Frequently Asked Questions

Below are some commonly asked questions and their answers. If you have any other questions, please let us know!

Q: What are the World Pinball Player Rankings?
A: The IFPA has created the World Pinball Player Rankings (WPPR) to establish the first official rankings system of pinball players throughout the world. Similar to many other professional organizations’ rankings systems (NASCAR, PGA Tour, ATP Tour, etc.) players accumulate points at the events they participate in. All IFPA endorsed events from around the world are eligible for World Pinball Player Rankings Points which are awarded according to the tournament’s strength of field, number of participants, format of the tournament, and the players finishing position. For more details on the WPPR formula itself, click HERE.

 

Q: Why does pinball need a ranking system?
A: The World Pinball Player Rankings offers the competitive pinball community a great way to compare themselves to their peers. It was designed to help bring together the many tournaments and leagues being held around the world, giving players an incentive to play more competitive pinball. It was also created to raise awareness for competitive pinball outside the general pinball hobby. 

 

Q: How do I become an official IFPA member?
A: Simply play in any IFPA endorsed event and once those results are submitted into the IFPA by the tournament director you will officially become a world ranked player. You are then free to create an IFPA Profile page by clicking HERE.

 

Q: How does an event become endorsed by the IFPA, and eligible to award World Pinball Player Rankings points?
A: The IFPA only recognizes open divisions of play to be included in the World Pinball Player Rankings. If certain players are prohibited from playing based on age, gender, skill or personal reasons, those results will not be counted. This includes B-divisions, Novice divisions, Women’s divisions, etc. Team events are also ineligble. The IFPA also requires that any endorsed tournament be listed on the IFPA Calendar a minimum of 30 days prior to the event being held. A website with full details about the event is also required. Any event where pre-registration is required must be submitted into to the IFPA Calendar a minimum of 30 days prior to the pre-registration date.

 

Q: How do I submit my tournament to the IFPA Calendar and results after the event has completed?
A: The submission process is handled by our Tournament Manager system, which you can access once you have created an account with us and logged into the website.  Go HERE to create an account. If you already have an existing account go HERE to login.

 

Q: When are the rankings updated?
A: The World Pinball Player Rankings are updated whenever we receive results from a tournament director. We strive to update the rankings and tournament information as quickly as possible. If you are wondering why a tournament result isn’t in our system, ask us!

 

Q: Why is the IFPA limiting the number of events counted?
A: Starting in 2015, the IFPA rankings will only count the top 20 events for a given player. This is to limit players from increasing their world ranking simply by playing in more events. While those players that do play in more IFPA endorsed leagues and tournaments still have an advantage to increasing their world ranking, we are able to more accurately reflect the current world ranking of players with this 20 event limit. 

 

Q: Why is there only a 3 year rolling window? Shouldn’t that tournament I won in 2003 still mean something?
A: The rankings are meant to determine who is the best pinball player, right now. While a tournament win in 2003 is great, it doesn’t represent how a player is currently performing. If you are going to be labeled the best, recent accomplishments need to count for more than past accomplishments. Most major rankings have some sort of rolling window. We decided to use three years since we have limited events per year and not everyone can attend a high percentage of events. The value of results do decay over the 3-year rolling window, reducing by 25% after each of the first two years..

 

Q: The rankings are weighted towards the North American players and everyone else is at an disadvantage.
A: We try to make the rankings fair to everyone. Tournaments are sorted into two classes: Major and everything else. If there is a 30 player tournament in Las Vegas, Vancouver, Austria or Tokyo — they all have the same ability to be worth the same amount of points based on the WPPR formula. Many confuse the fact that North America has many tournaments where other countries, like India, may have only a few or none at all. Unfortunately, there really isn’t much we can do about this and it’s just the reality of the current state of things with competitive pinball. Hopefully, more events will begin to popup worldwide to give others the chance to compete. It is unfair to weigh rankings in other countries heavier, simply because they have few chances. The qualifying system for the World Pinball Championship does take this into account by setting aside 2 spots for each eligible country. This allows those players that may not be as high on the global list to qualify by focusing on being highly ranked on their country list.

 

Q: I really do not like the rankings and do not wish to participate in the them.
A: Just like any ranking system, there will be individuals who disagree with how it is being done. If you wish for your name to be removed the rankings, please let us know and we’ll remove you. Remember, the goal of all of this is to help promote competitive pinball and we really do not wish to see anyone go. A reminder that only ranked players are eligible to qualify for the IFPA’s annual World Pinball Championship.

Q: Why are my Tournament Submissions approved out of order. Why are other tournaments approved ahead of mine?
A: There are several answers to this. For starters, remember that there are several people that review Tournament Results that are submitted, with some reviewers focusing on specific geographic locations. Since the queue can be 25 to 100 tournaments deep at some points, we may choose to prioritize large tournaments since they have the largest impact to the rankings. Additionally, since reviewing results could be time consuming, a reviewer may choose to approve simpler tournaments to maximize the time they had to review tournaments at that time. Rest assured, we will get the queue as quickly as possible. It is also important to respond to any questions the reviewers may ask of you.