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Episode 335: INDISC 2022 recap

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·35m 59s·analyzed·Feb 20, 2022
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

INDISC 2022 tournament recap with champion interviews and community celebrations.

Summary

Jeff Teolis hosts the Pinball Profile recap of INDISC 2022, a major competitive pinball tournament held in Riverside, California. The episode features interviews with tournament winners and competitors, discusses the logistics of organizing the event, and covers results from multiple tournament divisions including Classics, Women's, and Open categories. Notable winners include Robert (Classics 1), Raymond Davidson (Classics 2), and Kerry Wing (Women's), with tributes to recently deceased legendary player Lyman Sheets.

Key Claims

  • Lyman Sheets has passed away

    high confidence · Jeff Teolis announces 'we've lost Lyman Sheets' and mentions tributes paid by Martin Robbins and others on Final Round episode 50

  • INDISC 2020 was held in Banning, California at the Museum of Pinball

    high confidence · Jeff states 'we last had indisc in 2020 in banning california at the museum of pinball that's gone the location is gone'

  • INDISC 2022 moved to Riverside, California due to Museum of Pinball closure

    high confidence · Jeff explains the facility relocation and credits Jim Belsito, Carl D'Angelo, Bob Matthews, Damian Charletti, Jay Collins and staff for organizing the new venue at a convention center

  • Eric Stone was the previous INDISC Open champion and couldn't defend his title due to work commitments with an NBC affiliate covering the Olympics

    high confidence · Jeff explains 'Eric Stone, the previous champ, couldn't attend because of his work commitments...He works for an NBC affiliate. The Olympics began.'

  • Adam McKinney won the Classics Target Match Play event on Thursday

    high confidence · Jeff states 'That event won by Adam McKinney' and notes McKinney thanked Sunshine Baugh and wife for tips

  • Raymond Davidson won the Classics 2 division at INDISC 2022

    high confidence · Jeff interviews Raymond Davidson who confirms winning Classics 2 and discusses the competitive field including Keith Elwyn and Richie Terry in the finals

  • Kerry Wing won the Women's division at INDISC 2022

    high confidence · Jeff interviews Kerry Wing who confirms she won the Women's Championship and describes the tournament structure

  • Robert from Top Row Pinball won the Classics 1 division

    high confidence · Jeff announces 'big win for this guy from top row pinball if you smell what rob's flipping he's flipping a championship he won the classics one'

Notable Quotes

  • “every time we play one of his games, there'll be a little smile for LFS”

    Jeff Teolis @ early in episode — Tribute to Lyman Sheets, using his initials as shorthand in the community

  • “it is really simple to do to be able to talk to somebody to show that you care and a lot of times that's just the medicine that's required”

    Jeff Teolis @ ~5 minutes — Reflection on mental health and community support following personal struggles and Lyman Sheets' death

  • “if there's a way you can assist, please reach out to any of them. I'm sure they would appreciate it.”

    Jeff Teolis @ ~10 minutes — Calls for volunteer support for large tournament organization efforts

  • “I don't know a person who says a bad word about you and your charity, and everyone wants to support Project Pinball”

    Jeff Teolis @ ~30 minutes — Recognition of Daniel Spohler's charitable work in the pinball community

  • “the top what top 20 players there's all kinds of people here it's just amazing to me”

    Robert (Top Row Pinball) @ ~40 minutes — Comments on competitive field depth at INDISC

  • “if i'm playing well i won't need that advantage right you know and it feels a little unfair to like win through because i'm rules knowledge”

    Raymond Davidson @ ~60 minutes — Demonstrates sportsmanship ethic of top competitive players

  • “I made a spreadsheet and prioritized the ones that I knew versus the ones I didn't in the different eras, and I researched”

    Kerry Wing @ ~75 minutes — Describes preparation methods used by championship-level players

  • “it's one thing to have the skills and practice those type of things, the drop catches, the bounce passes, tap if you can. It's another to have the game's rules knowledge.”

    Jeff Teolis @ ~70 minutes — Analysis of competitive pinball skill hierarchy

Entities

Jeff TeolispersonLyman SheetspersonINDISCeventRaymond DavidsonpersonKerry WingpersonRobertpersonJim BelsitopersonDaniel Spohlerperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Volunteer dependency and operational burden of major tournaments; INDISC organizers working 'hours and days and weeks and months'; Jeff emphasizing need for community support to sustain events

    high · Jeff's extended commentary on Belsito, D'Angelo, Matthews, Charletti, Collins and staff effort; comparison to Pinberg/PAPA; explicit call for volunteer assistance

  • ?

    community_signal: Sportsmanship culture among top competitors; players voluntarily limiting their advantage through rule teaching to newer players

    high · Raymond Davidson's statement about teaching rule knowledge to newer players despite competitive disadvantage; Jeff's praise of this behavior as 'good karma'

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinball community rallying around Lyman Sheets' death; tributes across multiple podcasts (Final Round episode 50) and recognition of his impact as designer, player, and mentor

    high · Jeff's opening segment on Lyman, emphasis on his influence, and call for community mental health support

  • ?

    community_signal: Regional pinball scenes revitalizing post-pandemic; UK venues reopening (Pinball Republic/Flipout), California leagues active, UK Pinfest scheduled, North American tournaments resuming full scale

    high · Neil McRae discussion of UK scene reopening; Leslie Ruckman on SF league; Jeff noting 'Pinball's coming back, and with a vengeance, too'; Wisconsin, New England leagues mentioned

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Classics tournaments emphasizing breadth of game knowledge; 18-game INDISC format requiring players to maintain competency across diverse eras and rulesets; top players using video study and spreadsheet preparation

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.108

0:00
it's time for another pinball profile my name is jeff tiolis you can find everything on pinballprofile.com all past episodes subscriptions and more you can join our facebook group we're on twitter and instagram at pinball profile and you can email pinball profile at gmail.com before we talk about what an incredible in-disc tournament we just had a little bit of housekeeping first off A massive thank you to Stephen Bowden, Tracy Lindberg, Travis Murry, Mrs. Pinn, and Dr. Pinn for filling in for me and providing some wonderful pinball profile episodes. Thank you very much for that. I know you're bummed I'm back, but they did such a wonderful job, and I can't thank them enough. Secondly, since the last time we spoke, we've lost Lyman Sheets, and we've heard wonderful tributes everywhere. I know Martin Robbins and myself, we put our thoughts together on Final Round, episode 50, and I welcome you to listen to that. Other podcasts have done a wonderful job as they pay respects to not only the greatest coder in pinball, one of the best players, what a wonderful man, great sense of humor, intelligent, and a wonderful partner to Penny Epstein. So we certainly think of Lyman, and we will for quite some time. I mean, every time we play one of his games, there'll be a little smile for LFS. But I certainly hope Penny, his family, and friends are doing well. And the last thing I'd like to say is I can't thank you enough. I'm talking about the people listening to this episode, the people that have sent me messages, posts. Very overwhelming. Unbelievably supportive. I saw it firsthand at InDesk with people coming up to me and asking, is everything okay? And I appreciate that. It seems for now all matters of concern have been settled. but quite honestly, as we just mentioned Lyman, when I think of whatever problems I or others have, there are bigger ones out there. And that perspective was important. And again, being able to talk about Lyman, like Martin and I did on final round, it helped us share our emotions, our thoughts, and maybe perhaps someone listening will open communications to help prevent any depressions or other things that people may have because it is really simple to do to be able to talk to somebody to show that you care and a lot of times that's just the medicine that's required so thank you everybody i know indisc was the prescription i needed because it was as it always has been wonderful but a lot of changes have happened we last had indisc in 2020 in banning california at the museum of pinball that's gone the location is gone so jim belcido carl d'angelo Bob Matthews, Damian Charletti, Jay Collins, the entire staff worked hours and days and weeks and months to put this event together in Riverside, California at a convention center. Lots of space, wonderful lighting, safety precautions, and a lot of hauling pinball machines, getting them tested. If you could only see what was done behind the scenes, you'd probably appreciate it even more than you do. Case in point, think of the efforts that we saw with Pinberg and the PAPA staff and everybody there in Pittsburgh who put on that incredible event and it just got bigger and bigger. Well, that's what Indisc is doing, but it does take a lot of volunteers, assistants, both physical, financial, mental, all those things. And we should really be thankful every time we have this and not expect it just to be there because it is a lot of work for those individuals. So if there's a way you can assist, please reach out to any of them. I'm sure they would appreciate it. It was quite the build-up. In fact, a lot of interaction too on Discord, which was a lot of fun, not only just for the trivia, but all kinds of information, updates. I thought that was really well put together. And then we get to this facility, and there were just so many things to do. It was nice. There was a little free play area. That was fun, but there was so much tournament activity. It was just go, go, go. I mean, a lot of tournament activity. It began on Thursday with the Classics Target Match Play. That event won by Adam McKinney. I liked on IE Pinball how he thanked Sunshine Baugh and his wife for a little bit of tips here and there on some of the games. Great couple, wonderful players, both of them, and it was really nice to see Adam kick off with the big win. So Thursday you could play in the Classics Target Match Play if you had been pre-registered. There were a few walk-ups because we had some weather issues, some flight issues, but still lots to do even if you showed up on Thursday because you could play in the high stakes event. You could play in the women's. And of course, you could play in the open. There was going to be a new champ this year because Eric Stone, the previous champ, couldn't attend because of his work commitments. He had told me back in Freeplay Florida, it was kind of an all-hands-on-deck situation. He works for an NBC affiliate. The Olympics began. The timing just didn't work out for Eric. So we will get to that new champion. And all the champions, there was Classics 1, there was Classics 2 we mentioned the women's, the open and even the high stakes and if that wasn't enough which it was if you happened to show up on Wednesday the day before, you could head to Anaheim and check out this little tournament going to Captain's Auction Warehouse and I'm in a car right now I think I'm on Highway 91 this is the scary part Neil McRae is driving from the UK and he is having trouble finding the steering wheel O'Neill, you're doing a good job so far. Yeah, not bad. Unfortunately, there's oncoming traffic. I seem to be on the wrong side of the road. Or rather, everyone else is on the wrong side of the road. Well, thank God we have riding shotgun Jonathan Soon, who's certainly a veteran at Captains. Jonathan, I think you're going to be doing the streaming tonight for... What's the event going on? Yeah, so basically there's going to be a pre-index tournament. And it is 2x multi-table and I think six rounds, no finals. And, you know, these are nice, happy people here to sort of add to the mix. just to kind of even things out, we've got Kate Martin here. Hi, Kate. I'm a ray of sunshine.

Project Pinball founder Daniel Spohler traveled from Florida to California for a dedication and INDISC

high confidence · Daniel states 'We did a trip from Florida all the way to California coast to be out here for a dedication and now an end desk'

  • Free Gold Watch League in San Francisco has 80+ participants with highly competitive play

    high confidence · Leslie Ruckman states 'The Free Gold Watch League has like 80-something people. and just every week. There's no easy groups.'

    • Carl D'Angelo
    person
    Leslie Ruckmanperson
    Adam McKinneyperson
    Eric Stoneperson
    Keith Elwynperson
    Richie Terryperson
    Joe Lemaireperson
    Billy Brown IIIperson
    Andrew Fosterperson
    Project Pinballorganization
    Free Gold Watch Leagueorganization
    Neil McRaeperson
    IE Pinballorganization
    Museum of Pinballorganization

    high · Raymond Davidson's comments on game selection strategy; Kerry Wing's preparation methods; Jeff's analysis of skill hierarchy beyond execution mechanics

  • ?

    event_signal: INDISC 2022 successfully held in new Riverside location after Museum of Pinball closure; significant logistical achievement with multiple tournament divisions

    high · Jeff's detailed account of venue change, organizer credits, and successful execution of Classics 1, Classics 2, Women's, Open, High Stakes, and Target Match Play divisions

  • $

    market_signal: Women's competitive pinball participation growing; dedicated Women's division at major tournament with competitive field making top 16; multiple female players (Kerry Wing, Leslie Ruckman, others) competing across divisions

    medium · Women's tournament at INDISC with described competitive field; Kerry Wing's championship; Leslie Ruckman's advancement; Jeff mentions Bells and Chimes organization (women's pinball league)

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Keith Elwyn and Raymond Davidson competing at highest levels; both participate in Classics finals, indicating continued dominance of elite designer-players in competitive scene

    high · Classics 2 finals lineup includes both Keith Elwyn and Raymond Davidson; Raymond's comments on teaching and rules knowledge suggest ongoing competitive participation

    • 5:59
    You were complaining about the sunshine in the car a second ago. I am a pale ray of sunshine. This will be fun, and it'll be nice to see Cece again, who you did the women's tournament with at Expo. Yes, Cece was a huge help because she kept coming up to me and saying, hey, these parts of your game are broken. I'd be like, thank you, but I don't know how to fix it, and then someone eventually would help. Thank goodness. Well, good job on that, and of course, Whipped and everything else that you've done, a lot for bells and chimes, And Neil, what's it been like in the UK for you and your London club? Great. We had to rename. We're now no longer Flipout. We're now called the Pinball Republic. Still in the same place, still the same great games. We're lining up for some big weekend tournaments, kind of whopper forms. So if you're in London, come on down. We've also got UK Pinfest at the end of August. It's a big show, our big pinball show in the UK, in the middle of England. Great venue and great people and great food. So come down if you're in Europe at the end of August. But, yeah, we're living with COVID. We're trying to have events. I've had a few events at my house, and there's been a couple of other events. But starting to get back to some semblance of normality, whatever normality ever was. Fingers crossed indeed, Neil. And, Jonathan, okay, give us a little bit of this Southern Cal scene. Where are some of the hot spots? All right, everyone knows about Ace Goge. I'm just going to try to do this alphabetically. And that's obviously in Van Nuys. It's another location in West Hills. There's also Captain's Arcade Showroom, which is where we're heading now. That's definitely a great hot spot. And then, of course, we have the Riverside Game Lab, where it's like right near Indisc, actually, like Cat Corner almost, if you actually want to get some, you know, beers and some games in. And, of course, Lake Alice is on the street. That's where the IE Pinball League meets. And then San Diego has a bunch of venues. They have Brewskis, and they have Harbortown, a bunch of other places, Arrow Club. And one more thing, I want to give a shout-out to Jay Collins, runs Mission Control. It is 50-cent games, and they're really well-maintained because he literally lives like four blocks away. Jay Collins, one of the people behind InDisc, he's been doing a great job. In fact, his roller games is there, which is great because it's set up so that sudden death only happens every four times in the pit, which is better than playing random. And what's it like in New York? How are things in Brooklyn? Things are slowly getting back to normal. We've got a bells and chimes season. Finals are happening when I get back on Tuesday. We've had decent turnout, about 15 women every meet. And we're wearing masks and stuff to be extra safe, though most of us caught COVID in that big Omicron wave that happened. And I'm running a selfie team league, which has been very complicated. And those finals happen basically after I land. I go directly to run them Monday night. So pinball's alive and well in New York, I'm thrilled to say. Sounds good. New York, California, the UK, even up in Canada. Pinball's coming back, and with a vengeance, too. So thanks, everyone, and we'll talk again soon. Yay. Bye.
    8:56
    Look who made it from Alabama here to Indisc It Chris Warren and Timothy Street Timothy aren you supposed to be in school It college They way more lax on that Take your college not too serious You wind up like this guy Hi Chris How are you I'm doing great. How are you doing, Jeff?
    9:11
    I thought you'd be at the Crimson Tide Victory Parade. Oh, too soon? We've had our moments. It just wasn't our year. But, you know, I'm more about the pinball than the football anyway. Okay. Timothy? I mean, second place in a rebuilding year. You can't really get too mad at that. I know. And they're in the toughest division. I'll give you that. So how have you been playing? Not too bad today. Have you been out much, Chris, since the pandemic and since we've kind of got things back going again? Is this your first biggie? No, actually, I had my best weekend ever at Cincinnati recently. Yeah, that's a good one in December. Second on the first day and first on the second day. Holy cow. Yeah, me and Del Zoppo got to duke it out. That's pretty good. Timothy, what about you? I haven't been anywhere. Okay, so it's just nice to get out. Yeah. And how was traveling to get here? It was not bad. We were a little worried about the weather, but we just flew right over the top of it, yeah. Perfect. All right, back to school for you, Timothy.
    10:07
    Have a good one, guys. Thank you. Every time we see this man, there's usually a lot of smiles behind a lot of people because of what he does with Project Pinball. Daniel Spohler is here at Indus. How are you doing, Daniel? I'm doing quite well. How about yourself? Good, thank you. A lot of miles on the car, but for good reason? Oh, definitely. We did a trip from Florida all the way to California coast to be out here for a dedication and now an end desk. It's great to see you here, and the number of machines you put across the country is just spectacular. It's a lot of hard work. I don't know a person who says a bad word about you and your charity, and everyone wants to support Project Pinball. It's a grind, though. It's not easy. You and Sierra do a wonderful job, but I know I want to thank you for that. Well, thank you. I appreciate all your support over the years and everybody in this building. They are passionate about pinball, and they can realize what we're doing with the pinball machine when we give it to a family in need in one of these hospitals or Ronald McDonald homes. Where can people find out more? Where's the website? Projectpinball.org. Daniel, safe travels and good to see you again Thank you Jeff, always a pleasure seeing you my friend He came a long way to come to Indisc and it was pretty much worth it because he was a top three finisher at the Classics Target Match Play Andrew Foster from the UK Hi Andrew, how are you? Hi, I'm fine, thank you I think I've only seen you twice on this side of the pond and both times pretty impressive so far at Indisc but also I remember a few years ago at Pinberg seeing you on the big stage That's right, the two and only times I've been to the States I've been to pinball shows and that's that's right so twice in well what would have been obviously before corona obviously before corona so it's been a while we miss it but i'm trying to figure out okay so you've had two top finishes in your two appearances here in north america do i think okay we're not as good as the people in the uk or you're just a damn good pinball player it's one of maybe it's both maybe both but i always come over i was giving my best shot pretty good so how long you've been Playing, where are you playing in England? In England these days, there's not really that much of a pinball scene, although we have got speciality clubs such as Tilt, Flip Out, Domino. We've got Chief Coffee. We've got all the nice places to go, obviously. Died out in the seaside towns. That's where I started. Played my first machine when I was two years old. I used to have to literally stand on the bucket to see over the top of the machine. I was too small when I started. That's good. Buckets are fine. Yeah, buckets are fine. Not when you're a little kid and you get excited. Jump about and they crack as you're playing. All you need is a ball for that. Yeah, you might wipe out for sure. Now, England's had a great tradition of incredible players. We know Martin from Pinball News was the champ for years and years. Peter Blakemore is another fine player. But who are some of the top players? Who are some of your rivals now? The highest top players in England will be the likes of Rich Mallett and Greg Martz, Peter Blakemore. Obviously, Martin's retired. Martin's semi-retired now. We've got Craig Pullen, who's a really, really good player. We've got Matt Vince. And apologies if I missed anybody off. Well, you didn't say Neil McRae, and I think he's going to be a little upset, but we'll just throw him in there to be nice. Yeah, we'll just mention him. Sorry, Neil. Yes, he was meant to be included as well. All the best. Thanks very much, Andrew. Thanks very much. Thank you.
    13:26
    A staple in California, more on the northern side. Leslie Ruckman here. Elle Rucko, how are you doing? Good. How are you? You had a pretty good card there I just saw on the women's. I did, finally. I was on the edge, so I can relax a little bit now. How great is that bank? You have to be thrilled. Like, that's a cool women's bank. The women's bank at InDesk is always really good. Yeah, it's nice. Jim gives a special treatment, I feel. Right now, as we speak, sitting fourth and top 16 make it, so that'll be exciting. And, again, all these are being streamed on IE Pinball, and they'll be vaunted so you can see perhaps Leslie win it all. How are you doing in the other tournaments? I did okay. I put some good games. I actually had, like, some really good scores, just all on different cards. You know, I've seen how you play. The first time I remember, remember clearly because we played head-to-head. I can't remember the game. It was Fishtails. I was going to say it's like an 80s, 90s game. It was Fishtails. And just watching drop catch after drop catch. This is at Free Gold Watch in San Francisco. It was the first ever Pinball Profile World Tour night. And I said to you, Leslie, I'm like, does everyone know how to play pinball in San Francisco? Because it was ringer after ringer after ringer. Oh, yeah. We have a real tough group there. It's something. Yeah. The Free Gold Watch League has like 80-something people. and just every week. There's no easy groups. And friendly people, wonderful location. First met Manu Smith there and all the great people there. Jessica, I had a real kick out of her. And it's a good place. I assume City Champ's going to be big this year? Yeah, I think that's getting close to being announced soon. I'm really excited to have it back. I think it's the end of summer, so maybe I'll have to put that on my calendar. It was a lot of fun. It's great seeing you once again. Thanks very much, Leslie. Thank you. big win for this guy from top row pinball if you smell what rob's flipping he's flipping a championship he won the classics one congratulations robert thank you mr tiolis i appreciate that pretty intense stuff uh you've always liked the classics but still this is one of your biggest wins and and we're talking about a guy who's won the tpf wizards championship but this was exciting yeah it hadn't settled in yet which one is bigger i mean tpf main tournament championship was pretty awesome but look at the field here the top what top 20 players there's all kinds of people here it's just amazing to me and it's a definitely a boost in my confidence to be able to keep up with some of the guys I I idle and watch play talk about your group of death and group one to get to the classic smiles this was top 32 making the playoffs but that group of one do you remember Right, yeah, I walked in, it's Jermaine, Adam Lefkoff, and Kaylee. And I'm like, oh boy. And like, if you make it through that group, now your nerves are like, well, dang, here I make it through that group. Maybe I'll make it through all the rest of the groups. You can do anything, but that is true for pinball for everyone, right? I mean, anybody can have a good game, good balls, so you can have bad ones too. But you really zoned in, it was nice to see. And I know one of your goals is to make IFA 18 in Germany. sure thing i mean i've got a couple uh small baby scores on my 20 so if i replace an eight with an 80 that's gonna do me lots of good lots of good we love watching you on twitch it's a lot of fun and uh you put in a lot of hard work a lot of costume changes have you ever thought about maybe the theater uh no no because um what i do is is uh for comedy purposes not for talent purposes you know there's some unintended comedy in there too just want to point that out we love it it's So much fun. And you can check it out on TPN. Robert, congrats on the big win. You're going to be on the banner. I know. The banner number two. One at TPF and one here. It's going to be great. Then a trophy is awesome, too. Well, there's a third one, too. I saw your name on a bathroom wall for a good time. But that's another story. Thanks, Robert. Yeah, thanks, Jeff. Take it easy. So many memories at Indus from years past. And, of course, new memories here in 2022. And my last memory of being here was playing in the playoffs against this next person. and he beat me. But we're still friends anyway. Joe Lemaire. Hey, buddy. How are you? Good. How are you, Jeff? Do you remember the game? Ah, I do not. My memory is garbage. See, when you beat so many people, it's just all a blur to Joe Lemaire. It was Alice Cooper you picked. Oh, yes. Okay. Yep. Dirty Pool. He almost never knows how to play it. Me being stuck in whatever the upper playfield mode is forever. I remember that now. But, I'll say this. You know what? Yeah, I didn't know the game, But it didn't matter. I remember you blew it up. I was standing beside John Cosson. He knows all his spooky games. And you crushed it. So how are you doing so far? Not great. I see you still playing in Classics Or you lasted longer than me Well that the kiss of death I just got knocked I was ninth so that was one point off Oh well Hey I got out in the first round so congratulations on at least getting ninth You know what? When you come to Indisc, no matter how good a player you are, I mean, anybody can have some great success on three, four, five games, and then next thing you know, wow, you know you're out. And that being said, it's a challenge to make any of these playoffs. Oh, it's brutal, yeah. I mean, and it's classic, so it's like you can just get terrible games that are just, you know, like I played Jungle Princess and I plunged the ball in five different places and I never could get the lanes up top. Sometimes it just doesn't work out. Okay, can I say it, and I don't like to crap on games, but I can't stand games where you plunge, you won. That's true. Yeah, but like games like that where if you get like, you know, bonus advances and upper lanes and stuff like that, it makes a huge difference. But on the other hand, like I played nine ball and I hit the skill shot and immediately died. So, you know, sometimes even if you do make the right skill shot, it doesn't mean that the ball is going to make it to a flipper. It wasn't the juiciest spinner on nine ball, but still a fun game. But yeah, I just think of that Jungle Princess, Jungle Queen, those type of games and Strikes and Spares. I mean, I like both those games except for the plunge. Strikes and Spares, you don't get the B. There goes your spinner. Yeah, it's like Aztec. I got in qualifying, I got really screwed by Aztec. but yeah i mean some some of those games can be fun as long as they're not like too grossly balanced that way but like it's a huge thing like on games like arcacy too if you can plunge and get it into the little over uh rollover at the top or the switch at the top to get your gate so it can make a huge difference but you know but they're all classics and that's just the way it works so what's next for you some new england pinball league action i assume eventually when it comes back it's uh delayed right now yeah for now and see if it ends up coming back but um yeah right now it's just trying to right now i'm trying to just qualify in the open have you qualified yet jeff no comment by the way it's friday yeah it's friday there's lots of time there's not lots of time no i i feel like just i'm uh i'm just chasing something that i can't get to some way somehow i've seen you pull it out and maybe you'll do it again good to see you again joe good to see you big winner in the classics and how about this for our final round raymond davidson keith elwyn and richie terry who really played well too but you came out on top way to go thank you yeah it was amazing seeing like everyone played so good all day and those it was a crazy final three i mean if you're gonna win it's you gotta be against the best and uh the best were definitely there that day and i'm really happy with how i played and uh yeah i had a lot of fun playing i love this tournament and uh classics aren't usually my forte and that's what i've been really focusing on so it's cool to see you know get something back from it and uh yeah i have to admit i watched you in an earlier round of paragon and it inspired me a little bit when i had to play the game but uh you blew that up you blew up everything really but what a nice mix and this kind of format too you have to be great on all your games but when you have 18 in the lineup you pretty much have to have, I don't know, four top tens, four top 20s to get in the dance? Yeah, it was more about having a number one and then having three not terrible games. One bleeder and you're dead. Which usually getting a number one is really hard. But again, getting a number one when there's 18 different games to pick from, some of the scores are lower than you would think just because there's less games being played on them. And that's how I qualified both times. I had one really solid game that kind of boosted my other mediocre ones. it's very interesting for at least a classic standpoint having this many games for such a short period of time it was like at one point in the first day if you average like the 12th score or something that wasn't enough you wouldn't have qualified with four top 12 scores like it's a hard qualifying i know you've been working with ryan wanger a little bit comet pinball but more lions classics how's that oh it's been great i mean i just kind of sit there i get to play pinball sometimes, fixed games sometimes. But yeah, it's mostly sitting there. But it's really cool meeting people because you can really tell like when someone walks in and they're not just here to play pinball, they're here to play pinball, like they're here to learn. And that's really cool to see. And it's fun going up and talking to them, you know, maybe teaching them something or yeah, just meeting new people. I've said this to you before, but maybe not on pinball profile, but I do want to say this, you know, here is a guy who is going to be a number one player very soon in the world he is certainly one of the world's greatest but every time i'm playing you i see others play you you kind of ask people do you know how to play the game and you tell them how to play the game and that could be giving away an advantage but it still comes down to the shots but i like that sportsmanship about you yeah especially like when you see someone that steps up and they read the rule card and he you know i've played this game like for example it happened on strikes and spares right i'm playing strikes and spares and person's reading the rule card and it's like you know it's like oh here you shoot the be landing shoot the spinner and if the scoop's lit you hit it it's like there's stuff like that because if i'm playing well i won't need that advantage right you know and it feels a little unfair to like win through because i'm rules knowledge yeah i'm great well i'm very grateful because at home i have a bunch of games and i have arcades all around me but not everyone has access to that well it's good karma too and that's probably another reason why you're such a great champ congratulations esther thank you there's always been a great source of pinball players competitions and wonderful people too from the portland oregon area here's another one billy brown the third how are you doing billy i'm good sweating a little bit even though i'm relatively safe judging by the scores alone but the tilt bob fell off of the game and the ruling was play on so this is we're talking about royal rumble right now we're in the quarterfinals uh billy's got five points colin who put up a great score six point so if one of those two win you advance to the semis and yes this is when we're recording it but by the time this airs you could have won it all i doubt that very much i'm not an expert at several of these machines i picked my games carefully for my qualifying and i'm super thrilled to have made it as far as i did of course 280 people that are below you think you are an expert at this game i want to play there are definitely some gaps in this lineup yeah absolutely I mean, it's an interesting lineup. Mystery Castle, you never know where you stand in that game. You can't even see on the display. Yeah, that was consistently on my tickets. I was really comfortable on that one. Good shot.
    24:28
    It shoots very smoothly. Yes. Also, the tilt has a little leeway. I'm an extremely physical player. So I was gravitating toward all the games that have somewhat looser tilts. But it's got to be nice for you to be back in SoCal, right? You were originally from here? Yes. Just walking around, it's really beautiful. especially in wintertime. Portland is beautiful in the springtime and the fall, but a little bit gloomy in February, so this is a great vacation. You don't have to tell me, coming from Canada. Billy, all the best. I'll let you get back to your action. Thank you, Jeff. Pleasure talking. If you're ever looking for this woman at a tournament, find out where the playoffs are and maybe even the championships. Good chance you'll see Kerry Wing there, the women's champ at Indus. Congratulations. Thank you. I just found out that I won $850, which is great because I'm playing high stakes right now. You know how that goes. It can get very expensive very quickly. But it's been a great weekend, great tournament, great run, like so many good games and good people. So I'm having a great time. In gambling, they call that you're playing with house money now. So this is just, you know, maybe you can parlay it. Who knows? Exactly. But tell us about the Women's Championship. It was a good field and top 16 made it. And I guess you got to drive the bus there in the finals. Yes. I really liked the games that they chose for women, so that was helpful. And some of them had been used in previous in-disc events, and I was able to watch gameplay videos of them. So I got to where I was feeling fairly comfortable on most of them, which was a really good place to be. So, yeah, I used a lot of my top picks early in the rounds. So later it was kind of a gamble, like, do I pick something that I don't like as much, or do I defer and hope they pick one of my favorite games? So it got kind of interesting there in the end. This is some good advice. It's kind of next level for great players like yourself, Carrie. It's one thing to have the skills and practice those type of things, the drop catches, the bounce passes, tap if you can. It's another to have the game's rules knowledge. But you watched videos of the old games. That's next level. I figured it's something other people do. I find out some people do, some people don't. First I heard of it. Really? Mental note. Yeah, so one of my best turnouts this year was the Wisconsin Super Series, which was a great event. And for that event, there was 100 machines, so it was a lot to study, and I wasn't sure if I was going to get through them all. But I made a spreadsheet and prioritized the ones that I knew versus the ones I didn't in the different eras, and I researched. I only got to 40 out of 100 but just knowing 40 of them really well helped me enough in that event across six tournaments so the strategy of studying ahead of time has worked well for me it can be little things like learning where the scoops go how good are the flippers for bouncing and where the shots are on the flippers so okay i'm going to that super series in april i better make some notes thanks for the lesson gary and congratulations your name on the banner here that's exciting yeah thank you so much it was a great group of women that played and we had a lot of fun on that Last game of Farboy.
    27:26
    Awesome. Way to go. Thank you. It's been a few hours, so it's finally settled in, hopefully for you, although you're going to be feeling this for years to come. Zach McCarthy, the winner of the IFP Open and the new world champion. How exciting is that? Oh, it's amazing. I mean, you said it's been a couple hours, so it must have sunk in, but I don't think it has. It's just I can't believe it, really. You're not going to be able to sleep tonight. No, there's no way. No way. 16, so impressive. and what a field, too, to win against the competition you had to go against. Yeah, I mean, you know, everyone played amazing, and the competition is just insane. You know, there's so many good players. You know, it just happened to be my day today, but, you know, in a lot of other scenarios, there's so many other great players that could have won this. It came down to a bunch of games. The final game, Mystery Castle. Would you have ever thought Mystery Castle? I mean, you practice. You learn the rules on everything. Did you know anything about Mystery Castle before coming into this? No, yeah. So when Mystery Castle was announced, Escher said I might be good at it, and so he just told me how to play it. And so, yeah, first time I played it was here in the bank, and I played it. It ended up on my final ticket. So something was right there. So I was glad that it was Mystery Castle instead of some of the other games on this bank. Colin Urban, great finish for him, too, coming second two years in a row. Pretty impressive, too. But I was thinking you were at a little bit of an advantage because with Mystery Castle, once you got into some of those modes, you never saw the score. And because you went fourth, Colin had no idea what he needed to get. He just knows, I can't drain. But, you know, he had to catch you there, and you obviously had the plunge off once you knew you won. But that's a big disadvantage for someone like Colin, not being able to see the score. Yeah, it's unfortunate with a lot of the games of this era. You know, they did things that they weren't really thinking would affect tournament players, but it did. But, yeah, you know, I got lucky a little bit on Mystery Castle with getting my skull a little early, and that definitely benefited with letting me take that win. But yeah, as you were saying, like, Colin Urban is just such a phenomenal player and played great, like, the entire tournament. Of course, you can see the stream on IE Pinball, and the finals began with a game of roller games. You want to talk about a deficit. You had 200,000 going into your last ball. I don't think you had, you might have one lock, whereas, you know, you had 1.3, another 1.6 and then you were way behind and just a great ball three. Yeah, that was also just another terrifying game. This tournament was filled with them, it seems.
    29:56
    Yeah, just another ball three comeback that worked out well this time. What it tells people though is you're never out of it. It doesn't matter. If you've got a ball, you've got a chance. Oh yeah. All you need is one. All you need is one ball. One of my favorite lines on the stream was when Tim Sexton said earlier as he's watching yourself, Zach, he's watching of course Asher, Walt Wood, who a lot of people really got to learn his gameplay, Jordan as well.
    30:20
    He's watching all of you guys blow this up, and he said, how does the machine know these guys are from Colorado?
    30:27
    Yeah, I don't know, something in the water in Colorado, I guess. It's great that we have such an amazing competitive field there. I think it helps us all just become better players by playing against each other in our local monthlies and stuff like that. pretty exciting i know you won pin clash earlier last year that was nice on avengers it was fun to actually learn the game from people like yourself expo was a close one too you came second to escher and now you finally went over the top with a major world champion yeah yeah it's it's just amazing what a year it's been really i think you have many of these years to come at such a young age and such an incredible skill congratulations once again zach well i appreciate that thank you Thank you so much. You know her from the IFPA Women's Advisory Board, Kim Martinez. Her first trip to Indus, what did you think? It was actually really wonderful. I heard that this was a new venue. I thought everything looked really well. I met a lot of our vendors now that I work with Marco. You know, vendors that I know by name, but I haven't quite gotten to see and talk to face-to-face. So Ryan with Comet, Jay with Scorbit. so a lot of different people that I've gotten to actually meet face to face and that was enjoyable this was quite possibly the most terrifying qualifying format I have ever been a part of the card format is terrifying but now you can say you've done it okay okay so the fear factor's gone a little bit no no no you're a great player Kim come on um no I did not qualify for anything you're one of many here do you know how tough it is to qualify for this with that ticket i do know now uh and i also know that i am not a consistent player at all well consistency is the key with this type of format but you never know a game you think might have been terrible you don't know what everyone else did you don't know what's on the tickets it's interesting that is true also a game that you thought you did fairly decent at and then you look and you're like oh i'm you know 60th got it well it is a lot of fun i'm sure you'll be back you're doing great things with marco how are you liking it in south carolina uh it's definitely warmer than uh than ohio especially right now so i'm kind of happy but no i've had a lot of fun there i've learned a lot in a very short amount of time and it's been a very interesting growing process and i've been i'm really excited for the future i'm really excited to do more with marco you're going to be forced to see me more often good no because i'll be traveling more but that's great i think everyone at marco does a great job you and imoto harney were here and did wonderful things and keeping things going behind the scenes and it's very very important for big tournaments like indus so we certainly need volunteers like yourself and marco has been such a wonderful sponsor again it's the sponsorships that make this kind of thing happen so kim i'm glad you had a good time i hope you and imoto have safe travels back it's nice to see you again thank you Thank you, Jeff. I'm trying to figure out what this guy's title is, because if you look at the apron on Godzilla, it's got some, I don't know what it says. I thought it was the designer, but what does it say in that corner?
    33:36
    The scribble? Yeah. Well, that's your signature. Well, when you sign a thousand of those things, yeah. Here he is from Stern Pinball and the high stakes winner and well worth the wait. I know how tired you are, but the money makes it easier. Keith Allen, congrats. I can afford to get dinner now. Have you not eaten yet? No. Oh, my God. Yeah, it's going to be takeout, but you could buy dinner for a few people with that win. That was exciting. Yeah, that was fun. We were all dead tired, and that was part of the fun. Yeah, it would be nice if this was his own single-day event. It could be with the number of people that were in. Over 160, they had to expand the playoffs, but you had such a great showing in the whole tournament. I know how much you love Indus because you don't get out to many tournaments, do you? No, not anymore, but I always try to make it to Indus because it's California. It's my home. Got a chance to see some family and stuff, which is nice. Yep, got to see my family and going to relax in Palm Springs for a couple days before heading back to beautiful snowy Chicago. By the way, we're loving the Godzilla updates. Pretty impressive. The cities mean something now, don't they? They do. Yeah, more to come. A lot more. Yeah, only 0.9. So, yeah, it's very exciting. But, wow, that high stakes final. So you've got yourself, you've got Escher, you've got Johnny Modica who made it through. I think you helped him too in Taxi, by the way, when you unlocked the balls, gave him an extra rip on the spin. I was just, I don't know, I wasn't trying that hard, but I didn't want to leave a locked ball. And Ray Day, he came in second place in high stakes. So what's it going to be like at Stern this week? Is it going to be a few words? No, I don't think Ray does even have an office.
    35:06
    Hey, congrats. I know you want to get something to eat. Keith, congrats. Thanks, Jeff. As you can hear, Indisc, another huge success. Mark it on your calendar for next year, whether it's going to be in January or February. it is the must go to for pinball activity certainly for competitions the passion of the organizers is really second to none and we are so thankful for Indus this has been your pinball profile you can find everything on pinballprofile.com all the subscriptions, past episodes and more we are on Instagram and Twitter at pinballprofile please join our Facebook group and of course you can email pinballprofile at gmail.com it's good to be back I'm Jeff Teolis
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    © transcript Emily Beynon