The day after flying to Pittsburgh we set our target to reach Louisville, KY by nightfall. While the route itself was pretty straight forward one, the area had hit the blizzard of the century just day before and now it was a tad challenging drive with summer tires. Back at home trip like this wouldn't be much of an issue. With us were Daniele from Italy and Jorian from Sweden, both world champions. I secretly hoped we wouldn't be responsible for taking out the current world #1 and #3 should we have an accident on the way. With careful driving we reached Kentucky ahead of schedule.
The first morning of the expo however started with a personal loss and I knew I couldn't do much this weekend. Not wanting to sit and sulk at the hotel room, bringing my travelling companion down as well I went to check out the expo and its tourney. The tournament lineup was Bobby Orr Powerplay, High Speed, Funhouse, AC/DC, Firepower, Whirlwind, Lethal Weapon and Wheel of Fortune.
I tried playing some tournament games, but it was more of of just uninspired fumbling than actual playing. The AC/DC played pretty much like most of the ones I've tried, but I just couldn't find the ramp shots to save my life. At that point I had no good tournament strategy for the High Speed, so I just tried getting to the multiball. After spending enough money on totally worthless entries, I just walked out and went to check out rest the expo.
I got some good games in there, played my personal best of 520k in Wizard of Oz and got to cross out couple of games off my to-play list. The Oz had come a long way from the last time I saw it in Denver last summer, and I still like it as a game even when the theme does nothing for me. The one I got to play was the 75th anniversary edition with red cabinet trimming. One of the other finds was the Magnavox Odyssey 2, which in the Europe was known as Philips G7000. I still got it after over 30 years since last playing it!
Started to play my entries at Louisville arcade expo. My heart's not in this right now. pic.twitter.com/9V9zIHcHey
— Ari 'APz' Sovijärvi (@apzpins) March 6, 2015
I got some good games in there, played my personal best of 520k in Wizard of Oz and got to cross out couple of games off my to-play list. The Oz had come a long way from the last time I saw it in Denver last summer, and I still like it as a game even when the theme does nothing for me. The one I got to play was the 75th anniversary edition with red cabinet trimming. One of the other finds was the Magnavox Odyssey 2, which in the Europe was known as Philips G7000. I still got it after over 30 years since last playing it!
It's been almost 30 years since I've played this thing. Still got it :) pic.twitter.com/1L5CXLOkHz
— Ari 'APz' Sovijärvi (@apzpins) March 8, 2015
I gave it a rest for the day and came back the next day. The herb-style format where you can play as long as you like for $10/3 entries didn't exactly inspire me to drop off too much money as I knew I only had very slim chance of actually qualifying and my heart just wasn't there. For someone who's used to the "pay for participating, the games are free" the whole concept of virtually buying yourself in there was a bit off-putting.
I think Whirlwind was my favorite of the lineup, but its powerless upper right flipper and a bit loose ramp made the ramp shot extremely hard. On one game I nailed the ramp 8 times during the multiball, failing every single one. That's pathetic.
Grinding away in the main qualification, but it's not looking too good. pic.twitter.com/cLKMpV0fck
— Ari 'APz' Sovijärvi (@apzpins) March 8, 2015
In High Speed I just took the "repeat freeway score" option and scored 4M by just grinding the left orbit. Wheel of Fortune was one game where I knew I'd eventually make a good game, but at a $3.33 a game throwaway games quickly became costly. As more and more highly ranked players arrived and my scores weren't improving, I gave up. The tournament had a B-side, for those with IFPA ranking below 250. My ranking was too high for that, so I was out with a bit over $60 spent to the entries.
The outcome
My position was 38/150 and didn't qualify.The official results:
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