multiball it looks like but he's having trouble that ball is not hitting that Target to start Thor multiball he can head backhanded here and he does so Andrew just gets himself right into a multiball this multiball does not score very quickly it is only a two ball multiball but it is a chance to close the gap he also likes it at about he takes it before that last ball hits the trough which is great to get him back to three balls in play he can use this time to attempt to qualify his adventures to start his soul gem quest and also just use this time to hit jackpots or he's out of time now he's back to single ball play he has to figure out what his next move is quickly take his second Iron Man lock and this will give him a chance to get a portal lock goes for it but he hits between the Target and the orbit and with that result all the roses have been eliminated and gerosa II we'll see you next time I hit Iron Man tower for my second ball lock I barely missed the loop so then the ball rolled down and rolled to the side yeah hopefully I can play again next year I just got to go to some more circuit events and try and qualify higher 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 thank you