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It Never Drains in Southern California 2012 Finals - Game 2

IE Pinball·video·28m 44s·analyzed·Jan 12, 2013
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.022

TL;DR

2012 It Never Drains Finals Game 2 commentary on Addams Family with detailed strategy analysis.

Summary

Commentary on Game 2 (The Addams Family) from the 2012 It Never Drains Finals tournament in Southern California. Karl D'Angelo and Johnny Pinball provide detailed play-by-play analysis of four competitors (Neal Schatz, Keith Elwin, Josh Lahan, and D'Angelo) competing in a match-play format. Keith Elwin dominates with 310 million points, securing tournament control heading into the final game (Funhouse).

Key Claims

  • Neal Schatz entered Game 2 with 4 points, Karl D'Angelo with 2 points, Josh Lahan with 1 point, and Keith Elwin with 0 points

    high confidence · Karl D'Angelo, opening statement of commentary

  • B division at this tournament had a 200 WPPR points limit for entry

    high confidence · Karl D'Angelo discussing tournament divisions with Johnny Pinball

  • Keith Elwin shot 310 million points on Addams Family

    high confidence · Final score announced by commentators at end of Keith's ball

  • Karl D'Angelo's final score on Addams Family was 131 million points

    high confidence · D'Angelo's score after draining on mansion shot

  • After Game 2, Karl D'Angelo, Keith Elwin, and Neal Schatz were tied at 4 points each, with Josh Lahan at 2 points

    high confidence · Final standings announced before transition to Game 3

  • The final game of the 2012 finals was Funhouse

    high confidence · Karl D'Angelo announcing final game selection

  • Tour of the Mansion on Addams Family is worth 50 million points

    medium confidence · Commentary during Keith Elwin's mansion completion

  • New flipper rubbers had increased grippiness that affected ball control on Addams Family

    medium confidence · Karl D'Angelo discussing equipment condition

Notable Quotes

  • “My strategy is shoot the ramp, start the mode, ignore the mode in most cases, shoot the ramp, rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat.”

    Karl D'Angelo @ ~2:30 — Describes core competitive strategy for Addams Family—ramp shooting over mode completion

  • “The swamp, yeah. The Backhand Pinball into it. And another drain from swamp. That's unusual in this game. Normally that shot is a dangerous shot.”

    Karl D'Angelo and Johnny Pinball @ ~5:00 — Identifies swamp shot as hazardous despite being strategically valuable

  • “You can often hit the side ramp and go for a million plus and build that million plus Papa Duke high. So every side ramp starts at one, then two million, then three million, then four million, and it just keeps going up and up.”

    Karl D'Angelo @ ~8:00 — Explains side ramp jackpot progression mechanic on Addams Family

  • “He's well in the lead. He's only got one player after him that could beat him and Neil would have to have one hell of a ball to catch up to him.”

    Johnny Pinball @ ~52:00 — Commentary on Keith Elwin's commanding lead late in the game

  • “Hit to the mansion. Drain instantly. Wow. Drain's dangerous.”

    Johnny Pinball @ ~48:00 — Identifies mansion shot as high-risk, often resulting in immediate drain

  • “That's exactly why you don't hit Cousin It during the Cousin It mode.”

    Karl D'Angelo @ ~28:00 — Clarifies strategic avoidance of Cousin It (Thing) shot during mode play

  • “This Sam may not have been the best idea. Yeah, because I'm just... That magnet is so scary.”

    Karl D'Angelo discussing own strategy @ ~42:00 — Reflects on risky magnet play late in tournament match

  • “310. Wow. So you would have had it tough to actually catch up to him.”

    Johnny Pinball @ ~56:00 — Commentary on Keith Elwin's final dominant score

Entities

Karl D'AngelopersonJohnny PinballpersonKeith ElwinpersonNeal SchatzpersonJosh LahanpersonIt Never DrainseventThe Addams FamilygameFunhousegameTee'd Off

Signals

  • ?

    event_signal: It Never Drains tournament in Southern California is established competitive format with WPPR-linked divisions, match-play structure, and multi-game finals; next event scheduled January 25-27, 2013

    high · Tournament structure, WPPR point cutoffs, game selection mechanics, and future event announcement at conclusion

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Addams Family tournament strategy centers on ramp-shooting repetition (mode ignoring) combined with conditional multiball play via Greed; side ramp jackpot escalation (1-2-3-4M+) is high-value but risky endgame strategy

    high · Detailed strategy explanation by Karl D'Angelo: 'My strategy is shoot the ramp, start the mode, ignore the mode in most cases, shoot the ramp, rinse, repeat'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: After Game 2, three-way tie at 4 points (Karl D'Angelo, Keith Elwin, Neal Schatz) with Josh Lahan at 2 points creates wide-open final game (Funhouse) scenario where any player can win

    high · Final standings: 'That puts us going into game three, myself, Keith, and Neil tied at four points, and Josh with two points. It's still anybody's game.'

  • ?

    technology_signal: New flipper rubber equipment shows increased grippiness affecting ball trapping and control on Addams Family

    medium · Karl D'Angelo: 'I think the new flipper rubbers had something to do with it, the extra grippiness on them'

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.086

0:00
Hi this is Carl D'Angelo and this is Johnny Modica and you're watching the 2012 finals from It Never Drains in Southern California. We're watching game number two The Abnett's Family. Going into this game we have Neal Schatz in the lead with four points. I'm in second place with two points. Josh Lahan is in third place with one point and Keith Elwin is in last place with zero. Let's get started. All right.
0:38
So I actually got to choose this game because Neil chose to go fourth again and Keith chose to go third. So it was up to me to choose a game and I chose Out of the Scam. I know Keith is pretty strong in this game, but I felt it was one of my better games for the tournament. Other options were Big Buck Hunter, Funhouse, and my mind is blanking on that last game. Do you remember it, Johnny? I do not remember. Oh, boy. I was too busy in the B division. Come on. What do you mean? Yeah, I'm a B player. You weren't in the B division for this. You made the finals. I'm in the B division. You were excluded from the B division. You couldn't make the B division. I did make the B division. Oh, you're right. I'm getting confused with another term. Yeah, you were over. I think we had the limit on 200 Whopper points for B division. You were locked in A division. I guess I just sucked. That's why I didn't make it this far.
1:39
Okay, so anyway. Enough about me. You're the one that's playing. So let's see what you're doing. Looks like I'm playing. On this game, I like to go for Mansion. I like to get as close to the Mansion. So my strategy is Shoot the chair Start the mode Ignore the mode in most cases Shoot the ramp, rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat And if I get Greed and start a multi-ball at some point I'll go for the multi-ball But generally it's Chair, ramp, chair, ramp As you can see right there The feed coming from the Wire form is pretty nice Sometimes just hold up the flipper and flip just as the ball was leaving the ball guide onto the flipper rubber, and it would practically stop.
game
Big Buck Huntergame
It Never Drains Southern California 2012event
2:30
Yeah, you typically don't see that on an animation, do you? No, you don't. I think the new flipper rubbers had something to do with it, the extra grippiness on them. Okay. Let's see the kick out here from the swap. Oh, the kick out is not too bad either. The kick out was pretty safe. It was a little inconsistent at times. Sometimes it would bounce over harder. you wouldn't be able to trap them all and just kick off on the chair just like that. Sometimes you can get it. If you let it bounce over, you can get it stopped on the right flipper. Other times you couldn't like that. All right.
3:02
We have another mode later here. Let's see if we can get it to stop. So the other strategy on the game is to go.
3:16
Bad drain from the chair. I believe there was a big yellow post on the chair. Yes. But not too bad. I mean, you started, what, like three months there? Somewhere around there. Okay. Let's see what Josh does here.
3:32
He got to times five. Swap right in time. Oh, and he starts the mode. Starts the mode. From the swap, yeah. The backhand into it. And another train to swamp. That's unusual in this game. Normally that shot is a dangerous shot. Exactly, that happens. Josh is living dangerously and he paid for it, I guess. Yeah, he did pay for it there.
4:02
But in that short ball, he did rack up some points. So let's see where he's at right now. Looks around, maybe $14-15 million. I can't exactly see it on there, but somewhere around there.
4:16
All right, let's see Keith. He's pretty good at this game. What does he like to play at? He seems like he wants to go for the greed strategy. Must he go straight to multiball?
4:28
Yeah, it's possible. It's another strategy. I mean, an additional part of that strategy is when you backhand the bookcase from there, you can often hit the side ramp and go for a million plus and build that million plus pretty high. So every side ramp starts at one, then two million, then three million, then four million, and it just keeps going up and up. I don't know if there's a max to it.
4:51
So he's not going for the thing shot. He's actually just easing it to the left flipper. Right, and I wouldn't recommend anyone to go for the... You mean cousin it?
5:03
Or you meant the thing flipper. Yeah, the thing flipper. The little mini flipper. Yeah. Yeah, it's a shot across the playfield and if you miss it, the ball goes out of control, so it's not unreasonable to skip with that. He was kind of doing almost a drop catch on that flipper to kill the momentum a bit, keep it closer to the sling instead of going down the middle. So he's basically using both strategies here, huh? He's going for modes on his left flipper, and he's going for a read on his right flipper. In fact, he already opened the ball.
5:45
Yep, exactly. Nice little tap-and-shoulder. And you can see how that kick-out from the right is not always consistent. Sometimes it has enough momentum that you can't stop the ball on that left flipper.
5:58
Ah, so now he's just going for mode. He just passed the ball, so he doesn't want to go for the move yet. Well, he's going for a little of both, it seems. A drop catch out of the chair seems pretty nice, instead of letting it bounce over.
6:12
That was a good strategy, like quick multi-ball, lock the ball, and then shoot the skill shot to start your quick multi-ball.
6:26
And another skill shot, another four-milly. You see how he's easing the ball to the left flipper? Yeah, at the same time that's kind of dangerous during a multi ball because the power is running and the power can grab that ball Oh, yeah away. There it goes away from that area
6:46
To his own he's gonna continue wrecking up the most Who are in lane Now we're in a new year. Okay, let's see how he handles Seance. What is he gonna do? Is he gonna time it out or Or is he gonna be greedy Yeah go for it He greedy He escapes disaster there. Let's see if greed pays off. And again a little drop catch from the, if you want to call it that, from that flipper and he survives the power send down. Oh man! Both times. And you could tell that was a banger that kind of threw it off there. Oh. Chance for another skill shot here and he gets it. He's maxed out at 5 mil. Pretty good first ball so far. Yeah, he's had a nice first ball. Definitely putting pressure on the rest of us.
8:00
Oh, he actually went for the shot this time. For the thing shot. So now he's got a choice to make, right? If he makes it on the chair, the jackpot I believe is 15 million. And if he makes it in the vault, it's 20 or 25. The ball has a higher jackpot value, yes. It's going to have a higher jackpot value. So what is he going to go for? What did he go for? He went for the chair. He hit the chair. And notice he waited to shoot the chair until he timed out the power. If you cradle the ball while the power is in place, I forget exactly how long it is, but the power will stop until another switch is hit. So you have a free shot. A wrist-free shot, basically.
8:47
All right, let's see what he can do on this multi-ball. And there the power. You can see it. Oh! He hit that ball just enough to go down the outlay. Wow. But he has another chance. He can restart the multiball if he hits.
9:04
Right, he needs to hit that little mini ramp in the back to restart the multiball. Thing multiball again. There it is. He restarted it. And successful. And this is actually nice because now the ball is going to feed straight to the upper flipper.
9:17
So he has an easy shot for the super jackpot. Right. Let's see if he's going to get it. Another skill shot. And there it is. There's the double. Double jackpot. Very nice. Very nice first ball. Wow. So let's see, is he going to tap it over to the swap? Oh no, it's just going to be a 10. He's just trying the cradle separation. Nice little tap there. Nice. and the power.
9:55
So now you need to see, he's got to hit the vault. Right, vault to relight the jackpot. Now what is he going to do? Try the, uh, the bookcase to ramp maneuver. Wow.
10:09
Ah, looks like that's it. Still. Oh! That was a great first ball. Very nice ball. You can hear the applause in the background. Yep. Go Redemption from the first game, huh? 134 million. Yeah, quite a change from the Monster Bash game. So let's see what Neal has to do. So he misses skill shot. Let's see, is he going to go for chairs? Oh, nice drop catch. Not drop catch, live catch. Live catch, yeah. Whoa. Get out of control there. It's all low.
10:59
Oh. Did he meant to do that? Yeah, I think he meant to. Did he meant to do an alley pass there? The Schatz move? I don't know. His signature move? I don't know if he was trying to do it or not, but. It didn't pay off.
11:14
It didn't pay off. All right our commentator here I Was gonna say it looks like every player is doing a different style catch out of the Out of the chair. I like to let it bounce over
11:32
It looked like Keith one drop catches and the Neil was like that she just shows you that All the different methods can have their success let's see so you have a quick multi wall here so the quick multi ball is simply the ball right simply the vault just shoot the vault over and over for starts at five million and forget how you can raise it to be honest bad just shoot the ball so it's volves well there you go that's the ball over and shoot the ball again and nice oh it goes up now it's really every successful shot now it's seven so basically it goes up by a million every time you hit it right come on ooh nice it whoa Howard oh and not why you that left area they left in lanes are dangerous to be let the ball bounce like that don't flip with the blue flipper I should have been doing the drop catch or whatever you want to call it that Keith was doing. To kick it away from the in lanes but still have control to get it on the left flipper.
12:47
So you're going back to your strategy. There you go. Stopping the ball. Passing it over. Yep. In the chair. Rinse repeat. Ramp chair. Ramp chair. And not hit those yellow posts.
13:03
or yellow rubbers look at that I love that can't believe this artist family is letting you do that nice Systematic, let's see, and the chair, very nice. Three million. So four door panels to go and then two of the mansions would be lit. Yep. Oh. It looks like it's stuck on the window, just a tap gets it off. in the chair. In the chair? While the tunnel hunt? The tunnel hunt is worth some decent points as a seance. It's one of those that makes you think if you actually want to go for the mode. Yeah, and generally I'll do exactly this, try and light the mode while the tunnel hunt is on. That was accidental, but it's nice to get the points. It works. It would be nice now if you can get the chair for 10 Let see And very nice you got the chair for 10 and start the mode Now sans now what Oh, was I greedy? I don't remember. Let's see if you were greedy. Oh man, looks like the power caught the ball on the way out, and I hit the ramp. Yep. And I do exactly what Keith was doing. Oh, and there it is, that's... And the ball drains down the middle because the power grabbed it just a little bit. Yep. That's the danger of it. I'm thinking I should have shot it across the playfield. I can't let it drop into the end lane because often it bounces out the left. So shoot it into the swamp and deal with it there, I think.
14:57
Still not a bad ball. No, definitely I feel comfortable getting close to the mansion. Only a couple of rooms to go. I think two.
15:09
So let's see what Josh can do here. So see Josh He's just hitting it on the fly Right A little dangerous Yeah Skill shot Second lock and he's written for multiball yeah when I'm the at this point in the game if I'm the player after Josh I really hope they start their multiball because if they don't the two balls are locked and you lose your opportunity for skill shots and it's that's exactly what's going to happen so if Neil goes for on this next ball. If he goes for multi-ball, he loses his skill shot. I mean Keith.
16:18
Alright. Let's see. Where's Keith? He's got four. I'm thinking he's aiming for between the matching. He only needs four more rooms. And look at that. You just hold the flip rope and the ball stops. No, he's going for greed. Well, he doesn't seem to like post-passing much. It's under-scan released. So if he's on the right flipper, he's going for greed. If he's on the left, he's going for the chair.
16:51
Oh, that was close. Thing, huh? Thing is well calibrated. It shoots it right in. Yeah, Thing is playing well.
17:03
Nice. Seems a little dangerous if you miss that ramp shot. It's tough to get the ball back under control. That's exactly why you don't hit Cousin It during the Cousin It mode. Alright, looks like he's actually going to go for a second multiball. He is going for the multi ball, he didn't go for the round. He's going to kick out from the swamp because Josh locked two balls so Keith loses basically five million for each of these balls that kicks out from there. There it is. Alright, let's see what he's going to do here. He's going to wait for the power to stop for it to time out. He's going to wait for it.
18:05
Maybe he's going to go for the chair. The chair or the mother ball. Exactly. Let's see how good. He's got a pretty nice lead, so he might go for the chair. I was going to say he might go for the ball because it's his lead. Yeah.
18:20
Look at that. 3X jackpot. Yes, he's qualified for the triple jackpots. And how do you qualify for a triple jackpot?
18:33
I believe you get the double jackpot on the first multiball, which then qualifies it for the triple for the second multiball. But I could be wrong.
18:45
I generally don't use this strategy, so I don't remember getting a triple jackpot before. But there's the triple from Keith. There's a triple. And the power knocks it out the end. All right, but he's not complaining. Oh, no. It still has two balls.
19:07
Can I wiggle it? There we go. And a tappy. Cradle separation and into the vault. Boom. Beautiful. Look at that. There's another triple maybe. Yep. Another triple. Wow. Look at that triple jackpot again. Wow. Now this one is 30 right? Right, the initial one started at 13, but it resets to 10 million for the base jackpot value after every jackpot is earned. Okay, I didn't know that. Nice. Oh, what a double drain. Wow, but great ball again. He's got a commanding lead on this game. Let's see the bonus on this, too. What's it going to be?
20:08
$238 million. Wow. And Neil, he misses another skill shot. Yeah, he can't quite seem to get a hold on that yet.
20:23
Oh. Mini flip to out lane. That's rough. that's hard rights let's see what mister d'angelo so by hitting the little scoop up there i uh... come a last read letter that multiple right and try to get the skillshot i i care on the side of caution underside so that I can lock the ball in the swamp.
20:58
I'm almost... I'm almost wondering here if that's a good strategy because you only needed what? Two more motos to start your tour of the mansion. True. This may not have been the best idea. Yeah, because I'm just... That magnet is so scary. So I assume right now I'm going to... Oh, jeez. I didn't wait for the power to turn on. What was I thinking?
21:25
You brave soul, you. I say foolish soul Oh well you knew you were on camera That why you did that huh Alright I didn do my usual strategy there What was I thinking? There you go At least it's a Quick restart And the ball will be staged For me as long as I make my skill shot That's what I was going to say You get a free skill shot out of this That's all I wanted It's a strategy, huh? Oh, and look, I missed the skill shot. You missed it, but you got the super. You got the double jackpot. That's good.
22:04
Oh, there goes the green, but you still have the ball. All right, so two rooms. Two rooms. Yep. There you go. There's one. That's one. All right, ramp, chair, and then chair.
22:26
Whoa! That was close. Oh! Too much side to side here. Gotta get control. Here we go. Nice control. Stop for a second. What am I doing? Missed the ramp.
22:39
Yeah, here's where my nerves kick in probably. There you go. Nice and easy. The last... The last room is thing. So thing multiple.
22:51
There we go. So, let's see. Are you going to go for thing or... Am I going to skip thing or do I go... I'll go for the chair. Because the chair is actually lit, so... Oh, I don't know. You didn't know that it was lit, did you? Oh. You're going for Thing. Well, at this point, with Thing, with the value dropping, I'm probably going to abandon it, which it looks like I do. Okay. So, just get to the mansion now.
23:15
Yeah. One shot. Come on. Oh. Oh, no. Disaster. Oh, Carl. 50 million down the drain Oh 50 plus That ends me up 131 million And I'm sure Keith Elwin Probably Gives a breath of Relief there Because that would have You'll be knocking on his door there Yeah I could have gotten pretty close to him probably As long as I Didn't dream right away Which often seems to be the case for me Hit to the mansion. Drain instantly.
23:59
Wow. Drain's dangerous. Let's see what Josh can do here. Josh has to reload. Oh, man. That was a power drain. Wow. And that's why usually you try not to go for the chair from your right foot. Right, right. Because you can hit the post on the left side of the chair and you're toast. Yeah. Alright, here's Keith again. He's, looks like three rooms to tour the mansion. Let's see if he can successfully make it unlike me. Yeah. Though he's in a much easier position to, definitely less nervous. Yeah, he's well in the lead. He's only got one player after him that could beat him and Neil would have to have one hell of a ball to catch up to him. So yes, he's probably feeling pretty good right now.
25:06
He's going to go for Thing? Oh, he is trying to go for Thing. And note his ramps. I think he was at 14. At 15, he gets a mansion room spotted. So right now, if he takes the ramp, he's going to get...
25:22
What was that? Oh, he needs one more. Yeah, he'll get that last room. Now, can you get toward the mansion on a ramp, or you actually got to hit it in the chair? I don't know.
25:36
So there's that last one, 15. He got that last-room spot and the Tour of the Mansion is lit now. And there it is. There it is. Tour of the Mansion. He toured the mansion. $50 million.
25:50
Very nice. Well, at least that should make you feel a little bit better because even if you would have gotten the Tour of the Mansion. And the Tour of the Mansion drain. immediate. Wow. Nice game from Keith. Let's see. Immediate positive back down.
26:16
He ends at 310 million. 310. Wow. So you would have had it tough to actually catch up to him. Yeah, I would have.
26:27
But let's see if your score is going to hold against Emil. Emil pretty much didn't do anything the first two balls he had a couple of tough breaks right
26:47
see that the boss keeps getting stuck there on that yeah there's probably a little ridge on the insert or uh if there's mylar a little bump in the mylar nothing the little taps can't fix Yeah, Neal's just having trouble locking in on this game. Let's see, he's got one more letter for Greed to finish it. I think we'll start the... Oh, we can also start locking the boss for a multiball. Start a mamushka. Might as well It's lit If things work well It's 5 million at least More if you've hit the bumpers Hit our neon graveyard And there's the drain Alright let's see where Keith and Neil ends up I believe around 25 million Right so that puts Neil in last place For this game and Keith gets the Grand Champion on the machine. Very nice on the finals game.
28:01
All right, so Keith gets four points. I get two points. Josh gets one point, and Neil gets zero. That puts us going into game three, myself, Keith, and Neil tied at four points, and Josh with two points. It's still anybody's game. So anybody can win this then. Right. Even Josh. And the last game is Funhouse. So hope you'll join us for that final video and come to our next tournament, January 25th through the 27th, 2013. Hope to see you there. Thanks for watching. Very excited.