Battle at the Beach Results and Recap

jcasetnl

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We had 16 players for the Open Division. It would have been 19 but I
was too busy to play and I had to turn away two guys who showed up
late. (Sorry again, guys, but quals ran half hour over as it was).

Open Division had an 8 player single elimination, best of 3 Final.

Here's how it went down:

Qualifiers in order of seed:

Total possible points: 110.4

Andrei Massenkoff 94.6 (crazy)
Tim Hansen 86.4
Neil Shatz 83.8
Josh Lehan 71.4
Hal Erickson 63.36
Larry Rosenbluth 57.6
Mike Haffner 57.6
Baresh Firari 53

First game of each Finals Round was random draw/top seed picks order,
then loser picks, loser picks. Winner picks order.

Quarters:

1. Shatz versus Larry the Local: Haunted House. Larry had a secret
weapon - his kid, who I had to back off Neil's games several times. I
remember Neil got some kid-static at PPE so I was trying my best to
keep kidlets in line. I told the kids's dad, but it wasn't enough
sometimes, so I backed the kid up myself a few times. Kid was cool
about it though. Larry bested Neil on Haunted House. Then Neil soul-
crushed Larry on White Water with an epic 900M+ ball one and 1.3B+
finish. Larry picked Pinball Magic (I think) and Neil got the win
with 75M+ (incomplete) to Larry's ho hum score. Larry was a fun and
cool guy, I hope he comes out again.

2. (could be wrong on order on this one) Josh squared off with Hal:
Monster Bash. Hal really, really wanted to play White Water, but Neil
was decimating the machine with no end in sight and there was a line
for it. Hal massacred Josh on MB, 110M to 3M+. Josh picked HH and
won 325800 to 152260. Last game on San Francisco, Josh takes it with
629 to Hal's 302.

3. Tim Hansen battles phishrace (Mike Haffner): Hokus Pokus

Tim throws up 83530 to Mike's 35330. Mike goes even older skool with
San Francisco and takes it 326/199 to go the distance. Tim takes it
back to new school with Whitewater. Both these guys really fought
like hell this match, but Tim ended it with 237M+ to Mike's 161M+

4. Andrei (top seed) versus the "the foreigner" Baresh Firari (bottom
seed): San Francisco

Baresh takes game one on SF 339 to 110 as Andrei gets multiple house
balls and zero gobble hole love on this sorta-strategy EM. Andrei
takes it modern with WH20 to secure a 364M to 141M win. Baresh
chooses Monster Bash. Both scores are pretty low by ball 2 and it's
early in the game then Andrei SLAM TILTS and is disqualified. This
elicited many "holy craps" and WTF??!!s from all assembled. Andrei's
New Year's resolution gets a nut kick. I'm still staring at the DMD
in disbelief and Andrei is telling me "I DQ'd".

Regarding Baresh: I've never heard a guy say: "Yeah, but I got
lucky..." more times in pinball. Actually, the guy is solid. Great
reflexes and played with practically no nudging, but excellent aim
skills. And I don't think he knew half the pins there. He's got some
talent.

Semis:

Tim Hansen fights Shatz: San Francisco

Probably the game of the night. Neil puts up 770 (and anything over
500 on this game is like maybe good night) and Tim, has an AMAZING
ball with a couple great short-flipper saves for a gobble-hole finish
for 943. Off to White Water. Neil throws up a big 956M to Tim's hard-
fought 579M. Back to Haunted House and both guys put up a great fight,
but Neil shuts the door with 581k to 462K . Tim is now fighting for
3rd.

Josh Lehan against the "the foreigner" Baresh Firari: Pinball Magic

Josh said, "I love this game, it's so fun.". Took 83M to the Baresh's
31M with a mini-comeback on ball 3. Then it was on to Monster Bash and
Baresh put up a respectable 41M to Josh's 6.8M. Wisely, Josh took it
old skool to Haunted House and finished the dirty work: 289,920 to
32560. Baresh fights Tim for Third.

Battle for 3rd: Tim vs. Baresh: Creature

Tim is not impressed by the foreigners fancy accent. Baresh is at a
super disadvantage because he doesn't know Creature at all. I help
him out with my ghetto strats - "just keep shooting the center shot
and go for Move Your Car". He asks how to get multi-ball, and I tell
him, and about midway through my explanation he realizes he has NO
chance to get multi. So he does what I say and gets Move Your Car,
but drains, puts up 58M. Tim works the machine proper, and gets 111M
for the win, then gives the guy a Pinball 101 on multi. "So then you
do this and this and there's the girl and then you do this and save
the girl and now jackpot is lit and then you don't f*** up like I just
did." LOL

Lost stats on which Game 2, but Tim took it 22M (unplayed) to 19M to
secure 3rd. And that was that for the foreign guy Baresh. Tim takes
the plaque for third and the money. Baresh was a great competitor and
super cool guy and I hope to see him again.

Grand Champion Throwdown:

Only two playa playaz left. Neil Shatz and Josh Lehan: Pinball Magic

Neil takes game one with 114M(incomplete) to 54M. Josh wisely takes
it back to the old skool for some EM on San Francisco, and works the
win 429/296 win. Now it's going the distance.

Game choice goes to Shatz, and it's no surprise he picks White Water,
which he has just been utterly killing and demoralizing all day.
Both Neil and Josh have ho-hum first balls and then Tim has to go and
says "We should take a picture" just as Shatz plunges ball 2 which
distracts Shatz for a quick drain. Josh is super cool about it and
they agree to a game reset. We take some pics and then the final game
proceeds.

Both guys are tired by this point and the fun house is closed. Both
guys put up another set of ho hum first balls. Shatz gets a *really*
bad house ball on ball 2 which sends his left ramp return over the top
and into the left drain, but he takes it like a man. "Hey, that's
pinball". Neil gets another bad ball and Josh caps it off. 37M to
24M, probably the lowest scoring white water game of the day but hey,
a win is a win.

They both brought the pain and did some major damage to these pins.
But, in the end, there could be only one:

JOSH LEHAN HAS WON THE BATTLE AT THE BEACH. HUGE CONGRATS to JOSH
LEHAN!!

(side note on that white water: I asked and asked that they level all
the DMDs to 7.5 degrees but the tech kept pointing at the manual
saying "it says 6.5". I was like "dude, these guys are like...
good." But it didn't take. Still, if it were steeper, it probably
would have meant more house balls off the ramp and hurt the players in
Qualifiers or the Finals, so, the pin giveth and the pin taketh
away...)

Some Pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/35597103@N08/sets/72157623368836092/

1st: Josh Lehan - GRAND CHAMPION
2nd: Neil Shatz
3rd: Tim Hansen
4th: Baresh Ferari

----

Extra super double jackpot thanks to the following:

Richard Tuck - Master of Fun and Playland Owner: For providing the
venue, pins, techs, helping with the promotion of the event,
organizing volunteers and just being so enthusiastic about the idea.
Richard is the kind of guy who you say "hey, don't you think this
would be cool?" And he says, "Okay, let's do it! What do you need?
What's the date?" Also Frank Biafore, who put up the web page, made
pins for players, and put up with my constant web update requests.

Erik, Andrei, Tim and Josh. Jumped in to do score tallying when my
spreadsheet skillz sploded and I was so backed up. *Especially*
Andrei, who came back to enter the Novice and Kids stats during the
Finals. Thanks so much!

Neil Shatz - I'm pretty certain Neil is the coolest guy in the world
and needs more videos. Neil was the consummate competition ambassador
with tough play but throwing out tips to all-comers like it ain't no
thang. When Neil played White Water, everybody backed the f*** up and
just watched how it's done. Neil had us over at his place for food
and drinks after the tourney. And *especially* big thanks to Neil's
wife who set up a crazy spread for us. I didn't get to eat all day
and didn't realize how hungry I was till I got to the chicken and
sausage she made.

My girl - for getting me coffee and being supportive. :)

---

As for the tournament, this was my first time organizing a pin
tournament, and yeah there were some mistakes and problems. Honestly,
it was MAYHEM. I have not seen an arcade this crowded since 1982. I
didn't get to play because I was too busy, but like I told everyone
"I'd rather not play with a good turnout than play and be the only guy
there." Likewise, if you could play and do well at this tourney, with
the crazy crowd and limited space, you can play ANYWHERE. Seriously,
this was like a NY subway at rush hour.

Lessons learned: I had too many pins for the space. I should have run
novice and kids on a separate day. And Whitewater + Neil, Andrei or
Tim = VERY BAD DO NOT DO. (Although, it was quite a crowd pleaser
when Neil got Vacation.)

Thanks again for all the help. Super ultra fun and worth the work.
Hope to see you again at the next one!
 
Playland not at the Beach is in El Cerrito CA. I don't have a date for the next one yet, but if you PM me your email I will add you to the mailing list for the next one, or any other tournaments I know of.

Hope to see you again at the next one!


When is the next one? Where's the location?
 
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