League Night #5 of 8, Season 7
Games played: Junk Yard, Metallica, Iron Man, The Walking Dead, Lord of the Rings.
The State News photographer talks to Aaron and Derienne.
The Lansing Pinball League saw its first media visit, as a reporter and from the State News (MSU’s student newspaper) spent several hours interviewing and league members for a profile of the league. She brought along a photographer, too, which is more than the Detroit Free Press writer did when he came to the Avenue to write a profile of a “pinball wizard” (read: Chris) earlier this year; he just made do with cell phone pictures. So in the matter of Avenue pinball articles, I’m going with State News 1, Free Press 0. Real press deserves real cameras!
The timing of their visit was somewhat unfortunate, as the Grand Rapids crew (Adam, Jake, and Sam) were all absent, and this was generally a very low-attendance night. On the plus side, we had a new member, Derienne, who got to spend part of her first-ever league night being interviewed. She ended up being quoted in the article, probably because she was one of the only MSU students present. Many of the rest of the league are alumni (this writer included), and Russell is a professor at MSU, but of the people present that night, I believe only Matt and Derienne are current students.
A State News photographer takes a picture of Aaron playing Lord of the Rings. Speaking of photos, for more photos of league night, you can always check our photo gallery.
Two other bits of attendance-related news concern Aaron and Jason. Aaron was present for the first time this season due to his work schedule, but told me that he will probably be able to come more often in the future. Jason, on the other hand, will be unable to attend for the rest of the season due to a change in his work schedule, and will be playing all his games as makeups from here on out. He does expect to be able to attend finals.
A nattily-dressed band played for an equally nattily-dressed audience while league was going on. It appeared that they were doing a video shoot.
Junk Yard behaved itself and continued not slam tilting, so that is evidently not going to be a problem anymore thanks to Derrick finally fixing the slam tilt switch. It gave us no trouble for a change, but, sadly, I cannot say the same for Lord of the Rings, which has a problem with the ring-destroying switch. If someone starts Destroy the Ring, it cannot be finished, and no more points can be scored until the ball drains. Strangely, the switch that destroys the ring has no other function in the game (a different sensor starts modes when the ball is hit into the ring), but when it stops working, it really messes things up for those unfortunate enough to encounter it.
The Avenue has received a new game, Ghostbusters LE, replacing World Cup Soccer. (We are hoping WCS ’94 is going to be shopped and returned, because Derrick had mentioned trying to obtain a new ramp for it.) It’s the usual league custom to play a new game at the next league night, and indeed, Matt has said we will be playing Ghostbusters at the next league night (Tuesday, September 27, at 7 p.m.). New members are always welcome, so if you have been too shy to come to the league, please don’t be. We would love to have you!