"Keith Elwin plunges and walks off" is Stern's next original pinball theme designed by Keith Elwin. I'm in on an LE

I just watched the vid of Stone blowing up F14. I went in to see him roll it, but the 3-way BOOM and Top Gun commentary stole the show.

You can be my wingman anytime, Ecto.

Keith just gave this tournament more publicity than it would have received if he played that last ball.

Genius.

...or, we could just watch it quietly, as some Facebook users are smart enough to allow non-sheep to watch as well.

That's cool he's a weatherman and showed off the trophy on TV.

I was there, the decision was strange to say the least not to try to play out the ball. He had nothing to lose, and in fact would have had a bigger story if he was actually able to comeback. Keith just did what he felt was right in that moment, who are any us to question it, as long as he is good with it then it is what it is.

There was no disrespect intended at all, Keith doesn't like the game, he felt the mountain was tough to climb so why bother. We may not agree with the decision but we were not the situation and people are free to do what they want to do. I definitely think it is a much different situation then conceding a game when you still have a chance to win but either way he did it his way and if Keith is going to give me a free win I would take it, as I have seen him comeback so many times in other tournaments. I am sure Escher was glad he did it.

CrazyLevi thanks for teaching me about the American breakfast staple, but grits just aren't my thing! Wife loved the marshmallow candy and daughter liked her shirt your a lifesaver dude, lol... A fun, hilarious weekend getting to hang out with just so many quality people, that is probably one of the best weekends I have had just because it had been so long to be able to do what we love to do.

What this thread should be about is talking about all the epic pinball that was played not someone walking away from a ball.

Cool is an understatement.

It's the most awesome fucking thing ever!!!!

The one downside to all this is from the point of view of Escher. He beat Keith Elwin, but he'll never know if he beat Elwin at his best or just because Elwin didn't want to play.

This in no way creates any influence or obligation on Elwin, he can do whatever he wants. We fans would have wanted to see the competition keep going, but we don't have any entitlement to get that.

this is the 52nd time they've been in the same competition together, i don't think you have to worry about that

Thanks for posting that link. What a cool guy and congratulations to him.

First you had Joe Moravsky weatherman/Amercian Ninja Warrior now this; nice!

exxxxxxxactttlyyyy...

He beat Elwin. That's all he cares about.

I discussed this with his dad/coach in the immediate aftermath of the final 8. They had absolutely zero problem with the way the match ended and were thrilled he advanced to the Final 4 in yet another huge tournament. There was no downside, except for the one some folks are projecting.

Note to any pro pinball players: If we meet up in any round of a tournament, and you decide to concede a game to me at any point, I will NOT take offense, and when I speak of you and the quality your sportsmanship with others, it will be only kindly.

When Keith had a chance to put initials in one the previous games against Escher and he put "ZZZ", I think he was already done at that point.

This is potentially a valid point. It could be that Keith for whatever reason (was exhausted) could not go on from the semis onwards so to prevent the chance that he could beat Escher on the last ball, he drained... rather than having to not play the semis giving a full bye to Eric.

Tbh playing this event is super exhausting so I certainly understand that. The games did look long playing as well. Why not concede at the start of the game then....

Levi, please tell me you didn't let this poor Canadian eat their grits raw as a fellow Canuck, I too grew up without the luxury of seasoning and flavor. You gotta educate these people.

But I don't like the term "Cracker Barrel", I much prefer the PC term: Caucasian Canister.

You are much smarter than this, but relentless positivity and support for pinball requires you to die on this hill. Tip o' the cap, sir.

Definitely the first time anybody has accused me of being relentlessly positive around here, so I'll return that tip o' the cap!

...or smart!

Nope! I was too busy going to parties and parks and cookouts and brunch and a farm with family & friends. Only a subset of a subset of pinball folks are masochistic enough to spend a holiday weekend playing pinball in a dark building, or sitting around watching it. IFPA has decided that a tourney is only worthwhile if the competitors end up hating pinball and/or themselves by the end of it. Or, you know, quitting.

Sounds like a man who has spent too much time at District 82!!!

I really don't know where folks are getting the idea that this was some kind of a pinball concentration camp.

It was a leisurely paced event, with plenty of time to socialize, go out for meals, or just hang out in the stifling tropical outside that is Florida. Many of us got to spend time with friends - people we genuinely like - who we haven't seen in well over 2 years. Some of us made new friends. And some of us were back home Sunday night, and doing whatever Memorial Day shit we wanted to do, enjoying the Holiday.

Some folks even got tans over the course of the week. And this is a pretty pasty bunch.

These tournaments are what you make of them. If you talked to all 64 competitors, each would tell you a different story of how they spent their (up to a) week in Florida. These stories would range between riding the Iron Gwazi in Tampa or spending the entire week playing pinball. Whatever the person in question enjoys doing.

Never been. Tempting, but I know my brain and feet would be over it in less than a day.

Sorry, for some reason I thought we met there. Just a joke, not an insult directed toward the fine folks at D82 or Wisconsin.

Looked like it from what (admittedly little) I saw of the stream.

I mean, I've been to PAPA, Pinburgh, etc. Some have more fringe benefits than others. And yeah, there's a lot of downtime when you're playing in a tourney, but seldom enough of it in one chunk to "see the sights." Have to show up a day early or stay a day late to see anything more than the airport industrial park in the devil's armpit.

Expo.

No worries, I don't think they even have the internet up there.

Well, if you come to the New York City Pinball Championships, you'll be in the heart of the Big Apple, a quick train or cab ride away from literally thousands of awesome tourist destinations! Tack a couple of days on either end of the tournament, and you'll have a vacation experience with memories to last a lifetime!!!

www.nycpinballchamps.com

Now THAT is actually tempting.

I took at look at the saved video stream and immediately thought, "why aren't the playfields being lit for the stream?"

The second thought was, someone rescue the Congo from the type of guy who installs green LEDs under plastic with foliage.

Perhaps was the wrong game to stop the slider bar on when the video loaded and I skipped to see some gameplay.

There were some autofocus lighting issues - yes, you picked the wrong game to stop on! This was corrected later in the broadcast, after a Sorcerer playfield forced it as it was seriously unwatchable.

Seems it was an auto exposure setting that got missed. The Congo game early on in qualifying was hilarious. It was definitely fixed by finals.

I just skipped ahead since I had the browser tab still open. Guardians of the Galaxy is too dim to be enjoyable to watch.

I came to the video stream to watch the games being played and I'm not sticking around if I can't see the game well. Certainly not staying to watch faceless men standing on the right side of my screen either.

Just saying, PinStadiums on the games would've vastly improved the watchability if you didn't not have any other external lighting to use on the playfield. Not a big deal to switch them from game to game either.

Pinstadiums are a disaster in tournaments. Besides the fact that many players don’t like them, if there’s an in-game maintenance issue the last thing anybody wants to deal with is those things when raising the playfield.

It wasn’t a lighting issue, it was a camera issue, and it was fixed.

Watching some more of the fantastic IFPA17 VOD... and just enjoyed an infamously bad CrazyLevi commentary line during Stone's marathon F-14 (Top Gun) game: "Jeff Teolis, you can be my side-man any time." lolol

Sorry, can't let you live that one down, my friend.

Anchorman wishes he had a trophy.

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Not in any parts I jumped around to watch. Hey, I gave it a shot based on all the enthusiasm in this thread.

Is this PRACTICE???

This is practice, RIGHT?

IFPA practice is more exciting than most sporting events !!

Often these are done as legitimate clock management strategies, when the team is ahead. If it's the NFL or NBA playoffs these are only done if the losing team is behind by so far in the final minutes that it's futile to play on (say, 24+ points with under a minute for NFL).

Man, what a controversy! NOBODY has ever plunged and walked away from basically an insurmountable game before in a tournament!

Nevabeendonbefore!

For those that don’t tourney play, this is common, and done frequently…if not just flat out done out of respect to move a tournament along.

This is literally A NOTHING BURGER, to quote the parlance of our time.

The real travesty is Levi not letting me get behind a mic after polishing off a bottle of bourbon to give some real, color commentary…(and let’s face it, he’s probably right!)

Playoffs?

Never once seen this happen (conceding the deciding game of a high leverage head to head event) in the 8 years I’ve been competing. Pretty common in non elimination games though.

Hulk! Help me plunge this.

You’ve never walked up to ball 3, being down, let’s say 600mil to 7mil in a game of TWD, or some other ridiculous amount?

This past Monday, at a regular league session, I plunged and walked off after walking up to a 100k deficit on ball 3 of gtb hulk, and hitting the lit 2x skill shot, just to not slow the tournament down.

I’ve been playing long enough to understand the odds, even when playing “perfect”. The BSD game from a couple of years ago at IFPA was not only an anomaly, it was basically “the perfect storm” between Danielle and Johaness (spelling). It was also the FINAL, deciding game. So there is certainly a difference there as well.

No cause I’m usually up. . Jk maybe I don’t give it my all at some local league or smaller event in that situation.

But I don’t care what the odds are, if I’m in that situation and it’s come back or lose the world title, I’m gonna do my damndest to come back.

Totally respect Keith’s decision, I was just shocked by it.

This was an elimination game. It’s the same as if it was the Final Final game imo.

800,000 is not insurmountable on DI, even for a player who is not world championship caliber. You just need to know the Big Bang rule and to collect SIM cards. As Erik said, people don’t walk away in the deciding game of playoffs… especially in the world championships. Keith has made larger comebacks in other tournaments (i.e., Centaur at Cle Pin) than what he needed to chase down on DI.
Seems to me that he didn’t really know the rules, but the commentators were openly talking about the strategy.

New theory: There was a betting service advertising on the twitch stream. Maybe Keith had money on Escher and wanted to protect his bet haha.

And yes, more Levi on commentary in any mental state is needed by ALL tournament streams. Still was great theatre and has people other than those who follow tilt forums talking about it.