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Tribe Multiball with Rachel and Tim, Episode 27: The Mysterious Third Poor Man at MGC

Poor Man's Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·analyzed·May 11, 2022
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Tribe Multiball recap of MGC meetup and Rachel's growing women's tournament.

Summary

Tim Dan Lee and Rachel Risto host Eric Jeff Walker, a newly-inducted Tribe member (member #5), on Tribe Multiball to recap the Midwest Gaming Classic (MGC) in Milwaukee. The episode details personal pinball acquisitions, Rachel's organizing of a 30+ women's tournament at Ladies' Flip Wisconsin, and an extended narrative of the tribe's social activities at MGC including setup help, bar outings, and interactions with Scott Ian Haberman.

Key Claims

  • Rachel acquired 12 games from operator Mike, forcing her to move Cactus Canyon to his house; Tim sold Pirates of the Caribbean to buy a Rush machine

    high confidence · Rachel and Tim discussing personal pinball news at start of episode

  • Ladies' Flip Wisconsin District 82 tournament on May 14th has over 30 women signed up, with participants from Ohio, Minnesota, Illinois, and Wisconsin

    high confidence · Rachel announcing upcoming tournament organization

  • MGC is held every spring, though it was moved to November last year due to COVID

    medium confidence · Tim discussing MGC scheduling patterns

  • Drew's basement arcade (Center Post Cafe) is in Greenfield and is already running out of space despite recent setup

    high confidence · Eric and Tim describing Drew's new pinball basement location

  • Scott Ian Haberman purchased a Dodge Challenger at MGC

    high confidence · Tim describing Scott Ian's vehicle purchase during the bar outing

  • Rachel, Tim, Billy, and others helped set up 12 games for the MGC tournament, including Drew's Sorcerer which had flipper and sticker issues

    high confidence · Extended setup narrative describing game preparation and technical issues

  • The tribe was left without Rachel at Blackbird Bar when Jeremy Schmitz and Rachel stepped outside; the group forgot to text her and eventually Ubered back without her

    high confidence · Both Rachel and Tim recounting the accidental separation story

  • Billy and a tribe member won $36 on pull tabs with a $20 investment, which paid for pizza

    high confidence · Tim describing the pull tab gambling outcome on Friday

  • Rachel has decided to take a break from running women's tournaments over the summer and plans to attend a women's tournament in Fort Wayne at Wizards World in August

    high confidence · Rachel discussing her tournament organizing plans

Notable Quotes

  • “She just wants to hang out. She just wants to use her brain. She just wants to hang out and be a real nuisance.”

    Rachel @ ~2:30 — Casual introduction of Rachel's cat Rigby as podcast co-guest; light tone-setting

  • “Everyone's going to have training wheels.”

    Wayne @ ~11:00 — Humorous comment about Drew's many center-post pinball games during Center Post Cafe visit

  • “Scott Ian treated everyone like we've been lifelong friends.”

    Tim Dan Lee @ ~42:00 — Praise for Scott Ian Haberman's social demeanor and interpersonal warmth during MGC

  • “If we bet, mate/man, I lose. So we bet shots. And I won every time we bet shots.”

    Tim Dan Lee @ ~48:00 — Humorous observation about betting games during Blackbird Bar outing

  • “You're not as special as you think you are.”

    Tim Dan Lee @ ~39:00 — Self-directed comedic burn about not being uniquely treated by Scott Ian

  • “That's just pinball, baby, where games break and things fall apart.”

    Tim Dan Lee @ ~24:00 — Philosophical acceptance of game malfunction during tournament setup

  • “I do that to him and he turned around. We laughed and braced and hugged.”

    Tim Dan Lee @ ~36:00 — Anecdote about greeting Scott Ian with physical humor at the bar

  • “We looked for you. Why none of us texted you? I don't know. It's like we all forgot we can text people.”

    Rachel @ ~54:00 — Explanation of why the tribe forgot Eric at Blackbird Bar despite having phones

  • “I love District 82, but those games can be so, like, brutal to your subconscious.”

    Rachel @ ~46:00 — Commentary on difficulty variance between home collection and location machines

Entities

Rachel RistopersonTim Dan LeepersonEric Jeff WalkerpersonScott Ian HabermanpersonDrewpersonBilly WhitegatepersonWaynepersonSteven MartinpersonJeremy Schmitz

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Tribe Multiball podcast documents growing Poor Man's Pinball Podcast community with numbered member system (Eric is member #5) and coordinated social gatherings at major events like MGC

    high · Extended discussion of tribe members attending MGC together, coin system for members, and organized bar outings

  • ?

    event_signal: Midwest Gaming Classic (MGC) held in spring in Milwaukee; confirmed as annual event after COVID-related November postponement in 2024

    high · Tim: 'MGC is every spring, right? I think that's the rumor...next year they're going to do it in the spring again'

  • ?

    community_signal: Ladies' Flip Wisconsin women's pinball tournament growing; 30+ participants confirmed for May 14th event with regional draw from surrounding states

    high · Rachel: 'We have over 30 women signed up...women that are traveling from Ohio, Minnesota, Illinois'

  • ?

    content_signal: Fox Cities Pinball (Tom Graff) providing streaming coverage of Ladies' Flip Wisconsin women's tournament with dedicated scorekeeper support

    high · Rachel: 'The main event will be streamed to you by Fox Cities Pinball. My pal Tom Graff and Matt McCarty...will be probably doing some streaming'

  • ?

    venue_signal: New private pinball basement arcade (Center Post Cafe in Greenfield) operational and hosting community gatherings; already space-constrained despite recent setup

    high · Eric: 'He is actually running out of space, surprisingly enough, with pinballs already...It's right on the corner right there. It's dog and cat friendly'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.266

0:00
Hey, Poor Man Tribe and listeners, this is Glennie Rogers, and you're listening to the Tribe Multiple Podcast with Rachel and Tim. Poor Man Tribe's the thing, that is who we are. It and Drew, they're not in this thing. So how could it go wrong? Flip away with us, to an old blockade. And then we'll learn about each other. From two pennants to another Rachel and Tim, who do we have on the show today? Hello everyone and welcome to Tribe Multiball with Rachel and Tim. I am Tim Lee and I'm here with my co-host Rachel Risto. We are here to bring you another great guest and another great episode. Tribe Multiball is the second sloppiest and fluffiest show on the internet where we get to know members of the Poor Man's Pinball Podcast tribe. How are you doing today, Rachel? I'm doing pretty good here, Tim. I got Rigby with me today. She's our extra guest today on Tribe Multiball. She just wants to hang out. She just wants to use her brain. She just wants to hang out and be a real nuisance. So we'll see how it goes today. How are you, Tim? I'm doing fine, especially after last week. How are you doing? I think I'm almost recovered. Almost. Last week was quite something else. But before we dip into that subject, ow, sorry, she just bit me. She likes to do this thing where she's a cat where she wants to have a last word. You know, she comes to me on her terms, wants her pets, and when I'm done, I throw her on the floor and then she jumps back up and latches on. She's just that kind of cat. Anyway, good thing I didn't scream out. Where were we, Tim? Let's get back to being sloppy. Your personal news. Let's start there. Personal pinball news. Go for it. So we'll delay until the guest gets here on a lot of the news. But really in my personal pinball world, I got a couple of new games. My Cactus Canyon finally arrived. I ordered it a very long time ago, and I actually forget what I sold to buy it. I think Turtles. And here's the thing. So operator friend Mike has given me, I counted, 12 games to borrow. and I am completely out of room. So I repaid the favor and Cactus Canyon is actually over at operator friend Mike's house. I haven't played it yet. I haven't got over there to play it yet. But yeah, he's been such a good dude to me. You know, I sent it his way. So can't really give you a review on that because I haven't played it much outside of at MGC. And then also this kind of ties into last week and we'll get to it later. I had so much fun playing Rush that I sold my Pirates of the Caribbean, Stern Pirates, to my buddy who then went to Allentown and picked me up a Rush Pro. Are you kidding? He delivered it today. Yeah, so Pirates is gone, Turtles has been gone, and Rush is in the house. Yeah, Rush, that's a fun game. I enjoy it quite a bit. Yes, you were greatly distracted by Rush Pro when I saw you, so we'll get into that. What about you? Oh, well, we've got the fun stuff we'll talk about with our guest. As for me, I have finally my lady slipped Wisconsin at District 82 on May 14th. I think this episode will drop before then. I am getting there with it. We have over 30 women signed up, which is really good. The last tournament I had there was 29, so I'm feeling really happy just to break that. Getting over 30 is fantastic. But there are women that are traveling from Ohio, Minnesota, Illinois, and, of course, through the state of Wisconsin to come play. So I'm pretty pumped. Yeah. It's getting bigger, Rachel. It is. It keeps growing. It sure is. And this is a little bit different this time because I'm going to do an IFPA side tournament as well, and it's a one-game qualifier, and I've chosen Dolly as the one-game qualifier top eight scores. Those folks move on to semifinals, and then you just play off. That's a lot of fun. Ladies of Wisconsin, the main event will be streamed to you by Fox Cities Pinball. My pal Tom Graff and Matt McCarty, of course, will be probably doing some streaming but also help me scorekeeping. I like actually having a dedicated scorekeeper when I do that, that's somebody that's not someone that wants to play because I want people, women that are playing during the tournament to just be able to focus on playing on the tournament. That's it. So that's why I like to borrow my buddy Matt and ask him to do scorekeeping. And he is just so fantastic. I love that guy. We'll talk about him later. He'll get lots of praise. He knows that. That's it. Just get myself psyched up for that tournament. I'm going to take a little break from running women's tournaments. I think over the summer, I want to get down to Fort Wayne, to Wizards World. He has a women's tournament in August. And just enjoy some of our state parks and play pinball, of course. But just take a break from that portion of it. Enjoy your summer. You've been doing a fantastic job. Thanks, Tim. I appreciate it. Do you want to introduce our guest? Why don't you introduce our guest? By the way, that was 25 minutes shorter than last episode's Perch Open Mondays.

  • Steven Martin and Mark are making tribe coins; Steven will make one for Eric (member #5)

    high confidence · Discussion of tribe member coins and acknowledgment of coin makers

  • “I spent the most time over the weekend with Billy. I might have spent more time with Billy than Amy.”

    Tim Dan Lee @ ~59:00 — Observation about relationships and time spent with tribe members over the weekend

    • person
    Tom Graffperson
    operator friend Mikeperson
    Kathleenperson
    Center Post Cafevenue
    Midwest Gaming Classic (MGC)event
    Ladies' Flip Wisconsin District 82event
    Blackbird Barvenue
    Mike Miller Time Pubvenue
    Cactus Canyongame
    Rushgame
    Sorcerergame
    Poor Man's Pinball Podcastorganization
    Tribe Multiballorganization
    Tom Graffperson
    Amy Dan Leeperson
    Rigbyperson
  • ?

    operational_signal: Tournament setup logistics: Rachel sourced 12 games for MGC competition, required volunteer support for setup, and had backup games due to space/technical issues

    high · Rachel: 'Drew brought a game...I was getting about 12 games there, and I had zero way that I would have been able to accomplish any of that in the time frame that I did without your help'

  • ?

    product_concern: Sorcerer machine experienced multiple technical issues during MGC tournament: left flipper height imbalance, target sticker detachment, center post rubber causing easy multiball, and upper flipper malfunction

    high · Rachel: 'there was an issue with his left flipper was up higher than the right one...a sticker off of one of the stand-up targets fell off...the upper flipper got stuck with a ball trapped'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Location pinball machines at Blackbird Bar reported as easier/more forgiving than home collection games at District 82, allowing deeper play and higher scores for casual players

    medium · Rachel: 'those games can be so, like, brutal to your subconscious...Where I can go up to Star Trek Next Generation...and just play it. You could get really far in the game because it was a lot easier'

  • ?

    community_signal: Strong interpersonal connections within tribe; members spend significant quality time together at events; social activities (drinking, gaming, bar nights) primary activity during MGC vs. competitive play

    high · Tim: 'I spent the most time over the weekend with Billy...had a lot of quality time together' and extended narrative of bar hopping and socializing

  • ?

    collector_signal: Active pinball acquisition and trading within community: Rachel acquired 12 machines (borrowed and some permanent), Tim sold Pirates of the Caribbean to fund Rush purchase, game trades indicate active secondary market participation

    high · Rachel: 'I sold my Pirates of the Caribbean, Sam Stern Pirates, to my buddy...he then went to Allentown and picked me up a Rush Stern machine'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Eric Jeff Walker inducted as Tribe member #5; Steven Martin responsible for manufacturing tribe member coins; indicates ongoing community growth and formalization

    high · Eric: 'Tribe member number five' and discussion of Steven Martin making coin for Eric

  • ?

    community_signal: Women's pinball tournament expansion showing sustained growth; Rachel planning additional tournament in Fort Wayne (Wizards World) in August and planning summer break to manage tournament fatigue

    high · Rachel: 'I'm going to take a little break from running women's tournaments...I want to get down to Fort Wayne, to Wizards World. He has a women's tournament in August'

    • 5:39
    Well, we do have more personal pinball news to talk about, but it'd be better to get our guest on here. All right. Yeah, we want to bring in our guest because we spent last week with our guest, and we had a really good time. Welcome to the show, Eric Walker. How are you? Doing great. How are you folks doing? I'm doing fantastic. Excellent, excellent. Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there, first and foremost. Happy Mother's Day. Happy Father's Day, because that will be right around the corner then, too. Yeah. Yeah, next month or so. Right. It's about a month apart. Absolutely. So we had asked Eric to be on the show because Eric spent last week with us at the Midwest Gaming Classic in Milwaukee, and probably 10 to 12 tribe members got together, including Eric, and we just had a great time. Tribe member number five. Yeah, tribe member number five. Am I five? Oh, wow. You're number five. Where's your coin? You know what? I talked to the gentleman. I apologize. I don't know his name. Martin. And he had brought his wife, and he said he's going to make the coin for me. So thank you so much. I got his number, and we exchanged information. So we're good. I totally forgot to bring my coin to MGC. Totally forgot to bring it. It's sitting in my arcade right on top, right by one of my trophies. Always put it in the same spot. Totally forgot until I got down there. I'm like, oh, well. No one called me out on it, though, so that was okay. I lost mine at Pimbru and Mark brought me a second coin. And then I lost the second coin. No. We found it. We found it after a couple of days. It was just stuffed in a shirt. So I was like, oh, my goodness. I wouldn't live it down if I lost two Tribe coins. Yeah, that would be crazy. Yeah, thank you so much once again, guys, for coming out to Milwaukee and spending the weekend with us, especially for Tim and the other people that came out. But yes, we had a phenomenal time and we plan on doing this again very soon. Yeah, MGC is every spring, right? I think that's the rumor. I had a couple people question that, if they're going to do it again in November. The reason they did it in November last year is because of COVID. They just pushed it out into the spring. So it sounds like next year they're going to do it in the spring again. So I love that. I like the April show. It was great. Yeah, so let's break down MGC. Do you want to go through just what we did there and, you know, kind of a review of the tribe happenings at MGC? Does that sound good? Sure. Let me get rolling with that. I drove down on Thursday nights about an hour away from me. I was able to secure a room for the evening. I originally had it booked for the whole weekend, but I'm really glad I got down there on Thursday. I was able to meet up with my best buddy, Billy YJ and Drew. We went to this really great place to have tacos. Those two are such clowns and a lot of fun to hang out with. Really, I enjoy that. What was nice, too, is I was able to have a couple drinks. I get nervous about it. I don't like to – no one should ever drink and drive, ever. And so for me, I always get very nervous. But we did a lot of Ubering over the weekend, too, so that helped the anxiety of having a couple extra shots of Fireball. And Thursday night was definitely a night for me to do that, to get my party on a little bit more. because Friday, although it was important, wasn't as important as the rest of the weekend. When did you roll in, Tim? Yeah, I did not roll in until about 9 a.m. on Friday. We had to get up at 3 a.m. to catch a 6 a.m. flight. Oh. And, you know, it was okay. We actually took a nap in the afternoon on Friday. But I heard a rumor that on Thursday you may have visited the Center Post Cafe in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Is that correct? Oh, yes. I suppose. I should include everything. I'm just like, you know, I don't know. It's Sunday night. I don't know what's going on anymore. Okay. So, yes, I made a special visit to the Center Post Cafe. My buddy Wayne, with an H, he came up from Louisville, Kentucky. He actually ran the pinball tournament at LAX at the Louisville Arcade Expo that I went to a couple months ago, and I might have chit-chatted about that. And when I decided to do the tournament at MGC, I wanted to do it that style, so I reached out to Wayne, and he was so great about helping. So he ended up arriving after we had tacos on Thursday night. And then we cruised over to Drew's house and we visited the Center Post Cafe. That was fun. It was the first time that Drew has had some pals down in his basement to play pinball. I really harassed him quite a bit about I think more than half of his games have a center post in it. And I think that's just funny. And Wayne, my buddy Wayne, he's like, everyone's got to have training wheels. And I laugh because he's right. And I think Drew is going to kick me out. But Kathleen, thank God, Kathleen loves me, and JJ thinks I'm lovely too. So I'm saved by the grace of the rest of the pals there. But, no, it was really neat to be able to be in Drew's arcade, to be able to weigh all of his games a little bit. He teased me. I got to play his beautiful Guns and Roses that he has. It was just, I had a ball. I always do with him. He just makes me happy. It was great, too, because when I was there to podcast with him a little bit ago, I brought him a gigantic bottle of Fireball, so I was all good to go. He had the ice and the cup and the Fireball. It was fun times. Yeah. His basement's really nice. Eric, you've been to the Center Post Cafe, right? I think you helped him move some things in maybe. I don't know. I moved some things into his basement, yeah. Yeah. Is that what he's calling it, the Center Post Cafe? No, that's what we're calling it. Oh, okay. I'm like this is the first time I've heard of that it's a new location in Milwaukee no it's in Greenfield it's a new location in Greenfield it's very urban you can't miss it, it's right on the corner right there it's dog and cat friendly you know yes absolutely anyone and everyone can visit and enjoy themselves down there he has a variety of games to choose from. And he spent a lot of time on getting that updated and posted pictures along the way on Facebook with all the updates and it turned out great. He is actually running out of space, surprisingly enough, with pinballs already. But yeah, he loves it. And it was probably the best thing that happened because not only did he get a pinball room, but his wife Kathleen got an office that she so desperately needed to work. So it was a win-win for everyone, and it just obviously added value to the house and everything, too. So it was a huge success, and it's a great place to be. I can't wait to get back over there and hang out at his fire pit this summer. Tiki Bar. We were there last night, actually. Oh, man. We burned pallets of the pinball machines that he had for the past several months. All the cardboard and everything, and it was great. yep we grilled on in his grill and we had drinks all night it was a great night nice day yesterday it was yeah yeah it was very nice it was terrible here 40 and raining kind of like when i was in milwaukee last week 40 and raining you take the weather with you right because it got much better here the rest of the week is pretty nice yeah so let's hop over to saturday i have a funny story speaking of drew so drew picked us up at the airport and he was on time the flight was on time and the plan was we were going to go pick billy and drew said let's go get a drink we'll get a drink for about an hour then we'll go help rachel set up great plan the problem was it was like 9 30 or 10 in the morning and i'm thinking where are we going to get a drink but drew took us to this irish pub and he was all excited and it was closed and the whole time billy and i were like all right He must know where he can get a drink in Milwaukee at 10 a.m. But he took us to the Irish pub, and it was closed. And then he took us somewhere else, and it was closed. Wait, which Irish pub did he take you? The one you guys always go to. Oh, Moe's? Yeah. Moe's Irish pub? Yeah, where you guys go celebrate various, you know, Irish. Oh, for St. Patrick's Day and whatnot. Yeah. Oh, yeah, Moe's.
    14:01
    I'm surprised that was closed. It was closed. Couldn't get a drink. But anyway, we ended up – we just went back. and we helped Rachel set up, and then we went to a burger joint, and then we came back to the show. But Rachel – I have to interject. You didn't just help set up. We have to mention that Drew brought a game. Yeah, Drew did bring a game. So it's kind of like the whole tournament experience. Once we get to Saturday, I'll talk about all that stuff. But I had a quarter to eight getting 12 games there, and I was getting about two weeks prior, and I'm looking at my list, and I just need one game. I'm like, who can I finagle a game out of? well, I happened to listen to this podcast about this local guy who has this game called Sorcerer, that he's done a lot of work to get it fixed and make it pretty and make it work. So he definitely reached out to this nice gentleman named Drew, and the two of you and Billy helped to bring that game over. Or was it just Billy that Billy and Drew brought it? But I think they just picked it up, the little home pin they brought in. I just picked that up. Drew and I took one up and brought it up the stairs. So anyway, so thanks, Drew, for the Sorcerer games. So don't forget that. And I also want to say that Drew and Billy and Tim Lee, on Friday when I'm trying to set up my tournament area and getting all my games were getting dropped off, it's kind of funny because people just dropped the games and they were leaving because a lot of people that were bringing games were also volunteering or working the show. So I had all these games and without those three guys and Tom Graff, Eric Strangery, Chris Matt, some other folks that stopped over to help make sure my electric got hooked up, that helped set up the games. Wayne, again, that helped. They all helped to get the tilts set on the game and all that kind of stuff. That was amazing. There was zero way that I would have been able to accomplish any of that in the time frame that I did without your help. So thank you, gentlemen, so much. Thank you, Tim Lee. I know that you were probably a little surprised, like why are people just leaving their games here? but uh i mean it just seemed weird they're just like set up and like they're all wrapped up dave brennan he also donated tribe member dave he he donated a game to two games uh he was able we set up one you guys set up one and he came over to set up the other one and some folks wanted to set up their games themselves and so we just had to be patient but it all came together and you guys brought me back a burger from lunch yeah it was awesome because i really couldn't leave my area on Friday either. For the record, I have to say that Billy and I set up five games to Drew's one. We don't know what Drew was doing. It's just putting the legs on, right? Unwrapping it and putting the legs on. We did five and Drew was still over there messing with his. I don't know what he was doing. It still wasn't working as far as I heard.
    16:50
    There might have been some issues with Drew's game. On Saturday morning when I rolled in, there was an issue with his left flipper. was up higher than the right one. So I got one of my game techs and they adjusted it. Later in the day, a sticker off of one of the stand-up targets fell off, so Open the Glass took that off. We also took the, because that game has a center post, we also took the ring, the rubber, off the center post and off of the outpost on the game, because it's a very easy multi-ball in that game. So then it was pretty much tournament set. Well, later in the day, the upper flipper, got stuck with a ball trapped. So at that point, we just turned the game off. But thank you, Drew, for bringing Sorcerer and having the alternative game, because technically I only really needed eight games in order to make the tournament work, but I thought 12 was great to have that much variety. And we didn't even really put Sorcerer in it to begin with. It was just good to have an alternate game. But there were players that were super stoked to see that, because it's not a familiar game in most, I don't think I've ever seen that in another tournament setting. So, lest I digress, Tim. Back to Friday. He did a really good job with the hard top and everything. It was a really nice looking game. Yeah, it's a beautiful game. It is. It really is. It's lit so nice too. And that's just pinball, baby, where games break and things fall apart. That's nothing really to do with the owner, just sometimes the game just gets the wailing or just gets the ball whacks a certain spot and a screw goes flying off. That's just pinball. Yeah. So we got you all set up, and Eric arrived eventually. And I thought it was funny that Drew introduced Amy and I both to you, but we had already met at Expo. And he's like, sure. I'm like, yeah, we've seen each other at Expo before. We're good. Yeah. And then we got to meet Ian. That was actually one of the highlights of my weekend. Surprise that he came out. I'm very happy he did. It was kind of a hit or miss. Yeah, yeah. Ian Haberman made it out. We immediately went over and got some drinks at the bar across the street at the hotel. I think it was called – what was it called? Miller Time. Yeah, Miller Time. Miller Time Pub, yep. Yep, nice little bar. And I think eventually we were there for a couple of hours because Amy Lee was having a good time talking to Ian and starting to drink. But I think I talked you, Eric, into going over to the show. I wanted to go over for at least an hour and then we didn't do much we just kind of went around flipped a few games walked around talked to a couple of people I think I ran into Ryan Kuyper and you know talked to Ryan and Dave but then we came back and started drinking again exactly we kind of just went to the showroom just to get the lay of the land to see what games were there and where they were and um to see who was there maybe we could talk to some people like you said Yeah, we ran into Kuiper and Dave Brennan. We ran into them a few times during the show. Yeah, we always end up going back to the bar. It's so funny. It's always going back to the bar. Surprisingly enough, you know how that works. Yeah, we had a great time at the Miller Pub, and I'm very happy that we all had a great time. It was great drinks, great people. just some of the things I have so much I finally finished up with my stuff over my tournament area and I walked back over to the Miller Time Pub and Ian was there and he's standing facing were you standing there at the time Eric? you might have been standing there but Drew was still there and oh Billy YJ was sitting there and Ian was facing them and I came up behind Ian And then Drew looked at me. So Ian Newsom is coming up behind him. So I came right up behind Ian to give him a hug. And I put my hands right on his moves. And I gave him a double titty twister.
    20:55
    I don't know why. I'm like, what's so funny is that it's like I never greet anybody like that ever. But, like, I haven't seen Ian forever. And, like, I just wanted him to know where we stand, I think, you know. So he turned around and did the same to me. No, just kidding. Just kidding. I hope people laugh at that. But he turned around. But I did do that to him. And he turned around. We laughed and braced and hugged. And he proceeded, you know, to try to feed me some alcohol and chicken strips. And that was fun. But, you know, Ian had his mini midlife crisis there. And he might have bought a really nice Dodge Challenger. So I remained sober. And I drove his vehicle. That was quite something else with Mistress Anne and riding shotgun with me and Ian in the back. There's a very funny picture of the three of us. And we had quite the time driving over to Blackbird Bars where the tribe decided to head next. Yeah. So for the record, the alcohol and the meetup, that was planned. We planned a tribe meetup you know for the two weeks before Yeah Yeah We got big hugs from Ian What I can say is Ian treated everyone like we been lifelong friends Yes We had a great time You know Amy loves you all and she just had a great time hanging out with everyone But, yeah, I don't know how I rate. I ended up with Eric, and you guys got to go in the muscle car. No offense, Eric. You have a really nice car, but Rachel and Amy went in the muscle car. That's my favorite picture. Behind in the drinking. That's why I was like probably five years behind everyone else. And I knew that I had, as soon as I walked in there, I knew that, Hmm, let's make sure that we all depart this place toastily, but at least wholly. And so, and I just looked at Ian and like, can I drive? And he's like, sure, Rach. And just gave me the keys. But I will say the same thing. Like you said, Tim, that Ian does such a great job of making you feel like you've been buddies for your whole life. It's not just you, Drew. He does it to everybody. you're not as special as you think you are oh i burned you again this episode he's gonna yell at me again it's okay but no but ian really man i love you you know you and i are cut from the same cloth in terms of just humor and i think perspective we have in life and it was great because he and i had like this 15 minute time 15 minutes of time together maybe a little bit longer than that where we talked about nothing and everything and it was funny and it was deep and interesting and man do i just love that guy man do i just love him so true you too you know what yeah anyways yeah so we we all went out the black bird and i kept calling it black beard and everybody kept yelling at me and we had a good time we had uh martin and his wife Jennifer were there, Jeremy Schmitz, Drew, Ian, Erica, Amy, myself, you, Rachel, and did I forget anyone? I think that was it. If we did, well, you know. Oh, Billy! We forgot Billy! Billy Whitegate!
    24:11
    Yeah, Billy was like the life of the party, and we forgot Billy. That's okay, Drew almost forgot him a few times. Billy had a hard time keeping track of his drink, but he kept track of everybody else's drinks, if you know what I mean. and he had a... Rachel, I kept drinking your drink. I kept drinking the Fireball drink, and it looked very similar to mine, and I was like, what the hell? Why do I keep picking up the same drink? I never had a drink. It's a lot of water. It was awesome. It's a cool bar, though. South Side Walking, I think, and they just had some neat games. I liked playing Star Trek Next Gen. Also, I have to say, the best thing about playing games on location sometimes is they're not so freaking hard as the games where I normally play. I love District 82, but those games can be so, like, brutal to your subconscious of trying to, like, just play the game. Where I can go up to Star Trek Next Gen or what else do they have mousing around and just play it. It was like you could get pretty far in the game because it was a lot easier to play. But they're pretty nice games. Yeah, they had Medieval Madness, I believe, a Lord of the Rings. Monster Bash. World Cup Soccer. And Funhaus, I think it was. Yeah, Funhaus. Yeah, it was a really good time. You know what I learned? If we bet money, I lose. So we bet shots. And I won every time we bet shots. So as long as we bet shots, I'm golden. And I think everybody had Fireball. I don't think it was shots of anything else. It seemed like it was endless rounds of that. Yeah, that was pretty entertaining. I will say the only negative thing that happened to me the whole weekend is that the tribe left me behind at the backward bar. I was going to bring that up. I'm going to bring it up because Jeremy Schmitz and I, Jeremy and I went outside to burn one, and we went into his vehicle, and we're in his vehicle for like 10, 15 minutes listening to music, chit-chatting. I love Jeremy Schmitz. He's one of my favorite tribe people too. He and I connect so well. And so we get done. We go back into the bar, and there's nobody in there. we're looking around the 10 other people that we came with gone and I'm just laughing at myself like what the heck no one messaged me nothing Billy why Jay I blame you because we were supposed to Uber back to the Hilton together it was fine Jeremy took me back to the Hilton and I got extra bonus time with him but I laughed so freaking hard at that because everybody there was wasted you know they're all just like they're in their drink so it was good I will tell my side of the story. I was really tired. We got up at 3 a.m. And I said, everybody was there playing, having a good time. And I'm like, listen, we're leaving. Amy and I are going to Uber back. And then Martin and his wife are like, we'll split an Uber with you. And Billy did say, he's like, I'll come with you. But he's like, I got to find Rachel. And we looked for you. Why none of us texted you? I don't know. That's what I know.
    27:08
    It's like we all forgot. We walked around the building with no cell phones. and he all forgot that he can text people. It was just so funny because he felt so bad too. And I'm like, no, you're a good man. It's like it's okay.
    27:22
    But I see. But at the same time, I owe him a beer because I forgot my Tribe coin. So it goes on. That's right. We stood out and waited for the Uber for 15 minutes, and I think we were maybe 20, 30 feet from Jeremy's vehicle, and we still didn't see you. So I don't know. We didn't see you, apparently.
    27:39
    So sorry for leaving you there. Nice to love you. Yeah. Martin talked me into going back into the show when we got back, and I went in for five minutes. I shot one ball, and I left. I was just tired. I'm shocked you went back there and just tried to play some more, man. That was a good night. I played one ball. Back to Blackbird. I just have to mention that I did get the GC on their World Cup soccer. That's right. You did. Yeah, I was very proud of that. I got on the board on Monster Bash, but the guys wanted me to play me in World Cup Soccer, and I'm like thinking, I got this game at home, and I'm pretty good at it.
    28:19
    It doesn't mean anything. The game can always play different. Yeah, true. That's it for Friday. It was pretty much a big drive party on Friday. Yeah, it was mostly a drinking pub day on Friday. I agree. Very little playing, like actual pinball. It was more just kind of getting to know people and just trying to get them acquainted for the weekend, getting them a little loose and stuff like that. Another thing that happened on Friday, I think it was Billy or maybe it was you, Tim, that never played pull tabs before. I think it was Billy. It was Billy because I've played pull tabs.
    28:55
    And I'm like, all right, let's do it. I'll show you how to play because he had no idea what it was. And I'm like, see, he sees them. He's like, what is this? I'm like, all right, let's do it. So I put in $20, and I said, just push the buttons. Just keep pushing. You do it. You do push them. All right, good. So we got $20 worth of tabs. I'm like, this is how you do it. You pull it, and if you do three in a row, you win the money. And we ended up, I think it was like $36. So we came out on top of pull tabs, which is incredible. I'm not joking. The odds of that is extremely low.
    29:29
    Did you reinvest? That paid for the pizza, by the way. Oh, that was even better. That was for the pizza. So it worked out really, really well.
    29:38
    And it must have been beginner's luck. I don't know. But thank you, Billy, once again for doing that. That was awesome. And then we played again, and we won. Not as much, but we actually came pretty close to even. So it was pretty fun.
    29:56
    Yeah, Billy's a good dude. I will have to say that I spent the most time over the weekend with Billy. I might have spent more time with Billy than Amy. I'm not sure, but I hung out with everyone, but Billy and I spent – we got a lot of quality time together.
    30:12
    So that was it for Friday. You want to jump into Saturday and maybe talk about the show? That's all you guys. Yeah. Well, I will tell you this. I didn't see the show at all on Saturday. Yeah. It's all on you. Well, let's talk about the show, and then we want to talk about what you did on Saturday, Richard. Sure. But before I even got to the show, we got a call from Tony Scoots, who showed up with food. He had cannolis. He brought you, Rachel, and I think he got him a box of cookies. And he had subs and he had pizza. So we went and had lunch with Scoots. And love you, Scoots. It was very kind. Yes, thank you, Tony. It was amazing. Thank you. Shout out to Tony. Yep. And if you're ever in the Chicago area. Melrose Park. Yeah. I don't remember the exact name of his restaurant, though, do you? Scooty Arrows. Yep. Deli? Scooty Arrows. Yep. In Melrose Park. You have to go there. A block from the fire station. That's where you're going to find Scoots, either at the deli or at the station. Yeah, the best cannolis in the world. They are so good. I did have them. I had some this time. When Billy left on Sunday, he tracked me down to give me the two lonely cannolis that were left. Those might have been my dinner on Sunday night. But I got home.
    31:28
    They were delicious. They're really good. So Saturday, Eric, you kind of showed me the ropes at the show. What I didn't realize, I was only there an hour on Friday, but what I didn't realize is how much more than pinball there was at the show. It was three floors in the convention center, a downstairs that was non-pinball vendor hall, which is gaming, pop culture, like, you know. An escape room. Yep, yep, an escape room. They have a game board library and game board librarian. Yeah, they had all kinds of tournaments going on that weren't pinball, escape room, just all kinds of stuff. The arcade had an arcade there. Yep, they did. That you could go into with a DJ. I didn't see that Friday. We weren't there that long Friday. It was extremely impressive from an overall quality of show. I was really impressed. Yeah, they put on a great show. They also have a lot of tabletop games, card games, like D&D kind of things. They're big into that.
    32:41
    There's a whole hall on the different statues you can do for different games, like painting and everything. there was a hall where you could almost battle with swords, and you have a vest on, and if you hit a certain area, that's when it'll hit and you get a certain point or something. I had never seen that before. I was like, oh, that's kind of cool. I wanted to try it out, but I was like, eh, I don't want to wait in the line. They also had air hockey tables.
    33:12
    They had a tournament of that, believe it or not, at one point. yeah just all over um they had a cosplay tournaments a lot of people dressed up in cosplay from everything from video games to anime to you know you name it um they're all over the place good turnout i i i've been there before but i really haven't really i was really just more there for the arcades and the pinball for the most part but when i was walking with you tim I didn't realize how much more there was as well. I knew some things, but I didn't know there was that much more.
    33:49
    So I was impressed as well. I was kind of taken by that. And I'm super happy they did that. Yeah, and they had a main stage with entertainment. They had different bands. Yes. You know, the harp. Yeah, they're twins that play electric harps. Yeah, they were very talented. If you wanted to sit down and play Duck Hunt on a 90s box TV there, you could. you wanted to sit down and play the one where you dive dysentery you know what I'm talking about yes if you wanted to play that you could have sat at an old time computer you know something that you and I Tim were probably one of the first computers you and I were associated with it was neat to see all those kind of items there as well also they had a DeLorean kit from Knight Rider the Jurassic Park trucks Wayne's World the Gremlin from Wayne's World, right? It was really quite... It was a pacer. The pacer, I'm so sorry. The pacer from Wayne's World. Those people would kill you if you get that wrong.
    34:50
    That's Rachel Risto that got that wrong. Rachel Risto. Like a wrist and a toe. A toe. Never thought about that one.
    35:05
    Well, you know, there's a brandy here. it's aristocrat, you know. So that's always, it's aristocrat.
    35:12
    Risto. That's my brand name then, you know. There you go. What are we drinking? We didn't even talk about that. What are we drinking?
    35:21
    Fireball and Coke I'm having today. Yes. Eric? Early today during the Mother's Day festival that we were at, I was drinking beer, but now I switched to just a rum and Coke, simple rum and Coke. Jack and Coke. Alright. Jack and Coke. I apologize. Jack and Coke. Well, you're both hitting it then. I'm having a delish-ing.
    35:42
    I'm having a delicious LaCroix peach plum. Peach plum. Oh, I love LaCroix. It's good stuff. Yeah, LaCroix. It's a new flavor. It's delicious. That's a good one. And I'm going to go off topic here. I'm sorry. We're going on a LaCroix topic here. Copy a show on the internet. The limoncello is really good if you haven't had one. Like lemon cake. Yes. Oh, it's like a lemon meringue. It's so good. And then they also have the San Paolo, which is a guava. Oh, I've not had that. That's a rare one to find, but it's delicious. I like the key lime one, too. Yes. Because it's like eating a key lime pie, but you're drinking it, and it's like this delicious dessert secret nobody has to know. It is very sweet, too. Yes. I love it. Good job. Yes. Yeah. Okay. All right. Anyway. Okay. So maybe we'll get an ad or sponsorship when we start talking about it. Yeah. We'll take that. Yeah, absolutely. Son of a Croy. Yeah, we need a sponsor. So back to the show. Something else happened on Saturday. They had a really badass pinball tournament, I heard. Oh. Yeah, do you want to tell us about that? You don't say. Yeah. Sure, we can talk about that. So I ran my very first open pinball tournament. It had 64 players. It was two qualifying sessions. Eric's clapping.
    37:04
    See if we can get through it. It was two qualifying sessions of five rounds of match play, and then it was a finals format of five strike fair strike. It was unreal. It was an unbelievable day. Everything went great. Everybody that said they were going to bring a game brought their games. Everyone that said they would volunteer to game tech or help TD or scorekeep or just volunteer, They all showed up.
    37:33
    The biggest anxiety, I'm just going to be me and talk about it. The biggest anxiety I had about the whole spiel. I've run tournaments. I can do it. I was just afraid that someone might be kind of an asshole because there are people, like everyone's got opinions like they have buttholes, right? So that was like my biggest fear as Rachel going into it. I'm confident Rachel's a person, but when it comes to like the pinball, Rachel, I'm not there yet. The confidence is still building with that. So I get nervous people are going to be jerks. But I'm still happy to report that there was nobody like that. Everyone was just super thrilled to be there, super helpful. I made a ginormous Facebook post. I'm going to leave that public for a while if you want to read it. That talks about the whole day. It names all the people that helped to make that tournament a success. Andy Bagwell from Chicago, he won it all. It was $720 he won. That's crazy. for, I think that's an enormous amount of money.
    38:32
    For second, third, fourth, all took home trophies and cash prizes. TMJ4, which is a local I think NBC station. Yes, Channel 4. Yeah, they did a, they came to MGC and they chose to do a story about the open pinball tournament that I put on. I didn't know that. That's amazing. That was crazy. It's a big time thing. They're like one of the biggest names here. They're like the top three. it just it blew my mind and they came over like oh do you and then tom tom graph was like just ask her you know talk to this other person and i chit chatted with the guy a little bit but i'm really glad they did the story on tom because he is such a cool person and he brings so much into the pinball community as well and he's got a great story of being what a competitive competitive or aka professional pinball player is uh he jokes about that a little bit but i uh it even got shared by the IFPA on their face on their their home web page and I thought that was really cool so that all was just really over the top mind-blowing um the only complaints were really I had tents over the games so that it would be so if there was any glare from the games uh so that would be in my anti-glare was the tents I think I'm trying to say there um the only complaint was that the tents might have been a little too short for people that are very tall like you, Eric, that would stand up straight and play, it would be difficult for them. But most people seem to overcome with it. So I've got ideas about that for next year. And then, of course, the other kind of complaint was it was not a lot of people, 64 people in a tournament is not a lot. But the biggest thing, the whole goal of doing it that way and that style tournament is so I could get the whole thing done in one day. It's a Midwest gaming classic. There's a bazillion other things at MGC that you can do other than playing pinball. Yes. So I wanted the opportunity for not just myself, but for other players to do it. I will tell you that, especially the people in my Fox Cities Pinball League, my house league I play in, so many of those dudes stepped up, brought games, helped all day, checked in with me. I just can't say thank you enough to all that kind of support. I will say that it was really surreal when I started the event, both sessions and in the finals, and looking at all these people, the sea of faces, and most of the people I know, I'm like, holy, I'm going to swear here, Tim. I'm like, holy shit. Here I am. Here's these people I really admire. Let's not screw it up.
    41:03
    And let's have fun. And I will tell you, it was so well received. People, like I was trying to say, people in Fox News Pinball League, they said it was, so many people said it was the best tournament that MGC has had. That was the first tournament. That's so great. Isn't it? Oh, I don't even know. My cup is so full by that. people said that they were so happy that the tournament ran on time which did stress me out a couple other highlights oh my god eric when you came to me with this the sub from scoots and the cookies i was like this close like itty bitty so close to completely losing my shit completely just crying because it was like oh i might do it now but like um
    41:49
    hey that's just such a you're such a sweetheart Rachel everybody loves you all we did is deliver the cookies that Scooch brought from Chicago and he's a loving man it's the level of support hold on I gotta get my shit together you have a very good support group no shame in my crying game no it's just like to have that level of support that people recognize that I wasn't going to leave my tournament area, that they cared enough to look after me, make sure that I was fed and watered and taken care of.
    42:27
    Not just you, not just my tribe people, but people in my pinball community I play with, that they saw me standing there like, oh, hey, Rach, how are things going? And so having that, that kind of support, that's what made the tournament for me, was the outreach of people just being so kind. We talk about a lot here, Tim, about kind people are my kind of people and trying to push that forward. So I just want to say thank you to all the people that really made that a success for me on a real personal level, apparently. And actually, I'll share one other story is that I kept my ship together the whole day. It's like emotional energy, you know, like you're feeding off this. It's a lot as a player. There's a lot of emotional energy to like have a good game, you know, to like do the thing. And as a tournament director, you definitely do that too because it's a big party kind of. You're trying to manage all the stuff. So at the end of my day during finals, I really wanted to say, this is the person I am, right? I really wanted to keep showing people how thankful I was for their help. So all the people that brought a game, I was writing the thank you cards.
    43:35
    And this cool player that I met now, his name is Alan, he's like, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm writing thank you cards. And he looked at me and he said, oh, well, your mama raised me right. Well, that was it, man. I bust out crying.
    43:48
    And it's kind of funny because it's, you know, like, you know, I'm still dealing with the loss of my parents and all of that. But it was just like hearing that and having that encouragement from a complete stranger that I was doing the right thing was amazing. And he immediately hugged me. He did the right thing. But it was, you know, I thought about that afterwards, too. Like, man, you know, people that they don't even have to know you in the pinball community, but they can be there for you. That's such a cool thing. Rebecca like Fliptronic Specs Specs Rex from Fliptronic It was her birthday that day So we had birthday cake for her birthday the next day So we had birthday cake for her It just goes on It was just such an awesome the whole tournament experience was so awesome I can't wait to do it again next year and find a different way to maybe have more entrance, more people try to qualify, different way of qualifying or whatever. But again, thank you, everybody. That's it. That's all I can say about it. I'll embarrass you a little bit more, Rachel. I talked to a lot of people about you while I was there, and not bad, meaning everybody had such nice things to say about you. They knew that we did a show together, and they went out of their way to tell me how fantastic of a job you're doing with the tournaments. I talked to many people from District 82 who all loved you. The tribe, obviously, all loves you. And there was just lots of love, just lots of people that told me what good you're doing in pinball. But more importantly, just what a nice person you are and just what a big heart you have. I do. And you're being you. You're being you. That's what's great. That's right. You do you, boo. I say that to people all the time. And I've been really trying to take that as my own advice. I'm just doing me, doing what makes me happy and doing something like MGC that made me happy. A little stressed out, yeah. I mean, like anything big. But it made me really happy. But again, when you have passion, it makes it really easy to put a lot of heart and soul into things that you love. Yeah. So thanks, Tim. Thank you. Yep. So back to the show. So I got to spend a lot of time at the show Saturday. Now, I want to give my love to Eric and your wife, to Drew and his wife, Kathleen, Billy, myself, Scoots. We went out to dinner, and Drew and family treated us to a nice dinner. And I always think it's a blessing to meet families. And I got to meet your lovely wife and Drew's family. And we had a really, really good dinner. and I was really glad we got to go out. So I love you all. I thank you for taking us out to the taco place. I requested the taco place once you guys had told me how great it was. And then we got to go over to the show, and I'll just try to give a brief review of MGC. I've only been to ReplayFX, York, Allentown, and Expo. I haven't been to TPF. But I liked MGC. They didn't have the manufacturers there outside of American Pinball. I know Chicago had some games there, and like JGP had games, but the manufacturers weren't there. Now, there were a lot of distributors there, and there were employees from Stern at the Marcos booth, and it seemed that a lot of them came out. I saw Dwight and Gomez, and I think I might have saw Borg. So that was kind of cool. Jack Danger was there. Yeah, Jack Danger was there. Emoto hooked me up with a game from Stern, too, for the tournament. So that was really neat getting to meet her for the first time. But what impressed me is the amount of games that the distributors brought to the show. I swear there was 50 to 100 games just from distributors there. And not just their latest games. Oh, Spooky was there. I apologize. Spooky was there as a manufacturer and American Pinball. Spooky brought about 10 games, maybe 10 to 15 games. and they just tilt was there they brought a lot of games the free play area had some really nice games as well it wasn't huge but it had some nice games but i thought the new and uh you know the maybe the last three to four games from each manufacturer i thought the amount of those newer games they brought was really impressive and you didn't have to wait to get on them that's true maybe one person ahead of you uh maybe and you know they're not going to be very good players So they'll probably drain out really quickly, let's be honest. And you'll be playing really quickly. And it's really great. Last year, I'm sorry to intrude here. Last year, there was definitely more people bringing pinball machines. I felt that there were a lot more variety of the people that brought in pinball machines last year. There was maybe half or around half of what there was last year. not a negative thing to anyone who didn't bring anything. In the free arcade. We're talking about the free arcade games. Correct.
    48:57
    Distributors really stepped up. Kingpin Games really stepped up big time. They had brought a ton of stuff. Not only pinball machines, but arcade games. Little kid stuff for the kids to play. I know my son and I, we played several of those games. Yeah, Roth Rose games. Yeah. Oh, so many like zombie shooters with, you know, pump action shotguns and stuff. Oh my God. And like, you know, the, the truck games where you're sitting in the truck and you're with a steering wheel and stuff like that. Oh my God. The racing games. Oh yeah. They, they went all out. So big shout out to Kingpin games for a lot of their, the games that they brought. Yeah. Well, I apologize. Yeah. Kingpin tilt and Marcos were the, with the big three and then spooky and American pinball were there. chicago i think kingpin i think kingpin brought the chicago games if i'm correct i don't want to get that wrong but one of the distributors brought a a decent amount of um cactus canyon machines yeah there's about eight of them there i'd say yeah there's there's a good amount yeah and i know marcos did the godzilla thing last year but this year they had a stage that was set up like a concert stage with two rush machines on it yep and uh billy and i played on that stage and it It was like playing on the ocean because it was very bouncy.
    50:11
    I was afraid I was going to whale the game right off the stage, not going to lie. I will say thank you to Marcos, too, because they provided – you know, I like to be the queen of swag at all my tournaments, right? So I had little pinball machine wooden cutouts made that I made into magnets. And then Marcos stepped up and they provided these really cool quarter spinner keychains for everybody, too. So I couldn't believe that. So thanks, Marcos. Yeah. So my assessment there is Expo had a lot of pinball people from around the country. The Milwaukee show had a lot of localized pinball people, and they had pinball people that flew in from around the country. But just fun and playing the games, I did a lot more of that at MGC. They just had – the games were more accessible. They had a lot more at the vendor areas, and I just had a good time. and I might have got addicted to the Stern Insider Connect contest. A little bit. Maybe just a tad bit. A little bit. Yeah. I may have, as we got there Saturday, especially in the evening, I was really trying to get a high score on one of the Insider Connect machines. And I saw Tom Graff and his son and like a handful of other really good players that I recognize. and I'm not even competitive, but I had it in my head that I wanted to get on the scoreboard. And I did.
    51:39
    And I ended up there until 1.30 in the morning. Oh, my God. That's right. Oh, man. I remember the entire night we were at the taco place, which was called Vagabond, by the way. You were like, oh, I should get going back to get some more scores going on. And I'm like, really? Really? That's what's the whole thing? and with the best part about this was come sunday morning i'm going up the escalator with my kid and my wife and i see tim with billy yj and his wife and he's like guess what i got he holds up the flag of the of the uh the prize of the stern man that was amazing that was phenomenal yeah i don't know why i got so into that i didn't play like i played a lot on saturday but there were lines But Saturday night I knew with the after party there wouldn't be a lot of people there, so I really wanted to get back and play. But I got first place in Rush, and I was very proud of that. And they gave me a Beatles banner as the prize, to which I took to one of the distributors and traded it for a Godzilla banner. Awesome. I was wondering what banner you got too. I didn't ask, but yeah, that's great. I'm very proud of myself. I have now declared myself as the greatest Rush player in the world. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
    53:04
    I won the MGC Sturt Insider Connect. There you go. I am now the greatest Rush player in the world. But I will tell you this. I was playing at 1 o'clock, and I just blew up the machine. And I'm looking at the board at like 1.15 a.m., and I'm like, I think this score will hold up because it was ending at noon the next day. And I plunged my last two extra balls. I dropped the ball I had, and then I just plunged the last two so it would register. So I drained them on purpose and walked away. And then the whole time I'm walking back to the hotel, I thought, I should have done that. You should have played them. I was just so tired. Tired, yeah, I imagine. Because somebody wore me out playing games earlier in the night. Well, after 12 hours, literally in the tournament area for 12 hours, right? And I'm like, okay, it's quarter to eight, and these guys are still jaw jack. And I'm like, I'm going, I'm done. You know, I'm just spent. I've got all my crap packed. Walk back to the hotel. I strip off all my clothes, lay in bed naked. Quiet, silence. It was amazing. And I'm laying there for 45 minutes. I'm like, man, you know, everybody keeps talking about the after party. and I get into the hall now because I volunteered and all this stuff. So I sent a group message. I'm like, someone be an adult, you know, tell me to get up, get my shit together and go. And Jennifer, things were saying, come on, lady, get going, because that's what I needed. I'm so glad I did. So I threw on a party dress because that's the kind of girl I am, and I got down to the area. And it was great because, like, by the time I got back, The tournament area I had, I think it was the Marcos people, must have come in, rearranged it all for the after party. Or maybe it was the MGC folks, the Unless Working Volunteers. They had rearranged it for the after party. So chit-chatting out there, and then I finally got to go inside to the after party. I want to mention there's one thing at MGC I did not get to do is I wanted to see Scott Denise. I wanted to listen to Scott Denise spin, and I wanted to listen to a set. And it was funny because I saw him starting to load up when I went into the hall to find Tim. Because Tim Lee and I didn't really have much of an opportunity the night before either to play any games against each other. And, I mean, I was cash beat out. So we went and wandered around. We played some old junk together, right? Yeah, for about an hour, yeah. For about an hour. And I was so tired, Tim. And then I knew you were so distracted about this, about your Rush Pro, about qualifying. and it was funny because it was really apparent but I'm like it's okay I love Tim Lee and he loves me it's all good baby so we went and we played I chose TNA and you walloped me and at that point I realized yep I think what it was is when the ball just went sailing down on the flipper right down the drain I'm like yep I think my brain's telling me it's time to be done but then I still went to play Cactus Canyon for a little bit and then I stopped and played Guns and Roses on my way out and finally went to bed. But you were so cute, Tim Lee, just how laser-focused you were about, I've got to do it, Rach. I've got to make sure that I'm staying on top. I've got to get that prize. The entire night he was like that. It was great. And I think it's interesting, Tim, you talk about your competitive play versus just playing on your own. There is a mind-zending thing, something there, where when you play on your own, you can have these great blowout games, but you've got to figure out how to do the rest thing in between and like be able to still keep that ball floating and ready on the flipper in your head but you just got to sit there cool while three other players go right because you know that's part part of it yeah i don't know why i get nervous now if i'm playing with a non-competitive player i get nervous because i don't want them to watch me play but if i'm in a tournament i still get nervous billy made fun of me all night because every time we played as a group i was just kind of average but then he'd come by and i'd have like huge scores on the games and I've been, I don't know. I'm like, as soon as I play somebody, I drain. But Rachel, I got to give you credit. You kick my butt on a lot of the older games and I beat you on a couple of the modern games. You did. Yeah. You destroyed me on Skateball and Radical and there were some other old game. I don't even remember. Yeah. I like all the classics. You beat me really bad. Yeah. Since I played so well at the Great Lakes Open, that classics tournament, I've really been refocusing a lot of my energy. When I'm playing or practicing on those style of games, I'm like, okay, I really do like them, but maybe now I finally figure out a method that I can play them better for me. But I didn't tilt anything, I don't think, while we played. Did I? Maybe on TNA. Maybe. I don't know. I had the best time with you, Tim Lee. I need you to move to Milwaukee so we can play pinball all the time and Amy Lee and I can talk about you. Yeah, yeah. You did a good job doing that. I always say everybody likes Amy more. It's kind of true, but I don't mind that. I love her. And so, Eric, I don't know. I think I disappeared and played Rush, so I have no idea what you did Saturday night.
    58:15
    Oh, gosh. I'm trying to remember what I did Saturday night, to be honest with you. I was probably playing some games. I was probably wandering around doing stuff. To be perfectly honest with you, I don't remember what I was doing Saturday night. I'm drawing a complete blank.
    58:32
    I know I did something, but I don't remember what it was exactly. and I'm sure it will come to me in another time. You're probably either one of two things. You're playing pinball or you're chit-chatting with somebody or a conversation of that. Or maybe you're just resting, so we all have to do that too. I know I brought a cooler, a koozie cooler, and I put it in the back and I put it over there and I just kept getting refills. Just when it was done, put it in a koozie so no one can see what it actually was. And I just kept getting drinks and drinks. I probably drank like, I don't know, eight or ten of them that Saturday. So that's probably why I don't remember much of many of them.
    59:13
    We didn't mention him. We need to really talk about Mike Williams quite a bit here. Oh, yeah, Mike didn't get to go out to the – He didn't get to go out to – right? He didn't get to go out to Blackbird. He didn't get to do much Chive Hangout, but here's the reason why. That man is a super volunteer, okay? Like he was on the dock both mornings, Thursday, Friday, loading up all day Thursday. That man worked tirelessly. All the volunteers at MGC, all of those games and stuff, worked tirelessly so hard in order to set that up. And Mike Williams, you're a huge part of that. That was part of the cool thing about being at MGC the day it was. I got to see how the sausage was made. So, Mike, big, big, I think we should give him a round of applause, everyone. Yeah. It was just unbelievable. And then while I'm here thinking about it, I want to say thank you to Dan Lucin. He is the MGC organizer.
    60:06
    He was a wonderful gentleman for me to work with in regards to my pinball tournament. He is a rad dude. That was a lot for him to keep organized and keep on top of, and good job on a successful event. So cheers. Dan, it was an awesome event. But Mike, I'm sorry I didn't get to talk to you as much. Mike did come over in the game where I blew up rush and got the big score. He said, can I blow in your ear or can I whisper in your ear? Will that bother you? And I said, yeah, I'm having a good game. I didn't mean it to sound mean, but I was like – you know me. I was like, yeah. I said, I'm finally having a good game. And he kind of blew my ear a little bit. So he gave me good luck. But, man, that guy, he was working hard. But when you're working, you can't hang out. Well, then he likes to have his whiskey or I think it was whiskey or bourbon. I think it was bourbon that he had. So I had also I had Drew at the after party. He provided me with his flask. I think it was then that had bourbon in it from Dr. John from TPF. So thanks, Dr. John, for the really nasty bourbon that I had probably like three huge glugs of because I'm like, hey, it's free. so real quick because I want to get over and talk to Eric about some non-MGC stuff this was a good review but I do have to give a best in show award to the tribe members who were there and I told Drew I was going to do this and really there was really it could be any category somebody that drank the most had the most fun but I'm giving the best in show to Martin because Martin And after we went out on Friday night, Martin had a few beers, and he is by far the most pleasant drunk I have ever met. He had a smile on his face. He was not big and obnoxious. He gave me a Oktoberfest review that made me how, but he just had – he was glowing. He had a smile on his face, and Jennifer was like, he had a little bit too much to drink. I'm like, and Martin's a great guy, not drunk, but he just got so happy. He was just having the time of his life. So I said, Drew, that's the best in show right there. I said he had a nice big smile and was enjoying himself. And we all know Martin, but we're giving him the best in show.
    62:31
    I like that. That's the new thing. So when we have try meetups at shows, we give away a best in show. The Tim Lee best in show. No, no, no. The Tim Lee best in show. Yeah, best in show at Expo probably – even though Joseph Hood couldn't hang with Amy Lee, he probably got the best in show for the backpack just because he kept everybody hydrated throughout the entire show. That's true. Yeah. It's a fair point. So anyway – Yeah, so that was a very long-winded MGC review. Love you all. We had a great time. We're going to do it again as a tribe. It just keeps getting better. but eric i we do want to ask you some questions about you know about what else you're doing in pinball you know or what are you doing are you just playing with drew all the time do you play in leagues yeah so um i do not play in leagues i do not play in tournaments um i'm not one of those people that try to learn every single rule of the game um in order to be you know try to understand the game my opinion in pinball is more of a a fun factor aspect um if it's a game that is something that i enjoy playing and it's something that i um if i if i see a game and i play it and i'm like oh this is really fun and i keep putting quarters in or even now at this time of day dollars in um that is a game that really intrigues me um a game like that would be a Medieval Madness, even a Willy Wonka. When I played that, I loved it, which is why I have one sitting right next to me, actually.
    64:14
    And those kind of games just really, really intrigued me a lot. The replayability, the fun factor, all the different mechanisms in the games, that really helps me like the game even more. I know there's a lot of people that like the rule sets or they like the shots. Shots are important, don't get me wrong. Some people are really great into the artwork and whatnot.
    64:42
    For me, it's more fun factor and just replayability. Because if I'm not going to play a game more than a couple times, and it's a fun game, don't get me wrong, but it's not something that I will get into as much as others. That makes sense. It's interesting to hear just what people like. My buddy Justin and I, he's just like you. He likes the fun factor and the mechs. I like a little more speed. I like to play the faster games. I think that's why I like Rush, and I got the Rush Pro. But you like what you like. And I was just like you. I like the little faster games, but I was just in my basement or at the bar having a good time.
    65:25
    My girl Rachel got me into playing into tournaments, and I'm kind of enjoying it. So, you know, maybe something. Yeah, but to each their own. I think there's a lot to be said about it. It's like any other kind of hobby you're going to do at home. Like I like to knit and crochet and garden. I like to do puzzles. But, like, I also like to, like some people like to video game. To me it's the same thing. It's just another way to relax is to flip on a game. So I think there's so many people out there that will never play in a tournament that are just doing the same thing that you are, Eric. They're finding a game that just speaks to them. They like playing it. they're thinking this is a good investment because i'm gonna play a thousand games on it and i probably won't get bored so i love all of that yeah do you have anything besides wonka uh no i just have the uh wonka le um i bought it in january 19 um 2019 and um it's been here ever since um have not thought about really trading it of any any sorts because it's not really a game out there that is treating me to really go after it That a great family theme That that too that was a big selling point In my previous podcast when I was with Drew and Ian at the Poor Man Pinball podcast in their earlier episodes, one of my favorite themes and still is to this day is medieval madness, medieval madness. Let me respond.
    66:51
    And I still love it to this day. My wife does not want me to get it. So that kind of defeats the purpose. Another game I still want to get is the Stern Playboy. Again, not family-friendly, and the wife says no. So two strikes there, I can't do it. But it's still one of those games I still want it. Yeah. So because when I played them, I had a fun time playing them. The Playboy was super fast, and it was fun. And Naked Girls, let's be honest, who doesn't like that, right? Is it the one with the centerfold where you're opening it up? Is it that one? Yeah. It is a fun game to play. I know what you're talking about. But, yes, those games might not be quite as family-friendly theme. You have just a son, correct? And he's fairly young. He's six, yeah. Oh, yes. So, absolutely, there's a time and a place. But who's not to say in 12 years you can't have that game? A couple years. Yeah, we'll see. Yeah, a couple. I love that though but you know that's the thing about like pinball too is like you it's trying to find out what fits right for that family or for that theme and Wonka again although I find that game to be Tim does not Tim and JJP games are not friends really but I really love Wonka I wish I could have one and you have an LE at that fancy fancy I've come around to Wonka I've actually never lost on Wonka in a tournament And every tournament I've played, I've drawn the game every time. And Justin dropped it off for a couple of months. So I've been kind of blowing it up in the tournaments. And that kind of changed my mind a little bit. Our conversations before I owned it – I shouldn't say owned it. Before I borrowed it, I was kind of, eh. I played it. It was hard. It was set up. But once I got it in the house and kind of brought it down to a level, it's a fun game. The new code is a lot of fun. Yeah, there's a million different things in there that you can click. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff. not like you're just the call outs and stuff i don't know call outs the theme isn't like a like a big thing for me but uh this theme is really fun uh a lot of the collecting and it just it's a it's a combo game where you keep building and building and building and then it just explodes and you're like oh my god and you get like multiple and you go crazy and the music and the sound effects and the call outs just go crazy and that's what i just love i love the experience of the actual like of one that happens very similar to a guns and roses where you know where the music is just rocking and you hear all these things the lights are going and you're flipping and you hear oh it's just it's just a mind fucking fuck and i love it and i i really enjoy i don't know if it's just jjp that just does this they're gonna keep doing this i hope they do with the next Toy Story, quote, quote, that comes out. But I'm really hoping that they keep up with the fun factor and the excitement in these games. Yes, the level of joy that those games bring. I just, quite frankly, I think the Wonka game, and I'm really excited about the Toy Story, but I think like Wonka, I think it's still, for me, it's a more fun game to play than Rush Pro. And the reason for that is because of the nostalgia factor with the theme. Isn't that weird? And I do like Rush, how the game plays and how it shoots, but if I had to choose one of them, I'd choose Wonka over and over and over again. Yeah, Wonka's a great game. I don't really like Rush, if I'm being honest with you. I just kind of really like John Board games, if I'm being honest with you. But Wonka's a fun game. JJPs are very fun, what I've learned, to play in the home. I don't enjoy them on location as much. They're set up hard. You don't see many. Yeah, you don't get to see a lot. You don't see a lot of the game when you do see them. But everyone I've had in the house, you know, Guns N' Roses is fun. It's, you know, Mr. Sand loves it. But JGP just, it's good to have different styles of games. That's right. If we had seven manufacturers that all made Stern Pro type of machines or Stern Premiums, it would be as fun.
    71:01
    You know, they bring a different aspect to the table. And I'm not dissing like Stern by any means. I mean, I love their games a lot. I love the Guardians Galaxy. I love the new Godzilla. There's a Godzilla behind you, Tim. I'm super jealous. So is Drew.
    71:18
    So is a lot of people. They're all really great games. In fact, there's, you know, potential Jaws that might be coming out. My wife is a huge Shark fan. She will want me to purchase that day one. So I got on the list for that. We'll see what happens. but that is yeah, Stern does phenomenal with their games like you said Rachel, to each their own everyone has their style of play, style of everything so that's what's great about this community, there's so many different games that appeal to everyone's you know wants or desires I guess you could call it. Did you play the Sonic Spinball that was at MVC? Yes, I loved it. I did not get a chance to. It was a homebrew. There were several different homebrews there, and I didn't get an opportunity to play them. But everybody that I talked to was like, it was really awesome. So, yeah, okay, cool.
    72:16
    Yeah, I played it at, I think it was an expo last year as well. I played it there as well, and it was really fun. He did a really great job. There was always a line to play at. Every time I tried to get over there. So it's good for him. He was a really nice guy, too. Like, you know, playing the game and having him stand in there and just super nice guy, American Pinball. Yeah. Did a really good job with that hire, but fun game, nice guy. It was pretty cool. So let me ask, Eric, where did the whole pinball thing start? I want to assume that it started with Drew and Ian, but it might not have. So how did you get into pinball?
    72:53
    It did start with Drew and Ian. Yes, it did. A little surprise. Surprise. Yes. Spoiler. so I guess I guess I could say the very first pinball machine I ever played I remember I was at a movie theater I was with a friend of mine at the time and I think I was in maybe middle school or high school at this time and we played the tales from the crypts and I work if yeah and at the time I had no idea who John Borg was or who designed in the game I'm just shooting you know putting quarters in shooting it and it was really funny all the different call outs and the artwork was really fun. I was like, this is really cool. And I just kept that in the back of my mind for years and years. And then Drew and Ian, I know Drew and Ian were very big into the arcades. The actual, you know, the cabinets and such. I know Ian has several years of arcade experience. And so is Drew, for that matter, as well. They've owned arcades. Ian's built them. All these things.
    73:55
    And then they started getting into pinball. And one day, they invited me out, myself and a good friend of ours, Dan, and we kept driving around south of Wisconsin to play games on location. And there is this, you know, the app, the pinball map, wherever you can find the games on location. And we would just drive around and just play them on location. And I'm like, this is really fun because there's so many different games to play and they're all different and they're really fun themes. And one game that stood out was the Batman 66. That was at somewhere in Waukesha area, which is western of western Milwaukee area.
    74:38
    And that one was really fun. That was one of the newer games at the time that came out. And we just kept driving around. I think there was like a no good golfers at like a hotel that we went to. And it was just some random places we're going to. Yeah. And it was really fun. Yeah. It was like a whole day. We just did a whole day of that. And it was really, really fun.
    75:01
    The Greater Milwaukee Area Pinball Hunt Crawl. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. We didn't go too far. We didn't go like to Madison that far west or anything like that. But Madison has some great games themselves. They have some great, you know, bars and locations and Green Bay as well, of course.
    75:18
    But yeah, we kind of just stuck with the Milwaukee area. But yeah, that's kind of how I got into pinball. after that we kept going to Blackbird a lot we've been to Blackbird even before we were pinball enthusiasts and we were there many many times but yeah we all started they were into pinball then they started getting me into pinball and I'm like there's no way I'm going to be able to afford a pinball machine or have one in my house there's like no freaking way and lo and behold it happens you know and uh i bought i bought the bullet and uh it was worth it i still play it and um it's really fun but yeah that's um in a nutshell that's how kind of how i got into to pinball uh drew and ian had some old games i think drew's first game was the if i'm not mistaken it was the uh last action hero i played at his house and i don't remember what Ian had as his first game. Black Rose. That might have been Black Rose. You're right. Yep. And I was playing it whenever we had, like, at the Haber Bar, we always go down in his basement, drink, and play Black Rose. And, yeah. So they got me hooked there.
    76:35
    And the story writes itself from there, you know? Nice. So that's, in a nutshell, that's how it is. I really want to know how you met Ian and Drew. I think that's a follow-up question. Yeah. Yeah, so the next question is how did you get in the tribe? And this is interesting because, honestly, you're like the third poor man. They've talked about you since day one. No, I'm not the third poor man. No way. You were always Eric that wasn't on Facebook, though. You've come up on many episodes, so you've always been kind of their – you go everywhere with them. I always hear stories about you guys hanging out. So how did you get into the tribe?
    77:19
    Well, I guess how I met Ian and Drew, I guess we could start there too. Ian, I met in high school. I think it was sophomore year, and it's how you meet everyone else. You drive in a van with some friends, and we go see a witch's house.
    77:35
    So a little back story on that is, and Ian's laughing at this. I know he is at this point. We are, a good friend of ours, Derek, We would take a van. He would drive us out, and there's like this house on the coast, on the beach area of Lake Michigan. The Lakeshore. Thank you. Beautiful, man. It's close enough. I'm going to call it the coast. The Lake Michigan coast.
    78:05
    I had a few drinks already. It's good. That's okay. It's fine. And we drive out there and there's this, and I'm not entirely sure the story of this witch exactly, but there's this house where it's gated off completely. And there are these statues that this woman made in front of her house, like, you know, rock statues, marbles, whatever you want to call them, wood statues are all over this house. And it's just weird. And this house has like some big old windows, like glass stained windows, like from top to, from bottom to ceiling. It's just huge. everywhere and we would always drive by there and there was this there's this myth where and again i may get this wrong and i apologize from uh mick i don't know the exact details where this woman's husband died and she went to took a rowboat went out like michigan killed herself um or not um
    79:02
    so i'm sorry the husband went out there died in the rowboat she was really upset and she came out She just went crazy, and she started making these statues. Now, again, this is all – I don't know if this is 100% real. Her art therapy. This is the myth of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The urban legend. The urban legend, exactly. And there is actually a website on this, too. I think onmilwaukee.com came on this. But anywho, so I met Ian through that back in sophomore year of high school. After that, we kind of drifted apart. I did my thing with my friends. He did his thing with his friends.
    79:44
    And after several years later, we kind of got back together through mutual friends. And then we started hanging out together. And that's when I met Drew along with Ian because Drew and Ian were already friends before I met Ian for the second time, again, back in our friendship. And then we just started hanging out together. We kind of just clicked like instantly. we were hanging out together we went out to fourth of july parties like all the time um on fourth of july of course and we always go out drinking uh always go drinking always oh my god so many good yeah exactly we we did fourth of july pretty much every night let's be honest yeah we went drinking in the park i think it was the fourth of july Oh, my God. Some of the great times we had there. I'm not going to lie. I love that. I love it. Oh, yeah. Some good times. You have a stuff smiling the whole time that you're talking about it. You can really see the bond between the three of you. Oh, yeah. They're without a doubt my best friends. So without a doubt. What year did you graduate high school? I graduated in 2000. Actually, we all graduated in 2000. Drew, Ian, and myself. Yep, we're all the same age. I'm a little younger by like a few months, but not much.
    81:04
    But, yeah, and that's how I met Drew and Ian, and we've been, you know, friends and close ever since. Nice. And that's the story. And then how I got into pinballs, you know, how I mentioned to you before. So, yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, like I said, we've heard about Eric a lot, and, you know, I knew you three were all close. It was evident. It was evident, like Rachel said, when we were all there and that you guys have had a long history and you played off of each other and your jokes and so forth. So that's kind of how I thought it would go. The lady who had lost her mind a little bit. Every city has those stories, which is kind of interesting. Or it's a ghost story or something along those lines.
    81:49
    We have those here. Lady in white that you can see in the railroad bridge. Sure. Every time I come home at like 1 a.m. from like a work trip, I'm like looking for – because you have to get on this like old road that nobody's here and so forth. So you're creeping yourself out looking for the lady in white on some backwoods country road in the middle of nowhere's Pennsylvania? Yep, absolutely. I'm always like – I'm always looking around like, oh my god. Rachel, I told you I can't play pinball in my basement by myself because there's a Halloween machine now. I'm scared of my own shadow. Well, it's okay. If Drew can have the Center Post Cafe in his basement, you can definitely keep all the lights on in yours.
    82:35
    For sure. A follow-up question is, how tall are you? Because you're like the super tall Care Bear. I'm 6'5". 7'5", 4 1⁄2". Every time I see you, I'm like, he's so freaking tall. But you really are just the nicest person. I'm so glad that we had time to drink together, hang out together. Yes. The weekend was amazing. Yeah, it really was. I was a little jealous. I'm going to be honest with Eric because everybody kept introducing Eric as the nicest guy in pinball. And I'm trying really hard to get that title. Minus Drew.
    83:12
    I take out a lot of – I pick on Drew constantly. But besides that, I try to be nice to everyone else. But I'm like, man, I want to be the nicest guy in pinball. So maybe I could be the second nicest guy in pinball. But no. There's nothing wrong with that. Yeah. Eric, you're a great dude. You know, we're here at an hour and a half. I think we can wrap this up. But I do want to say that I had an amazing time with you all and my wife. Eric, you and your family, fantastic. Ian, Drew and his family. I got to go to the center post cafe I got to see the center post I got to see Drew here's the thing Drew cannot use the center post I'm sorry but he lets the ball bounce and it drains 75% of the time he doesn't trust it no it's coming in at an angle and Drew's like Drew why didn't you hit that he's like I thought it was going to hit the center post so not only does he have center posts the guy doesn't know how to use them so I'm sorry oh boy But Rachel and I laughed about that for the last week texting back and forth about the second one. Yeah, I did a lot about that. I love my date. You know, JJ got to meet Amy. I was a little jealous. He took a liking to her over me last time. I got a lot of hugs, and he really liked Amy. You know, Kathleen's great. I appreciate them having me over Sunday night. After everybody went home, I went over and just we hung out and talked and had a good time. Appreciate you, lovely Rachel. It's always good to see you again. Somebody's got to come see me. This is like the third time I've made it out, so you guys got to make it down to Pittsburgh. Well, I'll see what I can do about that. I've got a busy calendar, but my summer's looking kind of free, so maybe I'll make a trip out there. You have Pittsburgh and you have Philadelphia over there. Which one has a better pinball gathering or event? I think that – I don't know what goes on in Philadelphia. There's a lot of good locations, but Pittsburgh has a pretty booming pinball scene with Kickback Cafe, Helicon Brewery, and the Pittsburgh Dojo, which I believe – somebody email me and tell me if I'm wrong – is a lot of the Papa folks that were involved in Papa have started – they bought a dojo, a karate dojo. Yeah. And they turned it into like a tournament area in Pittsburgh and they open it up once a week to the public. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. There's a place called PA Pinball that I think has one to 200 classic games. Wow. There's Pinball Perfection, which has 200 classic games or something like that. There's a lot of locations in Pittsburgh. How far are you from Pittsburgh, Tim Lee? I'm about an hour and a half. But if everybody came to Pittsburgh, my family, my entire family lives there, I would come down and stay. and you know you could come up to my house for a day and everybody would get bored and then we would hang out in pittsburgh for a few days but yeah pittsburgh would be a lot of fun um i want to say just thanks again to all the people that helped me thanks for hanging in there when i had like a little break down there today talking about stuff um just so emotional about it it was just really an amazing weekend for me on so many levels and just meeting everybody oh the other really cool thing is when people came in to register, out of the 64 players, I think 50 of them hugged me. And so that was really cool. Like, next year, I should have the clicker for how many hugs I get during MGC, because doesn't that fill you up as a human being? I mean, what else?
    86:45
    Thanks, Tim Lee, always. You're awesome. You do not suck at pinball. You definitely do not suck at pinball. At least that night you didn't. He proofed it at Rush. Yeah, that's right. The greatest Rush player in the world. Yay! That's my new title. There it is.
    87:07
    Happy flipping. Love you all. Drew sucks at pinball. Good night, guys. guitar solo Like a lion unobtrusive Plays that song that's so elusive And the magic music makes your morning moon Up on your way to your bedrock There is magic at your fingers For the spirit ever lingers I'm the man in contact in your head, the solitude.