SUMMER 2009
PINBALL PICNIC

Date: July 5th, 2009.
Location: SS Billiards, 732 11th Avenue South, Hopkins, Minnesota 55343, USA.

On June 7th, 2009, the first ever Pinball Picnic was held at SS Billiards. And, Pinball News covered the historic event. The organizer, Lloyd, explained that the event was an attempt to trying something new to see if anything would fit well into his upcoming anniversary party. Lloyd keeps trying to make his events bigger and better; which brings us to this Pinball Picnic.

Still the place for the funnest picnic
Still the place for the funnest picnic

As per usual, set up was the sole responsibility of Lloyd. This event was a little different than a Pinball Circus, and unlike the previous Pinball Circus, the arcade was left as normal.

The current Picnic announcement
The current Picnic announcement

Lloyd explaining the day’s events to early attendees
Lloyd explaining the day’s events to early attendees

At 5:00pm, a few Pin-heads came in early, while the arcade was operating under its normal Sunday mode, to practice.

Customers at the arcade
Customers at the arcade

Included in the event were both “newbies” and previous tournament attendees.

Pre-tournament customers at the arcade
Pre-tournament customers at the arcade

The line-up of pinball machines at the Pinball Picnic is shown below in order of grouping.

Batman, Lord of the Rings, Wheel of Fortune
From left to right: Batman, Lord of the Rings, Wheel of Fortune
and Spider-Man (see related Pinball News article)

Up front was a three pack of pinball machines.

Addams Family Collector’s Edition, Pirates of the Caribbean and NASCAR
Addams Family Collector’s Edition, Pirates of the Caribbean and NASCAR

In back was another four pack of pinball machines, plus a game which Lloyd was working on and a game which was both on pay-for-play and for sale.

Corvette, Attack from Mars, Twilight Zone & Medieval Madness
Corvette, Attack from Mars, Twilight Zone & Medieval Madness,
Click the links to see two related Pinball News MM articles: 1 & 2

There were more pinball machines in the back of the arcade.

Pictured above are Black Knight 2000 and Excalibur.

In the back corner was one more pinball machine.

The original Big Bang Bar was pay-to-play all day
The original Big Bang Bar was pay-to-play all day

Not pictured in this article but in the arcade were two pinball machines: a collector’s Global Warfare and the same collector’s Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Lloyd had one little problem fixed and the tournament games on free play by 5:00pm.

Lloyd fixing a loose wireform on one of the tournament games
Lloyd fixing a loose wireform on one of the tournament games

Lloyd putting the tournament games on “free play”
Lloyd putting the tournament games on “free play”

Lloyd learned from the previous tournament that player space became a little cramped. There were four pinball machines, spread throughout the arcade. All were available for free play during practice and the tournament.

Lord of the Rings
Lord of the Rings

Corvette
Corvette

Twilight Zone
Twilight Zone

Pirates of the Caribbean
Pirates of the Caribbean

A few people wished that Corvette was not one of the tournament games. This is because they had practiced on only the Stern pinball machines. Lloyd believed that the selection of games made the competition more fare to everyone; beginners and practiced tournament regulars.

With the free play on games was free food; which was delivered very close to 6:00pm.

Famous Dave’s delivered ribs in this damn fancy rig
Famous Dave’s delivered ribs in this damn fancy rig

There were plenty of ribs for everyone. Jim brought in a couple of salads and Lloyd even had two entire cooler of pop available to picnic attendees.

Picnic attendees enjoying ribs and cold salads
Picnic attendees enjoying ribs and cold salads

A variety of canned pops were available from two coolers
A variety of canned pops were available from two coolers

Another thing Lloyd learned from the first Pinball Picnic was that people wanted more than a half hour to eat. And, seeing as the tournament director was not around at 6:30pm, the start time of the pinball tournament was changed to 7:00pm.

But, the tournament director was still not in attendance. Lloyd made a decision to wait for Joe Esposito to run his namesake tournament. So, the start time was postponed for for five more minutes.

One extra minute was all Joe needed
One extra minute was all Joe needed

Joe rushed into Lloyd’s arcade at 7:01pm. Many in attendance greeted him by heartily shouting his name. Joe had the tournament running before 7:30pm. Joe collected and drew the names of eighteen people.

The tournament was running by 7:30pm
The tournament was running by 7:30pm

For the first round, players were paired up by luck of the draw. From the four pinball machines available for tournament play, most of the games had two pairs of players. In this case, players one and two competed against one another; as players three and four followed suit. Player order was usually decided by player agreement or flip of a coin. The entire tournament was run as single elimination.

Some of the first round competitors at the second Pinball Picnic
Some of the first round competitors at the second Pinball Picnic

For the last round, as the players had been determined by winning, the final game was chosen at random.

Luck of the draw
Luck of the draw

By about 8:00pm, this Pinball Picnic final tournament round came down to a contest between Dave Gorka and Ryan Trego.

As were the four other rounds, the final round was single elimination, but lasted until almost 8:30pm. The deciding round was won by Ryan.

The final round
The final round

Dave took second place along with a $25.00 cash prize
Dave took second place along with a $25.00 cash prize

Ryan took first place and a $75.00 cash prize
Ryan took first place and a $75.00 cash prize

Thusly ended another successful Pinball Picnic!

Dates for Lloyd’s next pinball events are in the Diary section, so start making your plans to visit now.


NOTE

All pictures are property of SS Billiards and are used with permission and courtesy of LTG.