Like everyone else I'm stunned by this news. I met and chatted with Lyman at a couple of tournaments over the years, very cool dude.

From a professional standpoint his work ethic was the lone bright light in the dark ages of Stern's cost-cutting approach to BOM and unfinished code, quickly moving onto the next game while owners ranted in endless Pinside threads. Thing is, if Lyman owned the code for a game, he would work on it nights and weekends to fix bugs and tweak rules, even while he worked on "the next game." That was legendary commitment to his craft, giving buyers the utmost confidence in pre-ordering his games. It was a different than if he was one of several coders. His world class playing skills was also a large part of this success and commitment.

My dream theme was Metallica, and before the game was ever announced I was literally debating whether or not to pull the trigger if Lyman wasn't on the code but the heavens aligned and it didn't matter that I was out of cash, it was a no-brainer. I have at least 3 other machines with his name on them, and no plans on them going anywhere.

This hits harder than most because he was young... that perpetual reminder of our mortality. RIP