I was greeted on arrival to Eighteen Twenty Lounge by a surprise. Instead of an array of newer games that we had been playing during the regular season, I was welcomed by an array of older games, going all the way back to Black Hole, a well-known Gottlieb table from 1981. The last time I remember playing Black Hole was at the Time-Out arcade in Sharpstown Mall shortly after its release–when I was small enough that I could not see over the playfield glass without standing on a box made for the purpose. Although I did not get to play Black Hole during tournament play, I did play it during warmups and later in the night as tournament play was winding down (neither A division nor B division finals had Black Hole in the machines to be played).

Anyway, on to the tournament. As the #4 seed, I was grouped with Fred Revnew, John Carroll, and Jamie Jenkins. We would begin the quarterfinal round on White Water, a game by Williams from 1993. I elect to play first as I often do. I got off to what I thought was a pretty good start with a first ball score of 45M+. It looked really good, right up until the moment where Fred runs it all the way up to around 75M on his first ball. I’m still in second and I feel like I have a chance. After ball 2, though, I’m just short of 60M, Fred would rocket away with 121M+ and Jamie would leapfrog into second with 83.5M+. I would eventually sign off with 63.1M+ just barely good enough for third place ahead of John’s 62.2M+.

Game two would be on The Addams Family, the best-selling pinball game of all time from Bally in 1992. I felt a bit more hope as at least I was familiar with the layout and rules of this table (though it’s not like I was a complete stranger to White Water). I elect to go second this time, which would be behind Jamie and ahead of Fred and John. The first ball was rough for everyone, with only John winding up with a decent score at 10.1M+. Both Jamie and Fred put up a minimal 250K (the feed from the Graveyard scoop was a bit tricky to handle) while I managed a meek 1.0M+. Ball 2 would see an improvement, I would get all the way up to 19.2M+, staying more or less in the running, though John would run it up to 26.5M+ and Fred would leapfrog into first with 82.5M+. I would, unfortunately, sign off with 23.5M+ good only for another third place. The only lucky break I would catch here is that the standings point totals going into the final round would be 8 for Fred, and a three-way tie at 2 between the rest of us, with the top two advancing to the next round. (This is commonly referred to as 8-2-2-2 for short.)

So it would all come down to the third and final game of the round on Iron Man. I would elect to go fourth this time, as my previous strategy of going first and second clearly didn’t pan out. To make a long story short, this game would come down to the last ball. I began my ball 3 with 9.5M+ and would need to top 31.9M+ (John’s score) to advance. To say the least, that didn’t even come close to happening. I would sign off with 10.7M+ for last place in the third game. I would finish the tournament in 16th place.

The only silver lining to this cloud is that Fred Revnew would go on to take first place, and Bryce Revnew would take second, leaving third place for Phil Grimaldi. So I got at least part of what I wanted: someone else winning A division for a change. I did hang around to see this (as well as get in a few more games of Black Hole as mentioned previously).

As disappointing as my early exit was, I am more driven than ever to practice and prepare for next season as well as some of the tournaments between now and then. This is still my best finish to date in the league, but it’s not a destination, only an intermediate stopover on the way to the top.

This Wednesday night league meet was the last one before the league playoffs (more on that at the end of the post). I had one last chance to (hopefully) nail down one of the higher seeds, having already clinched A division back in week 6 if not earlier.

I did not play any warmup games for a variety of reasons, including that I arrived rather late. I would be grouped with Fred Revnew, Elizabeth Dronet, and Chris Palis. The game lineup was Attack from Mars, AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Houdini, Aerosmith, and Medieval Madness. Star Wars was out on the floor but malfunctioning.

We would start off with a game on Medieval Madness. Chris pretty much ran away with this one from the beginning, posting 3.5M+ on ball one with nobody else breaking out of six-digit territory. I was still in a relatively good position after two balls, facing a 4.3M+ final score from Elizabeth and scores of 4.1M+ and 1.2M+ from Chris and Fred respectively. I would do damned little to improve signing off with a 2.9M+ that would hold up for third place. Not exactly the start I wanted.

Moving on, we would then play on Houdini. I had an early lead after ball 1 with 55K+ to Chris’s 50K+. Chris and Fred would bounce back and leave me staring down a 159K+ and 378K+ after two balls. I would again post a third place with 136K+ finishing ahead of only Elizabeth. I’d really like to make last weeks’ controversy moot so I’m looking forward to doing something, anything, to finish with a total of 13 standings points or more. Basically, with four standings points after two games, that means at least two first-place finishes in the final three games.

We would play our third game of the night on AC/DC. The first ball was a dud for everyone with all four of us posting sub-2M scores. Elizabeth would have a slight lead over everyone with a 2.9M+ at the time I plunged ball 2 into play. I had a great ball and managed to jump out into the lead with 13.2M+, and this was without getting into a multiball mode. Even though I did not need to play it to win, I would play a very brief third ball and sign off with 16.2M+. So, nine standings points after three games, and only one more first place (or, second place and then third place or better) needed to make week 7 the other drop week.

The fourth game of the night would be Aerosmith. The game would get off to a very unambitious start for me, with a sub-1M score against Fred’s 5.3M+ and Elizabeth’s 12.7M+. Those would balloon to 22.9M+ and Elizabeth’s 13.9M+ by the time I got back up to plunge ball 2. I would get back in it boosting my score to 15.4M+ but by the time I came back up to play ball 3, I would be staring down a 45.1M+ and 37.6M+. I had a really good Toy Box Multiball but would come up just short with a final score of 34.8M+, a really high score for coming in a lowly third. I made a lot of good saves, got a lucky Lazarus bounce, and even had one ball airball right into the plunger lane (when I was afraid it would go into the outlane ending my ball instead). These are the kind of things one doesn’t see on the scoreboard; it’s easy to dismiss this as “bleh, another third-place game” without the story behind it.

It would come down to the last game of the night on Iron Maiden. I jumped out to an early lead with a 20.1M+ first ball. Fred would take a momentary lead putting up 22.6M+ after his ball 2. I would retake the lead with 28.6M+ after two balls, and then Fred would sign off with 23.7M+. So I have the lead and I’m assured of at least second place even if I just plunge my ball and walk away. Which I’m not going to do, because I’m feeling pretty hot. What happened next is the stuff that legends are made of.

I’m fuzzy on details, but I would play a very long third ball with many different multiball rounds. To put it simply, I was in the zone. It seemed like every shot I really wanted to make, I made. I would get an extra ball, which I was allowed to play since there were only 31 players. It felt like time stood still, but the score counter definitely did not. This wasn’t just any win; this was a SKQuashing. Before playing my extra ball I had surpassed 152M, and would sign off with a white-hot 173.7M+ for a new personal record. Enough for me to enter my initials, as well.

If only I had four more games like that to nail down the #2 seed. As it stands, Bryce Revnew snuck in with his own solid performance across all five of his games to post 25 standings points and bring him up to 109, one point over my 108. (Incidentally, Bryce’s scores from this week included a 159.7M+ on Iron Maiden not too far behind my own and a 53.0M+ on Aerosmith which would also have beaten everyone in my group.) Erich Stinson put up 19 standings points, bringing him up to 109 after dropping his 14 from last week (funny coincidence, that). Those would push me down to the #4 seed with a final total of 108.

It’s been a great season, and so far I’ve had a blast. But, the amazing performance which put me in the #4 seed is not going to mean much if I can’t pull it together in the playoffs and win. If you can come out tonight to Eighteen Twenty Lounge and show your support, I’d appreciate it. There is a Facebook event page with the details. I will be posting updates there later today and tonight.

Before anyone asks, no, Stern didn’t release a Britney Spears pinball machine (though at this point, it wouldn’t surprise me if at one point they did).

On one hand, the standings are pretty much set and so the matches are starting to bear less significance. On the other, every player has some room for improvement to try to grab the highest seed possible. As stated last week there was still a faint hope of my grabbing the #1 seed for the playoffs going into this week.

I would be grouped with Billy Joiner, Melvin Jiles, and Cory Westfahl. Cory is the only other player in the group who is set to wind up in the A division playoffs. The game lineup this week would consist of Ghostbusters, Metallica, Houdini, Star Wars, Iron Maiden, and AC/DC. Guardians of the Galaxy would be on the floor but not part of league play due to problems (again).

We would start off on Houdini. I had what I felt to be a pretty decent game, running up 140K+ on ball 1 for an early lead. Cory, however, leapfrogged into first after his ball 2 posting a score of 438K+, and even Billy was able to move into what would eventually be a second place finish with 169K+. I would have to settle for third with 160K+ after a very lacking ball 3.

The next game on Star Wars wouldn’t go any better. I never really had much of a chance on this one after ball 2 was done, though I did have an early lead after ball 1 (54.9M+ to Cory’s 51.7M+ with the other two players much further back). I would sign off with 74.5M+ behind Billy’s 84.7M+, Melvin’s 239.8M+, and Cory’s 406.8M+. So far, that’s three standings points after two games. Not good.

Things would improve slightly during our game on Iron Maiden. I would stay competitive after the first two balls with 10.0M+, staring down Billy’s final score of 14.0M+. I ran up quite a few points during a couple of different multiball modes for a total of 52.4M+, though Cory was able to put up an astounding 185.2M+ to take first. That would bring me up to six standings points after three games, and now all of a sudden there’s doubt that I’m even going to be able to beat last week’s eight-pointer.

Next up would be Ghostbusters, the object of much of my scorn for anyone who has read more than one of my previous posts. Predictably, the game starts off low-scoring, with a whopping 607K+ for me after the first ball, with no players breaking the 2M mark until ball 2. I wouldn’t break the 2M mark until ball 3, and the 65.2M+ I’d sign off with would only be good for third place. At least, no matter what, I’d improve upon the dreadful eight-pointer I put up last week.

And then we wind up the night on Metallica. This is where the controversy begins.

The first game we play, there’s an irregularity where during Cory’s first ball, two balls are shot into play, which he argues cost him a ball save. According to the rules that’s supposed to be normal course of play. Being the pillar of sportsmanship I can sometimes be, I catch Cory’s ball when he steps away from the machine not realizing the ball save was active. The ruling Erich makes is to time 15 seconds after Cory resumes play to see if he would still have gotten the ball save… and it turns out Cory loses the ball right at the 15-second mark so it’s inconclusive. Erich also says technically according to the rules I should have been DQ’d for interference (not that it matters at this stage in the night), especially considering we’ve been down that road before.

We wind up, by agreement, replaying the game from the beginning, which gives the short end of the stick to Melvin who had run up 11.1M+ on the first ball. Amazingly, I would wind up posting a 24.3M+, most of it coming on the third ball during an Electric Chair Multiball which went very well, and Cory would come in last with 3.2M+. Melvin still took second place (though it’s conceivable he would have taken first had Cory just played out the first game normally). Still, thirteen standings points on the night is low enough to be one of my two lowest nights, and worse, it now means I am stuck with the fourteen-pointer from week 6 which I had hoped to drop.

The long and short of it is I can now forget about the #1 seed, and it’s still possible I may drop to, say, the #5 or #6 seed (or lower). I’m trying not to think about that possibility, though. I can still improve 12 points to a total of 117 on the season (after dropping the two lowest scores of 8 and 13).

As the scores stand now, I’m tied with both Cory and Craig Squires for the #2 seed; Craig has the tiebreaker over both of us, but I have the tiebreaker over Cory so that effectively puts me at the #3 seed. Craig can clinch a higher seed than mine by simply scoring equal or better than my week 8 performance if we both put up a 14 or higher. Cory can score one point lower than I do this coming week and still clinch a higher seed as long as that’s at least a 15. A number of the players below us are in a similar situation regarding being able to potentially clinch a higher seed than I have, whatever that may be. It gets harder to figure out due to being able to drop two weeks, though based on what I’ve been able to figure out, the odds start to massively thin out when we look at players on the bubble for A division as of this week’s scores.

Looking back, given some of the crazy things that have happened, I’m amazed that I’ve lasted for a majority of the season in one of the top two spots in the standings. I have to keep reminding myself it’s not going to matter if I choke in the playoffs. It felt really good to win B division last time, but I know it will pale in comparison to the feeling of winning A division. (Incidentally, that feeling is something which, until now, only two other players have experienced in this league, both of them known as frequent tournament winners.)

Instead of burying the eventual outcome at the bottom, I’m going to go ahead and put it at the top. Given how well I did going into this week, it was a huge disappointment and a disaster to wind up with three third-place finishes and two fourth-place finishes.

But I’m still going to fill in some of the details for the morbidly curious. The games for tonight: Attack from Mars, Medieval Madness, Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy (turned off due to a malfunction before we could play it), Ghostbusters (the game that eventually replaced it in our assigned games), Iron Maiden, Houdini (which we did not play). My grouping: Rob Torres, Bryce Revnew, and John Carroll. I was fourth in the group, and that was the order (Rob always played after me, John before, and Bryce between them). And yeah, you can already see where this is going, given that Bryce has always been one of the better players in the league.

My scores, in order of play: 128.4M+ on Star Wars (fourth), 949.8M+ on Attack from Mars (third), 5.26M+ on Medieval Madness (third), 29.7M+ on Ghostbusters (fourth), and 14.6M+ on Iron Maiden (third). Rob and Bryce had all the first place finishes between them, with John taking second place in three out of five games.

Taking a look at how everyone else did, I’m seeing there aren’t many groups in which I could have been placed where I could have been expected to fare much better than I did. My Star Wars score might have been good for second in one other group but likely would have been last no matter what.

Winding up with a whopping eight standings points was really the last thing I expected. That was nowhere near enough to get it done, and well, my time at the top of the league standings was fun while it lasted. The good news is, I have still effectively clinched a spot in the A division playoffs, if for no other reason there are probably not enough first places to go around for enough other players to possibly all get 25 in both of the remaining two weeks, and I am still almost certainly going to get a seed in the top 5 in A division.

There is still a very slim chance I can get the #1 seed, but it would depend on things like both Phil Grimaldi choking pretty badly in both weeks 7 and 8 (or perhaps not showing up one of those two weeks) and my scoring 46 points combined between weeks 7 and 8. As an example of how unlikely that is, Phil’s lowest drop week ever in league history under the 5-3-2-1 scoring format was a 17 (Season 6, Week 7); until this season, the very concept that I’d do well enough for a 17 (or higher) to potentially be a drop week was laughable (but it almost happened this season).

I have a week to regroup before week 7, and I intend to make the best use of it that I possibly can.

Our story continues on yet another Monday night. The game lineup would be joined by the newly released Iron Maiden from Stern, alongside AC/DC, Attack from Mars, Ghostbusters, Guardians of the Galaxy, Houdini, and Star Wars. (Basically, most of the same lineup from Week 4 with the absence of Spiderman and Medieval Madness.) My one warm-up game on Guardians of the Galaxy would end with a score of 206.0M+ good enough for grand champion. Yeah, I’d say that’s warmed up enough…

After a roll call of the players who had not paid their $20 dues for the season (many of them were players who showed up for only one or two weeks) and a reminder that the Memorial Day session would once again be on a Wednesday, the groups were assigned and play began. I was grouped with Craig Squires, Jared Eikhoff, and Charles Hoogner. Jared is new to the league, while Craig and Charles have been around for quite a bit. In seasons past I would have just assumed I’d skate to an easy 20+ point night; this season, I’ve learned I can never take anything for granted.

We would begin on AC/DC; I would play second behind Craig and ahead of Jared and Charles. During warmups, I had heard the lower playfield was not working. It wound up being a non-issue, thankfully. I would begin with a 3.7M+ first ball, good for an early second place. Craig would retake the lead on his second ball, and by the time my third ball came up, I would be staring down a 15.6M+ to 5.7M+ deficit–a rather large margin on this game. I did manage to get it done with the help of a well-played multiball mode (I think it was Album Multiball). I would sign off with 26.7M+ good for first place. So far, so good, with five standings points after one game.

Next up would be Ghostbusters. The same Ghostbusters I’ve grown to know and hate, with the ridonkulous video mode scoring. Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately) I would play first. I did manage to get the video mode on the first ball, simply by letting the ball dead bounce into the right scoop (not a reliable feed, but apparently this works at least some of the time). However, I was dealt an impossible pattern of ghosts and finished the ball with only 16.0M+, which would be quickly dwarfed by Charles and his first-ball subtotal of what appears to be 44.5M+. (Another thing I hate about this game: getting the intermediate scores is difficult with still photography, I usually wind up taking video instead of trying to time the picture just right. Unfortunately, sometimes that video has clarity issues.) The scores would pretty much remain in this order and I would sign off with a 27.8M+ good for second behind Charles’s 46.3M+. At this point, I’m still thinking this is a good start with eight standings points after two games.

Next up would be Star Wars, and I would go third with the order rotating around to Charles in the first player spot. Charles and Craig would lead off with rather low-scoring balls (1.2M+ and 4.4M+) but I would not do any better posting a mere 2.6M+ good for a nominal early second place. By the time my turn came around again, though, Charles had run up a 158.6M+ score. I would do just well enough to stay in, jumping to 102.9M+. It would come back to me after Charles signed off with 182.9M+. I had a relatively short third ball, but somehow I was able to close the gap and jump back in front, finishing up with a 189.2M+. It definitely did not feel like an 86M+ ball when I was done; I think it was a TIE Fighter hurry-up and one of those infamous “mash the button” TIE Fighter modes that did it, with a decent bonus pushing me over the top. (Incidentally, Jared would improve to 167.3M+ for a not-so-distant third, which on any other night might well have been good enough for second or even first.) Thirteen standings points after three, and I’m definitely eclipsing the assumed droppable total of 14 from week 4.

Moving on, we got to play Iron Maiden. I had no idea what to expect with this game and I had read nothing about the strategy or ruleset. I simply decided to wing it, and it wound up showing through. I had 6.0M+ after ball 1 good for a nominal third place. By the time it got back around to me, though, I was trailing to an 11.5M+ from Jared as well as much higher scores from Charles and Craig. I would eventually sign off with 11.3M+, Jared with 15.2M+, Charles with 65.4M+ and Craig with 33.6M+. So I’m up to 14 standings points with one game to play…

We would end the night on Attack from Mars. There’s really not much to say about how this particular game went. The scoop was unreliable at best, often kicking balls dangerously close to the middle, with an insultingly sensitive tilt setting to boot. How Craig managed his 1.02B+ is anyone’s guess. I eeked out a second with 233.5M+ to Charles’s 232.7M+, but that’s not the big story here…

So far in my time in competitive pinball, I’ve kept a relatively good record when it comes to keeping my frustration under control and not abusing the machines. What I did after my third ball on Attack from Mars was an exception to say the least, and I’m only mentioning it here so other players can learn from it: Don’t smack the playfield glass with your hand like I did. Not only do you risk breaking the glass and incurring the justified wrath of the operator and tournament/league officials (including a game or even tournament forfeit), but worse, you can easily injure your hand, wrist, and/or fingers. In my case I had quite a few random dull and sharp pains in my right hand as recently as Thursday afternoon that were most likely a direct result of this. I don’t think there’s any lasting damage but that remains to be seen and felt. (Please don’t assume I’m proud of this just because I’m mentioning it, because I am most certainly not. My desire in this case is simply that others learn from my mistake and hopefully don’t repeat it.)

Fortunately for me, I did not incur any penalties besides a warning and my lucky second place score stood as the official result. I would finish the night with 17 standings points. I am still, for the moment, atop the overall league standings at 92 points, four points ahead of Erich Stinson, seven ahead of Jeff Mleynek, Phil Grimaldi, and Frankie Griffin (tied for third), and eight ahead of Tim Hood, with many other notables rounding out the top 16.

(Quick aside for the newer readers: I normally try to get posts up within 2-3 days after an event but sometimes real life happens and it takes a bit longer.)

This week at the Space City Pinball League began with at least a couple of surprises. One, the photo booth is no longer at the bar, making room for an eighth game (we usually have seven, and it’s not that rare for a game to become unusable for league play during or before league play). Two, there was a very rare absence for Phil Grimaldi who just last week took over the first place overall ranking from yours truly. By no means would that guarantee I would finish the night back atop the standings, as the other players ranked immediately below me are quite capable of putting up 19 or higher or even 25.

Perhaps the biggest surprise would be that I’d be grouped with Matt Quantz for the first time since last season’s B division playoffs. Joining us would be Dylan Kennedy and Drew Schmid. The eight games in the lineup this week: AC/DC, Attack from Mars, Ghostbusters, Guardians of the Galaxy, Houdini, Medieval Madness, Spiderman, and Star Wars.

We would begin the night’s play on Ghostbusters. I would be playing third in front of Matt and behind Dylan and Drew. It seems like everyone else had a decent game on this one except for me. I’ve spoken about how much I hate this game with the new code, though the video mode really didn’t factor into this one as much as it usually does. A score of 6.6M+ against any decent players just won’t get it done. I’m off to a pretty lousy start with a fourth place good for one standings point. (My apologies for the poor quality of the scoreboard picture on this one, I was having difficulty getting my phone’s camera to focus properly for some reason.)

Next up would be Spiderman, where I would be going first. I would do a bit better on this one, holding onto the lead up until Matt’s third ball. Matt was playing fourth and had 4.38M+ at the start of ball 3 after I had signed off with a 25.5M+. On Spiderman, 25.5M+ is not all that high of a score, so I’m not all that surprised that in the end, Matt was able to mount a comeback. He would sign off with 68.5M+ good for first place, with my 25.5M+ a rather distant second. Still, it’s a huge improvement over my stinker of a performance on Ghostbusters. That’s four standings points after two games.

Moving on, we would play on Guardians of the Galaxy. It was a pretty average game until I finally hit my groove during my second ball. I would wind up playing both Groot Multiball and Orb Multiball twice to get to 64.4M+ after ball 2 and 91.3M+ for the whole game. Even though that’s a pretty good score on this game, I was not about to count out Matt until he drained way too soon. Matt would sign off with 20.59M+, good for second place ahead of Dylan’s 20.27M+. Eight standings points after three rounds and there’s still some chance I can pull off a relatively decent week if I win out.

The next game would be Star Wars, and I would have the supposed advantage of playing fourth. My first ball was just crummy, with only 5.3M+. On this game, that’s almost nothing; by comparison, by the time action got back around to me, Matt had put up 533.1M+ and Dylan had put up 280.5M+. My second ball would go much better, putting me at least back within striking distance with 243.0M+. Matt and Dylan would have relative duds for a third ball, so I would only have to beat Dylan’s 310.7M+ for second and Matt’s 580.5M+ for first. Though I will admit the way my luck had been going, it wouldn’t be that big of a surprise for Matt to have put up over a billion. Anyway, I was only able to muster a 296.0M+ for a relatively close third place. That brings me up to eleven standings points on the night with one game remaining.

The final game would be Medieval Madness, and again I would be going fourth (the way the Matchplay software works, one game has the same player order twice over the course of a night in a four-player group, as the order is simply rotated for each game in turn, though we rarely play the games in the order Matchplay lists them). Matt had the lead from the beginning, putting up 6.1M+ on his first ball. Amazingly, my first ball was a whopping dud with a princely total of 421,320–less than both Dylan’s and Drew’s first-ball scores of 540,190 and 677,630. I would do somewhat better on my second ball, getting to 1.51M+ but I would face scores of 7.35M+, 1.50M+, and 3.53M+ from Matt, Dylan, and Drew respectively by the time I started ball 3. Right away, I was able to hit the castle shot to score a destroyed castle for 2M, and combined with a few other miscellaneous shots I would muster up enough points to sign off with 4.19M+, enough for second place and bringing me up to fourteen standings points on the night. Not exactly the most ambitious performance if I want to keep my first place in the overall standings.

The only thing perhaps more surprising than the rather smelly 14 I put up, would be Jeff Mleynek, who I was tied with for second at the start of the night, only managing 12 when a 15 would have put him in first place. Erich Stinson put up a 17, which is a relatively good performance and enough to move him into third in the overall standings. So, amazingly, I’m back at the top for the moment, and with plenty of time to psych myself up for week 5 as both this past Monday (4/23) and next (4/30) have Astros home games scheduled, meaning we don’t play again until May 7.