Well, Season 5 is officially underway, and apparently I decided to start it with a little bit of everything.
Five rounds. Five very different machines. One win, three second-place finishes, one third-place finish, a whole lot of walking, a whole lot of stairs, and one extremely successful post-league Foo Fighters therapy session.
Not a bad Thursday.
Round 1 — The Addams Family 🖤
We started on The Addams Family, and I got off to a really solid start.
Final scores:
🥇 Jim Smith AZ — 104.1M
🥈 Christy — 77.0M
🥉 Brittany Adamo — 29.5M
4️⃣ Gary Hatch — 20.4M
My three balls were:
Ball 1: 52M — skill shot, Greed Multiball, Thing Multiball, lots of ramps
Ball 2: 66.4M
Ball 3: 77M — quick Multiball
I took 2nd place for 5 points.
And yes, I managed to put up 77 million on one game of Addams Family. That’s a pretty satisfying way to start a league night.
Round 2 — Jaws 🦈
Then came Jaws, and I knew this one wasn’t going to be easy.
I was playing against some seriously good players, and I’ve seen these guys absolutely explode on this machine with 300M+ scores. So even though I know the rules and generally know what I’m trying to accomplish, I was definitely watching those scores.
Fortunately, I put together a really solid game.
Final scores:
🥇 Christy — 78.2M
🥈 Gabrielle Craft — 59.9M
🥉 Craig Bolton — 34.2M
I won it! 7 points. 🎉
I got Jaws Multiball, Scars Mode, lots of hits on the shark, and started Feeding Frenzy on Ball 3.
I still want to get better at the stacking on Jaws—particularly figuring out how to consistently get the bounty modes going before Multiball so I can turn a good game into one of those ridiculous monster scores.
But for tonight?
I’ll take the win.
Round 3 — Godzilla 🦖
Godzilla was a completely different story.
My first ball was basically:
“Well, that was some shenanigans.”😂
I managed some useful things, including scoop hits, ramps and spinners, but I wasn’t getting the big scoring opportunities together.
I recovered on Balls 2 and 3, though. Nothing amazing, but enough.
Final scores:
🥇 Drew Fones — 90M+
🥈 Christy — 29.0M
🥉 Diane Smith
4️⃣ Jason Hecht
2nd place — 5 points.
Not my prettiest game of the night, but points are points.
And that’s one of the things I like about league play: sometimes you’re not trying to have the prettiest game. You’re trying to salvage what you can and finish ahead of somebody.
Round 4 — Foo Fighters 👽
Ah, Foo Fighters.
My nemesis.
And this was probably the most chaotic game of the night.
Ball 1 started beautifully. I got the skill shot and was working my way through things pretty well. I even almost stole somebody’s Multiball.
Then I had a cookie in my mouth.
The cookie melted.
I had to catch the cookie.
I lost the ball.
This is why we can’t have nice things.
Ball 2 was another quick exit.
Then Ball 3 finally gave me something to work with:
Skill shot
Alien Multiball
A couple jackpots
Started Roswell
But the other players had already put up some serious numbers.
Final scores:
🥇 Luke Hulsey
🥈 David Vogt
🥉 Christy — 34.4M
4️⃣ Aric Stults
3rd place — 3 points.
And I was perfectly happy to move on.
Until later.
Because after league, I played Foo Fighters again and apparently decided to have a completely different relationship with the machine.
I found a rhythm.
I started hammering the ramps.
I beat Roswell, moved through L.A., got into New Orleans, triggered Area 51 Multiball AND Alien Multiball, and had all sorts of things happening at once.
Final score:
266,108,810
😂😂😂
So apparently I can play Foo Fighters.
I just needed the machine to quit being a jerk long enough for me to find the rhythm.
Round 5 — Stranger Things 👾
And then we finished the night with Stranger Things.
Which was especially appropriate because I had actually practiced this machine earlier in the evening.
Also, I was in what I called a “Turner sammich”:
Stephanie Turner
Christy Kohtz
James Turner AZ
Michael Forsee was the fourth player.
My three balls:
Ball 1 — 7.2M
Skill shot
Drop targets
Started Compass Mode
Lit the lock for Telekinesis
Ball 2 — 22.9M
Skill shot
Bust Out Mode
Telekinesis lock
Ball 3 — 42.47M
Skill shot
Started What Mama Says
Got one shot in
Then… out.
Final scores:
🥇 Stephanie Turner — 108.5M
🥈 Christy — 42.47M
🥉 Michael Forsee — 26.54M
4️⃣ James Turner AZ — 21.75M
2nd place — 5 points.
Stephanie absolutely went nuclear on that Ball 3, but I was able to hold onto second.
Week 1 Results
1 The Addams Family 🥈 2nd
2 Jaws 🥇 1st
3 Godzilla 🥈 2nd
4 Foo Fighters 🥉 3rd
5 Stranger Things 🥈 2nd
TOTAL 25 points
25 points to start Season 5.
That’s one win, three second-place finishes and one third-place finish.
I’ll take it.
And there’s another part of this Thursday that doesn’t show up on the tournament results.
I’ve been doing the same thing at Tilt Studios for seven years: between rounds, I go up and down those stairs.
For a long time, those metal stairs scared the hell out of me. A friend had fallen on them and badly injured her ankle, so I spent a long time babying myself around them. Eventually I decided I wasn’t going to let a staircase become something I was afraid of.
So I kept doing it.
Tonight?
I went up and down those stairs between rounds and didn’t even get winded.
Sometimes, between balls, I’ll walk laps around the upstairs area just to burn off the tournament stress. Tonight I did plenty of that, too.
Add in the walking, the Jazzercise earlier in the day, all those squats and lateral lunges my instructor apparently decided I needed, and the fact that I spent the evening standing in a pinball stance while repeatedly throwing balls at machines…
Incidental Exercise Receipts
Yeah.
I got my exercise.
And somewhere along the way, something that used to feel like a physical and mental obstacle became just another part of Thursday night.
That’s a pretty damn good win before the scores even get counted.
Season 5, Week 1: 25 points.
Not perfect.
Not always pretty.
Still counts. Always!💜🕹️
Enjoy more posts.
Incidental Exercise Receipts Hub