I don't understand why people are so uppity about headlamps.

If someone wearing a headlamp shines it in the eyes of an adjacent player, this can be dealt with on an individual basis the same way any other form of distracting another player would be.

We are all born with a different quality of eyesight and sensitivity to light, and it changes throughout our lives. Even height affects the angle of the playfield and glass, and thus how we see the lights and the ball. You wouldn't consider banning sunglasses, stools, crouching...

Yes, the potential for distracting other players is there, but deal with it if/when it happens. (There are tons of other potential distractions to other players: floor mats, yelling, wearing headphones that are too loud...) If people start getting DQ'd for shining the light in someone else's eyes, you can bet they'll start keeping their headlamp focused on the machine and turn the light off before walking away.

With great lighting comes great responsibility.

I've got an empty room with two double beds at the Omni. Wednesday -> Sunday. It's $660 total. Send me a direct message if you're interested.

Still going. Found someone to share a room with.

Pray that he's only good at *his* JP. In NYC Champs last year, he had a 54m game of IMDN in the quarterfinals...so anything is possible.

Also, you don't have to worry, because it's the *first* game for all the marbles that would be on JP. The last game will be an early solid state. So start practicing for Cheetah or Stars or something.

Whysnow Freshii might be worth looking into. Their website kind of sucks for me right now, so hard to tell the exact menu, but it looks like the kind of place that would have lots of gluten free stuff. I ate most breakfasts there last year and it's right around the corner from Omni.

Might be primarily (or entirely?) veggie, in case that's a plus or minus for anyone.

This is actually the best time to play. Pinburgh competitors are exhausted and need to eat/sleep.

Those fold down couches in the vip section were cool. I vote add more of those, and include a complimentary wake up service five minutes before each round begins.

Yes. I had mine in my pocket most of the time, and would only bring it out to get into the VIP area. The area was a nice perk, but I only did VIP to get me an extra shot at buying a ticket.

Not sure if anyone got a pic, but for a time the Sharpe brothers were hanging out, separated by that wall. People on both sides were entertained.

I thought it was going to be too weird sitting in there, but it was off to the side and there wasn't really any foot traffic nearby...so I didn't feel like the 1%.

That puts me in the 0.17%, but who's counting?!?

I asked if they could hang onto it and ship it to me later, and the answer was something like: "we've done it enough for Keith, so I'm sure we can figure something out".

At least it's good to know there is room for my reputation to grow.

True. But there is no guarantee that the bob has stopped swinging by then.

At some point, the time spent addressing the suggestion will outweigh the time spent installing them.

I'll come a day early next year and help!

I do think it's unfortunate that sometimes top players don't get in, but I'm not sure they should be guaranteed.

There are lots of other circuit/tournaments where the top players are guaranteed entry (ie: earn their way in through skillful play over a designated period of time): IFPA World Championships, Stern Pro Circuit Finals, and State/Province Championship Series. Could be others I'm missing.

There is hope!

Experiment a little with how much of the earplug you use (half, 3/4, full, etc). Depending on the game, sometimes it can be too much, sometimes not enough. Reducing tilt-throughs is the noblest of aspirations.

Absolutely. With earplugs, you are more likely to be able to get the game exactly where you want it tilt-wise, rather than taking the trade off of making a looser tilt for the purpose of avoiding phantom tilts, or tilt-throughs.

Crafty.

If I was waiting for more than a minute, it would only be because I had evidence that a minute wasn't enough (like, we already saw a tilt through, or a player in our group got a phantom tilt in on a previous ball, or I heard a story about one of those two situations from an earlier round regarding this machine). And in that case, I'd let the other players in my group know I was going to wait more than a minute, and let them know why.

At that point, it seems pretty unlikely that a player would call over a TD for a delay ruling. But meanwhile, the tilt bob is settling while we wait.