I realize it's kind of bad HTML form to put so much on one big page, but browsing through a big, unorganized mess will give you a sense of what PAPA 5 was like at times...
(One thing I don't want to get lost in the shuffle: my photo-op brainstorm with Kai Bateman and Williams' latest, Dirty Harry. Check it out by clicking here.)
In the picture: Rick Stetta (White T-Shirt) and Neil Schatz (Green Sweatshirt).
Had I realized I had Greg and Orin looking on from the balcony as I played exactly one good game of Demolition Man in the A division bank (out of a total of 8 games, nearly all of which I screwed up one way or the other), I probably would have screwed that game up, too, but it was nice to hear some encouraging words from on high when I was done. So I'll try to return the favor tomorrow when I'm watching someone else pull out a qualifying score by really killing one of the games.
In case you are wondering who is playing in this picture. From bottom to top: Kenji Ishii is playing on Tommy, Rob Chesnavich on Demolition Man, Fred Richardson on Freddy, and Lyman Sheats on World Cup Soccer.
Can't say I blame him, since I was a wreck myself on Sunday, and I didn't even have to play any more pinball.
As it happened, Sunday was a day for the finalists in all divisions, but for the rest of us there was free play on all the pinball machines not in use for a competition; there were special one-time events (like a one-ball event on TOMMY that was so popular the payoff went over $350); and a swarm of media people there to cover the finals but more than willing to talk to non-finalists, too. I myself got a few seconds of air time on New York 1 (a local all-news cable station), although they got my name wrong.
[Updated Tuesday night]
I'm going to get the official results from all divisions from Steve tomorrow morning, so I should have something up on this page by the end of the week at the latest. Stay tuned to the What's New page for details.
[Updated Tuesday morning]
I couldn't stay around for the end of the "A" division finals (or the Women's finals, which were running at the same time), so I missed the awards ceremony at the end of the day. But the trophy above is what the first place finalists got, and I figured that people might want a look at it. It's one of the best-looking trophies of any kind I've ever seen, much nicer than the generic trophies that are often handed out. Steve gets custom trophies made up for his leagues as well, and they, too, are very nice, and obviously pinball-related. No chance of confusing any of the PAPA 5 trophies with bowling trophies...
The Internet mini-tournament got underway a little late, but the turnout has been fantastic so far. Not everyone has had a chance to play yet, but at least a few of the top players have been through. (In fact, Kevin Martin's top score of just over 2B was just demolished by Noel Steere's score of nearly 5.6B, almost certainly ensuring that he'll be the top qualifier.) I expect it'll be nearly as tough to qualify in the Internet mini-tournament as it will in the A Division, which shows just how good the players on the Net are. We're not quite at the point where every single top player is on the Net, but it's getting close...
[Updated Monday night]
We had hoped to run semi-finals and finals in the Internet mini-tournament, but alas it was not to be. Not if we had any hope of finishing before the doubles competitions got underway, in any case, and that was the motivation behind Steve Epstein's suggestion that we shut everything down at 6:00 PM and just take the top 4 qualifiers and call them finalists in the order in which they qualified. Naturally Noel was all for this idea, but the rest of the qualifiers agreed that it was the only thing we could do, given the cirucumstances. Next year we'll know that the RGP tournament will need its own bank of games, and that sharing with the PAPA Champions division doesn't give us enough time to allow everyone to play and run 2 levels of finals.
I apologize to everyone who didn't get a chance to play; all I can say is that we did our best and promise to do better next year. Turnout for the RGP tournament surprised everyone; I don't think anyone expected more than a couple dozen entries at most, yet over 60 people registered via email and over 40 people got to play, with nearly 50 on the list Saturday afternoon (which means that about 10 people didn't get to play).
See the PAPA-5 Internet Mini-Tournament page for the final standings.
A Division B Division C Division Women's Division Doubles Juniors Rob Chesnavich 6.807 Alexis Keldermans 3.955 Nick McKinney 3.646 Alysa Parks 3.049 Richardson/Madison 5.041 Mike Ursic 2.173 Glenn Wilson 6.548 Jim Roberts 3.673 Jason Provost 3.025 Laurie Meidel 1.993 Dan Wilson/Dale Rice 4.641 Joshua Sharpe 1.909 Juniet Benoit 5.850 Bill Kurtz 3.670 Chris Guilmartin 2.971 Jacki Hays 1.751 Dave Hegge/Lyman Sheats 4.250 Victor Mendoza 1.626 Jason Werdrick 5.653 Gennady Levitan 3.462 Mare Davis 2.693 Joannie erry 1.641 Santan/Nardini 4.172 Zachary Sharpe 1.620 Dave Stewart 4.781 Rrank Romero 3.407 Mike Field 2.688 Ellen Frankel 1.591 Rob Rosenhouse/Kai Bateman 4.107 Kevin Kulek, Jr. 1.454 Kai Bateman 4.599 Martin Keates 3.010 Dave Grossman 2.368 Kathy Kulek 1.544 Kerins/Johnson 3.701 Mitch Kulek 1.449 Sean Grant 4.554 William Hoo 3.000 Steve Lane 2.242 Susan Jacobs 1.327 Michael Dawn/Gordon Green 3.510 David Vogel 1.256 Dae Hegge 4.535 Sam Ryan 2.872 Arthur Lee 2.236 Kathleen Beardsley 1.297 Glenn Wilson/Miller 3.456 Chris Olsen 1.197 Lyman Sheats 4.491 Chris Farkas 2.617 Ralph Scotto 2.169 Paula Mercurio 1.289 Paul Chan/Nint Hoo 3.454 Bowen Kerins 4.429 John Hurd 2.561 Cameron Silver 2.122 Sherrill Ware 1.288 Neil Shatz/Rick Stetta 3.373 Rick Stetta 4.352 Parke Heller 2.440 Christopher Massa 2.097 Lisa Depierro 1.263 Parke Heller/Steve Leventhal 3.208 Dale Rice 4.204 Greg Dunlap 2.410 Ken Beckrich 2.089 Donna Hagen 1.151 Noel Steere/Jason Werdrick 3.003 George Dusichka 4.167 Sergio Johnson 2.342 Robert Kuszewski 2.070 Rosalie Holland 1.108 Gottlieb/Sharpe 2.861 Frank Bona 4.160 Michael D. Dawn 2.319 Ralph Meyer 2.052 Alessandra Ferrerra 1.086 Zumoff/Kurtz 2.814 Dan Wilson 4.142 Johnathan Deitch 2.263 Steve Vogel 2.005 Adena Richards 0.912 Beardsley/Fried 2.684 Kenji Ishii 4.097 Theodore T Harris 2.250 Eddie DeCosta 1.973 Joni Levine 0.904 Miller/Farris 2.623 Neil Shatz 4.027 Sam Field 2.247 Carl Hibshaman 1.969 Carol Haines 0.820 Alexander Abaya/Bruce Lu 2.500 Fred Richardson 3.915 Steve Leventhal 2.217 Paul Fraticelli 1.958 Patty Pisula 0.815 Stewart/Chesnavich 2.479 John Miller 3.793 Steven Walker 2.213 Alexander Abaya 1.953 Pamel Fitgerald 0.781 Jason Provost/Dorion Whilock 2.445 Sanjay Shah 3.735 Dan Farris 2.172 Marty Debobes 1.918 Chrissy Bleine 0.767 Jim Potzel/Larry Geisler 2.247
The techs have done an amazing job so far. We've had a few major breakdowns, but most problems have been handled quickly and play doesn't seem to have been held up too long in any division. The Street Fighter 2 games are really showing their age (that, and the fact that they've all been on location for 2 years now), and at least in the A Division, SF2 is the game that's suffered from the most problems. But this afternoon it was World Cup Soccer that really held up the A Division show: the top-right gate that's supposed to open when you travel to a city (so the ball can whip around the top of the game and fly straight down the left outlane) wasn't opening. It was also nearly impossible to fix; in fact, a team of technicians had to remove the playfield from the cabinet in order to get at the gate. As you can imagine, this wasn't a quick-fix situation, and as a result it took what seemed to me to be an incredibly long time to finish my single A Division entry. (At least I was first in line to play it when it went back online.) Michael Gottlieb stood, watched, and shook his head, muttering dark things about how games really should be easier to service than that...
But that said, people definitely are entering and reentering the various divisions today, even if they do have to wait a bit before they can start playing. The practice banks are all well attended, with people especially interested in the finals machines, many of which are new to all but the Chicago contingent.
I myself got on the A Division qualifying board early Friday, and at least as of about 8PM I was still there, though rapidly sliding down toward the bottom of the board. Feel free to wish me luck, because I'm going to try to reenter once more tomorrow with the hope of getting a good enough score to hang on into the first round of the finals.
I also finally got a chance to play a few games of Dirty Harry; I guess I should reserve judgment for a while, given how little I've played it so far. On the other hand, it isJudgement Day, so allow me to present you with my snap judgement: it sucks. Haven't said that about a pin in a while, but this game didn't give me a good feeling at all. But I'll leave it to Greg to show us all how to spell its name with asterisks... ;-)
I'm planning on getting an early start tomorrow so I have time for one more go through in the A Division before helping out with the Internet mini-tournament, which will be running all morning. We have about 65 entries in the Internet tournament, which I think is pretty impressive. I'll try to post some overall stats tomorrow, even if I have to sit up by the podium (where the only working phone jack on the floor is located) and look like a complete computer geek to do so...