This Week in Pinball published a piece by Dennis Kriesel with a review on the impact of the endorsement fee started in 2018. Click HERE to read the article.

Apparently winning NIB games at a rapid pace just isn’t enough for World #1 Raymond Davidson. Finishing #1 in 2018 qualified Raymond for the Stern Rewards Program. The rewards program allows qualifiers to purchase a brand new Stern pinball machine at a special IFPA price. Raymond redeemed his reward for a Batman 66 Premium.

So far in 2019, Raymond has participated in 10 IFPA sanctioned events and remains on top of the World Pinball Player Rankings (with a 186.22 WPPR point lead over World #2).

Congratulations to Raymond, and remember if you’re interested in qualifying for the Stern Rewards Program, check out the rules here.

Raymond has also started the Do or Die Pinball Podcast. Click HERE to listen.

blog post courtesy of James Todd

Typically after submitting my tournament results to the IFPA I was always curious about how many WPPRs the event was going to bring in. On the night of a tournament, or waiting those few days to a week before the results were approved, I’d do a few quick calculations based on the number of Rated players to get a ballpark number of how many points the tournament might be worth.

More recently I had a bit of spare time, and realised using the API for Matchplay and the IFPA could be used to calculate an estimate of a tournaments WPPR points at the time of a tournament! So I present to you the WPPR Estimator!

http://chunkout.com/wppr/WhatWPPRs.php 51

Note that this will get you a pretty close estimate, but won’t be 100% accurate. It won’t take into account results for players that are pending approval, and all players IFPA ids need to be entered into Matchplay for it to count correctly.

Chuck Webster out of Wakefield, MA finished 2018 being ranked 402nd in the world. This qualified him for the Stern Rewards Program for finishing the year ranked in the top 1000. The rewards program allows qualifiers to purchase a brand new Stern pinball machine at a special IFPA price. Chuck redeemed his reward for a Batman 66 Premium.

So far in 2019, Chuck has participated in 3 IFPA sanctioned events and remains in the top 1000 ranked players in the world (ranked 487th currently).

Congratulations to Chuck, and remember if you’re interested in qualifying for the Stern Rewards Program, check out the rules here.

blog post courtesy of IFPA Italia

Fabrizio Amiconi (http://www.ifpapinball.com/player.php?p=23511), the champion of sports pinball that taught players not to put fun aside, died.

Mourning in the world of Italian sports pinball, which mourns the death of Fabrizio Amiconi. The Roman player, born in 1965, died after a long illness, which kept him away from competitions, but only up to a point. Yes, because he never really stopped playing, finding the strength to leave the house every time to go play pinball and participate in some competitions. Even when it was very difficult, if not even considered impossible. Like one year ago, when he surprised everyone by signing up for the “pinball at Waterfalls” tournament at the Marmore Waterfall, in the province of Terni, at a time when it seemed impossible even to see him outside his house. But no. Not for him. That, in addition to participating in the competition, he even won it, despite fightin with the leading champions, such as the four-time World Champion, Daniele Acciari. A performance that is remembered in history, and now more than ever it is set to remain an indelible memory for all the Italian players who have known and challenged it.

Approaching the official sports pinball competitions only in 2014, from that moment he started travelling around Italy to compete, sometimes even crossing national borders, proving to be a high level player and a real athlete. Able to put everyone in a good mood and bring fun in any competition. Another reason why his death upset the whole community, leaving a void impossible to be filled.

The IFPA is excited to announce that Stern has added The Beatles Gold to the rewards program. A reminder that the 2018 rewards earned by players expire December 31st, 2019.

The following games are now available under the program (subject to change at anytime): Batman 66 Premium (end of July), Deadpool Pro (in stock), Deadpool Premium (in stock), Iron Maiden Pro (end of May), Iron Maiden Premium (in stock), Guardians of the Galaxy Pro (end of July),
Star Trek Vault Pro (in stock), Star Trek Vault Premium (end of July), Star Wars Pro (end of July), Star Wars Premium (end of July), Munsters Pro (in stock), Munsters Premium (in stock), Beatles Gold (in stock)

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

Bruce Nightingale out of Rochester, NY finished 2018 being ranked 599th in the world. This qualified him for the $tern Rewards Program for finishing the year ranked in the top 1000. The rewards program allows qualifiers to purchase a brand new Stern pinball machine at a special IFPA price. Bruce redeemed his reward for a Batman 66 Premium.

So far in 2019, Bruce has participated in 4 IFPA sanctioned events and remains in the top 1000 ranked players in the world (ranked 688th currently).

Congratulations to Bruce, and remember if you’re interested in qualifying for the $tern Rewards Program, check out the rules here.

While pinball has had many prestigious events over the years, whether it was the Pinball Expo Flip-Out tournaments of the ’90s, Pinburgh of the early ’00s, and the Doubles and Team events held at the IFPA and PAPA World Championships of the ’90s, the IFPA has limited what we consider the current Major Championships of our sport. These Majors include the IFPA World Pinball Championship, PAPA World Pinball Championships, European Pinball Championships and Pinburgh Match Play Championship . . . until today!

The IFPA is excited to announce the addition of a 5th Major Championship to the tournament calendar – The Open IFPA World Championship™.

With the existing IFPA World Pinball Championship using the World Pinball Player Rankings process to qualify players, we have been interested in bringing the opportunity for anyone to earn the “World Pinball Champion” title in a true open-to-all event. It’s with that The Open was created.

The IFPA is excited to partner with It Never Drains in Southern California (INDISC) to make this new World Pinball Championship event possible.

Below is a message from Karl DeAngelo of INDISC on this new IFPA/INDISC partnership:

“We are thrilled to host The Open IFPA World Championship™, replacing our Main tournament division, beginning with INDISC™ 2020. The Open will continue the same tradition of excellence players have come to expect from the INDISC team while creating a new World Championship event not to be missed. Our partnership with the IFPA will also bring requested enhancements to the INDISC tournament experience. In addition to The Open, players can compete in High Stakes, Women’s Championship, Classics I/II, Kids, Seniors, and debuting with The Open for 2020, a Classics Target Match Play Championship. We look forward to greeting all returning players and fresh faces travelling to Southern California for the first time, January 9-12, 2020 for INDISC 2020 and The Open.”

Details on those enhancements that players can expect at The Open/INDISC 2020 will be shared soon!

April 2nd update: 

We have received numerous emails today asking whether this announcement was an April 1st joke, or if it’s another one of our sick and twisted “true announcements” on April 1st. To clarify, this announcement is 100% true. We couldn’t be more excited to partner up with the INDISC staff on making THE OPEN a World Pinball Championship not to be missed for years and years to come. More prizes! More 1099’s! More WPPR’s! More chances to win a World Champion title!

South Carolina ETV published a piece on the resurgence of competitive pinball in South Carolina. Click HERE to read the article and watch the video.

The Post & Mail from Whitley County, Indiana published a piece on IFPA Indiana State Champion Scott Elliott and his trip to the IFPA North American Pinball Championship in Las Vegas. Click HERE to read the article.