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Episode 173: Stern Pro Circuit highlights and 2019 State & Provincial Championships

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·1h 1m·analyzed·Jan 20, 2019
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.026

TL;DR

2019 State/Provincial Championships coverage with 1000 players, $67K prize pool, and community highlights.

Summary

Pinball Profile Episode 173 covers the 2019 State and Provincial Championships (January 19, 2019), highlighting nearly 1,000 players across 53 states/provinces competing for over $67,000 in prize money. The episode features interviews from multiple Stern Pro Circuit events including the Buffalo Pinball Summer Open, showcasing winners, community initiatives like the first women's championship, and player perspectives on competitive pinball.

Key Claims

  • On Saturday January 19th 2019, more pinball players received money to play pinball than any other day in history

    high confidence · Host Jeff Tillis opening statement about State and Provincial Championships

  • Just under 1,000 players participated across 53 states and provinces in the 2019 State and Provincial Finals

    high confidence · Host Jeff Tillis during event overview

  • Over $67,000 in prize money was awarded from $1 collections at North American tournaments in 2018

    high confidence · Host Jeff Tillis describing prize pool funding

  • The Buffalo Pinball Summer Open women's championship sold out in July, which was unexpected

    high confidence · Summer Lee discussing the inaugural women's event

  • Colin McAlpine won Texas State Championship for his fourth title

    high confidence · Host listing state winners

  • Adam Becker won Ontario provincial finals 12 out of 13 games in match play

    high confidence · Host Jeff Tillis referencing Ontario results

  • Stern Pro Circuit had 20 events remaining in 2019 after MAGFest and Indisc

    high confidence · Host discussing Stern Pro Circuit schedule

  • JJP's Pirates of the Caribbean features unique character selection mechanic where once a player picks a character, no one else can pick it in that match

    high confidence · Zach Parks explaining Pirates of the Caribbean gameplay to host

Notable Quotes

  • “On Saturday january 19th 2019 more pinball players received money to play pinball than any other day in history.”

    Jeff Tillis @ 0:00-0:30 — Opening statement establishing the historic scale of the 2019 State and Provincial Championships

  • “It sold out in July, which we were not expecting and really pleased about.”

    Summer Lee @ ~15:00 — Indicating unexpected high demand for the first-ever women's pinball championship at Buffalo

  • “The outdoor area is fantastic... The sandy beach, you like that? Very nice. We've got a tent, the marina, the view is great. It's awesome.”

    Trent Augenstein @ ~22:00 — Venue praise highlighting Buffalo Pinball Summer Open's unique location advantages

  • “I just felt solid on playing the game, so I didn't care that it was basketball. I felt like I could control the ball and felt like I would have a good shot at it.”

    Adam Becker @ ~50:00 — Winning strategy insight showing game selection based on personal control rather than theme preference

  • “The way I see it, it's a matter of the more professional the production is, the more eyes that have the opportunity to be on it.”

    Jared Chambers (Papa) @ ~38:00 — Explaining rationale for high-quality tournament streaming and its impact on growing the pinball community

  • “I'm so happy to be part of that group. And I'm so excited to see so many more women joining the pinball community.”

    Sunshine Bond @ ~47:00 — First women's champion reflecting on growing female participation in competitive pinball

  • “I kind of like winning pin golf more because I hate it so much and it's kind of comical in that way.”

    Adam Becker @ ~52:00 — Unique perspective on winning formats where the player dislikes the game but excels anyway

  • “Going fourth on World Poker Tour because strategy changes so significantly. And we'll see that on the Papa Pinball stream.”

Entities

Jeff TillispersonBuffalo Pinball Summer OpeneventAdam BeckerpersonSunshine BondpersonSummer LeepersonColin McAlpinepersonZach ParkspersonTrent AugensteinpersonJared ChamberspersonFrancesco La Rocaperson

Signals

  • ?

    event_signal: 2019 State and Provincial Championships achieved historic scale with ~1000 players across 53 states/provinces and $67K prize pool on single day (Jan 19, 2019)

    high · Host opening statement: 'more pinball players received money to play pinball than any other day in history'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: First-ever women's pinball championship at Buffalo Summer Open sold out in July, indicating strong and unexpected demand for dedicated women's competition

    high · Summer Lee: 'It sold out in July, which we were not expecting and really pleased about'

  • ?

    community_signal: Papa Pinball's high-quality tournament streaming attracting new players and enabling learning resource for community

    high · Jared Chambers discussing professional production quality impact on viewership and new player accessibility

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Match-play format strategy varies significantly by play order and game selection, requiring adaptive tactics beyond standard pump-and-dump approaches

    medium · Adam Becker explaining World Poker Tour strategy changes based on position: 'going fourth changed my strategy immensely'

  • ?

    event_signal: Stern Pro Circuit establishing itself as major tournament infrastructure with 20 events scheduled for 2019

    high · Host: '18 events left' after MAGFest and Indisc, with emphasis on circuit growth and quality

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.180

0:00
it's time now for another pinball profile i'm your host jeff tillis you can find our group on facebook we're also on twitter at pinball profile emails pinball profile at gmail.com and please subscribe on either itunes stitcher or google play on saturday january 19th 2019 more pinball players received money to play pinball than any other day in history. It was the state and provincial finals. Just under a thousand players participated. 53 states and provinces were covered. Tons of media coverage if you check the IFPA pinball website and over $67,000 in prize money awarded thanks to the $1 collections from North American tournaments in 2018. To go over some of the highlights here are some of the winners and apologies for those i don't mention i don't have that information at the time of this recording in alberta canada dan horn was the winner in alabama it was braden gentry in arizona will mckinney in british columbia robert gano the tough california state went to derrick price donovan steph was the winner in colorado david placed at one in connecticut in the district of columbia it was david barber pete saporis was the winner in Delaware. Young Nick Mueller won Florida. In Georgia, it was Dalton Eli. In Illinois, where there are many great players, it was Zach Sharp over Keith Elwin in the finals. Nearby in Indiana, Scott Elliott was the winner. In Kansas, Kerry Wing was the winner and got a lot of press for it, and rightfully so. Sean Davis won Kentucky. It was Elliott Keith in Maryland. In one of the super states and one of the biggest prize pools, Alex Harmon won Michigan. In North Carolina, It was Drew Sedolia. New Jersey saw Rob DiStasio win. In New York, Alberto Santana beat Stephen Bowden. In the third biggest prize pool, which happened to be in Ohio, almost $5,000, it went to Carlos de la Cerda. In Ontario, Adam Becker beat a very, very tough competitor in the finals. Okay, he knocked me off 4-0. In fact, Adam won 12 out of 13 games. He wasn't going to be beaten that day. Alexander Kuzmarchuk won the very tough Pennsylvania State over John Replogle over $5,000 in that super state. Makes sense with big events like Pinberg. In Quebec, they felt the burn of Phil Birnbaum. In Rhode Island, the man who gave us the great IFPA app, Ed Giardina. The next guy that has a lot of winning in January. Last year, it was at the Price is Right. This year in South Carolina, funky Fred Richardson was the state champ. In Tennessee, it was Jason Wilson. Another big state, Colin McAlpine won Texas for his fourth title. A guest just recently on Pinball Profile, the man who gave us MAGFest. Kevin Stone won Virginia. In Vermont, the winner was, and forgive me if I mispronounce your name, Nick Pizzuti. Big upset in Washington, but not to those players that were there because they know all about. Sagel Frazier. It was the biggest state final. And you think of people like Jermaine, Mariol, Dave Stewart, and some guy named Raymond Davidson. So congratulations to Sagel. And finally, in Wisconsin, Chris Maddy was the winner. So these players are off to the North American Championships in Las Vegas in March. Best of luck and way to go to get there. To qualify for state or provincial championships, you take the calendar year and put together your best 20 tournament finishes in that particular state or province. A good boost for your state and provincial chances usually lies when there's a massive tournament. And some of the biggest tournaments in the world fall under the Stern Pro Circuit. We've already got two events in the Stern Pro Circuit here in 2019 with MAGFest and Indisc last week. Congratulations, by the way, to Colin Urban, the winner of that. 18 events left, and if you haven't been to any of these events, let me tell you, they're a lot of fun. The competition is great, but it's also fantastic to see people from all over. It's probably one of my favorite things about tournaments, especially at the Stern Pro Circuit. So what we're going to do now is hear from some of those people. I recorded these back at the time of the events, never released them, thought I'd compile them one day, and today happens to be that day. We'll hear from the Cleveland Pin Show, Pinball Expo in Chicago, and also my first crack at the 24-hour Sanctum in Connecticut. But we begin with a show, unfortunately, not going to be around in 2019. Fingers crossed, it comes back in 2020, but it does take a lot of work, tons of time, and we understand the hiatus that's going to happen this year. Thank you for the first three years, and hoping for many more down the road for Nick and Kevin putting on the Buffalo Pinball Summer Open. He's one of the sponsors here at the Buffalo Pinball Summer Open with Comet Pinball. Ryan Wanger from Colorado made the trip. How are you doing, Ryan? Great. How are you doing, Jeff? That was fun playing a little stall ball action last night. We actually were playing with Trent Augenstein and Andrew and Julie. There were a bunch of us there. Sunshine made it in, and we beat Trent, and I thought he was going to quit pinball forever. He did make that threat. He said he was done. Yeah. And I won that game. We should hold him to it. I was the one who maybe ended the Trent thesaurus. Didn't happen. He was here today. You're a hero to all of us regular people. Tournaments would flounder without Trent being there, but he's still alive. We'll talk to him a little bit later. How are you doing? What do you think of this at the Yacht Club, the Sandy Beach Yacht Club? Yacht Club is great. It's by far the best pinball tournament I've ever been to at a Yacht Club. You ought to be here, is what they're saying here in Buffalo. But it is pretty good with the classics. We've got the women's tournament, two different classics tournaments, in fact, and then the main as well. So you've been a big supporter of Buffalo Pinball for a long time with Comet Pinball. I have. Those guys are great. They do a lot for the community, putting games out, running events, even just doing their stream and podcast. Well, I hope it works out for you here in Buffalo. I hope it works out with Comet Pinball. Oh, I see Trent. He's back. Oh, well. Thanks, Ryan. It didn't stick. Thanks, Jeff.

Adam Becker @ ~56:00 — Explaining match-play strategy variations and importance of play order in competitive formats

IFPA
organization
Stern Pro Circuitorganization
Papa Pinballorganization
Deadpoolgame
Pirates of the Caribbeangame
NBA Fast Breakgame
Tommy Beasleyperson
Cleveland Pin Showevent
Alberto Santanaperson
George Gomezperson

personnel_signal: Adam Becker serves as IFPA director responsible for tournament organization, indicating growing administrative structure within competitive community

medium · Adam Becker: 'I'm an IFPA director and have to be there for a tournament for some reasons'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Growing enthusiasm for women-specific pinball tournaments at major events, with participants expressing support and community-oriented values

    high · Sunshine Bond: 'I'm so happy to be part of that group... it's great to see so many more women joining the pinball community'

    • 6:10
    A first for the Buffalo Pinball Summer Open here at the Sandy Beach Yacht Club. The first ever women's championship, and that's put on by Summer Lee, who has been a big player here in Buffalo for Buffalo Pinball, and a pocket here and now here doing a lot. Congratulations for putting this together. Thank you. You know what? It was a goal of mine a year ago. I put together Buffalo Women's Pinball, and I really thought that maybe in the future we could have a women's event, and I didn't think it was going to be this year, but it just happened and we're excited about it. And sold out too, didn't it? It did. It sold out in July, which we were not expecting and really pleased about. So what's the format? The format is a four strikes tournament, so it will primarily be on the classic events. So because of that, we went from a three strikes to a four strikes to give the ladies extra time to play. I've seen you many, many times before. I think I saw you when you first started playing years ago, But last time I saw you was at Pinburg at the Whipped event, and I know you enjoyed that. Oh, my gosh. The Whipped event was so much fun. Sixty-four women gathered around, babbling it out, and everybody was so loving and supportive of each other. It was a really awesome time. Probably going to have a little bit of that here at Buffalo Pinball Summer Open for the Sunday event, for the women's event. First ever. Congratulations for putting that on. Yeah. I'm hoping that everybody gathers around and supports each other and that it grows and becomes a bigger event next year. Thanks, Summer. Thank you, Jeff. I don't think you can go to New York State without seeing this man, Francesco La Roca, here, who is here in Buffalo. How are you doing, Francesco? I'm doing great. I'm with a lot of friends. I see the iPad out, so I expect a lot of blurry pictures. Yeah, of course.
    7:50
    They have to be. Flurry. No, listen. Flurry. FLR. Flurry. FLR, that's right. Good point. How are you doing on these games? I'm doing pretty okay. I could do better. I'm trying to do better on the Classics. What kind of bragging rights on the way back to New York to you and Alberto and Zendejas and Greg and Lehmann? And Levy, what kind of bragging rights do you guys have when you come back? When we come back, to send back the Canadian home. Oh. All the best, buddy. You too, my friend. I'm here with Trent Ogdenstein, one of the greatest players, but yet he's looking at my phone going, why are you talking on the phone? It's a recording device. I know it's different than your phone, Trent, but see how this works? It's pretty incredible. Yeah, it's amazing. What is it? It looks like a phone. It is a phone, and it's got pictures on it. Now, the phone you use, you do a lot of business with Tilt Amusements, but how is that still, in 2018, not part of a movie prop set? Well, it makes phone calls and texts. Okay. Now, right now, I see you using Deborah's phone to do business. No, I'm just looking at pictures of Beat the Clock, the first multi-ball game where you actually physically lock balls. That was a game that was in earlier yesterday. What did you think of Beat the Clock? That was 1985. This is 1963. Oh, sorry. There's definitely balls, games where you lock balls before 1985. 1963, now we're talking Fred Cochran years. Oh, hi, Fred.
    9:19
    So, what do you think? You've been here before, Buffalo Pinball Summer Open? Yeah, I thought it was two or three years. And how are you finding it?
    9:27
    It's great. Wow, Trent, slow down. You could have probably said that in one word. You could have just said great. Great. Okay. Maybe you could elaborate. The outdoor area is fantastic. It is. The sandy beach, you like that? Uh-huh. Very nice. We've got a tent, the marina, the view is great. It's awesome. Are you going to repeat as Player of the Year this year? How are you looking so far? I have no idea. You can look it up. Well, you can on your phone, let's be honest. Are you going to try to get to as many events as you did last year? I just go to whatever comes about. Whichever way the wind blows with Trent, I can see. Now, all right, Expo. People are asking about Expo in October. Yeah, we're having Expo, same as last year. Okay. The only difference is we'll be using the queuing system, but never drain software for the main seating on Thursday. Main seating, okay. How does that work? I've never been to Expo. Can you explain that to me? Everybody qualifies, and we use the big bracket.
    10:19
    Thursday is seating, and after the seating, 40% of the players will go to A plus restrictions, and 50% will go to B, or the remainder goes to B. And then it's a giant bracket. Is this different than years past? What's the same as the last three or four years? When was the time that Keith didn't qualify and yet he was high seeded or something like that? Yeah, that was two years ago, I think. What happened there? He wasn't high seed. He was at the bottom seed in A bracket. And then he went on to win it. He ended up winning, yeah. All right. Trent, all the best to you, and good luck. All right. Thank you very much. Good seeing you again. The Zoller family is here at the Buffalo Pinball Summer Open. Makes sense. New York State and Steven and Jason are here. Hi, Steven. How are you? Hey, good. How are you? I'm good. Jason, the former New York champ or New Jersey champ? New Jersey State champ. No shame in that. And that was this year, wasn't it? Last year and the year before it. Two times. By the way, how old are you now? 14. Your son makes me sick. How do you know? Hey, man. You know, everyone's just over here like, oh, man, Jason's here. Yeah, I know. But it's so cool. It's so cool to be together here, you know, and just, you know, trying to blow things up, you know. Yeah, yeah, you're doing that. And what is your secret? I mean, you're so young. I'm always amazed by the young guys who are the future of pinball. I mean, I'm just practicing a lot at home, going to more tournaments this year. Yeah? Did you ever get to modern? Have you ever tried it? Yes. Tried.
    11:42
    Not tried. So what do you got at home? You mean which games? Sure. Or, you know, what kind of furniture do you have? What kind of cutlery do you have? Of course, pinball machines. See, there the kids don't get this, eh, Steven?
    11:58
    We have Iron Maiden. We have Theater of Magic, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Twilight Zone, Star Trek Next Generation, a lot more. Okay, what about the older games? We don't really have many classics. Thus the name Modern Pinball, maybe. Okay, Steven, what about Deadpool? You've seen it now. What do you think? I haven't seen it. I mean, I've seen part of the play field, believe it or not. but I haven't seen the whole thing and I haven't seen a video or anything else. So I hear it's pretty cool, though. Okay, you're older like I am, too. So the one thing I'm hearing is the young guys. Just came out last week, right? Yeah, I saw a release video or something on YouTube. The older guys. The older guys are a little slower, you know. Well, we like the way it looks. It plays, it looks fantastic. It's a Gomez game, so you know it's going to be a great shooting game. But it's funny because the guys 40 and older who are maybe collectors, There's not so much pinheads or like, what's a Deadpool who might not be into the pop culture aspect of it? Because it's not the movie and it's the cartoon. Have you seen the movie? Oh, many times. It's hilarious. I haven't seen it. I mean, you know, whatever. So people are wondering, you know, it's not like it's Spider-Man, Batman, or Superman, but if the gameplay is great, does it matter? It doesn't really matter. I mean, you have Iron Maiden. I don't think you're huge Iron Maiden fans. Can I go out and say that? Or are you now? I love it. What? Not the game, the band. The game. What about the band? I kind of like a couple more songs. People like the band now because of the game. Wow. Exactly. It's always a plus, you know, when a group does a license like that. Similar with Metallica. Look at that. Not just great pinball players, but the Zollers are new metalheads here. And congratulations. Good to see you guys both here in Buffalo. Okay, thanks, guys. Yeah. In the last game of the Classics 2 event, Jared Chambers, who you know and love from Pittsburgh and from Papa, played Space Shuttle. Ball won. Six million plus. They tapped him on the shoulder because, hey, Jared, you've already got the grand champ. What a great game. It was one of those games where it just refused to drain. It just kept coming right to my left flipper, and I had that spinner dialed in, and I even got the nice little carom into the drop targets occasionally, and it just increased my value. What was it juiced to? 4,000? Max value. You did 7,000? Yeah. That's why I kept crushing it. Sorry, I'm small on a pop-up trick here. What is the way to juice it like that? What is your rattling technique? Something Rapogle told you, something Fred Cochran told you, there's something we don't know. The civilians. Just dumb, plain old dumb luck. You want to know? Before that game started, I had the worst score recorded. Well, here's the thing, and the reason I'm talking to you. One, because you told me you listen to Pinball Profile, which is very nice. Thank you very much. That's now three listeners. That's good. But how the playoffs were top 24. You were going in, I would say, 45. I was nowhere close. Nowhere close. So, your previous point total was 43 points on Space Shuttle. Well, Grand Champ gets you 100.
    14:49
    That put you to 297. The cut was 299 for the playoffs Does that bum you out a little bit Well I mean I standing here with the guy that pushed me out a little bit Oh was it me It was you Oh I feel guilty Can you hear that over the broadcast? I feel guilty. No, I don't fault you for it, man. You're a great player, and you deserve it. When I win Classics 2, it is in honor of Jared Chambers, who blew up Space Shuttle. And by the way, thank you for everything you guys do. I've taken photos, too, and I always want to tell people on Pinball Profile, you know, We see the streams, and we see the tutorials, and we see everything. The tournaments. Here we are at a Papa Circuit event at the Buffalo Pinball Summer Open. And you guys are kind of invisible in the way. You know, you just get the work done. And it's not easy. Hours and hours and hours of setup. Here at the facility, hours of setup in Pittsburgh. And then hours to tear it down and make it all work again. And then the next one comes up, and you do it again in Cleveland coming up. Yes. You know, Jared, it's a lot of work. I can't thank you guys enough. You know, Fred's here, Doug's here, Elizabeth, and I hope I'm not forgetting anybody else. Mike Primo's Canadian. We don't count him. Yeah, Primo. He's been invaluable with the production of the stream, bringing in a lot of new equipment, you know, and everything just looks so professional, and it looks great. It's such a niche group, this pinball community, and those who watch the streams on Papa Pinball. What does it mean to you guys at Papa to get these great productions, this good quality footage? What does it mean? Is it about the numbers? Is it about putting on a good production? Great. The way I see it, it's a matter of the more professional the production is, the more eyes that have the opportunity to be on it. So professionalism will bleed over.
    16:41
    And, you know, I mean, how easy is it for new players to get the information that they need to succeed on a grand stage. Like, I don't know, I'm newish to pinball, so, you know, five, ten years ago, how hard was it to get into the hobby and actually learn how to play? Well, now there's resources to do it. Don't think I didn't watch a ton on Papa.org. I mean, that's the great thing about that whole website and everything you guys do. Everybody just does a great job, and I'm just, I'm glad to be a small cog in the machine. Well, thank you, Jared. Thanks to everyone back in Pittsburgh and everything you do at Papa. Thank you, Jeff. Another great young player here at the Buffalo Pinball Summer Open, and we've seen him at a lot of tournaments. Zach Parks is here with his mom, Alisa. Now, she's got a bit of bragging rights on you after her big win at the New York City Championship. So is she rubbing that in? Not really. I mean, I'm really proud of her because she thought she was out of it, and I go, wait, if you win and the first person comes last, you've got a chance. And she goes, oh, no, no, no, she thought she was out. And I was pretty proud of her to, like, pull through, and she won. You're a good, proud son there, Zach. And you're doing really well. And the reason I can talk to you right now here, we're on the Sunday final day. Well, you've got to buy. You finished third in qualifying. And one of the games here, which you don't see at tournaments, I'm trying to think the last time I saw it at a tournament, I don't know if I did, in a tournament, especially a Papa Circuit one, JJP's Pirates of the Caribbean. And I think we can say this now. This isn't going to air until after. You're going to pick it, aren't you? Yeah, I've played it twice here, and I've put up the top score both times. We have one down in Chicago, where I live, and I had one of the programmers over my shoulder for an hour telling me what to hit. I was like, wow, this is great. I know the game. Who was that? That was Joe Katz. Oh, Joe Katz. Okay, yeah. I'm sure it was him or Keith. I'm spreading some knowledge on it here to help other people. Not now. No way, man. No, I don't. Death match. No, you're heading on to this big, big, big event here. What do you think of the Buffalo Pinball Summer Open? Oh, I really enjoy it. I really like the venue. Like, when you're not waiting, you can step outside, set this really nice... We're here at a yacht club, you know, like, pinball tournament at a yacht club. You know, you don't really get that much, so... The food's been great. Go for a little see-through. The food's been good, yeah. There's a slide there. You can jump in the river. No, but this is great. So, JJP, Pirates of the Caribbean, I do want to talk a little bit about that. What's the character you like? And the great thing about you picking the first game, you also get to pick the order in the first game, so that's really important in that game. Yeah, so on Pirates, I pick Philip Swift, and he helps you get to one of your multiballs. And the thing about Pirates is once someone picks a character, no one else can pick that in the match. So let's say you have three characters that you really like, and you get to choose first. normally in like any other game you're really just choosing last position you want to be last so you know what you have to to achieve but in Pirates you may want to choose first so that you can get that character that's going to help you succeed. So important and that's why it's neat to see that in this tournament it's been playing well so no concerns that's good to see and your mom is she in the women's? Yeah she's in the women's uh yeah I don't know how she's doing right now but uh I assume she's doing pretty well. Will it be a huge Sunday for the Parks family? We'll have to find out. Thanks very much, Zach. Yep, thank you. The first ever Buffalo Pinball Summer Open Women's Champion, Sunshine Bond. Congratulations on the big win in that four-strike tournament. Thank you. How are you feeling right now after that great game at Space Shuttle? I'm feeling great, as you would expect. What was the toughest game for you in this bank? I would say that Sing Ray was probably it can be a little unpredictable so I would say that was probably the toughest game in the bank that old Stern game is tough to get it in that middle scoop I see people shooting for it I couldn't do it could you do it? I think I did it once but I think it was all accidental you're being modest because there's not too much accidental you've been playing fantastic and also too, let's talk about your first ever women's championship. It was the first time Papa ever did it in 2016. So here you are in 2018, the women's champ at Buffalo Pinball Summer Open and you did it originally when this all started back in 16. Well, I don't know that it was. I think they had women's tournaments long, long before I was playing competitively. But Papa and IFPA, they just brought it back recently in just the past two or three years. You have to be thrilled to see so many women's tournaments popping up at major events and also not just with bells and chimes, but we're seeing more and more of that. And it's great to see. I love seeing the competitors just really embrace one another and just really support each other. That's something we need more in pinball. I think having women in pinball is fantastic because of that support system. And they're so fired up about playing. I mean, they had just so much enthusiasm, and I am just so happy to be part of that group. And I'm so excited to see so many more women joining the pinball community. Sunshine, you're not only a great pinball player, a winner, but you're also a good ambassador, too. And we need more people like Sunshine Vaughn in pinball. Oh, thank you. The Buffalo Pinball Summer Open 2018 come to a close. Who is the Stern Pro Circuit winner? Here he is right now from Canada and from Press Start Arcade from Keswick, Ontario, Adam Becker. Congratulations, buddy. Thanks, Jeff. And you did it on NBA Fast Break. Now, here's the thing. You won a circuit event earlier playing pin masters, which you cannot stand playing pin golf. No, I hate pin golf. Yet you went to the event because you were representing Ontario. Well, and because I'm an IFPA director and have to be there for a tournament for some reasons. That's a couple of reasons for sure. And so basketball. Are you a big basketball fan? No, I don't like basketball either. Wow. But what made you pick this game to win it all? Because it did come down to the last game between you and Jason Zoller and even Alberto. Santana had a chance. Yeah, I just felt solid on playing the game, so I didn't care that it was basketball. I felt like I could control the ball and felt like I would have a good shot at it, so that's what I did. How does this feel compared to the first circuit championship you won this year? You know what, I kind of like winning pin golf more because I hate it so much and it's kind of comical in that way. Okay, that being said, when I play a game I can't stand, that's in my head. And that probably hurts me. So is it in your head when you're playing pin masters and pin golf, like, oh, I really, really can't stand this because it's a different type of pinball play? Yeah, but that helps me because then I don't care about the outcome. Okay, really? Because I know you're big at, especially in a pump and dump, setting things up, going for grand champions, which you did on Tommy here on Data East, which is a game I don't think you went back to in the finals, did you? I did once and then wasn't happy, and so I didn't go back. So that's a different kind of qualifying and how you're playing. When you're playing World Poker Tour, which you went to every time, a game you know very, very well, are you playing this differently in this match play format than you are when you're doing the Pump and Dump? Oh, yeah, 100%. I was really happy to be going fourth on World Poker Tour every time because it changed my strategy immensely, whether I was going directly for Ace in the Hole or trying to immediately stack in a mode or trying to do something else to maximize points depending on what everyone else was doing. So going fourth on that game was huge on World Poker Tour because strategy changes so significantly. And we'll see that on the Papa Pinball stream, which you can see on YouTube too. That game was playing tough too. In fact, I don't think anybody got over $20 million on the final game in the first round. No, well, not in the last round. Yeah, in the last round no one got over $20 million, but like I mean the round before I had $90. Yeah, so, well, that's interesting. Adam, congratulations. You got a few prizes. You got a big plaque, a nice flag here from the Sandy Beach Yacht Club, and a branch because on Saturday the power was out because a tree fell on the power lines, and we got it up and running. So congratulations once again, Adam. You know, Canadians are one of few things here in Buffalo. We might have trouble getting across the border. Perhaps, but we'll definitely have a problem getting this tree across the border. All right, all the best. Thanks, Adam. All right, thanks, Jeff. There you have it from the Sandy Beach Yacht Club, the third edition of the Buffalo Pinball Summer Open. A great job here. Lots of fun. The Women's Championship. Congratulations to Sunshine Bond. To the two classic winners in John Flinton, a two-time winner, I'll point out. He won it in the first year. And Jack Tadman, who has also won the Intergalactic. So a big, big weekend here and so many players. A great job. We'll see you at the next event. And there are a few on the Stern Circuit. Yes, there are other events. The next one I attended was in September, Klee Pin. Here's what happened in Ohio. Broken Row! Here we go! Hello, Cleveland!
    25:41
    Cleveland rocks! Cleveland rocks! Cleveland rocks! Cleveland rocks! One of the organizers for a Cleveland Pinball show would be Tommy Beasley, who's putting this on right now. Hey, Tommy, congratulations on another great show. Thank you. It's good to be here. It's good to do this show. I'm glad you're here. It's always a joy when you're here. My second time here. It is perhaps one of the best shows I've seen. And that's one thing everyone talks about. It's just, my goodness, what's out in the shore on there on free play? Some of the greatest games ever. They are. These banks that they have out there, you're talking all brand-new sterns. We're talking dead pools. We've got two of those. We've got iron maidens. We've got three of those. But old ones like Stargazer. And they're all refurbished. They're all brand-new. They're pretty mint games here, and that's what makes this great this year. And get some pictures out there. We'll be having those posted on Facebook, and everyone can see those, and next year come by and check those out. We'll be here again next year. Tommy, you run a lot of tournaments, so you're certainly no stranger to being a TD. Is there more pressure because it is now part of the Stern Pro Circuit? No, not necessarily. I just keep doing the same thing every time. That's how we feel. We try to keep this a community. We keep it a pinball community and family, and it's a lot easier when we're all good to each other and friendly to each other, and that's what makes this easy. And that's what makes every tournament easy, is we all stick together. Well, thanks for having us. To yourself, to Don Johnson, and the rest of your volunteers and crew, a lot of fun here in Cleveland. Thanks very much. Thank you very much. Here at Cleveland, as the cool kids like to say, and here's a cool kid now. Yeah, just a couple of young guys here, myself and Greg DeFeo. Hey, Greg, how are you? Good. Great, Jeff. How are you doing? Good. So this isn't too far from Pittsburgh, and actually the games are from Papa, so you must be a pro at these then. Yeah, you'd think so, but definitely not. Definitely not playing like it right now. The quick avoid and recue, that's like the most common term I'm hearing here at this tournament. Yes, I've done it often. I've done it often. I think I'm changing my name to avoid and recue. But now that you've taken on your second career, I assume it's full-time pinball? Full-time pinball, I expect to make dozens of dollars this year. Dozens? Wow. Always be cashing. Hey, you came up to my neck of the woods. You had some time in Toronto with your family. Had a great time. My daughter and I, just the two of us went on the trip. My wife stayed home. Hockey Hall of Fame. Her choice, what she wanted to do. We had a great time. Toronto's a great city. You hit the CN Tower, I think? We absolutely did. What did you think? You know what? Both my daughter and I are afraid of heights. And we struggled looking out there, but we had a great time and really liked it. All right, Greg, thanks very much. Jeff, my pleasure. The winner of the Cleveland Pinball Show Classics Tournament, Eric Stone, no surprise the way he's been playing lately. You're in on a great run lately. That's right. You know, I've qualified first in several tournaments lately, and this time I was able to put nine really good games together on Solar Fire, Stingray, and Super Orbit, and wound up pulling off the win. It was a really good one. So if you didn't see the stream on Papa Pinball on YouTube, when he talks about Solar Fire for the win, that was the final game in the Classics, and Eric, much like Space Shuttle in Buffalo, said, you know what, there aren't enough digits on this display, and you rolled the thing, and the other three players were talking about, should we concede here because you were 10 million plus. You had 14 million. Everyone else was at 1 million. That's right, yeah. You know, once I got over 10 and then 11, 12, 13, 14, I just wondered, you know, what's the right move? Do I keep on playing? Because it was taking time away from the main tournament getting started, and I just blew the game up. It's just a game that I really like, and to me it's relatively easy. Keep it up top and just score all your points up there. Well, you seem to know what you're doing, and not that I'm the person to do it, but if I could offer a little bit of advice to you, if you could offer advice to me, what would it be? Maybe play with a little more intensity.
    29:44
    No, not at all. Not me. Are you one of those guys that, and there are a lot of players like this, myself too at times, where you focus more on the shots that are missed or you beat yourself up for maybe missing a missing a shot or a bad play versus patting yourself on the back for something like Solar Fire Oh, definitely. I mean, I still think about the bad shots that I missed and not on that game in particular, but Super Orbit, I missed the very target so many times from that right flipper, but still, you know, wound up with decent scores. And I always think about what I could improve on, but when I have a win like that, and it was a pretty good win on those nine games. You know, I move on, and now it's on to the main tournament. So, Eric, again, when we see you or other players get upset, and you've got to go right back at it, especially in classics, where a lot of the ball times are short, how do you put that behind you? You know, I figure you just have to get a hold of one ball, really, like on Stingray. Get a hold of one ball. Any game, really. Right, and, you know, you kind of expect either a house ball or a one, two, or three flip ball on some of those older EMs, not EMs, but older solid state games. And, you know, when you have that one bad ball, you just got to say, okay, well, you know, this is my goal, this is what I need to do, and hope that you get that one good ball. Well, you know, a lot of people are rooting for you. Best of luck to you, and best wishes for your dad, too. Hey, thanks very much. I appreciate it. Here at the Cleveland Pinball Show, I'm here with motivational speaker and designer, pretzel connoisseur, occasional player, Keith Elwin. Hey, Keith, how are you? Good, I'm starving. Crunch on Mike. Here we go. Go ahead. I wasn't kidding. Anyway, again, we see Iron Maiden here in a tournament. It's, to me, the game you're going to be seeing for a few years in tournaments. It's got to make you feel real good. Yes. He was swallowing that pretzel and giving me the Zach Sharp one answers. That's the stern answer. No, I actually learned some things I didn't know in your seminar, and I hope I can say this because you said it in the seminar, but I didn't realize, for the case of most designers, that the premiums, the LEs, are made before the pros. It's easier that way. Yes, it's much easier that way. To scale back, I mean, you kind of know when you're making the premiums what's coming out? Yeah, you have to approach it like, hey, this is going to be in the premium, and it probably won't be in the pro, but I won't know until, you know, figure out how much it costs. So, yeah, nobody designs the pro first. It's so funny to hear people talk about, well, it was an easy game for Keith to make. He already had Archer, but it was totally different in the sense of how to mass produce it. The length of the cab, right? You cheated. Yeah, I cheated. So, yeah, there was a lot of geometry changes that most people wouldn't notice because hardly anyone played Archer besides myself. So there were a lot of changes, all for the better, I think. I removed the stuff I didn't like, added stuff I did like. So no complaints. Great artwork, as everyone has ranted and raved about what Zombie Eddie did. It's fantastic, too. But that's also a lot of the holdups, too. The game was probably ready to go, or certainly the different models. That was a big, big holdup. Yeah, but it all worked out. Oh, yeah. Hopefully someday in a seminar I'll show you some of the original pro artwork that they kicked back. And I'll let people decide for themselves which they like better. Well, the premium, the original one, sent was just Iron Maiden on the side, and then they wanted the kind of mummy popping out. Yeah, yeah. Basically, Jeremy designed just the sarcophagus. and they're like, where's the action?
    33:12
    It's kind of funny the feedback you got. A lot of it was good and even Jeremy said, yeah, yeah, that's way better. Yeah, yeah. Jeremy's under the gun to get things approved. So, of course, he's going to be angry when they kick it back. But then after he sees what he does, he's like, yeah, they were right. Do you have a few more tour and speaking engagements that you're going to be doing on upcoming shows? I'll be at Pinball Expo talking about game design, mostly homebrew stuff.
    33:36
    And Archer will be there. Oh, very, very cool. Keith, best of luck here as you advance to the semifinals. Thank you so much. Congrats to Keith Elwin. He won the Klee Pin Tournament. Next stop for me was in October, my first ever Pinball Expo in Chicago. One of the things about Pinball Expo is you see so many great seminars. All the pinball companies come here, and the newest pinball company that had a lot of excitement, too, as many people wanted to hear about, Deep Root. And joining us right now, games designer, ambassador, Steve Bowden, our good friend from Fun with Bonus. Steven, that was quite the seminar and some good reactions. Well, I was glad to see that it got a reaction. It did, as I joined you on another one of my potentially unauthorized public appearances.
    34:33
    But, yeah, it was definitely fun to get out there and, you know, just really pretend that there's only 20 people out there as opposed to however many there were. Thousands. Yeah, a couple hundred, I guess. But, yeah, we got our stuff out there as much as we wanted to, which wasn't much, of course. I know. Well, you've got to keep things kind of close to the chest for sure because, as you know, in any pinball company, any time a leak of a reveal comes out, all that happens is criticism. So why bother doing it? Just here's the product. Here you go. Well, but I can't wait for my criticism to come out. So I want the games to come out so we can debate what's good and what isn't and what could be improved and what people will think about some of the rules I put in there. And then I'll get to test them out and see whether I agree or not or whether I'll change them. So I can't wait for that. Until then, it's a lot of me not saying much. And understood, too. So you've been there for a month. You talk about it being the honeymoon period. It's been a lot of fun for you in Texas. A big change for you coming from New Jersey and the education system, but a dream job really for you. Now, one of the things I caught that really impressed me when the designers were talking was it's great to have someone like yourself, a world-class player, get to play these, whether it's the Whitewoods or whatever the case may be, to pretty much make sure all the shots are good. So let's ask you this question. How were the shots before you got there? Was there a little bit of tweaking, or were these guys who are experts pretty darn good? Well, they're pretty good. You know who was up on that stage. And by their track record, you know what's going to be happening. You had Barry Elsler, you had John Norris, John Papaduke, and Dennis Norman. All up there. So you know by their history what they're going to offer. So it's just going to be better, I think. So, yeah, I've been through some of their stuff and just applying my rules to Quinn's story. Let's talk about Quinn because he's kind of the person we're going to get to know very well. What's his background?
    36:33
    You're excited about Quinn. I'm a guy that doesn't have to be able to say that Quinn Johnson is doing storyboards. And so from his comic book background and things like that, so he's been able to flesh out some of the things that we're going to be doing in our games coming up. And I'm just sort of, as I said on stage, I'm taking what he's doing and seeing how it's going to work in a pinball way. Because that's different. I mean, pinball is a little different than gaming in the way certain things work and certain things don't. But maybe a fresh change that maybe we just haven't seen.
    37:06
    We'll see how it fleshes out. I can't wait for them to come out so that I can see how right or wrong I am. It's all theory. It's all kind of theory until people start playing it other than me. I can't wait either, and I'm pretty sure there's going to be a lot of people looking forward to what happens in Texas at TPF when Deep Root announces their games and shows their games. It's going to be great. It will definitely be a very interesting scene down in Texas. I mean, last year was my first year in Texas, and just the tournament itself was such a crucible with so many people down there and everything, and that was huge. I mean, last year's Texas was Pinball Expo. It really was, I mean, with the size of it. And now with Pinball Expo taking the turnaround here, we'll see what Texas has to offer for us next year. A good show here, a good show coming up in March in Texas, and you've probably got some rules to write right now, so we'll let you go. Yeah, I sure do. All right, thank you, Jess. It's a little loud here. That's because so many people are playing in the game room here at Pinball Expo, including Joel Reeves from Omaha, Nebraska. How are you doing, Joel? Doing great. Great show this year. So you've come in years past? I've come since 2014. This is my first time. I'm blown away. So tell me, what have you seen this year compared to other years?
    38:22
    This year, the vendor hall is very, very busy. It's busy, but it's bigger, and there are a lot more things to see and do here. There's a 24-hour hall. I'm really enjoying the speakers. What is your favorite thing about Expo? Free play room's been really good, but coming to see all the new games, get to play Oktoberfest and Pirates a few times, Deadpool, Ellie, the new games. Do you have a favorite?
    38:50
    I have not played Oktoberfest yet. I'm going to wait in line, and hopefully that'll be the one. I played it. It's fun. I've played it about four times now, and it's so fun. It's some good shots. They've done a good job there. Awesome. Can't wait. Joel, thanks very much. All the best to you in Omaha. Appreciate it. Have fun. It's not only one of the highlights at Chicago's Pinball Expo, but it's really a highlight for this great chronicle that has happened over many, many years, now coming to fruition with Todd Tuckey's Pinball Adventures. Todd, it's great to see you. Thanks a lot. I appreciate you wanting to interview me. Well, I think a lot of people want to hear what you have to say, because you've entertained so many of us for years with your videos, your great sense of humor, and your knowledge, too. Now, here's the only question I have for you. Ten books, ten volumes. Do you realize a lot of pinball players haven't read ten books in their life? I'm talking about me, but I think it's great that you're doing this. Well, what we're going to do, the books are basically our adventures over the years with different employees. Over the years, we've seen a lot of pinball machines pass through. So we're going to discuss issues we've had with certain games that a lot of the people aren't aware of. We're going to share some secrets. But then some of the fun stories, delivering them to zany houses and collectors.
    40:04
    Nothing that's going to get me in trouble. Right, Frank? Frank's my sidekick. He was here doing a seminar. We did a seminar on how you could set up your own business selling games. So we did our first live stream last night, and tonight we have our second live stream. So we're really looking forward to this. And we think we're going to sell a lot of books. The first run is now sold out. Yeah, you're being humble. I already know about the first run. I mean, they went pretty quickly. Mistakes and all. So we have some mistakes, but they'll be fixed. And the next edition, the next run, we'll have everything fixed pretty much, we think. And then we'll be finished with volume one, but we can always go back for reprints. That's the nice thing about printing these days. However, we're thinking of now, we've had enough requests of doing, actually, I think this is one of the first times I mention it. They want us to do a Kindle book. Okay, good idea. And then on top of the Kindle book, we would do an audio book. Now, the audio book will be different because I'm going to actually tell the entire unedited story. See, the publisher comes in and edits your stuff. Yeah. And, you know, it's his book. He's paying for everything. I just get paid per book. But I told him, I said, I think some of this stuff's fun. And he says, it's too long. So, you know, I said, well, no, I mean, people want to read this stuff. That's it. It's a nice keepsake, too. I don't want the edited version. I want to hear what you've got to say about all these. And also, too, the great thing about this wonderful catalog, if you will, is that it's got to be nice for you to recall some of these memories that maybe somebody jarred you with. Like, oh, yes, I do remember that. Oh, boy, did we get jarred, didn't we, Frank? Frank and I, we were remembering some of these horrendous deliveries. They were difficult. Frank got home one night. What is it? 6 a.m. Back from a delivery.
    41:54
    Oh, they stopped at breakfast for 6 a.m. We did a delivery in North Jersey. Guy was extremely wealthy. Had this really obscure backyard with these flagstone steps. We had one game going in, two coming out. It was tough.
    42:09
    It was. And that's not in volume one. But with the ten volumes, we have the ability to pick and choose the pinballs, too. The publisher wanted to keep them theme-related, but there'll be some unthemed games, too.
    42:24
    There's only so many magic pinball machines you can do that I covered. See, I'm trying to do stuff that I know about or we've covered or seen or played or had adventures with, basically. Todd, Frank, thank you very much for putting these together. I know they're going to be a big hit. Pinball Adventures, we love what you do with TNT Amusements. Oddly enough, brand-new editions on Amazon are $30, but they're already selling used ones for $39. Getting quick? People want to buy a used book rather than a new one. I would rather have the new one. Exactly. But the advantages, the first run with the mistakes may become collectible. I don't know how collectible they'll be, but one guy actually bought three copies because he says, I'm going to make money with this. Oh, boy. Well, you know that does happen when something's out of print. The edition one that we have here now at the show, I've got one copy left but when that sells actually I've got to share this with you I have one copy left because the guy was standing in line and told me his name was Steve I thought he wanted the book I made the book out to him and would you know I didn't want to buy a book I just wanted to take a picture with you Steve and you cheapskate you meathead go get that book he saw me I'm thinking you creep oh are you going to give it to me I'll give it to you creep All right, if there's a Stephen looking for a last edition of Pinball Adventures Volume 1, give Todd some contact. And also check out Todd. I'll throw in an extra picture, too. Oh, wow. I want a good picture. That would be very nice, Todd. There are people around here who I think want you to sign the new American Pinball Oktoberfest backlist. Backlist. Well, I found out. Somebody sent me a picture, and I said, my God, it does look like me. So tonight in the stream, we're going to go over there and cover it. We're going to get the stuff in, because I understand American Pinball. by the way that houdini is so nice it's very well done and the the octoberfest what a great idea for sure and i'm so i'm hoping maybe uh they're going to have it still in the booth i think they're just the poster so we'll have some fun with that all right i'm posted that's what they say i believe that they better put a little tt i thought they could put tt in the uh it wouldn't be too much that's frank todd thanks very much thanks a lot thanks for asking for the interview Okay, remember that interview was recorded at Expo and sadly how things have changed since then. Still hoping for those stories to get told someday. Let's go back now to Expo. It a little loud here but for good reason because there a big lineup here at the American Pinball site for people to play the new Oktoberfest And I here with Todd McCullough Is it a big lineup or a lineup of big people Well there that with Todd Hi Todd How are you Hi how are you Nice to see you again. Yes, yes. How's the top of my head look? A little dander-fee, but we'll work on that. You're fine. As long as I don't wear the black shirts, I'm fine. Joe Schober's here. No worry about dander-fee, my friend.
    45:14
    So what are you saying? A little too shiny? It's like blinding Todd? Head and shoulders is all I was saying. Hey, you know what? Todd's about to play it. I flipped it about four times. About to play Oktoberfest. First of all, you know this from not being on air. I've told you this in person. I'm very excited that you're with American. I love what you did with Highway. I'm glad you're working in the pinball profession. And I played Oktoberfest, and you can just see that Joe Schober touch. You can see that this is a guy who's a pinball player. He knows what players are looking for. And you're going to see it even in this early model of Oktoberfest with just only six of 14 tent modes ready. You've done a great job. Hey, thanks, Jeff. I appreciate that. Yeah, I mean, we've, I think, put a lot of interesting features into it. We tried to make it really, as much as anything, be kind of a really joyful game. You know, a lot of pinball, I think, takes itself pretty seriously in adhering to a theme or, you know, just being a really player's game or whatever. We tried to make this be a joyful game. It's kind of frivolous. It's funny and silly. And does things you haven't seen before. You have the ducks quacking at you. You know I love the ducks. Oh, everyone loves the Ducks. I've been watching people who just want to hear the Ducks go. So, yeah, as you said, still quite a bit to do before the games shift. But I've been hearing good reviews so far, and hopefully once it's done, people will be even happier with it. So I bet you have been hearing a lot of reviews here. And I guess I'm wondering, it's great to hear all the compliments, but you probably, like any coder, designer, want to hear, Okay, what's the one thing, if any, that you would change or you'd like to see different? You'll probably want to get some of that feedback, too, if there is some. Oh, absolutely, yeah. I mean, we want people to love the game, so if we only hear good feedback... It doesn't help. It doesn't really help us. I mean, honestly, sometimes I don't even know, or people just being diplomatic, oh, yeah, Joe, great job, and then they roll their eyes when they log off. I love hearing constructive criticism from people. I'm going to give you some here, and I'm sorry I'm doing this on a podcast. Hit me. It'd be nice to have a beer with the damn thing. Well, that's largely self-provided. However, are you aware of the one-handed play mode? Yes. Okay, explain that. So I'm obviously joking. I'd say it'd be nice to have a beer with that. You can have a beer with this game because... Because it's currently an operator adjustment for one-handed play. There are two buttons on the right side of the game, and in normal mode, one of the right buttons is the right flipper, as you'd expect, and the other is the magnum feature, which are the player-controlled magnets. but there is an operator adjustment that you can turn on one-handed play so one button on the right is the left flipper one is the right flipper and with your left hand Todd, you can drink the left hand. Pretty exciting. I think that's a great thing. I don't know why someone didn't think of that now. I'm glad you guys implemented that. That's wonderful. Beer and pinball go very well together and if you can drink while you're playing, literally that just makes it that much better. It's wonderful. Let's get used to this before people start complaining Oh, now I can't play Double Fisted. Just enjoy the one for now with Oktoberfest. It's a lot of fun. Joe, congrats. I know you've been all smiles this weekend, and with good reason. You've done a great job. Hey, thanks. I really appreciate that. I hope everyone loves it. And, yeah, I do hope we get feedback both good and bad. So we're still refining the game. So if anyone has comments, hit me up on Pinside at Ferret or at SoForms and Joe, and I'm glad to hear the feedback. We'll make the game as best as we can for everyone. Where did Ferret come from? What does that mean? It's a long story. It's about a 25-ish-year-old thing. All right, we'll talk about it over some beers over at Oktoberfest. You're in. One-handed. We're doing it. All right, Todd, let's go out on this thing. Thanks very much, Joe. Thanks, Jeff. Here at Pinball Expo, everyone from around the world is here. I've seen a lot of great people, including Mark Silk from the U.K., from Birmingham, the home of Black Sabbath, Duran Duran, the original ACDC. You know music and pinball. Well, I do like music. I just love that the Australians try to take claim for definitely ACDC. How dare they? That's a real hotbed of music. Oh, yeah. I guess it's because it's such a blue-collar town. Is that why, maybe? Yeah. Kind of like Detroit of England? Yeah, it's a really industrial city, but it's a real heart of great music from the UK. Jeff Lynne's from there. A whole bunch of great people. Jeff Lynne, a huge fan. I know Bruce Stangale certainly likes him from Slam Tilt Podcast. What made you come to Pinball Expo? I rediscovered my love of pinball about six months ago.
    49:45
    My mom and dad bought me a little Tomy atomic pinball machine when I was eight years old. And then I heard your podcast talking to Rob Berg. And I realized I should be here. So I flew the guy that works with me in my studio. We flew over here and we've had the best few days. And it was just three months ago I bought my first pinball machine. And? I've gone down the rabbit hole. I now have three machines, and I just took a look at my Ring outdoor camera back in the UK, and I can see the construction on the roof of the back of my house for the collection. Oh, my God. So this will multiply very quickly. Did you see what you've done? Not me, no, no. It's the great designers of pinball and keeping this alive, and it's perhaps some older people like you and I that may have realized, you know, This is something I really enjoyed in the youth. It's a great keepsake. You know, I always tell my wife I don't have a golf membership, and those are $12,000, $15,000, $30,000, $20,000, whatever they are. So maybe I'll get a couple of pinball machines. She bought it. Well, I love it.
    50:52
    Back at home, I work in games and animation and movies and stuff. I do the voices for a lot of shows. I know who you are. Oh, yeah. You do? Oh, man. Well, thank you. But it's been great seeing pioneers and legends in this industry talk and celebrate what they do. To see Pat Lawler talk last night, I felt like I was watching Hendrix talk.
    51:15
    In terms of achievement and talent, these are the best in the business in that room last night. And I was just so taken up by just hearing these guys, their love. Also, what was such a thrill was to hear how they wanted to share their team. It wasn't just about them. I heard that definitely from Pat Lawler at the Jersey Jack seminar. The Deep Root guy, Stephen Bowden, talked about, I wish you could meet all these other people that are behind the scenes. A lot of new people. We see Jersey Jack bring on a guy like Eric, who's an up-and-coming designer, did great work with Pirates of the Caribbean. Look at Scott Demisi. It's not just us old guys. I got a second. What are you saying?
    52:02
    Hey, Mark, this is great. This is great. Good to talk to you. You too. No, it's a thrill. And thanks for the show. I really enjoy it. I listen to it. I wait for it every week. Well, I think you're going to have to come on your own show very soon. How about that? Let's do that. All right, Mark, thanks. Thanks a lot. I'm here with a friendly face here at Pinball Expo, Coy Morris, who certainly knows a lot about pinball. How are you doing, Coy? I'm fine. Now, we're playing the Jetsons right now. It's a game I've never played. I'm glad it's here at Expo. So do you know a little bit about this game? Do you want to tell us what the main thing is to do? I guess get the characters, right? Yeah, that's one of the things. That's probably the hardest thing to do. And the other thing you have to get, you have to get the other multi-ball. I think it's the Coswell multi-ball you want to get. So you have to shoot three balls in there, and then you have to shoot the hole at the top to start it. At the top. I noticed when you go on the scoop on the left, that that automatically locks the ball. You don't have to qualify that. Right. It's a fun game. It is. It's not very deep, but it's fun. Right. The layout's a little bit like Lethal Weapon 3, a little bit, don't you think? Yeah, it does resemble that a bit. What's your favorite game that you've played this week at Expo?
    53:09
    That's kind of tough. I like Twilight Zone, Addams Family, Deadpool, Whirlwind. Did you get a chance to play Oktoberfest or some of the new games? I played that. That's fun, too. Yeah? Fun game to play. Well, Koi, thanks for the quick lesson on Jetsons. Thanks very much. Yep, no problem.
    53:28
    Sebastian Babio is here from Florida. He's here at Pinball Expo. But you've done a lot of traveling this year. You've played some pinball all over the world, haven't you? Yes. I played in EPC, the European Pinball Championship in Finland, where I was around 18 countries and 318 players. And you did well. I finished fifth. That's amazing. Yes, I was amazing. And the organization was amazing. The people amazing, everything amazing. Also, I play in Stuttgart, Germany, other tournament. I finished 20. I don't play very well, but I try. Were you also in the Power 100 at Josh Sharpe's house? Yes. And how was that? I finished in tiebreaker of six. Between three persons, I finished eighth. That's amazing. It's amazing. Yeah, with that group, that's really well done. And you're going to be in your home state of Florida, Freeplay Florida, coming up. That's where I first met you last year. I'm looking forward to that event. It's a good time there. Oh, yes. It's an amazing place, amazing weekend. I recommend for everybody. Very nice set of machines, too many collection pinballs, very good vendors. So, how does Pinball Expo rate? You've been here before, have you? Yes, I've been in 2015. I noticed this year is amazing. Well, that's good to hear. The setup was amazing, the people, everything was amazing. Well, good luck. You're doing very, very well in the big bracket of fun here. So, all the best to you, Sebastian. Thank you so much. Zach Wolins from San Francisco is here in Chicago at Pinball Expo. And I've noticed something. You're really good in the fall. Last year at City Champ, you did very, very well, right? Coming second to Colin Urban. And here in the Classics Tournament, you were the number one qualifier. What is it? Takes you a year to get ready? Yeah, I guess so. It helps when you can buy your way into the top qualifying position in a Herb-style, unlimited entry format. Over three days? Over three days. So you actually really, I need to win just so that I can afford to get back home.
    55:29
    But that is unique, too, because you had been the leader by a lot. So I'd say like a 30-point lead. And for those who don't play tournaments, there are six games, and all six count. The top scorer would get 100, and it goes to 90, then 85, then down by one, so 84, 83. And you were in the lead with your six games by over 30, but you were still playing because you want to get the practice in, you want to learn. Get the practice, and some of the best players in the world are here, and they were playing, so nothing's safe. When you have the top scores, if somebody beats it, you're losing ten, five points at a time, so you're not necessarily safe. I felt pretty good, but I just figured get the practice and try to improve on my lowest scores. And as we speak right now, it's a double knockout. You're already in the Final Four as you're waiting to play Zach Sharp, and there are people on the loser bracket side that are coming, but, I mean, some heavyweights, too. We see Kaylee playing. We see Trent. You know, Raymond's got to play. Oh, I played Raymond, and I knocked him out. Oh, he still has to play in the loser's bracket, but I did play Raymond, and it went pretty well. It feels pretty good to take down the number one-ranked player in the world. Yeah, he's playing right now. He's playing Adam Lefkoff, who's been doing fantastic over on the main side, so he's got to go back and forth from all these fast turns to games like Casanova and Warlock and Argosy. Yeah, I have the advantage of not having to play on both sides because I'm totally tanked in the moderns. But, you know, to some degree it probably is an advantage because these guys are coming off these fast-playing sterns and then have to slow it down in the moderns. I'll take it. Best of luck, Zach. Thank you very much. And Zach Wolin's efforts paid off. He won the Classics event while Adam Lefkoff could not be beat. He beat Keith Elwin, in fact, twice to win the main event. So next up for me, another first, my first 24-hour battle at the Sanctum in Connecticut.
    57:32
    Here at the Sanctum, the 24-hour Sanctum. Who would be crazy enough to do this? Well, I'm here, so I guess that means I am. But Joseph Lemaire is the guy who won the first ever one. My name right. Congratulations. What do you want me to say? Joseph? Well, you know that it's French, so you're Canadian, so you know better. All right. Now, you won the first ever 24-hour sanctum, and you've been to a few of these, haven't you? Yes, I won the first one, came in second on the second one, and I've been here all five years because I'm that sick. Why?
    58:03
    I'm a glutton for punishment, I suppose. It's fun, though. I mean, we're only a few hours into it. It's fun now. Oh, it's great right now.
    58:12
    Last year was the first year where by the end of it I wanted to die, So I'm hoping this one goes out a little better by the end. We're playing dollar games if you want to die right now. I mean, not dollar games, just funsies. I'm not letting you off that easy. Joseph, best of luck. Thanks, Jeff. It's hour number, I don't know, 18, 19. We've all lost track here at the Sanctum. I'm with the guy who created this madness, Jim Swain, which, by the way, rhymes with insane. Jim, how are you? Just fine, just fine. What the hell were you doing when you thought about this? I don't know. We were hanging out at somebody else's house at a tournament, and it wasn't long enough. So we thought it would be crazy. Is it a matter of you had no place to go, like, please don't kick us out, you know? I don't even know. We just thought it was a crazy idea, and we somehow found 40 people to do it the first year. And now there's not enough room for everybody. And now 100. How quickly did this sell out? 10 seconds. Really? Was that quick? Yeah. I was that lucky. Yeah. We're stupid. Maybe a combination of both. Definitely. This is a great place. And you know what? I've noticed a big banner there. You obviously had some Kickstarter action to get this going? Well, we used to be on the upper floor in about 1,000 square feet, and then we wanted to expand, move to this space, and set it up better. So we had support from the community and helped get us some funds to reorganize this space and rewire it and everything. I imagine the sixth annual will be coming out next year too. You're pretty excited. I know you don't want to think about it right now. Just get this done. Daylight savings weekend. All right, plan ahead. it's the 24-hour Sanctum tournament here. It's a lot of fun. And I'm going to go out on a limb and say Bowen Cairns, who has a 12-point lead with maybe a couple rounds to go, and the maximum is nine, might have a chance of winning his second title.