The year 2023 concluded with two final arcade trips. The first was Friday, December 29, at Cidercade. I had a good feeling about this night the moment I got lucky and had someone leave giving me a decent parking space in a mostly full lot.

Dinner tonight was from the food truck that was on-site, Lovebird Hot Chicken. This is easily one of the better food trucks I’ve ever ordered from. I had the chicken tenders basket. I opted to go ahead and get the house sauce, which is something I don’t do often.

For better or worse, I didn’t get pictures of my food. However, I did get my usual score pictures. Among the more notable highlights of the night: 80.4M+ on Monster Bash (trying my best to do the “spam the Mosh Pit lane” strategy I saw on stream at last year’s IFPA Texas championships between Colin MacAlpine and Phil Grimaldi); 149.5M+ on Cactus Canyon, notable because the game had rather weak flippers yet I was still able to reliably make shots (and the start button bounced a lot, so it was a two-player game, and my initials were mis-entered as “SKK”); 17,650 on Zaxxon, which may well be a personal best (not one of the games I’m all that good at); 3.63M+ on Heavy Metal; and 53.5M+ on The Walking Dead.

A couple nights later, it was New Year’s Eve (December 31) at Little Dipper. I spent maybe $10 on pinball coin drop and about $5 on a beer after tip. Most of it was on Terminator 2, a game I remember fondly from my days playing pinball as a teenager (though I may have seen this game around a couple of times after I hit my twenties). At first, T2 was a drain monster. Finally, though, I hit my stride and put up a solid 127.7M+ for high score #2. Also notable (arguably the better achievement) was a 38.4M+ on Scared Stiff for high score #1, during which I made it to Monster Multiball for the very first time. What a great way to end the year!

This post will be a bit different from most of the others I have made here. I’ve spent the last eight years posting mainly about various arcade visits, tournaments, and league nights. This post, however, is strictly for the players and fans who don’t understand the process of getting to a world championship. This is primarily from my perspective, as a Texas player, except where otherwise noted.

There are actually two different world championships. One is the IFPA Open, held each year as part of INDISC in California. (INDISC originally stood for It Never Drains In Sunny California, but today is no longer officially an acronym as far as I can tell.) The only requirement to play in the IFPA Open is to make the trip and buy the qualifying entries. Those who score high enough make the playoffs, and the winner of those playoffs becomes the IFPA Open champion for that year.

The other is the original IFPA World Championship, which alternates between North America and Europe each year. The 2024 championship, which players qualified for last year (2023), will be in the US, the 2025 championship will be in Europe, and then the 2026 championship will be somewhere in North America again. There are two ways to qualify for the (original) IFPA World Championship. One way is via the open world ranking, with two slots guaranteed to each eligible country, then the highest ranked players remaining. The players qualifying that way will fill 77 of the 80 slots. The other way is via the three remaining slots, which go to the winner of the North American Pinball Championship, the European Pinball Championship, and the Women’s World Pinball Championship. Being a male in North America with exclusively domestic travel plans for the immediate future, it is the first of these that are most relevant to me.

The only way into the North American Pinball Championship is to win a State, Provincial, or District (of Columbia) Championship. (The European one is different as it’s done primarily from an at-large field of 52 qualifiers from tournaments in Europe, with the 12 other slots going to the highest country-level finishers who haven’t already qualified via the at-large field, more like a miniature version of the World Championship.)

For me, sitting here in Texas, I would most likely have to qualify for and win the Texas State Championship. I say “most likely” as it is possible in theory for me to travel to another state (or province or DC), qualify for that championship, and win it, and make it into the North American tournament that way. There is nothing in the IFPA rules prohibiting one from going to a qualifier outside the state one lives in. Given past events, however, it would feel extremely awkward to qualify for and win, say, the Oklahoma championship or the Louisiana championship and advance that way. If it’s my only option, sure, that’s what I’ll do, and I’ll just deal with the awkwardness.

So what does it typically take to qualify for an IFPA state-level championship? The top qualifier in Texas did this:

I’ll explain what each tournament was, since the names are obscured.

1, 3, 5, 10, 14, 19 are monthly 4X (four strikes) tournaments. 2 is a major annual tournament. 4 and 17 are major max matchplay tournaments. 9 is an annual pin-golf tournament. 6,15 are major quarterly tournaments. 7 is part of a week-long series of tournaments leading up to a major classic arcade/pinball show. 8 and 13 are monthly 3X tournaments. 11 appears to be a one-off 4X tournament held on someone’s private home collection. 12 and 18 are weekly 3X tournaments held at a well-known local arcade. 16 is another one-off group matchplay tournament held at someone’s private collection (different host than 11). 20 is yet another one-off tournament at yet another private home collection (different from 16 or 11), of which I can find out absolutely nothing as the Facebook event has either been deleted or was marked private.

Number of players in each tournament, in order: 48, 56, 34, 48, 64, 68, 35, 86, 50, 31, 31, 28, 35, 48, 32, 49, 30, 51, 44. Finishing rank for this player in each tournament, in order: 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 2.

That’s a total of 601.70 ranking points, with an average of 30.09 points per tournament in that top 20.

The player just above the cutline (24th) did this:

This player is based in a different area than the top qualifier, so most of these are different tournaments. I’ll try to explain these as well, using roughly the same format. I’m not finding a lot of information on these, and I’m not as familiar with this area’s typical tournaments.

1 is a classics only holiday tournament (the tournament name ends with “Christmas”). 2 is a 4X tournament. 3 is a target matchplay tournament. 4,13,18 are one-off/special occasion tournaments, but I can’t find out much more information on them. 5,20 are two instances of the same local monthly tournament. 6 is a major annual tournament outside this player’s area (approximately a 3-4 hour drive). 7 is a weekly tournament in the same area as 6. 8,9,10,16 are in the same area as 7, with 9 and 10 being part of a major quarterly weekend series of tournaments, and 8 being a monthly 4X tournament the following weekend. 12 is another tournament in the same series as 8. 14 is a 4X tournament, even though it is named the same as 2. 15 is part of a quarterly tournament series (similar to 9 and 10). 17 is an annual pin-golf tournament. 19, I have uncensored just as a point of reference: the Texas Pinball Festival Classics tournament (not the one I played in, which is Wizards, but the side tournament in the same room).

Some of these overlap between the two players. With the top qualifier’s number first: 1 and 8 are the same tournament; 3 and 12; 6 and 15; 9 and 17.

Number of players in each tournament, in order: 47, 10, 13, 42, 20, 111, 48, 48, 56, 30, 20, 34, 45, 10, 64, 43. Finishing rank for this player in each tournament, in order: 1, 1, 2, 4, 3, 43, 12 (3-way tie), 2, 12, 4 (2-way tie), 1, 3, 7 (3-way tie), 1, 26, 9, 8, 2, 76, 6 (4-way tie).

Now I’ll post one completely uncensored, as he’s not a Texas player, but I have mentioned him before here. Escher Lefkoff is currently the #2 ranked player in the world (he was #1 for a while), and played in all three TPF tournaments (Texas Pinball League, Classics, and Wizards) this past year. Those were the only Texas tournaments he played:

Note that Escher lives in Colorado. However, these three tournaments put together were almost enough points to qualify in Texas; Escher wound up in 26th, two places below the cutline, a mere 4.96 ranking points short.

(TPF Wizards had 158 players, Classics had 208, and the TPL tournament had 60.)

And Escher didn’t even win two of these tournaments. He did win TPF Classics, but came in tied for second in the Texas Pinball League and tied for seventh in TPF Wizards. One place higher in Wizards would have put him in the top 24 for Texas.

While the year-end standings put Escher just below the cutline for Colorado (which I’m not going to dissect the same way here), there are at least two out-of-state players in the top 24 (one from Oregon, one from Kentucky) who may not fancy a return trip to Colorado to play in that state’s championship. Not all of the players who make the top 24 are always able to make it, so then the 25th, 26th, etc ranked players are invited in order. This is the same in Texas as well, so it’s not inconceivable for two Texas players to drop out and give Escher a chance to play in the Texas championship.

Anyway, so that’s what it takes to qualify for a state championship (the first step in making it to the world championships by way of the state-North America-world route): plenty of high finishes in tournaments with high player counts, with the top 20 tournaments played in the state in the year counting towards state championship qualifying. Not easy by far, but I have proven in the past that I can make it to the top. Just qualifying for a state championship is only the beginning, the first of four parts of the road to world champion via that route. Winning the state championship is the second part, then winning the North America championship is the third part.

I may take a more in-depth look at INDISC and the IFPA North America and World Championships, as well as what it takes to actually win an IFPA state championship, in later posts.

[Posted as part of Matt Mullenweg’s Birthday Gift wishes.]

This is a difficult post to write, but I need to get this out there. This post is long overdue, and with the end of the year coming it makes much more sense to end a year with a post of this type than start a new year with it.

I’m not going to tell the full backstory or even attempt to get my side of the story on record at this time. That was part of the original idea behind this post, originally conceived as a series of posts.

What I am going to do is set the stage by summarizing what I have observed to be key points about the culture of Texas and Houston. Some of it is well summarized at An Outsider’s Guide to Texas Culture (however, note that I do not endorse the politics of the rest of the linked site). I will briefly quote from that article here:

• Texans are proud of Texas. We like where we’re from, and we know our state. We take Texas history in junior high school, where we learn about how Texas was under six different nations during its history and about how Texas was once its own country.
  […]
• Texans are independent-minded. We’ll listen to what you think, but we’ll make up our own mind. We expect to have to solve our own problems, and we expect you to try to solve your own problems as well. We expect no help, but we’ll offer to help and accept help when you offer. We’re confident in ourselves, and have no expectation that your way will be better. It’s not arrogance, it’s experience: our pragmatism has served us well in the past. Politically, we resent the influence of other states on our politics. We don’t want Washington DC, New York, or California telling us what’s best for Texans. Texas political independence is valued by many Texans, and many of us want a chance to make our voice heard when it comes to Texas’ future.

Taken together this generally means it is expected that native Texans should solve Texan problems, as opposed to outsiders (those from other states or even other countries). In its most liberal interpretation, it also means a native Houstonian is better equipped to solve a problem in the Houston area more than, say, a Dallasite or an Austinite (but that’s not nearly as relevant here).

It is at this point that I would like to be able to tell a proud story about how I personally embodied those values and stepped up to lead Houston’s first real pinball league back in 2014 or 2015. Unfortunately, that story would be complete fiction; I cannot truthfully tell that story as that is simply not what happened.

I played in a lot of the early tournaments and leagues through 2018 (as you can see by going through old posts on this blog). But as far as helping run the events, that’s not something I did at that point in time.

Many of the events were (and some still are) run by a group known as the Space City Pinball League (SCPL), founded by a native of Cleveland (Ohio, not Texas) who found himself in Houston for educational reasons and then decided to stick around despite the lack of a local competitive pinball scene. For that matter, many of SCPL’s leaders are not native Houstonians or even Texans; at least one of them is not even originally from the US, and at least one may as well have been born in Buffalo (New York, not Texas). This isn’t intended to be an attack, simply a statement of facts.

Back to the topic at hand. By not stepping up, I failed Houston and I failed Texas. That failure falls far below any standard of acceptability, especially given that I am a lifelong native Houstonian and Texan. I deeply regret and am extremely remorseful for my inaction which has allowed the leadership of SCPL to effectively monopolize the competition pinball scene in the greater Houston area (at least for the moment). This is my mistake and I own it. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize just how big of a mistake that was until SCPL banned me from their events. I had hoped clearer heads would have prevailed and any ban/suspension would have expired or been lifted by now. That’s why you’ve seen a bunch of arcade visits and even content with no pinball or video game connection, with little exception.

However, in the same breath I ask for the chance to fix this mistake and the damage thus caused; if not all of it, whatever I can. While this is a really big mistake on my part, it is one that I have definitely learned from, and it is my endeavor that as many people learn from it so that it may not be repeated going forward. That’s part of the reason I’m making this post, and possibly others to follow.

My continued participation in some competitive pinball events, at least some of which may be outside the Houston area (including the Texas Pinball Festival coming up), may successfully be interpreted as a sign I am not giving up on pinball, particularly competitive pinball. I think it is only fair that those I have failed give me a chance to “make good” for that mistake.

“Failure isn’t about falling down / Failure is staying down” — Marillion, Rich (1999)

Are there mistakes (related to the pinball/arcade community) that I made after this one? Yes. I have offered an apology for most of them. sent earlier this year directly to some of the people involved. However, I feel like those mistakes would not have had the chance to happen if I was the founder and the one in charge of most of the Houston-area pinball tournaments/leagues. Taking a leadership position where one is expected to lead by setting a good example is a surprisingly powerful motivator to do the right thing and act in the best interests of the community at large.

To my credit, I have started the Bayou City Pinball League and announced some events. The coming year, 2024, may decide the future of those efforts. (I had plans to start an alternative league as early as 2018, and finally almost had something going in 2020. Of course, fate in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic made that impossible until early 2021.)

There may be other apologies I may decide are necessary in the coming days, weeks, or months. For the moment, however, this is it.

In closing, I wish everyone a happy new year, but more importantly, I want to do my part to make it happy for the larger Houston area pinball scene, including the many potential new competitive pinball players out there.

I would like to share a few notes regarding the last few posts of 2023. Unlike the last couple of years, I will not be attending the New Year’s Eve event at Cidercade Houston. This should not be taken as a negative review of that event in past years; this is simply due to my personal circumstances and desires on how I wish to celebrate the arrival of the new year this time around. If you want to go to Cidercade for New Year’s Eve, go ahead and get your ticket(s) and don’t let my planned absence get in the way.

There is an important post scheduled for the 31st (New Year’s Eve). It is not a typical event or arcade visit summary, but it is nominally pinball-related. For a while I considered putting that post over on Rant Roulette instead, but what I needed to say is too closely intertwined with the storylines that have been told in this blog’s archives. With that in mind, making that post elsewhere doesn’t make any sense.

I may have one final arcade visit post to make this year, but there’s a chance I will not be able to finish it before the calendar flips over.

Happy new year to all, and I am looking forward to an exciting 2024!

This entire week before the major winter holiday left me in dire need of a pinball break. And so, Saturday night, after a chaos-filled week of dealing with novelty toys, greeting cards, gift cards, and other miscellaneous merchandise and elements of retail, I finally had the time and energy to stick my head in at Del Mar Lanes for what will likely be the last time in 2023.

The first thing to notice was that there was a new grand champion who put up a score well over 500M. Many of my mode-specific high scores were still intact, and the romp that the new champion went on appears to have been limited to one game as the previous high scores had only been pushed down one place.

Not surprisingly, the score to get a replay had spiked dramatically, to 52.75M. Between me and whatever other wizards haunt this bowling alley, apparently the replay percentage finally went high enough.Despite this I was still able to win a couple of replays from my original three paid credits on this visit; in both games I scored double the replay score and then some. This was despite having a few balls end early due to some kind of issue with the machine (reported via Pinball Map).

Despite no stratospheric high scores, this was a pretty good visit.

The first week of December brought another trip out to Eighth Wonder Brewery (on December 1), as well as a brief stop by Del Mar Lanes to satisfy my Godzilla fix (on December 3).

(The original intent behind the December 1 trip was to get in a few quick games at Lightnin’s, but that would have to wait as there was a private event taking place that night.)

According to Pinball Map, there was a Deadpool (modern Stern) and The Simpsons (Data East). What was actually there was a Deadpool and a Twilight Zone. I mostly played the latter, as you do not often see a Twilight Zone out on location, much less set for coin play in an establishment not really aimed at hardcore pinball players. Indeed, the upper flipper’s performance left a lot to be desired, and I resorted to skillful and/or lucky rebounds to make the player piano shot. I consider 329.3M+ pretty good given this issue.

There was nothing obviously wrong with the Deadpool though it may have been a bit off-level.

On December 3, I decided to drop back in at Del Mar Lanes for a few quick games of Godzilla. I was able to put up a 199.3M+ (high score #4) and some mode champion high scores as well.

Finally, on December 10, I was able to make my way back over to Lightnin’s Good Times. This location has a Stern (old) Stars like Einstein’s, and a Stern (modern) Godzilla like many of the other locations around town. I did not play Godzilla, focusing entirely on Stars. Out of 18 total games, I won six replays: five by matching, and one by a playfield special. Hitting special, I might add, is quite difficult on this game. First, one must light all five colored stars, and then keep the ball in play long enough to hit the lit special target (which changes position with slingshot and rubber hits, as well as with each tick of the spinners). There is also another way by making the drop targets four times, though this is even more difficult (at least for me). I am posting photos of my two best scores this time, if nothing else to prove that the first wasn’t a fluke.