 |
|
MAY DAY |
|
Date: May 1st, 2011 On May 1st, 2011 SS Billiards in Hopkins, MN held its seventh annual May Day Pinball Tournament. As it was last year, the event was invitation only.
Below is a copy of the invitation.
This year's May Day Pinball Tournaments were planned from the start to be different to the first year's pinball tournaments.
Not part of the 2010 May Day event (but happening during the event) were three one-ball ToPS tournaments. These mini-tournaments were held on Spider-Man, Batman, and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Two games were for sale while this year’s May Day pinball tournaments were being held. The first game for sale was Terminator 2 (T2), from WMS.
The second game for sale was Bally’s World Cup Soccer (WCS).
If you are interested in the Terminator 2 (T2), you can contact Lloyd, and John can be contacted if you are interested in the World Cup Soccer (WCS) machine.
As those invited did not have to pay an attendance fee, no registration was required; only an invitation.
From the schedule above you can see that two pinball tournaments were held. The first tournament was the Survivor and the second was an open tournament. The first tournament was single elimination while the second tournament was best two-of-three. Players determined the order of play, but players and game names were drawn for both of the tournaments. All games were set to tournament mode with no extra balls awarded.
Keeping with the original spirit of PAPA, the competitions were held during a normal day in the arcade. This meant that players occasionally had to wait for a non-competing customer to finish his or her pinball game before the competitors could have their turn. But, fellow players were respectful of those still in the tournaments, so there was usually not much need for waiting.
There were only two problems reported during the event, both of which happened early in the day. The first was a loose wire on the End of Stroke (EOS) of Batman. The second was a stuck power ball on Twilight Zone. Lloyd handled each problem immediately.
Practice got under way at midday and went until about 2:30pm. This was to allow time for a few competitors who called Lloyd to tell him that they were on their way. Lloyd discussed this small delay with the crowd. No one objected. By the time the names of players and their associated games were drawn, it was about 2:45pm when the Survivor pinball tournament started. This tournament went on until just before 5:00pm.
The solitary winner of the Survivor pinball tournament was Dave. Dave won $100.00 cash and humbled the crowd by putting up a new high score on Creature from the Black Lagoon.
At 5:00pm Lloyd, due to requests from the crowd, gave all of the competitors a chance to eat before the next tournament. This is when the Double Elimination Pinball Tournament was originally scheduled to start. Lloyd had hoped that the new neighborhood deli would have had its grand opening in time for May Day 2011. From the picture below, you can see that the deli wasn’t quite ready to open.
Due to a few (including myself) who were still eating, the Double Elimination Tournament didn’t get started until about 5:45pm. This lateness was due to some of the competitors going to either Big 10 or Wendy’s for food. This second pinball tournament lasted till about 8:00pm. The open tournament was split into two brackets; the Winners and the Losers.
Dave won the final with a very narrow victory in the last game.
Lloyd changed the games back to “normal” play first thing Monday morning.
Be sure to check the Diary section of Pinball News, for the next May Day tournament. Because we can’t wait until then, Lloyd will be hosting his next Pinball Circus on October 15th & 16th, 2011. © Pinball News 2011 |
