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.

[player]TJ Beyer[/player](ranked 1435th in the world) defeated [player]David Burrier[/player](ranked 1075th in the world), [player]Shelley Paule[/player](ranked 1013th in the world) and [player]Roger Sharpe[/player](ranked 342nd in the world) to win the Novice Finals. Current World Pinball Champion, and world ranked #2 player [player]Cayle George[/player] defeated [player]Zach Sharpe[/player](ranked 9th in the world), [player]Bob Matthews[/player](ranked 30th in the world) and [player]Nick Zendejas[/player](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

took place, tournament that awarded a free registration to the upcoming Italian Pinball Championship in Rovigo at the end of April.

The launch party started at 9 pm when the players started to play the new pinball. The tournament format contemplated single player games until midnight, when the top four finishers battle for the win on a four player games on the AC/DC. Top qualifier was the well know [player]Daniele Celestino Acciari[/player], followed by [player]Alessio Crisantemi[/player], [player]Aldo Pancaldi[/player] e [player]Marco Cerigioni[/player]. In the final after two balls Acciari was dead last, but as usually he never gives up passing the other three players and taking his third win in a raw in the last three Italian tournaments. Big applauses and congratulations for him by all players, organizers and a lot of curious people. The event indeed raised a lot of curiosity on many of the customers, in parallel with the Acciari presence, former world champion. To be honest, many of them did not feel to participate, intimidated by the formality of the event. But it was a good cocktail that created a nice atmosphere and made a very enjoyable and interesting night. Official Stern trophies were awarded to the top three, and IFPA Italia trophies to the top four.

The side tournament was played on Rolling Stones and Iron Man, with the final won on Rolling Stones by [player]Marco Cerigioni[/player] who will have the free entry to the Italian Pinball Championship. The top four of each tournament also took home the AC/DC backglass kindly offered by Stern, while all  participants received an AC/DC keychain.

Everybody has been very excited for this party, an optimal way to introduce competitive pinball to many new players who discovered a new and unknown world. Tecnoplay and the Arcade Joy Village have been very satisfied. They are already planning to repeat the experience for next Stern pinball release.

The AC/DC machine was also well received by both expert and casual players, who found it a very well designed and fun pinball. At the end of the tournament a long line of people was waiting to play it until late in the night. Closing the tournament too early was for sure a mistake in the schedule, disappointing many players who really wanted to participate but came after the end of the qualifying section.

In conclusion, a big thanks again to Stern Pinball and Tecnoplay for their support and commitment, giving to IFPA Italia the opportunity to organize such event, the first of its kind in Europe. We absolutely hope it can be the example to follow in the near future in many other European countries.

February 19^th, 2012 – The event was held at Ace’s Breakaway and Play, an arcade at the middle of the city on Smithfield street. In addition to the two AC/DC machines available for play there, Ace’s also features five other pinball machines among its games every day. This weekend it was Family Guy, Avatar, Tron, Batman (Stern), and Transformers. Over 60 people attended the launch party.

The tournament on AC/DC was the main feature of the night. There were 30 competitors and over 70 entries placed. After the dust from qualifying ended, four players remained at the top of the standings. [player]Jon Replogle[/player] (IFPA ranked at 135^th in the world) had the top qualifying score of 181,516,810. Second in qualifying was [player]Pete Hendricks[/player] (148) with a score of 140,711, 840 followed by [player]Cryss Stephens[/player] (234) with 89 million and [player]Al Thomka[/player] (91) with just over 70 million.

The finals were a one game playoff, winner take all. [player]Al Thomka[/player] started off the grouping strong putting up a score of over 50 million on his first ball and really putting the pressure on the rest of the group to perform. In the end [player]Pete Hendricks[/player] captured the win with a score of 92,233,320.

Along with the cash for 1^st place, each of the final four also received entries to the PAPA World Championship (www.papa.org).

Special thanks goes out to Stern Pinball, the IFPA, PAPA, Ace’s Breakaway and Play, Betson Distributing, [player]Doug Polka[/player], [player]Nick Jaquay[/player], [player]Pete Hendricks[/player] and [player]Al Thomka[/player] for their support in running the event.