Why can't we be friends? Why can't we be friends? Why can't we be friends? Why can't we be friends? 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. Please subscribe on your favorite podcatcher, and check us out on Instagram, at pinballprofile. It's another Friday night. We are all pretty much homebound, I would say. We don't exactly have the quarantines in place yet, but it feels like that. And I know that some businesses, some schools are going to be experiencing some shutdowns right now. So it's a good time to talk to people around North America and the world, hopefully, and find out what's going on in their neck of the woods. And nearby here, where I live, just over in Ottawa, a great pinball family that you've probably seen them maybe streaming as the pinballers. They're on Pinball Degenerates. They are the Castlemans, and they join me right now. we've got Mike, we've got Lisa, we've got Carter. How are you doing? Hey, Jeff. How's it going? Thanks so much for having us. Hello. Hello. I'm going to talk to Carter first of all, because Carter's the guy I want people to know. I know him very well. Why do I know Carter very well? He only smoked me in the Ontario finals. This kid is a whiz kid. How old are you now, Carter? I am 12. 12 years old. So you know that I'm working really, really hard to ban all kids under the age of 18 from playing pinball. Lisa is he crying he's very afraid you're intimidating him first of all I'm dead against that I love that kids are playing pinball but if that happened we would lose all these great champs recently with you know we've got Escher we've got Colin Urban Alexander Kazmarchuk's won a bunch Johannes Ostermeyer so many great kids Carter how did you find this love for pinball you're supposed to be playing video games well my parents well my dad had an old video game collection and he sold all that and he got two machines and that's really when I started playing pinball. What machines? A Rocky and Bullwinkle and a Street Fighter. Okay when did you realize you were pretty darn good at pinball? Like my second tournament I finished like top 10 I think and that's when I thought I started getting decent at pinball. One thing I've noticed it's a common among young players is the excitement, both when they're winning and also when they're losing. Is that one of the difficulties you find as such a young fellow when it comes to playing pinball, accepting that you might not always win, your ball might drain when something wrong happens? And how do you keep yourself kind of level-headed at such a young age that I got to be able to ride these ups and downs? Well, yeah, I sometimes have trouble being able to keep my emotions in control. I'm trying to work on it right now. Do you know what the first solution to fixing that is? I don't know. That you just admitted that, that you're trying to work on it. So you probably will tackle that and become more level-headed as most kids. Listen, I know most adults. I see guys still donkey kick games when they lose a ball. Like, oh, how did that happen? and it's embarrassing. You're nowhere near that, Carter, but it's very tough. You know, you think, oh, maybe I had a, I know I can do really well in that game and darn it, I just had a bad ball or I made a mistake. But I see some great things from you, Carter. And again, this is the guy who was third in Ontario. He was ahead of yours truly, ahead of Jack Tadman, so many great players. So, Carter, I'm really impressed with the way you've been playing. Thank you. Let's talk to your mom because I had a good chat with Lisa in November at the 24-hour sanctum. By the way, you led, I think, all players, and there were 100, in costume changes. I was just trying to be really comfy, and like I mentioned to you during that tournament, that I wanted to keep on my own schedule, so I wore my regular clothes during the day, and then my after-work comfy pants, and then I put my pajamas on. I had some great naps. It was a lot of fun. Yeah, I saw your recent Facebook post where, and if you don't mind me sharing this, it's a gif of a woman who's, the caption was something like, okay, three weeks, stay at home, and the gif is a picture of a woman whipping off her bra. Oh, yes, I'm so excited, yep. My bra's off, too. I just wanted to point that out. Awesome. You must be, like, so relaxed right now. A little bit, yeah. I find it a little drafty, but that's okay. I put my bra on for a stream, so it's back on right now. Okay, this is the first time we've really ever talked about underwear on Pinball Profile. We were due. Glad I could help you. But you have been playing amazing, too. In fact, you and your daughter, Paige, who's 11 years old, were also participants in the recent provincial championships. You and Paige participated in the women's championship and did quite well. Yeah, we did, actually. We were at Cabin Fever. I finished 10th overall, and Paige finished 8th, actually. Pretty impressive. And that was the first women's championship from a provincial standpoint. So it was kind of nice to be a part of that. Yeah, it was great. It was a great tournament. We had some amazing women who qualified and everyone played really well. It was a great location. So I'm really happy that I was a part of that. Nice to see that happening. It looks like we're going to see more of that in other provinces, other states too. So very excited what the Women's Advisory Board has done with the IFPA. So Lisa, I know I'll see you again probably very, very soon. and maybe even at your place, because I know, Mike, you actually hold a lot of tournaments there. We do, actually. So what our plan is now is we hold a tournament every three or four months. We're starting to do sort of a schedule where we hold. I like to run different formats, too, so we're supposed to be having one which is a critical hit, which will be the first time we've held one here. We're looking forward to it, but, I mean, we may have to obviously postpone that due to the situation going on now. Well, that's the thing, too. And I know both you and Lisa work. And how has this affected, you know, your businesses and employment? And, you know, we're seeing a lot of people obviously looking at some forecasting that's going to be some maybe some struggling times. Yeah, so fortunately, I have the ability to work from home. So I have a laptop provided to me from work. So for the next three weeks, while the kids are off school, I'm actually going to be able to at least work from home. So I'm lucky in that sense. And Lisa, she works from home as well. So we're fortunate that we can both work from home. I see a lot of businesses trying to implement that too. And it might be something different. It depends on what you do for a living too, right? If you're a hands-on person, if you're in a factory and you're on an assembly line, that's difficult to work from home. But if communication can be done through phones through emails you know fingers crossed that we going to see this And we going to get through this I mean it going to get unfortunately worse before it gets better But yeah well I think also that our government is realizing that there a lot of people who do need to stay home because they're children who don't have the ability like Mike and I do to work from home. So they're looking at the EI being able to access that two weeks of coverage for anything like that without having the one week wait. So I think there's a lot of, you know, provisions that are being put in place that everybody will be taking care of as much as the government can. So I hope that it all works out for everyone. I'm thankful that we have the ability to to work from home and nothing be disrupted. And we're kind of you know, for us, we are in a bit of a bubble with our family. We're really looking forward to this time. There's going to be a lot of our streaming on pinballers. We're going to be doing some housework, but they're thrilled about that. They love it. They love it. I did post on Facebook that the kids are not allowed to have electronics until one thing that improves their house every day is done first. The first thing on the list, paint the house. Well done. Good job, Lisa. It is on the list. Oh, no. But, you know, it depends. I might be thrown in there if they're not listening one day. The next day, it's get out the rollers and the paint trays. Number two, roofing. That'd be awesome. Number three, change my transmission. Just little tasks. That's fine. Yeah, Carter can learn that for sure. Well, Carter, my young guy is 14, my youngest, Brady. You're 12. I'm wondering if you had the same reaction Brady had when it came to, you're going to be off school for three weeks. Were you just as disappointed as Brady? I was really happy because I thought I was going to be able to get to play pinball for like six hours a day. Nice, nice. And then you found out that. Yeah, and then I found out that I'm going to have to do chores for like three hours. And Carter's also been sent home with work from one of his teachers. so he's got a book report due before he goes back to school. Oh, Google Classroom is going to keep all the kids busy. Yep. You know what I hear in the background there, Carter? Listen, you hear that? It was the cracking of a whip. You better get to work. Lisa and Mike, you were kind enough to come to some of my Pinball Profile World Tour events. I appreciate that. Yes, we were at the Sanctum, the 24 Hours of the Sanctum, which I guess you did the pre-tournament there the night before, and then the Pinball Profile World Tour at the Silver Ball Saloon in Rochester. Yeah, and I have to say, Jeff, that one of the things for signing up for the tournament was we could choose T-shirts or mugs, and for two of the locations I chose mugs, and those are my favorite. So the Sanctum Pinball Profile mug and the one from Silver Ball, I use those daily, and I enjoy my coffee, my decaf coffee out of those every day. If I'm looking for a marketing director, Lisa, you're right at the top of the list. Thanks very much. Hey, it's good to talk to you and I hope to see you soon. I hope everyone is safe and best of luck to you there in Ottawa. Yes, definitely, Jeff. Thank you for having us. Thanks so much, Jeff. Make sure you check out The Castlemans on Pinballers on Twitch. We head over to Cleveland, Ohio right now and joining us, Nick Shako. Hey, Nick, how are you? Good, how are you? Good, thanks. This coronavirus is going to impact a lot of different people in a lot of different ways. And for you, it's more so from the health side, wouldn't you say? Oh, for sure. Well, I have some respiratory issues where I actually ended up in the hospital for extended periods of time a number of years ago. And it's thankfully the doctors able to figure out a way that whereas it was stabilized and I've been having issues since. But I still have basically weak lungs to begin with. So me more than most people my age, it would possibly could be a big issue if I picked it up. So that's why I'm staying home. And you're a young man, too, aren't you? Yeah, I'm only in my mid-30s. Nick, do you assume that this is going to prevent you from playing pinball in the near future? Yeah, for sure. And that's definitely for the next few weeks. So, like, I had a really cool tournament planned called King of the Hill. I've already canceled that and I'm going to postpone it. So hopefully in a few months we can, well, we will run it because I'm really excited about it. Just the other normal tournaments, like I have a tournament I do every other Wednesday, and then I have another tournament I do every other Friday. So like everyone else, I have no idea how this arc is going to be. I'm sure we'll get back to pinball soon, fingers crossed. But explain what this King of the Hill is. Yeah, so it's a format that I made up where you basically, just like the old children's game, where you have someone on top of the hill and you want to push them off everyone else. So the way it works is we'll have a set number of machines based on number of players. So most likely we'll have eight machines. And then everyone will be vying to be on the top of the hill, that is, to have the highest score on one of those eight machines. And then after a two-hour period, who's ever on the top of a machine will move on to the finals. And we'll want to have eight unique people. So if there are some people who are on more than one machine, they'll have to choose which machine they'll be on, and then we'll go to the next highest score. So once you're on top, are you allowed to go to another machine or no? So, yeah, I was balancing this because I don't want someone to go there, play one machine, be on the top, and then not be able to play again. But I don't want – we have some really, really good players in the Cleveland region. So if I just let it – I know that I'll just name a couple people who are pretty high up on the list. John DelZoppo, if I let him just go, he could probably be on top of four, five, six machines. Or I've got Steven Prucer, who's a really amazing player here. Same. So the way I'm balancing it is that they can be on top of two machines if they're, well, they can keep playing on top of two machines. If they get on top of a third or anyone else gets on top of a third machine, then they have to choose which two they'll stay on during the time. So I don't want the case to happen where they're on top of one machine the whole time, then five minutes is left, someone knocks them off, and then they have no shot. But I don't want them just running out and putting really amazing high scores on all the machines that no one else can obtain. Have you figured out how the TGP and how this is going to work with IFPA? Yeah, I have. I emailed them, and unfortunately, it's not going to be worth as much TGP as I would like, or I should say as much I think it should be worth. But just the way it is, because the way you qualify for the finals is only being on the top of one machine. That means the TGP for the qualifying portion is very low. Basically, we're 6%, 4% for one machine, and 2% because it's a two-hour qualifying period. And then the finals will be where the bulk of the TGP points come from, because that will just be like any other single elimination best-of-three tournament. So it's probably going to come in at about half of max TGP, but I decided there's ways I could have done it to make it so to boost up the TGP. And I just decided I want to run it the way that I think will be best, and I think people will come out for it regardless, even if it's not going to get the most points possible. But you were talking about it, too, being a nice little two-hour tournament, which, you know, you don't expect full TGP. I guess the flip frenzies are maybe the closest ways to get to it. But you know what? Strikes tournaments and things like this there a need for that If someone just wants to play for a couple hours here you go Yeah well so the qualified portion will be two hours Then I figure the finals portion will probably be another couple of hours But, yeah, it's still relatively quick. We're not talking about a 12-hour tournament. We're talking about something that's probably going to be four or five hours. It's all of a sudden probably four and a half, I'm guessing. Well, you have some experience at tournaments. You've been at Cleapin. In fact, you've been a scorekeeper there in the past. Mm-hmm, and that was really cool. That was the first time I did really well on the big tournament. I actually finished, I think it was 13th. I was in the quarterfinals of the classics, so it was really fun. Very nice. Didn't do as well at Pinberg last year, which is my first time going, but I'm excited. Hopefully we'll have that, and I'm going back again this year. So I'm hoping to do better this year. So I heard that Fishtails was the game that kind of got you hooked into pinball. Still my favorite game. I love it. There's one at Kid Force Collectibles, which is a great place to play in Cleveland, which I play almost every time I go there. And I love a whole lot of machines, but Fishtail still holds a special place in my heart. Well, you would have been very young when that came out, but when Lord of the Rings came out, that's the one that kind of probably pushed you over the edge. That game was just really cool because I didn't play pinball games for a while after that. It was like I went to the campgrounds where I played them when I was, I don't know, around 10, 12. But then when I went to college eight years later, that game was there, and I was like, this game was amazing. It is a good one for sure, Nick. I'm hoping that everything goes well for you over the next few weeks. I know you're going to take care, and hopefully we all are, and we can get back to pinball very, very soon. Cool, and I just want to say, anyone who's in the Cleveland area, they should definitely go to Kid Forest Collectibles. They're an amazing crowd, amazing league there. We have one of the biggest leagues in the country this last season. We had 165 people in the league there that was playing for eight weeks, six games a week, so that's a great place to go. And then we also have a good scene at a place called Southland Bowling Alley. So we've got good people here and a lot of fun. It's been a great hobby for me, and I know a lot of other people feel the same way. Ohio is definitely a hotbed for pinball, and I'm sure I'll see you there very soon. Sounds good. Thanks a lot, Nick. Thank you. Well, I was kind of hoping to see this guy, and I think we all were looking forward to heading to Texas. Obviously, unfortunately, Texas Pinball Festival canceled for this year, and I certainly feel for Ed and Kim and everyone involved in TPF because so much hard work, so much money was put into this, and I know the pinball community will be there for them again in the near future. But that means we're not going to see certain people, and this guy I was looking forward to seeing because he's a staple there in Texas. In fact, he's your Texas champ and just played at the NACS. Robert Byers joins us right now. Hello, Robert. Hi, Jeff. How are you? Good to talk to you, buddy. How did you do at NACS? I mean, I know the answer, but you can share with those listening. Yeah, it was interesting to be there for the first time. Finally, somebody's calling the cow pine went. So it was an interesting event. A little nervous at the beginning, but I managed to make it past my first round against Mark Gunther from Arkansas. So I knew him. And then I met this guy named Greg Pavarelli in my second round. He was a pretty good player, I think. The New York State champ, Greg Pavarelli. Yeah. Yeah, we had a pretty epic battle. Well, I managed to take the first two games, and then he'd come back to tie it up 2-2, and then it went 1-1-1. We finished on the game of soccer, believe it or not. Not World Cup soccer, the EM soccer. No, I lost game six to take it back to 3-3 on World Cup soccer, and the gentleman before me, Mark, had took me to soccer, and I played a pretty good game of it, and Greg was playing excellent on the modern games, so I decided since I had a game on that, let's go some old school, and it paid off. Well, you like the older games. I mean, you like all the new ones, too, but I think of you as a great classics player. Thanks. Yeah, I feel like I'm equal on any set of games, modern or older. It just depends on if you're in the zone or not, which I was not when I ran into my next opponent, Ray Day. So Ray Day took me to town 4-0. That was a wake-up call. Yeah, and then he made it to the semifinals. I mean, losing to Ray Day, you're not alone. I think many of us have because we're talking about the number one player in the world, for crying out loud. Correct. Our first game was on Deadpool, and we both had about $4 million after two balls. Just did nothing. And then he was player one and decided to put up $600 million on his third ball. That was enlightening. Tell me about your experience at NACS. It's obviously nice to get there. I've said this is one of the hardest tournaments to get into the playoffs because look at Texas alone. Look at all the players you had to beat just to get there. Talk about what happened in January at the Texas State Finals. Yeah, I mean, the field of people is just incredible here in Texas. I mean, you've got Colin MacAlpine, Silver Maldi. Now you've got Mr. Bound, who makes a presence. The pinball mafia? Yeah, pinball mafia's in town. But they qualify in Louisiana, so they usually bump over there. So you don't have to mess with them with state, typically. Preston's probably one of the better players in Texas, but he goes over to Louisiana and typically tries to get his spot over there. Which I think he did. He did. So, yeah, he made it past his first round as well, and then I forget who he lost to in the second round, but it was good to see him there. I've never played in that NACS. Did you like that you got to pick the games? Were you okay with kind of waiting for your game to come up? What do you think of the format? I did. I was listening. I'm actually in the middle of, I think, episode three, final round, where you and Marty are talking about that, and I thought Marty was going to be on. You know, that's where I really came on today, but no, I just do. So, I mean, what are you going to do? beggars can't be choosers you know i'll take number two in this case you're used to that you know number two on your podcast sure anyways it was just an interesting format but i do like being able to pick the games like like you guys discussed getting that far making it through all the tournaments in the year qualifying getting in the finals of the state trying to beat people that you know are excellent players and then you make it there the last thing i want to do is be put on a game that I didn't really want to be on when it's my pick. So I will wait all day if I have my choice. Okay, fair enough. Does that make you a better pinball player or are you just really good at four machines that you pick? No, that's a good point. I had brought up a list of every single game that might be there and I had a top five list on moderns and a top five list on more classic solid states. So I had my target planned for Mark because he's better at the older games. So, of course, every time I picked, I picked the modern. But then when I got into Ray Day, it didn't work. He picked Deadpool. After that, we went soccer, Paragon. And after losing on those two, I did pick Iron Maiden the last. But my plan was to go older games with him to level the playing field a little bit. So after NACS I guess you were looking forward to like a lot of us the Texas Pinball Festival That a tournament where a lot of people got to know you because you were a big winner there just a few years ago Yeah a couple of years I got hot and managed to win that event And it was kind of sad. I mean, I have moved my schedule around to make sure I was free that weekend. And hearing that it was canceled was a big, sad trombone. So, yeah, I was really looking forward to going to TPF. As always, I've been going almost every year since 2005. and it's just such a great event. And I mean, up until the cancellation notice came out, figured it was going to go on and had plans for hand washing and hand sanitizing between gain, minimize and social interaction, which kind of will kill the event because that's what it's about. So it was sad to see that go away, but I definitely think it's probably the right move with the current situation. It had to be the toughest decision. And you think if it was only last month, I mean, the timing is just horrible. It's going to put a lot of us back for sure in whatever business you're into. I don't know what it's going to be like for you with work. Yeah, I'm actually in the service industry, and I take care of a lot of places like power plants. And we're worried about chemical supply chains and things like that being disrupted and these plants not be operating. So it could be significant if it goes on for a long time. I think that's why everybody's taking the extreme actions of basically shutting everything down for a couple weeks and try to get a baseline reset and go from there. It's being able to survive these next few weeks is the difficult thing. You know, I think of the restaurants and the bars, and we were talking about that just earlier before you came on. A good suggestion, if you can do this, maybe go out of your way and buy gift certificates. If that's a place you frequent, that might help them in the interim. You know, so there's a suggestion you can do. If that's a place you're going to want to see survive, show it some support, and that's one way of doing it. Absolutely. One of the things that I wanted to mention is TP. They put out a lot of money up front getting all this stuff scheduled, and I know they're planning on refunding all the Pernamoney and all the merch that they promised that sold is going to be shipped and mailed out. But the one thing I found interesting they're doing is the ticket price. They're going to honor that ticket sale for 2021. on. I think they are going to refund anybody that calls them or emails them directly, but I encourage people not to do that because they need those resources. And it's not a lot of money to each individual, but it's a huge to them. And being a privately owned run tournament and expo, I don't want them to see them go away from a financial process by something that was out of their control. That's a good point too. I think of when I was there and I just think of those huge, huge banners that they made that they're date specific. And those have probably been printed already and costs gone out, just bringing in guests, the airline tickets, I would imagine, things like that. And hopefully those are refundable, but there are certainly a lot of hard costs, merchandise. That's going to be a real hit to the people that run TPF. So if you're given that option of maybe using that ticket towards 2021, I think that's a great idea, Robert. And I think I'm going to do that too, because these little things can help and you're not in any desperate need to get that money back. Boy, oh boy, that's one way to help make a festival that is, in a lot of people's mind, one of the best, if not the best, make that survive into the future and get through this rough patch. While I've got you on, there are some rumors swirling around the internet about macho pinball. And I don't know if there's a bigger fan than Robert Byers because as we saw when you won, you did a little wrestling move. It was D-Generation X and the little crotch chop, really. And some people are thinking, is Robert Byers macho pinball? I've heard that rumor. I mean, I have sent messages back and forth to macho. I mean, I may be insane enough to be talking to myself. You just really never know. Not a definitive answer. Way to sit on the fence. Yeah. I guess you'll just have to keep using your mystery decoder ring. I mean, listening to the mystery decoder things, and maybe you find out it's me. Maybe you find out it's not. I don't know. Well, I'm going to reveal something right now, Robert. Uh-oh. I 100% know who Macho Pinball is. Ugh. Because Macho is coming on Pinball Profile, funny enough, just coincidentally, on April 1st. Hmm, interesting. That's an interesting day. I don't recall talking to you about it. I don't recall talking to you either. I'm saying it's not Robert. I'm saying right here it's not Robert Byers. Well, I know Jason Wardrick and Travis Murray and a lot of people in Houston, Texas would disagree with you at this time, but maybe someday we'll find out. I've been accused for it. What other voices have I ever done? This is ridiculous. I don't do any voices. I have no talents at all. See, now that's the Robert Byers I know. I agree. Exactly. I'm kind of like Josh in that respect, you know? No talents, but I talk a good game. Ah, Josh does fine. You are getting a new game very soon, and I call you a classics master, but this is one of the best new games we've seen in years. Yeah, I couldn't pass up the opportunity. Since the last time we talked a couple years ago, I picked up a Tron and a Star Trek Pro and an Iron Maiden Pro, but I could not pass on buying a Jurassic Park premium. You got a premium? Oh, nice. Yeah, it's just too good of a game. The theme integration, you know, it hits home that when I was younger and Jurassic Park first came out and it just continues to get better and better. I have yet to find a flaw with that game. I'll have to agree with you. Yeah, I'm looking forward to getting it. The sooner the better. Hopefully sometime in April is what I'm hearing. Was this a little present for yourself because you recently got engaged? No, my fiance is not into pinball, but luckily she does not hinder me from going to play any pinball events. Yes, I got engaged in January right after I won the Texas State Championship. So it was a pretty good January for me. Very nice. If you didn't win, somebody else would have been engaged. Is that how that works? I think that's how it works, yeah. Hey, Robert, it's good to talk to you. I know I'll see you soon. Be safe, my friend, and we'll see you flipping soon. Sounds like a good thing. And always remember, podcast watch. Thanks, Jeff. Thanks, Robert. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find our group on Facebook. We're also on Twitter at Pinball Profile. Email us pinballprofile at gmail.com. Please subscribe on your favorite podcatcher. And check us out on Instagram at pinballprofile. I'm Jeff Teolas. Thank you.