#013 The Best Players in the World & Rumors

PAPA 22 tournament recap and rumor-seeding for hypothetical Planet of the Apes pinball.

Stephanie and Mike from Punk Rock Pinball recount their experience at PAPA 22 World Pinball Championships in Schaumburg, where they competed against some of the world's best players. They discuss the tournament format, challenging machine setups, their performance (Stephanie placed 197th out of 240 in main, Mike placed in classics), and highlight friends who performed well. The episode concludes with Mike proposing Planet of the Apes as a dream pinball theme, imagining a Spooky Pinball version with selectable old/new film versions, which they humorously encourage listeners to spread as a rumor.

Highlights

• PAPA 22 World Pinball Championships had approximately 240 players in the main tournament, with 43-48 women competing
• Tournament machines were set to extremely tight specifications: ~8 degrees pitch (vs. standard 6.5-7 degrees), no ball saves, no in-lane rubbers, tilts set to hair-trigger sensitivity
• Deanna (The Sincere Engineer) has become pinball-obsessed after initially saying she didn't like pinball
• Cactus Canyon upgrade kit costs approximately $1,250 and takes 30 minutes to an hour to install
• John Wick Pro at PAPA 22 was running old .94 code rather than new code
• Friend Luke placed 31st out of 197 players in the Classics division
• Friend CJ qualified 94th out of 240 in main tournament and placed 10th in Finals B
• All PAPA 22 proceeds went to suicide awareness charity (988)