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Carpool Pinball - Episode 17

JBS Show·podcast_episode·41m 11s·analyzed·Feb 11, 2024
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Carpool Pinball streamers discuss growth, Texas pinball community, and Abilene Showdown tournament logistics.

Summary

Jamie from Wormhole Pinball interviews Carpool Pinball streamers Clark McCoy and Garrett Shahan, Texas State Championship winner, discussing their streaming setup, tournament organization, and the upcoming Abilene Showdown. The conversation covers Carpool Pinball's growth from August startup to weekly streaming operations, their community-building efforts in DFW, and details about the Abilene Showdown's rapid sellout (80 spots in ~7-18 minutes) and expanded four-day format.

Key Claims

  • Carpool Pinball started streaming in August (one year prior to this episode)

    high confidence · Clark: 'Started in August. August, yeah. It's coming up. It's incredible, man.'

  • Garrett Shahan won the Texas State Championship

    high confidence · Jamie: 'congratulations again, Garrett, for winning the Texas State Championship.'

  • Current WPPR rankings: Garrett Shahan 120th, Clark McCoy 682nd, Keith Shahan 332nd

    high confidence · Jamie: 'Garrett, you are 120th. And Clark, you are 682nd... Keith Shahan, are you 302nd in the world now?... 332.'

  • Abilene Showdown sold 80 tournament spots in approximately 7-18 minutes

    high confidence · Keith: 'it was like 18 minutes... we had two that someone put in a cart... it was unofficially seven minutes... they sold immediately.'

  • Carpool Pinball streams Free Play Pinball League on Thursdays and Pinball Monday tournaments on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Monday of each month

    high confidence · Clark: 'We do, on a weekly basis, we'll do Free Play Pinball League on Thursdays... then the first, second, and third Monday of each month, Free Play has a Pinball Monday tournament'

  • District 82 tournaments are losing some attendance due to proliferation of larger tournaments elsewhere

    medium confidence · Keith: 'More big tournaments are popping up everywhere, so that means people are traveling up there, which makes it not worth as much.'

  • Abilene Showdown will have 27-28 pinball machines in tournament

    high confidence · Keith: 'How many pins will be in this week? 27 pins. How many? 28 now. 27 I believe. So 27 pins in the tournament?'

  • Brad's barn (venue for Abilene Showdown) has 27-28 machines total

    high confidence · Keith: 'So 27 pins in the tournament? That is correct'

  • Carpool Pinball generates approximately $200-300/month from Twitch streaming

Notable Quotes

  • “since there's no stream in the DFW area, we were driving home from one of the free play locations and we just started talking like, let's start our own.”

    Clark McCoy @ ~3:00 — Origin story of Carpool Pinball streaming startup

  • “we're not really competing with each other we're just a different channel down the dial and we're just putting competitive pinball out there”

    Jamie @ ~14:00 — Philosophy of multiple pinball streaming platforms cooperating rather than competing

  • “I'm an anxious person. I can't help myself. And when cameras go out... I'm on the mic and I'm running the stream. And it's kind of like a one-man show for that thing.”

    Jamie @ ~25:00 — Explains Jamie's streaming production anxiety and multi-tasking burden

  • “OBS is a black box to me. I press a button, it gives an input sometimes and then other times it just... Mark is the man behind the scenes so you better be nice to that dude”

    Jamie @ ~30:00 — Acknowledgment of backend streaming technical complexity and key personnel

  • “we even – the Abilene Showdown Locust still has a wormhole on it too. As far as Texas Pinball goes, you're the guy I want to do the big tournaments.”

    Jamie @ ~50:00 — Recognition of event organization quality despite personal stress

  • “It is. It's a party event with some points. Yeah, lots of points involved. Sunday will be more serious.”

    Jamie and Keith @ ~55:00 — Describes event format balancing casual fun with competitive play

  • “If we're going to get people out to Abilene We can't run a one day tournament No one's going to come out here So let's copy District 82 Let's run Four tournaments in a weekend”

    Keith Shahan @ ~65:00 — Strategic reasoning behind Abilene Showdown multi-day format

  • “They're laying down blueprints for us, and we're going to copy the hell out of it.”

Entities

Clark McCoypersonGarrett ShahanpersonKeith ShahanpersonCarpool PinballorganizationAbilene ShowdowneventBrad's BarnorganizationWormhole PinballorganizationJamiepersonPhil Grimaldiperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Streaming monetization minimal but growing; Carpool Pinball earning ~$200-300/month from Twitch, insufficient to cover equipment costs but increasing

    medium · Jamie: 'we are literally making... a couple of hundred dollars a month now right... that doesn't even cover the Velcro attached to it'

  • ?

    community_signal: Carpool Pinball streaming attracts youth players at arcade venues who see the streaming setup and want to get involved with pinball

    high · Jamie: 'when we go to FreePlay now with our streaming gear, I've noticed a lot of kids just come up and want to get more involved with pinball just because they see cameras'

  • ?

    community_signal: Texas pinball community showing strong inter-city cooperation and mentoring; DFW players organizing to improve competitiveness after prior state championship loss

    high · Keith: 'one of the first things after Arlington State, DFW kind of got our butts whipped in state in our own backyard... we've been all trying to get together and get better as a group'

  • $

    market_signal: Multi-day tournament format (Friday-Sunday or Thursday-Sunday) becoming expected model for major competitive events; copying District 82 blueprint seen as essential for event success

    high · Keith: 'They're laying down blueprints for us, and we're going to copy the hell out of it' regarding multi-tournament weekend format

  • ?

    event_signal: Abilene Showdown demonstrates strong demand for multi-day tournament events; 80 spots sold out in 7-18 minutes with 8-9 person waiting list

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.124

0:00
hello and welcome to the wormhole and our podcast called wormhole pinball presents today i am joined virtually by carpool pinball's own clark mccoy and our texas state champion carrot shahan you will see his father keith in the background getting ready for the abilene showdown gentlemen how are we today doing great doing great jamie thanks for having us thank you oh man thank you so much i I haven't seen you since the state finals, both of you. And, you know, first of all, congratulations again, Garrett, for winning the Texas State Championship. Thank you. It was a great, great time down there and getting to play a bunch of wormholers down there, too. I got to play Phil and Wesley.
0:46
Jonathan, too. It really was. The semifinals and finals were some of the best pinball I've ever streamed, honestly. And, you know, your matches in the semis with Wesley Johnson out of College Station and then, of course, the finals against Phil Grimaldi out of Houston were awesome. And Donovan's been breaking those up, guys. And they'll be on VODs on Demand on YouTube very, very shortly. I think he just put up Gilbert versus Robert Byers, which is a good match. I just watched that one. Excellent matchup. So he's putting up all three and a half hours of me versus Wesley. Yes. He's editing it.
1:30
That guy, he's a sadist. That's why I keep pushing for people to like his videos. Give this guy some love, man. You know how much work he's going into putting these great jobs. Absolutely. That's the first thing I do when I pull up one of those videos. Give you a like. Give him a like, dude. He busts his rear end, Donovan. Okay.
1:48
So, Garrett, when are you going to Nationals? When is Nationals at District 82? It should be March 7th It's coming up It's not the weekend after Abilene Showdown It's two weekends after Abilene Showdown And what, one or two weeks before TPF? A week before TPF You're doing some traveling Yeah, at least TPF's local, but For us, since We're up in DFW, but It's going to be a crazy Pinball five weeks coming up Well, congrats again And for those of you who do not know, the state championship was held here at the Wormhole. And I'm really proud of how that event went off.

medium confidence · Jamie: 'i think a couple of hundred dollars a month now right... i'm excited about that'

  • Abilene Showdown has 8-9 people on a waiting list despite selling out main tournament

    high confidence · Jamie: 'are you still taking people on the waiting list? There are still about eight or nine on the waiting list'

    • Jamie @ ~68:00 — Approach to event organization learning from established tournaments

    Wesley Johnsonperson
    Free Playorganization
    IE Pinballorganization
    District 82organization
    Space City Pinballorganization
    Donovanperson
    Carl D'Angeloperson
    Markperson
    ACU (Abilene Christian University)organization
    Texas Pinball Festivalevent
    Mark Randperson

    high · Keith: '80 spots... Unofficially... it was like 18 minutes... they sold immediately' with 8-9 on waiting list

  • $

    market_signal: Proliferation of large tournaments across Texas reducing attendance at traditional venues like District 82; prompting smaller organizers to copy multi-day format

    high · Keith: 'More big tournaments are popping up everywhere... that means people are traveling up there, which makes it not worth as much'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Wormhole Pinball transitioning from primary streaming responsibility at Abilene Showdown to commentary/hangout role; Carpool Pinball taking primary streaming duties

    high · Keith: 'Last year you were kind of invite Wormhole Pinball to stream these events. This year we decided to show up and have a lot more fun and leave the streaming to you guys Carpool Pinball'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Pinball streaming rigs becoming more sophisticated and mobile; Carpool Pinball designed custom 15-minute setup (in practice ~20-30 mins) with significant power/battery redundancy

    high · Jamie discusses 18-hour battery rigs, six batteries + three more, 24-hour batteries with 60,000 amps capacity to avoid camera failures during tournaments

    • 2:28
    You know, all the TDs have thanked everyone a million times, but the machines played really well. Everything played really well. It was a really good event. And, you know, we normally rotate games, gentlemen, in and out, but we wanted them to be pretty perfect for the state finals. So I think that has done all right. That's enough self-promotion.
    2:50
    That's enough. I got carpool pinball here. Let's talk about, you know, because I got a bunch on the Abilene Showdown. McKee's going to join us in a little bit. But let's talk about how you came up with the name carpool pinball. How did you start? When did you start? All those good things. Clark, I'll let you handle this. Yeah, so we were, there was no street in the DFW area. And we kind of wanted to watch ourselves more. Garrett really wanted to just learn because watching yourself play and be like, oh, I should have done that or I should have dead bounced there kind of helps you out.
    3:27
    So since there's no stream in the DFW area, we were driving home from one of the free play locations and we just started talking like, let's start our own. And I have an idea with our phones and all that wirelessly cheap way. And then we're like, what should our names be? and we've always called ourselves the carpool. So we're driving home. We set up a Twitch account that day and carpool pinball ever since. So I don't even know why it started. There was a group in Denton. So we're both living up in Denton right now.
    4:04
    We would have like five or six people all drive to the tournaments together. And then anytime we got to there, so we'd say we're going to go for a carpool sweep today and try and get top four carpool members in that tournament. And then the name kind of stuck. People started jokingly calling us carpool.
    4:21
    We had a tournament at NTX Pinball where it was a split flipper tournament, and you got to name your team. We named ourselves carpool. And that's where the yelling carpool came from. That was my next question. Who the heck started yelling carpool from across the board?
    4:38
    Every time we would win, or other people started yelling it at us too there. We'd just yell carpool because you had to pick a name for your split flipper name group. And that's kind of what we went with. It's really awesome. You've been doing it for almost a year now, right?
    4:55
    Started in August. August, yeah. It's coming up. It's incredible, man. Congratulations on your continued success there. And you're growing it little by little, and you're making it happen. And so what events do you guys stream on a weekly basis?
    5:13
    We do, on a weekly basis, we'll do Free Play Pinball League on Thursdays, and that's kind of a hangout stream. That's serious. And then the first, second, and third Monday of each month, Free Play has a Pinball Monday tournament,
    5:29
    which we will stream that each time. That runs from 7 to 11 or 12 Central Time. one of the downsides is we're on the same block as you, unfortunately, for that. But it does help we can rate each other for the last 10 minutes of each of our streams. You know, it's interesting. I had Carl D'Angelo on IE Pinball, right? I had him on the podcast, and then I had Rachel Ristow of Fox Cities. And talk about two serious productions, right? Like that's where we want to be, right? and we want to you know and but the way i look at it and the way that carl and we all look at it we're not really competing with each other we're just a different channel down the uh down the dial and we're just putting competitive pinball out there guys and so you know i think we're really trying to grow this hobby and grow this sport uh and show the competitive side and the great players and again i'm just a text away if you ever need anything we're all trying to just get up to what IE has set and JDL. These are the guys that really set the bar. And we're tinkering too, right? And I got two rigs now. I can see that rig is getting bigger.
    6:46
    You're tinkering, right? You know, you tinker. Eric gets mad at me about it. Every time I see the rig, it's got something new on it. I was like, I don't know how to put my own rig together anymore. I feel something.
    6:59
    You know, it's so funny. If I ever, I hate to say the phrase, get hit by a car, right? But if I ever won the lottery and get the hell out of here, I wrote up a three-page document of how long it takes me to start OBS and all these particular things. I think they would be a little lost without the producer, Jamie Virtual. But that's okay. You know, I mean, it is phenomenal. I'm excited. It's a hobby. Clark, you look at it as a hobby too, right? I mean, you know, collecting these things. I was on eBay this morning trying to buy another camera.
    7:34
    And, yeah, I want another Sony ZV-1, but I'm not paying that money. So what I do is I go on eBay and I find, like, pawn shops that have them and don't care and want to spend. You know, I could buy it now for $350.
    7:49
    And, you know, so I want both rigs to be ZV-1s, but that's a TPF goal. Yep. I don't have much time. I got to get going, I guess. Shit. That's coming up. It's about a month. It is. Let's talk about pinball. How you guys got into it. Your father obviously got you into it, right? Yes. He is ranked 332nd in the world. I pulled these up this morning. These are accurate, gentlemen. Garrett, you are 120th. And Clark, you are 682nd. That's a pretty good group of pinballers.
    8:24
    Our pool. Yeah, I think we're number one, two, and six in the NFL now. Yeah, something like that. Yeah.
    8:37
    When did you start? So obviously you adopted Clark and taught him pinball. Is that the origin story of Clark beginning the play? So Santa got me into pinball. Growing up, I woke up one day and I had a pinball machine upstairs. so my cousin and Santa brought it upstairs during the night time and that was when I was around 12 wow I played that a lot I enjoyed pinball but competitive pinball Garrett's definitely helped push me to go to more the DFW events and it's been really enjoying it it's kind of wild how we actually started so we started hanging out after a free play pinball Monday. Because I'd been into pinball my whole life. I was in competitive pinball since like 2012-11-ish. But I only played at TPF each year. That was all I did competitive-wise. And back then, that's all you needed to do with Mixtape. You didn't need to play in all these other tournaments. Now, if you just play TPF, if you won both events, I don't think you're going to make it this year. Yeah.
    9:49
    And so, it's come a long ways, and then we pretty much went to college. I was, I guess, already in college at that point, but after that, kind of got out of pinball for a while, and the funny thing about how we met, we actually met in college at once.
    10:09
    I went to ACU. You went to ACU for a year. Yes And we were both engineer majors We never interacted with each other except for once that I can remember I came up to a free play pinball Monday and I saw him. I was like, you are so familiar. I know you from somewhere.
    10:28
    I thought you had an ACU shirt. Yeah, I was wearing an ACU shirt. That was before I had to wear a uniform because people made fun of me.
    10:39
    But yeah, it's just crazy the coincidence. We both moved out of Apple. We're both up in Denton now. And we all ran into each other again. Well, there you go. I see you, Clark, huddle up a lot during tournaments, right? I think that's really awesome. I think that support group that you have there, right, it really helps you, especially in these huge tournaments where maybe one of you hasn't moved on and the other one is really sticking around, not only to help me move the rig, Clark, which I appreciate. But also to just be there and support. It's fantastic. I love that.
    11:18
    So one of the things, and we've been big on it for about a year, basically after Arlington State, DFW kind of got our butts whipped in state in our own backyard. And we're like, okay, that can't happen again. So we've been all trying to get together and get better as a group. And that helps build the community And there's no reason not to share everything And help everybody Especially in the smaller stuff Even in the big tournaments We'll always help each other out I like the little in-state rivalries That we have here between Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio And Corpus I think those are your five And they're fun It's good natured ribbon I really root for everyone If, you know, whoever wins state, I want them to do well in nationals, right, because they're representing Texas. So, no, it's really good. I enjoy the nice camaraderie that we have here. So you guys got together and decided no more Houston and no more Austin coming up there. It was more of the – because Austin's won state all but one – I guess all but two years now. They're a problem. We have that again. They're a problem. Well, they have a couple guys named Kyle McAlpine and Robert Byers, and they're pretty good players, though. They are pretty dang good players. But let me tell you, this last year, the way Wesley's improved, the way Jack's improved, Phil's always been a good player. Y'all got some dang good players down there now, too. And not to mention all of your players playing at the Game Preserve and Einstein's and such. You don't get to see them on the screen as much, but still really good players. We're spread out. We're spread out pretty good here. And so we've got a lot of different places that we that we play in Space City. But, you know, the competitive pinball leagues and Lewis, who runs your league, he's done a great job. I mean, he's done a really great job of growing those leagues. And it's one of the hardest parts that we always had was finding locations. And now we're abundant with locations that are willing to take us geeks and let us come and play competitive pinball, right? Yeah, it's been great. We're lucky to have most of our tournaments are actually in private collections up in DFW, outside of the free play tournaments. I think that that's prominent throughout the United States, though. It is. Yeah. But it is I don't know It was one of the first Private collection Leagues that started up It was like 2007 or something like that When they started tournaments Back when Marcus Trevino ran them That's the story of the growth of Houston is what that Phil Grimaldi was driving up to Dallas And Austin And playing in those events and then he was like Forget this noise and him and Mack Lantz started Space City Pinball And now I think you'll have the biggest community at this point. I don't know if it's a competition, but we have a pretty damn big community.
    14:28
    It's not a competition. It just means we come down there and play down there in Houston occasionally. You guys have a lot of kids too. We have Jack and Grayson and a bunch of other young kids. But one of the great things that Lewis has helped build is your youth movement and having those youth tournaments. I think those are great.
    14:49
    They are good. It's kind of shrunk in the last year, unfortunately Last eight, nine months But yeah, we're pushing to get that bigger again It's hard because when I play pinball, I like to let the X-Ballos fly So it is very difficult to watch myself around children And we've just conditioned Grace in tough shit, buddy You're going to have to hear it No, I think it is good, right? I think it is a good thing. You know, as many gray hairs as we have in pinball, we need the youth, right? We need to consistently. Absolutely. And, I mean, one of the funny things is we're relatively young still. Yeah, you're pretty young. As far as competitive pinball goes when it comes to the really high level, we're old men. Yep.
    15:41
    No, I know. I mean, you know, look at Zach and look at Escher and just some of the greatest players in the world. Oh, yeah.
    15:49
    It's great. So when we go to FreePlay now with our streaming gear, I've noticed a lot of kids just come up and want to get more involved with pinball just because they see cameras and they want to be on stream, which has been very cool to see. That's been the biggest surprise with the stream is actually lots of people get involved. They see the streaming rig and they come ask, and now they suddenly want to get involved with it. No, good. Let them get involved. Exactly. And, I mean, our goofy rig that looks not really like any other rig was designed specifically this way to go to arcades and be mobile. Yeah. The idea was to have it be able to be set up in 15 minutes. And we're a little past that right now because we keep changing our setup. But when we get it fine-tuned, it's, you know, five, ten minutes, we're ready to roll. You know, look, you can go back to our VODs on YouTube for Wormhole and see our stream in the beginning. We didn't know what the hell we were doing, right? And now it's getting to look like an ESPN Ocho show, right? It's starting to get there. Yeah, you've got a spaceship over KISS back there right now. With your rig. That thing has gotten fancy. Oh, I know. It really, really has. Those batteries, I freak out when I charge them because they're like 24 hours, 60,000 amps or some bologna cheese. And I'm worried I'm going to blow up the joint.
    17:18
    I'm worried. I charge all three. And then I go to – so I have six batteries, and then I just bought three more. These are only like 18 hours. But I can run the rig for 18 hours, guys, without having to worry about batteries. And that's why, because in the beginning, I just, all right, so you know me. I'm an anxious person. I can't help myself. And when cameras go out, what's different between me and some other people is I'm on the mic and I'm running the tournament, right? And it's kind of like a one-man show for that thing. Not running a tournament, but running the stream. I mean, excuse me, much better people than I run the tournament. and I just don't want anything breaking. So I'm like, all right, I'm just going to buy all this stuff so I don't have to worry about it. But it all breaks.
    18:12
    Oh, yeah. You know the OBS pains. So what on OBS breaks for you? Because Carl said it's his changing for studio mode. And me, it freezes up during Windows Capture. Ours, specifically when we go to our standing scene, crashes. So Windows capture or is it a browser source? Nobody cares about this but the three of us but it's fascinating to me Well it's because it's a window capture It is a window capture problem as well What's weird is we have that window captured in our other scene as well so it's not loading something new except for the new scene It is because it's loading a layout too So I think I figured out something the other day Video capture If you still have viewers and... At this point, he can keep going. Just for me and you. Video capture. So we have video on our main scene, and then when we switch to commentator, it removes that video from the commentator scene. And it switches back, and it tries to reconnect to that video source, and it likes to crash if the video source has to unload and load again. It crashes.
    19:27
    I think everyone who's on Twitch is used to it, right? Clark? Yep. So we have a hidden scene of that video on our commentator scene now. So the video stays active, but you're just not able to see it. And that seems to fix our... Ooh. Nice little workaround. Which is interesting because when it comes to programming, it's like the biggest no-no ever to reference yourself in a loop. But OBS seems to like it, so I don't know.
    19:57
    OBS is a black box to me. I press a button, it gives an input sometimes and then other times it just, you know Mark is the man behind the scenes so you better be nice to that dude I try to be I set up, I think I did OBS in the rig you did the cameras and now I don't think there's a single thing I touched in OBS that has remained oh yeah my shortcuts are still there my shortcuts yeah that happened with me and Donovan and now Donovan can't even change his I had to get the stream deck up just so that he can stream It going to be Donovan You going to upload to YouTube and do all that stuff too Oh you need a Donovan We do need a Donovan No offense but I checked out your VODs and we've got to work on that. They are terrible. Our Polar Plunge VODs, like,
    20:48
    they're not even, you put the part whatever on it, but they're not in order. So if you watch part one, it's like midway through the Polar Plunge. Part two is like the beginning.
    20:59
    Gentlemen, here's what people don't understand you know how much money we make for this it's about 15 cents a screen all right i we are literally making i think a couple of hundred dollars a month now right that's i mean that's actually pretty good yeah oh i know i'm excited about that and i laugh Because that doesn't even cover the Velcro attached to it. But it is what it is. We're not doing it for money, right? We're doing it because we love it. And you just need to get a video person that really loves pinball and really loves to want to edit all your stuff. Because the VODs are great, so people can go back and watch their streams. Because that is a really good reason why you started, and it's also a really great teaching tool. Yes, absolutely. I know you were talking about watching your Star Trek play I couldn't hit the right orbit It's embarrassing And I was just panicking, I just couldn't hit it And so then I was like, alright, do I You know, change modes Because I'm pounding sand over here Well let me tell you, I watched that stream Afterwards, watching you play I'm going to embarrass you here You were playing Very patient and very calm and that is exactly how you should play.
    22:26
    I'm trying. You're playing good. You say people are giving you crap for not – like, oh, Jamie, you're still in – no, no, no. You're good enough.
    22:36
    They don't know what they're talking about. And you say you're not going to qualify up here in Abilene. That's – I think you've got a pretty dang good chance, man.
    22:44
    I'm going to be on the mic. We're bringing seven – we're bringing six of us, right? we're bringing me, Tim, Corey,
    22:53
    nobody cares about this but the four or five of us, John Spates and a few of us, and then Colin McAlpine is sleeping on our couch. Just the people that are staying in the house that we're Airbnb-ing are good enough to kill me any day of the week and twice on Sunday. It's going to be a really great tournament. I can't wait to talk to you guys about it in a little bit. Do you want to swap out and get Keith in here? Is that okay? Let's pop him in. Keith, you ready?
    23:21
    All right, Clark. God bless you, dude. You're the best. How are you, Jamie? You're the best, dude. Good to see you. Coming up in the next, what, two weeks now? Yep, two weeks. Awesome. I guess a week and a half if you're up here on Thursday. I don't know when y'all are coming up. We're coming Thursday afternoon. Nice. I will see you Thursday afternoon in a week and a half. All right, brother. Great seeing you.
    23:42
    Clark McCoy of Carpool Pinball, thank you so much for joining. and now I am joined by Mr. 302. I think that's what I said he was.
    23:51
    Are you 302nd in the world now? 302nd, Keith. 302nd, I believe. 332. Thank you. And nice hat. I like it.
    24:01
    Thank you, guys. Thank you for having me. Oh, my God. Thank you so much for having the time and for doing this. I really appreciate it. I was initially thinking this is going to be great. I'll get the Shea hands on. We'll promote the Abilene Showdown, sell a few extra tickets. Well, we didn't need to do that, did we?
    24:20
    It went pretty quick. How quick did – how many spots? Unofficially – oh, it was 80 spots. Okay. And unofficially, it was like 18 minutes, I think. We had two that someone put in a cart. It was unofficially seven minutes. Yeah, but we had two that someone put in a cart, and it didn't kick it out for like an hour and a half. And then when it did, they sold immediately. Yep. That is fantastic So instead of a three day tournament Friday, Saturday, Sunday You guys have turned it into a four day extravaganza We're going to let people that come in Thursday night open up We're going to open at six Start playing at seven And we're just going to have a Mini high stakes game That Garrett and Clark have set up On the Sinbad and the Tiger Which if you're unfamiliar With those games It's a solid state and EM of the same thing. So the exact same play field layout. They have different rules.
    25:19
    Wow. They look exactly the same next to each other, but they play pretty drastically different. The scoring is very different.
    25:26
    So that tournament is going to be mini high stakes. I say high stakes. $10 entry and single strike. But if you get a strike, you can buy back in.
    25:36
    To a limit. I'm not going to take it all night. If we have 50 people, it may change a little bit, but we'll see how many people we got for that. But that's just going to be a fun tournament, and all the other machines will be on for people to play. So how's Brad, owner of the barn? He is great. He is excited.
    25:55
    He and his son were going to be out here for this, but I think they had a lunch appointment to go to. They might show up here in a minute, and if they do, you can stick them on just a second. That's up to you. Say hi to Brad. So Brad's barn, your collection, how many pins will be in this week? 27 pins How many? 28 now 27 I believe So 27 pins in the tournament? That is correct So last year you were kind enough to invite Wormhole Pinball to stream these events This year we decided to show up And have a lot more fun And leave the streaming to you guys Carpool Pinball Thank you guys so much And I hope there's a spot for me To sit down and commentate you will be allowed to commentate anytime you want. In fact, we would encourage it. I would really appreciate any help doing that. I figured both of you will still be in the tournament and TDing and running it and moving rigs and that sort of thing. So I'm here to help as much as I can. And we've been real lucky to have a lot of help with people volunteering to TD. And so technically, I'll still be a TD, but I'm just going to be running the Friday tournaments and then trying to tech and run the stream after that. You know, and we don't consider this as carpool. This is a wormhole carpool being together. Oh, God bless these guys. It's not – it wasn't going to be exactly how we wanted to, but life changes, and when it does, you've got to adapt to it. And we even – the Abilene Showdown Locust still has a wormhole on it too. As far as Texas Pinball goes, you're the guy I want to do the big tournaments. I know it's stressful. and our stuff I mean our little set was meant to just go to fun little things here and there go to anywhere where you can't get a big rig into we're happy to stream this I understand your setup is a pain to pack up and move around and also I understand it is a heck of a lot more fun sometimes just to come to these parties and hang out well I hung out on the stream last year with a guy named John Spates and he had a really good time right and another guy named matt quance he had a really good time and bk and all these guys and i just got jealous and i'm like i want to drive up to abilene and have a ball with these guys uh we rented a house five or ten minutes down the road i sent it to keith and so that's what that's the reason guys is that i think it's a perfect i 100 understand you're you've already had to stream all the big stuff in Texas and have not got to kind of sit down and enjoy one of these events, especially because this is a party event, really.
    28:36
    Well, be careful. Be careful when you say that. It is. It's a party event with some points. Yeah, lots of points involved. Sunday will be more serious. That's not to say we're not going to crank up the volume on high speed again or something while it's being played in finals, but we're trying to have fun here.
    28:55
    There's a delicate and bounce right between having fun and running a very competitive pinball event right and i think you guys do a great job at it you did a great job last year it's just going to get bigger and bigger abilene showdown so it's just a natural regression right what does that tell you people want to play pinball right they want the whoppers but they want to play in a really cool environment like that oh yeah we have other alternatives 80 people is pretty much going to limit us out where we're at now. It's going to be pretty crowded, especially in the winter time if the weather's bad. But we should be able to accommodate everybody in here. It's nice and we'll have plenty of it. It's better than running it in May again and rolling the dice and getting through one day. We got the one day in Abilene that was 70 degrees in May. Every other day was over 100. We got lucky last year. We got really lucky last year.
    29:49
    But it was awesome. For those who have not been to the Abilene showdown, how did this kind of start? This is the second annual, but how did the idea come about?
    29:59
    I mean, the idea, we went up to District 82 and kind of experienced what they did. And, I mean, District 82 at the time was known as the Wofford Farm, still is, but I would say it's not quite as lucrative as it was. More big tournaments are popping up everywhere, so that means people are traveling up there, which makes it not worth as much. So our idea was We can If we're going to get people out to Abilene We can't run a one day tournament No one's going to come out here So let's copy District 82 Let's run Four tournaments in a weekend and go from there And so last year We talked to Lewis about it And said we can host one of the DFW leagues Out in Abilene It's three hours away but you know Why not and but if we're going to do it, we're going to do it big. So we copied District 82 and basically have made that We don have as many machines and don quite have the facilities they have but we work with what we got, and we can run the multiple tournaments and a big certified tournament like what y'all did with Lauper Weekend and Bayou Bash. Yeah, and we're going to do that again, right? And we're going to continue to do that, and we're going to continue to emulate what these other guys are doing. They're laying down blueprints for us, and we're going to copy the hell out of it. And so congratulations. It's a great event. And for those, are you still taking people on the waiting list? There are still about eight or nine on the waiting list right now. Something like that.
    31:36
    A little bit of information I'm going to add to it. Please. That have got the tickets already, the 80 people that are in the main tournament. Mark Rand who cooked for us last time Is going to cook for us again on Saturday So we will have Your tickets are going to include that food So we won't have to worry about food trucks Or getting food out here Just go out and we'll have it set up I'm also going to have three kegs of beer this time Wow good idea So another thing and this might be dangerous to advertise But Not in a way of getting you banned, Jamie I saw that look So technically all the side tournaments Do not require pre-registration If you show up, pay me 10 bucks You can get the side tournaments So there's still three tournaments you can play in without being registered Let's go through the format That's a good question We're opening up some high stakes things on Thursday Friday, what are we doing on Friday? So Friday morning Starting at I believe 11 we will be having a target match play event. So what that is, it's typical match play format where you've got four players in a group and first we'll get the most points, second less, third less, fourth less than that. So typical match play qualifying. But instead of going for qualifying like a regular tournament or finals afterwards, once a point threshold has been reached, that ends the tournament. And the person with the most points wins. Okay, so what I think it's going to be is 4-2-1-0 scoring or 3-2-1-0 scoring, and it's the first to 20. Great. It's on match play right now. The tournament's made. I've already made it. I just can't remember off the top of my head. So that will run until hopefully 4 or 5, assuming I've done my math right on how long these games will run.
    33:32
    Friday afternoon, after we have a little dinner break, we're going to have a beat-the-clock tournament. So, same match play format. But what we're doing is as many rounds as possible until 11 or 11.30, depending on if we start late.
    33:47
    And that will, as soon as that time cuts off, person in first, that's you win. So it's a really, really easy way to run it where we don't have to stay up super, super late.
    34:01
    Nice. So that's our two Friday tournaments. those will, depending on attendance, I'm planning on those being all classics. So basically the row directly behind us will be turned off for that and we'll be playing all the classics. That'll speed it up, right? That will speed it up and get more points in it. But if we end up with 100 people, then we're going to need all the machines on. Yeah, a little bit.
    34:29
    And we can be flexible with that. Jurassic Park and Godzilla, as much as I like those, will be the last ones we turn on for that.
    34:36
    We don't need to be here for an hour while someone No good call On Saturday We hit with standard Match play qualifying it's a certified tournament So you're going to play Is it five rounds With four games Lewis might be doing it different Than normal but It's either going to be ten rounds with one game A round or five rounds Two games a round And for qualifying Was it four three I can't remember You need to... No, it's... Regardless, it's a certified tournament. Match play qualifying.
    35:13
    It's sold out anyway. You can't even come, people. Don't worry about it. Certified tournament, match play qualifying.
    35:21
    Qualifying for that's all day Saturday. We'll probably... I think it starts at 10. Starts at 10, yep. Good. And hopefully be done at a reasonable hour when we have some fun after that. We'll probably play one round the finals and start the consolation tournament for anyone who's gotten knocked out.
    35:37
    Technically, everybody can play in that. I can't say you can't play in the consolation tournament if you're in the finals, but please, people, don't do that. Come on, give us a break, people.
    35:50
    No, I get you, man. That's an IFDA rule that changed, and we'd already had everything figured out, so we're stuck there. But the consolation tournament's going to be a fair strikes tournament. So, 0-1-1-2 strikes.
    36:03
    Are you guys excited? Absolutely. We're pumped. You got to be, right? I mean, it's awesome. The amount of work that these two gentlemen and Clark behind him and Brad put in to making this tournament great, and this is just the second one, so it's just going to keep getting better and better and better. Gentlemen, thank you so much for taking the time today. I really appreciate it, right? You know, you've got a lot of work ahead of you in the next few weeks to get ready for the Avaline Showdown, But please follow Carpool Pinball on Twitch and their new and growing YouTube channel, where they're just starting to add VODs. Yeah, just bear with us on the VODs. Rough for a little bit. But if you're playing, you can go back and watch your stuff. And, of course, you can always follow Wormhole Pinball on Twitch and YouTube. This podcast will be out tonight. I've got my grandson watching The Grand Kid tonight, so hopefully he takes some naps and I can do a little editing. and of course not only will I see you in two weeks but then I'll see you two weeks thereafter at TPF I'm excited for that we're going to have a big booth at TPF so hopefully you guys hang out and we talked about getting another video, getting big video boards on our booth so that people can sit and watch the tournament there and then be in the tournament room that is a great idea Right? That is genius I would rather sit there in your booth Watching it and having a cold beverage Than sitting in the tournament room Who do we have to lobby to get the Twippy room Turned into the tournament room? Have you heard me trying to get this to happen? It needs to happen I know I'm pissing him off But you didn't use it You blew the whole damn thing So let's just go and take that room Don't tell me you're having seminars in there No one's showing up to a seminar on how to use the obstacles. They're awesome. I love David Yacht, but no one's going. Put that in our room. Yeah, put the seminars up in the tournament room. There's still plenty of room for that. He makes a great product. Oh, he does, dude. We're using the obstacles all over the place. I'm going to start throwing them all in my classic valleys and sterns.
    38:15
    Honestly, and I don't get paid for this, you'll see a massive difference. They're really beautiful. They're awesome. They're sweet. And that kiss that's going to be at TPF Is awesome Thank you That is the prettiest kiss I have ever seen It was picked just about everybody In the state finals Yeah Donovan and I were talking about that just the other day That it's interesting On those type of state finals Where you pick games Where different games Are chosen other than other I was shocked that that wasn't picked Or some of these games But maybe the top flipper wasn't as strong on Val then? I don't know.
    38:57
    You don't want to pick a game where if someone beats a mode and happens to luck into a SIM card, they're going to blow it up on you.
    39:07
    It's a game that someone could blow up on accident, whereas Bond and Foo, you've got to know how to play them.
    39:13
    So that's why you saw Bond and Foo picked basically every time. And then you'd see Rick and Morty thrown in if someone wanted to mess with somebody. but that's why high speed was chosen, right? You could luck into some shots, but only those are colored lights. You basically need to grind high speed out. You need to shoot freeways. You've got to play it.
    39:33
    You just got some great advice from the Texas champion right there, ladies and gentlemen. It doesn't get better than that. You can always follow Wormhole on the Twitch and the YouTube, all that. Gentlemen, thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedules. I really, really, really appreciate it, and always for supporting Wormhole. The two of you and Clark From the beginning Have supported us And all I can do is say thank you And just reciprocate As much support coming your way As you have given to us So I appreciate this partnership that we have And I will say this Always You have the best stream in Texas For pinball By a mile And the best pinball location in Texas right there So if you're ever in Texas Can you make it down the wormhole for a tournament? Please do. You got to. Big events coming down the pike.
    40:23
    And so obviously just tune in and follow us on Facebook and all that good stuff for our information. Y'all have a picture coming that's going to be incredible.
    40:31
    Oh, yeah. I'm excited for that. We've got some good stuff coming. Yes. Good stuff coming. So that's going to be great stuff. All right. God bless you both. Thank you, Jamie. Jamie, I appreciate you. I know you got a lot of work. Those pins are perfect. Let's make it happen. Clark, we'll see you. Say hi to Brad for me. I can't wait to hit some balls onto his green in the backyard. I think you'll have it set up for all y'all. And my shoulder's better. I'll be all right. There you go. Thank you, Jamie. Thanks, guys, so much. I'm going to see how the sausage is made because I'm going to do, like, I edit pretty well. I'm a pretty good editor, so sometimes you have no idea with my podcast that I screw up.
    41:08
    And I screw up all the time, so it's no worries.