Silly question but how do you really know when it's suppose to knock, my DM only knocks if I break a top number 1 score or I get a match. Both of which is rare because my top is around 4.5 billion and I suck at ponball and I have match turned off because of free play. So I guess when you say it fires fine during test but only sometimes during play I would think that's normal unless there is something different in tourney mode that I don't know of. I don't have enough friends to have tournaments lol.

I don't know man that sounds like one of those "wtf" problems that does not make any sense. Those are always the best to track because they take the norm out of normal, I'd be happy to provide any pics of mine that you may need.