Lickashot
Registered
With Indisc on the horizon I was just interested in who we have representing the UK this year? I also believe Karl, IE PINBALL, will be where to get your stream?
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Indisc 2025 - UK representatives
- Thread starter Lickashot
- Start date
Josh and I are going, starting in Vegas with a Pinball Hall of Fame visit and then onto LA for a couple of pre-tournaments on Tue/Wed before it gets going on Thursday.
Neil and Andy are going too, but I'm not aware of anyone else heading over.
I think it's going to be pretty nuts, there are 118 people on the WAITLIST for the Thursday target matchplay!!
Karl usually streams, will update if there's others when we get there and will try to update progress here if I remember
Neil and Andy are going too, but I'm not aware of anyone else heading over.
I think it's going to be pretty nuts, there are 118 people on the WAITLIST for the Thursday target matchplay!!
Karl usually streams, will update if there's others when we get there and will try to update progress here if I remember
Genotime
Site Supporter
Martyn Iles about to go CRAZY out there. Watch this space
Bankrolled by his dad
INDISC was fun the first time I went when it was hosted at the Banning Pinball Museum and you had 1000 machines on free play but the second time I went there was like 5 free play games.
Queues for comp games were over an hour and unless you did well you had to void void void and considering a card of 5 games if £16.50 you have to have deep pockets. When score keeping I saw one player void like 10 cards in a row!
The best bit about both times i went was the matchplay
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INDISC itself started today (Thursday) so here’s an update on our trip so far.
Josh and I started the trip with a very welcome free upgrade to Business Class on the flight out, so we were already winning on arrival in Las Vegas!
We had a relaxing couple of days in Vegas to adjust to the 8 hour time zone difference.
Went to Pinball Hall of Fame and it was really disappointing as 30-40% of machines are powered off and pretty much all the ones that were on we played had issues so we didn’t stay long and went for a massive steak instead. It really shows how much effort PBR and SWL put in keeping the machines working and playing well
We met up with Neil and played some Cash Poker on Sunday and a Poker Tournament on Monday and in Neil’s own words after the tournament “Josh took all my money, again!”
Josh won $300 on Blackjack on Monday night to add to his $200 poker winnings so has plenty of funds for INDISC cards, though given the queue times I’m not sure he’ll manage to spend it.
The four hour drive to LA was broken up nicely with a burger and a milkshake at Peggy Sue’s 50s Diner just off Route 66
Our first pre-pre competition on Tuesday at Captain’s Arcade Warehouse didn’t start well (Josh drawing Paul Jongma for the first 3 games was tough) but Josh improved, ended up playing a massive game of Rush at the end to finish 10th overall just one win off the cash prizes, I lost way too many games and just about managed to not finish last
The Pre tournament on Wednesday night at Riverside Game Lab was good fun at a great bar venue full of classic arcade games and many rhythm games. So many places like it in the states, it’s a shame there are so few at home.
Josh and I were tied going into the last round (something I was far happier with than Josh) and at one point it looked like I’d finish ahead after taking second place on Toy Story
Josh started B3 on Godzilla with only 9M chasing 192M and 280M, and after getting two early dangers from a slide save, ended up with 506M to win and take 6th place just outside the cash paying places.
Josh was disappointed with that as he didn’t feel he had three good balls on any game and a couple where he didn’t score anything at all and lost, I was pretty happy with my 9th overall, getting mostly first and second places all evening
Thursday morning saw us make a start on the ‘Main Event’ for this trip, and having seen the first two players (both Top 100) score under 10M each on Guardians I managed 419M to take the top score which by some ‘Miracle’ has lasted all day!
I added a couple of reasonable games on Xenon and Johnny and a pretty good Jaws, so here it was, my first card at INDISC with a shot of a good qualifying spot - however I ended the card with a poor score on Elton John which will drop down the table all weekend
I should have played Stars as that was my first game on the next card and I put up the 4th place score!
Josh started the Classics Target Matchplay well, in sixth place on 18 points at the break after round eight. He made it to the 25 point qualifying target in round 11 to qualify joint 2nd, with a Bye into the top 16 and leaving him four hours in the evening to get some games in on the main bank. Neil put in a late surge to end on 21 points and 57th place
Queue times are long to very long with most games having 40 minute waits with Jaws showing a wait time of 80-90 minutes through the evening, so a bad game costs $$$ to void the card but also wastes a huge amount of time as well
Andy has a ticket just holding above the cut in the main in 33rd place with 829 points, my best is 48th on 812 and Josh 53rd on 805 - we all have at least one game that will drop a lot with 231 players putting in tickets and have voided a few after one or two bad games that were clearly not going to qualify
Overall a good first day, we now know how it is all setup, have played the games we wanted and are looking forward to 13 hours (!!) of qualifying tomorrow
Josh and I started the trip with a very welcome free upgrade to Business Class on the flight out, so we were already winning on arrival in Las Vegas!
We had a relaxing couple of days in Vegas to adjust to the 8 hour time zone difference.
Went to Pinball Hall of Fame and it was really disappointing as 30-40% of machines are powered off and pretty much all the ones that were on we played had issues so we didn’t stay long and went for a massive steak instead. It really shows how much effort PBR and SWL put in keeping the machines working and playing well
We met up with Neil and played some Cash Poker on Sunday and a Poker Tournament on Monday and in Neil’s own words after the tournament “Josh took all my money, again!”
Josh won $300 on Blackjack on Monday night to add to his $200 poker winnings so has plenty of funds for INDISC cards, though given the queue times I’m not sure he’ll manage to spend it.
The four hour drive to LA was broken up nicely with a burger and a milkshake at Peggy Sue’s 50s Diner just off Route 66
Our first pre-pre competition on Tuesday at Captain’s Arcade Warehouse didn’t start well (Josh drawing Paul Jongma for the first 3 games was tough) but Josh improved, ended up playing a massive game of Rush at the end to finish 10th overall just one win off the cash prizes, I lost way too many games and just about managed to not finish last
The Pre tournament on Wednesday night at Riverside Game Lab was good fun at a great bar venue full of classic arcade games and many rhythm games. So many places like it in the states, it’s a shame there are so few at home.
Josh and I were tied going into the last round (something I was far happier with than Josh) and at one point it looked like I’d finish ahead after taking second place on Toy Story
Josh started B3 on Godzilla with only 9M chasing 192M and 280M, and after getting two early dangers from a slide save, ended up with 506M to win and take 6th place just outside the cash paying places.
Josh was disappointed with that as he didn’t feel he had three good balls on any game and a couple where he didn’t score anything at all and lost, I was pretty happy with my 9th overall, getting mostly first and second places all evening
Thursday morning saw us make a start on the ‘Main Event’ for this trip, and having seen the first two players (both Top 100) score under 10M each on Guardians I managed 419M to take the top score which by some ‘Miracle’ has lasted all day!
I added a couple of reasonable games on Xenon and Johnny and a pretty good Jaws, so here it was, my first card at INDISC with a shot of a good qualifying spot - however I ended the card with a poor score on Elton John which will drop down the table all weekend
I should have played Stars as that was my first game on the next card and I put up the 4th place score!
Josh started the Classics Target Matchplay well, in sixth place on 18 points at the break after round eight. He made it to the 25 point qualifying target in round 11 to qualify joint 2nd, with a Bye into the top 16 and leaving him four hours in the evening to get some games in on the main bank. Neil put in a late surge to end on 21 points and 57th place
Queue times are long to very long with most games having 40 minute waits with Jaws showing a wait time of 80-90 minutes through the evening, so a bad game costs $$$ to void the card but also wastes a huge amount of time as well
Andy has a ticket just holding above the cut in the main in 33rd place with 829 points, my best is 48th on 812 and Josh 53rd on 805 - we all have at least one game that will drop a lot with 231 players putting in tickets and have voided a few after one or two bad games that were clearly not going to qualify
Overall a good first day, we now know how it is all setup, have played the games we wanted and are looking forward to 13 hours (!!) of qualifying tomorrow
Great writeup
.
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@cyberkryten the bleed is a billion times worse then the UK open
Josh smashed his quarter final, sweeping with a max 12 point round and he will be picking games in the semi final 
Hoping they stream his group, they are just finishing the final game of the quarters, so will be starting soon
Hoping they stream his group, they are just finishing the final game of the quarters, so will be starting soon
Josh is flying!
Got the stream on in the background in the hopes Josh is followed in the next round
Got the stream on in the background in the hopes Josh is followed in the next round
Boo, they are following the other group.
Still, we will get to watch when he steam rolls and gets to pick games in the final
Still, we will get to watch when he steam rolls and gets to pick games in the final
Boo, they are following the other group.
Still, we will get to watch when he steam rolls and gets to pick games in the final
You cursed him
Nope, he won on Flash, he's in a tie break. LETS GO JOSH
Being streamed now, Jack's Open
Great run by Josh! Smashed it!
Lickashot
Registered
Great effort by Josh but he lost the tie break against Rich Mallett, er I mean Ron Hallett
Friday started as Thursday finished, as soon as the queues opened at 10:00 within two seconds the queue time for Jaws was 69 minutes!
I started with two house balls and a one flip B3 to end on 13k, so an early void ticket making it a $20 game of Stars!
That’s the brutal reality of the event (and any ticket based qualifying), one bad game and you’re down to four scoring games on the card which won’t get you anywhere near the cut.
It’s not even really the money, it is the time as even picking the games with the shortest queues it is 20-30min wait for each game, on the moderns it is an hour plus so a ticket takes 2-3 hours minimum and more likely 4-5 hours to get completed.
At least we came out of Vegas with funds to buy a few tickets!
Classics Target Matchplay Finals
Quarter Final
Josh qualified in 3rd and so got a bye to the last 16 and so got to pick games and went for machines he’d played well on Thursday
The Games
Josh had a decent start with 188k in the first two balls and added a great B3 to log the second highest score on the machine all tournament of 991k to win game one
Viking
Josh got nothing in the first two balls so started B3 on 24k trailing 240k
He found the tap pass and hit his shots to get to 355k and take a second win, qualifying for the semi final
Frontier
With the pressure off, Josh put up a big 595k Ball 1 which on its own would be a top 10 game score of the competition
He added on the next two balls to finish with 1.3M, doing Richie a favour by taking the win meaning his second place was assured and also progressed to the semi
Semi Final
As a Steve went out, Josh got picks again, but was not allowed to pick anything he’d chosen earlier
Mystic
Josh didn’t really get hold of the ball at all and had a poor game ending on 77k and finishing third
Medusa
Josh again struggled, and a Tech issue delayed his last ball but he couldn’t find the rhythm he’d had in the previous round ending with 220k in last place
Flash Gordon
Going into the game on one point with the others on 4, 4 and 5 Josh had to win and hope results went his way
His 190k was leading going into the last ball as no one found much in the way of shots
Josh managed to get to a respectable 480k and after a nervous few seconds as the bonus was counting up Richie returned the favour from the previous round by finishing on 470k to take second place giving Josh a playoff with Ron to make it into the final
Playoff
Jacks Open (streamed)
Josh picked again and Ron chose to go first, which turned out to be a great move as he put up 115k for the highest score of the tournament
Josh was unable to catch him only managing 54k and so ended his run in 5th place, so close to making the final
So it was time to get back to the main qualifying
Neil was chatting to Escher in the bar and put a $100 bounty on my #1 Guardians score
which Timber finally managed to beat late Friday afternoon
Qualifying has been tough with all of us struggling to put five good games together, Andy, myself and Neil all failed to improve today so the cards already in have dropped 50 places - now up to 330 players!
Late on Friday Josh finally managed a card that is currently 31st in The Open so hopefully that may hold, but after a good night’s rest we’ll all be back to grind for another 13 hours on Saturday!!!
I started with two house balls and a one flip B3 to end on 13k, so an early void ticket making it a $20 game of Stars!
That’s the brutal reality of the event (and any ticket based qualifying), one bad game and you’re down to four scoring games on the card which won’t get you anywhere near the cut.
It’s not even really the money, it is the time as even picking the games with the shortest queues it is 20-30min wait for each game, on the moderns it is an hour plus so a ticket takes 2-3 hours minimum and more likely 4-5 hours to get completed.
At least we came out of Vegas with funds to buy a few tickets!
Classics Target Matchplay Finals
Quarter Final
Josh qualified in 3rd and so got a bye to the last 16 and so got to pick games and went for machines he’d played well on Thursday
The Games
Josh had a decent start with 188k in the first two balls and added a great B3 to log the second highest score on the machine all tournament of 991k to win game one
Viking
Josh got nothing in the first two balls so started B3 on 24k trailing 240k
He found the tap pass and hit his shots to get to 355k and take a second win, qualifying for the semi final
Frontier
With the pressure off, Josh put up a big 595k Ball 1 which on its own would be a top 10 game score of the competition
He added on the next two balls to finish with 1.3M, doing Richie a favour by taking the win meaning his second place was assured and also progressed to the semi
Semi Final
As a Steve went out, Josh got picks again, but was not allowed to pick anything he’d chosen earlier
Mystic
Josh didn’t really get hold of the ball at all and had a poor game ending on 77k and finishing third
Medusa
Josh again struggled, and a Tech issue delayed his last ball but he couldn’t find the rhythm he’d had in the previous round ending with 220k in last place
Flash Gordon
Going into the game on one point with the others on 4, 4 and 5 Josh had to win and hope results went his way
His 190k was leading going into the last ball as no one found much in the way of shots
Josh managed to get to a respectable 480k and after a nervous few seconds as the bonus was counting up Richie returned the favour from the previous round by finishing on 470k to take second place giving Josh a playoff with Ron to make it into the final
Playoff
Jacks Open (streamed)
Josh picked again and Ron chose to go first, which turned out to be a great move as he put up 115k for the highest score of the tournament
Josh was unable to catch him only managing 54k and so ended his run in 5th place, so close to making the final
So it was time to get back to the main qualifying
Neil was chatting to Escher in the bar and put a $100 bounty on my #1 Guardians score
which Timber finally managed to beat late Friday afternoonQualifying has been tough with all of us struggling to put five good games together, Andy, myself and Neil all failed to improve today so the cards already in have dropped 50 places - now up to 330 players!
Late on Friday Josh finally managed a card that is currently 31st in The Open so hopefully that may hold, but after a good night’s rest we’ll all be back to grind for another 13 hours on Saturday!!!
Thats why I miss the Banning Pinball Museum
When your waiting in the queues, you play in here
When your waiting in the queues, you play in here
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Those queues must be absolutely killer, going in stone cold on every game and knowing you are only going to have very limited opportunities to pull together a good card. All the more impressive for those who do end up making the cut, fingers crossed Josh’s card holds but there are a lot of very dangerous names still way down in the rankings
We got a good night’s sleep to prepare ourselves for another full thirteen hour day of qualifying!
All cards gradually dropped down through the day, as always happens with card based qualifying as more and more get entered.
The level of ‘average’ players here is just nuts and with 368 entrants any sort of OK score got few points, or even zero.
In reality, you needed to average 150 points per game, getting a top 50 score, anything lower and the card wasn’t going to qualify.
That’s 300M on Jaws, 2.5B on Johnny Mnemonic, 500K on Xenon - all in a row without a mistake or bad game.
I failed to improve on my very first card, which by the close had dropped to 119th and not even good enough for the B Final. If only I’d played my sixth game (Stars) or seventh (Bow and Arrow) fifth instead of Elton John, but everyone here has ‘if only’ stories. I take some comfort that my five best submitted games from three cards would have qualified, had I managed to put them on the same card - I think my best option is hacking NeverDrains
Neil just couldn’t find games together on the same ticket and ended up 272nd
Josh and Andy were both in with a shot, though Josh’s 31st place card of yesterday bled more points than Andy’s first card today and so it went from 10 points above to 5 below
By mid afternoon, they were 37/38th and knew it wouldn’t hold and eventually sank below the 40th place cutoff.
At time pressed on later in the afternoon, Josh finally managed to setup a good card with Jaws as his last game, but he didn’t deal with a couple of bad returns and ended up with a disappointing 200M (77th) so despite the promise ended up only seven points better than his other good card. It was so close to being enough - an extra 24M would have got him sufficient points to qualify in 40th place.
Later in the evening, Andy setup four great games, for 661 points, in reality needing only an average score on Cirqus Voltaire to jump up the standings, but he too just couldn’t get the ball under control and ended with only 4M adding zero points to the card and ending the chance to make it in.
Josh was determined and put together a card late on, playing games by necessity where the queues were shortest to try to beat the 11pm deadline. The first three games were really good for a total of 491 points but his fourth game on Cyclone wasn’t great, only adding 96 points. Though the strength of the first three meant he still had a shot but meant he needed to get 2.7B on Johnny Mnemonic to qualify - unfortunately as the qualifying ended he once again fell just short of the target score and was unable to close out the ticket to improve on his previous best.
In the final standings Neil Graf took 40th place with 730 points - Andy was 45th on 720 points and Josh 48th on 714 points - such fine margins.
There’s a consolation Strikes tournament tomorrow, which we’ll play in to finish off the trip and have some fun.
Everyone had told us what INDISC is like but until you’ve been here, you really don’t appreciate just how tough this competition is. It is insanely difficult to put a ticket together and the queues mean you are waiting around, second guessing yourself for an hour or more between games.
The list of players that didn’t qualify is nuts with the likes of Paul Englert, Peter Andersen, Zach & Josh Sharpe, Travis Murie, Paul Jongma and Bowen Kerins plus many other amazing players all failing to make the cut.
I guess we all need to practice more and come back to sunny California to try again!
All cards gradually dropped down through the day, as always happens with card based qualifying as more and more get entered.
The level of ‘average’ players here is just nuts and with 368 entrants any sort of OK score got few points, or even zero.
In reality, you needed to average 150 points per game, getting a top 50 score, anything lower and the card wasn’t going to qualify.
That’s 300M on Jaws, 2.5B on Johnny Mnemonic, 500K on Xenon - all in a row without a mistake or bad game.
I failed to improve on my very first card, which by the close had dropped to 119th and not even good enough for the B Final. If only I’d played my sixth game (Stars) or seventh (Bow and Arrow) fifth instead of Elton John, but everyone here has ‘if only’ stories. I take some comfort that my five best submitted games from three cards would have qualified, had I managed to put them on the same card - I think my best option is hacking NeverDrains
Neil just couldn’t find games together on the same ticket and ended up 272nd
Josh and Andy were both in with a shot, though Josh’s 31st place card of yesterday bled more points than Andy’s first card today and so it went from 10 points above to 5 below
By mid afternoon, they were 37/38th and knew it wouldn’t hold and eventually sank below the 40th place cutoff.
At time pressed on later in the afternoon, Josh finally managed to setup a good card with Jaws as his last game, but he didn’t deal with a couple of bad returns and ended up with a disappointing 200M (77th) so despite the promise ended up only seven points better than his other good card. It was so close to being enough - an extra 24M would have got him sufficient points to qualify in 40th place.
Later in the evening, Andy setup four great games, for 661 points, in reality needing only an average score on Cirqus Voltaire to jump up the standings, but he too just couldn’t get the ball under control and ended with only 4M adding zero points to the card and ending the chance to make it in.
Josh was determined and put together a card late on, playing games by necessity where the queues were shortest to try to beat the 11pm deadline. The first three games were really good for a total of 491 points but his fourth game on Cyclone wasn’t great, only adding 96 points. Though the strength of the first three meant he still had a shot but meant he needed to get 2.7B on Johnny Mnemonic to qualify - unfortunately as the qualifying ended he once again fell just short of the target score and was unable to close out the ticket to improve on his previous best.
In the final standings Neil Graf took 40th place with 730 points - Andy was 45th on 720 points and Josh 48th on 714 points - such fine margins.
There’s a consolation Strikes tournament tomorrow, which we’ll play in to finish off the trip and have some fun.
Everyone had told us what INDISC is like but until you’ve been here, you really don’t appreciate just how tough this competition is. It is insanely difficult to put a ticket together and the queues mean you are waiting around, second guessing yourself for an hour or more between games.
The list of players that didn’t qualify is nuts with the likes of Paul Englert, Peter Andersen, Zach & Josh Sharpe, Travis Murie, Paul Jongma and Bowen Kerins plus many other amazing players all failing to make the cut.
I guess we all need to practice more and come back to sunny California to try again!
Well done all the UK entrants.
Also thanks for the excellent write-ups.
It sure doesn’t sound like much fun with those wait times and very long days. Plus the price of each ticket!
Also thanks for the excellent write-ups.
It sure doesn’t sound like much fun with those wait times and very long days. Plus the price of each ticket!
Great write up @cyberkryten and gutted that Josh and Andy both got so close to making the cut.
Not sure I’m seeing a trip to INDISC in my near future, money aside it sounds like absolute torture with the game queues! I dropped in yesterday and saw the queue for Jaws was 2 hours at one point. Insanity
Not sure I’m seeing a trip to INDISC in my near future, money aside it sounds like absolute torture with the game queues! I dropped in yesterday and saw the queue for Jaws was 2 hours at one point. Insanity
EduardoGaleano
Site Supporter
Very interesting thread to read, thanks @cyberkryten! When I discovered pinball, just over a year ago, I would have never guessed that it was such a mental game. As most people I thought it was just a matter of luck, then I thought it was pure skill, but it seems that in big tournaments like that it’s also composure, concentration, confidence, consistency… such a demanding hobby we found!
Imagine if football was played like that, 5 minutes of game, then you sit down for an hour, then another 5…
Imagine if football was played like that, 5 minutes of game, then you sit down for an hour, then another 5…
As we hadn’t made it through Josh, Andy and myself played in the Sunday Strikes tournament, 120 of us that had nothing better to do on a Sunday morning!
First round put Josh and myself together on Pinbot, so one of us would be getting a strike immediately
I managed to get three MBs straight away, ending the game on 2M which would have been 10th in classics qualifying so Josh took an immediate two strikes
I picked up strikes in the next few games, exiting on nine after round six
Andy made it to round eight before striking out
After round seven Josh was on eight strikes, but managed to win on Abra Cadabra and Medusa to keep alive into the last seven, but Rock finished him off
Seventh added another $120 to his winnings, taking the pinball and Vegas winnings total to just over $1000 for the week
After that we played on the machines that weren’t being used for The Open and watched the finals on the big screen with everyone else in the hall.
No spoilers, but the last game of the final on Johnny is definitely worth watching!
Flight home tomorrow, a great week that’s been really fun.
Would definitely recommend it if you can get out here
First round put Josh and myself together on Pinbot, so one of us would be getting a strike immediately
I managed to get three MBs straight away, ending the game on 2M which would have been 10th in classics qualifying so Josh took an immediate two strikes
I picked up strikes in the next few games, exiting on nine after round six
Andy made it to round eight before striking out
After round seven Josh was on eight strikes, but managed to win on Abra Cadabra and Medusa to keep alive into the last seven, but Rock finished him off
Seventh added another $120 to his winnings, taking the pinball and Vegas winnings total to just over $1000 for the week
After that we played on the machines that weren’t being used for The Open and watched the finals on the big screen with everyone else in the hall.
No spoilers, but the last game of the final on Johnny is definitely worth watching!
Flight home tomorrow, a great week that’s been really fun.
Would definitely recommend it if you can get out here
Awesome write up @cyberkryten sounds like a great event. I think the queues for games would ruin it in a way for me though. I'm not going to get away with a one carder so would need multiple attempts, and the wait times would be very frustrating
Haven't we been completely spoilt with the UK Open. Neil gets it, he's seen and experienced Indisc many times and brought us his version. Obviously Indisc has over double the number of players, but the bank sizes and attention to detail from Neil isn't by accident, it truly is one of the best tournaments on the planet.
Saying that though, I'm still desperate to get to Indisc! Maybe next year
Saying that though, I'm still desperate to get to Indisc! Maybe next year
Asiapinball
Site Supporter
@cyberkryten
Out of interest how many hours did you spend at qualifying and how many tickets did you submit and how many tickets did you void as it wasn't worth continuing? And what was the total number of games you played?
As a bit better than average but nowhere near top tier player I expect I would spend a lot of time waiting and would void a lot of tickets. It doesn't sound like a lot of fun unless you are top tier and supercompetitive and in with sone chance of qualifying. I suppose that is the target audience.
Out of interest how many hours did you spend at qualifying and how many tickets did you submit and how many tickets did you void as it wasn't worth continuing? And what was the total number of games you played?
As a bit better than average but nowhere near top tier player I expect I would spend a lot of time waiting and would void a lot of tickets. It doesn't sound like a lot of fun unless you are top tier and supercompetitive and in with sone chance of qualifying. I suppose that is the target audience.