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Episode 236: Josh Sharpe is 40!

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·35m 29s·analyzed·Dec 5, 2019
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

Josh Sharp turns 40; discusses Stern Pro Circuit changes, IFPA 17 qualification bid, and InDisc Open tournament logistics.

Summary

Josh Sharp celebrates his 40th birthday on Pinball Profile, discussing his performance in the 2024 Stern Pro Circuit, tournament organization, the upcoming IFPA Open at InDisc, and his near-qualification for IFPA 17. Jeff Teolis conducts a trivia quiz and shares birthday messages from community members and Josh's father Roger Sharp. The episode covers tournament logistics, the circuit's field reduction from 40 to 20 players, and organizational updates for the 2025 competitive season.

Key Claims

  • Josh Sharp finished 21st on the 2024 Stern Pro Circuit standings, just outside the top 20 that qualify for the circuit finals with guaranteed $599 stipend

    high confidence · Jeff states 'your brother, Zach, is 21st' and Josh confirms he didn't make top 20 due to poor play at circuit events

  • The Stern Pro Circuit field was reduced from 40 to 20 players for 2024, and this change significantly increased attendance at circuit events

    high confidence · Josh: 'Yep' to whether the field reduction to 20 was a factor in high turnout; people confirmed they came specifically because of the circuit change

  • Josh's performance at circuit events in 2024 was 'my worst year of playing ever,' with multiple missed cuts at major tournaments

    high confidence · Josh explicitly states this and mentions missing Pinberg finals and coming close at Pinmasters

  • InDisc is at a facility in Banning, California, and it serves as a replacement for Papa (which no longer exists as a major tournament series)

    high confidence · Jeff: 'It is such a great event, and because it doesn't exist anymore, or at least in the last couple of years, to me it is the new Papa'

  • The IFPA Open at InDisc will have limited entry to manage facility capacity and quality, with a prize package over $10,000 for the winner

    high confidence · Josh discusses logistical constraints and Carl's attention to detail; prize package mentioned as 'new Stern in Box game plus $5,000 cash'

Notable Quotes

  • “If anybody asks where I am, I'm with the sales team and the COO at this dinner. [after showing up at Deadflip tournament instead of distributor dinner]”

    Josh Sharp @ ~35:00 — Humorous example of Josh prioritizing pinball tournament play over work obligations on his birthday

  • “You're never here. Why are you here? [to circuit event attendees] It was a real thing for people who were chasing the circuit.”

    Josh Sharp @ ~25:00 — Direct evidence that reducing the Stern Pro Circuit field from 40 to 20 drove increased event attendance

  • “this was about my worst year of playing ever... Just not a lot of play... missed a lot of cuts.”

    Josh Sharp @ ~40:00 — Josh's self-assessment of poor 2024 tournament performance, explaining why he didn't make top 20 circuit finals

  • “Carl is spending money where I would be like, you really need to spend money on that? Why don't you just, like, not spend money on that?... Carl is just the quality king, man.”

    Josh Sharp @ ~55:00 — Characterizes Carl D'Angelo's approach to InDisc event management as detail-obsessed and quality-focused

  • “It is such a great event, and because it doesn't exist anymore, or at least in the last couple of years, to me it is the new Papa.”

    Jeff Teolis @ ~52:00 — Confirms InDisc has emerged as spiritual successor to Papa tournament series which no longer runs

  • “I have 98 IFPA messages in my mailbox that, you know, some are over a week old now... it's just man it just never ends”

    Josh Sharp @ ~68:00 — Illustrates organizational burden of IFPA president role managing tournament infrastructure

Entities

Josh SharppersonJeff TeolispersonStern Pro CircuiteventInDisceventIFPA 17eventCarl D'AngelopersonZach SharppersonRoger SharppersonAdam BeckerpersonPinmastersevent

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: IFPA expanding tournament series and organizational capacity concerns; Adam Becker managing unsustainable email/administrative load (~98+ pending IFPA messages); December saw 48 pending events in Washington state alone

    high · Josh mentions massive pending email backlog and discusses capacity concerns; notes IFPA staff needs expansion; Becker working overtime on tournament processing

  • ?

    community_signal: Josh Sharp initiating new player support strategy: deliberately losing tournaments to new competitors (Ed Robertson) to encourage their continued tournament participation and engagement

    high · Josh admits 'I don't want to beat him because then he'll cry... I'll just lay down, give you a soft score to beat'; frames it as encouraging new player excitement

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Stern Pro Circuit top 20 qualification appears merit-based with strict performance thresholds; 2024 circuit finalists all ranked 65+ WPPR; Josh and Alex Harmon excluded despite prior circuit success

    high · Josh states top 20 circuit finalists 'are all ranked 65' and that he doesn't deserve circuit prize due to poor annual performance; confirms merit-based qualification system

  • ?

    event_signal: InDisc tournament has emerged as spiritual successor to Papa tournament series; holds 2025 IFPA Open in Banning, California facility with limited capacity model

    high · Jeff states 'to me it is the new Papa' given Papa no longer runs; Josh confirms InDisc infrastructure and quality comparable to Papa legacy

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Adam Becker (IFPA staff) receiving 'well-earned vacation' accommodation due to overwhelming administrative burden; Josh/team exploring ways to reduce his workload for upcoming season

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.107

0:00
Happy birthday, Mr. President. Happy birthday to you. Josh! Ah! Savior of the universe! One dollar at a time, time, time, time, time. Josh!
0:24
Ah! You saved the universe! It's time for another Pinball Profile. I'm your host, Jeff Teols. You can find our group on Facebook. We're also on Twitter at Pinball Profile. Email us, pinballprofile at gmail.com. Please subscribe on your favorite podcatcher and check us out on Instagram at pinballprofile. Very proud to be the official podcaster of InDisc, which we're going to be talking about today. But today is a special day. Today, our favorite person in the world turns 40. And he joins us here today. Josh Sharp, happy birthday my best friend Is Instagram a new thing? Do you even listen? I've been plugging it for a few months now It was just like I'm very used to the cadence of your intro plugs and that just out of place to me so it's like see something, say something I'm not allowed to mix it up not allowed to come into the 21st century My face or Friendster visit us on Friendster Yeah, anyway Josh, you've turned 40 years old Welcome to the club. It's going to be a fun time for the couple months that I join you in this club. Do you feel 40? So would you air this if I died tonight and didn't actually turn 40? That would be the worst, right? So there you go. Once again, we're actually not on your birthday. This is the day before your birthday. I wanted to get you while you're still sharp. Because once you turn 40, things start to slip. Your vision starts to go. You might have to throw on glasses at some point. Your father has glasses. Maybe you'll need them. Certainly going to the bathroom in the middle of the night more often seems to be a thing. No, no, just wear diapers. I'm actually pretty good there. Prostate's fine, but this isn't Prostate Profile. That's the next podcast.
2:01
You know, you have to be careful. When you're 40, you always have to kind of sharpen your mind, keep your skills intact, too. So I put together this little trivia quiz for you just to see how good your pinball knowledge is now that you're 40. Here we go. All answers are one word. I'll even make it easier for you, okay? All answers are one word. Recently, the third Elvira game was made by Stern. How many kiss games are there? If there's more than two, I can't think of a third. I'm going to go with two. Your answer is two. Okay. How many sons do you have that you know of?
Pinbergevent
Freeplay Floridaevent
Jim Belsitoperson
Ed Robertsonperson
Amanda Sharpperson

medium · Josh notes Becker 'works for the IFPA, he gets to go there... well-earned vacation'; discusses behind-scenes workings to 'lighten his load because it is overwhelming'

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern Pinball reduced Stern Pro Circuit field from 40 to 20 players for 2024; this change significantly increased event attendance at both Florida and OBX circuit finals events

    high · Josh confirms field reduction was a major factor in attendance; event attendees explicitly stated they came because of the circuit format change; guaranteed $599 stipend for top 20 also contributed

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Flip Frenzy tournament format showing rapid adoption; Josh notes it's now 'the fastest growing pinball format tournament' after match play support added to Andreas' software

    medium · Josh credits Andreas adding match play support to new platforms; notes previous Excel spreadsheet management was 'a nightmare'; describes format growth trajectory

    • 2:36
    One for sure. One word answers, jerk. Oh, sorry. I'm going to go with two, asterisk. Okay. Fill in the blank. From rags, blank, riches.
    2:48
    That would be from rags. Two riches. Two is the answer. Okay. Two is the answer. One more question. You're three for three so far. Go for it. Recently, we played head-to-head in the Classics at Expo. You and I, mano a mano. In the two games we played, in which you picked both games, I believe, how many losses did you have? Was our match two-nothing? Carhop, Flash Gordon. Don't you remember right as I went ahead of you in Flash Gordon? You kicked me right before I went past you. That's right. That would be two. Okay. So there you go. You know your stuff. I do, yeah, I'm on it. All right. An expert at all things too, Josh Sharp. 40, man, this is a big deal. It took me after the second question before I knew where you were going. That was good. Okay. Josh, I've put together a special present for you for your birthday. You will see on the post on Facebook a lot of people wanted to wish you a happy birthday.
    3:47
    Very nice. Hold on. Oh, there's more. Oh, there's a lot more. You're such a dick. happy birthday i said look josh is turning 40 what would you say to josh on his 40th and it's kind of like a grassroots promotion they all put this and you can see it on our facebook but uh i guess they liked our last podcast they thought some good ideas might have been there yeah well you uh you'll you'll post these right dude i have a hundred of them oh that's very good i'm very impressed. Who's the dog? Emoto's dog.
    4:22
    Very good. Very good, sir. Good job. Do you know how many people after that last podcast came up to me and said, congratulations? Like, deadpan serious. Congratulations. I'm like, what are you talking about? I hear you're going to be the new president of the IFPA. I got enough of that, too. We did a good job. I said, well, couldn't you tell it was kind of a joke? And no, they could not, I guess. We were on our game. we were on it but there were some good ideas that came out of there you must have gotten grilled a little bit although i mean my favorite one happened almost the day after the women's board so that was already in place wasn't it no absolutely not man we had our conversation and the things that i pulled off in 20 i was so just excited and just regenerated with passion and that the 24 hours after our talk, I put that whole thing together.
    5:13
    It's really you. Well, stop it. I'm blushing. The freckles are joining. So do you think you have what it takes to get into IFPA 17 now that you had that last little push, a little success at Expo, a lot more at Freeplay Florida? By the way, Freeplay Florida I think I knocked out of Classics too. I did that one as well as Expo. I knocked myself out of that Classics. That was pretty garbage. It was the game Grand Slam. You and your brother both killed on that game. You didn't look at how many. I played it like 740 times just to put up a mediocre score on it. But it was the Chicago Cubs knob on there. I was thinking that's the kiss of death for those Illinois boys. I think I'm going to make it now. I think I was one Nick Mueller house ball away in the first round of the open finals that went my way. No kidding. He had a free compensation ball and Grand Prix needed $70,000. A couple of rips. You're there. Boom. I was already booking my standby flight. My bag was packed. I was a foot out of the room. Now, you think you are going to make it. Between now and this weekend, there's the German ho-ho. Who knows how many Germans can make it into this IFPA 17? And, of course, how many Europeans will actually come? I guess you would notice from IFPA championships in the past, When it's in North America, there are less Europeans that come, and especially somewhere like Florida, too. Fort Myers, great place. I'm looking forward to going to the pinball lounge. But it's not exactly the most accessible place. You probably have to fly into either Miami or Tampa and then a couple-hour drive from there. There's an airport. So, like, from Chicago, I can fly to Fort Myers on Southwest. So if people get creative, you probably want to pick a U.S. destination that has Southwest as a hub, and then you could probably fly to Fort Myers from there, and it's right there. Okay. It'll be really expensive. I'm trying to discourage Europeans from coming, because I'm also going to be on the cusp of getting in. I'm waiting for IFPA to do the latest update. I've got a couple of good scores coming in. The classics at Florida will help you, right? I got third. I think it should. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just won a tournament this weekend for Pinball for Change, so that might help as well. Oh, was that the inaugural Ed Robertson becoming a professional pinball player tournament? Ed was there. Ed, listen, I know he listens, so I have to say this. We played Jurassic Park. I went 26-4, and one of those four losses was Ed Robertson coming back with a massive ball three on a game that he owns, I'll point out. And anyway, I was also thinking, you know what, it's nice to see him in these competitions. I don't want to beat him because then he'll cry. And, you know, so I thought, all right, I'll just lay down, give you a soft score to beat. And he did, no problem. I mean, well-earned, not taking anything away from it. But that being said, he's texted me, I don't know, two, three days in a row. Hey, remember that time when I beat you on Jurassic Park?
    8:05
    I let it go for a while. I'm like, hey, who won the tournament? Anyway, no, it's good to see Ed playing. But that brings me to the point of Flip Frenzies because you played in your first, I guess maybe second Flip Frenzy when we had the big event in Chicago at Dead Flip. That's a great way to introduce people to pinball, I think. It's so much fun. and I mean in one night you played what 24 games for the one you just won 30 30 I thought you were 20 and 4 26 and 4 26 and 4 played 30 games how long was the frenzy four hours with two 15 minute breaks all right and a nice mix of games a great collection at Dave Smith's house but there were some older games that certainly helped as well I mean it's to be able to get to play that much meaningful pinball in an evening is awesome I know that our monthly here switched back from frenzy to just group match play because people were missing the social aspect of sort of the slower pace of that But, you know, they'll play five rounds, which is, you know, everyone gets to play five games in three hours. The difference between five games in three hours and getting to play, you know, 20 games in three hours is crazy. Sure. Well, when we played at Deadflip, I kept having to play your brother on Batman, and he was playing long game. finally he's got on ball one or ball two a score i've never achieved i'm like look i concede which if those playing flip frenzies please understand this you cannot pre-arrange to say look we're going to play one ball but if you're getting smoked after i don't even know if it's after two balls maybe it's just after one ball at some point you can go look i concede i give you the win that's allowed and people don't understand that i believe yeah i heard i've heard some people not understand that. I think what I've heard is that people make people plunge all the balls out, which is fine. I mean, it adds whatever to plunge all the balls out, 30 seconds to the game, so it's fine. If people want to make people plunge out, it's fine. If people want to forfeit, that's fine. You just cannot collude between players to agree to play one ball no matter what, or whatever.
    10:05
    That's the collusion part. Is it still the fastest growing pinball format tournament? I know years ago the three strikes was. Now we see fair strikes. That's probably a better question for Becker, but I would assume that since Andreas added support for it to match play, that it is. I love the match play support. The old Excel spreadsheet was a nightmare. And as a TD, weren't you a TD for the first one you ever did? I was, yeah, yeah. You couldn't have played. No, I never played and ran it. It was overwhelming. By the way, you came in, and I'm not making this up, you came in second in my tournament at Deadflip, and we weren't full TGP. And I offered all four players to say, look, if you want to play an extra game to get full TGP, you have to be unanimous. We'll do it. And you were the one who said no. You know what time I got home that night? Oh, my God. Oh, yeah. By the way, how was that? Does Amanda listen to the show? Does she listen to anything pinball? She does now. Can I say some things? Oh, yeah. So, Josh. I actually asked her last night if you were going to get her on the podcast. as like a birthday present to me. That would be like extremely sneaky of her. But she was like, I couldn't do it myself. I might have thought about it. I didn't try because I tried to actually have her on as a complete show one time. Right, right. And she just ignored me, I think blocked me or whatever the point is. I mean, it's her loss if I'm being honest.
    11:29
    So what happened was it was a Wednesday night and you said, yeah, I've got a work function or something like that. and you showed up at Dead Flip to play in a tournament you really needed to get to IFPA 17 next year. Yeah, and the truth is we actually did have a distributor to do that. Oh, quit it. I just didn't go. Oh, all right. But you saved the invite, put it on the desk. Hey, look. That's right. If anybody asks where I am, I'm with the sales team and the COO at this dinner. So when you showed up at midnight to a crying baby and the other two going, where's daddy, what did you say? Yeah, fortunately, the real distributor dinner was at, this was before IAAPA, so we have all of our distributors kind of come in to see what's new here, what we'll be showing. so we end up usually taking each distributor out to dinner. So there were like a dozen dinners that I had over the course of a two- to three-week period that there were enough other nights that went that late with the genuine dinner and drinks out that it was not a heart cell. All right. Call me crazy. I just like the honest approach. Hey, I'm going to play pinball.
    12:41
    Amanda says, are you playing pinball? You're like, no, no, I swear to God it was an affair. I swear. Right, right. We've been together, this is how we stay together for 18 years. It's better for her to not know. That is good advice. It's not a lie, it's just not a full disclosure. Right. Correct? That's the way to do it. By the way, somebody wants to wish you a happy birthday here. Hold on a second. Josh, this is your dad. My God, you're going to be 40? You're only about five years younger than me. I don't know how these things happen, but hopefully the next 40, after I'm long gone, will be just as exquisite as these have been. Happy birthday. They have to be better, Roger, let's be honest. Yeah, they do, as a matter of fact.
    13:24
    Isn't that nice? It's very nice. Very nice. Big plans for your 40th? Kind of. My older brother's coming in with his family, and I have some friends coming up for dinner on Friday night. And then my son's birthday, which was on the 2nd, and his family party is on the 7th. So it's kind of everyone's coming in really for Colin's birthday party, and the fact that my birthday is within range, I think I get the family leftovers, which is totally fine. That is good that Colin has his birthday just before you, so that if yours ends in a zero, okay, it's kind of a big deal, but otherwise it's all about Colin, especially while he's young. And he actually, for the cutest thing this year, He just randomly told me that he's very excited that our birthdays are so close together. Well, nice. Isn't that nice? That is good. But you know what? My dad and I were three days apart as well. My dad was three days older than I was. In a few years.
    14:26
    Yeah. I'm January 27th. My late father was January 30th. How about that? So there you go. That is weird. Gosh, weird connection between us. Oh, my. Stop it. Okay, let's talk about bigger and more important things. We were at Florida, and a lot of people were at OBX, the final two events of the Stern Pro Circuit. Big change that you made this year, reducing the field from 40, making it 20, like it was, and that was something that was collected between yourself, Stern, and Papa. There was a big turnout, a big, big turnout at both events. Do you think this was a big factor in why there were so many people at these great events? Yep.
    15:04
    Can you elaborate? No, I mean, just in talking with the people there, it's like, you're never here. Why are you here? It was a real thing for people who were chasing the circuit. There's no need to hypothesize if something was or wasn't. You can literally just ask the people that had never been to those events before why they went. And it was like 100% of the answers were related to the circuit. Wow, especially those kind of on the cusp, too. and the travel stipend, you know, the guaranteed $600, I think also helps. $599, by the way. Quit saying $600. Give $599 away. Hey, $599. So people should be self-reporting their income, by the way. I get that. Make it easier. Yeah, easier is the reminder for them to report their income by sending them a 1099. I'm just saying. You know, it's like... Hey, I don't do the 1099 for these things. You have to talk to Elizabeth about that. Okay, I'm saying this out there. Elizabeth, I know, listens. Hi, Elizabeth. There you go. Just a suggestion. Now, yes, people are going to show up because why not? You've got the bulk of your trip paid for, certainly for those driving, but it's a great event and a chance to win a lot more. A new Stern in Box game plus $5,000 cash, a prize package for the winner over $10,000. That is going to be huge. Yeah, and I think the way the ladder works out, If you were 17th, you could literally move yourself up three or four spots. It's like three or four free games to not have to play, and it gets you that much closer to bigger money. And that's why so many people showed up at the circuit. That being said, looking at the final standings, your brother, Zach, is 21st. So it got me thinking. I'm guessing as great as it is to show up for this and be guaranteed money, the top 20, for whatever circumstances might happen, work. No way. There's no way all 20 show up. So that being said, does somebody in the top 20 who knows they can't make it say, hey, look, Zach, I can't go or I won't go. You give me $600. You keep whatever else you have. Do you think some of those negotiations will happen? And do you think they'll fall all the way down to number 39?
    17:20
    Are you willing to pay everyone between 21 and 38? No. I've done the last two Stern Broke Circuits. They were fun. Let the better players play. And, boy, you want to talk about better players. The top 20 are all ranked 65. That's what it's about. Okay. No, hold on a second. Who is not going to be there this year is yourself who won the thing two years ago Alex Harmon who came second last year There are some great players not in the top 20 And why is that And I would say pull up the performance Do you want to go through my performance at circuit events this year or Alex's performance at circuit events this year? And then you tell me, based on that resume, if I deserve anything other than a kick in the nuts. I'll be glad to give it to you.
    18:05
    I mean, it was about, I was talking with Jim Belsito about this in Florida. Like, this was about my worst year of playing ever. Why was this a bad year for you? Just not a lot of play? Yeah, just bad play. Bad play? I don't know. It's like golf, man. I played well, got beat, played poorly, lost, and just, like, missed a lot of cuts. But this is all... I missed Pinberg. I missed Pinmasters. You didn't miss them. You played in them. You played before. Well, you know, I missed getting to finals to be able to make a run on Sunday or Saturday, as the case may be, at Pinberg. How close were you at Pinberg? I was on the line, man. On the line. Do you like the tiebreaker? I actually do. I know it. And I say that as it actually hurt me a year ago, but I still like it. It is what it is. I mean, I prefer to, I mean, like, I don't like it enough that that's what I do for my events. I like for bubble ties for, you know, there to be some sort of playoff for someone's tournament life. That's just what I believe in. I like it from the standpoint only of you've got to keep things moving. I get it. Sure. I get it for that event, too, but I wouldn't support everyone doing that for ties for all events. You know, if there was a tie for 16th at Pinmasters, like we had with Kaylee and Jason, I wouldn't want the, hey, who had the most hole-in-ones? Kaylee, sorry, man, you're out. Yeah, so your tiebreaker was play a game that you plunge and you tilt. Let's not talk about Black Rose. Exactly, exactly. Yeah, way better system there. Well, you are going to get to play a little more next year, So hopefully there's a chance to play better in your 40s. And that starts off right at the beginning of the year with the IFPA Open at InDisc. I'm excited to be there. I know you are too. I've been named the official podcaster of InDisc, which was very, very flattering when they came to me and asked me to do what I do there. It's going to be a thrill. So I want to talk to the people who are involved. To be fair, they cleared that with me first and I okayed it, just to let you know. You actually serious? Yeah. They asked if I had a problem with it. and I had to tell them that I genuinely didn't, but it would have been almost better for me to put up a stink. But we only do that on this show. It is going to be a thrill. I missed it last year. It is such a great event, and because it doesn't exist anymore, or at least in the last couple of years, to me it is the new Papa. It has all the games there in the beautiful museum that you can play and explore and see things you've never seen before. It's got all kinds of different matches, the women's match, a senior's match. You're so close now. Oh, what's the age for that? I assume 50. I think Papa's was 50 before. Okay. And I'm late January, so I miss it. Which is, listen, there's enough pinball. I don't need to play in another tournament. I mean, the only thing missing from Papa was the split flipper tournament, which was fun as heck, too, by the way. Oh, yeah. But all it did was take time away from you from playing things like classics, and they've got the match play event. They've got, of course, the main event, the high stakes event, the Open. Talk about the Open and how this came about. I know that for years I've wanted to do an IFPA World Championship that wasn't limited to the 64 players that make the IFPA World Championship, what has been running for the last 12 years or whatever. And logistically, my team, there's no way for us to be able to handle the size that's required to bring all comers to an event. I think you'll see that even with pin masters. The limiting of numbers is something that we need. We're really good at knowing what we can handle. So for this, it was more important for us to be able to find who we would think would be a worthy partner to bring this open world championship to life. And the team of Jim and Carl and Jay and Bob and everyone out there, they're just the best group of people. Get on microphone. You're fading off. Oh, okay. They're the best group of people that my team could ever possibly want to work with. And seeing what they've done, you know, I think InDisc, was it at a bowling alley when it started? I don't know that. Years ago, something like that? I'm going to be talking to Carl and to Jim very soon, talking about InDisc. Was it a bowling alley? So I'll ask him. I didn't know that. That makes sense, right? It was definitely, I feel like it was at some, like, nothing location. And it's what I've always believed about the growth of good events is the reputation of the people that run the events is the most important thing that drives the potential of where that event can go. And, you know, I see it now with like the, especially with Carl, the arguments that we get into of the open Slack channel in terms of like attention to detail and quality. You know, Carl is spending money where, you know, I would be like, you really need to spend money on that? Why don't you just, like, not spend money on that? It's like, well, this would be so much nicer. And it's like, yeah, man, a bunch of things would be nicer. But there's no need to go into your pocketbook for it. And he is just the quality king, man. They take this very seriously. And I think the fact that they're also players and high-level players at that, I think, you know, they can trust. It's sort of like Keith Elwin designing games. You trust your own judgment that, like, hey, if I do this and I like it as someone who's eating this meal, I think everyone else is going to like the suit. Their detail is unbelievable, and that's one thing I really enjoyed. Because when you look at Papa and the old facility and how the event just grew and grew and the number of people outgrew the facility, well, that's going to be the case for most tournaments that are as popular as this. Look at why Pinberg has to be at the David L. Lawrence Center. Yeah, yeah. Indisc is at this wonderful facility in Banning where you get to explore all these other machines. It's a real treat, but not everyone can do it. And, you know, you and I joked, I think, on our last podcast about having limited entry circuit events. Well, the place can only hold so much wherever you're holding it, right? And I kid with you about pinmasters and stuff, but even pinmasters, you found it's obviously outgrown because you can't do 72 anymore. Now you've got 144, and you've reserved the spot for the state and provincial championships. Listen, I'll say it because it's your birthday. That was a really good move. I don't think I'll be going this year, but it's not because I don't want to or I don't think it's a good event. It's just logistics. That's a significant lack of confidence that you're not going to win Ontario, my friend. Right, yeah. Becker's going to lay down for me. I mean, what's he won, four of the last five? There's no need to lay down, right? Just give it to him. No, I was happy to be second last year. and because Becker works for the IFPA, he gets to go there. So it's not like it's a matter of a choice for him. That's right. It's a well-earned vacation for all the hard work the guy does. He was actually telling me about December. My goodness. I think you and I were in a chat where I looked. This is on December 3rd. I looked at how many pending events are in the state of Washington alone. 48. 48! That's more than most places have in a year. There's a lot. But let's just say Adam is extremely excited about some of the shepherd behind-the-scenes workings for next year to lighten his load, because it is, it's overwhelming. It's hitting that overwhelming point where, you know, I mean, I have, what do I have right now? I feel like I was fully caught up on IFPA-related emails at Freeplay Florida, and I have 98 IFPA messages in my mailbox that, you know, some are over a week old now. it's just man it just never ends hold on a second looks like your little group needs to expand i mean josh you're busy with raw thrills zach is busy with stern pinball adam has his own job in toronto shepherd resents everything you put in front of him time to expand the field and as noted on facebook there are a lot of people looking for maybe some new blood that might be right there. Just a thought. Let's go. Anything to lighten the load.
    26:16
    $10 fee per player. Let's get some of these events out of here. No. I want the rookie one, though. That's the one I do want. Something for the rookie. It doesn't have to be monetary, as you pointed out, but I think something for a rookie. Get people excited about it. You know, that's why I laid down to Ed Robertson, because I wanted to be excited about winning in a pinball tournament. I think he was fifth, by the way. You should yeah I be interested in running I don even know how to run that query but you should email the ICM box asking to run a query for who had the most Whoppers earned in 2019 that had not previously earned any before January 1st, 2019 or something. I'm sure. Shep would love to do that, yeah. Yeah, sure. I'm sure he'd pick that up and run it. I mean, that's what he does for a living, so he could probably knock out that query in like seven seconds. Okay, I did hear a little rumor. One of the things on the IFPA site currently, and I don't know if this will be in the future, was the player versus player. I heard when I talked to Carl D'Angelo at Freeplay Florida, I said to him, on your IE pinball, I like that it shows matchups when, here's what Jason Werdrick did against Adam Lefkoff or whatever the case may be. I like that it showed that. And I was told that Shepard also liked that Carl did this because he was thinking about maybe dumping the player versus player. No, no. I haven't heard that he's dumping it. I know that it's not correct. There's a lot of, there's something off where one result is always missing. I know he's looking into rewriting how he gets those counts. That's what I've heard. Because I'll have, you know, we'll get an email from a father-son duo who have played each other seven times, and they'll ask, like, why is our record four and two against each other? And it's like, I don't know. I see that you guys have played seven times, but it's showing as six times. And I think Brian understands what's happening there, and his response is, I need to rewrite how this is done. Well, Josh, I know you're in a hurry getting ready for all your big 40 celebrations. I don't want to keep you. I'm very, listen, I'll do this today, today only. This is it. I love what you do. I think you're a great guy. I'm still going to pick on you because it's fun as hell, but keep up what you're doing. Someone needs to Twitch clip that comment, and they can just air it over and over again. Like I did when you said, I'm an idiot, I'm an idiot. That's right.
    28:35
    Listen, I even scratched your original song, too, to put in that nice intro. Thank you very much for what the IFPA has done with the Open coming up in January in Banning, California. That's going to be a lot of fun, and I think that's probably when I'll see you next. We're looking forward to seeing you. Yeah, I can't believe how close it is. It's like five weeks away or something. I know. We will see how things turn out for the IFPA 17. I guess you have to know by a certain date, and then we've got the state and provincial championships. on the third Saturday in January. There'll be two spots left over for the World Championship based on the European champion and the North American champion. So 62 spots. How many countries will that be? We don't know yet. When do you have to find out all of that great information? I have to. So Shepard and I will get the season. You know, there's a lot. What's turned into, I think most people call it the last chance Whopper Grab tournaments on like December 30th, 31st, whatever, that I can see on the calendar. We give most tournament directors, you know, 72 hours, three or four days to submit everything they need to submit to make sure it's counted in 2019. And we'll make an announcement about when we lock 2019 and the results from there. So it's usually like January 5th, 6th, somewhere in there. And then once we lock the standings, Shepard will generate all of the state and provincial finalists. and I can generate the ISPA 17 finalist list and we can generate the Women's World Championship finalist list. I get all those tables from Brian and then it's just a bunch of spreadsheets and invitations go out and registrations open and it's just a party. It will be fun. Looking forward to it. Hopefully I can make it. I think I've got a pretty good chance here being in the mid-50s. Not my age, but my rank. Are you counting the stuff that isn't in yet? I'll be 56th or 57th. Not including, I mean, some Germans have to come out of the woodwork to blow me away. I mean. I don't think there's been a cut line that you wouldn't have made it ultimately. You know, every year we have cancellations or whatever that I think you're pretty safe. I think anyone in the country is pretty safe. You don't think you're safe? I don't. I did the list of everybody ahead, and I did it by countries, too. And I've already emailed people, and they all say they're coming, and I can't do this anymore. When I went in 2018 for IFPA 15, that to me was the pinnacle of that. Did I really legitimately make it? Yes and no. I was first on the cut list. What rank were you? Back then, 89th, I think. Yeah. 89th? Yeah, so 89th got in back then. But. That's the last North American data point. But it was in Canada. A lot of Americans didn't have passports or couldn't go across the border or didn't want to go across the border. But what's a lot? Well, why wasn't Keith there? Why wasn't Donovan Stepp there? Why wasn't so-and-so and so-and-so? Those are all people that maybe should have been there but didn't. I mean, even this IFPA 17, Johannes Ostermeyer, who, by the way, this weekend might be the new number one player. He's going to take it down, man. He's going to take it down. Well, he will. You know what? I heard Ray is flying to Germany.
    31:44
    I did talk to Ray. I said, hey, Ray, you got anything coming up? Because Johannes has got the ho-ho.
    31:51
    Ray's going to run 10 events at his house. there's a bunch of bleeders too for Ray in January because of his success at Indisc. So I looked at his, I looked at Johannes, I'm like, even if Ray wins some big things, it'll jump back up, but I think we're going to see a new number one. And Ray certainly didn't discredit what Johannes has done. I mean, he's an incredible player, we all know that. But Ray just said, look, I can't get to that many Whopper Farm tournaments, and there are a few that have been happening in Europe. I think that's going to start happening in North America. You watch for that in 2020. Five-day events. That's the next thing. That's the new flip frenzy. That's the trending in 2020. Yep. Whopper farming. I think so. Why not? Yeah, man. If you get a group of people together for a certain amount of time period, you might as well play as much as you can. I'll tell you this. It has made me consider any tournament that I go to, is it one tournament or multiple tournaments? If it's one tournament, it better be a darn good one, because one might not be enough. Now, that being said, you can shoot yourself in the foot, and I was talking to a bunch of people at Freeplay Florida where I was playing the Classics and the Main, and it was close to make both playoffs. I luckily did, but you salvage time. Right, you run the risk. You run the risk. You were one of the few who made both as well. Oh, yeah. That without some close drive. Like, yeah, it wasn't a for-sure thing, though. You were 16th out of 16 possible people to get in Classics. That's how close it was. by one point, but because you need the points, you had to do it. So that is an attraction to me for Free Play Florida. I can play in two events. Even Pinberg, which is just one event, well, really it's two because there's Intergalactic and there's probably something on the Wednesday night before too. Right, the pin golf thing. Yeah. So I wonder if those type of tournaments that have just one event will hurt. Now, even the Sanctum has one event, but they have a Friday night strikes tournament too, so technically it's two. For those who 24 hours, it's not enough pinball, they've got something for you. I feel like the original Whopper Farming was the IFPA World Championship week that we started back in IFPA 9, back in Seattle. It is. So, yeah, the local communities really stepped up and did pre-tournaments all week for all the international people coming in. They did that in Italy last year. They did it in the greater Toronto area when Becker hosted it in 2018 for IFPA 15. Oh, that's right. Like Bluffs ran one. Bluffs, Durham, and cabin fever. So there you go. Josh, go have some birthday cake. By the way, do something right now. Weigh yourself today and then talk to me in 10 years. I'm curious. I mean, you're a pretty salt guy. Is this a harder 10 than the 30 to 40 10, the 40 to 50 10 years? Is that rougher? Here's what goes in your 40s, all right? Your vision, the old belt hole you used to love, and your metabolism. All gone. See you later, Josh. All right. Looking forward to it. Happy birthday. Thank you, sir. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find our group on Facebook. We're also on Twitter at pinballprofile. Email us pinballprofile at gmail.com. And please subscribe on your favorite podcatcher. I'm Jeff Teolas.
    35:04
    My wife won't let me play. I'll never win a major. Oh, oh, oh Flattery, flattery, flattery