Short Shorty’s Recap, Plus Things are Good in Portland
Posted: November 14th, 2008 by ROM
Another Shorty’s come and gone! The underwater clown-themed hot dog bar hosted their 11th annual tournament this past weekend. We took the mega-van up to Seattle, with others taking cars and trains… all for one day of practice on their machines, and one day of competition. I think we had 14 or so from CFF? Plus friends from Portland. The machines played nice, 117 people entered, including three folks from IFPA‘s top ten, plus a bunch of other rippers. Not to be too negative, but the tournament itself is mostly excruciating and run like lousy (cramped space, then empty machines for hours as we all sit around waiting for the organizers to figure out our next rounds, single game rounds, etc.). 
Next time we’ll be bringing dominoes to help fill out the hours. That said, it’s no doubt a fun time. It’s great to connect with others in the pinball world, and especially, to see how the rippers play. Since the trip, our message board has been filled with lively strategy discussion.
As usual, we managed to piss off a few wankers. One dude apparently burned one of our stickers, and so was dowsed with water. Holy crap! In the tournament the next day he experienced total karmic payback, with Gorgar, the unofficial God of Pinball, delivering a shocking slam tilt on Addam’s right when the dude was preparing to take a victory lap. Take that!
I ranked highest in CFF in the tournament – around 16th or so, I believe – which was a bit disappointing for us all. We’ve shown better in the past. But it is what it is – most of all, it’s fun to compete. Our next trip up to Seattle will be for the 2nd Annual NW Pinball Expo (June, most likely). Eden from the Vancouver Regional Pinball Association told me about his grand plans for that show’s tournament, and it sounds like it’s going to be killer. It was run well last year (well, this year, still), and from the sound of it, 2009’s will be even better (extra prizes, a supplementary Electro-Mechanical tourney, etc.). The expo is supposed be larger, too (meaning, more machines to play, plus more speakers).
Eric (EKH) did best of our Portland crew (9th or so). He even took out Keith Elwin (ranked #1 in the world) – on a barfbag Revenge from Mars. Eric’s organizing the upcoming Slabtown tournament in NW Portland. November 20th.
This tournament’s going to be awesome. Make sure to get there on time, lazies!
Speaking of tournaments! To make up for the lack of Taxi Tuesday’s lately, DropShot threw together a tournament at Ship Ahoy last night. $5 entry. For a last minute tourney, we had a fine field – ten entered. Danny Backglass, sporting a slick new H-cut, took home the pot. We’re hoping to do something like this on a weekly basis. Not everyone can make the bi-weekly meetings (including DannyB, most unfortunately), and so we’re making more efforts to fill in the time with some more events. Plus, we need more experience with competition! I’ll try to keep the calendar up to date.
In conclusion, check out the pumpkin I carved!!
4 Responses to 'Short Shorty’s Recap, Plus Things are Good in Portland'
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danny backglass 14 Nov 08 at 1:43 pm
Holy Fukin pumpkin! nice.
H-Cut. That shit was killin me.
I needed that money super bad.
The Black Knight sending luck my way
from across the street. And Super Loops.
Super fun tourny tho.
Aaron 14 Nov 08 at 4:13 pm
Once they move that Black Knight up north we’ll have to have another at the Ship. Since next week is Slabtown and our Sunday meeting, followed by Thanksgiving and last Sunday at the Alleyway, I vote for a tourney the first Thursday of December at the Goodfoot. Nicely done last night DannyB, that was fun.
BounceBack 14 Nov 08 at 8:28 pm
yeah i had good times. i think it would rule to keep doing weekly tournaments. let’s not forget the fun of some of the pinbrawls saturday nights at billy rays. if we started earlier and had more organized brackets those could continue to be awesome. if not full brawls then informal 1 on 1 money games are good too. maybe eventually i’ll win a couple.
bb
BounceBack 14 Nov 08 at 8:32 pm
also, do you think you can tell how people have sex by how they play pinball, like how that guy was saying? was anyone else around for that? where the fuck was it… talking about his lady tilts a lot and whatever. look at that guy next to me. straight up and down. boring in the sack. ROM carves jackolanterns into his victims. apparently i make the horrible strained intense face you see above and purse my lips and score way lower if i have to go first.