My Daily News in Australia recently had an article about Peter Watt (ranked 2162nd in the world). Peter is a former two-time Australian champion of pool tables and has recently started competing in IFPA endorsed tournaments within Australia. Check out the article HERE.

The Courier-Journal in Louisville, KY published an article about the 3rd annual Lousiville Arcade Expo, which was recently held on March 8th-10th. The Louisville Arcade Expo tournament is one of the nearly 450 annual IFPA endorsed tournaments where players can earn World Pinball Player Rankings points, and qualify for the IFPA World Pinball Championship. Featured in the article is organizer Jeremy Fleitz (ranked 4402nd in the world) and PAPA Co-founder and IFPA Co-director Roger Sharpe (ranked 365th in the world). Click HERE to see the article. Click HERE for results from the tournament.

KOLR10 News in Springfield, MO recently covered the Ozark Pinball Syndicate tournament which was recently held on March 3rd. The Ozark Pinball Syndicate tournament is one of the nearly 450 annual IFPA endorsed tournaments where players can earn World Pinball Player Rankings points, and qualify for the IFPA World Pinball Championship. This tournament is also part of the IFPA State Championship Series, being included in the qualifying for the IFPA Missouri State Championship. Featured in the article is Dayvv Brooks (ranked 595th the world). Click HERE to see the video. Click HERE for results from the tournament.

The IFPA will be screenprinting the official IFPA10 World Pinball Championship t-shirts next week.

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 Pinburgh or to IFPA10 at no additional shipping charge.

He is back. In the right way too. Nicola Pierobon, top italian player, just got back to Italy after a long time due to his humanitarian commitment in Colombia, participating in the first official tournament in the calender and takes the win, a real triumph. It happened last night in Verona, in the game room of the mall “La grande mela”, where the new Stern pinball “The Avengers” launch party took place. The event included a pinball tournament valid for the world pinball ranking, where most of the top italian players partecipated, including the world champion Daniele Celestino Acciari. Pierobon has been away from the pinball circuit for a good year and a half, and at the first try he took a win in a final played against Acciari (Second), the new entry Giuseppe Violante (Third) and Roberto Pedroni (Forth).

Nicola Pierobon, on top of a good bunch of points for the world ranking, takes home the beautiful official trophy donated by Stern Pinball e Ifpa, International flipper pinball association.

But the real good news is the big success obtained by pinball on public location, as last night in Verona. Special night because of the presence of "Mr pinball" Gary Stern in person, owner of the pinball industry "Stern Pinball".

"A fantastic experience, on an ideal location for this kind of events … with a wonderful feeling" he says a Gioconews.it . "The tournament had a big attendance, with three women playing the tournament and many new entries in this pinball world. A big success."

For more pictures of the event, click HERE.

Registration is now closed for IFPA10, and we couldn't be more excited about the field of participants!

IFPA10 will set a new record for most countries represented in the history of any pinball tournament with 19. Included in the field are the two previous IFPA World Pinball Champions, Daniele Celestino Acciari (IFPA7 and IFPA9 World Pinball Champion), and Cayle George (IFPA8 World Pinball Champion). Both Daniele and Cayle will be serving as team captains for the inaugural Epstein Cup battle between Europe and the USA.

Another IFPA record that has been set is the cut line for at-large bids into an IFPA World Championship. At rank #66, Alain Boulieu from France become the last player above the cut line, destroying the previous record of rank #126 set at IFPA8 in Sweden.

The full field of participants is available HERE.

A reminder that 1 more IFPA10 spot is still available at the IFPA Satellite Tournament in Rodenbach the weekend before IFPA10. Full details for that tournament will be available soon.

The IFPA is excited to announce that the following players have been now qualified for the $tern Rewards Program based on their January 2013 IFPA endorsed tournament performance! These players have until August 15th, 2014 to exercise their reward option.

PLAYER OF THE MONTH – Steve Zahler
Steve earned 89.36 WPPR points in January, including a 2nd and 1st place finish in the Main and Classic tournaments at the Maryland Pinball Championship. In addition, Steve won the Middletown NY Pinball Open, and finished in 12th place at Pinferno.

BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – Greg Matherly
Greg moved up 1487 spots by earning .66 WPPR points from his 56th place finish at the Pinferno tournament in New York. This moved Greg up to the 5341st ranked player in the world.

BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – Jake Peterson
Jake moved up 793 spots from his 31st place finish at the Maryland Pinball Championship, along with a 26th place finish in the Classics Division. In total, Jake earned 2.21 WPPR points, which has moved him up to a rank of 2701st in the world.

BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – Keith Brown
Keith moved up 665 spots from his victory at the Lost Ark Monthly Pinball Tournament. This netted Keith 6.26 WPPR points and boosted him into now being the 1571st ranked player in the world.

Detailed rules for the $tern Rewards Program, including an updated list of qualifiers, and updated list of rewards available can be found HERE.

The IFPA is pleased to announce that the following players saw the biggest jump in their world ranking based on their January 2013 tournament performance.

The biggest movers for January 2013 included Greg Matherly from the US, who moved up 1487 spots by earning .66 WPPR points from his 56th place finish at the Pinferno tournament in New York. This moved Greg up to the 5341st ranked player in the world.

Jake Peterson from Baltimore, MD moved up 793 spots from his 31st place finish at the Maryland Pinball Championship, along with a 26th place finish in the Classics Division. In total, Jake earned 2.21 WPPR points, which has moved him up to a rank of 2701st in the world.

Keith Brown from High Points, NC moved up 665 spots from his victory at the Lost Ark Monthly Pinball Tournament. This netted Keith 6.26 WPPR points and boosted him into now being the 1571st ranked player in the world.

Congratulations to Greg, Jake and Keith as well as the other players that saw a jump in their ranking from their January tournament performance!

Last week we announced who will be representing Team Europe in the inaugural Epstein Cup. With IFPA10 registration now officially closed, we're excited to announce that the roster for Team USA has now also been finalized.

Representing Team USA at the 2013 Epstein Cup will be IFPA8 World Pinball Champion and team captain Cayle George (ranked 3rd in the world), Zach Sharpe (ranked 4th in the world), Trent Augenstein (ranked 6th in the world), Josh Sharpe (ranked 12th in the world), Joshua Henderson (ranked 15th in the world), Andrei Massenkoff (ranked 24th in the world), Lyman Sheats (ranked 22nd in the world) and Jason Werdrick (ranked 36th in the world).

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Month for January 2013 is Steve Zahler from the US. Steve earned 89.36 WPPR points in January, including a 2nd and 1st place finish in the Main and Classic tournaments at the Maryland Pinball Championship. In addition, Steve won the Middletown NY Pinball Open, and finished in 12th place at Pinferno.

The rest of the top 5 for the month of January included Stéphane Pinck from France with 59.88 WPPR points, Steven Bowden from Somerset, NJ with 54.16 WPPR points, IFPA8 World Pinball Champion Cayle George from Seattle, WA with 48.30 WPPR points, and Tim Tournay of the US with 46.87 WPPR points.

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