STERN Determination RESULTS!

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We had a big 55 players turn out for STERN Determination, aka, “The STERNament” at the Pacific Pinball Museum, including a couple import players: Julie Gray from Seattle, and Eden Stamm from Vancouver British Columbia.

There was some debate at first as to whether we should allow a Canadian to play, and the arguments went back and forth.  However, an anonymous person shouted “Well you let those DANISH guys play!”  And we had to agree it would only be fair to let the Canadians in.  We also agreed Canada is a much better country than Denmark because it’s far easier to find on  a map.  But I digress…

The impetus for this tournament was to celebrate the Pacific Pinball Museum’s latest acquisition of STERN’s newest game: ACDC Premium Edition, so it was a natural to run an event with all STERN games, both moderns and classics.  STERN backed the event HUGE with promotional plastics and TEN translites.  The combined value was well in excess of $1000 in prizes.

The line-up was:

Moderns:

ACDC Premium

TRON

Ironman

Tranformers Limited Edition

Classics:

Sea Witch

STARS

Galaxy

On a sunny Mother’s Day weekend, I wasn’t expecting so many players, but the more the merrier, and things went great.  Plus, I set up a potluck competition, cause if it’s one thing I know: pinball players love food.  Around a dozen tasty dishes showed up.

Above: Keith Parkins in the Finals.

The big surprise in the OPEN Finals was Keith Parkins, edging out solid competition heavies Josh Lehan and up-and-comer Damien Charlety  in the semi-finals, to wind up in the Final Four.  Keith fought valiantly, but in a group where half the players knew almost nothing about ACDC, yet still were putting up 40M+ scores, it’s a tough battle.  Keith took 4th overall, and took home a plaque and translite for his efforts.

Above: Andrei Massenkoff in the final game.

In the Playoffs and Finals, it’s 4-player group play.  1st gets 4 points, 2nd 2 points, 3rd 1 point and fourth, a big ol’ zero.  Finalists play three games and your total points determine whether you advance to next round.

Andrei won the first two Finals games with monster 70M+ on TRON and 800k+ on Galaxy scores.  He already had a lock on the win, with 8 points, making it a three-way horse race for second.  Keith had 1 point, Alex had 3 points and Tim had 2 points.  This meant that if anyone took first on ACDC, they’d clinch 2nd or force a playoff.

Andrei could only grief at this point, but set the bar high at 51M for the other players.  Alex put up 38M, and Tim was sitting just below that going into ball 3.  If Tim took 2nd on ACDC, for 2 points, it would leave Alex in 3rd, for 1 point, and they would be tied.  They would play a one-game tie-breaker in that case.  But Tim went the distance and eclipsed Andrei’s score with 57M+, earning 4 points on ACDC and  securing 2nd place in the Finals.

OPEN Results:

Above: Andrei (left) took top honors.

2nd: Tim Hansen

3rd: Alex Samonte

4th: Keith Parkins (Congrats to Keith for his first final-four showing).

Tied for 5th: Josh Lehan, Josh Warren

Tied for 7th: Glenn Bedford, James Squires (Congrats to Glen Bedford on his first tournament)

9: Damien Charletty

10: Eden Stamm

Tied for 11th: Chris Heilig, John Lautmann

NOVICE Results:

(Note: Regarding World Pinball Player Ranking Points, Novice Finals do not affect position.  Rank is based on Qualifying Performance)

1st: Mike Schiess (translite + plaque)

2nd: Devon Kelly (translite + plaque)

3rd: Chris Gershtein (translite + plaque)

4th: Debbie Cluney (plaque)

5th: Chris Lindboe

6th: Chris Harkins

Tied for 7th: Lilia Bedford, Jeannie Rodriguez

Several novices were MIA at the end of qualifying so we kept going down the list to fill the bracket.  Novice qualifying went all the way down to the 34th place overall!

Possible major boo-boo on my part in Kids.  I think I may have awarded 1st to the 2nd place player (Bella Gershtein) instead of Kevin Bedford, who I think might have been 1st.  Hopefully the Bedford family sees this post and contacts me, and we’ll make it right.  However, Bella will not have to return her prizes.  Also, Glenn Bedford was the 4th place winner of the side pot and I owe him 14 bucks.

Qualifying Results 

1 Andrei Massenkoff 352
2 Tim Hansen 348
3 Josh Warren 317
4 James Squires 303
5 Alex Samonte 300
6 Josh Lehan 298
7 Damien Charlety 290
8 Glenn Bedford 289
9 Chris Heilig 287
10 Keith Parkins 282
11 Eden Stamm 281
12 John Lautmann 276
—————————–
13 Julie Gray 265
14 Chris Lindboe 257
15 Jon Olkowski 250
16 Kevin Reiki 245
17 Michael Spears (Cal) 244
18 Darren Ensley 242
19 Hal Erickson 240
20 Eugene Gershtein 235
21 Zoe Vrabel 233
22 Chris Gershtein 227
23 Per Schwarzenberger 226
24 TJ Beyer 224
25 Jim Vierra 223
26 Jeannie Rodriguez 220
27 Debbie Cluney 218
Chris Harkins 218
29 Ric Craig 213
Michael Scheiss 213
31 Devon Kelly 212
Jim Anderson 212
33 Rumtin Rahmani 208
34 Lilia Bedford 205
35 Nina G 197
36 Matt Willlmarth 193
Dylan Jolliffe 193
38 Chris DeLeon 189
39 Selena Shook 187
40 Nicole Anne Reik 173
Andrea Hartman 173
42 Chris Hoff 165
43 Jem Gruber 157
44 Kevin Bedford 149
45 Jeff Ridenour 141
46 Reno Reiki 136
47 Bella Gershtein 133
48 Bob Schwarzmann 132
49 Erin Rey 124
50 Andrew Hoff 122
51 Alex Kirsonis 121
52 Edward Dobson 98
53 Symphony Bedford 94
54 Dottie Ledesma 58
55 Sandra Lennie 57

SIDE POT: A $10 optional side pot was held with 14 entrants.  Payouts were to top 4 (40%, 30%, 20%, 10%) 1st: Andrei Massenkoff ($56), 2nd: Tim Hansen ($42) 3rd: Josh Lehan ($28) 4th: Glenn Bedford ($14).

POT LUCK Grand Champion: Nicole Anne Reik won with her Italian Wedding Soup.  Keeping with the Italian theme of the soup, Nicole went into Italian Mom mode and made it a point to introduce indecisive eaters at the potluck table to her offering, even going so far as to serve her soup to them.  The combination of her awesome soup and hospitality was irresistible to voters.   Nicole can no longer compete in Novice in future potluck competitions.  Nicole got a Ripley’s Believe it or Not translite for her culinary skills.  Personally, I consider her win a fluke, as Andrei Massenkoff is known to bring a mean package of Oreos, but sufficed with just winning the tournament. :-)

VOLUNTEER AWARD: All scorekeepers, techs and other do-goodniks were entered into a drawing for a translite.  Eugene Gershtein won and took home a Monopoly translite.

Thanks to everyone who came.  See you next week at Pin a Go Go!

Nicole Anne Reik submitted some more pics: Click Here