Let me see if I can say anything useful about playing in Silver Balls. Well, I had low expectations for myself even with the joy of having a new job. And being able to share the good news with people like CST, whom we hadn't seen in maybe a year, or BIL, who I had seen but not talked to at the tournament a couple weeks ago. My first game ended up being Getaway, always a difficult table. It's got a very short ball save and since it moved to its current location is a real drain-monster. Everyone in my group had very short games; I won by virtue of getting the video mode as a random award. The video mode in Getaway is actually a very easy one and normally anyone can get a full twenty million points plus on it. I failed to, for the first time in like ever, and still squeaked out a win.
Next game was Ghostbusters, one of the more difficult tables in the venue. But I have stumbled onto a promising-seeming new strategy for the game, shooting for the Psychokinetic Energy Frenzy that's surprisingly always available. And this time it ... didn't work for me; I took third place, and got two strikes. Still, this is a good pace. In a progressive-strikes tournament like this, if you average one strike per round, you're going to end up in a high position. Next round was Batman 66, one of my strengths, and I put up a great ball one that should have iced out everyone else. Then they went and had great balls two and three, while I did nothing and sank to third place, picking up two more strikes. Then up on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, another game nobody likes and one where, somehow, I got first place. Back on that one-strike-per-round pace.
My next game was Guns N Roses, the new Jersey Jack game, and while I was up against some fierce competition --- including CST --- I was feeling good because I have this weird harmony with Jersey Jack games, and I can pretty much always get at least a million points, on this machine a good score. I managed to shoot for nothing, on any of this, and come in last, my worst finish yet.
Guardians of the Galaxy was the next table and I was feeling confident since that's another table I really like and usually do well enough on. BIL squeaked me out on it, though, one of his three first-place finishes for the night. Then on to Willy Wonka, another Jersey Jack game and I got a first-place finish again, getting closer to the one-strike-per-round average. Somehow I squeaked out a first-place finish on Star Trek, too, a win that gave BIL his tenth strike and sent him home. It also sent home ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger since, of course, the first and only time we were matched up for the night it was when she had to win-or-go-home.
Now? I was among the final dozen or so people left and feeling great about my finishing. It would also get only tougher from here on. I would play CST in each of the next three rounds, though to my amazement in one of them --- The Walking Dead --- I would put up a score on my first ball greater than anything anyone else did on all three. Somehow in this strikes tournament I managed a first place finish in five of the eleven rounds; even CST only got four. One of those was against me, in a two-player match on Iron Maiden, but knowing that I was among the top four finishers now left me feeling really good about whatever might come next.
What came next, and for me finally, was a four-person match against CST, MWS, and RED --- CST and MWS are solid bets to win the Michigan state championship this and any year --- on Game of Thrones. MWS's favorite game, and one that CST and RED can routinely put up a zillion points on. My only hope was to start this one high-scoring mode that I'm okay on, and hope everyone else flops, since at this point I have nine strikes and can only move on if I finish in first place. Well, none of them have the faceplant game that I needed. And I never get anything started, so I go out in fourth place for the tournament. Which is still a fantastic finish, better than I have any right to expect. bunnyhugger made trophies for the top three finishers.
CST takes third place in the game, and with it, third place in the tournament. MWS and RED are the only players left and they go head-to-head on Lord of the Rings, a table that can go on forever. It does not. RED wins, taking home first place and a healthy 16.01 points in the struggle for a position in the State Championship Series. It's not enough for him, though; RED finishes the year in 35th place, too low to go even as an alternate. MWS finishes the year third place in the rankings, although I'm not sure that this strong finish helped him secure the spot. Suppose we'll see how that turns out for him next weekend.
bunnyhugger has a worse night than me on every count, starting out with two last-place finishes in her first three rounds. But in-between those last-place finishes is a first place, and after the fourth round she never takes anything but first or second, which is all quite respectable. And finishing in the tie for tenth place, in a group of 35 with this many power players in it? Really reinforces how good a player she is. Neither of us is anywhere near making state; we aren't playing enough events, nor enough high-value events, but it's one of those moments that show that if we chose to, we could be plausible.
We go home with more money for the Capital Area Humane Society, and more confidence in our pandemic-era pinball abilities, than we could have imagined going in.
I have a quick bowl of microwaved ravioli and go to bed. Work in the morning.
Please enjoy some more of my dwindling stash of Potter Park Zoo pictures!
Illuminated elephant at a crossroads. Potter Park Zoo does not have elephants anymore since we've learned a little better about that.
Monkeys! We spent more time than expected watching the primates in their house.
Oh, and there were some more porcupines but they weren't up for doing much.
Back to the primates. Those are some great poses on them.
This little raised arch between the two halves of the primates-and-big-cats house was chained off, in a way it hasn't been in past years. It's a little steep, but I didn't think it steep enough to be dangerous walking. Maybe bad if you're on crutches or in a wheelchair but I'd imagine folks using those would take the other ways across the building naturally.
The Theio's Restaurant Memorial Bench remains, silent tribute to the lost eatery with bad waffle management.
Trivia: Five arches --- about a quarter of the span --- of London Bridge were destroyed by an exceptional buildup of ice and snow at the end of 1281. Source: Old London Bridge: The Story of the Longest Inhabited Bridge in Europe, Patricia Pierce. British History Online says it was four arches, by the way, and intimates that it was the flood resulting from the thaw.
Currently Reading: Standpipe: Delivering Water in Flint, David Hardin.
