Thursday Qualifying
When I left off, 840 pinball players were gathering by the stage to hear some announcements that would kick-off our PInburgh weekend. I'd like to tell you what that means. It means 5 rounds of competition on Thursday against the entire field, 5 rounds of competition on Friday within the competitive division earned on day one, and if you're lucky--at least one round of competiton on Saturday in the playoffs.
But What is a Round of Pinburgh?
Right. Let's start there. A round of Pinburgh is a group of four games with the same three or four competitors (usually four). See that picture above? I would play with three other players on Transformers, Flicker, TX Sector, and Future Spa. On each game up to three points would be available to me, depending on how many of my competitors I beat. If I beat all three I'd be awarded three points (one for each player I beat). If I beat two, I'd be awarded two points (again--one for each competitor I beat). And so on. One game after another, until we play all four games. Round scores are totaled up and a player could earn between zero and twelve points. If a player earned twelve points they were awarded a medal. Players in groups of three earned 1.5 points per opponent beaten, so they could still earn a 12.
It only gets confusing when I think of all the permutations and combinations. So I try to focus on playing pinball. The website, yes there's a website, tells me what bank to play and who my opponents are, so I practice being a good sheep and go where I'm told :)
Round One
It was time to start playing, so I did. My group initially was placed on what I like to call the Casanova Bank. I call it the Casanova bank because the EM (Electro Mechanical) game in the bank is Williams Casanova, and to be totally honest I am not very good at the game. So when the Tournament Directors informed us that there was a mistake in the groupings, I was thrilled. I got moved across the room to the Wizard, Fishtales, Fathom, Starship Troopers bank instead. I was thrilled, because regardless of my score--I knew these games and felt confident in the rulesets.
Highlights
Rather than walk through every round of qualifying, I'll give you a few of the highlights from days one and two. Amazingly, armed with the information from qualifying last year, a player can accurately predict the scores they need to get into the various divisions after Thursday, and again a player can predict the scores they need to make the playoffs. For myself on day one I was focused on the number 36. If I earned 36 points I knew I'd make the top division. Which meant getting at least a seven in every round (and finding a round to do better than a seven).
Medal Round
After four years, I'm happy to report that it finally happened, I earned one! And it only happened because of a miracle. The bank consisted of the machines, Target Pool, Game Show, Countdown, and Monster Bash. Countdown is a 3-ball game and I had 3 "house balls." What is a "house ball?" A house ball is when you plunge and the ball drains before you ever get a flipper to touch it.
So how did I win the game and earn a 12 in the round if I had 3 house balls? Good question. That's where the miracle comes in. My last house ball didn't touch a switch and (luckily) on Countdown if you don't touch a switch you get to plunge again. And when I played my second third ball, I complete every objective and scored enough points to win the game!
This image is from the Internet Pinball Database which is a fantastic reference for anyone who wants an image of a playfield along with hundreds of other pinball facts.
What is clear from the picture is how littered the playfield is with switches. A hole at the top, and a giant bumper right below it, star rollovers below that, target banks and in-lane/out-lane switches. Also - the rails above the hole at the top of the playfield score points as well. I missed everything. Like I said--it was a miracle!
Total points exceeded 36
I advanced from day one into the A division, which meant if I could string together some magic, I'd have a shot at the A division playoffs!
Again, I don't want to name names, but my first name is Greg, and that's me in the red, sitting in 7th place after Thursday.
Friday Nightmare Collapse
It happened. I collapsed. This was the worst meltdown I've had in years--not since I blew the State Championships as a freshman golfer in high school have I known such defeat. But you know what? It's okay. I'm okay. In fact, the best part of being a competitive pinball player is that not only did I bomb out of the tournament 3 points away from the playoff cutline, but my friends did much better than me and I was super excited for them! Remember how I mentioned in the first article that I was blessed to be doing something I loved in the beautiful city of Pittsburgh while thousands of other Pittsburghers went about their work week? That didn't change just because I wasn't going to be playing in the Pinburgh Finals. I had friends who would be.
Stay Tuned
Stay tuned for Boooooooom News Presents: ReplayFX (Pinburgh Part Three). It should come out 8/20/18 around 5PM.