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Sooooo, it's been a while!Excuse me while I dust off the cobwebs. My first season of playing in a league is over, and the new season just started. I finished 28th out of 74 players, though realistically, only 50 were active enough to be competitive. I also missed 3 sessions completely, while a 4th was missed but I was awarded a points average for that one. We get one of these a year.So on to the new year! I'm hoping to not miss any this go around and really see what I can do. For the first meeting of the year, everyone is considered to be 'A' division. Top 10 players keep this status, everyone else drops to 'B'. What this meant for me was, getting the opportunity to play a ball after some of the top players, which was nice.The house we went to this time was gorgeous. The owner had added on to his home an arcade room, and it housed 35(!!) tables. There was another small room that housed 6 tables, and then there were an additional 3 set up in the living room. Every one of these was in beautiful shape, just pristine examples of tables. I'll list everything in a bit.First, let's talk about the tourney! To get things started, prior to the actual tournament starting, a special was done on Metallica LE. You had to cross your arms, left on right button, right on left, and play one game. Top score won a t-shirt. You only had one game to do it. Lemme just say, that's freakin' hard! I scored 1.5 million, which was pretty much the standard. The winner scored 5 million, if that tells you anything.The actual tourney, went something like this for me...X-Men LE - 12,242,770I've played this one other time, and I knew the key was to get a multiball going. The setup on this machine was slightly off, and it killed us because of it. There is a scoop on the left side of the table that the ball is supposed to loop around and bounce into. For us, it would just barely miss the hole and then center drain. All 4 of us fell prey to it on ball one, so thereafter we knew to nudge. Also, Magneto locks a ball and lets it loose, but it's not supposed to go sdtm! One player got killed by this on his other 2 balls. I took first in my group, mainly because I outsmarted the setup. I did manage a tilt, which I think is the first time I've ever done that in tourney!AC/DC LE - 7,701,910I have no clue what to do on this machine. Keep the ball alive. That's my strategy! All 4 of us were neck and neck until the final ball. Player one was one of the top players in our league, and he showed why. Racked up 58 million points in the end. Still, I managed to place 2nd.TotAN - 4,807,620Grrrrr. Good to know that I can't hit orbit shots on the real table just like I can't in TPA! The only reason I didn't score worse was somehow I managed to hit the Genie right away when it came time to hurl fireballs at him. I played terrible. Again, had a top player in the group and he ran the table for 19 million. I placed 3rd, which was a bad trend!Sleic Pin-BALL - 6,780,476If you are scratching your head wondering what the hell this table is, so was everyone else. Table is from Spain, and nobody had any idea how to play it. It looked like it should have been from the early 80's, yet it had a DMD and was incredibly sloped for fast play. It was comical how bad everyone was doing on it. Somehow I managed to get a bonus situation going on 2 of my balls, which led to me not only taking 1st in my group, but 1st on the table overall!This was rather sweet justice for me, as the table was originally supposed to be Apollo 13. During practice, I had played that, managed to get the 13 ball multiball going, and got to enter my initials on the machine. Scoring enough to enter initials in these guys' houses, no small feet. So being told you are no longer playing a table that you just killed on, and instead were to play on some oddball table you've never heard of, that sucked. Kharma, that's all I can say!Metallica LE - 2,989,090Speaking of kharma...it's sad when I played almost as poorly without crossing my arms! I couldn't get anything going here, including picking a good song. Oh well, welcome to 4th place. I still like this pin a lot though.Embryon - 193,240While waiting for our group's turn, I watched a guy turn this machine over on ball 1. The play times on this machine were insane. Our group starts, and the first 2 guys have never ending balls too. Then my turn. 30 seconds later, I'm done. To say I epically failed on this machine is a disservice. It was downright comical. Another 4th place finish.When all was said and done, I finished 23rd out of 52 players. Good enough for me! My whole goal is to crack the top 20, so we'll see how this season treats me. Full rundown of the machines in next post.
Sooooo, it's been a while!
Excuse me while I dust off the cobwebs. My first season of playing in a league is over, and the new season just started. I finished 28th out of 74 players, though realistically, only 50 were active enough to be competitive. I also missed 3 sessions completely, while a 4th was missed but I was awarded a points average for that one. We get one of these a year.
So on to the new year! I'm hoping to not miss any this go around and really see what I can do. For the first meeting of the year, everyone is considered to be 'A' division. Top 10 players keep this status, everyone else drops to 'B'. What this meant for me was, getting the opportunity to play a ball after some of the top players, which was nice.
The house we went to this time was gorgeous. The owner had added on to his home an arcade room, and it housed 35(!!) tables. There was another small room that housed 6 tables, and then there were an additional 3 set up in the living room. Every one of these was in beautiful shape, just pristine examples of tables. I'll list everything in a bit.
First, let's talk about the tourney! To get things started, prior to the actual tournament starting, a special was done on Metallica LE. You had to cross your arms, left on right button, right on left, and play one game. Top score won a t-shirt. You only had one game to do it. Lemme just say, that's freakin' hard! I scored 1.5 million, which was pretty much the standard. The winner scored 5 million, if that tells you anything.
The actual tourney, went something like this for me...
X-Men LE - 12,242,770
I've played this one other time, and I knew the key was to get a multiball going. The setup on this machine was slightly off, and it killed us because of it. There is a scoop on the left side of the table that the ball is supposed to loop around and bounce into. For us, it would just barely miss the hole and then center drain. All 4 of us fell prey to it on ball one, so thereafter we knew to nudge. Also, Magneto locks a ball and lets it loose, but it's not supposed to go sdtm! One player got killed by this on his other 2 balls. I took first in my group, mainly because I outsmarted the setup. I did manage a tilt, which I think is the first time I've ever done that in tourney!
AC/DC LE - 7,701,910
I have no clue what to do on this machine. Keep the ball alive. That's my strategy! All 4 of us were neck and neck until the final ball. Player one was one of the top players in our league, and he showed why. Racked up 58 million points in the end. Still, I managed to place 2nd.
TotAN - 4,807,620
Grrrrr. Good to know that I can't hit orbit shots on the real table just like I can't in TPA! The only reason I didn't score worse was somehow I managed to hit the Genie right away when it came time to hurl fireballs at him. I played terrible. Again, had a top player in the group and he ran the table for 19 million. I placed 3rd, which was a bad trend!
Sleic Pin-BALL - 6,780,476
If you are scratching your head wondering what the hell this table is, so was everyone else. Table is from Spain, and nobody had any idea how to play it. It looked like it should have been from the early 80's, yet it had a DMD and was incredibly sloped for fast play. It was comical how bad everyone was doing on it. Somehow I managed to get a bonus situation going on 2 of my balls, which led to me not only taking 1st in my group, but 1st on the table overall!
This was rather sweet justice for me, as the table was originally supposed to be Apollo 13. During practice, I had played that, managed to get the 13 ball multiball going, and got to enter my initials on the machine. Scoring enough to enter initials in these guys' houses, no small feet. So being told you are no longer playing a table that you just killed on, and instead were to play on some oddball table you've never heard of, that sucked. Kharma, that's all I can say!
Metallica LE - 2,989,090
Speaking of kharma...it's sad when I played almost as poorly without crossing my arms! I couldn't get anything going here, including picking a good song. Oh well, welcome to 4th place. I still like this pin a lot though.
Embryon - 193,240
While waiting for our group's turn, I watched a guy turn this machine over on ball 1. The play times on this machine were insane. Our group starts, and the first 2 guys have never ending balls too. Then my turn. 30 seconds later, I'm done. To say I epically failed on this machine is a disservice. It was downright comical. Another 4th place finish.
When all was said and done, I finished 23rd out of 52 players. Good enough for me! My whole goal is to crack the top 20, so we'll see how this season treats me. Full rundown of the machines in next post.
