6:52that's like my wet dream oh God okay so enough of all that there's our there's all of our stuff out of the way time to dive in here Colin Colin McAlpine uh former World Champ uh currently you do uh what is it like uh code you don't write the code but like code and rules suggestion or um Consulting with P3 I don't I mean what's your official do you have an official title what's your official title with P3 I'm a I'm a rules designer rules designer that sounds great um yes that's a Consulting gig so no it's not my day job it's just something to do on the side that's a lot of fun and um yeah first time uh doing that I've uh you know just on the sides contributed to other people's uh rules and just you know they'd bounce ideas off me or we just talk about them online or other stuff and so yeah the first time uh doing that actively for actually designing it from the the ground up and I must say it's um it's it's really cool it's also a lot more work than you'd expect anybody can armchair quarterback from their keyboard or from their podcast uh you know on on how rules should work but when you have to get get into the nitty-gritty of not just the rules design but how the how the rules integrate with choreography how to integrate with video how they integrate with Graphics the timing of things you know doing all the math of scoring yeah oh my gosh it's it's a lot of work it's cool and but it just it has given me a new sense of appreciation for all those other people that have worked on or currently working on games and doing rules design and doing just game design in general um it's so much more than anybody realizes until you've actually taken the plunge sure and and I know we talk about it a lot I mean I know at least between the three of us our skill sets um vary drastically so that's the one thing that I'm realizing the more that I get into pinball designing a game or designing a rule set that is fun for a novice all the way up to an esher lefkov you know like like in anywhere in between and how do you balance for that how do you balance for the guy that's going to find the one thing exploit it and just hit the same shot over and over again verse how do you make it fun with cool you know choreography and sound and just fun things to do very close to the start button for Joe Schmo that just walks up and hits the start button so I I have nothing but respect for you guys and taking that on um because it looks near impossible to be honest I mean is there do you have any so you're right now working on Final resistance which was Scott Denise's game did you did you consult on any of the other games so I'm I'm very hardly involved at all on Final resistance oh okay yeah so that's that's uh that's Bo and Karen's on that I had some I had some input into that game at the very very beginning of it the very Inception of it um so you're Weird Al then I was very only at the tail end getting involved with that ones I'm involved with something that I can't talk about oh even better okay well so you're like yeah well good for you man um so this is like so this is your baby then or this is like this is all on you is that it's well yeah so it's it's really cool as far as collaborating and that actually helps a lot because when you have just like you talked about how you have different skill sets you have amongst team members you have different varying levels of skill and differing levels of uh just you know what what you think makes a good game okay and so it's it's really good to have those different perspectives so that way they they pull me back from the Cliff of going you know down like the the the the kefir path of having something where there's just way too many or you know just a over complexity stuff and so you know striking that balance which by the way I really like uh kiefer's rules a lot because I like that kind of complexity I like board games too but it's cool having a team that we can all work together on it and come up with like you said something that can be appealing to the novice and the person that's just stepping up for the first time and for the person that's going to break the game because they're so good at it cool yeah well that's awesome that's exciting I mean congrats to it sounds like you have a project that you're leading or a big you have a big role in so that's that's exciting and you know I look forward to that um one of the main reasons we did invite you on though is you were the main you're the tournament director the main TD at um the tpf tournament um that was last weekend um so you live in Texas correct correct I live in Austin Texas yeah so this is like you took ownership of this and you ran that tournament well I know I only popped in a handful of times but you were you were killing it I will say I really enjoy uh your commentating I enjoy it a lot because I feel like the more excited you get the quieter you actually get and you're you have these like kind of whisper like oh man he hit the lock It's like because I get it you're in the same room as the person playing so you don't want to be obnoxious or interrupt them but it's I loved it I loved it so it was cool being in the room at least during finals and semifinals and listening to you and listening to um Jeff and I don't I don't know the other guy that was announcing at that time but um the three of you guys did a fantastic job um I'm glad you enjoyed it yeah it's a it's kind of a nice uh you know fun way of spending your time in the tournament after you crash out and uh and since I and since I run that term and I get to kind of decide if I'm going to do the commentary it also makes for a great way of actually watching what's going on so you're trying to uh you know observe and still be you know tournament director uh at the same time but uh I you know I really enjoy doing you know commentary it's fun to do and it's fun to uh yeah it's fun to get excited and to you know get you know emotional about stuff I mean I think there's also a place a time and place for somebody who's you know just kind of more more deadpan in their delivery but I tend to get emotional about stuff I think it's exciting and I think I try to convey that with my with my voice whether that's through pacing or through volume or pitch or whatever and so I I I'm very intentional in trying to do that because I think it's I think it adds a lot to have somebody who is genuinely excited about what they're watching as opposed to just watching it and talking about it well so maybe that's an interesting question Travis you made it very far in the tournament did you when you're playing in that room whatever 15 feet away from the people do you hear them do you block that out uh I can hear it before but during no like I during the ball I'm just totally focused on what's on the Playfield and everything else is just kind of zoned out but before I can hear it but it's not a big deal at all I mean come from a baseball background I'm used to being yelled at no matter what so hearing somebody talking the background it doesn't really matter I mean it makes it more fun to be honest with you because I think even before I think we were on taxi and I could hear Jeff teolis behind me because he was talking about us plunging to a certain spot and all that just kind of ingest and I remember turning around be like no I'm not going to do that right now so like that type of interaction cracks me up I mean it's pinball at the end of the day it's fun and I mean until like the only other time that maybe like I may not acknowledge it at all might be if we happen to be an in-disk in a world championship is on the line or something like that and there's thousands upon thousands of dollars but other than that I mean at the end of the day it's pinball we're all friends you gotta have a good time well um where do you guys want to start the goal for today's episode is we want to we definitely want to highlight we haven't talked to we haven't really had a ton of tournament talk recently so we definitely want to highlight especially with Colin here we want to talk about the tournament that was at tpf um you know just overall thoughts how we thought that went all that stuff and then obviously at Texas pinball Festival there were six brand new games uh that were all there ready to play and I know the four of us we all played them and so we kind of want to give our initial Impressions they're not reviews they're not reviews initial impressions of those six games unfortunately there was no bond 60th that was the other game that I was hoping to play uh we'll just have to continue to rely on Tom to tell us how great that is um Colin and or Travis you guys haven't played Bond 60th yet right I've stared at the Box oh still staring at the Box yep yep I've only watched Tom stream of it so Tom since the last time we talked has have your feelings changed about Bond 60th at all no not at all still love it good good good okay so tournament wise tournament wise um I don't know maybe we'll start with Colin I mean you ran the whole thing what do you feel I don't know uh is there anything unique about the tpf or the Texas pinball Festival tournament uh maybe the format style or what is there did you feel there was something that went really well um is there anything you want to change yeah I mean overall thoughts I think you know first off overall I started I I got involved with running to tpf tournaments because I was a player in them at first and um and there were some things that I saw along with other players that could be done better and um and so I brought those up to uh to Ed vanderveen and he used that as an opportunity to say hey Colin you want to be part of the solution and I was young and naive and said yes and and so yeah we um we took um that show and so the the overall Vision that I had you know from what six years ago now or seven years ago was to I you know tpf is a world-class Premier show and anybody that's been there will will say that it's yeah that it is it is if it I would argue it's the best show but I mean if it's if it's not the best it's one of the best you know two I mean the twippies it gets voted is the best and for good reason and so we you know you guys have talked about that you know and everybody else has another reason why tpf is so good um and so I wanted to take and and create a tournament that would mirror a you know that world-class show and have a world-class tournament that took place at tpf and it kind of gone in the in the way in a direction of being more of a a local regional tournament and it wasn't run at the level that was attractive to people traveling from really outside of the region specifically to play at the tournament there's still some great players that were there but they you know they weren't necessarily always there just for the tournament they were there for the show and so we developed a format that when the idea behind the original format was to create a tournament tournament that allowed players to both play in the tournament and enjoy the show and so our original design of it was we just had the one tournament we didn't have a Classics tournament at that time there wasn't a women's tournament it was just the main tournament and we intentionally designed it as a limited entry so you can't just you know pump and dump all day you pay up front for a certain amount of entries and you once you've used those entries you're done with your qualifying you just hope that you made the cut line yeah and then then the idea was hey you can then you know break apart maybe take a break from doing entries for a while and go enjoy the show and then come back or do them all at once and then go enjoy the show the rest of the time or enjoy the show first and then do you get the idea sure now it was a victim of our own success that we had people showing up that were really in the tournaments they said hey we want more than just one tournament you know every other big tournament has an extra Classics tournament or a side tournament and then the women's pinball scene has taken off and thankfully we have a great tournament director based on the bells and shines Houston Liz drone that helps to to run the women's uh uh Texas takedown tournament and so you know we started in adding those other tournaments and so you can now if you really wanted to you could spend pretty much all your time in the tournament rooms or most of it there but the original intent was always to have a tournament that went along with this world-class show and so I think I think we as a team of people that helped to run that have been successful I think we've I think we've succeeded at uh at turning that tournament into a world-class tournament it's uh it's attended Now by people coming from across the country some even from across the world uh we now are consistently getting uh the top players in the world that travel there we're on on the sternpro circuit and uh and generally the the feedback that I get for the tournaments is very positive even with it being unique it is not like most other tournaments where you can just keep paying and paying and paying and playing uh yeah yeah or having a match play in a tournament it's not a match play tournament although the women's tournament is and so uh yeah I'm I'm really proud of where uh where we've come and where we were and that where it's where it's come to dude that's awesome that's awesome that you're getting positive feedback Travis what was your negative feedback that you wanted to share with Colin Classics that's the that's the one I'm actually most salty about my God so I was planning on not playing it at all and everybody kept coming up to me and being like well you signed up for you you're gonna play You're Gonna Play and I was just like you know I think I want to hold off and then somebody I forget who it was somebody came up to me and said well your wife is qualified I was just like okay my ego's taking over I'm gonna go over there and get a buy too so yeah it was like five games later I was like totally screwed so maybe this is question about like why why wouldn't you play like what's the what's the negative and well for me personally it would be just the volatility of it because there's only eight plays right okay so and it's classics classics is much more difficult to control than a modern machine you put me on a modern machine in eight plays I'll get a hold of it I'll figure out how to get four really good scores when it comes to Classics though you're at the mercy sometimes of just the fates of the pinball Gods no matter what you do so to put this in perspective my first or maybe not even my first three games but at one point I remember nine balls in a row three straight games only two actually got to a flipper like seven were like legitimate house balls I wish I could say hey it was my fault but I was focusing on my plunges and everything and I was just like cussing in my head I was just like what am I doing right now and I think literally I think I finished like 140th or something like that it was it was horrible it was so just that everything fell apart does that imp like so okay so that sucks right I agree with that but does that impact your like Global position or anything like it is it hurt you in a negative way not yet it might next just wait yeah so basically to put this in perspective if potential Whopper system that's going to be out next year which affects your efficiency percentage and we don't need to get into the Weeds about that let's just say you just don't want to f up a tournament like I did with the classics because if you finish that low it's going to torpedo this metric and it's very hard to dig your way out of it so you got to be a little bit more I guess intelligent about you know what you're going to do about it yeah so and I was severely lacking that Saturday so yeah it was uh it was pretty bad so yeah okay okay so Classics uh Tom do you have uh how did Classics go for you uh not bad I didn't make the cut but I was I think three spots off the cut nice um I had a really good score on gorgar I think I was like second on gorgar um but uh my Center Grade score bled out and I was I was I I was gonna save like a couple entries towards the end and then I decided to play them and I should have I should have saved one because if if I well I was playing catch up though too because I needed a good score on flash but uh that that's a hard part of it you know for your games count but you only have eight entries so you got to make the most of those opportunities and Colin did you play not in Classics no not close Okay I played in the main in the Wizards tournament yeah but with running it and everything yeah just not time and also I'm I I take over and actually the the you know Hands-On TD for the classics finals as far as sitting there and you know making sure that you know people are you know picking you know picking their games in their player order and all that fun stuff so yeah there's just not time to to do that I think I tried doing that the very first year that we added Classics and uh and I don't I think I didn't you have to ever explain it so yeah never yeah never again but yeah it's tough that's a you know it in it's because we designed that Classics tournament to be a a just a simple add-on it was not intended to be the the main draw and so and we we also kept it as a limited entry you know it's trying just it's just trying to manage the really it's just a it's a throughput Capacity Analysis you know we only have a certain amount of space so you can only have a certain amount of pins and you limit it to a certain amount of people and you estimate how many games how many minutes per game and you just you know you run that math and then add some buffer to it so you deal with the fact there's going to be pins that are gonna be down for a certain period of time and uh yeah there's a you know there's there's part of me now because of the the change in the Whopper rules where you can get more uh you can get more value for your tournament when you are adding on the the qualifying in the finals because that that Classics tournament at tpf is designed to hit exactly the 100 tgp Mark and you know if I were to change the format I could get more out of it like if I were to change it to an unlimited entry I could get more out of it and then I don't know we'll see it's something I'm toying with so maybe I'll I'll uh I'll talk to Travis offline and see if he if he agrees with my analysis on whether or not to whether or not to do it unlimited or not anything that helps me qualify I totally agree with it anything um so at the end of the day what was it who won was it Escher I thought I did it Escher win Usher Escher won that in a you know so spoiler alert sorry you know George was ruin it for you but um yeah he he won in a very convincing way at least on the on the tie Break um so I'm spoiling it again so if you if you don't if you want to watch the VOD spoil away then fast forward but it was a fascinating final four in that Escher was really in in position where he was probably going to take third and going into the last game and on flash and even going into the last ball on flash and then he was played with Neil yeah uh yeah they were they both had two points I think it was and the other people uh you know it was Preston and uh and from out of nowhere Laura Streeter from Arkansas that uh has not been playing the only I think when I looked at her profile afterwards I think she's only been playing for about two years competitively at least yes played phenomenal oh man she tore it up she was great and she had a she had a chance there in that game of Flash the game three of three that um you know if she she was playing great but Escher played really well and she could have uh you know caught him then she would have won it outright instead they went to a tie break on Old Chicago and it was the best like competitive game of Old Chicago I've ever seen before in my life you know if you know the second place Preston you know put up 230 000 on Old Chicago and took second and Usher triple rolled it triple roll uh he he put up 300 000 on Old Chicago and just in very convincing fashion so it's a really good watch even if you've been listening to this and got it spoiled it's still worth watching because you'll just you can appreciate the skill yep well there goes Travis handling handling both the kick out and going right back in for collecting over and over again on Chicago and then both he and Preston had some just amazing uh techniques and nudging the Machine and keeping the ball alive so really really good play awesome so I know what was it Neil Neil ended up what so this is Neil Freddie I feel like we do need to clarify sometimes because we just throw out names like we assume people know him Esther's a big deal he's like number one in the world Neil is Tom's son there we go there's her clarification Neil ended up what was it third or fourth fourth Fourth nice um so he bought dinner is what it sounds like