2020 Stern Pro Circuit Championship Game 9

Stern Pinball·video·25m 20s·analyzed·Jul 30, 2023

Analysis

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TL;DR

Stern Pro Circuit Game 9: Jim Belsito dominates The Mandalorian with expert mode stacking and multiball play.

Summary

Game 9 of the 2020 Stern Pro Circuit Championship features The Mandalorian pinball in a ladder finals format with Andy Rosa (9th seed), Jason Wardrick, Andrew Rosa II, and Jim Belsito competing. Jason Wardrick and Jim Belsito dominate with strong multiball execution and mode stacking, while Andy Rosa struggles due to lack of practice time before selecting the game. Jim Belsito takes the lead heading into ball three with 118 million points.

Key Claims

The Mandalorian was released in 2021 by Stern Pinball, designed by Brian Eddy with software development by Dwight Sullivan
high confidence · Tournament commentary by Tim Sexton identifying game credits
Andy Rosa arrived too late to practice before the match and picked The Mandalorian as the game, placing him at a significant disadvantage
high confidence · Direct quote from Andy Rosa after his elimination: 'we arrived a little bit too late, so we didn't get practice today'
Ice Spider multiball features an unlimited Super Jackpot round if all shots are knocked out
high confidence · Tournament commentary explaining the multiball mechanic: 'This is a favorite of players because it has an unlimited Super Jackpot round if you can knock out all the shots'
Jim Belsito purchased an outlane ball save from the Foundry feature during his ball two play
high confidence · Tournament commentary describing Jim's feature selection and subsequent outlane recovery
Jason Wardrick played every game in the competition so far and was 'warmer than the other players'
medium confidence · Tim Sexton's commentary noting Jason's consistency: 'Jason has really consistently in this competition so far been executing the strategy'

Notable Quotes

“I just need to relax and just play as if it's 2 A.M in my basement, you know? To play ball.”
Jason Wardrick @ ~middle section during ball 2 — Reveals mental approach to tournament play; emphasizes relaxation and treating it like casual home play despite championship pressure
“we arrived a little bit too late, so we didn't get practice today. So when you pick a game, you go first—zero practice. It's tough. Very tough.”
Andy Rosa @ end of match — Explains the game selection disadvantage and justifies poor performance; demonstrates pressure when choosing games without practice
“At least one of us are still rolling. That's all that matters.”
Andy Rosa @ end of match — Shows sportsmanship and family solidarity with his son Andrew Rosa II still competing
“This is a favorite of players because it has an unlimited Super Jackpot round if you can knock out all the shots by shooting them around the playfield.”
Tim Sexton (commentator) @ Jason Wardrick ball 1 multiball section — Explains strategic importance of Ice Spider multiball as high-value mode
“All I need to do is hit four jackpots of multiball really quickly.”
Andy Rosa (paraphrased by commentator) @ Andy's second ball attempt — Shows strategic thinking but inability to execute under pressure without practice

Entities

Stern Pro Circuit Championshipevent The Mandaloriangame Tim Sextonperson Jason Wardrickperson Andy Rosaperson Andrew Rosa IIperson

Signals

?
community_signal: Game selection advantage in tournament formats is critical; players without practice time face severe disadvantage even if they select the game
high · Andy Rosa explicitly cites lack of practice as reason for poor performance after selecting The Mandalorian; Jim Belsito demonstrates dominance with expert feature knowledge (Foundry).
?
competitive_signal: Ice Spider multiball with unlimited Super Jackpots is identified as a favorite strategic mode among competitive players; mode stacking and multiball prioritization are dominant strategies in this tournament
high · Commentator explicitly states 'This is a favorite of players because it has an unlimited Super Jackpot round' and multiple players pursue this strategy
?
competitive_signal: The Mandalorian playfield design shows shot difficulty variation (e.g., forehand vs backhand scoop shots); player skill gap is significant in executing these shots cleanly
high · Repeated commentary on difficulty of different shot angles and multiple players missing or struggling with similar shots

Topics

Tournament Format and StructureprimaryThe Mandalorian Pinball MechanicsprimaryCompetitive Pinball StrategyprimaryGame Selection Advantage/DisadvantagesecondaryMental Game and Tournament PressuresecondaryMode Stacking and Multiball ExecutionprimaryFamily Dynamics in Competitionmentioned

Sentiment

neutral(0.45)— Professional tournament commentary maintains neutral, analytical tone throughout. Jim Belsito's dominant play and expert execution create minor positive sentiment; Andy Rosa's early elimination and lack of practice create sympathetic but factual coverage. Overall tone is objective sports reporting.

Transcript

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foreign to another episode of the stern pro circuit championships I'm your host Tim Sexton and I'm here to bring you up to speed with everything going on in this circuit final so far Stern pro circuit Championship is an exciting ladder finals format this means starting with four players we eliminate the last place player and bring in a new player until we're down to just the final two the winner of that game wins a championship belt a brand new Stern Pinball Machine and also a five thousand dollar cash prize let's take a look at our field my name is Andy Rosa and I'm from Flushing Michigan my name is Jason wardrick I'm from Park Ridge Illinois Andrew Rosa II Flint Michigan Jim belsito from Murrieta California in each match the top seeded player has the opportunity to choose the game or choose their order on the game the game I'm picking is Mandalorian game in this match is the Mandalorian released in 2021 by Stern Pinball designed by Brian Eddy and software development by Dwight Sullivan and now we get into game number nine with Andy Rosa joining as the ninth seed in the stern pro circuit he is actually joining his son Andrew Rosa so now uh it's really coming down to a battle of the Roses plus also Jason werchrix still playing our first game and Jim belsino Andy is picking off shots up the middle one more to light razor crest multiball and now Zero Mortal razor Crest multiball so if he goes for the middle here oh it looks like he is gonna try to bring his mode in first tries to shoot it from the right flipper it's a more difficult flipper that shot was really early so I don't know what he was aiming for maybe the ramp nope definitely going for the scoop and missing early but it's hard to do it from the right flipper oh boy and now he is in his Ambush mode and he is in the slingshots Andy is an expert at keeping the ball alive with some great nudging skills uh he's still keeping the ball alive look no dangers oh it's first danger finally as he made a little shake to keep it out of the left out lane and he was going to the left scoop that wouldn't have progressed him out of Ambush mode so he might be frustrated with that but strategy wise I mean he really needed to shoot the Right Scoop to get himself out of that mode but Andy is not in bad shape because he has the multiball lit he can take it whenever he wants he really just wants to get the ball on the left flipper probably and backhand the scoop and now nine games later Jason werderick on an incredible journey so far takes a short plunge a little bump cleanly gets it to the right flipper and goes right up the middle up the middle again off that slingshot a little bit he's kissing that left slingshot which sending it close to the drain in the middle whoa big move there to keep it alive just one warning and that's it enough really back and forth between the slingshots a lot for these players Jason is going to try to light his mode here he almost started the multiball but now forehand will you go for it uh he tried to that shot is really tough on the forehand goes to the backhand locks it into the scoop a lot of players see that they miss on the forehand and then it comes to the left flipper they take the backhand there so it's almost a transfer just to miss that shot so he's in Mission Number One and goes up the middle for multiball number one Ice Spider multiball this is a favorite of players because it has an unlimited Super Jackpot round if you can knock out all the shots by shooting them around the Playfield so make it a bit of progress there's a shot there still has three balls in play yep down to two balls in play but that's fine he's still in multiball still in his mission oh that was a great bump there to keep it from going out the outline whoa he had to drop the ball on the right flipper but he wounds it setting up top to the Mandalorian upper Playfield the mask or helmet I guess summer Playfield nice backhand to the right orbit and then shoots it around to the right ramp which means he's in his Super Jackpot phase shooting that flashing red shot will be unlimited super jackpots and that value 9.25 million will be constant for him as he shoots well the time is remaining he's got 18 seconds left so when you take a backhand shot like that so you made another one you have the ball go to the left flipper so you have to either keep feeding those shots which he tried to but he did not make any of those super jackpots uh still not quite making any Super Jackpot shots there and he's got one ball now out the out lane and this one's in trouble but it goes back into the left in Lane tries to take a Super Jackpot at the last second but doesn't make it and that girl goes out the right outline two super jackpots add to his bonus total which is really nice to get an extra million points from each of those and that leaves Jason with 92 million which in the format like this could be enough it's definitely a decent start based on how this mandalorian's been playing for players so far in this competition and now no you do not need your eyes checked this is the second Rosa Andrew Rosa the second not to be confused with Andy Rosa who is our player one Andrew is on his third game of this competition surviving his last two ending up now is player three it's one of the higher scenes remaining Andrew is looking for the shot up the middle he has not found it yet oh wow that uh came off really weird up the middle and wound up going through some of the top Lanes there he goes gets like a a real trap this time decides to get his multiball ready and he's gonna try to take the shot from the right flipper he's thinking about it he decides to go for it and as you can see it's really tough it went in the scoop and just came right back out wow he shot to the right side of the Playfield for some reason there and okay go to the mission start hole he's on mission number one his name is Jason are you shooting for the right orbit now why is he shooting for the right orbit I do not know because he has the multiball ready and oh he will not bring that mode into the multiball Andrew Rosa had a little bit of trouble shooting the middle shot was a little bit early on that last shot he took wound up sending the ball out the right outline and we have Jim belsino deciding to plunge the ball all the way around almost around to the right out lane but makes a nice bump gets it out of there and he'll go right up the middle it makes a nice live catch in the right slipper makes the second shot up the middle now from this flipper does he decide to start shooting a scoop now or is he gonna go right up the middle again just going up the middle and now what is Jim gonna do backhand looking for the backhand into the scoop he needs to hit the scoop two more times or shoot that left ramp instead he shoots really late as well so from here Jim has an option to shoot that ramp he does and now if you can back in on the Fly he'll try to bounce it over but he wants to shoot into the left that left scoop now obviously he's committed to the strategy of starting the mission players are not really comfortable with post passing on a game like this he decides to take the shot off the hunter targets another shot off the hunter targets and that sends the ball down the middle so Jim does not have that mission started but he's two shots away or sorry maybe just one shot away from multiple yourself so once again Jason wertrick looks like he's in great shape after ball one he got his mode started he got the center ramp for the multiball started and made some good progress through some super jackpots in the multiball Jason has really consistently in this competition so far been executing the strategy that all the other players want to execute and just getting himself ahead of the competition now Jason has played every game in this competition so far he is warmer than the other players for me obviously honestly when it comes to Pinball it's more of a mental thing so I just need to relax and just play as if it's 2 A.M in my basement you know to play ball guide right orbit oh he makes a attempted post-pass limit resulted in him needing to take a double Danger to make the save he decides I'm just gonna go for the multiball and he's not even worrying about the flame throw it looks like he's just gonna start making shots in multiple why not each jackpot is worth 3 million points during this multiball during the first phase and he's made about four of the jackpot sorry three of the jackpot shots so far gets two balls trapped in the left flipper that sends one ball around but that's fine three Bells out on the left flipper let's see what he decides to do here is jackpots are down to two and a half million points each try to do a little pass to pop the one ball in the air over to the other flipper makes a nice nudge there gets the ball to the right flipper and now he's gonna need to shoot one of these jackpot shots start making some progress jackpots are even lower in value now down to one and a quarter million points and he has had some trouble lately making these jackpot shots ah still having trouble making their shots ball lands on the shooter Lane uses the top button to plunge the ball around so that was as player one not great because all the other players say that oh maybe just the beat Andy all I need to do is hit four jackpots of multiple really quickly he spent a lot of time trying to get control those balls and wasn't making any jackpots in that situation so you started also mission number one got a couple yellow shots lit for two and a half million points not bad uh score there he could also start these encounters by shooting left ramp but instead well gets out of control goes out the right out lane that leaves Andy with less than 20 million points after two balls and he's got a lot of work to do to get to the next multiball Jason we're drink is going for the super super duper short plunge which winds up engaging the auto plunger setting the ball all the way around to the top of the Playfield so he's trapped on the left flipper and he is thinking about the game he has nothing lit except for the middle which will Advance toward a hurry up round he'll take the scoop for the first two missions shooting the left scoop will allow players to light their mission without making any ramp shots looks like right flipper going up top for sure left flipper let's see what he does going back up the middle so both flippers he's just gonna go up for the razor Crest multiball sorry racer Quest hurry up and now it has begun and the ball is out of control which means he's losing potential points in this mode Jason hit his first hurry up shot for 1.6 million 1.06 million oh that one I could not see but it has ended the hurry up around and now he can light his next multiball by shooting four more times up the middle also he's got Hunter lit on the in Lane so he has to be aware that that might start at some time and force him to shoot an orbit or wait for the mode to time out all right Jason's going back up the middle and just progressing toward the multiball gives the player decent points so look at a score here 97 million that went up by about 750 000 points just shooting that shot up the middle Hunter mode starts and he Nails it immediately around the orbit he's got to shoot the other orbit but fails to make a successful Loop pass there ball goes down the middle and drains out for Jason but Jason may have done enough just on ball one Andy Rosa needs to pass him and all the other players on ball three to stay alive and both Andrew Rosa and Jim are thinking about how they are going to stay in this competition at this point to the players just go for multiball right now they both have perhaps the Ice Spider multiball in this multiball number one they might go for it Andrew goes with a soft plunge tries to get control to not have a clean trap there and he's gonna go for his missions he's gonna go to the tried and true mode stack strategy needs to make another shot after this one to start the mission there he goes starting the mission number two defend the magistrate uh it's just some extra points during this ice spider multiball and this turns on a ball saves so players generally will be shooting on the Fly not trying to trap up too much until that ball save expires and Andrew has hit a couple jackpots so far he will be getting that ball out the right out lane back into play still has three balls in play but his ball save time has expired so that ball that exited now will not be coming back he's down to two balls in play and down to one ball and play does not have any award available on this button though he reached for it so his multiball will be over but he is now three million points ahead of his father and he has this Mission still running he's aiming for either those yellow shots keep splitting the difference of shooting the Target in between that ramp and that scoop shot there he goes on the backhand reflex shot and now I'm around to the left ramp started a hunter mode as well Hunter mode there's a nice warmest shot he's up to 35 million points now Hunter about only giving 50 000 points for that first Orbin shot still has the ball bouncing out of control on the left ramp he's going to shoot trying to shoot around the top the ball is kind of stuck on the ramp calling for someone he might have to wait for a ball search though it looks like the tournament director will he's gonna wait for the first ball search tournament director rules let's wait for a ball search see if this ball is going to come back and that uh coil engaging on the diverter has sent the ball into the upper Playfield which lets him get the ball back into play still in the middle of the hunter mode shooting this uh left ramp is not progressing him through the mode but it is creasing the amount of best car he will earn by shooting the right orbit which he misses and does not successfully get through the hunter mode but still by having the other Mission running he winds up with 36 and a half million points Jim goes with the full plunge again all the way around to the left flipper and right into the mission scoop so name of the game here is get control of this ball out of the scoop send it up the center ramp and start your multiball and you'll be in great shape and look at that just lets it bounce over back to the left flipper and shoots the middle he's gonna hold down his button uses his other hand to uh flip the flipper while the ball comes around little uh switch hitting action there from Jim belsino and now all these are actually giving him six million points with the flamethrower active spider Ward 6 million there so that is great scoring for Jim up to 79 million points 81 million already that is the impact of that flamethrower just doubling the value of all these shots that left Loop will be huge let's orbit because 6 million for the spider award plus uh progress in the mode I believe and now he has a super jackpots lit uh he has a chance to take one there he will nine and a half million for that one takes two will we go for three oh he did not get the third one but that is also like we saw two million points in his bonus award as well for taking those two super jackpots and he is the first player now to start an encounter encounters require you to uh progress through three levels that was the first level completed each level requires removing all the yellow lit lights from the upper Playfield so he gets uh two thirds of the way through the second level of the first encounter completes his mission I guess a little bit of extra 3.3 million for the time bonus completing it with a couple extra seconds remaining and Jim belsito has now taken first place with 118 million points and he's still on ball too this Jim is trying a transfer by shooting really early bouncing the ball off the slingshot did not work but he wound up by shooting into the target eventually hitting the ball on the right flipper it seemed like he wanted and for the red flipper he'll shoot The Foundry so here the player has the option to purchase different things that will advance them through the game or help them at later points in the game just looking at the outline ball save he's liking that out lane ball safe so now the ball drains down in that lane he can toggle the correct outlane by flipping the flippers he will get that ball back into play uh by shooting the right skip shot he starts the ambush feature and that'll time out so Jim is just back to being trapped on the left flipper and thinking about his next move he can shoot the scoop still for submission progress you might not know that it looked like he aimed for a ramp only named aims near the scoop there did not hit it in there players are spending a lot of time thinking eventually making a ramp shot you need to shoot that far Target he hits it just one target left to start the bonus level did not hit that last Target is he gonna try to complete the encounter no he's gonna try to light his mission Oh by toggling that flipper there he starts the hunter mode she's the first orbit shoots around the ramps he's hitting shots now when they're not lit Hunter mode is still active and shoots oh did not get all the way around the left orbit to not complete the hunter mode yet she's three ramp building the amount of best car he can earn from the mission sorry from the hunter mode now if he shoots my left orbit he will get 300 best car and also a whopping 51 000 points decides to start a mission sorry mission number three destroy the Imperial base shooting yellow shots to progress through his mission great little animation playing there oh and with that heel he was not able to save the ball and he knows it he's just staring at the Playfield realizing that yes I could have had that ball back but I do have 5 million points in bonus I am in the lead maybe things aren't so bad for me Jim belcito all right in the hot seat we have Andy Rosa who selected this game Andy uh seems to be fine with this situation he's he looks comfortable stepping into this ball three here immediately sending the ball into Danger starting the hunter mode he's going to ignore it he's going to go right up the middle and try to get started with the hurry up starts to hurry up now she's up the middle for 1.8 million uh I can shoot that Target again for more points there he is 2.4 million and that's it for the hurry up so now just back to the Grind of shooting up the middle to light his razor crest multiball up to 24 million now just shooting middle targets and oh off the Slick shot down the middle Andy Rosa drains one and done and with that Andy Rosa takes off the gloves hangs them up one more time let's hear what Andy had to say about his experience didn't go too well uh unfortunately we arrived a little bit too late so we didn't get practice today so when you pick a game you go first zero practice it's tough very tough at least one of us are still rolling that's all that matters this was another match of the stern pro circuit Championship let's see if any of these players can make it all the way to the finals foreign