NW Pinball Show June 12-14

[ROM]

That guy turned 48 years old this year.

fun fact.

[Kickback]

With topic 66, post 666 at 6pm in the sixth month on the 16th day Rom proves that he is our overlord with psychic knowledge of Ralph Machio. 48 is directly divisible by 6. Ralph Machio is divisible by 6 and Matt Dillon. Tell us more lord.

[bounceback]

ah hahahahahahaha! that's awesome.

cayle, i was pulling for you at the end, i like you better than eden. (eden, i'm sorry, it was a wonderful night but i can't lie.)

really though, i have to say you and eden were both a lot of fun to be around during this thing and i thought worked super hard, really stayed on top of shit, made sure it went smoothly, and did your best to make it both challenging and fair. i can't handle spending at the rate of some of these guys that were up there, so i do wish that there was somehow a way to make it a more level playing field in terms of the number of entries--- i still think the best players would rise to the top, but maybe making it a broader qualifying field, limit the number of entries-- i.e. allow say 3 entries per person, then those who qualified for the round of 32 or something paid an additional flat tournament buyin for the pot, and then some of those payouts came back to the next top 16 guys after it's narrowed down through playoff rounds or something... whatever. there has to be a way to make it more even. i'm sure i could've had a breakaway game on flash or embryon given some more entries, but i hated having to adjust to those games and never play older games, so my skill set was hard to apply to them, and i just couldn't justify spending another $20-40 to play them. head to head i felt good about my chances of at least showing up in those final rounds. it's a different game this way.

the skillshot dudes-- i don't know, they kind of vibed me when i was leaving friday night, they asked if i was bounceback and brought up our whole earlier internet exchange where i was ranting and they were just ruffling feathers for the fun of it. anyway, it wasn't like anyone apologized for anything either way, i'd really forgotten about it, i thought it was kind of weird that they brought it up, i thought everyone was already sick of talking about it/there was nothing left to say. maybe they were just trying to be nice, i was tired.

too bad we didn't get doctor dude in the lineup, that would've been the boost i needed! that game can be a mean sonofabitch, i played both the dudes in the show and they seemed a little too slow for the tournament crowd, but not slower than flash/embryon, would've been cool to see that instead.

anyway-- hope there can be some more semi-large tournaments in the region, since i can't really go to many shows all over, but i like the way the competition heightens my game, and how challenging the game setups were.

[ROM]

Vibed. VIBED! Those bastards. We should have been there to back you up, man. Gangster-foul, on our part.

Some other quick notes from the Show.
-A lot of homemachiners calibrate their flippers incorrectly. Many a machine had a less than smooth transition from lane to flipper. That bugged.
-I havta repeat bounceback from the private forum: "a lot of loners out there practicing on their home machines in basements, and then they come to shows to kind of try to get some attention and show off their highly cultivated super-dork personality quirks." Almost an obscene amount of guys wearing loose-fitting jeans, sneakers, wearing a t-shirt with a logo from a past pinball show/tournament. With a sort of "I'm more of a hardcore geek vibe" sweating around the place... but it's like, don't they know that I love pinball more than all of them combined??! x2 even??!
-I liked the buttons. That was a good way to meet people (so that I can later make fun of them on the internet... ).

[bounceback]

i didn't need any backup on the skillshot conversation. i'm probably silly for wondering why they wanted to talk about it-- they're zinesters, the news travels a lot more slowly in print. like, they probably were just confirming firsthand that the beef is squashed so they can print it in the next issue. and since it's getting harder to coordinate phone reports and things, they had to wait until we could discuss face to face. until it gets typed out, x-actoed, and xeroxed, no one knows wtf is going on. people are probably still walking around thinking that CFF has a problem w/ skillshot (sorry, my bad,) so i hope that new issue hurries and comes out. you'll know it's on newstands when they print a sweatshirt of the cover and you pass them on the street. sweet.

i noticed the flipper calibration thing too. i was reading some of keith elwin's comments about the show and it seemed even in the tournament setups, there was some debate about flipper angle-- keith says when TOM and AFM and some other games came on the market, the flippers were calibrated lower, to aim for more loop shots and make inside shots more difficult (i guess to punish the novice's "slam it up the middle all the time" approach?") johnny mnemonic seems to be set up like that too, to the point that it's hard to slow and trap the ball because the flippers don't come up that far. (JM is a freaking great game by the way, i like the flow of it more and more.)

re: pinball nerd attack at the show-- that's yet another reason CFF is awesome. the seas of self-defined gamer dweebs part before your blackness as though you carry a flaming sword when you roll with the colors. it's weird being the most dangerous thing in a room, but a nice confidence booster.

[Eden]

Hey guys, I haven't been on here for a while...


I wanted to thank each and every one of you for the few or many hours you all volunteered fro scorekeeping, plus an extra-special thanks to Eric and Aaron for the OT on score entry into the computer.


This would not have been possible without everyone's help, and assuming I'm still involved next year, it would be wonderful to have some of your assistance again

This year was more than twice as busy, but 10 times easier... Thanks again for all your help, and for your kind words on the victory.


I was shocked that I actually qualified for both Tourneys, but to win them is an incredibly rare feat!!!

I pretty much played some of the best pinball of my life that day, and had one or 2 CRITICALLY lucky bounces to keep me alive and in the running to keep going and eventually end up winning.


I hope / expect to see some of you at PAPA and later at the Pin Masters in Vegas... both should be a mix of fun and challenging!!


Thanks again everyone, and see you soon enough!!

-Eden

[bounceback]

in retrospect i really like that the qualifying paid out so much-- if i can save up next time i'll have to push a little harder, since you can win your money back by getting in.

can't make PAPA but would really like to be there in the future. thanks and congrats again. pin masters would be awesome, still trying to find a way.