20 people competed in this year’s 2010 Amusement Expo tournament. Utilizing the Pin-Golf style format on Stern’s Shrek and Big Buck Hunter Pro, players played 3 pin-holes in an attempt to get as few strokes as possible. Following qualifying Roger Sharpe and Martin Ayub tied for the 4th qualifying spot, with Roger advancing by beating Martin in a one game tie-breaker on Big Buck Hunter.

The finals were on Shrek, where Jim Belsito played his 3rd ball from 8mil to over 170mil to hold off all three Sharpe’s! Josh Sharpe finished 2nd, Zach third, and Roger 4th. Full results of the tournament can be found HERE.

The Downingtown Pinball League finished their Spring 2010 season on March 23, 2010 at the Pinball Gallery in Downingtown, PA. This season saw the league grow to 21 players in two divisions and culminated with the playoffs held on March 30, 2010. In the playoffs, the top 5 players in each division competed in a semi-final round, followed by the top 3 players in each division semi-final competing in a final round. In the end in Division A, a new champion was crowned: Gabe Patterson, who worked his way up from Division B last season. The runner-up in Division A was Frank Egitto, a new league member. In Division B, Bill Paterno repeated as champion, with Lisa Disney winning runner-up. Full results can be found HERE.

68 players competed for the title of “Midwest Pinball Champion” on Bally’s Night Rider, Stern’s Big Buck Hunter Pro, Stern’s Nine Ball, Williams’ Demolition Man and Bally’s NBA Fastbreak. The top 9 qualifiers advanced to the finals. One of the semifinal groups featured all 4 players vying for the spots to be given away for the IFPA7 World Pinball Championship. Sanjay Shah advanced out of that group, with Mark Pearson finishing 2nd to earn the IFPA spots. The other semifinal group saw Josh Sharpe and Jason Werdrick advance. These three players joined top qualifier Zach Sharpe in the 4 game final.

The first game played was Nine Ball, with finishing positions of Zach, Sanjay, Josh, Jason. Second game was Big Buck Hunter which Josh won, followed by Zach, Jason and Sanjay. At this point the score was Zach 6, Josh 5, Sanjay 2, Jason 1. Third game was Demolition Man that saw Jason win, followed by Zach, Josh and Sanjay. This left Judge Dredd which was played last, with the standings Zach 8, Josh 6, Jason 5, Sanjay 2. Finishing positions on Judge Dredd were Josh, Zach, Jason, Sanjay. This resulted in Sanjay finishing in 4th place overall with 2 points, Jason finishing in 3rd place with 6 points, and the Sharpe brothers finishing in a tie at 10 points.

Tournament Director Dan Loosen decided that the tiebreaking game would be played on Robocop. Josh defeated Zach ~8million to ~6 million to take home 1st place. Full results for the tournament, as well as the Clock Chaos mini tournament can be found HERE.

57 players competed in the main event to crown the Texas State Pinball Champion for 2010. Donavan Stepp, last year’s champ, made it two in a row with his victory. Martin Ayub (right) finished 2nd, while Greg Davis (left) finished 3rd. Full results from the Texas State Championship along with the other side tournaments at the Texas Pinball Festival can be found HERE.

95 players, a new high for Balacs Pinball Party, showed up for this years tournament. Everybody qualified 2 times on six machines (Dirty Harry, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Cactus Canyon, Dr Who, Congo and Corvette. 2009’s World’s Greatest Pinball Player Jorian Engelbrektsson showed no mercy and won the qualification big time. However, he lost in the quarterfinals to runner up Albert Nomden from the Netherlands. Swedens Per Ahlenius took his first big tournament win beating Albert 2-0 on Dr who & Congo. Paul Jongma (Netherlands) won third price beating Tobias Lund (Sweden) 2-0 on Dirty harry & Dr who. In the classics division final Eric Erlandsson beat Markus Salo 2-0 on Fathom & Centaur. For third price Karl Brostrom beat Martin Tiljander 2-0. Pictured left to right: Per Ahlenius (1st), Albert Nomden (2nd), Paul Jongma (3rd).

‘Pinferno III: Rage Against The machines’ took place on Sat Feb 27th, 2010. A full day event, incorporating 24 of the best players from both NY and NJ, was another complete success and fun time for all. More importantly, it solidified Pinferno’s standing as one of the best and most challenging tournaments in the NYC area. The Tournament started with a 6 hour round-robin style qualification Round played on Creature From The Black Lagoon, Getaway, Dr. Dude, and Tommy, leaving the top 16 players to battle for the title of Grand Champion in Round II. The Semi-Finals came down to Sean Grant vs. Steve Bowden, and Jim Fordham vs. Erik Tonnessen, leading to an exciting finals match, with Sean Grant battling it out vs. Jim Fordham, who had been on fire all day long. It ended the way any great ‘best out of 5’ match should, with Sean Grant emerging victorious in the 5th game, played on Creature…

The IFPA and GameWorks teamed up once again to host the 4th event at the Chicago location. 47 players competed for 16 qualifying spots on Family Guy, Sopranos, 24 and Stern’s latest, Big Buck Hunter Pro. The finals came down to Josh Sharpe and Zach Sharpe, which went all 3 games to decide the winner. Zach took the first game on 24 after Josh failed to comeback down 43 million to 40 million entering his last ball. Soprano’s saw a similar 3rd ball situation with Zach taking a 49 million to 16 million lead after his ball 3. Josh ended up coming back to even the score. The third game was on Family Guy, where Josh took a 70 million to 19 million lead before Zach started his last ball. Following a very good Stewie Multiball combined with Crazy Chris, Zach completed the comeback to take home the victory. Andy Rosa took 3rd place, while Jason Werdrick took 4th place. Zach is now the only player to place in the top 4 at all 5 GameWorks tournaments (including the one at the Columbus location). Full results are available HERE.

The 2010 Midwest Gaming Classic (March 27-28, 2010, Milwaukke, WI) will serve as a satellite event for players not yet qualified for IFPA 7. Besides the A-Division Open tournament, there will be another spot reserved for the highest finisher that was also a representative from an IFPA endorsed league. This satellite event will be open for any player ranked in the World Pinball Player Rankings as of the end of 2009, sent as a representative of an IFPA endorse league to the MGC to compete that has not yet qualified for IFPA 7 through the automatic bid process. For more details contact your league President or the IFPA directly.

We’re excited to announce the current list of participants. So far, IFPA Leagues are planning to send the following representatives:

Arizona Pinball Players League – Mark Pearson
Chicagoland Pinball League (A) – Dave Hegge
Chicagoland Pinbal League (B) – Don Coons
Chicagoland Pinball League (C) – Bryan Jozwiak
Dallas Fort Worth Pinball League – Eric Fisher
Jersey Pinball Association – Sanjay Shah
NYC Pinball League – Koi Morris
Orange County Pinball League – Ron Rezendes

Looks like a 1 in 8 chance at qualifying for the IFPA World Pinball Championship! Remember that there is also an additional spot open to all A division participants that have not yet qualified for IFPA7.

To celebrate the release of Stern’s latest machine Big Buck Hunter Pro, the IFPA and Stern teamed up to host a tournament on the featured machine. 30 players participated, with both the Masters and Novice Division finals coming down to the last ball from the last player. With the other participants, former and current pinball designers, and Stern staff all watching, Sam Spero (bottom left) edged out Dan Caschetto (bottom inner left) for the victory. Former Stern programmer Mike Kyzivat (bottom inner right) finished 3rd, while Mark Henderson (bottom right) finished 4th. The Masters finals proved just as entertaining with Jason Werdrick (upper inner right) emerging victorious over Dave Hegge (2nd place – upper right), Chuck Hess (3rd place – upper inner left) and Mark Macy (4th – upper left). Full results can be found HERE.

We are pleased to announce the qualifiers for the IFPA7 World Pinball Championship, to be held May 21-23 in Cokato, Minnesota. 13 countries will be represented at the tournament. Congratulations to those that made the cut . . . it was no easy feat this year.

The final list of players gunning for the crown can be found here:
http://www.pinballrankings.com/ifpa7final.php

A reminder that 3 additional spots are available to anyone that may be interested through the IFPA Satellite Tournament process and IFPA League Exemption:

2010 Midwest Gaming Classic Satellite Qualification (March 27-28, 2010 in Milwaukee, WI)
The 2010 Midwest Gaming Classic will serve as a satellite event for players not yet qualified for IFPA 7. One spot will be up for grabs in the A-Division tournament at the 2010 MGC. This satellite event will be open for any player ranked in the World Pinball Player Rankings as of the end of 2009, but did not qualify for IFPA 7 through the automatic bid process. Details on the MGC can be found at http://www.midwestgamingclassic.com/.

2010 Flip-Expo Satellite Qualification (March 20-21, 2010 in Mers Les Bains, France)
The 2010 Flip-Expo will serve as a satellite event for players not yet qualified for IFPA 7. One spot will be up for grabs in the tournament at the 2010 Flip-Expo. This satellite event will be open for any player ranked in the World Pinball Player Rankings as of the end of 2009, but did not qualify for IFPA 7 through the automatic bid process. Details on the Flip-Expo can be found at http://silverball.fr/FR_03_00_association_silverball_flippers_flip-expo.php.

2010 IFPA League Champion Exemption (March 27-28, 2010 in Milwaukee, WI)
The 2010 Midwest Gaming Classic will serve as a satellite event for players not yet qualified for IFPA 7. Besides the A-Division Open tournament, there will be another spot reserved for the highest finisher that was also a representative from an IFPA endorsed league. This satellite event will be open for any player ranked in the World Pinball Player Rankings as of the end of 2009, sent as a representative of an IFPA endorse league to the MGC to compete that has not yet qualified for IFPA 7 through the automatic bid process. For more details contact your league President or the IFPA directly.

Any questions please feel free to drop the IFPA an email.