2005 FALL
PINBALL CIRCUS
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On October 2nd 2004, SS Billiards in Hopkins, MN, USA had its first newly formatted customer appreciation party, Pinball Circus. On October 1st 2005, Lloyd hosted another great circus. The circus lasted from noon till midnight .
It's hard to believe that an entire circus fit inside a small suburban arcade. (I know that I used this joke earlier this year, but I still think it's funny.) OUR HOST As was true earlier this year, as owner of SS Billiards, Lloyd was solely responsible for: organizing, setting up, and hosting the Pinball Circus.
As with the spring circus earlier this year, Lloyd knew that the pinball-centric party would probably alienate some of his “regular” pool players. So, to be mindful of his pool-playing customers, Lloyd had to set up for Saturday's Pinball Circus on Friday night after he closed. Lloyd managed to get the newest offering from Stern Pinball, “NASCAR”.
TICKET The cool transparent tickets were back! Tickets were $10.00 per person, though Lloyd did let a few people get in for free . Your ticket gave you: entrance into the arcade, up to twelve hours of free play, free food, and free drink. Ticket sales were day of event only and only available at the door.
THE NEXT DAY
TRANSISTOR SEMINAR At 1:00pm the TCFPA president, ‘PinTed', hosted a transistor seminar, courtesy of Pinball Renaissance and Great Plains Electronics.
Steve Schukei (pictured above) came all the way from 1st Auto Sales in Mason City, Iowa . I mention Steve because he was the first person to register for the seminar. He was rewarded for his early efforts by getting a choice from a half-dozen NOS OEM translights that were courtesy of Stern. Steve chose the “Lord of the Rings™” translight and matching flyer set. The 14–part seminar covered :
The seminar was scheduled to run for only a half-hour. But, Lloyd stuck us in a crappy location. So, the seminar was constantly interrupted and therefore took longer to finish. Ed, of Great Plains Electronics, graciously donated all of the electronic components for the transistor seminar. Pinball News has graciously agreed to host the seminar for those who could not attend.
FOOD As always, Lloyd tried to make everyone feel welcome. With that though, Lloyd offered pizzas with three different toppings and a half dozen choices of soda. Lloyd arranged for pizza to be delivered from Papa John's about every hour and a half. The TCFPA provided the bottled water. The TCFPA's Vice-President once again provided cookies.
RANDOM DRAWINGS Lloyd held many random drawings throughout the day. To qualify for the drawings, all you had to do was to separate your perforated ticket bottom and place it in the jar with the other ticket stubs. So those who arrived early had a better chance of winning than those who arrived later in the day. The drawings were for either a Spring 2005 Pinball Circus T-shirt or a mug.
PINBALL TOURNAMENTS Lloyd planned two tournaments for this installment of Pinball Circus. The first to finish was a single elimination tournament. There were tournaments on Lloyd's three ToPS games. SINGLE ELIMINATION TOURNAMENT The single elimination tournament was best-two-of-three. By the time competition started (8:00pm) it was unbearably hot inside Lloyd's small arcade. The single elimination tournament ended at about 1:30am . Like earlier this year, initially, each set of players and games were chosen at random. After the initial drawing, the bracket determined the player combinations but their games were still drawn at random.
After over five hours of grueling competition Derek F, was spoiled with $100.00 cash and a large trophy.
ToPS TOURNAMENTS The ToPS tournaments ran from noon till midnight. NASCAR® Tournament Winner Elvis® Tournament Winner Lord of The Rings™ Tournament Winner
© Pinball News 2005 |
