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LoserKid Pinball Podcast
LoserKid Pinball Podcast
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Ep 35: Pinburgh with Doug Polka

PodcastAnalysis updated 3d ago1 hr 23 min listen
From the creator

Episode 35 is here! Everyone has questions on their mind about Pinburgh and we have the guy to answer those questions! Doug Polka joins us to talk about their decision in cancelling Pinburgh 2020...

Listen on LoserKid Pinball Podcast

Highlights

  • Replay FX and Pinburgh 2020 were cancelled due to COVID-19 stay-at-home orders preventing 2.5-3 months of preparation time required for the event
  • Pinburgh has grown from ~100-120 participants in its first year to 1,000+ participants, selling out in 15 seconds as of 2019
  • There were no games on route in Pittsburgh in 2007-2008 when Doug entered competitive pinball; the route now operates ~60 games across the city
  • Pinburgh uses a mixed-era match-play format created by Bo Catalano, Karen Catalano, and Mark Steinman
  • Replay Foundation owns ~600+ games and used over 400 games in Pinburgh 2019 alone; additional games sourced from local lenders and manufacturers like Stern
  • Jurassic Park (Stern) is 'one of the best releases Stern's put out, maybe ever' and was new/untested before appearing in a tournament
  • Pinburgh's ticket resale policy prevents secondary market speculation; this was implemented after early years saw cancellations the day before the event
  • Papa and Pinburgh formats are fundamentally different: Papa uses ticket-based (5-game) qualifying with division-specific banks; Pinburgh uses direct match-play head-to-head competition
  • Replay FX is run by the Replay Foundation (nonprofit) with only 5 full-time employees plus contracted help near the event
  • Doug maintains a 4-year spreadsheet tracking game play times and difficulty by bank to inform future game curation decisions

Notable quotes

“Replay and Pinberg are very, very time intensive things to get ready for. When replay, you know, for one year ends about a week later, we start the preparations for the next replay. Like that's no exaggeration.”
Doug Polka
“I want to make sure that when you come in... everybody feels like they got their money's worth for what they paid to enter, no matter where you finished, whether they finished first overall or 1,000th overall.”
Doug Polka
“This is going to hit a thousand people. And like, I was like, there's like, nah, competitive pinball isn't that big.”
Doug Polka
“I almost always play a couple games of Jurassic Park just because I just really enjoy that game.”
Doug Polka
“The biggest problem that that created was that, well, we would give you a refund. Sure, that's not a problem. But now we have holes in the tournament when we knew we also had a lot of demand.”
Doug Polka
“We we only have five employees total and some other people that we contract when we get near the show.”
Doug Polka
“I don't think anyone can say that it's amazing because the machines are set up so right for their skill level.”
Host (Scott Larson or co-host)
“Pinberg obviously is match play. Everybody's playing at the same time. You're playing against three other people, so you're competing directly with other people.”
Doug Polka

Entities

  • Flippin' Out Pinball· business
  • Stern Pinball· company
  • InDisc· event
  • New York City Pinball Championship· event
  • Papa World Championships· event
  • Pinburgh· event
  • Replay FX· event
  • Alien Star· game
  • Andromeda· game
  • Doodlebug· game
  • Jurassic Park· game
  • Pittsburgh Penguins· organization
  • Replay Foundation· organization
  • Bo Catalano· person
  • Brad Hunter· person
  • Doug Polka· person
  • Karen Catalano· person
  • Keith Elwin· person
  • Mark Steinman· person
  • Scott Larson· person
  • Steve Zumoff· person
  • Zach Sharp· person
  • Kickback Cafe· venue

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