Here are the August 2021 IFPA winners for Player of the Month and Biggest Movers:

Player of the Month:
Derek Price from San Diego, CA (103.20 WPPR’s – MAIN)
Annabeth Dronet from Houston, TX (11.70 WPPR’s – WOMEN’S)

Biggest Movers:
Matt Deibert from Philadelphia, PA (+8,108 spots)
Jared Lemankiewicz from Buffalo, NY (+7,709 spots)
Philippe Craul from Mülheim, Germany (+7,368 spots)

These players have now all qualified for the Stern Rewards Program for 2021. Congrats to everyone!

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The Time Lords have done it this time sending Matt Smith, the 11^th Doctor, to play Doctor Who pinball. Even if your mode of transportation isn’t a Tardis, the time has come to get yourself ready for a most memorable pinball experience. Maybe you will even make some of your own pinball history. Pinball Expo ‘21. October 27^th-30^th. www.pinballexpo.com

With IFPA sanctioning resuming in August 2021, we saw a new player move into the top spot. Congratulations to Peter Andersen!

When the IFPA suspended sanctioning in March 2020, Raymond Davidson was our top ranked player with 1146.08 WPPR points. Over the next year, with no new events held and older results decaying, many players saw their ranking fluctuate. With the return to action, Peter Andersen of Denmark played in one event in August 2021, picking up a first place finish at LPA Månadstävling worth 26.03 WPPR points, which netted him a +4.83 WPPR point increase for the month and pushed him past Raymond on September 1st. For historical purposes, the IFPA snapshots the rankings as of the 1st of each month in our database.

Taking a quick trip into our historical records, the first month on record with a #1 ranked pinball player was June 1993. Rick Stetta had earned 2.12 WPPR points from his Pinathon victory, along with 2.12 WPPR points from his IFPA3 World Championship victory, putting him at 4.24 WPPR points earned. Rick Stetta finished 19 of the following 21 months in the top spot before Paul Madison began a #1 run that lasted for 36 straight months. In March 1998, that #1 position was overtaken by one Keith Elwin thanks to a victory at the PAPA6 World Pinball Championships.

Below is the complete archived list of players who have been ranked #1 in the world, along with the number of months they finished in that top spot:

Keith Elwin – 126 months
Jorian Engelbrektsson – 59 months
Raymond Davidson – 39 months
Paul Madison – 36 months
Rick Stetta – 19 months
Bowen Kerins – 13 months
John Miller – 12 months
Mats Runsten – 11 months
Zach Sharpe – 9 months
Jörgen Holm – 8 months
Cayle George – 3 months
Neil Shatz – 2 months
Lyman Sheats – 1 month
Johannes Ostermeier – 1 month
Peter Andersen – 1 month

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Trisha Burgess (Mrs. Wizard) says, “We’re so excited to offer our first large tournament open to all the women pinball players”. We are looking forward to this being an annual tourney that will bring in women from across our nation who enjoy playing pinball as much as we do in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Our monthly tournaments are so enjoyable. Everyone is excited and very competitive, yet quick to help one another learn about the different pinball machines and just get better at playing the sport – not to mention all the snacks that show up on game night!” Participation in weekly women’s tournaments has grown with both consistent and new players to the point that the Wizard (Mike Burgess) has committed to holding the first annual WOW 1 – Women’s Only Pinball Tournament. Mrs. Wizard continued saying, “And, with our Stage 1 remodeling project complete, Wizard’s World Arcade now has 136 new and refurbished pinball machines ready for play with ample space to move from game to game. We enjoy great fellowship with local women and others from multiple states and possibly even Canada. Our goal is to make this one of the largest ever women only tournaments.”

—————-   Click HERE to read more ——————

The finals of the third season of the IFPA ICR Pinball Championship were held between 4th seed Marek Ch and 15th seed Kaylee Campbell.

Marek won the match 2 games to 1, taking home $60. Kaylee takes home $35 from her 2nd place finish.

For full details on the ICR, please click HERE.

To join the IFPA ICR Group on Facebook click HERE.

To join our IFPA ICR Discord click HERE and connect with other players to organize IFPA Challenge Matches.

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SCHAUMBURG, IL. – The longest running event of its kind in the world, Pinball Expo celebrates its 37th anniversary this coming October 27th through October 30th. Advanced planning is already indicating this will be the largest gathering in Pinball Expo’s history when the doors open at the Schaumburg Illinois Convention Center. Located in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, the new venue will provide more than 60,000 square feet of exhibit space for the pinball extravaganza, nearly tripling the amount of space required to host the event in recent years.

The Pinball Expo love fest started as a dream for Rob Berk, the show’s founder. As a young boy he was mesmerized by the pinball machine in the basement of his family home. These memories motivated Berk to begin buying his own machines after graduating from college and start a personal collection. Today that collection has grown to over 1200 machines, encompassing the full and ever evolving history of pinball.
—————-   Click HERE to read more ——————

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Hello! We are Austin and Meredith Bragg, two filmmakers creating a feature film based on the life of Roger Sharpe —  including his work writing Pinball! and his role in overturning New York City’s 35-year ban on the game.

Full disclosure: We love pinball, but are not pinheads. In fact, we’re not even very good players. But after spending the better part of a year interviewing Roger and hearing the passion he has for the game — we really, REALLY want to make sure we get the pinball history right!

Which is why we are asking for help.

We’re on the lookout for period appropriate machines that could be used in the film. The more we can find and get to set, the better looking this film will be.

There are a few machines we know we need to keep the story accurate (EL DORADO, BANK SHOT, SHARPSHOOTER, and either PLANETS or ZODIAC are all must-haves). But we have a number of arcade scenes we’d love to fill as well.

Though any games from 1975 or earlier would be useful, Roger helpfully pinpointed a few specific titles meaningful to his story: HURDY GURDY, SUBWAY, MAJORETTES, HEAT WAVE, MOULIN ROUGE, COW POKE, STAR ACTION, SPACELAB, DARLING, SKY JUMP, SATIN DOLL, FIRECRACKER, and FIREBALL.

We’re scheduled to go into pre-production in early September and shoot in New York’s Hudson Valley between mid-October and mid-November. (We wouldn’t necessarily need the machines for that length of time, but don’t have hard dates quite yet.)

To be clear: this is an indie film. Our budget is healthy enough to make sure what we put on screen will be quality, but it’s still a period piece — which are particularly costly. So we can’t transport machines too far from the Hudson Valley on the project’s dime.

What we can promise is gratitude, credit, and a film you can point to and say “they got it right.”

We want to make a film the pinball community can be proud of. One that elevates the game and the people who made it. Any help you might be able to provide sourcing these machines would be huge.

Many thanks.

-The Bragg Brothers

Please email ifpapinball@gmail.com if you’re interested in helping.

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