Cleveland, OH
Greetings all.
Long, long, LONG time lurker. Have been playing pinball on and off all my life. My first memories are around 10 years old and playing lots of different games, but the one that stuck out to me was Space Invaders. Most likely because I loved the video game, and the backglass was just stunning. I played pinball through my early teens, and then it dropped off in my list of things to do.
When I was 18 and went to college, I was delighted to find a couple of games in the Student Union: Pinbot and High Speed. Played those constantly, and then when I graduated, dropped out again.
Somewhere around 2004, I started working for a tech company that had several pinball machines in the break room. Attack From Mars, Whirlwind, BK2K, .. I don't remember all of them but that got me back into pinball, and I ended up buying my first machine, RFM. Soon it was followed by TZ. Played a ton, and then lost interest once again. I was not aware of the scene or community at that point. Despite enjoying pinball, it was still very much solitaire.
In 2012 or thereabouts, I was working for a company and the topic of pinball came up with one of my friends there. She said, "Hey, you need to get with this Rod guy here, he is hugely into pinball." So I ended up in the elevator with this dude, and was like, "Hey, are you Rod?" "Yeah" "You play pinball I hear?" "Oh, yeah" and the conversation fired up. We went to the Holiday Inn next door that had a Monster Bash and WCS and started playing. The first time I saw him bounce pass I nearly soiled myself. I had always played flow and live, and to watch this guy's patience and control was something I'd never seen before. I thought it looked boring, and continued to play live.
He told me he played competitively, and I thought, yikes that sounds dumb. He continually prodded me to come join his league, and after a year or so of pestering, I finally decided to join him and see what it was all about. I remember playing X-Men LE in warmup, and the first time I saw the Magneto multiball start, with the magnet and spinning disc, I felt like a kid again. I was in awe of the technology, the lights, the way that everything came together on that machine. Had a feeling that the trap was set, but not quite sure.
After our first week of playing (a herb style setup) in a league of 70 people, expecting to come in somewhere around 69, I found out that I was ranked 27th. And that began a whole new era of pinball for me. I had to know the rules, I had to practice, I had to compete. It was on.
I ended up finishing 19th in my first season. The trap was activated.
My next season I ended up finishing 4th overall, one spot ahead of Rod. Took first in our division finals. And none of that would have happened without the great people who were so willing to teach me rules, strategy, flipper skills needed to improve. Rod Lawrence. Don Johnson. John Delzoppo introduced me to measuring out a plunge and finding those skill shots before "game on". Mike Szilagyi. I met so many great people, I wanted to be that guy for people coming into the hobby.
These days, I'm not playing as competitively as I'd like, mostly a function of time, a 2 year old daughter, and life just being far too demanding. The highest I've been ranked was 171, my highest rating 37 I think it was. I've competed in state finals the last 4 years for Ohio, with my highest placement being 3rd. Would still love to be a State Champion, but it is insane how good these players are. I'm honored to be able to hang with them and steal some games here and there.
Outside of the competition side of things, I've been doing a complete teardown and rebuild of Whirlwind (THE actual whirlwind I played at that tech company) and Gorgar. Stripped down, clearcoated, cleaned all parts, painting, and getting it all nice and shiny and restored. It takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of love. But I have found myself handy with everything, from board work to art. As soon as these two are in the books, on deck is Funhouse, Stars, Time Fantasy, Seawitch, Mystic, and by the time those are done I'll probably be dead or in a home.
That's my story.
