With the 2015 season entering the final 3 months, players are competing to qualify for various upcoming IFPA Championships. A reminder that if you aren’t a “registered” player it means we have no way of contacting you for these upcoming events. Your profile will have a green check box in the Player Information section if you are registered. Please update your profile HERE.

Here’s a list of the various championships on the schedule:

IFPA State Championship Series Finals –> February 13, 2016 (location based on state)
IFPA US National Pinball Championship –> March 17, 2016 (Las Vegas)
IFPA Women’s World Pinball Championship –> March 17, 2016 (Las Vegas)
IFPA Pin-Masters: World Pin-Golf Championships –> March 18-20, 2016 (Las Vegas)
IFPA13 World Pinball Championship –> April 12-14, 2016 (Pittsburgh)

For anyone interest in details of the other Country Championship Series finals, please contact us at [email protected]. Besides the European Championship Series, we are currently running championships for Australia, Austria, Canada, Hungary, Italy, New Zealand, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

San Francisco Pinball Department league member Mike Miller made a short movie called Flipped. Check it out on Vimeo HERE.

​The IFPA and Gridiron Support are thrilled to announce that the “King of Shock Rock”, Alice Cooper, and his charity – Solid Rock – is joining with Coach Ditka’s Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund for the 2015 “Flippin’ With the Greats” Pinball Campaign.

Pro Football Hall of Famer Mike Ditka and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Alice Cooper are excited to partner with the IFPA to raise money and awareness for their respective charities, while bringing the competitive pinball experience to their NFL and Rock & Roll Fans!

Once again, Players will be competing for WPPR Points, as well as Tens of Thousands of $$$$ in Cash and Prizes, including a BRAND NEW PINBALL!!!!

This year’s Flippin’ With the Greats campaign will again consist of 2 elements:

1. A “League” where IFPA members can support their favorite NFL team (and win cool stuff) by simply buying an IFPA medallion Personalized with the Player’s name, IFPA #, and the NFL team they support.  Great prizes will be distributed to League Participants throughout the season.

2. A Nationwide series of tournaments to be scheduled throughout the NFL season culminating in the SUPER BOWL Pinball Party at Alice Cooperstown in Phoenix, Az.

For details on the FWTG LEAGUE, including how to register, format, prizes and more, click HERE.

For details on the FWTG TOURNAMENT SERIES including registration fees, format, prizes and more, click HERE.

The Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund (GGAF) is a non-stock, non-profit 501(c)3 organization, providing financial grants and “pro bono” medical assistance to retired NFL players in dire need.  The organization focuses on the humanitarian side of post-football related issues, which include coordination of social services to retired players who are in need due to a variety of reasons including inadequate disability and/or pensions.

Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization, also. Solid Rock’s primary mission is to make an everlasting difference in the lives of teens by helping them meet their spiritual, economical, physical, and social need.  Alice Cooper’s Rock Teen Center offers a safe, engaging environment during non-school hours –a time when they are most vulnerable to drugs, violence, and gangs. Maintaining a teen’s worst enemy is too much time on their hands Solid Rock provides the music, arts, vocational programs and fellowship that challenge teens to discover their passion through music, dance, self-expression, and creativity. Learn more at www.alicecoopersolidrock.com.

Support and Follow our 2015 Flippin’ With the Greats Pinball Campaign and “Like” Gridiron Support on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/gridironsupport.org

Wizard Mode is a rippin’ pinball documentary about the competitive pinball community and one of the world’s best players. As a way to raise money to finish the film, we have the following pinball items available:

UNLOCK WIZARD MODE – TUTORIAL VIDEO

Sick of seeing your balls roll in the drain? Contribute and receive a pinball tutorial video by resident pinball champion, Robert Gagno. Download this lesson along tips, tricks and never-seen-before bonus footage from Wizard Mode. Support the film as you train to become the next champ!

WALKING DEAD TRANSLITE SIGNED BY NORMAN REEDUS

Signed by all-around badass survivalist NORMAN REEDUS, the WALKING DEAD pinball machine backglass art can be yours as some inspiration for when the zombies attack…

THE VANCOUVER PINBALL TOUR

Spend the day touring Vancouver with the Directors (Jeff & Nathan) and Robert! We will take you to all the best pinball spots around the city to play our favourite games, and end the day by taking you to Robert’s favourite burger joint.

THE LAS VEGAS PINBALL TOUR

Visit the Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas with the Directors (Jeff & Nathan) and Robert! We will pinball at the Hall of Fame all day and then spend the night getting wild on the town.

(Travel up to $1,000 and accommodation included)

WALKING DEAD PRO PINBALL MACHINE

Get a brand new Walking Dead Pinball Pro Machine provided by Stern Pinball. For those who want what the pros use! One of these pinball machines comes with a signed translite by Walking Dead star, Norman Reedus – but you have to be quick to claim this limited edition pinball machine!

Buy these items here and support an amazing film that highlights the passion and community of pinball players.

Please check out the details: http://igg.me/at/wizardmodefilm

Feel free to contact us at [email protected] if you have any questions.

(photo courtesy of Penni Epstein)

The legacy for current World #1 [player]Jorian Engelbrektsson[/player] grew even greater this weekend, as he became the 3rd player in competitive pinball history to capture his 5th Major Championship (Bowen Kerins also has 5, while Keith Elwin has 8). With respect to the European Pinball Championship, Jorian became the first 3-time winner in tournament history. For Jorian, this was also his 10th top 4 finish at a Major, putting him into an elite club with both Elwin(14) and Kerins(11), along with fellow EPC 2015 finalist [player]Lyman Sheats[/player].

Speaking of Lyman Sheats, while he fell just short of capturing his 5th Major Championship, his legacy as one of the greatest to ever play this game also grew this weekend. He was able to reach the podium for the 12th time in his Major Championship career, marking a great return for Sheats who last placed in the top 4 back in 2008 with a 3rd place finish at PAPA 11.

With his 3rd place finish [player]Paul Jongma[/player] expanded his top 4 finishes in Major Championships to 4, while [player]Jochen Ludwig[/player] entered entered the record books with his first top 4 Major Championship finish (the 77th player to do so).

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

This may not be pinball related, but since Raw Thrills is a HUGE IFPA sponsor we wanted to pass along a new retail product that Raw Thrills is bringing to market.

The PAC-MAN Premium LED Desk Clock features 512 Vibrant LED’s that display classic animations from the hit arcade game. It is officially licensed by Namco.

Check out the details and purchase through the Raw Thrills Amazon store here:

PAC-MAN Premium LED Desk Clock – 512 Vibrant LED’s Display Classic Animations From the Hit Arcade Video Game – Officially Licensed Merchandise – Great 8-bit Retro Gift!

A video of the clock in action is available HERE.

The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Virginia released an article/web video piece on the Dominion Pinball League. Click HERE to check it out.

blog post courtesy of Stefan Riedler
picture courtesy of Martin Ayub

On the weekend from 18th to 20th September 2015 was the Austrian Pinball Open 2015 held by Flippnic Pinball club (www.flippnic.at) at the Hall of Pinball Fame in Badendorf near Graz.

The Austrian Pinball Sport Association “Union – Flipper Sportverein Austria” (www.flipper-sv.at) supported the event very strong in the preparation and also during the tournament with organization like tournament director and also a live streaming of the final matches on the second day.

The APO was the 10^th Event of the European Championship Series and 86 Participants joined the main tournament. They came from all over Europe like France, Italy, Germany, Slovenia, Switzerland, Bosnia, UK and for sure Austria to meet a lot of pinheads and enjoy a nice weekend.

A warm up party has been held on Friday the 18^th were 35 participants joined and during the side (classic) tournament ~80 participants joined.

The Austrian Public Television visited the tournament on Saturday and a report of the tournament has been shown already on Sunday. You can find it in the Mediathek of the ORF

http://tvthek.orf.at/program/Steiermark-heute/70020/Steiermark-heute/10614743 (it is the report Steirerblicke: Internationales Flipperturnier + Kürbisfest)

Andrew Heighway and RS-Pinball e.U. (www.rs-pinball.com) presented also the Full Throttle for the 1^st time in the German speaking countries.
One of the 2 games has been used for the Final match (best of 3) of the main tournament between Roland Schwarz and Markus Stix. Roland won then the 3^rd game (~ 153m) with a fantastic 2^nd ball against Markus with ~15m. This game was live streamed as well as some others by Richard Pyrker, Markus Schrodt & Robert Glashüttner.

The final games has been even co moderated by Andrew Heighway and so there are a lot of good information about the gameplay and rules included. This video could be found in the archive of twitch.tv at http://www.twitch.tv/pyrker/v/16935460

And last but not least there has been a tombola for everybody who joined the event and bought a ticket. The main price has been a Funhouse pinball machine sponsored by Niegelhell GmbH. And a lot of other prices have been available to from Pinball Magazine, PinSound, RS-Pinball and Flippnic.

Results:

APO 15 Main

1. Roland Schwarz
2. Markus Stix
3. Martin Ayub

APO 15 Side / Classic

1. Stefan Karlhuber
2. Arno Nöbl
3. Andrew Heighway

APO 15 Warm Up Party

1. David Mainwaring
2. Martin Ayub
3. Bálazs Pálfi

The APO 15 and APO 14 has always been held in September, and so keep it in your mind there is also an APO 16 coming probably in September next year 🙂

We’re excited to announce that we are creating the official IFPA Women’s Pinball Championship, to be held in conjunction with the IFPA US National Pinball Championship out in Las Vegas on March 17th, 2016.

The IFPA plans on inviting the top 16 ranked women from around the world to battle it out in a best-of-7 single elimination format to crown the IFPA Women’s Pinball Champion. Similar to the qualifying process used for the IFPA World Pinball Championship we will use the rankings as of January 1, 2016 to determine the qualifiers. Full details of the event including schedule, entry fee, prizes, etc. will be available soon.

The current Women’s Rankings are available HERE.

For those women that do not find themselves on the ranking, please contact the IFPA and we will update your profile.

We’re looking to round up some volunteers to help us with hosting the Stern Game of Thrones Pinball Launch Party tournaments.

The date Stern is targeting is October 16-18th weekend.

If you are interested in helping serve as an IFPA representative for a launch party in your city, please send me an email (ifpapinball at gmail dot com) including the city you live in. We’ll then get that information to Stern to try and find a distributor/operator/location owner in your area to match you up with to get the party set up.

IFPA representative duties would include game setup at the site, along with running the tournament portion of the party.