Poppin' the Frick Off #1: Kentucky Derby at LITT (Minneapolis, MN)

Editor’s note: This is the first in a series we’ll be doing featuring fun and exceptional arcadery across this great frickin’ nation of ours. The series? Poppin’ the Frick Off : Dispatches From Pinball Freakdom. Really rolls off the tongue. Does your league do it best? Do they get wild? How about BUCK wild? We want the evidence. From debauched behavior to fun costumes, we wanna see what y’all got. This week? One of our all time fave writer/editors, Rick Brewster, turned his journalistic eye toward the midwest Mecca, LITT for their annual Kentucky Derby tournament. What he found there? Well, it was more than just floppy hats! Though don’t worry, there were a couple non-floppy hats. Take it away, Rick.

The first time pinball on stools has ever been considered cool

The 2nd annual, two-strike Kentucky Derby took place at The Bar Formerly Known As Tilt Pinball Bar, on May 6th, 2023, and we were here to capture the on-brand-for-Nudge shenanigans. Pinball tournaments are about a lot of things. Fun, competition, WPPR points. It’s a bummer that sometimes it feels like the only thing that matters to some folks is the last one on that list. That’s not good.

On the other hand, we have the Kentucky Derby. Is it cool? Two minutes of sheer, overwhelming animal-based excitement, followed by disappointment (and maybe a level of degenerate shame) — plus the biggest hats you’ll see all year. Copious amounts of mint juleps. It’s cool, sure. But what if we made it better? What if we got rid of the horses and added… pinball? The results speak for themselves. And the results are drunk!

THC beverages, Failarmy, and glass cleaner. Name a more iconic combo.

Now, how did something this silly come about? I spoke with tournament creator and director Liz Boelke about the origins of this spectacle. A couple years back, Liz and company were playing on stools for fun, and someone jumped on and mounted the stool like a horse.

A lightbulb popped the frick off in Liz’s brain: Oh my god, we need to have a Kentucky Derby tournament!

COVID kept delaying the original event, but eventually the first iteration took place in May of 2022. I caught a bout of COVID at that time, so the 2023 LITT Derby was my first exposure to this delightful, IFPA sanctioned event. There were a total of 29 people last year, and 64 this year. Pretty dang good for a fun, casual Saturday event. Do people just love playing on stools? Do they just want to complete? Chase points?

Liz’s take on the increased turnout is pretty simple, almost zen-like.

“I made more friends,” she says.

Tournament director Liz Boelke (center), featured with The Brookes (Tousignant, left, Burns, right).

Josh Sharpe, IFPA controversy, Oh MY.

One might (rightfully) wonder: how on earth is this IFPA sanctioned? This is like, Critical Hit-level silliness. (Also sanctioned, btw.) Josh “Destroyer of Fun” Sharpe caught wind of the event on Tiltforums earlier in the week due to ongoing WPPR 6.0 debates (more on that in an upcoming piece) and realized this slipped through the approval process. Josh briefly shut it down, and Liz clarified to Josh that no one is being forced to sit on stools; though it is sanctioned, it’s not that serious. Josh relented, and it was once again greenlit. And people were good sports! Even with IFPA points on the line. Imagine that. No one got strikes for putting a foot on the ground, and everyone voluntarily played the event while riding their stool with varying levels of aggression. This reporter can also report that there was some, but not certainly enough, stool slapping while mounting/dismounting.

Local TV legend Chuck Ells and company. Fun fact: this man has a pinball machine rethemed after him.

Getting your pinball freak on in a chair feels… weird

In the entirety of my pinball career - allllll of the thousands of hours I’ve put into this silly activity - I realized early that afternoon that I had not played a single ball while sitting down. Overall, it’s not too much different, but there seemed to be two main components that players needed to recalibrate: the viewing angle of the playfield, and how much force needed to move the game. Speaking with 2023 Derby winner Jared Eshelman (favored on most bet slips) on his winning strategies, Jared had to adjust a decent amount: being 6’4”, sitting on a stool was a starkly different angle than his usual eyeline to the playfield.

Tournament winner Jared Eshelman, dialing in his System Boot combos before the tournament.

That being said, there were advantages: outlane saves were easier due to eyes being right over the game, and being able to quickly shimmy either left or right to save a ball. I personally found that I could track balls coming to a flipper much easier for passes and tips. Accuracy was a bit off as well: Jared stated he felt better on his 50/50 shots, but hit less of his more consistent shots. It clearly worked for Jared, who fended off a strikeless Tony Midtling in the last two rounds to take the Derby title.

“I was playing pretty okay,” he says.

I asked if he was going to harness this energy and play future tournament sitting. He interrupted me before I could finish with a “hellllllll no!”

Serious strategizing taking place right here.

Look, it’s not all shits and gigs sitting

Naturally, not all was smooth sailing. Having a lower angle caused some playfield toys to interview with the playfield’s view, such as the glider on Turtles LE. (Well, interfered more than usual.) On Foo Fighters, I couldn’t see the left outlane return post by the trough at all, and failed and easy outlane save. I tried to alley pass once on Centuar and immediately lost a ball, not even close to shooting the opposite inlane. I did not try to alley pass again. I’m not sure if I could have tried something that felt more dangerous than an alley pass while sitting down, other than deliberately shooting slings. (Which, effectively, was the same thing.)

Count the OSHA violations!

Frankly speaking, I wish all tournaments had the vibes of the Derby. People had a lot of fucking fun. Yeah, it was ranked, and there were decent points on the line, but I did not see a single adult temper tantrum all afternoon. (Vegas typically sets the O/U on adult temper tantrums for two strike tournaments around 2.5, and sharp money is on the overs.)

Keep pinball fun. Periodt.

Now, I’m not advocating for every tournament requiring you to play standing on one leg, or wearing 3D glasses, or whatever. (editor’s note: our feature in issue 3 is pinball olympics — so yes we frickin’ do.) But this serves as a good reminder that competitive pinball can and should be fun! If you’re not having fun, you’re blowing it. And if you weren’t having fun smacking your stool while starting multiballs in the Derby, boy howdy — you were really blowing it.

This is the ideal male body. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like.

So tell us, what’s your favorite tournament theme or style? Like what’s a memorable format that you’ll travel for — or what’s a memorable theme night your league had? We wanna know. ESPECIALLY IF EVIDENCE EXISTS IN THE FORM OF COMPROMISING PICTURES.

For real, email us! We might feature you in a future Nudge story. Gain infamy and clout, you know? It’s ALL about that clout.