2024-25 IFPA North American Pinball Championship – FINALISTS

As the dust settles from NACS Day, we’re excited to announce the participants for the upcoming IFPA North American Pinball Championship. The champions from every State/Province/District get invited, with the runner-up serving as the only available alternate. The list below is the current seeding based on player confirmations of attendance. The top 6 seeds will receive a bye in the first round. Click HERE to view the bracket as it looks right now.

The IFPA North American Pinball Championship will feature nearly $55,000 in cash and prizes. This is in addition to the $150,000 awarded on NACS Day across the continent. Similar to the State/Province/District level, every participant in the IFPA North American Pinball Championship will walk away with a cash prize.

1 Jason Zahler 30 Drew Sych
2 Zach McCarthy 31 Josh Riggle
3 Jared August 32 Braden Gentry
4 Daniele Celestino Acciari 33 Mike Casselman
5 Luke Nahorniak 34 Geoff Davis
6 Bowen Kerins 35 Brian Dye
7 Eric Stone 36 Mat Brundage
8 Dalton Ely 37 Casey Fowler
9 Colin Macalpine 38 Christopher Dewitt Jr
10 Jack Slovacek 39 Dwayne Smith
11 Jack Tadman 40 Adam Abeyta
12 Daniel Rone 41 Cody McQuiston
13 Richie Terry 42 Cam Harrahy
14 Adam McKinnie 43 James Adamson
15 Galvin Morgan 44 Spencer Imboden
16 John Kottmann 45 Eddie Underhill
17 John Shopple 46 Preston Pywell
18 David Riel 47 Steve Drabik
19 Joe Lemire 48 Josh Pidskalny
20 Nick DeStefano 49 Rene Hilbach-Barger
21 Nick Mueller 50 Trenton Kent
22 Miles Grant 51 Jason Burleson
23 Trent Augenstein 52 Craig Pennuto
24 David Daluga 53 Adam Durling
25 Drew Cedolia 54 Jamie Woodward
26 Jared Eshelman 55 Jerry Valentine
27 Mike Havens 56 Joey Braaten
28 Connor Mulberry 57 Brett Cranwell
29 Alex Kelley 58 Jaden Shaddick

A Message From the IFPA

The IFPA supports trans and nonbinary players in the competitive pinball community, and we want to make our stance on gender at women’s events very clear. Trans women are women. Trans men are men. Nonbinary identities exist and are valid, and nonbinary players who wish to participate in women’s events should feel welcome to do so.

We expect IFPA-sanctioned tournaments and leagues to be free from homophobia, transphobia, and all other types of discrimination. This applies to both open events and women’s events. Tournament and league directors are encouraged to enact codes of conduct that reflect the PAPA/IFPA Complete Competition Rules related to player conduct (see Section III) and may do so at their discretion.

Please see our Gender Inclusion Policy for more information about eligibility in women’s events. Pinball is for everyone. 

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IFPA and Stern Army winners for Avengers: Infinity Quest!

The IFPA and Stern Army organized the Avengers: Infinity Quest Global Leaderboard for January 2025!

We’re happy to announce the winners from this contest! Please email ifpapinball@gmail.com for details on how to redeem your prize.

Pulp Fiction Pinball – Drive Fast MPH Challenge!

Chicago Gaming Company, Play Mechanix and the International Flipper Pinball Association (IFPA) are pleased to announce an exciting livestreaming challenge for Pulp Fiction pinball machines.

This livestreaming challenge is open to players beginning on February 1, 2025, and running through March 31, 2025.

Challenge must be Livestreamed to the public via Twitch/YouTube/Facebook Live/etc. (taped challenge attempts will not be eligible)
Players must send the link to their stream along with the timestamp of the challenge being submitted within 72 hours of the challenge being completed.

The challenge is to successfully collect the highest MPH Bonus amount that you can! For example, cashing out your MPH Bonus at 212 MPH with a 3X playfield multiplier would be 636,000 points.

Please note that games should be set to default settings (Kahuna Max at 3X). For anyone that cashes in an MPH Bonus at greater than 3X, we will use the 3X equivalent score for purposes of this challenge.

We’ll be awarding $100 to the player with the highest submitted MPH Bonus.

Past Times Hosts Ohio State Championships

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Zach McCarthy wins 3rd Major Championship!

In the history of competitive pinball, very few (35 in fact) have had the chance to call themselves a Major Champion. Like professional golf or tennis, the opportunity to join this elite club only happens a handful of times every year. THE OPEN – IFPA World Championship brought together one finalist looking to add their name to this list (Viggo Löwgren) and three finalists looking to add to their already established legacies (Escher Lefkoff – 4-time Major Champion, Jason Zahler  – 2-time Major Champion and Zach McCarthy – 2-time Major Champion).

After qualifying as the #15 seed, Zach McCarthy had not just one, but TWO ball 3 comebacks (Grand Lizard and Johnny Mnemonic) in the final round to capture his 3rd Major Championship, becoming only one of 9 players to do so.

With his 2nd place finish, Jason Zahler earned his 6th top 4 finish in Major Championships. 3rd place went to Escher Lefkoff who earned his 9th top 4 finish in Major Championships. 4th place went to Viggo Löwgren who earned his 3rd top 4 finish in Major Championships.

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

IFPA’s Player of the Month/Biggest Movers for December 2024!

Here are the December 2024 IFPA winners for Player of the Month and Biggest Movers:

Player of the Month:
Jared August from West Bloomfield Township, MI (300.86 WPPR’s – MAIN)
Jane Verwys from Chicago, IL (71.82 WPPR’s – WOMEN’S)

Biggest Movers:
Rodney Olsen from Seattle, WA (+29,990 spots)
Kimberly McMillan from Ontario, CA (+20,862 spots)
Paul Meredith from Fort Wayne, IN (+20,288 spots)

These players have now all qualified for the Stern Rewards Program for 2024. Congrats to everyone!

 

Pinball at the Beach! Pincinnati Recap with PinShades and PinSteps!

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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!

Hyuga Pinball – Light Up Your Game Night!

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