This weekend marked the 1-year anniversary of the PAPA 20 World Pinball Championships. That week Zach Sharpe earned himself 352.28 WPPR points solidifying his world No. 1 ranking position for the remainder of 2017. The time has come where the WPPR points earned at all of the PAPA 20 events have dropped in value by 25%, which in Zach’s case was a drop of nearly 90 WPPR points.

Between that and the stellar start in 2018 for Raymond Davidson, Raymond has reached the No. 1 spot in the World Pinball Player Rankings for the first time. Already in the first quarter of 2018, Raymond has chalked up victories at the IFPA US Nationals and the INDISC Classic tournament, as well as a 7th place finish in the INDISC Main tournament.

The race the rest of the year to see who will capture that No. 1 spot at year end and claim the title of “World’s Greatest Pinball Player” should be a great one. While there is no PAPA 21 scheduled for 2018, Raymond as well as Zach Sharpe and Cayle George will all be in attendance at both IFPA15 and Pinburgh 2018.

Best of luck the rest of the season, and congrats to the Bone Collector for this achievement.

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

As the landscape of competitive pinball continues to evolve, events outside of these Grand Slam events have proven to hit a level of prestige among the player community that the IFPA thinks should be recognized. This event is the current Stern Pro Circuit Championship (previously the PAPA Circuit Final).

There’s no doubt the individual events on the Stern/PAPA Circuit have seen a positive impact specifically due to being on this circuit. The level of prestige for all of these events over the past 6 years have been increased. The IFPA feels it’s only right that the culmination of this circuit deserves a seat at the table among the most prestigious events competitive pinball has to offer.

While we typically don’t make WPPR point adjustments during the year, we feel so strongly about the inclusion of the Circuit Final as one of pinball’s Major Championship, if not the MOST PRESTIGIOUS Major Championships of them all, that we’re putting this change in immediately. All previous PAPA Circuit Final events will receive a multiplier of 1.5X the calculated tournament value.

April 2nd update . . .

While undecided as to whether this was going to be an April Fools Joke or not, we figured it was best to let the past champions of the Circuit Final decide the fate of whether it should be considered a Major. Thanks to the finalists who participated in our survey. Here were those results:

Daniele Acciari – NO
Keith Elwin – NO
Jorian Engelbrektsson – NO
Zach Sharpe – NO
Josh Sharpe – ABSOLUTELY YES IT DOES, THESE OTHER FOUR PLAYERS ARE IDIOTS

By a vote of 4-1 . . . the Circuit Final will NOT be a considered a Major.

JUNE, 23-24, 2018 at the Luca Pagano’s QLASH House

Villorba, Treviso – Pinball competition and eSports together for a unique show. It is set in Villorba, near Treviso, at the Luca Pagano’s QLASH House: the headquarters of the QLASH Team and of eSports in Italy. An innovative and multimedia location that for the first time ever will host – alongside an eSports tournament dedicated to the Hearthstone videogame – a prestigious sports pinball competition such as the IPO – Italy Pinball Open: that is, the Italian pinball Championship.

The double event will take place in the weekend of June, 23-24, 2018 and in addition to proposing two major competitions in the respective areas of pinball machines and video games, wants to create a relationship between these two communities of players, through a third Virtual Pinball tournament, which will take place with the traditional rules used for the Ifpa sports pinball tournaments, but instead of playing on “normal” pinball machines, it will be played on virtual machines, using tablet terminals. For something completely new, promising battle between pinball machines and videogames players and that makes it impossible to identify the category that can be favorited in this challenge.

The event, organized by the Italian delegation of the International Flipper Pinball Association (Ifpa Italia)
together with Luca Pagano, is realized thanks to the cooperation of Tecnoplay and Double Pinball, official
suppliers of sports pinball machine in Italy, and with the support of Stern Pinball: the historical pinball
machines manufacturer, world leader in the market, which will provide the event its online Virtual Pinball
platform called Stern Pinball Arcade, where the virtual competition will take place. In addition to a series of
prizes and gadgets for winners and participants.

“We are proud and excited to host an event of this kind and to offer an absolute novelty on the
international entertainment stage”, Luca Pagano, professional poker player, businessman and angel
investor, a real pioneer of eSports in Italy, explains. “We are sure that the interaction between these two
worlds of sports pinball and videogame will give fantastic results and we look forward to discover the real
effects. Certainly, we will have an event guided by fun and socialization: fundamental values for QLASH
Team and Ifpa, and that led us to organize an initiative of this kind”.

From the point of view of sports pinball, the event plays a fundamental role in the Italian and international
ranking. In fact, in addition to electing the Italian Pinball Champion 2018, the main tournament is part of
the official Ifpa calendar and therefore valid for the Wppr ranking, but is also included in the calendar of
the 2018 ICS National Circuit, and on 2018 ECS European Circuit, being the fourth stage and the most
important one in terms of points. Registration is open from April, the 2nd, and the tournament is reserved
for 64 players.

All the information on the Italian Pinball Championship and on the event in general are available on:
www.ifpaitalia.it , www.qlash.gg and on the international website of the event: www.italianpinballopen.it

Grand Champion –> Zach Sharpe
2nd Place –> Bowen Kerins
3rd Place –> Alberto Santana
4th Place –> Raymond Davidson

Full results here:
https://challonge.com/2018IFPAHUC

This is a warning to let you know that from 03/29/2018 until 04/09/2018 Adam Becker will be on a much deserved vacation.

During that period approvals for results and calendar entries will not be occurring.

Anything submitted before 03/28/2018 will be processed but anything afterward will not be looked at until 04/09/2018. So get anything you would like into the system before 03/28/2018.

The IFPA is excited to announce that Stern has added Guardians of the Galaxy 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: Wrestlemania Pro, Ghostbusters Pro, Ghostbusters Premium, Guardians of the Galaxy Pro, Guardians of the Galaxy Premium, Aerosmith Pro, Aerosmith Premium, Star Wars Pro, Star Wars Premium, Batman 66 Premium

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

Greg Pitner out of Burlington, WI finished 2017 being ranked 851st in the world. This qualified him for the $tern Rewards Program. The rewards program allows qualifiers to purchase a brand new Stern pinball machine at a special IFPA price. Greg redeemed his reward for a Batman 66 Premium.

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

Tom Graf out of Applteton, WI finished 2017 being ranked 250th in the world. This qualified him for the $tern Rewards Program. The rewards program allows qualifiers to purchase a brand new Stern pinball machine at a special IFPA price. Tom redeemed his reward for a Batman 66 Premium.

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

Here are the December 2017, January 2018 and February 2018 IFPA winners for Player of the Month and Biggest Movers:

Player of the Month:
December 2017 – Ernö Rotter (115.37 WPPR’s)
January 2018 – Aaron Grabowski (131.59 WPPR’s)
February 2018 – Johannes Ostermeier (84.77 WPPR’s)

Biggest Movers:
December 2017 – Tyler Goad (+16,013 spots), Andy Pickens (+10,722 spots) and Matt Deibert (+10,345 spots)
January 2018 – Cheryl Jarosz (+10,318 spots), Rick Nordeen (+8851 spots) and Jay Adelson (+6581 spots)
February 2018 – Evan Boswell (+17,476 spots), Bobby Campbell (+17,012 spots) and David Krueger (+14,825)

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

Adam Becker –> 6 [-6] *MASTERS CHAMPION
Colin Macalpine –> 10 [-2] *2ND PLACE
Jim Belsito –> 13 [+1] *3TH PLACE
Josh Sharpe –> 14 [+2] *4TH PLACE