Let me break format a little bit by bringing you the concluding round of the Michigan State Women's Pinball Championship.
When KEC beat SJV she seemed surprised to have made it to finals. All the top four finishers were amazed they had gotten this far and were going home with not just money but also some hardware. The top finisher got a plaque, of course, but second through fourth got these nice rosette-bearing buttons ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger made. KEC was thrilled to think that her name was going to be on the banner, the one that hangs in the Clubhouse Arcade in Fremont where PH, state representative for the International flipper Pinball Association, has home base. She said she didn't even care if she won, getting her name on the banner was enough. She's a good enough sport I can somewhat believe that.
KEC had good narrative claim to the championship. She's been playing just forever, and has been steadily improving, like, all that while. I mean, everyone who takes pinball seriously improves, but usually they improve dramatically, reach a plateau of getting only a little better, then have another big jump, and another little plateau. KEC didn't; she's just gotten a little better steadily, never a big jump but never a plateau either. It's the sort of endurance that earns people PhD's.
And she also has a narrative claim to the championship in her service to women's pinball, particularly in Grand Rapids, where she organized and built to a healthy base the Bells and Chimes women's club. She's stepping down as head of that club, saying that it's to free up the time she spends on this. Maybe so. I have the secondhand, vague impression there are club politics she's decided she is not getting paid to deal with, which is also a valid reason to bow out, but a sad one. I hope she feels appreciated for her work.
Now on to pinball, though. For the first and only time this tournament bunnyhugger was not the high seed. KEC was. bunnyhugger, keeping the scoresheet --- she likes doing this, as do I, because we both know we do this right --- accidentally writes KEC's game picks on the wrong side, so used is she to having the high-seed side of the sheets.
The first game would be bunnyhugger's old-era game, Fast Draw, so as you already know she won that. Hopeful start; while you can't win or lose the match in the first three games, starting on a win does feel better. The second game was KEC's pick of a modern game, 007 James Bond. Once more bunnyhugger can't seem to get the multiball going, and KEC beats her out. It's tough being 1-1, but bunnyhugger's been there before.
The next game is bunnyhugger's pick of a middle-era game, The Shadow. And this time the weed of crime breaks her way, letting her get up two games to one. KEC's middle-era game is the next pick, Torpedo Alley. This is a late-80s Data East game that's kind of cheesey but we like it. The theme is something or other about sinking ships, which you do by collecting sets of targets and shooting scoops and ramps. The art suggests your ship's populated entirely by perky, slender women in body-fitting white outfits that seem like they're from the Star Trek: The Motion Picture era. The sound chip starts your game with Anchors Aweigh, and it bids the captain farewell when your last ball ends. It's everything bunnyhugger wants in a game, but it's also one KEC has specialized in; she kept taking people to it. bunnyhugger enjoys her game, not least because for the first time --- with all other play finished --- she can hear all the sounds and music and callouts and be delighted by them anew. But she can't manage a critical ramp shot, leaving her with only about three-quarters the score KEC tosses off. 2-2, with the championship now a best-of-three match.
On to bunnyhugger's last pick, the modern-era Foo Fighters. Once again bunnyhugger can't get mode and multiball working together the way they should. It doesn't matter. She beats KEC and now needs only one win in the next two games. At this point I'm nervous, and while I know how bunnyhugger is feeling, I don't go and add to her troubles by talking with her about it.
KEC's last pick --- unless it goes to game seven --- is her old-era game, Nitro Ground Shaker. It's a 1980 Bally game, one where you build the bonus by shooting spinners and then collect the bonus during the ball by shooting scoops on the side. And --- and this is important --- build up your bonus multiplier by shooting a scoop at the top center of the table, like all pinball games had from 1974 through 1980, when the correct light is lit. Every spinner spin changes which of three lights is lit, so you can shoot up there a lot of times without getting it. During the open finals the night before we watched with increasing anxiety as --- I'm going to say MSS, and if I'm wrong, it doesn't matter --- kept making perfect shots that came in one switch too many or too few.
bunnyhugger has no such problem, especially on ball two. It's as though the game recognizes an old friend and wants to set out its most generous spread. Some games are like that. She doesn't just get the bonus multiplier from the center. The pop bumpers keep shooting the ball into the bonus-collect scoops, and the bonus-collect scoop shoots the ball back into the bumpers for a return. Nitro Ground Shaker has decided whatever else happens, it wants to give points to bunnyhugger, and she barely has to give it anything.
bunnyhugger wins, four games to two.
KEC is a gracious loser, of course; she's possibly got the best spirit of sportsmanship in Michigan pinball. bunnyhugger is a gracious winner, or trying to be; she realizes too late that there's no way to give herself the plaque without it looking awkward. Someone suggests giving it to last year's winner (JLL, who came in sixth, this time) to present to bunnyhugger and that's what they go with, although it has the effect of bunnyhugger handing this plaque to someone who passes it right back while people try to get their phones to focus. They organize for pictures, RLM taking some, me taking others (with bunnyhugger's camera). At least one of the photos of the top four finishers gets sent to that Kalamazoo TV station that sent the reporter/camera person.
Someone calls for the ``women of RLM amusements'' to gather for a group photo. Grand Rapids players are the biggest group of the top sixteen --- we counted ten who could call it one of their regular venues, bunnyhugger included --- although bunnyhugger isn't confident she's counted as one of that gang and doesn't get into the group picture. And worries about the fairness or exclusiveness of having just this group gathered.
Things wind down for the next hour or so, people saying their goodbyes and thanks and congratulations and thanking bunnyhugger for running the tournament so well and RLM for all the work he did in the facility and the streaming and all. A couple people also thanked me for my work in filling out scorecards and updating the standings on bunnyhugger's computer and nobody blamed me to my face for messing up the consolation bracket rules. And as the leftover brownies were taken out of the other room, and the handful of remaining folks started going to dollar games, we thanked everyone and drove back home.
That evening bunnyhugger found the Kalamazoo station's article and was thrilled by most of it. There were a couple points she disliked, things where the phrasing was unclear about when the women's finals started, that kind of thing. She did the digging around it took to find who to contact about corrections, and was flabbergasted when two hours later the article was corrected. We had both assumed that any corrections would be made Monday during regular office hours, if ever. So the day finished with that additional, small triumph. Never saw it coming.
Now, just a half-dozen KennyKon/Kennywood pictures. If I'm breaking Thursday format let's break it all the way.
A block of the park has been re-themed as ``Area 412'' (guess what Pittsburgh's area code is), with a space theme. This gift shop had been there before, but now it's remade to look like a flying saucer and took that on so well I forgot it ever hadn't been a flying saucer.
Big alien sculpture outside Spinvasion, one of the new rides. They're a Thunderbolt fan, which is a good solid choice. You can't go wrong with liking any of the wooden coasters at Kennywood or, with few exceptions, anywhere else.
Here we're going to Grand Prix for one of the Informal Take Over Times, where a bunch of KennyKon attendees just get in line for the same ride and try to go on it together. We did pretty well with the bumper car ride.
... The bumper cars seem more crowded when you're on the floor. I don't know. The panels in back remain remarkably fairground-style. The second-from-the-right picture seems to be of a Roll-O-Plane, which Kennywood hasn't had since 2003.
A ride I pushed to make sure we didn't miss was the Old Mill, the tunnel-of-love ride, which depending on how you count things exactly has been running since 1901. It's been re-themed several times over its history and spent a couple decades as Garfield's Nightmare For Some Reason, but now it's back to a more traditional and unbranded ride.
But before we get on that --- it's time for photos with Cowboy Joe, a sculpture on a bench that's been there since 1960 posing for photos. (Or, this particular one, since 2009 when the current, nonsmoking, fiberglass model was put in place.)
Trivia: In 1863 Urbain LeVerrier (discoverer of Neptune) began publishing a daily weather map. Source: A History of the United States Weather Bureau, Donald R Whitnah.
Currently Reading: Matariki: The Star of the Year, Rangi Matamua.
