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Episode 220: Peter Andersen, Denmark’s best

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·21m 55s·analyzed·Sep 21, 2019
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.028

TL;DR

Peter Andersen discusses his top-10 IFPA climb and upcoming Copenhagen pinball events.

Summary

Jeff Teolis interviews Peter Andersen, Denmark's eighth-ranked IFPA player, discussing his rapid rise in competitive pinball over six years, upcoming tournaments in Copenhagen (European Pinball Championships, Danish Pinball Open), and the Pinball Profile World Tour event at Flipper Basement. The conversation covers Peter's tournament strategy, home game (Iron Man), European vs. North American pinball culture, and travel logistics for international competition.

Key Claims

  • Peter Andersen is ranked eighth in IFPA at the time of recording

    high confidence · Jeff mentions 'You're eighth now' and Peter does not dispute this ranking

  • Peter has been playing pinball competitively for only six years

    high confidence · Jeff states 'Peter you've only been playing competitively for six years and yet you're in the top 10 in ifpa'

  • Peter finished third at IFPA 16 in Italy

    high confidence · Jeff: 'I saw what you did at IFPA 16 in Italy when you came in third'; Peter confirms: 'I was very close'

  • The European Pinball Championships expanded from sold-out capacity to 400 competitors

    high confidence · Peter states: 'It was sold out, and then they expanded to 400 people. I think it's maybe 20 tickets or something left'

  • EPC format uses a bank of 36 machines with players choosing 10 different machines for one game each

    high confidence · Peter explains: 'you have a bank of 36 machines, if I remember correctly, and you have to choose 10 different machines and play one game on those machines. So it's score-based'

  • Denmark has approximately 200-250 registered pinball players

    high confidence · Peter: 'in Denmark we don't have that many machines since there are not that many competitive players, like 200 or 250 registered players'

  • Peter owns an Iron Man pinball machine at home with extensive upgrades

    high confidence · Peter: 'I have one game. What do you have? I live in an apartment, so I have an Ironman' and lists mods including 'Invinci Glass and the coated rails'

  • Colin Urban (Australia) is ranked sixth in IFPA and climbing toward top positions

    medium confidence · Jeff: 'Colin Urban is in sixth. He's knocking at the door, Keith Owen' at time of recording

  • Team America/North America will compete in a five-player team format at EPC

Notable Quotes

  • “You just never, ever count someone out. That's a good lesson for anybody playing.”

    Jeff Teolis @ ~05:30 — Reflects on the dramatic IFPA 16 finals comeback that inspired Peter; encapsulates tournament unpredictability philosophy

  • “I just loved it. Now, there are a lot of people listening to Pinball Profile right now that are very good players, and maybe they don't travel a lot. What was it for you that said, okay, I'm going to take this to the next level.”

    Jeff Teolis @ ~35:00 — Addresses Peter's transition from casual to international competitive play

  • “I like the travel. and I like to combine it with a vacation because when you travel so far, I'm not just mostly doing that for pinball”

    Peter Andersen @ ~37:00 — Explains motivation for international tournament travel; European accessibility vs. North American distance

  • “It's cheap to travel in Europe and it's a big, you get to meet other great players, you get to play machines you haven't tried yet”

    Peter Andersen @ ~38:30 — Articulates European competitive advantage: cost, cultural exchange, machine diversity

  • “I feel like it's a disadvantage, especially with a game like Iron Man that is so straightforward rule-wise. Everybody knows what to do, and it plays differently than what you're used to.”

    Peter Andersen @ ~52:00 — Interesting strategic insight: owning a tournament machine is actually disadvantageous due to familiarity bias and machine variance

  • “Mental note. Pick Ironman against Peter in Denmark. Got it.”

    Jeff Teolis @ ~54:30 — Humorous callback; reveals tournament strategy discussion

  • “I'm not even close. It's close. Flipper K. Lardon.”

    Peter Andersen @ ~59:00 — Running joke about pronunciation of 'Flipper Kældern' (Flipper Basement) — cultural/language barrier humor

Entities

Peter AndersenpersonJeff TeolispersonPinball ProfileorganizationEuropean Pinball Championships (EPC)eventDanish Pinball OpeneventPinball Profile World ToureventFlipper Basement (Flipper Kældern)organizationIFPA 16event

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinball Profile World Tour pre-event in Copenhagen nearly half sold out before official IFPA listing, indicating strong local community engagement and travel draw

    high · Jeff: 'before it even went on IFPA, and it's on there now, it's an IFPA-sanctioned event. it was almost half sold out'

  • ?

    event_signal: Major tournaments scheduled back-to-back in Denmark region: Bulls Pinball Open (Sweden, 130 competitors), Midsummer event in Fulda Germany, then EPC/Danish Open in Copenhagen

    high · Peter: 'I'm going to a tournament next weekend in Sweden... Bulls Pinball Open... I think it's called the Bulls Pinball Open oh yes that's huge... then... Midsummer event in Fulda in Germany just before... the EPC'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: European tournament circuit showing high accessibility and frequency; players like Colin Urban achieving rapid ranking gains through multi-event participation (8+ events in single week at Pinball Olympics Germany)

    high · Jeff notes Colin Urban 'had a complete full week' at Pinball Olympics in Germany with eight events; Peter describes European travel costs (~$80 flights between countries) enabling frequent tournament participation vs. North American 11-12 hour car drives

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Owning a tournament-played machine (Iron Man) provides no competitive advantage due to machine variance and rule transparency; familiarity creates disadvantage vs. unfamiliar machines

    medium · Peter: 'I feel like it's a disadvantage, especially with a game like Iron Man that is so straightforward rule-wise... it plays differently than what you're used to. So it's not an advantage for me'

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.066

0:00
It's time for another Pinball Profile. I'm your host, Jeff Teels. You can find our group on Facebook. We're also on Twitter at Pinball Profile. Email us pinballprofile at gmail.com. And please subscribe on your favorite podcatcher. I've talked to many, many people. In fact, most in the top ten in the world in IFPA, except for this person. That's all about to change. from Denmark. Peter Anderson joins us. Hi, Peter. How are you? Hi, Jeff. I'm great. Thanks. I'll be seeing you very, very soon at the EPC and the Danish Pinball Open. Looking forward to going to Pin Lab. This is going to be a lot of fun in your hometown of Copenhagen. Yeah, it's great having the home court advantage here. I hope to do very well. You've had a good year so far. I mean, I saw what you did at IFPA 16 in Italy when you came in third and uh look at those top two and johannes and daniele i mean those two were on fire but you were right there yeah i was i was close i was very close uh when i was in the lead playing daniele for the final spot in the finals it was so close i was just one match away from getting there and he came back and it was crazy describe what it was like for those who didn't see yeah it It was just amazing to see how well they were playing those two guys. They did an amazing job on the final. I've never seen anything like that before. And that's something I've learned from watching that IFPA 16, is that you're never out of it. I mean, case in point, Daniele looked like he was going down to you in the semifinals. Johannes looked like he was a dead duck in the finals. You just never, ever count someone out. That's a good lesson for anybody playing.
1:48
Yeah, exactly. that Dracula. I guess most people have seen that. It's amazing. I bet you I've watched it 10 times. Yeah, yeah. At least you get amazed every time. It's just like, yeah, it's amazing. For those that don't know, Johannes had to come back with $3 billion on his last ball to catch Daniele, and sure enough, that's what happened too. But let's talk about what's going to be happening here. Now, before we get to the EPC and the Danish Pinball Open, you and I are going to be playing a little Pinball Profile World Tour event at one of your places, and I'm going to boot the name, so make fun of me. I call it Flipper Caelarden, but that's not exactly right. How do you say it? It's close. It's Flipper Caelarden. Okay. Us English-speaking people who obviously have weak tongues don't know how to say it, but thank goodness you correct it. Really, it's the Flipper Basement, and I'm looking forward to that event. We're going to have a flip frenzy, and in fact, before it even went on IFPA, and it's on there now, it's an IFPA-sanctioned event. it was almost half sold out. That's how many people are going to be coming to this event. So if you want to get in, go to the Facebook page for Pinball Profile, see the events there in Copenhagen when we're going to be at the Flipper basement. Peter will be there. And, in fact, somebody I'm looking forward to seeing as a partner in crime for you is Soren. Yeah, yeah. And, yeah, he's the guy making the tournament rules for the old games that can't really be played in tournament games. I was in Free Play Florida last year, and we played Radical, and I'm like, this is a Radical Radical in the sense that it had the Sorum ROMs, and we've seen a lot of his ROMs. So he does amazing things. He'll be there at this pre-event too. And tell us about the Flipper Basement. Okay, this is a home field advance for you. Let guys like me know. We're coming in there with $1,000 in prizing to come to this big event. I've got all kinds of stuff from Stern, from Jersey Jack, from Deep Root, from Comet Pinball, from Pin Stadium Lights, from Measel Mods and ULUX Store. So it's going to be a lot of fun. What kind of games are we going to see? What's this atmosphere like in the basement in Copenhagen? It's a great place. We have around 25, 30 machines. Yeah, we have a big span of machines. I just purchased Jurassic Park, so that's going to be there. Wow. So that's, of course, the newest game we have in there.

medium confidence · Jeff: 'Greg Pavarelli somehow, someway, twisted my arm, convinced me and said, hey, do you want to play on Team America' and Peter confirms 'five-player team'

  • Denmark does not typically award cash prizes in tournaments due to law

    medium confidence · Peter: 'normally not. That's a law or something, is it not?' and 'We have had some prize money and some you could win like a machine'

    • IFPA 17
    event
    Danieleperson
    Johannesperson
    Mads Christensenperson
    Emilperson
    Bo Mertensperson
    Sorenperson
    Greg Pavarelliperson
    Colin Urbanperson
    Luke Nahorniakperson
    Levi Neymanperson
    Lyman Sheetsperson

    event_signal: EPC format is score-based with 36-machine bank (players select 10 machines for single game each); Danish Pinball Open uses 24-machine bank (players select 8 games); contrasts with North American match-play formats

    high · Peter explains EPC: 'you have a bank of 36 machines, if I remember correctly, and you have to choose 10 different machines and play one game on those machines. So it's score-based'

  • ?

    event_signal: EPC 2024 expanded from sold-out capacity to 400 competitors, indicating surge in European pinball interest and largest EPC on record

    high · Peter: 'It was sold out, and then they expanded to 400 people. I think it's maybe 20 tickets or something left'

  • $

    market_signal: Small competitive pinball population in Denmark (200-250 registered players) creates geographic bottleneck; requires international travel for skill development and ranking growth

    high · Peter: 'in Denmark we don't have that many machines since there are not that many competitive players, like 200 or 250 registered players. So you have to travel a lot if you want to get to the top'

  • ?

    community_signal: Peter Andersen's rapid competitive rise (6 years to #8 IFPA) enabled by combining vacation travel with tournament participation, strategic machine diversity seeking, and European cost advantage

    high · Peter: 'I like to combine it with a vacation because when you travel so far... It's cheap to travel in Europe... you get to play machines you haven't tried yet because in Denmark we don't have that many machines'

  • ?

    regulatory_signal: Denmark has legal restrictions on cash prize tournaments, but allows product prizes (machines); sponsorship gambling betting on pinball occurred at IFPA championship in Denmark

    medium · Peter: 'we have had some prize money and some you could win like a machine and stuff' and discusses betting sponsorship at IFPA: 'they were a sponsor of the tournament. So that was why they also had these bets as well'

    • 4:08
    But it was a nice mix of old games, too. I wasn't sure what I would be seeing when I go to Denmark. If it was all going to be new games or was it going to be a lot of older games? I didn't know what it would be. Yeah, and before the Wasteland, you see some sometimes strange titles, and we like to mix things up. We have Magic Fall from Zagoria. We have Space Raiders. We have Metallica, newer games, and Star Wars Pro. We have Street Fighter II. Uh-oh. so yeah it's a bolts ball game all right genesis as well genesis yes we've got the alternate black blast though okay good game yeah yeah it's it's a fun game yeah i like it a lot peter you've only been playing competitively for six years and yet you're in the top 10 in ifpa i know you've had it we talked about your great year but it wasn't just the ifpa 16 you did well at the pin olympics too in Germany. Yeah, yeah, that was a fun tournament as well. And I'm going there just before IFPA again, actually, the hosting IFPA Midsummer Open. And again, it's like totally in like 10 tournaments, but you can't play them all, but it like you can get some good points and a lot of fun Well you played in let me see you played in eight events at the PEN Olympics in Germany earlier this June And I look at what Colin Urban did in Australia with the what are there eight ten events I mean, boom, look out! Yeah, I'm coming.
    5:41
    And he's in like, what, nine or something now? He is, at the time of this recording, Colin Urban is in sixth. He's knocking at the door, Keith Owen, hoping that Papa doesn't put in the Pinberg results anytime soon because he's right there. Wow. Yeah, that's amazing.
    6:01
    He had a complete full week. I think that's the way to go. I mean, I might have to come to Germany next June if that's when it's going to be and check this out because are you kidding me? A week of great, great tournaments? The only problem is for someone outside of your beautiful country and continent, I want to see the city. I want to see the country. I want to see all the different places. So I don't know if I'm going to be confined to just pinball. I can for short periods of time. It's a big trip to just go for pinball. That sounds like a challenge. Yeah.
    6:34
    Challenge accepted. You're darn right. So I've never been to the European Pinball Championships. This is a major. We talked about Daniele, Joran, yourself. I mean, all the heavyweights are going to be there. and Greg Pavarelli somehow, someway, twisted my arm, convinced me and said, hey, do you want to play on Team America? First of all, I'm Canadian, so I have to give him a geography lesson, but maybe he meant Team North America. I could be wrong. So what have I gotten myself into? What is this Team America battle? What's going on with that?
    7:07
    Well, there's going to be a team tournament there, And it's like a five-player team. Not really sure about the fifth player, how it's going to be. But it'll be fun, I'm sure. And the best team will, of course, win. I hope the home court advantage will make us proud. Well, you've got some greats there, no question. I mean, Denmark has a lot of good players. I mean, who's your number one rival in Denmark? Would it be Mads? Yeah, I guess. Mads Christensen? He's an upcoming player as well. Yeah, Mascaris is a bit like the old-timer, but a great player. The old-timer is going to be coming to our pre-Pinball Profile World Tour event, so I'll tell him you said that. Yeah, he's played pinball forever, Rich Detta and all the big guys from back then. But we have an upcoming player as well. He's called Emil. Yeah, he's 31 years old, and he's already ranked 108 at the time of this recording. He has done a lot in just three years of pinball, and he also really benefited from that massive pinball Olympics in Germany. Yeah, yeah, he did. And then we have the fourth player in the fourth place on the Danish playing team in the West, Bo Mertens, who is the host, the primary host. He's the owner of the place where the EPC is held. Oh, okay, I didn't know that. He is fourth. He owns the pin lab? Yeah, that's his building, yeah. Okay. It's a hit company. What am I buttering up to you for? I should be talking to him. This is garbage. I'm going to cancel it. No, we'll continue this. I'm enjoying talking to you, Peter. This is... Yeah. So I'm looking forward to the biggest EPC ever. And the format's a little different. So most of us in North America, when we go to these events, maybe it's match play, maybe it's a pump and dump. So, Peter, what is the format of the European Pinball Championships? Well, you have a bank of 36 machines, if I remember correctly, and you have to choose 10 different machines and play one game on those machines. So it's score-based. Kind of a best score. How many people make it onto the finals? If I remember correctly, it's 96.
    9:32
    Okay, all right. I know Levi Neyman from New York. He went last year, and he loved it. and I know so did Lyman Sheets. He also enjoyed his time at the European Pinball Championship. So that's what kind of brings me in when I hear those two say that it's a really good tournament, good format. Okay, they're going to show up. But there's also the Danish Pinball Open too, correct? Yeah, that's going to be played as well in some different time slots, of course. And it's kind of the same. It's like 24 machines, a bank of that, and then you'll have to pick eight games, eight different games as well. And I know the European Championship, that sold out, correct?
    10:13
    Well, it was sold out, and then they expanded to 400 people. Oh, my. I think it's maybe 20 tickets or something left. Okay. Danish Pinball Open, same thing for that? Yeah, you are in the Danish Pinball Open if you're in the EPC, so it's combined. That's good. Now all you have to do for the trifecta is join the Pinball Profile World Tour event at the, I'm not going to say Flipper Claylard, and at the Flipper basement. Yeah, that's great. And then the national tournament if you're in that as well. Holy moly. I hope my wife doesn't listen to this. I said, don't worry, hon. I only playing pinball maybe one two days We have a great time in Denmark Uh Yeah You better give me some things to do while we are in Copenhagen so that my wife has something to do And it better be more than just going to see the Little Mermaid What should I be going to check out in Copenhagen? Oh, well, of course, the different pinball locations, if possible. I'm talking about, not for me, I'm talking about for my wife here. I'm trying to save a marriage here. Help me out, Peter. Yeah. well the different parts of the city and it's like we are located with the flipper basement in Naples which is like a very cultured place okay then in inner city there's Duhon it's like also yeah all these old buildings and nice small restaurant nice a very nice atmosphere and you have a Christiania which is like also a must-see for a lot of people. It's like its own little community where we just like... It's sold there, and they have their own community. It's like the inner city. My wife's best friend said you will absolutely love Copenhagen, so that helped me a big time, too. That was great. But a beautiful harbor and a lovely canal and all these great things. I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be a lot of fun. Yeah, I'm sure she'll like it as well. Maybe I'll get her to flip once or twice. We'll see. Yeah, we'll see.
    12:26
    There's no spots. She'll have to come to my event anyway. Peter, as we've said off the top, only six years. What was it that got you hooked into pinball? Well, back in the days, we had like a club after school where they had a pinball machine, which is like many years ago.
    12:48
    And then I, of course, stopped going to that club after I went to the school that was next to that. And I didn't play pinball for many years. And my big brother and his friends, one day asked me if I wanted to come play. And like I said, yeah, it was a basement as well. It was the Pin Lab 2.0. Now it's 3.0. It's like the third location it's located at now. And it just took off from there. I just started playing in smaller tournaments, one big Danish tournament. And, yeah, it just took me by surprise. I just loved it. Now, there are a lot of people listening to Pinball Profile right now that are very good players, and maybe they don't travel a lot. What was it for you that said, okay, I'm going to take this to the next level. I'm going to go to different countries, sometimes even to North America, too. You were in Canada last year. I saw you at Adam Becker's place for the IFPA 15. What was it that made you decide, okay, I'm going to travel now and see how good I can get in the world rankings, which has obviously paid off. You're eighth now. Yeah.
    14:06
    Well, I like the travel. and I like to combine it with a vacation because when you travel so far, I'm not just mostly doing that for pinball, but some of the European places I go to, I can do that just for the pinball part of it. If it's like a weekend event, then it's easy for me to travel while not working. So it's cheap to travel in Europe and it's a big, you get to meet other great players, you get to play machines you haven't tried yet because in Denmark we don't have that many machines since there are not that many competitive players, like 200 or 250 registered players. So you have to travel a lot if you want to get to the top. I was just at a tournament in Cleveland and the winner of that tournament for the Stern Pro Circuit was named Luke Nahorniak from Minnesota. He drove 11, 12 hours to get there. Obviously, it paid off. He won the tournament. But those kind of long drives, I mean, if you were in a car for 11, 12 hours, you could hit a lot of countries in Europe. Yeah, you could. You could go very far, actually. And, again, it's too cute to fly to take the car normally here. So sometimes it's okay if you still need to rent a car, and it's still far from the place where you're going. But normally it is like if you can, when you fly to Germany, then it's mostly like maybe 80 bucks or something like that, American. So like a little more Canadian. Sure. You know your currencies. A little. You travel, so you get a little bit. I was hoping to use some euros, but no, it's Krohn there in Denmark, isn't it? It's Krohn, yeah. Yeah, Dane's Krohn. Okay, the only... Yeah, it's not worth a lot. Okay, the only Dane I know really well is Andreas Peterson from Match Play. I think he's give or take a foot, seven foot eight. So I assume all Danish people are huge huge huge people Is that what I supposed to Am I going to be looking at a bunch of giants when I go to Denmark Oh I wouldn say that I think they pretty standard size Okay. Yeah, five foot ten or something. Do you have any games at home? I have one game. What do you have? I live in an apartment, so I have an Ironman. An Ironman. Boy, that tests your skills. You've got to be pretty quick there, don't you? Yeah, exactly. I like the game a lot because you can take a game when you feel for it, and you won't have a long game. Like, I've had the Star Trek LE at home, and that gets a little boring after you have these half-an-hour games. So I like a quick,
    17:07
    and the rule set on Iron Man is, like, pretty straightforward. So I like the game a lot, and it's been pimped out, so it has the Invinci Glass and the coated rails and legs and Corndor and everything, So it's not a machine I want to put down in the basement where I can't have a look at it all the time. So when you play Ironman at a tournament that's obviously not at your place, is that an advantage for you or a disadvantage? Because you will know the rules, but it might not shoot the same. It might not be at the same level pitch. They might have different rubbers on. The flippers might be at a different angle. Is it an advantage or a disadvantage when you play a game in a tournament that you own? I feel like it's a disadvantage, especially with a game like Iron Man that is so straightforward rule-wise. Everybody knows what to do, and it plays differently than what you're used to. So it's not an advantage for me, because you can't just do the Rams and go to Bogey, just do that over and over again like you normally can at home. So it's not that easy when you play another one. Okay, mental note. Pick Ironman against Peter in Denmark. Got it. Okay. There should be an Ironman in the tournament. Oh, everyone's picking it against you now. Every single person will. Yeah.
    18:28
    Now, I know in Denmark, there's no awarding of cash for tournaments, correct? Yeah, normally not. That's a law or something, is it not? We have had some prize money and some you could win like a machine and stuff. So we have prize tournaments, but again, the pinball community is still so small. So yeah, it's not a problem. I guess what I was getting at is, if there's not that, what has it been like in Denmark? I think the first time I think I ever saw a gambling site talk about pinball players was in fact when IFPA, the championship, was in Denmark, and I saw this betting line of all these players, and I went, Whoa, is that a European thing? Is that a Denmark thing? What do you think of that? Yeah, it was like they sponsored. So they got a cash pool so they could bring buses so people could get from tournament to tournament in the pre-events. So they used the sponsorship for that. And of course, since you can't really bet yourself when you're playing in the tournaments, then it's like there's not many people putting on bets on pinball. But it was because they were a sponsor of the tournament. So that was why they also had these bets as well. It was like the beginning of pinball gambling. Yeah, no kidding. That's the first I saw it. It was two years ago, and it was in Denmark. Okay. Yeah. Well, we're only, boy, we're a month away from seeing you in Denmark. I'm excited. This will be a lot of fun. Me too. Better brush up on some foreign Ironmans if I were you. Let's stop playing your one at home. I'm going to a tournament next weekend in Sweden also I don't know it's like 130 people I think it's called the Bulls Pinball Open oh yes that's huge three tournaments and then as I told earlier a midsummer event in Fulda in Germany just before the week before the EPC that could be a success if I get it for them and play my cards right. So where you stand right now, I mean, it's pretty much a lock. Are you going to be coming to IFPA 17 in Florida next year? Yeah, I will. I'll combine it with a vacation as well. Great. Good idea. Peter, I will see you in just a few weeks. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Thanks for talking about the European Pinball Championship, the Danish Pinball Open, and of course the Pinball Profile World Tour at, should I try it again? Should I try to script the name one more time?
    21:12
    Flipper K. Lardon. I'm not even close. It's close. Flipper K. Lardon. The Flipper Basement. So make sure you join us on October 10th. You can find out our event on our Facebook page and also on IFPA calendar. Peter Anderson, a pleasure to talk to you. I'm looking forward to seeing you in just a few weeks. Yeah, great. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find our group on Facebook. We're also on Twitter at Pinball Profile. Email us at pinballprofile at gmail.com and please subscribe on your favorite podcatcher. I'm Jeff Teels. Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen friendly old girl of town. Need her tavern light on this merry night. Let us drink and drink one now.