Last month I finally signed up to participate in a league at Pinballz! Originally, I was in the regular group but shifted to the novice level because it was my first time; I need to see if I like it enough to commit eight weeks again.
How did it go last night? Pretty well. I think I won all four rounds based upon the rules the coordinator laid down.
Here’s the skinny. Everybody is broken up into groups of three or four players. The groups then play four assigned machines twice. Whoever earns the highest score on each machine is awarded 100 points. Our initial challenges: Whodunnit?; The Flintstones; Elvira’s Scared Stiff; and Guns & Roses. There are a couple twists to league play versus just playing.
- Extra balls cannot be played, they must be drained. In plain English: you can press the flippers to set up a skill shot, launch the ball and let it fall where it may. You do get the points from this. I succeeded in gaining at least another seven million on The Flintstones this way.
- Matches and replays don’t mean anything. Only scores.
- If you tilt the machine and it resets, you get a zero for the round. You may also get kicked out of the league.
- The first place winner can’t play in the novice league next time because he or she gets promoted to the next level.
I’m still waiting to receive an e-mail from Jennifer to see the final results. This being a novice league, she gave us advanced warning about two of next week’s games: Xenon and Swords of Fury.