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.

Robert Gagno (and both his cool parents) are members of the SPL, just like James Edes is a VRPA guy too! Kyle comes down from time to time and causes havoc in our ranks. Todd Mac and Angelo were down for the Transformers tournament at Dorky's and got 1st and 3rd in that (I got 4th). I think Tommy Floyd and Dale were down at the Transformers thing at Shorty's. Eden and Bonnie come down for events now and again too. So, yeah, the VRPA people are well-known here!

All the SPL events this year have taken place at collectors' homes save for one which took place in a very nice public meeting room in a rather swanky Bellevue hotel. Andrew Nunes, James Edes, Randy Pouley, Mike Lorraine, Mitch Anderson, and Rod Olsen have hosted. Byron Rainz hosted the last one. I made sure to stay away from games like CFTBL as I know it's a very popular Tribe selection. Not many people have CV, so that was safe to choose. Typically I choose EMs whenever possible. The Great Equalizer, indeed!

Tourney winners: 4th place was James Edes, 3rd was Aaron Bendickson, 2nd was Cayle George, and 1st place went to Sagel Frazier, who is as deadly as Jason Hatch. He, Jason, and Simon Stocker are three Shorty's regulars you should watch out for. In fact, Sagel beat out Cayle at the Shorty's tournament Nov. 5th. The grand prize for that was a Williams Stellar Wars. I remember that game from when it was new...

And now you know my secret. James Edes is the same way. We remember the games when they were brand new in the arcades, so for us it's more remembering how we played it before rather than learning it...

Maka's skill has improved exponentially in the year or so I've known him. Very Dangerous.
It always amazes me how aloof Jeff (Deathsave?) is while he totally obliterates the competition. Wish I could play like that!
Not sure who Kevin is (Pittman, perhaps?). We've a new young player named Kevin who's part of Raymond Davidson's circle of pinball friends along with Jarrett Gaddy. Those three are really skilled. Don't be put off by their youthful appearance.
Jason Hatch is a deadly player. I don't know why he doesn't play pro, he could give Cayle a hard time for once.

I played Neil Shatz and Cayle George in an informal game of Bad Cats in the back room of Slabtown during the Showdown last year. Got annihilated, but yeah, Neil has some amazing skills! He's also one of the nicest people I've met, like Todd Mac.

Wow. I've been rambling a bit, haven't I?