I’ve gained lots of valuable insight from this forum, so thought I’d give a little bit back in the form of a write up of my first few months of competitive play, which might be of some use to those starting out or even people who are unsure about trying a tournament and maybe just need a nudge! It’s long, so if you don’t care then maybe sit this out!
For those who don’t know me - I’m Simon, based in Bristol and you may have met/seen me at the later mentioned tournaments or otherwise on this forum or on the Pinball Map (which I update avidly). I’ve only been in the hobby for about a year and my first tournament was in early Feb.
I signed up for the South West league, as I thought seeing a similar group of people a few times over the course of a few tournaments would help with getting acclimated. It is nice when people remember you from meet to meet and you start to learn about them as people and as pinball players. So that’s tip 1 - try a league!
Tip 2 for a new player is to expect to lose, a lot. If you aren’t somebody who can take losing well, then honestly you need to learn to do so or this is going to be a rough ride for you unless you happen to be a secret pinball prodigy. Having objectives other than winning is definitely helpful in this regard. I log most of my high scores (when it remember to record them) on the Pindigo app, which I recommend. So, even when my opponent puts up an untouchable score on a machine, I’ve at least got my own tangible high score to aim towards. Pindigo is really easy to use, you just take a picture of your final score and each upload only takes a few seconds. When playing a DMD machine, take a video instead and then screenshot when your score is visible, otherwise the refresh rate makes it really hard. Anyway! Tournaments.
My first tournament was SW meet 1 at the amazing Special When Lit. This was a 4 player matchplay tournament i.e. 7/5/3/1 scoring, with each group playing 2 rounds on a modern and a classic machine before rotating. My aims for this tournament were to avoid a big mistake like playing out of turn, learning, and trying to avoid 4th place as much as I could. I did achieve these; I ended up with a much better finish than expected, putting up 60 points from 18 rounds (i.e. averaging around 3rd) and finishing 17th/25. I got three 1st places on MM, Mando and Viking (the latter two being quite fluky). I also got five 4th places to balance it out.
So tournament 1 is in the bag, I had great fun, and now I have a world ranking? Well, now we’re talking. My 17th place was good for 0.39 ranking points (WPPRs). New progress measure unlocked. We go on.
SW tournament 2 was in a brand new venue with a whole host of brand new machines; Greg’s house in Dorset. Amazing place! Most of these games were completely new to me and the results showed that. This time I managed 30 points from 12 rounds, so averaging a bit below third and ended 17th/20. No wins. This tournament is where I first realised that I was not moving the machine anywhere near enough, in fact I barely touched anything other than the flipper buttons. I think this element of the game might be the steepest learning curve of all.
Tournament 3, back to SWL for the Easter 4 player madness event. 18 rounds led to 62 points, so a marginal improvement on SW1, and I finished 23rd/30. Main goal for today was to move the machine, and I did manage to make a couple of half decent slap saves. I also managed to get three wins on RFM, Cactus Canyon (winning with a 4 million ball 3 bonus) and everybody’s favourite classic, Bobby Orr’s Power Play. The classics definitely feel like a bit of a leveller. I could play stronger players on Jurassic Park all day and I might fluke a win 5/100 times or even less. But the randomness of classics really does help upset the apple cart sometimes.
SW3 was next and we’re back at SWL again. New format this time though; my first taste of head-to-head matchplay. I was not looking forward to this because as one of the lower ranked players, H2H can expose your skill level in a pretty binary manner. I did indeed have a fairly tough day and finished on 8/24 for 13th/15. I would have taken this going in as I was a bit worried I would lose every round. Highlights of the day were going 2/2 on MM (dunno why I generally do comparatively well on this machine) and Nitro Ground Shaker (again, the classics leveller). My fluke of the day was winning with a score of less than 5 million on Monster Bash. Sometimes the chips just fall nicely for you.
Next up was my biggest tournament to date and another brand new venue and a pile of brand new machines to me, at Tilt for Super Series #2. What a fantastic venue, Birmingham is very lucky and I wish it were closer to me. Anyway - after a rough start I think I managed some of my best play to date. We were back to 4 player matchplay and I scored 40 points from 12 rounds against a strong field, so averaged better than 3rd. This was good for 23rd/34. I only managed one win (with a huge Frankenstein multiball on Monster Bash, for around 50m), but crucially I also only got two 4th places. Coming second or third really helped bump me up. I also noticed that I was starting to nudge more on instinct; long way to go but it’s moving in the right direction. I even got a couple of dangers! (My God!)
On the same day I also took part in a Jaws high score comp. Only one attempt allowed which I unfortunately didn’t make the best of, only putting up 34 million for 24th place. Annoyingly, I later put up 90 million in tournament play and around 120 million in practise. Still, I’ll take the 0.07 WPPRs for playing one 3 minute game.
Most recently, back to Greg’s for SW4 and this time it’s H2H. I scored 7/20 which was good for 11th/14. I went 2/2 on Jaws (I must say that I do love that machine) and managed wins over really excellent players like eventual champion Josh Iles (with a PB of 71m on Monster Bash) and Rich Mallett (on Dirty Harry). My best game was 350m on Bond, which is definitely growing on me. I also walked into a couple of buzzsaws; Pete Blakemore put up a 1.1 billion ball 1 on Indy 500, before I even touched the machine. Greg similarly posted a 500m+ ball 1 on Foo Fighters and Pete then came back for the double tap and put up 400m on Jurassic Park, quadrupling my effort of 100m (which is pretty good for me on that machine!) You just have to shrug and admire the great play sometimes!
So what have I learned?
- Progress is slow. When I started out I thought I might have an epiphany of sorts, and figure out some secret to being a much better player than I am. This is not coming. I will make progress by getting incrementally better and it is going to be arduous.
- Learning how to move the machine is so important. Doing this right is definitely the steepest learning curve, and I am still in the middle of it. Sometimes I feel like I am getting worse to get better, while I try (and often, fail) these moves.
- Playing with control. In my first three tournaments I barely trapped up, I was flipping entirely on instinct and flying by the seat of my pants. Similarly to moving the machine, in trying to improve I have failed a lot of drop catches and misread many dead bounces leading to many fumbles down the middle, but I’m definitely improving. I think gaining more control is the biggest factor in not coming last.
- Rules knowledge is pretty important. On some machines COUGH AIQ COUGH I feel like I can flip it round for three or four minutes and score almost nothing. The concept of “points per minute” is useful to bear in mind; get in, score efficiently, and put up a salvageable total before the inevitable drain comes. And don’t be afraid to ask - when appropriate I often try to ask good players about their broad approach to certain machines I don’t know, and most are happy to share.
- At my level, ranking points are basically meaningless but it is fun (for me) to monitor my rank. For all of my efforts above I have accrued a huge 2.35 WPPRs, which at the time of writing is good for UK #242 and world #15,608. This at least sounds impressive to people who don’t know any better, ha.
- Playing so many different machines has taught me more about what I like and dislike in pins. I love Jaws and Godzilla. I like Foo even though I’m not good at it. I hate AIQ. I really, really hate X-Men and even moreso, the 20 seconds of misery that is a ball on Gottlieb’s Rocky.
And what next?
- Two more meets left in the SW league in two new venues, so more new machines to try and to learn about.
- I definitely need more practise time, but playing on location at £1 a credit is brutal when you’re trying to work on post passing haha. I do have a couple of EM machines at home, but feel that with 2” flippers there isn’t a vast amount of transferability when it comes to flipper skills in modern machines. You can nudge them around but with wide open outlanes it’s a bit of a different beast. Also, no tilt warnings, and tilt = game over!
- I am hoping to be able to participate in the bigger tournaments at PinFest (if I can make the Friday work, TBC) and maybe even the UK Open if I feel brave and get a place. Card-based tournaments will be another new adventure and I’m sure the results will be brutal, but I’m interested to try it out.
- Just trying to get a bit better at something, every time!
I may come back and update this from time to time, but otherwise I hope this is helpful for somebody or at very least, a somewhat interesting insight into tournaments from somebody down in the bottom half. More than happy to answer any questions.
Thanks,
Simon
For those who don’t know me - I’m Simon, based in Bristol and you may have met/seen me at the later mentioned tournaments or otherwise on this forum or on the Pinball Map (which I update avidly). I’ve only been in the hobby for about a year and my first tournament was in early Feb.
I signed up for the South West league, as I thought seeing a similar group of people a few times over the course of a few tournaments would help with getting acclimated. It is nice when people remember you from meet to meet and you start to learn about them as people and as pinball players. So that’s tip 1 - try a league!
Tip 2 for a new player is to expect to lose, a lot. If you aren’t somebody who can take losing well, then honestly you need to learn to do so or this is going to be a rough ride for you unless you happen to be a secret pinball prodigy. Having objectives other than winning is definitely helpful in this regard. I log most of my high scores (when it remember to record them) on the Pindigo app, which I recommend. So, even when my opponent puts up an untouchable score on a machine, I’ve at least got my own tangible high score to aim towards. Pindigo is really easy to use, you just take a picture of your final score and each upload only takes a few seconds. When playing a DMD machine, take a video instead and then screenshot when your score is visible, otherwise the refresh rate makes it really hard. Anyway! Tournaments.
My first tournament was SW meet 1 at the amazing Special When Lit. This was a 4 player matchplay tournament i.e. 7/5/3/1 scoring, with each group playing 2 rounds on a modern and a classic machine before rotating. My aims for this tournament were to avoid a big mistake like playing out of turn, learning, and trying to avoid 4th place as much as I could. I did achieve these; I ended up with a much better finish than expected, putting up 60 points from 18 rounds (i.e. averaging around 3rd) and finishing 17th/25. I got three 1st places on MM, Mando and Viking (the latter two being quite fluky). I also got five 4th places to balance it out.
So tournament 1 is in the bag, I had great fun, and now I have a world ranking? Well, now we’re talking. My 17th place was good for 0.39 ranking points (WPPRs). New progress measure unlocked. We go on.
SW tournament 2 was in a brand new venue with a whole host of brand new machines; Greg’s house in Dorset. Amazing place! Most of these games were completely new to me and the results showed that. This time I managed 30 points from 12 rounds, so averaging a bit below third and ended 17th/20. No wins. This tournament is where I first realised that I was not moving the machine anywhere near enough, in fact I barely touched anything other than the flipper buttons. I think this element of the game might be the steepest learning curve of all.
Tournament 3, back to SWL for the Easter 4 player madness event. 18 rounds led to 62 points, so a marginal improvement on SW1, and I finished 23rd/30. Main goal for today was to move the machine, and I did manage to make a couple of half decent slap saves. I also managed to get three wins on RFM, Cactus Canyon (winning with a 4 million ball 3 bonus) and everybody’s favourite classic, Bobby Orr’s Power Play. The classics definitely feel like a bit of a leveller. I could play stronger players on Jurassic Park all day and I might fluke a win 5/100 times or even less. But the randomness of classics really does help upset the apple cart sometimes.
SW3 was next and we’re back at SWL again. New format this time though; my first taste of head-to-head matchplay. I was not looking forward to this because as one of the lower ranked players, H2H can expose your skill level in a pretty binary manner. I did indeed have a fairly tough day and finished on 8/24 for 13th/15. I would have taken this going in as I was a bit worried I would lose every round. Highlights of the day were going 2/2 on MM (dunno why I generally do comparatively well on this machine) and Nitro Ground Shaker (again, the classics leveller). My fluke of the day was winning with a score of less than 5 million on Monster Bash. Sometimes the chips just fall nicely for you.
Next up was my biggest tournament to date and another brand new venue and a pile of brand new machines to me, at Tilt for Super Series #2. What a fantastic venue, Birmingham is very lucky and I wish it were closer to me. Anyway - after a rough start I think I managed some of my best play to date. We were back to 4 player matchplay and I scored 40 points from 12 rounds against a strong field, so averaged better than 3rd. This was good for 23rd/34. I only managed one win (with a huge Frankenstein multiball on Monster Bash, for around 50m), but crucially I also only got two 4th places. Coming second or third really helped bump me up. I also noticed that I was starting to nudge more on instinct; long way to go but it’s moving in the right direction. I even got a couple of dangers! (My God!)
On the same day I also took part in a Jaws high score comp. Only one attempt allowed which I unfortunately didn’t make the best of, only putting up 34 million for 24th place. Annoyingly, I later put up 90 million in tournament play and around 120 million in practise. Still, I’ll take the 0.07 WPPRs for playing one 3 minute game.
Most recently, back to Greg’s for SW4 and this time it’s H2H. I scored 7/20 which was good for 11th/14. I went 2/2 on Jaws (I must say that I do love that machine) and managed wins over really excellent players like eventual champion Josh Iles (with a PB of 71m on Monster Bash) and Rich Mallett (on Dirty Harry). My best game was 350m on Bond, which is definitely growing on me. I also walked into a couple of buzzsaws; Pete Blakemore put up a 1.1 billion ball 1 on Indy 500, before I even touched the machine. Greg similarly posted a 500m+ ball 1 on Foo Fighters and Pete then came back for the double tap and put up 400m on Jurassic Park, quadrupling my effort of 100m (which is pretty good for me on that machine!) You just have to shrug and admire the great play sometimes!
So what have I learned?
- Progress is slow. When I started out I thought I might have an epiphany of sorts, and figure out some secret to being a much better player than I am. This is not coming. I will make progress by getting incrementally better and it is going to be arduous.
- Learning how to move the machine is so important. Doing this right is definitely the steepest learning curve, and I am still in the middle of it. Sometimes I feel like I am getting worse to get better, while I try (and often, fail) these moves.
- Playing with control. In my first three tournaments I barely trapped up, I was flipping entirely on instinct and flying by the seat of my pants. Similarly to moving the machine, in trying to improve I have failed a lot of drop catches and misread many dead bounces leading to many fumbles down the middle, but I’m definitely improving. I think gaining more control is the biggest factor in not coming last.
- Rules knowledge is pretty important. On some machines COUGH AIQ COUGH I feel like I can flip it round for three or four minutes and score almost nothing. The concept of “points per minute” is useful to bear in mind; get in, score efficiently, and put up a salvageable total before the inevitable drain comes. And don’t be afraid to ask - when appropriate I often try to ask good players about their broad approach to certain machines I don’t know, and most are happy to share.
- At my level, ranking points are basically meaningless but it is fun (for me) to monitor my rank. For all of my efforts above I have accrued a huge 2.35 WPPRs, which at the time of writing is good for UK #242 and world #15,608. This at least sounds impressive to people who don’t know any better, ha.
- Playing so many different machines has taught me more about what I like and dislike in pins. I love Jaws and Godzilla. I like Foo even though I’m not good at it. I hate AIQ. I really, really hate X-Men and even moreso, the 20 seconds of misery that is a ball on Gottlieb’s Rocky.
And what next?
- Two more meets left in the SW league in two new venues, so more new machines to try and to learn about.
- I definitely need more practise time, but playing on location at £1 a credit is brutal when you’re trying to work on post passing haha. I do have a couple of EM machines at home, but feel that with 2” flippers there isn’t a vast amount of transferability when it comes to flipper skills in modern machines. You can nudge them around but with wide open outlanes it’s a bit of a different beast. Also, no tilt warnings, and tilt = game over!
- I am hoping to be able to participate in the bigger tournaments at PinFest (if I can make the Friday work, TBC) and maybe even the UK Open if I feel brave and get a place. Card-based tournaments will be another new adventure and I’m sure the results will be brutal, but I’m interested to try it out.
- Just trying to get a bit better at something, every time!
I may come back and update this from time to time, but otherwise I hope this is helpful for somebody or at very least, a somewhat interesting insight into tournaments from somebody down in the bottom half. More than happy to answer any questions.
Thanks,
Simon
some machines I’m mostly fine but others I just can’t find the shots, and a 3 ball tournament game goes pretty quickly if you’re bricking everything! 
