League Night Recap for 2/27/18

Posted on March 13, 2018 by Heather

We’re now halfway through the regular season as 2/27 marked our fourth league night of Season 10.  Remember that we voted to allow people to play in the final tournament only if they were present for at least four nights, so this is the last chance to join and play the last four meetings of the season!  Night #4 was our highest attended this season and possibly our highest attended ever, with 19 people including two new players (Kyle and Jules) and the return of previous season player Mike B.  Chris won the night again and continues to lead the league standings.  You can always check our Google doc spreadsheet for the latest full standings.

We had quite a few high scores this night including Chris, Karen, and me (if I say so myself) on Revenge from Mars, and Mike S. and Joseph on The Addams Family.  The latter provoked the Quote of the Night from Mike, who declared, “If this doesn’t win the night I’m quitting the league” after he scored nearly 400 million and got all the way through touring the mansion.  Later in the night, Chris came over to tell Mike he might be quitting the league: “Go look at Joseph’s score and what ball he’s on.”  Of course Mike and I went over to look, and Joseph turned out to be around 250 million on Ball 1 and had not yet toured the mansion.  Later on, when Joseph finished, we went to check his score.  It was 395 million.  Mike said, “What was mine?  392?”  I looked at our score card and said “No… 396!”  Poor Joseph!  But I guess we’ll be stuck with Mike S. for a while longer.

Joseph and Chris watch the Smackdown in progress.

Joseph and Chris watch the Smackdown in progress.

The Smackdown game was Theatre of Magic.  (I hope everyone got plenty of practice in because it’s going to be an actual league game tonight.)  This time Chris managed to keep his eyes open long enough to play in finals and won the coveted plastic medallion, though I should have cut the ribbon longer as it barely fit over his head.  Or maybe that’s really a problem with his ego.  Mike S., in a moment of failed situational awareness, tilted away a bonus that would have gotten him 2nd place, leaving Joseph to take that position instead.  Mike had to console himself with 3rd and a whopping .08 WPPRs from the IFPA.  Derik took 4th.

Chris laughing while Derik watches.

I think the mirth was over Chris’s late realization that he would not be allowed to play an extra ball in the Smackdown finals.

Since part of the point of the Smackdown tournament is to give newer players a chance to get tournament play experience, I have decided to open up a second division for the Smackdown to give more people a chance at the hardware.  The top four qualifiers who are new to the league this season and did not qualify for the main Smackdown tournament will play off on a second, randomly-chosen game, concurrent to the main Smackdown.  It’s going to be called the Rookie Challenge and comes with its own medal.

The Smackdown winners punching each other.

The Smackdown winners, Derik (4th), Chris (1st), Joseph (2nd), and Mike (3rd). Wait, Joseph, shouldn’t you be punching Chris? Why are you turning on Mike S.?

Hope to see you all tonight!  League starts at 7:30, but come early if you want a chance to qualify for the Smackdown or the Rookie Challenge.

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League Night Recap for 2/13/18

Posted on February 27, 2018 by Heather
Terry watches Joseph play in the Smackdown finals.

Terry watches Joseph play in the Smackdown finals.

February 13 was our third league night of the season and my first after returning from my trip.  The main news of the night is that we started our new Tuesday Night Smackdown side tournament series.  Every league night for the rest of the season we will be having a side tournament on one game randomly selected that day.  Players can put in as many qualifying attempts as they want before league starts and after league if their group finishes early.  Once all league members are finished with league play, we have a finals game among the top 4 qualifiers.  The original idea of the Smackdown series comes from Mike S., and I worked out the details.  In addition to being some extra fun for players on league night, it is a way for our newer players to get some tournament experience under their belts.  The winner each night gets an amazing plastic medal and the burden of defending their title as the Smackdown Champion.

Karen tries out a qualifying game for the Smackdown tournament.

Karen tries out a qualifying game for the Smackdown tournament while Dan waits his turn.

Our first Smackdown game was Iron Man, and our first Champion was, uh, Joseph.  (I didn’t know I’d have to take that medal back home… I would have made it nicer!)  Mike came in 2nd, Terry 3rd, and Danny 4th.  It is worth noting that Chris was the top qualifier by a good margin, but he has an early bedtime and had to leave prior to finals, so he had to forfeit his position.  Mike ended up wishing he hadn’t had his second Long Island Iced Tea and I had to turn the timer on someone for the first time in my tournament directing career as he debated whether standing up to play his next ball was a good idea.  He eventually jumped up to play with 30 seconds left on his countdown, and had a solid 2nd place finish.

The Smackdown finalists.

The Smackdown finalists.

Chris continues to be at the top of the league after night 3, though Danny won the night.  (You can check the current standings on our spreadsheet here.)  Tonight is night 4, the halfway mark of the season, and we will be playing games starting with R and S, finishing in the early T’s.  We will also be having another Smackdown tournament, this time on Theatre of Magic.  Yes, yes, I know.  “Left loop all day.”  See you soon!

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League Night Recap for 1/9/18 and 1/23/18

Posted on February 13, 2018 by Heather

In preparation for League Night #3 tonight, I present to you… the belated recap of 1/9 (and apologies for 1/23)!

Opening night of the 10th season of Lansing Pinball League.

Opening night of the 10th season of Lansing Pinball League.

Season 10 started on 1/9 with my first night as the new league director, and what a start it was.  I expected a few new players; I didn’t expect half the participants to be new players.  In the chaos of getting all the new players checked in and explaining the rules, I got a bit overwhelmed and league started a little late.  Plus, when it was time for me to put people into groups, I didn’t have a good method ready and I just started pulling names off my list, putting four per game and trying to make sure at least one league regular was in each group to help out.  I then got to the end of the list and discovered I had only one person left, Dan.  Since other groups had already dispersed, score sheets in hand, I just removed myself from another group and joined Dan as a two player group.  This was not optimal since it meant that Dan and I had to wait all night for other, slower groups to finish, and worse, neither of us really got to meet any of the new players properly.  Oops.  I’m still learning.

It was great to see so many new players in the league.  We got some extra publicity from the Avenue and Pinball Pete’s this season, and I also made a poster for both venues to hang up, and I think that accounts for some of this.  In any case we’re all happy to have the league growing again.

Dan battles those ugly Martians on our league game, Attack from Mars.

Dan battles those ugly Martians on our league game, Attack from Mars.

This season we are going to be working through all the games alphabetically, but that’s “alphabetically according to how Match Play has them in its game list” since originally I was going to use Match Play to run the league.  (That didn’t end up working out since the way it deals with absent scores isn’t as we had planned.  Instead we’ll be using a spreadsheet on Google docs.  Not as pretty, but it works.)  Match Play doesn’t skip “The” in the titles of games, hence “The Addams Family” was not part of League Night #1.  We’ll continue with that alphabetical method the rest of the season but I might switch back to a sane method in future.

Mike S. ended up winning the first league night.  My own night was… not so great.  I think I’m going to find that my tendency to play badly in league after rushing home from work and getting no warmup time is only going to be exacerbated by also being in charge of running things.  That’s OK.  I love this league best of all the ones I play in because of the fun factor, not because of my scores!  I wasn’t alone in my agony, anyway; Fish Tales and AC/DC especially beat up a lot of players.

I rarely miss a league night, so of course I went and missed the second night of the first season I’m captaining.  I had a very good reason; I was giving a presentation at an international animal studies conference in Mexico City.  Joseph came with me (missing his shot at the state championship!) and so that left league stalwart Mike S. in charge of things for Night #2.  The threat of an ice storm almost caused a problem since Mike has to drive from Grand Blanc, but fortunately it didn’t materialize and Mike made sure everything was fine while I acted like a professional philosopher way down south.  I heard that we got even more new players, and that things ran smoothly without me.  In the words of Chris, “Mikey done good.”

Danny, Derik, and Matt.

Typical LPL frivolity with Danny, Derik, and Matt.

Tonight is League Night #3, and the first of our Tuesday Night Smackdown series!  Anyone (not just league members) can put in qualifying games on our randomly-chosen Smackdown game (which for tonight will be Iron Man), with the top four going on to play off for the Smackdown Champion title.  Smackdown attempts can start as soon as Joseph arrives, which will be around 5:15.  I will probably be a little late tonight due to an exam in my class, but should be there by 7:40 at the latest to get everyone going.  See you soon.

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Some Catching Up

Posted on February 12, 2018 by Heather
Matt P. and Danny, the Dream Team, in the Super-Ball finals.

Matt P. and Danny, the Dream Team, in the Super-Ball finals.

Good heavens, how the time slips by.  It has been quite a while since my last update, long enough that I never even got a chance to write about the two between-season events, and here we are about to have the third meeting of the “new” season.  Let me do something about that.

After Season 9 we had our usual post-season Zen (split flipper) tournament, Super-Ball IX.  The competition was fierce, but in the end Mike S. and Tim beat the “Dream Team” of Matt and Danny. (Matt has claimed all of his teams as the “Dream Team,” but this one seemed like a pretty strong contender for the title.)  This made Mike the first ever three-time Zen Champion in the League’s history. The night ended on a sentimental note, as it was Matt’s last night as the League president. Everyone extended heartfelt thanks to him for founding the league and serving as its steward for nine seasons. He said that knowing the league would continue on with or without him gave him a good feeling. I said, “I get it. You have a legacy.”

Zen champions of Season 9, Tim and Mike S.

Zen champions of Season 9, Tim and Mike S.

Trophies for the Silver Balls in the City tournament.

Trophies for the Silver Balls in the City tournament.

As usual, the league took a break until January, but in the meantime I hosted the third annual Silver Balls in the City charity tournament on December 27, benefiting the Capital Area Humane Society.  Several people competed who had not attended an Avenue tournament before, including Derik from Pinball Pete’s, known to us in the past only as “the guy who fixes the pinball machines at the Avenue.”  I knew him more by reputation than anything else.  I had seen him once or twice and spoken to him in passing, but he had not played with the league so I hadn’t previously known what a skilled pinball player he is.  He brought an extra $100 donation from Pinball Pete’s with him.  Meanwhile, Speedy from Pinball Pete’s in Ann Arbor also attended.  I had just met him a few days before when I happened to be at AA Pete’s while an informal league meeting was going on there.  He brought two 40 lb. bags of dog food as an in-kind donation for CAHS.  Pete’s also had Speedy and Derik bring some Pinball Pete’s T-shirts to give away as door prizes.  This was all a big and very welcome surprise.

Quite a few other new-to-us players were in attendance, and Jake, who had first played at

Silver Balls tournament in progress.

Silver Balls tournament in progress.

the Avenue in the Fear and Trembling tournament in October, came back for more.  And, of course, many of the usual suspects from league made an appearance.

The first time I did a Silver Balls tournament, it was four strikes, and we ended up just barely finishing before the bar closed.  This time I was conservative and did three strikes, and we actually got done more quickly than I would have liked.  Someday I’ll get this tweaked just right.  Mike S. took first place (on a roll after his Zen victory), and two people playing in their first Avenue tournaments got second and third: Derik and Melinda (respectively).  Melinda was especially pleased with her Santa-themed trophy, saying that it was the first time she had won hardware in a tournament.

Silver Balls winners Mike S., Melinda, and Derik.

Silver Balls winners Mike S., Melinda, and Derik.

That’s some catching up caught up on.  Next I’ll be giving my report on the start of the new season, so expect to see that shortly!

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Results for League Night #2, Season 10, 1/23/18

Posted on January 29, 2018 by Heather

Lansing Pinball League Season 10: Scores and Standings

It turns out that Match Play doesn’t really do what I expected it to with regarding to absentee scores, so from now on we’re going to have to use a homebrewed spreadsheet Joseph made for our league standings.  Select “Current Standings” to see the season to date.  Congratulations to Chris for winning the night and taking the lead (surprise, surprise?).

 

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Results for League Night #1, Season 10 (1/9/18)

Posted on January 10, 2018 by Heather

The results for our first league night of Season 10 are now available!  Congratulations to Mike S. for winning the first night.

This season we are going to be using MatchPlay’s tournament software to manage the league, so you can find all the standings for the season on our MatchPlay Live site.  For a specific night’s scores and results, just choose the number of the league night you want to view (right now the only one is “#1”).

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The Familiar and the New for Season 10

Posted on January 2, 2018 by Heather

Well, we’re less than a week away from starting Season 10, so I figure it’s time to get the final details out there. The main thing is, for the most part, league will run exactly as it always has: you’ll still show up, play 5 games with a group, and take down your scores. Your scores will still be compared with everyone in the league for the night and playoff qualification and seeding will still be based on total score over the season. I am going to keep the $10 dues for now and we’ll see if we need to adjust and re-evaluate that after this season’s over. There will be some extra expenses this time (notably, the use of MatchPlay software to run the league, which I’ll get to in a moment, as well as the $1 per person fee from the IFPA) but I think we can keep the dues the same and work around that.

So here’s what’s going to change — some stuff I am tweaking because it will make it easier for me to run the league simply and be consistent and fair.

First, we’ll be switching to a different scoring system. Previously you received 1 point for every person you finished ahead of for a league night. Simple enough! But one down side of this method is that it means the number of points you can potentially earn on a given night is heavily dependent on how many people show up that night. Plus, it’s more complicated to calculate versus the alternative I’m going to switch to. Which is this: we’ll be using a 100 point scoring system. Coming in 1st on a given machine that night will earn 100 points. Coming in 2nd will earn 99 points, 3rd earns 98 points, etc. So the top scorer on a given night will always get 100 points no matter how many other people are there.

Second, the makeup rule is going to be this: no makeups.  Instead, everyone will drop their lowest of 8 league nights. Your best 7 nights will count. So you can come to all 8 and try to keep improving or you can miss one without it totally hurting you. If you do miss a league night, you will be recorded as having a zero machine score on every game rather than a zero score. In other words, you will be scored as though you came in last that night — still not impossible to overcome, and comparable to how much missing a night hurt you under the old scoring system. We’ll be using the MatchPlay software/site to manage the league, so everyone will be able to easily look up current standings and see past results.

Third, finals will work like this: first we’ll determine the number of people who played at least 4 nights of the season. Whatever that number is, half of that number (rounding down) will play in A division finals. Anyone else who shows up to finals will play in B division.

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Extra, extra… Silver Balls makes the paper!

Posted on December 21, 2017 by Heather

The Lansing City Pulse ran a nice article on the upcoming 3rd annual Silver Balls in the City charity tournament.  The tournament will be at the Avenue Café at 6:30 p.m. on December 27.  There will be holiday-themed trophies!  All proceeds benefit the Capital Area Humane Society.  For more information and the latest updates, join our event page on Facebook.

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All Good Things

Posted on November 28, 2017 by Heather

As you might have heard, our beloved league president Matt has decided he needs to focus on running the home stretch to his degree this coming semester, and after that, may be leaving town to pursue his career. As a result, he is going to hand off league-running duties to me.

I want to express my sincere gratitude that Matt started this league. I have been a member since the third meeting of Season 1, after Joseph and I saw a flyer for it at Pinball Pete’s in Ann Arbor (oddly enough). Originally, pinball was Joseph’s thing, which he got me casually interested in, but neither of us had ever played in an organized competition before. League really ignited a fire in both of us, resulting in something I would not have predicted at the time: competitive pinball is now a major part of our life together. Moreover, I have the whole Michigan pinball community as friends and associates, and having such a fun crowd to hang with really feels like being back in the days of my youth again. As the song says, “these are the good times.”

Matt’s goal in creating the league was to encourage Pinball Pete’s to keep their games at the Avenue and maybe, just maybe, add a few more. My understanding is that the league formed when there were only three games at the Avenue, though by the time I attended my first meeting there were four. We now have well over twenty. Truly, pinball at the Avenue is “the house that Matt built” and as long as the league goes on I hope it will be remembered that way.

I consider it a great privilege to take over from Matt, one that I will carry out to the best of my abilities. I will need to get the league’s 10th season approved by the IFPA and on the calendar shortly, but before I do that, I wanted to make sure that there are no objections to continuing on the schedule we currently use, which is two Tuesdays a month in alternate weeks to the Grand Rapids Pinball League. If I don’t hear any concerns about that, I will go ahead and submit that to the calendar, which will mean our next season will begin on January 9.

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Unbelievable – Undefeated!

Posted on November 21, 2017 by Heather

Season 9 of the Lansing Pinball League came to a close on November 7 with the final playoffs in which Chris retained his undefeated status.  He has won every season in the league’s existence.

Third, first, and second place: Joseph, Chris, Mike. I try to tell Joseph not to bug his eyes like that in photos but he insists he’ll look asleep if he doesn’t.

Due to low attendance, this time we had a single division playoff with a ten person bracket.  The semifinals were between Joseph and Mike, culminating in a low-scoring game of Monster Bash in which Mike edged Joseph out by about 20K in bonus.

Mike walks away happy from a ToM game in which he put two billion plus on ball 1. (EDITED: my mistake, this appears to be from a different game.)

Mike went on to play Chris in the finals once again, winning the first round and knocking Chris into the loser second chance bracket.  Chris thrives on pressure and I sometimes think he doesn’t really start playing until he’s got his back to the wall.  So, once again, he came back with a vengeance and won the second round and the season championship.  It should be noted, though, that at one point during their matches, Mike had a ball 1 of Theatre of Magic that was so high – over two billion – that Chris decided to walk away and concede the game.

Also worth noting was my third game against Matt in the loser lower bracket.  Matt was player 1 and his first ball of Indiana Jones went on for what felt like forever and finished at about 1.3 billion.  He didn’t do much after that but it hardly mattered.  I can say I never gave up (even when Matt, not realizing I had an extra ball to play, mistakenly went to shake my hand after I drained ball 3 I defiantly said, “it ain’t over yet!”) so I got myself 200-300M for the sake of my pride and walked away at least not humiliated.

I got quite a few good photos of the night, so make sure you check out the photo gallery as well as the final standings.

Matt, Mike, and Joseph, after the end of the playoffs.

The ever-popular Super-Ball IX split-flipper tournament, AKA the Zen Tournament, is tonight at 7:30.  I always think it’s the most fun night of the season because everyone gets really into it but no one gets in bad spirits when it doesn’t go well.  Pinball so rarely allows for cooperative play that it’s a rare treat when it happens.  I hope you will come!

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