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Not a Minimum Number of Beers

NYC PinPod·podcast_episode·52m 47s·analyzed·Feb 23, 2026
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.036

TL;DR

NYC Pin Pod covers Feb 2026 local tournament results, league play, and venue machine updates.

Summary

NYC Pin Pod episode covering local pinball competition results from early February 2026 in New York City, including multiple tournament finals (Galentine's, Valentine's Day, South Slope Selfie League, Bells and Chimes, Scrapple League), league play results, venue updates, and machine status reports from the Pinball Map. Hosts discuss tournament formats, logistics, and community events with emphasis on women's pinball participation and LGBTQ+ community involvement.

Key Claims

  • 63 players attended the Valentine's Day tournament at Arcade FiDi on Saturday, February 14th

    high confidence · Direct statement by Eric: 'On Saturday, at Arcade FiDi, how many players came out, Eric? 63 players. Woo!'

  • The Valentine's Day tournament raised over $6,400 for the Ali Forney Center and the Transgender Law Center through a Translights for Trans Rights silent auction

    high confidence · Benjamin: 'We also had the Translights for Trans Rights silent auction. We saw a lot of friends and we raised over $6,400 for the Ali Forney Center and the Transgender Law Center.'

  • As of February 20th, 2026, there are 356 pinball machines in New York City at 76 public locations

    high confidence · Benjamin: 'As of February 20th, 2026, there are 356 pinball machines in New York City at 76 public locations. Thanks to the creators and users of Pinball Map for this data.'

  • Space Team (1988 TechnoPlay) was added to Barcade FiDi on Friday, February 13th and removed on Monday, February 16th

    high confidence · Benjamin: 'On Friday, February 13th, a 1988 TechnoPlay Space Team was added to Barcade Fidei... On Monday the 16th, a Space Team was removed from Barcade Fidei'

  • Only three Space Team machines still exist in the world

    medium confidence · Benjamin: 'I'm told that there are exactly three of these that still exist so I might have been at a slight disadvantage to at least one of my opponents.'

  • Miriam Nadler had a perfect qualifying score at the Valentine's Day tournament but still made it through three groups of finals

    high confidence · Eric: 'And also, by the way, Miriam had a perfect qualifying score, didn't she?... she made it the whole way to the final round.'

  • Metallica broke during the South Slope Selfie League tournament on Sunday and was out of service Monday

    high confidence · Benjamin: 'I got a message from Kate on Sunday night after the South Slope Selfie League that said Metallica will be out tomorrow, Max is out of town and it broke during the tournament tonight'

Notable Quotes

  • “Dante, it turns out, is invincible.”

    Eric Sweetland @ approx. 25:00 — Comment on Dante Oliva's dominance across multiple tournaments, winning the Barcade Brooklyn League finals despite high seeding and playing multiple matches.

  • “Sorry, Dante. I'll tell you what. Qualify better next time, state champion. And he won.”

    Benjamin Fiorga @ approx. 55:00 — Playful jab at Dante Oliva after denying his game choice in finals (game was already taken), yet he still won the tournament.

  • “You stole my beer, man.”

    Zen (implied) @ approx. 58:00 — Humorous anecdote about Benjamin accidentally taking Zen's beer from the bathroom during the Valentine's Day tournament at Arcade FiDi.

  • “I'm not talking about like you see me in a jacket and some jeans... but I'm talking about a suit.”

    Benjamin Fiorga @ approx. 70:00 — Benjamin explaining his regular work attire and how he changes for Pinball NYC league nights.

  • “Check it off the fucking list. But I wish that I had had Frontier called for me instead of Strange Science.”

    Benjamin Fiorga @ approx. 57:00 — Reflection on game draw at Valentine's tournament—happy Space Team happened once, but would have preferred Frontier.

  • “Unless this word is like flammable and inflammable, Dante, it turns out, is invincible.”

    Eric Sweetland @ approx. 25:30 — Wordplay acknowledging Dante's repeated tournament dominance despite contradictory naming conventions.

  • “What a weird thing that was.”

    Benjamin Fiorga @ approx. 56:00 — Benjamin's reaction to playing Space Team, a rare Italian gambling card game from the late 1980s with only three known surviving examples.

  • “It's hard to get up there when most of your machines are up and down Fifth Avenue and Park Slope or somewhere pretty close to there.”

    Eric Sweetland — Discussion of operational logistics for pinball machine operators managing route coverage in NYC.

Entities

Benjamin FiorgapersonEric SweetlandpersonKate MartinpersonDante OlivapersonMiriam NadlerpersonAlex KellypersonAnna WolkpersonGreg PavarellipersonCJ SmithpersonMatt Gradyperson

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinball NYC inaugural season showing strong participation with team-based league play across multiple NYC locations (Buttermilk Bar, Barcade FiDi, Jack Bar, Rulo's, Milo's Yard, etc.) with new teams successfully recruited

    high · Benjamin detailing first week match results: 'The Deluxe Horses went to Buttermilk Bar to meet the Colliders... Worms At Milo's Yard... Lesser Players... Balls of Steel...'

  • ?

    event_signal: Valentine's Day tournament at Arcade FiDi drew 63 players and raised $6,400 for Trans rights organizations through Translights silent auction

    high · Eric: '63 players. Woo! For Valentine's Day.' Benjamin: 'We raised over $6,400 for the Ali Forney Center and the Transgender Law Center.'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Strong positive reception of diverse team building, new team recruitment in Pinball NYC, and inclusive leadership from established players like Zen mentoring newer competitors

    high · Benjamin: 'I really like that for a new team, not only because Zen is the captain at Midway on Monday night... he's going to sell you on why it's awesome to be a pinball player in New York City.'

  • ?

    community_signal: NYC pinball infrastructure showing growth: 356 machines at 76 public locations (as of Feb 20, 2026); multiple concurrent league formats (Pinball NYC left/right flipper divisions, South Slope Pinball League, Bells and Chimes, Scrapple League, etc.)

    high · Benjamin: 'As of February 20th, 2026, there are 356 pinball machines in New York City at 76 public locations.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Bells and Chimes NYC (women's pinball club) running finals with custom 3D-printed Doc Marten trophy awards; multiple competitive divisions (A/B/C) across NYC

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.158

0:00
Happy Sunday, pinfolk, or whatever day you're listening. This is NYC Pin Pod, in which a panel talks location pinball in New York City, and sometimes nearby surrounding areas. My name is Benjamin Fiorga. My initials are BCF, and, you know, well, look, that's my muggle name, but on the burlesque stage, they call me Big Richard Energy. My name is Eric Sweetland. My initials are HIP. And my burlesque name was Lime Ricky. On this week's pod, we'll run down local competition results in Ball 1 as always. And as usual, we will also do venue updates in Ball 2 and our bullet journals will tell you what kind of pinball we played. I think we're going to have a house ball for Ball 3, but it's going to be a great week anyway. Let's get started.
1:14
On Friday, February 13th, 16 players came out to the Red Hook Pinball Museum for Galentine's Day, directed by Kate Martin. It was a max match play of 12 rounds, and then cut to a finals. Kate Martin won the day, just passing Amelia Connolly.
1:38
Michelle Collimer got third, and Karen Feldman got fourth. Kate got 10.17 whoppers for that. In the women's division. Quite true. On Saturday, at Arcade FiDi, how many players came out, Eric? 63 players. Woo! For Valentine's Day. A lot of players. Directed by Jess Warren and myself, with the help of Greg Pavarelli, Gabe Chazanov, Caitlin Reese, and Jonah Shlaes as TDs, and teching from Jeff Anderson and Glenn Gilear. Kept everything really nice.
2:19
Also operating in general from both of them. the games there. Jeff owns most of the games, or maybe technically Barcade does, but he is the Barcade pinball dude. And Glenn, I think, has a couple of them. We played seven rounds of match play with IFPA scoring and then cut to a top 16 Papa-style finals. We wrapped up the whole thing at 10.06pm, which was well ahead of schedule. Yeah, that's great. We were quite happy with that. Dante Oliva was the winner of the day edging out Alberto Santana in second Miriam Nadler in third and Alex Kelly in fourth I would like to point out that that was the current New York State Open champion besting the 2025 New York State Open champion, the two-time defending New York women's champion and the 2019 New York State champion all in one group. And also, by the way, Miriam had a perfect qualifying score, didn't she? And also made it, you know, for me, if I had a perfect qualifying round, I'd be dead in the water once I hit the first round of the playoffs. I would be out of focus. And she made it the whole way to the final round, made it through, what, three groups of finals. That's something. We had an awesome time. We also had the Translights for Trans Rights silent auction. We saw a lot of friends and we raised over $6,400 for the Ali Forney Center and the Transgender Law Center. Tremendous. Just incredible. On Sunday, January 14th, 30 players came out to Buttermilk Bar for the finals of the South Slope Selfie League of Winter 2026, directed by Kate Martin. It was a fair strikes knockout with strikes adjustments given based on selfie scoring from the qualifying.

The Walking Dead at Midway has no working auto-launch feature

high confidence · Eric: 'The new Walking Dead play? It was pretty janky. It doesn't have an auto-launch. Or at least it stopped working while I was practicing.'

@ approx. 63:00
Jess Warrenperson
Jeff Andersonperson
Glenn Gilearperson
Zen Zokniakperson
Caitlin Reeseperson
Ali Bissettperson
Dante Olivaperson
Rob Wongperson
Gabe Chazanovperson
Amelia Connollyperson
Barcade FiDivenue
Scrapple Landvenue
Buttermilk Barvenue
Space Teamgame
Walking Deadgame

high · Benjamin: 'There were, I'm pretty sure, trophies that Caitlin 3D printed that looked like Doc Martens... In the A finals. Anna Wolk bested Miriam Nadler, Kate Martin, and Ash Ditropani in order.'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Papa-style finals (group elimination bracket with 4-2 1-0 scoring, game-by-game bus driver picks) successfully used at Valentine's tournament with 16-player field; positive feedback on format despite administrative complexity

    high · Benjamin discussing Valentine's finals format: 'Straight Plane Papa. Group elimination bracket... Three games per round. And the bus driver picks each game. Each game. Game by game.'

  • ?

    event_signal: Major NYC pinball events in February 2026: Galentine's Day (16 players), Valentine's Day (63 players), multiple league finals (South Slope Selfie, Bells and Chimes, Scrapple, Barcade Brooklyn), new Barcade Fi-Di Monthly tournament announced

    high · Benjamin opening tournament summary with multiple events across multiple venues and attendance numbers

  • ?

    product_concern: Multiple machines experiencing operational issues: Walking Dead missing auto-launch, Metallica breakdown during tournament, Iron Maiden janky, Winchester upper flippers inconsistent, James Bond right flipper rubber snapped, Evil Dead backbox issue, Deadpool flipper failure

    high · Eric: 'The new Walking Dead play? It was pretty janky. It doesn't have an auto-launch.' Benjamin: 'I got a message from Kate on Sunday night... Metallica will be out tomorrow... it broke during the tournament tonight.'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Recurring mechanical and software issues across multiple venues suggesting either operator maintenance gaps or machine quality/age issues: auto-launch failure, flipper button intermittency, rubber deterioration, screen/DMD problems

    medium · Accumulated mention of issues at Barcade FiDi, Midway, Scrapple Land, Jack Bar, Gebhardt's, H&H Reserve affecting Walking Dead, Iron Maiden, Winchester, Metallica, James Bond, Evil Dead, Deadpool

    • 4:18
    After 11 games, Matt Grady survived the night with a single strike in this five strike fair, I believe. But he had an adjustment of minus five. So does that actually mean that he had six strikes? In 11 games, it looks like. Yeah, that's right. Had six strikes. So the adjustments there actually tell you what the qualifying allowed, what the selfie qualifying allowed for, I should say. Matthew Carlson, we're going to say his name here. And when I talked to him on Monday, he was like, yeah, I didn't do the selfie qualifying, so I didn't have enough extra strikes, so I didn't do very well. It turns out we're going to say his name anyway. also qualifying for ducks and money in the top four rob wong came in second george underwood third and taylor connelly fourth oh tied third with george yeah and in the money but no ducks category billy vazine came in fifth along with aj gould a tie and a tie for seventh place between Matthew Carlson and Aaron Hamill. Matthew Carlson is the only person in those top eight who does not seem to have got any adjustments. Everyone else seems to have done something in the selfie portion of the selfie league. Matt Grady picked up 12.98 Whoppers. Also on Sunday,
    5:44
    the Toppers Queer Pinball Club held a meeting at Scrapple Land. I headed up to Greenpoint to join in for that and had a nice time casually flipping with my new friends in Toppers, a lot of whom had come to Valentine's Day the day before even. Cool. On Monday.
    6:03
    Barcade Brooklyn Pinball League Season 8 held its finals at its eponymous venue. We usually just talk about the top four here, but when I looked at what happened in the semifinals, I want to talk about Group 2 because Group 2, which was Greg Fertel, Chris Caffaro, Matt Brady, and Leland Kuykendall. They had a three-way tie at four points after six weeks of a league and two rounds of finals. Leland Kuykendall and Greg Fertel did the work. They did it just to run into a buzzsaw. Alex Kelly bested Dante Oliva and Greg Fertel and Leland Kuykendall in that order, respectively, in the finals.
    6:53
    You know, unless this word is like flammable and inflammable, Dante, it turns out, is invincible. Alex Kelly got 27.79 whoppers.
    7:06
    Also on Monday, at bars all across the city, the first week of Pinball NYC got underway for the left flipper division. The Deluxe Horses went to Buttermilk Bar to meet the Colliders. And Benjamin, looks like you guys picked up a home win. Yeah, we were up 7-5 going into the final round and Captain Jess W. and Chad did their thing on Iron Maiden while Casey from the Horses got some revenge on me after he and I and two partners had faced off on Twilight Zone in round one. and I had bested him then. He got me in round four.
    7:51
    He had a pretty good one then. I had a really good one in round one. But it was a good win. Special When Lit was the host at Rulo's when the Mutants came to South Slope and the Mutants left with 11 points and an away win for their trip. Parliament had a bye week The Pinbots Faced off against new team Worms At Milo's Yard The Pinbots win 10-6 Pinbots were new last season And it took them until I think the Fifth match of the season to get their first win And this season they picked on The new team in the first week The two for one-ers Were the virtual Away team at Gebhardt Spear Culture against the lesser players, also from Gebhardt's Beer Culture. The lesser players got a 9-7 win. Lesser players took until really late to get their first win last season. But this season, they're not just getting their first win early, but they're getting their first win at home against another team that calls that venue home. That sounds pretty cool. I am a little bit afraid of the two-for-oners at that venue. At least three members of the two-for-oners and maybe four of their key members played in the Harvest Finals last year, including Levy having won the Classics, and I think Jim went deep in the Classics, and Hagen went deep. I think that team can play at that venue pretty well. Our New York City Flipper Sport Association went to Midway to see Balls of Steel. And Balls of Steel got the 10-6 home win.
    9:42
    How's the new Walking Dead play? It was pretty janky. It doesn't have an auto-launch. Or at least it stopped working while I was practicing, and I don't think it then continued to do it for the rest of the night. So you just had to watch, especially in a multi-ball, to get the balls out of there. Yeah, well, I mean, that game is all about stacking three multiballs if you can. And so that's being all about playing good multiballs, or at least the way I play it. I think that's something. Also, one of the flippers on Deadpool was not working. So we played the whole match on just Walking Dead and Iron Maiden. Oh, wow. Something was up about that Maiden, too. It was also janky. I got a message from Kate on Sunday night after the South Slope Selfie League that said Metallica will be out tomorrow, Max is out of town and it broke during the tournament tonight if Max is out of town for buttermilk he's out of town for midway also you know, if that thing broke on Sunday night, there was no way it was getting fixed the pin pals of Skylark welcomed Lion Persons and the Pin Pals got the 11-5 home win. Pin Pals, after just missing the Orbit playoffs last season, come out with a big win over a team that has been a contender since they joined the league. And the Aristocrats played Intermission Dolores at Commonwealth and the Aristocrats got an 11-5 road win. They got off to a slow start last season, but they pick up an away win in their first match. It's a pretty big deal. On Tuesday, Bells and Chimes NYC convened for their finals. There were, I'm pretty sure, trophies that Caitlin 3D printed that looked like Doc Martens that she was showing me pictures of on Monday night at our match. in the A finals.
    11:53
    Anna Wolk bested Miriam Nadler, Kate Martin, and Ash Ditropani in order. Anna was, if you recall, just on the bubble in the very final round of qualifying to get into A. I believe she qualified seventh or sixth at the end when all was said and done. But she'd only been to four of the six meetings. She was right on the bubble in the very last match, but she got in, and now she's won.
    12:21
    Anna, I believe, has won as many or maybe one or two more New York State Women's Championships than Miriam, right behind her.
    12:32
    Kate, I think, has won one, and Ash is probably looking for her first. In the B Division, Danny Spagnoli took top honors over Morgan Levinson, Kane Blumfeld and Anna Frankel in the C division Sydney Zeldes bested Courtney Wetzel Liz Pers Margaret Fox and 19 other comers for the C division championship for the season they did this that was that's the end of seven weeks of pinball it the end of seven weeks of pinball somewhere else the next night too wasn it On Wednesday Scrapple League first season of 2026 had its A B and C finals at Scrapple Land in Greenpoint Brooklyn Directed by Greg Pavarelli, myself, Woody Richman, and Harlan Ayida-Linda.
    13:31
    New to the team. Yay! In the A-finals, CJ Smith won, beating out Greg Pavarelli, Adam Robinson, and Joe Broccoli in the final grouping. Was it a bank?
    13:49
    They were banks, yes. Okay. I see Monster Bash, Game of Thrones, and Funhaus, and I can imagine CJ choosing two of those three, but not Game of Thrones, probably, especially the premium one. took a perfectly good game and ruined it. Each of the top four in A got an amazing miniature pinball machine trophy made by Ali Bissett. They light up. They're really cool.
    14:16
    In the B division, Svika Geft came in first place in a final four that also included Casey Johnson, Christian Klossner, and Luis Barras.
    14:29
    It was a tie for third place between Luis and Christian, and Christian won that tiebreaker. Also looks like Zvika had a perfect final round there, the 12 points there, 4-4-4. Elton John, Gold Strike, Twilight Zone, winner, winner, winner. They also got amazing pinball print pillows made by Allie.
    14:55
    The C-Finals was structured like a regular league night, five rounds of match play. and 20 players joined, some for the first time. Cool. After those five rounds of IFPA scoring, Ida Kreitzer won C division with 31 points. Big.
    15:16
    Al Claw came in second with 27 points and no previous appearances. Pat Carawan got third place with 25 points, and there was a five-way tie for fourth place at 23, between David Brinkman, Ethan Coughlin, Jacob Reynolds, Ali Bassett, and myself. Did Eda get a bag of quarters or something?
    15:40
    Eda got free entry to the next season of Scrapple League. Cool. And the last place player received $10 in quarters for practice. Cool. On Thursday night at Jack Bar in Williamsburg, 30 players came out for Thursday Night Strikes. And it says by Gabe, so I think that he is both the director of record and the director in the room.
    16:08
    Greg Fertel bested the field, bettering firstly Gabriel Chazanov, then Alex Weisenberger and Adam Kane, respectively. also on Thursday was the fifth qualifying week of South Slope Pinball League's first season of 2026 directed by Kate Martin and held at Buttermilk Bar 21 players were there and Matt Grady beat everyone that he faced for a perfect night 35 points in first place Kate Martin got 27 points in second place and both Scott Strong and Monica Weidekamp picked up 25. Sounds like a power couple atop the standings there. After five weeks, the series totals are looking like this. Matt Grady is currently seated first with 118 points. Kate Martin has 105 in second place. Rounding up the A Division Finals, if they were held today, Rob Wong, Caitlin Reese, Billy Vazine, AJ Gould Sam Hall and George Underwood In the B division, Rob Adler's 79 points two points behind Sam and George and Courtney Wetzel has 78, as does Scott Strong Two of those three would be bus drivers in the B division Currently looking to join them, Paul McHugh, Stephen Christopher Zen Zokniak, Franklin DeFelice, and myself.
    17:48
    Just outside, Jones Samander and Morgan Levinson are two points behind me. And I purposely omitted MMC from the script. He's only had two meetings, and I have a feeling he will not show up for a third just to qualify for B. Alright, it's time for next week on Monday, February 23rd, the Lesser Players will go to Scrapple Land to visit the Pinbots.
    18:18
    Lesser Players ended last season with two wins and started this season with one already, so they're looking to get their fourth in a row.
    18:27
    The Deluxe Horses will visit the Two for Oners at Gebhard's Beer Culture. That's the Two for Oners having their first home match at their new home that's actually a home match.
    18:43
    Balls of Steel will play host for a second week in a row, but this time the visitors will be the pin pals.
    18:50
    At the Wallace, we'll have its first home match of the season. If only by a night. We might be talking about it tomorrow night. I don't remember.
    19:02
    When the new team, Worms, will come visit your New York City Flipper Sport Association. Looking forward to it. Intermission Dolores will travel all the way to Queens to visit the mutants at Solid State. The Aristocrats will host us colliders. Just catty corner from our home bar at Rulo's. Lion Persons will await their next opponent. They've got to buy. Parliament will host Special When Lit at Owl Farm. Special When Lit is looking for their first win and Parliament is playing their first match. Almost certainly looking for their first win then. On Tuesday, February 24th, Pinball NYC kicks off for the right flipper division and Harry's Hand Grenades will visit Trolls at Barcade Fidei. New team The Third Ball will go to Skylark to see Penister Six. They're out of Midway. I really like that for a new team, not only because Zen is the captain at Midway on Monday night, so he might know some of these folks who we didn't recognize any of the names right off the top of our heads when we went and looked very quickly for a minute.
    20:20
    We might know you. I'm sorry if we missed you. It's probable that I would see your face and say, oh, I know who you are. But I think it's great to have Zen as the captain of the opposing team for the first time that you come into the league because he's going to sell you on why it's awesome. to be a pinball player in New York City. He's going to explain to you,
    20:40
    he is going to help you beat him if you don't know how to play because he wants you to have more fun tonight. Great opposing captain to have as your first match for a new team. That's cool. Yeah. Ball Drainers will host Everybody Loves the Sunshine at Jack Bar.
    21:00
    Schlubbs go to Birdies to see the pin babes. The replays will face Scrapple Squad at Scrapple Land. No Quarters for Laundry and Danger Danger will play at Buttermilk Bar. Danger Danger will be seeking revenge against their triumphant opponents in the Orbit Championship last season. No Quarters start their defense against the team that they earned their championship. Neptune's Treasure will host the Butterballers at Milo's Yard. and the Harlem Globe Flippers go to Barcade Brooklyn to face Reston Pinball, parenthetically R.I.P. Is Scrapple League happening on Wednesday? It's a week off until the new season starts the following Wednesday. Very good. So a week off for Scrapple League. You could go play anyway if you want to, but it doesn't have to be at Scrapple Land if that's a far commute for you maybe.
    21:59
    But on Thursday, No Bro Presents Thursday Night Strikes will be convened at Jack Bar, as usual, 8 o'clock sharp. Also on Thursday, February 26th, South Slope Pinball League will have its sixth and final qualifying week of this season. On Saturday, a new monthly tournament, the Barcade Fi-Di Monthly, will be convened under Greg Pavarelli's direction at, you guessed it, Barcade Fi-Di. According to the match play calendar, it starts at 1.30 p.m. I bet you that's Pinball 130. And on Sunday, March 1st, Silver Ball Sunday at Single Cut 35 will be held at Single Cut Beersmiths in Astoria, Queens, directed by Tommy Ortega. As of February 20th, 2026, there are 356 pinball machines in New York City at 76 public locations. Thanks to the creators and users of Pinball Map for this data, here are machine updates from the past week. On Friday, February 13th, a 1988 TechnoPlay Space Team was added to Barcade Fidei.
    23:18
    User Banzai commented, only here for February 14th. On Monday the 16th, a Space Team was removed from Barcade Fidei by user Banzai. we're going to talk about that space team in my bullet journal too just so we're clear on that also on Monday user Flipper Fiend went by Scrapple Land and left a few comments of Winchester Mystery House they said cursed machine wherein part of the mystery evidently is that upper flippers don't always flip and of the getaway flipper fiend said how long should an out-of-service machine remain listed on here asking for a friend sass and of dune flipper fiend said right flipper button goes dead intermittently problem was that do you know is the is the programming thing they're talking about was that a programming thing or is it was there a a machine malfunction do we think the upper right flipper on Winchester is not working.
    24:29
    That started on Sunday when I was there. On Tuesday, Jurassic Park was removed from the lineup at Jack Bar and a Pulp Fiction was added. User Nudgee removed the Led Zeppelin from the listing of Chinatown Fair Family Fun Center that had been unavailable. Yeah, unavailable. Nudgy also went by Rulo's and said that the Red and Ted's Roadshow is working, but Right Flipper is twitching sometimes.
    25:08
    Copy that. I want to point out, if that Led Zeppelin is gone at Chinatown Fair, is there one anywhere on location in New York City anymore? I don't think there is. I think that was the only one on location. birdies as a zip. Oh, okay. Thank you to Pinball Map for all of your support. They do not support us financially. They support us by being a great resource. On Wednesday, user WManningIV commented on the James Bond Pro at H&H Reserve saying, right flipper rubber snapped.
    25:46
    Oh, that's always unplayable. And on Thursday, user mini flipper commented on the evil dead at scrapple land saying right barrel of shotgun does not register also atlantis was removed from gebhardt's beer culture well that's a sensible decision like i was saying last week when we were talking about the venue updates and i made a point of saying like dude gebhardt had has more stuff and there that atlantis downstairs and it be in the way of trivia you know guess what Probably in the way of trivia Yeah I mean also you know Jeff or Glenn or Steve whoever's game that was that was sitting there, probably wanted to put it somewhere else or work on it or something. There's also plenty of other reasons to get rid of it, but that seemed like a strange place for it to me, just in terms of the rest of the bar being able to operate as not a pinball venue.
    26:49
    Well, I don't imagine you went out and played on Friday night after we spoke last week. No. No, me either.
    26:58
    What time did you get to Barcade Fidai on Saturday to start moving? I believe I arrived at 12.11 p.m. they open at noon you were there at opening that is the effect of opening of a bar I recognize that Barcade is a little bit more corporate and will probably actually have their doors open at the hour that is listed on the schedule than some of the bars that I frequent or at least more reliably so but 12-11 is the opening of a bar that says they open at 12 o'clock Jess was already there getting stuff set up and everybody else was incoming. Right. And, wow, what a day.
    27:49
    I know you've got some specifics to talk about it. For me, it's mostly a blur. You had a lot going on, man. Running the tournament. Yeah. I like the finals format. Okay, so what was the finals format? Straight Plane Papa.
    28:07
    Group elimination bracket. Yep. With 4-2, 1-0 scoring. Three games per round. And the bus driver picks each game. Each game. Game by game. No pre-selection, no banks. The top group finishes, or rather the second group finishes. The top group is still playing. The second group has to wait until the top group finishes their game. And then the first and second group proceed together. after the top group chooses. That's okay by you, all of that sort of bureaucracy. That's the only place it falls apart for me, is in the, like, dude, if you do it by, like, best order of operations and you wait for A to choose and then B to choose and then assign the games for whatever is happening for C after that, it gets a little wonky. Yeah. So we had 16 players in the finals, So there were four groups in the first round. Right. Was there also a B?
    29:12
    No, there was not. Oh, okay. Okay. All right. That makes this easier then. Yeah. But it's an incredible amount of button tapping in match play. Of course. With four groups and changing player order between games. Sometimes some of the groups did that. Some of the groups stayed more or less just the same. And, you know, maybe I might consider in the future something like keep the player order the same so I don't have to keep doing that. Sure.
    29:42
    And luckily enough, the way the games timed out, the first group was the fastest and then the second group was next and then the third group was next. Well, that's cool. The fourth group was long playing. And so there wasn't ever a holdup in the sense that you were describing. Right. That's great. There was a little bit of consternation on Dante's part, who was in group four and wanted to pick a game for their third game. But his first two choices had both already been taken by earlier groups for their third game, despite the fact that those groups were done.
    30:33
    And I said, no, you can't. It's already been taken. for the third game. You can't choose it. Right. Sorry, Dante. I'll tell you what. Qualify better next time, state champion. And he won.
    30:48
    Yeah, right. He won the day. Can't have too big a beef. It was a fabulous, fun blur, and I think I'm still tired. Oh, yeah, sure. I still have a Lick-O-Mate leftover, or whatever the hell those things are called that you like lick a candy stick and then dip it into sugar and then lick the sugar off it and then dip the stick back into the sugar and lick the sugar off it and do that a bunch i still have one of those left over because my wife didn't want it i thought i was being sweet coming home with two of those i also uh left it in my bag and found it last night so i it wasn't that sweet anyway it wasn't valentine's day by the time i found the damn thing that said uh my first game So it's cute that whatever, that whoever Banzai is, I had previously opined that it was someone other than Jeff, but it might be Jeff based on the fact that he's the person who, Banzai is the person who said Space Team is here only for February 14th and said it was there on Friday or made that update on Friday. the fact is that when I walked in it was play field up being put in commission like actually finally commissioned and I played one game during warm up time so I can't bitch about not having had an opportunity even though I was assigned it by match play in round one against Jeff Anderson the owner of the machine and I'm told that there are exactly three of these that still exist so I might have been at a slight disadvantage to at least one of my opponents. I also did not perform admirably in the game. So I don't know what it would have done. But it's interesting. It's an Italian game from the late 80s. It has up to six players.
    32:48
    And it has some kind of Kino-type gambling card like gambling bingo card game on the back glass that Jeff had disabled for this, but that I'm sure if you were like the pinball historian of pinball historians you could give me all of the rules for right now off the top of your head. But it's, what a weird thing that was.
    33:18
    So I had, it turns out, in hindsight I had two funny interactions with zen because uh firstly i approached him and talked to him about uh contributing to the podcast in a certain way that we i'm sure we will reveal eventually uh and it turns out eric had already probably spoken to him before that about this thing but i don't remember zen reacting to me as if he was already aware of this idea though he was quick to graciously accept it as a valid premise. But secondarily, and this is actually kind of funny, I went to the bathroom in the middle of a game in one of the later rounds. I put my beer down. Apparently, it turns out, didn't remember where, I peed. While I was peeing, someone came in the bathroom behind me and went into the stall. I washed my hands. I turned around. I picked up a beer and left the bathroom. I was standing there waiting to play my next ball when Zen came up to me and said, you stole my beer, man. I walked into the bathroom and I put my beer down on that shelf behind you. And it wasn't there when I came out. You stole my beer. And I saw this other beer when I was walking in the hallway. And so, like, it was just, I was an idiot and stole my buddy's beer. And, you know, maybe no harm, no foul, but also, Zen, I owe you a beer.
    34:58
    I really liked my draw throughout the day because Avengers was the only game with an LCD screen that I played, and Fast Break was the only one with a DMD.
    35:12
    I played almost all Solid State. I wish I'd played a game of Frontier. I wish that either... I really wish that the Strange Science... I'm happy that I played Space Team in competition. I'm glad that happened once. Great. Sign me up. It happened. Check it off the fucking list. But I wish that I had had Frontier called for me instead of Strange Science. But otherwise, I was really happy with my draw. It was a great day, though. A bunch of cool homies hanging out.
    35:46
    Did you play on Sunday also? I went out to Toppers, the queer pinball club at Scrapple Land. That's right. That was fun, yeah.
    35:58
    I noticed that flipper not working on Winchester. I just edited the pod on Sunday. But then Monday. well I edited the pod and then you know I didn't want to play pinball strangely I was just like you know what I played a lot yesterday I'm going to play tomorrow night it's I put on my bluetooth headphones and I walked around the park while I listened to the podcast and made sure that I didn't you know put any of the awful things that I say about you people I mean any of the things that we're not supposed to say that we intended to cut on the podcast and you know then just hung out just had a quiet day, it was nice I have to remind myself to take those days sometimes on a weekend, particularly if I just played in a big one the day before or know I'm going to play in a big one the day after How'd your Monday night go? So, yeah, on Monday, the Barcade Brooklyn Pinball League finals were going on at the same time as our NYC FSA match at Midway. Sure. So a couple of players were committed over to that. Oh, that's right. I did see Adam Robinson's name there, didn't I? No, no. Adam wasn't at Barcade. Oh, that was Wednesday night. That was Wednesday. Yeah. Gabe and Alex were both playing in that finals. Gotcha. So we just had four people to be able to go to Midway.
    37:43
    That's tough. Yeah. And those machines. I love Max's machines, and everybody can throw stones at every operator, but here's a significant truth about those machines. They are Max's only machines in Williamsburg. it's hard to get up there when most of your machines are up and down Fifth Avenue and Park Slope or somewhere pretty close to there. It's a little out of the way for his typical route. Yeah, it's a good way to put it. You got to get a truck through traffic, pickup truck, through New York City traffic, three miles.
    38:20
    Probably just about rush hour so you can be there right when the bar opens. So then how was your Monday, Benjamin? well look uh i i don't take for a lot of religion and i'm you know right on the edge of an anarchist and so like i don't go for a lot of holidays but i celebrate a couple lobster fest being the chief But secondarily, the first Monday of Pinball NYC, I get down, man. And this one happened to be President's Day. That doesn't unfortunately stop people who do payroll from working. And so I was a diligent capitalist throughout the hours that I needed to be a diligent capitalist on President's Day observed. As soon as I could get to buttermilk, I got to buttermilk. Let me be clear On a lot of Mondays this happens but on the first Monday of the season it doesn matter if it is President Day and no one else is going to be in the office or if it just Monday You know most of the time I wear a suit to the office and I'm not talking about like you see me in a jacket and some jeans or some corduroys or some shit when I'm out, but I'm talking about a suit. now when I go to the office this is what I wear but on certainly the first pinball nyc monday night but most pinball nyc monday nights I wear you know what I'm going to wear to pinball that night and my undershirt which you know isn't that far from a suit it's still got a jacket and it's still a collared shirt and it's still a not terrible pair of pants but my collared shirt has under it Not my typical V-neck white undershirt, but instead my Colliders jersey, such that I can rip open the buttons and have this wonderful crest. It actually does kind of look like Superman's crest. It's Alyssa Newman, Colliders Captain Emeritus, designed this logo. It's a thing of beauty. I am always ready to rip open my shirt at 8 o'clock on Monday night for the crest. I was really happy on Monday, not just that we were facing the horses. I was ever so slightly saddened, not pleased like every horse who showed up. I love you. I'm glad that I saw you and I played against you. But I was ever so saddened when I got a text from Tyler just before, I'm going to say, just before Final Jeopardy, probably, which if you hang out at Buttermilk anytime between 7 and 7 and 30, you understand that you can measure that half hour by the commercial breaks in Jeopardy. and I sometime I think you know just about before they tell me that a leave relieves my pain all day I get a text from Ty that says hey I'm sorry I'm not going to make it I'm at Mardi Gras like how dare you prioritize being at Mardi Gras over being at our pinball match you know it's always fun when we get together they're the funnest team it's always cute when we get together because we're the cutest team when we play at home there's always a home match at rulos so we like mmc came by before our match and hung out and he and i actually talked about my strategy on twilight zone and why it's the right strategy for a four-player competition and then in round one i absolutely executed that and proved my theory and then in round four, I absolutely failed to execute that and proved that my theory fell a little bit short because I was sort of talking about like, there's a minimum amount I'm going to score if I try this strategy. If I even try it, there's just a minimum amount of points I'm going to score and I was not at that number at the end of that game.
    42:44
    There were also a number of beers that were not a minimum number of beers between the first and the fourth round.
    42:53
    But it was also good to see MMC. I went over there in the middle of their match to see the Mutants and Special Winlet and said hey to everyone. Mutants showed up four strong and they had four really strong players, I can say, which I believe it was 11-5 away win is probably informed by that. It was Ted and Ian and Michael and Robert Gagnon were the only four players that showed up for the opposing team. That's a really strong roster of four.
    43:29
    There were a bunch of special when lit there. Six or so. Seven, maybe. It was good to see all of them. I'm not going to romper room them right now. I also really appreciated the grace that some new folks that I met gave me from this exact standpoint. we approached some folks who were trying to play pinball just as we were starting a match, and they were kind of inquisitive, and they kind of wanted to understand what was happening.
    44:01
    And I approached them, and I was engaging them on, like, here's what's happening. We're going to try to help you understand where we're going, what games we're going to play on, so you can avoid them, but you can play any game you want. We'll ask you to leave or buy you a game if we feel like we need to interrupt you for some reason, but please just go play games. And then just as I was about to start my first ball of the night, one of them asked me, so there's a team lead? Well, how do I get on a team? And I was like, I'm going to go play a ball of Twilight Zone right now and let's catch up. It's sometime tonight. Catch up with me or I'll catch up with you. Let's figure it out. We never really did except that just as they were leaving and I was sort of giving them a little bit of a spiel, Jess Warren, who runs two this coming weekend events right across the street from where we were standing, could say to them, hey, here are flyers for two events that I am running. Like handed them pieces of paper with exact information about how to show up and where to go and what to do if they wanted to play in South Slope Strikes or Rob Wong. R.W.I., I should say.
    45:19
    And so that was I was glad that she jumped in as like it seemed like they were leaving. And I kind of went up and was like, I'm so sorry we didn't catch up. But look, there are a million individual places and like the team thing is kind of set. But also, if you go to the individual things like you'll you might find a team or you might just find that you just want to do the individual stuff. But like on Saturday and then Jess was like, yeah, here, here. It was great. Perfect. Yeah, it was perfect timing. We later commented, as I was saying before, that like, God, I wish Zen was here because he would have sold them on it within 30 seconds. He would have been like, let me tell you exactly how to solve this problem. I got the answer right here. What'd you do the rest of the week? That was it for me. I haven't played since Monday night, I'm sorry to say. I mean, in certain ways, I'm sorry to say. It was probably a good decision. Tuesday night, I stayed home and I watched the Bells finals being broadcast from Arcade Fight Eye. Oh, was it on Switch? Yeah. Cool.
    46:24
    On Grady's? Yes. NYC Pinball. Right. Wednesday night was Scrapple League finals. I was playing in and running the C Division.
    46:41
    As I was walking up to Scrapple Land, I recognized two people standing outside and I recognized them as both members of the new team Worms. Ah. It was Alex Weisenberger and David Brinkman. Mm-hmm. And so as I strode past them, businesslike, on my way to the front door, I said, worms.
    47:17
    And in reply, David said to me, doctor. And then I took one more step and immediately stopped and had to start singing. One of them recognized what I was singing and joined in. and the other looked a little confused because it's a song by they might be giants called dr worm okay it just flowed right out of it sure that was it yeah that was a great little fun moment and then on thursday night yeah as you noted matthew carlson did not play in sspl but he did drop into Buttermilk while I was there he was actually attending an event across the street at Rulo's with his wife oh someone said what it was and I forget I think it was a public event yeah but it was like a trivia night about a specific book or something I can't remember what the exact situation was. Gotcha.
    48:29
    So I arrived at 8.16. The first round had been drawn already. But Kate knew I was running behind and I had let her know. So I was in. I apparently had missed Matthew Carlson who had come in earlier. He would come in again later in the night and I'd see him later. We had just started our first round game of NBA Fast Break. And I was still taking my coat off and getting stuff settled down. And then I was able to sit down while I was waiting to play. And AJ came in the back and handed me a little box containing a gift from Matthew Carlson that he had asked AJ to pass along to me.
    49:19
    It's a neat little travel pipe situation that I had seen Matt using in the past and commented on. Hey, that thing's really neat. Tell me about it and stuff.
    49:34
    And AJ told me, Matthew said, he was ordering some things and needed five more bucks to make free shipping. So he threw this on for me.
    49:46
    And I'm so happy to get it because as we had been talking about it for a while, I finally decided I was going to get one of these things.
    49:59
    And I ordered actually a pair of them from the website. And then on Wednesday, I was like, man, when are those things going to get here? This is taking forever. I checked my email and it said it had been delivered on Monday, but there was no sign of that package. I think it got stolen from my lobby. Of course, yeah.
    50:24
    Then I was really bummed and I was starting to look into CEOs. I was going to start dealing with their customer service to see if I could get it replaced or if I just had to buy a new one. I was bummed about that.
    50:40
    Thank you, man. Here's one. I got one. Very cool. All right. Ball three is a house ball. That said, I do want to take this space just briefly to remind you that if you want to communicate with us, you can do so by emailing us at nycpinpod at gmail.com or by sending us a voice memo. You can do it right from your browser on your phone or on your computer at speakpipe.com slash nycpinpod. We love to hear about how you did in competition or how your team did on Monday or Tuesday night. But also, send us your questions, your comments, your observations, your beefs, frankly. We're happy to have your voice as part of NYC Pin Pod 2. For that matter, if you said, hey, I got something to talk about, give us a shout. We might be able to make some ball three space for you.
    51:43
    that's all for this week's pod join us next week when we'll do the usual things in balls one and two and I hope we're going to have a guest in ball three still to be confirmed as I just said you can email us at nycpinpod at gmail.com or you can leave us a voice message from your browser at speakpipe.com slash nycpinpod we'd love to hear from you between now and then, whatever you're up to, pin folk, and especially you folks who are going out for your first Tuesday night pinball NYC match, go get them.
    52:29
    I recognize two people standing outside. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. make sure I got the name right