The IFPA13 field is nearly set, with 62 out of the 64 players locked in. The IFPA European Championship Satellite spot is being determined right now, while the IFPA US National Championship Satellite spot will be decided in a few short weeks.

18 countries will be represented, a record for a US-based IFPA World Pinball Championship. This includes Thailand which will see its flag on the World Pinball Champion trophy for the first time.

IFPA13 shattered the previous world record for the cut line for at-large bids into any IFPA World Pinball Championship. At rank #52, Adam McKinnie from the US became the last player above the cut line, shattering the previous US-based IFPA record of rank #79 set at IFPA11 in Denver and the Europe-based IFPA record rank of #66 set at IFPA10 in Germany. The cut line has since moved a bit as we’ve had 3 players cancel since IFPA13 registration closed.

IFPA13 also breaks another record by featuring 15 players in the field that have won a Major Championship at some point in their career.

The full field of participants is available HERE.

The IFPA is excited to announce that we are partnering with Jersey Jack Pinball, Tokens & Tankards and This Flippin Podcast to host a launch party and tournament for JJP’s The Hobbit pinball machine.

Below is a release from Tokens & Tankards out in Mount Prospect, Illinois which is where the party will be held:

Big news! As many of you know, we are pleased to have a copy of The Hobbit pinball from our friends at Jersey Jack – the only one in the Midwest!

Join us on Friday, March 11th, as we celebrate the release of Jersey Jack’s The Hobbit, with an official IFPA tournament!

Tokens & Tankards, Chicagoland’s first Gastrocade, is pleased to host this unique event, celebrating Jersey Jack’s amazing new pinball game.

OnWisconsin Magazine is a quarterly magazine published by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Alumni Association. This quarter they focused on PAPA co-founder and IFPA Chairman Roger Sharpe. Click HERE to read the article.

Back in November 2015, Twin Galaxies, in close partnership with the International Flipper Pinball Association (IFPA) has jointly decided to open the all-new adjudication process to the pinball community as an exciting experiment to see if competitive leaderboard pinball can once again take place successfully on the Twin Galaxies scoreboards!

MILLIONS entered . . . but only one could earn the World Record!

Okay so millions didn’t enter, but ONE PERSON did submit a video for the Twin Galaxies, and that person was the artist formerly known as “Jon from Pittsburgh”.

Jon scored  208,715,140 on a Walking Dead LE. Check out the submission video HERE.

We congratulate Jon on this incredible achievement, and will do our best to pay him his $100 in all pennies.

We’re excited to announce that the 2016 IFPA Pin-Masters will be part of the 2016-17 PAPA Circuit.

Registration continues to be open, and is filling up fast! For details on the IFPA Pin-Masters, check out the Overview page HERE.

To register, click HERE! Please note registration will be capped at 72 players.

The 2016 IFPA Pin-Masters: World Pin-Golf Championships are scheduled for March 18th-20th, 2016 at the Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas. The Pin-Masters coincides with the Amusement Expo held Wednesay and Thursday of that week where any players that pre-register will receive a complimentary badge into the trade show.

In addition, the IFPA US National Pinball Championship will be held at the Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, and take place Thursday March 17th. This will include all the various State and Provincial Champions currently battling it out in the 2015-16 SCS and PCS (Canada).

The inaugural IFPA Women’s World Pinball Championship will also be held as part of the IFPA Pin-Masters week. This features the top 16 ranked women battling it out for a World Champion title.

Should you have any questions about our qualifying process or to find out more information about the tournament, please contact the IFPA at ifpapinball@gmail.com.

CTV news in Montreal was covering the pinball prohibition that has been lifted in the city. Click HERE to watch the video.

Bring Me the News out in Minneapolis covered the IFPA Minnesota State Pinball Championship out at Sun Ray Lanes in Maplewood, MN. Click HERE to read the article.

3-time (or 5-time depending on who you ask) World Pinball Champion [player]Bowen Kerins[/players] was recently on the Versus the GOAT Podcast talking competitive pinball. Click HERE to listen.

Yesterday was one crazy day, with 35 states across the US participating in the 3rd annual IFPA State Championship Series Finals (along with 6 provinces in Canada and the District of Columbia).

While the SCS was created with the interest of the players in mind, the bigger picture has always been about using the SCS as a tool to help promote the awareness of competitive pinball across the country. This year has been the best yet, with millions of media impressions generated across all the various media outlets run all over the US.

A full list of media pieces is available HERE.

As some of you may have noticed, the World Pinball Player Rankings had not been updated since the end of 2015. The challenges to migrate over to the new system were tougher than anticipated, but we are excited to announce that we have made the necessary changes to implement version 5.2 and we are now LIVE.

The current rankings reflect some of the backlog of January events that we received, along with all of the results in the database being recalculated under v5.2 rules.

Full details fo the WPPR v5.2 system can be found HERE.