If anyone coming tomorrow has a spare plunger spring for a Flash Gordon it would be a life saver. League meet at mine on Sunday and the plunger has given up tonight…
If anyone coming tomorrow has a spare plunger spring for a Flash Gordon it would be a life saver. League meet at mine on Sunday and the plunger has given up tonight…
I don’t know tbh. I can’t find a part number in the manual. Not sure if they had different strengths back then?Do you know what strength spring it is? I've got a few spare
Edit.. FFS just remembered I'm not going and neither is Claire. Thinking of Sunday, sorry
You might be right, I just wondered as it plunges up a ramp and I've played some with weak springs which make it too easy to not over shoot the upper playfield. I think any strong silver spring will work.I don’t know tbh. I can’t find a part number in the manual. Not sure if they had different strengths back then?
Great write up Wayne, was a fun day. I think Clive put our scores in for LZ, I have a pic of them if you need themFinally back home after 2 long days of competitive pinball (not helped by sat nav deciding to take me through the centre of London to get to PBR)
Thank you for those that commented that they enjoyed the format, I hope everybody else did too. I feel that it worked well, despite 'only' being 11 rounds. I had envisaged it being 22 rounds (where everybody plays each other twice) but having not had chance to trial it beforehand was not 100% certain of run time. As it happened my estimate of 5hrs was absolutely spot on so it could have been done in a single day quite easily. At least by having the shorter format it meant that Pingolf was able to run alongside/either side of it.
Another glitch on the day was the spreadsheet playing up - I had tested it on my 'pinball comp' laptop which has a genuine version of excel rather than the knockoff version on my main laptop which has a HDMI output so I could connect to the large screen. But it worked with only a little manual fiddling with.
Despite initial reservations from some, having the top seed play first in each group didn't seem to effect the results of any individual games, with the top 2 players on the day winning all of their games whilst playing first (except when they played each other - but more on that later).
The first round was the only 4 player game of the day and each game produced a clear winner. Unfortunately for Luke it proved to be his only points won on the day.
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Round 2 had some closer games with Nathan pipping Greg on Game of Thrones, Owen scraping past Will and Gene not able to pass Nick on AIQ. Conrad took a close win on Tron against Pete and Luke.
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It was interesting to see how people picked their games when they had the choice. Did they pick a game they knew well, or one that their opponents didn't.
In Round 3 Peter chose Centaur but that must have been music to Keith's ears picking an older game, as he won easily. Tim narrowly passed Jack on GotG which had been Andy's choice, but he didn't manage to put up a competitive score.
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There were some crushing victories in Round 4. Yuen on Indy 500, Will on Deadpool and Josh on GoT. As well as some very close games. Matt and Reece were just pipped by Pete on Cheetah, and Peter just hanging on against Dan L on Foo Fighters .
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Round 5 saw upsets in 6 of the 8 games, with only Yuen and Nick being the highest seeds to win their games. Greg, Luke and Gene must have regretted their game choice as they all finished last.
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Round 6 was the opposite with 7 of the 8 games going to the highest seed, their game choices being spot on. The exception was Dave F beating Dave T with Luke finishing last on his game choice of Harlem.
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As Round 7 started, unfortunately it was at this point that Luke had to leave to sort his car, as he had played over half of the games his results stood, but it did mean those players who should have him in their group effectively were guaranteed not finishing last. In the match on Demolition Man, chosen by Nick. Jack put up a massive score, and Clive narrowly missed out on passing Nick. Meaning that Nick had dropped his first point of the day. Yuen however was looking unbeatable on Star Wars putting up over 4.5 Billion, whereas his competitors, Tim and David, couldn't pass 100 Million. Andy picked up his first win of the day LZ - his choice - but was clearly too excited to take the exact scores down.
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Up to Round 8 there were still plenty of people in the running for the first prize. Yuen, Matt and Nick all won, but Wayne, Josh and Will all dropped a point.
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Round 9 saw Dan P pick up his first win of the day on LZ beating Matt. Owen scored more than both Andy and Gene put together on Corvette, who were only separated by a litle over 1million.
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Round 10, the penultimate round saw Reece record his first win on Jurassic Park, and Wayne finishing last on Scared Stiff, despite having crate multiball ready to start but being rather choosing (inexplicably) to get greedy and try and start it with double scoring. Maybe it was the amount of time Nick and Tim spent short plunging for the skill shot which put him off?
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What this meant going in to the last round was that Yuen lead Nick by just one point and would fight it out for the first prize of a place at the World Championships in California later in the year, as well as deciding which charity would receive the £650 'prize' money. Before the round started they had decided that regardless of the result they would split the money so 2 charities would benefit. Nick chose the Heart Foundation, and Yuen chose the National Autistic Society.
The groupings had been set such that the last round would see each group consisting of the seeds closest to each other, in this case Yuen, Matt and Nick, with Yuen choosing the game.
The rules meant that Yuen could not pick a game he had chosen before. Had he saved his best game for last, or ran out of games he was comfortable with? Either way he chose Alien Poker.
Despite having won every game he had played so far he was only 1 point ahead of Nick. If there was a tie the result would be calculated on countback from their head to head match - meaning that if Nick beat Yuen he would be champion, if Yuen won he would take the first prize. At this point Matt knew that he couldn't catch Will for the final trophy positions, so all eyes were on Nick and Yuen.
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Yuen had his worst game of the day only manging to finish first, with Matt in second and Nick taking a commanding win. (So as it happened a tiebreak wasn't required).
The final standings
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The format for next year will change from the current format, but I hope to run something very similar, maybe with a qualifying section before hand in the future (just needs a venue with at least 8 machines), so reach out if you're interested in hosting.
Does anyone know, if I go with Will to this tournament what is available to me as a supporter? Can I get in the venue, are there games (or even comps) I can play?
What is your email Will? I will message Christian and get him to email youThe linked site I think says I am to pay at the venue - no idea on the correct way to contact the organisers and how to phrase things though.
Thank you that is very much appreciated! It is *now redacted*What is your email Will? I will message Christian and get him to email you