Up next, a young man who struggles mightily
with nearly every aspect of his life, but one.
The game of pinball.
A game he may just play better than anyone else on Earth.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: At first glance,
this old warehouse, outside of Pittsburgh,
may look like the biggest arcade in the world.
But the scene isn't about fun and games.
This is the pinball world championships.
(APPLAUSE)
That's right, pinball isn't just for dive bars
and suburban basements anymore.
It's now, yes, a sport.
In the past ten years,
competitive pinball has exploded.
It's numbers soaring faster than the score on a big game.
With nearly 20,000 competitors now in action.
The sport's got fans, trophies, and of course,
a reigning world champion.
Here today to defend his crown.
I'm going big, I'm going all in big.
How are you feeling about your chances to win?
-Good. -Yeah?
-Very good, or... -BOTH: Good.
O'BRIEN: But is where pinball is different
than any other sport.
Because 28-year-old Vancouver native, Robert Gagno,
is a different kind of champion.
What's the plan?
Just to go in there and play my game
and not think of anyone else's.
O'BRIEN: Gagno is an autistic savant.
A man who struggles with almost every part of life
outside the boundaries of a pinball machine,
but is a genius inside of them.
I can make shots constantly...
in more consistent-- Like, compared to everyone else.
Do you go into a game with a strategy?
ROBERT: That's one question I never answer to people.
I don't like revealing how I strategize.
Ah, you think it'll give away some of your advantage?
Yes, and to me, that's for them to figure out.
O'BRIEN: Figuring out Robert Gagno
has always been a challenge, ever since he was born.
His parents were the first to notice,
that their child was somehow different.
He just didn't feel right, it's just hard to explain.
O'BRIEN: Kathy and Maurizio Gagno
say that Robert seemed to grapple
with simply navigating the world.
He tended to scream, probably out of frustration.
MAURIZIO GAGNO: What do you want, Robert?
-(INDISTINCT YELLING) -MAURIZIO: Huh?
(INDISTINCT YELLING)
He'd start screaming, and say, you know,
"You don't understand me," and--
What he thought is coming out as speech...
was all jumbled up.
MAURIZIO: What does Robbie want?
(INDISTINCT YELLING)
O'BRIEN: And just as people couldn't understand him,
he couldn't understand them.
Typical shows of affection, for example, alarmed him.
(SCREAMS)
O'BRIEN: Maurizio and Kathy were eventually given a name
for their son's behavior: autism.
Doctors told them Robert would likely never read, or write
and might even never speak.
They even suggested sending him away...
to foster care.
Oh, we said no right away. But, I mean, I was kinda surprised.
There was actually no thinking about it, no way.
It's not gonna happened.
O'BRIEN: Instead, Maurizio and Kathy found ways
to soothe Robert.
They realized when he saw bright electric signs,
or anything that would spin, he would relax and smile.
I would be like, "Oh, look, there's an exit sign up there,"
or, "There's a spinny fan up there."
MAURIZIO: You know those toys you pump up and down,
and they spin around?
Those are the type of toys he loved.
But himself too, like, he spun spontaneously on his knee.
He actually wore, like, a little, um, spot on the floor.
Where he used to put his knee down and spin.
Do you remember loving things that spin?
Yes, and I remember my mom telling me
how I was really into exit signs.
What do you think it was about them that compelled you?
Light, dark, light, dark.
KATHY GAGNO: He loved light switches.
So, that would be one way to let him pass the time.
-Flicking the-- -Yeah, "There's a light switch,
just go turn it on and off."
O'BRIEN: Then one day, when he was five years-old,
another light went on... in Robert's mind.
While out grabbing a burger with his father,
he made a discovery
that would change his life forever.
MAURIZIO: He saw the pinball machine
in the corner,
and he forgot about the fries and the burger,
forget it, there's just-- The lights and everything
just captured his attention.
O'BRIEN: It was a magical combination
of all of Robert's obsessions.
Balls were spinning.
Electric lights blinked and sparkled.
And... he could flick those flippers
like he was flipping a light switch,
for hours on end.
-Were you good, right away? -Yes.
And it was something I'm into finally...
and I never get sad over.
O'BRIEN: Maurizio saw how pinball made his son come alive.
So, he bought him his first machine, Whirlwind,
for his tenth birthday,
and Robert was hooked.
He was like a real-life Tommy, the disabled pinball wizard
from The Who's iconic rock opera.
♪ ("Pinball Wizard" by The Who plays) ♪
O'BRIEN: Suddenly, the boy who doctors worried
might never talk,
was finally opening up.
KATHY: What do you have to say about your pinball?
They got my name on it!
-Really? -Oh, yeah!
KATHY: How many points did you get?
Oh, you-- 500,000.
O'BRIEN: But Robert didn't know how truly good he was.
Or that competitive pinball even existed until he was eighteen,
when on a whim,
Maurizio entered him into the Canadian Pinball Championships.
There were over 100 competitors there.
And I saw Robert beat player after player,
and these are pros.
ROBERT: They never heard of me and it was like, they got hit
like, something just hit them in the head or something like...
What name am I seeing here?
-'Cause you came out of nowhere. -Yes.
O'BRIEN: Robert finished twelfth in all of Canada.
Before long he climbed up the rankings to number one.
And for nearly a decade, has stayed there.
ANNOUNCER: This is a world championship ball right here.
O'BRIEN: And then, last year,
he did what every so-called pin-head dreams of.
He beat out the 500 best players on the planet
and won the Pinball World Championships.
-(CROWD CHEERS) -ANNOUNCER: Robert Gagno,
the 2016 World Champion.
ROBERT: It's just one of the most amazing feelings,
'cause I just felt like I've hoisted the Stanley Cup.
You pretty much did! For pinball, right?
The moment he won... (CHUCKLES) It was very emotional for me.
You know, he achieved, uh, his... goal
of being the World Pinball Champion.
And now, he has his name in the rafters
of this 30,000 square-foot building.
Best in the world.
O'BRIEN: But it's just not Robert's father who's astounded
by his pinball genius.
Good seeing ya.
O'BRIEN: Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota,
actually studied Robert's brain several years ago.
And after a number of tests, came away with a theory
on what makes him special.
I think Robert, literally experiences the visual world
differently than you and I.
O'BRIEN: Neurologist, Dr. Andrew Reeves
says he first noticed it
when he gave Robert this simple examination.
Can you see these, uh, bars? Just kinda keep an eye on them.
DR. REEVES: Test is simple, with vertical or horizontal bars
that are moving in front of our eyes
and our eyes naturally flick as they go by.
But he doesn't do that.
O'BRIEN: Virtually, everyone, myself included,
responds to the test like this.
I can feel my eyes moving.
Absolutely, your eyes are flickering back and forth.
When you did this test on Robert,
what does he do?
DR. REEVES: His eyes don't move at all,
he can track all the stripes at once,
it's like tracking five different pinballs
whizzing around a pinball machine.
O'BRIEN: Dr. Reeves believes, when that Robert plays pinball,
he sees all the moving parts at the same time.
The balls, the flippers and bumpers...
and processes the scene,
not as chaos, but as one whole picture.
If I have a ball here and a ball there,
I can't see both of those balls with accuracy but he can.
O'BRIEN: Bowen Kerins is a five-time world champion.
He thought he seen every trick in the pinball play book,
until Robert rolled onto the scene.
He doesn't move his head around to follow a pinball...
because he doesn't have to.
And in that way it gives him this...
-Huge advantage. -this advantage.
I watch Robert play and I'm amazed,
but I don't really learn... how to improve myself
from watching him play, because I just can't do...
the things that he does.
O'BRIEN: Confounding the pinball greats
is something Robert relishes.
And like any great athlete, he knows when he's in the zone.
And makes sure everyone knows it too.
Sometimes, if things go really good.
-Mm-hm. -I like announcing it
-with a half jacket. -What do you mean?
Kinda like, sometimes I do this, as habit, kind of thing.
-When it's going great? -Yes!
So it's just a way of me communicating, without talking.
You can tell, when he drops his jacket, you're screwed because--
-(LAUGHS) -He's on fire.
O'BRIEN: And while Robert's behavior might be called quirky
or even weird by conventional standards, it fits right in,
in the world of pinball.
O'BRIEN: You watch players, you know, bouncing up and down
-and twitching. -(BOWEN KERINS LAUGHING)
O'BRIEN: Slamming the machine, I mean,
all things that if you weren't in a pinball facility,
you might think, like, "That's a little crazy."
With Robert, it really works well for him because...
that's part of his normal activities.
MAURIZIO: Slowly, turn, turn. In here.
O'BRIEN: It's in the outside world
where Robert struggles to get by.
MAURIZIO: We need green onions.
No, no, that's cabbage. Right here.
Normally, I'm used to the onions being really round.
O'BRIEN: Simple tasks like buying groceries
can be challenging for Robert.
And he's perhaps the only world champion in all of sports
who can't live on his own without his parents.
He does have a job but it's part-time.
Making coffee and stocking supplies
at a local credit union.
And he's trying to figure out how to interact with people.
Shows of affection still confuse him so much,
that he actually went on Google to try to figure them out.
What kind of things have you learned from the internet?
Like, there's descriptions of hugs.
Can I have a hug tonight?
Like, how it releases endorphins,
but also, the communication world of it.
It felt like a language to me.
And did learning about hugs help you figure out
-how to hug people in real life? -Yes.
So, this is where all the magic happens?
O'BRIEN: Fortunately,
Robert can always retreat to his safe haven.
Excuse me. I don't like it, when people get to close to me.
Yeah, sorry about that.
O'BRIEN: He and his parents
have built his own private sanctuary.
Where he can leave the puzzles of day to day life behind.
And there's a whole other room back here.
And practices his skills on the 13 pinball machines
they've installed in the garage.
ROBERT: This was my first game I ever collected.
I love it too.
ROBERT: I'm naturally a show-boater.
O'BRIEN: I like that you're a show-boater,
I'd like you to teach me how to play.
O'BRIEN: The game seems pretty simple to me.
Just keep the ball from draining.
But when I give it a shot...
(SIGHS)
-ROBERT: And the game's over. -Any skill at all you see?
None, zero? Literally, zero? I hit it a couple times.
O'BRIEN: I got about 400,000 points,
not too shabby, or so I thought...
What's your high score on Whirlwind?
300 million.
O'BRIEN: And that 300-million-point game?
It lasted an hour.
He showed off all his hard work
at this year's world championships.
Where he delivered one of the most exciting
performances of the tournament.
This is an amazing ball one.
O'BRIEN: By doubling the highest score
on just the first of his three balls.
ROBERT: I say, I beat the number one score.
Yeah, nice, nice job.
Having a super-big highlight...
was like...
me pulling something out of nowhere.
-Special. -Yes.
And I don't like being predictable.
You always do what's unexpected, don't you?
Yes, sir.
-Wasn't that amazing playing? -Yeah.
O'BRIEN: He made as high as fourth place
in his attempt to defend his title,
but then the ball didn't roll his way
and his dreams of a repeat were dashed.
(CROWD SIGHS)
But for Robert there is nothing more important
than keeping people on their toes,
and putting on a show.
Fun House was really screaming, wasn't it?
Nice job, man. Nice job.
-Congrats -That was awesome.
O'BRIEN: So, as far Robert Gagno is concerned,
he came away victorious.
I feel I was born into this world to be a natural
at proving people wrong, and discovering unusual stuff.
And how do you think you've done on that so far?
Brilliant.
Thank you for watching.
You can catch the rest of the latest edition of Real Sports
all month long on HBO.
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