hey everybody welcome back to episode five of wizards and warriors I am one of your hosts Frisco pinball AKA hottie it's been a couple months since our last episode there's been a lot of great tournaments uh to end 2024 we had pincinnati we had the winter bash and as we start this year ready to fire we've got indis coming up and the states um all those just wrapped up great great competition um if you saw tons of people watching over the weekend on Twitch and other places at one time I think it was like a thousand concurrent uh concurrent viewers so we are getting ready to grab our gear head off to indisk in lovely Southern California Joe how are you what's going on hey what's up man uh jayand here um yeah everything's good man uh you know we just wrapped up n s uh we got States and you know wacs as well so uh lot to talk about today yeah exactly and it's been a hectic holiday season uh I was able to 10 pincinnati winter bash did not do well let's forget about it um but uh now it's time to grind those 2025 Whoppers speaking of Whoppers congrats on making States and uh for Virginia how did you do what did you think thank you yeah um I did all right I think I finished uh eighth overall uh was a really tough field this this year um I mean I'm sure every year it's it's tough but second time playing um expectations were kind of high for myself uh just because I you know finished second last year and was hoping to kind of win it all but um didn't happen but uh no we had a we had a great winner uh new new player uh cam heri uh he did a great job and he crushed he he lost four games total on the day on his way to Victory so yeah very welld deserved and uh you know congrats to him that's awesome yeah it is uh it's going to be a theme we see as we discuss the winner of each state uh kind of their seating too a lot of upsets a lot of new names um but yeah that's awesome man I'm glad I'm glad you had fun glad you got the experience did you do states last year I did yeah last year was the first time I competed um and uh yeah that was it's a really good tournament um very intense you know head to head similar to Expo you know best of seven um so yeah man it's it's a good time it's a it's a It's a Grind but hey you you you compete all year and if you can make it into uh the state competition it says a lot so congrats man that's really cool and now we get to now we get to head off to the biggest one of the year in my opinion um I know pin Bird's back and it's doubled in size but man indisk is such a beast and we'll talk about um the bank the bank um and and what we can expect there but you know new pins kicked off this year we've got Dungeons and Dragons from uh Stern Pinball coming out very soon their team of Brian Eddy Dwight Sullivan late January new pins are always an exciting time and it's always exciting for tournament time too because you kind of see what's going to be added we played a lot of Jaws um we've played a lot of uh some of the recent additions to to everybody's pinball lineup and it's been great um Foo Fighters has been a real winner I think as far as tournament play in newer pins um D and D is going to be exciting and no different uh after that this year we've got rumors of new pins such as Harry Potter cuphead new Star Wars entry from John Borg possible Totten remake from padti uh that would be cool um I've only played Totten a couple times in a tournament and um I haven't always held up well uh but uh new remake would be great I did play the new fun house at the UK open and so that was that was cool to play uh Medieval Madness remake from cgc Allison Wonderland from DPX we've got barrels of fun pin number two hopefully by the time tpf is coming around in late March we get that announcement and then spooky pinball with Evil Dead later this year uh that's just kind of a quick rundown of our little News segment we're going to put here um but for that uh it's going to be an amazing year for competitive pinball we hope you'll continue to listen to our thoughts and review of the tournament scene be sure to email us Wizards and warriors podcast gmail.com if you want us to highlight one of your local attorneys you want to come on and promote it and maybe you want want to highlight a local player or yourself uh we're happy to speak to almost anyone about your local leagues competitions or if you want to highlight any um upand cominging rising star or even yourself so with that said uh this next segment is where we go and highlight um all of the recent tournaments since our last episode so we're going to go here and there it is this logo uh I was going to if I didn't have something to do I was going to um create a multi-grid view of all the state tournaments and stream it um one reason I didn't want to do it I don't want to not that anybody would watch me over the actual stream but I don't like the idea of taking viewers from the actual uh it's almost like streaming you know football game that's playing on ABC or fox or whatever and then people go watch you to hear your commentary I don't like that idea of it but I thought it would be cool to have like a running ticker of something so maybe I'll just put up a channel that has a running ticker of uh that's but I came up with logo I thought it was hilarious for some reason great man it looks awesome yeah I put in AI I was like give me a ESPN style logo for pinball um but anyway so uh we're going to go through the states um I'll do a few and then you can do a few but again congrats to all the winners uh the North American championship series all the competitors we had some really cool uh matches it was just a great time I really enjoyed uh watching some of the ones that I did and some went long uh some went some were quick but we got some great winners in here so starting with Alabama the second seed Braden uh Gentry or Gentry congratulations on your win and we should say what do they get for their win in the state yeah an invitation to Nationals which uh I believe is in Rochester this year Rochester New York the RPC yeah good old RPC run by Bruce uh from the slam tilt podcast and some other individuals as well I'm sure Zach and Ron help maybe they're all co-owners I I forget the dynamic but make sure you check out the RPC pin Masters is going to be held there as well as Nationals um also make sure you listen to the slam tilt podcast uh great great entertainment so Alaska we had David Elrod the first seed Arizona John shael a really really strong player player as the second seed in Arkansas we had a 15th seed uh come from near the you know bottom of the standing standings I don't think they're a superstate so superstates have 24 seats everybody else has 16 so Trenton Kent congratulations very nice uh picking up from there uh California DaNell aari the fifth seed in California shout out to Danelle that's uh traveling all the way from is it Italy yeah he's coming he's I think he I think someone said that he won just he came for the tournament and then obviously to go to indisk this week um but he's not going to be participating in National so oh wow yeah so give me my cash you can second place to go play in Nationals yeah Johnny I think it's a Johnny Monica got second so he'll probably take that spot there in Rochester form go watch the clips of that match because there's a funny funny ending yeah very uh very unusual um Colorado we got uh do know Donovan step is the fifth seed there um Connecticut Conor mberry congratulations uh and then Delaware we got Jason Z uh as the six seed which you don't see very often yeah I know he must he must have only played one tournament to get the six um and then we've got District of Columbia uh' hilbo barer uh congrats it's a new Champion for DC so oh that's awesome who was last year do you remember um it was uh yes it was a I think I know David barber went to Nationals but uh Chris Nome was the winner shout out Chris um get well soon yeah you know what I just watched a clip of Chris playing Flash Gordon because I was trying to see some tips for indisk and I think it was him playing at a papa tournament a ago and his ball one was like two million or something so oh yeah great player been around for a long time so that's super cool all right so then Florida we had Eric Stone first seed I think this is his fifth win in a row so Eric uh balling out congratulations sir that is that is crazy five in a row um I'm pretty sure he'll be at indisk I think uh but you know Kudos man Georgia D Neely another multi-state uh title winner as the second seed um yeah he this is like his fourth in a row I think I think this is also fifth for him fifth okay nice congrats Dalton Dalton pinball make sure you check him out on twitch.tv/ Dalton pinball really really fun streamer um just dominating and winner of last year's high stakes tournament at indisk for a cool 15K Hawaii we had Craig Pudo the fifth seed congratulations to our Island champ Idaho Dwayne Smith the first seed Illinois zmac uh no surprise there I know he went up against riday and he blanked everybody I think he went oh four I don't think he lost a game if I'm not mistaken I think that's what they said in Ray's Discord but zmac is the first yeah I don't that's that's Mr indisk right there yeah EXA that's right Z yeah he was the uh reigning champ right yep yeah who was last year two times it was zmac Tim seon I forgot the other two Luke n hornak was in the top four Luke yes that's right um I'm blanking on the other but uh oh it was um uh the European uh youngster Arvid not Arvid the other one um vgo yeah vgo I think it was vgo yes yeah so uh Zac due he's due for one we'll see yeah I know right um but lot of lot of tough competitors coming to indisk so bring your best aame everybody and uh we'll see what how it shakes out and then for Indiana Josh rigle nice uh picking up from there we got Iowa Cody mcquiston as the first seed uh Kansas Preston pywell is the fourth seed Kentucky we've got Christopher for DT also as the first seed Louisiana we've got Nick meller um Maine we've got Daniel Ron The rone Zone a four seed shout out Daniel nice congratulations uh and then Maryland we've got Casey Fowler the two seed uh former ifpa Rookie of the Year oh nice that's awesome and new new Maryland Champion so congrats to Casey hey that's a great progression there right yeah U Massachusetts we got bow and Karens the first seed congratulations Bowen another multi-time winner um uh played with him at Papa a lot of fun played with him at T we played with him at tpf just really really cool to to watching a great guy Michigan Jared August uh the 13th SE I know he didn't play like the max number there because uh as we'll uh check on pincinnati later um very very skilled top tier player uh congratulations Jared I think this is his third in a row if I'm not mistaken and for Minnesota Luke nahorniak as your 20204 uh nacs winner uh Mississippi Steve Dobbins the fourth seed Missouri Adam mckin the fourth seed so congratulations to you two gentlemen Montana we had Jerry Valentine the eighth seed another low seed coming back and taking it Taking it to everybody in Nebraska we had Jeff Davis the third seed nice uh moving on we got Nevada uh Jack slovich uh Mr Expo uh it's a three seed I know he's I think playing out of California so we should see him at indis as well yeah um New Hampshire we've got Joe lamir uh three seed New Jersey we've got Steve draic as the 10 seed uh New Mexico Adam ABA as the first seed and uh here we go New York Alex Kelly as a three seed shout out NightLight that was awesome man congrats on the road to Pro man really big victory he had to um and I was as I was going through a lot of these um results I was looking at the matches a lot of game sevens and Alex had to win on future Spa in a game seven it was 3-3 and just a really strong performance congratulations uh he's working hard you can check out his um YouTube channel I think it's nightlife official uh he's official yes he's got some really cool pinball videos up um as far as like tier tier making reactions uh sort of uh personal Vlogs on his pinball Journey to the top 250 Pro status uh make sure you give him a a look and then uh North Carolina we've got uh Drew Sidia as a five seed I know he's won there um I think four or five times as well so shout out shout out Drew yeah he's a great player um I'm sure he'll do very well at Nationals again yeah and then so for uh we don't have somebody for North Dakota I didn't see it so if you are the champ we apologize um I know Josh Sharpe on the slam tail podcast said they had like one state that wasn't participating so I don't know if it's this or Wyoming um but we I didn't see a Victor there so for Ohio uh probably one of the toughest States I would say for oh yeah trying to get through the buzz saw that is pinball uh competition at a state level uh congrats to Galvin Morgan that is not easy you've got so many big hitters there and I think they said like out of the top 100 10 players were in the Ohio nacs um Oklahoma Trent yeah Trent Augustine is the 12 seed I watched a little bit of that at CJ's arcade congratulations Trent for going into enemy territory and taking their title um that's pretty cool uh or Matt Walton the two seed congratulations David reel and for Pennsylvania as the third seed and Nick D Stefano Nick D Stefano as the third seed for Rhode Island nice um South Carolina we've got Jason burlson as the 13 seed South Dakota we've got Joey uh Bratton as the 10 seed um tenness we've got uh Jared echelman is the 19th seed love to see that wow uh Texas you got a um Colin MacAlpine is a six seed it's a shout out Mr snail man yeah coder our rule designer for The Princess Bride for P3 uh another multiex multi-time champ for Texas uh he was battling last year's champ Garrett sheahan uh in the finals so congratulations Colin nice uh let's see Utah we've got Spencer imboden uh as the two seed uh Vermont we've got Mike Havens as the one seed and Virginia my state we've got uh cam Hari as the 11 seed yeah shout out again Cam man that was incredible to see him play that's so cool um how are your banks by the way in VA were they okay like your games typical um yeah all right uh yeah so it was a it's a private location um shout out Kevin Stone he um he hosted uh graciously and um you know welcomed us into his home uh he Kevin ran um TPS for the last uh two years I believe and then he also runs the flippers down in the Outer Banks oh nice um among you know other Virginia events but um he did a great job hosting and he's got a great collection of games at his house that's awesome all right let's finish this off for Washington a big battle there uh another place with tons of great players Richie Terry as the fifth seed was this his back-to-back I think I believe so yes yeah he's defending so congratulations frisz uh Richie um the owner of a bone Busters go easy on us at indis um West Virginia Brian Dy congratulations sir uh really great player out of there I think this is I don't know if that's his back toback but I know he's won it before I think um David Deluga out of Wisconsin another tough State uh a lot of lot of great players play there Steve Bowen won it last year um we uh but that's as the 10th seed congratulations David uh Wyoming we don't have anybody now we're to hit the provinces uh uh to our friends to the North in their championship series for Alberta we got John Cottman as the number one British Columbia Robert GoGo as the number one seed so two top tier players taking down their Province uh Manitoba Drew syy as the second seed Jaden shatak for New Brunswick as the ninth seed Nova Scotia we got Riley McDonald as the second seed Jack tadman and Ontario as the three seed Quebec we've got Nathan van horn 14th seed congratulations uh taking it to everybody in Saskatchewan we've got Josh P ped Ponsky sorry Ponsky that's going to be a tongue twister for me as the eight seed so uh to all our nacs winners we say kudos to you and uh look forward to hopefully hopefully seeing you play at Nationals at the RPC uh later this year as well as also to pin Masters that said we can't forget about our are um awesome female counterart counterparts uh for the W nacs and I'll let you lead the way sure um we don't have one listed here for Alabama so yeah let us know if uh if we're missing that there um but kicking us off with Alaska we've got Kristen Bailey as a three seed um Arizona we've got Fay Ashley as the second seed uh Arkansas we've got Lori uh godrun as the fifth seed and then California Luis wagon as a fifth seed who I believe has won before as well yeah nice job Louise um that was that was that's a hard state to win in too there's a lot of a lot of lot of tough players in California for the women's uh women's tournaments and then for Colorado we've got summer pente as the eighth seed congratulations summer Connecticut Claire Carson as the sixth seed good job Delaware uh Jamie yam Thomas is the five seed Big Win there District of Columbia um there's no first name it says FL etlin as the seven SE I think that's first name but yeah um that's the uh first time um DC has hosted uh wacs so yeah shout out Stephanie I know she um put that together Stephanie trb um and was able to host it at the new uh the V location which uh replaced moms it's the same games from Mom's location dude that's awesome Maryland great work Stephanie that's not easy to do so I'm glad I'm glad moms has spiritually transferred over to somewhere else I know a lot of players in the DMV area love that place um for Florida we've got um Alisa riddle I believe or Ela riddle hopefully I didn't spell that wrong probably Alisa riddle as the number one seed uh Georgia we've got cat McFarland I don't have a seeding for that I apologize don't have the winner out of Hawaii uh for Idaho we've got Abby parento as the number four uh nice work there Illinois Jane Jane verweise as the number one seed uh Jane has been on a tear um she ended up uh in the winter time basically from the fall to the winter just crushing tournaments and really increasing uh her ranking and also her rating so I am not surprised to see that and Illinois obviously the epicenter of all things pinball which means a lot of lot of skilled Talent out there so congratulations to Jane yep uh picking off we got Indiana we've got Amy kesting as the three seed um Iowa we've got Olivia Haley um Kansas uh Meadow Duran as the one seed Kentucky uh kayin Smith as the one seed uh Louisiana pav Hunter as the one seed uh let's see Maine we've got Zoe Vel as the one seed shout out Zoe uh Maryland we've got Lumi Legato as the two seed uh shout out Lumi I believe she's a first time Champion there too really nice job Lumi uh Mass chusetts we've got maressa David chentes as the 11 seed and Michigan Jenny lent as the eight seed awesome so with that uh we didn't get Minnesota I didn't find the link on the spreadsheet unfortunately so again if you are the champ of Minnesota or any of the states that don't have results on this uh recording please feel free to email us at Wizards and warriors podcast gmail.com we'll shout you out on the next episode so for Mississippi Jessica Thaxton uh no seating there but congratulations Carrie Wing um longtime player I met her for the first time at the UK open super cool to talk to and um head uh repair Tech or head fixer I'll say at uh at the pinball company as the six seed for Missouri congratulations Carrie Alexander Mullen from Montana nice work Nebraska Courtney monrie as the number one way to take it to him Teresa Martin for Nevada nice job New Hampshire Gian Murray as the number one seed uh kudos to you that um I think we've seen her post in the riday Discord so that's awesome to see you pick up the win there for New Jersey Kate Tre New Mexico Megan shatak as the two seed and for New York the Big Apple uh Miriam Nadler as the number one seed nice um picking up we got North Carolina Kaye Campbell was a two seed shout out Kaylee MH I believe uh she's won there before as well um North Dakota we did not have a winner for um Ohio we've got Christa Liam congratulations uh Oklahoma we've got Kate Olivia Pierce Oregon we've got Brienne hunt and Pennsylvania we've got Stacy morritz uh let's see Rhode Island we've got Isabelle Grahams is the 10 seed and then South Carolina we've got Megan Douglas ni nice job ladies uh Tennessee so South Dak South Dakota we didn't have anybody um Tennessee miet dronette uh congratulations Cynthia Collier Whitefield for Texas as the number nine seed I believe that's a new winner there I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure Utah Rose mil milovanov milovanovic Medina as the number three seed I apologize for that Vermont jod stalman Virginia kalista Frederick as the 16th seed congratulations we got a 16th winner a 16th seed winner kudos to kalista did you get to watch your play or were you at the WCS or no I I was watching online so they they did stream it uh shout out to Tom pinball and DC on Twitch yeah kalista is a local player she's um I think relatively new player maybe in the last two three years but um this is her first time winning and uh she played great um you know well deserved that's awesome congratulations uh Washington uh great battle between two two of the best players Ashley Weaver and Leslie Ruckman El rucko and Ashley came out on top as the number two seed Leslie was the number one that was fun to watch um oh yeah as well and so just a lot of great pinball this weekend man I I hope to you know I think I just got to stop jumping from state to state and play in my play in my leagues here but uh one day I'll I'll get to play States hopefully uh Texas is tough though it was like you had to have an average of like 13 points per event to make it so you got to you got to place big in some of the big ones um West Virginia Beth Howell Wisconsin Cassidy milanowski the Assassin uh congratulations ladies and then we'll finish it off Alberta nothing for Wyoming I apologize kiry midet uh Sarah little as the number two seed for British Columbia Kayla Kennedy first seed for Manitoba and Haley Natalie natal as the fourth seed for Ontario uh again claps for all of you snaps whatever you want to do congratulations to all our nacs and W nacs winners um I really hope to get to see all of you uh watch it live at the RPC for pin Masters and Nationals uh later this year final thoughts it's a great reward for the grind of playing in 20 events you know probably more uh to get there and I'm sure you all should be you should feel proud because it's not easy at all and it's just a testament to the dedication that it takes to get there how about you anything any final words on the nacs and WCS yeah no it's um like you said it's a it's a great tournament to really highlight um you know the best players um from each state and Province and um you know Any Given Sunday or in this you know some cases Saturday for open um you know the format really uh forces you to to play well in every era so um it's it's really fun seeing seeing a lot of these upsets and uh a lot of new names uh kind of join this Hall of Fame of uh you know of of winners yeah your name's always going to be on the ifpi website as long as they pay their domain fees and uh you'll be good um what do you think of the format so we should have I should have actually brought that up at the at the beginning so it's generally head-to-head right it is it's head to ahead um best of seven or first of four uh wins and um it's I don't think it's required yet but um Most states have the ability that have the ability to kind of break their games down into three eras uh old mid new um which I know there can be some uh what is it some um some liberties with uh with what kind of uh games constitute a an old or mid or new but um you know it's it's fun seeing I know a lot of people post the uh the game banks for each state and uh it's it's kind of fun also to compare uh what the game Banks look like you know what what games people have to choose from yeah exactly like when you see Pulp Fiction in mid you're like wait a minute but uh that's pinball you know we I was watching clips of you know some of the funniest things I've seen in pinball like balls levitating and uh hopping over aprons so uh you got to take the good with the bad and make the best of it and if you have if you want to have any advice for indisk it's just keep pushing forward and get those cards in and do your best and don't let it shake you so once again um really well-deserved Round of Applause for everybody that participated that qualified as well as yourself and uh I look forward to seeing everybody hopefully repeat uh their qualification next year and see who comes out on top with that said we are going to go to our review of of recent tournaments some of them have been submitted by viewers some of the ones uh have been sort of picked by us because they're big certified tournaments so it's been a while since our last episode so we'll have a few in here that we want to review and give give props to everybody that came out on top so with that said I will go ahead and start us off in the Washington area a local women's tournament s sw2 had a weekend of tournaments here it was called s sw2 best game and then also s sw2 group match play um I think I forgot there's like a special name for it but thank you El rucko for uh suggesting this your winners for the best game on December 7th at the sw2 tournament Ashley Weaver uh 31.8 points for your women's rankings El rucko Leslie Ruckman number two with 20.83% the group match play some pretty good points uh same weekend on December 8th J Yasmin dong de Jong uh took down the top spot with 34.0 three women's ranking Whoppers Casey Benton in second with 20.74% ations to you ladies for a successful tournament weekend there why don't you go and hit us up with the next one which is the yeah uh the pins and Pirates pinball rally 2024 yes um so looks like they had a few tournaments that weekend um we've got the main tournament here uh the results uh Tim Hansen uh won first with a wow 98 uh Whoppers there that's a big W that's a lot um uh we've got Carl D'Python Anghelo um sh out Carl I pinball uh taken second with 74 points uh Scott msas in third uh with 61 and then Dustin Goldberg uh in fourth with 52 yeah this was the um tournament that Jonathan came on to talk to us about this was their big in end of the year uh sort of weekend of tournament so I watched some of it it looked like a lot of fun I I'm ruing that I got into pinball too late because I was in SoCal for so long I'm like I could have been playing at these things but oh my gosh but um you know Texas is no slouch either so what's next yeah we've got um from that same weekend it looks like they had a 1990s era tournament yep um see we've got Carl D'Python Anghelo winning that one with 74 points uh Tim Hansen couple familiar names here and second with 55 because they had a good weekend um and third uh we've got suppressed player uh who's that guy I could guess I could take a guess of who that is um but uh if you know for sure you can chime in um I'm think I think it's Jared gotcha that's right Jared Garvey um with 45 points there for third and then Jim pelo in fourth uh with 38 points proprietor of many of this week's pins for dis um that is a great finish for Jim and looking at Carl he got 74 there and 74 there he's already at uh 148 for two of the three tournaments very nice yeah uh moving on we've got the classics uh from that pinball rally pins and Pirates uh first place we've got Dustin goldbarg with 70 points shout out Dustin uh Jim bedo in second uh 51 um Kane M Mahia mhm in third with 42 and then Tom Isaac in fourth with 35 points nice nice job everybody that is a great opportunity for some Whoppers to end the year um so congratulations and uh good job Jonathan and everybody else I think this was at the um yeah in CC cin at Pirates uh showroom uh it was a lot of fun watching it and you guys have put on some really awesome and interesting themed tournaments in a good way I know they had Whopper paloa so congratulations everybody there so not to not to leave them out but what do we have last for the weekend yep uh there's a women's tournament as well um we've got ali vdz uh taking first place uh with 14.87% 2.12 points nice nice job ladies um with that uh moving on we have the next and last Stern circuit event for 2024 um I got to attend it in Wood River Illinois it was an amazing location and um the pins all played wonderful I did not play wonderful but they played wonderful uh really spectacular um upkeep and uh Tyler Becker and crew just ran a great tournament I will go every time so little backstory I was like you know what I've flown everywhere I'm going to drive so I drove to pincinnati 13 hours each way did it in the day and I was like okay I can do this driving back from pincinnati was tough because I didn't make the qualifying for a or b and so I was like I'm just out of here I'm not going to stay I'm not going to play The Gauntlet I'm not going to get the six Whoppers I I just want to get home and see my family so I did that and then the week after was Winter bash and I was like okay it's 10 hours it felt like a breeze like I was like oh wow those extra three hours felt like a godsend but I did it uh I think I can do it again uh I'd rather just drive and save on the airfare money because they weren't like in I don't I didn't feel like I was getting in close or something and it was just a waste of money to me so um I get a good deal on rental cars so I was like why not take somebody else's car so uh but winter bash was great um a lot of great players obviously near um Chicago the Chicago area you're going to get a lot of the players from the the the Illinois scene to come out and that was shown by all the people that were there I would do this one uh in a heartbeat again I had a ton of fun and thank you to everybody that was so welcoming and hospitable uh for my first time being there so with that um we are going to go over the results now and this was a stacked field obviously and with uh seeing that you can tell by the Whoppers so your winner of the winner bash 2024 was zMAX Zack McCarthy congratulations young man uh 163.5 two Whoppers Zach Sharpe uh of Stern Pinball um uh with Cay in second and he played so so well and and I had a really uh good time watching him and that finals was was excellent so 139.99 for you Carlos De Sera laser losos uh balling out all weekend I got to talk to him he tried to give me some tips and cheer me up I was like screw this I'm out of here playing terrible um 126.4 s points and then the goat Keith elwin with coming and forth cementing his legacy even further just playing at an efficiency rate uh in the stars comes into tournaments the few that he plays and just dominates all the time so 115.7 six points for you uh Mr elwin can't wait to see Kong um but then Gregory Kennedy Andy Bagwell tied for six Sterling again another great performance I played with him on in one round and he was just putting on a clinic on big game I was like I need to remember how to play this now just follow starting Luke no horniak Nick waya Adam mckin rounding out your top 10 uh congratulations again everybody at the winter bash please please if you have a chance register for it and try to play in it great location great um uh uh event so I'll let you hit the next one yeah um looks like we've got another Washington tournament here put on by Germaine it is the Mega Iceberg match play assuming by the name that's a it was a Mega Match play format um but uh first place we've got Conrad rustad congratulations with 119 points that's a big one uh Lonnie Langford in second with 94 uh Dave Stewart in third with 80 and then Joshua Francis raning out the top four with 70 Whoppers there 7.28 man some really really good points and I just want to make a quick note um winter bash was held at the atomic uh Atomic pinball arcade I wanted to make sure I named the location it escaped me for a second um but good job Germaine and running the mega Iceberg how did Germaine finished does it say did he play maybe he didn't play um yeah I'm not sure I don't think I see his name here oh look zyen there I know zyen played in the Washington um nacs I thought he would play Idaho I think that's where he plays out of but uh good job everybody there so the last event that I believe well we have excuse me we have a couple last events so we've got winter whopperland out in Bay City Michigan run by Jeff Palmer on December 29th your winners are Jared August congratulations 111.111 points exactly 51 that's got to be lucky somewhere Tyrus Eagle 88 I know it's lucky in gambling 8806 Dominic LaBella 75.5 five I had a really good time playing with Dominic at um winter Bash super nice guy taught me uh I I beefed ball three all I had to do was hit like a one thing and I would have beat him and I just house ball he's like oh you got to do this next time I'm like yes okay I'll remember next time Andy Rosa in fourth with 65.9 six so the next one would be GPA yep uh GPA New Year's Eve match play yes um this is okay Washington oh nice we got Rod Ryan O'Donnell uh 36 points shout out Rod real quick note Rod I told you I'd put it in you made me look up John Ham's hog you made me do a lot of random things but I told you I'd get this in congratulations game time television go ahead sorry yep now you're good uh Second Place we've got John faman uh 26.91 Whoppers there uh Chris chin uh in third with 22.1 five and then Joshua Francis in fourth with 18.6 oh awesome Chris has one of my favorite Clips on uh twitch for pinball I forgot what tournament it is but it's like one of the highly viewed ones but he did something I just remember it I I'll have to go remember it for next episode but it's just so funny his reaction of what he did he's just like I know he likes to uh kind of look at the the Playfield camera like kind of uh look look up at the camera from you know yeah he did something it was like Shimmy Shimmy or something I was like cracking up cuz his re action was like like what you did just there all right and so oh we've got another one on the 29th oh a couple okay I'll I'll grab these two and we'll we'll get through these so I don't want to forget about our friends across the pond they had a big tournament in Robert Englunds the United Kingdom Neil McCrae Domino pinball great pinball Ambassador um I had a great time playing at the UK open and he ran a very smooth tournament and just made all us Americans feel very welcome so thank you Neil again for that uh the great turkey fry up leftovers so that is happening on December 29th a month later gotcha all right old turkey coming up Dan Pike in first with 55.78 Whoppers Dan prear prar in second with 4.69 Nathan Garwood in third with 32.93 Andy Brock coming in fourth with 27.2 two and then pinball Planet Mega Match play on December 29th John delao Jay Dells um uh big tournament on in Ohio U where was this this was not at pastimes right probably not maybe yeah uh it says Cleveland so I'm thinking no okay well uh good job guys hey man getting it these last minute big certified tournaments is not easy so kudos to you all Aaron rich in first with 107.6 second John Del zapo 83.2 three that is not easy to TD and do well in a tournament so I know you know it's oh yeah I I can't imagine trying to keep your brain in one spot of making sure everything's running smooth and then saying oh yeah what do I have to do for this next next ball what where am I uh Cody web nice to see you Cody in third 70.2 and Galvin Morgan in fourth with 6.34 and there's laser Lo and fifth tied with Steven prusa for 52.3765 1.84 Jake Michael uh in third with 42.4 one and the Tommy V uh in fourth with 35.43 points nice job good good Whoppers for Georgia too um I don't I don't think this is like typical of their their their events so some nice nice points to start the year this was January 5th and with um transitioning now into our conclusion of the recent tournaments again hit us up wizards andw warriors podcast gmail.com if you want to uh get your tournament highlighted shouted out if you want to give us any info you want to come talk to us about it we're happy to do so this is a tournament Focus podcast so we want to give as much publicity and grow the scene as we can now started the year we've got a big tournament coming up we've mentioned it before so we are going to go through your big upcoming tournaments you can see the graphic there indisk it never drains in Southern California January 23rd through the 26th in lovely Riverside California the Inland Empire run by IE pinball a Stern pro circuit event 400 plus of the world's best players coming all and converging into one one smallish area not really that small um but uh a lot of fun Classics Target match play on Thursday there's a preliminary tournament on Wednesday at the Riverside game lab um but then the main event Thursday qualifying you've got the main you've got Classics um each card will take five of your best games it's card based format and then there's a high stakes that's not Whopper uh there's no Whopper rankings for it but it's a big money money uh money prize uh congrats again to Dalton last year 15K in your pocket and then there's also a heads up so there's a Jaws machine you need to log in with Stern Insider connected and they will take the top four scores I believe maybe eight and you'll do a head-to-head tournament uh that's pin Slash yes pin Slash in real life yes that's I'm so glad you said that thank you um that is because Carl doesn't do pin Slash anymore you know for good reason there's enough to do as it is and you're right it's pin Slash in real life so this will be very cool um what do we what else do we got coming up on the year yeah uh up next uh in February we've got a few things scheduled uh Georgia pinball open uh the winter Edition looks like that is February 20th to the 23rd um star Fighters uh we are GNA be the star Fighters pinball Festival thank you um that's coming up February 21st to the 23rd and that's in Mesa Arizona I'm going to be going there for my first time I know hottie you've been before right yes and I will see you there it is so fun and they've doubled the space it is a match play mixed with um what's the all you can buy entries called her herb or is that oh unlimited herb yeah that's yes yeah it's a it's a blast I'm glad you're going it's a really good tournament really good Whoppers too and it's not just one tournament they'll have like the main the classics unlimited herb and then like side tournaments too very cool like District used to have single wow okay yeah rip um 2025 The Lumberjack Johnny's Whopper Chopper uh oh it's a hybrid you're going to do the hybrid uh format which is new for this year um that is February 27th to March 2nd and I believe they're also giving away a Stern Pinball Machine that's right and this is the new like you said the hybrid format the entry is a little higher the registration because of that but it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out and if you go you've got a chance to win a brand new Stern uh Stern Pinball Machine which is always always a nice added bonus for sure um after that we've got the IP pin Masters in March 7th through 9th um which is taking place the same weekend as uh Nationals yes um up in Rochester New York the Rochester pinball Collective exactly and then the last one we've got here H if you want to sure take that Crisco Texas uh welcome come one come all uh Texas pinball Festival so I hope to see everybody there um there is a there's a new format this year it's going to be match play two groups it's not going to be everybody in a crowded room at once to give participants the opportunity to enjoy the actual Texas pinball Festival which in my mind is the best pinball Expo so many people come down all the new pins are here it's a great time DFW area has a lot of things to see I put it right up there with Expo I put it more on top but um we don't have all the pinball manufacturers here so there's an edge to Expo for that but it's a great time I really hope to see as many of your faces uh come down are you showing up for that one this year um I can't make it this year uh but I was there the last two years and like you said it's it's the one of the best shows of the year it's uh it's really a good time and there's PL so much to do and see uh in in that Dallas area a lot of good uh barbecue yes especially yes I'm bummed you won't be there but you I know you've had it fun the last couple times it's a a great party too I know it's on par now getting there with the Space City open where everybody's just cheering the finalists on and it's such a such a good atmosphere so I do hope to see everybody there it's a Stern circuit uh pro circuit event as you can see this little list um four the first four we've listed are uh U excuse me five four of the six that we've talked about are Stern Pro circuits circuit events so we'll just talk about the first quarter events and then um talk about the the other ones uh as we do more episodes post inis um as you can see there's going to be a ton so take a look at these names and dates for the first half of the year you see on the screen I want to encourage everybody if you're listening to go watch the video format of this there are a lot of uh graphics and things that we're reviewing plus you can see our lovely faces as we talk about all things competitive pinball and with that we go into pincinnati uh this will be our in-depth review of a tournament final where we review or go over each um game ball and sort of some of the things that we saw some of the strategies which this time will be greatly aided by Chuck wart Eric wartenberg's motorial because he does so many good ones and they were streamed as well I strongly strongly recommend that you go check out his uh YouTube channel and his twitch page his YouTube channel I believe is Chuck wart and his twitch channel is sdtm pinball uh sdtm is on YouTube is the flipping out guys uh Zach and Greg so there's kind of a a switch there but please please please go follow subscribe do all the things you can to support Eric he put on an amazing amazing tournament I'll go through some of my thoughts and then we'll go through through uh the results um so to start the pincinnati segment I will go over uh my initial thoughts have you been to pincinnati before I have not but it's one that is uh pretty high on my list I know it sells out very quickly so it's uh you know one of those hot tickets to to get for the year it's one of those that are like you've got a F5 and speaking of which we've got F5 cut day coming up for penberg please put that on your calendar um 244 players uh player field this time they've expanded it greatly uh I went for the first time last year uh you did as well and it was a amazing amazing tournament uh and hopefully everybody that can get in will get in and if not shell out a thousand bucks for those super supported tickets um but pincinnati so my initial thoughts going in after driving 13 hours I played in the uh preliminary tournament the Strikes Tournament that they have at the Arcade Legacy on Thursday nights I believe uh I think this was a Thursday maybe it was a Wednesday I forgot regardless I've have always wanted to see this location it's kind of like a cool little looks like a cool little comic book get Retro Game Shop from the outside and then you go in and it's just awesome they sell retro games and then connected to the building you don't even realize is the arcade space which looks like a typical Barcade and then they have more stuff downstairs but all the pins were in the one area and a lot of fun a lot of Classics it was a I forgot how many strikes it was it's been so long but it was fun it was good to get sort of that feel and warm up um get your juices flowing before pincinnati so the format of pincinnati was um group match play we had I believe it was 20 rounds I think I would to say wow yeah 10 Rounds each day or maybe 12 and eight I forgot what it was sorry Eric it's been a while while but um if I had to give it a grade out of 10 9.5 at one of the best tournaments I played all year even though I perform very poorly I still put it on a pedestal because not only did they have the tournament and the grind of group match play for 20 rounds you had a convention area that you could pay admission to and play all the latest pins and stuff that people have brought just like tpf so they had Metallica remastered really good time so my Pros were everything was ran well everything played well nothing really went down I got boned by um Surfin Safari not oh the Tilt was like insane it was flip tilting so I think I was about to start multiball and I flipped and it tilted I was like oh my God stop no but that's pinball so they fixed it afterwards it's one of those things where they fix it after you discover it you're like oh man um but I will say my con for the tournament and I think it's a con for every tournament that doesn't have this format I I this was my first big year of competing and I know what I like now and it's just my personal subjective opinion but I think if you're going to have a grind of 20 rounds there should be something on the side that will allow you to uh keep playing and feel competitive when you're not in it so to speak so like a um uh Classics and there might not have been enough space cuz this all the pins were packed we had a lot of people um and the festival area wasn't open for tournaments and rightfully so you want to encourage the local crowd and people coming in to play and not be you know shoved aside by tournament Players but I do think after going to the UK open Papa 21 and all the stuff this year I think if you have I think Papa did it well the Beast was unlimited entries for both tournament main tournaments Main and Classics but I think if you're going to do a card-based format or a group match play format there really needs to be an element of um some side tournament that I can dump entries into either to get out my rage to keep my skills sharp I don't think it's a I don't want to say a burden I don't imagine that if you have the space I think it would be beneficial monetarily and I could be wrong I don't know the accounting of running a tournament I've never ran one I have pins behind me but I would never have anybody in my house to play them right now because I don't want it ruined so what are your thoughts yeah uh I don't know I feel like that format is a little restrictive just based on time you know you have to kind of be ready for the next round to get drawn and then you know rally all the players in um May maybe it's a restriction of the of that kind of format you know um but did I hear is were you able to practice the games in between rounds yes you could play as long as there were no players playing on them I have this weird thing I think it's just a personal tick where I don't want to practice too much on I worry about having a great game on when I'm practicing and then I show up I'm like why can't I do what I just I know that's not realistic and you really need to get all the practice you can and this year I'll get over that I think what I was doing what I was seeing was there was a lot of downtime sometime between rounds because like riday got to the Iron Throne on Game of Thrones during qualifying so we were all waiting for him and then he eventually got tapped out so I just think it was more based on the space allowed if there could have been some sort of side tournament and not the gauntlet on Sunday because um everybody's kind of everybody's kind of uh sort of Tapped Out by then after rounds and then you know it's a great thing to offer but if you're coming there to maximize your Whopper per dollar and you have people from out of state a tournament that offers like 10 Whoppers for first place doesn't like I'm just going to want to go home and it's not anything specific to this tournament because again in the UK open it was three card-based formats and I was it was a grind and I appreciate I don't want to sound um I don't I want to sound ungrateful I just sort of want to voice my opinion on what I think might be a good hybrid format for all t for a lot of tournaments going for if you can um I think having some sort of uh place where players can play for something mean meaningful while they're out of it and I don't want a participation trophy but I would like the opportunity to you know see if I can see if I can bump myself up and I think Papa 21 was a great great example we had the card in the main and then the Unlimited in the classics pinberry to qualify it to to Plate anybody just after a year of playing competitive pinball I think now I know I want to have some something to go to the side to while I'm waiting especially if there's long downtime between rounds and nobody's fault you've made the pins as tough as you can but if someone's blows it up they blow it up right what do you think yeah no that's actually a good point with h penberg I kind of forgot that they had a match play format as the main and then also the unlimited herb on the side so like iess said I mean it is possible it's just uh it takes a lot more planning and yeah you know you got to have Keepers you got to have CDs and um that would be my recommendation I don't expect it I think what everybody does volunteering their own time to allow people like uh ourselves to come into your town and play and beat up your machines and everything runs smoothly I cannot thank you enough so that is my con of it and I still give it a 9.5 out of 10 to put on 20 rounds of group match play and have everything run smoothly have the stream go great all the volunteers on commentary have a women's tournament with an amazing race format for the final excellent um so yeah any questions no no it's that's great I mean another another kind of thing I just remembered in uh for penberg like I know they had a lot of uh staff that um worked very hard to get uh you know to do scorekeeping and you know shout out like I know Lewis bans and like um you know Chris Stevens they um very strong players but I I don't think that they played in the main event just because there was so much work to do you know um yeah it's hard to put on a major like that and you know have enough people look at indisk I know they've asked for volunteers and they're always going to ask for volunteers and I I've volunteered scorekeeping at a lot of Majors this year I think this is the first year you know if I've got a good card in I'll definitely step up but I also know I regret at times uh you know having four hours of scorekeeping when I could have been putting in cards uh in and and giving myself a chance however I don't want to always take take take from this hobby it's giving me a lot it's given everybody a lot so uh if you have the capacity at indisk please volunteer they need volunteers uh not even for just scorekeeping commentary TD it's it's going to be a lot of work and Carl and crew need as much help as they can get um so yeah so going into the finals of pincinnati it was um some great great players one of whom scored 16 million on alien star Jared yeah uh there was a funny quote by um Eric on stream he was like yeah I came over and I saw his score I was like oh he got six million they're like no he got 16 million he's like what because there was a football game or a basketball football game going on and um people were cheering it's like oh what are they cheering but it was for uh Jared so Kudos just like we gave kudos to zmac for hitting um imagination what's it called on Wizard or Wonka Pure Imagination yes uh during Papa 21 kudos to Jared augus for rolling rolling uh alien star a bunch of times so twice 16 million and that was in the quarters so your contestants for um uh pincinnati yeah the pincinnati finals a division was Jane verweise Jared ushman Jared augus and Lewis bevans Lewis playing absolutely out of his mind all uh week and it was amazing to see him play because he was putting on a clinic and he deserved that top seed um or you know to to get right into to the top so I'm going to put up some footage now and what we're going to do is um lower the volume and the first game was far out so for far out I am going to uh go real quick to 12451 and what we're going to do is listen to Eric um tell us about far out and how to uh play it so bear with me one second whoopsie let me do this and grab it a little pardon me I can't I wish I had chapters in um in OBS okay so I'm going to let this play and you can listen in and hear Chuck wordss minute Toral on far out all right here is the mini tutorial for far out let's go okay when you start the game you're going to want to concentrate on the yellow inserts that are lit around the Playfield these are going to advance your bonus and also give you 500 points instead of 50 points hitting this star roll over in the middle of the Playfield also minor switches and pop bumpers around the Playfield will move these lit inserts to other lit inserts so concentrate on the lit inserts to keep your bonus increasing when you get into the pop bumpers the 100 pop bumpers will be lit or the Thousand pop bumper will be lit they will alternate as well as you hit the pop bumpers and other switches so concentrate on the thousand pop bumper whenever that is lit drop targets the lit drop Target will be worth 500 points instead of 50 points however if the center insert is lit on that drop Target bank and you hit the L lit drop Target it will be worth 5,000 points hitting all drop targets down on any ball other than ball five will light double Bonus Ball five double bonus will be awarded for you coming down the outside Lanes here will award your outlane Awards coming down the right will'll open up this gate to save your ball on the right coming down this Lane will open the gate to allow you to have the kickback into play this is a game that is all about the bonus once you get your bonus all the way maxed out and doubled you will pretty much be only going for thousand pop bumpers and keeping the ball alive the drop targets will not reset however once you have your double bonus and all your bonus maxed out just want to keep the ball alive and get as many thousand pop bumpers as you can that's far out that is far out have you played far out before uh I'm trying to remember the the layout looks very familiar um I don't know if there's a another game that has the same layout but a different name but um no it looks looks like a fun game yeah it's a really good tournament game I've um I realized I played it in uh was it at tpf last year it might have been uh but I've realized I've been playing it all wrong I used to just go for the the lit uh drop where the center insert is lit as well for the 5,000 and I should be paying attention to those Pops at the top because if the Thousand is lit you want to send it back up there and as Eric said when it sort of Ricochet off whatever pop it'll go from the 100 to 1,000 so your hope is to hit it up from the either the left or the right and hit the th and maybe carine to the 100 hit that and then by the time it bounces back to the Thousand uh it's lit again so you can get a few you know few bounces up there and you've already got the same amount that you would have got uh would have scored trying to hit the drop that's lit with the center insert Circle that's lit on the same side so it's 5,000 points for those drops for that one drop versus 50 so you knock all of them down you get double bonus on ball five you're guaranteed a double bonus and uh it's not an easy game to play so what we're going to do again I strongly recommend you watch the video version of this podcast if you can I'll go through kind of what happened with each player um and then uh we've got some highlights that I wanted to show off too some good and bad but uh one of the ones I the first ones I want to show is interesting because it happens on a lot of old pins and it's just funny to me for some reason but the order of players for far out was Jane Jared ushman Jared August and then Lewis bevans uh the bank was far out Pulp Fiction and then um Game of Thrones so again with far out you can step up plunge the ball never hit anything and walk away with like a few thousand if you can get like 20 to 30 in a ball you're doing great and so what we have is we have Jane uh stepping up on her ball one and you know doing the normal thing she was uh I also want to give a kudos to Jane many Kudos she was the lowest seed throughout the finals so she had to play as player one through all the playoffs which is not easy yeah I've done that once and it sucks because you always set the tone and I don't what position do you like playing on in MA in match play uh I mean sometimes I guess it depends on the game right like sometimes if there's uh you know locks to be stolen you know maybe a later position would be helpful just so you can hope that your opponents will lock a ball for you um but I mean sometimes I do like to go first but uh I mean like you said it's it's uh it's difficult to set the tone especially when you've got you know cameras on the rigs on and yeah you know everyone's watching a lot of pressure I've noticed uh I can want player four but man I have not I do not have a good track record of closing out on player four I have had many times where all I need to do is something simple and that's the one thing I learned this year is get it together hot get it together on ball ball three player four it's a gift to you so um you know there are times when it's out of my control where it just literally comes down in it's sling town but a lot of the times I found I I'm I'm doing better as for whatever reason player three uh player one it is what it is um so for James ball won nothing big um 6,000 points you know hit a few things ends up with a typical score again five ball game and so I'm going to play this footage here of Jared echelman uh getting a great dig but then getting boned by something uh because that's really the easiest way to score once you've kind of done everything else and advanced all your bonus but until then yeah you just want to concentrate on all the lit Advanced bonus areas oh great dig good the insert oh the insert that Dam that happens yeah that damn insert I swear to God like wa a CED insert and like the ball hits it but then like sort of circles in it like a drain and then it just comes right down so poor Jared um got boned by that but uh still 7.3 7300 points uh in the lead so Jared August up next he has a decent ball gets about 10,000 um which is uh all you can ask for on uh far out for your first ball but I want to show off Lewis's uh fun time so one second here and we'll play this so Lewis is about to step up to the um uh the pin I believe right here so very strong balls on this game tend to be 50,000 so he does something you should never do really tough to get much more than that on one Ball So for anybody wondering how far a hill is to climb on this if somebody has a 4 to 50 oh he walked away he walked away and he didn't even really walk away there um he's sort of like just stepped away for a second I just park myself now I never leave until I see the bonus credits but again I've done it before too but unfortunately he walked away from alas he ends up with 3,000 points after ball one so ball one you have um Jared August in the lead with 10,000 points had a nice dig um and and you know on to ball two ball two we had Jane fortunately getting another quick drain but ending with 8,900 points Jared echelman quick ball for him uh Bank bank straight down the middle he was over and so uh he was he had 14,000 after ball two and um the big winner of ball two was Jared August because he had some amazing flipper control rightly pointed out by um Eric and the commentating crew he knocked down all the targets got his double bonus and he got 22k on that but he was flipping up to the top which is what Eric was saying you should do and 22k you can already tell uh is great for the bonus because it almost equaled everybody else's score combined so he had 60,000 by the end of ball two you just need one of those balls on this game cuz it's five balls if you can get everybody's going to get a really shitty ball on it just it's going to happen you just need to get at least one of the balls on a double bonus with hopefully a decent bonus so that way you're not putting all your eggs into ball five where you're guaranteed the double bonus um if it were you would you be going for the drops or would you be going for the pops because your drops again you knock them all down you get double bonus and one of those drops is worth 5,000 and then the rest are worth what they're worth yeah so I guess you want to go for the lit drops right because those are worth more points yeah so I don't I'm I think it changes like the the little light will move yeah it does based on a certain switch hit but um and that's good because then you could technically if you're able to move it strategically get 5,000 on each um but and then the yellow yellow lights Advance your bonus um the inlanes there's also a gate on the right side that will open when you go down the lit Lanes on the right of the play left or right of the Playfield um up in the middle is it the right one lights the uh or opens the gate the left one is it lights the kickback yes yes yes yes so you've got some saves there too which is why I think I'm going to change my strategy on this depending obviously what ball I'm at but I think I'm going to go up top all the time and try to get those thousands because more people are probably going for the drops right right to get that five guaranteed 5,000 but those drops are very dangerous there's no safe shot on this pin but um I don't know I thought it was a interesting interesting strategy that I hadn't heard about and Travis was Travis muy was talking about that during his match play on it and I was like oh he's like I'm going for the the the drops but I shouldn't I should be going up or something I was like oh that's what you're supposed to do so also um go ahead also important to note is uh Jared is Jared August is wearing his um his signature red I don't always play Pinball shirt which uh you know you know that you know what time it is when he's wearing that yeah I mean he wore it for states too I saw him with Dominic and Dominic had the non faded one and Jared had the The Faded one gotta earn those Fades that's very true that's very equal fades for everybody all right so ball three uh really good dig at for James she ended up with 18,000 quick one for Jared echelman 177,000 Jared August got the gate save but it went to the right out lane so he ends up with 67,000 firmly in the lead and then Lewis got some targets unfortunately nothing else he is at 30,000 with ball four to go so commanding lead for Jared all it took was that one ball as you can see and Jane on her Ball Four goes for the Thousand pop but as you can see right here or no this is ball five excuse me um but she does have uh her ball you'll see it right here and she goes to the right and then here she's going to shoot up uh I think it's coming up after but she goes for the pop strategy right there and it comes right back down that's the danger if it doesn't hit anything or Ricochet you're donez um just screaming down yeah I I didn't expect that feed I thought there was enough real estate up there where you're going to hit something or I guess not enough real estate but that is a perfect example of going for the right strategy at the time and not getting the results you wanted so 21,000 for her after ball four Jared echelman gets a great rebound off the pop to for the last drop so he had nine of 10 down and it ricocheted off the right Bank where the right drops are and almost or excuse me the right pop and it almost hit his last drop was the top left one topmost left and it barely grazed it and it didn't drop and he would have had double bonus if it had just uh gone in but he ends up with um 36,000 for his ball four Jared August with the quick ball he's already at 80k uh I think around 80k yeah so that was a 13k ball for him on Ball Four Lewis gets some nice digs and a gate save he gets a rough rebound off the right bank but he has a really good ball because ends up with 49,000 so he's not out of it as you can see 41,000 is pretty doable because your bonus maxes out at I believe 19k so you got 38 right there um so he's he's got a chance but as we go to ball five Jane ends with 39 just a quick one uh Jared Elman gets some really quick bonus advancement here the video is playing again check out the YouTube video uh to see all this footage but he has a quick ball sort of but he hits his bonus advances so quickly you can see it lighting up right now he's going through all the lit uh Lanes with the yellow uh yellow insert uh lit up and again ball five is guaranteed double bonus so his bonus went really quick or his ball was quick but he had a really good uh bonus advancement so his final score 67,000 puts him firmly in uh second at the moment Jared August another solid ball and he rolls the pin so he gets coveted roll finishes with 112k and good feeling yeah right uh the commentary was if you roll far out you are pretty much almost guaranteed first U it's a nice feeling and then Lewis with a great ball had both outlane saves ready had the kickback and the gate but he unfortunately goes to the one place that can't save you straight down the middle so he ends up with 82,000 so after one it is Jared August in first with four points Lewis in second with two Jared ushman in third with one and Jane verweise in last with zero so your second game is Pulp Fiction and we will go to Eric's menorial on that because it's another good one you can never have enough tools but anyway uh let's run our our menorial here for Pulp Fiction pin steps also very clever name yeah what happened here was a miracle and I want you to owledge it let's learn some Pulp Fiction pinball right off the bat when you plunge you're going to come up here and if you can hit into this saucer right here while all arrows are lit up you'll get 100,000 points or you can hold the left flipper and plunge all the way around all major shots are lit have you hit any of them them those are worth 100,000 points as well you collect characters at the saucer here they will light up in the middle of the Playfield here and then you lock in the character over here in the right saucer if you can collect all five characters that lights cast chaos melti ball at the right saucer next up we got the Big Kahuna bonus if you hit these two red sand UPS up here by the pops and then come down here and hit the dangerous Target by the magnet you will increase your play field multiplier from 1X to 2x this will last for your entire ball it goes away once you drink next up mode you shoot the right target drop Target here that will light an outlaying ball save and also light your modes all the modes are started here via the saucer behind the drop Target each mode is very simple you either hit pop bumpers in one mode red arrow targets in another mode this target right here in another mode and Spinners in the other mode multi balls we got pawn shop you hit these drop targets down here to light lock hit the hole behind the drops three times to start that multiball briefcase multiball you have the inline drop targets here hit all these down to light lock in the hole back here hit that three times to start that multiball multiballs cannot be stacked next up if you hit the one two three four inlanes at the top and bottom of the play field that will increase your end ball bonus and also light the royala cheese Target for a hurry up if you hit that royes Target for the hurry up it will collect the hurry up and then light this target for your gun bonus which is essentially collecting your end of ball bonus during your ball you can continue to build this value as you play the game collecting the the hurry up at this Target also lights super Spinners at both these spinners for one rip per spinner drive fast mode roll down a lit in Lane shoot the opposite orbit to accumulate miles per hour and then collect via this tiny stand up behind the drop some strategy obviously getting your play field X up is great playing modes on their own is can be very valuable do not ignore those and playing multiballs for an extended period of time can also be very valuable that's Pulp Fiction all right that's Pulp Fiction um I learned a lot there P fiction has not been good to me in tournaments but I think the more you play you're just going to get better what are your thoughts on Pulp Fiction no it's I think it's got a great rule set um I got uh I got to play the shot which is the the mode it's kind of similar to like two minutes to midnight on you know Maiden it's the mode that you play after you play all the other modes oh nice um very cool it's uh all the lights go off it's got a great light show um I know um playing uh your multiballs with Playfield X is ideal um which you get by you know hitting the two Big Kahuna targets above the pops and then shooting the gun target on the right um that'll kind of increase your Playfield X for the entirety of the ball um so that can be huge too I know that's um kind of a competitive Strat um that I I try to go for if I can um it's a great game man I I love uh I love playing it um we have one on our location near me that um we play regularly for League um and I if I can find the shots uh it's a good game are your back hands pretty consistent on it they're not um something that uh I think someone mentioned recently is uh it may just be like you know the flippers on the cgc games they not um as consistent as something you would find on maybe like a Stern game so it's it can be a little difficult to kind of backhand those uh you know either the lock shots or the you know the scoop to start the modes or even the like the Big Kahuna targets which I feel like you can do on some copies but it's it really varies uh copy to copy yeah I've never been able to consistently get it down and it you'll see in the play um from Jane uh she balls out on this one but I just it's so frustrating because I feel like I should know where the shot is but it's not and I will say I I it's been in tournaments but I've never had a really good um really good understanding of what I should be going for and I think now that I know about the Big Kahuna like I always just go pawn shop because I'm like look some people a lot of people are going to have quick drains or they're going to get you know try to go for the super skill shot since it's 100,000 and someone could end up with a ball one of 9k as you'll see right uh so I think orbiting out and trying to get those big kahunas then increasing that Playfield multiplier early on or maybe you know if I can get it and then uh you know I've got two balls already locked maybe go for it then but I think that's that's a good Strat and there's just some amazing play by uh Jane on this in this finals because she ends up with a a ridiculous score but she does all the things you're supposed to do you can see her backhanding um each side and what's funny is you see a couple rolls on this pin that you're like Ah that's how it's supposed to go where you'll hit the uh the right lane where the cast chaos and the mode start is you'll hit the the drop there and it'll hit it and it won't rebound down it rolls up like for some reason it's hits so hard like it rolls into the scoop and then you're like oh that's nice yeah I think I noticed that the last time I played it I like shot that that drop Target and then it right after went into the scoop I was like whoa yeah I'll take that yeah like okay I guess that's what's supposed to happen and then um I forgot if it was Jared somebody hits the pawn shop drop like on the right or the middle and it hits it and it falls into the the vck behind it or the scoop so it's like oh must be nice does it come back there's like there's a moment there where you're like oh there is some geometry uh trickery here that should be happening or could happen so um we're into game two again Jared is in first uh Jared August Lewis is in second Jared ushman in third Jane in fourth so three games 42 1 0 scoring and uh this is their next pin uh ball one Jane had a feed from the pop straight down the middle missed the catch unfortunately and when you do that usually you get a small little flip it goes to the right outline or a outlan I've done it so many times so sometimes it's nice to see the pros uh have the same same skill set that I do uh Jared echelman had a decent ball on his ball one he had 103,00 and then Lewis really good setup um he gets his lock one for the pawn shot multiball excuse me two balls for Pawn chop which is great to start he gets a sling to the magnet uh on the right side where you get your Playfield multiplier yeah right there he gets the sling to the magnet for the 2x it's like those are the things you can uh pray for in dream of and they never happen um unfortunately his return feed from the magnet drained so uh giveth and taketh so he ends up with 79,000 which is a great score and then Jared August has a quick ball on ball one for um for his uh uh first first try on ball two we have Jane going for the super skill shot uh since it's 100K or excuse me um they were talking about it on the commentary you know depending on where your score is if everybody's sort of still grouped up up you might just want to go for it and this copy had uh the ball save on a decent ball save there was only one tilt warning and the rubbers were gone too so this is Eric's Pulp Fiction and once again kudos to him and everybody else for putting on an amazing show and tournament because everything was playing great so for ball two uh Jane started the watch mode which is hard because you've got to hit that uh shot on the right but apparently uh you hit it you get a small ball save and it's big points once you get to like the third or fourth shot is that your understanding yeah I know um it's not a very popular mode to play just because that shot is pretty difficult to hit and it's also dangerous because of the magnet but um I think it was uh zmac had mentioned in uh chat on stream for you know one of these pinball streams that it's one of his favorite modes to play because those points go exponentially uh up every time you hit that Target like you said and remember indis last year everybody was uh shatting the inlanes to build up those bonuses and then they had they had to either put something in the code for a tournament ROM or competition mode or Nerf it somehow I'm going to play a little clip here of Jane because she does something that I've done before too and we'll take a look she has a chance to go for an alley pass a little early just a little magnets love the music go get it oh man she's real close collect yourself try and drop catch that and REO she wasn't ready yeah that is uh that is a alley pass down the middle um it just flipped a little late there were times during this tournament I was not flipping I was like aren't you supposed to flip here in my head I'm like oh yeah so um it happens to everybody but she has she ends up with you know after ball 2 228,000 again some of these scores on Pulp Fiction if you take a look at the indis scores from last year are not anywhere close to this so still still doing well Jared echelman on his ball to starts briefcase multiball again he had 103,000 after ball one so he gets about a [Music] um uh 50,000 on his briefcase qualif the cast chaos I believe that's what it's called doesn't start it unfortunately but ends up straight down the middle his ball too yeah his ball too ends up um 41,000 uh for cast chaos do you just are you trying to get all the characters first and then you know right so you can um collect uh or qualify each of the car five characters from hitting that scoop at the top middle um and then you collect them by hitting the um you know the saucer on the right behind the drop um but you can um that progress does not carry over between balls unless you hit there is a small standup Target to the top left of the pop bumpers um to hold cast um so it will it will carry your cast um progress between balls if you if you're able to hit that Target got it so ideally you want to qualify them all and then hit the shot once to collect them all at the same time if you qualify them and collect them does that automatically start cast chaos once you collect all five yes it will start cast chaos multi so if you qualify all five and then collect all five at the same time you go right into the multiball yes oh awesome okay see learning learning what's what's sad is I was commentating this game about the UK open everyone in chat was like that's not what you do that's that doesn't how like oh excuse me Mr Anderson help me out chat come on yeah come on W's in the chat for Frisco all right so um again Jared here ends up with 41,000 after his ball too Lewis uh just doesn't have a good ball well too he has a nice nudge but ends up in the right out lane um Jared uh does hit the pawn shop after it bounced in so this is what I was talking about where he like uh I don't have the time stamp for it but if you want to watch it he does hit the pawn shop drop and it rolls right in into the uh vck behind it or the scoop so he starts his Pawn shot multiball then he gets like I know people have a tough time finding the uh Mode start or the Big Kahuna shot man he hits three straight just a Precision monster like it's just rolling down to the right flipper boom hits it same thing boom hits it boom hits it I was like oh that's how you do it so his ball two he ends up with 566,000 had his multiball so he's firmly in the lead at this point um but then Jane comes for her ball three I'm not going to play all of her ball three but uh it was amazing she gets Mr Wolf she starts the Twist and Shout mode which is the pop bumper mode and absolutely uh destroys it she gets the huge Point collect for 86,000 she has her 2x Playfield uh set up gets her um excuse me gets her uh locks her second Kahuna gets the lucky bounce into the mode start so there's a mode I forgot which one this is you're supposed to hit all the Targets in the middle of the play field like the um the stand ups on the left which one is that is it um so the drops and then the standups on the left and right I think that's the BMF wallet got it okay yeah I didn't hear what they said it was called um I'm glad you're here so yeah so she gets that uh mode started and then she collects the double mode points by the time BMF is done uh she's at 6.3 million yeah so she starts her um starts her 3x and she hits she starts her 3x and she was about to start briefcase multiball the ball save is lit and right when it drains the ball save ends like it was a picture perfect like I don't know if I can get it here so I think she's yeah she's like she's breathing she's trying to get there there is the rolling right there she's so happy but there's like this moment where like the ball is yeah it just ends like right the ball save light ends right as she gets it down there so doesn't matter she's at 6.7 million that's a amazing score um you can see Justin putting his graphic up there nailed it um yeah so I don't know what your high score has ever been on this mine has been like a million something so I I'm very impressed and I'm sure your score has definitely been near or over it what's your top score on Pulp Fiction yeah um I think definitely not anywhere that close to that in competition um I was playing it uh just for a warm-up during League this past week and uh was able to finally roll it uh to get that you know the shiny uh shiny score you you know uh I think I finished with like 14 or 16 million but I had to do everything like I had to play cast chaos I had to play um the shot um and then you know a multiple multiballs to get there so um you know getting to six million in competition is no small feed that's a you know it's a great score but hey rolling it for funsies that's not easy too so nice work so there's something you get when you roll it it's like a special award yes it's not an award but the so the score since it only has um what is it seven digits on the display um it converts the the ones digit to uh essentially your 10's digit so if uh 14 million for example would have a one as the one's digit to signify that it's um you know rolled gotcha gotcha that's pretty cool that's awesome yeah so um Lewis steps up for his uh excuse me Jared echelman steps up he gets the roll in the lucky roll in for the mode start which he gets clean the car this is ball three um clean the car used to be everybody's favorite cuz you would rip that spinner and uh Eric Spinners are awesome oh I love love love love when the Spinners are Juiced I remember at the Beast one of the star Spinners was awful so you had to go for the other one I was like I'm never I was like oh I got it right where I want it I've got like four stars lit this is going to be juicy and it went like three times and I hit it dead on I'm like why pinball all gods why uh but then U you know that's pinball again so uh he starts it gets a reject from a Ricochet goes straight down the middle he's at 54,000 he is um probably going to end up about third if everything went the way it normally does Lewis starts his ball three uh has a flipper fumble but gets the Divine save to keep his ball going starts Pawn shot multiball gets the payoff multiple times starts his 2x Bon gets his 2x bonus starts briefcase multiball has the 2x Playfield gets his last character and he had multiple chances just like everybody else has before and he's unable to uh uh hit that cast chaos start or the cast multiball and he was going for it he was he was aiming he had like six or seven times I was trying to will it up there during the replay I'm like go go up give it to him but uh unfortunately he didn't get it but he does finish with 1.6 million uh leaving Jared August as player for to try and catch Jane or catch Lewis for second place remember Jared had four points Lewis uh two um Jared echelman one and Jane zero so it all shakes out where Jared augus starts briefcase Boogie multiball but he gets a right outlane B dra right out lane bounce and drains ends up with 9 UM 8,000 4 for his troubles so after two you have a um after two games you had Jared August in first with five Jane with four Lewis with four and Jared Elman with one uh through through two so game three was the Game of Thrones that Eric is so infamously known for um watch all his videos on Game of Thrones you'll never go wrong like he knows everything about it I keep teasing him in uh Discord I'm like sell me your damn Game of Thrones La he's like never so um any thoughts on Pulp Fiction before we move on to the next uh next game no no uh it's great uh great Tournament game uh looks like he was set up pretty you know tough but fair um and yeah Jane blew it up so Kudos yeah that's awesome and again just great play all weekend Ray getting to Iron Throne uh Jared with um 16 million on alien star Jane with 6.3 also Nate Grant beat what was the game shy shootout or he got to like the the final wizard mode on one of the pool games um so kudos to you Nate uh so now we are going to our third game very close match so far it's anybody's game if Jared augus gets a uh yeah no there would he unfortunately Jared ushman could not win win it but it was 5441 he could get tied for a second at the at best um but we have Game of Thrones the premium version with the upper Playfield I do like this one a lot I know why people prefer the pro but I do really like that upper Playfield it's one of the upper playfields in pinball that I enjoy um how about what do you thought what are your thoughts on that yeah it really adds a lot to the game I wish I knew how to play the game better um but uh but I know that you can get a lot accomplished uh in that upper play field um it's you know fairly safe because you can't drain from up there so y so with that said we're going to go listen to Chuck wz motorial on Game of Thrones premium start the J before I piss myself let's learn some game of THS premium starting off players typically choose barathan Tyrell or Martel to start the game to light mod hit any major shot three times to light mod to start up the center ramp you can start two modes at one time you can either complete the modes doing the flashing shots on the lower play field or you can hit the three standups on the upper play field then the loop-de-loop and it will comp complete all modes at once during single ball play If you hit the three stand up Targets on the upper play field then shoot behind them you will collect castles once you collect enough castles you will start Castle multiball down here in the lower play field the battering ram if you hit this enough that will start Playfield multipliers for up to 5x Playfield multipliers other multiballs you can shoot the lock targets over here to light locks on the center ramp lock three balls up the center ramp you will start Blackwater multiball which can be combined with up to two modes other multi balls are wall multiball qualified by shooting the kickback right here shoot that enough and you'll qualify wall multiball on the right orbit winner has come multiball once you've qualified modes using shots they will ice over once you hit those enough they will start winers coming hurry UPS on any major shot collect four of those hurry UPS to start winter has come multiball if you've completed four modes you will light hand of the king mini wizard mode up the center ramp for very valuable scoring now into strategy if you pick the barathan house you will have a yellow center button lit that you can hit to light your outlane saves once per ball also you can hit down the drop Target Bank over here as well as the kickback to work towards wall multiball and once you're in there it is worth 10x for barathan users Tyrell you will have a lit in Lane which will light shot multipliers all over the the Playfield so always be rolling down a lit in Lane with Tyrell which you can switch with the flippers if you are Martell this is an orange button that you can use during multi balls once per ball where you will add a ball to play and restart your ball save in a multiball that's Game of Thrones so I mean he during the before that played he was like this is the only one I didn't edit I was basically just like I got to get this done in one take and he did it so um what house do you normally choose um so my competitive strategy I know it's pretty one-dimensional is choosing Martell for the adab ball and then just going straight for Blackwater multiball yeah um I know I think a lot of people use either um I know Zac Stark is also a popular one uh at least around me um it um hitting that button this uh action button will uh finish a mode that you're in but it will only award you5 million points so it's more of like uh kind of speedrunning modes to get to that hand of the king uh mini wizard mode um yeah that's that's about the only two uh kind of strategies I'm I'm familiar with yeah I mean I I I definitely do is barath does which one gives you the outlane say Baratheon I think it's barathan yes yeah because the the families the houses also have Perks like passive perks but they also have active perks and so m i Baratheon has the Lord of Light which is really helpful sometimes cuz if you're like trying to shoot for the Blackwater multiball lock shots on the right and you're like one away cuz there's a nice ball save on most of the copies I've played I it's such a hard pin I'm glad people leave most of them on you at least I see a lot of people short plunge so they don't validate the play play field then hit it and then their ball save gets activated and then they can hit it again and without you know hopefully um ruining their chance at uh advancing towards Blackwater multiball I know they were talking about in this um this finals how like having B uh wall multiball is a strategy as well because you can get he I think in the tutorial is like you can get up to 10x during it with I forgot which house it is Tyrell maybe um not sure uh but yeah so Jane picks barathan just has a quick ball um nothing to write home about uh Jared augus comes up I believe he chooses I think Jane had like 5 million or something I think he chooses Tyrell but they were saying something else no it is Tyrell so yeah she has 9.9 million um after her ball one uh Jared has an amazing ball one he gets Tyrell he gets Blackwater stacked with two houses and um like you were saying if you have Zac Stark you can get one of them done quick so I'm wondering which is the hardest Targaryen or Greyjoy cuz I know Greyjoy you have to hit every shot it's what's Targaryen hit that dragon three times or uh um I think you know I'm not sure that's okay I don't know is a perfectly acceptable answer because I don't know either but I I was thinking about as you said I'm like I know there's one mode that if you could Breeze through it like the the perk of gry joy is what it gives you the other house abilities for whatever house you're playing yes yeah I think when you when you finish that mode it it gets you that perk see that's awesome so like so if you finish Greyjoy with Zac Stark do you then like get the perk of Greyjoy subsequently like when you finish houses or is it because you didn't choose gry Joy at the beginning you don't get that perk I'm pretty sure it's that right I I couldn't tell you how to that sounds right we're going to roll with that so anyways uh Jared does have like I said an amazing amazing ball one um he gets an insane lanister house finish uh he's already got his replay going again if you're watching the video uh format of this podcast you'll see he hits his iron bank uh button I think to collect and he gets for all his troubles look at that bonus 76 million um he has about 61819 million uh really sets the pace which is funny because you're never too far ahead in Game of Thrones someone can always come back because the points on this stack like crazy uh foreshadowing moment there so Lewis steps up takes Lannister I believe he takes Lannister unfortunately as the announcers so eloquently put the outlanes were hungry and they take him down he ends up with he's look at that 170 points on the board just I don't even I think he hit one switch and then um luckily that's not what he ends up with but he hits something here it goes down he gets his ball save he's got, 1500 uh again thank you Eric for keeping the ball save very favorable uh during pincinnati on this one and he gets a sling nudge and he's done so he ends up with 510,000 which is not a good ball one but U it can happen to anybody so Jared echelman steps up he's got Baratheon and he has a quick ball he ends up with a quick multi or multiball I believe or no just quick ball excuse me uh 3.3 million Jane comes up for ball two and she uh you know hits a few things does a does some of the deeds and ends up with 58 million for the scores in this it's hard to say oh you've done this this and this because one shot can get you 60 million so it's not that it's a bad score com comparative to her other um players other than Jared August it's just you know in the grand scheme of things you can probably make that up uh pretty quickly so Jared August has his quick ball he ends up with 631 so he had 618 million on ball one only gets 13 million on ball two leis bans quick ball on his uh ball two 6.9 million so his first two balls very uneventful unfortunately um especially for how well he was playing all weekend so just you get snake bits sometimes so Jared ushman steps up gets very close to hand of the king like Jared August he gets 376 million for his ball um ball uh thank you for his ball uh uh ball two ball three Jane ready to start Castle multiball uh she gets it but unfortunately if I can pull it up where is it uh where is it I think it's right here um but she does start multiball uh Castle multiball unfortunately it is a everybody out of the pool sort of uh event and there it is oh she hit her Baratheon unfortunately a little too late and it was a straight down the middle if you're not watching the footage and then both balls um meet and go to each outlan they sort of converge on the middle of the Playfield just very very unfortunate cuz Castle multiball is where you want to be so 94 million for her um Jared August uh uh starts House of the king excuse me hand of the king he was so close before on ball two and uh he gets 205 million ends with 1.1 billion points to firmly cement his place at the top of the leaderboard on Game of Thrones uh Lewis they um have a quick ball unfortunately and just 27 million 27 million for your troubles not the way you want to end the tournament however nothing bad can be said about Lewis's play they um they just crushed it all weekend absolutely uh destroyed it just ran through qualifying with the hammer and they they absolutely made mince meat of everybody to get to the final so kudos to you Lewis uh you were awesome and then Jared ushman comes on his ball three so he's got uh hand of the king ready he gets to the second phase of hand of the king which I have never seen I'm sure someone's done it before but um it is masterful and the scores that he just he's going up the middle and it's like 60 million 50 million 57 million and he's already at one point six billion so he comes back to take first place which gives him yeah especially against Jared August like that's not I mean Jared eshelman's obviously there for a reason so congratulations to Jared uselman which gives him a four Jane uh Jared August gets a two um Jared uh Jared excuse me Jane gets third with one and Lewis they get um zero with uh the fourth place so the way it ends up Jared augus in first with seven points Jed Elman and Jane are now tied for second and Lewis is um uh has four points which he had second second so you know we're trying to avoid that zero but trust me I had plenty of zeros so it happens and then Jane wins her tiebreaker on cheetah uh I'm not going to go over that because it's cheetah so uh nothing against cheetah Eric uh but our finalist our final winners for the pincinnati 2024 Championship Jared August again with a ton of Whoppers we'll go over that right here I will pull this up Jared with 189.1 Whoppers Jane ver W yeah with 164 Jared uselman with 149 Lewis they get 138 .36 rounding out your top 10 Preston Curry Nate Grant rid day Christopher dwit Jr Shawn Davis Sterling mosa and Travis muy um I also want to give a big congratulations to Andy Pickins him yeah I played with him now a couple Anvil yeah Anvil a partner on Twitch really good streamer really good guy he's been I met him at pinberry 82 points finishing 12th along with Ryan McQuaid uh creative uh designer of the awesome Homebrew Sonic pinball and hopefully um his design comes out from American pinball as well so as a quick uh sorry to interrupt you real quick the um I know after qualifying Andy um Pickins had a uh a tie break for the eight seed to take the last buy I think it was with Travis uh mie and they played Iron Maiden uh I think it was a one ball tie break for the for the seed and I know Andy had uh it wasn't a ideal ball it was maybe like one to two million points so it was looking pretty grim and somehow it was able to uh have that score stand and he uh he managed to take the eight seed and uh and the buy so shout out to Andy man that was awesome to watch we were all kind of cheering for him on Discord so that's super cool yeah awesome to see yeah I completely forgot about that you're right cuz I know Travis has been snake bit before at d82 on a play in like I think it was on Paragon and he had like he flipped and got like a thousand points and it's just like and he also had the infamous uh zero score um I think it was at tpf or somewhere but yeah a big big congratulations to everybody that played um Andy I was I I'm super happy to see you really play strong not that you weren't before but um get some good Whoppers and then you see all the names you've seen before you know uh creator of pinst steps jackton played really well in 24th and then there were B division winners as well I apologize I don't have those for you I never forget about my be people usually but unfortunately this time I did so uh you are all winners you're it's like that that Meme you're all winners um but I want to give a uh quick quick rundown for the ladies they had a different format uh this year that's why we I'm not going in depth because um I like Amazing Race but I want to it's it's I guess you could just do the last two but I want to make sure we get everybody in so I just didn't have time to cut the footage for the last four so pincinnati women's uh Amazing Race format your top winner Jane verweise with 61. 61 points again the fall of the The Fall season of Jane continues yeah what a run yeah it was an amazing run and not that it's over but she just a really really you don't need to hear from me everybody knows everybody's played with her uh just a great player and I really enjoy seeing her strategies and and other people's as well um that can play at that top level to try and learn something Deborah tman uh in second with 45.58 uh who won penberg women's was it Deborah oh that's a good question uh I think it was that sounds right yeah I think it was her Zoe somebody else um maybe Stephanie no um Stephanie won Papa 21 women's yes but third was her hot nudge uh and Stern employee extraordinaire marketing genius uh teammate uh Rebecca Hinsdale in third with 37.2 six and Sam AR and fourth with 31.10 congratulations ladies uh that was fun to get to see and a good format you know kind of switch things up so final thoughts on pincinnati again Eric I really really appreciate uh all the hard work you put into it I will be back as many times as I can if uh work and family time allow I truly hope it continues to grow the way you want and be as smooth as you want it was in a great location uh the hotel was nice it was nice to be inside the hotel where it was that's always a plus and yeah I can't think of any more good things to say just uh give me a chance to waste money and give me a side tournament uh any thoughts on the play we saw no yeah it was uh really really nice watching um you know four high class players um duke it out um it's always fun to see um seem like a great Bank of games for finals and um I hope I can make it to the next one yeah I hope to see you there it's a good time and and one day I will uh get my record above yours PVP just kidding uh but yeah yeah Kudos again to everybody so that is going to end our pincinnati segment right now we're going to finish off with the game as we try to usually do and this game we are going to build a card I love these uh type of discussions before we get into the main I'm going to go over the available options in the Classics for indis um 2025 the classics and Maine have been announced high stakes has been announced uh the bank there again high stakes not Whopper format pin Slash head-to-head is Jaws and we look forward to seeing everybody starting hopefully tomorrow if you're in Vegas for a layover tomorrow hit me up I'll be there for six hours playing Planet Moola and streaming it hopefully if the airport allows me but uh can't wait can't wait to compete can't wait to see you uh Joe and get some time hopefully we get to do commentary together that would be cool did did you sign oh yeah I did uh I tried to put my name down for as many spots as I could but um I have to keep Sunday open because uh my Washington commanders are playing and the uh with the time difference I think they start at noon in California yeah so I'm going to be uh glued to my iPad probably in the uh in the tournament room somewhere you you'll see me with my uh my Jaden Daniels Jersey on I don't blame you what a run uh the commanders have had you get rid of Dan Snider and all of a sudden you're amazing oh yeah great yeah great draft I'm you know so quick backstory I moved from California to Maryland as a kid I was 10 years old it was the worst move for me because I was surfing in Santa Cruz and then I'm in the corn fields in Maryland so I've always had a disdain for Maryland itself and the sports teams however I did enjoy my time with the George Michael Sports Machine watching Joe Gibbs and uh seeing the Redskins command commanders um grow and they have been through a long history of um mediocrity and it's nice to see their fans get rewarded like when the Nationals did well um they're still waiting for the Wizards to do well the capitals have been have been good you know oh they're playing great right now too with the Caps yeah so watching Jayden Daniels ball out on um his rookie year and you see like all these post about where his stats Rank and it's like it's like uh this the score the the post was um you know the the city of uh Philly being all serious and then there's just jayen Daniels having fun like it's just funny to see like everybody's all serious so good luck uh I'm I hope I hope your home team wins I've had some unfortunate depression with the Niners getting to the dance and never finishing it off but uh hopefully someone can take down Mahomes as long as Mahomes doesn't win I'm good they've had their time I agree so agreed uh with this Classics Bank at indisk it is a card format you get your five best scores I did my best you know which was like 120th last year in Classics but I think I have a better approach this year now that we've had a year of play so here are the pins for the classics Bank X's and O's nineball big game astronaut eightball champ alien star Monaco Flash Gordon Victory Trident Oxo Comet Spirit hot doggin wildcard Joker poker Frontier and prospector I will let you go first why don't you pick the first game that you would put on your card whether it's the strongest and maybe you want to go through the strategy for our listeners of card format what are you trying to do first pick your strongest game or maybe pick your weakest and if you do well then go from there yeah I like to um start with uh one of my stronger games just so I know um whether or not the card is to be worth pursuing um I I know sometimes like maybe I'll I'll throw a flyer out on a on a game one on something that I'm maybe not too confident on but I I usually like to start strong and then you know go from there um with that said I I do like uh Frontier definitely sticks out and uh I think Joker poker those two really um are games that I feel a little comfortable playing yeah I'm all about the Kenny Rogers roasters I think Frontier is is my pick too um I've Lov playing it at the tournaments I fell in love with it at District 82 the only one that other one that I really like as a first game is probably hot doging uh it has a special place in my heart because I own a skateball and I think the back glasses tell a a Canon story together I feel like the guy from skateball like uh finished his time in California and went skiing and now he's on hot dogging so uh but I do like hot doging cuz I like the widebody I feel a little safe with some of the feeds returning it's really hard to get that shot that you need at the top left but Frontier you know if if the tap pass is working hit the drops and rip that spinner so I don't think that's a bad choice I think I'll for my second game I probably go Flash Gordon I'm really a lot more comfortable with that now and I think if I'm going to start off strong with two I go with with the tried and true Flash Gordon I know in match play your strategy might be different if everybody's scores are kind of middling you might not need to go for the drops on the right the bonus you might just try to get up top or you know hit the drops on the left and light one of the Spinners and go from there but I think Flash Gordon plays quick so I'll know if I need to void an reue but I think a score of like 800 900,000 should be good to keep you somewhere there what about you for game number two yeah game two two um if I'm sticking with game one is Frontier uh I think I'm going to go Joker poker um I just uh I really like the rules set on that game and um you know hitting those drops uh and plus it's just fun fun to play yeah I've I've had some time on it I've I need to go back and look at there's so I think I've played it on stream before at a tournament so I need to go back see what I did what I did wrong um but yeah I think that's a another solid Choice uh what's your game three see game three um I do like Flash Gordon but uh I'm a little scared of playing I think it was in this in the classic Bank last year as well am I wrong or do you remember I don't remember I remember I don't remember it there um I know it was in the UK open I know it was at the Beast I know it was it at Papa 21 I feel like it was maybe oh maybe I'm thinking of the Beast then I just remember shielding my eyes cuz the The Flash would uh would catch me off guards sometimes yeah um yeah good pick yeah if you're going going Flash Gordon 3 yeah so I yeah let's do Flash Gordon I think third for me I'm going man this is hard I think I'm gonna go alien star uh after watching Jared blow it up at pincinnati I've got a much better handle of the strategy I should be doing and I don't think I'm uncomfortable with it my first ever tournament big one was Expo [Music] 2021 the first one postco and I put up a score that held for the top in the classics there for like you know an hour or two so I was happy I think I'll I'll try to relive That Glory how about you nice do you like uh do you like trying to shats that right in Lane to rip the spinner I do you go for multiball I do like the shat strategy I think if it's not falling for me I'm going multiball all the all all the way like you know depending on where my multiplier is on the left scoop you know I'm probably going to play a few cards where I just go multiball first and then if that's working you know stick with it otherwise practice the shats because uh up and O up depending also You Know What's blocking the in Lane if it goes up and over is there going to be something to help bounce it back in or is it going to go up and over so uh I know the strategy is shat but I had a lot of success um with the multiball strategy and I think that's the way to go too because you get a good 5x you know just hope you get it down the in lane and rip that spinner once you're at few hundred thousand points right away um I guess I'll go for game four I think game four I'm probably doing uh what's my bank so far it's Frontier hot dog in Flash Gordon and alien star okay so you game four sorry oh sure yeah um I think I like uh Comet uh Comet just a cool game I think that was one that I played for the first time at also District 82 um but we got one um here locally or semilocally down in Fredericksburg that um I really enjoy playing and you know getting those top Lanes lit to get your uh was it 5x going and then you know shooting that million shot can be pretty good Rush uh yeah I don't think you're uh off base at all I think that's my fifth too that once you hit that million you've already vaulted yourself probably past 60% of the field right and you know if you can find I know the shot to the left comet is the one with the orange loop-de-loop ramp on the top left on the top left yes yeah because it's hard to get it all the way around so you can get the yeah um rollover Lanes toan yeah so you get your um multiplier for the Playfield it's like 20 seconds or something but I love Comet I think it's a great player even with lightning flippers at District 82 it was just a lot of fun a lot of I just vividly remember those orange rubbers or orange flippers and having a good time I'm not confident on X's and O's I think is that the one where the the skill shot is like timed and everybody has to rush yeah it's timed it was in the main bank last year okay um shout out uh Preston I know joked about keeping it on my card and I don't think I I think I only played it like once or twice but um but it's a good game it's a it's a good one if you can if you can uh if you can get a hold of it I I wish it had been Mystic instead because I like Mystic a lot but Beggars can't be choosers um so what's your last was your last game no it wasn't Comet right yeah no that was game four uh my last game let's go with the prospector okay uh prospector is a fun one um one of uh one of the local Guys near me has one in his personal collection and um I was able to put some time on it uh in the last year and it's it's also just a very fun game you know collecting uh the silver and gold um and then uh it's just yeah it's just fun to shoot um I'm I'm curious how the uh the copy will play but I'm sure it'll play great yeah I'm wondering about prospector is that the one with the U Laurel and Hardy on it um I don't know are those the names of the the the the characters from Honeymooners uh it's possible I don't know if uh I'm trying to remember because I remember I feel like I played this when I started streaming virtual pinball which is how I got into pinball um okay and I really liked it is there like a silver and gold spinner yeah there's two spinners in the middle okay um and then there's like a scoop in the center and then it's got that kind of like uh almost like a I'm pulling up the Playfield right now yeah no worries you're good you're good I I think it's it's like that like not really a candy cane but like it kind of has like a uh scoop that the ball just falls into and then it'll kick it back out gotcha into the pops gotcha um yeah it's a great game nice yay can't can't hate on that I think I've played that before I may I may look at that one too because I think if you can get the right setup your Spinners are just worth a lot um going into it so what game are you definitely not playing uh I'll start off I had known nothing about spirit um it's I think it's rare it usually sells for like 10K and this will this will be uh foreshadowing into the main bank um because there's a very very rare pin uh if you want to play some very unique titles please come to indisk and support uh the tournament they're going to have something rare for you to play and the free play section is open as well I think you'll you'll be glad you did so I'm probably I have no clue how to play Spirit Victory as well uh what about you yeah um yeah there's a few games on here that I'm not very well versed on or have even seen in real life but um I don't know not I've never really had uh success playing nineball so I'll probably avoid that one um and uh Trident I'm just not a big fan of trident I don't play I don't blame you one bit it's got a crazy layout so those are the classics um what we're going to do now is um go to this tier maker so in the uh show notes in the video description and hopefully also hopefully in the podcast description make sure you check out the pinball Network on all your podcast feeds uh specifically Spotify if possible I think you'll get uh all our episodes there uh thank you Zach and the crew at the pinball Network for allowing me to post them there we have our tier maker this is our game for the main open so this open has as some people have called it the most scuffed Bank ever but uh scuff is also a term for you know cool controller stuff but I I I'm floored at this bank I hope some of these don't last and I hope some of these last the whole time but I my initial thoughts are they went uh wild I was hoping for maybe a different modern or two but this is maybe their way of trying to Nerf all the top tier players and uh give them a chance to not spend 30 minutes on bond an hour on Godzilla we'll see because your moderns are crazy so I'm going to go through the list of pins again you can make your own card here I had a live vote when I was prepping it to see which ones people were putting um but these are your games bone Busters uh Richie Terry is going to have a strong Advantage there bow and arrow uh we saw that at the worlds last year um which was fun to watch and now I know the strategy circus voler I'm definitely on board with I liked it at the Beast I like the pin itself I think it's fair and I think it gives everybody a shot Cyclone another tough one um deadly weapon I've never played is that Lethal Weapon or is that just something different uh I think it's probably Lethal Weapon coded but I think it's uh yeah I know the backass are is very uh okay so it's not Lethal Weapon I was like is this like an alter okay never played deadly weapon so I don't know what to expect there Escape From The Lost World never played that um Sega Godzilla played it at Star Fighters uh yeah okay it's like it's like multiball Focus like it feels like a j jjp ancestor um Guardians and Galaxy row I'm cool with that that's a good one grand lizard I'm cool with that I love that one uh Jaws that's a Keith elwin give it give it to me all day um Johnny neonic solid solid Choice the lost world uh the worst Mech in all of pinball that stupid egg um toss it out Labyrinth extremely hard playing it at the UK open was a eye opener this is Carl's copy um um obviously he's going to have a home field advantage with that one but it's going to hurt a lot of people my f one of my favorite classic Stars I think this is going to be on all my cards because if I can find the shot for the Spinners I know it can kill you but man if you could find that one shot on the Spinners and just try to stay up all day I think there's enough blockage of the outlanes it also depends on how tight the Tilt is and if the Spinners are nice unlike the the Beast ones I will um I will keep this on my card I really like stars I've always done decent on it to be honest um te off get out of here uh time fantasy no thanks Xenon okay you're cool you're cool uh Galactic tank force this won't last the tournament uh America's Most Haunted never played it Elton John a flow monster it's going to eat a lot of people up but it's also the top players are going to crush it cuz I've always seen them crush it especially at Pop 21 so I don't know how to play it I know the basics but it probably won't make my card and then um the one I was foreshadowing Kingpin extremely rare one of capcom's prototypes that never fully came out there's like what 10 in the world five in the world something like that but King is going to be is going to be at indisk uh your thoughts yeah no it's a very eclectic lineup um it's definitely uh got a lot of people kind of scratching their heads and um I think rightfully so you know that there's two LCD games in the entire bank and they're the two modern Stern and jaws and Guardians um and if they play like the uh what was it last year bond and stranger things did they're going to be set up very tough yeah um so expect I know you know those are probably two of the games that people are most familiar with but um I know Jim and and team are gonna you know tweak them just enough so that um they'll make people kind of relearn how they play the game or rethink how they play the game yeah it's uh I I think there's I think there's variety for variety sake I think sometimes you can step over the line a little I think this stepped over the line a little too much but you know everybody's in the same position everybody's got a chance and maybe this works out maybe we get down there and you and me get a buy you know it's like you know maybe something great happens um but I will uh I was very surprised when the when we were doing trivia I was like okay here's bone Busters here's this here's this how many moderns do we have how many I was like expecting Flintstones no Harlem um Hoops is in the women's the women's bank is awesome they got Paragon women's bank is really good yeah oh I'm so jealous I always tell my wife man I wish I could play in the women's big they got all the good pins um so so yeah uh and then high stakes has um Mystery Castle which was a fun one in the main arasy is in the women's I believe I wanted to play that but thank you to everybody bringing the pins I don't want to make this sound ungrateful it's just surprising only because I've never seen a tournament lineup like this uh I'll go first on this one my first pin I would uh pick is uh circus voler um I think that is what I'm comfortable with and playing it at the Beast I feel like I've got the rules set down and the approach down what do you think of your first one yeah um I really like Labyrinth uh I'm gonna put that in there um we had one on location near me and it was one of my go-to games to pick for um for competitive play uh I just feel very comfortable with the shots um I know it's uh maybe an uncommon first choice but um yeah I I hope uh I I mean I know it's going to play well you said it was Carl's copy I watched him um on stream playing that same copy many times and uh yeah I'm excited to play it what is your strategy you don't have to give everything because you want to keep something to yourself but like are you looking for modes first are you prepping your friends yeah yeah no um I think uh going through the modes and then getting you know three modes in a row on the same row will qualify your poison Peach mode um so usually that's uh kind of kind of the goal uh for me to play it nice yeah uh for circus voler I generally try to get through two ring Masters first and at the same time if I can uh prep either the uh jugler multiball or the Highwire and then go into ball of ring Master 3 which I think is the frenzy mode I don't remember if you can stack them but um that gets you 3 million points for the first two rig Masters I believe and then if you get into the multiball you get into the multiball and The Wizard Mode's super cool because there's like four phases not that I've ever done it on stream but it's a fun pin as long as the oh I think they turn on Virtual locks so we don't have to worry about the rig master sometimes it like messes up and then the ball just like ends up on top and doesn't come down not the way it's supposed to but it's like stuck somehow and then it rolls straight down the middle but I like circus volter a lot okay so number two I'm going to go with my boy stars um I really think this is the time for me to own it and make it my own um as far as uh getting a good score it's very risky the classics are always risky last year I had the top score in Harlem as my first game I got over 2 million and I said if I can just get a good score on Blackjack I have a chance to make the playoffs and I got a zero and then on Flintstones I got a zero and then on something else I got a 20 and then another zero so a 200 went from almost making in the playoffs to to not doing it and I think people were giving me advice like you shouldn't play Too Many risky ones because yes you could hit lightning five times but you've got to hit the bonds the jawes and stuff like that what are you think for your second game yeah um second game I might throw a flyer out on um Jurassic Park Lost World uh I think uh I don't know I've watched gameplay video um on this I know um Alexander cat Maric has a pretty uh pretty good uh video online on YouTube of him just playing just kind of going multiball all day um but uh I don't know it looks like an approachable game we'll see um we'll see how it plays but I'm sure that that'll change uh quickly after playing it once or twice we'll see hey that's that's a solid strategy I'm I'm I'm down for it I think I'm going Jaws on number three uh I want to try and intrude Stern I was thinking Galaxy but I think uh Guardians of the Galaxy but I think I'm I'm better at jaws I've seen a couple of the wizard modes not that this copy is going to play easy but um I think uh my thoughts are I don't know I you get in the nine digits like maybe 200 300 million you're probably having have enough to be at the base of the cut line for playoffs so it seems feasible how about you sure um I might uh I think I'm gonna look at Johnny demonic um yeah I I don't know I'll see how how that game kind of played but um I like how uh how flowy it can be yeah that's a great one I think that's that's going to be like Demolition Man I think was that there last year yeah that was a very popular one I remember the q's being like 90 minutes or something crazy so uh Pro tip get as many cards as you can in before Saturday night oh yeah cuz man those cues are long and you're not going to have a chance so if you are playing in Classics Target match play on Thursday do your best to get some entries in on the modern on the main while you're waiting in between rounds if you can um because you know it is what it is you don't want to ruin a card because you got to go play ctmp but it might be a good time for that and there's a lot of people that come in Friday and not Thursday so get in uh number four I'm going to go Grand lizard I think at penberg I really learned a lot from Jordan to Shane and El rucko playing it and I I like the uh I like my confidence in it I like the opportunity to get to the multiball and do some damage do I hope that no one else does yes will they yes but get me I forgot what the good scores were I think it was like a million two million something like that get me nine digits or excuse me seven digits and I think I've got a chance how about you yeah uh that's a great pick um I think I definitely want Grand lizard in the mix somewhere maybe um somewhere in the middle uh maybe not necessarily the fourth pick but um for the sake of variety uh I'll put um I'll put Guardians in there Guardians of the Galaxy just to have a Stern yeah I gotta have one Stern I guess it is a Stern pro circuit event um yeah really really good pin uh do you start with quill do you start with uh Antiquities what do you do I think I usually start with the yaka Arrow just because uh you know the the the shots to the pops um you know count towards mode shots um and then from there you know just build my multiball progress um either through orb or uh Groot and then I usually go Antiquities next to get that orb going do you drain right away uh you start yaka and then plunge again so you get the the sometimes it will I have a feeling the ball says maybe will be shortened or off so I don't know if we'll be able to do that here but uh buy $20 yeah I won't be the one to find that out yeah um that's funny I was thinking of that all right my last one uh for fun I'm gonna say Kingpin but I'm not going to put it there but I do want a couple cards with Kingpin it's so rare I got to play it um y will it make it on my final card uh the rest of the card sucks and I somehow blow up Kingpin yeah but I'm goingon to say Kingpin is honorable mention but I'm probably going with um I don't know these I'll probably go with Xenon I think I know Xenon a little bit I the one pin I've beat Carlos on in in uh in my entire career so uh I'll go back to it and and hope the well hope lightning strikes twice and the well hasn't run dry I like it a lot as a pin it's been in a few tournaments that I've played I've got I'm comfortable with it enough where I don't feel like it's too risky like a bow and arrow or a something older that may snake bite me like Cyclone or or Golden Arrow or bow and arrow excuse me so what is your number five yeah um as much as I would like to put a got Le in here like a te off or a bone Busters uh I don't know about spending $20 to learn the games on the fly so that's expensive expensive expensive lessons yeah um I'm gonna throw uh I'll put cyclone in there uh I think uh just just from familiarity with the game awesome so there is our possible card for indisk 2025 the main we invite you all to click the link in the show notes Wherever You Are or message me and I will uh DM you the link you can make your own card it's on tiermaker.com uh if I think you can search just indisk and it'll show up I IND d as in David is as in Sam c as in cat and that's it that is our big uh game finale as we head into the competitive season the start once again uh thank you to everybody that's hosting these tournaments running them your hard work is not um not without appreciation sometimes it's a thankless job I thank you very much I know Joe feels the same and we look forward to a healthy happy 2025 wherever you are good luck to everybody hope to see you at indisk hope to see you at Star Fighters any local Regional Tournament you want to discuss please email us at Wizards and warriors podcast gmail.com Jo any final thoughts yeah no um another great episode hottie um yeah I hope to see everyone in indisk uh feel free to come up and say hi you know we'd love to chat uh chat pinball and you know see how y'all are doing tell me all your secrets everyone but anyways uh this has been episode five wizards and Warriors and we'll see yall later see you guys Flash ringing I step up to the table my heart is singing The is watching theion is high I'm ready to play It's [Music] [Applause] time we got the Chas in the the arcades my every command and Kingdom I make I Stand All Warriors we're ready to [Music] fight control we got