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IFPA 2018 National and Women's World Championships - Part 7 of 10

IE Pinball·video·1h 36m·analyzed·May 12, 2018
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

2018 IFPA Nationals commentary covering elite pinball competition in Las Vegas.

Summary

IE Pinball provides tournament commentary from the 2018 IFPA National and Women's World Championships held at Flippersfield Underground Arcade Club in Las Vegas. The broadcast covers multiple match-ups across games like Barracora, Torpedo Alley, Abracadabra, Game of Thrones, and Aerosmith, featuring competitive play from top players including Escher (a 13-14 year old player who won PAPA 20), Robin, Ellen, Louise, and others. Commentary discusses game mechanics, player strategy, and tournament logistics including updates on PAPA's facility situation and upcoming Pin Masters event.

Key Claims

  • Escher won PAPA 20 last year (at age 13)

    high confidence · Commentator states 'Escher, who won PAPA 20 last year and he was 13 at the time, there have been more PAPAs than years in his life.'

  • PAPA 21 has been postponed due to facility issues

    high confidence · Commentator says 'PAPA 21 has been postponed while the crew tries to find a cell and find a new space' and later clarifies there's approximately a 99% chance PAPA won't happen this year due to building sale uncertainty

  • Ellen won Pinball Back women's division in 1996

    medium confidence · Chat room mentions 'Ellen won Pinball Back' and commentator confirms 'Yeah, and then she took a hiatus, and it's great to see her still playing at that level and back on the circuit'

  • Ellen was women's champion at PAPA 4

    medium confidence · Commentator speculates 'I think she was the women's champion at PAPA 4, maybe'

  • Ellen achieved a highest rank of 8th in Winchester Mystery House

    high confidence · Commentator states 'if the IFPA website does give you a clue, that was she was ranked eighth in Winchester Mystery House (Barrels of Fun game) of 1999'

  • Robin achieved highest rank of 60th as of 2016

    medium confidence · Chat member Greg Dunlap says 'the highest ever rank for a woman is 60th, Robin, in 2016'

  • Colin McAlpine is the current reigning Pinburgh champion

    high confidence · Commentator identifies 'The current reigning Pinburgh champion Colin McAlpine'

  • Game of Thrones is in casual mode with Stark always selected first

    high confidence · Commentator explains 'It is on casual mode, so you always start with Stark, and you're not allowed to change it'

  • Carrie Wing is from Kansas and Helena is from Colorado/Sweden

    medium confidence · Commentator states 'carrie wing from kansas and helena from sweden but based or similar interjection colorado' with some garbled text

Notable Quotes

  • “If we had a Hall of Fame of Pittsburgh pinball people, who would be the first entries? And besides him, she was the next one mentioned.”

    Commentator (Pete or Virginia Hendricks) @ ~43:20 — Establishes Ellen's legendary status in Pittsburgh pinball history alongside Dave Stewart

  • “He is up 2-0. Escher, who won PAPA 20 last year and he was 13 at the time, there have been more PAPAs than years in his life.”

    Commentator @ ~4:30 — Highlights Escher's prodigious talent and early success in elite pinball competition

  • “PAPA 21 has been postponed... I would say it's probably 99% that we won't, but you never know.”

    Commentator @ ~10:20 — Indicates severe facility crisis at PAPA threatening continuation of flagship tournament

  • “For all the latest information on that, though, watch Papa TV, which has been starting streaming Monday nights again, 7:30 Eastern.”

    Commentator @ ~14:45 — References PAPA's streaming platform and schedule for updates on facility/tournament status

  • “The level of competition is just so high that like, expense wise, it wasn't gonna make financial sense to stay out here longer than I had to.”

    Zoe Brable @ ~66:30 — Highlights economic barriers to competing at elite IFPA events and selective participation by players

  • “Normally when you lock a ball and the Louis Toy box is not disabled, it will throw it into the Louis Toy box and lock it away until all six are... This makes it a little more fair that both players will have the same thing to deal with.”

    Pete Hendricks @ ~71:00 — Explains tournament modification mechanics on Aerosmith to balance multiplayer fairness

  • “You have a ball... you barely hit the flipper. It hits it with just a little bit of oomph, so it doesn't do a full flip, and then the ball will go from one flipper to another.”

    Pete Hendricks @ ~65:00 — Explains advanced pinball technique (tap pass) to audience unfamiliar with competitive play

Entities

EscherpersonEllenpersonLouisepersonRobinpersonHannah HatchpersonColin McAlpinepersonAndrewpersonCarrie WingpersonHelenapersonZoe Brableperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: PAPA facility facing severe crisis with building sale uncertainty threatening tournament continuation; PAPA 21 postponed indefinitely with ~99% likelihood of cancellation

    high · Multiple mentions: 'PAPA 21 has been postponed', 'I would say it's probably 99% that we won't', 'depends on the sale of the building', 'they did tear down the broadcast booth'

  • ?

    community_signal: PAPA TV streaming Monday nights at 7:30 Eastern with temporary broadcast booth setup during facility uncertainty

    medium · Commentator states 'watch Papa TV, which has been starting streaming Monday nights again, 7:30 Eastern' and 'We're still streaming from the warehouse'

  • ?

    event_signal: 2018 IFPA National and Women's World Championships broadcast from Las Vegas with simultaneous Pin Masters event and Louisville Arcade Pinball Expo happening

    high · Tournament is actively being streamed and broadcast with multiple matches across various games

  • ?

    community_signal: Women's pinball competition showing strong repeat matchups with Carrie Wing/Helena rematch from prior year's finals

    medium · Commentary notes 'that's a repeat of last year's women's finals carrie wing from kansas and helena from sweden'

  • ?

    community_signal: Economic barriers to elite tournament participation recognized by competitive players, with high travel/entry costs limiting participation of skilled players

    medium · Zoe states 'The level of competition is just so high that like, expense wise, it wasn't gonna make financial sense to stay out here longer than I had to'

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.291

0:00
I don't think we do we know what Escher and Andrew are on something that's been coming they were they were playing I was watching them play I think the sorcerer when I went in so so they must have finished sorcerer Okay, and it looks like Louise and Ellen are on their 30-second warm-up.
0:27
Each player has been allowed to do a 30-second warm-up for each game throughout the day. Now, when you're playing, do you take the 30 seconds for every game, or after you've played it, do you feel comfortable and don't want to mess up something? I always want to see if anything changed, if someone moved the game, and if it's leveled differently or if the tilt's gotten tighter, especially because it's a match-by-match tournament. They can make changes to the games between rounds and announce those to the players. So you definitely want to see what's up throughout the day. And sometimes more games are played. Sometimes the flippers, for example, get a little bit weaker or whatever, and you want to know how they react. for example and uh and also on like metallica we watch the super skill shot it dead bounces into the mystery so you want to be able to test that as well and see where that shot is we got an update from escher as he was walking by he is up 2-0 Escher who won Papa 19 last year and he was 13 at the time there have been more Papas than years in his life and Papa 20 has been postponed until or no wait I apologize Papa 21 so he won 20 Papa 21 has been postponed while the crew tries to find a cell and find a new space. I don't think there's been much update on that from the last conversation I had with them.
2:11
And there is another tournament going on this weekend, both here and in Louisville. So IFPA Pin Masters will be starting tomorrow at 1 p.m. here. And the Papa Crew is down in Louisville for the Louisville Arcade Expo and hosting an event down there.

  • Carrie and Helena are repeating last year's women's finals matchup

    high confidence · Commentator notes 'that's a repeat of last year's women's finals carrie wing from kansas and helena from sweden' and 'helena pulled it out last year'

  • “We're still streaming from the warehouse. There hasn't been a sale yet. Like with any real estate deal, if somebody buys it, who knows how much time we'll have to move out.”

    Commentator @ ~11:30 — Details PAPA's precarious facility situation dependent on real estate sale

    • Pete Hendricks
    person
    Virginia Hendricksperson
    Kyleperson
    Josh Sharpperson
    Adam Beckerperson
    Dave Stewartperson
    IFPAorganization
    PAPAorganization
    Flippersfield Underground Arcade Cluborganization
    Stern Pinballcompany
  • ?

    community_signal: Pittsburgh positioned as historically significant pinball hub with legendary players like Ellen and Dave Stewart, though PAPA facility facing critical situation

    high · Discussion of Hall of Fame Pittsburgh pinball figures and PAPA building sale threatening tournament continuation

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Aerosmith tournament features disabled Louis Toy Box to equalize fairness between players in multiplayer matches

    high · Explanation of how disabling Louis Toy Box prevents one player from getting automatic safe lock throw

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Young player Escher (age 13-14) established as elite competitor having won PAPA 20, demonstrating prodigious talent pipeline in pinball

    high · Multiple references to Escher as 'won PAPA 20 last year and he was 13 at the time', defeating multiple opponents throughout broadcast

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Game of Thrones Premium Edition tournament configuration uses casual mode with mandatory Stark start and modified rules for fairness

    high · Commentator explains 'It is on casual mode, so you always start with Stark, and you're not allowed to change it' and rubber modification to right lane

  • ?

    venue_signal: Flippersfield Underground Arcade Club in Las Vegas operating as underground venue with no exterior signage, adjacent to 24-hour bar

    high · Described as 'literally is, I won't say, well, I can't say literally. It is underground... no sign outside the building' and 'next to a 24-hour bar'

    • 2:35
    Both groups will be live streaming, so have two screens set up so you can watch both. Okay. And was that a tilt? Yeah, it definitely was a tilt, but I'm assuming that was for real? Yes, that is for real, and Ellen is waiting for the game to settle.
    3:00
    She is, yeah, actually timing it. I'm not sure if she's doing 30 or 60, but the way she's walking away, I imagine it's not 30. I personally do a minute if I'm waiting on something that's actually been tilted, 45 seconds if there were a couple of dangers. Okay.
    3:19
    Do you actually time it? This game is very tight, so you want it to be definitely settled. Yeah, you will see some players time it, like Zoe and Ellen and other players.
    3:38
    I tend to do it on the fly. Oh, and my apologies for not changing our players. I tend to do it on the fly and just kind of guesstimate as to how long it's been. and yeah this looks like uh is it three to one or did we have an update earlier yes ellen three louise one from the scrawling on the paper we uh there hasn't been a official announcement yet that there is no papa this year.
    4:16
    Yes, sir. No, not official. They don't want to say there will definitely be something because there's nothing set in stone. Well, at this point, too. But it's not looking very well. But, I mean, if things could happen in November or December, who knows? Once again, it does depend on the sale of the building. Right. So if you know anybody in Pittsburgh who is looking for a beautiful warehouse in the heart of Carnegie, send them Papa's Way.
    4:48
    Or I'm sorry, the Replay Foundation. Send them that way. Oh, two tilt warnings right when she hit a broadside. And that broadside shot is so important to have dialed in. That is a sensitive tilt. I swear you've got to calm your nerves and be very cautious with your flips. And that looked like she could have attempted a save there. It was close to the flippers, but with two tilt warnings.
    5:23
    Not like it's a huge bonus game. It's not something that you're sad if you tilt out necessarily until you've built it up a bit. I did not say we're having Papa 21 this year. I said there's a chance.
    5:36
    There's also a chance that we won't. I would say it's probably 99% that we won't, but you never know.
    5:51
    For all the latest information on that, though, watch Potha TV, which has been starting streaming Monday nights again, 7.30 Eastern. Where are they streaming from? we're still streaming from the warehouse there hasn't been a sale yet like with any real estate deal if somebody buys it who knows how much time we'll have to move out they did tear down the broadcast booth however they are live streaming in the back room yes we have a temporary broadcast booth in the back and you will see some of your favorite cast of characters over the coming weeks.
    6:40
    And Louise is letting the game settle. Yeah, Ellen kept her bonus, but did have two dangers when she drew it.
    6:49
    It didn't seem like that much of a move that got Ellen her two either, so it might still be swinging from Louise's tilt. But once again, people say it doesn't look like much of a move, but those moves do build up and get that swinging. And sometimes you may think you haven't shaken it on that last tilt, but that's a result of those multiplying as you play the game. That's an interesting stat that went across the bottom for Ellen. Highest rank eighth.
    7:18
    I wonder what the highest rank ever for a woman is. I know she's been playing for a long time. I think she was the women's champion at Papa Four, maybe. representing both the east and the west through all these years yeah fun to watch started in new york and now is based in the bay area and this matchup between ellen and louise is a bay versus bay situation even though louise is you know from the united kingdom she is based in the bay area yeah the chat room did say earlier that ellen won pinball back and i think they said 1996 six? She won the women's division. Yeah.
    8:02
    Yeah, and then she took a hiatus, and it's great to see her still playing at that level and back on the circuit.
    8:12
    I was having a discussion with Dave Stewart once. If we had a Hall of Fame of Pittsburgh pinball people, who would be the first entries? And besides him, she was the next one mentioned. Oh, yeah, that's right. She did say earlier that she went to WVU and then lived in Pittsburgh for a while when I spoke to her previously.
    8:42
    So Louise needs a couple more letters to light sink ship. She got the first and the second lock there, making it a three ball. Now the S is burnt out.
    8:56
    So just be aware of that. Not just a squid fishing ship. Inkship. Greg Dunlap is saying in the chat that the highest ever rank for a woman is 60th, Robin, in 2016. However, what we're seeing on the information about Ellen could either be, well, no, it says just highest rank, 8th. So this may be in the early days of the upper points.
    9:28
    But in recent memory, Robin has been killing it in the rankings the past couple of years. Yeah, because what, she is currently seated first.
    9:38
    Yeah. I don't know if she's still below the 100 cutoff for IFPA, but she's somewhere very up there. I don't think we've got we've seen much of her today we may have to bounce over and watch her yeah she and Hannah Hatch are playing so that's another west coast matchup Robin from the bay and Hannah from Seattle and it looks like they were on game one the last time we sent a scout okay if the IFMA website does give you a win that was she was ranked eighth in June of 1999 but Still, she was eighth. Yeah. I would like a single-digit ranking.
    10:20
    Honestly, I'd like to get down into the triple-digit rankings. I'd like to get back to double digits. There's so many people at this point. The rankings have just exponentially exploded over the past five years. Oh, that was a nice dig. It's always a little scary because the cannon plastic is not necessarily super level with the play field, and it can get hung up right over the drain if you don't anticipate it accurately. But still, that is a very nice score, 30 million. Oh, heck yeah. Yeah.
    11:02
    So looking at the bracket here, these two are looking for a spot into the final four, and they will get the winner of the Rob and Hannah match.
    11:15
    And on the other side of that bracket is Tracy and Karen, who you can see Karen in the foreground, even though we're not watching her game. And then Helena and Carrie.
    11:31
    Yeah, we have the electronic challenge in front of us. However, on the wall are two beautiful posters that are being manually updated by Josh Sharp.
    11:45
    One of them is labeled the IFA United States National Pinball Championship. However, as I've said throughout the day, we do have the provinces in there as well. So I think Josh needs to change the name of that.
    12:01
    All right, we are on ball three. It looks like Ellen had a fairly quick ball. We are broadcasting from Flippersfield Underground Arcade Club in Las Vegas. and it literally is, I won't say, well, I can't say literally. It is underground in that there is no sign outside the building.
    12:26
    The only reason we found it today is because there were some very great pinball players hanging out outside of it. You definitely, you drive past it. It's in an office park. I recognized Chris Chin and said, that's where it is. Yeah, it is next to a 24-hour bar, I believe somebody said. So no matter how late it goes, the spectators can find somewhere to celebrate it. She has an opportunity here to load the can and to sink the ship. Needs to keep it away from them.
    13:01
    And I have a feeling we are going to have a late one because the women are still playing and nationals. I don't even think we've gotten down to the top eight being completely. Yeah, it looks like we have five spots in the top eight done.
    13:18
    Ray and Brian are still playing. Andrew Lee and Escher are still playing. And Preston and Carl, well, they must just be starting.
    13:29
    Since we just saw Preston finish his last round. At this point, I'm happy for Carl because he's actually playing and not on the broadcast with us.
    13:40
    He deserves it. Doesn't always need to multitask. No, absolutely not. He has been doing some today, though, adjusting camera levels. We do want to give a shout-out to the IFPA team and to Carl for all the hard work that they have done in getting this place ready for nationals in women's and also on the broadcast setups.
    14:09
    Ellen is keeping it alive. She's got broadside lit, and she just lit her lock with a really great outlane save on the left in lane outlane. But now she's got two dangers and needs to be super careful. She can lock a ball and start two ball, multi-ball over on that left. Yeah. Looks that way. but she does want to give the tilt bob some time before putting her hands on it with a multi ball which was rough because she was in the middle of uh what broadsack i believe so that's a countdown mode oh yeah being very gentle making some really smart decisions on when to nudge and when to leave alone but you can't quite catch it if you want to stay tuned or keep up with the brackets you can either go to the if the website and they will be on the front page or you can go to challenge calm and the women are at 2018 if the women's and the nationals are at 2018 if the nationals and that was a nice job by lose all right so we want to go to bear a core with Asher and Andrew or torpedo alley with Robin and Hannah torpedo we haven't seen much Robin today so since we've been talking about it let's bounce over there
    15:40
    plus we can talk a little bit more about how to play torpedo hungry wow that's a nice score for Paul boyan sheesh
    15:52
    So Pete, how do we play Torpedo Alley? You lock balls and score points. I honestly don't remember. I know we had one at the clubhouse, and there was three different lock shots that you try to hit to get the multi-ball. There was one right there.
    16:12
    But past that, I don't remember much. You want to shoot the orbit shot. back up. Oh, wow, but a tilt.
    16:26
    It released her other ball. Yeah, tilts release the lock, so... One of my favorite little tidbit items on this is you can see in the outlanes the sharks that are flashing, and when the ball rolls over them, you hear da-da, da-da. Oh, it's cute. I've never listened for that before. So that is a little tidbit. Check that out if you get to play a Torpedo Alley.
    17:00
    So Hannah's got some catching up to do here. Just continually hitting it over, trying to keep it up top.
    17:14
    And there is a kickback on this. You're thinking of Time Machine being disabled Oh yeah, you're right The kickback is not disabled on this You see the orange flashing triangle by the Yeah, that is your kickback shot Rather than always have one of the ramps on Time Machine lit for a kickback whenever it's unlit they decided to just do away with it entirely it sounded like that this game is harder to relight and so gets to keep it.
    17:55
    It looks like it's that target right in front of the pop bumpers that's flashing orange. That's where you relight the kickback. We do have the telestrator if you want to. I don't know how to do that. Just put your finger on the screen. Right here? Yeah. So just draw your circle right around it. Yeah. See, that's what I'm talking about. Yeah. And then how do I clear it? Yeah, then how do I make it go away? See the keyboard? You hit that. All right. So, wow, that was ball three. Yeah, Robin took that. It looks like Hannah broke a million, so she definitely put up a fight. But Robin has the big one. So you're saying we can. Oh, I didn't realize you could do that.
    18:36
    Yeah, that's Robin. Whee! Okay. Kids with their toys. You want to move over to Barracora now that Aikido Ali finished? Let's go over to Barracora. We definitely want to see some Escher Lefkoff World Championship.
    18:55
    All right. Well, hopefully they are still playing. That's ball two, it looks like. Now what we have Escher and Andrew. I'll find my mouse here.
    19:13
    Looks like Andrew is player one. Oh, she's running the, well, it's about to. There we go. All right, we have Escher stepping. up. I'm not 100% sure what we said, ball two possibly. It's ball two player two, so we actually have the guys backwards here it looks like. Oh, this is so easy to use. Oh, do we have it backwards? Yeah. Okay. No, it's such a great setup. Yeah, it is. It's phenomenal. All right. Two balls started. Double scoring.
    20:17
    And during multi-ball, you want to be going for those Barakora drop targets. And Andrew has to win this in order to continue playing because it is currently 3-0.
    20:31
    He definitely put something together on Bear Acora so far. Escher is trailing him with 212, but he's got one of his balls trapped up and is doing a single ball picking off drops. It was interesting there. He had it trapped on the left and got one trapped on the right and switched to the one he was using to fit his needs. Yeah, because he had BAR. He only had one target left on that bank, so he wanted to drop it. Very intelligent. drop it yeah what's interesting is you have to spell bear and akora in order you have to knock one the first one down before you can make any progress towards it but it's not the entire word it's the two halves of the word so the bar and the akora act separately man they didn't even divide that evenly yeah it was a three and a five so akora is more shots but in my experience a little bit easier to get all of them down it's less of a dangerous thing to pick off which is what Escher is trying to do here is just make that progress towards great patients there.
    21:36
    Speaking of Escher, you may notice the pictures aren't necessarily up to date. Unfortunately, there was a camera malfunction, and they were not able to do pictures today, so they defaulted to the IFPA pictures, and as you can see, Escher looks... I'm pretty sure that's how he looks. From what he said earlier, that was when he was around nine years old. So like last year? Yeah, last year. Oh, a little bit of a fumble there, but he still has one ball trapped and Barracora basically lit or spelled so that upper spinner shot is worth quite a bit if he wants to take it up to the pops now. Almost. There he is. One of the times where you can get yourself into trouble. You have a ball trapped, and if you try to do something to save the other one, you jailbreak yourself or lose all the control you have. He was smart to let that second one go and then just get back to work. He has the two-ball multi-ball lit again.
    22:40
    He's playing this game brilliantly. All right, and my dumb question of the day, is this a lock-stealing game? It is not. Okay. That's actually what's very interesting about Barracora is if you have the ball locked in the back lock and you drain out of one ball play, it'll kick that back lock out as kind of a ball save. And so on this particular one, they've taken the gate out so that it doesn't hang up and give you a chance to have a nice feed. It's kind of screaming down the side at you, so it's not as much a ball save as a ball reaction time.
    23:15
    So Escher came back considerably, has 633 now, and Andy Lee is going into ball three, representing Cleveland, Ohio. He's got the two-ball lock lit, and he's got the bonus collect at the top lit. No bonus to speak of. Yeah, not much use for that, but gets the easy bounce in.
    23:39
    One thing to keep in mind, as she said, it acts as a ball save. Never walk away from a machine until you see your bonus actually counting down. Andy Lee, that was really cool. Someone might want to clip that and send it to him. But now he's doing the same strategy as Escher, picking off those targets, but with a little less lucky bounces. Yep. And I wish I had the population because like, we probably do like Back to oh Oh Oh Made it interesting but it looks like Escher is moving on to Oh it going to be a Wunderkind battle Escher versus Colin Urban. There are two Colins in the quarterfinals. The current reigning Pinberg champion Colin McAlpine, but also the current reigning Free Gold Watch. what is that tournament called that great tournament at free gold watch um anyway colin won that one okay i'm glad i'm not the only one who was trying to struggle with the name of that the name of it free gold watch aren't they the ones that did the poppers or the pinberg show city champ city champ there you go oh my god that was embarrassing i've never actually been to Free Gold Watch. I lived in the Bay Area and I moved right when they got their first four pinball machines and they were still a t-shirt company for the most part. And I never felt comfortable enough getting in.
    25:16
    We got a score being wrote down. Hannah's walking off with $59,300. This is the Hannah Priyanka game, I believe. I believe it's Hannah. No, it's still Hannah and Robin. So Robin will be stepping up here? Yes, so Robin is stepping up. She has to beat 59-3. Now, did she do her 30 seconds of warm-up before they started, or is she wearing it? Oh, wow. Sorry, I didn't realize you were also using the mouse. Yes, I am using the mouse. People want to know who's playing. Yes. All right. I also want to know what Robin's score to beat is, or Hannah's score to beat. Yeah, the score to beat is 59, like, 310, I think. Okay, now you can. Yeah. Now you can. Get away my doodles. Doodle wait. Wait, wait, wait. Yeah, I've got to bring the mouse back. Okay. All right. 600? 300.
    26:08
    Well, 600 will win. Yeah. It's harder than it looks, folks. But it is a lot of fun. You have to... Well, that will solve...
    26:22
    Yeah, and all these DMs, Tilt ends game. Okay, that was for practice. Thank you for the update. Once again, we are not in the room. Put it back again. So we are not 100% sure of everything going on. And especially on the one-player EMs, rather than having both players do their 30 seconds of practice before we start the game, they're letting each person do their practice immediately before their single-player game that they're doing. So Hannah had her 30 seconds and then put up her 59,300, smiley face. And now Robin was testing out the tilt and is about to start her official game as the second player.
    27:04
    All right, we are watching Robin on Abracadabra. All right. Did either of you play? Well, no, I know Pete did. Did you play this today, Zoe? I did play it. Tracy and I had a good game. we both were in the, I think I had 50-something, she had 60-something. I'd never actually played it before, but it's got a really interesting rule set. Is that a bouncer? Yeah, Robin got a nice little Lazarus over there. Good job staying with it.
    27:45
    You know, the one thing on this game that may not be readily visible to someone who isn't familiar with it, There's always one drop target lit. You can tell by, I guess, those balloons or markers on the plastic.
    28:01
    So the two top ones right now are worth the bonus value, and the other one's worth 500. And they're switching as switch hits occur.
    28:10
    You have to knock them all down to reset them so you could have your big point drop target be down. So a lot of this can come down to timing it and hitting the lit one. when it's still up. Yeah, and it's not just that you have to get all the drop targets down. You have to have all of them down and then hit that center shot, that really difficult bullseye target. So even if Robin gets the last four drops she needs down, then she'll have to make that dangerous up-the-middle shot to start resetting them. Trying to keep track of which one is the lucrative one. Nice shimmy out of the outland. She had it lit there. Yeah, looks like she picked it off.
    29:04
    But now, oh, yeah, she's got the lowest drop target on the left and the middle on the right still to contend with. Josh and Adam were, Adam Becker were discussing how to play this game, and Adam said all he does is shoots a thousand pop bumper over and over again when it's lit. And that's like such a risky strategy, but I could see it working. Yeah, if it gets caught in there and you get quite a few points.
    29:30
    I mean, it's far enough up that it's not going to normally fire it right down the middle or out of control. She's getting some nice bounces on that. And that was a very nice and controlled drop catch. She just needs that one target to get down so that she can reset it, but she does want to make sure that it's lucrative. So it's lit right now. Oh.
    29:56
    This is a situation I found myself in earlier. One drop target, and it was wiping me. I couldn't hit it.
    30:02
    I had a weird malfunction where I dropped all the drops, hit to reset, but only one came up. Wow. So then I was like, I mean, I called Zach over. He couldn't figure out what exactly went wrong. So I knocked that one down, reset it again, and they all came up. So it didn't super affect me except for having to shoot that dangerous shot over and over again. So now Robin has them all down, and she can shoot that dangerous shot.
    30:31
    There she goes. And a nice little nudge, too. So she's got each of those lit bonus targets up to 3,000. You can get them all the way up to five, depending on how many times you get one, two, three, four completed.
    30:52
    Nice. She is doing really well with that right outland, making a lot of great saves. Those aren't slings by the two and three. They just have little numbers around them.
    31:09
    Oh, trying to shats for that number one, which would get her target value up. But then trying to take the shot.
    31:21
    Now, you can tap pass on this if you're willing to try it. I'm terrified just thinking about that. All right, talk about what a tap pass is. Oh, yeah, Pete, would you like to? You have a ball. It doesn't have to be stopped. That's going to win it. Hey, yo, look at that. Nice job. So I'm glad that she cleared all of 59,000 just in case we were slightly incorrect on the digits. All right.
    31:49
    Anyway, finish up the tap pass as you barely hit the flipper. It hits it with just a little bit of oomph, so it doesn't do a full flip, and then the ball will go from one flipper to another.
    32:01
    All right, where do you want to go? It's that, a little bit. Where would you guys like to go next? We've got Escher and Colin on Game of Thrones, or Louise and Ellen on Iron Man.
    32:13
    Let's go to Iron Man. Okay. Let's see what we got going on here. while they're waiting to start i'll go see if i can get some more results and see what's going on
    32:48
    and while they're waiting to start you are watching the 2017-2018 ifba north american national championships and also the ifba women's championships uh we are flipper spiel underground in Las Vegas and I am Virginia Hendricks and I'm here with Zoe Brable and Pete Hendricks who is currently running to see where the other matches are.
    33:25
    Tomorrow starts pin masters, a stern pro circuit event and that is going to take me a while to learn and also Louisville Arcade Expo will be starting tomorrow so make sure you check out both those great events they will both be streaming at some point throughout the weekend and if you're going to Louisville good luck have fun and if you're playing in pin masters tomorrow good luck have fun are you playing tomorrow I am NOT I'm heading back early the level of competition is just so high that like expense wise it wasn't gonna make financial sense to stay out here longer than I had to. So what you're saying is that I probably should have just elected to stay at the hotel tomorrow. I don't want to make it sound like it's undoable. I just know that where I am skill-wise I'm not quite at that top of a level that you need to be to do really well and this is what a Stern Circuit event this year. Yes, it is. It's also, it's a pin golf event in case you're not familiar with it.
    34:35
    Doesn't look like they're getting started on Ironman anytime soon since Louise, since Louise expressed some surprise that she was expected to be on the stream in the first place so we could switch to an active game while we wait maybe hop over to Game of Thrones until the women are set up and have some meaningful pinball to watch all right so we are switching over to Game of Thrones where we can watch from Escher and Colin. Which of them is younger? I think Colin's slightly older than Escher. Escher's I believe either 14 or almost 14. And Colin is almost 16. We see Escher's got his headphones in. He's got Lannister running. Let's see if we can get our bearings what ball it is or anything. I see some triple-digit scores even though we're not in full focus so he's got 110 million and then a very quick right outland drain now i'm not sure if one of the players stepped out or but it's ellen three louise two and uh iron man is their next game but they don't seem to be in there so they might be taking a break for a moment uh other results colin is up one to zero on adam that's uh colin the cow pine carl is up one nothing on preston robin is up two to one on hannah and carrie is up three nothing on helena oh wow and that's a repeat of last year's women's finals carrie wing from kansas and helena from sweden but based in colorado and helena pulled it out last year but It looks like Kerry wants some revenge.
    36:38
    Colin also seems to want some revenge on this game. He started his multiball. Looks like he is taking Greyjoy and Lannister in. So Stark is already completed because everyone's playing in novice mode. And they're trying to stack two multiballs in. Or, I'm sorry, stack two modes in with a multiball. He's still got some ball save flashing, so he can focus on making those tough shots on the right side of the play field. Brian asking what mods were done to Game of Thrones. It is on casual mode, so you always start with Stark, and you're not allowed to change it. You can't pass. There was also a rubber in the right lane so that the ball always goes towards the left slings and flippers.
    37:29
    Oh, was that ball three? Yikes. Yeah. Yeah, Escher wins 158 to 52. Colin started a multi-ball and then promptly drained out of it once ball save was gone. Unfortunately, had a similar rocket down the right out lane to Escher. All right, let's see if Raymond and Tim are still on Aerosmith, just to kind of get a feel of the different games. And I know some of you have been tuned in all day and gone, oh, God, Aerosmith again. But we probably do have new people. Welcome to Australia. We are very nice here. Going to make many apps for you on our bodies. Adam Becker, hard at work repairing a game while playing. Americans don't know. Not at the same time, of course. I never know. He's flipping and soldering simultaneously. That was a very high-level skill there.
    38:25
    Raymond is currently up on Aerosmith. Aerosmith, the toy box has been disabled, and I still don't quite understand what that means. So do you guys want to explain?
    38:39
    Sure. Normally when you lock a ball and the toy box is not disabled, it will throw it into the toy box and lock it away until all six are in there.
    38:51
    In a multiplayer game, obviously one person gets the freebie of the ball going into the toy box safely, and getting a free plunge. Well, it's not a free plunge. It will auto-launch if you don't do it quick enough, but a more chance of control, whereas if the other player, the multi-ball hasn't been started, they're stuck with what every player in this game is getting, the throw into the toy on top of the box in the unfamiliar feed. This makes it a little more fair that both players will have the same thing to deal with. That lock throw is not a gimme.
    39:30
    No, it is not. And Raymond looks like he started with walk this way. It seems to be the popular choice. Yeah, it's what I would do as well. The one thing to keep in mind with walk this way is if you hit the crank it up shot, he's got an all-save VIP pass. Oh, and he got a nice feed from the pop bumpers to light half of the elevator locks. You have to hit each of the... He's doing so much good stuff. You have to hit each orb to light the elevator lock at the elevator, which is to the right of the toy box. You have to hit each orb once. If you complete a set of the two orbital shots, the lock at the elevator stays lit, but if you only get one half of them done and then drain, you have to start from scratch to light that lock on your next ball.
    40:19
    If you hit crank it up when you have walk this way, going, then there are more shots needed to finish, and if you don't complete super ramps, it goes away at the end of your ball, I believe, rather than hanging over from ball to ball. I am not as intimately familiar with the Aerosmith rule sets as I should probably be.
    40:42
    He chooses to abort his multiball. You have multiball available when you lock three balls but you can choose as he is doing to light more locks lock more balls get more points he is passing again and wants to lock probably all six if he can this is only ball two yeah because i believe on like there's not much difference between three and four but once you get up to six that's where your uh jackpots and all that double i believe somebody said earlier that was a ruthless drain from the magnet of the toy box just straight down the middle before he could get his hands on it. So I wonder if he's going to try and take a five-ball multi-ball in ball three or if he's going to keep on trying to make progress towards all six. This is such a fun game in head-to-head for that reason. If you're the first person reaching multi-ball, how early do you take it? Or if you're behind, how much do you go for it early and try to grind? or basically your decisions are based off of how much pressure you want to put on the other person or what your situation is. And in this situation where the game is so close,
    41:57
    Ray drained ball two with 35, Tim's at 34, and he knows that Raymond has five ball multi-ball lit. Does he want to start his lock when he locks the third ball to just get some points on the table and put some distance between him and Raymond? looks like that is what he is going to do is just start his three ball multi-ball not even worry about it and extra ball is lit which is 15 million points so it would be a nice pickup at the crank it up scoop if he can grab it my apologies i have it reversed raymond is actually up right now so tim i believe was first raymond is doing all of this stuff right now yes um curiosity question as we watch this. What do you guys think of the new displays on the back? Oh, like the LCD screens rather than the DMD? Yes.
    42:50
    I find that the fonts are typically hard to read. I think there are a lot of accessibility issues. I guess if you're playing pinball, you probably aren't vision impaired enough that a lot of accessibility issues would apply to you. But font-wise, just like, look how tiny it is. I can barely tell the digits apart, like a 3 and an 8.
    43:10
    It's certainly going to draw in a different crowd, though, having the video displays. Might draw in more players because of that element that normally wouldn't play a DMD. Yeah, they don't really know what they're getting into on a DMD.
    43:28
    Ray's up to 90 now. Looks like he got that extra ball. Didn't quite get to lock a ball in the toy chest for 2x scoring. So now he's back to single ball play. This is the one we were talking about, that extra ball is especially lucrative? Mm-hmm. 15 million points.
    43:46
    You sound a little faint. You might want to. Oh, thank you. Thank you, Unsmith. And Pete, you're loud. That's nothing new. Yeah, I was going to say you probably heard that before. He can adjust and pull his mic away. Yeah, if I'm too loud, let me know. We're trying. Hopefully you can hear me good.
    44:06
    All right, Raymond is locking, lighting locks again, but mostly going for Walk This Way, Super Ramps.
    44:21
    All right, so modes. You said most people are starting with Walk This Way? Mm-hmm. All right, what does it?
    44:28
    So each of the songs are connected to, it's kind of like World Cup Soccer where there are super things, super spinner, super ramps, super modes, whatever. And so walk this way is connected to super ramps. If you complete enough walk this way shots, super ramps goes into effect and you have X number of ramps that give you super ramps points. So similarly with rats in the cellar, that's one where you get super spinner after completing a certain number of shots. So it's nice to also have a super spinner and super ramps going when you have a lot of balls in play and you know you're going to be hitting those shots for nice points especially because there's so many combo multipliers here if you shoot something on the fly you're likely to get more points than if you trap up and ray kind of knocks it out into the left out lane but a great ball three there put quite a bit of distance even if you're really accurate uh when i was playing um dan earlier he chose to start with that and finish the mode had the super ramps he hit the center ramp ten times and just like that he was around 30 million even before I had a ball in play.
    45:37
    Now it'll be interesting to see will Tim go for six or take it at five. If it's step one I'd go at five. Me too. I would try and backhand it because it's so hard to get that make that lock shot just oh okay okay Tim I see you. I wonder if he was going for the bounce there in or was he going for the ramp? He might. Yeah, he might just be trying to ramp out and walk this way because he's got both those arrows pulsing.
    46:09
    Which means that the. Yeah, he's trying to pass. Oh, got a little fancy there. Yeah, I'm not really sure what he was attempting there.
    46:25
    That'll give Ray the win. All right. So what do you guys want to watch next? Looks like we've got people on Iron Man, Black Rose.
    46:42
    Why don't we go to Iron Man? Yeah, that's what we meant. We were going to bounce there earlier. Adam, Carl and Preston, last we checked, it was Carl won nothing. And we are happy that Carl is actually getting a chance to play today and not be stuck commentating because he's not playing.
    47:04
    So, all right. Like, Louise is up currently. Oh, it's ball one, player one right now. Okay. Okay, this should be their game six with Ellen up three games to two. Louise is having some nice shimmies in the in-lane, out-lane. and there are some rubbers on the posts on either side of the in-lane, out-lane divide, and you can kind of shake it back into play when it looks like it's going out. That one was just a power out-lane, but she had ball save.
    47:35
    You start on the multi-ball. Okay. She had longer going? I guess. I didn't even notice it was up, but we have a weird angle. Oh, yeah. There it goes. Okay.
    47:49
    I wasn't sure. And she drains out of it. Alan steps up. This is another game where you have a, what approach do you take? Will you go for bogey if you a great ramp shooter or will you go for the monger and the multi balls See I usually go for monger and the multi balls But I was told one time a good strategy is the bogeys so I it but monger is just the one I always automatically hit first
    48:54
    Zoe stepped out for a moment and joining the broadcast here will be Ben Granger, Minnesota State champion.
    49:07
    And then when Zoe gets back, I'll give the seat back to her. Is this thing on? Yes, we can hear you, Ben. All right. Okay, so how did your day go? You're on the broadcast, so I can't imagine it did well or didn't go well. Well, it went from really, really great first round 4-0 to second round 0-4. Oof.
    49:35
    We call that day 500. Yep. Did you have a – you had to buy the very first round. Correct. Okay. Then you ran into Adam Becker. Yep. I hear he's pretty good. Yeah, just a bit. he is a beast he's playing very well i think tonight uh i'd be surprised if he doesn't end up doing even better great um who's he's playing colin who's currently the pin or the pinberg champion so louise has oh she must have get out got it while i was looking away there for a second she had warm monger lit she's in a maury ball so yeah it looks like monger's up so Oh, Monger, okay. Yeah.
    50:30
    Yep. Started Monger. Okay, what she did there is she brought the Monger up. She started War Machine and used War Machine to bring in Monger. So she has them stacked. It's actually a strategy I like. It's a lot safer to go for Monger when you have a ball save and a few more balls in the play field. Absolutely. Yes.
    50:57
    It's a tight shot, but if you can stack the two together, it's a wonderful thing. But you have to start War Machine first, correct? Well, you have to have Monger up and then shoot it around the left side of him into War Monger to start it. Well, but my point is that once you start Monger, you can't start any other multi-ball. That is correct. Correct.
    51:16
    and you could go the other way with warmonger and um whiplash and whiplash but that's the only way you can stack with monger okay you are watching the ifba national championships and the women's championships here in Flipper Spiel Underground in Las Vegas, Nevada.
    51:45
    I am Virginia Hendricks, and with me is Ben Granger and Pete Hendricks. Hello, hello. Thanks, everyone, for watching.
    51:56
    Now, Louise strained out there. She was making great progress to do or die, but still, she'll take that ball.
    52:08
    Yeah, that's really solid. It's been difficult. This Ironman, I've seen a lot of 2 million, 3 million point games. To get any multi-ball is an accomplishment.
    52:28
    Yeah, I admit, the last couple of times I've played Ironman at Papa, it has not gone well for me. I used to be able to put up 10 easily, but not so much anymore.
    52:50
    All right. I am going to step out for a few minutes because I have been here for eight hours, seven hours, a really long time. Putting in work. Yeah. Well, you know, like I said earlier, I can't go to a pinball tournament and relax. even though I wasn't playing today. So we have Zoe back, Ben, and you're going to have Pete.
    53:12
    Yeah, and it looks like we're on ball two of Ironman right now. Ellen's still trying to make up quite a bit of ground and does not get anything much out of that ball.
    53:24
    Louise is sitting at 16. And there is no post in the back of this Ironman. As you see, the ball just travels all the way around.
    54:03
    Louise has some progress towards Bogey, but it doesn't matter. An Ironman outman. That's pretty typical for Ironman, is for it to go out the outman.
    54:19
    But she has a really solid lead with 16 million. That's really tough on this Ironman. And Ellen still hasn't brought Monger up, it looks like. And won't have a chance to, unfortunately. This will take them to a game seven coming up. Yeah. Seems like every game is important now.
    54:44
    Carrie Wing just knocked out Helena Walter-Higgins on Black Rose. I know that feeling all too well. And so Carrie is the first of our four to move on, I believe. I hope I'm... Bear with me here. Let me see if I can do this. And Karen moved on over Tracy as well, so Karen and Carrie in a K-off.
    55:11
    And we have Game of Thrones. Colin versus Adam? Yeah. Adam Becker, Colin McElpine? Adam is player one, it looks like, and Colin is player two, if someone with access to the mouse wants to change those. Who is one, Adam? Yes.
    55:38
    Looks like they're both going into ball two with not much in the way of scores, although player one definitely has a lock lit, so that is helpful. On this game, you just want to get to a multi-ball.
    55:52
    Okay, and Luis and Ellen, they will be playing their game seven on Game of Thrones coming up. After this game, Robin and Hannah are scheduled to play. That's the only one with any sort of a queue. Everyone else has their choice of machines, but Game of Thrones is proving to be a popular one.
    56:16
    Even with the Stark being locked in. Yep. Oh, that was a rough hit off the post rather than the spinner shot I'm sure he wanted.
    56:32
    this is an example of where Game of Thrones can just be cruel. Two balls, nine million. But no ball save, that's very easy.
    56:46
    And on the player cam, you can also see Karen Kaiser and Kerry Wing getting started on X-Men as their first game. But Colin has just as speedy a drain as Adam did out of the left. You were asking about Ellen's ranking, Blue Factory. Yes, she was highest at eighth. that was in 1999, but still, 8 is really good. I'd like to say I was 8th best in the world at something.
    57:11
    And have a stat to prove it. Oh, that was a fast kick out of the dragon, but a successful center ramp. Now he can stack Lannister and Greyjoy.
    57:27
    And it was ball three, so he's got it stacked with multi-ball, which is a good strategy. No matter whether you're playing in novice mode or expert mode, I always would start my multiball with Greyjoy and Lannister stack.
    57:49
    Yeah, with the Stark not being able to select something other than Stark, I think that's less of a factor than not being able to pass on a mode select. If you happen to start or light a mode that you don't want to play,
    58:08
    when you shoot that mode start, if that's all you have, you're going to start it automatically. So that's something you really have to factor in on your strategy here. Try not to hit the center ramp until you've already lit another mode. He loses his multi-ball down the middle with super jackpot slit. still has 2x playfield multiplier going, which you get from hitting the battering ram.
    58:33
    But it's a timed shot. And there's his Tyrell lit. So now if he goes back up the center, he'll only start Tyrell because he doesn't have the ability to pass. But Tyrell's a good mode to have. It's easy and lucrative.
    58:49
    Anytime you can get that fourth one started. Oh, lucky. Light it and train. Light it and use it. And at this point, Adam's put up a pretty commanding lead of 377 million, which on this Game of Thrones is strong.
    59:08
    And now he starts Tyrell. If he completes this mode, he'll have Hand of the King lit, which will be an opportunity to further distance himself from Colin. And now he's locked, so... He's one target away from his third lock as well, too, so he may opt to...
    59:24
    I believe that's it. that'll start his multi, so he's going to actually have to start that multivol.
    59:31
    And there it is. Vol 2? Yeah, that's 2. And it's also nice that the Tyrell shots nice dig from the outlane. The Tyrell stand-up targets are the light locks as well as part of the Tyrell mode, so you can get points for them and make progress towards your multi-ball. So for ball three, he'll be a stark ramp away. Well, no, he'll have to restart it. Then it'll be a stark ramp away. This is ball three. Oh, yeah, it is. Okay. He finished up, unfortunately, without being able to start hand to the king, but Colin still has pretty much everything left to do. He's had two very nasty drains, and there's no ball save on anything except Black Rose.
    60:22
    you are watching the 2017-18 if a u.s national and women's championships i'm pete hendricks and i do have ben granger and zoe brabel in the booth right now hello hello hi we have the whole country represented on the broadcast team at this point yeah and we're seeing um good representation in this match adam hails from ontario so he won his provincial championship as colin is representing the state of texas and colin had his second lock lit and so now he's starting gray joy by itself and i would assume trying to get that third lock lit and just go for multi-ball just to get something happening Yeah, so now I'll start multi-ball. And all the shots are lit for Greyjoy and for Jackpot.
    61:37
    $400 million is pretty doable during a multi-ball if you get some multipliers going, especially those supers multiplied can get up 30, 40, 50 60 million he's being very careful about not losing control of everything he doesn't want to double drain to just completely end it because like you said it's super doable looks like he's timed out Greyjoy at this point so he's only got the jackpots lit one left until now super jackpot which he immediately collects that was impressive yeah then unfortunately promptly drains okay now does he i guess he looks to light a second mode to bring it back in with or bring in with gray joy so they can be double dipping yeah and the two gray joy shots he has left because it holds over um which shots you've already completed he still has the right ramp in the right loop so maybe he wants to think about... Okay, so he knew that the ramp shell was going to light Lannister anyway. He does have his two.
    62:51
    Oh, Gene points out that Colin, as the current defending Pinnberg champion, and Adam, as a previous Pinnberg champion, we've got a battle of champions right now in this game, and they're showing us why that is. Colin definitely is just being very on point. Oh, even with that save, manages to get it back, get some more points towards that Lannister mode.
    63:22
    He's up to 120 now, still got a ways to go, and has few, if any, dangers left. Oh, that was a lucky little bounce there. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Try too hard to get control.
    63:39
    I kept on forgetting to use my Iron Bank because I always play as Martel. I'm used to only thinking about it for add a ball, and when you're stuck in novice mode, you should be trying to get the million and a half extra points that you can get from it if you drain and still have it lit.
    63:59
    So Escher is up 1-0 against Colin Urban in the youth battle. So here we have them playing Black Rose.
    64:08
    And we'll try to keep an eye on the Game of Thrones. When Robin and Hannah finish, we'll go back to it so that we can watch the game seven between Luis and Ellen.
    64:21
    Very close on ball two. Okay, so Escher's player two. Colin finished with 21 million after two balls. Escher has the 20 million ship lit. he does not hit the center shot.
    64:39
    And he's at 19 million, so this would make a big difference. The original action button. Is this one where you can also press the flippers? Also, so much work for 500,000 points. Yeah.
    65:02
    Shout out to Evan Bingham, the pinball narcissist. I think it was his birthday yesterday. Is that right, Evan? Happy birthday.
    65:14
    Oh, I sure got 20 mil lit again. It does not go in, and it looked clean, and it went straight down the middle. I know that feeling, buddy. Very frustrated. He thought it should have been in there, and I drained exactly the same way. it was a straight on shot to that cannon so it's not a sure shot by any means but they're pretty much tied right now see if Colin can hey call that sink ship spelled out too so spot better He wants to start his multi ball. Lock his wits.
    66:00
    Oh, this is what's scary. Oh, my goodness. Don't do it. Wow. Beautiful. Two tilt warming wings. Oh, my gosh. Wow.
    66:10
    Just trying to get it together. It's hard to trap on this game. He's got it. Well done. we saw how easy it was to tilt on this game earlier to survive with two wonderful job well let's hope that his hands don't get too heavy during this two ball multi-ball that he is waiting to start i think he's gonna full plunge try and get it into the treasure taking his time i feel like the tilts are pretty fair across the board there's nothing that's too touchy yeah i would say that black rose is probably the um most active tilt of the bunch and i appreciate it i think that it makes you play better right oh unfortunate rough stuff he pulls ahead of Escher, but it's hard to see if that'll stick.
    67:16
    Let's see, 26-3. Escher needs 2 million plus. Well, Sink Ship is probably not the approach you want to take when you only need 2 million.
    67:31
    Earlier we saw Trent try to ramp out to run down a distance like this. Escher's going to get his jam into Inzine you don't like to be in a spot where you're 2 million down on ball 3 he's got the easy 500,000 for the skills shot but then what it's almost better to be 30 million down you know you just have to go to work and get something done he gets that 500,000 and there is a little bit of a ball save on this game so he should get it back and he lit his lock. So a bunch of stuff is going well. And then he can just plunge into there and light the cannon for the 20 million shot, which finally goes in and he puts the hurt on Colin, goes up two wins to none.
    68:23
    So quite the victory shot there. Decisive. That's an I win, you lose. You sank his battleship. Okay, well, we have people asking about the Ray and Tim match. Looks like they're on bare core, so let's see if I can get to it.
    68:57
    There we go. So Raymond is player one, it appears. He's in multiball right now, he's got two balls trapped, he's picking off Barakora targets to juice the spinner value. That's pretty much what you want to do in multiball, is just trap up, take targets and then shoot the spinner once you've got as many red Barakora letters as possible. And you can also take it up top for those bonus acts.
    69:47
    Another match is right now. Adam and Colin are 1-1. Escher's 2-0. Well, that's probably 3-0 now on Colin. And Chris Stevens is still waiting to play the winner of the Carl D'Angelo-Preston-Monkla match, which is a 2-1. I got Raymond and Tim backwards. It looks like Raymond is player two.
    70:07
    We can fix that. Oh, nice. Slap to the side. Is it the Vera and the Cora drop target banks shot in order increase your multiplier on the bottom row? Is that right? I know that they light your locks, and that's pretty much where my knowledge starts and ends, is knowing how to start multiball and then hitting more targets. But it looks like... There's another strategy with those two targets in the middle, where you use them to build up and then shoot the loop thing around, or up on the right side. Oh, the horseshoe. The horseshoe thing, to collect it. and if they're even at the same level it will not you get two or three times collecting that before it resets is that right? sounds right, yeah I don't know how many times it is but I don't yet it doesn't reset initially oh that's a nice save, followed by an outlane, but Raymond pulls ahead of Tim after ball one Oh wow, Raymond is currently second in the world in the IFPA rankings, his highest ever placement. He's representing the state of Washington, playing against Tim Sexton who's representing Connecticut but is currently based in Chicago Illinois yeah the Fred Richardson Preston Moncla match went seven and it was they had a lot of waiting based off the games that they picked so Carl and Preston started their match way after many of the other in the round of 16 had already played Chris is just relaxing and waiting.
    72:21
    Two ball lit. Also got a bonus collect lit. Good control from Tim there. Just immediately into the saucer, starting his two ball multi-ball. Tim Sexton, a new Stern programmer. He making sure to concentrate on the four five six rollovers up top Unfortunately loses the ball down the right out lane Still has that bonus collect lit up top.
    73:04
    Oh, you can backhand that right shot, which is interesting. Ellen and Luis are going to game seven and they will be playing Game of Thrones. Currently, Robin and Hannah are playing it. We will go to that game as soon as it starts.
    73:27
    Or as soon as I realize it started. Out of the multi ball there. the phrase chopping wood comes to mind when watching this game it's really a rinse and repeat get the drops start a multi-ball do it again build up bonus along the way and if you're just joining the broadcast uh these games uh from this era are played as player one and player three so that you can't tilt through um that's why you saw a ball just being plunged and nothing happening but now raymond has picked up control and he only needs that last a target on the akora side to light lock up top. And that lock also functions as a ball save in that if you have a ball locked up there and then drain out of single ball play, your ball will be kicked out that was locked up there. He puts a second one as well, so it could be two or three depending on how he wants to take this. And that means he's got all the barakora letters all in red over on the left side of the screen here. Now if he takes the two, does that wipe out the lock for the three or will it be there when he comes out of the two? I guess we will find out because wouldn't it kick out? Nope. Yeah.
    75:05
    I guess we can get rid of my drawing. Which button was it? Escape. All right. That was ball two. They're keeping it close. Right? Tim steps up slightly ahead and with a collect bonus lit.
    75:32
    One of those shots like, please hit me, even though you have no bonus, hit me anyway. I feel like there are two schools of thought with these double rollovers up top. You can either try and get one, two, three over and over again just because it's faster and you want to put together some amount of points, or you can really focus on only getting four, five, and six lit, which is more lucrative. Which is what Tim did there. You could see he has it for the $40,000, now the extra ball. But that one never goes away, whereas if you take the one on the left, the 1, 2, 3, it resets after you collect it.
    76:26
    And that's collected at the left eject? Yes. In order to get 4, 5, 6, you have to have 1, 2, or 3 lit behind it. Right. Nice save, a nice dig out of the left outland.
    76:49
    Okay, it looks like Luis and Ellen have gone to Game of Thrones. We'll give them a minute to do their warm-ups, and we'll head over and check that Game 7 out.
    77:03
    Actually, let's make sure we don't miss anything. Let's just go right now. Women's bracket. and Game of Thrones. Looks like the two matches in the women's bracket that have been decided were decided decisively with Carrie and Karen sweeping Helena and Tracy, respectively, for nothing. Karen is up 1-0 on Carrie. It looks like she probably won X-Men again, which has been her go-to game over the past couple rounds. And Karen's been fighting in since the beginning. She didn't even have a bye.
    77:40
    Okay, so it will be game seven. They must be collecting their thoughts. So while we're waiting for them, what are your mindsets going into a game seven? Do you feel more pressure, or do you treat it like just a one-game single elimination tournament? Or how do you put yourself as a competitor into a mindset of a winner-take-all game? Well, Pete, for me, I like to flame out way before that. I like to just get it out of the way, 0-4 or something. Maybe win one, 1-4. That way I don't have that problem. It's much better. Okay, since we're not sure where they're at, we'll go back to Barracora.
    78:41
    See what's happening there. And then we'll head back to Game of Thrones. Did you have any Game 7s, Zoe? Well, I was knocked out on my Game 7 of Black Rose, and part of it was just it's so much pressure on a game that you might not like because my opponent chose it. and I was not happy with that choice. It's not a game I feel strong on, so I think having the added pressure of it be a game seven is really tough. Tim's not having that problem, though. He has started his two-ball multiball at the saucer yet again.
    79:23
    This game is very controllable if you make your shots. There was a game earlier. It was like 3 million to 1 million.
    79:36
    It was Colin McElpine had the 3 million. Just chopped the wood, kept everything in control. Nice slap save backhand up into the bumpers to relight. Back in the two ball. Yeah.
    79:55
    Lather, rinse, repeat. Trying to pick off those targets whenever he can. This is why he's got 8x bonus right now. He's got most of Barracora, all of Barracora lit.
    80:20
    Yeah, it would be a big bonus collect up at the top if he could have got it. but still put some distance in there.
    80:28
    Yeah. But you get eliminated with 1.29 million on Barakori. You just shake Ray's hand. Well, this is, it looks like raise up three, one. Oh yeah. So yeah.
    80:41
    Tim did all he could do there. I mean, he really put his tournament life on the line. Raymond's got his two ball.
    81:00
    Properly starts his two ball. Trapping up, making sure he has control. Doesn't want to deal with any unexpected double drains. So he knows he still has one that he can do stuff with. he knows he needs quite a few points here so just settle into the long game and play it really safe oh he's post-passing he's i think he's just gonna go uh go for barricora nice save uh one interesting note that uh just noticed uh time fantasy has been removed as a game of choice It must have broken down or something. So players who were doing well in that earlier today will no longer have it as a choice. You mean time machine? Or time machine, yes. A fair number of people will not be upset about that.
    81:59
    I don't think it was one of the more popular options. For those that are upset, they can hop in a time machine and go back and stop whatever busted it.
    82:11
    So raising single ball play. Oh. Looks like there's an issue. Player tech. Looks like there was a drop target that wasn't triggering and thus wasn't resetting the drops.
    82:45
    uh yeah no what's the ruling on this pete if he just scored him some points by triggering that uh they're uh uh raised to keep um without seeing the or ball and everything that happened there um i would assume that uh that drop target didn't register to begin with so he has the it's at the correct state now uh the extra drop it's minimal yeah Now he starts multi-ball, so he's just going to be trying to drop those drops again.
    83:22
    Pick them off one at a time. Oh, flipper error there. That is one of those odd parts when you are tournament-directed and you have to go into a game if you accidentally bump something. You hope those points aren't enough to swing a game. Mm-hmm. Right.
    83:40
    Nobody gets too vocal and upset about it. Yeah. Ray's having some sweet digs that look like they're almost gone, but then he gets them back.
    84:03
    And back in two ball. Yep. These guys are building a log cabin from all this wood that's being chopped.
    84:15
    Oh, nice. And punished. Immediately punished for the nice save. Oh, my God. That was, I can't believe that that didn't tilt at this point, but okay. He immediately knew he was in trouble and acted with the machine and was able to get it back under control. Well done. And now he's going for the spinner. He's really wanting to drive the final nail into Tim's coffin here.
    85:00
    Looks like he just doesn't quite have the timing of the Barracora shot, the spinner shot. Otherwise, he would just chop wood over in this section when the spinner is lit.
    85:12
    Having some good luck with those post pass. Yeah. Oh my God, I still can't believe that he. Looks like Louise and Ellen are about to start their practice on Game of Thrones, so as soon as Raymond wraps up, we can head over there. But they haven't started yet. They just are getting their bearings. Just want people to know that that's where we're going next.
    86:04
    Raymond's just getting the 1-2-3 rather than the 4-5-6. Has a tough drain immediately. Got collect bonus lit. That could be interesting, but probably not enough just yet. bonus adds up. He's got the 4x and he almost has the base value maxed. And that collect bonus shot is up here.
    86:28
    You can see how much bonus is building down there. And it's in. And a lock. So now he has the insurance if he drains that ball at the top will come out unless he starts the three ball multi-ball but now he's got a light and the other lock by Spelling Bear and Okora again even though he's got them all lit at the spinner he needs to deal with the drops in order in their respective three and five banks does he need both banks to own just the one yeah and now he's hoping and the bumpers will do the work for him. They've been favorable. But this one doesn't seem to want to start anything. Yeah, this one normally. Wow. Trying to backhand it. I like it. Oh, my God, all these nudges.
    87:31
    There it is. That's the three ball multi-ball because he had the other ball locked. Game of Thrones is a game seven. He needs to tilt out. Now with all that bonus, I think he has it already. He's almost academic here. Yeah.
    87:48
    Yeah. Yeah, because it was 1-2. So with double scoring and the rest of this Maury ball, unless something goes horribly wrong.
    87:59
    The game decides. Well, he does have a bunch of dangers. The little shake you did about three minutes ago, that was actually a tilt. Yeah, I could see that happening. so he and he wants so he just wants to chop wood here yeah you never want to rely on the bonus if you have control there's one two eight that's going to be the winner let's head on over no no he's no i mean one two nine all right wait we just it's just for the academic sense of things in case he tilts at the last possible second and we can't we don't want to say we walked away from that for posterity yeah inching there and don't tilt it there and there we go now we can go to game seven between louise wagons honor and ellen frankl um in the quarterfinals of the women's world championship being held at flipper spiela underground arcade club in las vegas nevada all right so So we've got player one is Ellen's. Ellen is player one. And Louise is player two. Yeah, because Louise is soft plunged, so she has no points, but she has the ball trapped on the right flipper, which is exactly what I would do.
    89:19
    Because then she can flip at the green Tyrell targets to light lock. Ooh, makes a big move, but it's only one danger. You could hear that on the floor.
    89:37
    Yep. I think Carl's car alarm is going off in the parking lot from that move. These two are playing, and the winner of this match will play the winner of Hannah and Robin, which are currently at Hannah 3, Robin 2. Hannah has just completed her victory against Robin, actually. We just saw it updated on the bracket. Congratulations, Hannah Holmberg Hatch of Seattle. for moving on to the quarterfinals of the semifinals. Yeah, she's the third semifinalist.
    90:10
    The winner of Carrie and Karen and the winner of Hannah and either and the winner of this game will be the finalists. Trophies for all of them.
    90:21
    Oh, is there a fourth place trophy? I didn't know that. That's awesome. That's why you said trophies. Hannah's right here. All right. Louise does not get much, but she does make a real cool save.
    90:34
    Ellen's got 22 million. Got two modes ready for her as well. They're asking about the Carl alarm. This place is located really close to the airport, and an airplane taking off actually set off Carl's car alarm earlier. Say that five times fast. Or don't.
    90:59
    So next time Ellen shoots the center ramp, she will be able to start Lannister and Greyjoy, and she's made sure to light her lock just then by hitting the Tyrell green targets so that that center ramp can be as lucrative as possible for her. Make, oh, as much progress, but this stand-up next to the dragon is... People think that they're hitting it up the spinner, but they just rock it down the drain. I'm very enamored with all this drawing on things Yeah, that one was really good That was like NFL or something Nice control there I want a whiteboard to coach people Okay So this is Louise has her lock lit but when she hits that shot it's going to start Greyjoy automatically because we're all in novice mode where Stark is completed and Greyjoy is ready to go I've seen a lot of people just deciding to play this out and finish Greyjoy in single ball play. I agree with that. It's tough, especially if you don't have a lock ready, which she doesn't. It's just you have 10 seconds per shot. You have to keep making shots every 10 seconds or else it ends the mode. And if you can combo those shots, that makes them even more lucrative. So it's definitely not a bad idea. 21 million for that one right there. She has started it and made one of the Greyjoy shots, so that should reset the clock. She'll be able to finish it. She needs the dragon and the right loop to finish Greyjoy. And the right loop is difficult during the start of multi-ball because when the auto-fire is on, that switch won't fire. So you have to wait until you're out of ball save. And Japan, and wherever the Japan is. Sweet. So, Weez has completed Greyjoy at this point. She's just got that jackpot that she just hit, and now she has a super jackpot lit at the battering ram. There it is. Did get her ball saved. Thank goodness for the Lord of Light.
    93:14
    Yeah, she was not lucky enough to get an add-a-ball from the mystery pops during her Lord of Light ball save or anything like that. But she's pretty dialed in on that Martel shot. I think that's what she wants to start next.
    93:30
    And she'll start Lannister, or she'll light Lannister on whatever her next center shot is. But if she can get something else ready as well, she can stack them. That was a very good Monty ball. What is that, 412? 412, yeah. 412, 079.
    93:46
    All right, yep, so she's lit Martel. So now when she does go for her center shot, she'll have Lannister Martel stack, and she's lit lock again.
    94:01
    These slingshots are pretty reactive, though, so that's something to be scared of, or in Louise's case, be fearless of, and just take complete control.
    94:12
    Post pass it over. Nice. That was only her first lock. She already had a multi-ball, but she can stack these two houses together.
    94:26
    Which, of course, completing these two will light Hand of the King, which is a very lucrative multi-ball.
    94:35
    So if she does get to Hand of the King, she takes in Stark, Greyjoy, Lannister, and Martell, which is interesting. Stark gives you a 20 second all shots lit shoot around period. Greyjoy, you have to complete all seven shots instead of just four of them. Lannister adds gold. I don't know what Lannister does. It's not bad. It's a good thing. And then Martell is shoot every shot twice instead of once before you can get to the super jackpot. So Greyjoy and Martel and the 22nd shoot around for Stark can make it. There's Martel finished. No, but not Lannister still. Oh, she manages to remember her iron bank on the way out.
    95:23
    And that was ball two for Louise. She put up much better than the 700,000 that we saw from her on ball one. She ended up at 515 million. Very solid for two balls of play in Game of Thrones.
    95:42
    Ellen's got some stuff lit. She's been playing a cautious game where she's putting things together, but she also full plunges up into the bumpers, which is a little bit of a scarier shot, although she traps it easily, can start Lannister and Greyjoy, and... She's getting pumped, jumping up and down. And it's ball three. She's bringing in that multi-ball. That's the way to do it.
    96:22
    The battering ram has been really hit or miss. I was not able to really get any multipliers off of it. You need a really direct and solid shot to it to get it to register. It's a dangerous shot, too. We saw someone earlier hit it for super jackpot, left out lane, hit it again for super jackpot, and left out lane, done. And Ellen loses her balls in quick succession, meaning Louise will be the one representing the Bay Area in the semifinals. Sportsmanship there. hugging it out.