All of the above.

I've heard Zach Sharpe say that his strongest area is recovery because his accuracy is poor...but I think he means "compared to the other top players in the world". I'm sure his accuracy is at least a 8 out of 10, if not higher.

None of the top players in the world have huge deficiencies in any of the areas you mentioned, that's why they're the best.

If you want to know the next thing you need to work on, start keeping track of how you lose each ball. Not just where it went, but what caused it to be out of control in the first place.

Another skill I might add: being able to play well on your first attempt. There is a big difference between scoring 200m on your 500th play on the machine you have at home, and scoring 200m by walking up to that same game on location (or in a tournament).

Some random thoughts and anecdotes about game knowledge...

1) Flipper skills and game knowledge have been continuously see-sawing for me over the last few years. There have been long periods of time where to practice for an upcoming event, it made more sense for me to study game rules...and other times it made more sense for me to just play and work on skills. If one got too far ahead, it was more beneficial to work on helping the other catch up.

2) There are 3 people locally who I expect to know just about everything regarding game rules on any game I'm about to play on location. Two are in the top 100, and the other is in the 2000s. The guy in the 2000s plays around 50 tournaments a year.

3) Of all the times I've heard someone lament their lack of game knowledge, I'd guess that 80-90% are cases where they're comparing themselves to players significantly more skilled than them in all/most other aspects.

4) *Some* game knowledge is very important. But even on modern Sterns, two or three sentences is all a good player needs. I was there when the current #45 in the world played his first three games of Iron Maiden. We talked about rules as he played, and his scores were 150m, 500m, 1b. On his second game, with no prior rules knowledge, he broke the Grand Champ....and then doubled that on his third game. In about 900 total plays on the machine, the next highest score across all players is around 600m.

5) I was playing Tron while thinking about this thread last night. I do somewhere around 1-4 ball control moves per controlled shot. Regardless of my rules knowledge, it takes me several moves/decisions just to get the ball to a place where I feel I can put that knowledge to good use.

Rules knowledge isn't #1...but it's the best scapegoat.

Assuming a modern machine, I'd say:

1) Accuracy (if you never miss, your game will last nearly forever)
2) Ball/Flipper Control
3) Most impactful 5% of the rules
4) Nudging
5) Mental Game
6) The other 95% of the rules

If you get to include other aspects on the list under the umbrella of mental game, then I suppose it should be #1.

I totally agree that it helps with all those other areas. But a great mental game can't help someone who can't: hit shots, control the ball, nudge, or learn the rules.

True for me also. I do have a lot of the initials on my own machines on location (because I play them often), but very few initials anywhere else. I only play a handful of wizard modes over the course of a year, and I have at least 8 machines where I've never been there at all.

Success in tournaments with direct play has almost nothing to do with the ability to blow up games. It'll all about consistently solid scores.