The IFPA is proud to announce that registration for the 14th Annual IFPA World Pinball Championship is now open! For more details check out the registration page HERE!

The initial invite list is open for the top 100 players in the World Pinball Player Rankings as of 1/1/2017. Based on the interest of the top 100, we may extend the invite list additional spots so please monitor the registration page at your leisure. Should you be interested, please send payment to the IFPA as your way of committing to attending the tournament. Should you not be interested, it is equally important that we know, so please send an email to the IFPA stating you will not be available to participate.

Should you have any questions about our qualifying process or to find out more information about the tournament, please contact the IFPA at [email protected].

Two of the 64 spots will also be available for the highest ranked finisher not already in the IFPA field. One is reserved for the 2016-17 IFPA US National Pinball Championship and one is reserved for the 2016-17 IFPA European Pinball Championship.

The IFPA is proud to announce that registration for the 2017 IFPA Women’s World Pinball Championship is now open! For more details on the Women’s Championship click HERE!

The initial invite list is open for the top 24 women in the World Pinball Player Rankings as of 1/1/2017. Based on the interest of the top 24, we may extend the invite list additional spots so please monitor the registration page at your leisure. Should you be interested, please send payment to the IFPA as your way of committing to attending the tournament. Should you not be interested, it is equally important that we know, so please send an email to the IFPA stating you will not be available to participate.

A reminder that through fundraising and sponsorship efforts, the top prize for the Women’s World Championship this year is over $2000!

Should you have any questions about our qualifying process or to find out more information about the tournament, please contact the IFPA at [email protected].

Qualifying for the 4th annual IFPA State Championship Series is now complete, and it’s now time for us to find our qualifiers for the 40 different IFPA State Championship finals. These finals will all be held simultaneously on February 11th, 2017, with 640 finalists competing for not only a State Championship title, but also a spot in the fourth annual IFPA US National Championship.

View the final qualifying standings HERE.

IFPA State Representatives should be sending out emails to the top 50 from each state shortly. Important to note that if the IFPA does not have your email address on file, we have no way of being able to contact you. If you feel you should have received an invitation to one of the IFPA State Championships and did not, contact the IFPA immediately at [email protected], or Click HERE to edit your profile.

Registration for all 40 states closes on Saturday, January 14th at 7pm CST. Any player that has not accepted their invitation by that time will be ineligible to participate.

Remember that no player is allowed to compete in multiple IFPA State Championships. Players that qualify for more than one IFPA State Championship will have to make their choice during this open period of registration. This will mean that many states will go far past the top 16 players in order to fill all 16 spots.

Any questions about the SCS, or anything IFPA related, please contact us at [email protected]

As State Representatives alert us to who is attending, we will be updating the registration page HERE.

For our Canadian friends, the PCS registration page is available HERE.

In celebration of the upcoming World Pinball Championship this June, the IFPA will be taking over Denmark with a WPPR point bonanza of tournaments for flipper fanatics to enjoy!

World Championship Week starts with the World Classic Open on May 27-28th (Saturday-Sunday) in Hvalsø featuring over 50 classic machines available.

Typically held in October, the Danish Pinball Open is the biggest annual event in Denmark. For 2017 they have decided to make this premiere event part of World Championship Week, taking place May 29-30th (Monday-Tuesday). This will be held at the same location as IFPA14.

Action will continue on Wednesday May 31st at the Retro Arcade Open in Glostrup with a collection of over 60 machines.

The formats will be qualification on 5 machines – 2 games on each machine. After that it will be player vs. player until a final 4 – best of 5 games. Full details for each even along with online registration will be available soon. Each event will be limited to 120 players maximum.

The 5th edition of the Epstein Cup where the 8 best players from Europe battle the 8 best players from North America will happen Thursday night, June 1st. Finally, Sunday, June 4th, IFPA’s World Championship Week concludes with the crowning of the new World Pinball Champion.

For any questions regarding any part of IFPA’s World Championship Week, contact the IFPA at [email protected].

The IFPA is proud to announce that Keith Elwin has finished at #1 on the World Pinball Player Rankings, thus earning IFPA’s top honor as the 2016 “World’s Greatest Pinball Player”. No single tournament victory will ever secure this title for a given year. Only consistent play at the highest level over the course of multiple years leads to players reaching the pinnacle of the World Pinball Player Rankings. This is the 7th time that Keith has been crowned the World’s Greatest Pinball Player out of the 11 times we have awarded it, the last time being in 2012.

Keith’s greatest achievement of 2016 was winning his 9th Major Championship at Pinburgh 2016, while also posting victories at Pinball Expo in Chicago, California Extreme, It Never Drains in Southern California, PAPA Circuit Final and Classics II at the PAPA 19 World Championship.

Overall, Keith won 50% of the 12 events he played in, while placing in the top 4 at 66% of his 2016 events, a truly remarkable achievement. Congratulations to Keith, and best of luck to everyone on the upcoming 2017 season in the race for #1.

As one of the Biggest Movers in the World Pinball Player Rankings in August 2016, David Konwiczka qualified himself for the IFPA’s $tern Rewards Program. The $tern Rewards Program allows qualifiers to purchase a brand new Stern pinball machine at a special IFPA price. David redeemed his reward for a Metallica Pro.

In just his first year competing David has moved himself up the rankings into the top 6000 in the world.

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

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

PLAYER OF THE MONTH – Jörgen Holm
PLAYER OF THE MONTH – Julio Vicario Soriano
BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – Helmar Oels
BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – Andreas Stenberg
BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – Oliver Jagarinec
BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – Andreas Jeppsson
BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – Asa Cooney
BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – Dennis Ibarra

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 November 2016 tournament performance.

The biggest movers for November 2016 included Andreas Jeppsson from Sweden, who moved up 15,606 spots from the following results:

Andreas moved up to a rank of 7124th in the world.

Asa Cooney from Greensboro, NC moved up 14,042 spots from the following results:

Asa moved up to a rank of 11402nd in the world, and 129th in the North Carolina SCS.

Dennis Ibarra from Philadelphia, PA moved up 10,922 spots from the following results:

Dennis moved up to a rank of 7041st in the world.

Congratulations to Andreas, Asa and Dennis, as well as the other players that saw a jump in their ranking from their November tournament performance!

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

The biggest movers for October 2016 included Helmar Oels from Germany, who moved up 13,268 spots from the following results:

Helmar moved up to a rank of 4639st in the world.

Andreas Stenberg from Sweden moved up 10,999 spots from the following results:

Andreas moved up to a rank of 11438th in the world.

Oliver Jagarinec from Croatia moved up 8949 spots from the following results:

Oliver moved up to a rank of 8108th in the world.

Congratulations to Helmar, Andreas and Oliver, as well as the other players that saw a jump in their ranking from their October tournament performance!

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Month for November 2016 is 2-time Major finalist Julio Vicario Soriano from Spain. Julio earned a total of 178.45 WPPR points in November. This included the following results:

Julio is currently sitting in 4th place in the 2016-17 ECS standings.

The rest of the top 5 for the month of November included Greg Poverelli from New York with 134.10 WPPR points, Steven Bowden from Franklin Township, NJ with 130.58 WPPR points, Kevin Birrell from Seattle, WA with 122.09 WPPR points, and Daniele Acciari from Italy with 120.40 WPPR points.

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