Lansing Pinball League

Our most recent league night closed out the third quarter of the season as everyone finished playing either Bank 5 or 6. (Except for one person; more on that in a bit.) We also had a Tuesday Night Smackdown bout on one of the league’s classic games, Medieval Madness. While it’s not the same physical game as the one that the league started with, Medieval Madness was one of only four titles in the bar when the league started. The others were Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones, and Johnny Mnemonic. Tales of the Arabian Nights was the next one added soon after. All were located in the alcove. While sadly, Johnny has “gone up the middle” straight out of the venue long ago, the others have never left. Except, that is, for Medieval Madness, which was replaced by a version that has never been quite as friendly to me. That’s your league history lesson for today.

Now you’ve learned something, just like I learned something at our last league meeting: someone reads my league reports another than Joseph. Multiple someones, even. Dan N. said, “You made me Google ‘James Blish’.” I had written that May 23 “wasn’t just James Blish’s birthday,” a joke meant entirely for Joseph, as James Blish is one of his favorite science fiction writers. Ethan also declared that he was “the Johnny Appleseed of cheer,” which I had called him in last league night’s report. I was a little embarrassed and admitted I hadn’t actually realized anyone besides Joseph was actually reading my league reports. Devon responded that he had screenshotted the first league report after he joined and told his friends he made the news. I explained that since they didn’t go up until right before league most weeks I figured that made it less likely people actually looked at them. And also that Mike usually gives me guff for how late I post them. A running joke is for him to comment that they’re early if I post them the night before the next league night instead of the day of. (Once upon a time I actually tried to get them up within a week, but probably no one alive remembers that far back.) A couple of people, I think it may have been Devon and Ted, said that they think it makes it more interesting to post them right before league because then it’s fresh in your mind for league night. It’s nice of them to say so, anyway.

I learned something else at league, in an embarrassingly protracted way: I eventually figured out who the guy I didn’t recognize who waved at me when I walked in was. I kept thinking this person acted like he knew me, and looked really familiar in a frustrating way, but I could not work out who it was. Later while I was playing my Smackdown game on Medieval Madness I saw him come over and talk to Joseph, so I knew it definitely had to be someone I knew, but I still did not recognize him as a league player. I thought to myself that I had to be able to work this out without embarrassing myself. After some consideration I realized that I had seen him hanging around with Cyndi when I first rolled up, so that was a major clue. Then I realized that, oh yeah, when he was talking to Joseph I recognized his voice: it was Ethan. But why didn’t I recognize him? I’ve met him enough times now and usually have no trouble recognizing him. Why on earth did I have trouble this time? Was I starting to lose my face recognition circuit or something?

So I think it was probably about an hour later that I realized that Ethan used to have a beard.

Ethan’s really the MVP of this league report, since he also won the Undercard division of the Tuesday Night Smackdown tournament, which was played on the randomly selected Metallica (edit: no, it was what’s in the place where Metallica used to be, Guardians of the Galaxy!). Travis won the main championship on Medieval Madness. They each got a button that I drew a dragon on, although I think I did better a better job on one of them than the other. I’ll let the two of them compare buttons and decide which one. After he won his button, Ethan pinned it on himself, pointed at it and boastfully demanded that Cyndi read it. As I’ve said before, he brings a lot of energy to league nights.

Unfortunately for Mike, he missed the last league night due to illness, which has allowed Tim to pass him and take first in the league standings. Danny C. is in third place. The three of them are still clustered fairly closely, and then there’s a fairly steep drop down to fourth place Jason Magnuson. As of right now we have 26 qualified players which would make for a 13-person A division season finals, which is already bigger than we have ever done, and with three people who each only need to come to one more night to be qualified, we are very likely to have a 14-person A and it’s not impossible that it could be 15. We’re going to have to talk about what to do because we will not be able to finish a tournament in our usual format with that many people. We’ll talk more about that later.

Oh, and as for that person who didn’t finish their bank rotation? Reader, it was I. Joseph was putting the scores in for the night when suddenly he said to me, with that voice that he uses when he’s telling me something he knows is going to upset me, “Dear, I think you played the same bank twice.” I somehow hadn’t noticed, but yes, I had. Joseph keeps track of who plays what bank and he had accidentally written my name on the wrong score sheet the time before after we drew for banks, so this time he put me in a group based on what group I was supposed to be in the previous time rather than which one I had actually played in. I had to go back to the bar later (but not that night as it was already awfully late) and play the bank I was supposed to play. Some much for my exciting third ball rally on Indiana Jones.

May 23 was not just James Blish’s birthday; it was also the beginning of the back half of the league season. We started a rotation of Banks 5 and 6, known to me (and possibly only to me) as “Athena” and “Hades.” The former includes Avengers, Cactus Canyon, Rush, Jurassic Park, and Black Knight: Sword of Rage. The latter is Indiana Jones, AC/DC, Deadpool, Ghostbusters, and Stranger Things. Or, at least, it’s supposed to. AC/DC had a malfunction and had to be replaced using a designated game from Bank 7, which was The Mandalorian.

The results don’t mean much at this point in the rotation, with only half of everyone having played each bank, but so far Jason is in the lead on bank Athena and Mike has the top spot on bank Hades. Mike has held onto the top spot in the league standings, with Danny C. in second place, trailing by 11 points. The gap between second and third is even wider, with Tim 30 points behind Danny. Of course, all of that could change once the rotation finishes this week.

My main impression of the league night is how I took some guff from Derik on two distinct points. First he asked me what was wrong with my random number generator that the Tuesday Night Smackdown game is always Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I had already gotten teased about this by Joseph but there is a perfectly good explanation. Each game can only come up in the Tuesday Night Smackdown once per season before it gets scratched out of future random drawings, but the Undercard game is chosen by randomly drawing from the few games located closest to the chosen Smackdown game. There is no limit on how many times something can be an Undercard game and it just happens that we have played several games near TMNT over the past couple of seasons, causing it to be an Undercard game repeatedly. I admit that the RNG does seem to like to draw it from the available options, though.

The other thing I remember Derik saying was in response to his noticing my very small phone for the first time. I think the direct quote is, “Is that seriously your f***ing phone?” said in an almost indignant tone, as though I had violated some law of nature.

Our Tuesday Night Smackdown game was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles this time, with the Undercard randomly selected to be Deadpool. The Undercard match went on a touch longer than necessary due to my having to repeatedly fetch Ethan from wherever he’d wandered off to spread his brand of enthusiasm, like a Johnny Appleseed of cheer. Tim secured the win in the main match and got the TMNT-colored button I made. Ted got to take home the button for his Undercard win on Deadpool.

That wraps up our previous update, in time as usual for our next meeting tomorrow night, during which we will finish the rotation of Athena and Hades.

May 9 was the last night of the first half of our eight-night season. We had a healthy crowd for it as usual, and split everyone between banks 3 and 4, which I have dubbed Poseidon and Hermes. Since this completed the rotation of those two banks, the standings for each bank and the first half of the season are final. Tim triumphed on Bank 3, which contains Iron Maiden, Godzilla, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, James Bond 007, and Monster Bash. The winner for Bank 4 was Danny C.; that bank comprises The Getaway, Tron, Willy Wonka, Batman ’66, and Metallica. The overall winner for the front half of the season was Danny. Mike is just two points behind him, and Tim one point behind Mike. At that point there is a steeper dropoff to 4th place and beyond.

Danny had a winning couple of weeks, since in our off-league week we had the Foo Fighters Launch Party, and he took home the Grand Champion plaque and translite. During league night we had a sort of launch party prequel, since Foo Fighters was the Tuesday Night Smackdown game, and Danny won that tournament too. Our Tuesday Night Smackdown tournaments have had the most participation they’ve ever had in recent weeks, thanks in part to a lot of the new league players competing.

Our new league players have continued to infuse a lot of energy and enthusiasim into league nights. I had thought we perhaps scared Jon off after his first league night, but happily, he made a return after a couple of nights away. Our newest league member, Devon, also made a reappearance. It’s good to know that league has been so welcoming to our new members.

With the first half of the season over, that means that tonight is the last chance for new members to join and still get in the needed four nights to qualify for playing in the finals tournament. If you know anyone who might want to start coming, tell them now is the time! We’ll be playing banks 5 and 6 tonight. Bank 5, “Athena,” is Avengers, Cactus Canyon, Rush, Jurassic Park, and Black Knight: Sword of Rage. Bank 6, “Hades,” is Indiana Jones, AC/DC, Deadpool, Ghostbusters, and Stranger Things. I hope to see you all tonight! (Also, don’t forget that next Tuesday is the women’s launch party for Foo Fighters!)

Our league night of 4/25 was the third of the season, so we were starting a new two-bank rotation, this time between banks 3 (Poseidon) and 4 (Hermes). Almost all of the new players we’ve had an influx of this season have continued coming back, and we got another new player, Devon. Devon has been playing a long time, but has never played in a competitive format before and decided to try it out. I made everyone promise to be nice to the new guy but as luck would have it, he got sorted into my group so I could explain everything to him. He seemed to have a good time and we’re happy to have him in the league. He also debuted by taking fifth in the night’s standings for his bank, not bad for a first outing. (Of course, only half of everyone has played the bank so far, but still, not bad at all.) And did I get some amazing pictures of him and the other new players to share with you? Did I hell. Once again I suddenly realized around the time the Smackdown was going on that I hadn’t taken any pictures all night.

The league has gotten so big that the process of drawing bank assignments from the hat has gotten quite protracted. It’s a long league tradition, going back to a knit hat that Matt used to use, but I have started wondering if we should switch to just assigning the groups electronically. I mentioned this out loud when we were drawing banks and added, “but it will make Joseph sad.” I had predicted that correctly since Joseph gave a heartfelt “aww” of disappointment. So, we’ll see what will win, expedience or tradition.

There had been speculation that we might have our Foo Fighters in by this time and could use it as the Smackdown game, but as it happened it arrived the day after league. Instead, we’ll be using it tonight. Last time the random number generator decreed we would play Cactus Canyon instead. I always draw the B division game at random for the games in the vicinity of the A division game. Joseph likes to kid with me that the random draw if the game is in the area at the top of the stairs is always Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. To his amusement he was right this time. (It isn’t always TMNT, but it does seem to happen disproportionately.) Tim won the main Smackdown tournament and I somehow won the B division on TMNT, a game I actively dislike.

I had made buttons using the button press that I’m so proud of, and I stuck the champ’s button on Tim using the tape that Joseph had stuck it to the game backglass with, and declared that Tim was now the Sheriff. It was maybe ten minutes later that they suddenly ran back up to me and said “I just noticed, it says 4/11 on it!” I had forgotten to change the date on my template from the previous league night. And I had made such a cute cactus drawing on it too. I promised to remake it for next time which I still plan to make good on, right after I’m done writing this league report.

The standings aren’t very meaningful with the banks only half-completed, but right now the early returns have Danny C. at the top of the league (surprise?) with Mike in second and Tim in third. Tonight will finish out the first half of the qualifying season. I hope to see you all there!

April 11 saw the league finishing up a two-bank rotation of Athena and Hera (I picked those names and I’m going to use them damn it). We also had the return of most of the new members who swelled the league’s ranks for our first league night, meaning we didn’t scare (most of) them off, as well as having another new member join. Our new member is named Mark (H.), so I told him he was going to have to be “Other Mark” since we already have a Mark (C.). We also had the return of a couple of past members who had been absent several seasons, Jim J. and Jimmy R.

Other Mark came to us all the way from Traverse City, believe it or not, and turns out to have been an employee at Pinball Pete’s in Ann Arbor back in the day. He and Derik got to reminiscing about the old days at Pete’s and I chimed in a little bit with my recollection of when there was a Pete’s location on Packard (I had a friend who lived in some apartments almost across the street).

The Tuesday Night Smackdown game was Guns N’ Roses which somehow I won. Really, I’m in such disbelief that Joseph just now had to tell me that I won, and I didn’t believe him until he pointed out the champion button that was still sitting on the dining table. Jason won the Undercard division along with also taking home a replacement trophy from his Zen championship in Season 16. The trophy shop had accidentally given us the wrong size trophies and while I didn’t really care that much, when they found out they felt bad and made us replacements. That’s what Jason is holding in his Smackdown winner’s circle photos.

This was our last meeting before the big Michigan event of the year, Pinball at the Zoo. A lot of people were planning to attend and some of us had designs on coming home from PATZ with trophies. Unfortunately despite being the #2 seed in Women’s and getting to drive the bus in semi-finals, I drove the bus straight off a cliff, so I had to rely on hometown favorite Derik to bring glory to the league. Derik made it to finals in the main tournament and took 4th. Although he didn’t get the win we were hoping for, he did garner a huge crowd reaction with a glorious Lazarus ball on Flash Gordon that he not only lifted out of the drink successfully but sent straight up the ramp!

Our next meeting is in (checks watch) a little over an hour so I hope to see you all soon!

The Capital Crushers descended on The Avenue Cafe on March 28 to kick off the eighteenth – you read that right – season of the Lansing Pinball League. It was our best-attended night in a long time as 25 people played, necessitating the addition of a second bank. This was mainly due to a sudden influx of enthusiastic new players who brought great energy with them: Ethan, Cyndi, Jon, Adam, Ann-Marie, Grant, Randall, Ro, and Ted. We did our usual drawing from a hat but fortunately avoided having a group entirely made up of new players (barely, since Joseph ended up steering a group of three newcomers). We also had the reappearance of a couple of off-and-on regulars who weren’t able to make it last season, Jason “Mags,” Shylia, and Brian K.

I was in a group with Cyndi, who is very new to pinball, and after making sure she was OK with receiving advice, I showed her how to make the Tower skill shot on Lord of the Rings and then immediately shoot the ring to start a mode. I was thrilled and proud when she proceeded to execute both elements perfectly on her first try, because at heart I’m a teacher even when I’m not at school. Cyndi, Linda, Josh, and I made for a fun and collegial group.

Our Tuesday Night Smackdown on Indiana Jones had the most players I can remember, possibly a record turnout, meaning that not everyone qualified to play finals. Several people near the bubble hung around watching anxiously as the last games were played. The final game as I rung the bell to end qualifying ended up catapulting both Cyndi and Linda into qualifying and sadly sending Jason and Jon home.

I have a button maker now, and finally got around to making a template for giving out buttons to Smackdown winners which they can wear for bragging rights. Tim put theirs on right away and Joseph… well, for some unaccountable reason he decided to do something silly with his. Who would have guessed?

I hope to see you all shortly at our second league night (and don’t forget about the ladies’ Lightning Flippers event next week)!

The last day of February was also the last night for the regular league season. The final seeds for the playoffs, and even more importantly who would make it into A division, was decided on this night. It promised to be a long night since some people needed to make up Star Trek (it had been taken out for phantom scoring the previous league night) and everyone would have to play the same bank, since we started the last two-bank rotation on an even-numbered night.

Surprisingly, even though we did have four groups playing the same bank for the first time in a while, it didn’t end up being too long. A total of 16 people played, two of them (Biff and Danny) being latecomers who went around on their own after league was mostly over. There were a couple of backups, but it wasn’t the really late night I was bracing myself for. One notable absence was Jake. He and Sam usually come together from Grand Rapids, but Sam came on his own. According to Sam, Jake said he would be in B division no matter what transpired so he might as well just see us at finals. I asked him if that meant that he loved us more than Jake did, since we aren’t good enough for Jake to just hang out with if A division isn’t on the table. He started saying something about Jake having a family. Pffft, excuses, excuses.

Also missing was reigning league champion Mike, who was feeling under the weather. He missed three nights this season and still managed to make A division, though he will surely miss having a first-round bye this time. Those will go to #1 seed Derik and #2 seed Danny.

Probably the biggest heartbreak when the dust settled was that Nate missed A division by 1 point. On the other hand, one could equally say that the happiest story of the night was that Biff made A division by 1 point. It reminds me of one of my favorite Peanuts comics. It turns out, though, that Sam is probably going to miss league finals, which will move Nate up into A division after all. I’m sure Nate is very happy that Sam is sick! Wait, that doesn’t sound right…

Our Tuesday Night Smackdown game was on TRON. It was one of our least popular Smackdowns, with only six people entering scores. Mark played his first Smackdown A division finals against Tim, me, and Joseph. Unsurprisingly, Tim won, although I had a good shot at it and ended in 2nd. Bryan and Linda played off for the B division on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, with the victory going to Bryan. I don’t know why the dice roll always picks TMNT when we’re doing a Smackdown at the top of the stairs.

That concludes Season 17 except for finals tomorrow, and Super-Ball XVII (Zen Night), which will be in a week. In 24 hours we… actually won’t know yet who won Season 17, I am going to bet. But at least we’ll be getting close. I hope.