Last league night was our third of the season, so it started a rotation between banks 3 and 4 (“Corvus” and “Perseus”). The night’s winner on Corvus – so far, as this is only with half the league having played it – was Tim, which included a stunning 108M game on The Munsters. The winner so far on Perseus was dark horse Biff. A lot of league members don’t even know Biff as he often arrives to play his games after others have finished for the night.
I was going to play my second game of the night when I heard a timid voice say, “Is it too late to join the Lansing Pinball League?” I turned to see who this newcomer was, and it was actually longtime league member Mike! Mike took last season off and had missed the first two nights of this season, so I was very happy to see him again.
I was in a group with Ethan, Devon, and Adam, and there was a good deal of jollity going on. There was a lot of trash talking going on, mostly between Ethan and Devon, but Adam got in a great line too. At one point he responded to someone griping about his achievements with the classic line, delivered with sassy confidence, “It’s called luck. Deal with it.” (I can’t quite remember now what he was responding to, but it might have been Devon observing that he’d beaten Adam on every game except one.)
I mentioned to Devon that although I enjoy the atmosphere of women’s tournaments in a lot of ways, one thing I do miss is the trash talking. In my experience, you just don’t get it at women’s tournaments. One of the things I immediately loved when I first set foot in the Lansing Pinball League was watching players collegially insult each other. It was one of the things that let me know I was going to love pinball league. Devon apparently made a mental note that it was OK to trash talk me. Later in the evening I was playing really bad on Elvira’s House of Horrors, and afterward Devon approached me as though he wanted to talk to me about something confidential. In a very serious voice he said, “Is everything all right?” I thought I must be giving off some vibes of someone going through a personal crisis, and my mind began racing as I tried to figure out what might be causing me to look that way. But before I could respond, he followed up with, “Because you’re playing terrible.” I nearly doubled over laughing.
Our Tuesday Night Smackdown side tournament game was on Jurassic Park, with the B division playing off on Ghostbusters. Danny won the Jurassic Park game (no surprises there) and Ethan won Ghostbusters, prompting someone to remind him that he was wearing a Ghostbusters shirt under his hoodie, which he had completely forgotten about.
That’s all for this week’s recap, but we’re meeting tonight to finish up the bank rotation, so I’m hoping to see everyone soon.