My question is this: There is 100% no other way to clear alien invasion except for locking 5 balls correct? I know TSPP has all kinds of tricks up it's sleeves but under no circumstances and no combination of things happening or secrets will AI be beat without locking 5 balls?
Here is what happened. Playing a decent game on TSPP, get to alien invasion, lock 4 balls, get to 5 and then fail to beat it. I proceed to get to alien invasion a second time during the same game (Which I've done a few times but never to my knowledge had this happen). I have maybe 3 (may have been 4) balls in play and about 17 seconds left on the clock, all the sudden flippers die, the 6 piece mini wizard mode puzzle comes up and says I cleared AI? I finish my game off wondering what happened. I'm sure my switches are all working and I definitely wasn't up to 5 ball the second time through AI. I check my audits, sure enough no count on 5 ball lock? I thought hmm maybe I cleared one of the other puzzle pieces during the AI so I went back to the puzzle and checked it was definitely middle piece on the right hand side (which is alien invasion). Now I'm stumped. Can anyone school me on this? No different rules or anything the second time through? I didn't even see any adjustments for AI in portals.
Edit: I just thought of this but is there any way a lock could have been awarded to me somehow without physically locking a ball in?
Update: I can't recreate this no matter what I try so my only verdict is that I must have been mistaken somehow.