So Saturday (April 23) was the Dallas Showdown pinball tournament. I had originally planned to attend, but decided not to. It does seem to be a bit bizarre to write about a tournament I didn’t actually go to, but given that I did plan to go to this tournament for most of the month preceding it, and some of the people who were there, I do have a few thoughts.

First, the reason I didn’t go should be at least somewhat obvious. Coming off of my absymal performance in the preceding Tuesday’s league playoffs, I had a lot to think about on my drive home. There were a variety of factors that went into my decision not to attend, but the biggest standout was that I was just not going to be in the proper psychological state to play well even if I was able to solve all the other issues.

The full standings aren’t up at the moment, but the top four places did get posted to the Facebook event. I do see that Justin Niles finished third after qualifying eighth, and that Preston Moncla (who won the A division of our last league season) finished fifth after qualifying sixth. Strong finishes from both of those players are not surprises at all. The real shockers, though, are Rusty Key finishing qualifying all the way down in sixteenth, and Phil Grimaldi finishing qualifying in seventeenth. This is out of a field of 30 players.

Looking at that, I have serious doubts I had a snowball’s chance in hell of making any kind of a decent showing, even if I had been able to resolve the issues in time. I would like to say I will try to make next year’s tournament, but my eyes are on the PAPA World Championships which would in all likelihood be only two or three weeks earlier (assuming approximately the same schedule is kept next year). Either way I’m hoping the Dallas Showdown tournament becomes a regular thing.