What a day!
Yesterday was the last Seattle Pinball League Open Tournament for 2011. I'd racked up a pretty good standing during the year, but there were only a few slots left for the Top 16 who would be playing in the Masters tournament next month.
I did very well the first round, scoring 31 out of 35 possible points for the five games we chose to play (Theater of Magic, Indiana Jones (1993), Creature From The Black Lagoon, Twilight Zone, and Champion Pub). I was playing against Chase Nunes, Andrew Nunes, and Brian Headley, all top-ranked players.
The second round was three games. I was matched up against Raymond Davidson, Maka Honig, and Cayle George, all world-class players. Some of you may even have heard of those guys. Did abysmally at Indiana Jones and Creature From The Black Lagoon against those guys, getting a 4th and 3rd. Chase Nunes took me aside and told me to be the spoiler on the third game since I was looking a bit down, so I chose Cirqus Voltaire since it's one that isn't at Shorty's (and therefore not as well-known as Champion Pub or Indiana Jones) and had my best game ever (62M), even beating Cayle on that one (personal milestone achieved)!
So with five points I was in a four-way playoff for the fourth-place spot in the final game on CFTBL. However, Aaron Bendickson, who had been having his best tourney day ever and would finish third, quickly knocked me out of the loop.
So I ended up with a tie for fifth place in the Tournament, but most importantly my performance landed me one of the Top 16 spots!
So next month I play for one of the Border Brawl positions, where the SPL's and VRPA's best 12 duke it out in two-player competitions! My best pinball day ever was last year's Border Brawl. I just barely got in and ended up being one of the survivors at the end of the day!
So that's what's going on in Seattle.