Lickashot
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A diary of a beginner tournament player
- Thread starter Taxiturn
- Start date
Lickashot
Site Supporter
Come on Simon, get your report up.
Been sat in a road closure behind a serious accident for the last 90 mins, just outside Oxford, so looking like I might not be home until 3am or even later. I know youāre my biggest fan and wonāt be able to sleep until youāve read the report, but itāll be tomorrow
Lickashot
Site Supporter
Drive safe mate.
Hope you got back OK in the end!Been sat in a road closure behind a serious accident for the last 90 mins, just outside Oxford, so looking like I might not be home until 3am or even later. I know youāre my biggest fan and wonāt be able to sleep until youāve read the report, but itāll be tomorrow
Glad I decided to go via M1 and not A34 now!
Ended up taking me 5hrs 30 to drive the 2hrs 45 home from JMacās, got home at 2:30 but Iām awake now so here goes!
My first visit to JMacās pin barn and his immaculate collection of 20ish machines. 37 players entered for 12 rounds of group matchplay, 7/5/3/1, followed by finals for the top 16 which were played best of 3 H2H and then a group of 4 best of 3 for the grand final.
I started strongly and from the first five rounds I had two 1sts, two 2nds and a 3rd. This included a win on the beloved Road Show and my best ever game on Deadpool where I finished ball 1 with 487m points having played a 3x Snikt ninja multiball, Mechsuit multiball and winning two battles and starting the third. I ended that game with 606m after adding Sauron multiball. One of my second places was a big PB on White Water where I scored 412m with three triple jackpots in multiball, but this still wasnāt enough to catch Martin Bedford on around 475m. It also took forever so our group missed the chicken curry!
I then suffered from the common post-lunch slump and got a series of 3rd and last places, only broken up by a decent 250m game on a tilty Jaws which helped me to a 1st place over top qualifier the Real Deal.
Going into the final round I was sat on 45 points with the expected cut line at 50. I was then not helped by being drawn into a group of three, reducing my number of outs. I was further not helped by being drawn on Bride of Pinbot, a game I had never played. Luckily I did my rules homework (and to be fairā¦ for BOP this homework didnāt take long) and I quickly found the left ramp shot. I ended up taking 2nd after being pipped by my opponent having a 1.1m ball 3 bonus when they were 1m behind!
On 49 points it was a nervous wait, but other results broke my way and I ended up in a three-way tie for 14th-16th with Jeremy āBeybladeā Baynham and Matthew Halls. Perennial tournament finalists like Gene, DPock and Andy Brock didnāt make the cut so there were quite a few lesser-seen faces in the final.
We needed to resolve this tie for seeding so we were sent to BOP. The winner would face Martin, 2nd would face Greg and 3rd would face Nathan. Having just played the machine I went straight back to the ramp and ended up with a sweet victory plunge on ball 3 having put up around 4m on my first two balls. Onto the finals!
Martin chose Medieval Madness for our first game and laid down a solid mark of 25m, which I couldnāt chase and ended on 10m. 1-0 Martin.
My pick was Road Show, and despite rarely getting right outlane drains on this machine I found two of them quickly in this game. My final score was a lowly 142m and I thought I was done for with Martin chasing and starting the Ohio mode for which he already held the matching ācoffee mugā souvenir. But my usual nemesis of the left outlane turned face and ended his ball quickly, and with only 2x bonus his 120m was not enough to catch me.
As the higher seed Martin got game choice for the decider and chose Spider-Man. On ball 1 he didnāt get much going, but I had a great one and managed to stack Doc Ock with black suit multiball and played it out for a long time. I ended ball 1 on 76m. Martin played Doc Ock and black suit on ball 2 but not as a stack, bringing him up to around 25m whilst I added a further 10m or so. Ball 3, Martin ended on around 45m so it was my second victory plunge of the day and I sealed the first finals round win of my pinball career.
In the last 8 I played against PBR stalwart Conrad Chambers. His first pick was Game of Thrones in which he played the lesser-seen Baratheon house very solidly for a final score of 325m. I struggled to find anything but posts and muddled my way to a disappointing 67m.
My game pick was Grand Prix. This was a game I hadnāt played until that day but I found I clicked with it well and a lot of others seemed to struggle. I played a good test car round and a solid multiball to give me a final score of 29m. When Conrad started his multiball on around 18m and instantly hit a couple of jackpots I thought I was in real trouble, but he drained out of it to end on 24m. Another decider!
Conrad chose Radical for the decider. The plunge on Jonās Radical does not go around the side ramp, instead going straight into the two-bank standups on the side of the vert ramp and causing absolute havoc given there is no ball save. Conrad started well with 3.7m on ball 1 which I could only counter with just under 1m. Ball 2, he stretched his score to over 8m and I fell victim to the plunge ricocheting directly into the right outlane, scoring me bonus only! Ball 3, and Conrad fell victim to exactly the same plunge drain. For my final ball I took a bit off the plunge but still had to nudge the ball out of the right outlane to get ball on flipper. I made some solid progress but when given the choice of Skate or Die I opted for the latter, and the final score was 8.8m vs 4m and my race was run. Conrad definitely deserved to advance and was a perfect gent throughout!
In the final four Greg was in devastating form, getting the BOP billion and 50m big wheel award on ball 1 and then scoring heavily on IMDN and Jaws which the other finalists never really got close to. An excellent return to form for the Notorious GRE who clearly needs to have a night out in Bedford before every tournament. Also a special mention for Craig Hutchinson who made it to the final four in only his 7th tournament, knocking out Nathan in the process.
Thanks of course go to JMac and family and Claire and Davidās organisation of an excellent tournament. I particularly appreciated Claire opting to go for the āentrance musicā suggestion, albeit it did end up looking slightly Partridgian when the music coming from her phone wasnāt particularly loud. With a speaker I think it would be really good to add a bit of spectacle and hype to the final!
My next tournament (or more accurately, multiple tournaments) will be at the Festive Gathering at SWL in two weeksā time, sign up if you havenāt already!
Simon
My first visit to JMacās pin barn and his immaculate collection of 20ish machines. 37 players entered for 12 rounds of group matchplay, 7/5/3/1, followed by finals for the top 16 which were played best of 3 H2H and then a group of 4 best of 3 for the grand final.
I started strongly and from the first five rounds I had two 1sts, two 2nds and a 3rd. This included a win on the beloved Road Show and my best ever game on Deadpool where I finished ball 1 with 487m points having played a 3x Snikt ninja multiball, Mechsuit multiball and winning two battles and starting the third. I ended that game with 606m after adding Sauron multiball. One of my second places was a big PB on White Water where I scored 412m with three triple jackpots in multiball, but this still wasnāt enough to catch Martin Bedford on around 475m. It also took forever so our group missed the chicken curry!
I then suffered from the common post-lunch slump and got a series of 3rd and last places, only broken up by a decent 250m game on a tilty Jaws which helped me to a 1st place over top qualifier the Real Deal.
Going into the final round I was sat on 45 points with the expected cut line at 50. I was then not helped by being drawn into a group of three, reducing my number of outs. I was further not helped by being drawn on Bride of Pinbot, a game I had never played. Luckily I did my rules homework (and to be fairā¦ for BOP this homework didnāt take long) and I quickly found the left ramp shot. I ended up taking 2nd after being pipped by my opponent having a 1.1m ball 3 bonus when they were 1m behind!
On 49 points it was a nervous wait, but other results broke my way and I ended up in a three-way tie for 14th-16th with Jeremy āBeybladeā Baynham and Matthew Halls. Perennial tournament finalists like Gene, DPock and Andy Brock didnāt make the cut so there were quite a few lesser-seen faces in the final.
We needed to resolve this tie for seeding so we were sent to BOP. The winner would face Martin, 2nd would face Greg and 3rd would face Nathan. Having just played the machine I went straight back to the ramp and ended up with a sweet victory plunge on ball 3 having put up around 4m on my first two balls. Onto the finals!
Martin chose Medieval Madness for our first game and laid down a solid mark of 25m, which I couldnāt chase and ended on 10m. 1-0 Martin.
My pick was Road Show, and despite rarely getting right outlane drains on this machine I found two of them quickly in this game. My final score was a lowly 142m and I thought I was done for with Martin chasing and starting the Ohio mode for which he already held the matching ācoffee mugā souvenir. But my usual nemesis of the left outlane turned face and ended his ball quickly, and with only 2x bonus his 120m was not enough to catch me.
As the higher seed Martin got game choice for the decider and chose Spider-Man. On ball 1 he didnāt get much going, but I had a great one and managed to stack Doc Ock with black suit multiball and played it out for a long time. I ended ball 1 on 76m. Martin played Doc Ock and black suit on ball 2 but not as a stack, bringing him up to around 25m whilst I added a further 10m or so. Ball 3, Martin ended on around 45m so it was my second victory plunge of the day and I sealed the first finals round win of my pinball career.
In the last 8 I played against PBR stalwart Conrad Chambers. His first pick was Game of Thrones in which he played the lesser-seen Baratheon house very solidly for a final score of 325m. I struggled to find anything but posts and muddled my way to a disappointing 67m.
My game pick was Grand Prix. This was a game I hadnāt played until that day but I found I clicked with it well and a lot of others seemed to struggle. I played a good test car round and a solid multiball to give me a final score of 29m. When Conrad started his multiball on around 18m and instantly hit a couple of jackpots I thought I was in real trouble, but he drained out of it to end on 24m. Another decider!
Conrad chose Radical for the decider. The plunge on Jonās Radical does not go around the side ramp, instead going straight into the two-bank standups on the side of the vert ramp and causing absolute havoc given there is no ball save. Conrad started well with 3.7m on ball 1 which I could only counter with just under 1m. Ball 2, he stretched his score to over 8m and I fell victim to the plunge ricocheting directly into the right outlane, scoring me bonus only! Ball 3, and Conrad fell victim to exactly the same plunge drain. For my final ball I took a bit off the plunge but still had to nudge the ball out of the right outlane to get ball on flipper. I made some solid progress but when given the choice of Skate or Die I opted for the latter, and the final score was 8.8m vs 4m and my race was run. Conrad definitely deserved to advance and was a perfect gent throughout!
In the final four Greg was in devastating form, getting the BOP billion and 50m big wheel award on ball 1 and then scoring heavily on IMDN and Jaws which the other finalists never really got close to. An excellent return to form for the Notorious GRE who clearly needs to have a night out in Bedford before every tournament. Also a special mention for Craig Hutchinson who made it to the final four in only his 7th tournament, knocking out Nathan in the process.
Thanks of course go to JMac and family and Claire and Davidās organisation of an excellent tournament. I particularly appreciated Claire opting to go for the āentrance musicā suggestion, albeit it did end up looking slightly Partridgian when the music coming from her phone wasnāt particularly loud. With a speaker I think it would be really good to add a bit of spectacle and hype to the final!
My next tournament (or more accurately, multiple tournaments) will be at the Festive Gathering at SWL in two weeksā time, sign up if you havenāt already!
Simon
Lickashot
Site Supporter
Another great write up mate, sorry about the five and a half hour journey home though.
Genotime
Site Supporter
Lickashot
Site Supporter
I'm sure when Simon gets the gold medal this thread will be laid to rest, but never forgotten
Itās being retired at the end of the year, with an epic-length summary of the year complete with stacks of boring stats and introspection. Bet you canāt wait!
Lickashot
Site Supporter
Any chance you can do it now mate? Mystic Yuen will let you know how you are going to finish.
If he wins at SWL in 2 weeks I would like to see this turned into a screenplay
Love Story: The Mediocre Player Who Believed
Lecari
Site Supporter
Where I was standing, my phone speaker sounded great 
I'm bringing a Bluetooth speaker to the Pinball Office next weekend in readiness!
I'm bringing a Bluetooth speaker to the Pinball Office next weekend in readiness!
Lickashot
Site Supporter
Oh boy Simon you have done it now
Yeah, that's probably better than the alternative:
Love Cockell: Two men who found Pinball, and each other
Lickashot
Site Supporter
We draw the line at split flipper !!!
Double tournament weekend - classics and moderns at the SWL Festive Gathering. SWL is always a great day out with excellent hosting by Pete, Hilary and Moira. Massive thanks as always to those who make these tournaments happen!
Classics was head-to-head max matchplay. With 36 entrants and 11 machines there was a bit of waiting, but with an average game length of just 7:30 you never had to wait long, and we managed to make it through 26 rounds.
It was quite a streaky day for me - started well with 4/5, then some mixed results, then six losses in a row, before finishing with 3/4 to drag myself back up the standings again. I ended up scoring 12/26 for 20th place.
I did get a handful of strong scores, with the best of the day being a 560k game on Mars God of War where I played a good multiball and maxed bonus. My usual nemesis machine Rocky was actually quite nice to me - three wins out of three including one over my good friend and deodorant fanatic @Lickashot . Seawitch was the opposite, with three pretty disappointing losses.
I managed wins against a lot of great players inc. Greg, Pete, Keith and both generations of Iles. Overall, a solid if not spectacular day.
Today was moderns only, group matchplay with six rounds and two games per round. 42 players made it today, the busiest Iāve personally seen SWL. It got warm!
My point haul today was 48, 4 points per round, as absolutely average as you can get which got me 19th place. My performance was pretty reminiscent of Tilt Super Series 4, a day where I got no firsts and no lasts. Today I got one first and one last, to maintain that Thanos-pleasing perfect balance.
I didnāt have any particularly notable scores, just lots of āokayā - my sole win came from a tepid 95m on a fairly sensitive White Water. It was nice to take a back seat and watch local sensei @roadshow16 win our pair of games with a 68m Metallica and 500m Deadpool whilst I folllowed him into second place on both, and shout out to @KendarTheOrc who came in from the tournament wilderness to put up 55m in two balls on Medieval Madness. Also good to see Mystic Yuen @Jackpot predicting some Ls in our futures with a 250m game on TAF and a 500m ball 1 on Foo Fighters, amongst others.
As my first year of tournaments (and this thread) draws towards a close, I think it is definitely positive that I can have these āaverageā days against pretty strong opposition. But I do think Iām lacking the top-end ability to really blow up machines and take it to the top level of players, especially on the modern Sterns. I hope that I can start to develop that more going into next year to give me a better chance at making some more finals, and be able to actually compete in the ones I do.
December weekends are full of actual real life, non-pinball engagements so the final tournament of the year for me will be the PBR Turkey Leftovers in four (!) weeksā time. Hoping to close out the year with some good scores, lots of fun and a positive result.
Classics was head-to-head max matchplay. With 36 entrants and 11 machines there was a bit of waiting, but with an average game length of just 7:30 you never had to wait long, and we managed to make it through 26 rounds.
It was quite a streaky day for me - started well with 4/5, then some mixed results, then six losses in a row, before finishing with 3/4 to drag myself back up the standings again. I ended up scoring 12/26 for 20th place.
I did get a handful of strong scores, with the best of the day being a 560k game on Mars God of War where I played a good multiball and maxed bonus. My usual nemesis machine Rocky was actually quite nice to me - three wins out of three including one over my good friend and deodorant fanatic @Lickashot . Seawitch was the opposite, with three pretty disappointing losses.
I managed wins against a lot of great players inc. Greg, Pete, Keith and both generations of Iles. Overall, a solid if not spectacular day.
Today was moderns only, group matchplay with six rounds and two games per round. 42 players made it today, the busiest Iāve personally seen SWL. It got warm!
My point haul today was 48, 4 points per round, as absolutely average as you can get which got me 19th place. My performance was pretty reminiscent of Tilt Super Series 4, a day where I got no firsts and no lasts. Today I got one first and one last, to maintain that Thanos-pleasing perfect balance.
I didnāt have any particularly notable scores, just lots of āokayā - my sole win came from a tepid 95m on a fairly sensitive White Water. It was nice to take a back seat and watch local sensei @roadshow16 win our pair of games with a 68m Metallica and 500m Deadpool whilst I folllowed him into second place on both, and shout out to @KendarTheOrc who came in from the tournament wilderness to put up 55m in two balls on Medieval Madness. Also good to see Mystic Yuen @Jackpot predicting some Ls in our futures with a 250m game on TAF and a 500m ball 1 on Foo Fighters, amongst others.
As my first year of tournaments (and this thread) draws towards a close, I think it is definitely positive that I can have these āaverageā days against pretty strong opposition. But I do think Iām lacking the top-end ability to really blow up machines and take it to the top level of players, especially on the modern Sterns. I hope that I can start to develop that more going into next year to give me a better chance at making some more finals, and be able to actually compete in the ones I do.
December weekends are full of actual real life, non-pinball engagements so the final tournament of the year for me will be the PBR Turkey Leftovers in four (!) weeksā time. Hoping to close out the year with some good scores, lots of fun and a positive result.
Lickashot
Site Supporter
Excellent report as usual mate, I truly believe if you want to get to be a player of top end ability Simon you just need to work on whatever the weaker parts of your game are. I'm sure you are a much better player than when you first started out and you really are only in the early days of playing.
Thanks and definitely, I think Iāve taken the big leaps in early development this year and from now on itāll be much slower gains with more time and experience.
Shot accuracy was killing me today, my two games on STTNG in particular were painful! And thatāll only come with more reps and adjusting quickly when moving from machine to machine.