- Mar 14, 2012
- 7,334
- 0
Just got back from my first ever league night with the OC Pinball League.
Oh man, is it next month yet so I can go again?
I'll have a few pics up later, as well as how I did once the official scores are posted. In the meantime, I can tell you about how cool this whole thing was. They call 'em monthly league meetings. They take place at one of the member's homes, only requirement being that there must be a minimum of 12 machines to play. It's a different home each month. I had a vague idea of what to expect when I walked in, but then actually seeing it takes the brain a moment to process.
The host's main living room, there was no furniture. It's just pinball machines! You've gotta have a pretty understanding wife to let the main gathering room of your home be nothing but an arcade. All the machines were set to free play. The only thing asked of everyone was they bring some food. Believe me, there was sooooo much food it was ridiculous.
Check out the list of tables available for play...
Addams Family
Creature From The Black Lagoon*
Monster Bash*
High Speed
Earthshaker*
Funhouse*
Cyclone
Black Knight 2000
Buccaneer
Cactus Canyon*
Cirqus Voltaire*
Party Zone
Big Bang Bar*
Attack From Mars*
Elvira and the Party Monsters
Scared Stiff*
Metallica*
* denotes tourney table
I've never played a real BBB, so that alone I was stoked about. A few of the guys that in the league, they own Color DMD, so TAF, AFM, and SS all had color DMD's, something I'd not seen in person before. Way cool.
There were 6 rounds of play, so you didn't play every tourney table available. The whole thing was very well organized, a computer program determined which 4 players were put together and ensured that you never played with any one player more than 3 times. You got points for the group you were with, but then there's also points for how you placed on the table compared to the other 5 groups that played it too. That made it fun to go see how your score from round one was holding up by round 4.
I didn't do great, but I wasn't embarrassed either. My tables were...
AFM - 1st
FH - 3rd
MB - 3rd
ES - 4th (holy hell was that a nasty table! Nobody was scoring well on it)
BBB - 2nd
CC - 2nd
Funhouse and Monster Bash threw me for the biggest loop, as those are 2 I do really well on in TPA. They played completely different than I am used to. For starters, the outlanes on MB were much more forgiving, but the center drains were completely mean. There was zero consistency to what the ball would do when ejected from the scoop, no kind bounces to be had. FH drove me mental with not being able to hit Rudy with the upper flipper, I was always too slow. It would also be rolling the ball around fairly slow and then you'd hit a particular rubber and that ball was suddenly greased lightning! Anyways, my strategies that I normally employ so effectively in TPA did nothing for me.
Cactus Canyon, I did really well on in practice session beforehand, but then couldn't get anything going when it mattered. Only reason I got 2nd was because others were suffering the same problem worse. I think that is the saving grace of the whole night too. You'd be put up against an 'A' group player (the top 10) and they'd suffer a horrible game while you put together a nice little run. I loved their frustration, looking at me the new guy with that look of "who the hell are you to beat me?" Even better, for beating one of them, you get bonus points!
I can't wait to see what machines the other people have. Apparently there's one house they go to, where the guy has over 50, many rare or prototype too. These are all in his 'game' house, with his actual house next door. I mean, c'mon!! So first Sunday of every month, I know what I'm gonna be doing now
Oh man, is it next month yet so I can go again?
I'll have a few pics up later, as well as how I did once the official scores are posted. In the meantime, I can tell you about how cool this whole thing was. They call 'em monthly league meetings. They take place at one of the member's homes, only requirement being that there must be a minimum of 12 machines to play. It's a different home each month. I had a vague idea of what to expect when I walked in, but then actually seeing it takes the brain a moment to process.
The host's main living room, there was no furniture. It's just pinball machines! You've gotta have a pretty understanding wife to let the main gathering room of your home be nothing but an arcade. All the machines were set to free play. The only thing asked of everyone was they bring some food. Believe me, there was sooooo much food it was ridiculous.
Check out the list of tables available for play...
Addams Family
Creature From The Black Lagoon*
Monster Bash*
High Speed
Earthshaker*
Funhouse*
Cyclone
Black Knight 2000
Buccaneer
Cactus Canyon*
Cirqus Voltaire*
Party Zone
Big Bang Bar*
Attack From Mars*
Elvira and the Party Monsters
Scared Stiff*
Metallica*
* denotes tourney table
I've never played a real BBB, so that alone I was stoked about. A few of the guys that in the league, they own Color DMD, so TAF, AFM, and SS all had color DMD's, something I'd not seen in person before. Way cool.
There were 6 rounds of play, so you didn't play every tourney table available. The whole thing was very well organized, a computer program determined which 4 players were put together and ensured that you never played with any one player more than 3 times. You got points for the group you were with, but then there's also points for how you placed on the table compared to the other 5 groups that played it too. That made it fun to go see how your score from round one was holding up by round 4.
I didn't do great, but I wasn't embarrassed either. My tables were...
AFM - 1st
FH - 3rd
MB - 3rd
ES - 4th (holy hell was that a nasty table! Nobody was scoring well on it)
BBB - 2nd
CC - 2nd
Funhouse and Monster Bash threw me for the biggest loop, as those are 2 I do really well on in TPA. They played completely different than I am used to. For starters, the outlanes on MB were much more forgiving, but the center drains were completely mean. There was zero consistency to what the ball would do when ejected from the scoop, no kind bounces to be had. FH drove me mental with not being able to hit Rudy with the upper flipper, I was always too slow. It would also be rolling the ball around fairly slow and then you'd hit a particular rubber and that ball was suddenly greased lightning! Anyways, my strategies that I normally employ so effectively in TPA did nothing for me.
Cactus Canyon, I did really well on in practice session beforehand, but then couldn't get anything going when it mattered. Only reason I got 2nd was because others were suffering the same problem worse. I think that is the saving grace of the whole night too. You'd be put up against an 'A' group player (the top 10) and they'd suffer a horrible game while you put together a nice little run. I loved their frustration, looking at me the new guy with that look of "who the hell are you to beat me?" Even better, for beating one of them, you get bonus points!
I can't wait to see what machines the other people have. Apparently there's one house they go to, where the guy has over 50, many rare or prototype too. These are all in his 'game' house, with his actual house next door. I mean, c'mon!! So first Sunday of every month, I know what I'm gonna be doing now
