Episode 201: Johannes Ostermeier

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·17m 2s·analyzed·Jun 7, 2019

Analysis

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TL;DR

Interview with rising German elite player Johannes Ostermeier on his top-5 ranking and IFPA 16 preparation.

Summary

Jeff Teolis interviews Johannes Ostermeier, a top-5 IFPA-ranked German pinball player, discussing his rapid rise through the competitive ranks since 2018, his participation in IFPA 16 in Milan, and his strategy for upcoming major tournaments. The conversation covers his playing style influenced by Swiss player Robert Sutter, his home game collection, and his plans to balance competitive pinball with high school education.

Key Claims

Johannes Ostermeier has been in the top 5 of IFPA rankings for quite some time
high confidence · Jeff Teolis introduces him as 'one of the best players in the world' and notes he's been 'in the top five in IFPA ranking for quite some time'
IFPA 16 Milan will feature 22 different countries represented with 64 total players
high confidence · Jeff states '22 different countries being represented' and 'top 64 players in the world'
Johannes won Dutch Pin Masters in March 2019 defeating Daniele and Emir from Denmark
high confidence · Johannes confirms: 'yeah thank you man it was a great game against daniela as well as i think it was emir from denmark in the finals'
Johannes won Pinball Universe Battle tournament on Friday with a match play format
high confidence · Johannes states: 'I won on Friday. So there were two main tournaments actually. on Friday it was I think match play system and on Saturday it was five strike knockout.'
Johannes has 64 active tournament events over the last three years with numerous victories
high confidence · Jeff notes: 'you only have 64 active events over the last three years. That not a lot but a ton of victories in those 64'
The IFPA Pinball Olympics will feature 10 tournaments in 5 days starting Wednesday evening
medium confidence · Jeff states 'now it's uh 10 tournaments in five days or four days so we're going to start on wednesday evening and there will be five days of tournaments' with some uncertainty in phrasing
Johannes is currently in grade 11 (high school) and studying for A-levels
high confidence · Jeff asks 'you're still in school you're in grade 11 right now' and Johannes later mentions 'I'm going to be doing my A-levels almost at the same time'
Johannes speaks German, English, Spanish (okay level), and is learning Italian
high confidence · Johannes confirms: 'I also speak Spanish in an okay way' and 'right now I learning Italian'

Notable Quotes

“Well, it's the efficiency that did it for you, Johannes. Because it's not like you play a ton of tournaments... you only have 64 active events over the last three years. That not a lot but a ton of victories in those 64”
Jeff Teolis @ ~16:30 — Identifies the core of Johannes's success: selective tournament participation with high win rate rather than volume playing
“I think what I learned from him was basically the nudging to keep the ball in play and also, of course, the control to trap the balls and to make the shots.”
Johannes Ostermeier @ ~24:00 — Describes the technical foundation of his playing style learned from Robert Sutter
“Yeah, absolutely so all the games that came out in the past in the past year for example with the new code... for batman 66 it's now it's really really good game and also iron maiden of course star wars i really do like and yeah it's kind of the golden age for me”
Johannes Ostermeier @ ~33:00 — Elite player's assessment of contemporary game quality and design depth
“Well, right now I'm not really focusing on the ranking, but I'm focusing on the IPA. So I really want to play in a good way at the IPA. I want to be in a good position as well, so top eight would be great for me. But of course the goal for me is one time... World Champion, of course.”
Johannes Ostermeier @ ~48:00 — Reveals near-term goal (top 8 at IFPA 16) and long-term ambition (World Champion)
“My father is collecting them all, and I'm playing them, but he's also playing them. It's a good mix of games for sure.”
Johannes Ostermeier @ ~51:30 — Context on home collection and family pinball involvement

Entities

Johannes OstermeierpersonJeff TeolispersonRobert SutterpersonJürgen OstermeierpersonDanielepersonEmirpersonRaymond DavidsonpersonIFPA 16 MilaneventDutch Pin MasterseventPinball Universe BattleeventIFPA Pinball Olympics

Signals

?
community_signal: European tournament circuit demonstrating robust competitive infrastructure with national championships (German, Dutch, Swiss) and international events (Pinball Universe Battle, IFPA 16) supporting elite player development
high · Johannes participates in: Dutch Pin Masters, Pinball Universe Battle, German nationals, Swiss nationals, Dutch Pinball Open; IFPA 16 Milan featuring 22 countries
?
competitive_signal: Johannes uses R2D2/Death Star strategy on Star Wars as primary path, suggesting specific meta-game strategy development by top players
high · Johannes states: 'i'm going with r2d2 so r2d2 death star yeah that's my strategy just for the moment'
?
competitive_signal: Top-5 ranked European player leveraging selective tournament participation (64 events over 3 years) for high-efficiency WPPR point accumulation
high · Jeff notes: 'you only have 64 active events over the last three years. That not a lot but a ton of victories in those 64'
?
community_signal: Cross-generational knowledge transfer: Swiss player Robert Sutter's playing methodology directly influencing younger German elite player Johannes Ostermeier
high · Johannes: 'i just adapted myself to play like him. I mean, if you watch him playing and afterwards speed, it's really, truly similar. And he was some kind of my teacher.'
~
sentiment_shift: Modern pinball games receiving strong endorsement from elite competitive player, described as 'golden age' for contemporary design and code quality
high · Johannes: 'all the games that came out in the past year... for batman 66 it's now it's really really good game and also iron maiden of course star wars i really do like and yeah it's kind of the golden age for me'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.051

0:00

it's time now for another pinball profile i'm your host jeff teolis you can find our group on facebook we're also on twitter at pinball profile email us pinball profile at gmail.com and please subscribe on your favorite podcaster the last time from me you heard this name was during my top 10 most intriguing people of 2018. He's still intriguing in 2019 as one of the best players in the world and he's about to prove it at IFPA 16 in Milan, Italy this weekend. He's been in the top five in IFPA ranking for quite some time as he pursues that number one goal and it's going to be a big month for him. Joining us right now from Germany, Johannes Ostenmeier. Guten Tag, it's great to have you once again on this program. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be seeing you at this year's World Championship, there just weren't enough Herberts from Austria.

0:55

Yeah, it was great last year. Well, that was the first time you played in North America, correct? Yeah, that's correct. And it was a pretty good turnout. I know the actual tournament, you made the playoffs, it wasn't the result maybe you wanted, but the pre-tournament was fantastic, especially the pin golf event at Cabin Fever, where you played some greats like Daniele. Yeah, it was a great game, it was a great tournament, and I really liked it, yeah. For those that don't remember, it was a three-game pin golf final, scorings out of 10 and on your first hole you took a nine, which is terrible. Yeah, it is. It was walking dead. The rough game was walking dead and then you killed it on TNA and then fishtails with back-to-back hole-in-ones. Yeah, it was fishtails. Yeah. My favorite thing about you playing fishtails was you kept repeating getting multiballs over and over and over again. Yeah. The good thing was that even I had played a bad multiball, I was able to restart it over and over again. And it was a great game. So the reason we talk about this month being a huge month for you, IFPA 16, 22 different countries being represented. Yeah, it's very, very international. So many world-class players from everywhere. Yeah. And then another 20 people to round out the top 64 players in the world at this massive event. It's actually a really tough cut line. There are some amazing players that are kind of on the outside looking in. But you don't have to worry about that being in the top five as you have been for so long. This should be a good tournament for you. Yeah, definitely. I'm really looking forward to participating. As you have already said, there are lots of great players, also from Europe and America. Yeah, the cut line was, I think, the highest ever. I'm not sure, but I think it was the highest ever. Yes, there were really good players waiting to get in. It's not something you need to worry about, but last year was your first time at the world championship yes that's right so last year around april you started to excel and you were in the top 25 you've never looked back we saw you go top 10 now top 5 it's unbelievable how quickly you rose to the top so many big wins and you've had a few even this year too yeah johannes what changed for you uh well it's a good question so actually i have always been playing pinball of course i started with four years as i have already said Well, in 2018, I won really good tournaments as, for example, DPM and GPO. But actually, I can't really say what it was that changed. So maybe I got or received more experience by playing tournaments over and over again. And I don't know. I actually was always really calm in finals. that was never different like today. Well, it's the efficiency that did it for you, Johannes. Because it's not like you play a ton of tournaments. There are some of us that play a lot of tournaments and once in a while we get lucky. So maybe we get some points by volume. What I'm saying is we might weasel in there. But you, that's not you. You only have 64 active events over the last three years. That not a lot but a ton of victories in those 64 and that why you propelled to the top five Yeah maybe Because in Europe there are not that many tournaments like in the US or the North American continent And so you have to play very efficiently to get your points. To also state your place, your position in the rankings. And I've played some national championships like the German, the Dutch pinball, the Swiss. last year as well as this year and it went pretty good yeah he's being modest all right we'll talk about his 2019 so far you won dutch pin masters back in march congratulations on that win yeah thank you man it was a great game against daniela as well as i think it was emir from denmark in the finals and i had a lot of fun competing with those two in the finals there was also a stream of JDL Pinball, Jim and Dina, which just did a great job. Really, thank you for that one. And I think it's also uploaded on YouTube, but I'm not sure. Well, Germany has a real hot bit of pinball players. We certainly know you and you've mentioned some others as well. There was a big event that just happened earlier a month ago, the Pinball Universe Battle, and you won that one too. Yeah, one of the tournaments. I won on Friday. So there were two main tournaments actually. on Friday it was I think match play system and on Saturday it was five strike knockout. Your father Jürgen is a very good player top 200 player in the world you must have learned a lot from him. Well of course I learned I think the basics of him but actually my teacher if you can say so was Robert Sutter. I think you should know him. From Switzerland. And of course he's a really good player, brilliant player. I've always been watching him playing and so I just adapted myself to play like him. I mean, if you watch him playing and afterwards speed, it's really, truly similar. And he was some kind of my teacher. Well, what is the style? Is it stop and go? Is it on the fly? I think what I learned from him was basically the nudging to keep the ball in play and also, of course, the control to trap the balls and to make the shots.

6:37

He still is a great player, but he was even better some years ago. There was a time when he lost almost no tournament. He's even good international, I think, in big tournaments like Papua and Pemburg. Pemburg, I'm not sure if Papua won. He didn't win, but he participated and did a really good job. Well, speaking of Robert Sutter, I was actually trying to get a hold of him back in, I guess, the fall, I guess, October, November, when I was in Switzerland. There's not a lot of action in that country. There's a little bit here and there, but still, this is one of the greatest players in the world. Yeah. Yeah, I think he just played some national other championships, like, again, in the Dutch Pinball Masters or Dutch Pinball Open in Hungary and Belgium. There was a big tournament some years ago in Germany. we played some tournaments and he was always playing really efficiently so i'm not really surprised to still see him up there it's an easy hike from switzerland to germany and back and forth so i guess you get a lot of play there and speaking of germany there's a big big event happening very very soon the ifpa pinball olympics that's going to be a huge whopper windfall for someone like yourself yeah i think uh now it's uh 10 tournaments in five days or four days so we're going to start on wednesday evening and there will be five days of tournaments yeah and every day there is a main tournament and a classic tournament yeah that's gonna be a ton of points you know a lot of the younger players i see them excel on some of the newer games with the deep rules. Their ability to absorb the rules, quicker reflexes, and they put a lot of time into figuring things out But you mentioned Robert Sutter and one of the things he taught you how to do was nudge so older games don really scare you either well i have to admit that i not the best player on classics so i a bit afraid of the rfba due to the classics because i watched the list and yeah that's quite tough because the old machines are well i don't really know them but nevertheless it's always harder to play them under control than to play in i don't know batman 66 or metallica to play under control and so i would say i'm not that good on classics than on the newer games but i'm of course not really afraid of them yeah you're not afraid of them too i mean things like zipper flippers you really got to watch where the balls bounce and things like that but nudging that's so important especially on the older games especially the ems so for a young guy like you when you hear old farts like me talk about the golden age of pinball in the 80s and the 90s you must be thinking this is the golden age lots of games coming out every year different companies great deep rules this has got to be heaven yeah absolutely so all the games that came out in the past in the past year for example with the new code uh was developed in the past three three three years um for batman 66 it's now it's really really good game and also iron maiden of course star wars i really do like and yeah it's kind of the golden age for me and that's true whenever i hear someone say they love star wars i want to know what's their path what's their character oh well uh actually i i'm going with r2d2 so r2d2 death star yeah that's my strategy just for the moment and afterwards after i've destroyed hopefully the death star i will continue with uh what i have to do what is lit you know when i look at your ifpa card i'm like to get on your card, you need over 31 points. Most people would be happy to get a 31. You look at it like, eh, I throw it away. Yeah, I have to. So I'm just looking myself. Yeah, that's 31 points. Yeah, well, I haven't won a major yet or haven't been really good in a major yet. So there were lots of points between 40 and 60 points. it's quite difficult to get to get more now i have to win the big ones when you talk about the majors ifpa 16 is going to be one and of course the european championship will be coming up you'll be there for that so the other ones they're difficult because they're in north america and you're still in school you're in grade 11 right now is that the biggest thing preventing you from getting to more tournaments and maybe becoming the number one player one day well yeah of course i have to go to school and it's really difficult to take the time to travel to North America and play the tournament. You also have the jet lag. You have to adapt yourself. But I think I may be able to participate next year in Pimberg if I survive the registration. So I really want to go to North America for some great tournaments. So I think there was no Papa this year and last year neither. I'm not sure. But I would have liked to play some Papa as well. And FBA next year, I have to see because I'm going to be doing my A-levels almost at the same time. And that's maybe difficult due to time problems. So once you're done high school, what do you want to do, Johannes? I'm not really sure yet, but I think after I finish, I will go to the university. and maybe I'm going to study something with languages, but I'm not really sure yet. I think your English is amazing and of course you know German, but you also know other languages too, don't you? Yeah, I also speak Spanish in an okay way, so I'm able to communicate with some Spanish. And also right now I learning Italian even though I have only two lessons a week But I try to You know when I hear a guy like you and I think others listening to Pinball Profile might be thinking the same thing too when we hear you talk about learning other languages, we all just get a little bit dumber.

12:59

I feel it. I mean, yeah, I want to learn five, six languages. What are you going to work at Disneyland Paris at the Epcot Center? Yeah, I'm just interested in languages. So I really like to speak to other people in Europe, to other countries. And I don't really have a plan about learning all the languages. I just want to. Johannes, this isn't Pinball Profile. I'm actually working with the FBI. Are you a spy? Yeah, no, I'm not. You were very confident in your response. But if pinball is your goal, do you think you've got what it takes to be number one one day? I mean, you see what Raymond Davidson does. fantastic player, wins at many of the events he goes to. You've got to get to a lot of events, but is that the goal for you, Johannes? Well, right now I'm not really focusing on the ranking, but I'm focusing on the IPA. So I really want to play in a good way at the IPA. I want to be in a good position as well, so top eight would be great for me. But of course the goal for me is one time Yeah, World Champion, of course. And have success in those majors, but you certainly have the skill set, buddy. Yeah, thank you. What games do you have at home? A couple of games. So I've got some students, for example, Batman 66, which I do really like, as well as ACDC. I think it's still a great game. You can always play on the soundtrack and increase, increase, increase, and lose the ball. But nevertheless, I have some classics as well, like some EMs, Ewe of Knievel, Wizards, Captain Fantastic, and of course some Williams, like Adam's Family, Shadow, Circus Voltaire, some more. So my father is collecting them all, and I'm playing them, but he's also playing them. It's a good mix of games for sure. Yeah, definitely. You mentioned ACDC. I've had that for a few years now. Have you got to Encore Jackpot yet? Funko, yeah, but it's actually not my goal when I'm playing. My goal is always to get a really, really high song jackpot and collecting the song bonus with three times playfield and afterwards collecting the song jackpot with three times playfield. That's the aim. That's the way to blow it up. Now, do you stack your multiballs? Because I've decided that's not how I'm going to do it. No, actually, I'm always playing jam, multiball, just ram, ram, ram. and if I have a pretty decent Sun check pot, I will go for Album Multiple. And my strategy is always to play hard spells because I know that the sixth check pot in Album Multiple will get me the Sun bonus. So I'm basically trying to get the sixth check pot with three times the pay-per-view in Album Multiple. That's why you're one of the best and you've got a great-looking month ahead of you here in June. Yeah, I have to be able to come to the US or Canada once again for Pimberg or whatever. But I will have to see. Maybe next year. Maybe I'll be able. I wish you the best of luck. I wish I was seeing you this weekend because you're a super guy. I definitely look forward to seeing you in the near future. Or if not pinball, maybe a secret spy mission. Who knows?