When the competition began and ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger went to her first match, I did something you might find baffling: I did not watch. If pinball is a sport it must have its superstitions, and one that bunnyhugger has is that she plays worse when I'm watching. The more closely, the worse. I'm not sure that's so, but I have noticed that when I go to a Bells and Chimes event with her she doesn't take first place. She doesn't always take first place at these events anyway, but all her recent first-place trophies have been from days I didn't come with her. And to an extent it doesn't matter whether you do play worse under some condition or just think you do, something bunnyhugger was picking up from reading one of her Christmas gifts, The Inner Game of Tennis. So I kept my focus to other games, to walking around getting updates on competition, to watching the stream that was, early on, more likely than not not pointing at her game.
First round. bunnyhugger has high seed over LIZ. It starts on LIZ's choice of a middle-era game, Bally's Space Shuttle. It's one of the games that saved pinball. It also saves bunnyhugger, who's able to take a strong win and get the day off to its best possible start for her. (And while wandering around looking for scores, I did see bunnyhugger play without her being able to suspect. I also --- when she was away from the table, making this not the illegal practice of Coaching --- asked how close she was to the award you get from spelling out the S-H-U-T-T-L-E standing targets. This informed her she could get an award from completing that set, although as it happens she didn't need that edge.) Next game is bunnyhugger's choice of old game, the electromechanical Fast Draw. The game wants you to shoot at two sets of drop targets in the lower playfield, and if you knock them all down you get the best scoring possibilities in the game. But the drop targets are death, and bunnyhugger had a strategy of shooting way up into the pop bumpers (the strategy that some of the top players in open used the previous day, we could see). This worked great. She won that game and, in fact, won all four games of Fast Draw she would play.
LIZ's pick again. Venom, the newest pinball game out there. It's your contemporary Stern game, with four billion rules, not all of them known even to the game designers, and bunnyhugger has no confidence in it. This despite her winning very consistently on it, including the Lansing Women's launch party for it. bunnyhugger won this time too, and I felt relieved that she had done better than the previous year's start. The action moved to her pick for mid-era game. This was The Shadow, one of the most popular tables both for the open and the women's games. It's based on the 90s movie, and the table's a pretty good one, with a decent balance among the strategies of shooting for modes, shooting for multiballs, and shooting for the upper playfield 'break the barriers' gimmick. But despite her liking the game, and getting a good bit of practice in, she lost. LIZ would have to win four games in a row to survive the round, but such things happen.
On to LIZ's last pick, 300, the electromechanical in her set. This is a game I know from Pinburgh and have always liked even when I lose on it; it's got a good bowling theme and a fun gimmick of a backglass inset where 'bowling' balls pop up and go through a lane return. Good theme, fun play, and an electromechanical? Bet on bunnyhugger for this because that's so playing to her strength. She wins; she would not lose on any of the old-bank games this tournament. She has met her ambition, to get past the first round of playoffs. Everything else would theoretically be gravy, although I also know she would be hard to console if she lost in the second round too.
Round two tomorrow (had to do household chores tonight instead of writing). For now, let's finish off visiting Steel Curtain and get to other parts of KennyKon, such as, oh, 11 am.
Elevator on the side of the Steel Curtain station. The sign says it's out of service, so I suppose there's not an accommodation possible for people with ambulatory issues at least that day.
And here's the coaster and some of the infield seen from the steps leading down. Also it gives some idea what a narrow footprint the ride has, despite its size.
Re-emerging from Steelers Country's area to the main body of the park. The white roller coaster in the center background is Jackrabbit, 103 years old now.
More of the main body of the park, on the far end of the lagoon from the entrance. You can see Steel Vengeance pointing at Phantom's Revenge.
And now ... ooh, hey, what are all those people doing breaking into the lawn outside Thunderbolt? And why do they all wear roller coaster merchandise?
O-ho! It's something that involves the ladder, so you know it has to be good.
Trivia: 26 of the 37 Possible Possum cartoons that Terrytoons studio produced were released theatrically, stretching out until 1974, years after the studio closed. Source: Terrytoons: The Story of Paul Terry and His Classic Cartoon Factory, W Gerald Hamonic.
Currently Reading: Matariki: The Star of the Year, Rangi Matamua.
