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2020 Stern Pro Circuit Championship Game 11

Stern Pinball·video·24m 30s·analyzed·Aug 13, 2023
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Analysis

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TL;DR

2020 Stern Pro Circuit Game 11: Jason Wardrick scores 434M on Godzilla while Kerins is eliminated.

Summary

Coverage of Game 11 of the 2020 Stern Pro Circuit Championship, a ladder finals format tournament where players compete on Godzilla pinball. Jason Wardrick dominates with a 434 million point score on ball two, while Bowen Kerins, Andrew Rosa, and Lewis Bevins struggle with the machine's demanding playfield. Lewis Bevins ultimately advances while Bowen Kerins is eliminated.

Key Claims

  • Godzilla is a flow machine where if you don't get into that flow the game's gonna be over really fast

    medium confidence · Bowen Kerins post-elimination commentary on game design philosophy

  • Jason Wardrick recently played Godzilla in a final round tournament where he needed to crush the game to win

    high confidence · Jason Wardrick introduction, explaining his game selection rationale

  • Jason Wardrick's strategy on Godzilla is to shoot ramps to get four shots through the Gigan mode to activate double scoring

    high confidence · Tim Sexton commentary analyzing Jason's consistent playfield strategy across multiple balls

Notable Quotes

  • “Godzilla is an interesting game because it's very much a flow machine if you don't get into that flow the game's gonna be over really fast whoever picked this game should be fired oh wait that was me”

    Bowen Kerins@ 24:04 — Post-elimination reflection on game difficulty and his strategic choice; self-deprecating humor about selecting the machine

  • “I recently played Godzilla in the final round of a tournament just a few weeks ago where I needed to Crush the game to win the tournament and I did it”

    Jason Wardrick@ 1:09 — Explains confidence and experience basis for selecting Godzilla as his choice game

  • “you want to look for shots that you can get really good at and then continue to make those shots over and over again for me those are the ramps the left ramp right ramp combo on Godzilla is also tied to two other things starting battles and the Gigan battle in particular”

    Bowen Kerins@ 15:34 — Strategic analysis of effective Godzilla gameplay approach focusing on repetition and mode progression

Entities

Jason WardrickpersonBowen KerinspersonAndrew RosapersonLewis BevinspersonTim SextonpersonKeith ElwinpersonGodzillagame

Signals

  • ?

    competitive_signal: 2020 Stern Pro Circuit Championship employs ladder finals format where lowest-scoring player is eliminated each round and new player enters

    high · Tim Sexton explains format: 'starting with four players we eliminate the last place player and bring in a new player until we're down to just the final two'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Godzilla demonstrates significant skill gap; Jason Wardrick achieves 434M+ on ball two through deliberate ramp-based strategy, while other players struggle with basic mode access

    high · Jason completes Gigan mode with four consecutive ramps, activates double scoring, chains destruction jackpots to 34M+; Bowen/Andrew/Lewis fail to complete even single modes

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Godzilla characterized as 'flow machine' with punishing outlanes; game ends quickly without establishing productive ramp sequences early

    medium · Bowen Kerins post-match: 'Godzilla is very much a flow machine if you don't get into that flow the game's gonna be over really fast'; multiple players drain immediately via outlanes

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Godzilla layout features challenging post-pass mechanics due to slingshot positioning; ramp combos (left/right) are core progression path

    high · Tim Sexton analysis of Andrew's post-pass attempt: 'slingshot is set a little farther back than some other layouts making that flip extremely early'; Bowen identifies 'left ramp right ramp combo' as essential

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Top players employ different survival strategies: Jason focuses on mode completion and ramp consistency; Lewis/Andrew rely on skill shots and ball control over mode depth

Transcript

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0:01
foreign [Music] of the stern pro circuit championships I'm your host Tim Sexton and I'm here to bring you up to speed with everything going on in this circuit final so far the stern pro circuit Championship is an exciting ladder finals format this means starting with four players we eliminate the last place player and bring in a new player until we're down to just the final two the winner of that game wins a championship belt a brand new Stern Pinball Machine and also a five thousand dollar cash prize let's take a look at our field
0:42
I'm Bowen Karens I'm from Salem Massachusetts my name is Jason wardrick I'm from Park Ridge Illinois Andrew Rosa II Flint Michigan my name is Louis Bevins from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania in each match the top-seeded player has the opportunity to choose the game or choose their order on the game for my game I'm choosing the monster monster zero Godzilla I recently played Godzilla in the final round of a tournament just a few weeks ago where I needed to Crush the game to win the tournament and I did it the game selected for this match is Godzilla pinball released in 2021 by Stern Pinball and designed by Keith elwin
1:26
here we are in the 11th game of the stern pro circuit finals with Boeing Karen's joining us on a game of Godzilla his choice with dwindling daylight in the background Bowen has been waiting for a very long time to finally play his first game of pinball in this competition starts by shooting the right ramp and a little early on his shot to the left ramp it's making some moves to get the ball back into control and he does gets the wild trap in the left whipper decides to shoot the right ramp again get some progress on his building left ramp there has his modes lit and shoots the Mechagodzilla spinner completes it to the red level and fortunately unable to hit the scoop drains down the middle
2020 Stern Pro Circuit Championship
event
Stern Pinballcompany

high · Jason chains 4-shot ramp sequences into multiball; Lewis advances via guaranteed skill shot strategy; Andrew uses drop catches and half-ramps to survive

  • ?

    event_signal: Tournament filmed during daylight hours with natural light diminishing through game progression (visible in commentary: 'it is getting darker and darker every ball')

    high · Tim Sexton notes: 'dwindling daylight in the background' and later 'wow it is getting darker and darker every ball here'

    • 2:19
    and plays a rather quick ball one ending with just under 6 million points
    2:35
    [Music] so Jason going for a short Plunge gets it and gets the ball trapped on the right flipper Jason oh looks like a great shot to the left ramp but he doesn't hit it
    2:56
    there he goes Jason dialed in on that tricky left ramp shoots the right ramp has just perfectly timed to bump over to the left flipper every time and if we know Jason he's probably gonna go with Gigan and shoot the right ramp over and over again he has selected Gigan he will be drop catching out of the scoop perfectly oh ball heads back to the middle but he recovers takes a danger there a little surprising didn't look like he moved it too much and he will be working on Gigan now trying to shoot the right ramp over and over at least four times to get the double scoring started I'll take a shot to the left ramp there this means he'll get to convo to the right ramp for 5 million points and this will be his fourth shot which will light one of his allies he prepares to get Rodan going but he misses the scoop shot
    4:02
    he's getting a lot of half ramps on the right ramp now he's just making some shots to the ramp he's just going to go through the mode it looks like almost completed two more shots at Gigan there he goes into the scoop brings into Rodin which is two shots left trying to double his finishing bonus and his destruction jackpot one shot left in Gigan mode bounces over the left flipper takes a second danger to do so he's still in play destroy some jet fighters for some good points up the middle oh late on the ramp he's running out of time only seven seconds left from this flipper he's gonna go for the left ramp doesn't hit it
    4:48
    oh there's the final blow just as the game told him time was up and now his destruction jackpot slid through the middle he hits it there this will be uh up to 4X the destruction jackpot value because he still has Rodan double scoring running
    5:15
    the animations play out here as we see now his locks are lit it's a great thing to have after this destruction jackpot eight and a half million times two with double scoring running save Chase and get hit it here
    5:30
    oh early he still has a little bit of time has to shoot the spinner and then around and boom destruction jackpot 34.3 million points perfect textbook start from Jason werjack here on this game it's what he's been doing every game of Godzilla getting the four shots through the mode to get the double scoring getting through Gigan getting the big destruction jackpot collect putting himself over 100 million and in the process lighting his Godzilla multi-ball locks
    6:09
    thank you Jason gets a little ball safe there from the plunge it's about trapping the left flipper and he's gonna go to bring his at a ball Ally into the next multiball choose his power up and also change his City so he can start another level one battle
    6:35
    and nothing different than any way Jason split this before he will go to London next to boost the value of his destruction jackpot if he is able to get through another mode
    6:46
    collects an extra eight and a half million points and he knows he's playing with two dangers now so he's not going to take too many big moves I don't think
    7:02
    back to working the ramps for his next battle had to bail out there winds up shooting for the second lock up the middle so Jason likely will try to shoot the left ramp next before starting the multiball
    7:20
    he's going with very very soft plunges here there he goes into the left in Lane
    7:28
    and he is being very careful with his nudges not pushing it too much he does not want it tilt here
    7:36
    there he goes in the left ramp the Battle Is Now lit he's made some good progress on trains [Music] takes the battle time bonus boost and Jason's second mode
    7:57
    he's gonna go with Titanosaurus and multiball requires him to hit stand up targets and the pop bumper [Music]
    8:13
    there he goes into his Godzilla multiball [Music]
    8:28
    Jason can bring in another Rodan Ally if he completes the three power line Target stand-ups starting with the left but she has not hit yet he also has the at about available just with the top button because of his aguirus ally
    8:48
    he just hit two of the targets so far he is the tricky one on the right remaining he also is getting some Godzilla multiball jackpots here
    8:58
    he is the Ally available so his double scoring is available if he can shoot the scoop with Rodan lit he will not be flipping the right flipper right now but hey he's taking these jackpots while he's up there on top of the Playfield
    9:13
    yeah nice nice way to bounce the ball over to the other side of the playthrough he's thinking about using the heat ray now he's used in spot 38 million points worth of shots plus he has super spinner running that's another 10 million points faces up to 236 million now he has not taken his double scoring Ally yet but the ball is getting dangerously close to that scoop with monster lit
    9:39
    there he uses the Atta ball that'll bring three balls into play because he was able to use it or maybe just two balls back into play but he was able to use it before the last ball drained now his Godzilla multiball is over
    10:01
    he has completed his mode controlling London he's boosted his destruction jackpots now he's also built the multiplier on the destruction jackpot up to 3x he might be shaking his head because he does not have the double scoring running now this is a lot of points and it could be doubled if he does hit it here um it's not though so it is 15 million times three and running out of time he is not able to collect that 45 million points destruction jackpot yes it did not register there still Jason's at 337 million points uh playing on two dangers just now making ramp shots making some great rage combos lighting another battle that would be his tier 2 battle available
    10:53
    oh man [Music] Chase is going to take a little break here his next Godzilla power-up is lit [Music]
    11:08
    brings in his double scoring with Rodan has his choice of Godzilla power up for level three [Music] thinking about it probably leaning towards this oh no he's changing okay back to the destruction jackpot plus three seconds he doesn't want to waste another opportunity on destruction jackpot and now starting
    11:40
    so a lot going on here in this tier 2 battle we have not seen many of these so far in the stern Pro circuits but he's got to shoot flashing arrows red arrows lights the scoop so first phase now shooting these flashing arrows and as you can see when he shoots these arrows he's getting a half a million point award or so plus he's building a jackpot value
    12:13
    trying to get control of the ball let's see how how many shots he can make in this mode here the cash out value is this flea fighter flea choice you will have later in the mode yeah and he's not going to get there [Music] so only three and a half million from that tier two mode
    12:39
    but a great ball from Jason wardrick with over 300 million points scored just on ball one wow 19 in it 19.8 million bonus there that's a really big bonus on Godzilla just under 400 million another great start for Jason wernjerk Jason has played 10 games so far he's on his 11th game and he's now very likely to continue to his 12th game in the stern Pro circuits well meanwhile in this ladder format Bo and Karens is here for his first game Andrew Rosa and Lewis have only been playing a few games here so far in this latter format of the stirred per circuit one player will be eliminated at the end of this game and a new player will come in
    13:32
    Andrew has had a decent run not quite as impressive as Jason's coming from the first game but he's been surviving a lot of these games
    13:42
    getting the points he needs to when he needs to and he's starting right away with two great shots to the ramps uh shot to the spinner
    13:52
    and what's he gonna do from the leftover he's gonna try a post pass post passes are very difficult on this Godzilla game the slingshot is set a little farther back than some other layouts making that flip extremely early to get a post pass [Music] and since I postpassed Andrew has not really gotten the ball on the left flipper in a trap he has now he'll take aim at the scoop but he shoots the pop-up or instead takes aim again takes a danger but that was a great nudge to get it away from the deadly right outline area there now he's got a trap again on the right flipper won't go for the Post pass that time he shots as a ramp to pass the ball over instead the ball gets sent to the right out lane very quickly and Andrew struggles to start his first battle mode here on Godzilla
    14:49
    just kind of got some other points there putting him just a little bit ahead of bow and score now wow it is getting darker and darker every ball here
    15:00
    sunlight has it's wiggled in the studio where we are filming the stern pro circuit championships already a danger from Lois into the scoop he's gonna hold the flipper up that seemed to do pretty well for him oh boy he's into the pop bumpers and slingshots and out the left outline almost immediately very little progress for Lewis no ramp shots made really makes Jason's score look all the more impressive with how deadly those out lanes were for the other players you want to look for shots that you can get really good at and then continue to make those shots over and over again for me those are the ramps the left ramp right ramp combo on Godzilla is also tied to two other things starting battles and the Gigan battle in particular so my plan is shoot the ramps start gagging
    15:51
    great update for Bo and on his plan in this game he wants to get into the Gigan battle
    16:09
    take his skill shot and for the scoop now that ball will not come back wow it's spent just enough time bouncing around in the apron area to not hit the trough in time for the ball save to actually recover that ball and that puts a lot of pressure on Bowen he's gonna need to do something on his ball three even though his score is currently ahead of players two and sorry players three and four that score was very unlikely to hold up in a game of Godzilla just to a big skill shot or a couple shot ramp shots
    17:00
    so Jason is back very quickly to the game he did not have a long break between that great ball one and and this time now he's playing ball too is he gonna stay in London oh he can collect 15 million points if he travels to New York or Paris he will travel to New York chasing his globetrotting around the world Bringing Godzilla to all these major cities to make sure that they are saved from uh the Carnage that has been Unleashed by uh all the Kaiju
    17:38
    Jason Starts Now super trained Loops this is a mode involving shooting the ramps
    17:48
    shoot either ramp but the ball will feed to the same flipper and instead drains down the middle very low scoring ball for Jason by comparison but he is in a very very good position on the scam and with another 3x permanent bonus X takes another 23 million just a bonus to bring his score over 434 million points stepping up next will be our survivor Andrew Rosa
    18:23
    as Andrew mentions he wants to start his mode he's gonna need to shoot that right scoop which can be a very difficult shot marriage goes with a little half drop cache and then immediately a flipping toward the scoop area sending the ball up the Playfield and eventually out the left out lane
    18:43
    that is not what Andrew wanted at all on that ball too do we just try to swing it no I think we need to get mugs now Lewis is looking at this situation thinking is there something I could do that doesn't require shooting that scoop just to get ahead of these other players well he'll shoot a left ramp there's that's his first part of shooting toward his battle done he has now lit his battles he keeps shooting ramps now and now right into the script that was a great one-time shot into the battle scoop
    19:24
    what mode is Lewis gonna go for he picks Gigan so I guess he likes those ramp shots he found he tried to Ted pads no he's gonna give up on that try the drop catch now that's tough too scoop theme can be very difficult to control for these players and unable to control it the ball hits the left slingshot and out the right out lane but not before hitting a saucer giving them a couple million points bounce didn't work and that puts him at 12 million so now
    19:55
    Jason sitting with his 434 million is very unlikely to have to play this next ball unless Bowen puts up a huge ball here this is really a three-way battle right now between Bowen Andrew and Lewis none of these players have made a single shot in any of their modes just by making two shots of any other modes that will double their score from what they're sitting at here so
    20:34
    Bowen's taking no chances here going with the very soft plunge that'll give him a skill shot give him five ball save seconds very precious ball safe seconds especially when the ball bounces around near the island like that Bowen is a little late into the scoop shot and he's going to take a little break to think about how he's gonna handle this situation he will start jet fighters with one more left inland so shooting the left ramp could get him into jet fighters it could get something going it's a low scoring mode but a mode nonetheless
    21:15
    and for the left ramp oh it takes a big danger but he needed to that ball fell right into the in lane and oh that will drain not before he's collecting his saucer he did start jet fighter mode but it's unable to make any jet fighter shots and now he is sitting with a very small lead over players three and four
    21:38
    sitting with a very small lead over players three and four Jason will plunge his ball here leading to bonus so now Andrew stepping up as player three knows the score he needs to beat so does Lewis
    21:59
    he is very close to starting Mecca Godzilla multiball but he does need to make two shots
    22:10
    what is Andrew's plan here he's got a few options on the Playfield he's gonna go with the short skill skill shot he's gonna take the guaranteed ball save there five seconds of ball save plus three million points because he made the exact same skill shot all three balls so far there he goes shooting for the Mechagodzilla he's just got to hit that spinner now and he was a little bit early oh this is he's not gonna do it if he drains here but now shooting the spinner starting Mechagodzilla multi-ball pretty much guaranteeing himself he will be moving on there's a jackpot for Amelia and that likely brings him over the amount of score he needs there's another jackpot Andrew Rosa survives again with his unconventional strategies moving on to the next round of the stern pro circuit Championship now it comes down to this battle between Lewis Bevins and Bowen carrots Lewis can do it here with just a skill shot
    23:12
    as we're waiting for the mode total animations to play in the bonus to play Lewis discussing just the skill shot strategy he needs in order to get through to the next round
    23:32
    he's flipping thinking checking his instant info making sure he knows what his plan is to go with a very short skill shot and that will do it that's two million points there shoots the spinner just for a few more points but he's already over oh and Karen's amount gets the clap to indicate that yes
    23:53
    always the great Sportsman sad to see Bo and Karen's go let's check in with Bowen to see how he felt about his tournament Godzilla is an interesting game because it's it's very much a flow machine if you don't get into that flow the game's gonna be over really fast
    24:10
    whoever picked this game should be fired oh wait that was me stick around we're gonna be following the entire Stern pro circuit Championship let's see if any of these players can make it all the way to the finals