Pinballcenter will hold its first International Pinball Festival this spring in the beautiful Edwin-Scharff-Haus convention center located on the Danube river banks. Up to 192 competitors can participate in the IFPA (International Flipper Pinball Association) sanctioned tournament. It will be one of the largest pinball tournaments ever held in Europe. The World Pinball Player Rankings includes more than 13,000 competitors worldwide.

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In celebration of the upcoming World Pinball Championship this June, the IFPA will be taking over Seattle with a WPPR point bonanza of tournaments for flipper fanatics to enjoy!

World Championship Week starts with the NW Pinball Championships, the official IFPA Satellite event for IFPA9. Taking place June 1st-3rd in Maryville, WA, tournament directors Cayle George and Eden Stamm have created an event of the highest quality, offering one of the largest prize pools available in the US. As the official IFPA Satellite event for IFPA9, there is ONE spot available to get into the field of 64 players and play for the right to be crowned World Pinball Champion. Full details of the NW Pinball Championships can be found HERE.

After allowing players a chance to recover on Monday, the IFPA will be back in action Tuesday, June 5th with the Pre-IFPA Shorty's Tournament. Held at the famous Shorty's arcade in the heart of downtown Seattle, IFPA Canada Country Director Eden Stamm will be serving as tournament director. Full details including schedule, format, entry fees, prizes will be available soon. Learn more about Shorty's HERE.

World Championship Week continues Wednesday, June 6th the IFPA moves on to Full Tilt Ice Cream in Ballard, where we will be hosting the Pre-IFPA Full Tilt Tournament. Top 10 world ranked player Trent Augenstein will be volunteering as tournament director for this event. Full details including schedule, format, entry fees, prizes will be available soon. Learn more about Full Tilt HERE.

Saturday, June 9th, the Northwest Pinball & Gameroom Show will be hosting an IFPA tournament with qualifying from 10am through 4pm, and finals to follow right after. Full details of the tournament is available HERE. Full details about the Northwest Pinball & Gameroom Show are available HERE.

Finally, Sunday, June 10th, IFPA's World Championship Week concludes with the crowning of the new World Pinball Champion. Hosted by former NBA great Todd MacCulloch and sponsored by Stern Pinball, Jersey Jack Pinball, AAMA, AMOA, Marco Specialties, Pinball Life, Gameworks, Play Meter Magazine, Raw Thrills, Betson, Pinball Center, Farsight Studios, Zen Studios and Planetary Pinball Supply, the IFPA9 World Pinball Championship will feature the most competitive field of participants in pinball tournament history from 12 countries, including 7 former World Champions. IFPA9 will be happening all day on Friday and Saturday as we work the field down from the 64 qualifiers, to the 8 finalists that will be competing Sunday morning for the World Championship. Full details for IFPA9 are available HERE.

For any questions regarding any part of IFPA's World Championship Week, contact the IFPA at ifpapinball@gmail.com.

NBC affiliate KING5 in Seattle profiled Canada's top ranked pinball player Robert Gagno. Robert recently qualified to represent Canada at the upcoming World Pinball Championship held outside Seattle later in June. Click HERE to see the video.

The IFPA is pleased to announce that the following players saw the biggest jump in their world ranking based on their March 2012 tournament performance.

The biggest movers for March 2012 included Charlie Gehlhausfrom the US, who moved up 8864 spots by finishing in 31st place at the Texas Pinball Festival. Matt Brown from the US moved up 6679 spots from his 21st place finish at the Louisville Arcade Expo. Russell Willoughby from the US moved up 6572 spots from his 7th place finish at the Louisville Arcade Expo. Cameron Spohn moved up 6557 spots from his 98th place finish at the Texas Pinball Festival. Finally, Nick Campbell moved himself up 5983 spots from his 19th place finish at the Midwest Gaming Classic in Milwaukee, as well as his 21st place finish at the 1up Monthly Tournament in Colorado.

Congratulations to Charlie, Matt, Russell, Cameron and Nick, as well as the other players that saw a jump in their ranking from their March tournament performance!

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Month for March 2012 is former World Pinball Champion, Daniele Celestino Acciari from Rocca di Papa, Italy. Daniele earned 131.38 WPPR points in March, finishing in 1st place at the Stern AC/DC Launch Party Tournament in Rome, 1st place at the Spring Pinball Tournament, 1st place in both the Main and Classics divisions at Pinb-Owls Nest 2012, along with a 2nd place and 5th place finish at the Les 24H Du Mans Flipper in the Main Tournament and Classics Tournament respectively in France. 

The rest of the top 5 for the month of March included Trent Augenstein of the US with 83.63 WPPR points, Michael Trepp of Switzerland with 79.77 WPPR points, Cayle George of the US with 72.54 WPPR points, and Nick Zendejas of the US with 70.89 WPPR points.

Congratulations to Daniele and the other top WPPR point earners of the month!

29 people competed in this year's 2012 Amusement Expo tournament out in Las Vegas. Utilizing the Pin-Golf style format on Stern's latest game AC/DC, players played 3 pin-holes in an attempt to get as few strokes as possible. The top 4 players qualified for the finals, with the next highest 4 finishers ranked under #250 qualified for the Novice Finals.

TJ Beyer(ranked 1435th in the world) defeated David Burrier(ranked 1075th in the world), Shelley Paule(ranked 1013th in the world) and Roger Sharpe(ranked 342nd in the world) to win the Novice Finals. Current World Pinball Champion, and world ranked #2 player Cayle George defeated Zach Sharpe(ranked 9th in the world), Bob Matthews(ranked 30th in the world) and Nick Zendejas(ranked 215th in the world) to take home 1st place in the Masters Division. Full results of the tournament can be found HERE.

The Amusement Expo tournament is one of the nearly 350 annual IFPA endorsed tournaments where players can earn World Pinball Player Rankings points, and qualify for the IFPA World Pinball Championship.

On Friday March 30th, the first European Stern Launch Party took place in Rome in order to present and celebrate the new AC/DC Pinball machine. The event was organized by IFPA Italia and Tecnoplay in the Arcade Joy Village of the Italian capital. The location was absolutely outstanding, a big and famous arcade with a lot of customers, with a great setup for both the party and the tournaments. The new born Stern was also surrounded by the pinball Rolling Stones, Shrek, Iron Man and Avatar. The main tournament was played on the AC/DC and it was valid for the International Pinball Ranking, while on the other four machines the side tournament

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St. Louis Area Pinball concludes their inaugural league! The passionate and dedicated league players brought awareness of competitive pinball to each other and peripheral patrons, spreading pinball enthusiasm and knowledge to all around. Like any great vice, all it takes is that initial introduction and you are hooked-such

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The IFPA will be screenprinting the official IFPA9 World Pinball Championship t-shirts in a couple of weeks. In honor of our IFPA9 host Todd MacCulloch, our shirts this year will feature the purple and gold of the University of Washington Huskies, which is Todd's alma mater.

If you would like to purchase a t-shirt, please contact us at ifpapinball@gmail.com.

The shirts are $20 each, plus $5 if shipped within the US. For international shipping, please contact us for details.

We will also be able to deliver shirts to the Northwest Pinball Championships at no additional shipping charge, which is the official satellite event for the IFPA9 World Pinball Championship where one lucky player will earn the final spot into the field of 64.

This month the Seattle Pinball League held a tournament at the house of Todd MacCulloch. During the tournament, Maurizio Gagno, father of Canada’s top ranked player Robert Gagno had a chance to capture about 10 minutes of footage. Check out that video HERE.

This amazing venue will be the place where 64 of the world's greatest pinball players do battle in determining who will become the next World Pinball Champion.

Besides playing host, Todd's miraculous play during the 4th quarter of the pinball season secured Todd one of the final spots amongst the field of 64. Entering the weekend of October 23rd, 2012, Todd was ranked 216th in the world, with little hope of being able to represent Canada at the World Championship. With his victory over six of the world's top 10 players, including a finals victory over former multiple World Pinball Champion, Lyman Sheats at Chicago's Pinball Expo Flip Out Tournament, Todd started his trek up the World Pinball Player Rankings.

Following his trip to Chicago, Todd flew back to Seattle where he captured victory at the Stern Transformers Launch Party that same week. The conclusion of the VRPA League in December saw Todd earn a 2nd place finish, along with over 20 additional WPPR points. Last but not least was the Freezing Fingers Christmas Classic out in Vancouver. Todd finished in 7th place in the main tournament, with a 2nd place finish in the Classics Division, netting him nearly 10 additional WPPR points.

In total, Todd earned over 90 WPPR points in the final two months of 2012, shooting him up to the 103rd ranked pinball player in the world, and earning him a seat amongst the world's best and a shot at the title. With Todd being extremely familiar with home court advantage during his years of battling for an NBA World Championship, will his home court advantage help bring him a World Pinball Championship title?

All these questions will be answered June 8th-10th!