Why I Retired From Competitive Pinball Tournaments
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ค. 2024
- In summer 2023, I made the decision to retire from all competitive pinball tournaments. I did so because I had reached a conclusion that my experiences had changed and pinball tournaments were no longer fun for me.
In this video I take a humorous look at some of the way pinball tournaments have changed and everything I liked and disliked about tournaments over my 10 years of playing. Everything is just for fun and about my personal experience. Overall, I do think that tournaments are great overall and they provide awesome social and community experiences.
0:00 Intro
0:46 WPPR
1:51 Temporary Ban
2:23 Pinball Farms
3:37 Real Estate
4:49 Lunch Breaks
5:58 Amenities
6:34 Match Play
8:15 Wait Times
10:01 The Pinball Community
11:01 The Dollar Fee
12:24 My Vision
13:28 Getting Worse
~~~~~~~~ Social Media Links ~~~~~~~~
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The levster here - tough but fair. And also hilarious. I didn’t know this was coming but it’s been a subject of discussion amongst many of us…not everybody will agree with all of it but it’s hard to deny that from any perspective, there’s a lot of truth here. I don’t find most of these tournaments to be much fun any more, and it’s a shame, because there really is a world where we can have quality tournaments that also allow players to decide when they want to sleep, eat, and maybe have a little fun. I’d like to see more TDs try to offer a different experience rather than embracing gorging at the 3-4 day wppr trough. Do others want that? I guess we’ll see!
This is why I’ve stuck to a 3 tournament model at Pincinnati. You can play in one, two or all three over the weekend and get as much free play room time as you want. The open tournament doesn’t start until well after the show opens each day and if gauntlet isn’t your thing, all Sunday can be spent in the freeplay hall.
I did a handful of big events before COVID before moving to Germany for a few years, and have just now returned back home. I did the Bulls and Balls pinball farm in Fulda a number of time and the only good thing to come out of it were the friends I made (and the one trophy I managed to snag). I stopped going in my last year for exactly the reasons that Tim points out. The grind and format play that just sucked the life out of me. Play for 15, wait for 45. Flipper Frenzy was probably the only fun moments, until that was killed off. We even had a midnight tourney squeezed in (7 events in four days) during the Olympics "for one more chance" at WPPRs. Insane stuff. My best pinball memories were our league nights at FAO Selingenstad, 3rd Friday of every month. Nothing better. Find a local league and just have fun with your mates over a few beer and some laughs.
Here is Tobias, inventor of the whopper tournaments from Bulls&Balls in Germany. 🏁 Sorry to read that this is one of the reasons you stopped playing tournaments.
I also finished organising those tournaments and also stop playing them...
So for both of us... Happy retirement...! ❤️
Great stuff, Tim. Appreciate your contributions to the game and look forward to your next video.
Great video Tim. Sincerely appreciate you sharing this perspective. WPPR Weekends sure don't provide much opportunity for sleep, and, to do well in rankings, you almost "HAVE" to participate in them.
Hopefully something like PAPA used to be, with separate banks, can make its return one day.
You make some good points about how the more competitive sector of pinball can be...rough on the mind and the body.
You’re telling me you didn’t enjoy 36 competitive pinball games in 1 day at the RPC?
@@TimSextonPinball It's not so much that I didn't enjoy it as it is that there's a hangover effect. Spending a weekend intensely focused on something for several hours takes a lot out of you no matter how much you enjoy it. It took me a few days after the weekend to feel mostly human again.
If you're looking at a large tournament moreso as a proving ground rather than a parallel to a convention, and you commit yourself to these things because you want the tasty WPPRs more than you want to have fun, the capacity for frustration and burnout is huge. It's like going for marathon after marathon so you can rack up the medals and up your average placement.
I like doing well, but I've tried to make it more about having fun and enjoying the game and the social aspects while also being competitive. It's probably one of a few factors as to why I'm not a better performer overall in tournaments, but it's what keeps me sane and engaged. (Not that I've risen above becoming a Pissy McDrumstick when I'm playing terribly...it's a work in progress.)
I quit pinball tourneys post-covid (except a few rare occassions) and can't disagree with any of these takes. They smell, people are gross, you wait for 90% of your 13-hour days. What a waste.
Hell yeah Tim!! I can’t wait to see what you have in store for us!
Yet you finished 4th in INDISC Open '24? Is there a typo? 🤔
indisc is at the beginning of the year, he retired after it
This is a great video, I think your breakdown of the fundamentals of the current tourney scene are good. But I disagree with the conclusion. the $1 fee and the prize pools aren't a motivator or a draw at all. The people who could win the $1 are the same pros that we've seen everywhere. Hardly anyone even profits from pinball tournaments after travel and lodging are taken into consideration. It's still a losing-money proposition for most. And I think people compete a lot more because... well, its fun. And also, more pinball tournaments help normalize the one-bad day issue that often happens. Imagine blowing two thousand dollars to fly and stay for a tournament, and not being able to sleep because of a delayed flight, and so the one thing you went for is toast. I love that there are several events over a weekend.
But the B division stuff is spot on. I think the issue is that its just a lot more work to maintain more banks and manage several queues and need extra scorekeepers. That's why Silverball rumble just takes the next N number of players after the 24 qualifiers as B division.
So pinball is a sport
I agree with a lot of what you are saying. Long tournaments and long weekends with very little sleep and eating terriblly. The last three bigger events I have attended have also caused me to be sick for days after the events from catching bugs at these tournaments. It feels more like work than a fun event for the weekend. Typically after these big events you need a day or so to recover from your "Pinball Hangover". I often leave these big events asking myself "Was it really worth it?"
Don't get me wrong I love to compete. More because I am a competitive person. Anytime there is something on the line (money, imaginary points, prizes) I get competitive about it. Not just with pinball but in general.
The reason I keep coming back is because I tend to do well in them. Like poker tournaments, pinball tournaments can be grueling with long days with little sleep and a lot of mental exhaustion. It's not for everyone and there is definitely room for improvement but it is also the nature of a lot of these tournaments.
Also when people are traveling longer distances for these tournaments they want to play as much as they can. I don't think you would see so many people Traveling from out of state, province, or country for an event that lasts just a few hours. It's needs to worth their while..
I was told I needed to check this video. I was also told it was very controversial. I didn't find it very controversial at all. I've been largely disconnected from the tournament scene for the past couple of years But I have heard the reports of where things have been headed. The only caution I would suggest is to not judge a new tournament until it happens. Even if it is a new tournament with an old name. Best wishes and happy flipping.
Well said Tim, Glad to see you making video's again!
Great stuff
I'm interested in why you feel it needs to get to the point of professional poker/chess/etc. maybe pinball should just level out at things like bowling? stuff trying to push past that has largely proven a failed investment that harmed more than did good for the community. look at things like the insanely failed overwatch league or magic the gatherings professional circuit. these things don't sustain, they're too niche and the viewing experience for people just passing through is near zero after the initial "oh wow a pinball tournament". advertising revenue doesn't follow for the most part either! I don't see Honda sponsoring pinball anytime soon. I think what would be healthier than looking to go for more prestige is to address all the other issues you bring up, and find a healthy status quo rather than shooting to become a sport. Maybe instead of a stacking rating system there needs to be a tiered elo system for ranking. it's crazy that as a bad/new player I could, in theory, "grind" my WPPRs up past objectively better players just by going to lots of events in my state- clearly a flawed system that needs adjusting. great video, I just worry about the ambitions of niche communities like this resulting in a collapse.
shots fired! kidding, you make some good points. with a baby at home I've almost given up on most wppr centric tournaments because I can't set aside the time for them, which is sad
awesome, tim. preach. maybe tournaments were the most fun to me when i was seeing regular improvement in my skills, and learning a lot of information about strategy from other players. but now, they represent a sort of "stressful boredom" form of leisure. i'm consistently frustrated with negative social vibes--not because of personalities, but because of the inevitability of draining, even after a GREAT ball or game. and then just everyone on their phones, refreshing matchplay...come on. make some conversation. lighten up. so, when it's not even fun when you're crushing it, why bother. tournaments should be 2-3 hours max. human needs and comfort should be more built in to multi-day events. they should never be inherently exhausting. and i think given their increasing popularity, they should be divided into skill levels. it's so off-putting to have to wait half an hour for a great player to play a single ball.
Couple more thoughts. (this video really got me thinking, that's for sure). PAPA was awesome and the multiple divisions served the much smaller-back-then community. But let's not put on our rose tinted glasses for too long. PAPA's headquarters for PAPA 20 were in the Pittsburgh suburbs. There was one bathroom and by the end of the tourney it was absolutely trashed. It had concessions but I don't see how the food was any better than the food trucks we are getting now. AND THAT WAS BACK WHEN PAPA WAS BASICALLY RUN BY A PHILANTHROPIC MILLIONARE. The current state of events like what happens at District 82, which is hosted by a generous benefactor, its kind of a minor miracle. There just isn't enough money in pinball in its current state to justify it. NYCPC is an amazing tournament but in the most expensive city in the world, a hidden pinball alcove in a former gym is what we expect. And that's ok!
The comparisons to Tetris tournaments is interesting, but Tetris can be played anywhere you can plug two CRT televisions into the wall. No real setup, no $5000 machines that are temperamental, etc. And even so, those Tetris tournaments are becoming bigger so to supplement the one-tourney-at-the-event they are doing monthly tourneys / championships. So its not that different.
The old PAPA Carnegie building did not have concessions, just vending machines. With the exception of the last few events we ran there.
@@ninjadoug92 Thanks Doug. I only got to attend PAPA 20 and there was someone selling chicken fingers or something if I recall correctly. Was 7 years ago! Thanks for all the amazing times man.
Great video, Tim. I personally feel your complaints are totally valid, but because perspective/experience is going to play a big role here, I can understand why some will disagree with your points. I personally started competing around the same time as you and went into it about as hard as I could early on with what [limited] events were available. It got to a point where I started travelling to PAPA, then later Replay FX when they moved Pinburgh there (heck, I think I remember having to duke it out with you and others in the Pinburgh B semi-finals ages ago!). What I miss the most about those events is the friendly party atmosphere after they concluded. They gave the players time to simply hang out, cool off, mingle and play pinball with others just for fun, in gigantic collections filled with so many unique games you just don't see very often. That social and non-competitive aspect to it really helped to balance things out. Today, many events are basically like, "Hey, you just played *ten* hours with very little food and drink.. We know you're tired and hungry, now GTFO. Oh wait.. you wanted to actually enjoy the pinball show you attended? Sorry, you either play the tournament or just attend the show--as a good player, you can't have both". The whole thing is just exhausting.
A change I would personally like to see is newer formats that are actually worth ranking points while cutting back significantly on the run time. No one these days wants to run two hour frenzies or simple three-strike events with no finals because they are barely worth anything anymore, which is a shame. These are generally good, simple, fun formats that work for all skill levels. Anyway, I'm beginning to have my "Old man yells at cloud" moment, so I'll end it here. It's great to see you pursuing other things that make you happy, like creating TH-cam videos!
Unfortunately, you are spot on, Tim.
As a TD in a predominantly casual player area I'm faced with trying to thread the needle between casual players and WPPR points for skilled players. Casuals do not want to play for 6-10 hours a day for a couple days straight. We need a format that will produce meaningful points in a short period of time. I generally try to keep it around 4 hours but that leads to rushing because it's just not enough time to qualify and have a finals. I've tried to run events with no finals and gotten mixed reviews (just tie breakers if needed). I don't think there is an easy answer. I also run a team league which draws around 75 people every other Thursday, it's very casual and goes from 7-9:30ish. We all have fun on team league nights. Tournaments are lucky to draw 20+ players. Most players feel like they are donating to the good players and they are for the most part. The top 5% of my players will beat the bottom 75% 10 out of 10 times, so they say "why bother." THIS IS THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IN COMPETITIVE PINBALL. Lesser skilled players shouldn't subsidize the highly skilled players. Someone please invent a handicap system 🙏
Change the way you run and promote tournaments. Don't pay out the top players and then it won't seem like most of the players are donating to the good players. In your tournament details, make it known that anyone ranked between 1 and 1000 CANNOT cash. They can still win the event and they can still take home all of the WPPRS but they will go home with zero cash. The highest players ranked outside of the top 1000 will win your cash prizes.
It kinda sounds like you're upset that the community around the highest level of play has begun to shift its focus towards winning instead of just community. However, I also need to point out that this is kinda a top 1% of pinball players problem. I think the shift of majors away from offering multiple divisions isn't so much of a $1 IFPA fee problem as that coincides with pinball's major explosion of popularity. That explosion means a massive uptick in the number of tournaments around. PAPA needed multiple divisions because that was one of the few tournaments all players of all skill levels per year could play. Stern Army wasn't a thing back then. But now, those beginner and intermediate players have their pick of tournaments every week to hone their chops (which, as you mentioned, are still very social and community focused). And, with that, there's now more opportunity for the top 1% of those people to hone their skills and feel like they have a reasonable chance at the majors, which means more crowded playing field at the top level, which means more toxicity, if the community isn't careful to actively address that. But it is going to feel more like a grind now, no matter what, since the stakes are higher than they were before, not because of money, but because of increased competition that aren't all walking in knowing each other.
You pointed to chess and esports, but they have both experienced nearly identical problems as they increased in popularity, but, where I think pinball has been excelling, is that, on the whole, pinball HAS been super welcoming to the beginning player, offering them a chance to compete in low stakes environments. Esports especially has frequently fallen victim of being very hostile to beginners.
I'm by NO means a pro pinball player, (I did finish 6th in last years' Australian Masters - pretty much one of my definitive lifetime moments lol!) but as much as I love playing competitive pinball, I also hate it. It's the standing around - the one time you're in a room with more than 25 machines for a day and you can only play 10-15 games under tournament conditions with maybe one or two games open for practice/free play, you're basically spending the whole day waiting for your turn.
In Australia we don't have a lot of public pinball - its exciting to play games you never usually see, but standing around looking at them ain't fun at all.
Tim, I love this video While I don't agree with all your points I agree with many of them - Firstly I actually don't think it matters why we are where we are - IFPA do a fantastic job and have provided a huge help to me in getting UK Open and other stuff moving - but one thing I would like to see is IFPA board have more folks on it that run some of the big lock and load events -> INDISC, NYCPC, UKOPEN, YEGPIN and others - The tournaments are effectively built and unbuilt and they have a huge amount of effort and cost required and often some of the changes in the WPPR rules have not helped them and giving the input from the perspective of these events I think would be helpful, Karl or Jim from INDISC would be perfect for this (Sorry guys :D)
Also on broadcast - the biggest challenge to cricket growth was being able to explain the rules. When I set up the UK Open I went to see our exec producers at BT Sport where I ran technology, I wanted them to put a crew on the UKOpen - I spoke with several of them (these guys do Barclays Premier League, Moto GP. UFC etc) They all watched INDISC and they all watched Stern HU (as the best productions in our hobby) and the feedback was unanimous between them: 1: Pinball is way to complex, too many formats, too many different games, too much of its on vocabulary. The main thing is, you need to reduce the number of types of games and ideally have every game the same as SHU. (One of the things I believe we all love about pinball is the choice of games). They would also insist on a common announcer team, and you need to follow the favourites through their qualifying journey, which they believed would build a significant attachment to players as they share their frustrations during qualifying. Matchplay they loved because of the player vs player aspect of it. But ultimately they wanted to simplify this until it was not like what we have today. The comparison to e-gaming is made but its a flawed comparison because nobody plays e-games - they play Fortnite, Halo, WoW etc. it's the same game with the same rules and the same formats.
I went to a couple of farm events and honestly, it was not for me I loved D82 but I decided to skip a couple of events to eat and sleep properly (try doing D82 with jetlag) and even though I skipped an event I still enjoyed playing the other events. I agree with the 2 main events coming back in away that in my view makes absolutely no sense. I'm supporting them both because one is supporting LFS and the other I hope helps get pinburgh back to the event that it was. But schedule wise not so good.
But come to the UK Open, we have nice toilets epic games and a great bar and restaurants!
Love my Rush Pro and Tim is a helluva player. Hope nothing but the best.
It is a shame you're retiring from competitive pinball, because you are an incredible player. You even just made your first Major Top 4!
If one problem is that pinball created a skill group of players that doesn't fit well in the majority of IFPA tournaments, would more small invitationals help? What do you think about the role of the Stern Pro Circuit finals?
I had no idea tournaments even existed. Just when I started looking for pinball in the area, and found a great one, the pandemic put it out of business. I learned to play in college in Kansas, because there was nothing else to do. We used to wear out a brand new machine in the student union every semester, they had to move our old machines to a low use place like a bar.
I agree with a lot of this, but what it screams to me is the same attitude that the top players in Super Smash Bros have -- that they should have special privilege to skip pools/qualifying because they're obviously good enough.
Makes sense, but then it also gives an extra advantage purely based on energy level and effort exerted.
I don't have a good solution. My only suggestion is that we all continue to do what we can to bring more people into this hobby in order to combat the loneliness epidemic in a way that we believe in.
I run an independently owned video game store that has a decent bank of 7 machines.
If I decide to run an event, it comes out of my pocket 100%. My machines. My labor costs. My utility bill.
You get the point.
Out of the $5.00 entry fee, I add $4.00 to the prize pot and $1.00 to the IFPA costs.
I make next to no money after overhead.
I make negative money, even.
It feels scummy to charge extra on the entry fee, for a mostly local crowd, to compensate my losses.
It's not immoral, I guess.
We're a burgeoning scene.
I'm trying to grow a community, not a money mill.
I love pinball and I have loved pinball for over 30 years.
That's my motivation.
Competitive pinball is a huge part of why pinball stayed alive during proverbial 'dark ages'.
Is there room for the big companies to step in and:
1.) Lessen the burden on pinball venue operators in various ways
2.) Incentivize, organize, and really advertise major events
Both? Neither? I'm not sure.
I'm sorry your journey ended on a sour note.
I appreciate the effort to try and create a new analytical device.
Thanks for everything you do for pinball, Tim.
This was a great video.
So your tournaments require no coin drop? You should probably keep coin drop on for your tourneys.
@@aaronflorian Even if you do a $2 for 3 like most modern tournaments, you're getting about $3 per modern Stern game. If we said all 7 games in rotation with a 28 person tournament, for a 5 round matchplay with 3 game papa style semi final and finals (top 8). You're looking at $120 made from the tournament in coin drop. 1 flipper rebuild kit costs you between $40-50 depending on where you go. So yes, most tournaments net you negative when you include maintenance, labor, etc.
@@aaronflorianAs Kim mentioned, coin drop doesn’t really add ‘profit’ at the end of the day. I’m not looking to make money off people gathering for pinball fun. My point is that in order for pinball communities to grow, it usually requires someone taking repeated financial blows. 😅
@@Trinst777 generally speaking, having machines on location is not a get rich dive into the pool of gold coins scrooge mcduck operation. But at the same token (ha!), if each $1 someone puts into your machine costs you $1.25, there's something very wrong with how its being operated. Maintenance on new sterns is generally pretty reasonable when the machines are maintained well, the interval of flipper rebuilds should be every several thousand plays. My maintenance cost over my three HUO Stern with 4500 cumulative plays has been about $200. My machines on route are Bally/Williams and outside of TZ, maintenance does not exceed coin drop, not even close. But I agree to a point, if you're in it JUST to make money, you're likely going to be disappointed as there are far more lucrative things to be doing with your capital. It takes caring about pinball and the community. I will take a "loss" on every game that I restore. I *might* break even on materials, but my hourly rate ends up about $0.07/hour. Don't care, I'm restoring to preserve the games and because I enjoy it.
@@aaronflorian Lot of good points here. I think it's a little different for everyone depending on their local market. The machines themselves gross a decent amount considering the 'city' I live in only has about 20,000 people. The real cost comes from space rent, utilities, and paying people to run events while disrupting the flow of the non-pinball side of the business.
I'm sure I could tighten up maintenance costs, but my goal is to have absolutely perfect machines at all times.
The demand for WPPRs is what has killed separate divisions and I agree this is for the worse. Access to WPPRs is without a doubt, the #1 driver of attendance, from leagues to majors, and any decision that would reduce access to WPPRs for patrons would very likely result in lower attendance and threaten sustainability.
I don't feel the dollar fee is on the vast majority of event attendees radar as a motivating factor. IMO WPPRs and the cachet of qualifying for states are the sole motivation for all but a few players with a realistic chance of winning their state, and those players would almost certainly qualify anyway.
I've gotten back into competitive pinball recently, after being much bigger into it before the pandemic. As in I'd obsess over the WPPR leaderboard and celebrate crossing each milestone.
Now while I am back into competitive pinball, I plan to only participate in it in a much more scaled-back way, on my terms. For now I've just been doing 1-2 weeklies a week. I don't really plan to do the big all-day or multi-day tournaments anymore.
Wick with LZ expression lights?
This video rules. Great takes from Tim.
Meal breaks, being able to sleep, monolithic banks, bastardizing games. What have you done to change that for the better at NYCPC? Wouldn't you consider it just another one of those inferior tournaments that you described in the video? Being in NYC is nice but at least at the old location it wasn't really near anything and you are penalizing yourself by leaving.
I'll field this one! First off, in three different locations, NYCPC has never been more than 100 yards away from NUMEROUS non-food truck/gas station food options. And 3 out of the 4 years it was within two blocks of literally dozens of different restaurants. It's pretty disingenuous to compare that to a parking lot with one food truck, or an event within walking distance of only a McDonlads and gas station fried chicken. We've also avoided sacrificing sanity and sleep by adding hours to our qualifying times to max out our WPPRs, because that is not a priority for the TDs at this event. And, you are not "penalized" for leaving; everybody is free to stay and pump and dump to their hearts' content, or leave and do something else. We've also always had enough games that lines are never more than 3 or 4 deep. As a player in several of these tournaments I never had any issues qualifying without playing for the entire tournament. That's how non-match play tournaments that aren't pinball torture boot camps work; you can come and go as you please. Again, it's not for everybody, some players prefer to be forced to play 3 days straight with brief breaks and no say on their own schedule; the good news is, there's TONS of tournaments like that for those who prefer that. NYCPC is one of a very small minority of tournaments that offer a different experience. Its interesting to me that people want to litigate these single, small points (Who needs sleep?! Why can't you bring your own lunch? Actually...the farm has TWO porta potties, not one!) instead of engaging in the big picture: What's wrong with pinball tournaments, and does anybody want alternatives to the current trends of WPPR-inflation and pinball torture?
@@ln6166 torture -> eating mcdonald's for a weekend
@@ln6166 At 9:00 he mentions how hundreds of players are playing on the same bank to compete for finals. Where queue times could reach an hour for a single game(I've definitely waited an hour for a game at NYCPC). Or the games are bastardized (Cleopatra in 2022). So with that type of format, you are inclined to stay there trying to get as much time as you can. If you take a break, you will see your rank constantly fall further and further down. I would called that penalized for leaving. Although you could say you aren't maximizing your opportunity. It's also stressful where you have to constantly balance extra curricular with the stress of qualifying. So like I said, Tim is describing some of the aspects of his own tournament. Industry City provided a lot of food options which is great. Most hotels were in walking distance. Those two amenities are great. I'll expand on "it wasn't really near anything". If I wanted to do something touristy or get to a more popular borough, it's quite far from those things.
I'll admit that sticking up for fast food has got to be the most "pinball tournament" thing ever, and therefore, I'm here for it!
@@s_bradley5974 I hear you've been to D82.
This toxic uncaring demented mind of current leadership has no boundaries.
💯
You sound like kaneda - pretty much everything hes said about competitive pinball
no
I don't play competitive pinball much but was talked into joining a tournament a while back. The tournament started at noon, and I didn't realize until I was a few matches in that this was a "WPPR farm" and finals were expected to go until 10 or 11 pm. Absolutely insane. I had a dinner reservation at 8 pm, I ended up qualifying for finals in 1st place (in big part thanks to the MatchPlay 3-2-1 system) but left before finals started. I like competing against other people but tournaments, for the most part, are unenjoyable slog fests.
You didn't realize what you were getting into. They should have explained better and you should've asked more questions. Leagues are a great way to compete. Usually on a weeknight for a couple hours. Four to six weeks and done. You can even skip some nights if needed. Also, many tournaments are done in 3 to 5 hours. They are not all 10-12 hour slog fests as you put it. You just have to pick the types of tournaments you choose to participate in.
Well, that’s 15+ minutes of my life I won’t get back.
I retired years ago as well....and entered the world of Pinball Broadcasting at GeekGamerTV. :)
I am confused?? You want people to survive at competitive pinball but you do not want more money in the pot????? I have friends that tried to make Spike Ball a league. It got on the Ocho still no money. Plus realize the real money in poker is the casinos, not the tourneys. I think local fun is better for the industry. Some things will never be. Heck the WNBA still does not make money. Please everyone have fun and do not suffer like Tim. Its just a great hobby.
There needs to be official pinball buildings designed for pinball competitions
Is this satire ? Lol as a tournament pinball player this is awful 🤮
tldr: "I gave up trying to make things better and decided to invest all of my time into complaining"
Tim said he tried to improve things and he could only do so much. His complaints are valid, and he is allowed to walk away from the sport. Speak from your own experiences, and not for someone else.
He actually made this video so he could explain (complain) less to the stupid class (yourself). The time spent on this video is mostly the watchers time, if you can comprehend he doesn't physically attend every viewing 😈
The slow zoom, reset, slow zoom, reset video editing is really distracting and unnecessary.
Wow, I must live under a rock! Up where I am in Ontario I think there's 6 tables around me in 60 miles, otherwise I have to drive 8 hours. Of those 6, 4 tables were busted lol.
Watching this guy makes me feel like I took the right turn at the Mooses 🫎 balls.
Honestly if I saw 4 guys in real life all talking pinball I'd hope the dream lasted a bit longer.
Heh, you are the pinball hillbilly and he is the pinball aristocrat.