Uh huh. Happy Sunday, pinfolk, 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 Fioriga. My initials are BCF, and it's baseball season. My name is Eric Sweetland. My initials are HIP, and I'm a pinball tournament director in New York City. Well, my name is Zanzacniak. My initials are ZEN, and I'm not as good as Nick Zendayas. On this week's pod, we'll run down local competition results in ball one just like we always do. In ball two, we'll do that thing we always do also. We'll give you venue updates courtesy of Pinball Mappin' Its Users, thanks to Eric. And then we'll do our bullet journals. We'll tell you what kind of pinball we played in the past week. And then after that, we will update you on the finalists from each region of the NYC PPPAA tournament. Let's get started. Let's talk about competitive pinball in New York City and nearby, well actually we're probably not going to do nearby surrounding areas this week. At Scrapple Land, the Scrapple Land first anniversary tournament was convened under Ali Bissett's direction. 32 players got together. They had 5 rounds of match play and the top 4 to 8 it says, and I'm pretty sure they did 8. Sean Grant bested the field. Greg Pavarelli came in second. Susie Zalewski third, making it a power couple in the final group. And Dan Merrill came in fourth. He got 13.84 whoppers for his efforts. And I just want to point out an interesting accounting discrepancy here. Match play says 32 players were there, but the IFPA indicates that 33 were there. Nick Berry was marked inactive at some point, but I know there were 33. I also heard in later conversation that Susie Zalewski really got a hold of that final game of Fishtails to blow it up. Got her some monster fishes. Also on Saturday, South Slope Strikes for March 2026 was held at Buttermilk Bar in South Slope. We had 18 players for this head-to-head four strike affair. After 13 total rounds, Alex Kelly survived with only three strikes, besting Rob Wong in Second, AJ Gould in third, and Solon James in fourth. Alex picked up 6.11 Whoppers. There were three players at South Slope Strikes who had previously played at the Scrappleland first anniversary tournament. They made the trek down as soon as the qualifying at Scrappleland was done and they didn't make finals and got to Buttermilk just in time to join us. Courtney, Solon, and Sam Hull were the three double dippers. Oh, that's crazy. So the one happened at 1pm and then they came, they made their way, presumably mostly on the G train down that way to, that's, that's cool. That's crazy. I wanted to do it, but I didn't feel like I could risk it since I wasn't in charge of the strikes. Yeah, yeah, you're running the second one. Yeah, it feels like, feels like it might have been crazy to try to do both. On Sunday, Michelle's Martini Max Match Play Madness, it seems like that's five Ms, happened at Pinahan Gardens. 35 players got down on nine pinball machines, 16 matches of Max Match Play, and then did a group There you go. Beautiful. As you know, she is doing the shoop elimination bracket for the finals, and when it was all said and done, Edy Kreutzer came out on top, besting Morgan Levinson, Tommy Ortega, and Matt Grady, respectively. They playeditness po Few Euster in the finals. And Edy got 21.49 Whoppers for that win. I would venture to say I don't know for sure I'm not looking at her scorecard when I say I would say this, but I would venture to say that's probably the biggest number on her scorecard. Sunday morning fact check, that is true by nearly a factor of 10. It is also the only first place on EDA's open IFPA scorecard. Congrats, EDA. On Monday, March 23rd, in bars all around the city, Pinball NYC's left flipper division had their sixth round. Worms went to Gebhardt's Beer Culture to face the 2-for-1ers and the home team got a 9-7 win. This was Worms' best result yet, but the 2-for-1ers have solidified their resume for an orbit playoff spot. Our New York City Flipper Sport Association saw the Deluxe Horses at Arcade Brooklyn and our association picked up a 12-4 road win. That's your third straight win. What games did you pick? In the opening doubles, we went with Whitewater and Total Nuclear Annihilation. Those are good choices. I think that's what we did last time we were there too. Nice. We picked up both those. And in the singles, third rounds, let's see, we had Johnny Mnemonic, Paragon, and a double on Theatre of Magic. Well, that sounds awesome except for Johnny Mnemonic, but I bet that was Alex Kelly. That was Wyndham. Oh! We wound up splitting all of the singles games, but our association swept each of the doubles rounds for that pin. There you go. The Pin Pals hosted the lesser players at Skylark, and the home team got themselves an 11-5 win. That gives them a win after three losses in a row. They stopped the losing streak. The lesser players, unfortunately, are still kind of on theirs. The Pinbots and Intermission Dolores faced off at Commonwealth. It went to a tiebreak and the visiting Pinbots got the win 8-8. That win puts the Pinbots over 500 on the season and even though the eight point victory doesn't really accrue as much to the standings as you might like, it really passes the smell test as a big deal to go somewhere and win in a way tiebreak win. The Mutants went on the road to Rullo's and they beat up on the Aristocrats 12-4. Mutants rebound from their first loss of the season in week 5. Benjamin, your Colliders had a bye week. Restful. Parliament welcomed Balls of Steel to Owl Farm and Balls of Steel took that welcome mat and 10 points home in a 10-6 road win. That is the second week in a row that Balls of Steel, an undefeated team, has beaten another undefeated team. And Barcade Fidei saw a special win late come to town to face Lion Persons. The home team wins 11-5. Lion Persons started slow, but they have two wins in a row now. I mean, some of these teams have played six games, some of these teams have played five games, everyone's played at least five. It seems like it's standings time, that we're only going to play 10. Currently at the top of the standings, Balls of Steel, undefeated at 6-0 with 64 points. The Mutants are 4-1 with 50, while Parliament is 4-1 with 45. And each of those teams were 3-0 and 4-0 in the last two weeks, but Balls of Steel, who's 6-0, just beat them. That's how those three are at the top of the standings. In fourth and fifth place, the two for oners and our New York City Flipper Sport Association are both four and two, but the two for oners have a three point edge at 59 points to our 56. Also at four and two and 56 points, the aristocrats are tied with NYC FSA, except we have the advantage of winning our matchup directly with them. That'd be the top division if it was all said and done today. It's notable, of course, that some of those standings like mutants in parliament are four and one, which means that their record is better than the four and two teams, although they have had a week off and some of the four and two teams have not, obviously. So there's a little bit of sway to what might happen here. Currently sitting at the top of the in-lane playoffs. Both the pinbots and your colliders are 3-2. Pinbots have 39 points, colliders 36. And there's another situation where just like because of the number of games we're in front of these teams, or this team at least. That's right, Intermission Dolores is 3-3 with 46 points. We'd jump in the standings over the pinbots or the colliders should they lose. Although the pinbots just gave themselves the head-to-head tiebreaker against Intermission Dolores last week by the win. Lion Persons are currently at a record of 2-3 with 42 points. And both the pinpals and the deluxe horses are 2 and 4 at 43 and 38 points respectively. And that would round out the in lane playoffs if they were held today. Currently on the outside looking in, the lesser players are 1 and 5 with 34 points. Special when lit is 0 and 6 with 35. Worms are 0 and 5. And we are also presuming, I don't know that this is more than a presumption, you're on I'm not on a captain's email list. I'm not that only the top 12 will play in the playoffs. It is possible. It has happened in the past when there have been 16 or more in a division that there have been eight, you know, eight and eight. So it's possible that what we're talking about here would be shifted slightly by that and that the top seed in one of the divisions would have a buy in this division. It's more likely on Tuesday where there are actually 16 teams so that everyone would just go to the playoffs, it's more likely that it would be a consolation bracket and a championship bracket there. In chats with some of the other captains, we all agree, we'll find out just shortly before it happens. That seems about right. Also at bars all over the city, many of the same bars, and in fact a lot of the same teams in a certain way, kind of play on a Monday night and a Tuesday night, or at least, you know, teams with a few common members. At Rulos, the replays hosted No Quarters for Laundry, and No Quarters picked up a 13-3 visiting win. That's four straight for No Quarters. Everybody Loves the Sunshine hosted Your Butterballers at, well, Sunshine Laundromat, I should hope, since that's, since everybody loves it there, and that's, and they were hosting, I hope that's where they host. They won 9-7. Yeah, and with that win, Everybody Loves the Sunshine creates a tight knot in the middle of the standings. Lot of three and two teams, I think. Yeah. That was a close match. They swept the fourth round to make that 9-7. We went in needing just one, but got zero. Midway saw Schlubbs visiting the third ball, and Schlubbs picked up a 14-2 away win. That's the Shlub's biggest win of the season. Danger Danger hosted Neptune's Treasure at Buttermilk Bar, and Danger Danger bested the Cummers 12-4. Pinister Six went to Barcade Fi-Di where they bested the Trolls 10-6. Every one of Pinister Six's matches this season has either been 10-6 or 11-5, and this is their second win in a row. Was there a troll story? The troll story this week reads, looking for a troll in finance, coin fund, five foot five inches, grand prize, hashtag fideibros, hashtag trolls on top, and in the photos you can see everyone on trolls dressed like a finance bro. Midtown uniform? Yeah. Ball Drainers hosted Harlem Globe Flippers at Jack Bar and the Ball Drainers won 9-7. I talked to George Underwood about this last night. He said that it was heated and when I questioned that, when I was like, really? Like, it's like, it was like, there was real tension. He was like, I mean, everyone were, you know, everyone's good friends. Like, everyone on the two teams are friends with each other, but everybody really wanted to win. Like it was not, it wasn't heated in the way that it was contentious socially, but it was heated in the way that it was contentious pinball wise. I'm pretty sure that he told me this, I had had a beverage or two and I didn't write it down. So I'm, I think I'm, I think that I am narrating reliably at present. I believe that he said that he played a game against Adam Robinson on Jaws that he stepped up to ball three with like a 280 million point deficit and had a heroic ball three and came up just short. What that like I think what I think the numbers he said were like Adam was just over 300 call it 305 and he was at it was probably more like 302 because I think he said he was just under 300 at like 299 and something but then he plunged an extra ball and won Wow Just knowing that the score was 9 and that in in favor of George team and that was the case that the difference between a tiebreaker or not there and that keeps them undefeated The pin babes went to Barcade Brooklyn where Reston Pinball, parenthetically RIP, lost 7-9. The pin babes pick up their second win on the season. Scrapple Squatch visited Harry's hand grenades and they were probably startled by the noise because the hand grenades won 10 to 6. Hand grenades pick up their first win since their return to the right flipper division. They're a win out of the top 12 and a point behind the trolls who gave them their first loss in week one. All right, it's halfway through in this one. There's no one has six games here because this Bells and Chimes finals was the week that this was originally scheduled to start but there would have been an extra week at the end so it was easy for them to push this one off. And I'm glad they did. That was the right move. But, ball drainers are on top. 5-0. 54 points accumulated on the season. Danger Danger, Schwubbs, No Quarters for Laundry, all are 4-1. Danger Danger has piled on scores when they can and they have 61 points scored on the season. That's seven more than the 5-0 team, by the way. Schlubbs and No Quarters for Laundry have 53 and 51, which is just a couple points behind that 5-0 team. The Globe Flippers and the Butterballers would currently round out the top six, but you remember Eric said that that win by Everybody Loved the Sunshine created a knot in the middle of the standings? I'm going to list the three and two teams right now. Harlem Globe Flippers, Butterballers, Pinister Six, Everybody Loves the Sunshine, Neptune's Treasure. That's five teams are three and two. They are separated by nine points. Globe Flippers have 50, Butterballers 43, Pinister Six 42, Everybody Loves the Sunshine, also 42, Neptune's Treasure 41. So just to put that win in perspective, Everybody Loves the Sunshine came within one point of All of their direct opponent at that time, but also made all of this. Butterballers would have been 4-1 instead of 3-2, made all of this crunch happen with that win. That's pretty cool. Two of those four teams, Globe Flippers, Butterballers, Pinister Six, or Everybody Loves the Sunshine, would be in the next level down in the inlanes, presuming that it's 12 in total in this 16-team division who will go to the playoffs. And they would be joined by... no, three of those teams would go down. And they would be joined by Rest In Pinball, Scrapple Squad, and the Pin Babes as of right now. They are all 2-3 with 35, 34, and 31 points respectively. Trolls and Harry's Hand Grenades have one win each and presumably will not make playoffs. Replays and third ball, you know, if they started today. I don't mean to say that they can't, because they certainly can. A couple of wins turns it all around. They don't have five losses yet. They can still have an above 500 record on the season. It is possible. Replays and third ball are 0 and 5. Best they can do is 500 on the season, but they can do it. It can still be done. On Wednesday, the fourth qualifying week of Scrapple League's second season of the year was held at Scrapple Land in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Directed by Greg Pavarelli, myself, Woody Richman, and Harlan Aidalinda. We had 29 players out for the night, playing five rounds of group match play with IFPA scoring, hoping to get the most points towards our series total. A new player to our league, Tomei Tenesovsky, picked up 29 points, doing that the best this week. Tomé was also, I saw, at the Scrappleland First Anniversary Tournament on Saturday, but I met him for the first time on Wednesday night. Cool. Adam Kane, Woody Richman, and Matt Raz all picked up 27 points on Wednesday, and Jackie, Bailey, Harlan, Aida, Linda, and myself got 25. There were 11 players in the optional side pot. Woody Richman took home the big cash. I mean, there are four meetings, which means that most of these people have a full scorecard. That's right, and currently leading the way in the standings, CJ Smith has 98 points. Sean Grant has 97. Rounding out the top eight, Harlan Aida-Linda, Adam Kane, Steven Perillo, Woody Richman, Alberto Santana, and Dustin Bailey. I just want to point out, look out for Alberto Santana, because that's three meetings worth at 87. And so like when you're like, hey, everybody who's at the top is 98 or 97. Alberto is only 20 points away from you. When he shows up for his fourth meeting, Alberto is there. So you got to work on your score because he's coming for you. The eight B finalists after these four weeks, myself, Dan Merrill and Pat Carawan all have 86 points, just one off the cut line for A. Also, Lindsey Rhodes, Jackie Bailey, Susie Zalewski, Greg Pavarelli, and Mike Pantino. Greg and Mike, both with only three meetings so far. Mike sitting with a nice 69 points at the cut line. And just below the B cut line, Jacob Reynolds, Matt Raz, James Bloor, Conor Fleming, and Chris Caffaro are all within striking distance. Caffaro with only two meetings. So if he can show up for all four, he's within striking distance of A at 54. If he doubled up on what he's got, he's at 108 at the end of this. So he might be shooting for A, not for the cut line of B. I'm not saying that these three meeting folks can't also be because, you know, 35 points gets any one of them close in those top eight as of right now. Cafaro's, if he can get to two more meetings, to the last two meetings, I like his chances. On Thursday at Jack Bar, No Bro Presents Thursday Night Strikes had what I believe is its final meeting at 8pm sharp. It was hosted by the GC. 27 players came and I'll give you two guesses who won. Yeah, it was Greg Fertel. He bested Zach Till, Travis Rosenberg, and Nitsan Gabbai. Also on Thursday, South Slope Pinball League had its second qualifying week of their second season at Buttermilk Bar directed by Kate Martin. 24 players came out for five rounds of group match play with IFPA scoring. Rob Wong beat everyone he met that night and got 35 points.