I am an operator and league player. I want our games to work 100%. Guess what ? They don’t. If a game has some major issue then we skip it for the night and fix it that week. If a switch is sometimes flaky on a 1970s pin, get used to it. Because once we fix that one you can for sure fine another one on another machine. It’s whack a mole. And at the place we used to play at before I opened my place, we mostly had to play around the many significant errors including the third flipper not working at all. Our league director, tournament director is also our lead repairer. Once you’ve had that dual role you can well appreciate the Herculean task of having a tournament with all 100% working pins. But we try our best. I get the sentiment that in a tournament you want no error games. I just think it’s an unreasonable ask, and so does the rest of our league

THAT ....

My league contributes $150 each week to the arcade. That would be enough to ... close up shop. We keep our machines in good working order out of pride, most don’t notice. But we do not claim perfection and do not strive for it. And if people get all uppity because some contact wasn’t working that day, we suggest that perhaps there are other locations that can better meet their needs.