In round 2 of the North Carolina women's pinball finals, I was up against the #1 seed Kaylee Campbell, and I ended up in the astonishing position of bringing her to a game 7 in our best-of-7 match.
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Game 1: Iron Maiden. Kaylee's pick, I won. It was a low-scoring game and, as player 2, I only had about 30 million points to catch up on the last ball. I got to the position that all I needed to do was score a small Power Jackpot, by hitting the captive ball, which I did.
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Game 2: Cactus Canyon. My pick, I won. That machine played like a dream to me. No, actually, it played like what's basically reality to me. It played like the virtual version from VPin Workshop, which I have played a lot by now. I knew what I was doing and I made the shots. I scored the Mother Lode in Gold Mine Multiball and I was pretty close to a Stampede (the mode from lighting all the shots on the table). It felt incredible. Winning this game put me up 2-0 against Kaylee.
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Game 3: Godzilla. Kaylee's pick, Kaylee won. The fact that I have this machine at home to practice on wasn't going to be nearly enough for me here. Kaylee is known to be terrifyingly consistent at that game, and has basically a script that she follows: she only focuses on kaiju battles, she wins them, and she beelines to King Ghidorah.
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Game 4: World Cup Soccer. My pick, I won. I love that game and I got pretty far into the multiball.
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Game 5: Foo Fighters. Kaylee's pick, Kaylee won. I had been talking to Kat about going directly for Los Angeles (Learn to Fly) instead of the more common pick of New Orleans (I'll Stick Around), and it seemed like the moment to try. I'd already hit the right ramp and shot some loops on the upper playfield, which I believe meant that I had the chance to get up there again during Learn to Fly, and simultaneously get mode shots and start Area 51 Multiball. I never made it up the ramp again, though. Kaylee comboed New Orleans with the Overlord like almost everyone does and easily beat me.
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Game 6: Hot Hand. My pick, Kaylee won. I think Hot Hand is a fun '70s machine with an interesting ruleset, and I also acknowledge that it's a bullshit luck-box sometimes. Both things can be true. The upper playfield is made of saucers, and so much comes down to how many saucers you hit on your ball 1 plunge, because those will be in your bonus for the whole game. With me being up 3-2 against Kaylee, a chaotic game was exactly the thing I needed to be next on my list. However, chaos was not on my side, and my ball 1 was a house ball.
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Game 7: Stranger Things. Kaylee's pick, Kaylee won. I don't know how to control this game very well, and when Kaylee is fighting for her tournament life on Stranger Things, she gets a lot of points.
Each player pre-registered the three machines they would pick (in some order), but for a game 7, the high seed gets to pick any machine except one that's already been played in the set. Kaylee ended up in a game 7 three times, and picked Stranger Things as her finishing move all of those times: first to defeat me, then to defeat Sammie, then to defeat Frances Staelin in the final. Kaylee will be representing North Carolina in the women's North American championships, and I'm excited to see how she does.
I had the realization that the earliest machine Kaylee picked against me was from 2018, and the latest machine I picked was from 1998. And, relatedly, I have this virtual pinball project where I've only played the machines up through 2014 so far.
I presume she was picking her strengths, not studying my weaknesses, but what a perfect way for her to counter-pick me.
Pinball sports anime when tho
