Archive for August, 2009

Showdown Finale

After three days of pinball mayhem, the showdown is complete. Victory! For Portland’s Noah Davis. Congratulations, Noah. Noah took home a Lethal Weapon 3 pinball machine (the machine plays a song by C+C Music Factory, in case you didn’t know that), and $180 cash.

We’d like to extend our thanks to a number of folks for helping to make this a great weekend. First off, thanks to Brinda Coleman and Sam Soule at Slabtown, for hosting the event and advertising it and making it rad. Slabtown has 12 machines right now, and from what I’ve heard they’re going to stay there. Thanks to Jakob Chandler and Mike Mahaffey at Quality Entertainment. They dialed in the machines, and Jake stayed around (and competed) the whole weekend and made sure they all played well. Thanks also to Trish and Jeri from Ricochet. They operate the six non-tournament machines (Demo Man and Dr. Dude were used in mini-tourneys). Those machines are great, and thanks for putting them on free play all weekend.

Special thanks to Aaron, Eric, and Fred for organizing and running the tournament! And super thanks to Jake for putting a lot of work into the shopping out the prize machine.

Also, thanks to everyone who came from out of town. Maka, Cayle, Nycole, Julie, Deathsave – they all came down from Seattle. And we’re glad you did!

Here is the 16, with their payouts:

  • 1. Noah Davis (Lethal Weapon 3 – $180)
  • 2. Cayle George (tie breaker against Jay for 2nd place – $300; top qualifier – $50; Dr. Dude – $35)
  • 3. Jason America ($216)
  • 4. Fred Franken ($120)
  • 5. Maka Honig ($48 – tied 5th)
  • 5. Jeff Gagnon ($48 – tied 5th)
  • 7. Aaron Nelson ($48)
  • 8. Jake McGhee ($48)
  • 9. Louie Hamlett ($24)
  • 10. Dennis Brenhaug ($24)
  • 11. David Dimoff ($24)
  • 12. Nycole Hyatt ($24 – and top female qualifier – $50)
  • 13. Chris Rhodes ($24)
  • 13. Eric Hill ($24)
  • 15. Danny Backglass ($24)
  • 16. Paul Kalk ($24)

And Justin Lentz won on a vicious battle against Jakob Chandler on Demolition Man to earn the PBR snowboard.

Uh, I took this casual shot of the top four, but it kinda came out as the most depressing winners shot ever. The next picture I took, with them smiling, came out totally out of focus. So this is what you get.
winners

Okay, here are some pictures, starting from last night.

The Saturday night scramble!
scramble

rhodesThere was some serious scrambling for position during the final hour on Saturday night. The most common word I heard floating around the room was, no doubt, “Fuck!” And during that hour this man right here, Chris Rhodes, kept things under control. Sometimes wielding two clipboards at once, he bounded back and forth behind the play area, marking scores, barking orders, grabbing quarters, and encouraging players to hit jackpots. It’s no surprise that on Sunday he traded in his Session hat for about 10 Session beers. If you ever happen to see Rhodes puttering around town on his scooter, make sure to rush out in the street and give him a high five.

Eric during a lull on the final day.
eric

Jason “Kickback” America, 3rd place finisher, takes a breather during the second round of the final. I wonder what he’s thinking about? Maybe pinball?
jay

The first game of the final round was – surprise! – played on the prize machine. The machine was set on the stage in the main room. Here, Noah plays his first ball while everyone watches.
lethal

Kickback has a go.
kickback

Solitary warrior – Cayle George.
cayle

Blurry shot of the line-up. This is during the final game of the final round.
lineup

Viewers and competitors during the final game. The energy in the room definitely became more tense during the final matches.
audience
audience2

Today’s final rounds were a lot of fun (for me, fun to watch and keep track of scores). It was exciting through and through – lots of close matches, big come-backs, valiant efforts, and epic battles. We hope everyone had a good time.

Posted: August 23rd, 2009
at 10:18pm by ROM


Categories: CFF,Pinball

Comments: 9 comments


Slabtown Top 16

Coming into the finals, here is the top 16. These folks will be squaring off against each other, starting at 1pm. Good luck.

If you didn’t make it into the finals, thanks still for entering! There was strong competition, and it was a lot of fun (speaking as someone who didn’t make it). The mini-tourneys and bands and free play really helped to turn it into an even cooler event.

And cAyle George won the Dr. Dudical Radtastic Coinbash. Congrats! He got 24million or so.

Come check out the final action tomorrow. It should be fierce!

Posted: August 23rd, 2009
at 12:40am by ROM


Categories: Pinball

Comments: 2 comments


Showdown at Slabtown (Updated again! 7:30pm Sat.)

slabtown showdown

The scores/rankings have been updated as of 7:30pm Saturday. We still have until midnight!

Edit again: these spreadsheets are now the final ones.

Click the links to see the spreadsheets!

Original post:

Aloha showdowners! The first day of the qualifying round is complete. So far 33 people have entered (as far as I know). We thought we’d show you where every one stands. These stats will show you the overall rankings, plus how each individual has ranked on each machine; and it will also show you the individual machines, and what scores people have been putting up on them.

(To remind: You get points based on how well your scores on each machine match up to other people’s scores. The best strategy for this type of qualifying round is to play all six machines, and get a decent score on each one. A worse strategy is to play one machine over and over, with the goal of having the number 1 ranked score on that machine. Spread it out! Play them all.)

So, Saturday will be the big qualifying day. We expect a lot more people to enter, and the scores to go up and up! But for now, those are the scores to beat. Think you have what it takes to qualify for the finals (top 16)? I think you do, because you are special. Now go prove me right!

Here’s the line-up:
slabtown action

The qualifying round ends at midnight Saturday. But that’s not the only thing that ends at midnight on Saturday! The Dr. Dude Super Excellent Cashbox Shaka Brah Mini-Tournament also ends then! Whomever has the highest score (the Grand Champ) at that time will win the contents of the cashbox (aka lots of quarters). The game is 25 cents to play, and so far it’s seen a lot of action. And guess what? I currently have the Grand Champ! Yay. Right guys? YAY! The score I put up is around 14,775,000. So that’s the score to beat. Think you can beat it? I don’t think you can. Because when I was growing up I was a surf rat, and basically lived the life of Dr. Dude. I really connect with that machine. So, I dunno, maybe you should give up now?

Other things to remember: There are five machines in the other room, for super fun casual play. There are rad bands playing tomorrow night (in a separate room).

Also, Portland’s KGW did a story on the tournament for their nightly news. I missed it, but it sounded cool. If anyone finds the video online, please send it our way.

Hope to see you tomorrow!

Posted: August 22nd, 2009
at 1:04am by ROM


Categories: CFF,Pinball

Comments: 1 comment


Showdown at Slabtown

That’s right ladies and gents….Slabtown is less than a week away.  This Friday and/or Saturday come down to Slabtown located at 1033 NW 16th Ave just under the 405 bridge.  Qualifying will be from 3-midnight on Friday and 12-midnight on Saturday.  The top 16 will make it to the finals on Sunday to compete for the grand prize pinball machine Lethal Weapon 3.  During qualifying feel free to play each game as many times as you would like, we will only keep your best score per machine and rank them based on everyone else’s scores to determine the point value.  Add up all your points on all 6 machines and the top 16 continue on into Sunday.  Don’t forget to check out CFF’s own Federation of Eagles hitting the stage Saturday night as well.  There will be 6 machines on free play the entire weekend.  Some of you may already know but here is the final tournament line-up:

Addam’s Family

Congo

Medieval Madness

Twilight Zone

High Speed II: The Getaway

Monster Bash

Also…during Saturday nights show there will be a street tourney going on in the front of the bar on one machine.  That prize is a PBR snowboard.  Pretty sure that does not come with boots or bindings…dang!

This event should be a blast…if you are coming in late Friday or Saturday just tell the guy at the door you are here for the pinball event and he will let you in.  You do have to enter the pinball tourney then to get a wrist band for the weekend.  Hope to see you all there.

Posted: August 17th, 2009
at 1:16pm by dropshot


Categories: Events

Comments: No comments


Slingshot 8/12 7:00pm

Last one before the Showdown at Slabtown this Wednesday at The Slingshot.  Located at Center St. and Foster.  $5 buy-in.  Single game double elimination.

Lord of the Rings

Shadow

Indiana Jones

Addam’s Family

See you all there!

Posted: August 10th, 2009
at 10:07am by dropshot


Categories: Events

Comments: No comments