the pinball network is online launching triple drain pinball podcast all right tom you hit the button for the last time yes perfect all right hello everyone this is uh my name is joel this is triple drain episode two technically the third episode we're recording but second with this name i'm here tonight with uh travis and tom like always hello hi joel oh great thank you sorry i i fucked up the intro already didn't i no i think it's solid it's a solid intro just as good as the last time um but yeah we'll dive right in we got plenty of stuff to talk about that we probably won't get to because we'll get derailed or head in another direction but i thought it made sense we should probably just go ahead and start with feedback you know we've we were we released an official triple drain episode. We didn't have an email, but we did get some Facebook messages. We got some different private messages and a lot of the feedback was really pretty good. We got, I don't know. Well, Travis, you had, you had a guy that said he couldn't listen to it, right? Yeah. They, they told me they got through about five minutes of it. And then it was the worst thing they've ever heard. Maybe we're doing better this time. Maybe a lot of a lot of sensitive hot tub conversation. People said we have chemistry. You know, I don't know. It's great. I think we're faking it. Well, so that's good. But yes. One thing that did surprise me, right, was, you know, I gave a very honest opinion of a person of a person that we all know. David Dennis gave a very honest opinion of him and not one person stood up for him. Not one. And that surprised me. You know, I was expecting somebody to say, hey, come on. He's not that bad. Right. So maybe we're on to something. That's what I'm hearing. I don't know. Did you guys hear anything? No, I think pretty much we all equally hate Dennis. Well, hate's a strong word. OK. Hate's a strong word. OK, so what I will say, hey, we all we all. What's another word for hate? Like what's what's a nicer word than hate? yeah there we go okay David Dennis well you guys you guys make fun right but I heard that you two behind my back tried to get David Dennis on the show right okay for the record yeah for the record I was on David's side and then he talks to Mattish on you know yeah on the TPN discord so I was just like you know I can't do it now I can't so so here's the deal right you guys tried to get David on the show, right? And the only reason I caught wind of this is because I saw the email and I saw the email where he had to cancel. He had to cancel last minute. He goes, sorry, guys, I have to do my weekly volunteering at the nursing home. I saw that and I said, volunteering at their nursing home. There's no way. There's no way that guy volunteers at a nursing home. So I called it up. I called up the nursing home he mentioned. Believe it or not, they say he comes in every week and all he does is push down the residents. He just pushed them down. He watches them fall and laughs. That's what David Dennis does. And you guys tried to invite him on the show. I'm just saying, guys, David Dennis is the worst. Do we agree? I mean, that would be pretty bad. Yeah. I just followed up on the email. I mean, you let it slide. So let's see. I'm just, guys, try not to get him on the show because I think we can do better. And we did do better, right? We found a better guest. We have an extra ball tonight. And that extra ball is the one, the only Raymond Davidson. Raymond, thank you for, thanks for being here tonight. yeah it sounds like uh david the dentist couldn't make it yeah i know bummer bummer so i had a feeling we were just going to hear a click and raymond wasn't going to be there anymore so raymond typically we call our our you know because we're so we've done this so long right but typically we call our extra guests the extra ball but i know from a pinball terminology standpoint you actually don't like extra ball you prefer it to be phrased like balls to go right so you're this is four balls to go isn't no god no get out of here with that and why why does that why do you why does that bother you right because it's different oh all right so we'll stick with extra ball but uh it's just it's ambiguous if you see like a one and it's like okay do i have one ball after this is this my last ball is it ball one like it's just so much simpler when it's either a one two or a three i think he's onto something there that makes sense i get it but sometimes you know when you have multiple extra balls stacked up you know then you really don't know that's part of the fun you're like oh man my game's over oh wait i think i have another extra ball oh i do yeah it's yeah a little excitement part of the fun oh good yeah well we have some cool topics to talk about and what i what i'm what i'm going to realize very quickly is i am i'm very much the odd one out here we have three high-end competitive players and then me and um yeah let's let's just dive in so pin Slash pin Slash cardangelo with ie pinball put on another amazing event pin Slash 2 this time was with Avengers and I know Travis was in it Ray was in it and then Tom your son was in it so yeah I wasn't good enough to make it so yeah well I wasn't either if that makes you feel any better but um I would love to hear I mean go for it anybody who wants to go first just what I mean I'm happy to share my experience as a viewer but I would love to hear somebody go first let's let's hear what that that was like well i would be curious to hear from tom as a parent because it was your son playing i'd be curious to hear it from that side because you played in the first pin Slash yeah with jurassic park so what was it like being a parent watching neil play it was exciting i mean i i was obviously rooting for neil to play um but uh you know it was it was it was fun i i enjoyed the uh the wagering on channel points that was something new yeah you can bet on a person i was putting all my money away from travis and i hit big i was wondering what the spread would be if and when i played wasn't it like uh if one to 99 so uh you bet 99 points and you'd get one yeah pretty much was i really that far behind i mean unless you bet on trav then you would get 99 for your one yeah i actually did bet on travis and uh it didn't pay off yeah it really paid off later on when i uh when i pay a bet on luke the odds were like way in Carlos's favor. And yeah, if the channel points were actual money, you know, I might be retiring. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I will tell you, Tom, I was, I was a little disappointed in you as a support person. And the reason I say that is because what I mean is Travis, he had a support person in the room and we all knew who it was. it was Monica because her hand would come out of frame, reach into the cabinet and turn the little spinner and then disappear. So it was like this mysterious kind of Vanna White hand coming in. And, you know, Tom, I, I know you have a, you know, I know you have a successful modeling career. I'm surprised your hand didn't, didn't make an appearance. I was there, but you know, I didn't want to crack any cameras, but no, it was, it was Neil's day and I didn't want to jump in front of the camera i didn't want to do the rabbit ears behind them like sometimes they do on the stream when people are out that's fair that's fair all right well that's cool i mean you yeah you've got to be a proud dad seeing that and i know oh yeah i mean we'll we'll get in some other stuff because uh with one of your tournaments recently he had your son had some you know success in it so that's that's that's definitely got to be cool to see as a dad for sure definitely um well travis we'll save you know raymond got a little farther than you so we'll we'll go ahead to start with Travis. Travis, what was your experience? Because I know we talked about this last week. You know, you were purposely avoiding the bye. You wanted that entry, that first round play. I mean, what's your thoughts on the day? Here comes the, I just let Escher win talk. Go ahead, Travis. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just got, I got tired and I just wanted to go watch UFC that night. So yeah, I just, yeah, that's what it was. No, it's, so everything lined up exactly the way I wanted it. And the funniest part about my second round those three particular challenges were the three challenges that i actually really liked and whenever i did them in like practice i was just blowing through them i mean the first one was start a gym quest so that's really easy just you know spin the disc get a hold of it put in the gauntlet you're good to go but then that second one with the combos usually i stick with black widow gauntlet and hawkeye and for some reason i just decided i was going i was going to abandon that and try to go black widow gauntlet dead bounce and then probably restart it again with the uh captain marvel ramp and then back up the black widow and gauntlet because i tried out both of them and sometimes i'm just way off on that on that hawkeye shot but the moment i tried to do that my first shot to the gauntlet was just i was just bricking it like it wasn't nerves or anything it was just like my shot just left me and so as soon as that started happening i was just getting frustrated and then yeah it just one thing led to another and let's just say i had a terrible second round or second challenge against escher which basically just made it to where i had absolutely no chance of coming back to win unless he just got so bored with the competition that he just turned off his webcam so yeah yeah yeah it was brutal but i mean i like the challenges it was the challenges i wanted i just just played bad that's all there is to it there's no excuse yeah and i think you messaged us later afterwards and you're like dude i just did that combo challenge and did it in like a minute or something i mean yeah it's yeah and it's just it's so weird it's something i've done several times and something i did several times afterwards because of course it's like anything else you know if you do something wrong then you want to try to think about it and fix it immediately and see what you could have done differently and yeah of course it's completely different if you're playing on your own with nobody watching you know of course But, you know, I can definitely say it wasn't nerves at all. I just flat out just all of a sudden could not hit the shot. And it just, I mean, that's all there is to it. And I think even if I would have done it the way I normally do it, we probably would have been tied or I might have still been down five points going into the final one. And I can't pretend that that means I'd end up winning because I'm sure if we were tied or if we were within five points of each other, I'm sure Escher would have had a little bit more giddy up for that third round towards the uh bulk level two challenge that we had so things things probably was still played out the way that they did either way but you know i'm happy i played in it that's awesome that's great and then um well raymond this is uh i mean you you obviously played in the first you you did the jurassic park one and then uh and so yeah this is this is pin class number two for you what was your kind of yeah overall view of it uh it was it was fun because like the um the challenges kind of varied between like heart like long and and simple ones so it was like you never knew you had to stay on your toes and um it was also fun because like the people the person i was playing against the first round was right just we were like in sync like on the first two challenges so basically it came down to that third challenge and i think i struggled a little bit but i just i i at one point i i was like all right i'm all in because i think my my challenge was like a gamma ray one i think or maybe that was the next round yeah um your spinner had something to do i remember that yeah it was i don't remember what happened my first round exactly other than i remember being like on the ropes and then finally like okay i i'm gonna do this i don't think i did it that fast but i did it just fast enough and i think maybe my opponent didn't like drained at the wrong time or something so it's it's weird because you don't know until you're done how well you did but that's what messes with you the most so you have to not you have to not let it mess with you you have to just pretend that whatever you're doing is going to be good enough because if you think about it too hard the pressure gets to you and you're gonna miss your shots and flail and so you just gotta focus on getting it done don't worry about how long it's taking you don't let every mistake like freak you out just be like okay that's fine i can still if i cut if i do this this is i could still get it done in this like you just have to always look positively at your next like you know what's the next thing you can do what did like tom could you or was Monica, the stream obviously is delayed. Did either of you guys have it on? Like, could you kind of, did you have any idea what was going on with the other person or no, you were in the dark? I did, kind of. I mean, it was still on about like a six to 12 second delay somewhere right around there, but I had it on my big screen TV off to the side. Okay. And that's what was funny because actually during my third tier challenge against Escher, Monica was there sitting watching it. And I thought I heard her say, he's got it. So in the middle of my challenge, that's why I stopped. And I was just like, hands off, looking over. I was like, okay, I'm done. And then I noticed his timer's still going. I'm like, wait a second, I'm still going. So I just totally misunderstood what she said. But yeah, it's definitely, it's one of those things that there was a couple of times I peeked over just to kind of see where somebody else was at. But at the same time, though, it's like the guys I was playing against, Nick DiStefano and then, of course, Escher. I just made the assumption that they were going to finish their challenges fairly quickly. So I knew I had to stay going just as long as possible until, you know, things were done. I just especially against Escher. I just assumed I had to move a little bit faster than what I normally do, which is I don't know. It's kind of it's probably a tactical mistake because I even told myself at the very beginning of it that I was just going to go my speed and not worry about it. And whatever happens happens like let your opponent make the mistakes. You just keep on, you know, the right. So probably if I ever did it again, that's exactly what I would do is focus more on what I'm doing as opposed to worrying about trying to hit something that might be out of my skill range. Sure. Raymond, I remember yours. One of your challenges dealt with like you had to get. I think there was conversation of your your spinner being lubed. Right. I got that same challenge twice in a row. Yeah. And it pissed me off. I was like, that was the one challenge that I just like, it was like, well, I might get that challenge once. But, I mean, eh, that's one challenge for the day or whatever. Like, whatever. But I get it twice in a row. Yeah. So, like, because I didn't practice that challenge. I didn't lube my spinner. I didn't practice the left orbit shot. I was just like, eh, that challenge is going to suck, but I'll probably get through it. And little did I know, I got it twice in a row. and I was just like hating everything. And like I got like a 9.65 instead of a 10 million that I needed. And like I kept bricking the shot and bricking the shot and bricking the shot. And that challenge was really mean because you only have 15 seconds once you start Gamma Ray. So 15 seconds goes by really fast when you're missing your shots. So it was like, you know, if I would have just made a couple of those shots, I would have been fine. But when it goes down that in lane, it's so easy to miss that shot. Like, it's way easier from a trap than from an in lane. So I'm like starting to wonder if I should have just like when it goes down the in lane, like hold up the flipper, do a ski pass post pass and light up my shot that way just to ensure that I hit it rather than like go for the greedy full power on the fly shot. Or I should have practiced it more or something. At the end of the day, like I had my chances. It was a couple of times where if I would have made the shot, I would have been done. But I just kept missing over and over and over again. even then ray do you think your spinner was juiced enough though if you would have did a ski jump into a post pass you think you would have been able to get the 10 million still well it's cumulative sort of so like um the way gamma ray works with the latest code update is the first gamma ray you play as any any spins you get your value will stay to the next one and any spins you get your value will stay the next one so i had my spinner up you know as long as you're consistent on every gamma ray you play by the time you get to that level two gamma ray just hitting it once should be fine even if you even if you only get like 20 spins if your spinner value is at 250k uh math i don't know yeah you're right well kind of but it's doubled so yeah right ish yeah yeah so that it should work out um if you just can be consistent So that was kind of my plan, but when you're missing a lot, the plan falls apart quick. So you're saying, because you said you hadn't lubed your spinner, so I know we were joking around about Travis's lube and whatnot, but do you think that would have made a difference, or no? I don't think it would have made a difference because I was missing the shot too much. So what I'm hearing is the next release of Avengers, instead of 15 seconds, it might mysteriously make its way up to like 20 seconds. That's what I'm hearing. There might be a slight tweak in there, huh? Yeah, no. Well, that was cool. I mean, I will tell you as a viewer, I mean, I cracked the joke. I was like, man, this is like my Super Bowl. Like, I was loving it. I was loving watching it, and it was cool seeing the level of play increase, you know, as the night or the day went on. And it got to the point where it's just like, you know. Carl's tier system is incredible, yeah. It's so well done. It's so well produced. But just the skill level, you know, when you got to the finals or even the semifinals, I mean, all you guys, it's just, it's like, you know, I play pinball, but what I do, I don't think I can call pinball if what you guys is doing is pinball. Like that, the accuracy and just the ability to get the ball in control and where you want, fantastic. I mean, I was thoroughly entertained. It was really, really cool to see. And it was great rooting for people, you know, that you know. So, I don't know. Overall, I mean, an amazing event. I do have a question, though. It's, you know, you guys all have, like, nerves of steel. I mean, you guys have all been in competitive situations and normal tournaments, but like this is a speed run and you're in your house. Right. And you're by yourself. So like mentally, how different is that? You know, playing that verse, whatever being it's it's weird. Yeah, it's it's so weird. Sucks. Yeah, it's it's really weird. It's like I don't mind playing with a group or in front of people, you know, but it's just it's odd whenever you're streaming in a competition. And then you realize that, oh, there's a bunch of people watching or in a chat room. And you're looking at your camera and you're like, OK, that's how they're seeing me. You know, for me, it's just odd. Like it not there no pressure or anything like that but it just weird playing competitive pinball And then you turn around and there nobody else around except for your wife sitting on a beanbag staring at a TV You know? Yeah. So it's just – it's different. For me, it's way different. I don't know how it is for you guys. Well, you know, there's all the Twitch viewers watching, so it's always exciting to, like, turn around and look in the chat and see people, see their reactions. True. But, I mean, most – I mean, shout out to Fox Cities Pinball. You know, a lot of these tournaments these days are all getting streamed. Yeah. Yeah, and that's cool. I think it's exciting that people are watching, and more people than probably ever in the history of pinball in terms of the amount of tournaments that are available and the amount of options that are available. There's a lot of people watching. And what I'm hoping for, because I've met so many other people, either online or even going up to District 82, there's a lot of people that are involved in pinball now that are interested in tournaments that don't even have an IFPA number yet because they haven't been able to play in a sanctioned tournament. That's wild. Yeah, there's a lot. And so I'm curious to see what the participation will be like. And I'm excited to see these people be able to start playing in the tournaments that we're playing in. So, I mean, that's why even Eric and Tom, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you guys have in some instances, you have upwards of 20 plus people that don't even have an IPA number that are playing in some of the tournaments up there? That I'm not sure about. But there's quite a bit of new faces that just popped up during the whole shutdown, which has been awesome. And there's so many people that have kind of been sitting out, too. Yeah, I mean, it's going to be huge there. Yeah, I think there's going to be a lot of participation in some of these tournaments. I think they're going to be bigger than what they've been in the past. Awesome. Yeah, and I know, I mean, that's a good transition into our next topic here. But you guys all know Keith well. I mean, you guys have played with him. Ray, you obviously work with him. Pen Slash, to wrap it up, I mean, this is two Keith games in a row. And it was cool. Keith had, like, a little blurb. He had a little interview with Jeff. Do any of you guys know, like, does he watch or does he, like, do we have any idea why he isn't participating? I mean, that's got to be really cool as a creator like that of a game to see something. he's the goat you're the king you don't have to play with us peasants that's what it is yeah it's uh i don't know really really really neat really well really great event uh you know i applaud not only all the participants but then carl man carl what he does and there are people in the background and the announcer i mean what an amazing event but um but yeah pin Slash awesome can't wait for the next one um but yeah let's roll into tournaments i know um you guys all recently played in uh triple open and i think um you guys all there was a few different categories there i think you all won something um in some capacity um but i i don't i'm not the guy to lead this conversation so i don't know when are we going to get you up to district 82 joel yeah i need to uh you know it's enough of a conversation with my wife on trying to get me to expo so start sprinkling in some tournaments here there would be is the expo happening i i think i am i'm like 95 sure i'm going so i'm hey then you can play in the tournament there uh there's a special format where it doesn't matter how good you do you get to play in finals there you go boom you're gonna make finals your very first tournament joel yeah oh goody can't can't wait for that but no um yeah go for it i don't i mean tom this is kind of your big part in this um oh boy uh yeah go for it talk chat it up about uh about that tournament why raymond you won a trophy right did did travis did you win a trophy you know the answer to that tom graph i was just checking i went oh for three yeah it was yeah so three you said oh for three so there's I know there's classics, right? And maybe, maybe clarify that. So Friday night was a progressive knockout tournament. And basically what that is, is you play in a match and in a group of four, everybody gets a strike except for the winner. So if you come in second, you get a strike. If you come in third, you get two strikes. And then if you come in last, you get three strikes which really sucks but um you get 10 strikes yeah and you have 10 strikes to once you have 10 strikes you're knocked out of the tournament okay so um that was the first progressive strike tournament i have ever played in and i was honestly just happy to get second and i know raymond won the whole thing which was awesome so what was your final strike count we know travis had 10 i had seven ray had seven okay and tom you had well i had 10 10 okay so everybody yeah got it okay okay wait a second we have to establish something here though so when was this tournament was this tournament on it's a friday night this was friday night yeah okay it was okay never mind then my point is not valid at all ever never mind because i was thinking i was for some reason i was thinking that this tournament was the very first one on saturday morning and i could have swore wasn't it last time ray you showed up and of course you know so self-proclaimed not not a typical raymond like player in the morning time but then i could have swore last time you like kicked all kinds of ass and you end up winning that tournament uh even though it was a tournament no that was the um the previous tournament district 82 and I did not win the morning tournament, but I crawled my way back after I woke up because I started the day off pretty rough. But then I crawled my way back and managed to cash. So I got like fifth or sixth or something. So I made something of myself, even though in the morning I was like just totally out of it. A similar thing happened actually, I think, on Saturday this time as well. Yes, that's where you got the new phrase that needs, if Steven Bowden's listening, this needs to go in the pinball dictionary. Oh, let's go. What is it? I'll let Ray tell it. He came up with it. It's genius. It's called buying the dip. You know, you get last in your first couple rounds, and now you're kind of hanging out at the bottom rankings, but all the sharks have kind of swam to the top. And so your stock is low, but it's ready to just rebound. And so you have to play into that and just pop off a bunch of firsts or at least slowly increase so that you meet up with the top group near the end of the tournament. And then you just have to win one match against all the really good people to get first, as opposed to a whole bunch of matches. Well, there's a solid technique. Wow. So you can do it on purpose is what I'm assuming. Right, yeah. I just have to write something down in my notes here. Play Raymond in the morning. Don't let him fool you. Last time I played him in the morning at Indisc, he scored like a million on dialed in, and then he walked over to, what was it, Black Rose, and he's like casual 135 million. Then I forgot our third game, Ray. What was our third game? Maybe Black Rose was our third game. Yes, that was, I had to take you to Rose. Oh, Scared Stiff. Yeah, we played Scared Stiff. Raymond got bored that game. I think he took second, so he's a little bored there. Then he came back and dominated Black Rose. That's what it was. So, okay. So Friday night, Raymond, you were number one. Tom, you were second. Nice job. Thanks. So that was Friday. So what happened Saturday? Saturday was not good for me. So I don't even think I should talk about it. What was the first tournament? It wasn't a target match play? It was the classics target match play where you had to get, what was it, 20 points or 25 points? 25 points. I'm looking up on Matchplay right now for that tournament, the Classics on Saturday morning. Sure enough, I was just hanging out in third, third, second my first few games of the day. Can you define Classics? What does Classics mean? It's anything pre... At District 82, it means anything that doesn't have an alpha numeric display, I think. No, it's actually anything that doesn't have a DMD in it. Yeah, that's what I meant to say. Alpha numerics to play in earlier. Yeah. Correct. So System 11 games would be the newest in that category. Is that right? Yeah, those are the ones you're hoping to draw for sure. And it could go all the way back to... Two-inch flipper, Palooka, or whatnot. Yeah. Palooka, yay. I actually like Palooka, though. So I got turned around on that one after playing it a couple times. So how did you guys do? I think we all know where Travis was. You know what? You know, I did decent. I got what I do. Seventh place. There you go. Oh, is that the picture, Tom, that you post on Instagram? Yes. No, technically I got eighth. I forgot. I lost my tiebreaker. It was like eighth or ninth. When did you lose your tiebreaker, too? Which tournament are you talking about, Travis? because uh the classics the classics i see you scroll down it's further down now you're you got third in the classics one oh that's that's the old one that was the one we played uh the previous month yeah yeah yeah this one i yeah this one i played uh i end up having to play the silent assassin in a tiebreaker who is cassidy melanos yeah he's like the best 13 or 14 year player in the world or one of the best ones. She'll be a future world champion. No doubt. I finished just above you with one extra point. That's right. I was playing with Tim Sexton a whole bunch. That was so cool. He came up from Chicago and he just crushed it, man. He hadn't played in a tournament in a year and a half. He just shows up to District 82 and he's in the top group on camera the whole day. Yeah, he played really well. Yeah, he did. He's a nice dude, too. That was the first time I got to play with him. So who won Classics? Who won that one? That was Max Senesac out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Okay. He came back on – actually, Neal had the lead going into the last game, and he only needed a point, and he ended up taking a zero. I think it was Trident, and Max just had a huge game on it. I almost caught him. I was on my way, and then I got a little too tilt-happy. so i was i remember seeing that so so your son neil got second that's pretty that's pretty awesome yep yeah he was he was actually tied with uh scott hens uh who's another wisconsin player and uh they they went to a tiebreaker and he beat uh scott in the tiebreaker so now pretty cool are there any tournament players out there that like only do classics like they just don't mess with any modern games or not really i guess i mean there's players out there's some there's some that won't play in classics um and then there's others there are some that are like well i i think i have a better chance in classics so i'll play in that not the other tournament i know at uh some of the bigger tournaments like when you know the open or whatnot There are certainly people that just don't touch the main division. They just play classics. Neat. All right. So that was Saturday morning. Is that right? That finished up in the – Correct. Okay. And then what was the – is the main event – is that accurate to say? I mean, what was the main – Well, the main event happened between when we went out to lunch. That was the main event. All right. But then after that, yeah. Then we had the – what was it? The double match play? yeah the uh the double up match play so explain that rule yeah so yeah i started off with the old uh zero or two oh we get last last that was that was fun ray and i did the same thing right next to each other it was magnificent yeah so the the double up is a basically a modern game like a dmd your lcd game uh first and then the second game is a classics game so alpha numeric down to an em so it's kind of like a mini pinberg so to speak because you're playing two games in the same group um and yeah that again did not go actually i was playing good until i uh until i started playing against Keith Elwin and Tim Sexton, and then, you know, everything went out the window. Travis is laughing. I remember that round because you got paired up with both Elwin and Sexton on Jurassic Park. Every time I play Elwin, it's like everything gets thrown out the window. It's like I've never played pinball. He's probably like, this guy sucks. How the hell is he even in this tournament? I saw. It was so funny because I remember this. This was on the fifth round, and Tom comes up to me, and I never see Tom, like, mad. He wasn't, like, mad. It was more like, why? Why is this happening right now? He's like, so I'm playing in a group with Elwin. You know what our first game is? I'm like, what, Tom? He's like, Stern Jurassic Park, Travis. Stern Jurassic Park. And I'm like, wow, okay, so what's the second game? Keith, Elwin got eliminated on Jurassic Park at the Open. I do remember that. That was my only saving grace in my head. But he was player one, and, you know, he was up there for a while, and I'm like, oh, this isn't going to be good. So, Tom, how did your round go against Keith Elwin and Tim Sexton? And Jordan was in that group too. Yes, Jordan did well. I think Tim did well. That wasn't the question. The question was, Tom, how did you do? I took last in both games. so i had a that's pretty brutal when you get uh i i think the buy the dip strategy is very efficient for the uh the the formats where you're with the same group for multiple games in a row so like this the that tournament i got me and travis both got last last on our first games um but that meant we'll have we'll be in the bottom group for two games the next round and we'll slowly try to try to work our way back up whereas it sounds like you uh you flew too close to the sun you pulled the icarus yes yes definitely let me tell you guys a funny story at pinberg that i had i was having my best pinberg ever and i was i i got up to ninth on the first day and after round four i was at about 32 so lo and behold my round five group was Keith Elwin chris stevens and bob matthews on three out of four games i had never even seen before i took a zero on every game oh oof and it knocked me all the way down into b oh wow did you get a medal for that i i should have got a reverse medal you know like a like an old i don't know melted one but hey at least you got to play against them at pinberg though my last pinberg i played in i was with an older woman who thought i never played pinball before when i played the grandma with the shopping bag it was so sweet it was joel have you not heard this story that is a better story oh gosh yeah so i played pinberg in 2019 it was my first and only and unfortunately my last pinberg Yeah. And I legit could not I could get control of the ball and I was fine. And then I couldn't hit a shot at all. It was like Ray Charles was trying to play pinball. It was it was so bad. I could not do insult Ray Charles. Oh, my gosh. Joel, Joel, Joel. Have you ever played Fathom before? I have not played Fathom. No, you have not played Fathom. So the person who won our fathom group or a fathom game and round one had legitimately like 80,000 points. What that was? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And I had 29,000 points in the whole game. And I had a ball and a flipper, all three balls. And I just like break the shot, just drained. It was like that all tournament long. So finally I was at like a pivotal round three to where if I actually could run the gauntlet and get 12 points i could put myself in a position to make a run at a right or this might have been even around it was like the round after the break and everybody in my group they're super nice like everybody's talking to real nice and they were just happy to be there and of course me i'm like kind of stewing because i'm like i should not be playing like this and i'm in danger of not just missing a i'm in danger of like blowing everything up and not even being and B, I was playing so bad. So I ended up, we were on Dracula and Jackpot and one other game. And legitimately, I was playing so bad that there was this nice older lady that was in our group that had like a shopping bag on her shoulder and was playing. With a bag on her shoulder. With a bag on her shoulder. Yep. She had obviously gone shopping between rounds and she was actually doing halfway decent. and then she was telling me she's like yeah i've i just now started playing pinball just a couple years ago and then she said did you just now start playing is this your first tournament and i'm like like damn that's like the biggest trash i've ever heard of my friendly i've said stuff like that on accident and you know just trying to make conversation race says that to me every time we play it's just your first time playing how adorable how sweet Hey, listeners, if you want to get in Travis's head and you happen to play him in your next tournament, just ask him if this is his first time. I was done for. It was so bad. That's awesome. Well, cool. How did the standings end up then with that one, the third? I managed to crawl back to get mid and cash, so like eighth place. Travis looks like you never escaped You were in 19 it looks like No because we had our fun last round Don you remember that Ray Like we played Roadshow and Stingray Oh, that's right. Yeah, dude, that was amazing. You guys, like, yeah, we were just joking around. Like, on Stingray, we were actually trying to pass the ball from the right flipper to the left flipper, which you never do in that game, just to try to hit a shot that was impossible, just for the pure challenge of hitting the shot. It wasn't worth anything. It was worth like... 100 points each. Yeah, like 200 points. Raymond, I'm going to ask you a very serious question here, okay? If we're going to talk about hard and challenging shots, you've seen all four of us, including yourself, you've seen all four of us play a game that we all know well. Led Zeppelin, right? And in that game, there is a challenging shot. So I'm asking you in all honesty here, can you rate the four of us from top to bottom on who's best at hitting that hermit target. It's got to be Joel is number one at hitting that target because he just hits it without even thinking about it. And then I think Tom is like disqualified because he has a LE, so he doesn't have a target. So he can't hit it at all. So he's fourth. He's number four. Oh, he gets bumped to fourth. Suck it, Tom Graff. Number four. then i guess i'd um me and travis probably tied i'm not sure i haven't haven't actually played a whole lot of led zeppelin except the couple times i've streamed it i'll put myself at number three i can accept number three as long as i'm higher than tom as long as i just i just wanted to hear you say it right let's go right now set up a pro i want to go right now tom we already know you do not play on pros we know this yeah so ray you you said you haven't played much led zeppelin how is that an accurate statement uh well like with the glass on i don't know i just have oh you don't okay like yeah i was good it was like you've got it you've had you have to have more hours in led zeppelin than the probably the three of us combined i would guess but you got to remember barely playing something might be like 50 games yeah you know what i mean like that's kind of our version of barely playing something we're not we're not like these guys that buy something and then within 20 games they're like okay ready to sell it moving on to the next thing well hey another solid transition here travis uh speaking of barely playing something the four of us have all had a chance to play stern's latest release mandalorian so i think it would be worth having a quick discussion initial thoughts i mean none of us are um i don't know none of us have put you know, countless hours on it or something. So this is still probably early on views of the game. So, yeah, I mean, technically, Raymond, you were the first one to touch the game. What are your just quick overall thoughts of the game? I mean, I haven't I've only played like two or three games just when I was in the office and could play it. And it was it was surprising that the shots look kind of tight and difficult. but I was able to just hit them like without too much worry and also like when you miss them it didn't it didn't seem to like punish you too bad so you could like regate gather yourself and like try a shot again or just try a different shot there was also uh kind of flexibility where like I think you can hit the scoop to spot the ramp for your first couple missions which is nice yep yeah and so like the game just kind of it's a good time like you could just play it and like stuff happens. But then also I noticed as I was learning it a little more and more, I was like, oh, wait, I really want this, these scope targets because that gives me a playfield multiplier. And if I have that multiplier with my other one, I'm getting 3x everything. Like, oh, and then it's like, oh, I started 3x. I better, I better freaking start a mission, start a mode as quick as I can. And then like when you have that super jackpot, it's like kind of like Game of Thrones where you have the battering ram lit and you got like 5x scoring going and you're just like i need to pound that thing as quick as i can as many times as i can um so i i had a i had a great time with my couple couple times i played it no that's great no i no that's that's awesome for you to get all that in just a few games that's uh that's really good um uh tom and travis see joel this this is what happens when you get a high level player a high level mind on a game yeah this is what it's like he didn't even take the glass off and see what all the switches do i know that's amazing i wish i had that ability um yeah but travis and tom you guys actually played it together you went out to eat and there was a it was like a bar or something had it right so you guys put a handful of games on it oh yeah we did tom that was our first time playing it wasn't it two games yeah oh yeah yeah no i i enjoyed it i mean it's the thing about the game that was most surprising to me is just like ray said was how accessible the shots were like when i looked at the right ramp i honestly thought i was like okay this is a little bit smaller than what i anticipated it just seemed like a really narrow shot but then lo and behold it was almost like you with the back end too yeah exactly it was like it the shot it was almost like just just the ball had like a magnet on it to that kind of like the uh dracula right ramp you ever see the ball gets sucked up that right ramp on Dracula. Yes, exactly that. That's exactly what I was talking about. Yeah, it's I mean, and the well, I don't really want to use this term, but I'm going to use it anyways. The kinetic satisfaction of actually hitting that right ramp and seeing the ball just fly around there real quick and come back to a flipper. I really did like that. And I like just being able to combo the ramps that way, like that combo. I was very surprised at how satisfying it really was to go backhand right ramp, forehand left ramp, and you get into like an encounter or maybe even get it to come back to your left flipper and you could ski jump or even backhand the scoop, you know, with the Foundry or the Missions. Just the whole game, it was a lot more accessible than what I anticipated. Now, of course, there's some shots that I'm not a huge fan of, and I've talked to you guys about this, about the horseshoe shot that's kind of all over the place. But then at the same time, it's kind of, I don't know, whenever you're in a multiball and things are a little chaotic, like I don't have anything wrong with it, but I found myself in the games I've played since then, kind of generally avoiding that shot, even with a super jackpot on there, you know, that might be worth three to 5 million points. I found myself actively avoiding it and just trying to time things out because on the copy that we have at CJ's, if you hit it flush, that ball just goes straight to the left out lane, like every single time. And I'm like, I can't control it. And it's like, I don't know, it's just a weird, weird drain for me, but everything else it's like a light oh what's that you gotta get the uh premiums that it that has a ramp right yeah yeah exactly exactly and i mean it's everything on it though it's just a lot of fun like the mini play field is fun i really enjoy that and i mean it's not super easy but i don't feel like it's super hard either it might be a little bit grindy trying to hit some spots and get back up there but it's still satisfying to use that single flipper because that's not something that we've seen in too many games recently so i really do enjoy that i like the um i like the overall presentation of everything like the assets really pop out and i mean just to be flat out honest too i mean of course there was a whole thing about whether grogu moves or doesn't move but honestly if you just step up to the game and you look at it he looks pretty cool underneath there the child actually does look pretty cool that's really well done and that's Basically, from people that I've talked to on location that just have seen the game for the first time, that's the one thing that pops out for them. Everybody knows it, which is exactly what I think Brian Eddy was intending to happen. So, I mean, that's off to that. It's done its job. I mean, it sucks you in. If you like Mandalorian, you like this game. For sure. Tom, what about you? What are your thoughts? I think it's a very cool game. I like everything about it, really. I mean, those shots, like, you know, Raymond and Travis were saying, they're pretty accessible. I mean, you can backhand the ramps. And the only thing I had really trouble with, I played it today. The only thing I had really trouble with at first was that mini play field area and just trying to keep the ball alive up there. and you know you kind of kind of learn some things about it the more you go go to it but probably depends a lot on setup too like how bouncy it is up there and the pitch and the 100 as far as like i i've been thinking about this i know probably you guys have too as far as in a tournament i don't know how you're gonna make that game hard um you know it's it's easy to start the multi balls um i i think probably have to take out the rubbers or excuse me the posts on the side outlane posts make it more drainy that way but um overall i i thoroughly enjoy the game it's so much fun to play yeah for sure and not to take it too big of a tangent here but to random back question pin Slash travis you had a strategy with your outlanes remember oh yeah nobody put in the post oh yeah take rubbers off rubbers on quick follow-up were you right did that pay off or would you wish you have done something totally different no it it actually worked believe it or not it did and so what's funny is is just kind of coming back to that that's why i should have stuck with my original strategy for the combos because that's exactly why I had it set up like that. So what Joel's referring to, I actually had my left out lane did not have a rubber, but my right out lane post did have a rubber. And the reason for that was if I had any rejects coming out of that Hawkeye combo, it would just feed directly to the left end lane and I wouldn't have to worry about it bouncing around or anything like that. It would just feed clean and actually did end up doing that. I mean, it worked out. I just abandoned my strategy but yeah it's actually surprisingly it worked yeah i was it was an interesting strategy but okay so get back into mando so um yeah i i've put a bunch of games on it uh i'm i'm quite fortunate uh zach and nicole many have let me with flipping out pinball have let me borrow a game uh shill shill shill right we need our well you got to play with uh dwight right i did so i was super happy with that um i i reached out to dwight and i said hey i'm going to be streaming this game do you have any interest in and watching basically he he hopped in my discord chat i know you know raymond's done that multiple times with me um tom i mean you've i know you've done that as well um but it's it's it was amazing he was the entire time i streamed he was there he was answering questions talking things through um it was a lot of fun and i know i'm not you know all three of you guys are like yeah i can hit the shots or they're really accessible i'm not to that you know level of play i was bricking plenty plenty of shots but i would say overall yes it's it is fun to shoot there is a lot in the game which is fun i know i know dwight talks about that depth first breath of code all the things you can buy they're like the power-ups adds a whole other level oh man there's so much strategy there that i can't wait for you you know you big brain people to uh to start thinking that through uh my brother-in-law says i'm a smooth-brained person but uh the foundry i mean actually said that to you yeah he said it well i i died i thought it was hilarious but oh no we gotta send flaming poo to him we gotta defend joel shout out to chris yeah he's the man um anyways but the foundry i mean i know like you're given the flamethrower at the beginning and i realized like i'm not even using this i should really be thinking this through and when's the appropriate time but the foundry there's so much risk reward there too you know do you play it safe and put heal on your outlanes but if you as soon as that ball's over you lost it you know versus the one armor is added ball save for your entire game like there's there's really some cool cool strategy there and i can't wait to see how people really dissect that um it's almost like a more uh direct avengers infinity quest yes I would sort of perk so Ray I said that on on my stream that you know when I streamed Avengers Avengers is a game that you're constantly thinking you're constantly trying to figure out what am I going to do and how do you adapt and it's like a mental workout the entire time I played Avengers um Led Zeppelin wasn't like that I liked I I really enjoyed that about Led Zeppelin you know you could really just dive in and get locked into the game but I'm sensing that again with Mando Like Mando is very much like, what do I want to do here? You know, what's, does it make sense to go for Beskar instead of trying to relight multiply my, my multiball? Should I go for Beskar instead? And then just buy that multiball. Should I do, you know, I understand I'm at an encounter level. That's pretty hard to complete. Should I just go for a hunter mode and then buy the ability to get through it? There's some really cool thought there. But I agree with what Tom said. The upper play field is where I'm having the hardest time, and it's just getting the hang of it. And there are certain multiballs and certain modes where there's very specific shots that you have to hit up there. The extreme left and the extreme right are difficult shots. So I know, Travis, when all the reveals and everything came out, I know you expressed some definite concern. I thought you thought that upper play field was going to be like a walk in the park. I still think on the premium in LE, I think it'll be a lot easier with two flips. I still think Travis thinks that it's going to be easier than it actually is, because I don't know if you've ever played Banzai Run. That has the same flipper gap, same setup as the play field in Mando, I think. But Banzai Run drains like you snap your fingers and it's gone. Now, Mando won't have that level all the time, but I feel like it's going to be faster than you anticipate. I think it will be tougher if it keeps changing on you. Yeah, because then you can't get the pitch. Yeah, I don't think easy necessarily means that you're going to be up there forever. But I think because I've kind of discovered this with the mini play field on Mando. It's like if you can get the right bounce off the flipper, you can kind of anticipate like your two or three quick flips and you can get some hits quick. And then if you do drain out, you're just live catching on your right flipper and sending it back up the left ramp. And then you're right back into your counter anyways. and so I think if you have the right setup and the right balance it kind of it works itself out a little bit so I don't know maybe I you're probably right Ray once it starts moving the that upper play field especially when it goes vertical that will be a lot more difficult I think maybe also underestimating the speed because those flippers are probably the same strength as all the other flippers so when you hit hit it it's probably gonna rock it and if you you know don't hold up your flipper or drop it it's going to slip right through the uh the flippers probably but i'm sure there'll be strategies kind of like stewie pinball that can destroy you but once you kind of figure out how each stewie pinball plays you can kind of take it slow and methodical um so i'm curious yeah to see how how hard it is i want to see i want to play a premium well i will the one thing i noticed during the premium stream is every single person just holds up the left flipper And so when the ball is delivered in, it's just immediately to the left flipper in a cradle. Like it's a safe delivery. The game also does that for you for some of the choreography and some of the – I think it always does it when you start an encounter. So it can show you the animation. Brilliant. I mean that's great because on a pro, it does not. Like there were many times that I was hitting – I was trying to get into the encounter and just the feed. you know you have just uh like a rubber up at the top and you get that swing swing at the wrong time it's like strike three you're out sort of thing it would just roll like it was here we go time for the encounter and just boom right down like it would just dribble out and so it's like man you really have to nudge it right or i've tweaked with the angle a little bit but i definitely think it would be interesting if you guys are playing this in a tournament you guys are going to have to adapt very quickly with you know to understand how that how it's how it's going to be set because um i mean i the more i play it that i do feel like i'm starting to control you know it is it's not completely random it is a skill that you can learn but um it's a it's a fun challenge that excites me for expo just because it's a normally expo tournament it always has like all sterns okay but usually people by the time expo rolls around people are like oh we play these games a million times like we're just gonna watch people do this do that do that but this year because of COVID, people haven't seen much competitive play on Ninja Turtles, Avengers, Led Zeppelin, Mandalorian. It's going to be exciting. I don't know what's going to happen. It's going to be fun. For sure. That means we might see Stranger Things, Ninja Turtles, Avengers. Wow. I didn't even think of that. Mando Premium? Yeah. That is quite possible. That's why I'm curious. Does anybody know this? Is the Foundry, is it any different if the game's set on competition or competition install? Is it any different in terms of what you can buy or how much it is with the best car? I don't know that. The only thing I know is that competition modes in general turn off randomness, so it'll be the same for every player, like how much stuff is and what you can buy and stuff. Well, I will say there is a good bit of control in the game because you can control what multiball you start. that's based off the green stand-up targets on the right so my daughter yeah my daughter believe it or not this is the only pinball machine she's ever been excited she wants to play baby yoda she wants to play baby yoda but the only thing she wants to do in the game is spiders she wants to see spiders and so spiders multiball is number one that is wild for a girl like a young young she loves it and what's funny is deadpool all she wants to see is t-rex so i have to freaking qualify my quests hit my chimichangas you know like but like this one mando it's the about the the boba fett targets on the right will change what um what multiball you pick so um i am curious it looks like game like if i if a game ends and i had multiball two lit well if i start a new game two is the one that's still lit i don't know i'd be curious if competitively if it's like if it's always won or what so joel i just realized something here yeah that probably out of the four of us you probably know more about the rule set the mando yeah so the smooth brain guy over here yeah so if we were having to play this at expo tomorrow what would you tell us what would be our tournament strategy on it those are two very different things travis knowing the rules and knowing how to apply them in a tournament situation But I trust in Joel We talked to him about this I think he can do it Joel a good okay I say this for Joel Joel earmuffs So you can hear this I don need your ego getting too big but he he actually a pretty skilled player And I've seen watching him over the past few months playing. He's gotten like pretty good. I mean, it's not just the hermit target. I mean, he's able to make the ball do things that I don't think. And Joel, you can admit this is true since you got your earmuffs off. yeah but six months ago i don't know if you would have been able to do it and now i'm watching you i'm like you're doing some stuff so you know i think we can push you there so let's just pretend for instance that you have to play raymond davidson tomorrow one-on-one on mandalorian like what are how are you going to survive ball one what are you going to do oh boy how am i gonna i mean the reality is uh there's a lot of points in the encounters and you can you can plunge you can do a sneaky skill shot and get up in there. How do you light the encounters? I don't even know. Are you going to keep that secret from me? Well, I'm not going to tell them, right? I mean, I've got to keep that. So let me fill you in. Okay, so you can actually plunge right up into that upper play field, and that's what's interesting is there is a sneaky, like a sneaky encounter is what it's called, and there's a lot of points up there. But to light an encounter, all you have to do is hit the left ramp once. So you hit the left ramp once, and then your encounters are lit, and then you can get back up in there. There's a lot of points of encounters, but what I was going to say is I actually cheated. I played a four-player co-op game by myself, and you can burn through the missions really easily. You don't have to beat them. You just have to start them. Okay, Joel. Joel. Yeah. I got to tell you this. Okay. In a tournament, you cannot play all four players. That will be illegal. I'm glad to do that. I appreciate that. Joel's going to be on ball three and be like, wait, why do I still have four missions left? Yeah. I would, but that's what I was surprised. Like I've done that with turtles and gotten nowhere near cowabunga because there are certain, so many things you have to do, like very specific qualifying things, but NIST, it's just do the missions, the multiball, same thing, very easy to get through the multi-balls, but the encounters, that's where I have absolutely had the hardest time getting through those. But if I was going to beat Ray or try or attempt to beat Raymond, there's a two X multiplier based on the standups next to the right target. you can hit both of those and you can have a 2x multiplier going you can hit your boba fett targets that's how you get another one going there's one in the foundry you can buy that you can which will light whichever one you don't have lit so you could get to that 5x play field pretty easily isn't it actually 6x because it's plus 5x it is that and that math really messed with me because dwight was saying that and i was trying to understand what he meant but then on top of that you have your flamethrower shot so theoretically like there's a lot you could stack up for a really big multiplier if you now the flamethrower on the left ramp multiply the encounter or no no it's only a shot it's just one of the main shots at the bottom but you can buy a jackpot though you could get some fatty super jackpots one of the uh you start out with flamethrower right flamethrower on yeah now flamethrower is interesting because you don't tap the button like you have to push and hold and you have to do it at the right time messing up with every time i tried to use it it was like i just have the right orbit orange what's going on you have to push and hold and it slowly spreads across the play field so you really have to do it at the right time or cradle up what i will tell you though for you guys that all play trap like trap players they i don't know if this is a new thing with mando but the screen if you trap up it's pretty quick that it will it'll make it so that if you're trapped and then you tap your center button it actually just scrolls the screen and like shows you additional information and i don't know if other games did that because i was used to you trap up or you hold one of the flippers and then after after you wait long enough you can hit the other flipper to like scroll through your i don't know info the instant info yeah but this no you trap up you hit the middle button to scroll through your instant and maybe the other games used to that i don't know but i what i will say is there were times that I would trap up and be like, all right, I'm about to start this multiball. So let me go ahead and start my flamethrower and I'd hit the button and I'm not, it won't like, I can't start my flamethrower because it's scrolling through instant info. Oh, interesting. Try turtles. I think Dwight also did some instant info back and forth. I might have to do that because that's that mess with me. And then there's another one where if you get the, what is it? Whistling birds or whatever, like the multiple shot, you could, you could hit all your mission shots in one hit of the button. So it's like, oh, I got that. I should go ahead and light it, and I'd hit the button, and it won't work because I'm stuck in instant info. So I'm curious if that will mess with you guys at all because there will almost be this, like, I need to cradle up so then I can hit my action button. But if you don't do it quick enough, you can't do it. You'd have to, like, post-pass or something. Yeah, I was going to say, just bobble it back and forth. And then use your chin on the center button and hold it. You would have to do something, but that's one of those, like, I'm in a position where I want to do it, and I can't do it without getting the ball back. Well, those ramp returns are nice and scenic, so you can shoot a ramp. You could have some time. And use the return to kind of – The left ramp especially, yeah. But the – I think Dwight said for the flamethrower to do the entire play field, I think he said it's like two seconds. Like you have to hold that button down for two or two and a half seconds to get it to go across the entire play field. So I don't know. There's some really cool stuff there, but I'm excited for you guys. I think he might have just said the meta right there though, Now that I'm hearing all that, because then it would be probably what? Flamethrower after you bring in your first mission and a multiball at the same time, right? You just go to town. And then you said you can buy a multiplier, right? You can buy a multiplier. Well, it's not. So there's three multipliers over on the right, and if you get all three lit, it'll give you the five times. But you can do the first one just by hitting the Boba Fett targets, right? The other one is you hit the three scope shots, so right ramp, target, and inner loop, and then you just have to – does that instantly give it to you, or do you have to complete one of the – you have to do one of the scope hurry-ups, right? I thought it was one – I thought it was just one of the scope – like of the three scope hurry-ups, one of them gives you best car. I think one of them gives you points, and then I think the other one is the play field multiplier. I could be wrong. I could be wrong. This is where I need to take off the glass and hit the buttons and figure out what happens. The orange one, I'm not sure how you get that one. This orange target's on the left, but when I was hitting those, it didn't actually give me the multiplier. No, the orange, those are your hunter targets. So that's how you qualify a hunter mode. And hunter, when it turns it on, it becomes an in lane, and you can control that. So when you roll over that, it's like a little mini mode. And that's, the whole point of a hunter mode is just for Beskar. It's like the fastest way to get it. And multiplier, apparently. You guys are going to make me walk over to the game. No, it definitely does a multiplier because the color code, it looked like it was the same thing. I think that's just rolling over an end lane, and then you hit the, I guess, a forehand orbit to complete it is what it is. Well, I think it's two orbits. Like, if you roll over the left end lane, you have to hit the right orbit, and then once you hit that, you have to control it, and to end it, you have to hit the left orbit. Oh. And there's a ramp that's lit that, like, you can hit that and just build it before you end it. there's some okay that's what i'm saying there's some stuff here but i that i know i know travis you like the meta you're all about the meta so it's uh yeah i'm excited for you guys to i don't have the flipper skills that ray does or sometimes tom so i got to figure out any advantage i can get that's fair so joel you're in my corner then yeah hey yeah actually my coach yeah if you want to if you're bored one night i can facetime you or something we can start hitting buttons and we just won't we're gonna figure it out we won't tell tom or ray it'll be great well i'm coming up to Indianapolis anyways next week so we'll just do it then I'll tell my wife and my buddy Travis is coming over I'm just gonna let him in the basement he's just gonna do he do some stuff down there it'll be fine yeah yeah don't worry about it I'm just hitting buttons yeah for sure no worries well overall I mean Mando I would say I'm excited and it sounds like you guys are too um initial reaction sounds positive so I'm happy for you guys I think from a tournament player I think there's a lot a lot there and um I'm I don't for me Dwight is a moments guy he's really good at coding moments and there's a lot, there's a lot there that I'm, that I'm excited to, uh, to experience. But, um, yeah, unfortunately I think it might be time to start wrapping things up here. And, uh, I know one of the feedback, some of the feedback we got was, uh, there, there were people that, that, that said that they felt that, that Travis and I interrupted Tom more than, than we probably should have. So, so Travis and I, we decided, Hey, let's, Let's do something. Let's do something for Tom, right? And basically what we're going to do is we're going to shut up. So every episode here, Travis and I are going to do our best to keep our mouth shut. And we're going to call this Tom Talks. Tom Talks. This is a segment. If anybody wants to produce any sort of audio intro for this, feel free to email us. We have an email now, tripledrain at gmail.com. But feel free. But this is going to be a weekly segment called Tom Talks. And we're really excited about it. Tom, I know you're excited about it. yeah tom you still wait well tom has a soundboard tom i'm excited for you but for i'm gonna need you to calm down just a little bit so you can get through your segment okay um okay yeah perfect perfect so um travis you have we told tom he's gonna have this segment tom did not prepare anything for this segment but travis you have a great prompt to feed tom so i'm gonna say travis is gonna is gonna prompt tom And then Travis and I are going to be quiet. We're just going to let Tom go. All right. Perfect. Tom, are you ready for your topic today? No. Tom Graff, are you ready for your topic? Yes. Okay. Perfect. Okay. All right. Tom Graff, you love buying limited edition pinball machines from Stern Pinball. You love buying limited edition pinball machines from Jersey Jack Pinball. why do you hate all of us that buy pros um didn't didn't you buy elise uh just not so long ago and i told you to stop that isn't it because tom talks tom tom is worried that if he gets a pro he has to live up to that name he has to be a pro a lot a lot of pressure i got i got nothing well folks that was uh that has been tom talks i'm glad we uh glad we set aside some time for that and uh raymond i I appreciate you interrupting him. That was the goal. So that was everything I expected it to be. That might have been the best pinball segment in the history of pinball podcast right there. I do want to say something, and it goes back to Joel and having Dwight Sullivan. Tom, Tom Talks is over. We can interrupt you now. No, no, no, no. Okay, go ahead. Travis, do you remember this? We jumped on. We had our taco bell. I know what you're talking about. I know what you're talking about. It's pretty funny. And we jumped on. We're like, hey, Joel. You know, we're in the chat. And Joel's like, hey, yeah, Dwight. I have this triple drain podcast with Travis Murie and Tom Graff. And, like, there was, like, just this. Yeah. Dwight's like, I don't care. Let's go back to Mando. We are so popular. Just try to give that shout out, you know, and it's fine. It's fine. Well, that was a great prompt, Tom Talks. I think that's going to be a stellar segment. But what I wanted to say, so the listeners here, we have an email now. It is tripledrain at gmail.com. And I thought it would make sense to do kind of a giveaway here. So the goal here is the first five people, the first five people that can email triple drain at gmail.com and give us a solid prompt for Tom talks next week. We'll receive a personalized photo from Tom graph himself via email because Tom is a model. I don't know if people know this, but personalized, just tell him what you want. He'll write it on a piece of paper, hold it up. We maybe, maybe we'll share these on our Facebook page. Yes, we do have a Facebook page, Triple Drain. Look it up, Triple Drain Podcast. But, Raymond, I know you're writing your email right now because I know you want your personalized photo from Tom Graff. But, yes, hopefully we'll get five. We'll see. We'll see. But, yeah, guys, I know that's about all I've got. I tried to make a logo. We've got a logo now. If anybody, feel free to email. if anybody would like would actually consider merch let me know i i'm happy to pursue that but don't waste my time if it's just going to be me and buying one for my kid my kids or something what type of merch would we have oh just the logo throw it on a shirt you know it won't it can't compete with the ray day hat the ray day hat is no ray day pinball hat get that at silverball swag.com there we go there you go well guys i don't know um let let raymond uh you know talk about his uh twitch channel oh we're getting the plugs we got yeah i was i was just gonna say is there anything else you could have used tom talks for that tom tom yeah you had free reign and and you ended with i don't i don't have anything right so say he'll save it up for next week um perfect but and by next week i mean we're doing this like once a month so you've got plenty of time to think um but yeah i don't uh i would say believe it we did a lot better staying on topic this week Was Zach – It was a little bit easier. Talking to Raymond, we kind of knew we weren't going to veer off into bathwater for hot tub talk, which is good. And Tom, Tom was a lot more calm this time around. He was. So that helped out a lot. It's because we were recording a little earlier, so I thought maybe he'd get slap happy if we wait another hour. He gets a little tired. I don't know. That's true. Raymond were you offended at all as a TPN person that Zach did not want to be in a hot tub with you uh what yeah okay we'll leave it at that that's fair I must have blocked that part of the show out of my memory yeah we asked him which TPN members you'd be willing to be in a hot tub with and uh you weren't one of them I wasn't either it's fine none of us were yeah but But that's fine. I'm not offended. It's all right. I could see Travis with, like, the kid floaties on his arms. Oh, boy. Dude. Dude. When I go hot tubbing, I go hot tubbing. That's not the meta anymore on Twitch, though. Tom, did you know that? What is the meta now? The meta is legitimately if you – okay. So, again, I didn't come up with this. All right? So that's the disclaimer here. So you guys do not judge me because I know this. This was all over the news that evidently I'm the only one that read. Okay. But so apparently the Twitch meta now is ASMR, but licking the microphone and acting like it's somebody's ear. No, that's sick. I kid you not. It's it got like 15 or 25,000 concurrent viewers on each stream and Twitch had to ban the women that were doing it. Kid you not. That's the new meta. Oh boy. so you guys uh get your mics and your ears out and put them on pinball stream there you go start licking mics great well uh this thing travis great very useful information appreciate it like we can't end on that yeah uh very well you know unfortunately the reason we're we're street we're doing this early is because raymond is actually about to go stream so i don't i don't know ray if you want to just put your condenser mic just a little bit closer to your mouth but um but no uh i don't guys we drained zach last time i don't know if it's uh you know do we need do we need to do that do we need to take a uh talk about ray i think ray did a great job absolutely ray did pretty good today pretty good okay pretty good right it's like he's done a podcast before we're gonna i i don't think we're gonna necessarily drain you ray but i think maybe you're like in the out lane and we are aggressively nudging to try to keep you in how about does that is that fair so the verdict's still out is that a fair we'll see we'll see what happens fair enough fair enough well let's do some quick plugs ray you go first you're the guest uh yeah ray day pinball on twitch uh also on youtube also on, I don't know, just the internet. So, yeah, check out... Do or Die Podcast. Yeah. Solid podcast. Yeah, you can find all that stuff at RayDayPinball.com. We'll give you links to all my different channels. So, check that out. I like to stream Sundays usually in the evening. Anywhere between 6pm and 9pm Central I can start somewhere around that time. But if you follow me, you'll get notifications. So, yeah, hope to see you in chat. Awesome. Tom? Well, when I'm not currently at my modeling gig, you can find me on Twitch at Fox Cities Pinball, also on YouTube at Fox Cities Pinball and Instagram and Facebook at Fox Cities Pinball. Perfect. Travis, go for it. and you can find me on YouTube at Marv Loco or on TPN at what's her name again? Are we going triple drain still? Triple drain is a great name. It's a great name. And Marv, I got a record off the record. Yeah. I got it. Really appreciate all the shout outs you've been given in your YouTube videos there, Travis, which, you know, Hey, I did it once. I did it once. I might've forgotten the first time, but I came back around to it. No, no, I appreciate it. And yeah, I am a Joel Engelbert. Just another pinball podcast. It's just another pinball stream. Yeah. If there's anything I can do for you, just another pinball at gmail.com. Otherwise, yeah, we have an email now. So we'd love to see some. Like I said, race, get in there. Throw us some ideas. Tom's ready to take some pics. Let me tell you, they're going to be great. And that's tripledrain at gmail.com. But, yeah, episode two, technically episode three. And it was a fun one, guys. Appreciate you. Appreciate everybody hopping on. thanks a bunch Ray yeah thanks everybody alright well we'll do this again in a few weeks and yeah look forward to the feedback and everybody have a great night see ya