Standings
Crabtowne USA players are still holding onto to their lead in the standings with Lyman’s Tavern players close behind. Check out your standings today!
Bonus Game Qualifiers
Reminder there will be no mid-season tournament for Season 2. Bonus Game qualifiers will be eligible for the Inter-Season Tournament. Details will be shared next week. Please let us know if you think your name should be on this list! Some of our locations (Black Cat and Mighty Mikes) have all regular players already qualified so don’t hesitate to show up on their league nights for a chance to enter the tournament!
Black Cat : Camila Dias, Pierce McLain, Jon Long, Matt Myerson, Bobbie Dougherty, Jon Horner, Katie Kaufmann
Mighty Mikes: Don Kraper, Matt Wycoff, Joe Said
Lymans Tavern: Timothy Brown, Steve Stakem, Fil Baird, Holly Eney, Roy DeJarnette, Shawn Hillman, Jamie C.
Crabtowne USA: Connor Most, Shannon Schreier, Justin Bath, Jake Peterson, Rob Thomas, Jacquie Day
Points Summary
We are working to get an updated scoresheet to clarify points but until then here’s a few tips/general rules.
- 4-player groups score 3,2,2,1
- 3-player groups score 3-2-1
- 2- player groups score 3-1
**If you are playing in a group with a guest or two remember guest’s scores do not count towards points. Do not include them in the overall group number. For example if you are in a 4-player group where one player is a guest, the guest gets zero points and the league members are scored as a 3-player group.
Email any questions to dmvpinball@gmail.com.
Local Tournaments
“None Shall Pass” Update
Pinholics
The first Pinholics meeting of the year has been submitted to IFPA for June 13th. We have three events going on for this meeting.
Important Change: Doors open at 2pm and the Main tournament will start at 4pm to accommodate changes. Late night party has been retired so figure we’ll start earlier to finish at a reasonable time.
1) Main tournament – now a 4 strike tournament, earlier starting time @ 4pm. Top 4 paid out (changed from 3 players).
2) Side tournament – now an IFPA ranked tournament. 3 solid state games will be used in qualifying and playoffs. Top 4 qualifiers on each game receive points (4/2/1/0). Points are added across all 3 games. Bonus 1 point for players that qualify in two games, 3 bonus points for players that qualify in all three games. Seeding established based on total points, Playoffs are survival mode similar to PAPA circuit. Bottom 2 seeds start, winner advances to next player. Seeding ties will be resolved via coin-flip. Qualifying starts at 2pm, tentatively stops for first 4 rounds of main tournament, then restarts. Finals will start at 9pm rather than completion of main tournament. Top 4 paid out, with prize going to top qualifier of each game. Games will be Paragon, Stars and Mata Hari.
3) James Daley will be playing None Shall Pass games versus any player that wants a last chance at qualifying and playing in the playoffs on Sunday, June 14th at Lyman’s Tavern @ 1pm.
More info at https://www.facebook.com/PinholicsAnonymous.
Finals
Season 2 finals will be held at Crabtowne USA on July 11. Keep an eye out for details on payouts, format, start time, etc in the next couple weeks.
ReplayFX
July 30-August 2nd, 2015
Gamers behind the Replay Foundation & PAPA are taking over the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, PA and filling it with more than 700 arcade and pinball machines, over 2,000 retro console games, table top games, a showcase of new products by game developers, a full lineup of seminars, magicians, live musicians, balloon artists, face-painters, competitions offering over $110,000 in prize money, and more!
The ReplayFX Arcade & Gaming Festival will feature the largest public collection of full-sized pinball, arcade, tabletop, and console games anywhere in the solar system, and all games are free to play with the price of admission! Attendees are also invited to attend a series of seminars dedicated to gaming and its associated tech-culture, browse merchandise in the marketplace, watch the world’s greatest arcade masters compete in Kong Off 4, the Donkey Kong World Championships, and to compete themselves in Walter Day’s Replay World Championship, a classic arcade tournament designed for novice and expert players alike. Spectators are also welcome to watch the world’s greatest pinball players compete on a wall of 50-inch televisions in Pinburgh, the largest pinball tournament in history.
ReplayFX will include six live bands, a cosplay contest, inflatable obstacle courses, and more in a show floor packed with over 125,000 square feet of entertainment! The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is also getting in on the gaming action and performing an evening of Final Fantasy Music at nearby Heinz Hall. Over $110,000 will be at stake for the competitive player. Thousands of games will be available for the casual fan. A family-friendly atmosphere will be available for the kids, and no one has to leave the galaxy to attend!
More information at http://replayfx.org/.
DMV’s Daley Dose of Pinball
(Written by James Daley)
Skill shot, super skill shot, and ball saves. Part one of two
Becoming an expert at the silver ball can be intimidating at times. Pinball machines are complex critters with something to learn all the time, but as the great Lau “flipper” Tzu once said ” The journey to the Wizard mode starts with a single plunge”.
Before you play a game ask yourself, is there a skill shot? Is there a super skill shot? Are their multiple options for skill shot and super skill shot? What does the skill shot or super skill shot get me? How long is the ball save and what difficult and dangerous shots can I try to check off before the ball save expires? If I fail on the skill shot can I drain and get another shot at the skill shot?
For example AC/DC at Lyman’s and Town Hall has a basic relatively easy skill shot that is quite important because you get a VIP pass for each successful skill shot. Have the ball roll down the lit lane and you get the skill shot points and one VIP pass. Standard protocol is to have the lit lane be the center. A flip of the right flipper moves the lit lane one to the right. One flip on the left flipper moves it one to the left. Be alert because the lanes on AC/DC register quite high! Ask yourself…once the skill shot is over do I have enough ball save time to take a few pot shots at the risky TNT targets to progress to Album MultiBall? ( this will depends on how long the ball pops around in the pop bumpers ).
On Road Show at Mighty Mike’s the first skill shot gets you points, a souvenir, and will start a city mode. Fail and you can have a second shot at it. An advanced maneuver on Road Show is to plunge to the pop bumpers and hope it changes from the New York City ( not that lucrative ) to Miami( can be quite lucrative) . Pop bumper change to Miami and then ball save drain to re-plunge to Miami ( nice when it works ).
For Addams Family ( Black Cat and CrabTowne ) mastering the skill shot is quite important because with extra balls and skill shot opportunities with locked balls, it’s not uncommon to have 6 or more skill shots in a game. First skill shot is 2 million, 2nd is 3, 3rd is 4 millions and 4th and every subsequent skill shot is 5 million. Make 3 out of 6 skill shots and that’s 9 million, make 6 skill shots and its 24 million. When you consider how many Addams league night games get decided by 15 million, you can appreciate the value of the Addams Family skill shot. Also Addams Family has a ball save of sorts. If you fail on the skill shot but don’t hit a scoring switch you get the ball back for another attempt. Getting the ball back for another skill shot attempt is vital in Addams so all players, if they want to improve, should learn how to do that.
When should I ignore the skill shot altogether?
For Twilight Zone ( Black Cat and CrabTowne ) the skill shot is universally ignored because it shoots the ball to the very dangerous pop bumpers for very little reward and no ball saver in TZ.