Season 22-2: Five Rounds, Four Ornery Machines, One Glorious Victory!
November 3, 2026 | Electric Bat Arcade | Tempe, Arizona
Well, folks, Tuesday night at Electric Bat was quite the adventure!
Andrew was stuck at home working on a software release, so I headed to the arcade without my usual pinball partner. He wasn’t particularly thrilled about missing league night, but at least he had some company at home. And by company, I mean adorable little bunny paws belonging to one of our feline overlords.
Meanwhile, I was off to play some silverballs.
A little warm-up before the madness
I arrived early, which gave me an opportunity to wander around Electric Bat and play a bunch of the classic machines.
I made the rounds, got some practice in, and eventually finished up with the James Bond 007 60th Anniversary machine.
I managed over 6,000 points, picked up a multiball, and discovered a new skill shot called the Crack Shot!
The shot involved a hard plunge, followed by a backhand into the upper-right saucer. Apparently, that’s a Crack Shot. Who knew? It was a fun discovery and a pretty satisfying way to warm up.
Little did I know that one of the machines I DIDN’T practice would end up being my best game of the night.
More on that later.
The crowd starts rolling in
Tuesday night league usually brings a pretty healthy crowd, and this week was no exception.
At first, things were a little slow. We were at 79 players, then 93, then 100, and eventually 103!
People were still trickling in after the scheduled start time.
We also have a big endurance tournament coming up this weekend at Electric Bat, so I wondered whether some people were saving their energy for that.
I’m really looking forward to the weekend. It’s always fun seeing pinball friends from out of town, catching up, and getting to play alongside people we don’t get to see every week.
It’s a little like old home week!
Round 1: Iron Man (Vault)
Oh, Iron Man. You mean, ornery, nasty, mean-as-a-snake Iron Man.
My group included Wesley Worosello, Paul Hoeprich, Bradley Yost, and me.
This particular machine is a handful. The slingshots are vicious, there are plenty of uprights to send the ball bouncing in unpredictable directions, and the outlanes seem to have a personal vendetta against players.
I managed a skill shot, hit an upright target, and promptly watched my ball disappear.
Ball two brought another skill shot and three ramps, but the ball headed right back out.
Ball three wasn’t much better.
The biggest difference between my game and the others was multiball. Bradley managed to get both Monger Multiball and Whiplash Multiball. Player one also had an impressive first ball, setting up Monger and executing the multiball sequence. He was trapping up, playing strategically, and making some excellent decisions.
That was genuinely fun to watch.
I’ve actually had a pretty spectacular game on this machine in the past. A couple of seasons ago, I managed to get approximately 60 million points. That’s practically winning the lottery on this particular Iron Man.
I know how to play it when the machine cooperates.
But I’m not a particularly aggressive nudger, and sometimes this machine seems to reward a more physical playing style.
Tonight was not my night.
Final placement: 4th — 1 league point.
Moving right along!
Round 2: Ghostbusters (Pro)
Well, if Iron Man wasn’t enough, apparently the Electric Bat decided Ghostbusters should be my next challenge.
My group included Patrick Swayze, Rob Lynch, Barry Vought, and me.
I started with a 7.9 million-point ball, getting two of the right-side scoop shots. One of them awarded a river-related bonus worth approximately 3 million points. I also managed to get a super-jackpot-style ramp shot, although it wasn’t actually a super jackpot.
Ball two brought a scale shot and a mode called “Who Let the Dog In Here?” I also accidentally started the Scoleri Brothers and got to experience their particular brand of chaos.
One of those brothers apparently decided my ball belonged outside the playing field.
Ball three involved more scoop action, another mode, a couple of ramps, and then a spectacular straight-down-the-middle exit.
The final scoreboard:
– Rob Lynch: 580,759,450
– Barry Vought: 42,062,320
– Christy Kohtz: 17,827,590
– Patrick Swayze: 7,002,030
Rob absolutely crushed it!
And I finished third.
Final placement: 3rd — 3 league points.
At least we were moving in the right direction!
Round 3: Night Rider
Here’s where things got interesting.
My group included Matt Jackson AZ, Jack Felumlee, Jack Borges, and me.
This was a five-ball game, and I had NOT practiced Night Rider during my early-arrival classic-machine tour.
Oops.
Apparently, that worked out just fine.
I started with an 11,500-point ball, including a 5,000-point skill shot and several drop targets.
Ball two wasn’t particularly impressive. No skill shot, one drop target, a pop bumper, and out.
Ball three brought a nice spinner rip while it was lit, plus two 50-point saucers.
Then came Ball four, which was much better. I collected a 5,000-point saucer, got two good spinner rips (one lit), hit another drop target, and finished with 35,700 points.
I had moved into second place!
Ball five brought some more good spinner action.
The final results:
– Matt Jackson: 54,480
– Christy Kohtz: 50,830
– Jack Felumlee: 48,940
– Jack Borges: 39,610
I missed first place by only 3,650 points!
Not bad for a machine I hadn’t even warmed up on.
Final placement: 2nd — 5 league points.
And that was my best finish of the evening so far.
Round 4: Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye
This one was interesting for several reasons.
First, I’ve played Transformers approximately FOUR times total. I’m still learning the machine, figuring out the shots, understanding the modes, and learning what I’m supposed to be aiming for.
The other interesting thing? A friend of mine helped program this game!
I actually met Elizabeth Geitski at a random pinball tournament in Louisville, Kentucky, when Andrew and I were visiting for a family wedding. We ended up hanging out, eating loaded tots, playing pinball, and learning all sorts of fun machine tricks.
So there’s an extra level of enjoyment in playing a machine connected to someone you know.
My group included Avi Davidson, JJ Horner, Louis Rulon, and me.
Ball one: 1.5 million.
Ball two: 3.3 million, and I managed a ball lock.
Ball three was better! I got a skill shot, hit Optimus, knocked down the drop targets, and brought my score up to 10.1 million.
The machine was starting to make a little more sense.
Unfortunately, the ball was moving like it had somewhere very important to be. It was bouncing all over the place, and I was having a hard time getting control.
I later heard that the same game at Outpost had produced a 71-million-point result the previous day. That score would have been good enough for second place in our group!
But that’s pinball. Different games, different ball behavior, different outcomes.
The final scoreboard:
– Louis Rulon: 63,794,990
– JJ Horner: 36,902,970
– Christy Kohtz: 10,155,540
– Avi Davidson: 9,839,570
I finished third, narrowly beating Avi.
Final placement: 3rd — 3 league points.
I’m still learning this machine, and honestly, I enjoy playing it knowing a friend helped bring it to life.
That’s pretty wild awesome sauce.
Round 5: Strikes and Spares
AND FINALLY!
The last round of the evening.
By this point, I was ready to finish playing, go home, and crawl into bed. We had even been waiting on marathon games in earlier rounds, which made the evening feel like it was taking forever.
My group included Mark Kelber, Graham Novak, Carl Sadowski, and me.
And apparently, Strikes and Spares decided to make up for the first four rounds.
Ball one: 61,800 points!
I collected two top lanes, almost all the upright targets, and almost all the rollovers.
Ball two: 155,000 points!
Lots of rollovers, uprights, and saucers.
Ball three: 167,500 points!
I was building a pretty substantial lead.
And then came the final scoreboard:
– Christy Kohtz: 167,510
– Mark Kelber: 45,850
– Carl Sadowski: 41,650
– Graham Novak: 28,720
FIRST PLACE!
By more than 121,000 points!
After getting beaten up by Iron Man and Ghostbusters, then slowly climbing back through Night Rider and Transformers, I finally got the first-place finish I’d been asking for.
Final placement: 1st — 7 league points.
THE ELECTRIC BAT FINALLY MADE IT UP TO ME!
The evening’s league points
Our league uses IFPA 7/5/3/1 scoring.
Round| Machine| Placement| Points
1| Iron Man| 4th| 1
2| Ghostbusters| 3rd| 3
3| Night Rider| 2nd| 5
4| Transformers| 3rd| 3
5| Strikes and Spares| 1st| 7
Total 19
Nineteen league points!
Last week I managed only 11 points, so this was a nice improvement.
And considering the six-week series drops the lowest scores, there’s still plenty of opportunity to improve our overall standings.
The important thing is that we kept moving forward.
The people make the pinball community
Of course, Tuesday night wasn’t just about the machines.
There were plenty of conversations, laughs, and catching up with friends.
One friend I’ve played pinball with for years has recently become my fellow bird-watching casualty.
Last week, we were standing together in a parking lot trying to see a great horned owl perched on a light pole. We were holding our hands up to block the light so we could actually see the bird.
Unfortunately, we eventually realized that our silhouettes looked rather like we were performing a very questionable salute.
We looked at each other and absolutely lost it.
Apparently, his bird adventures continued.
He recently had a Gambel’s quail fly into his car through an open window or sunroof. The bird struck something in the back seat and died. Feathers were flying everywhere.
He was genuinely upset about the poor bird, and he took it out into the desert to give it a peaceful resting place.
Now he’s got a car-cleaning project and another wildlife story.
We seem to have a bird problem.
His 12-year-old son is also a hoot. He’s quite the little entrepreneur, power-washing garbage cans for money and even taking Polaroid photographs for $2 each so he could buy more film for his camera.
I love that kind of initiative!
I also caught up with Jack Joy, another pinball friend who happens to be a rock hound and a very talented furniture maker. He works with beautiful woods like hickory and walnut, and he also cuts and polishes the rocks and minerals he collects.
He had some gorgeous specimens to show me.
He’d recently been in Iowa helping his family with the harvest and showed me videos of the combines and trucks working the fields.
One video included a 19-year-old driving a combine with his three-year-old son and their dog riding along.
And then there was a bald eagle standing in the field watching the harvest.
That brought back a whole collection of childhood memories for me.
I grew up riding along with my dad on the tractor, riding with the combine operators, and hopping into the harvest trucks to take loads to the seed company.
My mom’s favorite part was feeding everybody enormous quantities of food before everyone headed back out to the fields.
Those were some wonderful days.
It’s funny how pinball friends can turn an ordinary Tuesday night into conversations about wildlife, woodworking, farming, family, and childhood memories.
That’s one of my favorite things about this community.
The soundtrack and the road home
Meanwhile, Spotify was doing its thing.
I’d spent the previous couple of days listening to a lot of Rob Zombie’s Dragula Radio, which had been serving up plenty of 1990s grunge.
I love the music, but some of those lyrics can get pretty depressing.
Time for a change of flavor!
Tonight, Spotify was on a Mammoth roll.
Wolfgang Van Halen and his band provided an excellent hard-rock soundtrack for the evening.
I actually got to see Mammoth live a couple of years ago with Andrew, along with Dorothy, Seether, and several other bands at a local rock festival.
Wolfgang was incredibly talented, humble, and laid-back. He can sing, play multiple instruments, write, arrange, and produce. It’s pretty amazing watching someone with that much musical ability remain so approachable.
And tonight, that was exactly the kind of music I needed.
Final thoughts
Five rounds. Five very different machines. A rough beginning, a gradual comeback, and one heck of a finish.
I didn’t get the first-place finish I wanted until the very last round, but I got there!
– Iron Man tried to eat me.
– Ghostbusters sent me flying.
– Night Rider surprised me.
– Transformers reminded me I’m still learning.
– Strikes and Spares gave me the victory lap.
And I walked away with 19 league points instead of last week’s 11.
Not every night is going to be spectacular. Sometimes the machines cooperate, sometimes they don’t, and sometimes you spend three balls wondering what on earth just happened.
But movement in real life still counts, and in pinball, every ball is another opportunity.
Now we’ve got the big endurance tournament this weekend to look forward to, with friends coming in from out of town and plenty more silverball adventures ahead.
Wellness Whiskers Silverballs: Wellness without perfection. Movement in real life still counts. And sometimes you just have to fight the machine and enjoy the ride.
Until next time, keep those flippers flipping!
Still counts. Always! 💜🎱🤘
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