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Put That in Your Pipe

NYC PinPod·podcast_episode·58m 7s·analyzed·May 19, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.031

TL;DR

NYC PinPod reports May tournament results and NY's new super state IFPA status.

Summary

NYC PinPod covers local competition results from May 10-16, 2025, venue updates across NYC pinball locations, and New York State's achievement of IFPA "super state" status (24-player championship format). The episode features detailed tournament recaps from multiple leagues (Bells and Chimes NYC, No Bro Sunday, Pinball NYC divisions, Scrapple League, South Slope Pinball League), personal anecdotes from hosts, and machine availability updates.

Key Claims

  • New York State achieved IFPA super state status in April 2025, enabling a 24-player championship field instead of 16.

    high confidence · Benjamin Furega and Eric Sweetland, citing IFPA rules requiring 400+ unique players and 100+ events in a calendar year; verified on IFPA website showing 644 unique players, 104 tournaments.

  • South Slope Pinball League finals resulted in ties for first and ties for third in both A and B divisions.

    high confidence · Benjamin Furega reporting on May 15 SSPL finals at Buttermilk.

  • Scrapple League season 2 week 1 had 26 players at Scrapple Land, directed by Greg Pavarelli.

    high confidence · Benjamin Furega reporting on May 14 event.

  • As of May 16, 2025, NYC has 303 pinball machines at 81 public locations.

    high confidence · Benjamin Furega citing Pinball Map data.

  • Eric Sweetland accepted a floor manager position at Barcade Brooklyn and played pinball during their first training shift.

    high confidence · Eric Sweetland directly stating in personal anecdote segment.

Notable Quotes

  • “I see what looked to me like spinners as part of one, and I see the Bride of Pinbot's face on another. I see some really cool stuff in those.”

    Benjamin Furega @ ~0:02:30 — Praising custom trophies made by Michelle Collimer for Bells and Chimes NYC tournament.

  • “Your team chose. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, we should talk about that in the bullet journal part.”

    Benjamin Furega and Eric Sweetland @ ~0:17:00 — Teasing strategic game selection in John Wick match play—relevant to competitive meta and venue strategy.

  • “I wish you could feel this happy right now too... I kind of hope that they get to have that exact moment in that exact place this time.”

    Benjamin Furega @ ~0:27:30 — Emotional comment about Deluxe Horses' championship hopes in upcoming finals, showing community solidarity.

  • “It's all been worth it. I've been doing this for two years, and I've been trying to get a trophy, and I'm going to get a trophy. My name's going to be on it.”

    Jenna Altamirano @ ~0:47:00 — Player emotional response to achieving tournament goals, reflects community culture and persistence.

  • “I intend to, thank you... as I was going to my pinball finals.”

    Benjamin Furega @ ~0:43:30 — Personal anecdote about seeing 'play like a champion today' sign before SSPL finals—superstition and mindset.

  • “Desperate for it to work, and I'm sure it doesn't.”

    Benjamin Furega @ ~0:36:00 — Humorous comment about newly added 1976 Gottlieb Volley at 30 Love sports bar, expressing skepticism about vintage machine upkeep.

Entities

Benjamin FuregapersonEric SweetlandpersonGreg PavarellipersonLauren Berner-LawrencepersonAnna WolkpersonGus GonzalezpersonCaitlin ReesepersonJenna AltamiranopersonAJ GouldpersonMonica WeidekamppersonSam Hallperson

Signals

  • ?

    competitive_signal: SSPL finals featured unique tie-breaking scenarios in both A and B divisions (tie for first, tie for third), decided by playoff game selection. Absence of bonus point at SSPL (unlike Scrapple League) created mathematical situations that could have been avoided.

    high · Benjamin Furega: 'there's a bonus point at scrapple league and there is not at SSPL. And it would have avoided some of what we had happened last night if there were a bonus point, I think.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Mother's Day experience at Franklin Park showed multigenerational casual play, with children engaging enthusiastically with pinball machines alongside adults in relaxed, family-friendly setting.

    high · Benjamin Furega observed children explaining pinball to their mother on Mother's Day at Franklin Park, and kids playing games left behind by Benjamin as a gesture of goodwill.

  • ?

    business_signal: Eric Sweetland hired as floor manager at Barcade Brooklyn, first training shift conducted. Indicates expansion or staffing changes at major NYC pinball venue.

    high · Eric Sweetland: 'I got you know played a bunch of eight ball deluxe last night that's cool oh i and i cleaned uh cactus canyon a little wipe down got some ball trails off there' during first floor manager training shift.

  • ?

    venue_signal: Multiple venue updates tracked: King Kong: Myth of Terror Island and King Kong added to Sunshine Laundromat and Scrapple Land; Spider-Man and Uncanny X-Men removed from multiple venues; Mandalorian Pro and Gilligan's Island added to Built Bar; Pulp Fiction added to Arcade Chelsea.

    high · Pinball Map user reports from May 9-16, 2025, across multiple NYC venues including Sunshine Laundromat, Scrapple Land, Built Bar, Arcade Chelsea.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.174

0:30
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 Furega. My initials are BCF, and I saw my tiny friend Daisy last night. My name is Eric Sweetland. My initials are HIP, and I'm a pinball tournament director in New York City. On this week's pod, InBall1 will run down local competition results, as always. In Ball 2, we'll have venue updates, courtesy of Pinball Map and its users, thanks to Eric. And then we'll do a Pinball Bullet Journal. And in Ball 3, we will talk about the Superstate status that New York has just recently achieved in the IFPA North American Championship Series. Let's get started. On Saturday, May 10th, Bells and Chimes NYC Presents TBD Cute Name was held at a private location in Brooklyn. 15 players showed up under the direction of Lauren Berner-Lawrence and played eight rounds of group match play and cut to a top four finals. In the end, Anna Wolk was the winner with Miriam Nadler in second, Lauren Berner-Lawrence in third, and Monica Weidekamp in fourth. There was a great post on Instagram from Bells and Chimes NYC where you can check out the really cool trophies that Michelle Collimer made for the winners. I see what looked to me like spinners as part of one, and I see the Bride of Pinbot's face on another. I see some really cool stuff in those. On Sunday, May 11th, No Bro Sunday Slaptism 511 was convened under Sam Hall's guiding hand. It was Target match play this time. The target was 30 points. After eight players got to 30 points, they cut those eight players to finals. And Adam Kane came out on top after two rounds of three games apiece in a group elimination bracket. Alex Kelly came in second, Gus Gonzalez third, and AJ Gould fourth. on Monday, May 12th in the left orbit playoffs. These are the upper level playoffs in pinball NYC's left flipper division. The Mutants bested special when lit at Buttermilk Bar 10 to 6 and will move on to the finals. Eric, you were at the other one and it was just right. I mean, once again, pitching wedge away, pitching wedge away. I could hit it with a pitching wedge from one to the other and i don't play golf enough to swing a pitching wedge well so that's that's saying something our new york city flipper sport association was the virtual home team at rulos with the lion persons visiting it was a really wow uh big night like some tough battles there our association won 10 to 6 to advance to the finals nice yeah there was some massive With Alex Kelly on Banzai Run, Dante completely destroyed me on John Wick. The good players like John Wick, and it really annoys me. I chose it.
Adam Kaneperson
Chris Caffaroperson
Sean Grantperson
Miriam Nadlerperson
Robert Wongperson
Matthew Gradyperson
Jose Garciaperson
Michelle Collimerperson
Scrapple Leagueorganization
South Slope Pinball Leagueorganization
Pinball NYCorganization
New York City Flipper Sport Associationorganization
Bells and Chimes NYCorganization
$

market_signal: 1976 Gottlieb Volley (vintage game) added to 30 Love sports bar in East Village, quarter-fed, upstairs location. Benjamin expressed skepticism about maintenance of vintage machines in commercial venues.

high · Benjamin Furega: 'a 1976 Gottlieb Volley was added to 30 Love... I'm desperate for it to work, and I'm sure it doesn't.'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: John Wick emerged as strategically significant game in match play, used by teams to control game selection in finals. Players reported choosing or avoiding it based on competitive advantage.

    medium · Benjamin Furega repeatedly mentioned John Wick selection: 'On Tuesday, I didn't choose. I was assigned.' and earlier 'two nights in a row, you chose to play John Wick.'

  • ?

    event_signal: IFPA National Championship held in New York State earlier in 2025 (nationals from 2024 season), bringing state and provincial champions to NY. Many participants stayed for IFPA Pin Golf.

    high · Benjamin Furega: 'nationals was held here earlier this year... the national championship from the 2024 season held in new york state means the winners of every state and province championship came to play.'

  • ?

    regulatory_signal: IFPA expanded championship qualification rules: states with 400+ unique players and 100+ events in calendar year become 'super states' with 24-player final instead of 16-player minimum.

    high · Benjamin Furega citing IFPA rules Competition Details Section 1: 'Any states that have a minimum of 400 unique players and 100 events held within that state during the calendar year will be eligible for that expanded 24-player final.'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Buttermilk Bar streaming setup featured direct HDMI output to venue TV with minimal lag, allowing real-time audience viewing alongside bar screens. Improved spectator experience and community engagement.

    high · Benjamin Furega: 'the streaming computer was set up so that there was an HDMI directly into the TV over the front of the bar... with no lag, not... behind just as what was being rendered to the output and directly right there and then.'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Score sheet management issues noted: manual paper scoresheets used as backup; teams preparing their own documentation when blanks unavailable. Reflects informal, community-organized tournament logistics.

    medium · Benjamin Furega: 'discovered that they were doing it on a crumpled sheet of just plain paper... I brought a score sheet. I always carry a blank one on me.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Jenna Altamirano's two-year journey to achieve trophy placement reflects community culture of persistence and goal-setting. Demonstrates player investment in competitive pinball beyond casual participation.

    high · Jenna Altamirano quoted: 'It's all been worth it. I've been doing this for two years, and I've been trying to get a trophy, and I'm going to get a trophy.'

    • 3:59
    That really annoys me. In that case, I know I'm going to get Dante by choosing that. Right. That's maybe strategically better for some of the other matchups in that round. Sure. In the left in lane playoffs on Monday night, that's the lower division. The deluxe horses visited Pinball Union who were virtually at home at Gebhard's Beer Culture. And the deluxe horses came up with a nine to seven win and will advance to the finals. The aristocrats went to Scrapple Land where they bested the pin pals who were virtually at home. The aristocrats won nine to three. These are two teams that have bars.
    4:51
    You know, look, one of the players on these two teams. In fact, there's a player on each of these two teams who play golf together. I know this to be the case. And they could hit driver seven iron to get between their two venues at this place. but they all went a very long way to Greenpoint, where there would have to have been a lot of drivers and a golf cart. You're not walking that course. But they played. The aristocrats bested them and go to the finals. It was 9-3. So once it was over, it was over. I certainly hope, because they were at Scrapple Land, that they played a bunch more pinball after that, just not with the pressure of scoring points. on Tuesday, May 13th in the Right Orbit playoffs semi-final round. Danger, Danger went to Milo's yard to face No Quarters for Laundry, who should have been the heavy favorites. They had the far and away the best record in the division and far and away the most points in the division. But at Milo's yard, Danger, Danger comes away with a 9-7 win and will advance to the finals. The Ball Drainers went to solid state to face Harlem Globe Flippers. And the Ball Drainers won 9-3. They didn't play it out once again. They were in a place with a lot of games. I hope they hung out and played a bunch of Mata Hari and Harlem Globetrotters. Also Tuesday in the right in-lane playoffs, that's the lower division of the right flipper division, in the semifinal round, the replays visited the Schlubs at Barcade Brooklyn and had a tiebreaker win to get to the finals. I wish I had more information about that, but I'm sad to say I didn't even try to get it. Also on Tuesday, we Butterballers were the virtual home team at Jack Bar against Scrapple Squad. A very tightly contested night. We were 6-6 going into the final rounds. when the Butterballers won both of those final two doubles to finish 10-6, but both games were less than 5% score difference of the combined scores. I like how you couch it in the percentage differential. I like it. In particular, I was part of the pair playing John Wick. our total score was a single digit of millions when you added our twos together. Oh, my. And it was just barely more than the other pair from Scrapples. I just want to say that two nights in a row, you chose to play John Wick. Well, on Tuesday, I didn't choose. I was assigned.
    7:54
    Okay. We'll talk about that a little bit later. Your team chose. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, we should talk about that in the bullet journal part. Okay. Yeah, maybe I got something to say. The other game on X-Men was, I think, higher scoring, but also similarly very close. Gotcha. On Wednesday, May 14th, 26 players came out to Scrapple Land for the first week of the second season of Scrapple League. directed by Greg Pavarelli with assistance from myself and Woody Richman. We played five rounds of group match play with IFPA scoring with the goal of accruing the most points towards our series total and the finals to be held on the seventh week. In this, the first week, Chris Caffaro got the most points, 33. Sean Grant got 29 points. Both names who were in the top four last season. Fred Cohen got 27 points. while Greg Pavarelli, Adam Kane, and Mike Pantino all picked up 25. 11 of the players participated in the optional side pot, contributing $5 for a $55 total pot, and location support from Scrapple Land in the form of two $25 gift certificates. One of those was awarded to the highest positioning side pot participant, while the other was given away randomly to anyone who did join in the side pot. Chris Caffaro did join the side pot and had the most points and won, therefore, the most money and one of the gift certificates. Sean Grant, Greg Pavarelli, and, well, I guess Nint and Woody maybe had a tie break. I think I missed that for who got the fourth place money. You don't think they split it? Yeah, I don't recall, but I do know that Nitsan Gabai won the randomly distributed $25 gift certificate to Scrapple Land. On Thursday, May 15th, the Taurus birthday edition of No Bro Presents Thursday Night Strikes was convened. I believe Gabe was at the helm. It is a rotating cast of directors. Gabriel Chazanov is the director of record. That said, this one's not getting submitted to the IFPA because it is the split flipper monthly. It is the third Thursday of the month. Till Latke and Welsa Ulfig came out on top. It was a three-strike knockout, just like usual, but with split flippers with two players, one playing the right, one playing the left. Teddy Belsom and Jose Garcia came in second. Travis Batty and Francesco LaRocca came in third. and Nintu and Jeff Manheimer came in fourth. Jose Garcia was the director for the evening. Ah, also on Thursday, the finals for the second season of 2025 of the South Slope Pinball League, which has the same format as Scrapple League, effectively. It is five rounds of match play, six times. your best four count at the end of the series and you it is ifpa scoring in those first rounds what may be different between scrapple league and sspl and is interesting present present some really interesting math apropos of this week in particular there's a bonus point at scrapple league and there is not at SSPL. And it would have avoided some of what we had happened last night if there were a bonus point, I think. In A Division, eight players gathered. Eric, unfortunately, could not join us. MMC could not join us. And so a different eight players than we said last week were in. But everybody who might have had a tiebreaker to get in or to be close or what have you that we talked about who was an edge case last week. Every one of them got in. At the end of the night, in both the A division and the B division, after eight players winnowed down through six games of match play, in both instances, we had a tie for first and a tie for third. In the A division, Gus Gonzalez and Collider, Caitlin Reese, played The Walking Dead, where Gus earned the championship of the series at large by beating Caitlyn on that game. And Robert Wong beat yours truly for third, such that I got fourth. Congrats to Gus. Yeah. Gus is in the most interesting position I've ever imagined someone to be in, insofar as he was the second seed in our first group, where I was the fourth seed. He was the second seed. And Zen, Zokniak, who was driving the bus, deferred in the first game. And so he chose Ghostbusters, which was what I think everyone knew he was going to choose. And I think Zen wanted to be able to choose it later, was part of the idea of deferring. and then in the finals when rob wong was the top seed and now gus was the next highest seed because zen did not get through and i did from our group gus could not choose ghostbusters and so rob deferred the first two rounds in order to play anything that he had chosen and not have to play Ghostbusters until the third game. Wow. It was really interesting. Yeah. He drove the bus on what was effectively an entire round of competition. It was really interesting way for the night to go. And he took advantage of it. He did it right. He won in the end. In the B finals, at the end of it, AJ Gould and Monica Whitecamp tied for first and Rob Adler and Jenna Altamirano tied for third AJ and Monica played Iron Maiden which AJ won to win the B division Rob and Jenna played The Walking Dead which Rob won to get third and Jenna came in fourth Next week on Monday, May 19th, the finals of Pinball NYC's left orbit playoffs and left in lane playoffs will be contested. At the number two seed, our New York City Flipper Sport Association will be headed to Jack Bar to face the number one seed, the Mutants. And in the left in-lane playoffs, the number five seed, Deluxe Horses, will be facing the number three seed, the Aristocrats, at Solid State. I want to add here that the one time that the Colliders won, we played against the Deluxe Horses at Solid State. And it was in this lower, it was in the in-lane playoffs division. We've certainly never won in the higher division playoffs. I just remember feeling very happy and looking at my dear friends, the Deluxe Horses, and feeling like, I wish you could feel this happy right now too, though. And I kind of hope that they get to have that exact moment in that exact place this time. No offense, aristocrats. I don't, you know, I love your joke. And I love your pint glasses. But, you know, there is a specific moment that makes me wish that they have that moment in that place. on Tuesday, May 20th in the right orbit playoffs at Barcade Brooklyn. Danger, Danger, the four seed will be the virtual home team and Ball Drainers, the sixth seed, will be the visitors. This is in the orbit playoffs, the upper division playoffs, and this is the championship match. So this right here is for all the tokens. Ball Drainers at Danger, Danger at Barcade Brooklyn and in the right in lane playoffs the championship match the replays will face the butterballers wait that's your team why am i talking about this shit at scrapple land at scrapple and then on wednesday may 21st scrapple league will be happening at scrapple lands at 8 p.m the second session of this, the second season of Scrapple League. That feels like a pinball 8 o'clock to me. It stays pretty close. I'd say usually around 8-10. On Thursday, May 22nd, No Bro Presents Thursday Night Strikes will be convened at 8 o'clock sharp at Jack Bar in Williamsburg. Also, I believe a trophy distribution will happen for the South Slope Pinball League at Buttermilk. All right. Cool. I think I'll have something. Yeah, I'll have like a medal or something. I think it'll have your name on it. Yeah, I think so, too. I think so, too. They're really cool. Oh, man. Yeah. I have one here somewhere. Just getting one this season. Oh, that's too bad. On Saturday, May 24th, South Slope Strikes will be convened at Rulo's. I imagine a lot of games we played at Buttermilk as well, but I think you check in at Rulo's. Check-in starts at 5 o'clock. Play starts at 5.30. This is head-to-head match play, and now with four strikes. On Sunday, May 25th, I'm pleased to say that Eric reminded me that I should register for this, and if you're hearing this, I've hopefully already registered for the Brooklyn Memorial Classic III at a private location in Brooklyn. As of May 16th, 2025,
    18:29
    there are 303 pinball machines in New York City at 81 public locations. Thanks to the creators and users of Pinball Map for this data, here are machine updates from the past week. On Friday, May 9th, User Chadwick Keene went to Alewife Brewing in Queens and let us know about their theater of magic. Her staff not turned on when the kitchen is open, which is most working hours. On Saturday, user MHG visited the gutter LES and said of their jaws was previously insider connected, but now offline, and The Stranger Things off this visit. Also on Saturday, user TheGreenVeggie was at Transmitter Brewing and said of the James Bond, plays great, very good condition and works perfectly. Replays are very high, have to hit the number two high score to get a replay. On Sunday, user Nudgy let us know that the Jaws at Tempkins is off. On Monday, two machines were added to Built Bar in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, a Mandalorian Pro and a Gilligan's Island. Think those are it. On Tuesday, user Aaron Rez let us know the Twilight Zone at Buttermilk is out of order. on Thursday, user CarTheHobbit was at Arcade Chelsea and left a few comments. Of Dungeons and Dragons, they said, decently hard left lean, but plays really fast and a lot of fun. The Black Knight 2000 plunger has difficulty getting ball all the way to the upper playfield, otherwise playing well. CarTheHobbit also let us know that the Apollo 13 has been removed, and there is a Pulp Fiction there. User Jackbar John left a comment on the Jaws at Tempkins fixed on a King Kong Myth of Terror Island showed up at Sunshine Laundromat on Thursday. A Spider-Man and an Uncanny X-Men were removed from Sunshine. Also on Thursday, a King Kong showed up at Scrapple Land. Also an Uncanny X-Men and a Spider-Man Vault showed up at Scrapple Land. On Friday, May 16th, user JNS was at Single Cut Beersmith Squeens and left a few comments. Bram Stoker's Dracula, off this visit. Whodunit, off this visit. Tell me more about Butler. And no fear, plunging fine, no problem selecting launch freebie. Also on Friday, a 1976 Gottlieb Volley was added to 30 Love, a sports bar in the East Village. I'm desperate for it to work, and I'm sure it doesn't. User Unitoff let us know through the location comments that this machine is quarters only and upstairs. Desperate for it to work. my heart will be broken. I think it's pretty cool. A volley at what appears to be a tennis-themed sports bar. It's time for the Bullet Journal. We recorded on Friday. Did you go out for pinball anytime before Sunday? No, I didn't do anything before Sunday. Okay. I played on Sunday. I went to Franklin Park. I had a nice, quiet walk to the closest place and played a few games. there was a kid it is a burger joint that serves beer you can bring your kids into this place it is not just a bar it's not it wasn't gross that there were kids walking around this bar where there's pinball it was mother's day these kids were out with their mother and in fact when i walked in i saw a kid standing at the pinball machine the jaws telling their mother what excited them about it when they were you know animated and showing their mom about it and their mom seemed to be enjoying it. So that was kind of a nice thing to see on Mother's Day. Then I played a couple of games of Godzilla. The same kid was like leaning on the Ghostbusters next to the Godzilla, kind of trying to crane toward looking at me while their mother was nowhere in sight. I got a match on my first game, but I put in a dollar nonetheless when I was going to play a second game and I left the credit. And when I went over and played a couple of games on Jaws, you know, that kid and some other kid that was with them were like playing the game and enjoying the hell out of the idea that there was actually a ball on the play field. So I was that was kind of a nice, you know, a nice way to go out and play a little bit of real casual pinball. Yeah. On Sunday, I was over at Jess Warren's apartment. It was our Ticket to Ride Legacy game group meeting. And then when I was done, I didn't want to waste the chance of being in the South Slope, so I popped into Rillo's for some practice ahead of the match I'd be having there the next night. Ran into a couple members of the Lion Persons also there, popping around, trying some games. Had a good time. You didn't Tanya Harding any of them? No. It was a really nice day. I also just enjoyed spending time at Rolo's. I sat in the backyard for a good while. I video called my mom. Oh, cool. And I also, I took the New York State sexual harassment training course. Sure. On my phone and got my certificate for that, for a new venture. Congratulations. Thank you. You know how to sexually harass people now. certificate of completion for the confronting sexual harassment oh tools and strategies to create a harassment-free workplace nice so then i was back at rollo's on monday night i guess i only note it because it happened twice in a row the first score sheet mishap just that i filled out started filling out the sheet i wrote the the date and the team names at the top and went to present it to the lion persons so they could call the first round they had already We started their own sheet.
    25:15
    That is that is only a mishap in so far as it's it. It means that you recycle one more sheet of paper, I guess. Yeah. Whatever the carbon footprint of that sheet of paper's life cycle is, is the worst of that. I don't think that's too much. So then on Tuesday, I was at Jack Bar with the Butterballers.
    25:35
    And Tom was our acting captain for the evening. Neither Courtney nor Des were able to make it. I think it was maybe in the second round, I wanted to look at the sheet to reference what player I was going to be or something. And discovered that they were doing it on a crumpled sheet of just plain paper. And had written in the lines and things. I was like, oh, Tom, I brought a score sheet. I always carry a blank one on me. Right. And he's like, well, we're already doing this. Yep. I went to Gebhardt's on Tuesday. I had a very long day of work on Monday. I have just entered my very busy season or a very busy season at work. And it was nice after having had a very long and exhausting day on Monday and gone and had a less long day on Tuesday to be able to walk because I work on the Upper West Side to Gebhard's and play a few games. I felt like the replays were relatively low on them. I played a couple Indy 500s. I played a Pulp Fiction. I played a Spectrum and I played a Whirlwind. Those were the necessary games. Those are the ones that if I said, what order do I need to play these in because they are necessary? I started at Indy 500 I actually went to Spectrum next and not to Pulp Fiction because I can play Pulp Fiction other places but I really like that Pulp Fiction and I love Spectrum and I played one mediocre game of it and could not put myself through the punishment of it again I love it so much and Whirlwind And, you know, I really like feeling the power of the wind. It's nice to have that fan blow on you, particularly when you're standing around and it's a little stuffy up there while you're wearing a suit because you just came from work and the windows aren't open at Gebhard's. Yeah, Wednesday was Scrabble League. It was drizzly. I remember walking up and it seemed like maybe the rain was going to cease. to cease it looked like maybe the sky was going to clear up and it was just going to be sort of a nice cool evening and i was just pissed because i could tell that it would be a nice night to ride my bicycle home but i hadn't ridden it there because of the rain yeah sure and i know you know the g train is doing a lot of construction right now often inconsistent or not running in its entirety late at night sure which i then did confirm yeah way home it was a it was a miserable long trip home it was raining though so it had started raining again so i was glad not to be on my bicycle sure yeah yeah but i didn't enjoy that it wasn't the worst thing in the world because then i didn't have to start work thursday night till 9 p.m oh so i didn't need an early start right So I obviously played at buttermilk on Thursday night when I was on my way there I like to walk through prospect park to go play In park slope I live on the other side of the park So it is nice for me to be able to walk through the center of the park not on one of the concrete paths but like over meadows and through forests and whatnot to get there And when I got to the opposite corner of the park from me, effectively, at Bartle Pritchard Square, where the Nighthawk Cinema, I think it is, is branded as. But one of one of those one of those they feed you while you, you know, like table service while you eat and chef. That's a Nighthawk. That one. Yeah. Yeah. You know, right by that Nighthawk, I think of it as Bartle Pritchard Square, because that's what the farmer's market that is there on Wednesdays and Sundays is called by Grow NYC. I don't know if that name applies to a weird little strip of concrete or if it's got to do with the monument at the roundabout there. But right as I got to that traffic roundabout at the southwest corner of Prospect Park, I saw a dude wearing a Notre Dame T-shirt that said on it, play like a champion today. as I was going to my pinball finals. And I thought to myself, well, I intend to, thank you. And in fact, I stopped in the middle of that traffic roundabout and grabbed my pen and wrote that down in my little orange bullet journal to bring it to the table today. The all divisions being decided by the tie for first and tie for third, Both divisions being decided that way was super cool.
    30:48
    I was on stream all night. Matthew Grady was there with the NYC pinball. Is that the right? NYC pinball, one word. And he was there and he was actually on mic. He was not competing. So he was on mic for a good bit of the night. You might have heard my voice a few times when I was particularly angry at myself. I had a great ball on ball one of the first game we played, Ghostbusters. I had a great ball on ball one of the next game we played, which was The Walking Dead, and that defined my first round. Tom Milburn looked at me. He was there, I believe, playing in the C division or else he got knocked out of the B division in the first round, and he was watching the stream. And this is one of the cool things about what happened is that Grady had his computer set up, the streaming computer was set up so that there was an HDMI directly into the TV over the front of the bar. There are two TVs in buttermilk right now, one's at the back and it had the Nuggets game on and one's at the front and it had the Twitch stream on. But like with no lag, not, you know, behind just as what was being rendered to the output and directly right there and then. and so there wasn't nearly the amount of lag on it which was super cool by the end everyone who had played in any of the divisions throughout the course of the night just like it was a big pinball tournament were gathered around at the front of the bar watching and every dramatic moment you would hear in the bar oh or oh or whatever the the like the it had all of the norman lear tv show crowd reactions and it was pretty cool to be in the space tom milburn said to me right before i went to play one of my last couple of balls maybe my last my tie break game you played really well tonight, Benjamin, but how many balls did you tilt? And I was like, I don't know, Tom, but I also don't, I'm not sure that I'm fussed about it. And he was like, I mean, I counted four and I was like, so I hear you, but also how many of them was I tilting a bonus, like a real bonus that I cared about away? Was the value prop of more time on the ball usually worth it? Because I think every time I tilted, it was. I have not gone back to look at the stream, obviously. It is only 24 hours, not even as we record this, 24 hours old yet. I think that I made calculated decisions, and I'm not saying I didn't make any mistakes, because of course I made mistakes, but I think that my tilts were value proposition-driven choices. One very more important thing, when it was clear, and I don't remember if their game was over or not, but Jenna Altamirano, when it was clear that she got through to the final four of B, I do think that her game was still going on, but she was mathematically through. I was standing outside waiting for my next ball, and she came out to talk to someone outside, and she was just like, it's all been worth it. I've been doing this for two years, and I've been trying to get a trophy, and I'm going to get a trophy. My name's going to be on it. It was great to see that. That was a wonderful thing that just like that she was like i i did it i did it this has been a goal and i have achieved the like the first level goal here i am and sorry i have one more thing after jose got second at jack bar he came down and you can also hear jose's voice at the end of the stream along with Grady's and he brought Daisy his toy his little friend who is a toy Yorkshire Terrier and I do mean toy Yorkshire Terrier you you might say like oh but the Yorkshire Terrier is a toy class like no no no this is a very very small Yorkshire Terrier and she is adorable and just the sweetest little pooch. And she was there hanging out. And that was, it was delightful to see her. It was also delightful to see Jose and Matt Grady and all of the competitors whom we had, you know, competed against over those six weeks. Well, I was really happy the stream happened too, since I couldn't be there. Right. I really wanted to be there in the finals and get one of those really cool trophies with my name on it. Yeah. So I was able to pop in to the stream to see it there and see my friends on the screen. I couldn't watch it because I was at work. Yes. But I did get to play pinball. That was at work. Uh-huh. Because it was my first training shift as floor manager at Barcade Brooklyn. That's right. Very excited about. I'm going to be working in pinball. That's right. In a sense. but yeah pinball among other things pinball will be a significant portion of your trade right yeah so i got you know played a bunch of eight ball deluxe last night that's cool oh i and i cleaned uh cactus canyon a little wipe down got some ball trails off there let's talk about new york having just crossed the threshold into a super state it was an inevitability effectively for the way that we play pinball here in the state of new york and the fact that we have a couple of large populations of pinball players in the state of New York. But I knew that we got there because Eric pointed me to the fact that we were just about to reach there. And we had talked earlier in the season about how it would probably happen close to the end of this season. And then Eric and I talked for a couple of minutes because I couldn't even find going to look for it where the specifics are about how you become a super state. We landed on this. It's under the rules.
    37:08
    Competition details, section one, how to qualify. Final paragraph. While all states will have a minimum of 16 players that qualify for the state championship, certain states will be eligible to expand their qualifying field to 24 players. I see. Any states that have a minimum of 400 unique players and 100 events held within that state during the calendar year will be eligible for that expanded 24-player final. Gotcha. New York gained super state status. sometime in april we crossed 100 events held in the states you know it has happened because you can go on the ifpa website and you can look at the standings and the cut lines at 24 right 644 unique players 104 tournaments and the current pot of 1487 dollars and 20 cents and that is to say that pot if the state championships were contested today would be divided among because we've become a super state 24 players and not 16 we have a lot of players because nationals was held here earlier this year sure the national championship from the 2024 season held in new york state means the winners of every state and province championship came to play. That's right. That was number in the 50s. Yeah. And many of them then stayed for the IFPA pin golf. Sure. And I bet in a lot of those, like the alternate maybe also came and played in the pin golf or whatever. That was a very big weekend for pinball in Rochester. Yeah. And we also have three relatively big pinball communities in New York State. And that also, I say three, and that kind of doesn't count the sort of Albany, Schenectady area, which also has its own vibe. There are really four, Rochester, Hudson Valley, Capital Area, and New York City. obviously new york city has a ton of players but there are four legit scenes in this very large state and also let me say uh i stand on lenape land i it's called new york but i stand on lenape land today buffalo's got stuff going on too oh yeah of course do they have a scene scene or do they just have the beast well definitely we'll be talking about the beast later on in the year because that's also going to be a big draw for out-of-state players. Yeah, of course. I mean, that's the other thing about having things in Buffalo and having things in Rochester is we don't just get out-of-state, we get out-of-nation players.
    40:06
    People come down from Toronto. Well, maybe not since January 20th, but we'll see. There's a new pinball collective just outside Buffalo. Oh, interesting. I think they're hosting tournaments. I'm not seeing anything this past week on the calendar, but that's all I was looking at because that's all we were reporting on here when you live in a super state and you know that so many of the players who have qualified in your state probably came and played some big tournament and they you know they're probably going to go play somewhere else probably because they don't live nearby or they are going to do better at another place where they played three big tournaments that year instead of just one or whatever, or they're defending another state championship or province championship,
    41:02
    whatever it is, the reason that they might not come to yours. But I had angst last year when the New York State Championship was going to be in the city over who wasn't coming from far away and who was. I don't think that a single player who came is not a native New Yorker. Like, I think everyone lives in New York who came to play in New York State. But there were lots of folks who do not live in New York State who qualified and could have said, you know what, I'm going to go there. I'm interested in that from the bad side and the good side. You know, from the bad side that it gave me a little bit of potential angst and also So enough of the people here were good enough that I wondered if they might go carpetbag somewhere. But that also begs the question, if you're a real killer out there on that pinball play field, if you're really going to kick everyone's ass, do you want to make sure you're targeting a super state and going and carpetbagging at their biggest tournaments? Do you want to make sure that you qualify somewhere that you're sure will be a super state if you don't live in one? If you live in Oklahoma, oh, that might be bad because Cactus Jacks, I guess, is out there. That might turn it into a super state or something. If you lived in Utah, if you lived in Idaho, would it make sense for you instead of playing a couple of local tournaments and qualifying for something specific, would it make sense for you to try to go be a killer in New York or somewhere closer, Seattle, I guess, Washington. I don't know. These are the things that interest me about the super state is what does it change about the value proposition for the player? Maybe if you're an exceptionally good player, you might have to be to pull something like that. In a super state. Yeah. To go to a super state and just play in one big tournament. Or it has to, you have to like win two Whopper farms at it or something. Yeah. Right. The motivation is for the bigger purse. Sure. All right. What if you get a buy because you won the beast because you came to Buffalo and won the beast as a killer from out of town and you think you could probably get through to the finals No questions asked in your state and your state pot is five hundred dollars Do you want to come to New York where the state pot by the end of the year presumably based on it being just over a thousand now will be you know let call it thirty three hundred at the end of the year thirty five hundred at the end of the year Do you want to come here and play for your piece of that where if you get eighth, it's a big deal? And do you want to try to swoop in and play the beast and swoop in and play the IFPA pin golf thing, the pin masters? I don't know. Is it worth it? I mean, personally, that that doesn't describe how I would think about it. yeah no not for me either although i there's a part of me that wants to like play the biggest tournament in hawaii and try to win it and hope that i can go back and to hawaii again in january to compete for the state championship right now something like that into the travel expenses yeah that's oh i mean you weighed against oh whatever oh yeah no it's not worth it and pinball is never worth it on a on a financial that's not that you can't measure it in the economy of wealth but it's not relevant because i live in new york right play in new york so it's not like i'm coming from a small state and and looking to jump into a super state somewhere anyway but i imagine if i were i'd be much more interested in playing and winning the local scene that's the one that's the important part i mean to me it is my friends in the scene yeah to me it is But I don't know. There is very much a part of me that has thought a few times about like, huh, where can I go and win like one big event? And, you know, once I've once I've won that one big event, feel like, all right, I qualified in that state or, you know, got fourth in that one big event because there's only one really big one in the state this year. one time i carpet bagged uh-huh as you named it yeah i'll tell you my motivation behind it i was living in inward in manhattan and i drove to gorham maine yes play in the main state finals yeah i chose maine i had a choice because i could get into a state finals yeah sure right so like i hadn't been living in manhattan very long the previous year i had been living in rural connecticut and i had started playing pinball competitively regularly with the new england pinball league out of the sanctum in meredith connecticut so i went to the sanctum every monday night to play in nepl maybe two seasons of that happened during the previous year while i was there i don't know something like that i had a couple you know a couple fun seasons i was just starting out in pinball but you know i was learning a lot and getting better and there was a weird way the ifpa used to treat new england pinball league it no longer does but because of the way nepl was structured you went to one particular location and played a week but this happened at many locations all around new england i remember when they were calling it the crap league and it was connecticut rhode island and i forget where the a or if they were just like, nah, it's got to be crap. But there was a Connecticut league and a Rhode Island league that were both happening on maybe even different nights of the week, but it all counted toward the same thing because they had the same format and there were so many people that it almost didn't matter that the randomization of those people physically being able to face each other, just in terms of the sample size, there were so many people it almost didn't matter. Yeah, crap was a spinoff of NEPL. Right. Right. Well, anyway, the way it used to work is any PL results after the finals tournament, the whole league then was submitted to the IFPA and you got whoppers in every state in New England. I got in whoppers in all the states. Then I moved to New York City, then found out I had qualified in four of the states. Uh huh. I did not qualify in Connecticut. Right. Where you actually played. Where I had been living and played. Because Connecticut was full of, like, really good players. Right. It's tough competition there. The Sanctum, you know, grows an amazing competitive scene. Yeah. And I didn't qualify in Massachusetts. Also, there's a big competitive scene there. Sure. But I had my choice between Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Maine. Also, this is the first time I ever qualified for state finals. Sure. So I was going to take advantage of it. Of course. I didn't want to pass up on it. So I chose Maine because before Connecticut, I lived in Maine for a year.
    48:44
    And I recognized a friend of mine who had also qualified. I was like, great, I will get to see J-Lo at the finals. That's cool. But it was not a super state. It was not a super state. And this was before super states existed. Oh, of course it was. Of course it was. But were there more players at the time? Were there more than 16 for every state or was every state 16 before it was Super State? Do you remember? It was everyone was 16. Okay. I just want to say I don't think all the main players were super happy to have some guy from New York City show up and take one of their slots when he didn't even play in their state that year. Yeah, of course. You were not eschewing your own state. Right. As such to go there. You did not qualify as that guy from New York City. You didn't qualify in New York City. I had lived in New York City for six months of the qualifying year, and I did not qualify in New York State. I wouldn't for a while.
    49:46
    And I didn't qualify in Connecticut, where I had spent the other six months actually playing. Right. But just because of how it worked. So I chose Maine, and that was cool. I got to go back to Portland, and I enjoyed that. Yes. But none of that was for whatever winnings might have been involved. I don't remember. I'm pretty sure I came in 13th.
    50:11
    We played them out. It was head-to-head, but we played out all the loss, the loser's bracket too. It matters for Whoppers, right? It maybe doesn't matter for dollars once you get to like... 9 through 16 or whatever. Yeah, like 9 through 16 or 9 through 12 and 13 through 16 or something like that. Probably doesn't matter. But yeah, for whoppers. It matters. Yeah, a little bit for whoppers.
    50:35
    This brings me to something that I would like to discuss here. In particular, I didn't realize I wanted to discuss this until now. In particular, apropos of a super state scenario whereby there is a very large value tournament. I believe that it would be proper for every state to allow a birth to the defending champion in the next year's tournament, irrespective of whoppers in the state. if they choose to come defend their title they should be able to choose to come defend their title and i also believe that the whoppers which are accumulated by playing the state championships should be excluded from the next year's state championships these are these are two things that i believe very distinctly because otherwise i understand that you want the state champion to come back and defend their title. And I think that that's a good idea. But because they can choose to play anywhere, because it is their free will that dictates it, if you said to them, you are the top seed next year or whatever, you're just in, you're guaranteed a buy or whatever, I think that that makes it fair to not give whoever got second in states last year, you know, whatever, 15 whoppers toward this year's because they played in the state championship for last year. I think that there is an easy way around it that I have just prescribed, but it is mind bending to me that we do that. that there are whoppers associated with the state championship as opposed to it just being the fucking state championship. I can direct you to the online forums where that got argued so long. I'm certain that this is not actually a new idea. The returning champion one, though, that's novel to me. I mean, I hear about it a lot, just like ideas for big tournaments, but I've never heard it in particular about states. The reason in particular it makes sense to me is that the reason that you put Whoppers there is so that the defending champion is advantaged in the next year. That's the only reason for there to be Whoppers associated with something that is a championship to determine something that is determined by last year's Whoppers. That's the only reason for that is that you want that person to come back and defend. And and they will almost necessarily qualify by the number of whoppers that they get in most states, at least. So you you would concede on point two if granted point one. A hundred percent. It would be a good compromise. I'd build a coalition on that. Yeah. I call off the strike. I'm not saying that's the only demand. I'm just saying I'd build a coalition on it, for God's sake. what do you think about the buys when you get to a super state because in a 16 player bracket you don't need buys but in a 24 player bracket you do yeah what do you think about that interesting that 24 is the number yeah as opposed to 32 to 32 how many games do you need to get 32 head-to-head simultaneous. That's the thing. Is that more likely to be found in a state that's achieved super state status? It depends on how. The kind of state that might have a big draw regional tournament like the Beast. Right. I mean, that's the thing. The Beast, and I mean, I think Pocketeer might have become the largest venue in the state recently, based on what I have heard on another podcast, where an operator somewhere else in the state might have the second largest venue in the state but i also did not think when i was at pocketeer for the beast last august it seemed like it was like a 25 machine venue that there were a bunch of machines brought in for the tournament and so i don't that is it is interesting to me that they have a ton but i also don't know that that gives them the buy-in there for anything other than the beast was here and like the top 32 players in the beast if they are not local are going to do better than most of the locals i think just because of the size of the scene maybe i'm wrong okay well new york is having just crossed into super state status we're joining 14 other states that are also currently super states a good number of those have just now passed 100 tournaments in their state but i mean there's 20 i mean that's 20 a month we're in the fifth month of the year right now that's yeah you know 25 a month if you got there at the end of april or 20 a month if you get there at the end of may that's a lot of tournaments in a state unless you have a very large city somewhere or something like that. Washington State has had 373 tournaments. Of course they have. They have the biggest scene.
    56:04
    A unique player count. Currently, California has almost 1,700 unique players. New York's at 644. Ohio, Texas, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Virginia, North Carolina, Ontario. Yeah, sure. Oregon, South Carolina, Minnesota, and Indiana are all the other super states. The buy. If I'm the top seed and I don't have a buy in my home state, but I'm the eighth seed and I do have a buy in a super state across the river, you still only guarantee yourself being in the top 16 if you went across the border and got a buy versus being the bus driver in every single round. that's a good way to put it getting in the top 16 might actually have a really big payoff or comparatively a really big payoff when your state doesn't that's all for this week's pod join us next week when in ball one we'll run down local competition results as usual in ball two we will do updates and bullet journal also it turns out now as usual and we'll close out the season with ball three. I don't know exactly what we're going to do, but I think we have an exciting prospect. Whatever it is, we're going to close out the season strong. Whatever you're up to this week, go get them, folk.
    57:51
    Jean-Jacques Rousseau, said personal property rights do not so much make one think about what one has as what one doesn't put that in your pipe and smoke it