The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Month for May 2016 is Albert Nomden from the Netherlands. Albert earned a total of 121.64 WPPR points in May. This included the following results:

Albert is currently ranked 33rd in the world and is in the top qualifying position for the 2016-17 ECS.

The rest of the top 5 for the month of May included Trent Augenstein from Delaware, OH with 113.26 WPPR points, Steven Bowden from Franklin Township, NJ with 96.02 WPPR points, Jorian Engelbrektsson from Stockholm, Sweden with 90.74 WPPR points, and Germain Mariolle from Redmond, WA with 87.84 WPPR points.

Congratulations to Albert and the other top WPPR point earners of the month!

blog post courtesy of Pinball Sales Australia

Pinball machines are widely popular across the globe and many people dream of having one. It has indeed played a vital role in the classic gaming history. Starting off as a past time entertainment of the royalties in the 18th century, to being a world-renowned game in the 1920s, its prohibition in the 1940s and reinstatment in the 1970s by Roger Sharpe, pinball machine
has definitely changed the course of gaming history. And depsite the world being digitized, the charm and allure of the age-old arcade game and nostalgia of the lights and sounds it brings every time the silver ball hits the flippers and obstacles will never run out of style.

Take a trip down memory lane through this infographic by Pinball Sales Australia, the Sole Importer and Distributor of Jersey Jack pinball machines for sale in Australia, about the Top 25 Pinball Machines Ever Made plus interesting facts that every pinball enthusiast out there would enjoy! Click HERE.

LA Weekly posted an article about the growing interest in Selfie Pinball Leagues that have been popping up all over the world in 2016. Click HERE to read the article.

blog post courtesy of Alessio Crisantemi

Saint-Vincent – Another success for Daniel Acciari and the Iinternational sports pinball. This the double result of CoinFlipper, the international tournament valid for the Ifpa ranking (WPPR) that took place during this weekend into the Casino and Resort in Saint-Vincent. Obviously, for pinball competitions the success is represented by the great success into the gaming room and in the world of poker, thanks to the combination of IFPA Italia and Pagano Events who organized the event, along with Tecnoplay and Sweetgames. Although there wasn’t a very high number of participants, there was a very high interest of poker players and casino visitors, with long queues of people behind each pinball machine in the free play area and at the end of the competition. Enough to convince the organizers to repeat the event next year too. In the same timey, for Acciari it is another victory, allowing him to get important points for the ranking, where it could get back into the first position.

He won after a clash of the titans, with the Italian number two and teammate in the national team, Roberto Pedroni, closing in second place. Third place for Giuseppe Violante and fourth place for Fabrizio Amiconi from Rome.

DIVISION B – Together with the champions division also the division B took place, where the venetian player Daniel Baldan triumphed, followed by Davide Delprato from Torino and by Matteo Filippin from the same region. Fourth place for Pablo Iacoponi from Pisa.

LET’S TALK THE CHAMPIONS – “I had to do this experience at least once in a lifetime and it was fantastic. Beautiful environment and a perfect flipper-poker connection. Both of them can be gambling and sports games, and the sports type we practice is the most beautiful of both games and it brings out all players’ skills”. In this way Daniele Acciari comments the victory just conquered at the CoinFlipper, the international tournament valid for the IFPA international ranking that took place during this weekend at the Saint-Vincent Resort & Casino.

“The tournament went very well. I found new people interested in the game and I explained them with pleasure all pinball machine world, also giving them some little lessons on the game, like to Luca Pagano, who is a great poker player, and he has approached this world for the affinities that pinball machine has with poker,” says the Italian champion again.

“As for the victory, it was deserved, but not for the way I played, but for my mind: I imemdiately established myself without uncertainties, as in previous tournaments, and jumped to the middle, and I’m pleased to having done it in front of many prominent people. I hope that after this big event and other ones scheduled the pinball machine is known and appreciated by many other people, in order to create a large community of people, like the one of the American world…immense” Acciari ends.

Pagano Events company, owned by Luca Pagano, the famous poker champion of PokerStars, organized the event, along with IFPA Italia. “The idea of CoinFlipper – Pagano explains – born from my passion for pinball machine, that I could deepen during my trips to Las Vegas during the WSOP. After the tournament I did not know what to do and I went to the Pinball Hall of Fame: 100 machines! I said to myself: ‘I must abaolutely arrange something in Italy’.

“I like play poker – Acciari adds – but I’m better at pinball”

“We need skills both in poker and in pinball machine – Pagano still explains – but perhaps skill is more dominant in pinball machine. This is the beautiful and the bad of poker, where anyone can hope for, and even be able to beat the world champion. I think I have no chance in pinball machine. And another thing in common is the fun, which is the real driving force of Texas Hold’em”.

Pagano still reveals that, as soon as the curtain fell on the first edition of the tournament, is already thinking about the next one: “And they are also perfect opportunities to try different machines.” Acciari ends with a praise to the organization of the 2016 edition: “All right as rain. No problem. And this is a result too, taking into account that it was the first edition.”

The other good news for pinball world is that, given the great feedback received from this game, the Casino of Saint-Vincent has decided to install 5 pinball machines on a permanent basis into its floors, which will then be available for free-play all the year!

blog post courtesy of Marc Bell

Australia’s number 1 ranked women’s pinball player, Naiomi Goodwin, is the next Player Feature on gamethesystem.co – a website designed to promote the people side of gaming, and the wonderful stories that revolve around the characters that make up this hobby. Naiomi is not just an accomplished pinball player (having won the PAPA 19 split flipper championship!), but her positive attitude on life and the people around her is in inspiration for us all. Check out the full set of 9 screens at the site!

You can see the Player Feature on Naiomi by visiting: http://gamethesystem.co/naiomigoodwin

A little about the site: A new pinball community focused website, we aim to promote the events, people, and stories that surround this rapidly growing past time. In Australia we have seen a massive expansion of the player base over the last few years, and the level of competition and resulting outcomes and stories. With representatives across the country, we aim to tell these stories by involving the community and encouraging the conversation via highly engaged individuals and groups. It’s a fun and exciting time to be involved in pinball!

With the 2016 season nearly half done, we couldn’t help but notice how close the race for the IFPA’s “World’s Greatest Pinball Player” title is. Many years it was simply Keith Elwin sitting alone “Tiger Woods style” at the top spot (often enough that the trophy is still named the “Keith Trophy” on all of our internal IFPA documentation).

We’ve seen a few two-player races develop over the past 10 years that we’ve crowned the “World’s Greatest Pinball Player” title, including a 7.92 WPPR point squeaker in 2013 with Zach Sharpe finishing just ahead of Keith. This was then bested in 2014 when Jorian Engelbrektsson finished ahead of Keith by 7.58 WPPR points (the tightest race we’ve had so far).

While we have gotten used to some entertaining races in the past, this year brings us something we haven’t seen before . . . a FOUR player race for #1! These Four Horseman include 6-time WGPP Keith Elwin,  3-time WGPP Jorian Engelbrektsson (current EPC champ), 1-time WGPP Zach Sharpe (current Pinburgh champ) and Daniele Acciari (current IFPA champ) who has not yet finished a year in the #1 spot.

While the last few weeks have seen some shifting of the #1 spot (Zach, Jorian and Daniele all have tasted #1 during that time), the real test will come after all of the 2013-2015 events on everyone’s resume decay out by the end of the year. After a win at the Lyons Spring Classic last week, Zach currently sits on top, holding a 40 point lead over Jorian, a 42 point lead over Daniele and a 48 point lead over Keith.

Some big point drops are coming as tournaments pass the 1/2/3 year mark with respect to age. We took a look at some of the bigger movements we’ll be seeing on the calendar coming up soon:

August 2016 features the 1-year mark for Pinburgh 2015 results. Nobody is hit harder than Zach, who will lose 34.58 WPPR points from his victory. However, Jorian and Keith will also be hit by this decay, losing 17.44 and 27.02 WPPR points respectively. Having missed Pinburgh 2015, Daniele’s WPPR point total is not impacted at all.

Zach’s consistent ability to NOT win PAPA will also hurt him coming up in August. He will lose 17.99 WPPR points from his 3rd place finish at PAPA17 when that tournament passes the 2-year mark. Keith’s PAPA 18 victory has already gotten the 1-year decay hit with PAPA moving from August to March starting in 2015.

Moving to October, and the 2015 European Pinball Championship will pass the 1-year decay mark. Both Jorian (1st place) and Daniele (5th place) will lose 29.84 and 19.81 points respectively. In addition Daniele finished in 2nd place in the Classics tournament at EPC 2015, which will cost him another 11.22 points.

For Jorian, after defiling the Star Trek machine at the 2014 Pinball Expo Flip Out tournament (in some alternate universe he is STILL playing), those results pass the 2 year decay mark. This will cost Jorian 16.89 WPPR points.

Doing all the math, here is where these four stand, accounting for all point reductions that are due between now and the end of the calendar year:

Zach Sharpe –> 937.37 WPPR points
Daniele Acciari –> 896.03 WPPR points
Keith Elwin –> 878.48 WPPR points
Jorian Engelbrektsson –> 832.67 WPPR points

With the season not even half over, there is of course plenty of tournaments left to shake things up. This includes TWO Major Championships (Pinburgh 2016 and EPC 2016). It’s likely that both Daniele and Jorian will compete in both, while Zach and Keith only have Pinburgh left on their ‘Major’ calendars. Beyond the Majors, each player has their own backyard events worthy of top resume stuffers. We’re excited to see how this race shapes up and will be sure to update this race, especially after we get through Pinburgh 2016 at the end of July.

Best of luck to Zach, Jorian, Daniele and Keith. They have no doubt separated themselves from the pack over the last few years as the greatest players in the world.

The IFPA is proud to announce we’re teaming up with Fun With Bonus and Coast 2 Coast Pinball on a new podcast taking aim at competitive pinball.

Episode 1 is available for download HERE.

The Wide World of Pinball homepage can be found HERE.

In episode 1 we discuss the upcoming changes for WPPR v5.3 for the 2017 season along with Modern Pinball NYC’s Super League format including their interesting “Multiball then score” finals format.

The IFPA is excited to announce that the following players have been now qualified for the $tern Rewards Program based on their April 2016 IFPA endorsed tournament performance! These players have until August 15th, 2017 to exercise their reward option.

PLAYER OF THE MONTH – Bowen Kerins
BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – William Gordon
BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – Nick Delehanty
BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – Andrew Harper

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

The IFPA is pleased to announce that the following players saw the biggest jump in their world ranking based on their April 2016 tournament performance.

The biggest movers for April 2016 included William Gordon from Seattle, WA, who moved up 13,364 spots from the following results:

William moved up to a rank of 5107th in the world, and 190th in the Washington SCS.

Nick Delehanty from Chicago, IL moved up 10,511 spots from the following results:

Nick moved up to a rank of 1560th in the world, and 25th in the Wisconsin SCS.

Andrew Harper from Halifax, Canada moved up 10,447 spots from the following results:

Andrew moved up to a rank of 9491st in the world, and currently sits in 6th place in the Nova Scotia PCS.

Congratulations to William, Nick and Andrew, as well as the other players that saw a jump in their ranking from their April tournament performance!