Bracket:  http://challonge.com/ifpa_nationals_2014#

First round byes –> (1)Keith Elwin-CA, (2)Bowen Kerins-MA, (3)Andy Rosa-MI, (4)Bob Matthews-AZ, (5)Jason Werdrick-WI, (6)Steve Zahler-NJ, (7)Cryss Stephens-PA

Derek Fugate-KY d. Mark Kiefert-GA (4-2)
Derek won on Eye of the Tiger, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Space Time, Captain Fantastic
Mark won on Metallica, Ironman

Sean Grant-NY d. Eric Shaffer-LA (4-1)
Sean won on Congo, Bram Stoker's Dracula, AC/DC, Frontier
Eric won on Playboy

Joe Said-MD d. Brett Emerson-OK (4-1)
Joe won on Metallica, Lord of the Rings, Monster Bash, Attack From Mars
Brett won on Skateball

Kevin Birrell-WA d. Joe Schober-VA (4-1)
Kevin won on The Addams Family, Frontier, KISS, No Good Gofers
Joe won on Attack From Mars

Paul Madison-MN d. Todd Rafacz-TX (4-0)
Paul won on Banzai Run, Twilight Zone, Spider-Man, KISS

Timothy Street-AL d. Adam McKinnie-MO (4-3)
Timothy won on Wizard, World Cup Soccer, Twilight Zone, Captain Fantastic
Adam won on Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Carribean, Eye of the Tiger

Atticus Palmer-FL d. Rod Lawrence-OH (4-2)
Atticus won on Scared Stiff, Metallica, Attack From Mars, Ironman
Rod won on The Addams Family

Jason Scheffelmaer-KS d. Phil Grimaldi-IN (4-0)
Jason won on Avatar, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Captain Fantastic, Medieval Madness

Walt Wood-CO d. Zoe Vrabel-OR (4-1)
Walt won on KISS, Monster Bash, Banzai Run, Frontier
Zoe won on Twilight Zone

blog post courtesy of Jérémy Reynaud

In June the IFPA France association is proud to organize for its second edition (first was in 2012) one of the most crazy pinball tournament ever: 24 heures du Mans flipper (literally the pinball 24 hours of Le Mans). As for the famous car racing, the tournament will be an endurance tournament that last 24 hours!!! You can play as much as you want/can, the goal is to make high scores on most machines you could.

More than 30 machines including: Medieval madness,Addams family,Scared stiff,Fun house,Johnny Mnemonic,Twilight Zone,Revenge from mars,Terminator 2,Safe Cracker,Dr Who,World,Poker,Tour,Simpsons pinball party,Batman,Flinstones,Creature from the black lagoon,Wizard of oz,Pinball magic,The Machine,Judge Dred,Airborne,Flipper football,Theatre of magic,Shadow,Surf n safari,Light camera action,Baby Pacman,World challenge soccer,Frankenstein,Totem (carte PX),Countdown (carte PX),Stargate…

Tournament fee: 25€. Max 100 players, 3 reserved seats by country. You can pay via paypal to ifpafrance@hotmail.fr, specifying your name, first name, phone, adress & TAG.

Food & drinks available on site.

Side tournament available: 1€ / play.

Please refer to the official rules for more details: http://www.flipper.sitew.com/#COMPETITIONS.D (hoping that Google Translate will be right – else ask to ifpafrance@hotmail.fr ;-).

The tournament will be in the Paris area (Fontenay St Pere precisely in a private place) and is scheduled on the 7 & 8 June 2014 (from 15h on Saturday to 15h on Sunday).

It is the official tournament that is part of the European Championship Series. We hope to see you there 😉

With the kickoff of IFPA's World Championship Week starting in just a few days out in Denver, we wanted to take a look at the past 6 years and see how players have performed on competitive pinball's biggest stage.

Below are the top 5 players with the most wins during head-to-head finals play:
Zach Sharpe (67)
Daniele Celestino Acciari (61)
Bowen Kerins (59)
Cayle George (59)
Jorian Engelbrektsson (51)

Below are the top 5 players that have earned the post qualifying points during session play:
Cayle George (666)
Josh Sharpe (648)
Zach Sharpe (640)
Mats Runsten (622)
Trent Augenstein (591)

Complete records of all prior IFPA competitors are available HERE.

The New Times in Broward/Palm Beach Florida published an article on IFPA Florida State Pinball Champion [player]Atticus Palmer[/player]. They talked with Atticus and his dad [player]Jeff Palmer[/player] about their upcoming trip to Colorado to play in the first ever IFPA US National Pinball Championship. Click HERE to read the article.

After sucessfully bringing back the Charity Challenge at IFPA10 following an 18 year hiatus, the IFPA is excited to announce that the Charity Challenge will again be featured as part of the IFPA11 World Pinball Champioship in Denver.

This year we will be teaming up the Pinball Outreach Project (POP). POP improves the lives of children by sharing the history and excitement of the game of pinball by bringing games directly to children in hospitals, schools and community centers. Click HERE for more details on their organization.

In addition to the funds raised at the Charity Challenge itself, we are also accepting donations via paypal and check/money order through the end of the month when we will crown the next World Pinball Champion.

To donate via check, please make the check payable to "Pinball Outreach Project", but mail to the IFPA home address, attn Josh Sharpe, at 545 E Thornhill Lane, Palatine, IL 60074. We will gather all the checks together and mail them off to POP when we're back from Denver.

To donate via paypal, please send money to "pinwizJ@aol.com". Please include your mailing address, and mention Pinball Outreach Project in the subject line so we can forward that information to POP.

Any questions please contact the IFPA at ifpapinball@gmail.com, and thanks in advance for your support.

The IFPA is excited to announce that after a 5 year hiatus, we are bringing back the IFPA Pin-Masters, the World Pin-Golf Championships.

The 2015 IFPA Pin-Masters are scheduled for March 27th-29th, 2015 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 also move to the Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, and take place Thursday March 26th. This will include all the various State and Provincial Champions currently battling it out in the 2014 SCS and PCS (Canada).

More details will be made available soon on our website.

6-Time World's Greatest Pinball Player, 7-time Grand Slam winner, and current World #1 [player]Keith Elwin[/player] was interviewed by CNN. Keith will be representing the US at the upcoming IFPA11 World Pinball Championship in Denver as a member of the Team USA Epstein Cup team. Click HERE to watch the video.

The IFPA is excited to announce that the following players have been now qualified for the $tern Rewards Program based on their March 2014 IFPA endorsed tournament performance! These players have until August 15th, 2015 to exercise their reward option.

PLAYER OF THE MONTH – [player]Jon Replogle[/player]
Jon earned a total 262.17 WPPR points in March. This included wins at the IFPA Oursler Fundraiser in Pittsburgh for the Main Tournament (along with a 4th place finish in the Classics tournament), Pre-Pinburgh New Great Valley Lanes tournament, Louisville Arcade Expo's Classics Division (along with a 4th place finish in the main tournament) and at the Ohio Pinball & Gameroom Festival (along with a 2nd place finish in the Classics tournament). Jon's March performance boosted him into being the top ranked player for the Kentucky and Pennsylvania SCS based on the current standings.

BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – [player]Myles Murray[/player]
Myles moved up 13,194 spots by finishing in 2nd and 16th place in the IFPA Python Fundraiser – Cleveland Tournament Main and Classics divisions respectively. This netted Myles 16.30 WPPR points and moved him up to a rank of 2033rd in the world, as well as 29th in the Ohio SCS.

BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – [player]Bernhard Binder[/player]
Bernhard moved up 8801 spots from his 221nd and 156th place finishes in the Main and Classics tournaments at the 2014 European Pinball Championship. Bernhard earned 2.28 WPPR points from this performance and moved him up to a rank of 5640th in the world.

BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – [player]Ian Lang[/player]
Ian moved up 8266 spots from his 8th place finish at the IFPA Oursler Fundraiser in Vancouver, along with 5th, 43rd and 3rd place finishes at the Whopper Wednesday tournaments held during March. Ian earned a total of 5.08 WPPR points from these performances, which moved him into now being the 3406th ranked player in the world. Ian also currently sits in 24th place in the British Columbia PCS standings.

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 March 2014 tournament performance. 

The biggest movers for March 2014 included [player]Myles Murray[/player] from Cleveland, OH, who moved up 13,194 spots by finishing in 2nd and 16th place in the IFPA Python Fundraiser – Cleveland Tournament Main and Classics divisions respectively. This netted Myles 16.30 WPPR points and moved him up to a rank of 2033rd in the world, as well as 29th in the Ohio SCS.

[player]Bernhard Binder[/player] from Austria moved up 8801 spots from his 221nd and 156th place finishes in the Main and Classics tournaments at the 2014 European Pinball Championship. Bernhard earned 2.28 WPPR points from this performance and moved him up to a rank of 5640th in the world.

[player]Ian Lang[/player] from Delta, BC moved up 8266 spots from his 8th place finish at the IFPA Oursler Fundraiser in Vancouver, along with 5th, 43rd and 3rd place finishes at the Whopper Wednesday tournaments held during March. Ian earned a total of 5.08 WPPR points from these performances, which moved him into now being the 3406th ranked player in the world. Ian also currently sits in 24th place in the British Columbia PCS standings.

Congratulations to Myles, Bernhard and Ian, as well as the other players that saw a jump in their ranking from their March tournament performance!

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Month for March 2014 is [player]Jon Replogle[/player] from Pittsburgh, PA. Jon earned a total 262.17 WPPR points in March. This included wins at the IFPA Oursler Fundraiser in Pittsburgh for the Main Tournament (along with a 4th place finish in the Classics tournament), Pre-Pinburgh New Great Valley Lanes tournament, Louisville Arcade Expo's Classics Division (along with a 4th place finish in the main tournament) and at the Ohio Pinball & Gameroom Festival (along with a 2nd place finish in the Classics tournament). Jon's March performance boosted him into being the top ranked player for the Kentucky and Pennsylvania SCS based on the current standings.

The rest of the top 5 for the month of March included [player]Robert Gagno[/player] from Burnaby, BC with 259.70 WPPR points, [player]Daniele Celestino Acciari[/player] from Italy with 235.69 WPPR points, [player]Trent Augenstein[/player] from Delaware, OH with 212.15 WPPR points, and [player]Jorian Engelbrektsson[/player] from Sweden with 184.00 WPPR points.

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