Happy Sunday, pin folk, or whatever day you're listening. This is NYC Pin Pot, in which a panel talks location pinball in New York City. My name is Benjamin Furiga. My initials are BCF. And the stickers under the toilet seat at Buttermilk that appear to say BCF in some cool font are not related to me. But I don't mind the free advertising right there with all the other shit stains. My name is Eric Sweetbunt. My initials are HIP, and I'm a pinball tournament director in New York City. On this week's pod, as usual, in ball one, we'll run down local competition results. And in ball two, as usual, we will have venue updates with Eric, courtesy of pinballmap.com and its users. And in ball three, we will call our first meeting to adopt the NYC pin pod platform this election season. All right, should we do this thing then? Let's do it. Let's get started. Let's talk about competitive pinball in New York City over the past week. On Sunday, October 26th at Pinahan Gardens, it was Galloween, all bells and chimes, NYC max match play. Spooktacular. There were costumes. I think there was a contest, and I don't have the results of that here. But there were 20 rounds of max match play, which actually makes sense. It's not as crazy as it sounds. If you've played in max match play, you sort of understand. It moves very fast. It's not quite as crazy as that sounds. It's head to head. And then eight players played Papa Finals at this private location. Of the 23. Of the 23 who gathered under Kate Martin's direction. Collider, Caitlin James Rees, took the day. dressed, I believe, as Red from Red and Ted's Roadshow. Lauren Berner-Lawrence came in second, Lindsay Rhodes third, and Natalie Cleveland, also a Collider, came in fourth. There were 19.19 whoppers in the women's division available at this tournament that Caitlin took home. Also on Sunday, 12 players traveled to upstate Manhattan and at the Wallace for the finals of the Selfie League at the Wallace. The Selfie League directed by Jose Garcia, but the finals had Adam Robinson in his stead to push the buttons. Thank you, Adam. Over a total of 11 rounds of group strikes, Alberto Santana outlasted the pack and got himself 3.90 whoppers. In second place was myself. I was leading most of the time, and Alberto had to beat me twice in a row to get that win. And both those games were on World Cup soccer. Oh. the last two and and i got over 500 million both those games yeah no alberto's really good at that game yeah alberto's really good at pinball greg pavarelli got third and conor calista fourth on monday at barcade brooklyn barcade brooklyn pinball league season seven was convened its fourth meeting that is to say nine players came to kate martin's event they played five rounds of group match play in order to improve their standing, taking their best four of six results over the course of the entire season. This week, Jonah Shlaes and Matthew Grady tied for first with 29 points apiece. Kate Martin had 23, and Jose Garcia and Sean Grant had 20 apiece. we have had enough meetings that you can have a full scorecard, right? There's four. It's the fourth one. And so it's worth talking about these standings. Four players have played in four, in all four matches. And so far, Matthew Grady is in front by a wide margin with 112 points accumulated so far. Kate Martin, just behind at 92. Not just behind, but... In second place. In second place. And Sean Grant is far behind with 76, but also his next meeting is all net. And Kate needs... Kate's first 21 points for each of her next two meetings don't count. So she... Sean's coming for her. Jonah Shlaes has 75 with three meetings. Matthew Torres, 71. David Brinkman, 68. They both have four. Jose Garcia, after a good finish this week and all over 20 with three, is in seventh. And Alex Weisenberger is in eighth with 55 points accumulated so far. Bernie Birnbaum is just below the line at 48, but only has two meetings. so every point that this person scores for the rest of the season is a net positive so they got they got a lot of a lot of points they could score there's still 70 out there they could get to 118 and pass grady it's possible in the b division if it started today that very bernie birnbaum would be a top paul mckew would be second till latke third brady torres sam hall eric rubinsky Dustin Bailey and Michael Focus is in 16th so far. The bottom three, no, the bottom four of those folks have only two meetings apiece. In addition to Bernie and Paul at the top, Till is actually the only player. Till and Bradley are the only players with three meetings so far. Everyone who's below the line in C has only one meeting so far, so they can only get to three. But the way this is looking right now, it's possible that three could get you, you know, if you have three good ones, it could get you above the line and be at least. Also on Monday, October 27th, round eight of pinball NYC's left flipper division was met at bars all across the city. The lesser players, our closest competitors, came up to At The Wallace to see our New York City Flipper Sport Association, and our association scored a 13-3 home win. The Mutants visited the Balls of Steel at Midway, and Balls of Steel had an amazing 14-2 home win. That is huge and has major playoff implications. The two for oners hosted Intermission Dolores at Scruffy Duffy's Tap Room, and the home team won 9-7. They get back on the winning side at home, and Intermission Dolores' slide continues, unfortunately for them. The Pinbots went to Bargrade Harry to meet Harry's Hand Grenades and got a 9-7 road win. That Pinbots win effectively locks up an Orbit playoff spot for them. That was a really good win for them. The Deluxe Horses faced off against Special When Lit at Rulo's. Special When Lit scored a 10-6 home win. They went into that final round 6-6. That home team is prone to last-minute heroics. Parliament visited the Pin Pals at Skylark. Pin Pals win 11-5. They evened their record with Parliament by beating Parliament. The Colliders were hosts at Buttermilk Bar when the Lion Persons came to visit Brooklyn, and the Lion Persons took an 11-5 win back to Manhattan with them. two shout outs here dante came in after the first round was contested already agreed to play attack from mars when we chose two of them in the singles round and then chose to play iron maiden because dante had done so well in round three on iron maiden and colliders had already lost by the end of that and that was going for so long he scored 125 or 162 maybe 152 152 and 162 million somewhere in there on ball one and then went on to score roughly 700 million points on Iron Maiden in round three and so we just went on to play round four while Dante was still playing the game wasn't over but the match was So we went on to play the doubles match while he tried to get the high score. He played incredibly, as you would expect. He's Dante. And I just want to shout out also Simon on the Colliders, who played him twice. Both games that Dante played, Simon had the displeasure. I mean, you know, it's always a pleasure to play with Dante and to see Dante. but the displeasure of just being dealt a massive defeat because Dante showed up and did his thing. The Aristocrats had a bye week. After eight weeks of play, the Orbit playoff picture has New York City Flipper Sport Association in first place with a record of 7-1 and 95 points accumulated. But now, Balls of Steel are 6-1 with 79 points. Last week we talked about how they were really far behind, but they're now actually within 16 points of NYC FSA, and they have one more match left to play. And so in the theoretical world where NYC FSA's bye is next week and they play and win 16-zip, they're tied for the first seed. Special One Lit sitting at 6-2 with 71 points. That win has them creeping right around a bye. there's four teams that have five wins the mutants are five and two with 60 points and then with a record of five and three parliament has 80 the pin pals of 71 and lion persons of 66 and the line would be right there between the pin pals and the lion persons right now it's also true that the big loss by the mutants this week means that they have very little room for error if they won a top seed. They are one win in front of the eighth place team. The top six make the playoffs, but they've both played seven games. They've both had a bye already, and they have the same composite score as that eighth place team over those seven games. I mean, Mutants at five and two with 60 points, and then right behind them, parliament's five and three with 80 points right it's the mutants who have to pay attention that's what i'm saying because if the two for oneers were at five and three and the mutants were at five and three let's say the two for oneers and mutants played this week and the two for oneers beat them the two for oneers would be in the playoffs and the mutants would be out of the playoff you know they would be off out of the top six right now it's there's there's a lot at stake for that team right now. So then the in-lane playoffs with the 7th through 12th place teams, Lion Persons, who we're talking about real close to being in, 5-3 with 66 points, and the 2-for-1ers, 4-3 with 60 points. Those would both be buys in the in-lane playoffs. The Aristocrats are 3-4 with 56 points, And Intermission Dolores is 3-5 with 61. And the Pinbots are 3-5 with 52. Those are all very much of a piece. That third win for the Pinbots was actually really big. What's left is this. Holding on by the thinnest of margins to the 12th place spot and a trip to the in-lane playoffs. The Colliders are 2-5 with 46 points. Right behind them. The Deluxe Horses are 2-5 with 45 points. A single point over the course of the season so far. And in fact, the Pinbots should look out because one or the other of us will be 3-5 next week after we face each other. Spoiler alert for the schedule. That's got to be like the match of the week. the two teams on the bubble of elimination with almost identical records. Yeah. And they meet. And also the cutest and the funnest teams. Two teams are still winless. Are they out of contention? Let's see. No? They could conceivably get in. Three wins right now is the magic number to qualify. So they can still get in, but they're also still winless. Also, one of them can't get the three wins because they face each other in round 10. only one of them could actually get to three wins at this point our guests this week the lesser players have 35 points and harry's hand grenades have picked up 19 points oh and seven is a tough lot but you know all you got to do is put your head down and play on tuesday october 28th also all over New York City. Pinball NYC's round eight in the right flipper division was convened. Jack Bar was the location. The ball drainers were the hosts. No quarters for laundry were both the visitors and the victors. No quarters win there puts them in the driver's seat for the third seed. Next up for no quarters are the Harlem Globe Flippers, who are a win ahead of them, but one point behind them. Scrapple Squad earned a win as they visited Pinister Six at Skylark, 10-6. Just like we said last week, could they get 10 after going 7-8-9? Here they are. Pinister Six's loss guarantees them a record under 500. The Replace hosted Neptune's Treasure at Rulos, and Neptune's Treasure's wave crashed 10 to 6 over the struggling replays. Neptune's Treasure was sitting around the bottom of the orbit playoffs. Beating the replays puts the replays at the bottom of the in-lane playoffs standings. Schlubbs went to Buttermilk Park where Danger Danger handed them a 10 to 6 loss. Rest in Pinball went to Barcade Fidei where the Trolls bested them 12 to 4 The Trolls second win keeps them around the same pace as Scrapple squad In fact, they picked up two points on them with that 12-point win. Your Butterballers visited the place that everybody loves to visit, which happens to be the reason for the name Everybody Loves the Sunshine. And the home team handed you a 10-6 loss. Everybody loves the sunshine, staying alive for the Orbit playoffs there with a win. The Pin Babes went way uptown to at the Wallace, where the Harlem Globe Flippers dealt them an 11-5 loss. That's the Globe Flippers' seventh win and the Pin Babes' seventh loss. the Orbit playoff picture looks fairly set, but we'll see. Danger Danger and Harlem Globe Flippers are 7-1 with 83 and 82 points apiece. No Quarters for Laundry, Baldrainers, Schlubs and Neptune's Treasure are all 6-2. I'm going to run down some numbers here, but I'm going to note that the first number is the same number I said for the team at 7-1 with the most points. No Quarters has scored 83 and then after that we've got Baldrainers at 80, Schlubbs at 76, Neptune's Treasure at 74, and just behind them, Everybody Loves the Sunshine is in seventh place. So on track to be the top seed in the next division down at five and three with 67 points accumulated. Their best chance of making it into the Orbit playoffs is to win out and hope that somebody gets two losses. but if any of those six win teams lose once they still have a path in the in lane you know i mean neptune's treasure is above the line but it'd be them if everybody loves the sunshine did their thing but everybody loves the sunshine whichever one of those two teams ends up in this division is guaranteed at this point a top seed they are three wins or four wins depending on which one of them and his in front of the next team down and there are only two weeks left in this division so there's there's nothing to be done if you are not one of these two teams you will not be the top seed but Neptune's Treasure or Everybody Loves the Sunshine most likely could be some of the other six and two teams but probably one of those two would be the top seed there were so many six and two teams let's talk about how many two and six teams there are Scrapple Squad, Pinister Six, butterballers, trolls, replays, rest in pinball, parenthetically. That sounds to me like six teams at two and six, and only five of them will find themselves in the playoffs at the end of this, or maybe the pin babes at one and seven, who knows, who have 39 points. Those six teams at two and six are only separated by eight points overall in the standings from 47 up to 55. That's all incredibly close. I mean, I guess it depends on who plays who in the schedule, but just mathematically the Pindabes at one and seven could win out and get a bye. Yeah. Yeah. Like it is mathematically positive. It's very unlikely. It's very unlikely. But they're one and seven right now and two teams out, but they could be the second seed. That's how close this division is. That's crazy. Scrapple League was on a break this Wednesday. First qualifying session of the next season starts next week. We'll talk about that in the upcoming. On Thursday, October 30th, No Bro Presents Thursday Night Strikes was convened. 20 players descended on Jack Bar, where Gabriel, not the Angel, although I don't know, maybe he was dressed up like an angel that night, led the way for a three-strike head-to-head knockout, not group knockout, tournament. And also, Gabriel Chazanov. again probably not the angel but i don't know what his halloween costume was one best thing travis rosenberg jonathan cabrera and andy hayden respectively oh actually jonathan and andy tied for third also on thursday the second qualifying week of the south slope pinball leagues season five met at buttermilk bar under the direction of kate martin 21 players played 5 rounds of match play with IFPA scoring with the goal of garnering the most points towards their series total Janos Kiss Gonzalez, Robert Wong, and Billy Vazine all picked up 27 points on the night and Tom Milburn got 26 next week, all over the city, Pinball NYC's round 9 will be convened in the left flipper division. Balls of Steel will visit Intermission Dolores at Commonwealth in South Slope. Special Wendlet will take a well-deserved rest and have a bye week. Parliament, after a tough away loss, visits a tough away venue and your New York City Flippers Board Association at the Wallace. Lion Persons visit the lesser players at the lion person's home last season, Gebhard's Beer Culture. The Pinbots will play host to the Mutants at Scrapple Land. Harry's Hand Grenades will host the two-for-oners at Bar Great Harry. The Pin Pals will go to Rulo's just up the block to visit the Aristocrats. And we Colliders will visit the Deluxe Horses at Barcade Brooklyn. On Tuesday, November 4th, in Pinball NYC's Right Flipper Division, Round 9 will be met at bars all around New York City. Danger Danger goes to Scrapple Land to see Scrapple Squad. We Butterballers will host the Ball Drainers at Buttermilk Bar. Lots of balls there. The replays will face off against Pinister Six at Skylark. Rest in Pinball, parenthetically, RIP. We'll travel to Milo's Yard to see Neptune's Treasure. Birdies will see Everybody Loves the Sunshine come to visit the Pin Babes. Here's that one. Harlem Glove Flippers are going to face off against No Quarters for Laundry at Solid State. That's a big match. That's a big match. Yeah, it's a big match. There's a lot about what's happening at the top of those standings is maybe going to be determined by that match. And trolls will visit schlubs at Jack Bar. No articles. Quite so. On Wednesday at Jack Bar, the IFBA website tells me that there will be an event called Pin Disco. Also on Wednesday, Scrapple League's fifth season of 2025 will have its first qualifying meeting at Scrapple Land in Greenpoint, Brooklyn at 8 o'clock. Do you know what date the finals will be for that one? December 17th. On Thursday at Jack Bar at exactly 8 o'clock. Thursday night strikes will be met. There will be a whip cracked. And if you go and play in that Thursday Night Strikes tournament, you may win entries to something else that's happening that day. You can also win entries at Scrapple League on Wednesday. Oh. And you can also win entries also on Thursday at South Slope Pinball League's third qualifying week at Buttermilk Bar at Pinball 8 o'clock. And then also, while other people are out there winning those entries, those of us who are like Randy Moss and pay straight cash, homie, can go to the Harvest and start qualifying on Thursday night. And they can keep qualifying on Friday night. That's right. On Saturday, they can keep qualifying, and also the Classics finals will take place in the evening. And then on Sunday, the Harvest will have their finals for both the main division and for their non-binary and women's edition. All of those harvest festivities happen at Gebhard's Beer Culture on the Upper West Side, right on 72nd Street, right next to the 72nd Street 123 stop. Go to the Upper West, go to the harvest, and go get them. As of October 31st, 2025, there are 342 pinball machines in New York City at 80 public locations. Thanks to the creators and users of Pinball Map for this data, here are machine updates from the past week. Last Friday, October 24th, user Strato141 went to Area 141st, a bar on First Avenue on the Lower East Side. they said of their revenge from Mars, bad lean on machine, and of World Cup soccer, machine is broken, turned off after plunging first ball. There's no punctuation in that, so I'm not 100% how to parse that. Either the machine reset after the first plunge, or it was broken in some way and the user turned it off. Right. Or told the bar, hey, there's a problem and they said, hey, we can't do anything about it. We need to wait for the operator or whatever. On Saturday, the Big Lebowski reappeared at Scrapple Land. And then also on Saturday, a location that's normally outside of the bounds of what I talk about but I just thought it was interesting. Clawcade is in Garden City, not too far out on Long Island, I guess. That's got to be Nassau still. They've recently added a couple of machines out there. On Saturday, they added a Star Wars Fall of the Empire Pro. Oh, the new one. User Lobster Harmonica visited Clockade on Saturday and played their Jaws LE. They said the shark fin target is worn. On one game, it didn't pop up at all. And on another, it did, but it was clearly not aligned properly. Lobster Harmonica. On Monday, the Guardians of the Galaxy at Boat Bar was taken out and an Attack from Mars remake was put in its place. User LindsayClair28 was at Scrapple Land. They played the James Bond 007 and said, kick out of the left scoop is really weak, otherwise seemed great. LindsayClair28 then ambled down the street, and stopped in at Sunshine Laundromat. They said, great copy of Lebowski, playing great, and also tried the Papa card, and said it would only give two balls per game, which was sad. I was there on Tuesday, and sometimes it only gave you one ball, and also something was really wrong with it. It was just scoring some switch somewhere again and again and again. Papa card, though, huh? Yeah. How about that? That's a week after Gold Strike shows up, huh? A couple weeks, I guess. Also Monday, user Hitchhiker went to the Gutter Bar LIC and let us know that their shadow was fixed on Friday evening and working as it should. Nice. On Tuesday, the getaway at Scrapple Land was removed, but a Game of Thrones premium was added to the lineup. They're at 51 games right now. That's a lot of games. I wish that one of them wasn't Game of Thrones Premium. I wish that one of them was the getaway. I'm sure it was just wheeled to the back to get worked on. I imagine so. Having some real issues. Yeah, it was not in prime shape when it first got deployed. On Wednesday, we had the first part of a little barcade shuffle around. Godzilla was removed from Barcade Brooklyn. But a Medieval Madness was added there. Ooh. That's the Medieval Madness that was removed from Barcade Fight Eye. Right, which is really good playing Medieval Madness, to be fair. I never want to play Medieval Madness, but that one almost makes me want to play Medieval Madness. To replace it, Barcade Fight Eye picked up a Medieval Madness remake Merlin edition. User Toneuff was at Barcade Fight Eye on Wednesday and they played The Addams Family and said, by far the most perfect Addams Family I've ever played. Brand new playfield and perfectly balanced. You can actually play it. And then on Wednesday, user SLPenza took out all the games that had been at Randolph Beard Dumbo. Or some on the curb. Also took out the Twilight Zone that had been at Key Bar. Both those locations are now devoid of pins. Also removed the Iron Maiden from the gutter LES. and then removed the Black Knight Sword of Rage from Rossi's Lounge in Williamsburg, but put an Iron Maiden into Rossi's Lounge. On Thursday, Black Knight 2000 was removed from Barcade Chelsea, and the Godzilla Premium that had been at Barcade Brooklyn went into Barcade Chelsea. And on Friday, October 31st, a Walking Dead Premium was added to the lineup at Scrapple Land. That premium is interesting. I feel like I never see it, although Rock Fantasy had one. So every time I was there, I played one. But I never see that premium, I feel like. It's not as terrible as the Game of Thrones premium, that's for sure. The Game of Thrones premium is terrible. Also on Friday, user wingnut707 went to Milo's yard and said of their whirlwind, volume is cranked up and you can feel every sound. Absolutely incredible. I hope you can feel the wind too. The power, I should hope, of the wind. Indeed. You want to talk our pinball bullet journals? Yes, we should. Mine, I think, starts and ends on Monday pretty much. Did you have anything before Monday? Well, yeah. On Saturday I worked at Arcade Brooklyn, as is my usual schedule had one big pinball repair the lower right flipper on eight ball deluxe busted i was playing it and it just started feeling really soft and then not moving and then i opened it up and took a look and the flipper bat the plastic piece had cracked inside and the shaft that goes down through the play field had separated from it. Right, so when the mechanism that moves when you press the flipper button is supposed to spin, it was getting no purchase on the flipper. It was just spinning inside it and camming out, right? Very much so. We had some spare flippers I found in the bottom of the cabinet, swapped on the rubber, which was doing just fine from the busted one onto the new one. And then I had to figure out how to get that attached, drop it through the play field, and it goes into this little ring that you tighten down with some tiny little screws and then get it all to line up and everything. and then the end of stroke mechanism on 8-Ball Deluxe is wild. That is all mixed in there. Anyway, I got all that stuff. The end of stroke mechanism, for those of you who don't fix pinball machines or haven't looked into it like nerds like me might have, is the thing that doesn't use up a lot of voltage when you've pressed the button the whole way in and your flipper is holding in an up state. It creates a state of rest in a different flipper position so that you're not blowing your motor out. That's what the end of stroke switch is and does, just for what Eric just said. That's to clarify a little bit there. After work, I went to a Halloween party at a private pinball location. And I played pinball all night. I stayed out so late. finally left at like 5 30 a.m oh my and then that leads into me waking up sunday afternoon to a text from adam robinson saying you're coming right i'm like oh i'm so hungover but so i did i dragged myself out of bed and not having enough time for the subway trip i took a car to at the wallace which was not covered by my winnings well it would have been difficult to cover that kind of car yeah he's at a tournament that had 12 people bought in is that right or that's right 12 people yeah um and would have been a big oh i felt if getting second at that tournament well it covered a car from from somewhere in Brooklyn to that far up in Manhattan totally oh i felt terrible the whole time but i was playing lights out it went really well and it was super fun so for um the winner's podium photos adam robinson had us gather together and he did pairs of photos where we'd all be smiling and then a second photo where we were all supposed to look angry. And they turned out really well. They're great. Those are posted on my Blue Sky to go see. I really like when I'm given Alberto the side eye. Yeah, it's good. It's good. In front of World Cup also. Yeah. Where it all went sideways. Where it all went wrong. Right there. At the fucking scene of the crime. Oh, and then on Monday, I went back to at the Wallace. two days in a row. How about that? That was pretty great. I ate well. Well, well, or well? I don't understand the question and I won't respond to it. Nice. Jessica Walter, for those of you rest in power, Jessica Walter. For anyone who did not understand that reference. Monday, I took a picture in one of the bathroom stalls of a piece of graffito that every time I see it, I laugh out loud. It just makes me snort. Someone has written on the wall of the bathroom so I'll let that be Wallace. Damn, girl, you poop with that butt? Shitty bathroom graffiti, and I do mean shitty. So you played on Monday. I did, I did, and speaking of shitty, so look, Monday night, I was very proud of the way that I played on Metallica. I was told in an earlier round when I said, you know, I mean, I could play now or I could play later, that it would be somebody's fantasy that they and I would play Metallica doubles in the final round. ergo I was going to play Metallica in the final round doubles and I happened to be because my Ryan Policky is I like to play pinball usually in the second round I sit if we're at home because we're choosing and it's just like no one wanted to choose and it came down to we have three games and Benjamin what do you want to do and I said well Metallica then and I played a very good game of Metallica in which I got... I started the mode on ball two and almost immediately drained. And then I had walked off already, but on ball three, I started Seek and Destroy and then almost immediately drained. I don't usually want to start Seek and Destroy because it resets all of the icons on all of the shots, I believe. such that on the next ball, once I've done it, on the next ball, if I've set all of the shots up so that I collect a snake and a cross and an electric chair, grave marker is probably what I should have said instead of cross. But if I set up every shot that it's that, then on the next ball, it dies, right? None of them are set up. I come back to an empty slate, I believe. so you know maybe ball three is the right time to do it but i did it and then drained immediately so who fucking knows it's the thing it's the thing you never do it's the thing you're never trying to do but i just happened to do it because i was hitting enough shots while i was playing multi balls that you know i i found myself with all of the shots having completed the hurry up after having put all of the icons on them. And then, immediately drink. And then in round four, I had a very good... I don't think my player two score was quite a walk-off, but my player two score on Metallica in that final fantasy round, and I don't mean that quite in the video game sense. You know, I did okay. I noticed a thing when I was there, and I didn't dwell on it a lot, but in one of the two bathrooms, there are stickers that are on the underside of the toilet seat. You might have heard me say something about this in my introduction. It really looks like someone made a very sort of fancy font that says BCF and put stickers under the toilet seat such that if you put it up to pee, you might notice them and see BCF. I assure you it's not me. But, well, I'll talk about this. You know what? I have one entry for today on Friday. We'll talk about this then. Let's talk about what else happened for you on Tuesday and Wednesday. Anything else? I got a Friday too. On Tuesday, we Butterballers went to Sunshine Laundromats. Haven't been there in a hot minute. Entirely different lineup, mostly, I think. Had some really nice warm-up games. Not so great competitive games. Good night. Is Bad Cat still there? Yes, but out of order. Yum, yum, yum. Did you relish your Wednesday off? Oh boy, did I. I stayed home and I didn't go anywhere, which is awesome. Great. And then last night, Thursday, my first question was where's Benjamin? and I'm guessing with two weeks decidedly off that you wouldn't be able to make it you decide not to do this season pretty close lovely Thursday night after those crazy rains in the afternoon that actually turned out kind of warm had a lot of wide ranging pinball philosophy discussions last night most of which I promised I wouldn't repeat because a lot of them went a little dirty. Uh-huh. But Zen and I commiserated about the fact that we feel we're getting better at pinball, but everybody else seems to be getting a lot better and our IFPA rankings are just sliding. I thought that today was going to be my IFPA anniversary because my first tournament was a Halloween tournament. I looked it up, though, and it was actually on the 22nd. end of October of 2016. So Matthew Carlson was at SSPL last night. And because I didn't go, I woke up this morning to a text message that was a photo of the underside of a toilet seat at Buttermilk with stickers saying, dude, what's this? from MMC from last night because it does, it really looks like it says BCF on these stickers and so, you know, I'm okay. I'm comfortable down there with all the shit stains. I was reminded of you last night specifically of when a new round pops up and I'll look at my phone and say, oh, I've got to go play Walking Dead. And you'll say, you get to go play Walking Dead. Privilege. As I was having a conversation with Courtney and a new round popped up. And she said her response when she sees what game she'll be playing is, why does this happen to me? New York. It's election season. I hope that you're listening to this before Tuesday. And I hope that you're voting on Tuesday if you didn't vote before Tuesday. I hope that you are voting for mayor and for things that I am not going to prescribe to you how to vote outside of informed. I would like to prescribe to you that if you're going to go to the ballot box, that you actually look at everything that you can vote on when you go there. You can go to nycvotes.org and put in your address. It'll tell you everything that you get to vote for on Tuesday. It gives you links to their platform positions and implications of ballot proposals. You've still got a little time if you've got this on Monday. You can't early vote anymore if it's Monday. If you're getting it on Sunday at nine o'clock, you probably still can't early vote anymore, although I don't know what time your local polls close and that might be localized to some degree. I'm not certain. But on Tuesday, you can vote. You can vote for mayor. You can vote for other things. You should go vote for those things if you're going to take the time to be informed. And you have the right to do it if you're not going to. And there's a certain way in which I support that. But I'd like you to invest a little bit of time. It doesn't take long to make sure that you're aligned with those little boxes you're going to check with all of this said. If you want to get elected, if you want to have power, if you want people to listen to you, do what you want. Or, you know, not necessarily what you want, but to think the way you think. If you want to persuade them to believe what you believe, it is necessary to have a platform as a political party. And I have called the two of us here together to plant the seeds such that we might ratify a platform. But I would like to propose that we talk about some of these baseline ethical pinball things that when you go out in society and play pinball, you got to deal with. So coming into this discussion right now, I didn't have much more of an idea what we were going to talk about than what Benjamin suggested to me a couple days ago. hey, do you want to lay out a platform for a pinball political party? The one thing that came to mind, what I think should be the party's central plank, the number one plank, is that pinball is for everyone. Uh-huh. This is something that I can get on board with. And in fact, I think that it is a great point at which to begin building a coalition, which is what you really got to do if you're going to have a platform and have an organized attempt at wielding power, which is what politics is about, I'm sorry to say. And I believe the central tenet to building this party is, is the elimination of gatekeeping in pinball and providing access to everyone. There are accessibility issues. Uh-huh. And in general, welcoming newcomers to our little corner of pinball. Yeah. Competitive pinball, which is a small corner, and specifically in New York City. We're small, but we're mighty. This is why I cheer on all sorts of inclusivity efforts. Things like Bells and Chimes Leagues. I don't mean to brag on you, but APAB, you certainly were involved in organizing to some degree, right? Yeah. And then I was going to say efforts like APAB and it being showing up in different places. There's APAB events happening in Toronto. so Oh that awesome So all sorts of entry points for new players and places into which they can go and feel comfortable Yeah It that big tent thing We talked about it a lot last season We haven talked about it quite as much this season but it is that big tent thing Whenever I'm a TD involved with an event, I try my hardest to make it welcoming. Things like Brooklyn Pin Pride now has just been growing every year, getting bigger and bigger, and it's one of the most joyous things to me. Yeah, it's great. It's so great. Accessibility is another part of this plank. Physical. I'm thinking of physical. And potentially also intellectual. This is an uncomfortable subject to discuss, but we have a big boy chair here and we can pull it up and talk about it. There are things that are defined as disabilities in our culture and we here at NYC Pin Pod, I think it's fair for me to speak for both of us and say that we view them as a different ability that indeed probably society has not set up to help you deal with or understand. but it is still this that if you will excuse us for using the phrase disability insofar as it may be offensive, but also may be descriptive. Here we are. Have you had a chance to see the accessible control panel? I haven't. I remember Jose telling us about it after he was at Expo last year. Right. I've seen it. That seems cool. it seems super cool yeah I've seen it at Rock Fantasy a couple times is that right? yeah I think there's one that if doesn't live at Rock Fantasy is of a local player's design cool that's a great thing and I think our party should encourage more of this let's get these into the major manufacturers Let's talk about all sorts of ways that people can approach and play this fantastic game. That's right. It is ultimately, it is about attempting to bend physics to your will. And nothing about a different physical ability or a different mental ability necessarily compromises your ability to enjoy that for sure, but also potentially excel at it. Nothing about just having to approach it in a slightly different way changes the overall concept of I am trying to bend physics to my will. I have these couple of diverters that I can control what position that they're in and in particular time when they're in a particular position. It is I am controlling space-time in some certain way or affecting it in some certain way. and there's nothing about the way that my fingers work that make me somehow predisposed to do that better than someone who just doesn't, their right middle finger doesn't work the way mine does. It just, it doesn't, there's nothing that makes me predisposed to that other than the physical design of the game. And also because given the option to play the game is also a doorway into the pinball community to joining us, which is what we're looking for. Yeah. And maybe this is a way I'm taking a note myself to do better at TDing, but just getting down to real specifics. What's a Ryan Policky position here? is, I think it should be clear to the players, and this is probably the TD's responsibility to let them know ahead of time, the Ryan Policky on waiting for casuals. Oh, sure. Last night we had a group at one point I was playing better and was in an upper group before sliding back out. So it was a tough group and we got called to go on to Metallica. This, by the way, Eric said last night. We're recording on Friday, so this is Thursday night, SSPL. We're talking about a Metallica in the back room right next to the bathroom that has a sticker that isn't exactly my initials, but probably is my initials on the underside of the toilets. You were saying? Just so. A couple had just started a two-player game on Metallica, and they were a friendly couple. They had been around the bar since I got there, and I was there early last night and they were chatting with some of the pinball people because they were going around and playing various pinball machines. They were apparently, this was their last night in New York City. They were moving to Austin, Texas. Oh, wow, okay. And they're in the neighborhood. This is their favorite bar. They wanted to stop in one last night. Right. We weren't going to go up and say, oh, hey, could we jump in right here? Yeah, I mean, you really laid on all the fucking ball. As one of them is plunging the ball. Holy shit right there, didn't you? like every possible ripe circumstance was thrown on top of that yeah absolutely so we stood there for a little bit and they noticed like oh wait you know why are all the pinball players staring at us we explained to them and said don't worry about it we'll wait and you know we check in and make sure is it okay to wait it was okay sure and then you know it wound up being the long game of the match being much delayed in its start and it's I think we all put up good games. Mostly, I want to say, don't scare off the casuals. What other Ryan Policky positions do you think we should take? All right, so I'm a nitpicky motherfucker. Look, you know, the IFPA has rules, and those rules are effectively the law in this conversation. They are the thing that is enforceable in most of the scenario that we are talking about. Excuse me, scenario that we are talking about. That law indicates very clearly that when it's my turn, no one else should be touching the pinball machine. And there's this really specific thing that happens a lot of the time in pinball competitions that I think people would argue against this. I think that what I'm about to say is controversial, but I still propose it as a part of the pinball party platform. Because one may not touch the flippers when it's my turn unless one is me. When one presses the flipper buttons in order to speed up their bonus count. often I hear the flippers actuate. That means it's my ball and you were touching the flippers. And so, am I going to do this? Kant would say the categorical imperative that that which you must will to do good is that which you must assume that all people would will to do good. That a logical person would say, yes, I think that that does good for society and therefore that is the generative iteration of my action. And it seems to me that a vast majority of the time, the generational iterative action of I am flipping, I'm hitting the flipper buttons to speed through my bonus. It doesn't, it's not what you'd want me to do. You don't want me touching the flippers when it's your fucking turn, do you? Do you? I want to build this coalition with you, Benjamin. Okay. And to that point, I'll say, yeah, I'm on board with this. Okay. Now, I have a technique, a strategy for dealing with my bonus. Not always, and when I get flustered and playing, I'll storm off. Sure, me too. I try, as a considered player, to stand and watch my entire bonus. Hands, arms akimbo. I do my damnedest to stand arms akimbo because I will then know that I'm not touching the pinball machine when it's your turn. If my fists are on my hip, I'm not touching the pinball machine when it's the next player's turn. But I have... But you're holding the space in front of the machine. You are still addressing the machine. It is until it has counted up my bonus. It is your machine. It's your ball. It's your machine. Yep. Also, watching the bonus count can give you information about how your game is going. Yes. That maybe you missed during the flurry of the ball flying around. This is good. It can remind you of your situation. It's got little pieces of information in there. It can also, you can learn, oh, these are the things that make a big bonus. That's right. These are things I should do. That's right. And it's a way to stay thoughtful and in the game. And then, yeah, I might have my arms crossed, and then I'll wait for it to finish. I'll see that it advances to the next player, and I'll step away. It helps drive home which player you are so you don't play out of order. Yep. I did last week. Yep. Yeah. Just stay grounded with it. But also, when your player number is up on the screen, the machine is yours. That's right. If I do walk away and someone flips away my bonus, I completely understand. But yeah, I was like, oh, that was mine. Right. Right. Right. Now, what about the games that offer you the little extra mode for another credit? World Cup Soccer has a buy-in. A buy-in games. Yeah, look, that's not... I mean, I think that's fine because I have completed ball three at that point in a vast majority of pinball competitions. You couldn't buy in and play the extra ball, right? There's a competitive setting at least. Yeah, it doesn't feel shitty to me. And even in a non-competitive setting, when you're just out with your homie, you both probably know the ethos of the evening. and look if you want to get a little crazy and throw that's what Bob Ross would call it I like to do the buy-in on Twilight Zone because it gives you so much stuff it's crazy like door panels or something yeah it awards you like 3 or 4 door panels and you've got like an extra long ball save it's 30 seconds or better might advance you towards multiball. It gives you all this stuff. And then suddenly you're playing deep in the game and getting to do all these razzy-dazzy things you don't normally get to. Yeah. Giving them the old razzle-dazzle, as Billy Flan would have said. On a casual night, I think the buy-in on Twilight Zone is worth the credit. Cool. But you're with me, right? not only do I not need the person before me touching these flippers to count up their to speed up their bonus, but I am also not going to do it to them because I might accidentally actuate their flipper. I might accidentally have touched the flipper when it was their ball. And yeah, I'm a proponent of thoughtful play. Right. right dear listener despite the fact that I very infrequently check the inbox I promise I will over the next week if you have ideas to contribute or if you want to jump in one of these coalitions and tell us about it and say hey I want to go proselytize about don't touch those damn flippers or for that matter and I urge all of you to proselytize about this. It is maybe the only thing that is worth actually proselytizing about in reality. I'm making fucking jokes about hitting flippers over here, but pinball's for everybody. I don't really want your criticism on pinball is for everybody, but if you want to offer me your hate mail on, you know, tell me why I am, as Curtis Sliwa once referred to himself, a hemorrhoid in a red beret. if you want to tell me why I'm the fucking worst you can email us at nycpinpod at gmail dot com if you would like to propose some additional plank within the platform you can email us that at nycpinpod at gmail dot com you and Curtis sure do like cats it's true I'll probably adopt a new cat within the next two weeks in fact nice I also don't want Curtis Sliwood to be the mayor of New York City and I will not cut this out or Andrew Cuomo that's all for this week's pod join us next week when we'll do the usual things in balls one and two and we'll see what ball three brings but we'll tell you who won the six game six songs challenge for sure between now and then go get them at pinball nyc go get them at the harvest go get them at scrapple league and sspl and thursday night strikes just you know whatever you're up to go get them pinfo I think we did it. Oh, yeah. Well, heck. Well, heck.