Lol. $5 says I can get in without one.
You could probably sneak in, but can you stay in? There are very few people there on Friday, which makes it awesome. The locals all know each other in Phoenix, so the few outsiders are obvious. Wes stops me every year.
My best advice, be sure to hit up new Pinball machines and crowd pleaser games on Friday. Everything gets busier as time goes on. By Sunday lines are forming around a lot of the machines, which means you will either be hogging a single machine to keep playing, or jumping on anything you see open up. Also, at least in past years, a batch of pinball machines get earmarked for tournaments, meaning Friday will be the only chance to play them outside of a tournament.