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Episode 290: Karl’s Wizard Modes and PinClash

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·27m 34s·analyzed·Dec 4, 2020
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Karl DeAngelo discusses wizard mode grinds and announces PinClash tournament details.

Summary

Jeff Teolis interviews Karl DeAngelo about his wizard mode completion project on IE Pinball and the upcoming PinClash tournament. Karl discusses challenges completing wizard modes on 24, Big Buck Hunter, and other Stern games, reflecting on optimal wizard mode length (25-30 minutes) and the importance of code quality in game design. The conversation covers his streaming work, tournament history at Pinberg, and detailed logistics for PinClash—a heads-up competitive tournament on Jurassic Park featuring 24 qualified players competing for $1,000 prize money on December 5th.

Key Claims

  • 24's wizard mode is approximately 20 minutes long when completed perfectly, compared to 30-40 minutes for most modern wizard modes

    high confidence · Karl states: 'the game itself isn't that long. What, maybe 20 minutes compared to most modern wizard modes that the games can take 30, 40 or more.'

  • Code quality is more important than playfield layout in determining game enjoyment

    medium confidence · Karl: 'I lean more towards the code, to be honest. I think code can save a game. If it's programmed well and balanced well and it's interesting to play, it can overcome some shots that may not be as enjoyable to shoot.'

  • The ideal wizard mode completion time is 25-30 minutes

    high confidence · Karl: 'I think 25 to 30 is a good range if we're talking just length of time that I want to be playing a single game.'

  • PinClash had 24 qualified players who all completed Escape Nublar in under 4 minutes

    high confidence · Jeff: 'You have 24 incredible players that had to qualify by doing Escape Nublar, which is not easy in its own to do, but all these 24 people did it under four minutes.'

  • Jurassic Park was selected for PinClash because it was the most commonly owned game among participants, with Iron Maiden finishing five games behind

    high confidence · Karl: 'What was the most common? What was owned by most of the participants? And it was really close between that or Iron Maiden. I think Iron Maiden ended up five games under Jurassic Park.'

  • The $1,000 first prize for PinClash comes from Karl's Twitch earnings from BigBuckHunter wizard mode streams

    high confidence · Karl: 'I made a decision because originally I had this money earmark, basically. It was the money that I've earned on Twitch from BigBuckHunter, you know, from my Wizard Mode streams basically this year.'

  • InDisc January 2021 is unlikely to happen due to pandemic concerns

    high confidence · Karl: 'I would say that's a very safe bet. We're just not ready yet for those kind of mass gatherings.'

Notable Quotes

  • “I lean more towards the code, to be honest. I think code can save a game. If it's programmed well and balanced well and it's interesting to play, it can overcome some shots that may not be as enjoyable to shoot.”

    Karl DeAngelo @ ~15:30 — Reflects Karl's philosophy on what makes pinball games engaging, prioritizing code design over physical layout

  • “24 was probably the most difficult for you. It took you several days. I think it was day 16. Yeah, it was day 16. It was definitely more difficult than Big Buck Hunter, surprisingly.”

    Karl DeAngelo @ ~3:00 — Documents the extraordinary difficulty of modified 24 wizard mode, taking 16 streaming days to complete

  • “I would say that's a very safe bet. We're just not ready yet for those kind of mass gatherings. And especially now with Pinberg and Papa not being any time in the near future, I think Indisc is your next big monster tournament.”

    Karl DeAngelo @ ~42:00 — Confirms InDisc January 2021 cancellation due to pandemic, positioning it as major European tournament

  • “If people are figuring it out right away, well, then you don't maybe need to do the code if it's easier than you expected.”

    Karl DeAngelo @ ~57:00 — Discusses strategic philosophy of holding back game modes/code to maintain player discovery and engagement

  • “I made a decision because originally I had this money earmark, basically. It was the money that I've earned on Twitch from BigBuckHunter, you know, from my Wizard Mode streams basically this year.”

    Karl DeAngelo @ ~75:00 — Demonstrates monetization of pinball content streaming and reallocation of funds to support competitive pinball

Entities

Karl DeAngelopersonJeff TeolispersonIE PinballorganizationPinClasheventJim BelsitopersonPinbergeventInDiscevent24game

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Monetization of pinball streaming content viable through Twitch; Karl directing personal earnings into community tournament prizes rather than personal benefit

    high · Karl earned significant Twitch money from BigBuckHunter wizard mode streams; reallocated intended InDisc prize fund to PinClash instead of personal use

  • ?

    community_signal: Karl organizing PinClash as major competitive tournament alternative during pandemic when IFPA-endorsed events unavailable; demonstrates grassroots tournament infrastructure building

    high · Karl organized 24-player heads-up tournament with $1,000+ prize pool, multiple sponsors, professional streaming setup, and detailed competitive rules

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Positive reception to competitive pinball content and alternative tournament formats during pandemic; community actively participating in PinClash qualification and supporting streaming events

    high · Strong qualifier participation, donations from sponsors including Raymond Davidson's $250 prize, multiple volunteers assisting Karl with tournament infrastructure

  • ?

    community_signal: Pittsburgh/Pinberg region established as significant competitive pinball hub with tournament activity and top-tier players (Karl, Jim Belsito, Kaylee George, Derek Thompson, Raymond Davidson, Escher Lefkoff)

    high · Multiple references to Pinberg as major tournament, Karl's top-four finishes, and grouping of elite players in specific tournaments at that location

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Emerging consensus among top players and designers that code quality/rules design is primary driver of game enjoyment over physical playfield layout

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.083

0:00
it's time for another pinball profile i'm your host jeff teels you can find everything on pinballprofile.com all your subscriptions past episodes and more find us on twitter and instagram at pinball profile and you can email us pinball profile at gmail.com 2020 not exactly the greatest here. I'm not really telling you anything you don't know, but some people are making the absolute best of it when it comes to our hobby of pinball, and that would be our next guest for sure. Carl D'Angelo joins us right now. Hello, Carl. Hey, Jeff. How's it going? Good. Thank you very much for asking. Hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving weekend. It's been relaxing for once. Well, it's somewhat relaxing. I've been prepping for the tournament, but apart from that, I've had late nights and late mornings. The tournament Carl is talking about is Pin Clash, and we're going to get into that. But I do want to talk about the last, I don't know, nine months of what you've been doing. And we've been watching on IE Pinball on your stream on Twitch. We had you as a guest on Final Round on the Pinball Network because some of the things you were doing, us regular folks, us mere mortals, have never done. And those are wizard modes on all kinds of different games. Carl, it's been quite the obsession and quite the success. I'd say so. I've been fortunate enough to have a variety of games available to me via either Jim loaning me games or other people loaning me games, such as recently 24 from Mark Schultz down in San Diego. He loaned me that, and that was a crazy challenge because he had set up that game to be extremely difficult. He had removed some rails and put lightning flippers on it, and it was a nasty machine and a huge challenge to get through. But it's been a lot of fun going through the games. 24 was probably the most difficult for you. It took you several days. I think it was day 16. Yeah, it was day 16. It was definitely more difficult than Big Buck Hunter, surprisingly. I did not expect that going in. And the funny thing is, the very first day, I was just a couple shots within completing 24. So I went from almost making it to having 16 days of frustration until I finally got on that last stream. Okay, I watched it as it happened on IE Pinball, and I didn't realize the progression to complete the Wizard Mode. Again, we're talking about the Stern game 24 with those wonderful jackpot calls. You kept starting over if you didn't stack certain things because apparently it was just such a grind to complete it. You'll have to explain that for, again, people like myself who have no chance ever of completing the Wizard Mode of 24. You know, the game isn't so bad if it's not modified, to be honest. So the game has three main multiballs, or it has three multiballs, safe house, sniper, and suitcase. And all three of these are like a monster bucket. If you watch Big Buck Hunter, it's where nothing carries over from multi-ball to multi-ball. So if I didn't complete one of them, I was restarting the game just to save the number of balls I would have. The game didn't often give extra balls out randomly. There's only one way to earn one by getting far in the game to the last scene. There's six scenes. You have to play six modes, basically. The random balls were just random. Some games, some streams, I would go an entire stream without getting an extra ball lit. Other streams, I would get two in the same game and then nothing for the rest of the day. Really strange. But just the task of getting all those done, you know, everything done in the multi-ball in one go made it difficult. And if it wasn't completed, I had to restart just to conserve my sanity. I didn't think you were going to make it. Again, watching it as it happened on day 16. It's good video. I'm sure it's on the VOD on IE Pinball, but just the frustration of being so close. I think I joined in when you were two shots away. The funny thing is, when you do put it all together, it didn't take long to complete it. Right, the game itself isn't that long. What, maybe 20 minutes compared to most modern wizard modes that the games can take 30, 40 or more. So yeah, the game isn't that deep. It's just getting that perfect stack of all three multiballs and completing it all in one go is the theoretical goal there. That's interesting you should say that it takes 20 minutes to complete it because I find on certain games, and I have fishtails, my grand champion score, I'm sure I did within 20 minutes because it's really how quickly you can get into multi-ball and how many times you can get the tropical deep water and freshwater fish and then start pounding that captive ball. And that's it. That's where you're getting all your big points. So it didn't take long to complete. It's just putting it all together. Right, exactly. But at the same time, I'm not going for score whatsoever. I'm completely ignoring the scores just to focus on the goals of the game. Because you do get to wizard modes and because you have a fine collection and you showcase it again on IE Pinball, is there a nice buffer zone where you think, okay, this is a perfect pinball machine. I won't get too bored of it. It's not too hard. What is a perfect time limit, you think, for getting to a wizard mode and completing it? Is 20 too short? Is an hour too long? An hour is definitely too long. I mean, I think 25 to 30 is a good range if we're talking just length of time that I want to be playing a single game. That's interesting you say that. I wonder if programmers are thinking the same thing because I enjoy one of the games you completed the wizard modes on was the Simpsons Pinball Party. And by the way, you did that in two days, which really made me sick. I've had it for two, three years. I've never done it. But anyway, when I go up to play that game, I'm like, okay, do I have an hour? Because I know this is a long, long game if I want to do well. And again, not really focusing on score, focusing on trying to complete the wizard mode. So I guess my question to you would be, if 25, 30 minutes is kind of the sweet spot of completing a wizard mode, what is more important in a pinball machine, the game design or the coding? That's a tough one.

Premium and Pro Jurassic Park machines will be equalized for PinClash by disabling T-Rex features on premium machines

high confidence · Karl: 'Everything else, we've had the premium players disable. They're T-Rexes, so it'll behave basically like a pro, and same with the gates.'

Big Buck Hunter
game
Jurassic Parkgame
Kaylee Georgeperson
Raymond Davidsonperson
Escher Lefkoffperson
Stern Pinballcompany
FreePlay Floridaevent
Pinball Expoevent
Derek Thompsonperson
Mark Schultzperson
Zach McCarthyperson

medium · Karl and Jeff agree code can overcome weak shots; cite Alien Star as example of simple layout with exceptional code

  • ?

    event_signal: InDisc 2021 (January) cancelled/postponed indefinitely due to pandemic; likely rescheduled to January 2022 if vaccines enable mass gatherings by September-October 2021

    high · Karl: 'I would say that's a very safe bet. We're just not ready yet for those kind of mass gatherings' and discussion of September-October timing making January 2022 more logical

  • ?

    product_strategy: Jurassic Park's Escape Nublar mode functioning as accessible entry point to end-game content, driving player engagement and enabling competitive tournament focus

    high · Karl: 'The fact that you can jump straight into Nublar is fantastic and gives anyone the chance to experience a mode that they may not usually get to see'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Heads-up competitive format evolving from binary win-loss to point-based scoring system to accommodate streaming latency and fairness across distributed locations

    high · Karl: 'With online video, there's some latency. So you can't have an exact finish. I thought it would be better to get away from the ultra-precise requirement'

    • 5:53
    You need both, obviously. I lean more towards the code, to be honest. I think code can save a game. If it's programmed well and balanced well and it's interesting to play, it can overcome some shots that may not be as enjoyable to shoot or as satisfying to shoot. Leaning towards code, I kind of have to agree because there are some games that we've seen over the years, and maybe there are places like Bandon, California, like the former Papa, You never see these games before. And maybe there aren't a lot of shots, but the code is kind of unique. Perfect example is Alien Star. There's not a lot to that game, but the thing to do is spectacular. Right. You do the one thing, and it's fun to do. Exactly. So that's not exactly the greatest layout, but the code is home run. The code's perfect for what that game is, exactly. Speaking of Papa and Pinberg you have a lot of great memories there A few close calls as well Some of your favorite memories from going to Pittsburgh Yeah for me the last time I was on the stage with the top four was incredible And speaking of Alien Star, that was in my final game bank. I remember playing my ball. I walked off stage, and then I hear the crowd chanting, extra ball, because I had gotten an extra ball, so I had to walk back on stage and finish my game. That was one heck of a moment. The last moment I remember with you was trying to get into the Final Four at Pinberg, and if it's not one of your best friends and lifelong rivals, Jim Belsito, the two of you going at it. Yeah, I remember that on the media. Yeah. You were Belsito'd. I was. It's not the first time. It won't be the last.
    7:36
    And then, of course, it's one of the all-time greatest Papa Pinball TV videos ever. Sorry to bring it up, but whodunit with you and Kaley George. That was an incredible match. Yeah, exactly. I wish more of it was covered on the stream. But to, you know, I think to the audience when they see Kaylee blowing it up, just destroying the game and ends at 23 billion, I think it was. And then to see the final score and I had 21 billion. It was a bit of a shock there. I'm thinking to see that. Isn't that nuts when you put up 21 billion on whodunit and not good enough? And you lose. Who would have thunk it? I've said this before. One of my favorite memories at Pinberg was, in fact, the last Pinberg. And stupid me, I started off well, so that put me in the tougher groups. Sure enough, I look at my next group. Great. Derek Thompson, who's an outstanding player, as you know, from Edmonton. Raymond Davidson. Oh, yay. And Escher Lefkoff. That's my group. And it's early, by the way. I think it's day one. I'm flying too close to the sun here. And I got burned. We had to play Elvira, the original Party Monsters one. And I think I put up 11 million four. That was good for third place. And it was just disgusting how Raymond got last with 11 million. And I think Derek and Escher were 28 million and 50 million. And I was like, I was player four because obviously I lost the game before. And just watching these scores, I'm like, I'm never going to come close to this. I remember you, I found you in the walkways at some point there, and you pointed out the game in progress, which was fascinating to see. just how high the scores were and how they were just destroying it. That might be my Pinberg highlight because when I saw this group and I saw the way these guys were playing, I said, hey, we're going to be the group that holds up the next round. Yay.
    9:20
    But anyway, back to your wizard modes. Okay. You did touch on Big Buck Hunter. That was the one I looked at you and I said, Carl, I know we're all struggling with COVID-19 and there's some people struggling with mental health and I'm not making a joke of that, but I was concerned about your health when you were going after Big Buck Hunter because that is a disgusting grind. Yeah, it is. It started to wear on me too. I mean, you saw me, I started wearing the hat that was given to me during the later challenges. I finished it with the hat, so it became my good luck hat. But yeah, it is a grind. That era of Stern game where they were right on the brink of trouble, all those games seem to be similar. That, 24, I'm missing something. Iron Man? Iron Man was around that same era. It was. That was kind of the game that they started coming back with, I feel. I know you've been busy with Pin Clash, but I know I did hear you say you were trying to get your hands on a World Poker Tour. Talk about a long game. Talk about a grind. That Keith Johnson code, there's a lot in there. You've done Simpsons. You've done Lord of the Rings. I would say World Poker Tour is the one in that group that's going to be testing your wits once again. It's a tough one. It's definitely a long road. I've said it before on stream that the longest path for me is the cities and getting to the World Poker Tour Championships because if you get up there and then you fail that final task, your game is over. You've wasted 30 or 40 minutes of your time. When I used to own one, I would get there so frequently, fail on that, and then just rage quit and walk away from the game because I was so, so upset after having all of the five tasks completed except for that one. I think it's five tasks. So you've completed it, just never on stream, So that's what the goal is going to be. Right. Boy, Carl, I wish you well, but I also wish you help too in that case.
    11:07
    Someday, someday. You have been busy, as we said, during 2020. One of the things that is probably eating at you and a lot of us are concerned about, the reality of Indisc probably not happening in January 2021. I would say that's a very safe bet. We're just not ready yet for those kind of mass gatherings. and especially now with Pinberg and Papa not being any time in the near future, I think Indisc is your next big monster tournament. That may be the European pinball championship. Yeah, I suppose it is now, isn't it? Not to put any more pressure on you, but expect a few more hundred. I know you had probably 500 people walk through there last time. Oh, expect a few more. We're going to need more space and more games, aren't we? And last year, how many did you have? It was huge. It was. I can't remember how many games it was that many. In the bank, 16, 18, something like that for the open? Yeah, it was 18 in the open, I'm pretty sure, plus the classics. I know for 2021, we were supposed to have more space in that hall. So I assume when we finally do do it, we will have the additional space for the extra people that we will now be expecting. I know there hasn't been an official announcement right now, but people are going to ask, okay, so January 2021 doesn't happen for Indus. Is it possible it gets moved later in the year? I'm not going to say no. I'm not going to say yes either. One of my things is how late would we have to run it? So let's say, let's just theoretically say, you know, vaccines become available to the public in April. How long does it take for everyone to be vaccinated? We're looking September, October timeframe. I'm just throwing this out here, by the way. And if we're at that point, we might as well just wait until we get to our January date in 2022, in my opinion. There's no point doing one, say, September, October of 2021, when you're going to turn around and do the regular scheduled time of January. It's just too close together. Exactly. So you're not going to move to banning, you're saying. You're not going to just make this a tournament that happens every three months. You've got a regular job. The family won't allow it. Is that what I'm understanding, Carl? You want to buy me a house? I'll move to banning. I'll start a GoFundMe page if we can get in disc every three months.
    13:14
    I know we're talking on audio, but somehow people listening are putting their hands up. I'll help, I'll help. Well, you are helping with competitive pinball, even during the pandemic. And before we get to Pin Clash, it all starts with something you've been doing for years, and that's assisting people with streaming. I know so many streamers. Marty Robbins, my partner on Final Round, credits you for helping him with his streaming. Phil Grimaldi in Houston, you guys have worked together for mobile rigs. You devoted a lot of time to making streaming better for everyone not just the streamers but us as the viewers So part of my philosophy is why shouldn I share the information I have So that why I happy to try and help people I mean, if I find some equipment that I like, I don't mind sharing. It's good to see other people streaming so much and streaming with high-quality gear also to me. The wireless rig has just been – I mean, why keep that to myself is what I think. It's funny you say that because sometimes I think I don't help enough. and that might sound strange to you, but I feel like I don't always get back to people as quickly as I should. That's only because you're busy. Well, I am busy, yeah. But I do feel like I may let some people down. But I do try and help as much as I can. So if anyone has questions, I try to respond or try to give recommendations or tell them, okay, I may not be the best person for what you're looking for. Here's a resource you can look at. But let's just talk about how busy you are because you've gone to different places over the last year. I'm not talking about 2020, but last year, I know you were sent out to Pinball Expo, and you filmed that on IE Pinball. I know you did the same and shipped all your gear out to Florida in November to do Free Play Florida. And I know you made Norma Jennings in Florida extremely happy by posting the women's championship, in which she won. It's a nice highlight. It's really exciting, too. And that takes a lot of time. You've got the raw footage, but then there's the editing that people may or may not realize takes a long time, especially with video. Right. So I go through the video and I try and color corrected, change the brightness, fix up as much as I can, cut segments where there's pauses between games, where there's, you know, I've had to go move the rig and there's no one sitting at the commentary desk. So we don't want five minutes of dead air showing up on YouTube. So I try and cut all that stuff out to shorten it a bit, cut it into segments also as much as I can. And yeah, this year I had a if you've seen my YouTube channel, I've had a ton of content because of the pandemic. I've had time to go through my backlog of videos, and I've been going through them chronologically. FreePlay Florida was the one up next, and then I started the ping clash stuff, so I got behind on that. Thankfully, I got the women's tournament out from FreePlay, and so the rest of it will be coming soon, along with the captain's auction tournament, and then finally, Indiscs, because I still don't have 2020 Indisc on YouTube, since it's the last thing I filmed, basically. Yeah, you'll get to it, but people have to realize it takes a long time. You can put it up raw, but it's just not going to have that nice polished finish. Right, exactly. And yeah, there's things I want to fix. Like in the InDisc video, I know some of the commentators were, the camera wasn't perfectly horizontal, so I want to go in there and straighten it out. Stuff like that. It does take time. Well, thank you for doing all that hard work. And it continues with, here we are, no competitive pinball as far as the IFPA endorsement. But you've put together maybe the biggest tournament as far as excitement, prizing, great content, good players. This might be the biggest tournament since the pandemic began, and it's PIN Clash. Explain what PIN Clash is and what people can do this weekend to watch this incredible tournament. So if you've seen the IFPA Heads Up Championships, or if you've watched some of my streams from Ace Goge, the launch parties where the owner, Shane, he buys two copies of every new certain game, and we run a Heads Up launch. So you're playing against another player racing for a goal. With pin clash, we changed it up a bit. I decided instead of just a straight wins-loss, we're going with a point system. So you get a certain number of points based on how quickly you beat the challenge. Because with online video, there's some latency. So you can't have an exact finish. I thought it would be better to get away from the ultra-precise requirement that you would need for a true heads-up challenge. And we'll see how this works. This may be interesting, and maybe we'll use this in future launch parties over at ASCOG and other heads-up tournaments. Two competitors are going to battle heads-up on the same game, which in this case is Jurassic Park. It doesn't matter whether it's a pro, premium, or LE. And they're going to be doing this from separate locations. This is streaming. They're going to do three matches. And like you said about the point system, every player will receive a point based on their performance. The player with the higher point value obviously will advance to the next round while the lower one gets eliminated. You have 24 incredible players that had to qualify by doing Escape Nublar, which is not easy in its own to do, but all these 24 people did it under four minutes. Wow. Yeah, there were incredible times on the Nublar runs. I was seriously impressed by the quality of play. And the funny thing about that, too, is because there was a special prize, you had $100 going to the top qualifier, the best Nublar time. People were going at it and going at it, plus also trying to get in the top 24 because the top eight would have a buy. people were streaming this non-stop and you kind of joked that people might be getting sick of it. Yeah, I was really worried that I would hear someone say, I'm so sick of Jurassic Park, I'm selling my game now. No. For so long. But that's one of my favorite things about that game is that you've got a game within a game and I hope we see more of this with Stern Titles or other companies as well. Yeah, the fact that you can jump straight into Nublar is fantastic and gives anyone the chance to experience a mode that they may not usually get to see. That's true, and I would imagine that's the majority of people would never get to see Nublar in a regular game. We were talking about the Simpsons pinball party. It would be fun for everyone to see Alien Invasion. That isn't something everyone can get to. Right. Why should you and I suffer and have the craziness of trying to lock five balls in a certain set of time? Let everyone have that frustration. That's my motto. Exactly. But on the other side, too, if you show everything that a game offers, people do sometimes get bored with the game. I could be wrong here, but I think someone asked JJP if they would be starting to do this with their games with allowing modes such as co-op. It was Keith on our program. It was. See, I do listen to your show. Oh, thanks.
    19:41
    Yeah, exactly. He said maybe in the future they'll do it, but right now to keep the game fresh keep it as a single player game. That is a good point too. You don't want to do it right out of the box. Maybe show it a little bit later whether it's that or co-op mode to also help you complete. I think that's good code down the road. Let people figure it out. And imagine this too. If people are figuring it out right away, well, then you don't maybe need to do the code if it's easier than you expected. Right, exactly. So back to Pin Clash. This all takes place on Saturday, December 5th. It starts at 3 p.m. Eastern, 12 Pacific. You can watch it on IE Pinball on Twitch. I know I'll be watching it. So the 24 people and those that didn't make it have done Escape Nublar, but that's not what we're going to see on PIN Clash. In fact, there are four different tiers of events, and you can again see those on pinclashtourney.com. What do they have to do? So the tiers are designed so they're easy tasks to start and then harder as the tournament goes on So like the first round will have one from Tier 1 tier two Tier one is easy It basic stuff that can get done in under 30 seconds Start T Multiball and capture one dinosaur Both of those should be able to be done in under 30 seconds. In tier two, you can get up to a minute to get full value. Score, super supply drop, rescue staff, start double scoring, start a control room mode and on and on. And then tier three gets more difficult. So as we get down, so in the quarterfinals, you have to play more tier three tasks, 100 million score, capturing two dinosaurs, collecting pteranodon attack values. And then it goes all the way to the final tier, tier four. And this is where the real challenge comes in for the semifinal and finals, 50 million pteranodon attacks, collecting fossils, collecting super jackpots. So everything expands out. And I know some of the higher end players like Escher, he's actually worried about the earlier rounds as opposed to the later rounds, because the earlier rounds, if you mess up, you could lose that round. His reasoning was he certainly got the skill set and that will help him in the more difficult ones. But because the first tasks are, quote unquote, easier, it's anybody's ballgame. And if you miss a shot or mess up, that just opens the door for anyone. So, yeah, he's more worried about the earlier tiers. That's interesting. Right. And with the way the points are structured, you know, you could be in real trouble if you take three minutes to finish one of those first tasks. Are you confident that it won't matter whether it's a pro, premium, or LE machine, that it's all going to be pretty much even? It will be even. So there are two tasks, start Raptor, try ball, and then collect two jackpots and Raptor, try ball. Players will only be able to get those tasks if they're paired up on the same type of machine, so premium and premium pro pro. Everything else, we've had the premium players disable. They're T-Rexes, so it'll behave basically like a pro, and same with the gates. But because the geometry is different down the Raptor pin, where the premium, you hit the back target, it comes right back out of the gate, whereas the pro, it goes where the control room shot is. It's really not that much of a difference, maybe one to two seconds, but it's enough that I feel more comfortable assigning those tasks only to people with light machines. That's good, too, and you've also had them check their settings. They all have the same game standards. you're checking tilt bobs and everything else as well? Right. So they have to have their tilt bobs set at a minimum spot, machine set to seven degrees, make sure it's level left to right, and then all the software settings, including some interesting ones like a DNA combo set to extra ball for three, so we can see when they get their third DNA combo. But it also gives them another path towards collecting an extra ball, which is one of the tasks. Can't believe you're getting them to level machines, but I guess that's fair. You know, you want to have them as close as possible. But again, with all those judges you mentioned, they're going to be watching for these things too. And I'm sure everything will be on the up and up. But people are going to want to win. This is going to be exciting. Any edge you can get. Right, exactly. With the prize money that's on the line, any edge will be interesting. You've got a lot of prizes. First of all, you've got a few sponsors. Stern has come to the table with a bunch of translights and a signed Jurassic Park play field for the first place winner. Scorbatron, you've got some of those nice prizes too. I know Neil McRae was generous in donating. You've got some pin shades, too. Thank you, Jockton. And, again, big cash prizes, $1,000 for first, $250 for second place. You already had the top qualifier for Escape New Bar. Carl, don't be modest. You're forking over some good bucks here to, again, put on some quality entertainment for our benefit. Right. So the $100 top qualifier was from an anonymous donor. The $250 second place prize is a donation from Ray Day Pinball from Raymond Davidson. And then I'm forking over the big prize, the big $1,000 first place. And I made a decision because originally I had this money earmark, basically. It was the money that I've earned on Twitch from BigBuckHunter, you know, from my Wizard Mode streams basically this year. And the plan originally was to, at Indus, to have the BigBuckHunter there. And then if you got to open season, you got the $1,000. Well, no Indus this year, so I was trying to think of what else to do with that money and decided to use it for Pin Clash instead. Very generous, and again, all to our benefit. And it all takes place on Saturday, December 5th, 3 p.m. Eastern, 12 p.m. Noon Pacific. It's going to be a lot of fun on IE Pinball. And I know you've put in a lot of hours because there's a lot of editing, getting the dual stream set up as people are playing each other. We're recording this a week before it happens. Are you close to being ready? I'm close. We have one final test run that we're going to do. with my staff. I mean, I've got wonderful people helping out because there's no way I could do this myself. You have been tremendous in doing all the video interviews with the competitors. I've got Snow Galvin and Steven Bowden for commentating. On the back end for judging, I've got Steve Daniels. I've got Raymond Ashby. I've got Zach McCarthy helping out. Andrew Gorin is going to be assisting with wrangling players and kind of doing the countdowns for people to start their matches. And then I've got Leslie Ruckman also helping out and Ryan O'Donnell. So, I mean, just so much help. And it's been so great to have these. There's no way I could have run this tournament without all these people. Great people for sure. Lots of assistance. Nice to hear that. But it all starts with you, Carl, for putting this crazy tournament pin clash. And we can't thank you enough because I know it's going to be a blast. And, again, how the game was picked, you had a bunch of people submit. These are the games that are possible. So it came down to what was the, I guess, most common. Exactly. What was the most common? What was owned by most of the participants? Or what did they have access to? And it was really close between that or Iron Maiden. I think Iron Maiden ended up five games under Jurassic Park. And then nothing else was even close. Oh, really? It was that much of a separation? It was that much of a separation. And so if we ever do do this again, I expect it to be Iron Maiden or Avengers would be my guess. Nice. I'm looking forward to getting my Avengers. I'll tell you that. But as the demand is there, it's going to take a while. So maybe. Who knows? Avengers? Pin Clash 2, yours truly. It's not going to happen.
    26:54
    Long wait. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll see. But I'm looking forward to it, Carl. I know you're busy. Thanks for taking the time to join us today. Thanks, Jeff. I appreciate it. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find everything on pinballprofile.com. Past episodes, subscriptions, and more. Find us on Twitter and Instagram at pinballprofile, and email us, pinballprofile at gmail.com. Watch PIN Clash, Saturday, December 5th, 3 p.m. Eastern, noon Pacific, on IE Pinball. I'm Jeff Teolis.