My child, starting at the age of six, could read two books at once and keep the plots straight in her head. She is an all “E” student and received recognition for outstanding citizenship during the first quarter of second grade. She is a medal winning blue belt in taekwondo that somehow learns complex Korean terms in under 30 minutes.  Needless to say I could not be prouder.

So what did my wife and I give her for being such an accomplished little bookworm? Yep, the devil’s loom…oh, I mean a Rainbow Loom. The amount of tears that have flowed since this plastic contraption entered our lives is just less than those shed during the great sock fiasco of kindergarten.

For those that do not know, and I feel lucky for you, the Rainbow Loom is comprised of rows of plastic post that you can place rubber bands on(think braces) and weave intricate bracelets. There are numerous instructional videos on youtube posted by the devil’s henchmen. These videos make every bracelet look like it should melt off the loom into the most intricate, intertwined bunch of rubber bands one could ever imagine. If rubber bands had been invented before diamonds were found we could possibly be marking milestones with “fish tales” instead of carats.

So there you have it….

…..Oh, wait. This is a pinball blog. WTF just happened above?

Today I am hosting a tournament. As a collector, hobbyist and player I love sharing my collection and our league was born out of the want to do this and this tournament as a desire to share it with a wider group. I have held tournaments before but they have either been a impromptu gathering or part of my charity tournament series that is geared towards friends and coworkers, the casual player.

Tonight, in my basement, I have some of the best pinball players on the east coast coming to MY basement to play MY pins. And what do I do to thank these people that are taking the time to come to my house to indulge my selfish desire to share my toys? How? I’ll tell you how. I give them pins waxed with the tears the devil never saw. I’ve set my games to be hard, to really show their teeth. No extra balls, no ball saves(well except for Dracula because I’m not a total ass), and yes the outlanes are wide open.  My games are usually set to hard but these are nasty and I feel bad about it. I want people to enjoy the games but I want them to feel the bite they have to offer as well.

Pinball is a social event. Modern games allow for 4 players and it’s frankly a lot more satisfying to play with others. A great game “in the woods” does make a sound but then you look around in your empty game room and put your victory sign down and just plug in those initials with no fanfare or confetti, it gets a bit old. And no only is it social, it is fun. Watching someone else having a great game can sometimes, rarely, be as satisfying as having a great game oneself. Of course with the way that these tables have been set up I may have dangled that “fun” carrot out there just to snatch it away.

So here is the dilemma, how hard is too hard? Is pinball, like a rainbow loom, more enjoyable when it is easy and rewarding for what it is suppose to be or is it about making something as challenging as possible even if it leaves you in a weeping pile, or in my case enraged, wishing I could hurl the game out the window, wishing it would just be made to go away.

I feel bad that my daughter doesn’t find the pleasure in her rainbow loom like she thought she would. She really has to work of that please and she decided on day one that she was no longer a beginner. I struggle with her tears. Do I console her and ask her to try something easier for her or do I let her hold her shoulders, tell her it will be alright and to just try again? Or, do I just secretly hide the loom hoping the fad passes and she sticks to something I know she is great at. In pinball I don’t want anyone to suffer either but there I am making it as hard as I can. Is this still fun? Sometimes I contemplate just ditching the hobby because the fun factor seems to have faded. Sometimes I wish I could just hide 8 350lb machines on the top shelf of the linen closet but there I am again swatting at the silver ball trying to get that elusive shot.

4 hours until my tournament starts….and the devil drinks.

Many don’t like the movie – many don’t like the pinball.  Too much Jar Jar in both, but I still enjoy them.

Magfest stands for music and gaming fest.  It is held at a huge hotel in the National Harbor which is just across the bridge as you cross the bridge from Virginia into Maryland just past DC.  The music part of the feet is chiptunes, music from games and bands that play music from games.  There are usually performances by musicians who compose videogame music.  There are also screenings of videogame related movies as well as panels by players and designers.  Many people attend in cosplay costumes and there are cosplay contests.  

The main attraction for me is the main hall which has 80 or 90 arcade machines (maybe more) and 10 or 15 pinball machines which are all set to free play.  There are also dozens of console games and tvs set up for console gaming.  There is a LAN section where people bring computers to set up LAN games.  There are also table games and spaces to play games with figures like Warhammer.

The other side of the main hall has a vendor area where people sell games, comic books, t-shirts and lots of other cool things.

i already have reservations to attend for the third year in a row.  It is a fun chance to play lots of pinball and video games and spend time witb a bunch of people who love videogames and pinball.

On Saturday, Joe, Taylor and I went to Charlottesville to play in the Fall Downtown Mall Silverball Crawl.  This tournament was organized by Chris Newsome who organized the last tournament in Charlottesville.  The plan was to play in three locations – Miller’s Restaurant on the Downtown Mall, The Arena – ice skating rink on the Downtown Mall and West Main: A Virginia Restaurant.  The Arena usually has one pinball machine – Lord of the Rings.  The operator of Lord of the Rings brought No Fear, Spiderman and Big Buck Hunter to the arena to be played in the tournament.  The cool part was that he stayed and played in the tournament too.  West Main has a Junkyard machine and Miller’s has Game Show and Harley Davidson.

The day started with a side tournament at one at The Arena.  I think there were 14 or 16 people in the tournament.  The tournament was a knock out tournament played in groups of four.  After each game, the third and fourth place finishers received a strike.  Once you received two strikes, you were out of the tournament.  We got some games in on the side tournament before going to West Main for the main tournament to start at three.

The main tournament was a high score tournament.  For each machine, the tournament awarded a point for each person’s score you beat on that machine.  The first place score would receive 15 points and so on down the line.  You could play each machine twice and use the best score as your score for the tournament.

We ran into an organizational snag at West Main.  We had 16 people who needed to play two games each on one machine.  This ended up taking about two hours.  It was good to have a chance to get lunch at a good restaurant and hang around for a while, but it delayed the tournament more than was necessary.  For some guys, it was a good chance to rest up on the couch to conserve energy for the later rounds.  I know Chris discussed ways around this for next year’s tournament and I’m sure it will be a little more smooth next year.

Junkyard was my Kryptonite.  I could not get a score on it no matter what I tried.  I ended up in the last place position on Junkyard which had me sunk for tournament from the outset.

A few of us went back to the arena from West Main to start playing the machines there to continue the tournament.  The rest of the tournament went well and without much problem.  I think everyone was surprised at how long it took everyone to get in two qualifying games with only 16 people in the tournament.

We ended up scratching Miller’s from the tournament because it was going pretty late and the machines there are on the third floor which is a smoking floor.  No one protested the decision to scrap the third location as everyone was getting a little weary.

Eventually all the qualifying games were in and the top four and five through eight played in the finals.   Joe and Taylor were both in the 5 through eight group after Joe won the two way ninth place playoff.  Joe ended up sixth in the five through eight group with Taylor in seventh on No Fear.  If I remember right, Joe won by a few thousand points.  Joe and I really started to like No Fear with Taylor still on the fence about it.

Following the main tournament, we finished the side tournament.  I had played the first two rounds of the side tournament before heading to West Main and ended with no strikes.

I got a strike playing in a hard group against Bayless Rutheford, Chris Newsome and Joe Said on Spiderman.

I had to play Spiderman again and put up a miracle 72 million on my first ball.  Taylor gave me some game play advice on modes and multiball progression and starting which really helped.  I ended up ducking the strike in that game which left the side tournament to me and Joe Said.

Joe is a very good player with lots of experience in tournament pinball.  Joe had no strikes which meant that I would have to beat him twice to win the tournament.  I got lucky and beat Joe in our first game on Lord of the Rings.  Our second game ended up being No Fear.  My lucky run came to an end at this point.  Joe played well enough that he was able to plunge his third ball for the tournament win.

I saw some of the same guys from the previous Charlottesville tournament and met lots of nice people.  Just like in the previous tournament, there was a good sense of mutual enjoyment at having a chance to spend a day playing pinball with a bunch of people who also really like pinball.  The Arena is a good place for the tournament because there is plenty of space and beer and tvs.

We got home much later than expected, but had a very good time.  Thanks to Chris Newsome and Joe Said for organizing and hosting the tournament.  I am looking forward to playing next year.  I’m also looking forward to seeing most of you again at Taylor’s house for The Pin(t)s for Kids Tournament.

We learned on the way up that Joe Cummins is now a pinball owner.  Joe now has a Raven in the basement which is soon to be joined by many more..