Lansing Pinball League

Season 9, League Night #3 of 7

Games played: Indiana Jones, Attack from Mars, The Addams Family, Lord of the Rings, Getaway.

Not sure what everyone’s reacting to – an unfair tilt, maybe?

League Night #3 is notable in that it was the first league night I went to this season, and that goes for Joseph too.  For the first night we were up north, and for the second night we were at Kings Island before heading on to Pinburgh.  This, then, is the first league night that I was actually present at and can write an update on!  So I should have a lot to say, right?

Uh, not really.  It was one of my worst league nights ever (whereas my makeup night for #2 the previous evening was one of my best nights ever), so I have endeavored to wipe it from my memory.

Russell in a rare moment of not sliding the game.

OK, OK, I can tell you a few things.  First off, it was probably the best attended league night so far from what I’ve heard.  Joseph and I were back, and so was the league’s champion Chris, who was rumored to possibly be ducking out this season in order to cheat on us with the new One Well League.  I still have my eye on you, mister.  I mean Doctor.  Second, we were once again scheduled to play Demolition Man and were once again not able to.  I don’t remember what the reason was this time; maybe it was eating quarters.  As far as I can remember, we have not played Demolition Man for league once, because every time it is on the docket it ends up breaking.

Matt holds court while Tim plays Getaway.

Tonight will be my last league night arriving on time for quite a while.  I’m sad to say that I was once again unable to return to having an earlier schedule at work.  Once classes start next week, I will be unable to get to league any earlier than 7:30 or 8 pm.  What’s worse is that this time I also have an earlier start, so it’s the worst of both worlds; I’ll be tired and dragging and arriving late, so I doubt I am going to finish this season in top form.  It also means I’ll probably not be getting as many photos of league, so enjoy them while you can.

I’ll be seeing you soon (I hope) as I’m about to head to the Avenue for tonight’s league, where I will no doubt get razzed again for my habit of doing my league update shortly before the next league.  Yeah, I love you guys too.

League Night #8 of 8

Games played: Star Trek, Tales of the Arabian Nights, Junk Yard, Theatre of Magic, Getaway

Russell looks rather disheartened at the prospect of playing Star Trek.

This was the last league night of the regular season, so the results after this would determine seeding for the final playoff tournament, and (of special interest to me) who made A division playoffs.  I was in ninth place going in, only one point behind Parker, so I needed to do better than he did to finish eighth and qualify for A division.  Alas, I didn’t do quite enough; I ended up with one more point than Parker for the night (because he had a bad night, not because I had a good one) and so tied rather than passing him as I’d hoped.  (It turns out he isn’t going to make it to finals tonight, so I’m safe after all.  This is some very good luck for me, as I’d not looked forward to a tiebreaker game against him.)

I think we were originally going to have Demo Man in the lineup, but in typical Lansing fashion, it went out of commission just prior to league play starting.  This was our first league night using the new Star Trek LE, but it still wasn’t on its best behavior.  It would sometimes auto-launch before players got to choose a mode, and at least in my frustrating experience, tended to reject lock shots to the center fairly often.

Notable in his absence was Adam, who apparently decided that since he was qualified for A no matter what, he didn’t need to come.  Jake was somewhat grumpy about having to solo drive from Grand Rapids (Sam has more or less dropped out, at least for the rest of this season).

Mike at the league field trip to The Grid.

The big event of the night was a trip to the new barcade, The Grid, in Old Town.  Several of us went there after league finished up.  The biggest appeal of the place for several of us is that the games they have are very uncommon, and they have several EMs and early solid states, eras that are almost totally unrepresented in metro Lansing.  One of the first things I did was play a game on Big Guns, a game I’ve played only a few times ever, and put the #1 high score on it.  I shrieked “I’m the Grand Champion!” at an embarrassing volume (the place sure does echo) and got a high five from the owner.  I talked to him a bit and he asked me to get in contact about starting a league there, which I have subsequently done and looks like it is probably going to be a thing.  Stay tuned for more information on that as it develops.

After we left The Grid, Mike S. decided to head back home, so that left Jake, Joseph, and me to go to Theio’s together.  It wasn’t strictly the smallest Theio’s crowd ever (since Joseph, Mike, and I have occasionally been the only people there) but it was the only time we’ve had that particular configuration of people.

Tonight – in just a few hours – we will be having the final tournament, which will determine how everyone finishes for the season.  Will Chris remain undefeated?  Will we see a new champion crowned at last?  Will Star Trek break, saving me from having to play Chris on it?  Will we have more people playing in B division than trophies?  Come at 7 p.m. and find out.