The IFPA is proud to announce the 2017 IFPA Heads-Up Pinball Championship! A new twist on competitive pinball, players will be battling head-to-head simultaneously on two different machines of the same title attempting to complete challenges the fastest.

The winner of the tournament will receive a brand new Stern Aerosmith Pro Pinball Machine.

Registration for the 2017 IFPA Heads-Up Pinball Championship is now OPEN! For details on the IFPA Heads-Up Pinball Championship, check out the Overview page HERE. To register, click HERE!

The 2017 IFPA Heads-Up Pinball Championship is scheduled for October 27-28th, 2017 at the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas. The IFPA Heads-Up Pinball Championship is being held in conjunction with the 10th annual Big Buck Hunter World Championship.

Should you have any questions about our qualifying process or to find out more information about the tournament, please contact the IFPA at ifpapinball@gmail.com.

blog post courtesy of Jazmyn Hanks

You might not have heard, but Competitive Pinball is a thing!  Governed by the International Flipper Pinball Association (IFPA), sanctioned events are held throughout North Carolina where participants earn both State Points and World Pinball Player Ranking (WPPR) Points. Currently, there are  217 participants competing in events held throughout North Carolina and over 14,000 who’ve competed worldwide.

Women make up only 10.3% of the IFPA participants and that is why we are excited to announce the inaugural Charlotte league of Belles and Chimes. On Thursday, October 5^th, 2017 at Abari Game Bar located at 1721 N Davidson St, Charlotte, NC 28206, women of all skill levels are invited to join the first North Carolina chapter of Belles & Chimes at 6:30pm.  The Charlotte chapter will be honoring the mission of Bells & Chimes, founded in Oakland, CA, by bringing together women who enjoy playing pinball in a fun, supportive and social environment. The chapter also hopes to introduce more players to the Women’s World Championship.

Jazmyn Hanks will lead the Charlotte chapter of of Belles & Chimes. Jazmyn, ranked in the Top 50 of North Carolina pinball players, has been a competitive player since March 2017. “I stumbled upon Abari for the first time in February and I was instantly amazed at their selection of pinball machines. I’ve been to arcades as an adult but it was my first time being at an arcade with pinball machines.

“I was so nervous at my first tournament, considering everyone was so much more experienced than I was. If that didn’t intimidate me enough, I realized I was the ONLY woman present for the tournament. Everyone was so kind to me, giving quick tips to improve my game as a new comer and welcomed me into the tribe; even though we were in the middle of a tournament. I’m elated that Zach, the owner of Abari, agreed to host the women’s league!”

Women may join Belles & Chimes Charlotte at no cost and be a founding member in its inaugural year.  Tournaments will be held Bi-Weekly in 2017 with a league finals on December 7th.

ABOUT BELLES & CHIMES CHARLOTTE: The purpose of Belles & Chimes Charlotte is to bring together women who enjoy playing pinball in a fun, supportive and social environment.  www.abarigamebar.com/pinball

While the World Pinball Player Rankings (WPPR) have been the driving force that we have used to rank players all around the world since 2006, we have experimented with other metrics over the years to help highlight who the greatest pinball players are in the world. The IFPA Ratings system and Efficiency Percentage have been two of those additional metrics, both available on our main ranking page HERE.

We’re excited to add a new metric to the IFPA family, and we’re calling it the “POWER 100”. Understanding that every metric has it’s own pros and cons when trying to rank players accurately, the POWER 100 metric focuses specifically on data from just the top 250 players ranked through the WPPR system.

The POWER 100 measures the winning percentage of those top 250 ranked players against only the other top 250 ranked players over the last 3 years of active results. The “Best of the Best” end up making it on the POWER 100 list.

Check out the POWER 100 anytime HERE.

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

Player of the Month:
July 2017 –> Colin MacAlpine (163.67 WPPR’s)
August 2017 –> Robert Gagno (212.09 WPPR’s)

Biggest Movers:
July 2017 –> Landon Hooton (+12,099 spots), Kike Cazorla (+11,269 spots) and Robert Fortin (+9732 spots)
August 2017 –> Evan Benshetler (+16,078 spots), Jacob Vaughn (+14,838 spots) and Tore Flatebø (+14,014 spots)

These players have now all qualified for the Stern Rewards Program for 2017. Congrats to everyone!

The IFPA is waiving our 30 day rule for any tournaments in September 2017 dedicated to raising funds for Hurricane Harvey relief. Please include Hurricane Harvey in the tournament title of your submission, and use 2018 as the year to submit. We will then grant the exception when reviewing the submission and role the year back to 2017 on our side.

Click HERE to register your event.

The IFPA and Stern are excited to announce that the deadline of August 15th, 2017 for any 2016 reward earned has been extended through the end of the calendar year.

The current games available under the rewards program (subject to change) include:
WRESTLEMANIA PRO, GAME OF THRONES PREMIUM, GHOSTBUSTERS PRO, GHOSTBUSTERS PREMIUM, AEROSMITH PRO, AEROSMITH PREMIUM, SPIDERMAN VAULT, BATMAN ’66 PREMIUM

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 shirt store is back open for business!

If anyone is interested in helping us continue to raise some funds please buy a shirt!

Click HERE to visit our online store.

Elk Grove Village, IL – August 11, 2017 – Stern Pinball, Inc., the world’s oldest and largest producer of arcade-quality pinball machines, announced today the hiring of Zach Sharpe as Director of Marketing. Zach will take on marketing accountabilities from recently promoted Jody Dankberg who will serve as the New Director of Licensing and New Business Development. Zach most recently worked as Senior Marketing Producer for world renowned marketing agency iris Worldwide where he excelled at integrated marketing, social media, community engagement, consumer marketing, and strategy development.

In addition to Zach’s many professional accomplishments, Zach is a passionate pinball enthusiast who is currently the #1 ranked pinball player in the world. Zach has also extended his love of pinball by serving as Vice President of the International Flipper Pinball Association, and currently writing game reviews for Play Meter Magazine.

Zach will lead SPI in expanding its rapidly growing global business while focusing on extending the Stern entertainment experience within the consumer, commercial, and competitive player brand portfolio including pinball machines, merchandise, and accessories.

“With Jody focusing on growing our digital, private label, accessories, and merchandise portfolio while managing Stern’s critical licensing partnerships, Zach will add a heightened level of customer engagement. This dynamic duo continues Stern’s commitment to supporting our theme of Everything Pinball,” said John Buscaglia, Chief Revenue Officer of Stern Pinball.

The first timers club streak continues. After Escher Lefkoff at PAPA20 and Raymond Davidson at IFPA14, Colin Macalpine became the 29th player in competitive pinball to be able to call themselves a Major Champion.

Pinburgh 2017 brought together two finalists looking to add their name to this list (Colin Macalpine and Josh Sharpe), with two players looking to add to their legacies. Keith Elwin was looking to capture his record 10th Major Championship, and Cayle George his 3rd.

With his 2nd place finish, Josh Sharpe reached his 6th top 4 finish in Major Championships. Cayle George is now 3 for 3 in top 4 finishes in Major Championships for 2017, increasing his career total to 9, while Keith Elwin reached his record setting 16th top 4 Major Championship finish.

To view the most current list of Major Championship stats, click HERE.

The Spokesman-Review published a piece on IFPA14 World Pinball Champion Raymond Davidson. Click HERE to read the article.