Mariolle vs. Trepp – The Approval Battle of 2024!
The IFPA sanctioned 12,758 events in 2024, the most we’ve ever had. Those events have to go through a calendar approval process as well as a results approval process. As the number of events we sanction continues to grow, so does the workload our staff puts in to review and approve these events. Sometimes there’s re-reviews and re-approvals when questions pop up. Just when our deck of approvals is clean, wait 5 minutes and more are sure to come in.
There are two people I just had to highlight as there’s no way our organization could keep up with this demand without them. When you see your event on the calendar or results on the website within only a few days, it’s really these two individuals that make it happen. These two individuals are Germain Mariolle and Michael Trepp! If you see either of these two, don’t hesitate to thank them for their effort. Any chance to embarrass them in any way is at the top of my list!
Here were the final numbers for 2024 approvals (both results, calendar and updates):
Germain Mariolle – 18.016
Michael Trepp – 17,001
Josh Sharpe – 772
Andy Bagwell – 346
Zoe Vrabel – 86
Brian Shepherd – 42
Adam Becker – 40
A serious THANK YOU for not only Germain and Michael (and of course Brian Shepherd for all the behind the scenes work), but all the volunteers, representatives and directors of IFPA that allow us to keep this crazy thing going!
2024-25 NACS Media Madness
Too many media pieces coming in to list them separately. Click below to read/watch/listen the following:
- Pinball state championships will be held in this New Yorker’s tiny apartment: ‘I have a couch and a bed, that’s it’
- Chesterfield father-son duo head to Virginia State Pinball Championship
- Pinball championships showcase increasing interest in Utah
- Tucson’s top pinball players prepare for state championship amid game’s revival
- Pinball state championships to be held in Wichita
- Delaware State Pinball Championship winner will walk away with nearly a quarter of a million dollars this weekend
- Gamers taking plunge in International Association of Texas Pinball Championship
- Bay City’s Crazy Quarters Arcade hosting North American Championship Series Pinball Tournament
- Radioactive Pinball Arcade to host State Pinball Championship
- Framingham arcade repairman to compete in Massachusetts Pinball Championship
- Salem’s own pinball wizard to compete in state championship competition
- Minding the bumpers and kick-out holes, pinball’s elite crown state champions at intense Concord tournaments
- Hoosier women flock to Fort Wayne for pinball state championship
- Oddpitch Brewing hosts IFPA Women’s State Pinball Championship
- Pinball players rejoice in the game’s surging popularity at provincial championship in London, Ont.
- Bay City hosts women’s pinball championship
- WLW radio interview with Ken Guenther about the Ohio State Tournament
2024-25 NACS/WNACS Live Streaming and Results Information
NACS/WNACS Weekend is upon us!
Best of luck to the over 1000 competitors spread across the United States and Canada!
Stay up to date on all the brackets, all the streams, all the winners!
Stern Rewards Program – Qualifier list updated for 2024 season!
Congratulations to all the players who have qualified for the Stern Rewards Program for the 2024 calendar year by finishing in the top 1000 of the World Pinball Player Rankings! Contact us at ifpapinball@gmail.com if you’re interested in redeeming.
Detailed rules for the Stern Rewards Program, including an updated list of qualifiers, and updated list of rewards available can be found HERE.
Here is the current list of what’s available as of this moment. We will do our best to update the rewards website as often as possible.
Avengers Premium
Deadpool Premium
Deadpool Pro
Elvira House of Horrors Premium
Foo Fighters Pro
Foo Fighters Premium
Iron Maiden Pro
Iron Maiden Premium
James Bond 007 Pro
James Bond 007 Premium
Jaws Pro
John Wick Pro
John Wick Premium
Jurassic Park Premium
Mandalorian Pro
Mandalorian Premium
Rush Pro
Star Wars Comic Pro
Star Wars Comic Premium
Stranger Things Pro
Stranger Things Premium
Venom Pro
Venom Premium
X-Men Premium
IFPA20 World Pinball Championship – Registration is now OPEN!
The IFPA is proud to announce that registration for the 20th Annual IFPA World Pinball Championship is now open! For more details check out the registration page HERE.
The initial invite list is open for the top 75 players in the World Pinball Player Rankings as of 1/1/2025. Based on the interest of the top 75, we may extend the invite list additional spots so please monitor the registration page at your leisure. Should you be interested, please send payment to the IFPA as your way of committing to attending the tournament. Should you not be interested, it is equally important that we know, so please send an email to the IFPA stating you will not be available to participate.
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.
Three of the 80 spots will also be available for the highest ranked finisher not already in the IFPA field. One is reserved for the 2024-25 IFPA North American Pinball Championship, one is reserved for the 2024-25 IFPA European Pinball Championship and one is reserved for the 2024 IFPA Women’s World Pinball Championship.
IFPA and Stern Army winners for Metallica Remastered!
The IFPA and Stern Army organized the Metallica Remastered Leaderboard for December 2024!
We’re happy to announce the winners from this contest! Please email ifpapinball@gmail.com for details on how to redeem your prize.
Domifrick 3,711,067,110
Deedo 1,065,627,930
BeckHUP 967,242,070
Blueberry 776,641,470
Jason Zahler – World’s Greatest Pinball Player for 2024!
The IFPA is proud to announce that Jason Zahler has finished at #1 on the World Pinball Player Rankings, thus earning IFPA’s top honor as the 2024 “World’s Greatest Pinball Player”. No single tournament victory will ever secure this title for a given year. Only consistent play at the highest level over the course of multiple years leads to players reaching the pinnacle of the World Pinball Player Rankings. This is the first time that Jason has been crowned the World’s Greatest Pinball Player and one of seven players in history to receive this award (Keith Elwin (7), Jorian Engelbrektsson (3), Raymond Davidson (3), Zach Sharpe (2), Johannes Ostermeier (1) and Escher Lefkoff (2) being the other six).
Jason played in 21 IFPA sanctioned events during the 2024 season. His greatest achievements of 2024 were winning TWO Major Championships in the same season, both the IFPA World Pinball Championship and the Pinburgh Match-Play Championship, earning him 714.56 WPPR points for just those two events. Overall, Jason won 33% of the 21 events he played in, while placing in the top 4 at 71% of his 2024 events, a truly remarkable achievement.
We’ve seen a few two-player races develop over the past 18 years that we’ve crowned the “World’s Greatest Pinball Player” title, with the difference between Jason and Escher Lefkoff being only 10.09 WPPR points. This difference was even tighter going into the last month of the season with both players finding themselves in the #1 position. This represents the 3rd closest race in history (although you can easily argue with the current WPPR inflation values compared to previous seasons, this was the closest race of all time). The 2013 season had a 7.92 WPPR point difference with Zach Sharpe finishing just ahead of Keith Elwin. The closest race ever was in 2014 when Jorian Engelbrektsson finished ahead of Keith Elwin by 7.58 WPPR points.
Congratulations to Jason, and best of luck to everyone on the upcoming 2025 season in the race for #1. Jason will receive his WGPP trophy at the IFPA20 World Pinball Championship in Austria in June.
