Episode 344: The Pinball Profile “Played In America” Tour

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·24m 40s·analyzed·Jun 4, 2022

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Jeff Teolis launches 14-stop 'Played in America Tour' with flip frenzy events, major sponsor support, and prize giveaways.

Summary

Jeff Teolis announces the Pinball Profile 'Played in America Tour,' a 14-stop cross-country tournament series launching in June 2022, featuring flip frenzy competitions, sponsor prizes, and free commemorative t-shirts at each venue. The episode includes interview with Arcade Legacy owner Jesse Baker in Newport, Kentucky, discussing the venue's 13-year history, tournament formats, and Cincinnati's thriving pinball scene. Teolis reflects on IFPA 17 World Championship results and plans to drive to multiple locations over the next 10 months.

Key Claims

Eric Stone won the IFPA 17 World Championship, defeating Kaylee George on her home turf in Florida
high confidence · Jeff Teolis directly witnessed and reported the championship result at Pinball Asylum
Keith Elwin chose not to continue playing ball three of Dialed In against Escher Lefkoff after Escher went over 1 million points with a second SIM card
high confidence · Jeff Teolis was standing beside Keith Elwin when this concession happened and provides detailed context of the decision
Arcade Legacy has been operating for 13 years, opening in 2009 when arcades were declining
high confidence · Jesse Baker, Arcade Legacy owner, provides venue history
The Pinball Profile Played in America Tour will feature approximately 14 events over the next 10 months across North America
high confidence · Jeff Teolis announces tour scope and provides specific event dates and locations
All prizes at tour events will be distributed via random drawing, not based on tournament performance
high confidence · Jeff Teolis and Jesse Baker both confirm random prize distribution model
Arcade Legacy is consolidating three locations down to two and merging into one mega-location
high confidence · Jesse Baker announces consolidation plans expected in coming months
Cincinnati pinball scene includes Arcade Legacy, Pinball Garage, and Comics to Games, plus venues with smaller collections
high confidence · Jesse Baker describes Cincinnati/Kentucky area pinball venues
Arcade Legacy runs Stern Army tournaments and has been doing so for just over 6 years
high confidence · Jesse Baker describes Stern Army involvement and timeline

Notable Quotes

“Keith basically nodded and conceded right there to Adam Lefkoff. You know, good game, Escher... He got me. He beat me. We saw that around later. Escher did it to Eric Stone... It's that kind of thing. I know some of the fans have said, what happened? We're not in those shoes. So that is for Keith to decide.”
Jeff Teolis @ ~5:00-6:00 minutes — Directly addresses controversial concession at IFPA 17, providing firsthand account and defending Keith Elwin's sportsmanship
“We opened up when it was probably not the greatest idea to open an arcade. They were all kind of dying off... We started collecting games. It took maybe five years or so to do it. Then we opened up in 2009.”
Jesse Baker @ ~28:00 minutes — Provides historical context for Arcade Legacy's founding during arcade industry decline
“I find them all fun the flip frenzy is good for something like this tour in the sense that okay we're going to play for three hours then give away all the prizes... it's nice to mix it up”
Jeff Teolis @ ~33:00 minutes — Explains tournament format selection for tour events
“My skills just aren't there and I thought well you know what if my skills aren't there why should I demand skills from other people so random is best”
Jesse Baker @ ~35:00 minutes — Explains philosophy behind random prize distribution at tournaments
“Everyone can get, say, 13 rounds if you want full TGP or if you want to do pin golf... There's all kinds of different formats i find them all fun”
Jeff Teolis @ ~32:00 minutes — Discusses various tournament format options and their different time/machine requirements
“I wish I could go everywhere. It's just obviously not possible with travel, with costs, with apparently I have to work once in a while. But I do want to come everywhere”
Jeff Teolis @ ~59:00 minutes — Acknowledges limitations of tour scope while expressing commitment to community
“The arcades have really stepped it up. You know, they're putting their games on free play. They're waiving the fees. They just want everyone to have a great time”

Entities

Jeff TeolispersonCarson TeolispersonJesse BakerpersonEric Stoneperson Keith Elwinperson Escher LefkoffpersonKaylee GeorgepersonDavid DenholtzpersonVinceperson

Signals

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business_signal: Arcade Legacy consolidating from three locations to two, merging into single mega-location in coming months
high · Jesse Baker states: 'We've got right now, Arcade Legacy has three locations, but we're pairing two of them down into one mega location here in a few months. So we'll have two Arcade Legacy locations.'
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community_signal: Arcade venues stepping up support by offering free play, waiving fees, and providing venues at reduced/no cost for tournament events
high · Jeff Teolis explicitly thanks arcades: 'The arcades have really stepped it up. You know, they're putting their games on free play. They're waiving the fees. They just want everyone to have a great time'
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event_signal: Pinball Profile Played in America Tour announced as 14-stop cross-country flip frenzy tournament series with major sponsor support and random prize giveaways
high · Multiple specific tour dates announced: Newport KY (June 5), Kansas City MO (June 8), Delaware (July 2), Monroe MI (August 6), Buffalo NY (August 18), Pittsburgh PA (September 14), Rochester NY (October 1), Ovado FL (November 17), plus additional events in Georgia, Nashville, and Columbia SC planned for early 2023
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sentiment_shift: Positive sentiment toward arcade venues and pinball community collaboration; emphasis on multiple venues coexisting and supporting each other
high · Jeff Teolis and Jesse Baker both stress value of multiple arcades: 'if one shuts down it makes it a little more the more people playing pinball they're going to go to more arcades... It's the same thing for arcades. I agree 100%.'
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Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.074

0:00

it's time for another pinball profile i'm your host jeff till so you can find everything on pinballprofile.com or on twitter or on instagram at pinball profile join our facebook group and You can email pinballprofile at gmail.com. I'm on the road right now. I'm in my car with my son, Carson. Hi, Carson. Hello. We have just passed Michigan. We are into Ohio. It is the start of the Pinball Profile Played in America Tour. This is going to be raw. This is going to be quick because I've been on the road a lot. In fact, I was in Florida for IFPA 17 week. A lot of fun there. I'm sure you saw much of the stream at the Pinball Asylum. So congratulations to David Denholtz for putting on such a wonderful week of events. To Vince doing a great job in the Norma Jennings broadcast booth with the streaming. And of course a big congrats to Eric Stone, who beat Kaylee George to win the World Championship on his home turf. It was exciting and we're going to talk more about that probably on the final round coming up in a few weeks with Martin Robbins. I saw a lot of the chatter ask about Keith Elwin and what he did when he decided not to play ball three of Dialed In on game nine against Escher Lefkoff. I'm sure Keith will say something about it, but I was there. In fact, I was standing beside Keith when it happened.

1:35

And so was Adam Lefkoff. And basically, when he went over a million, got his second SIM card, and Escher was just blowing it up after really two dangers early on. and I think he even started the ball with 30,000 before he went over a million. Keith basically nodded and conceded right there to Adam Lefkoff. You know, good game, Asher. In the sense of maybe that's a score I've never received. It's been a tough game on me. I've had trouble. I've played it a few times. He played earlier against Daniele and lost. It just wasn't a game or a score he could receive. So I don't look at it as any disrespect at all. In fact, quite the opposite. A very classy move and almost a tip of the cap to Escher. Like, you got me. You beat me. We saw that around later. Escher did it to Eric Stone. Eric Stone put up $17 million on F14 Tomcat in ball two with something like eight, nine multi-balls. And Escher just went, yeah, I'm going to save my energy and try to beat you on the next game, which he did on Black Rose. It's that kind of thing. I know some of the fans have said, what happened? What would you have done? We're not in those shoes. So that is for Keith to decide. And I think Keith knows his game, his abilities better than anyone else. And I just don't think it's something for you and I to question. So again, IFPA 17 was great, but Carson and I are on the road. In fact, we're going to a few Cincinnati Red baseball games and some other games in Kansas City, St. Louis, Detroit. So I thought, wow, this is kind of how the Pinball Profile Played America Tour began. I was like, I've been asked a few times to do the world tour again. Well, you know, we're just coming out of the pandemic. And I knew I could drive to a bunch of places. Some of them I have to fly to, but there are a few I'm driving to. Like the next one, which will be Solid State Pinball Supply in Kansas City on Wednesday, June 8th. That's going to be a lot of fun seeing Nick Greenup and Kerry Wing and all the great people there in Kansas City. But when I looked at the map and looked at my schedule, I thought, you know, over the next 10 months or so, I can probably do about 14 of these. I called wonderful sponsors and they all came on board to help put together this big, big event. So these events are flip frenzy events. It's going to be fun playing for a few hours and giving away prizes. And the best part about this trip is everyone's going to get a Pinball Profile Played in America t-shirt just for playing. So a nice keepsake. Tons and tons of prizes all being given away at random. Every single prize. There's a trophy from the winner from ULUK store and some other goodies too from ULUK. But everything else, we're just going to spin the wheel at the end of the competition. If I call your name, you've won a prize. And the prizes are just off the chart. Measle Mods is back again. I've got these $50 gift cards. So that's pretty nice if you want to buy yourself some nice mods. Measle Mods is a sponsor of the World Tour before. So thank you to Kristen and Tim and everyone there in New Mexico for coming on board again. Marco Pinball is on board. So Emoto was a big help here. We're going to be giving some good swag packs, too, for Marco Pinball to some lucky winners. Forever the Flip, just all these wonderful pinball-designed hoodies. There's some kind of rock themes, like there's Queen, there's Metallica, and you're going to get to pick whichever one you want, whatever size you want. That's what Forever the Flip's doing, so very cool. Speaking of Flip, Flippin' Out. Yes, you know that fine distributor out of Evansville, Indiana. Zach and Nicole Menny are coming on board, and they've got all kinds of amazing prizes. We're probably going to see some banners and some other cool items, some translights, things like that. I can hardly wait to see the goodies we get from flipping out. So thank you to Zach and Nicole for coming on board. Comet Pinball. Ryan Wanger was there for the first world tour. He does it again. We've got all kinds of LED lights, some neat swag, and other unique things that makes Comet Pinball so special. So we're going to be giving those away as well. New to the Pinball Profile Played in America Tour, Pinball Expo is giving away weekend passes. That will save you a lot of money to see one of the best shows in the world. There are really two, certainly in North America. Pinball Expo is one. We're going to see that in October. And the other amazing show, the Texas Pinball Festival. Thank you, Kim. Thank you, Ed. Also, we're going to be giving away weekend passes. again, these are all given away at random. It doesn't matter where you finish in the tournament. That the fun part of this We also have Jersey Jack Pinball They were there before for the World tour They back again Ken Cromwell and the staff have provided all these amazing signed translates So thank you Jersey Jack, once again. And I know it's going to be a very important and successful summer for that company. So fingers crossed. Looking forward to seeing, oh, who knows what toys they've got in the bag, let's say. Have to thank Stern Pinball. Zach Sharp has always been there for me and And considering I fool around with the Sharp family quite a lot, they seem to forget when I ask for a favor, which is good. Keep that short-term memory. Because that way, I can give away these amazing signed Translites, all these games that are in production. Yes, you could win these Translites at the Pinball Profile Played in America Tour. I want to thank Jockton and Pinshades. Pinshades is a new sponsor. Listen, I've played a lot of games where maybe you're playing in a dark place, and they've got these LED lights on and you just can't see the play field? Uh-uh-uh. Pinshades coming to the rescue. And a big sponsor this year of the Played in America Tour. So we're going to be giving away a lot of pairs of those fine, fine products. I mentioned Ulix Store earlier. They're providing trophies and some other goodies too. We've got some neat mugs. So thank you to David and Leanne DeSlover. I'm really happy to have Outlaw Pinball on board. I've seen their shirts over the last year. If you ever watch Laser Low's stream, you'll see Outlaw Pinball everywhere. They were a big sponsor of InDisc as well. So to Bob and Adam and Outlaw, you're going to make a lot of people happy with these wonderful shirts that you've made for the Played in America Tour. And finally, this is a cool one. We're giving away a playfield at each event thanks to American Pinball. We've got these Houdini playfields that we're giving away. How nice would that look? In your arcade, on your wall. Very, very special. And again, all given away at random. Carson, you excited to play a little bit of pinball, see some baseball? Oh, yeah, for sure. I'm really excited to see the Kansas City Royals. I've never been to Kauffman Stadium, so hoping that's going to be as beautiful as it looks in the video games I play. I'm also excited to play pinball. I mean, see a couple people I've never met before. I haven't been to Kansas City's pinball scene, but I've heard it's great. So, excited. And just ignore what anybody says about me. It's all lies, okay? all lies son pay no attention to these people who make up these uh what they call truths anyway it's going to be a lot of fun so again sunday arcade legacy just south of cincinnati in newport kentucky now we've kind of closed registration but i've had some people ask can i please get in can i please get in the reason we closed registration early is so that we can get the shirts delivered on time and that's why we cut it off kind of a few days before but you know we'll squeeze some people in if they want to get in that would be $35 that'll get your shirt and cover any extra shipping that we have to do so that will be fun you'll you'll get in all the prizes we cap it at 50 people too same would be said for solid state pinball supply in Kansas City that is on Wednesday June 8th so if you want to play please reach out to me at pinballprofile at gmail.com but do it soon because if it sells out, I can't get you in anyway. And I want to get those shirts to you as soon as possible. So I have to put those orders in. Okay. So that's what's coming up also on the calendar. You can register for this right now. In fact, it is almost sold out. The Delaware Pinball Collective on Saturday, July 2nd, holiday weekend. My wife, Anne, and I are going to be going there looking forward to seeing Joe Fox and the crew. So many good players there. I love the tournament they just had recently. They look like they're the new District 82, if you will. Got a few Whopper events. So again, that is Saturday, July the 2nd. Another one on the schedule is Saturday, August 6th at Ulic Store Pinball and Classic Arcade. That is in Monroe, Michigan. And I'll give you a sneak peek of a couple other ones. Thursday, August 18th, and I'm going to be putting this on IFP very soon. that is going to be at Pocketeer Billiards in Buffalo, New York. In Cheek de Wagga, or if you're from there, they call it Cheek de Vegas. It has been the home of the Buffalo Pinball Summer Open twice. It has so many incredible games. So watch for that Thursday, August 18th. You know, the good thing about this tour is I'm going to places I have never been before, never held a tournament before, and I would have been to this place if it weren't for this little pandemic. and unfortunately the loss of Pinburg as it was. But I'm going to Pittsburgh anyway. I miss so many people there. So watch out. Wednesday, September 14th, Kickback Pinball Cafe.

11:02

Come join me, Doug, Elizabeth, and the fine Pittsburgh people. I'll put that on an IFPA soon, but if you're interested, certainly send me an email, pinballprofile at gmail.com. Also on the schedule, Saturday, October 1st, I miss my buddy Bruce Nightingale. So I'm going to Rochester to check out his new place, the Rochester Pinball Collective in East Rochester, New York. That will also go on the schedule soon, so watch for that. And then to end the first leg of the tour, Thursday, November 17th, in Florida, right before Free Play Florida happens, we're going to be in Ovado at the Pinball Lounge. I talked to Randy Parsons. I said I'd love to check out the Pinball Lounge. I loved what they did last year, Free Play Florida. You know, they took things over there and really put a lot of care into that event. You know, Daniel Spohler has done such a wonderful job for years. He couldn't do it last year because of his Project Pinball Love Across America tour, which he is doing right now, so please support Project Pinball. But Randy said the Pinball Lounge would love to have us for a Played in America tour, so we'll do that. That will end the first leg. The rest of the events will be happening after January. you know we take December off for the holidays and that kind of thing and watch for me in Georgia I going to be going to Portal Looking forward to seeing Brian Broyle new place Going to go to the Game Terminal in Nashville Tennessee I've seen what Patrick McKinnon did before at Old Music City Pinball. I can only imagine how good the Game Terminal is. Bang Back Pinball Cafe. Fred Richardson has done an amazing job in Columbia, South Carolina. I've got to check out Bang Back. So we'll do that in early 2023. three. Also, I mentioned Ryan Wanger earlier with Comet Pinball. You know, I'm sure I can find my way to Colorado, maybe do a little bit of skiing, a little bit of pinball, get my ass kicked by everyone who's great there. So I expect to see Escher and Adam and Donovan, Juliana, Snow, Walt Wood, Pez Johnson, and everyone else who seems to be just the greatest pinball players. what is it about Colorado? I once did an event there years ago. It was the pinball profile road trip. I was just there for a weekend. So I kind of ran a tournament at one up. I think there were 33 people. I might have come in 28th. I tried. It wasn't like I just bailed out and ran a tournament. Are you kidding? My ego, my pride, forget about it. I tried. Anyway, Colorado, you'll be kicking my butt in early 2023. And then there'll be more not announced yet. I'm waiting for a few calendar things to drop hint hint nudge nudge in disc perhaps anyway watch for more for the pinball profile played in america tour and if you are able to come to newport kentucky arcade legacy is the place a few weeks ago i talked to the owner jesse baker hey jesse how are you i'm great how are you good thank you very much for letting us come to your fine venue and you've been doing this for quite some time for those that don't know a little history of arcade legacy so arcade legacy has been around for about 13 years now. We kind of opened up when it was probably not the greatest idea to open an arcade. They were all kind of dying off. And a buddy of mine, we just kind of had this dream to do it. So we started collecting games. It took maybe five years or so to do it. Then we opened up in 2009. And after a few venue changes, we've been running strong for 13 years now. So right now in Newport, that's where we're going to be at for the Played in America tour. And for those that don't know, it is really just south of Cincinnati. It's across the river. Yeah, it's literally like a mile from the city. So it's right across the bridge. I get people from Ohio saying, oh, it's just, it's not close enough for me. And I think, wait a second, you know how far I'm coming for this? You can't drive an hour or two from Columbus? Come on, let's go. So whether you're in Columbus, I know some people from Michigan that might be coming and of course Kentucky and Ohio so it should be a good event for those again it is Sunday June the 5th everybody who plays gets one of these wonderful Played in America shirts with all the locations on the back the wonderful sponsors a nice keepsake and then Jesse this is going to be kind of cool for you all these prizes that we're giving away thanks to the great sponsors it's like $1,200 in prizing and you don't even have to play that well because all prizes are random that's kind of cool that's awesome yeah i do this mainly because uh my skills just aren't there and i thought well you know what if my skills aren't there why should i demand skills from other people so random is best and it's fun for everyone but the the flip frenzy format you've run a bunch of different tournaments tell us about the ones you like uh we mainly rotate between strikes tournaments and like match play qualifying style tournaments uh we do an occasional pin golf There's another group in town that will do the Flip Frenzy tournaments as well. So we kind of let them handle those. So yeah, I try to rotate around different formats because I've been to other places where they always do the same format and I kind of get bored with it. I like to mix it up. Well, that's the thing. There are different varieties and it really depends on how much time you have for tournaments. So if time's not an issue, yeah, match play is great. Everyone can get, say, 13 rounds if you want full TGP or if you want to do pin golf, which is a little unique it might be a little more time consuming and you only really need nine machines um there's all kinds of different formats i find them all fun the flip frenzy is good for something like this tour in the sense that okay we're going to play for three hours then give away all the prizes and then we'll have a little quick playoff for the uh the top six people but uh it's nice to mix it up i know you've been doing this for a long time and in fact arcade legacy is doing big things with other tournaments and even Stern Army. Yeah, we've been doing Stern Army for quite a while now, basically almost since they started doing Stern Army. We were just a little bit after they started. So we started doing tournaments. It's been a little over six years now. Eric Wertenberger, he was kind of the spearhead locally. I met him through the arcade and my bar arcade, and he just kind of instigated the tournaments. And we've been running them kind of. He does some, I do some. It's been great. Well, we have to thank Eric or Chuck Wirt on Twitch because I told him I'm coming to Cincinnati this first June weekend. Where can I play? And immediately said, you've got to contact Jesse for Arcade Legacy. And then I let him in on what I was planning to do with this tour.

20:12

Yeah, as far as, like, competition between our businesses, is uh we're far enough apart to where we have a lot of different customers and then we carry customers over i actually run all the tournaments at the pinball garage so we work together on keeping the pinball scene strong in cincinnati and the surrounding areas oh i just meant competition between the two of you as far as uh pinball because when it comes to different arcades you know whether it's your brother or not i think every arcade owner and that's kind of part of the reason for doing this tour is we want to see all arcades succeed and do well because it's better for everyone you know if one shuts down it makes it a little more the more people playing pinball they're going to go to more more arcades they might have their favorite sure that's all fine and dandy but oh that arcade's got this game oh this one's got that it's got that tournament you want to mix it up it's it's kind of like do you watch more than one tv show yeah you don't just have to have one you can you can have a few things do you eat more than one food sure exactly It's the same thing for arcades. I agree 100%. Yep. We've got right now, Arcade Legacy has three locations, but we're pairing two of them down into one mega location here in a few months. So we'll have two Arcade Legacy locations. We have the Pinball Garage. We have Comics to Games, which has an amazing collection. It's a little further in Kentucky. And so there's a lot. And then there's a lot of places that have just a handful of games that you can, they can play as well. So it's a pretty excellent pinball scene in Cincinnati. It is good for sure. and right there with Kentucky on the border. I've been to the Louisville show before. I had a great time there. I got to get back to that. It's going to be a nice drive for me to go through your fine country and hit a few pinball arcades. And I'm really looking forward to going to Arcade Legacy. Glad to have you. Looking forward to it as well. Make sure you follow Arcade Legacy on Facebook to find out when this new location, this mega location takes place and how you can get there too. Jesse, I have to thank you and everybody on the tour, But for opening the doors, for me to come there and put on this tournament, and for those that don't know, the arcades have really stepped it up. You know, they're putting their games on free play. They're waiving the fees. They just want everyone to have a great time so that we can make this as cost effective for everyone and everyone can walk away with a shirt and some prizes and all kinds of fun. So again, Jesse, without you, without Arcade Legacy, this tour doesn't happen. Yeah, I mean, I'm really excited for you guys to come down and check out Arcade Legacy for sure. That'll be Sunday, June 5th. Yeah, we open the doors at 1. Register at 1 o'clock. At 2 o'clock, we start playing. Around 5, we'll give up all the prizes and then do our playoffs and send you on your way. But it's going to be a great time. And thank you once again, Jesse. You're welcome. And also, we are going to be, just a few days later, at Solid State Pinball Supply in Kansas City, Missouri. That'll be on Wednesday, June 8th. Doors open at 6. We start playing at 7. Prizes at 10 and a quick playoff. and again, that'll be the night, but a lot of fun. $29 US, pinballprofile at gmail.com by PayPal. You'll find out more about Solid State Pinball Supply when we talk to Kerry Wing and Nick Greenup, the fine people who bring us that great location. So a couple of events in June, and we go in July to the Delaware Pinball Collective. And again, up to 14 of these dates. We have 12 posted as far as the locations, two more locations still to come, dates pending on some of these. Thank you again. The Pinball Profile Played in America tour. Took a while to get here. I wish I could go everywhere. It's just obviously not possible with travel, with costs, with apparently I have to work once in a while. But I do want to come everywhere and I'm excited to be bringing this tour to all new locations. So that's kind of exciting to spread it around, so to speak. And, you know, it doesn't mean this is the end of these trips or tours. We'll just get through this one and then we'll maybe look at another one. But right now we're very, very excited to be going to all these locations. And you can find out more on our Facebook page. We're also on Twitter and Instagram at Pinball Profile. You can email us pinballprofile at gmail dot com. I'm Jeff Teola.