The IFPA is excited to announce that the dates have been set for the 16th annual IFPA World Pinball Championship. IFPA16 will be held June 7-9, 2019, with the 6th edition of the Epstein Cup scheduled for Thursday, June 6th, 2019.

Our host will be Double Pinball in Assago (Milan).

We will continue to update details on the event HERE.

The IFPA is excited to announce that Stern has added Deadpool Pro and Premium models to the rewards program. A reminder that the 2017 rewards earned by players expire December 31st, 2018.

The following games are now available under the program: Batman 66 Premium, Deadpool Pro, Deadpool Premium, Iron Maiden Pro, Iron Maiden Premium, Ghostbusters Pro, Ghostbusters Premium, Guardians of the Galaxy Pro, Guardians of the Galaxy Premium, Metallica Pro, Star Trek Vault Pro, Star Trek Vault Premium, Star Wars Pro, Star Wars Premium.

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

Sponsored blog post courtesy of Pin Stadium

Pin Stadium, based out of Cincinnati, Ohio, and IFPA located in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, are excited to announce that they are working together to help to grow the already rapidly expanding community of pinball worldwide. Josh Sharpe (the President of the IFPA and also top ranked player) reached out to Pin Stadium for sponsor and partnership for their amazing organizations, which hosts over 4600 events worldwide. These numbers are astounding and Josh and a large group of supporters have done an out-of-this-world job to make this happen.

This was a huge opportunity for Pin Stadium to be able to assist this incredible organization and to help bring improved visibility to the playfields for the IFPA players.

With the technology and performance of our lighting systems they will now provide 100% playfield lighting coverage for potentially thousands of players worldwide. This will help to assist them with improved shot accuracy, and as a result, better scores. Ball tracking is the most important aspect of competitive pinball, and so are high scores. No longer are the pinball machines going to struggle with lighting.

With the Pin Stadiums being successfully introduced officially to the competitive market in 2018 at PAPA’s Pinburgh for the “Final Twelve”, where Doug (the head of PAPA) said that he received very positive feedback from the players and also from the viewers of the stream. From that event, Pin Stadiumreceived the honor of being “PAPA  Approved”

With that said, it only makes sense for us to work with IFPA, who continues a long standing tradition of tournaments which fuel the industry of pinball. The vision we have with IFPA is to not only support them financially but to also offer special discount programs for tournament organizers to be able to elevate the experience for their players and the viewers of their streamed events, while also providing prize giveaways and gift cards to add to the prize pools at certain events.

The future is bright with Pin Stadium and IFPA. “See Better, Play Better.” It’s that simple. Here is what Josh Sharpe had to say about this partnership:

“We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Pin Stadium on enhancing not only the playing experience for participants, but also the viewing experience for people that are finding the sport through the ever growing streaming of events all around the world. We look forward to connecting our pool of players, tournament directors and tournament streamers with Pin Stadium for the betterment of the sport going forward.” – Josh Sharpe, IFPA President

Sponsored blog post courtesy of Stern Pinball

While it wasn’t a Pinburgh style 45-second sellout, we’re excited to see that all 72 spots for the 2019 IFPA Pin-Masters have been claimed in just over a week. For details on the event, which will be taking place March 29-31, 2019 in Las Vegas, click HERE.

For anyone interested in getting on the waiting list, please email us directly at ifpapinball@gmail.com. We’ll keep a live list of the alternates on the Participants page – available HERE.

A few years back we started including a rankings filter for the best Youth pinball players in the world. The age limit to be included on the rankings list has been ‘under 16’.

We’ve received some feedback from both youth players and parents about the ability for these youth players to utilize their World Youth Ranking as a resource to help them stand out on their college applications. With that application process taking place after that player turned 16, they haven’t been able to reference their place on the Youth ranking system.

We’ve decided that effective immediately we’re expanding these Youth standings to include all players under the age of 18. We’re excited about being able to offer this opportunity for all of the youth players to use this as a resource if they so choose.

Sponsored blog post courtesy of Stern Pinball

The IFPA is proud to announce that registration for the 2019 IFPA Pin-Masters is now OPEN! For details on the IFPA Pin-Masters, check out the Overview page HERE.

To register, click HERE! Please note registration will be capped at 72 players.

The 2019 IFPA Pin-Masters: World Pin-Golf Championships are scheduled for March 29th-31st, 2019 at Flipperspiel Underground Arcade Club in Las Vegas, NV. The Pin-Masters coincides with the Amusement Expo held Wednesday and Thursday of that week where any players that pre-register will receive a complimentary badge into the trade show.

In addition, the IFPA North American Pinball Championship and the IFPA Women’s World Pinball Championship will also be at Flipperspiel Underground Arcade Club, and take place Thursday March 28th. This will include all the various State and Provincial Champions currently battling it out in the 2018-19 SCS and PCS (Canada), along with those women that qualify for the Women’s Championship.

The 2019 IFPA Pin-Masters will also be on the 2019 Stern Pro Circuit.

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.

Here are the July and August 2018 IFPA winners for Player of the Month and Biggest Movers:

Player of the Month:
July 2018 – Trent Augenstein (217.61 WPPR’s)
August 2018 – Trent Augenstein (166.98 WPPR’s)

Biggest Movers:
July 2018 – Isaac Rihn (+17,196 spots), Graham Stiver (+16,605 spots) and Kevin Corsmeier (+15,039 spots)
August 2018 – Mike Kulikowski (+15,944 spots), Jean-Guy Pagé (+13,453 spots) and Sven Nyström (+12,876 spots)

These players have now all qualified for the Stern Rewards Program for 2018. Congrats to everyone!

The Ottawa pinball show was supposed to occur on Sept 22nd – 23rd 2018, but devastating Tornadoes that occurred in the area took out power in the area, as a result the show was unable to occur. This left organizer Josh Mckay with with no opportunity to recoup the costs involved in setting this show up. The local community is trying to step up and make him whole so this natural disaster doesn’t destroy a pinball show as well.

If you would like to help donations can be made here: Go Fund Me