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Episode 136: Beef and Boom. The NYCPC story.

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·24m 22s·analyzed·Jun 13, 2018
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TL;DR

Pinball Profile covers NYC's inaugural pinball championship with player interviews and tournament highlights.

Summary

Jeff Teolis hosts a special recap episode of the New York City Pinball Championships (NYCPC), a first-time inaugural tournament organized by Never Beef Productions at Modern Pinball in Hell's Kitchen. The episode features interviews with tournament participants including Ken LaPointe (pre-tournament winner), Steve Bowden, Stephanie Guida (Riptide podcast), Finnish players Oli Mikko Oyamias and Jonas Adeorinen, and various competitive players, discussing the well-organized event that drew 120-140 players across multiple divisions.

Key Claims

  • This is the first major pinball championship tournament in New York City in many years

    high confidence · Neil McRae: 'New York's a bit of a historical monument to pinball...it seems weird that there hasn't been one until this'; Megan Sprague: 'It's amazing, with all the people, that they haven't really had a big one like this in many, many years'

  • Ken LaPointe from Canada won the pre-tournament at Modern Pinball despite never having visited NYC or the venue before

    high confidence · Jeff Teolis interview with Ken LaPointe confirming his victory and first visit to NYC

  • The tournament drew 120-140 players across multiple divisions in the first year

    high confidence · Crazy Levy: 'We had 120, 130 players. Everybody was well-behaved. Everybody had a good time.'

  • Bells and Chimes pinball league in NYC has grown by at least 50% every season

    high confidence · Anna Wolk: 'Bells and Chimes is amazing. It's like, I'd say it's grown by at least 50% every season that we've done the league format. This last season we had like probably 20 to 25 players every week.'

  • Steve Bowden turned 40 during the tournament and celebrated with Lyman, Greg, and others at a local bar

    high confidence · Steve Bowden confirms: 'I'm 40 and I'm fine with that. The big 4-0 and we had a little bit of celebrating at maybe As Is New York with a bunch of friends, Lyman and Greg and Nick Zendayos.'

Notable Quotes

  • “You just look at them and go, I don't care... You know, I got some bounces today. What can I say?”

    Ken LaPointe @ ~10:30 — Ken LaPointe's humility and luck-based explanation for his victory over established players at the pre-tournament

  • “New York's a bit of a historical monument to pinball... it's great to see it, and it's great that they found a way of doing it. It's expensive to do stuff in New York, so it's good that they've managed to find a way of doing it.”

    Neil McRae @ ~20:15 — Recognition of NYC's historical importance to pinball and the logistical challenge of hosting a major tournament there

  • “We couldn't have scripted it any better... These finals, I mean, all the finals were tight and well-contested. And those main division finals were just insane with those huge comebacks from Bowen on Kiss and Aerosmith battling it out.”

    Crazy Levy @ ~85:00 — Tournament organizer's satisfaction with the competitive quality and dramatic finals of the inaugural NYCPC

  • “Pinball in Finland has seen really many good things happening in past years... we really didn't have any private collections or places to play pinball or competitions... and it's been like a growing scene since then.”

    Oli Mikko Oyamias @ ~60:45 — Documentation of pinball's growth in Finland over the past decade

  • “I object to having a separate women's bank at major events, because we have to split our time and our money that much more. But it's great that it brings attention to the female participants.”

    Megan Sprague @ ~72:30 — Critical perspective on gender-segregated tournament divisions and the trade-offs they present

  • “Rock Fantasy's an interesting place. It's part head shop, part rock shop, metal records, metal shirts. And then they have about 35 to 40 pinball machines.”

    Brandon Hoffman @ ~45:00 — Description of a unique pinball venue in Orange County that combines specialty retail with arcade operations

  • “It's like I'm being able to spend my summer holidays by playing pinball with this kind of location where you see pinball machines and when you turn around, you see the New York skyline and it's just awesome.”

Entities

New York City Pinball Championships (NYCPC)eventNever Beef ProductionsorganizationModern PinballorganizationKen LaPointepersonSteve BowdenpersonStephanie GuidapersonOli Mikko OyamiaspersonJonas AdeorinenpersonNeil McRaeperson

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: NYC pinball competitive scene showing significant growth with new tournament infrastructure and established leagues like Bells and Chimes expanding 50%+ annually

    high · Anna Wolk reports Bells and Chimes grew 50%+ each season with 20-25 weekly players; NYCPC draws 120-140 in first year; multiple regional tournaments now operational (Stomp, Silver Ball Saloon events)

  • ?

    event_signal: Successful inaugural New York City Pinball Championships held with 120-140 participants, high-quality competition, and strong community response

    high · Crazy Levy: 'We had 120, 130 players. Everybody was well-behaved. Everybody had a good time... You couldn't have scripted it any better.'

  • ?

    business_signal: Strong international participation at NYCPC with players from Canada, Finland, and UK, indicating NYC establishing itself as international tournament destination

    high · Ken LaPointe (Canada), Oli Mikko Oyamias (Finland), Jonas Adeorinen (Finland), Neil McRae (UK), Megan Sprague (Canada) all competing; Oli Mikko: 'I'm being able to spend my summer holidays by playing pinball'

  • ?

    content_signal: Pinball podcast community expanding with Riptide podcast (women-focused) joining established shows like Slam Tilt and Pinball Profile; community technical support infrastructure developing

    medium · Stephanie Guida launching Riptide podcast with Crystal; Jeff Teolis notes Ron Hallett serves as 'unofficial tech guy of the podcasters'; Meltdown podcast mentioned as new addition

  • ?

    venue_signal: Finnish pinball scene showing organic growth from near-zero competitive infrastructure 10 years ago to producing top international players and regular tournaments

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.073

0:00
It's time to get into the groove of this special recap of the New York City Pinball Championships. This is 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. Please subscribe on either iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play. Nothing beats a little springtime trip to New York City, and when there's a pinball tournament, all the better. Time to hear some of those many people that traveled to New York City for the NYC PC. Here I am in this city with a fistful of dollars. And baby, you better believe I'm back, back in New York. One of the things we've had here in New York City at Modern Pinball, thanks to Greg Pavarelli, he put together a little pre-tournament. Like, there wasn't enough pinball going on. And this guy who's never been to New York City just happens to win it. Oh, did I mention he's Canadian? Let's go to the loser right now. Not the loser, the Josh Sharpe of the tournament, Alberto Santana right now. Alberto, how are you, buddy? I'm doing great, thank you. It came down to whirlwind. You put up a good fight there. A tight tilt. You had to be very sensitive. Yes. Couldn't get it back in the cellar to start that multi-ball. That's correct, yeah. You can hear the tears on this. Oh, now he's laughing. It's all right. But you played very, very well. Thank you. You crushed me on no fear. It was fun. Tough, you know, 40 people here, three strike, knockout. It was tough to make it this far. Yeah, it was a great tournament. I mean, I had so much fun. It was great. You lost to a guy who's been literally kicking my butt week after week in Canada. Let's go talk to him now. Thanks, Alberto. Ken LaPointe. Who is this kid? We know about Jack Tappen and Robert Daniel and Adam Becker. Who is Ken LaPointe, people are wanting to know. He's the winner of the pre-tournament here at Modern Pinball. Ken, congratulations. Thanks, man. Thanks a lot. Ken, I know firsthand you've been just crushing it lately, but you're really, really cool, and the headphones kind of help relax things for you. Oh, absolutely. I need the headphones to concentrate for sure, but it's been a good run lately. I got lucky a bit tonight, but made some good shots. There's nothing wrong with being lucky. Rather be lucky than good. Now, here's the thing about you, Ken, is you've never been to New York City. Yep. So never been to modern pinball. You walk in, you've got Steve Bowden, you've got Alberto Santana, Greg Pavarelli. There were so many great players here tonight. You just look at them and go, I don't care. For sure, man. You know, I played with some of these guys at Pemberg and that, and they're great players for sure. But, you know, I got some bounces today. What can I say? Ken LaPointe, a name to watch out for. Thanks very much, Ken. Thanks, Jeff.

Oli Mikko Oyamias @ ~59:00 — International player's appreciation for NYC as a tournament destination combining pinball competition with iconic city atmosphere

  • “Ron is like the unofficial tech guy of the podcasters. He's the podcast tech.”

    Jeff Teolis @ ~55:00 — Acknowledgment of Ron Hallett's (Slam Tilt) technical support role in the broader pinball podcast community

    • Bells and Chimes
    organization
    Anna Wolkperson
    Brandon Hoffmanperson
    Rock Fantasyorganization
    Megan Spragueperson
    C.J. Smithperson
    Crazy Levyperson
    Lymanperson
    Ron Hallettperson
    Riptide Podcastorganization
    Pinbergevent
    Jeff Teolisperson
    G Fuelorganization
    Jersey Jack Pinballorganization

    medium · Oli Mikko Oyamias: '10 years ago, we really didn't have any private collections or places to play pinball or competitions... it's been like a growing scene since then'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: NYCPC organizers planning for Year 2 expansion, with hotel ballroom availability confirmed and potential for increased venue space contingent on sponsorship growth

    high · Crazy Levy discussing with hotel GM about using ballroom for next year; mentions wanting to regroup in few weeks and take months off before planning next event; G Fuel sponsorship discussed as key to scaling

  • ?

    venue_signal: Documentation of diverse pinball venue types across North America including specialty arcades (Rock Fantasy as head shop/rock shop hybrid), league-based venues, and dedicated tournament spaces

    medium · Brandon Hoffman describes Rock Fantasy as 'part head shop, part rock shop, metal records, metal shirts' with 35-40 machines; Steve Keeler's place recognized as significant community hub

  • ?

    community_signal: Increasing women's participation in competitive pinball with dedicated divisions, prize support (in-box machines for women's tournaments), and dedicated podcast content

    medium · Megan Sprague reports 49 women players at Indus; notes three tournaments offering new machines for women's winners; Riptide podcast explicitly created as platform for women's voices in pinball

    • 2:50
    My accent when I talk, I'm an Englishman in New York. Neil McRae, how does this little mini arcade set up compared to the one you've done in England? Well, this is much better, especially in terms of skill level.
    3:09
    This is great. I was helping Levy and the guys last night set this up. It's a great competition and a great city, great people here. I'm glad I came out. I've come all the way from London. It's fantastic. I'm playing pretty badly, but that's to be expected. But loving every minute of it. So you're the guy who set up those crazy tight tilts. That was you. I have to say there was a committee meeting about them last night and a discussion. But yeah, listen, it's the same for everybody, Jeff. It's the same for everybody. All right, fair enough. I'm very excited for Levy and the entire Never Beef Productions group to have this big tournament in New York City. It seems weird that there hasn't been one until this. Absolutely. I mean, that's why I came here. New York's a bit of a historical monument to pinball. When I saw them set this up, I thought, that's just something I've got to be at. So it's great to see it, and it's great that they found a way of doing this.
    4:01
    It's expensive to do stuff in New York, so it's good that they've managed to find a way of doing it. And they found a great venue in the middle of Hell's Kitchen, great food places all around of ours, 10 minutes walk to Times Square. I know with your arcade you made the Path of Play event. How'd that go? It went brilliantly. We had ten families that the National Autistic Society of the UK found for us. We played pinball for two or three hours. They loved it. In fact, they wanted to set up another one. I'm being encouraged to set up another one. So it went really well. And I think the whole day was fantastic. Neil, have a great time. Jeff, thank you. Good to see you.
    4:39
    Tommy Soxton, Tim Balls, back in NYC. My goodness, you've got that Midwest look about you now. Nice to be back home. How do I do it? I don't know what that is. It usually starts with the belly. Yeah, the Italian beefs are pretty good in Chicago, I have to say. A little thicker than here in NYC, although I've had a few slices or two. There's some good food here, but I think Chicago may be the fatty food capital of the world. It is the best. It's delicious. Deep fry everything. Absolutely. Beef everywhere. Deep fried everything. Dip your French fries in gravy. I don't know. I haven't figured it all out yet, but I know it's delicious. That's a Canadian thing, too. Well, you're part of the Never Beef group that really brought this together before you headed out to Chicago. I've got to say, it's pretty impressive. 140 people packed in here, and the game has been playing fine. A little tough, Tim. Are you playing at all? I'm not playing in this tournament, luckily, so I'm not sweating it out on these games. But I have not had too many complaints about the toughness of the games. People seem to think it's fair. There's some playing longer than others, but it's been moving pretty well, pretty smooth. Our first year, I think we've done a lot with this tournament. it. I'm really excited with how it's going so far. A lot of work to get here, but it's been awesome. Well, the main consensus is the games in the main bank are playing really as normal. I just played Iron Man. All the rubbers were on. It was fine. I still stunk, but I was like wow this isn as tough as I seen other Iron Mans And the classics I guess it makes sense to make those little tighter tilts too because they can maybe not play longer but you know you can I don know it just seems to be uh and unique usually it's the other way around uh we don't have as much time for the classics tournament either too so you know more people will get on faster now and then they'll have more time for the main later hopefully I didn't set it up that way I was mostly concerned with setting up the main game so all that friendliness that's me all the unfriendliness that's my partners at Never beef productions. Well, your partners Paul and Levy and some of the other guys here have done a good job. Some sponsors, G Fuel, Jersey Jacks, got these great boards here. I mean, they've done very well for a first year event. Yeah, it's been awesome, the response we've had. It's kind of hard to get the word out, so we had this slow rollout, but then we quickly approached this cutoff limit because the size of the space is just limited. We really hope with the G Fuel sponsorship we can expand this incredibly next year. I think people like coming to New York City, and that's a big advantage to having a tournament here. And hopefully this leads the way to having more, like, focus pro, Stern pro, dare I say, pinball tournaments in major cities. My final question, as an employee of Stern, I have to ask you, what kind of dictator is Zach Sharp really like?
    7:17
    Well, why are you giving me the choke signal? Like, what's going on? I'll say one thing, Jeff. He's not my boss.
    7:24
    Thank God for that. Tim, great job with everything you've done, and especially here in New York with the NYCPC. Thank you very much, Jeff. The city never sleeps, ready to slip, you are ambient.
    7:38
    One of Brooklyn's finest players, also a member of Bells and Chimes in New York, Anna Wolk joins us right now. How are you doing, Anna? I'm good. How are you, Jeff? It's good to see you. I see you in the Classics lineup right now. You're about to torture yourself on stars. Yeah, that's right. Every good ball I've had on stars, I've tilted my bonus away. Oh, no. I'm sure that'll happen again this time. Now, are you going for the spinner on the left or the right, or either? I've been having trouble hitting the spinner on the right. I've got the spinner on the left a bunch, so I'm going for that one. I'm going for stars, keeping the ball alive. You know, it seems so easy. Get the special hit, hit it a few times. Easier said than done. Yeah, I think the way to go in this game is actually to shots, which is not my strong suit. So I tend not to try it, but the people I've seen putting up good scores have been relying on that. And it's a steeper game, too. Have you noticed that? I mean, they all feel pretty rough, but no, I did not notice that. Now I'm looking at the legs. How's Bells and Chimes doing? Bells and Chimes is amazing. It's like, I'd say it's grown by at least 50% every season that we've done the league format. This last season we had like probably 20 to 25 players every week. It was awesome. I see your hoodie and I'm wearing the pin that Kate Martin gave me, so we'll have to put that up on Facebook. Thanks very much, Anna. Yeah, thanks. Good luck.
    9:06
    I'm walking here! I'm walking here! Up yours, you son of a bitch! You don't talk to me that way! Get out of here! Another player here at the NYCPC, Brandon Hoffman, who's from Orange County. How you doing, Brandon? I'm doing pretty good. How about yourself? Not bad. I've seen you play. You know what you're doing? Why are you lying?
    9:27
    Listen, it's theater of the mind, all right? Even if you had three house balls, no one's going to know. It's a chance to build you up. I'll try it again. Just play another entry, then. I'll try it again. Brandon, you're kicking ass. Oh, thank you very much. I've been trying really hard.
    9:42
    So where do you play normally? Rock Fantasy over in Orange County. Steve Keeler's place. Yeah, Keeler's coming today. I'm looking forward to seeing him. I've never met him, and that's a place. You know, Stephanie Guy, who's standing right beside you, she talks about that. And, you know, Tim Sexton used to play there all the time, and Bowden's been there. It's a place I'm dying to go to. Tell me about Rock Fantasy. Rock Fantasy's an interesting place. It's part head shop, part rock shop, metal records, metal shirts. And then they have about 35 to 40 pinball machines. Really fun place to hang out. Steve's a very cool guy, very inviting. invites a lot of people into the league. You always feel welcome there. I know about the Hulk head. Tell those who don't know about the Hulk head. You've got to hold the Hulk head if you win. I've never held the Hulk head. What? I've never held it. It's a real bragging rights honor thing, isn't it? It absolutely is, yeah. Knowing what I know about Steve, when Iron Maiden came out, he pretty much was, it was like a dream team for him. He pretty much lost his mind over it. He's been walking around in masks. Every day is Halloween at Rock Fantasy right now. I think I've seen him with a few of those masks. Yeah, absolutely. Anyway, well, best of luck. I know you'll be in the finals here in New York City, and it's good to see you and other people that I haven't met before. Thanks for listening to Pinball Pro Football. Thanks for doing the show. I really love it.
    11:12
    Fun with birthday. Wait a minute. Fun with bonus. Same thing. Steve Bowden joining us here in New York City. Happy birthday, by the way. Thank you very much, Jeff. Is that the best birthday you can do? Playing pinball and doing well? As far as I'm concerned, yeah. In New York. As far as I'm concerned, that's just fine. I love it. It was a big birthday for you. Do you want to share or do you want to lie and tell people? Let's lie. All right. Happy 25th. Yeah, all right. No, that's fine. I'm 40 and I'm fine with that. The big 4-0 and we had a little bit of celebrating at maybe As Is New York with a bunch of friends, Lyman and Greg and Nick Zendayos. It was good last night. It was definitely very fun. You know, we talked shop for a few, and, you know, definitely fun to hang out and consume some tasty beverages. Yeah, I was thinking about that because it was your birthday. A few drinks were bought for you. How are you feeling this morning? I'm feeling great. Oh, look at you. I'm budgeting my drinks, so I'm okay, you know. Don't go overboard. It's good. Speaking of drinks also the star of the new Meltdown podcast That a lot of fun for you It definitely fun finally to get that started Nikki and I will be back together doing something pretty soon so we get back on We might see some guests and also some other ideas that we pull out of somewhere, wherever we're going to get them. You know what, one thing you can say about that podcast, unique, definitely unique. There is nothing else like it. I'm glad we checked off the drunk podcast first. We did that, that was done. Then I threw the curveball. Now we do whatever we want. We may get drunk again. We may do something completely different. But as long as we're having fun, it doesn't really matter. It could be your birthday weekend. I saw you just crush Star Trek, which is no surprise. Finally, I got a hold of it. Once I was able to figure out that all the shots are early because the flippers are so low. And I just had to train myself to be earlier than I usually am. Then it worked out. That's the secret to that game. Adjusting on the fly. That's why Steve Ballin is one of the best in the world. Thanks very much, Steve. All right. Thank you very much. She is the star of the brightest podcast in 2018. You know, it's making old farts like myself, Ron Howlett of Slam Tilt, who's sitting right beside me, the head-to-head guys. We're old news. Sorry, Ron, it's true. I'm not as old as you. It's true. But Stephanie Guida of Riptide. She is here in New York. And, well, you're always in New York if I really think about it. Yeah, I guess. I mean, not the city. Are you having fun on Riptide? Oh, my God, yeah. Crystal and I are, thank you again, Jeff, for having me on, for spurring me on to do the podcast. Thank you too, Ron. Of course. Actually, Ron was the bigger part. What are you giving me the credit for? Ron really helped you out a lot, didn't he? Yeah. By the way, he helped me out too, way back when Pinball Football started. Yeah, Ron is like the unofficial tech guy of the podcasters. He's the podcast tech. Don't you hate that he's so damn nice? I know, right? I know, you want to make fun, but you can't. No, you just can't. Although, non-stop, everywhere I go, I hear this voice, and he always says, Hi, I'm Jeff Jotes. If I ever lose my voice, Ron is filling in for me. Yes. But I don't think he can fill in for you, because it's a podcast, finally, for the women, from the women. Yeah, and I mean, it's not just for the women, of course, it's for everyone. I listen. Gender is a social construct. It don't matter what your gender is. It's just everyone's voice should be heard. We should all have fun and podcasts. Yeah, and it's great, too, the different perspectives, too. You know yourself from New York State and then Crystal from Chicago. Yeah. Although she's a Canadian. Yes, she's born in Toronto, I believe. Best of luck in the tournament, and we look forward to hearing you on Riptide, available on Podcast Garden. Yes, and hopefully eventually Google Play, iTunes, and Stitcher. Thanks, Deb. Thank you.
    14:51
    Finland, Finland, Finland. The country where I want to be Pony trekking or camping Or just watching TV He's probably Finland's greatest player, Oli Mikko Oyamias. Well done. Well done, I got the name right. You know, I've seen some other Finnish players, but no one plays as well as you. And I'm seeing you here in New York City, and you're getting ready for IFBA 15. How have you been doing? Thanks for asking. Really well. It's like I'm being able to spend my summer holidays by playing pinball With this kind of location where you see pinball machines And when you turn around, you see the New York skyline And it's just awesome And if you turn to the left, you'll see a mugging, but that's a side note So, what's pinball like in Finland? I know there's a lot of great players there Pinball in Finland has seen really many good things happening in past years When I personally found pinball around 10 years ago, it was like we really didn't have any private collections or places to play pinball or competitions. Just because the only tournament that was in Finland at that time, to which I participated in, I found some people were also interested in pinball. and somehow I think that it started the chain of events which basically like we started to want to have more events and people started to collect pinball machines more to homes and organize events and it's been like a growing scene since then. You started the Cool Kids Club, now everyone wants to join. Well, you're way better than Jonas, I don't care what he says. Oli Mikko, you're the best. Thanks, I appreciate that. Jonas is also awesome, but I hope that I'm still a little better than him. No, no, no, he's horrible. Thanks very much. Thank you, Jim.
    16:49
    Finland, Finland, Finland. Finland has it all. You're so sadly neglected. And often ignored a bar second to Belgium.
    17:04
    When going abroad. I don't care what anybody says. The best player from Finland's right here. His name is Jonas Adeorinen. How are you? I'm fine, thanks. How are you? There's this guy, Ole Mikko, going around saying he's the best player in Finland. What do you say to that? Well, man, he actually is, but I try to be better than him. He's not wearing a hat with a pom-pom on it. It's the best look ever. Yeah, man. You can choose the color of your pom-pom. Sure. Depending on how you're doing. So I'm wearing blue. What's that mean? Yeah, because I'm a finnish treading water. What is no no no no I'm a finnish So it's a white and blue
    17:50
    According to the flag. I got it. Okay, so if you're wearing red, what the heck does that mean? Switzerland no, no, it's it means a fight back It's a you know, it's a it's a warning sign for the other players are the Finnish people very big fighters Is that I don't really know Finland is the biggest fighters in the world I'm Canadian, we're the same. Yeah, that's true actually. We like to play ice hockey together Yes we do Yeah but it a warning sign I mean it I need to What is the word? Hide the chickens? No, no, no. I'm on the hunt mode. On the hunt. Okay, on the prowl. Yeah. All right, well, you keep your eye on that Ole Miko because he's trouble. Thanks very much, Jonas. Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. Give it up.
    18:43
    Making the trek from Canada to New York City. I'm not the only one. In fact, there are quite a few people here. One of them from Ottawa, Megan Sprague, joins us. Hi, Megan. Hi, Jeff. How's it going? Pretty good. You've been traveling a lot to different tournaments. I saw you at Indus at the start of the year. You come to Toronto, and there's a lot of action in Ottawa, too. Where's your favorite place to play? Well, Pinberg, just like everybody else. Oh, okay. I was lucky enough to get a spot this year, so I'll be there in July as well. It's kind of neat to have this tournament here in New York City. It's amazing, with all the people, that they haven't really had a big one like this in many, many years. What do you think so far? So far, so good. It's been really well organized. The lines aren't too bad, so I'm able to compete in all three divisions and hopefully qualify in at least one. I've seen you at other New York tournaments. The Silver Ball Saloon, Bruce Nightingale from Slam Tilt, he's had a few tournaments. You've made it there as well. What do you think of that place? Oh, that place is great. There's some great classic sterns. It's a wonderful lineup. There's going to be another stomp one coming up, so I'll probably see you at that one, too. And Indis, too. Now, that was a pretty impressive women's lineup. I think the number was 49 players or something. It was huge. What did you think of it? It was great. It was really nice having a dedicated bank so that the lines were short. The prize pool was massive. Had I known that, I would have tried a little bit harder. but I focused on classics. And that's one of the things I actually object to, having a separate women's bank at major events, because we have to split our time and our money that much more. But it's great that it brings attention to the female participants. And I can think of three tournaments that are giving away new in-box pinball machines for women's tournaments, so it's nice to see that grow. Absolutely.
    20:25
    Best of luck to you here in New York City, and safe drive home to Ottawa. Thanks, same to you. I'm not surprised to see this guy here in New York City. I've seen him in New York State quite a bit, in Buffalo, and right here in Hell's Kitchen, C.J. Smith, who did very, very well. I saw firsthand in Classics. Good for you. Bowen gave me some very nice compliments, but I was very, I don't know, It made me feel warm inside. Every time I've played you, I think I've played you directly twice. Once was in Buffalo two years ago. You knocked me out there. You did it again here in Classics. Really? I knocked you out in Buffalo? Oh, I keep track of all my enemies. I mean, all the people who are way better than me. That's what I meant to say. I'm not way better than you. CJ, you played very, very well. And what do you think of the lineup today? The Classics were top. You know some of those two of those Classics that are in my basement? Which ones? Volley is my volley. That's my volley. Oh, okay. I didn't do very well. Austin double-rolled my volley. Okay, what else? Top scorer is Austin's, and he's my roommate. Okay, and Austin won the championship. That's amazing. Yeah, that's great. That's his first big win, isn't it? Not surprising on his own machines and on classics. No, but he played well on a bunch of other machines, too. Whose machine is Gorgar? I don't know. I think it's Al's. Oh, the toughest Gorgar I've ever seen in my life. Lightning flippers, I heard. Lightning flippers. That was the first game in the playoffs just now. That was the first time I played it all weekend. Oh, boy. It was fun. I like putting in a little oomph in a machine. Well, we're watching the women's finals right now. Thanks, TJ. Yeah, thank you. Well, it's over. The New York City Pinball Championships. Congratulations to Never Beef Productions with an amazing first-time event. Crazy Levy was the man behind it all along with his great crew. You've got to feel good about what just happened. Yeah, I'm pretty happy with it. You know, we had 120, 130 players. Everybody was well-behaved. Everybody had a good time. We had some high-quality pinball competition. Like, you couldn't have scripted it any better. These finals, I mean, all the finals were tight and well-contested. And those main division finals were just insane with those huge comebacks from Bowen on Kiss and Aerosmith battling it out with John and battling it out with Bowen and Keith. It was really, you know, we couldn't have scripted it any better, and I'm really happy about it. I'm sure you're already planning for next year. I know I was talking to Mark, the general manager of the hotel, and he was talking about, oh, we can go to the ballroom, and I don't want to jump ahead. I want to congratulate you on what just happened. But I'm sure you're thinking about next year. Well, we're thinking about next year. I think we're thinking about just taking a nap at this point. But we're going to regroup in a few weeks, I think, and maybe just compare notes, and then we'll go from there. I think we'll probably take a couple months off of this whole never beef business, unless something too good to resist turns up. So feel free to email us if you have any promotion ideas. So when are you taking that tuxedo off? It's already half off. I'm sure your home audience doesn't notice that I'm not wearing pants, but I definitely want to get out of this monkey suit and start moving some pinball machines around because we've got a long night ahead of us. Pinball alive and well in New York City, and thanks very much, Levy. Great job. The New York City Pinball Championships come to a close. You can find our group on Facebook. We're also on Twitter at pinballprofile, email us pinballprofile at gmail.com, and please subscribe on either iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play. Thanks, Jeff. We'll see you next year. I'm Jeff Teolis. Start spreading the news.
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    I'm leaving today. I want to be a part of it. New York, New York.