New Pinball Dictionary: Unicorn

Unicorn

An entry submitted during a ticket-based format (also known as set-based or old PAPA style) that contains a number-one ranked score on every game played within that ticket. This results in a perfect ranking score.

The later in the tournament that the entry is submitted, the more impressive the unicorn is. Logically, the first entry submitted in the tournament is a unicorn by default, because there are no other comparable entries at that point. A unicorn that is submitted later in the event surpasses more entries.

Here is an impressive, near Unicorn entry submitted by Zach McCarthy, one of the best pinball players ever. He achieved this during the UK Pinball Open qualification period.

See more of the New Pinball Dictionary

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Fact Check:

Below is Zach McCarthy’s resulting ticket when the qualification period ended. He only lost one of his top scores and that was to Carlos “LaserLos” DeLaserda who scored 16,643,295 on Total Nuclear Annihilation. The other two #2 scores were only that because they were beaten by Zach himself, who already had the #1 scores at the time he submitted his ticket.

H/T: Dennis Kjær Jensen

Reference: 2024 UK Pinball Open Standings on NeverDrains