This past weekend was the Southern Hemisphere pinball championships, though with covid restrictions it was essentially the national championships this year. The host had a private collection of over 100 tables (which I could list, but it’d be excessive). He repairs and restores electro magnetic pinball machines (ie old ones) which formed maybe half of his collection.
Some of the highlights for me were 3 generations of Star Trek tables, all built in their relevant era. A Star Trek original series table, a next generation table, and the newer movie reboot table. I also got to play on a Jurassic park with its adventure mode, a Rick and Morty table with its excellent theme integration in its mission mode, and a brand new Mandalorian, and Godzilla.
I’m surprised how much I enjoyed the electro magnetic games, and how well suited they were for tournament play. They play fast and the high scoring areas of the table can quickly be figured out by the other players. On more modern tables the mission modes can be a bit convoluted if you don’t know the table. The electro magnetic games also require an entirely different method of nudging, which I observed the top players doing and look forward to practicing it in future. They’re basically constantly slapping the table lol
Anyway, there were 3 tournaments, and I placed 32/62, 16/53, and had a bit of a blow out on the last day and ended up 38/54.
Going into the lions den that is the national championship, I was expecting bottom third places in all 3 tournaments. I exceeded this in 2 of the tournaments, even ending up in the top third of one tournament. Really pleased for my results, and looking forward to the next batch of tournaments.