Frosty’s has a combo video contest this time around. Gonna really try to get something together for it. Outside of actually making and recording combos, the hardest part is gonna be finding the right music.

I keep thinking “oh I could totally make this pinball-related topic into a video essay” and then remember that I have no idea what to do for the video part. Guess I’ll just have to write a normal essay!

(Smash Bros. Brawl announcer voice): FISH TALES GUY (Wiimote speaker): ᴴᵒʷ ᵇᶦᵍ ʷᵃˢ ᶦᵗˀ

Not traveling for any events for the rest of the year. The chain of Riptide - driving to Mizzou for a local - Pinball Expo has REALLY exhausted me. We will be doing atomic winter bash but that’s pretty much a local tournament for us

Btw it was kinda fucked up that the main event had Kong pro and the women’s had Kong premium. Kong Gong = Wrong

And back in our hotel room, putting the lid on expo. Overall had a good time, despite us playing kinda dogwater today. Will probably do a stream sometime next week on our thoughts/recap in more detail, schedule permitting. Lord knows we still have 2 hours of raw podcast audio to work on.

Why would I wait in line an hour for Winchester mystery mansion when I can wait in line an hour for the SONIC HOMEBREW TABLE BAYBEEEEE

[If you don’t rescue pipit on Jaws it should just end your ball immediately]

While we’re waiting in line for Dune here’s our current top 10 favorite pinball tables

Damn, went 0-2 in both brackets. Both of us Just kinda played poorly. Whether the poor sleep from our CPAP deciding to not work this whole weekend was a factor is up to debate. Oh well! Now we can just chill in the main hall. Not gonna bother with classics because those tables keep breaking.

Fall of the Empire displays mechanisms and features only possible with the new Spike 3 board, such as the Salacious Crumb drop target (tm)

Someone started a 1-person 4-player game in Fall of the Empire here and left, so it’s just been playing the Star Wars theme for an hour. Actual AGGA moment

[Almost went the entire qualifiers without someone interrupting us and going “oh these are for the women’s tournament,” but alas]

[Whodunnit probably has the biggest disparity between pfx and the real thing. Either that, or the one at pinball expo plays really really really well. I actually could hit the elevator door on purpose!]

[I care too much about achievements apparently! I got down to the final shot on Fear of the Dark and worried more about not being able to log in rather than actually hitting the shot. I did not hit the shot.]

I wish we could’ve redone the decals before this weekend, considering it’s the first time we’ve traveled for pinball. (Also if you see us wearing these, feel free to say hi and you can also get one of my famous “pinball hot takes(tm)”)

I got a new personal worst and Star Wars pro and then the game crashed. Perfect.

I should have expected the queues for qualifiers at pinball expo to be this long. Nonetheless…

It’s kinda funny that Teemo, of all things, is the first character that’s really clicked for me in 2xKO

[We made top cut at SLAPC! The bracket start fairly soon. This is already way better than we did last year so we’re both pretty happy.]

Check out this really cool Baiman Tsumo I got tonight. (The white dragon was the Ura-Dora) #mahjong

SLAPC is really gonna make me play on Kong premium in tournament huh

It’s kinda wild to me that the entire “2-drop cycle” has been outclassed in modern. Not even Ravager sees play anymore. #mtg

Merlin’s Arcade is pretty fun! I like the mode stacking, and it has really good sound design. Like REALLY good. #pinball

[Finally we have eschewed tournament nerves for pinball. Now we just gotta get better at the game lololol]

Big fan of pinball layouts that have built-in ski passes and dead bounces. That’s something I think Elwin does really well. #pinball

Why do the 3 characters I’m interested in in 2xko all gotta cost champion tokens.

New stupid fantheory: Deltarune is based off Closure in Moscow’s first LP, First Temple

Now that Riptide is done, we’re gonna be focusing most (like 90%) of our competitive time on pinball tournaments. Next rivals tournament we travel out for will probably be Frosty’s.

Desperately fighting the urge to walk down to the hotel lobby and see if the ice cream stand is still open and also still selling ice cream.

Get to the waterpark, spend 30 seconds in wave pool, immediately get a low blood sugar. This must be punishment for the shnice Elli combos I was doing (I went 0-2)

I swear to god I have this cipher filled in but the instructions are very vague. This clock is gonna make me explode

I’m pretty sure that if I found a SINGLE new clue I would, in fact, know what to do

Uruha and Natsuki’s whole vibe together is yet another thing in Kagurabachi that feels like it was written by an American manga author.

Blue Prince is almost getting to the point where I need to take another 2 or 3-month break. I’m running out of leads and hunches.

The year is 2045. Stern announced a new Star Wars pin designed by Jack Danger. It comes with a service kit for the plunging lane. Rumors say the next one will be pokemon. Wheel of Fortune is still unfinished.

Ok but like did we need another Star Wars pin

Oops I accidentally found something really big in Blue Prince off stream (I was recording) so now I can’t play it until tomorrow.

[Day 1 of the new John Wick code and I got a score of like 120M without really trying. I don’t know if it’s getting better but it sure is getting!]

Finally, after so much time, I have started on e.

My one pinball dream is to have a tournament bank of Stern Kong, Congo, and Amazon Hunt

Was super nervous about wearing my like binder top to the waterpark yesterday but everything seemed to go fine.

Labyrinths are like the Apes of the maze world

I’m already getting some heavy tetris effect from Tactical Nexus. Though part of that might be the low-sleep delirium

So I tried out Tactical Nexus after multiple people I follow posting about it. I get it now. I see a deep abyss into which I shall cast many hours of my future.

Playing 4x Consult the Star Charts and 4x Stock Up reminds me of playing control on Khans Standard where you could run playsets of Cruise and Dig Through Time.

Ok Blue Prince actually rules I take back everything bad I said about its puzzles

We’ve been trying to route out the Pinball FX Williams questlines, but all of them are more or less variations on “get a certain score as fast as possible.” This in turn means even though you play each table 5 or so times, the route is the same each time

!> Galvin looks cool. I for one cannot wait for the next character to come out, we try the game again for a week, and then Marisa drops rivals 2 again leaving me to play the entirety of bracket myself. <!

I attempt You are the Miserable’s highest difficulty in Wacca like once every 3 months and I still haven’t figured out a method to do the red and blue arrows on the top half of the screen