Armed with a corrected idea of what to do for the jackpot on Creature From The Black Lagoon, ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger went in early Saturday to ... well, she played three games and on one of them had a reasonable breakthrough, almost doubling her score. I don't believe the jackpot ever came into play. She also tried playing Centaur, on which she already had a commanding score but that she, first, felt good about, and that she could still considerably improve her standings with a game only a little better than she had been playing. She never had that better game. But, after the Creature breakthrough landed her safely in 15th place she went to play Creature for the strategic value of keeping other people from doing anything that might beat her score on it. This may seem underhanded, but it's a generally accepted strategy in this sort of best-game-qualifies tournament. Time management is part of the tournament strategy.
It was not the qualifying she had wanted, coming in tied for the last position. But it's still being in, and that's the most important thing. That, and me going off to do other things so I wasn't watching to jinx her. As a result my reporting is going to be a little sketchy, based on what I happened to see walking past the screen showing Ypsi Pinball's livestreaming and bunnyhugger's after-action reports.
bunnyhugger's first round put her in a group with KEG, an old Lansing person who's moved out of state, and also with BRE --- top qualifier --- and LED, a player from the southeast Michigan scene. Being bottom-ranked meant bunnyhugger did not pick any of the games, but there were only six games in the tournament bank, and several of them she'd gotten to be rather good friends with.
For example: Centaur, on which she put up a respectable game, against KEG's killer game. BRE and LED I don't know what they did, but not as good as bunnyhugger. Which was great because in this sort of playoff format --- three games, points awarded each game, top two players move on --- coming in second reliably will get you to finals. There are cases where you'll have to play a tiebreaker, but, second is psychologically easier to shoot for and, here, just as good as a win.
Oh, did I mention that Ypsi Pinball was streaming this? They had four groups to pick from and I imagine they kept the cameras with the one top seed BRE was in. So bunnyhugger got to do all this in front of an audience at home, and people commenting in ways, she would tell me, she didn't think very insightful.
I mention this, though, because on the next game, Venom, bunnyhugger did not have a good game. She had a killer game, putting up two hundred million points --- which would have been a top-twenty game for the whole weekend --- on the first ball. The sort of ball that freezes out your opponents, leaving them stunned and, generally, demoralized. She would finish the game at about 300 million, or what would have been a top-five finish for the weekend; it's a score that two hours earlier would have bumped her up to 12th place in the standings. LED would put up the next-best game, something that would have probably won any other group or any other playing. But for that moment, and in front of the cameras, bunnyhugger was the power player.
At this point, two games in out of three, bunnyhugger was all but assured of moving on. To be guaranteed a spot in the semifinals she had to just not finish last on Creature From The Black Lagoon. And, better, she realized this, taking a good bit of pressure off her performance.
Nobody had a killer game of Creature, but, at the end of the last ball the first player, BRE, had something like 47 million points. bunnyhugger, player two, walked up with about 40 million points. LED and KEG had far fewer points but they had time to make it up and, as mentioned, bunnyhugger just had to not finish last. If she could get seven million points she was safe.
When you launch the ball on Creature you have a choice of skill shots, a soft plunge to drop into a game-chosen lane above the pop bumpers, or a hard plunge that, if you time it right, will give you credit for finishing the K-I-S-S targets. She had finished that sequence once, for a multiball that didn't get much of anywhere. But the second finish --- ah, that'll be good for five million points. She hard plunged and got it exactly right, baffling the Ypsi Pinball commenters who apparently didn't know that's what she was trying to do or why she wanted to do that. With a little bit of shooting the targets on hand she got the extra million or two she needed, and then was in danger of losing the ball. She started nudging, pushing the game around, and ---
She tilted. End of ball, loss of bonus.
She threw her hands up making the Nixon-esque double-victory sign as she turned around and walked away, although from the camera angle streamers might think she gave double middle fingers. Why the victory? Because, first, she knew she had beaten someone and so would move on to the next round. Apparently the Ypsi Pinball commenters didn't realize all she needed was third place. (With a third place finish, she could tie with someone else for the privilege of moving on, but since tying still moves you on, she didn't care.) And, by tilting, bunnyhugger proved --- to herself at least --- that she was not a passive player. She was playing seriously, taking substantial chances.
And, it turned out, neither LED or KEG beat bunnyhugger's score, nor BRE's. bunnyhugger got first place for a second game of three, handily winning her group in quarterfinals. And KEG took second place, so top-seed BRE was knocked out.
She was on to Semifinals, and whatever else happened, she'd be a top-eight player.
And on that cliffhanger, let's get back to the Ionia Free Fair.
And here's the Floral Building interior. You see how illustrations and photographs are threatening to overrun the fair.
They had a special section for the Christmas theme and bunnyhugger got a ribbon of me looking sad near the State Tree.
Don't know who got the blue ribbon for this shattered-glass mirror figure. I like how it has the vibe of a stained-glass window.
Awwww! Animal life! There's a lot of pictures of baby raccoons in county fair submissions.
bunnyhugger got a blue ribbon for a nice black-and-white photograph of a 90-year-old Lansing business here.
And then another blue ribbon for this black-and-white photograph of a house in the neighborhood that looks wintery even in the middle of summer.
Trivia: The American Association's Philadelphia Athletics (unrelated to the team of modern baseball) in its last season was so destitute that on returning from a road trip --- during which team members threatened to strike for unpaid wages, and were fired --- to find the sheriff had sold the seats and stands of their Jefferson Street Grounds, raising $600 of claims for rent and a $1,435 bill for lumber. The team managed to complete its schedule, but lost every subsequent game, ending the season with a 22-game losing streak. Source: The Beer and Whiskey League: The Illustrated History of the American Association --- Baseball's Renegade Major League, David Nemec. They filled the team out with, essentially, day laborers, paid per game. The Jefferson Street Grounds had been the location of the first National League game, in 1876.
Currently Reading: Force: What It Means to Push and Pull, Slip and Grip, Start and Stop, Henry Petroski.
