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A diary of a beginner tournament player

Taxiturn

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Joined
Aug 25, 2023
Messages
372
Location
Bristol
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
 
Great read, love the passion 😊

Tournament pinball is the best 😊

Great stuff Simon, keep going, play as much as you can, slow everything down, keep finding those incremental gains. It's the best hobby in the world.

Hopefully we can have a few games together at some point in Bristol.

Cheers, Craig
 
Great read, love the passion 😊

Tournament pinball is the best 😊

Great stuff Simon, keep going, play as much as you can, slow everything down, keep finding those incremental gains. It's the best hobby in the world.

Hopefully we can have a few games together at some point in Bristol.

Cheers, Craig
Thanks Craig, that would be great. Very keen to get down to Playback soon but have been having issues finding a free weekend! Hopefully soon.
 
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
Great write up. We've all been there, starting slowly, getting beaten regularly, but over time noticing results getting better and better. I still struggle to move the machine properly, and I'm completely fascinated watching those players that can do it well. Players such as @mufcmufc @Jackpot are fantastic at ball saves through nudging.
One other thing to mention is time, as @roadshow16 stated. Try and slow things down, trap up and assess your shots. I always used to play on the fly, as soon as the ball came near a flipper, I would send it back up the table. Taking a bit of time and increasing shot accuracy is so important. It's still a work in progress for me, but I've noticed big improvements by slowing things down.
Good luck with everything, your enthusiasm is brilliant, and I'll see you at a tournament soon 👍
 
Great write up. We've all been there, starting slowly, getting beaten regularly, but over time noticing results getting better and better. I still struggle to move the machine properly, and I'm completely fascinated watching those players that can do it well. Players such as @mufcmufc @Jackpot are fantastic at ball saves through nudging.
One other thing to mention is time, as @roadshow16 stated. Try and slow things down, trap up and assess your shots. I always used to play on the fly, as soon as the ball came near a flipper, I would send it back up the table. Taking a bit of time and increasing shot accuracy is so important. It's still a work in progress for me, but I've noticed big improvements by slowing things down.
Good luck with everything, your enthusiasm is brilliant, and I'll see you at a tournament soon 👍
Thanks Andy. I’ve definitely noticed an improvement since I’ve tried to trap up more. I still don’t have the skills to catch everything (and some stuff I don’t even try), and sometimes my discipline breaks down and I just revert to flipping away again if I’ve had a couple of dodgy control attempts on the same ball and lose confidence.

The next issue is then aim 😂 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!

I’m yet to see Craig at a tourny but I did see a lot of Yuen and Nick at Tilt including Yuen putting up a 1.1 billion game on Godzilla which he walked away from after the King Ghidorah battle. It was really impressive. Loads of great players in the SW league too!
 
Great write up Simon and really interesting to read. Like Craig says, really admire your enthusiasm and delighted that you're enjoying the journey so much. All I will say is that you will definitely get better with practice and experience over time. I've seen it a lot with other players, Luke being a prime example.

My biggest tip to a beginner would be to learn the dead bounce. Best way to practice is to not flip at all when playing the game and just see how often it will actually bounce over and slow down. Try some practice games where you deliberately don't flip at all. Over time it will become second nature and you will learn where the ball will confidently bounce over. If it's near the tip of the flipper or near the inner edge, that's when you need a different type of control rather than letting it bounce.

Talking from my own personal experience, the next flipper control I would try to practice is the live catch. Again, the best way to do this is to try practice games where all you try to do is a live catch from the right type of feed. This will normally be when the ball is coming from the same side of the machine to that flipper, ie from a left orbit to the left flipper. Obviously the bounce pass works best where it's coming at a steeper angle from the opposite side of the table.

Rules are very important and as you say, point efficiency is what tends to make the difference between the great players and the average players, knowing what to shoot for, when, and the better strategies. Obviously, it's a huge learning curve with so many machines out there when you're starting out, but Pin Tips is a good place as a starting point for basic strategies and overview of rules..

Another flipper skill to learn is to post pass which is relatively easy to pick up on a modern machine, less so on a classic.

Personally I think the drop catch is one of the harder flipper skills and also riskier if you get it wrong. Again, all I can say is practice, just trying to do this. The drop catch works best when the ball is coming from the opposite side of the table, just like a dead bounce.

Once you've worked out a strategy for the machine, you'll then have a better idea of which flip you want the ball on at a particular time.And then this can influence your decision as to whether to post pass or drop catch or dead bounce when the ball is coming towards the flipper.

As you say, flipper control is key and slowing the game down to try to reduce the randomness of the ball. Abe Flips on YouTube is a great source of videos for flipper control techniques.

Ultimately, practice and experience will definitely make you a much better player. You have one of the most important key ingredients already - Enthusiasm!

Good luck in your journey and keep the diary updated.

I'm more than happy to talk through and show you some of these skills.If you can make Special When Lit on a Friday night.
 
Thanks Andy. I’ve definitely noticed an improvement since I’ve tried to trap up more. I still don’t have the skills to catch everything (and some stuff I don’t even try), and sometimes my discipline breaks down and I just revert to flipping away again if I’ve had a couple of dodgy control attempts on the same ball and lose confidence.

The next issue is then aim 😂 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!

I’m yet to see Craig at a tourny but I did see a lot of Yuen and Nick at Tilt including Yuen putting up a 1.1 billion game on Godzilla which he walked away from after the King Ghidorah battle. It was really impressive. Loads of great players in the SW league too!
I'll be at Neil's in a couple of weekends time, he's got a waitlist going, so if you haven't already signed up, might be worth sticking your name down as he said he could potentially open it up to more players. Other than that it will be Pinfest and UK Open for me, which I'm super excited about 😊

 
I myself have only been playing in comps for 2 years, when I started I was terrible, and my initial thought was, I’m out of my depth here, these players are far too good. But I kept at it, mainly for the social aspect. I’ve definitely improved over that time, although still not great.
Like you say, the losses do hit hard, I came bottom in a comp last year, which took the wind out my sails. I was genuinely considering not playing competitively anymore.
But after some deliberation, it dawned me, that I play a lot worse in comps, when I do not know the machines.
Game knowledge is as important as flipper skills, knowing what to shoot, and when.
Controlling the ball is fine, but if you don’t know what you’re supposed to be shooting for, it’s an uphill struggle.
Therefore I realised I had to start doing my homework.
Watching tutorial videos on YouTube, gameplay streams on twitch, they are great help.
Also playing on a vpin, although not great for improving flipper skills, as the physics are not the same, but for learning game rules, I think they are invaluable.
 
Great write up Simon and really interesting to read. Like Craig says, really admire your enthusiasm and delighted that you're enjoying the journey so much. All I will say is that you will definitely get better with practice and experience over time. I've seen it a lot with other players, Luke being a prime example.

My biggest tip to a beginner would be to learn the dead bounce. Best way to practice is to not flip at all when playing the game and just see how often it will actually bounce over and slow down. Try some practice games where you deliberately don't flip at all. Over time it will become second nature and you will learn where the ball will confidently bounce over. If it's near the tip of the flipper or near the inner edge, that's when you need a different type of control rather than letting it bounce.

Talking from my own personal experience, the next flipper control I would try to practice is the live catch. Again, the best way to do this is to try practice games where all you try to do is a live catch from the right type of feed. This will normally be when the ball is coming from the same side of the machine to that flipper, ie from a left orbit to the left flipper. Obviously the bounce pass works best where it's coming at a steeper angle from the opposite side of the table.

Rules are very important and as you say, point efficiency is what tends to make the difference between the great players and the average players, knowing what to shoot for, when, and the better strategies. Obviously, it's a huge learning curve with so many machines out there when you're starting out, but Pin Tips is a good place as a starting point for basic strategies and overview of rules..

Another flipper skill to learn is to post pass which is relatively easy to pick up on a modern machine, less so on a classic.

Personally I think the drop catch is one of the harder flipper skills and also riskier if you get it wrong. Again, all I can say is practice, just trying to do this. The drop catch works best when the ball is coming from the opposite side of the table, just like a dead bounce.

Once you've worked out a strategy for the machine, you'll then have a better idea of which flip you want the ball on at a particular time.And then this can influence your decision as to whether to post pass or drop catch or dead bounce when the ball is coming towards the flipper.

As you say, flipper control is key and slowing the game down to try to reduce the randomness of the ball. Abe Flips on YouTube is a great source of videos for flipper control techniques.

Ultimately, practice and experience will definitely make you a much better player. You have one of the most important key ingredients already - Enthusiasm!

Good luck in your journey and keep the diary updated.

I'm more than happy to talk through and show you some of these skills.If you can make Special When Lit on a Friday night.
Thank you Greg, I always enjoy watching you play and our games together. Some excellent tips there and I will definitely take you up on that whenever we’re next at SWL together. Again, I often find myself wishing it were a bit closer so I could make the trip more often!
 
I'll be at Neil's in a couple of weekends time, he's got a waitlist going, so if you haven't already signed up, might be worth sticking your name down as he said he could potentially open it up to more players. Other than that it will be Pinfest and UK Open for me, which I'm super excited about 😊

Thanks Craig, unfortunately not free that day but otherwise I will keep an eye out for his tournaments on Matchplay. I haven’t met the enigmatic deleted member yet but have seen some of his podcasts and commentary on streams.
 
Good stuff Simon. I stopped reading after the first half (I'll come back to it). Exactly the kind of personal evaluation I like to see.

Great reflection and insight - love that you are tailoring goals/expectations to yourself and enjoying the process!
 
Good stuff Simon. I stopped reading after the first half (I'll come back to it). Exactly the kind of personal evaluation I like to see.

Great reflection and insight - love that you are tailoring goals/expectations to yourself and enjoying the process!
Thanks Gene, I think tailoring goals is an absolute must for improvement. Just having a single goal of “win tournaments” isn’t helpful or realistic at this point for me, indeed it would be actively unhelpful because repeated failure is demoralising. It’s a big mindset shift when I’m otherwise a very competitive person!
 
As others have said, a great write up Simon.

Many thanks for the kind words about Special When Lit, they're much appreciated and apologies for being in buzzsaw mode on I500 and JP2 on Sunday, I hope you didn't find it too off putting! :cool:

Yes, £1 a game is a killer for many aspiring pinball players, hence the just paying an entrance fee for Special When Lit.

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.

Although it might not seem like it, you are actually progressing up the rankings a lot quicker than you realise. The UK #242 out of 639 active players and World #15,608 out of 50319 active players is great going for a totally new player with only 6 months of ranking play and something to be proud of, so keep chipping away at it. @Griffin started exactly as you did in 2023 and now has a UK rank of 61st with a world rank of 3428, so that can give you an idea of where you might be this time next year, obviously you will still need to put the effort in and keep attending events!

I've always stated that it takes 3 years to get up to speed playing competitive pinball from new, learning the games, the venues and the people that you're playing, so you've a fair way to go and it'll be interesting to see how far you climb in the rankings. :D
 
As others have said, a great write up Simon.

Many thanks for the kind words about Special When Lit, they're much appreciated and apologies for being in buzzsaw mode on I500 and JP2 on Sunday, I hope you didn't find it too off putting! :cool:

Yes, £1 a game is a killer for many aspiring pinball players, hence the just paying an entrance fee for Special When Lit.



Although it might not seem like it, you are actually progressing up the rankings a lot quicker than you realise. The UK #242 out of 639 active players and World #15,608 out of 50319 active players is great going for a totally new player with only 6 months of ranking play and something to be proud of, so keep chipping away at it. @Griffin started exactly as you did in 2023 and now has a UK rank of 61st with a world rank of 3428, so that can give you an idea of where you might be this time next year, obviously you will still need to put the effort in and keep attending events!

I've always stated that it takes 3 years to get up to speed playing competitive pinball from new, learning the games, the venues and the people that you're playing, so you've a fair way to go and it'll be interesting to see how far you climb in the rankings. :D
Thank you Peter, SWL has been a really excellent place to learn the ropes with a very welcoming community around it. I hope to be back on more Fridays going forward.

I think at my current WPPR run rate I’ll be around #200 or so once I’ve filled my 15 ranking event “card”, but if I can make it to PinFest and the UK Open and have a decent showing then I might end up a little bit higher up!

Looking forward to learning more and attending more tournaments with you at SWL and elsewhere.

Many thanks,

Simon
 
Not a tournament update per se, but went to SWL for a Friday session for the first time this year to get in 4 hours of quality practise on some great machines.

Focus for tonight was gripping the machine. Like, actually holding onto it. From a bit of practise on my EM at home I’d realised that I was either leaning on the machine, so my wrists were pinned by my own weight, or I was doing the complete opposite and just lightly resting my hands on it. Both ways I just had my middle fingers over the buttons.

Either way, it’s not much good for nudging, because you need to do a preparatory move or two to shift weight and then grab / slap the machine. It’s all too slow. So I focused on putting my thumb on the glass and gripping against the side rail a bit, then putting index and middle fingers on the buttons.

The change was extremely effective. I logged ten new high scores on Pindigo, was nudging LOADS more, and felt much more in control. Only downside was that having two fingers on the buttons meant I was accidentally stage flipping at times, which led to a couple of drains off surprise upper flipper bumps. Something to refine!

Whilst still modest to most, score highlights were doubling my PB on STTNG to 460m, breaking 100m on the brutal TZ for the first time, and then my final game of the night was a single game on JP2 (which I hadn’t played at all that evening) where I put up a new PB of 192m. I got CHAOS multiball for the first time and a decent System Boot mode, but definitely didn’t maximise my scores on either and didn’t get raptor tri-ball. Still, added around 80m to my previous best.

Looking forward to the upcoming outings. Current list of tournaments I’m planning to attend subject to getting spaces, general life etc.:

SW league meet #5 23 June
SW league meet #6 7 July
PinFest (Friday only) 16 Aug
UK Open (TBC!) 27-29 Sep
Tilt Super Series #4 27 Oct

Hoping to fit a couple more into the schedule as they crop up, which will take me to around 15 ranked events in my first year.
 
I've just seen this post - love these tips for new players!

We get a lot of new people coming to The Pinball Office who join in for a couple of league sessions, come last and then (I assume) feel disheartened and stop coming. It's definitely harder than it looks to play, and I think all players have been there at some point. I remember being quite upset at my first ever tournament because I was at the bottom of the table - for someone who is quite competitive, it was an awful feeling and I was also nearly put off going to any others. Fortunately, I decided to stick with it (the first time doing anything never goes well) and I've slowly seen myself improve over time. In the last 3 years or so I have realised that we all have that learning curve, and that even good players sometimes have a bad day and don't do as well (I got a wooden spoon at one of my own events!). It's helped me a lot with learning patience, forcing myself to practice and sticking at things!, and mental resilience...

It's definitely the social aspect that has kept me coming back - everyone is so friendly and welcoming.

Best of luck with your pinball journey and hopefully we'll meet at Pinfest :)
 
I've just seen this post - love these tips for new players!

We get a lot of new people coming to The Pinball Office who join in for a couple of league sessions, come last and then (I assume) feel disheartened and stop coming. It's definitely harder than it looks to play, and I think all players have been there at some point. I remember being quite upset at my first ever tournament because I was at the bottom of the table - for someone who is quite competitive, it was an awful feeling and I was also nearly put off going to any others. Fortunately, I decided to stick with it (the first time doing anything never goes well) and I've slowly seen myself improve over time. In the last 3 years or so I have realised that we all have that learning curve, and that even good players sometimes have a bad day and don't do as well (I got a wooden spoon at one of my own events!). It's helped me a lot with learning patience, forcing myself to practice and sticking at things!, and mental resilience...

It's definitely the social aspect that has kept me coming back - everyone is so friendly and welcoming.

Best of luck with your pinball journey and hopefully we'll meet at Pinfest :)
Thanks Claire - I think the learning curve is steep whilst building up game knowledge and you certainly need to have the right personality type to keep plugging away at it rather than quit after a couple of tries. And I’m sure some people give it a go and realise it isn’t for them! It’s one thing to enjoy a couple of games and quite another to enjoy 7 hours+ with competitive pressure added into the mix.

I have just seen the August weekender event you’ve posted and will see if I can try to swing it as a warm up for PinFest and another new location for me 👀
 
I think the learning curve is steep whilst building up game knowledge and you certainly need to have the right personality type to keep plugging away at it rather than quit after a couple of tries. And I’m sure some people give it a go and realise it isn’t for them! It’s one thing to enjoy a couple of games and quite another to enjoy 7 hours+ with competitive pressure added into the mix.
Absolutely agree!

Most tournaments are a full 7+ hour day which is really intense - a few friends have said they like pinball but they don't LIKE pinball, so it's too much for them. I like your comment about instead thinking about your own PB and trying to beat that, although it's hard to remember that in the moment!

Hope you can make it to The Pinball Office in August :)
 
A few good scores for me over at SWL last night - 1.14bn on STTNG (reached Final Frontier but didn’t have much in the way of crystals etc so not particularly lucrative) and 660m on Doctor Who (entirely video mode, didn’t start multiball at all!). I also forced myself to play Genesis until I broke a million, which I finally managed with 2.3m.

SW tournament #5 next weekend with a tough field of players and more machines which are new to me; if things go to seeding it’s likely to be a last place for me, so anything better than that would be a win.
 
A few good scores for me over at SWL last night - 1.14bn on STTNG (reached Final Frontier but didn’t have much in the way of crystals etc so not particularly lucrative) and 660m on Doctor Who (entirely video mode, didn’t start multiball at all!). I also forced myself to play Genesis until I broke a million, which I finally managed with 2.3m.

SW tournament #5 next weekend with a tough field of players and more machines which are new to me; if things go to seeding it’s likely to be a last place for me, so anything better than that would be a win.
There are some decent scores there, and you may surprise yourself in the next tourney, you're definitely going in the right direction.
SWL hosts some great tournaments, with a varied mix of games, so participating in comps there will bring your play on in leaps and bounds. You'll also be up against some excellent players which may help lift your game. Get some tips by watching and asking other players, and do a bit of research into the games in the comp, it can be a huge help. Finding out how to lock balls for multiball, how to stack modes, learning video modes, can all make a big difference. Good luck 👍
 
There are some decent scores there, and you may surprise yourself in the next tourney, you're definitely going in the right direction.
SWL hosts some great tournaments, with a varied mix of games, so participating in comps there will bring your play on in leaps and bounds. You'll also be up against some excellent players which may help lift your game. Get some tips by watching and asking other players, and do a bit of research into the games in the comp, it can be a huge help. Finding out how to lock balls for multiball, how to stack modes, learning video modes, can all make a big difference. Good luck 👍
Thanks Andy, I am definitely getting better but consistency is the issue. For every one game I score well I might have five where I get nothing, and my tourny results are predicated on whether my good games line up against beatable scores or not. All just part of the development!

I am doing my homework on the new machines but I find it doesn’t all click until I can actually have a go and try to find the different shots. It’s also just so much to try to memorise. It’ll come to me with more experience.
 
Managed =8th / 12 at today’s league meet. First top 10 finish! Just ignore the number of participants, ha.

Highlight of the comp for me was (relatively speaking) blowing up Spiderman with 215m and getting into the Battle Royale mini wizard, which was unfortunate for my opponent because it was three times my previous best score on this game and it took forever! In between rounds I also pulled together a nice 1.5m on an original Fathom, and became better acquainted with two pretty brutal machines in the Walking Dead and Dialed In, having not played either of them before today.

Jammy moment of the day was a game against @robotgreg on Foo where I was chasing down an achievable 45m due to Greg suffering a couple of unlucky drains. I myself obviously choked given the winnable scenario and drained on what would have been 28m in the middle of New Orleans, but I had buttons stored up and the mash of desperation as the ball trickled away completed the mode and gave me an additional 42m for the win. I felt pretty terrible about that one!

It definitely feels like things are continuing to come together more for me, of course I still lose more than I win but I am playing against some very strong opponents. I would say I only had about four genuinely “bad” games today of the 19 I played in the comp, the rest of my losses were reasonable scores for my level but just outdone by my opponents.

Also greatly appreciated a bit of coaching from Martyn on the Walking Dead and from Josh on Jaws strategy, both extremely helpful! And of course thanks to all for all the other small tips and tricks I picked up during conversations with others throughout the day.
 
Managed =8th / 12 at today’s league meet. First top 10 finish! Just ignore the number of participants, ha.

Highlight of the comp for me was (relatively speaking) blowing up Spiderman with 215m and getting into the Battle Royale mini wizard, which was unfortunate for my opponent because it was three times my previous best score on this game and it took forever! In between rounds I also pulled together a nice 1.5m on an original Fathom, and became better acquainted with two pretty brutal machines in the Walking Dead and Dialed In, having not played either of them before today.

Jammy moment of the day was a game against @robotgreg on Foo where I was chasing down an achievable 45m due to Greg suffering a couple of unlucky drains. I myself obviously choked given the winnable scenario and drained on what would have been 28m in the middle of New Orleans, but I had buttons stored up and the mash of desperation as the ball trickled away completed the mode and gave me an additional 42m for the win. I felt pretty terrible about that one!

It definitely feels like things are continuing to come together more for me, of course I still lose more than I win but I am playing against some very strong opponents. I would say I only had about four genuinely “bad” games today of the 19 I played in the comp, the rest of my losses were reasonable scores for my level but just outdone by my opponents.

Also greatly appreciated a bit of coaching from Martyn on the Walking Dead and from Josh on Jaws strategy, both extremely helpful! And of course thanks to all for all the other small tips and tricks I picked up during conversations with others throughout the day.

Nice one. Coming Tilt SS#3 on 21st July Boss man?
 
Nice one. Coming Tilt SS#3 on 21st July Boss man?
Sadly not, I would have loved to but I’m on holiday. I am planning to come to SS#4 in October, provided life doesn’t otherwise require my presence elsewhere!
 
Quick lunch break update before I forget everything; last time out was my best result to date, finishing 5th/13 in the final South West league meet of the season. The format was group matchplay.

The meet was at Luke’s house and I think the machine mix, with the most modern machine being Spider-Man, probably worked in my favour. I had a few pretty good games - early on I took a win with a 98m game on T2 including a super jackpot, and later I had a walk-off on Spider-Man with 100m on the board at that point and a pretty good shot at reaching Battle Royale had I carried on.

After round 6 I was briefly sat in a tie for 2nd place and had a shot at making my first final, but a combination of bad luck of the draw on both machines and groupings in the final two rounds and also some fatigue and poor play under pressure led to me falling away.

Still, very happy with the outcome and the performance; now a short break for a holiday before a run of tournaments. August will feature the Special When Lit pingolf and skills day, Pinball Office pre-PinFest tournament(s), and then Friday at PinFest on successive weekends. I may shortly find out how much pinball is too much pinball!
 
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