Some nights everything clicks. Other nights, you find yourself doing the toddler stomp after every game. Tonight was definitely the second kind.
After spending the entire weekend at The Outpost Arcade with 20 rounds of qualifying on Saturday, the Strikes tournament on Sunday, and a ton of practice in between, I came into league feeling prepared. I even set a new personal high score on Dune (175 million) during warmups, so confidence was high.
Round 1 – Total Nuclear Annihilation
4th Place (1 point)
Not the start I wanted. The original game actually had to be restarted after a player order glitch, so we lost our first attempt. On the restart I managed to destroy the reactor, but it wasn’t enough to catch the field.
Round 2 – Star Trek: The Next Generation
2nd Place (5 points)
Finally, a game that felt more like me. I worked my way to Warp 4, started missions, and finished with 125 million to earn second place. It wasn’t enough to catch Shaniya’s monster game, but it got me back on track.
Round 3 – Jaws Premium
3rd Place (3 points)
This one was frustrating because I actually played several parts of the game really well. I hit both pop bumper skill shots, started Tiger Shark Bounty, reached Jaws Multiball, and even spun the upper playfield reel. I simply couldn’t keep the ball alive long enough to turn those moments into a big score.
Round 4 – Sorcerer
2nd Place (5 points – 3-player game)
This game was basically decided by one huge ball from Mahina after she inherited a locked ball. Krisha and I both struggled, but I managed to edge into second place and pick up valuable points.
Round 5 – Dune
4th Place (1 point)
This one hurt.
I had just set a new personal best on Dune before league, but during the match I couldn’t quite get anything going. I started Harvest 1 and was only a shot away from a worm lock, but finished with 19.3 million.
The painful part? Third place beat me by less than 700,000 points.
To add insult to injury, I played Dune three times after league, and every single one of those games would have been good enough for first place. That’s pinball for you.
Final Results
Total Nuclear Annihilation – 4th
Star Trek: The Next Generation – 2nd
Jaws Premium – 3rd
Sorcerer – 2nd
Dune – 4th
League Points: 14
Final Thoughts
It wasn’t the night I wanted.
I know how to play every one of these games, but too many drains came from shots that normally work for me.
It wasn’t nerves about other players’ scores—it was simply one of those nights where execution never quite matched preparation.
The standings took a hit, too. Several players had excellent nights, and because Hailey had missed an earlier week, every point she earned tonight counted toward her season total. That’s just how the math works.
The good news? This was one rough week in an otherwise solid season. I’m still right around the A/B division cutoff heading into the final week.
Making A Division again will probably require a huge performance next Monday, but whether I end up in A or B, the goal stays the same:
Keep learning. Keep improving. Keep showing up.
Some nights the pinball wins.
Incidental Exercise Receipts
Next week, I’ll be back to try again.
Still counts. Always! 🎱💜
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