24 Hours at The Sanctum – The Aftermath

Congratulations to Bowen Kerins who won the 2016 24 Hours at the Sanctum event. 98 players battled it out over 13 rounds of Pinburgh style play to determine the champion.

Cash and Prizes:

Bounties were on offer for each round. If you got a perfect round of 9 points (3 wins each game) then you won a share of the $50.00 awarded for each round. If no one had a perfect round, the money carried over to the next round. Also, the final round (Round 13 – “The Money Round”) had prizes available for the winner of each group. The cash prize values increased the closer you were to the top group at the start of the final round. Lots of cash prizes were available to win.

Come on and try it if you dare!

24 hours at the Sanctum is a unique challenge. If someone were to ask if it would be good for them to attempt this, it would seem like I was telling them to try drugs and not to try drugs at the same time. Yes, try this event if you can. It will feel good at the start to be a part of such an event. It will feel good when you finish it, no matter where you are in the standings, if you are able to last the entire 24 hours. However, it’s highly likely that you will suffer some sort of physical, mental, emotional or even psychological pain during the event.

I think I hit my wall somewhere around 4:30 AM. Around that time, I had a quick discussion with a player who told me that their “Give-A-F#@K” meter had run out. I found that my personal meter was running low as well, especially when I had bombed out of a high group with a bad performance. At that point, I had lost the ability to track the ball properly. My reaction time was forfeit, I was nudging too much and tilting too often. However after another quick dose of protein drink, I was able to reclaim some dignity, win the money round to climb back into 14th place and claim more PAPA Circuit points for the Black Hole.

In addition to the perseverance that you need to show during the tournament, you might have some lingering effects afterward. I remember last year that it took me about 3 days to fully recover from winning the event. This year was not as drastic of a recovery time for me, it just took a double period of sleep to get back to coherence, but I find that my arms and wrists are taking a bit longer to get back to pinball shape. So, part of me is saying you must definitely plan to participate next year, and another part of me is saying don’t be crazy like me and 97 other pinball tournament fanatics. We’d like to keep all of the prize money and sweet Sanctum 24-Hour Completion medals for ourselves.

Vote Vindication!

During the campaign to select new PAPA Circuit events for this year, 24 Hours at the Sanctum received a significant amount of positive support from the voters. The Sanctum tournament organizers showed why this event deserved the amount of votes it received. I wholeheartedly recommend that this event be a part of the PAPA Circuit in the future. The Sanctum was able to manage nearly 100 players efficiently and provide a positive atmosphere for competition, even as our collective life forces were draining away in the wee hours of the early morning. The games worked well for the vast majority of the time and fixes were done quickly to get the games back into action. The catered breakfast that was served out of nowhere at 6:00 AM was a nice surprise as well. I have a feeling that the tournament officials are going to get requests to expand the field again for next year.

Congratulations, Sanctum citizens! Now, sleep.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153784305271707

The awards ceremony where the new champion, Bowen receives the Phurba trophy from the previous champion.

Fun With Bonus is the home of the semi-coherent, misguided ramblings of professional and amateur pinball players.

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