🎯 The Outpost Arcade Strikes for a Cause Tournament Recap

Sunday’s pinball adventure took us to The Outpost Arcade for a Strikes for a Cause tournament benefiting a local food drive.

The format was a three-strike group knockout tournament with bounty chips in play.

The tournament started with 18 players, and the mission was simple: keep playing, avoid collecting three strikes, and try to hang onto your bounty chip for as long as possible.

I forgot my little food donation on the kitchen counter, but I had good intentions.

Then it was time to play.

🐍 Round 1: Medusa

My tournament started on a game I really like: Medusa.

Unfortunately, Medusa did not love me back quite as much that day.

A bad plunge on Ball 1 left me with only 18,500, but I recovered and worked the drop targets throughout the game.

Final scores:
Dan Torrens — 536,700
Colin Taylor — 227,500
Tyler Dominique — 204,000
Me — 165,000

Strike #1.

I actually enjoyed the game and would have happily played longer. I got a good number of the upper drop targets, but not quite enough to recover from that rough start.

Also, Medusa’s score display apparently feared being turned to stone and refused to cooperate with my camera. Even video could not completely tame the flickering display.

Very on theme.

🪱 Round 2: Dune

Next up was Dune, where only one player in our three-player group would receive a strike.

This game went much better.

I hit the 10-million-point skill shot on all three balls, started training, hit some targets and scoops, and finished with:
Krisha Shufran — 56,175,290
Me — 38,485,410
Elaine Hecht — 15,394,310
Safe! No strike.
Still alive.

🎱 Round 3: Genesis

I really like Genesis, and I was having fun with this one.

On Ball 1, I hit two inlanes, a ramp, and all three drop targets for 199,000.

Then came Ball 2.
House ball.

I went into Ball 3 sitting in third place and needing to catch John Magyar for the second safe position.

Final scores:
Dan Freeburg — 1,847,700
John Magyar — 384,330
Me — 379,390
Dave Halley — 211,510

I missed safety by 4,940 points.

Strike #2.

Ouch.

One more switch might have changed the entire result. That Ball 2 house ball hurt, especially because I really like Genesis and would have loved to play longer.

Meanwhile, Dan Freeburg was apparently playing an entirely different game from the rest of us with his 1.8 million.
Dan is good. 😂

👾 Round 4: Ultraman — On the Live Feed
With two strikes, I headed into Ultraman: Kaiju Rumble knowing that another strike would end my tournament.
And, naturally, our group was on the live feed.
No pressure.
My first ball was mostly one lock, two drops, and a whole lot of flailing for 2.3 million.
Ball 2 was much better. I collected two locks, completed three drops, and started multiball, bringing my score to 10.8 million.
I finished with 15 million, but in a four-player group, third and fourth place both receive strikes.
I finished third.

Strike #3. Tournament over for me.

And who finished ahead of me and helped send me out of the tournament?

My husband.🤦‍♀️🙀

I lost my bounty chip to Andrew.
My chip-toy husband had officially eliminated me. 😂

I finished tied for 14th out of 18 players.

At that point, I figured I would practice, take pictures, enjoy the arcade, and watch Andrew play for a while.

I had no idea just how long I was going to be watching.

🏆 Meanwhile, Andrew Refused to Die

Andrew had finished fourth overall at Starfighters the day before, so apparently he arrived at The Outpost on Sunday and decided to continue his excellent pinball weekend.

He started the tournament by doing something extremely useful in a three-strike knockout:

Not getting strikes.

Round after round, Andrew kept surviving.

He made it through his first seven rounds without collecting a single strike.

While I wandered around the arcade playing practice games on Cirqus Voltaire, Transporter: The Rescue, and Sorcerer, I would periodically check the standings.

Andrew was still alive.

Check again.

Still alive.

Again.

Still alive.

Eventually, the field of 18 players became five.

Then fewer.

And Andrew was still there.

The Final Battle

Eventually, the tournament came down to:
Andrew Kohtz vs. Brad Vogus

Brad had gone deep into the tournament without collecting a strike, while Andrew had finally picked up two of his own.
Andrew was one strike away from elimination.

He needed to keep winning.

And he did.

🐍 Medusa

Andrew beat Brad and handed him a strike.

❌ The Uncanny X-Men

Andrew beat Brad again.
Now both players had two strikes.
After twelve rounds, everything came down to one final game.

🌋 Round 13: Volcano

Andrew Kohtz — 2 strikes
Brad Vogus — 2 strikes

One game.

One winner.

One final strike.

After nearly four hours of knockout pinball, the entire tournament came down to Volcano.

Final score:
Andrew — 44,830
Brad — 36,820

🏆 ANDREW WON THE TOURNAMENT!

Thirteen rounds.

Eighteen players.

A seven-round streak without a single strike.

A battle all the way through the final two.

And a winner-take-all showdown on Volcano.

Andrew was the last player standing.

The man took my bounty chip and apparently used it as a power-up. 😂

The chip-toy husband became the tournament champion.

And after finishing fourth overall at Starfighters on Saturday, winning The Outpost tournament on Sunday made for one heck of a pinball weekend.

❤️ Pinball for a Cause

As much fun as the competition was, the best part of the day was the reason everyone was there.

The tournament brought the pinball community together to support a local food drive while doing something we already love.

The Outpost Arcade helps Ascend. Click to read more.

That is one of my favorite things about the pinball community.

Yes, we compete.

Yes, we desperately try to control a little silver ball inside a 250-pound box where physics, skill, and anarchy collide.

But we also show up.

We support our arcades, tournament organizers, fellow players, and communities.

The pinball community gives me so many stories to tell through Wellness Whiskers Silverballs, so whenever I have the opportunity to give a little support and attention back, I am happy to do it.

We support each other.

🍗 Victory Dinner at Lucky Lou’s

By the time the tournament finally ended, we were starving.

We headed to Lucky Lou’s Grill for a very necessary post-tournament meal.

I ordered a Nashville chicken sandwich with no bacon, extra pickles, and fries.

The sandwich arrived looking less like dinner and more like an architectural project.

The giant toasted bun made the whole thing feel overwhelming, so I skipped the bun, cut up the chicken, and happily noshed on the chicken, extra pickles, and coleslaw instead.

And the coleslaw?

KFC-style tasty, but with bigger shreds. Yum.

Andrew, fresh off his tournament victory, ordered a turkey club croissant with no bacon and a Caesar salad.

Eventually, I looked at the mountain of food still left on my plate and officially called:

Uncle.

Full is full.

🌩️ One Wild Arizona Sky to End the Day

We left Chandler shortly before a storm was expected to move through the area and made it home to North Phoenix.

Not long after we arrived, the sky started putting on a show.

The clouds were moving quickly, the air was muggy, and a slightly cooler breeze had started blowing.

For one brief moment, one of the clouds looked exactly like a flying saucer hovering in the pink and purple sky.

Then it disappeared almost as quickly as it arrived.

Apparently, even the aliens wanted to drive by and check the tournament results.

A Pretty Great Sunday

So, Sunday looked something like this:
🥫 Support a food drive
🪙 Play a three-strike knockout tournament
🐍 Get my first strike on Medusa
🪱 Survive Dune
🎱 Miss safety on Genesis by only 4,940 points
📺 Get eliminated on Ultraman while playing on the live feed
🔴 Lose my bounty chip to my husband
🎪 Wander around playing practice games
👀 Watch Andrew refuse to die for round after round
🌋 Watch him win the entire tournament on Volcano
🏆 Celebrate an incredible championship run
🍗 Eat a giant Nashville chicken dinner
🌩️ Come home to a wild Arizona sky and a possible UFO sighting