Happy Sunday, pin folk, or whatever day you're listening. This is NYC Pin Pod, in which a panel talks location pinball in New York City and nearby surrounding areas. My name is Benjamin Furiga. My initials are BCF. And this weekend, I'm playing wood fire to hot tub rather than pinball. My name is Eric Sweetland. My initials are HIP. And I'm a pinball tournament director in New York City. This week in Ball 1, as usual, we'll run down local competition results. In Ball 2, as usual, we will have venue updates, courtesy of Pinball Map and its users, with Eric and then our Pinball Bullet Journals for the week. And if some supreme knowledge is willing and the creek don't rise in ball three, we will have BCF goes to FIDE. I'll tell you about it if it happens. Let's talk about competitive pinball in New York. last week. On Sunday, October 19th, Jess Warren gathered 24 players at Rulo's for the RWI. It's kind of like KFC, but it used to be the Rob Wong Invitational. You're all invited. It is five rounds of match play, and if you beat one of Rob Wong's high scores, which are maybe listed as CAT or or maybe as P-U-R, cat or purr, you can win a t-shirt that says, I beat the cat. It's a Stern-sponsored event. It's cool. And after they did those five rounds and the top four advanced to finals, Matthew Carlson bested Billy Vazine and Robert Wong and Ed Hooring. That top four group, three of those players were just also in the top four South Slope Pinball League's finals, A couple weeks ago. Yeah, the top three, yeah. Matthew Carlson gets 8.27 whoppers for his efforts. That's a good single-day number. On Monday, October 20th, at bars all around New York City, Pinball NYC's left flipper division went down like this. The lesser players hosted Balls of Steel at Gebhardt's Beer Culture, and Balls of Steel got a big 14-2 road win. The Mutants had a bye week. That big win after their first loss, coupled with Mutants' bye week, will make for some interesting discussion during the standings bit, I think. Parliament went to Commonwealth to see Intermission Dolores and another big road win, 13-3 for Parliament. The two-for-oners squared off against the Deluxe Horses at Barcade Brooklyn, and those horsies got a 10-6 home win. Our New York City Flipper Sport Association headed down the island to Barcade Fidei to face off against Lion Persons. We got a 10-6 road win. That's the Lion Persons' third home loss. The Colliders hosted Special When Lit at Buttermilk Bar. Special When Lit picked up a 10-6 road win. We were lucky to get away with a 10-6 loss against a different version of Tuesday Night's Danger Danger, who play out of Buttermilk. we were pretty lucky to get away with a 10-6 loss. We were adorable. Harry's hand grenades went to Skylark to see the pin pals, and the home team got a 13-3 win. And the pinbots and the aristocrats played at Rulo's pinbots 9-7. The aristocrats' win streak is ended by a home loss, and that's the pinbots getting their second win. That's going to look nice on their resume, as we start talking about the standings here. Speaking of which, after seven weeks of play, the standings look like this. Our New York City Flipper Sport Association leads the pack with a record of 6-1 and 82 points. That looks to me like a comfortable lead. I don't think with the point totals we'll hear about next that these folks who are a loss behind you, or just actually a win behind you, I don't think they could get there. Balls of Steel and the Mutants are both 5-1. Balls of Steel has 65. The Mutants have 58. So I just can't quite get to 82, even with a 16-0 win. So it's 6-1. Y'all look pretty good. With a record of 5-2, Parliament has 75 points. Special When Lit has 61. Parliament's 75 also looks really good if you look at, because they've played one more than Balls of Steel and the Mutants and have a loss in that one more, but they have 10 more points than Balls of Steel and 12 more than the Mutants. So if one of those teams ends up with a loss next week and they have a win of a comparable score, hmm. There are two teams at 4-3, the Pin Pals with 60 points and Lion Persons with 55. The Pin Pals technically now in sixth place by those five points, which would move them into the left orbit playoffs. Lion Persons falling just below the line. That's due to that big win that the Pin Pals had. The Lion Persons would, you know, have a buy in the in-lane division if they're below, but the Pin Pals' big win this week is something. You know, the two-for-oners aren't exactly out of the conversation either. Sitting right now in eighth place, the two-for-oners have a record of three and three with 51 points. They'd have a bye going in. Both the Aristocrats and Intermission Dolores have a record of three and four. Aristocrats have 56 points to Intermission Dolores' 54. at 2-4. The Colliders have 41 points and the Deluxe Horses have 39 points. We just talked about a 3-3 team and a 2-4 team and a 2-4 team. I mean, you know, we're six or seven weeks in, so of course there are a lot of buys, but it does feel like there's a lot of pinball left to be played because of these buys, that there's a lot of drama still out there. in 13th place currently the pinbots have a record of two and five with 43 points that's awfully close to moving up to 11th or 12th it is but the other thing is with those seven played we colliders in the deluxe horses they they trail us by one in the loss column and we would have to lose big. We have 41. We Colliders and the Deluxe Horses have 39. The Pinbots have 43. So they would have to, in their theoretical bye week, whenever it is, if it were next week, if their bye week were next week, we would both have to lose big for them to jump up here. You know, the fact is that every team we just talked about can still get to 500 this season. Currently, there are two teams with no wins at all. Both with a record of 0-6. The lesser players have 32 points. Harry's Hand Grenades has put together 12 points. These teams can't finish above 500, but they can still qualify for the in-lane division playoffs. There's a lot of pinball left to be played, and they face each other in round 10. So one of these teams is getting a win that week if they don't get one before. On Tuesday, October 21st, at bars all around the city, Pinball NYC's right flipper division was convened. No Quarters for Laundry hosted Pinister Six at Solid State, and No Quarters had a 15-1 triumph. Pinister Six now has two more losses than they did the entirety of the previous season. And those big points for no quarters bring them to within three of first place, but also a win shy. Ball Drainers went to Barcade Brooklyn. It's kind of a short walk. And the Ball Drainers picked up a 10 to 6 win over Reston Pinball, parenthetically RIP. At their cozy home of Jack Bar, the Schlubbs welcomed Everybody Loves the Sunshine and dispensed them a 10-6 loss. That is to say, the Schlubbs win 10-6. Schlubbs hold serve. They've only got one loss. Danger Danger went from South Brooklyn to North Central Brooklyn to Birdies, where the Pin Babes hosted them. and Danger Danger won 14-2. Danger Danger's big win there gets them just two points shy of the pace being set by the ball drainers. Neptune's Treasure visited your Butterballers at Buttermilk Bar and unfortunately for you, your team scored seven and Neptune's Treasure scored nine. Neptune's Treasure's win put them solidly into the Orbit playoff contention. Scrappleland was the battleground. The replays were the invaders. Scrapple Squad were the conquerors, 9-7. After a couple of close, tough losses, Scrapple Squad gets their first win. Trolls went to At the Wallace, where the Harlem Globe Clippers handed them an 11-5 loss. those 11 points are one point better than the ball drainers or the schlubs did in their wins it moves them ever so slightly closer in that race speaking of that race this one's clarifying pretty well the top six seem pretty well set at six and one there are four teams that's right if the playoffs started today, two buys would be determined by how many points were accumulated throughout the course of the season. Thankfully, the playoffs don't start today. There's still pinball to play. Ball Drainers, Danger Danger, Harlem Globe Flippers, and Schlubs are those six and one teams. Ball Drainers is at the top of the heap with 75 points. Danger Danger is just under them two points by 73. Globe Flippers have 71. Schlubbs have 70. Yeah, the top four spots separated by only five points. The fifth spot, it's got one more loss, but more points than two of those. That fifth spot happens to be no quarters for Laundrie at five and two with 72 right in the middle of that pack we were just talking about in terms of points. Just that one loss, pesky, those losses are. Neptune's Treasure is 5-2 with 64. Solidly in. Everybody Loves the Sunshine is on the outside looking in at 4-3 with 57. It doesn't look great, probably, but what do you think Everybody Loves the Sunshine with one more loss and seven points behind is looking at a tough road Because you got to beat them by seven and have them lose You got to over three weeks you have to accumulate seven more points and have them lose. That's a lot. A lot to ask. So in the bottom half, everybody loves the sunshine, would have a buy, easily, frankly, at four and three. Pinister six, Butterballers, replays, and Reston, Pinballer, all two and five. they have 48 47 45 and 43 points respectively any of those two win teams to transcend the in-lane playoffs they have to win the rest of their games neptune's treasure would have to lose out and everybody loves the sunshine would have to lose more than they win and they have to get a lot more points. Right, than both those teams probably, right? Ugh, big, big, big hill. Currently, if the in-lane playoffs started today, the right in-lane playoffs, Scrapple's squad would be in at one and six with 45 points. The Trolls, just on the outside, looking in at one and six with 40. Last week, Benjamin, you said something about Scrapple Squad winning and Trolls losing. There might be a shakeup, but that happened. Yep, there it is. Hey, still a lot of pinball left to play in both the left flipper and the right flipper divisions. And with also still a lot of pinball left to play, the pin babes are in 14th place. They're on the outside looking in. They have the same number of wins as Trolls, the same number of wins as Scrapple Squad. So one win when both of those teams loses puts them right up above the line. They have only 34 points, but, you know, a couple of big wins can do some serious work. On Wednesday, October 22nd, the finals of Scrapple League Season 4 were contested at Scrapple Land in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. directed by Greg Pavarelli with the assistance of myself, Woody Richmond, and Alex Kelly. Eight players competed for the A finals. Another eight players competed for the B finals. And ten players joined for the C finals. After a three-game semifinals and a three-game finals in the Papa style, the A finalist winner of Scrapple League season 4 was director Greg Pavarelli he was killing it all season Adam Kane got the second spot and following a quick tiebreaker Sean the Storm Grant picked up third and Alex Kelly fourth I also want to point out the finals were done on banks the bank that Greg chose to play second was Deadpool, Spiderman and Congo In B, following three games of semifinals and three games of the final group, it all came down to a tiebreak game. The B division champion, speak a gift. Mike Pantino lost that tiebreak and picked up second place. On fishtails, Pantino should have been the bus driver here, I think, right? That's correct. And did he choose the bank of Jaws Premium and Tales of the Arabian Nights and James Bond 60th? Yes, he did. Yeah, I like that bank. That's the kind of bank I would choose, too. Sam Hall got third and Woody Richman fourth. The C Division, which was contested in the format of a regular league night, five rounds of match play with IFPA scoring. Luis Perez came out on top followed by Harlan Aida-Linda, Richard Diamond and Christian Klossner. Also, the last place finisher in CEVJ won himself $10.25 for practice. On Thursday, October 23rd at Jack Bar, as happens so many Thursdays at Jack Bar. Thursday Night Strikes was convened and it says by Ida on the match play link. 11 players arrived. And at the end, Travis Rosenberg outlasted the pack. Nitsan Gabai came in second. Nintu third. And Tommy Ortega and Zach Till tied for fourth. If Ida did direct, she didn't play. Interesting. Maybe they just didn't change that header this week. Also on Thursday, The first qualifying week of South Slope Pinball League's fifth season in 2025 was convened at Buttermilk Bar under the direction of Kate Martin. We played five rounds of match play with IFPA scoring with the goal of garnering the most points towards our series total. Matthew Carlson had a near perfect night with 33 points. Billy Vazine picked up 27 and David Barber popped in and got himself 25 both Caitlin James Rees and Courtney Wetzel picked up 24 and there's MMC and Billy at the top of stuff again this week on Monday October 27th Barcade Brooklyn Pinball League Season 7 will have its fourth meeting which is to say you can still qualify for Whoppers even if you haven't shown up once You can show up for half of them and qualify for Whoppers. You probably don't have a great chance of qualifying for the A or B division. But, you know, maybe be. Maybe be at the bottom if you really do well. But that'll happen at Barcade Brooklyn. That is, like all of the other leagues, best four of six. So get out there on Monday if you're not otherwise pinball engaged. You know it's a deluxe horses away game because it's Barcade Brooklyn Pinball League night. Also on Monday, October 27th, round eight of Pinball NYC's left flipper division will be contested at bars across the city. The lesser players are coming up to at the Wallace to see our New York City Flipper Sport Association. That's the only two uptown teams facing off against each other. The mutants travel the midway to see Balls of Steel. They are both 5-1, and the winner of that matchup is likely to have the inside track to the number two seed and a round one bye in the Orbit playoffs. That's a big match. The two-for-oners will host Intermission Dolores at Scruffy Duffy's Tap Room. Intermission Dolores followed three straight wins with three straight losses, and they're playing a team who's 3-3. I will also point out two four-oners, two and one, I mean, spooky. It is spooky. The pinbots will face Harry's hand grenades at Bargrade Harry. The two-win pinbots will look to get their third, and Harry's hand grenade is looking to get their first win at home. Rulos will see the deluxe horses come in to face Special When Lit. The deluxe horses better expect to see my smiling face when they're catty-corning for my match. Sounds like a threat. Take it how you want. Parliament takes a little skip around the corner to see the pinpals at Skylark. They could do that Alamond or Do-Si-Do thing diagonally across 9th Street and 4th Avenue. What's it called? The Barnes Dance. The Barnes Dance. I keep thinking it's a square dance move. The Barnes Dance. Very good. to go visit Skylark. Lion persons will come to see your colliders at Buttermilk Bar. Yeah, they're looking to get above the line into the Orbit playoffs, and we're trying to maintain our hold on a spot in the in-lane playoffs. I'll be really happy to see them, and, you know, it's going to be fun. The aristocrats have a bye this week. On Tuesday, October 28th, in the right flipper division... Jackbar will see ball drainers hosting no quarters for laundry. If no quarters gets a road win, they'll likely be at the top of the standings next week. Ball drainers currently on top, but even if they do win, a lot of people very close in points on them. Scrapple Squad will visit Pinister Six at Skylark. Scrapple Squad scored 8 points 2 weeks ago in that tie break loss they scored 9 points this week and won. Can they score 10? Pinister 6 hopes to stop them The Replace will host Neptune's Treasure at Rulos That's a likely orbit playoff team versus a very likely in lane playoff team and 4 of the 5 teams above Neptune's Treasure are facing each other this week. So this is an opportunity for the Treasures to move up. The Schlubs will visit Danger Danger at Buttermilk Bar. They both have one loss, necessarily. One of them will have two after this coming week. I mean, if we looked at it positively, they both have six wins, and one of them will necessarily have seven next week, I suppose. Rest in pinball. Parenthetically, R.I.P. will go across the river and see the Trolls at Barcade Fi-Di. That's another battle of the barcades. Trolls looking to recover from a tough loss and pick up their second home win. Everybody Loves the Sunshine will host Butterballers at Sunshine Laundromat. And I got to tell you, I'm a little jealous that you get to play there this season. The Pin Babes will visit Harlem Globe Flippers at the Wallace. That's a six-win team and a six-loss team. Scrapple League will have an off week this week. The fifth season begins next week. On Thursday, October 30th, No Bro Presents Thursday Night Strikes will be convened at Jack Bar in Williamsburg. also on Thursday the second qualifying meeting of South Slope Pinball League will be held at Buttermilk Bar at pinball 8 o'clock on Friday, October 31st it's going to be spooky it's going to be the last day for submissions to the 6 games, 6 songs challenge we're not asking you to eat detergent here it's not that kind of challenge just listen to some weird fucking tunes while you get down with some weird pinball On Saturday, November 1st, South Slope Strikes will take signups at 5 o'clock and begin at 5.30 out of the primary location of Buttermilk with the games at Rulo's also being used depending on attendance. on Sunday, November 2nd. We have hallowed all of them. We have sainted all of them. And now it's November 2nd. Silver Ball Sunday at Single Cut 31 will be convened at Single Cut. It, I think, has had several formats, but this time Match Play tells me it's five rounds of group Match Play with the top four advancing to the finals. The top eight will advance if there are 30 or more players. Max of 44, so if you show up in your number 45, sorry, you got to just drink beer and watch your friends play pinball. Plunge all your extra balls. As of October 24th, 2025, there are 349 pinball machines in New York City at 80 public locations. Thanks to the creators and users of Pinball Map for this data, here are machine updates from the past week. On Friday, October 17th, user Flipper Fiend visited Gebhard's Beer Culture and said of the King Kong, Ball seems to consistently get stuck by the spider for indefinite periods of time. And of Pulp Fiction they said The plunger takes just a little extra elbow grease to launch than most machines But if I had to pick a defect I guess that sort of the ideal flaw I can use my palm. User CKFlips played the big Lebowski at Rulos and said, Right flipper is so weak. But I know from personally being there that Ed rebuilt the flippers on Sunday. On Saturday, a Pulp Fiction was taken out of Sunshine Laundromat. An Uncanny X-Men was removed from Scrapple Land, but Scrapple Land gained an Iron Maiden and a Funhouse. User Flipper Fiend was there as well, and let us know that the Elton John is out of service. we also found it not working on Wednesday at Scrapple League finals. It would turn on and get stuck in the boot up process with some computer stuff on the screen never getting all the way to game mode I have been stuck with a boot up, wait that's a different thing On Monday and Tuesday there was a little bit of shuffling at Barcade locations Barcade Chelsea lost its Dungeons and Dragons and gained a Cactus Canyon, whereas Barcade Brooklyn lost a Cactus Canyon and a John Wick, but gained a Dungeons and Dragons and a Monster Bash. On Wednesday, user HopDog stopped by Wonderville, hoping to see a place to bury strangers, but said machine is still in the shop bartender said they're hoping to have it back within a month a place to bury strangers for anyone who doesn't know is a reskin of it was either called hawaii or aloha uh and the entire point is not to score points but instead to complete the sequence of action so that you can set off the fog machine if it ever gets out of that shop i urge you to go set off the fog machine yo wonderville is wonderfully weird also on wednesday user jns was at charlene's in brooklyn and said of the game that's listed on the map as an attack from mars remake from chicago gaming played okay launched short plunged a couple of times i don't think it's the remake though i think it's the valley original i will say for sure as that Charlene's is one of the closest locations to my home, that both have sat in that location. I will not say for sure which one is sitting there now. But most recently when I visited, it was the remake, I think. On Thursday, user Miniflipper went to Barcade St. Mark's and said of their Jaws premium, Balls need to be polished and the shark has yet to be fixed. Balls need to be polished. On Friday, user JNS was at the gutter bar, LIC, and said of their earth shaker, played great, main ramp is just backhandable. And then let us know the shadow, aw man, shut off, launcher not firing, according to the bartender. Also on Friday, a 1975 Gottlieb Abracadabra was added to the Red Hook Pinball Museum. Cut up! User Red Hook Pinball Museum said, Just restored. Super nice play field. Playing great. Fantastic. We were just talking about Abracadabra last week about wows. Yes, exactly. I am out of town and was as of yesterday. I played on Sunday and Monday. Did you work on Saturday? I worked at Barcade Brooklyn on Saturday. Cool repair? Nothing special in the pinball variety. Dialed in the right coin slot was not registering. There wasn't anything apparently physically wrong with it, but I went into the switch test mode and it started working. I know that that has recurred since. Another day someone found the same problem happening again. Wild. I set a personal best on Cactus Canyon while I was doing my playthrough of the games. And that's good because the Cactus Canyon just got pulled. Yeah. But yeah, I took a picture of it so I could upload it to Pindigo. On Sunday, I went to the RWI at Rulo's. Wow. Bart cooked, baked up an amazing dish. these amazing flaky pastries that had butternut squash, caramelized onion, and feta cheese inside of them. Do you think we might call them a galette or a galette? Yes, maybe. I think that sounds like what we're talking about here is a galette, a galette. Those things were incredibly good, and I chowed down on those. It sounds delicious. And also sounds like things, by the way, as exactly the jerk that I am, that are readily available, presently, ingredients that you can get fresh, locally, just you can get it right now from an organic farmer who's going to bring it to within five miles of your home, probably within half a mile of your home. I think Matthew Carlson picked up the first one off these two giant trays of them and bit it into a and let us all know it was way too hot to eat yet. I see. And then a little later on, I was hanging out in the backyard and Matthew came back out and he said, man, you've got to have another one of those pastries. They're so good. I've had a whole ton of them already. I said, I know. I've had four. He's like, oh, that's how many I've had. I went on Sunday to Franklin Park. I played through, I just, I wanted to get out and play a little pinball. It was an entirely recreational just like, eh, I don't want to invest a lot of time into getting somewhere with pinball and therefore I will go to the place that is absolutely closest to my home that has a public location with pinball in it. And I played one game of Jaws and then one game that was mediocre. It was 80 to 100 million kind of just like, oh, I did one thing. I did a little bit. I didn't do enough to score a lot. I played one game of Game of Thrones as House Martell. Played one game as Martell and was dissatisfied. And I put in another dollar and I said, you know what, fuck it, I'm going to play Greyjoy. And immediately did exactly the thing that I should have done, which is to light lock, hit Martel, and lock ball one. Light lock, hit Martel, and lock ball two. Light lock, hit Martel, and lock ball three. And then played Greyjoy and Martel, such that I defeated Martel while I had a multiball going. I had completed Martel and Tyrell and Lannister. Lannister was actually the first one I played, of course, before. I've been saying Martel, right? But Lannister was the one I've been playing to get the ball locked. But I had a good stack. It's not the perfect stack. It might be the perfect stack for Greyjoy because of the awards, because the Martel at a ball might actually be good enough to transcend. end. I played one Iron Throne. No, what's the name of the multiball after you get four? Iron Throne? Hand of the King. Hand of the King. I played Hand of the King, had a mediocre version of it. I think I got a super jackpot somewhere up in there. And I ended the game 30 million points shy of the grand champion score. So someone else is still grand champion, but I'm number one. And now I think number four or maybe number one and number two when I walked out of there the other night. So I'm just saying, like, come get me, New York City. That was a beer's worth of pinball. It was one game of Jaws, a mediocre, kind of bad, actually, game of Game of Thrones. And then a really good game of Game of Thrones that could have still gone a lot better. On Monday, I played, obviously. I went to the Colliders match. We hosted a special when lit. the second Rulos team that we hosted in a row and the second that we lost to by 10 to 6 or 9 to 7 by a close margin or relatively by a doubles match. I had a really good time. I lost all of my points. I contested four of them. I was involved in contesting four of them. I personally contested two and then split duties on two others. And I played Matthew Carlson on Twilight Zone. And just before we played, it was round three. And I noticed the initials go by and the grand champion said MMC and the number one said BCF and the number two said MMC. And we were about to play on it. And don't get me wrong, that game would have seemed like a classic to me if I'd won it, but he did. And I mean, I scored like 400 million points or something. I had a good Twilight Zone game, but not a good enough Twilight Zone game. And in fact, I made the terrible error of serving him up his second Powerball Mania. Yeah. I was sure I had scored three gumballs, but I had only scored my second. I started knocking them out there and when the second one went in and the light wasn't on, I felt like I was cooked at that point because he still had a ball to play. I'd be lying if I said my nerves were definitely not involved in my having failed to get it because that's rote to me, man. Gum, ball, 10 million point three-way combo, bounce pass, lock, gum, ball. It is rote. It is the way that I play the game and I was in my head. I will say because this segment is very much supposed to be not about the competition part of this that my discussion with Matthew Carlson, not while I was playing him, but while I was playing Jade in round two, in between my balls of Twilight Zone, about how he was fairly certain that his skills as a pinball player would transcend to drifting in a car. This was a good conversation. We talked about the right car to purchase such that the clutch would engage at the right height so that you can really get your shifting in because I think that it's important to be in a manual and be controlling the revolutions per minute versus the actual purchase of the tires on the road. I think that's the most important part of drifting if I understand it. and I probably don't I almost certainly don't to be clear so super talking out my ass here super talking out my ass here but that exactly what Matthew Carlson and I were doing on Monday night about drifting On Monday I popped over to barcade fight I um got there as quick as I could after work so that I could both participate in the six games, six songs challenge. And also enjoy my barcade employee discount on Narragansett's and a couple of chili cheese dogs. oh does it only apply to narragansetts and chili cheese dogs no it applies to all the beer and all the food that's just what i got so i played that the those wacky games in our challenge while i listened to the odd songs uh-huh interestingly uh i got fed up or i got served the Parts and Labor song that I had suggested for the playlist first. So that was the first thing I started with and I went right into my pinball jam. Right, right, right. What game did I play first? I started on Banzai Run. Banzai was the only one that was open upstairs. So I played that one first and then I went downstairs and came back to the upstairs ones um and then the rest of the playlist was mixed in for me with very annoying very long ads because i don't pay for spotify oh sure but my experience of it was mostly the the music stayed in the background i was pretty engrossed in the pinball and I wasn't even noticing the music most of the time. Every once in a while, something would pop through. I mean, you know, the lyrics of White Rabbit grabbed my attention because they're familiar. I'm like, oh yeah, I know those words. Why does it sound this? Right, right, right. Also, I played pretty terribly. And so I was well done with the pinball before finishing the playlist. Ah, interesting. I did finish the playlist on my trip home. Okay. That was pretty neat. I was walking through the night in New York City listening to that John Cage reading the Allen Ginsberg poem. I wasn't expecting it to be like that. Sorry, it's actually Ginsberg reading over Philip Glass music. it was Ginsberg reading over the Philip Glass thank you yeah it was an intense one Wichita Vortex Sutra is my favorite poem period but Philip Glass wrote an entire opera that is music that he wrote inspired by the poetry of Ginsberg and they collaborated on turning it into an opera. It's something. Well, in between those musical moments, we had our associations match with the Lion Persons. That was fun. It was a nice road win for us. I noticed after the weird games, we stuck the whole match to some pretty weird games. That's the thing about playing there. Peter has a shitload of games John has a shitload of games there are places with a shitload of games but there's a shitload of weird games at Barcade Fight Eye and that's just like a part of the greater shitload so like what'd you play? Yeah well we called Banzai Run, Frontier Congo and NBA not the weirdest but those were the only four that we called. Similarly, they only called four games. Rush, Baywatch, Championship Pub, and Rocky and Bullwinkle were their choices. Gross. I mean, I understand why because... but gross. I mean, I like your choices. I don't love theirs but I also super understand why they're theirs because I don't like them. I don't think a lot of people would be like, ooh, yes, I want to play those four games and only those four games. Oh, I remember after writing down our single game choices in the third round, I handed the sheet to the other team. Gabe came over and wanted to make sure, did you specify which NBA? I'm like, oh, no, I didn't think to write that down. So he went over and got the clipboard back and made sure to write in R so we knew it was the NBA on the right. The right. Yeah, the one on the right. Yeah. Interesting. This is not a problem we had with NBA on Monday night, unfortunately, because the problem we had with NBA was not having one but having zero functional. Still not as of last night. On Tuesday, Butterballers were at home. Neptune's Treasure came by I recalled that I had bemoaned not taking a picture of my outfit from the previous week so I more or less recreated it this week with a different Butterballers t-shirt on top made sure to snap a photo I've been posting little snippets and things like that on Blue Sky quite a bit you can find me with the username Hipsmart on Blue Sky. Nice. You played in the first round of B on Wednesday, right? Yeah, that's right. On Wednesday, I got moving extra quick so I could get to Scrapple Lands as early as possible with the anticipation of having a tie-break game. I did get a chance to stop for some spicy nudes at Gion Famous Foods. turns out Dan Merrill wasn't aware that there was going to be the tiebreak. Didn't know I guess that Nitsan wasn't going to make it and that we were moving up. So he was a little surprised but managed to get there pretty early after Greg notified him. We were randomly assigned to Metallica for the tiebreak and he won. So he got to play in the A Division Finals as the 8th seed where Ali was the number one seat in the B division finals. What was your bank? It was a bank situation. That's right. There were eight banks to choose from. And you had the third pick of them. And I had the third pick. So I had... The banks weren't made until the evening of, so it wasn't something to prep for. But as soon as they were made, I went through the list and I came up with three choices just in case my first two choices were taken by the A division. As it turns out, Alex Kelly did choose one of my backups, but I was able to get my first choice bank, which was Metallica, Gold Strike, and Twilight Zone. That also sounds like a bank I would like to play. I said I would choose, I would have liked to have played in B based on the banks that, I would have liked to have been in your group in B based on the bank that I would have played in, And hopefully then the bank that I would have played to in the finals, if I had got through, that sounded like a good, a fun bank to Arabian nights and, uh, 007 60th anniversary and jaws. That sounds like fun. That bank sounds like fun to gold strike and twilight zone. And I don't care what the third one is. Um, I'm, you know, I very much like Metallica. That's they've got the remake there. The, uh, the, um, not the remake, the, uh, The remastered. Thank you. And that one went well for me. I figured Gold Strike was just going to be a crap shoot and I wasn't going to worry about whether I got any points on it or not. I tilted my second ball trying to keep it from bouncing out of that side lane down the middle, which it did and I tilted and the tilt on that game is the loss of the ball plus one. So that was the end of my game when I tilted on my second ball. And I got last place. And that twilight zone at Scrapple Land is really mean. It is fast, right? It's fast, and the way the flippers are set, you cannot hit the right ramp from the left flipper. Ah, right. It is before a backhand. You'll do a post pass before you could get the ramp. The earliest shot you can hit is the lock. I'm with him. The right flipper is the same way. It's tough to make the shots you need to make. I'm aware of that. I know how to compensate for it and I was counting on it. It really bit me and I didn't advance. Oh well. Fun night. What about last night? First qualifying week of SSPL. I set a personal best on Kong during my warm-up game. Nice. And then went second, second, third, third, third for a very mediocre night. Yeah, I mean no lasts is the first goal, right? Mm-hmm. No lasts is also not going to get you far if it's never first also. Yeah. It's 19 points, which is a number that I'm becoming very familiar with in league i mean 19 is good you know it's all right yeah like in the last round you are in the second or third group in a league of about the size of sspl which i think is probably about the same as uh barcade brooklyn pinball league uh scrapple league's a little bit larger so it's a little the the numbers are skewed a little bit higher because there's just more number. There's more points out there. But 19 is, you know, right there at that sort of liminal point of like, you need more than that on average. But one of those weeks coupled with a 27 is okay. Yeah. It's okay. Okay. So I recorded something at Barcade Fidei and I'm on vacation this week. And so I had intended to just put all of that together and put it in this place. And it turns out that I did not have time to do that while also getting some rest this weekend. So fall three is a house ball. Sometime you're going to hear a segment called BCF goes to Fidei, which I'll explain at the time. between now and then, I urge you to go play the Six Games, Six Songs Challenge at Barcade Fidei. You've only got until Friday to participate, but you can get to Barcade Fidei and do that this week. That's all for this week's pod. Join us next week when in Ball 1, we'll run down local competition results as always. In Ball 2, we'll have venue updates and a bullet journal. And I'm not positive what's going to happen in Ball 3 next week, but I think it's going to be exciting. Between now and then, whatever you're up to, go get them, pinfolk. Is my internet shitty?