it's time for another pinball profile i'm your host jeff teels you can find everything on pinballprofile.com we're on twitter x instagram at pinball profile we've got a great facebook group as well you can email pinballprofile at gmail.com and if you'd like to show your support Don't worry, the show is always free, but it's patreon.com slash pinball profile. And thanks so much to great supporters like Ken G, GME Law, Jake C, Colin M, and more. So I've been following a little bit of baseball. It's what I like to do in October, which led me to Seattle for the American League Championship Series between the Seattle Mariners and the Toronto Blue Jays. And I thought, well, I'm in Seattle. I got to play a little pinball. So in Seattle, I thought I'd check out one of the many pinball places. El Rocco said, you've got to come to Icebox on a Friday night. Why? Because Max Stewart runs great tournaments. Max, you do. How are you doing, Max? Hi, I'm doing great. How are you, Jeff? Is this normal? You've got 55 players. Yeah, I think we average about 60-ish. In the summer, we get around 70. This place is amazing. It's a lot of Jermaine's games. Oh, yeah. Jermaine's got amazing classics here. They're all like restored classics. A whole room of them. I saw even, well, you've got the Bond 60th anniversary on location. You've got that. You've got a lot of great new games. Star Wars, Fall of the Empire is here. But, yeah, the classics. I was playing some Stargazer and Dolly Parton and Dragon Fist, a lot of stirring classics. Pretty cool. You run a great tournament. El Rocco told me, she said, you know what? You've got to go. Max runs a tight ship. Oh, thank you so much. I'm blushing. You can't see it on the recording, but I'm blushing. We need to get that cowbell on this. You know what? In between interviews, we'll use the cowbell as the sound effects. It's very good, and I like that it's well lit. The brews are great, by the way. If you like ciders, Ray Day is a big cider guy, so he told me you've got to have a cider when you come out to Seattle. But the cowbell is very effective. It is very effective. That's been an excellent way to get people smoking all the way out on the street to come in and go to their game. All the best, Max. Thank you. Have a great day, Jeff. All right, she and Ryan said you've got to come here. El Rocco, Leslie Rockman, how are you doing? I'm good. How are you, Jeff? Good to see you. Good to see you, too. I now know why you said, oh, yeah, you got to come to Icebox. Because there's a lot of places. I've been to Shorty's. I've been to Jupiter. But got to come here. I was here for the baseball games. And then I walk in and the first thing that I see is this sign. Friday Night Pinball Champs from last week. Number one, Leslie Rockman. That's why you told me to come. I mean, I happened to win last week. That was a little icing on the cake. It was a little gloat to say the least, but you're an excellent player. And, you know, Expo is going on right now. They've even got the Expo matches on the big screen here. We were watching Ray Day play a little bit. Yeah, no, it's, I don't know, this is like a pinball mecca for me in a way because they're always showing, like, the tournaments that are going on while we're doing a tournament. So we're just, like, immersed in pinball. And Jermaine, who we mentioned earlier, he is running a lot of, I guess, first Sunday big events? Yeah, every month. A big tournament here for Sunday of the month. And it switches between classics and, like, mixed match play. And they're just so much fun. Yeah, fun is the key. And that's what I like, the variety. So what we're doing here on Friday night, a simple three-strikes tournament. Very common for locations, too. And it's working well. Max does a great job. I'm waiting to hear that cowbell right now. Oh, my gosh. Max is my favorite. She's going to blush. Yeah, she already said she was blushing. No, she's, like, my favorite. She does on top of everything. You know, when you said, oh, come to Icebox, I didn't know there was a tournament. I thought we were just going to play, you know, some pinball, you, Ryan, me, we're going to have some fun. But yeah, 55 people out here. And I glad I made the trip because it is fantastic Jermaine machines are tip top I know I seen Icebox on streams before where um definitely jermaine tournaments yeah but what one like it not northwest show but where was it i know i saw a big tournament here once because the name icebox rang a bell oh i'm puzzling you you've lived here a year and a half you're supposed to know this what kind of tour guide are you anyway but it could easily hold it i see a lot of familiar people some friends sean irby's here he you know last time i saw him i think was probably Expo too with his wonderful 8 Ball Beyond machine. He said he had to take it out of wherever the location was and fix it up but I know he's working on other things. That is such a fun game. It really is fun and it's made its way around different bars around here so for a while it was at Georgetown Pizza also which we had like a big women's weekend tournament there and it was in there. It was at a ball. It was here. It's so fun to see pop up. Well, it's great. It's good information for him. Good intel. See how it holds up. I remember playing it and I thought this needs to be mass manufactured. So if you're listening, pinball companies, Sean Irby's the guy and check out his eight ball beyond. It's so much fun. I can't believe I'm not at Expo this year because I was here for the Blue Jays-Seattle Mariners games, having a great time. But I do miss the homebrews, and I've seen a lot, and Sean's might be one of the best ever. It's really polished. It's so fun. Yeah, it's amazing. But again, I find that with great players like Sean, who's an elite player, you know, they really know what to do when it comes to games. Okay, Rocco, we're not at Expo, but have you seen what Barrels of Fun did? And Carl D'Python Anghelo and Winchester. oh it blew my mind i actually grew up down the street from the winchester mystery house that's my hometown yeah but i have never been i think it's because i live so close that my school never decided to do a field trip there but every other every other person i know who like grew up in california had a field trip there every year and i never had it i never went you heard that sound effect sounds like another rounds up but i do want to find out more about winchester anyway Glad to see Barrels of Fun sold out and not surprised. And glad to see Carl making pinball machines. It's amazing. He cuts it so under wraps, and I'm so excited for him. Good luck this round. Thanks. You too. I think it's Ashley Weaver. She kind of looks like Ashley Weaver. If Ashley Weaver was a cat. Ashley, what's going on? It's October. Must be Halloween. Best time of the year. So you told me that you dress up every chance you can during October. I love it. So do I. It really is my favorite. All the costumes. What are your go-to costumes? Well, right now, Kat, I'm building a Poison Ivy. And I'm doing a Western Drag Queen for Hallow Queen next Friday here at Icebox. That's so cool. Yeah. Well, we're here at Icebox. Yeah, the Friday night events. Halloween falls on a Friday night. So you've got to go all out. I know. I know. I don't know if I'll be here then or not, but next weekend is SW2. So we've got a different theme for each day. It's so good. I haven't seen you in a while. Oh, I see everyone once in a while. Of course, I saw you kick butt at Indus a few years ago. At Yagpin. I see you at Yagpin, too. That's right. I'm glad you come. A lot of people here from Seattle, Washington, come up to Edmonton to Yagpin. It's an easy trip. It's an easy flight. Yep. Yep. And it's such a holistic weekend, like a good combination of fun and skill. And it gets better every year, I find. I agree. Totally, totally. Coming up May, long weekend in Canada. So I'll be there. May 14 to 17, roughly around there. And they're expanding, I've been told. Ooh, I hadn't heard that. So a few more players. If you want to get in, it's part of the Sternbro circuit. I've said this before, and I'm not just saying this because I'm Canadian. I go to a lot of tournaments. So do you, Ashley. Yeah. To me it one of the three best Oh it like the one that I won take off my list Oh good Yeah every year yeah That means a lot It my favorite travel tournament Oh that so cool But again Halloween is going to be a big thing here I like seeing all the costumes. I know Expo's going on right now, and they have a little bit of cosplay stuff. Does everyone get into it? Oh, I think so. And next weekend should be pretty popping as far as costumes. I'm really hoping people bring their best out. Like, honestly, if you're going Poison Ivy, literally bring Poison Ivy when you're playing somebody. Leave it on the flippers. Leave it on the flippers. A little sabotage. Yeah. A little poison dust. I don't think. I haven't seen. I've read the rules. I haven't seen anything about that. I haven't seen anything about sabotage. You know, Chris Chin used to bring pizza to grease up the flippers. Yeah. Old specials. I was hoping to see them today. Special tricks. This place. One thing I like about this place here, Icebox, is they have posters everywhere of weekly winners. That is so cool. I know. Isn't that cool? And it really encourages people to try, right? Yeah. I mean, this is a hard tournament. It is. It is hard to win. It is. A three-strike tournament. We already talked to Max. She does a great job. But I guess with Seattle, you can play pretty much every night of the week in some sort of event. There's at least one tournament a night. I think sometimes there's three tournaments on a night. I mean, it's nuts. So is it a rule if you live in Seattle and you don't play pinball, you basically have to leave? I mean, you know, we try and rope as many people into it as we can. including Monday Night Pinball. That's kind of like our kind of introductory drug, if you will. You know what? The problem is stupid things like work and family get in the way. I know. You can't just play pinball every night. The worst. Anyway, Ashley, good to see you. Yeah, you too, Jeff. Thanks. Another player here at Icebox, Andrew Hopper. Good to see you again, buddy. Same, same. I'm not used to seeing you over here as often. Usually I see you at Yankman. That's true. again when in Seattle. You knew I was going to play somewhere, somehow, and I wouldn't want to say I got roped in to come to Icebox. I'm thrilled to be at Icebox. It's a lot of fun. You must get to hang out at so many different places, this being one of them. What else? Oh, yeah. I've got to shout out Kraken, my Monday night league bar over in the University District. No Hellhounds. Olaf's down the other direction over in Ballard. Best collection of games inside of a Doctor Who. I'm on a real Doctor Who kick. and Smoke Shop opened up recently. They rebranded as, I think, Looking Glass Arcade, and they have a good set of games over there too. A lot of places, every night. And I don't know how many games are here. I want to guess 40, 50, I don't know. But not one of them is out of order. Everything's playing great. Tip-top, the lighting is nice, so I definitely recommend this. And if you're recommending those places too, check those out. You know, I was thinking about when we first met, and it was online in a way because I was interviewing you for Pin Slash during the pandemic. That's true, yeah, back in the day, which is absurd to feel. Was it Jurassic or Avengers? Avengers. Avengers was the second one. And I remember watching you on your stream at the time, just going after Avengers over and over and over again. That was, you know, for a terrible time in our life with the pandemic, we certainly made it work, didn't we? Yeah, for sure. It was really cool to see different ways the community would still try and reach out and get to enjoy this thing together in a time where everyone had to be apart. Do you still watch a lot of streams? Not as often as I used to. Now when I do, it's usually more tournaments, especially over here when they're running the tournaments here on Friday night. So we usually have, if not a live event, one of the most recent tournaments up on stream too. So I'll watch between balls. But I'll still pop in every now and then. I enjoy watching Chase from the area. He does a great job. He's been up the Egg Bin before. Yeah, he tends to stream the larger events. He did the Northwest Pinball Championships over in Linwood, and he'll do the arcade show over in Tacoma. The weeklies is usually Jermaine streaming too. He does a great job. Oh, no I did not. Big bonus, great job. Good game. All right Andrew just wrapped up his game with Ashley It was close Ashley had to come back and it funny while I was talking to Ashley Andrew was blowing it up Now I was talking to you I think I a jinx No I think it the opposite I think the conversational tone lets people focus on their game as well Well, anyway, I hope to play you soon. All the best, Andrew. Same, same. Won't be this tournament. I just got knocked out. Oh, no. It's going to be. It's going to be. Ashley's a pretty good player. Absolutely. Anyway, so are you. Good to see you, my friend. Same, same. Hope to play you soon. I was talking about this man earlier with Leslie Ruckman. Sean Irby, local legend. How you doing, buddy? Doing great. How are you? I see you have no strikes. You know, you're really rubbing it into everyone else here. You want to get on that poster, don't you? Oh, yeah, absolutely. It's pretty uncommon for me here. This is a tough, tough tournament. It is a tough tournament, but great games here. Now, I was asking you earlier about your eight ball beyond, which I love, love, love. You've had it on location in a lot of different places. Somebody just goes, yeah, me too. You pulled it out to do some tinkering with it? Yeah, I need to make some updates to it, finish up some code. Yeah, just going to use it as an opportunity to make some updates to it before I put it back out on vacation. It is an absolutely spectacular game. Have you had anybody knock on the door and say, hey, we like that layout? Yeah, but I don't know. So, well, maybe there's a future for it, but I don't think anything in the near term. Was that the goal in a way? No, no, not really. Of course, I thought it would be super awesome if that did happen. But yeah, it was more of just a personal project. Have you been watching, because it's Expo weekend here, have you been watching, you know, whether it's Aaron Davis or some of the other people at Expo in the homebrew section and seen some of the online social media posts? Absolutely. I've been following that for the past couple of days. The FOMO is real. It looks like a lot of fun. What were some of the ones that caught your eyes? I saw that big Trouble in Little China. Yeah, that one from my buddy Kyle. That looks really good. Also the Mad Max game looks pretty sweet. Yeah, what were some of the others there? I want to see that my buddy Ernie also brought a Monsters, Inc. game. It looked like a lot of fun. So yeah, there's a lot of cool games there. It's so much fun. I know you had a ball. I didn't realize you actually made the trek. I know you had to get a pinball machine far, far away, but I didn't realize you were driving to do that. Yeah, that was a multi-day drive from Seattle to Chicago. The drive there was a lot of fun, but getting back was pretty rough. There was a snowstorm, and I don't know, I had to work during the day remotely and could only drive during the night. So, yeah, not going to do that again. Are you working on anything new? Yeah, I've got a Speed Racer game in the works. I knew that. I just didn't know if it was public. Yeah, yeah. And I've been working on it for about a year. So we'll see what that turns into. I'm impressed with what you do, and I know people will be excited to see Speed Racer. I don't know. I think there might be another roundup. We could be up. I didn't hear the cowbell. Yeah, people are playing, so we better get to it. Okay, best of luck, buddy. Thanks, Jeff. this has been your pinball profile you can find us on twitter x instagram at pinball profile we've got a great facebook group as well you can email pinball profile at gmail.com and if you'd like to show your support don't worry the show will always be free but that's patreon.com pinball profile and thank you so much to great sponsors like lua w derrick s Fox Cities Pinball jerry s and more if you're going to seattle be prepared to play some pinball at great places like icebox i'm jeff To unpleasant worlds.