Space City Pinball League Season 4 Week 2: Night of the living dead plumb bobs

Note: Due to recent events, Shawn no longer recommends participation in Space City Pinball League events until further notice. Please see the Bayou City Pinball League website for alternatives.

A bit late, I know, but a lot has been going on here… This describes the games and events of October 17.

I hoped to continue my good fortune from last week and maintain the momentum from my surprisingly good finish.

This week’s games were: Harley Davidson (Stern), Game of Thrones (Pro), Kiss, Ghostbusters, Medieval Madness, Star Trek, and Big Buck Hunter. This week I was drawn in a four-player group with Marc Gammons, Blake Dumensil, and Joe Cuellar, players I would describe as worthy competitors, though not the very strongest competition the league has to offer. Originally, we were scheduled to play Star Trek, Kiss, Medieval Madness, Ghostbusters, and Harley Davidson; due to some kind of issue with Harley Davidson (before we got to play on it), we would eventually play Game of Thrones in its place (more on that when I get to it).

And so it began. First game: Kiss. It seems like every time I play this game in league play, I do poorly. I spent most of the time waiting for Joe and Marc to put up 25.8M+ and 87.9M+ respectively. My paltry 3.0M+ is good for a nice big fat fourth (last) place. One game, one standings point…

Second game: Ghostbusters. Again, more time spent waiting for the other three players, while I squeak out a paltry 9.8M+. Really now… Two games, two standings points.

Third game: Medieval Madness. I’m just going to come right out and say it: I hate this damn game. It was a lousy game when it first game out, and the remake is just as bad. It’s even worse with a tilt bob set to one notch above “sneeze tilt.” I wind up rage-tilting after I tilt out all three balls just from light nudging. 894K. Last place again. Three games, three standings points.

Fourth game: Game of Thrones. This game was a little nicer to me on this night. I felt like 34.1M+ should have gotten me a little bit better than third place, but the only real contest wound up being Blake and Joe, with 96.8M+ and 95.4M+ respectively. Four games, five standings points.

Fifth game: Star Trek. Finally something goes my way. I bust loose with a 29.0M+ powered by a good multiball round, and the closest any other player can come is Marc with an 8.1M+. I wrap it up with 10 standings points, three less than week 1.

As unhappy as I was about this week, they have gone a bit worse, though 10 points is a likely drop week assuming I make the other weeks in the season. I did put up a moderately better score on Ghostbusters during warmups (106.9M+). As impressive as that was, it would have only been good for second place if I had come anywhere close to repeating it during league play.

As for the title, it seemed like every game was a bit more “tilty” than usual. But maybe it just seemed that way because I had to nudge more than I usually do to try to keep the ball alive… which really came first, the chicken or the egg?