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Episode 18 - Great Lakes Pinball Open and Classics

Do or Die Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·52m 52s·analyzed·Apr 29, 2021
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TL;DR

Raymond Davidson details his Great Lakes Open experience, from Pin Skins golf event through Classics and Open tournaments.

Summary

Raymond Davidson recounts his experience at the Great Lakes Pinball Open at District 82, covering both a Friday night Pin Skins pin golf event and a two-part Saturday tournament (Classics and Open). He details his progression from a sluggish start in the Classics tournament to finishing 7th overall while cashing, then competing in the Open tournament (target match play to 30 points) where he had standout performances on games like Tommy and Demolition Man.

Key Claims

  • The Classics tournament at Great Lakes featured 12 rounds with no finals, with top 8 players cashing

    high confidence · Raymond Davidson describing the tournament structure; he finished 7th overall and cashed

  • The Open tournament was target match play format where the first player to reach 30 points with 3-2-1-0 scoring would end the tournament immediately

    high confidence · Raymond Davidson explaining the Open tournament format and scoring system

  • Pin Skins was a 9-hole pin golf event with non-score-based goals (fossils, super jackpots, etc.) where winners of each hole split prize money

    high confidence · Raymond Davidson describing the Friday night Pin Skins event in detail with specific goal examples

  • On Jurassic Park during Pin Skins, achieving a fossil requires either two jackpots in Raptor multiball or lighting the control room via at least one jackpot

    high confidence · Raymond Davidson explaining the Jurassic Park goal strategy and his successful execution

  • On Getaway, the second multiball (redline) provides no ball save even if redlined, making it riskier than starting with regular multiball first

    high confidence · Raymond Davidson describing Colin McAlpine learning this lesson during Pin Skins

  • Raymond avoided tilting throughout both tournaments and notably did not get a single fourth-place finish in either competition

    high confidence · Raymond Davidson explicitly stating this achievement and noting it impressed him more than winning individual games

  • Total Nuclear Annihilation's jackpots are determined by reactor status and can reach significant values when multiplied by locked balls (up to 120k)

    medium confidence · Raymond Davidson describing Total Nuclear Annihilation strategy and jackpot mechanics during the Open tournament

  • On Demolition Man, Raymond prefers starting multiball early via the right ramp rather than saving it late because it starts with an extra ball and preserves bonus multiplier opportunities

Notable Quotes

  • “So it's kind of weird where you might have gotten a five, but you're rooting for someone else to get a two because someone else got the two, and now you're hoping somebody will tie them and give you a chance for redemption on the next game.”

    Raymond Davidson @ early — Describes the unique dynamics of the Pin Skins format and how carryover prize money creates complex incentive structures

  • “I call her the assassin, because she's just like, you're doing good, everything's going okay, and then all of a sudden, boom. Just comes out of nowhere, you don't see her, and your score is now in second place.”

    Raymond Davidson @ mid — Character description of Cassidy, a strong female competitor at District 82; shows respect for her skill

  • “And it'll happen right when somebody's like, ooh, I'm going to pick Frontier because Raymond doesn't like Frontier. And I'm going to blow it up, so watch out.”

    Raymond Davidson @ mid — Humorous acknowledgment of his frustration with Frontier and playful prediction about eventually conquering it

  • “Usually you get screwed somewhere, but I managed to just keep it together enough and scrape by in every game just enough and you know getting those thirds instead of fourths they add up.”

    Raymond Davidson @ mid — Key insight about tournament consistency and how avoiding bad finishes compounds positively

  • “I just, I don't subscribe to the school of, you know, save your freeze multiball for as late as possible. I just, I'd get it out of the way, because I, first of all, I don't want to accidentally start a two-ball multi-ball.”

    Raymond Davidson @ late — Articulates his contrarian strategy philosophy on Demolition Man multiball management

  • “That game, it's super deadly, but also it's actually controllable if you can hit the shots.”

    Raymond Davidson @ late — Assessment of Tommy the Pinball Wizard's balance between difficulty and skill-based play

Entities

Raymond DavidsonpersonLuke NahorniakpersonColin McAlpinepersonTravis MearypersonCassidypersonKeith ElwinpersonJordan SemropersonGreat Lakes Pinball OpeneventDistrict 82venue

Signals

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Great Lakes Open featured multiple tournament formats (Pin Skins pin golf, Classics card tournament with no finals, Open target match play) within single event

    high · Raymond describes three distinct tournament formats on same day at same venue

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Raymond avoided fourth-place finishes in both tournaments despite sluggish start, emphasizing consistency over peak performance

    high · Raymond explicitly stated he had no fourth-place finishes in either tournament and described this as more impressive than winning individual games

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Raymond articulated contrarian strategies on multiple games (Demolition Man early multiball, Total Nuclear Annihilation jackpot focus, Mousin' Around auto-trap technique)

    high · Multiple detailed strategy explanations showing depth of game knowledge and willingness to diverge from conventional wisdom

  • ?

    community_signal: Cassidy identified as highly skilled competitive player at District 82, earning nickname 'the assassin' and multiple tournament victories

    high · Raymond's detailed descriptions of Cassidy's performances and competitive threat level across multiple games

  • ?

    venue_signal: District 82 demonstrated ability to host complex multi-format tournaments with high-quality machine maintenance and sufficient game selection

    high · Successful execution of 9-hole Pin Skins, 12-round Classics, and extended Open tournament on same day with alternating modern/classic games

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.159

0:00
Welcome to Do or Die, a podcast about competitive pinball. I'm your host, Raymond Davidson, here to help you stay up to date on the latest strategies, tournaments, and happenings in the competitive pinball world, while also sharing direct stories of me as I go forth on my pinball tournament adventures.
0:30
Hello, welcome, welcome back to another Do or Die episode. There was a tournament a couple weekends ago, and it was actually a multi-tournament tournament, So there was a Classics and an Open, with the Open featuring both a mixture of Classics and Modern games. And this was the Great Lakes Pinball Open up at District 82.
1:13
So the Great Lakes Pinball Open took place all day Saturday, and it featured a Classics tournament and a Modern slash Classics tournament. The Classics tournament was just a bunch of rounds, and then wherever you ended up, that's where you ended up. And the Open tournament was target match play, so you had to get to 30 points as quick as possible. Whoever did that in the fewest amount of rounds, then the tournament ends, and the standings finish as soon as one person gets to at least 30 points. but before we get to that i got to participate in a friday night special event called the pin skins pin golf event and this pin skins event uh basically just me and three other uh people it was uh luke nahorniak from minnesota minnesota uh colin mcalpine from austin texas and Travis Meary from Oklahoma.
2:18
Wait, well, that's the state. I don't know what city he's in. But that's who I got to play against, some pretty heavy hitters Friday night. And basically we just played nine holes of pin golf, but the goals, you know, you might be used to some more, like, oh, I just need to get a certain score. Well, these goals were not score-based, and they were not simple objectives. They were deep. You had to get a super jackpot on Getaway, which ironically nobody did, even though it's not that hard to do. But I guess when you're in a pressure situation, none of us could do it. You had to get a fossil in Jurassic Park. You had to max out the U-turn collect on Barakora.

high confidence · Raymond Davidson explaining his Demolition Man strategy philosophy during the Open tournament

Pin Skinsevent
Do or Die Podcastorganization
Total Nuclear Annihilationgame
Mousin' Aroundgame
Demolition Mangame
Tommygame
Flight 2000game
Getawaygame
Jurassic Parkgame
Barakoragame
8-Ball Champgame
Spanish Eyesgame
Mysticgame
Frontiergame
Palookagame
Cyclonegame
  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Raymond noted specific machine conditions affecting play (Getaway second multiball mechanics, Jurassic Park raptor pin ease on premium, mousetrap wider flippers on cheese version)

    high · Multiple references to specific machine variants and their gameplay implications

  • ?

    competitive_signal: On Tommy during Open, Raymond achieved exceptional score (~$700M) through consistent shot-hitting and mode play rather than super jackpot strategy

    high · Raymond's detailed Tommy game walkthrough showing mode-based accumulation rather than relying on single big-score mechanic

  • ?

    event_signal: Great Lakes Open used payout system (top 8 cash) that gave tournament relevance beyond single-game wins, encouraging continued play

    high · Raymond finished 7th and cashed ($40), noting this structure kept him motivated despite poor early start

    • 3:04
    I should have written down all the goals, but I'll see if I can try to remember how it went down. But the format was you basically try to see how many balls it takes you to get the goal. And whoever gets the goal in the least amount of balls wins that hole. And the hole, you know, everyone pitches in some money at the beginning of the hole. And whoever wins it gets the money back. But if two people tie for the first, you know, they both get, like, hole in ones or they both get hole in twos, then all the money in that pot transfers to the next hole and so on and so on. so you can have a hole that's built up over a couple holes that starts becoming pretty valuable. So it's kind of weird where you might have gotten a five, but you're rooting for someone else to get a two because someone else got the two, and now you're hoping somebody will tie them and give you a chance for redemption on the next game. So it was a pretty cool format. I really, really liked it. And it's basically just for money, for putting on that extra pressure, try to get some dollars, try not to lose your shirt. and it was pretty fun I started like I said with Getaway, that was you had to get a super jackpot and we all came close, we all started multiball I think we all might have started well, we all started at least one multiball a couple people started a second multiball Colin unfortunately had to learn the hard way that your second multiball, even if it's redline has no ball save so that's why in tournaments often times you'll see people ignore regular multiball and go straight for redline because that way you get a ball save during your redline otherwise if you play regular multiball before redline and no ball save so he got to learn that the hard way um and none of us could do it we just couldn't seal the deal on the super jackpot so all that money transferred to the next game which i believe was jurassic park and i was kind of like a little upset after that getaway game i was like man there's so many opportunities. And so I just like honed in on Jurassic Park. And the goal was to get a fossil. And so basically my plan was shoot the raptor pin. It was a premium. So raptor was slightly easier to start. At least I feel like it is on a premium. So shoot the raptor pin, play raptor multiball. If you manage to get a jackpot in raptor multiball, spell chaos, and then get another jackpot, that's an instant fossil. But as long as you got at least one shot in raptor multiball, it'll light your control room. So that's like the backup plan.
    5:35
    Luckily, I was able to start Raptor, hit some jackpots. I spelled chaos except for that pesky O shot, and I spent a good, like, six or seven shots just trying to hit that O shot, you know, with the two balls trapped, one on the right, one on the left, and then staging the upper flipper and then having to sneak it by there. Not easy. But I finally did it, and, oh, it felt so good. So managed to get the hole-in-one on that with my fossil from Raptor Multiball. I think Luke was the one maybe closest, or maybe some other people, maybe Travis or Colin did too, where they went to the backup plan and started a control room mode, but then instantly sling-grained or something and couldn't finish the mode. So that one worked out for me. I'm trying to remember. I just don't remember all the games. I know there was Barakora, where you had to hit the side targets right in the middle of the game, and you had to line those up.
    6:36
    The trick with that one is you wanted to make sure that they were always at the same level, because if they're not at the same level and you accidentally hit the horseshoe, they both reset. But if they are at the same level and you hit the horseshoe, they stay at the same level. And they carry ball to ball. So that challenge was pretty straightforward. You saw some players opting to just shoot it in single ball play, and some players opting to go for multi-ball for the safety. I kind of did a little of both, a little of this, a little of that.
    7:00
    And I managed to do it, I think, on, like, ball four or five. So just barely got it done before anyone else could.
    7:09
    Trying to think of some other goals. I know there was Memory Lane, which you had to get, like, seven strikes, which you either had to shoot drop targets when they were lit, and if they weren't lit, you had to shoot a slingshot to light them. or you had to roll over these bowling pins in the middle of the play field.
    7:29
    That was one that I did not get. Travis Murie got that one. Then there was, I mean, the final game was just Flight 2000 score-based, which I just shot the right spinner a few times and it somehow held up.
    7:47
    Yeah, it was a fun time. I wish I could remember the goals more clearly. Okay, I looked them up. I was missing Alien Poker. So that one, there was some confusion on whether you needed to hit all the drops in order, or if you just needed to get the multiplier up to 4x and then complete the drop targets at some point. Colin ended up doing it with the multiplier and then completing the drops. I lit my multiplier, hit the four drop targets in order, but on the fourth drop target it went straight to the left out lane, as that game's meant to do. So that was a push. I don't think anybody won that one, so that one rolled over.
    8:37
    There was also Iron Man, which you had to get Jericho. So not quite do or die, but you had to start Jericho. And so I just kind of went to town on that one doing, you know, ramps for bogey,
    8:50
    shield in lanes is another mark, and then, you know, start ironmonger. I messed it up, though. I accidentally raised my ironmonger, and I wasn't able to do what you should do, which is you start war machine first, and then during war machine you hit whiplash to start whiplash. so I ended up having to just shoot Whiplash by itself which was kind of scary but managed to pull that one off and then there was Jungle Lord and Iron Maiden that's right, Iron Maiden you had to get to Cyborg I actually, I put up a good effort but my balls one and two of Iron Maiden were just so bad that on ball three I had to do so much and I was climbing, I was almost there so I almost tied that one but I think Travis got the win on that one I just my strategy was like just keep chaining multiballs and I actually played I think I played two mummy multiballs maybe two troopers, probably just one trooper but yeah you just grind it out try to hit ramps and orbits and whatnot jungle lord you had to get bonus x maxed which involved the in lane to horseshoe so just practice that shats maneuver and get it in there. And I think on ball one, like, three of us got almost, like, the second to last one and then drained. But I was the first one to seal the deal on that one, so I was able to take it on Jungle Lord. That challenge was kind of weird because there was no shared progress, so it was just, like, you're starting over each ball. I think pin golf usually works better when there's shared progress, so if you drain right before getting something, at least you can put it into the green, you know. Like in real golf, if you get really close, your next stroke at least you're basically guaranteed.
    10:40
    But that was Pinskins. That was really fun. I wasn't expecting there to be a plaque, but there was. It was this nice wooden plaque that was carved out and said Pinskins on it. So that was really cool. So that was Friday night. We then got to play Classics bright and early Saturday morning starting at 9 a.m. And I don't know if you know this about me, but I'm not particularly a morning person. So it took me a while to wake up. And you'll see that if you graph my performance on the Classics tournament. So I started the day on 8-Ball Champ. And I don't really even know how to play that game. And I was, like, too tired to, like, I don't know, ask somebody how to play. I was just like, whatever. It's probably just like a ballet game. Just, like, shoot the spinners and bonus X. but I was just like not in the zone at all and the couple of flips I had I think I made like a spinner shot and I made like an orbit shot but I forgot on that game on ball one you really should be hitting the balls you know build up your bonus just like eight ball deluxe but I managed to escape with a third on that and then going to round two I'm still kind of waking up and I got to play Spanish eyes which is not really what I was hoping for That's a game you don't want to play when you're sleepy.
    12:05
    But actually, I was able to keep the ball alive. I didn't drain too bad. I was able to get some good ball time. I was able to bounce it around. But I made a critical error of tilting my fourth ball, which then tilted my fifth ball. And ball five, I had made the first four lanes on the top. So ball five, I just had a short plunge to get the fifth lane, and I would have got an extra ball. But instead, I tilted. So that tilt cost me three balls. Or two, I guess, because it was draining anyway.
    12:35
    So I learned my lesson on that, but I managed to squeak out a second on that, just because the balls I did have were decent.
    12:43
    The person that beat me, I think, was able to actually hit the horseshoe. I don't think I hit it at all. I hit the scoop a couple of times, but I could never get it to go around that dang horseshoe.
    12:53
    Spanish-style is kind of a fun game, because if you can hit the horseshoe, just go for that. But if you can hit the horseshoe and you throwing it up top a bunch and you getting stars to build your scoop in the middle then the scoop becomes worth just as much as the horseshoe And if the scoop feed is good it a more reliable way to grind out points on that But otherwise it usually just shoot the horseshoe if you can
    13:20
    And bumpers. Bumpers are pretty big. Just bopping it around top a bunch. Anyway, squeaked out with a second on that. Moving on to round three. Got to play Mystic. And Mystic... I kind of like Mystic, but I also kind of don't like Mystic. Because you can... you get rewarded for sharpshooting for hitting specific targets to get bingos and huge points and then you can multiply them with the captive ball. But you also get rewarded for just random bounces. So if you're not getting those random bounces the game can be pretty hard.
    13:54
    I managed to get third on that by just hitting something. Got like a bingo. I don't know. I didn't do particularly well on it.
    14:05
    But managed should get a third. And that was kind of it. I never got any multipliers or anything. I just shot a couple drop targets. Made sure not to ever tilt. You never ever want to tilt on Mystic because all the points are in bonus.
    14:23
    I mean, you can light the spinners, but they're not really worth that much. Like a thousand a spin, so unless they're really juiced, they're not going to be how you get the points on Mystic.
    14:34
    I'm going to next round I got to play Lost World. Ugh, man. I'll tell you. When I was getting these games pulled, I was like, oh my god, can I play something I actually like? Please?
    14:47
    Ugh, Lost World. It was just mean to me, too. I was able to hit a couple scoops, and that was where all my points came from. I just was like, scoop, scoop, scoop, scoop. But I never got all the way to the specials, so my score was pretty low. But it was enough to get another third! Woo! So, so far I've gotten like three-thirds in a second. So I'm just chugging along here at the bottom of the standings. I mean, not the very bottom, but kind of hanging down near the bottom. So then round five, I'm slowly starting to wake up. Kind of, sort of. I get to play Electronimo, which I remember playing at Yegpin one time and loving it. but this one I shot the spinner and it went straight to the left out lane and I was not happy about that. Of course that was just a freak incident. It didn't always do that but when it happened it happened and I just couldn't get anything going on it but because I was able to hit the spinner that one time or whatever I did get enough points for a third so you can see the trend here. It's just all thirds in a second. But, you know, it's really important. A lot of people at this point they kind of throw their hands up and be like, well, I'm not going to qualify anywhere. I'm not going to get anywhere near the top. This tournament's over. I'm doing horrible. But, you know, I recognized, hey, I haven't gotten any fourths. I'm still kind of in this if I just stream together a couple of firsts. And that's basically exactly what started happening in round six where I finally got a first place, and it was on Palooka, of all things. The game that I lost to Luke in the tiebreaker at the last District 82 tournament, and I just crushed that thing. I almost rolled it. I got like 9,600 points. That game is really fun. It's all about, you gotta make sure you get the skill shot, and then capitalize on that center target when it's lit. And it's basically always lit, except the target might be down, so you need to raise the target by I think going in the little scoops next to the flippers.
    16:59
    Basically keep it alive, but then when you see the opportunity, try to hit the target. That's kind of how you do Palooka. You also want to hit the other targets too, so sending it back up top is not a bad idea because you can get extra balls that way. So yeah, after that first place, it really pumped me up. I then went to round seven and played Cyclone. And that game, man, it's funny. When I played it the last time I was at District 82, I literally got like two flips on it. But this time I played it, and I was actually able to control it and actually hit some shots.
    17:35
    And I ended up doing pretty well, but there was some other people in the group that were doing pretty well too, just like comboing right ramp to Ferris wheel. And on ball three, I had to put something together, and I managed to come ahead and first. So that game, it wasn't like the last time where it was all determined by skill shots. That one was actually, it was like 1.3 million to 1.2 million sort of thing. And actually taking advantage of the double scoring that you get from completing the top lanes and then just making your Ferris wheel shots when you light it was key on that game. and then also riding the cyclone and the comet, or the center ramp,
    18:19
    and just hitting shots. Like, cyclone is pretty boring and basic, but it's a good test of just who hits the most shots. You just keep hitting shots, getting points, nothing really to it. So I managed to get first on that, which was great, because then in round eight, let's see here. oh yeah we got to play xenon and i'm pretty sure all of us kind of did nothing on xenon like we all got destroyed by it um but i was able to hit like four ramp shots or something and that was enough so i i got a first on that but i don't remember it being particularly great um you know some people are shooting like the left orbit and doing multi-ball things um i i just like shooting the right ramp. Although, to be honest, I probably just did the strat of ball on right, flip, or shoot the left orbit. Ball on left, flip, or shoot the right ramp. It's hard to go wrong with that strategy on Xenon.
    19:23
    So, let's see. Moving on to round nine. Got to play X's and O's. And now the competition will start to heat up, because I was moving up the rankings. I had to play against Colin McAlpine and Cassidy. Oh man, Cassidy is a machine. I call her the assassin, because she's just like, you're doing good, everything's going okay, and then all of a sudden, boom. Just comes out of nowhere, you don't see her, and your score is now in second place.
    19:54
    It's pretty incredible, this girl who plays there. Because I put up a decent X's and O's, and she just went to town, just like hitting shots, shots, shots, and just climbed back and took first. So that was kind of a heartbreaking second place because I really thought I was going to continue the first streak, but Cassidy said no. No way. So that was fun.
    20:24
    So I got a second on that, then we went to round 10. Ugh. This frontier. Ugh. Frontier, frontier, frontier.
    20:33
    This is a game that I just have a mental block on in tournaments for some reason. I like playing it for fun. It's a cool game. But in tournaments, I always feel like I get shafted. Just like, out lane, out lane. Down the middle after a drop target.
    20:49
    Drops not going down. Not getting any lane love up top. There's so many ways things can go wrong on this game.
    20:59
    I just have never put up a good score in a tournament on it. One of these days, maybe I will change that. But nope, got a third here just by literally plunging and getting some lane love up top and not tilting. Like, I don't know if I made any actual shots.
    21:21
    I think I made maybe one shot to the drop target and then missed the spinner like three times. But, oh god, Frontier. I don't understand why that game and I don't get along. But one of these days, Frontier, I will get some good score. I will at some point. It has to happen.
    21:43
    And it'll happen right when somebody's like, ooh, I'm going to pick Frontier because Raymond doesn't like Frontier. And I'm going to blow it up, so watch out. All right.
    21:52
    Moving on. Next we played round 11. So 11 out of 12. There was only 12 rounds and no finals. So basically you need to win the last two rounds to have a chance of cashing.
    22:08
    Because I think top eight got paid, which was very nice. I like that. It was still something to play for. Even if you couldn't win the tournament, you could get top eight. And we played Hot Doggin.
    22:19
    And Hot Doggin is pretty simple. You just hit those multiplier targets. That's like the game. Because you're going to get all the other stuff. It's basically like a future spot. same thing as Future Spot. You're going to get all the other random stuff, so all you have to focus on as a player is hitting those multiplier drop targets. And that's what I did. I was able to do that, and I took a first on it.
    22:44
    And, um, yeah, so don't miss those drop targets, and don't tilt, because all your points are, just like Future Spot, all your points are in bonus.
    22:55
    Alright, 12th round played F14 Tomcat, and I love this. I was like, yes, a classic game that's not really a classic in my final round. Let's do it. Let's get first. Let's get top four. Here we go. And I got multiball, got the fighter. Actually, I don't know if I got a fighter jackpot. I think I was one away from it. But I did okay. I didn't do great. I got like 2.2 million or something. I was feeling pretty good. And then Cassidy the Assassin shot me out of the sky. just beat me by like 20,000 points. So I got second on F14 Top Gat. But that was fun. And I ended up getting seventh overall, which is still cash, so I got like 40 bucks for playing. And it was really fun because I started the day off so horrible, just nothing, and then managed to claw my way out of it and finish top seven. So it was a real story of waking up in the morning and I managed to pull it off.
    23:56
    Also, first time I think I've ever played in a tournament that I can remember where I didn't get a fourth place in something. I couldn't believe it.
    24:05
    Similarly, the next tournament, the Open tournament, also didn't get a fourth place the entire time, which, honestly to me, I'm more impressed with that than winning an individual tournament because I don't know. Usually you get screwed somewhere, but I managed to just keep it together enough and scrape by in every game just enough and you know getting those thirds instead of fourths they add up especially if you got like five of them like I did so just keep that in mind you know just always stay positive and anytime you get a third it's better than a fourth and you know similarly if I was getting a fourth I would just tell you get a first the next game and then it'll average out as if you've gotten you know a second or second and a half.
    24:51
    Yeah, so that was the Classics Match Play Tournament. The main tournament started at, like, I don't know, 3.30pm, 4pm, and it was the Target Match Play Tournament, so we were going to play until someone got 30 points, and since the scoring was only 3-2-1-0, that meant at least 10 rounds, but probably more, because if somebody got 30 in 10 rounds, that means they won every game, which was not going to happen, so we were looking to settle in for a while. So I guess I'll just jump right in it then. The first game was Total Nuclear Annihilation, which, after playing the Classics tournament, I was kind of like, hey, I don't know about that. Is that a Modern? Alright, I'll allow it.
    25:35
    But I, you know, as what happens in Total Nuclear Annihilation, I got gifted two balls locked to me on ball two. So just one flip to glory, and then just rode that for destroying reactors and getting jackpots. One thing I will say about total nuclear annihilation is focus on those jackpots. They're actually pretty big. You often forget to actually just shoot the jackpots and you want to destroy reactors, but the jackpots are... They can get up there. I think their value is determined by the reactor, so you might want to clear out the reactor first and then get some jackpots, but triple jackpots, which are then multiplied by how many balls you have in place you get triple triples that's like 120k or whatever which is pretty big in that game yeah that was a nice gift I got first I felt bad for poor Cassidy She was on the giving end of the locked balls instead of the receiving end and she took a fourth in that round. But she bounced back and got a couple firsts after that. So the assassin was able to take vengeance on the next couple of rounds.
    26:44
    All right, so round two. Oh, I got to play mouse in a round. and again, so it's kind of some karma where oh, for my modern game I got Total Nuclear Annihilation, but for my classic game, because they alternate between modern and classic when you're at District 82, and Mousin' Around I'm like, oh, okay, so my classic game is more of a modern game and my modern game is more of a classic game. One has ramps, one doesn't. So I felt pretty comfy on Mousin' Around. I didn't do the center ramp strategy because they had the bigger posts there to kind of make the shot smaller. I just did the multi-ball and also instead of shooting the right ramp, which was kind of a tough shot on this one, I shot the right dead end target because you could shoot the right dead end target and then hold up the flipper and it would just auto trap like every time. And then you could shoot the left orbit or post pass if you really wanted to. So it was just a very controllable game. It's got the cheese flippers, so it was even longer flippers than usual. So I took a first pretty handedly on that one.
    27:53
    My strategy on that, you know, just cheese and multiball. Just kind of do those. At one point I did take a shot at one of the mousetrap targets, because if you have one target left, you might as well hit it. Lights multiball.
    28:06
    So yeah, spell mousetrap. Unless you're on your first multiball, then you can just shoot the left orbit because it'll go into the inlane. That's how you advance the letters without hitting targets. So yeah, mousing around pretty well. Got a first, then went to Demolition Man, which I'm like, sweet. Ramps,
    28:25
    combos, multiballs, and I just did my strategy of shoot the computer with the upper flipper, shoot the left ramp to quick freeze, and then shoot the right ramp to start multiball. A lot of people like to save the right ramp multiball for later because it automatically fills out all your freezes. But I like to use it to start multiball because it starts multiball with one more ball.
    28:52
    And also it's literally your three shots from a three-ball multiball that can be valuable. So I don't want to play a game of Demoman where I don't start multiball. I'd rather waste my freezes or whatever right away and just get it going. And that actually works doubly well because saving that claw is an opportunity cost because a lot of your bonus is claw awards. It's like 10 million per claw award. So, you know, times your bonus multiplier.
    29:25
    You know, so you're missing out on bonus points by avoiding the claw. The claw also starts giving out good awards after that. And so I just, I don't subscribe to the school of, you know, save your freeze multiball for as late as possible. I just, I'd get it out of the way, because I, first of all, I don't want to accidentally start a two-ball multi-ball. Although if you do, it's not the worst, because then you can use the claw to refill for your second one. But I want to make sure I start a three-ball multi-ball during my game, and also just, you know, gets the game flowing, and you find your shots and stuff. So I managed to take a first on that, mostly due to a held bonus award that was super nice. It was like hold bonus X, so I had 5X twice in a row, which was pretty handy. It was like 250 million bonus.
    30:18
    Alright, so I got a first on that, so I'm flying pretty high. Things are going pretty well. Let's see what round four is.
    30:26
    Flipper Pool. Hmm. You know, I don't remember a whole lot about Flipper Pool. I think it was just one of those, like, two-inch flipper games that you just keep alive. and you just go up top and hope you hit stuff.
    30:44
    I don't remember. I got a second on it apparently, so that's good. I think there was some strategy, but also not at the same time.
    30:56
    I think we were debating when it rolls down the in lane whether to hold up the flipper and pass it over or if that was too risky. I ended up just flipping it away.
    31:06
    Because on those older games, man, you get so many house balls already you don't want to create more house balls you don't want to like drain something that's your fault when that when uh when you didn't have to so i would just advocate for just keeping it alive and generally sending the ball in the directions you want to go oh yeah i guess i got a second on that moving on to round five was tommy dot east uh the who's tommy pinball wizard and oh my god i think this was on stream i think i had the best game of tommy i've ever had in my life like i don't even think i'm exaggerating and it was on this tournament game and i didn't even get i didn't even get like a super jackpot i mean i got pretty far in the multi ball but a lot of the points just came from keeping it alive and ripping shots um it was funny because that game started off pretty rough i was kind of flailing around and not really hitting anything and then the ball did this weird back door into the mode hole scoop, and it started my first mode and fed the ball to my flipper, and then from then on I was, like, hitting shots. It was like, oh, inner core shot, side ramp, left ramp, scoop. Like, just played the modes, you know. That game, it's super deadly, but also it's actually controllable if you can hit the shots. So you just got to find the shots, and also be wise about what shots you're taking.
    32:34
    Sometimes it's okay to hit the flashing silver ball target. It's worth points. So take those. Also, the classic start Cousin Kevin where the ramp targets are at a ball, I'm pretty sure I nailed that ramp. Like every time, man. Every time those targets are at a ball, you just nail the ramp. It's so disheartening. But I did manage to eventually hit those targets and get some Cousin Kevin going on.
    33:03
    So yeah, that was like a $700 million game. Took first on that. Was pretty stoked. And then, of course, my reward for getting first was getting to play against Keith Elwin and, of course, hometown hero Jordan Semro on Flight 2000.
    33:18
    Luckily, I had played it Friday in the Pinskins. And yeah, I don't know. I shot the spinner. Keith got hosed a couple of times. and I managed to get enough points.
    33:32
    I guess I didn't know how multiball worked in that game, both on Friday and probably on Saturday as well.
    33:41
    I still don't really know how multiball works on that game, but I guess if you do the blast off, then the numbers, and then the locks. I had everything except I needed to hit the lock, and I didn't realize that you had to hit the lock. I thought it would just start when you hit 5-4-3-2-1. So I thought that on my previous ball, I drained down the out lane with the one lit, and when I drained, all the numbers came back up, and I was like, oh, great, I have to spell 5-4-3-2-1 again. But what actually happened was the out lane spotted the one, which then lit multiball on my next ball, but I just never shot the multiball shot for the rest of the ball. I just kept post-passing and hitting the right spinner. But it worked out. I got first on it. So, you know what? Sometimes when things are working for you, you don't question them.
    34:32
    Alright, so then I got to play Lethal Weapon 3. Well, you know, I want to like this game and I still kind of like this game. But it's still kind of like a blind spot for me in tournaments. It's kind of like a oh boy, I have to play Lethal Weapon 3.
    34:52
    So, you know, I step up, ball one, I'm like, maybe I'll go for the multi-ball. Maybe this might have been last time, actually. It might have been this time where I shot my first flip, I shot to the right drop target bank, and I just went dead and straight down the right out lane. I'm like, okay, I'm not doing that anymore.
    35:14
    So I just kind of grounded out some points with the left ramp and doing the one-two-threes, and I was hitting the trigger button when I did the 1-2-3s because I saw other people doing that. I don't know if it did anything.
    35:28
    Keith was shooting the right orbit and hitting the trigger button and stuff was happening. I don't know.
    35:34
    Basically, I ground out enough points just kind of keeping the ball alive. I got this random video mode from the left scoop. There was no insert over there or anything. The ball fell in the left scoop and it was like, video mode! 10 million! The 10 million actually got me enough points to get second place, and so then I was chasing Keith. Keith had like 150 million more than me, and so at that point I relaxed, and I was like, I'm just going to shoot these drop targets in the center of the playfield. And I did, and I was able to get to multiball, played multiball, only got one jackpot, but after that I was like, well, I guess I'm doing multiball again, and ended up lighting multiball and draining down the left out lane. So I almost played two multiballs in the last ball on lethal weapon three, and came back. But man, I wish I knew where the actual points are in that game. Might have came in handy, that game, for sure. But I took a second, so I was happy with that.
    36:34
    Then I got to play Earthshaker, which normally I love Earthshaker, and I was doing okay on this game. I started multiball pretty quick, but then I failed to get a jackpot. I did the restart, and then I lined up the jackpot shot and nailed it and realized, oh, you have to hit the center ramp to light your jackpot again. Even though I had it lit before I restarted my multiball, it unlights it when you restart your multiball, which I did not know. So that kind of frustrated me a little bit, and I was also being silly because I was shooting the center ramp with a flipper that was just not meant to be hitting the center ramp, so I should have just been, I don't know, hitting other things.
    37:17
    But basically, you want to hit that little scoop thing to feed to the upper flipper and then hit the fault line over and over again. That's kind of what you do on Earthshaker if you can't loop the center ramp.
    37:29
    I ended up getting third. Keith got screwed even harder than I did, though, which was surprising. But, you know, just by starting multiple, I was able to get something on the board, so I got third on that. got to go, moving on now to round nine.
    37:48
    Round nine. Final Frontier. This was Star Trek, Stern Star Trek. Was quite the game. The Star Trek played like butter. It was basically factory.
    38:02
    So, other than the tilt was a little tight, I suppose, since I sort of phantom tilted one of my balls, which I was not expecting.
    38:10
    But that game notorious for tilting without telling you to begin with. There's just like zero audio and very limited visual cues to tell you when you get a tilt warning.
    38:23
    But yeah, basically we slugged it out. It was Colin McAlpine, Luke Nahorniak, Andy Bagwell, and myself. And we just played and played and played and played. And I think I was trying to catch up basically on my ball three, I had to pass a couple people, and I just, I had super ramps running, because I always pick those three modes that lead to super ramps, the prime directive, space jump, and save the enterprise, and so my super ramps were going, so I just knew I had to just keep comboing ramps, and especially if they lined up with mode shots, and I could see my score going up, but the one thing I did that I didn't expect I would do is I found the warp ramp super hittable, and I was just cranking out warp ramps and at some point I'd even started double scoring. So once I started double scoring, that's when I was like, okay, it's go time. Let's just keep ripping shots and we're just going to do this, you know, slow and steady going to win the race here. And I was able to pass Luke and Andy. And then basically when that double scoring ended, everything was ready to go. I just had to time out my last mode to get Kobayashi and then I would have passed Colin. But as soon as my brain started thinking oh I should trap up now the ball was gone It was like at the same time I was thinking it the ball went down the left out lane I was like, no. So I ended up getting a second on that game, uh, with like, I don't know, 150 million or something. So it was a pretty long game. I think it was all on stream.
    39:55
    Um, but that was, uh, that was a fun one. Yeah. I just found I was comfortable with the warp ramp and I wasn't afraid of it. A lot of people avoid it, but if you can hit it, it's super valuable just because you get that double scoring. And the double scoring basically cuts the number of shots you need in half in order to score points to beat somebody. So sacrificing eight, nine shots at the warp ramp to get the two-for-one special later on can pay dividends. So, um, if, you know, not all Star Treks will have good warp ramps, but this one was super juicy and I was able to loop it.
    40:33
    Alright, round number ten. Oh boy, Stingray. Ugh, this is a crap shoot. You just gotta hope you get it in the hole when it's at 55,000 and keep getting it in the hole when it is 55,000. my only strategy on this game was you know you gotta know how to plunge so that if you're like two away from the 55,000 it'll do the little dink dink and then land in there or if you're one away you need to do a single dink plunge so it's like dink and then into the hole so I kind of used some of that and then also I remembered last time I played it that you could actually shoot it in the hole so when I saw 55k was lit I was like oh god, trap up, shoot the hole. And that's what I did. I was able to pop off like three or four of those 55Ks and that was the game I got first, even though I was basically last going into ball three. But then I managed to hit three of those or four of those in a row and it was like, oh, okay, you win. So you're never out of it on that game, but man, it can feel like a total luck box. And it kind of is, really.
    41:44
    Alright, moving on to round 11. oh this was the fabled uh shadow game that's right with um jordan semero keith ellen and colin mcalpine and uh when i play shadow i always love doing those loops unfortunately my ball one i could not hit a shot and drained with zero like one million points and then ball two i did a couple of loop combos and drained And I think I did the upper flipper to left out lane drain, actually.
    42:21
    That's one of the problems with the loop strategies. What do you do with that upper flipper? And really what you should do is you should just keep hitting loops. Because the loop bonus is also good. You'll keep getting more and more points. But then if it starts going too fast, maybe you think about holding up the upper flipper just to slow it down a bit. But I didn't do that. I kept flipping and then I flipped too late and it flipped down the left out lane. So at some point I should have just bailed on it and held up the upper flipper just to slow the ball down and give you a chance to regain control.
    42:54
    But I did what I needed to do on ball three. I was down by like 80 million to get third. And I literally just did left orbit, inner loop, inner loop, immediate drain, and it was enough. And I was trying to figure out where all the points came from. And I think there's a bug in the code where if you hit the left orbit, it starts a timer for the two-way combo. But when you get the two-way combo, it doesn't clear that timer. So if you left orbit and then two-way combo and then two-way combo again, like loop it really fast, it'll give you two of those two-way combos, even though you only shot the left orbit once. And I think if you watch the video, that's what happened, because you see the car crashing animation twice. So I got double credit for my two-way combo. and then also hitting the loop a second time also just gives you points on its own as well. So, you know, the loop strategy is dangerous, but, you know, it's also safe at the same time in terms of value. Like, the points you get for it, it's risk versus reward. It's like, sure, I risked draining, and I did drain because of it, but I also only had to make, like, six shots, and I got third on the game. So it's kind of a weird strategy. because it can bite you in the butt, but it's also just so gosh darn efficient. It's hard to say no to. But speaking of inefficiency, Colin McAlpine coming back against Keith Elwin just by ramps, just nothing but ramps, just ramp, ramp, ramp, ramp, ramp, vengeance, vengeance, super vengeance, just unbelievable rampage from Colin McAlpine to come all the way back just grinding vengeance to beat Keith uh when he drained he didn't have enough points but I was like thinking I'm like oh he might have it bonus because all those ramps lead to in lanes which give you bonus x and sure enough he drained it was like 300 million bonus I was like oh my god he did it uh he beat Keith so that actually that took a point away from Keith with which helped me because I was behind Colin and Keith in shadow no matter what I got third. But Colin beating Keith meant that now Colin and Keith, I think, were tied. And so now I had a better chance of winning the whole tournament.
    45:18
    And the next game we played was Robo War. And I actually managed to kind of play it okay, although my first ball was hilarious because I short plunge, drain, short plunge, lock to ball, short plunge, drain, ball over. You're done. If you short plunge and drain down the middle after a ball lock, nope, not getting it back. So I learned that in ball one very quickly. Colin also had to learn that for himself, unfortunately, because he also drained that way. And then he started doing it on purpose, but with a little nudge action.
    45:57
    And one of his nudge actions didn't quite get there. And so I ended up second, Colin got third. Keith got first, and Jim Redovich got fourth on RoboCop. And so now I think it all came down to the last game. Sorry, did I say RoboCop? RoboWar. So if you're not familiar with RoboWar, it's got a ramp like RoboCop, I suppose, although it's more akin to Sorcerer, because that's kind of how you play it. You basically shoot the ramp twice, and you get multiball. But during multiball, you want to hit green targets to build up your multibonus, and then at some point shoot the ramp to cash in your multi-bonus. What makes RoboWar interesting is there's little advanced X shots scattered throughout the playfield, and those build your multi-bonus X. So if you get that up to like 4X and you shoot the ramp during multi-ball, you'll get 4X your multi-bonus, which can be huge. It's like a super jackpot. Regardless, at the end of ball three, you'll always get awarded your multi-bonus, not multiplied. So, Never Tilt Ball 3 on RoboWar.
    47:05
    Really fun game. It's pretty cool. I just wish the short plunge didn't go straight down the middle. Alright, round 13, the final, the last round.
    47:18
    Silver Ball Mania. I don't know why I said it like that. But, this game, all about that horseshoe. and I basically needed to come second to get to 30. And if I did that, I would end the tournament with exactly 30 and everyone else in my group would have 29, 29, 28 or something like that. And I go into ball three. I'm kind of behind. I had shot like maybe one horseshoe, two horseshoes. I managed to string together a couple on ball three and then drain pretty quick. but the couple of shots I made were just enough to put me ahead of Colin and then Colin had to match my horseshoe shooting and he had it trapped and just missed it by a millimeter and the post just sent it down the middle and he tilted and then that was the end. That was it. So even though Keith with his freaking, I don't know, probably millions of points he demolished that game but it didn't matter because he could only get to 29 and I got to 30. So I got to stop it right there, and I won the tournament. So that was definitely a happy ending.
    48:31
    Kind of unexpected, really. I was ready for that next game, but it just sort of fell. The cards fell the way they did, and I managed to win. And like I said earlier, one of the keys to my victory was I never got a fourth place this entire tournament, which I still don't believe. I don't know how I did that. But it just goes to show you consistency over blowing stuff up and then sucking is kind of the way that you win pinball tournaments. So that's it.
    49:01
    I had a ton of fun. First was me. Second was Keith Owen. Go Team Stern. Then Colin McAlpine got third. And I think Jordan Semero got fourth.
    49:14
    And our friend Travis Murie, he got the seventh in the Open, which was funny because I got seventh in the Classics. So Travis kind of did what I did in Classics, but in Open, where he kind of started kind of low and then slowly crawled his way back up at the end.
    49:29
    So that was kind of cool to see him in the top eight. Yeah, I don't know what else to say. That was the District 82 tournament.
    49:41
    It's basically like Pinbird, but in a smaller warehouse with only 100 games. instead of 300. So if you like Pinberg, check out District 82. Sign up for their tournaments. I think there's one in June coming up because they have all sorts of games from all eras. You know, Williams games, Black Valley games, Stern games, or whatever you can think of. And they all just work. Like, it's weird. You go up to a game expecting something to be weird about it, and it's like, nope, it works great. Like, this is awesome.
    50:13
    So it always feels like it's your fault when you lose a game there because all the games are just in such great shape. So I can't recommend that enough. District 82 in, well, kind of in Green Bay, Wisconsin. So check that out.
    50:29
    Yeah, I don't know what else. I guess I'll give a shout-out to a bunch of people rocking the Led Zeppelin, Laser Lows, Matthew Richardson and Colin McAlpine. They've been doing this multiplier challenge against each other. They're trying to see how big they can get there. Icarus X, and it's pretty entertaining.
    50:52
    I was not expecting people to go that hard at trying to get the multiplier that high. It's funny, too, because they'll spend, like, 20 minutes trying to get the multiplier up, and then it's over in, like, 15 seconds. And it's like, okay, well, that was a cool trick. But, you know, it's cool. You can play that game in all sorts of ways. Call of McAlpine got the Wizard Mode twice, and it had, like 30 billion, you know, and then like, LaserLos got his like 10 billion points in under a minute with his crazy multiplier strategy. But what's cool is you definitely, you don't need the multipliers, they're just, they're fun when they happen, and you're like, oh my god, I gotta hit something. It's at 10x, I need to hit something quick. It really gets your heart pounding, so I appreciate all the people playing Led Zeppelin, giving it a shot. We've gotten a lot of good compliments, and I really appreciate it. I put a lot of work into that game and I'm just so happy to finally see it being played.
    51:48
    It was hard at first because I couldn't get any feedback because nobody had it. Arcades weren't open. Nobody was buying it.
    51:58
    They didn't ship the premiums until February, but now people are getting them. They're loving it. If you have any questions or feedback, you can always contact me. Love to hear it. But yeah, that's about it for this podcast.
    52:13
    Thanks for tuning in, and remember, next time you find yourself at District 82 or any pinball tournament, remember to do no duck. All right.
    52:43
    Thank you.