Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • NName Review
  • +Health

v0.1.0

← Back to items

The Pinball Super Series Preview (Ep.64)

A Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·21m 59s·analyzed·Oct 13, 2021
View original
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

Pinball Super Series preview: 6 tournaments, 100+ machines, 22 top-100 players, major Whopper points.

Summary

Host Marv Loco previews the Pinball Super Series at District 82 (October 14-17), a four-day tournament featuring six events with 100+ machines, 22+ top-100 players, significant Whopper points (70 for first place), and series-wide cash prizes totaling ~$8,360. The event is being streamed live on Fox Cities Twitch and represents one of the largest tournament series groupings in U.S. history outside the Stern Pro Circuit.

Key Claims

  • The Pinball Super Series is one of the biggest groupings of tournaments in U.S. history in terms of tournament quantity and player skill level

    medium confidence · Host states this is comparable to or exceeds InDisc/Pinburgh in scale for a tournament series, though outside the Stern Pro Circuit

  • First place in each event awards 70 Whopper points; top 10 finish nets approximately 30 Whopper points

    high confidence · Host directly cites these figures from tournament materials

  • Series-wide prize pool: $1,000 for 1st place overall, with additional cash down to 6th place, estimated total value $8,360 for 100 players

    high confidence · Host references specific prize breakdown sponsored by The Pinball Company

  • Approximately 22 confirmed top-100 IFPA-ranked players will attend, with potential for 26-27 by event five depending on Whopper results

    high confidence · Host cites specific ranking data showing current confirmations and upside potential

  • Jared (young player) recently won Cleepin and is described as one of the scariest competitors the host has played

    medium confidence · Host's personal assessment based on head-to-head play experience

  • Cassidy, age ~14-15, is among the best young players globally and will likely become a future women's world champion

    medium confidence · Host's prediction based on current skill observation

  • Neil McRae from UK will attend, representing overseas players at the event

    high confidence · Host confirms his attendance and notes his international travel

  • IFPA sanctioned play resumed August 1st after an 18-month COVID shutdown (March 2020–August 2021)

    high confidence · Host cites specific dates for sanctioning resumption and duration of hiatus

Notable Quotes

  • “this has to be one of the biggest groupings for this amount of tournaments in U.S. history. I don't recall anything quite like this in terms of how many whoppers are there and in terms of the actual, just the skill level of people that are going to be there”

    Host (Marv Loco) @ ~7:20 — Emphasizes the unprecedented scale and competitive depth of the event

  • “First place is going to be estimated 70 Whoppers. You heard that right. 70.”

    Host (Marv Loco) @ ~9:30 — Highlights the massive Whopper point incentive driving competitive interest and ranking shifts

  • “out of everybody I've played, he's the scariest. I'm telling you, this kid is crazy skilled.”

    Host (Marv Loco) @ ~32:10 — Personal assessment of Jared's competitive threat level, indicating emerging young talent

  • “I fully believe she will be a future women's world champion at some point when it comes to pinball.”

    Host (Marv Loco) @ ~40:30 — Prediction about Cassidy's future trajectory in competitive pinball

  • “Zoom calls and text messages and Facebook messages only do so much. So it's great to see people face-to-face again and get to interact.”

    Host (Marv Loco) @ ~44:15 — Reflects community reconnection motivation post-COVID, emphasizing social value of in-person tournaments

  • “I don't mind a four strike. I don't know. It may not be as intensive, but then again, there's people going for whopper points. So we'll see.”

    Host (Marv Loco) @ ~24:30 — Commentary on tournament format preferences and competitive intensity dynamics

Entities

Pinball Super SerieseventDistrict 82organizationFox CitiesorganizationThe Pinball CompanyorganizationGame Room SuperstoreorganizationMarv LocopersonRaymond DavidsonpersonKaylee GeorgepersonSteve BowdenpersonColin McAlpineperson

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Post-COVID tournament resurgence driving strong community participation and reconnection emphasis

    high · Host emphasizes 18-month sanctioning gap (March 2020–August 2021) and highlights value of face-to-face interaction; notes personal excitement for both competition and social reconnection

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Strong positive sentiment toward Wisconsin pinball community quality and accessibility

    medium · Host personally recommends Wisconsin as 'excellent place if you get a chance to play' and 'excellent community'; frames travel as valuable for both competition and community connection

  • ?

    community_signal: District 82 positioned as major competitive pinball hub hosting unprecedented tournament series with 22+ top-100 players and international participation

    high · Host identifies Super Series as potentially largest tournament grouping in U.S. history outside Stern Pro Circuit; confirms UK, international, and interstate attendance

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Whopper point distribution creating major IFPA ranking volatility potential across top 100-500 players

    high · Host notes 70 Whoppers for first place, 30 for top 10 finish; states this will cause 'major shift in rankings completely, especially for top 100 or top 250 players'; calculates potential of 26-27 top-100 players by event five

  • $

    market_signal: Emerging young talent pipeline in pinball, particularly Jared (recent Cleepin winner) and Cassidy (~14-15 years old)

    high · Host describes Jared as 'scariest' competitor and 'next big thing'; predicts Cassidy as future women's world champion despite age; identifies both as exceptionally skilled

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.066

0:00
all right guys welcome back to another episode of a pinball podcast thank you guys so much for being here i greatly do appreciate it and of course it looks a little different if you're on YouTube just because I'm doing a little bit of commentary this time and our subject today is going to be the pinball super series which starts tomorrow as of this recording on October 14th and we will get to the other subjects at hand next week when I get back from Wisconsin I know we've got to still talk about Jurassic Park still got to talk about Halloween still got to talk about Godzilla there's a lot of things to go over and we will be able to go over all that next week for sure. And I am going to get an opportunity to finally play Godzilla actually this week. I heard that there's one at District 82. So where we're going to be at, there will be a Godzilla Pro there. However, I assume that there's just going to be a massive line there. So I don't even know how many games I can get on there, but I will get to talk to a bunch of top tier pinball players and some other pinball enthusiasts, and we can get a real pulse on how everybody feels about this machine. And yeah, we'll talk about it here next week. And I also do have a video coming up pretty soon, probably at the end of next week or maybe even two weeks from now about my time on Halloween. I put on about five to six hours on it now with both codes. And I do have some thoughts on it. Let's just say it. We'll just say that they may not be great thoughts or maybe even good thoughts, but I do have some thoughts on it. And hopefully whatever I do talk about with that, it can hopefully shine a light on some of the things that possibly could be improved. I don't know. There's some good things to it though, here, here and there. Just, yeah, it is what it is. Let's just put it that way. And I don't know, we might talk about Jurassic Park home pin too. I mean, that pin, it kind of is what it is. It looks cool, but I don't know how much there is to break down on that, but you know what? We'll probably squeeze the life out of that next week and we'll, we'll kind of break it down a little bit then. But again, today's podcast is just going to be all about tournament pinball. So if that's your jam, stick around, We're going to talk about it for a little while. If it's not, well, hey, get back on the train. I bid you adieu, and we'll see you on the next one. All righty. So the Pinball Super Series, which is sponsored by the pinball company, Game Room Superstore. This is going to be one weekend, but technically Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. But it will be four days, six tournaments, cash prizes, over 100 pinball machines. And this will be streamed live starting tomorrow over at Fox Cities on Twitch. So if you guys enjoy watching tournament pinball or competitive pinball, this is where you're going to want to be. Because this is quite possibly the biggest grouping of tournaments this year. Now, of course, IFPA finally came back to being sanctioned on August 1st. And there has been some bigger tournaments with, I believe it's called Pinball at the Lake out in California. There's been Cleepin. I believe that there's one that was at Wizards World that had a lot of people. And I know District 82's had their Summer 2X, which had a lot of players there. So, I mean, there's still been some pretty big tournaments around there. Of course, overseas in Europe, they just had their, I don't even know what they call it, their Bulls and something. I apologize, guys. It was a big tournament series over there as well with seven. Seven tournaments, I believe. But with the Pinball Super Series, this has to be one of the biggest groupings for this amount of tournaments in U.S. history. I don't recall anything quite like this in terms of how many whoppers are there and in terms of the actual, just the skill level of people that are going to be there, the ranking of people that are going to be there. Now, of course, you could say major tournaments. Yes, of course, InDisc, Pinberg, places like that. But I'm talking about just a series of tournaments of stuff that's not even on the circuit, guys. It's not on the Stern Pro Circuit or anything like that. This is the first time something like this has been done at District 82 at least. in it, yeah, it's going to be a great time. So I'd like to bring some attention to that if you didn't know about it already. And if you're into pinball and you're starting to get into tournament pinball, this would be something that you definitely want to watch because the skill level of the players that will be here are just off the charts, just totally off the charts. And just going over some of the tournaments right now, and to give you an idea, I just want to go straight to the Whoppers and then we'll come back and talk about the tournament. But just giving you an idea.
Derek Price
person
Luke Nahorniakperson
Jaredperson
Tomperson
Eric Thorneperson
Sunshineperson
Kerry Wingperson
Cassidyperson
Neil McRaeperson
Carlosperson
Andy Rosaperson
Tim Sextonperson
Josh Sharpeperson
Robert Byersperson
Boperson
  • ?

    event_signal: Pinball Super Series represents experimental large-scale multi-tournament format for District 82, potentially establishing new standard for tournament series organization

    medium · Host notes 'This is the first time something like this has been done at District 82 at least'; describes it as unique grouping outside Stern Pro Circuit structure

  • $

    market_signal: Series-wide prize pool structure ($8,360 estimated for 100 players) indicates sponsorship investment in grassroots tournament infrastructure

    high · Host cites specific prize breakdown: $1,000 for 1st, 40% of pot for 2nd, etc.; credits The Pinball Company and Game Room Superstore sponsorship

  • ?

    community_signal: Host planning potential live-streaming coverage from hotel during event to provide daily reports to broader community

    medium · Host mentions attempting to stream nightly reports via iPad if WiFi available; notes potential for other streamers like LaserLos to provide coverage

    • 4:44
    Where'd it go? Let's see. Oh, there it is. That scared me for a moment there. Just giving you an idea. And Whopper points, for those that don't know, it's basically wherever you finish in a tournament, you get a certain amount of points, which gets assigned to your ranking or to your profile for your ranking. And there's a whole formula to get there. We won't bore you with that. But we will say first place is going to be estimated 70 Whoppers. You heard that right. 70. and there's gonna be six events just like this. And as you can see, just getting into the top 10, which will be highly difficult with this level of play there, but getting into the top 10 will net somebody approximately 30 Whopper points, which is massive. Even top 20 is 15 I believe you have to go all the way down to around 28th place before you even get into single digit Whoppers Everybody I telling you this is going to cause a major shift in the rankings completely, especially for top 100 or top 250 players and even top 500. There's going to be a lot of players there moving around. So I'm very curious to see how this plays out. Obviously, the Whopper points are huge there. But yeah, so going back over here, some other things of note for this particular tournament, and I believe it's probably listed somewhere around here, probably going to be at the bottom. So with six events total, what's going to happen is that, of course, you know, they're giving out cash prizes for top eight, trophies for top five, but then there's also another prize on top of that, which is being awarded by the pinball company. And basically, this is for the series overall winners. So what is going to happen is that the top player in the overall series, according to their points, right? First, second, third, whatever it is. Not Whopper points, but just a point system where you're placing is for each individual tournament. The top player will receive a check for $1,000, which is awesome. So basically, what this will happen, there's additional cash prizes that will go all the way down to six places. As you guys can see right here, 1,000 for first, 40% of the pot, to second, 30 for third, and so on. And this is kind of an additional pot with what's going on. The estimated value is 1,000 for 8360, according to 100 players. So, yeah, that's pretty sweet that they're doing something like that. It could be really interesting. I'm hoping that there's a tiebreaker for that. I really am. I think something like this would just be insane. a tiebreaker for $1,000 after six tournaments. It would be a one-game playoff. I would love to see it. I know I'm not going to be in it personally because I am probably going to have to skip event six to head back home, but I would love to see something like that as well. So kudos to the pinball company for sponsoring this.
    7:38
    And yeah, so let's see here. The tournament itself does start tomorrow on October 14th, And event one is going to start at 6 p.m., and that's U.S. Central Standard Time or U.S. Central Time. I don't know. I don't even know which one we're in right now, but it's Central Time. We'll just put it that way. But, yeah, so it's going to be eight strikes, classics, air strike, knockout. And what this means with fair strikes, what's going to happen, if you're in first place, you won't get a strike. Second and third place will get one strike, and fourth place will get two strikes. And you just keep playing on until there's eight strikes total. Also, since it is Classics, that means that they're going to use games from 1991 or older. That's kind of how they're going to run the Classics, just because of the amount of people that are there, and that's typically how District 82 does their tournaments. This tournament's also set up Swiss-style, so what's going to happen, it's random seeding, and then it's just going to be all of us just beating the hell out of each other, and the top seeds are going to constantly be in that top group. So you're basically going to be highly entertained from group one, group two, group three, group four, group five. It's going to be just top players littered there just trying to get to the top. And it's going to be some crazy games going on right there. So that'll be event one. Event two is going to be a 13-round group match play classics tournament. So we're going to stick with the classics as well. And what this will involve is 13 rounds of group match play with tiered Swiss-style seating. So it's going to be a little bit different to where instead of being like 1, 2, 3, 4, it'll be one, somebody way down the line, then a seating somewhere in the middle against another seating somewhere in the middle. That's typically how it works. I don't want to bore you guys too much with the math. It's just not going to be straight Swiss where it's 1, 2, 3, 4 or something like that. So again, it's going to be non-DMD, 1991 games and older. So they're going to be faster playing games, but you're going to see a lot of players that are expert in classics playing. So it's going to be a lot of fun to watch. Some high-level players. I can't say that enough. And we will go over who all is there here in just a few, guys. So event three will be target match play. 30 points, 3-2-1-0 scoring. And this will be across all pinball machines, which I believe they have 107 currently in the arena bank. And so what will happen here is that we're all just going to keep playing until somebody gets to 30 points. And then if we happen to get even right there, there will be a tiebreaker for that. And I'm sure there will be tiebreakers actually up and down, because typically that's how it works out with target match play when you're working out cash prizes. And I believe, I don't know if they're going to have this be Swiss or tiered Swiss. Let's see. This is a group match play tournament with Swiss seating. Oh, my God. Okay, so that'll be tough. Let's just put it that way. But that's the third event, which will be at 3 p.m. or approximately that time on Friday. Of course, event two, I don't know if I mentioned this, that'll be a morning tournament starting at 9 a.m. And so, yeah, that target match play one, that one might be pretty tough. And I personally, I'm a little worried for myself right around that time because I know that's when my legs start to get out or give out whenever we go this long. So yours truly is bringing a chair so I making sure I stay off my feet as much as possible because I want to try to compete at the highest level I can possibly compete at So event four will be the next day at 9 a on Saturday October 16th This will be a 13-round group match play tournament. So what's going to happen with this? The scoring is going to be 7-5-3-1 for four-player groups. We're going to play 13 rounds, as we said earlier. First round, random seeding as usual, and then subsequent rounds will be seeded via tiered Swiss seeding.
    11:27
    And yeah, so again, direct play. There's no finals, no playoff, just 13 rounds. Whoever gets it, gets it. And yeah, simple tournament there. Event five, 5 p.m. start time, four strike group knockout. I'm sure that's the one type of tournament that anybody out there watching or listening, you pretty much know what that is. If you happen to not know what it is, all that happens is your groups will play in Swiss style, which means people that have the same knockout points or the same knockout strikes will play in the same groups. If you're in a four-player group, the bottom two will get a strike. If you're in a three-player group, the bottom last place or bottom third or basically third place, you get a strike also. That's what I'm trying to say. Let me make this as hard as possible to explain to you. You basically don't want to get last in your group, and you don't want to take in the bottom half of your group. So once you have four strikes, you're completely out of the tournament. This one, I like the idea of a strikes tournament. They're not my favorite to play locally, but I do like that there's kind of a, I don't know, a breather from the, what is it, the 30-point target match play and the tiered Swiss stuff. And, yeah, it's just I don't mind a four strike. I don't know. It may not be as intensive, but then again, there's people going for whopper points. So we'll see. 5 p.m., I don't mind that at all. So event six will be the last tournament of the series starting at 9 a.m. on Sunday, October 17th. And that will be a double up two game bank group match play. So what does that mean exactly? Well, what it means is all games across the board are going to be used. It's two games per round. So whatever group you're in, you guys will play a modern game and you'll also play a classics game. So you'll play two of those right there. You'll play it one at a time, so there's no multi-match or anything like that. And then each subsequent round will be tiered Swiss pairings. And then once you finish the games, of course, you turn everything in, and then you're basically just waiting for everybody else. So you can max out. I believe it's 7-5-3-1 scoring, so the max points you can get is 14 points. And double up, I'm kind of sad that I'm missing this. I played it once, and I like this format a lot more than what I thought. it's pretty amazing that you can make up a lot of points in a hurry. The last time I played this, I totally bombed on my very first round. I ended up taking last in both games. So I didn't have but two points, and I was way behind. And I think I legitimately got to the very end of that, and I still had a chance, even with my last group, to get into the top 10. And that was out of 80 players, I think, or somewhere right around there. So there's chances to make moves in a tournament like this. So if you do bad or if you see somebody do bad in the first couple of rounds, they still have a chance to kind of buy the dip, as Raymond would say, and then kind of jet up towards the end. But yeah, so that's the Super Series right there. Now to go over the player base that's going to be there, and we'll go back to this right here, this will give you guys an idea of exactly what players you're going to be seeing there. If you're familiar with some of the tournament players, a lot of these names will be very familiar. Just to see, we'll go by ranking. So just to see the level of player that will be here. There is, as of today, now again, subject to change. Everybody may not get there. But as of today, the ones that are confirmed to be there that we know about, there's 22 top 100 players. 22. That's where it ends up down there. And then still, even the players down here, the 134 with Max, those players still have a chance to bounce up into the top 100 before the end of the series. So there is a scenario in which there could be upwards of 26, 27 top 100 players playing in event five at that point. Maybe even event four. Who knows? With the way the Whoppers are, depending on where people finish, it could indeed happen. Now what's also of interest here, there is roughly, I believe, 30, I think it's 38 top 250 players, so Power 100 players. And for those that don't know what that is, basically it measures your head-to-head against people that are ranked in the top 250. And then from there, if you have a positive ranking or a positive win-loss ratio, you have a chance to play in the Power 100 Invitational Tournament or whatever it's called at our overlord Josh Sharpe's house, which is not happening this year, but hopefully would be happening next year. So this tournament basically has a chance to be either a power 100, just great thing for you, or it has a chance to just be a total nightmare and nullify a lot of people very quickly. And hopefully I'm not one of those. It pretty well documented how my Pinnberg went in 2019 that I just totally torpedoed everything that week And I been scratching and clawing ever since to get back into the positive So hopefully this week will be the week I can make some moves But we see It is tough competition tough sledding as well So, yeah, you guys can see these names at the top. You've got Raymond Davidson, Kaylee George, Steve Bowden, Colin McAlpine, Derek Price, Luke Nahorniak, John Delzoppo, Phil Burnt. I mean, you've got everybody, guys. Carl's going to be there, Jason Wierdrick, Andy Rosa. He's supposed to be there, hopefully. Andy, if you're watching this, I hope your neck is doing great. Jared, who just came off a cle-pin win, who's basically the next big thing when it comes to young kids playing pinball. That kid has some serious skill. He's, out of everybody I've played, he's the scariest. I'm telling you, this kid is crazy skilled. And then, of course, you got Tom. You know, everybody knows Tom from Tom Talks, Triple Drain Podcast. Watch that on TPN if you guys want to. Then, of course, Jordan, great guy up there in Wisconsin. an excellent player, David DeLuga as well. Johnny Modica, he's going to be there, or Monica. I always pronounce that name wrong. Apologies, Johnny. But, yeah, there's just so many players there. Carlos, if you guys watch him, LaserLos on Twitch, he'll be there. And then, I mean, there's some other players too down here that just, I mean, great players, Pavarelli, Ryan Spindler, Adam McKinney is going to be there. Of course, Eric Thorne, the overlord at District 82, or forward slash the Goat Slayer himself. He will be there. Bill Mason, a great player out of North Carolina, I believe. Max Sinisak, I've played him a couple times. Great guy, excellent player. I expect big things from him in the future.
    18:04
    Let's see, Baby Rosa, he might be there as well, which I believe he placed top four in Pinnberg in 2019. Definitely a highly skilled player. Robert Byers, the wrestling, twitch, pinball guy himself will be there. Macho, whatever he, what does he call him? Top rope pinball. Sorry, Robert. Top rope pinball. And I still think he's macho from Macho Pinball. I'm pretty sure. And then, of course, he is the reigning Texas state champion as well. Neil Graff, excellent younger player as well. The better Graff compared to Tom. And, of course, everybody knows Levy. And then, let's see, we've got some other excellent players down below. Chris Frame. No, he's a good player. I played David Oliver in Texas. He's an excellent player as well. Tim Sexton of Stern Pinball, great player as well. He will be there. The assassin Cassidy, who's probably the best 14, 15 year old player, like one of the best ones in the world. I mean, not just girl, boy, whatever. She is an excellent player and somebody to really watch out for in the future. I fully believe she will be a future women's world champion at some point when it comes to pinball. And of course, you got Matt, you got Eric, got Bob, love Bob. You got Kerry Wing, who is a former women's world champion. You've got Sunshine, who is the current women's world champion, I believe. You've got Andy Bagwell. You've got, of course, my good buddy Austin from Oklahoma City. You've got Dominic, who's an excellent player that just doesn't get out there too much. But if he did, he would easily be a top 100 player. Then, of course, all of our favorite, I think that's how you call it, are England or UK. Neil McRae, he will be there. So luckily, he was able to get overseas or get across the pond, so to say. I guess that's what you would call it. And then Bo, I got to meet Bo at Cleapen. Excellent player as well. He had a really good finish there. I think he placed in the top eight when he came there. And then, of course, I mean, there's too many other names here. I mean, you got Sam Swain from Wichita. Everybody knows him as the bird guy on all the Stern posts for Code. Of course, you got the Hot Nudge players there as well. I mean, just a lot of people, guys. Just a whole lot of people and very exciting stuff. I know I'm fired up. I know it's been just way too long when it comes to tournaments. I mean, we all had to wait, what was it, 18 months total or somewhere right around there for sanctioned pinball to come back due to COVID. It had been gone from basically March 2020 or mid-March 2020 all the way up through August 1st of 2021. So this right here for me personally, I'm just super excited not only to get to compete, not only get to get out there and see Wisconsin again, see their great community out there, because they all are. It's an excellent place if you get a chance to play. If you get a chance to go there, I highly recommend going there. But I'm also really excited to get to see a lot of friends that I have not seen in well over a year. And quite frankly, Zoom calls and text messages and Facebook messages only do so much. So it's great to see people face-to-face again and get to interact. But yeah, so that's all I got. Again, it will be on Fox Cities over on Twitch. You guys see it right there, October 14th through the 17th. If you're into pinball, if you're into tournament, at pinball. I highly recommend checking it out, but yeah, I might even do some live streams there. I don't know yet. I'm trying to figure out if I can figure out my iPad just to do it from the hotel room. If I have good wifi just to give a report each night, but we'll see. I, it wouldn't shock me if somebody like laser Lowe's ended up streaming live there somehow. I'm sure he can figure it out, but yeah, hopefully we can get some reports going in kind of keep everybody in the loop. But other than that, that's all I got. Thank you guys so much for listening or watching and You guys have an excellent week. If I don't see you on the live streams, I will see you next week. Later, guys. You have just listened to a pinball podcast. You can catch new shows on your favorite podcatcher or over on YouTube.com forward slash Marv Loco for even more pinball content.