Fort Wayne Pinball Wizard’s World Arcade hosts largest ever Indiana Women’s Pinball Tournament and the 2nd largest in the World for 2018

Posted By Josh Sharpe, on February 05, 2018

blog post courtesy of Mike Burgess

Saturday February 3rd, 32 Women from across the midwest, ages 11 to 70, battled it out in a 12 round three strike knockout tournament to build points toward 8 wild card invitations to the 2019 Women’s World Championship.
Danielle Alexander from Lafayette Indiana, whose home arcade is Main Street Amusements, claimed the Championship by besting Shannon Egnor, whose home arcade is Fort Wayne Pinball Wizard’s World, in the sudden death winner take all 12th round.
Kelsey Irmiter was the only player to hand Alexander and Egnor a loss before the finals, was knocked out of the tourney by losing her three games against the top duo (2 losses to Egnor and 1 to Alexander). Irmiter had the longest winning streak of the day at 6 games.
In the battle of the bottom (first four out of the tournament) Priscilla Burch won the title of the biggest loser.
A lot of Pinball and great times were had by all participants. Over $200 in cash and prizes were handed out to the winners.
Our next Women’s Tournament is Saturday March 3rd at 1pm.
For pictures and additional information visit https://www.facebook.com/FWAPinball/
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Brackets are set for 2018 Nationals and Women’s Championships!

Posted By Josh Sharpe, on February 02, 2018

We’ve gotten all the player confirmations in, so while this is subject to change with any players dropping out prior to March 1st, the brackets are set!

Click HERE to view the US National Pinball Championship bracket.

Click HERE to view the Women’s World Pinball Championship bracket.

Best of luck to all the competitors heading to Las Vegas next month!

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Stern Army help needed!

Posted By Josh Sharpe, on February 01, 2018

Looking for some volunteers to help both Stern and IFPA to assist some Family Entertainment Centers in getting pinball events off the ground:

Virginia Beach, VA – Flipper McCoy’s

Auburn Hills, MI – Round One

Mentor, OH – Round One

If you’re around these locations, let me know if you’re interested in helping, and I’ll follow up with more details.

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$tern Rewards Program – Aerosmith Pro and Ghostbusters Pro are back in!

Posted By Josh Sharpe, on February 01, 2018

The IFPA is excited to announce that Stern has added Ghostbusters Pro and Aerosmith Pro back 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, 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.

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The Pinball Asylum’s First IFPA Women’s Division Tournament

Posted By Josh Sharpe, on January 29, 2018

blog post courtesy of David Denholtz

This past Friday night, January 26th, The Pinball Asylum in Fort Myers, Florida hosted its first-ever Women’s Division IFPA Pinball Tournament.  The 3-Strikes tournament was an amazing success, and was extraordinary for a number of reasons.
The tournament—  ably directed by our own Asylum “Inmate” Ceil Beagle— was the largest Women’s Division Tournament ever held in the state of Florida with 23 players.
Players ranged in age from 15 to 75, making it perhaps the widest array of ages and skill sets The Pinball Asylum has ever seen in any tournament.
Players included Holly Danowski from Connecticut,  the current 24th world-ranked woman player in the IFPA, and most of the best women players in the state of Florida.
The winner of the Women’s Tournament was our long-time “Inmate” Staci Webb, who was not only playing in her first ever IFPA tournament, but who took no strikes in ten rounds. She finally won on the twelfth round after getting two strikes. We always knew that Staci was amazing player, even though she had to be coerced into competing by her fellow Inmates.
Our second place player, Gwyneth Austin, was also the youngest player at 15 years old. She and her dad Mitchell are regulars at The Pinball Asylum, and great players both.
Maritza Chirichigno, a third season Asylum Inmates League player, took third in a very well-fought series of matches.  Holly Danowski, visiting from Connecticut, played extremely well, and took fourth.
In an elegant and humorous touch, as players dropped out, they were served champagne on a silver tray by one of The Asylum’s male board members.
Overall, it was a very well-attended, very well-run tournament that had perhaps the biggest group of spectators The Asylum has ever seen for the last few finals matches.  You can find Facebook Live videos with commentary by IFPA US National Champ Eric Stone that were recorded live at the event.  (https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheAsylumInmatesPinballLeague).
Women’s pinball is definitely on the move, and The Pinball Asylum aims to be part of it!  Keep a look out for more Women’s tourneys at The Pinball Asylum in 2018.
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2018 Epstein Cup teams are set!

Posted By Josh Sharpe, on January 28, 2018

Team Europe currently holds the Epstein Cup for four more months before it is once again up for grabs at IFPA15 in Toronto. 8 players per side earn the right to represent their country in this prestigious event, so let’s take a closer look at the rosters for both sides.

Team USA includes current world ranked #1 Zach Sharpe from Chicago, 2-time Major Champion Cayle George currently living in the Netherlands but representing Seattle, 1-time Major Champion Raymond Davidson from Mukilteo, WA, 2-time Major Finalist Trent Augenstein from Delaware, OH, 1-time Major Champion Robert Gagno from Burnaby, Canada, current US National Champion Eric Stone from Fort Myers, FL, 2016 IFPA Player of the Year Steven Bowden from Franklin Township, NJ and 1-time Major Champion Jim Belsito from Murrieta, CA. The 8 members of Team USA 2018 have accounted for 6 Major Championships along with 31 Major Championship Top 4’s.

Team Europe includes 4-time Major Champion Daniele Celestino Acciari from Italy, 6-time Major Champion Jorian Engelbrektsson from Sweden, 2-time Major Finalist Julio Vicario Soriano from Spain, Marcus Hugosson from Sweden, Johannes Ostermeier from Germany, Johan Genberg from Sweden, Jan Anders Nilsson from Sweden and Benjamin Gräbeldinger from Germany. The 8 members of Team Europe 2018 have accounted for 10 Major Championships won along with 22 Major Championship Top 4’s.

For more details on the event, click HERE.

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IFPA15 World Pinball Championship field is almost set!

Posted By Josh Sharpe, on January 28, 2018

The IFPA15 field is nearly set, with 62 out of the 64 players locked in. The IFPA European Championship and IFPA US National Championship Satellite spots will both be up for grabs in March to fill the final 2 spots.

18 countries will be represented at IFPA15, along with 12 players in the field that have won a Major Championship at some point in their career (Adam Becker, Andrei Massenkoff, Cayle George, Colin MacAlpine, Daniele Celestino Acciari, Escher Lefkoff, Jim Belsito, Jorian Engelbrektsson,
Lyman Sheats, Raymond Davidson, Robert Gagno and Zach Sharpe).

At rank #66, Lyman Sheats from the US became the last player above the cut line.

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Ontario Provincial Championship

Posted By Josh Sharpe, on January 25, 2018


This past weekend 16 of Ontario’s best and brightest gathered for the Provincial Champion in the basement of one of its local collectors.

Player One Amusement group was generous enough to provide some of the latest and best games to come out of JJP and Stern Pinball in a long while. Specifically players were treated to an opportunity to play Dialed In, Star Wars and the latest from Stern Guardians of the Galaxy.

At the end of the night Adam Becker was victorious in Ontario and will now be making the trek out to Vegas to participate in the IFPA North American Championship.

Jerry Power from Player One Amusement group was on hand to present Adam with his trophy.

We would like to thank Player One for their support of the Ontario Provincial Championship!
http://www.winwithp1ag.com/

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2018 IFPA Women’s World Pinball Championship – Field is set!

Posted By Josh Sharpe, on January 24, 2018

Registration is now closed for the 2018 IFPA Women’s World Pinball Championship and we couldn’t be more excited about the field of participants!

The IFPA went down to WPPR rank 19 to fill the field of 16 main spots, while going down to rank 10 on the Women’s WPPR ranking to fill the 8 wild card spots. 3 countries will be represented at the championship. The tournament will be held in conjunction with the IFPA US National Pinball Championship out in Las Vegas, NV on March 1st, 2018.

These 24 women will be competing for over $3900 in cash and prizes, along with the title of “Women’s World Pinball Champion”.

Full details of the championship are available HERE.

The current Women’s Rankings are available HERE.

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Arcade owner in state championship

Posted By Josh Sharpe, on January 19, 2018

KPC News in Fort Wayne published a brief profile piece on Mike Burgess and his participation in the upcoming IFPA Indiana State Pinball Championship. Click HERE to read the article.

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