The Daily Emerald at the University of Oregon published an article about the growth of competitive pinball in their community. Included is the Eugene Pinball League which meets once a month. The Eugene Pinball League is one of the over 100 IFPA endorsed leagues held around the world. Featured in the article is [player]Chad Boutin[/player] (ranked 10,479th in the world). Click HERE to read the article.

We're looking to round up some volunteers to help us with hosting the Stern Mustang Launch Party tournaments.

The date Stern is targeting is April 25-27th 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.

The IFPA is excited to announce that in partnership with Go4Johnny Entertainment and the Travel Channel, we will be organizing the World Series of Pinball.

This epic event is a free-to-enter tournament, where only players that have submitted a casting video for The Pinball Project will be eligible to participate. With the announcement of the biggest prize pool in competitive pinball history, Go4Johnny Entertainment has agreed to re-open the casting video submission website for 24 hours. To submit your casting video, please click HERE and go to "submit casting video" at the top of the page. Once the submission website is closed, there will be no additional opportunities to register for the tournament.

The World Series of Pinball will be a 100K winner take all event. Players will be placed in groups of 3 or 4 players and randomly assigned 1 machine to play on. Each player will start the tournament with 27 outs available, and will earn an out for each loss they receive throughout the group play matches. We will continue this format until only one player remains.

Additional details will be sent to those that have submitted their casting videos.

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April 2nd update . . .

This was an April's Fools joke! However, we do plan on doing something special for those that have submitted a casting video. 2015 will mark the return of the IFPA Pin-Masters in Las Vegas in conjunction with the IFPA US National Championship as well as the Amusement Expo. Anyone that has submitted a casting video will be eligible to receive additional cash prizes for any hole-in-ones they make in any round of play during the IFPA Pin-Masters. More details to come in the upcoming months.

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

PLAYER OF THE MONTH – [player]Trent Augenstein[/player]
Trent earned a total 188.00 WPPR points in February, with the highlight being a victory at the Fairfax Pinball Open. Trent also finished in 12th in the Classics Division. During February Trent also had top 4 finishes at Cincinnati IFPA Oursler Fundraiser, Rowdy Bucks Rampfest Tournament, IFPA Ohio State Pinball Championship, Baltimore DC Championship Series and the Flippin With the Greats Grand Final.

BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – [player]Scott Reppert[/player]
Scott moved up 8012 spots by finishing in 48th and 47th place in the Ohio Pinball & Gameroom Festival Main and Classics Divisions respectively. Scott also finished in 32nd place at the Rowdy Bucks Rampfest Main Tournament, along with a 29th place finish in the Classics Tournaments. This netted Scott 2.57 WPPR points and moved him up to a rank of 5182nd in the world.

BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – [player]Jon Grieman[/player]
Jon moved up 6269 spots from his 10th, 5th and 1st place finishes at the Whopper Wednesday tournaments during February. Jon earned 2.54 WPPR points from this performance and moved him up to a rank of 4122nd in the world.

BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – [player]Sean Campbell[/player]
Sean moved up 5389 spots from his 9th place finish at the San Francisco IFPA Oursler Fundraiser. Sean earned 1.44 WPPR points from this performance, which moved Sean into now being the 7207th ranked player in the world..

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 February 2014 tournament performance. A reminder that movement is tracked between February 1st and March 1st, and that tournaments held on March 1st are included.

The biggest movers for February 2014 included [player]Scott Reppert[/player] from Fairmont, WV, who moved up 8012 spots by finishing in 48th and 47th place in the Ohio Pinball & Gameroom Festival Main and Classics Divisions respectively. Scott also finished in 32nd place at the Rowdy Bucks Rampfest Main Tournament, along with a 29th place finish in the Classics Tournaments. This netted Scott 2.57 WPPR points and moved him up to a rank of 5182nd in the world.

[player]Jon Grieman[/player] from Vancouver, BC moved up 6269 spots from his 10th, 5th and 1st place finishes at the Whopper Wednesday tournaments during February. Jon earned 2.54 WPPR points from this performance and moved him up to a rank of 4122nd in the world.

[player]Sean Campbell[/player] from San Francisco moved up 5389 spots from his 9th place finish at the San Francisco IFPA Oursler Fundraiser. Sean earned 1.44 WPPR points from this performance, which moved Sean into now being the 7207th ranked player in the world.

Congratulations to Scott, Jon and Sean, as well as the other players that saw a jump in their ranking from their February tournament performance!

The inaugural IFPA European Championship Series is through Event #3 out of 17. The 2014 European Pinball Championships were held March 21st-23rd in Italy. 17 countries were represented, with Krisztián Szalai from Hungary winning the Main tournament, and [player]Robert Gagno[/player] from Canada winning the Classics tournament.

[player]Michael Trepp[/player] takes over the lead from his Swiss counterpart [player]Robert Sutter[/player] for top position of ECS standings. Full results from the 2014 European Pinbal Championships are available HERE. The current ECS standings are available HERE.

The next ECS event takes players to Norway, where the 2014 Oslo Pinheads Open will be taking place April 4-6th. Details of that event are available HERE. The entire ECS schedule can be found HERE.

Quick update on the fundraising totals from the competitive pinball community.

Between the Kids Fight Cancer campaign associated with the SCS, and the fundraiser events currently being organized for both Barry Oursler and Python Angelo, the IFPA is proud to announce that we've passed the $20,000 mark for funds raised. Special thanks to all the IFPA players that have competed for such great causes, along with Stern Pinball, Jersey Jack Pinball and Pinball Inc. for stepping up as sponsors.

There's still plenty of time to get involved by creating an event in your area as part of the Oursler and/or Python campaigns. Just contact the IFPA for details at [email protected]

blog post courtesy of Koi Morris and Francesco La Rocca

Sean Grant wins the 1^st Inaugural Pioneers Tournament that was held at the Pioneers Bar and Lounge (between 6^th and 7^th Avenues on 29^th St. in Manhattan) on Sunday, March 16, 2014! This tournament ,directed by Francesco La Rocca and Koi Morris ,was of a similar format to the Creek and Cave tournament that was held last month in Queens, NY. Four games were used in the tournament (Iron Man, Metallica, Star Trek Pro, and The Simpsons Pinball Party). There were 25 participants in the tournament. Each player played one game on each of the 4 games for their one entry in the tournament.

After all the scores were ranked on each of the games the ranking on each game for each player was added up and the top 12 players qualified for the playoffs. The playoffs were played in a survivor style format. The first round was played as 3 groups of 4 on a randomly chosen game for each group. The person with the lowest score in each group was eliminated from the tournament and the rest of the group stayed together for the next round. The second round consisted of 3 groups of 3 played the same way as the first round. The top 2 from each group went on to the quarterfinal which was 3 groups of 2 played like the previous two rounds. The winner of each group then played in one three-player group (Sean Grant, Andrew Friedman, and Steve Zahler) in the semifinal (on The Simpsons Pinball Party). The loser, Steve Z., in that group took 3^rd place and the other two players played the final game on Iron Man. Sean G. won the game and Andrew F. took second. Rounding out the rest of the top 12 are Francesco, Robert Sovatsky, and Ed Zeltmann (all tied for 4^th place); Ed Rojas, Mikey Gabbard, and Koi (all tied for 7^th place); Robert Wong, Levi Nayman, and Al Cihak ( famous Pinaholic owner of the games at Pioneers) (all tied for 10^th place). The top 3 places won 60%, 30%, and 10% of the total prize pot ($250) for 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd places respectively,also Sean Grant took home a Star Trek Translite .

There were some impressive games played at the tournament. Al Cihak got 36M+ on The Simpsons Pinball Party, Steve Zahler got 103M+ on Iron Man, and Francesco La Rocca got more than 61M on Star Trek Pro while Andrew had great game with 44M+ on Metallica.
There was also a side tournament, pingolf style, going on during the main tournament. The game used was No Good Gofers (also owned by Al Cihak). Players had to get the target score of 20M in as few balls as possible. If a player didn't get the target score in three balls, it was recorded as 4 strokes for that player. It was $2/1 entry or $5/3 entries. There were 27 total entries among 18 players in this side tournament. Only 7 players reached the target score. Coming in first was Nick Lombardo winning $78 and a Wizard of Oz translite. Second place was Sean Grant winning $42 and third place was Steve Zahler winning $15.

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

World Championship Week starts with the Lyons Spring Classic, the official IFPA Satellite event for IFPA11. Taking place May 16th-18th in Lyons, CO, the Lyons Spring Classic is an event on the 2014-15 PAPA Circuit. As the official IFPA Satellite event for IFPA11, there is ONE spot available to get into the field of 64 players and play for the right to be crowned World Pinball Champion. Full details of the Lyons Spring Classic can be found HERE.

The IFPA will be back in action starting Monday, May 19th with the Pre-IFPA 1up Lodo Tournament in Denver. Full details including schedule, format, entry fees, prizes will be available soon. Learn more about 1up Lodo HERE.

World Championship Week continues Tuesday, May 20th when the IFPA moves on to Pinball Jones in Fort Collins, where we will be hosting the Pre-IFPA Pinball Jones Tournament. Full details including schedule, format, entry fees, prizes will be available soon. Learn more about Pinball Jones HERE.

Wednesday, May 21st, we head back to Denver to the 1up Colfax. The IFPA will be hosting the PreIFPA 1up Colfax tournament. Full details for this tournament will also be available soon. Learn more about the 1up Colfax HERE.

The IFPA will also be crowing the first IFPA US National Champion, which is the culmination of the first SCS on Sunday, May 18th. The 2nd edition of the Epstein Cup where the 8 best players from Europe battle the 8 best players from North America will happen Thursday night, May 22nd. Finally, Sunday, May 25th, IFPA's World Championship Week concludes with the crowning of the new World Pinball Champion. Hosted by Game Exchange of Colorado, and sponsored by Stern Pinball, Jersey Jack Pinball, AAMA, AMOA, Marco Specialties, Gameworks, Play Meter Magazine, Raw Thrills, Betson, Brady Distributing, Pinball Center, Farsight Studios, Zen Studios, PAPA, Color DMD, Suzo Happ, Bay Area Amusements and Planetary Pinball Supply, the IFPA11 World Pinball Championship will feature the most competitive field of participants in pinball tournament history from 16 countries, including 7 current and former World Pinball Champions. IFPA11 will be happening all day on Friday and Saturday as we work the field down from the 64 qualifiers, to the 8 finalists that will be competing Sunday morning for the World Championship. Full details for IFPA11 are available HERE.

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

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Month for February 2014 is [player]Trent Augenstein[/player] from Delaware, OH. Trent earned a total 188.00 WPPR points in February, with the highlight being a victory at the Fairfax Pinball Open. Trent also finished in 12th in the Classics Division. During February Trent also had top 4 finishes at Cincinnati IFPA Oursler Fundraiser, Rowdy Bucks Rampfest Tournament, IFPA Ohio State Pinball Championship, Baltimore DC Championship Series and the Flippin With the Greats Grand Final.

The rest of the top 5 for the month of February included [player]Cryss Stephens[/player] from Pittsburgh, PA with 122.53 WPPR points, Jörgen Holm from Stockholm, Sweden with 103.01 WPPR points, [player]Brian Shepherd[/player] from Westerville, OH with 99.69 WPPR points, and [player]Jason Werdrick[/player] from Park Ridge, IL with 98.63 WPPR points.

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