For the tournament they should have just left the banana flippers and remove the flipper rubber cover. put a standard pinball flipper rubber on, and essentially the banana flippers are converted to regular flippers. that would have solved the problem for both them and Pheobe. The bounce is slightly different, but for the most part, it makes a banana flipper play like a non-banana flipper. You know, without turning a wrench, it's a decent solution. also if you want to know how a TW plays without bananas, that is a good and easy test.

https://img-f.pinside.com/201503/2293621/371784-i.jpg