It’s February, have you abandoned your New Year’s resolution yet?
What if your goal is friendship? How do you make that connection?
Here on Cincinnati Edition, we’ve read all sorts of advice on making adult friends. And one tip rang true: Find what interests you and then find a club with people who share those interests.
On today's show, we talk with a group of pinball enthusiasts about forming friendships while you play.
Guests:
- Jessi Morton, founder, Queen City Seawitches
- Justin Masterson, competitive pinball player and streamer
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It's Thursday night and there's a mechanic, percussive energy at Arcade Legacy in Sharonville. The room is wall-to-wall pinball machines including Pulp Fiction, Star Wars and Stranger Things. Tonight's competitors are warming up their trigger fingers.
"We'll get started here in about one minute," says Jesse Baker. "Make sure you're on the list."
This is a throw down for a qualifying round.
The Thursday throw downs are open to everyone.
"We rotate it on a monthly basis. So one month, we'll do seven rounds of qualifying, and the very top players then go on to the finals," explains Jay Denham, the No. 3 Ohio woman pinball player. "A lot of these top players came down here to play and to get into that competitive mindset. So but I think it's a lot of competition specifically tonight to get ready for states."
I'm here to satisfy my curiosity, could pinball be a community for me?
I used to play a bit in third grade in the basement den of this house my dad was working on. The family had two pinball machines decorated with buxom damsels and gnarly demons. It kept me occupied while my dad worked and I avoided homework.
But I was just a kid messing around. What's the real strategy to becoming a top competitor? I get Baker, the owner of Arcade Legacy, to walk me through it.
"So at the beginning of every pinball machine, just about every pinball machine, there's some kind of skill shot on this game. You see all the shots are lit, and whatever one you hit gives you points, and it gives you some kind of perk. So there is a strategy to that, if you know what you're you're doing," says Baker.
Everyone here tonight told me to talk to Jesse Baker. In this community he's revered for making Cincinnati a pinball mecca, a place the top-ranked players travel to compete.
"So if I shoot it up the center a bunch of times, I'm gonna start a multi ball. There we go. Multi ball started, and then you get jackpots. Usually you hit enough shots, and then it lights a super jackpot," Baker says.
Could I ever achieve Jesse's level of dexterity?
Fun, friends and friendly rivalry
"I'm Jessi Morton, and I'm with the Queen City Seawitches."
"Most people are not super competitive, out for blood," Morton says. "It's just for fun. You do get a couple that are really, really intense about it. But most of us are just here to hang out and have a good time. And we're like all friends."
It's how friendly and supportive clubs form.
And friendly rivalries spark up.
"So after I started the Seawitches, my guy friends all got jealous that they didn't have a club. So then they started their own clubs, which they now refer to as gangs," says Morton.
"My name is Trnon Lewis, and I'm a part of the Middle Finger Flippers, 100%."
You're not using your middle finger though; you're using your pointer finger, I say to Lewis. Is there any is there any wisdom to using your middle finger on the flippers?
"Sometimes, believe it or not," Lewis says.
Then I spot an old friend in a pink mechanic's jacket with a Zeddemore patch and matching pink fanny pack. Stuart Nyswonger is philosophical about this game with the little metal balls.
"We're our own harshest critics out here, and a big stumbling block is just getting over the idea that you're good enough to play. I've had opportunity to play with some of the best players in the world, and you beat them now and again. And similarly, you're beat by, you know, some novices. So like, anything can happen, and you won't know unless you show up and you try," Nyswonger says.
Who are some of the best players in the world?
"Well, one of them's here tonight — Gregory Kennedy, top 10 player with the green cap," Nyswonger says as he points to Kennedy.
Players are hopping on and off of these machines late into the night, and then there he is, the kid in the green cap, waiting for his next play, standing beside a woman.
"I'm Gregory Kennedy. I'm ranked 11th in the world, and I don't know, I just like to travel to play pinball. That's really it."
"I'm Addie Stevens. I'm like, 12,000 something. I'm Gregory Kennedy's girlfriend, and I love pinball."
"I'm from Columbus, so I came down here with my girlfriend and my mom, just to play," Kennedy says. "So I've been to Austria, Australia, Canada, to play pinball."
Now, did the two of you meet playing pinball, or did you fall in love, and then the pinball came second? What was the sequence of events here between pinball and the relationship? I ask.
"I don't know if you played pinball before me," Kennedy says looking at Stevens.
"I never have touched a pinball machine before I met him," Stevens laughs.
"Yeah, so we met probably about what, eight months ago," Kennedy says.
Do you really like pinball, or are you just humoring him? I ask.
"No, I actually do. At first I was like, I don't know, because I was pretty bad, but then I'm getting better, so still not great, but I'm getting there, and I'm really enjoying it. It's just, like, a fun, cheap thing to do. And, you know, you can go to tournaments, just meet new people. I think it's really fun.," Stevens says.
"It's definitely been something that I was kind of scared to introduce because it's something I do, I'd say pretty seriously," Kennedy says. "You know, I'm not pushing her on it right away, but I think she's really taken to it. Because with pinball, there's so many levels that you can play at."
"It does look like I'm up, though, so I'm sorry," he adds looking up at the board.
And before I can ask them more questions, their number is up and they're off to launch the ball on another game.
I came to scope out this tournament and find out if pinball could be the right kind of club for me. Everyone I met talked about the friendships, the fun of it, and how even with the rankings and the competition, no one takes themselves too seriously. While I can see everyone is heavily invested in refining their skills, I've found that the biggest investment is the connections you make.
Who knows, perhaps even a true love connection.