NW Expo June 3-5, Rides and Hotels

[DannyBackglass]

Maybe you heard. Got a real tough heat. We all kind of ate crap, just a matter of who ate less. I think I remained calm and took it in stride. I played strong pinball, just didn't get the soul power those last three games. Came in 2nd in the heat. Placed over all somewhere between 9-13. My thoughts, a high recommendation for everyone to attend all of these. It's a masterpiece. My strategy for this format is officially dialed.

[Dropshot]

I think Tim got you in that round too, he ended with 5 lbs and moved on to the next round. The second round had a match on JB on which Keith was at 300 mil ball 3 and ended with 2.6 bil player one. Steve Bowden then got up to 3.1 from 600 to win the game (3) and tie force a 3 way tie for the 4th spot in the finals with Tim and Adam. Steve eventually won on WPT to make it into the finals. Jim Belsito, Raymond Davidson, Keith Elwin and Steve Bowden made up the finals. Super Sonic was up first, Keith played a very Bally style game, let the ball settle, trap, tap pass, make the shot. Raymond and Steve seemed to flail neither trapping or dead flipping at all. Jim went for bonus/bonus x which when maxed out is 100k. Succeeded on maxing it out ball 3 and taking 2nd about 70k short of Keith. 2nd game was on Stones. Keith ended with 10 mil, Raymond going 3rd was at 2 or 3 million. Had Mick lit and Records lit with the ball trapped on the right flipper. Instead of hitting records first to stack he went for Mick. I think most players would have gone for the stack but I could be wrong, in the end it worked out Raymond ended with 14 mil and the win.

Keith 6
Raymond 4
Jim 2
Steve 2

Final game on JB Keith ended with a 2.8 score, Raymond was at 600 or so on ball 3 got multiball 2 separate times and casino run on ball 3 to end up with 3.6 or something along those lines to force a tie breaker. Keith chose Supersonic and it was over before they even started. Keith didn't put up that good of a game but Raymond clearly can't play Bally's. Either way he played great all weekend and came up HUGE under pressure when a win was needed. About $6000 was given away to the top 4 finishers.

1 Keith Elwin
2 Raymond Davidson
3 Jim Belsito
4 Steve Bowden
5 Tim Hanson
5 Adam Lefkoff
7 Zach Sharpe
8 Brian Sheppard

9-16 (Not sure of order)
DannyB
Eden Stamm
Sanjay Shah
Robert Gagno
Bob Mathews
Cayle George
John Kremmer
Brent Stoddard ???

[ROM]

Nice, thanks for the recrap.

What time did it end by?

And $6000 between the top 4 - holy crap! I only put in $20. But I nearly won it all back playing dollar games!

[Opto]

Yeah - it was really cool to see Raymond playing so well. We all assumed he was a long shot, but he was killing it!

Also . . . my money is on him buying/playing a Bally SS with his winnings. Now he can probably afford 2 or 3 of 'em!

[Raymond]

[Dropshot]

You clearly played great, I meant no disrespect in anything I said. I actually just learned how to tap pass myself 6 months ago. Was afraid to try, saw a friend do it, and made him teach me right then and there.

Also, Raymond's first game of the 2st round he came out and destroyed Space Invaders while other players in his group where getting big scores also. Set the bar for himself and continued it throughout the finals.

Just think, I a year or so you can come down here and kick all our asses too!

That was kinda crazy that you and Keith were playing one game of Supersonic for $1000.

[revtest]

That was awesome to watch Ray! well played at every turn man. I dropped a dozen tap passes on that thing, I can only imagine trying to do it under that kind of pressure, congrates on a great tourney.

[ROM]

My favorite games of the show:

Andromeda
Countdown
Cyclopes (except for the horrible LED job on it)
Banzai Run

prolly some others.

[kevin]

Andromeda was awesome.

There was an old Stern, Split Second, that I liked. There were some great old Sterns there. Big Game is the shit.

I also played Big Game on the emulator-thingy they had. Every shot with the right flipper hit the spinner. Best pinball I've ever played?!

[Opto]

I think the big surprises for me this year were the row of wedgeheads in the main pin room.

Majorettes, 2001, Atlantis - those were all incredible. Played like they were brand new.

I also really liked Andromeda, Star Gazer, Joker Poker, Nip It, Countdown (one of the first I played as a 4 or 5 year old).

[Dropshot]

Yeah, I would say Joker Poker may have been one of the best there. Countdown was fun (turn's out they don't need to be in order though), 1 handed Nip-it and Super Mario Brothers (real dumb game though). Ice Fever was a great game. The row of Gottlieb's is really where it's at. Slugfest was by far the best 4 player experience you could have there.

[JeffK]

punchy the clown!

[videomode]

I hope they get a slugfest at the Lutz

[deathsave]

those wedgeheads are tim meighan restorations. i've been on his list for a year and still have no idea what i'm getting or when, but it'll be worth it when it happens.

[revtest]

I don't get the love for Andromeda that game does nothing for me. those wedges were dope. Countdown was super fun also, but slugfest was the shit!!! Dropshot with the Grandslam!

[DannyBackglass]

Can't believe I didn't make it to the wedge alley. No punchy the clown. I thought it went till six on Sunday. Stupid sexy tournament.

[inthecan]

I just noticed that Andromeda recently attained the # 1 SS rating on IPDB, sort of novel! Wish I had been able to play it more at the Seattle show, thing did a fruitless ball search on me and would not reboot properly.

http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=73

[ROM]

Article on Raymond in the !

[Opto]

Good quick read . . . Raymond definitely had some good quotes in there too. Always nice to see players explaining *why* pinball is fun in general terms that anyone can understand.

[Dropshot]

That is a good article! Don't worry Raymond, you'll be able to come down here and kick all of our asses soon enough. Or convince C-Bar to hire an electrician, put in some more outlets and it may be sooner than you think. They do have 12 machines right now and are all ages until 10pm.