This August, SALAZAR released the short film, “Wizard Mode”, a sneak preview of their feature length documentary of the same name that will be crowdfunded in September in order to raise funds to complete the film. Since its release last week, the short film has garnered over 36,000 views on Vimeo and been featured in the Atlantic, the wellknown art blog Booooooom, and much more.

Wizard Mode is the story of Robert Gagno, one of the world’s best pinball players, who also happens to be autistic. As Robert comes of age while rising up the ranks of the international pinball circuit, he strives to gain his independence and transcend the label of autism. The story is presented by award-winning filmmaking team SALAZAR.

Robert is now sixth in the world and has dozens of pinball trophies to prove it. Wizard Mode tells the story of a person stigmatized by autism on a quest to live a fulfilling, independent and fun life
enriched by their wide range of interests and pursuits. The film hopes to stimulate a conversation around autism and contribute to the empowerment of those who are told from a young age that they can’t live “normal” satisfying existences. In order to reach wider audiences and find funding to ensure the film gets finished, SALAZAR is launching a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo this September, with direct support from Vimeo & Indiegogo.

To watch the short film go to: https://vimeo.com/135844794 and to learn more about the film, check out our website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Media Contact
Sara Wylie
6047192793
sekwylie@gmail.com
http://salazarfilm.com/

The IFPA is pleased to announce that the following players saw the biggest jump in their world ranking between May and July 2015. 

May 2015:
Winston Tuttle from Edmonton, AB, Canada (up 10,512 spots), Chris Keller from Brentwood, MD (up 10,174 spots) and Brian Service from Trappe, PA (up 9925 spots).

June 2015:
Kendra Zien from Richmond, CA (up 15,702 spots), Peter Olive from Seattle, WA (up 12,582 spots) and Zach Amador from Seattle, WA (up 11,589 spots).

July 2015:
Tatiana Mora from Miami, FL (up 7851 spots), Wesley Hoyle from Lancaster, UK (up 7242 spots) and Stacey Borg from Melbourne, Australia (up 6058 spots).

The IFPA is pleased to announce our Player of the Month for May 2015 through July 2015:

May 2015 –> [player]Steven Bowden[/player] (255.14 WPPR points)
June 2015 –> [player]Francesco La Rocca[/player] (111.83 WPPR points)
July 2015 –> [player]Germain Mariolle[/player] (122.92 WPPR points)

Congratulations to Steve, Francesco and Germain, along with the other top WPPR point earners over these months!

Join Stern, IFPA and the WWE at the worlds largest toy store, Toys-R-Us Times Square on Friday, August 21st from Noon to 5pm! We will have WWE Wrestlemania Pinball setup on free play for you to enjoy as a part of the WWE SummerSlam Fan Experience! You might even meet a WWE Superstar!

All scores set on the machine at Toys-R-Us during this time are eligible for our "King of the Ring" promotion currently underway. Grand Prize is $500 cash, a playfield trophy and tickets to a WWE event!

Click HERE for details!

(photo courtesy of Zac Wollons)

In the history of competitive pinball, very few (24 in fact) have had the chance to call themselves a Major Champion. Like professional golf or tennis, the opportunity to join this elite club only happens four times a year. The Pinburgh 2015 final brought together three finalists looking to add their name to this list ([player]Raymond Davidson[/player], [player]Kevin Birrell[/player] and [player]Zach Sharpe[/player]), with [player]Keith Elwin[/player] looking to capture his record 9th Major Championhip and 2nd of 2015.

Following a tiebreaker with [player]Raymond Davidson[/player] on Ironman, it was [player]Zach Sharpe[/player] who became the 25th Major Champion in competitive pinball history. Having been one game away from winning PAPA, IFPA and the EPC over the course of his career, the 800 pound gorilla as being "the best player to have never won a Major" is finally off Zach's back. This was also Zach's 7th top 4 finish at a Major, one of only six players to accomplish this in a career (Elwin, Kerins, Sheats, Engelbrektsson, Acciari are the others).

With his 3rd place finish [player]Keith Elwin[/player] added to his record for the most top 4 finishes in Major Championships, expanding that total to 14. [player]Raymond Davidson[/player] increased his top 4 finishes in Major Championships to 2, while [player]Kevin Birrell[/player] entered the record books with his first top 4 Major Championship finish (the 76th player to do so).

To view the most current list of Major Championship stats, click HERE.

​blog post courtesy of Greg Dunlap

All IFPA rules regarding ranking and points will remain the same for these tournaments as any other tournament. The 30 day rule is in effect for this campaign.

CBS affiliate WBNS-10TV in Columbus, OH recently interviewed [player]Trent Augenstein[/player] (ranked 8th in the world) on the pinball comeback. Click HERE to watch the video.

As part of Robert Gagno's dominating victories at both the IFPA US National Pinball Championship and the IFPA Pin-Masters, Robert won the Grand Prize from the 2014 Flippin' With the Greats campaign. His selection was a brand new Stern Mustang pinball machine.

Special thanks to Gridiron Support, Peters Billiards and Stern Pinball for helping us raise money for Coach Ditka's Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund.

Plans are in the works for another FWTG campaign for 2015. As the football season approaches we'll be announcing those details on our site, so stay tuned.

We're nearly halfway through the 2015-16 IFPA State Championship Series season, and we couldn't be more excited about the continued growth of interest in the SCS. The inaugural SCS season saw 5235 players participate, while the 2014-15 season saw that number grow to 6690 players. The 2015-16 season is on pace to shatter that record with 5808 players having already competed within the first half of 2014.

We currently have 35 states included in the SCS, which will all culminate in the IFPA State Championship finals. These finals will all be held simultaneously on February 13th, 2016, with 560 finalists competing for not only a State Championship title, but also a spot in the IFPA US National Pinball Championship.

View the current SCS standings HERE.

For those players north of the US border, the IFPA Canada Provincial Championship Series is also currently in progress. Current standings for the Canada PCS are available HERE. A reminder that the Provincial Champions will also qualify to participate in the US National Championship starting in the 2015-16 season.

A reminder that the official satellite spots for the IFPA13 World Pinball Championship will come from the 2015-16 IFPA US National Pinball Championship, and the 2015-16 IFPA European Pinball Championship. The highest finisher in each final that has not yet qualified for IFPA13 will win a free spot into the World Championship.

Nation's Brightest Casting is looking for the best and the brightest to come and compete on their show and they have extended this opportunity to the IFPA player base. 

About the show:
Contestants will come on and face a gauntlet of colossal mental challenges with the chance to win a huge cash prize. People who are great with puzzles, riddles and brain teasers are perfect show for this show!

Anyone interested in applying should email Nation's Brightest Casting at: 

casting@nationsbrightestcasting.com 

Applicants should include the following information in their email: 

Name
City/State
Phone Number
Email Address
Occupation
Recent Photo
How they heard about the casting
Short Bio
A detailed paragraph stating why they feel they are the nation's brightest 

Auditions are held weekly in our LA offices and over Skype!  

**THIS IS A NATIONWIDE CASTING CALL. 

**APPLICATIONS MUST BE 18+ YEARS OF AGE & A LEGAL US CITIZEN.