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Episode 408-Seawitch the Patron Saint

NYC PinPod·podcast_episode·55m 5s·held·Apr 14, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

NYC PinPod covers local league standings, venue updates, and interviews IFPA Women's North American Miriam Nadler.

Summary

NYC PinPod 408 covers local pinball competition results across New York City leagues (Pinball NYC, South Slope Pinball League, NYC Match Play), venue updates from Pinball Map, and an interview with Miriam Nadler, who won the IFPA Women's North American Championship. The episode documents tournament results, team standings, machine updates at various locations, and discusses Nadler's championship run with emphasis on her play style and key game selections.

Key Claims

  • As of April 11th, 2025, there are 301 pinball machines in New York City at 83 public locations

    high confidence · Benjamin Furiga, citing Pinball Map creators and users data

  • Miriam Nadler won the IFPA Women's North American Championship with 54 women representing 48 states and 6 Canadian provinces

    high confidence · Miriam Nadler, confirmed by hosts Benjamin Furiga and Eric Sweetland

  • Miriam Nadler went 4-1 in five rounds until the finals, then 4-2 in the final match

    high confidence · Miriam Nadler describing her tournament progression

  • Barcade Jersey City will close after finals on Sunday, April 20th (described as 'very last or next to last night')

    high confidence · Benjamin Furiga announcing high score tournament and location closure

  • Jane Verweiss is ranked number one in women's pinball currently

    medium confidence · Eric Sweetland stating Jane is 'the dominant...ranked number one in women's right now'

  • NYC FSA, Lion Persons, and Mutants all have 6-1 records after seven weeks of Pinball NYC league play

    high confidence · Benjamin Furiga reporting league standings

  • Miriam Nadler played Paragon in every single round of the championship tournament

    high confidence · Miriam Nadler confirming 'I did play Paragon every single round in that tournament'

  • No Quarter for Laundry has 85 points at 6-1 record, 22 more points than Ball Drainers also at 6-1

    high confidence · Eric Sweetland emphasizing the point differential in Right Flipper Division standings

  • Gabe set a league record on Foo Fighters with $823 million on NYC FSA team

    high confidence · Benjamin Furiga reporting Monday night Pinball NYC match results

  • NYC Match Play Pinball League will be renamed 'Scrapple League'

Notable Quotes

  • “I lost my first two games when I told people, that's it. I'm just here to be pretty. Only the top four are going.”

    Benjamin Furiga @ ~10 min — Humorous self-deprecation about his performance at April Rob Wong Invitational at Rulos

  • “I believe that for the second week in a row, I'm going to say that Greg Fertel won the night with two strikes to his name after 11 rounds.”

    Eric Sweetland @ ~35 min — Announcing repeat winner of Thursday Night Strikes at Jack Bar

  • “I'm still very pleasantly surprised that I won. It didn't feel like something where I came in expecting to win, but I did and I'm thrilled about it.”

    Miriam Nadler @ ~55 min — Humbled reaction to winning IFPA Women's North American Championship

  • “It was intimidating just knowing that she's such a strong player... just knowing that going into a head-to-head with her that like knowing that you're probably not going to come out of it.”

    Miriam Nadler @ ~60 min — Describing her mindset facing Jane Verweiss in semifinal match

  • “I do find her to be an intimidating opponent. She's always so cool and collected.”

    Eric Sweetland @ ~62 min — Corroborating assessment of Jane Verweiss as top-ranked women's player

  • “That game was streamed. I can be like, no, it really happened. Look. Whenever it came out of that snake on the right of Paragon... it was always, almost always, 95% of the time, landing on the very tip of the left flipper.”

    Miriam Nadler @ ~70 min — Describing a remarkable recurring shot sequence on Paragon that helped her championship performance

  • “It's an interesting result isn't it... at the top of that list benjamin furiga got 27 points and also eric sweetland got 27 points.”

    Eric Sweetland @ ~40 min — Noting a tie for first place at South Slope Pinball League second meeting

  • “Do they grow owls? I sort of imagined... I think that owls do nasty, nasty things at Owl Farm, probably with cats and cigarettes.”

Entities

Benjamin FurigapersonEric SweetlandpersonMiriam NadlerpersonJane VerweisspersonGreg PavarellipersonGreg FertelpersonAdam RobinsonpersonMatthew CarlsonpersonDante OlivapersonSean GrantpersonZach Tillperson

Signals

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Miriam Nadler won IFPA Women's North American Championship defeating 54 women from 48 states and 6 Canadian provinces. Went 4-1 in first 5 rounds, 4-2 in finals. Beat Jane Verweiss (ranked #1 women's player) 4-1 in semifinals.

    high · Miriam Nadler interview confirming tournament results and match records

  • ?

    competitive_signal: NYC Pinball NYC league playoff picture emerging after 7 weeks: NYC FSA, Lion Persons, Mutants all 6-1; No Quarters for Laundry leading Right Flipper with 85 points at 6-1; strong point differential advantages for certain teams

    high · Eric Sweetland detailed standings report with specific point totals and win-loss records

  • ?

    venue_signal: Barcade Jersey City closing after April 20th. High score tournament with finals on that date described as 'very last or next to last night' the location will be open.

    high · Benjamin Furiga announcement of JC Flippers Farewell Barcade Bash

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Miriam Nadler describes breakthrough execution of Paragon strategy: clean shots on left inline stand-ups to increase bonus multiplier, opening saucer for 50k points. Consistently lands waterfall shot cleanly with precise left-right flipper timing.

    high · Detailed gameplay discussion between Miriam and Eric about Paragon mechanics and her tournament performance

  • ?

    community_signal: NYC Match Play Pinball League officially being renamed 'Scrapple League' after moving to Scrapple Land venue

    high · Benjamin Furiga: 'the nyc match play league soon to be renamed scrapple league'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.165

0:30
Happy Sunday, pinfolk, or whatever day you're listening. This is NYC Pin Pod, in which a panel talks location pinball in New York City and nearby surrounding areas. My name is Benjamin Furiga. My initials are BCF, and it's ramps season. My name is Eric Sweetland. My initials are HIP, and I'm a pinball tournament director in New York City. On this week's pod, we'll run down local competition results in Ball 1 as usual. In Ball 2, we'll have venue updates, thanks to the users of Pinball Map and the app. And in Ball 3, we'll speak with Miriam Nadler, who just won the IFBA Women's North American Championship. Let's get started.
1:15
Let's talk about competitive pinball in New York City and nearby surrounding areas. On Sunday, April 6th, 17 players gathered under Tommy Ortega's guiding hand at Single Cut Beersmiths, Queens, for Silver Ball Sunday at Single Cut 24. This time it was target match play with a 50-point target. Adam Robinson came out on top, having earned 52 points by the 10th round. Greg Pavarelli earned 55 by the 11th. Tommy Ortega, the tournament director, earned 53 in the 11th. Chris Dooley, 52 in the 11th. Mike Pantino earned 51 in the 11th. And Andrew Riziel earned 50 in the 11th. I don't know how all of the tiebreakers might have played out there, and that's probably my fault for not looking a little bit deeper. But I did see on the IFPA website that for this tournament adam robinson got 4.78 whoppers also on sunday 22 players came to rulos for the april rob wong invitational directed by jess warren matthew carlson won the day after five rounds of group match play cutting to a top four finals matt got 7.51 whoppers in second place was then Zokniak, third place Gus Gonzalez, and fourth place Rob Wong. Jess wrapped up the tournament on social media. She said, Bart won the Rush Premium Translight and made Shepard's Pie. Matt Gross won the Stern Pinball Socks. Gus came so close to beating the cat with 130 million Monster Ball won on WIC. Zen beat Rob on X-Men with a big bonus. Matthew Grady streamed us on Twitch. HipSmart and I didn't have to make any rulings. We did shots. I missed the shots. The shepherd's pie was awesome. You might have heard my voice on that very stream from Matthew Grady. I lost my first two games when I told people, that's it. I'm just here to be pretty. Only the top four are going. It's only five rounds. I have already lost six positions. I'm not making the top four. On Monday, April 7th, Pinball Union was the actual home team and the Deluxe Horses were the virtual visiting team. The home home team won 9-7. The away home team lost 7-9. It was streamed by Matt Grady. Intermission Dolores went to Jack Bar and bested the lesser players 12-4. The Mutants hosted the two-for-oners and picked up a big 13-3 win at their home, Solid State in Woodside. Parliament hosted the aristocrats at what you might imagine would be a parliament's home, Owl Farm, and picked up an 11-5 win. Do they grow owls? I sort of imagined. That's a good question. I think if you've seen any of the line drawing paintings in the back, I think that owls do nasty, nasty things at Owl Farm, probably with cats and cigarettes. Balls of Steel went to Rulos and handed Special When Lit an 11 to 5 loss. They're starting to look like balls of steel. we colliders went to upstate manhattan to visit the new york city flippers board association at the wallace i know i had a lot of fun and that's certainly the most important part of that you obviously were there too what did you enjoy the most we were so delighted to have the colliders up it's always fun to be places you're the cutest thanks for being had oh thank you thank you it was a fun time we got that great snapshot that adam took of us just of our fist bump just before we faced off in the third round right third round on hot wheels hot wheels hot wheels right right that's right yeah we had a great time i had a what was roughly a cheese steak served on uh some butter toasted bread it was it was effectively a cheese steak melt it's called the grill-y cheesesteak. Yeah, that's right. And it was good as hell. I really like those, yeah. And then I stole some fries from Ben H., who got fries with his sandwich so that I could eat some of his fries, too. Good food, good fun, giant mugs of beer. And speaking of which, Wyndham, I owe you one. Our New York City Flipper Sport Association won the night 12 to 4. It was 8 to 4 going into the final round, but we came up with a couple of big games on Deadpool and Foo Fighters. I had a blow-up game on Deadpool. I've been playing pretty rotten all night until then. A couple of snicks there, if memory serves. Yeah, the big move was Gabe playing Foo Fighters. He set a league record. That's right. $823 million has been submitted. I learned something also that when your team is traveling on Monday nights, that everybody puts in the initials FSA. That's true. When it's league time, it's team initials. Uh-huh. The Lion Persons went to Skylark and bested the Pin Pals 9-7. So far, after seven weeks, everybody has at least one loss.

high confidence · Benjamin Furiga mentioning 'the nyc match play league soon to be renamed scrapple league'

Benjamin Furiga @ ~20 min — Humorous speculation about the venue name during team match report

  • “No Quarter for Laundry is almost certainly in these playoffs and very probably has a bye in the first week.”

    Eric Sweetland @ ~32 min — Analysis of Right Flipper Division playoff picture based on point totals

  • “I think that's the strategy and rarely actually been able to like get even the last drop down before you get like a weird kind of usually like a shake out that goes down one of the outlanes or at the center.”

    Miriam Nadler @ ~68 min — Describing the difficulty and breakthrough in executing a key Paragon strategy shot

    • Tommy Ortega
    person
    Jess Warrenperson
    Kate Martinperson
    Sam Hallperson
    Barcade Jersey Cityvenue
    Scrapple Landvenue
    Rulosvenue
    Buttermilk Barvenue
    Paragongame
    Trongame
    World Cup Soccergame
    Shadowgame
    Pinball NYCorganization
    NYC Match Play Pinball Leagueorganization
  • ?

    competitive_signal: IFPA Women's North American Championship uses best-of-seven format with era-based game picks (old/mid/modern), alternating picks between players, with top seed choosing first pickorder

    high · Miriam Nadler explaining tournament format and game selection strategy

  • ?

    venue_signal: Significant machine additions at NYC venues: Franklin Park added Game of Thrones, Ghostbusters, Godzilla, Jaws; Scrapple Land added Evil Dead (Spooky), Pulp Fiction LE, Metallica Remastered, James Bond 007 LE; Barcade Chelsea added Pulp Fiction; various machines removed from other locations

    high · Detailed Pinball Map user reports compiled by Benjamin Furiga covering April 4-10 updates

  • $

    market_signal: NYC pinball infrastructure report: 301 machines across 83 public locations as of April 11, 2025

    high · Benjamin Furiga citing Pinball Map data: 'As of April 11th, 2025, there are 301 pinball machines in New York City at 83 public locations'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Multiple NYC league tournament results documented: Silver Ball Sunday at Single Cut (Adam Robinson winner), April Rob Wong Invitational at Rulos (Matthew Carlson winner 7.51 IFPA whoppers), NYC Match Play League with Dante Oliva leading series standings

    high · Benjamin and Eric comprehensive tournament recap with IFPA ratings and match scores

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Miriam Nadler describes her play style as flowing and grabbing rather than trapping-up, finding trapping boring unless strategically necessary (strikes tournament, specific winning shots, time running out). Contrasts with other strategic approaches.

    high · Miriam Nadler: 'I think about a second into being trapped up I just get kind of bored unless I have a really good reason'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Multiple tournament directors managing NYC leagues: Greg Pavarelli (NYC Match Play/Scrapple League), Kate Martin (SSPL), Sam Hall (Thursday Night Strikes), Jess Warren (April Rob Wong Invitational), Tommy Ortega (Silver Ball Sunday)

    high · Named tournament directors in results sections throughout episode

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinball NYC league showing healthy competitive balance with multiple teams at 6-1 record competing for byes and seeding. Some concern about travel burden with teams visiting same venues repeatedly; interest in rotating locations.

    medium · Benjamin expressing concern about We Colliders hosting same opponents repeatedly and preference for venue rotation

    • 7:01
    Your NYC FSA Lion Persons and Mutants are all 6-1. nyc fsa 74 points lion person 72 points the mutants 69 points parliament special when lit and pinball union would round out the orbit playoffs if we started them today which obviously we don't there's still some pinball to play parliament is five and two special when lit is five and two parliament 66 points special one lit 57 pinball union also has 57 points but they've got one more loss at four and three the in-lane playoff picture looks like balls of steel at three and four with 64 points that's a lot of points for only three wins the pin pals at three and four intermission Dolores, Aristocrats, all at three and four. Pin Pals, 59. Intermission Dolores, 57. Aristocrats, 52. The Deluxe Horses and the Two for Oners both have two wins. The Deluxe Horses have 50 points, and the Two for Oners have 41. The Lesser Players have a win and 42 points, and we Colliders are a Lowly 0-7 with only 24 points. On Tuesday, April 8th, the replays went to Birdies to face the Pin Babes. One team would pick up their first win, and it was the home team, 10-6. Pinister 6 had a bye week and got nine points, but not a win.
    8:38
    Harlem Globe Flippers went to Jack Bar, where they bested the Schlubs, 10-6. Danger Danger visited Scrapple's squad at Scrapple Land, and Danger Danger picked up a 10-6 win on the road. No Quarters for Laundry came to Buttermilk Bar to face off against the Butterballers, my Tuesday night team. The evening started off feeling pretty dire. At the midway point, it was 7-1 in favor of No Quarters. but then amazingly in the second half the butterballers brought it back to eight to eight and we had a split flipper tie break on maiden that was oh really fun aj and i were playing for the butterballers and no quarters had greg and jeff we hit i i was on on the right flipper and plunging on ball two, I plunged the super skill shot on the left out lane for 20 points, faultless lead. And then on ball three, Jeff plunged for no quarters to the left out lane for another 20 points. And they finished up just about a million points ahead of us. And I missed the skill set on the third ball, but just a couple of trips to the pop bumpers was enough to pass us by and get the butter ballers. The eight, eight win at home. Nice. Also, dear listener, remember what Eric just said about Iron Maiden on Monday night. I think we might hear something about Iron Maiden on Thursday night too. At the halftime, our captain Courtney was looking at the score sheet. She's like, okay, it's seven to one. We're not, you know, completely unmated. We could bring it back. When we did, it was a happy birthday present for her. She had her birthday at midnight that night and a couple of cakes. I hope that Ghostbusters turned on Midnight Madness right then and she got to play the game when it was happening. Although I don't imagine that the clock was pushed forward for daylight savings time or for that matter that Max ever actually set the clock on the thing appropriately. The Trolls hosted the Baldrainers at Bar Great Harry and the Baldrainers picked up the away win 9-7.
    10:57
    Neptune's Treasure visited Barcade Brooklyn and picked up an 8-8 tiebreak win on the road if the playoffs started today in the right flipper the right orbit would contain no quarters for laundry ball drainers and neptune's treasure all of whom are six and one i just want to point out again i said this last week when no quarters was and oh and had a lot of points they have 85 points that's 22 more than the ball drainers who are six and one and who have 63 and then neptune's Treasure has 62 at 6-1. No Quarters for Laundry is almost certainly in these playoffs and very probably has a bye in the first week. Danger Danger and Harlem Globe Flippers and Pinister Six are all 5-2. Danger Danger has 75 points. Harlem Globe Flippers 65, Pinister Six 55. That's interesting the way that works out. schlubs interestingly also are in seventh and they're just below the cut line they'd be in the in-lane playoffs but they have 58 points so that's kind of interesting that yeah they're a win behind but they they could make a big move with those points same thing scrapple squad has more points than pinister six at 57 but they're four and three butterballers are four and three also with 52 looking pretty good in the nine seed overall when 12 go it's also true in this division because there are 13 teams that only one will not make the playoffs but butterballers are looking good to make at least the in lane trolls are two and five with 39 points rest in pinball rip is one and six with 48 and the pin babes are one and six with 27 after picking up their first win over the replays who are out of the playoff picture right now at 0-7 with 45 points. On Wednesday, April 9th, the third meeting of the NYC Match Play Pinball League was held at Scrapple Land under the direction of Greg Pavarelli. 28 players came out for five rounds of match play with the goal of gaining points toward their series total and the A finals or B finals or C finals that will be held on the seventh week. Are C finals for Whoppers? A and B finals have Whoppers attached. Are C finals for fun or Whoppers? For fun and prizes. Awesome. The winner of C will get free entry to the next season of League and the loser of C will get free entry to the next season of league and the loser of C will get so they can practice That's great. Dante Oliva got the most points on the night with 33. Dan Merrill had 27. DJM. Wow. Yeah, big night for Dan. Sean Grant, Kate Smith, and Alex Kelly all garnered 25 points. It also seems like the top four in the money were everybody but Dan in that list, right? Yeah, that's right. Eleven players joined the optional side pot with a match from Scrapplelands that made the total pot $110, distributed to, as you mentioned, Dante, Sean, Kate, and Alex. with three weeks in nothing's completely set yet and lots of time for people to get more points but four weeks count right four total weeks count four of the six count yeah and three have gone by so three more if the finals were held now the top eight are looking with Dante Oliva up at 85 points and Sean Grant, Alan Gamboa, Greg Pavarelli, Zach Till, Chris Caffaro, Kate Smith, and Peter Larson down at 65 points. That's Zach, Chris, Kate, and Peter all at 65.
    15:09
    And then there'd be a cut line in the B division, eight more players. Sam Atlas, Dan Merrill, and Ian Leone have 63 points. Myself and Wyndham have 59. Casey Johnson has 57. Rob Bruno, 55. Woody Richmond, 53, just below the line at the top of the C is Nint at 51, but lots more points to be gathered here. Lots more points to be gathered and a couple of folks whose names don't appear here because they didn't show up for three meetings. Alex Kelly, Alberto Santana, and Rob Wong are the names that stuck out to me. Thursday, April 10th at Jack Bar at eight o'clock sharp. No Bro Presents Thursday Night Strikes was met. Sam Hall directed the night, I presume, because it says Strikes by Sam on Match Play. I don't know who the other Sam would be, so I'm going to say it's Sam Hall. Send me hate mail if I'm wrong. nycpinpot.gmail.com It was Sam, but she was bartending right up until 8 p.m., so had Al Claw help out with registration, I believe. Very good. Very good. And I imagine that they started at 8 p.m. sharp because they're they are their whip crackers like that. I also believe this is not my imagination. This is what I believe. I believe that for the second week in a row, I'm going to say that Greg Fertel won the night with two strikes to his name after 11 rounds. Ian Leone came in second. Oh, that's Anthony Leone. My goodness. Ian's brother. OK, I haven't met this person. I just read the last name and assumed what the first name was. that is how I'm the opposite of Ron Burgundy. I don't even read what you put in front of me. Anthony's been coming to strikes more recently now, but for a little bit. Zach Till came in third. And, oh, I would have caught myself now. Ian Leone and Matt Gross tied for fourth. Also on Thursday, the second meeting of the South Slope Pinball League was held at Buttermilk under the direction of Kate Martin. we had 15 players in the end we played five rounds of match play with the goal of garnering points to our series score for a finals on the seventh week it's an interesting result isn't it yeah at at the top of that list benjamin furiga got 27 points and also also eric swedland got 27 points. Steven Christopher got 25 and both Kate Martin and Zen Zokniak got 23. You played a great game of Godzilla I think in, was that round four? I think that was round five. Wasn't it? I thought you beat me in round five on something else. Oh, you're right. We had moved on to Maiden for five. Yeah, you beat me on Maiden in five. With, again, dear listener, I could see the future. I got two of them, I think, that game. I think that's true. yeah but you're right in round four i was playing godzilla and i set up a personal best on godzilla almost 800 million yeah really nice game really nice game i put my initials in metallica in i think it was also round four it was a fun night i don't know if i will play four meetings of it or not but it was a really fun night i mentioned that it was 15 players by the end because in addition to Benjamin who joined for the first week here in the third meeting there are also a couple players dropped in after what two rounds had already gone by that's right and you know that's got us thinking about showing up late or leaving early and that kind of thing and you know maybe we'll talk about that soon yeah might be a ball three segment next week and in fact let me start with right now, right when this episode is released. And in fact, it started about an hour before this episode was released. A high score tournament at Barcade Jersey City has begun.
    19:15
    Finals will be held on Sunday, April 20th, which is either the very last or the next to last night that this location of Barcade in Jersey City will be open. On Monday, April 14th, Special Wendlet will visit Parliament at Owl Farm. Hoot, hoot. Just up Fifth Avenue, Intermission Dolores will host Balls of Steel at the Monroe. Hoot, hoot.
    19:43
    Just up Fifth Avenue, the Aristocrats will host the Mutants at Rulos in, you know, Williamsburg. The lesser players will visit the D Lux Horses at Barcade Brooklyn. The Pin Pals will go to upstate Manhattan to visit New York City Flipper Sport Association. The two for oners will visit us colliders at Buttermilk Bar. I feel like they've come to us for like the last three seasons and I want to be sensitive. I always feel like I get cheated when I have to go to the same place season after season. And I, you know, if it's if it's been a few like I feel for them, but we'll be very happy to see them. Pinball Union will visit the Lion Persons at Gebhard's Beer Culture on Tuesday, April 15th.
    20:37
    Your Butterballers will go to Scrapple Land to visit Scrapple's Squad. No Quarters for Laundry will have a buy. They won't need their quarters for anything this week. The Schlubs will visit Danger Danger at Buttermilk Bar while you're visiting Scrapple Land. I hope you don't get jealous about what's happening at your home bar. The Replays will host Pinister Six at Rulos. Rest in Pinball, R.I.P., will visit Bar Great Harry's Trolls. The Ball Drainers will host the Harlem Globe Flippers at Jack Bar. And the Pim Babes will go just a little bit farther north in Brooklyn to visit Neptune's treasure at Milo's Yard. Which is actually in Queens.
    21:24
    Right? In Ridgewood? It's Ridgewood. Yeah. Oh, yeah, you're right. Yes, yes. Ridgewood is in Queens on Wednesday, April 16th. the nyc match play league soon to be renamed scrapple league will begin at pinball eight o'clock at scrapple land in greenpoint on thursday april 17th i'm pretty sure that the no bro presents strikes will be split flipper since it's the third thursday of the month they begin at 8 p.m sharp and that's at jack bar the second sspl south slope pinball league of 2025 will have its third meeting at pinball eight o'clock on sunday april 20th just to reiterate the jc flippers farewell barcade bash will begin at 8 30 p.m or will have its finals rather at 8 30 p.m so you can if i'm understanding this correctly and you i think know more about this eric than i do but if i'm understanding correctly it's effectively a selfie league tournament the whole week is that right if If you go there anytime that Barcade is open and you say, I got this score and I presume you take a photo of it and enter it into Match Play. The Match Play for the tournament, you can go and register yourself. And, you know, in the description, it says just put up your best game on every machine in the place. Submit them through this. Fun finals on Sunday night. As of April 11th, 2025, there are 301 pinball machines in New York City at 83 public locations. Thanks to the creators and users of Pinball Map for this data, here are machine updates from the past week. On Friday, April 4th, user SpugLife was at Key Bar in Brooklyn and said of the Twilight Zone, This works well. Display is updated and smoothed out, but it plays like a dream. And user SuperCoven37 noticed on the NBA Fast Break at Buttermilk Bar, around the world shot number three eject doesn't fire or pass. Have to wait for ball search for it to eject ball. User JNS played the demolition man at the gutter bar LIC and said, played so great. Auto-plunged on new balls sometimes and fired balls short sometimes. But seriously, small potatoes, this thing is a gem.
    23:58
    And user MHG went to check out the new lineup at Franklin Park in Brooklyn, left a variety of comments. Of the Game of Thrones, they said, super clean, plays great. Agreed. And of Ghostbusters shoots great, but lower half of the playfield is super dark. Hard to see what's going on. If it doesn't say ancient code, it's missing a note.
    24:27
    And left the same comment for both Godzilla and Jaws. They said, brand new or close to it plays great. so benjamin you mentioned to me that you have also been by franklin park recently when after you heard about this new lineup that they added last week so on friday we recorded the podcast and i think i allowed my uh incredulous reaction to the idea that four games were added into the update segment. And I went on Saturday and played a couple of games. I'm going to get out of the house sometime today. I may as well go up there and get a burger. Again, good burgers. I hope my doctor isn't listening to this because I did that again today, which is to say that twice in, I mean, you know, not in a calendar week, but twice within seven days, I have gone there to have a burger and play some pinball. I should probably cut back on the burger part of that, but it's very close to home. A diligent listener to the updates segment might have noticed that Max's Game of Thrones and Max's Jaws have been removed from Buttermilk somewhat recently. I don't know where the Ghostbusters came from. I don't know where the Godzilla came from. Maybe those are new or newer or new to him. I am fairly certain that these are those games. You don't get an extra ball for a high score. You don't get a free game for a high score. You put in your $1 and you play your game. They're not new, but they were cleaned up before they were put there. On Sunday, April 6th, user Nudgy went by Barcade St. Mark's. they noted that the Ghostbusters had been removed but a Black Knight Sword of Rage Premium had been added they also played the Jaws and said right flipper floppy or weak and misaligned with left otherwise working and the Funhouse is on and plays well. Also on Sunday an Evil Dead from Spooky Pinball was added to Scrappleland On Monday, a Pulp Fiction LE was added to Scrapple Land. User Dan Tastic said, Bad Mother Flipper with Topper. On Tuesday, a Godzilla LE was removed from Scrapple Land, but there's still the black and white one, the 50th? 70th, maybe, anniversary? 70th? I think it's 70th anniversary. Yeah, a Metallica remastered was added to Scrapple land user unit off said Arrived brand new with Scrapple the dog Just now also on Tuesday the World Cup soccer was removed from area 141st in Manhattan on Wednesday April 9th A Star Wars comic art was removed from Come On Everybody in Clinton Hill Brooklyn by S Penza That location now does not have any pins. also on Wednesday user Gushfest was at Sunshine Laundromat and let us know that the F14 has display and upper flipper issues also Wednesday user JNS was at Scrappleland and left a few comments they said of the Addams Family Gold all issues addressed this game is shiny they said of the Evil Dead that had just shown up fun and funny super sturdy i don't think i got a single danger warning and of the indiana jones the pinball adventure they said played perfect i want it in my home on thursday april 10th a pulp fiction was taken out of sunshine laundromat a james bond 007 le was added to scrapple land user jns was at Burger and Shake Company in Hamilton Heights, Manhattan. And let us know that the NASCAR there, the left flipper locks up. Bill acceptor, not bill accepting. Also on Thursday, user Upstate Pinball let us know that the left pop bumper is fixed on the Pulp Fiction at Rolos. And that the scared stiff at Young Ethel's has had a left flipper rebuild. rebuild, playfield cleaned and waxed, and new balls. Not yet reflected on Pinball Map, but I caught from Barcade on Blue Sky that Barcade Chelsea has just had a Pulp Fiction added to it. From the photo on the post, it looks like it's sitting in the spot where Looney Tunes was. Yeah, I would agree with that. So I'm guessing that might have been removed. Maybe we'll see on the map next week. We'd like to welcome Miriam Nadler, the IFPA Women's North American Pinball Champion. Hi, my name is Miriam Nadler. My pinball initials are M-I-R, and I am a pinball player. Miriam, you won the IFPA Women's North American Championship. Congratulations. Thank you. Tell us about it. It was a real blast. I'm still very pleasantly surprised that I won. It didn't feel like something where I came in expecting to win, but I did and I'm thrilled about it. It's really awesome. There were 54 women at the event representing, I think, 48 states and six provinces from Canada. That sounds right, yeah. So you started in the first round with no buys and you went all the way through. That was six different matches and each match was essentially a best of seven head to head. you for for the first five matches you went four and one in each of them all the way through until the final match at four and two right a dominating day i got to see you play in the semi-finals and the finals was streamed on backhand pinball thanks to mark pattenode in the semi-finals you were playing jane verweiss the illinois representative from chicago right and a member of the hot nudge stream jane is really good oh yeah she's she's the dominant she's ranked number one in women's right now she has been a strong player for a long time what was it like going up against jane it was intimidating just knowing that she's she's such a strong player she's definitely like nice about it she's cool about it she doesn't have like an attitude about it but just knowing that going into a head-to-head with her that like knowing that you're probably not going to come out of it yeah no i've i've played against jane a few times traveling around and i do find her to be an intimidating opponent she's always so cool and collected totally but you beat her four to one is that right yeah me and jane went four to one do you remember those four games what what your four winners were on it yeah from memory and not because i'm looking at the bracket on match play. This is straight from the dome. I believe that game one is Paragon in that round. It's important to note for the format of this tournament that it works in the same way as the state and provincial and I suppose district finals do, where it's best of seven, but you alternate picks of games from three different eras, and then the top seed will get to pick which of you goes first, as far as picking one of your three games to play. So all of the games are going to be like one player's choice and the others then back and forth. And I played Paragon against Jane. That was the pick that was the most consistent for me throughout the day. Okay. I think I played it every round. Always your old game. Yeah. It's old, mid-modern were the three sort of divisions, I think, of eras, right? Right. And just double checking, but I did play Paragon every single round in that tournament. God bless that Paragon. it was one of the nicer ones that i've played the other paragon that i played the most was kate martin's paragon and the one that they had at the venue which was a great venue by the way in portsmouth new hampshire but this paragon you could just like get really clean shots on the inline stand-ups on the left that increase your bonus x and that opened up a saucer for i think it's like 50,000 points just for getting into that saucer. I think in all the years that I played Paragon before this tournament, I've known that that's the strategy and rarely actually been able to like get even the last drop down before you get like a weird kind of usually like a shake out that goes down one of the out lanes or at the center. Yeah, particularly with that weird pop bumper in that left out lane. Yeah, it's hell over there. But on this one, I was just able to make that shot. And I think it was at the return from the stand ups was a little bit safer and a little bit kinder. Were you grabbing a bounce pass off it over to the left every time or were you like one time and it back up there? I was one time and get back up there a lot from the tip of the right flipper. I'm trying to remember how exactly it went. That's cool though. That's cool. When you know you can do that and you flow on it like that, that's cool. I do recall watching you on the stream. You were not trapping up much. You were very much flowing and grabbing and going the whole time yeah that's generally my play style and i know that there's a lot of different kinds of ways to play pinball for me i think about a second into being trapped up i just get kind of bored unless i have a really good reason to be trapping up like if i know that i need to make this one shot to save myself in a strikes tournament kind of situation or it's like the shot to win the entire thing maybe time and out of mode for that matter right i mean like that's a great strategy that I rarely actually do, unless I have something amazing lit, you know? The one other thing about Paragon I want to mention that was really fun, and if anybody saw the footage or goes back to look at it, I think four times in one game, and then a few in the next one, and this was all on stream, which I'm very... This is the one thing out of the entire tournament that I'm like, thank God that that was streamed, this game was streamed. I can be like, no, it really happened. Look. Whenever it came out of that snake on the right of Paragon, that little, like, swirly kind of snake shot. The waterfall. Yeah. Is it a waterfall? I think it's called a waterfall. I think that's the name of the show. On the play field, it says that. I don't know why I call it a snake. Maybe there's a similar shot in a different game. It looks more like a snake than a waterfall. What would it look like if it came down wavy? Yeah, it is a snake-shaped shot. The feet on it, it was always, almost always, 95% of the time, landing on the very tip of the left flipper. You had to do this kind of really wild, really precisely timed left flip, right flip with a millisecond in between. And don't scissor out the right side, by the way, if it's coming to the left flipper and you've got to do that double tap save. You've got danger for scissoring out between those two right flippers, too. It sounds like you were doing some real work. Doing that same ridiculous save several times in the same game felt incredible. That's awesome. Did you keep the same set of games as you went through your picks for each round for your old, mid, and new? Or did you mix them up? The games that I played overall throughout the entire day, or that I picked rather, were World Cup Soccer, Paragon, Shadow, Tron, maybe just those. So two mids and you're modern and you're old were the same all the time. Yeah. Your Tron's always your new and you had World Cup Soccer and Shadow as your mids back and forth sometimes. Yeah. There's that kind of delicious, like real life meme of putting Powerballs into a Tron and just having whoops, all Powerballs. Tron, which is a delight. It's so fun. It's so snappy. It's so fast. Yeah, but it makes it feel like you're taking off the ankle weights before sprinting or something when you play a Tron that just has normal pinballs in it. I was doing pretty good in that Tron, but not incredible. It did not have power balls, is that right? It did not, no, tragically. I was swapping between the Shadow and World Cup Soccer as the mid, depending, I think, on how I felt. That Shadow ended up having a really beautiful thing about the way that it was set up which is when you have some momentum going through the left loop to the upper right flipper there's always this idea that like hey maybe if you hold the flipper up that it will go into that little side saucer which is like a mode start sometimes or a multi-ball start other times so you really want to be able to get it in there easily on most shadows i played that's a like once in every eight attempts sort of thing and maybe if you super dial in a tiny like the perfect amount of nudge or something that will get it in there This one was just like, you almost couldn't not do it if you went for it. It was more like seven out of eight attempts worked great. That really opened up the game. So yeah, playing con multiball all day. Yeah, absolutely. And even just starting modes first, because that's a mode start shot, which I never go for as a mode start shot on a shadow where you can't do that trick. Yeah. Because it's just a little bit too risky. I was just watching your match with Jane. If anyone wants to see it, it's on the Backhand Pinball YouTube channel. has archived all this stuff so you can pull it up. You played Shadow against Jane. It was your third game. You stood up, you shot the skill shot. The selection was on light con. And then one-timed the left orbit, held up the flipper, went in the con hole, started con multiple. Then you played a little bit of con multiple and had a quick triple drain, but boom, you had 100 million points. And that's the ideal, beautiful combination, including the really classy triple drain. It is really what you're looking for in that kind of context. You know?
    38:34
    easy come easy go i think one thing that actually might have made a difference for me was that i whenever i'm playing somebody in a competitive setting where i don't know the game super well or even like this specific machine i'll just kind of watch what's happening and i'll just let my eyes absorb how the shots are working and hope that like in some background process in my brain i'm internalizing like how the angles are going to be when i'm up at the game and i've noticed that some of my competitors, including people who are generally much better than me, just don't do this. I can think of a hundred different great reasons why they wouldn't be, but I do wonder if anybody didn't know that that trick was working on that shadow and if they had been watching and seen me do it, then they would have also gone for it. I was seeing people instead going for a lot of the mini playfield completions, which is, of course, one of the best mini playfields in all pinball, I think.
    39:30
    It is really great, yeah. With the paddle? I don't love it I think it's really cool and that's I think it's a valid strategic approach if you want to just go for that there's points up there and the ball can't drain directly from there that is true it's just that every other shot to that saucer it's going to be gated I've lost plenty of ball from a center drain from that or right out lane from that definitely depends on that drop target return for sure were you able to watched the stream while you were there? Yeah, there was a big TV setup, both outside and inside of that. So the setup of the space was actually... Tell us all about the venue. So it was at Port City Pinball in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It was a fantastic venue. There was just a lot of really great game setup, but also the way that they ran the space for the tournament was some of the best that I've seen. It's a very classic pinball, collective-style space, where it's kind of just a room in an industrial building somewhere, or like an office building. They were very nice. The games played great. They had some Texan from out of town who were very good and very fast. Cool. They came in handy when the shadow, there was some concern about if the shadow was on fire. Oh. This was on stream also.
    40:52
    I was getting some texts that were like, hey, what's up with the shadow? Is it while you were playing it also? Yeah. Wow. I was up next, I think, and I was like rearing and ready to go. And then somebody was like, hey, hold up. It smells weird. Does that smell like smoke to anybody? The tech came over and I was like all like, hey, I just want to, I'm ready. Let's go. Let's do this. But I had to wait while the guy investigated and made sure that it was not in fact on fire which is the best possible reason for a delay To figure out what was going on Safety. Your personal safety, in fact. Because you're the person standing at that machine right then. You would have been the most vulnerable person if that thing were on fire. Yeah, of course. I think I totally agree with that at any point in time, starting five minutes after that game. but at the moment I think my mindset was more like if I catch on fire it doesn't matter I'm playing pinball right I'm here to try to like I'm in competition mode I'm locked in how late was this in the in the process this was I think this was maybe around 6 or 7 p.m maybe maybe later like in in semifinals quarterfinals finals I think I was playing against Jane when that happened gotcha so that would have been semifinals right do you mind if I ask what your favorite game was that someone else picked? I think I know what your favorite games were that you played based on the fact that you picked those four games, but do you mind if I ask that question? Like, what did you have the most fun playing that someone else picked is probably the way I am interested in that. You know what, Sea Witch, which I believe several people picked, it played great and it feels very classic for Women's Pinball Tournament to involve Sea Witch. It feels to me like that game is the patron saint of women's pinball in some sort of hard to describe way well then you faced off against kaylee campbell from north carolina that's right in the finals yeah that one went four to two is your toughest matchup of the day how was that first off kaylee was a delight to compete with very lovely person it was great just getting to talk to her over the weekend she was playing incredibly that whole weekend too she Oh, yeah. You know, wound up coming in second in the North American Championship and then wound up coming in second in the Women's World Championship. Yeah, I haven't done the exact math. I think she might have actually been the weekend's winner as far as just Whopper value goes. Oh, yeah. And I wouldn't be surprised if she were. Because there is, I mean, obviously there is a big premium on getting first, but not that much of a deficit for getting second. If you get second in two big events like that. Yeah. so she got 60 for the championship and then 125 for second place in the women's wow yeah which really makes me wish i had done better at the world but you know can't have it all right right well i you know i guess you you could have had the world though such as it were i could have playing kaylee was great right i think i was in disbelief starting from the round of 16. If you just look at the seeds, my first round against Katie Pierce in the Women's North American Championships, she was seed 53, I was seed 12. And I won and just based on the seed alone, I accepted to win. Or not expected to, but... That's the chalk. Yeah, it was within my own personal expectation. How I thought the story of the day would go was that I thought that I would beat Katie Pierce in round one, and that I would beat Cynthia Whitefield in round two. Who was the 21st seed, yeah. But then Louise Wagonsonner. Now that's a name. Yeah. Right from then on out, you're playing like names. Yeah, absolutely. And Louise Wagonsonner representing California. So having the like California, New York kind of fight was pretty fun. I had friends who were texting me like, let's go to New York specifically. I thought that this is where the day would end for me was going up against Louise because she knocked me out at Women's Worlds last year in Fort Wayne, Indiana. And it's kind of just a mental thing of like, if this person eliminated me from big competition, I expect that they will always beat me. I ended up winning that round and it just got harder from there. It feels to me like I got two results that I kind of expected and then managed to somehow win four more rounds after that. That's awesome. Yeah. You were playing so well. Well, I was, but here's the thing. This is what I think is like a really interesting thing about me winning this and the way that I won this tournament, I didn't have that many scores. You can look at the scores on match play and go through the bracket and see exactly what the scores were that were entered. Keeping in mind that if somebody won on ball three, player two, then they would probably just stop playing. I think in fact, I would always stop playing. Sure. But I didn't have that many scores that were very good the entire day. By which I mean, if you look at the finals for Women's Worlds, just two days later, when Carrie managed to do an amazing magical reverse sweep to win the whole thing which is insane being down 3-0 and then winning 4-3 is nuts yeah um it was really amazing to watch yeah yeah part of that was a deadpool game where carrie was behind i think at like 300 400 million or something trying to get to beat around a billion points on deadpool i think she's starting at 150 if i remember crazy yeah and then did that yeah beat her in one ball i think one ball and that's the kind of score that by and large like i wasn't putting up it's not that i was crushing people all day it's just that i didn't have that many bad games right sure to be fair by the end of the finals of the women's world championship those players had had many many more games on those particular copies yeah lots of reps compared to early on in the north american championship on friday i said to jane when we were playing that like i was fairly confident that she was gonna be picking deadpool because she'd been putting up ridiculous scores on it oh yeah she had good deadpools yeah oh and in her quarterfinals she put up 1.1 billion on deadpool which is a ridiculous score in particular when it's set up for a tournament which i imagine you know that these games were not all that friendly no way that they played right a lot of the moderns had ball saves turned off entirely let me tell you playing a game like Iron Maiden with no ball save is both a treat and a punishment but I really do think that like I'm not trying to discount the level of skill that my competitors have by trying to say that like I'm bad at pinball I guess everybody was just playing terrible I'm not trying to discount myself or them by saying something like that but this is why my reaction to wedding is like surprise and why in the moment I was just like shocked because it really felt like a day where I had been playing consistently good and I was winning on scores like 30 million on Tron or 500 on Jado which are solid scores yeah super okay scores super okay like you go go put that up at a competition that's like you did your job you you got beat if you if you get beat you got beat yeah and if you get beat in that way then it's like well okay at least I like I put up a good score yeah and there were very few times throughout the day where i was putting up scores where i could picture the my competitor walking up and being like how am i possibly going to get to that they were all achievable scores to be well on the achievable and coulda you know it's just yeah just about consistency i guess yeah on the topic of realizing it you made a great post to your Instagram of a screen cap that I believe you said was captured by Steen. Yeah. Where you're signing the score sheet after the final game of Viking. And you're just looking up and smiling. And just absolutely cheesing it. Yeah. It's really great. That was, yeah, literally the exact moment that it hit me. And I was honestly like standing there doing the mental math and trying to remember exactly how many, I was like, I couldn't possibly have just one. So like, where did I mess up? I'm checking my thought process and trying to find the flaw that surely must be there. Like actually in disbelief. And then Kaylee was like, yeah, good job. And I was like, wait, what? That's awesome. Yeah, it was a blast.
    49:21
    I had a fantastic time that weekend, including the event the night before and the day for me of Just Women's World qualifying the day after. Getting to see everybody at this event who's in this scene was a blast and everybody was playing really good overall so it was delightful and I hope to be representing New York again next year but if I'm not I know for sure that I'll be rooting really hard for whoever is I'm glad these events were streamed by backhand that they get the coverage and were able to watch along because I think some of the hottest pinball action going on is in the women's YFPA championships. It's great stuff. I mean, everybody there is a really great player. What you're talking about, these are all people who won their area's championship already. There is one more thing that I want to say. Oh, please. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I listen to music when I play, and this is sort of deranged, but for the North American, for the Women's North American Championships, I was listening to one song on repeat the entire goddamn day. it is a five minute long song it is called the circle chant by agriculture and i don't even know how many times i listened to it that day but i think there's nothing wrong with me that's all for this week's pod i'd like to thank miriam for joining us and again congratulate her on the massive win, bringing home the IFPA Women's North American Championship and Women's United States Championship to New York City. Join us next week when we'll have local competition results in Ball 1 as usual. In Ball 2, we'll have an update, and I think we might try something new, but we'll see. And in Ball 3, I believe we're going to talk about that thing that Eric teased before, what it looks like to show up late, or leave early, or maybe even give up when you're playing a pinball tournament. Between now and next week, whatever you're up to, go get them.
    51:51
    So Miriam, now that you've won the IFPA Women's North American Championship, can you introduce us to the pinball Illuminati? Um, yeah.
    52:21
    you