I LOVE this game! Why am I so stressed?

The IFPA Pin-Masters PinGolf Tournament is in fact a tradition unlike any other. It is arguably the toughest pinball competition format in which to compete. Note that I did not say ANY PinGolf tournament is tough. I mean specifically IFPA Pin-Masters. Among the challenges are: EVERY ball is infinitely valuable. In theory, any Player can reach the target score and finish any PinGolf hole in one ball for Hole-In-One Aces all the way across their card. Sure, that is the same as any PinGolf tournament, but Pin-Masters target scores are calculated from the average scores of the North American Pinball Championship held the previous day. That is when the winners of over 50 states and provinces come together to battle in several head-to-head best-of-seven playoff series. These Players were good enough to win their territories (or sniped another territory they didn’t live in), so their scores will tend to be much higher than typical. That means good performances, and big score averages, even on games with difficult setups like at Pin-Masters.

Speaking of difficult setups, they are real MVPs of the competition and the banes of my Pin-Master experiences dating back as far as I can remember. Ball saves are reduced or eliminated wherever possible. Certain rubbers are missing in action. Bouncy flipper rubbers on most games produce diabolical flipper hopping. Sharply inclined playfields increase speed. Tight tilts govern nudges although they were generally looser this year. Finally we have the all-star of the team, “The Pin-Masters Slings”. These slingshots are ready to send away ANY ball that you haven’t properly secured with a drop catch or one that is roaming free due to a blown live catch. They are sensitive. Very touchy, very evil. Players took many anxious trips to Slingtown during this event. Stern Pinball’s Transformers in particular was in charge of the Slingtown Express train to “Drainville”. I would love to be able to practice games with “Pin-Masters Slings”, but the other players at the arcade would probably not vibe with that.

Imagine all this on a fast game like Stranger Things which has poor lighting at times (on purpose), bad returns to the flipper area from the orbits (also on purpose), no ball save on the plunge, and powerful flippers that send the ball away at Mach whatever which. I panicked while playing that game. So much that I had to take a few moments to calm down after I got a nice, tasty 9 strokes on it. Even so, I was fortunate enough to qualify for Finals and advance a round to Pin-Masters Sunday. During the Quarterfinal, the only game I didn’t totally fail on was Stranger Things, strangely enough.

See more coverage of this year’s Pin-Masters at Fox Cities Pinball Stream on twitch.  Tom Graf streamed all weekend. A total of over 45 hours worth of livestreaming, averaging 434 viewers throughout and that’s without being on the front page. I contributed my small part with commentary of the Semi-Finals round where I got the see more of the Slingtown Express in action on Transformers among other exciting games.

So that was my Pin-Masters experience. Except I did finish in the top-16 (14th), which my best result at this event going back to the times when it was in Las Vegas at the old Pinball Hall of Fame location. I’m still unsure why I get so stressed. My best guess is that I really want to keep playing this ball I have right now. I don’t wanna die, because I’ll have to stop playing. If I’m not playing, I’m waiting around for my turn again. While I’m waiting, I’m forgetting where the shots are and my game state which I have to relearn when I get back up there. Sometimes on my next turn, I’ll drain again while I’m doing all that ‘relearning’, and the cycle of despair continues. Never mind that the game’s lighting might be distracting. That, along with a dark environment can make a moving ball disappear from view. Especially when the darkness is broken by overly complicated light animation celebrations before retuning to the darkness again.

That’s the best I can figure out. I miss the time back in the day when I didn’t care if a fire engine drove through a wall while was playing. I’ve heard that you tend to get nervous about things you care about. Maybe I care about this too much.