Tonight I went to Illegal Pinball Club in Oslo to play in their monthly tournament. The club is only open to the public a couple times a month, so we timed it perfectly.
It's very easy to miss. You have to find a door with a button that says Illegal Pinball on it and then when they buzz you in you have to get through two sets of doors before they lock again. Luckily, I had emailed them to confirm the time, so they knew a new person was showing up. I ended up making it through 1 set but then got stuck at the 2nd set of doors. Luckily the man upstairs (no not God, just a man) rebuzzed me and I figured out to go through the next set of doors.
The club is on the 3rd floor, which isn't as clear as you would think. Sometimes the floor we call the first floor is called E in Europe and Floor 1 is the next floor up or Floor 2 as we call it in the states. I ended up going to the top floor looking at all the doors and there were no clues as to where it was until I heard a door open 2 floors down and pinball sounds. I quickly made my way back down and caught the door before it closed.
I was greeted by the man upstairs, who I now know is named Kjetil, with a warm welcome. I paid my entrance fee and started warming up.
At 7pm the tournament started.
In my first round I got to play with Kjetil, who tuned out to be the Norwegian champion this year and headed to District 82 for the world championships in June. He was very good and destroyed us all on Flash Gordon.
I played well but didn't make the playoffs. Everyone there was solid and knew the machines well. I had a few really great rounds but it wasn't enough to overcome my poor rounds.
It was a great tournament and everyone I played with was very friendly and wanted to talk Pinball and travel. It was another awesome experience brought to me by Pinball!
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