The inaugural IFPA European Championship Series is through Event #2 out of 17. Switzerland held their ECS event on March 8th at the Nordwestschweizer-Flippermeisterschaft. 9 countries were represented, with [player]Peter Schmidt[/player] winning the Main tournament, and [player]Levente Tregova[/player] winning the Classics division.

[player]Robert Sutter[/player] continues to sit in the top position of ECS standings. Full results from the Nordwestschweizer-Flippermeisterschaft are available HERE. The current ECS standings are available HERE.

The next ECS event is the first Grand Slam event of 2014, the European Pinball Championship, which which takes place in Italy on March 21st. Details of that event are available HERE. The entire ECS schedule can be found HERE.

blog post courtesy of Francesco La Rocca

After couple of months, from January 13th until March 11th , the 1st League of Pingolf run by Francesco La Rocca ended on Tuesday at Modern Pinball NYC the HQ of the IFPA. During qualification 27 players played on a scorecard of 5 chosen machines ( out of 11) and 130 entries were played to get to a pot of $650. The top 9 players made it to the final day .Alberto Santana was the leader with 7, follow by Sean Grant 8, Francesco 11 and Steve Zahler 12. For the final, 5 games randomly picked ( Metallica,Family Guy, Fish Tales, World Poker Tour and Addams Family) were played by all. Sean Grant, the NY State Champion, with 18 passed Alberto (22) and won the league. Steve Zahler also with 18 was able to pass Francesco(22) ending up in 3rd place. On 5th position Steve Epstein was able to come back from 6th place also passing Mike Pantino. Chris Nosiglia finish 7th, Josh Boerman and Mikey Gabbard tied for 8th place.  Top 4 won money and from 5th to 8th place Modern Pinball offer 3 hours pass as prizes to the place.Great Job everyone!

University of Western Ontario's Western Journalism Report published a web slide show on the London Ontario Pinball League (LOPL). The LOPL is one of the over 100 IFPA endorsed leagues held around the world. Click HERE to see the slide show.

blog post courtesy of Mike Dymus

On Saturday March 8^th members of the London Ontario Pinball league (LOPL) travelled to compete in a head to head tournament against the Tri-City Pinball League (TCPL) mainly for bragging rights as it was not for any WPPR points. Inspired by the earlier Freestate/Pittsburgh league tournament this was to the best of our knowledge the first league vs league competition in Canada which was dubbed LOPL vs TCPL Summit Series.

A total of 21 players descended on Dan Pither’s Arcade, 10 from each league plus a ‘wild card’ player. The tournament was run on the software created by Marco Wopkes, with 10 pairs of randomly selected players playing a single game on a randomly selected pin (and one player receiving a bye each round). Winners would receive 1 pt as an individual and their respective league would also receive one pt. If a player drew the ‘wild card’ the wild card would represent the competing league. After an hour of warmup and organization the tournament began.

The tournament could not have been more equally balanced. Both leagues had players jumping out to the top of the leader board (Organizer Dan B and LOPL member Steve V) but the pack drew both players back and as others rallied the qualification ended with host Dan P on top of the leader board at 7-2 with a six way log jam of players (3 LOPL and 3 TCPL) tied for the remaining 3 spots in the individual final four playoffs. The 6 way tie break occurred on AFM.  Two LOPL members (League president Mike D and member Jeff T) as well as TCPL president Randy W ended up with the top 3 scores and joined Dan P (TCPL) in the 3 game final which ran on MB, TAF and SS.

At this time the league vs league totals were done and the result was a 49-46 victory for the local TCPL league truly a tight match.

Randy had runaway success in the first two games and using the 4-3-2-1 scoring system sat alone at 8 pts with Mike D and Dan P at 5 pts. Going into the final game Randy could only be tied and that would take a last place finish by him coupled with a first place finish by either Mike D or Dan P … and that is precisely what happened. Mike D rallied to put up a massive score on Scared Stiff while Randy did indeed come in 4^th so a second playoff tiebreak would be required.

Final Playoff (CCC): TCPL President Randy W versus LOPL President Mike D

This one was epic but not for the play as both players had relatively short ball times and had difficulty scoring. But after his third ball Mike D had a final score of 1.9 million and with Randy around 1 million, victory for either player was not a sure thing. As Randy played his third ball his bonus began to build and as his score approached 1.7 million with 2X bonus victory was in hand … and then a nudge and warning and the dreaded TILT message was displayed negating any possible bonus. However as the TILT message faded from the screen CCC displayed the EXTRA BALL award that Randy had earned just prior to tilting the game (Extra balls were played throughout the tournament) and with this ‘second life’ Randy was able to continue on and surpass the score that Mike D had put up making Randy the first LOPL vs TCPL Summit Series Champion.

TechTalk on WRLR 98.3 FM in Chicago had a chance to talk with 2013 World's Greatest Pinball Player, [player]Zach Sharpe[/player]. Click HERE to listen to the interview.

blog post courtesy of Alessio Crisantemi

After months of waiting throughout the continent, it is time for the European Sports Pinball Championship who arrives in Italy for the first time in history. The Fiera di Rimini, through Enada, holds it and offers the performance of the most fashionable sport at the time to the public and to the operators of the field, and not only just to players.

We announced it as an exceptional event, and the answer obtained, between public and players, confirms the great expectations. The European Pinball Championship prepares its debut in Italy with the general enthusiasm and promises a high level challenge. After the general call of IFPA Italia, which organized the event along with Tecnoplay and Rimini Fiera and closed the enrollments to the event in mid-January, the answer of the pinball's people was an explosive one. To the point that the 190 seats, originally planned as maximum limit to take part in the event, have been sold out after only few hours later the opening of the enrollments, forcing the organizers to reconsider the entire organization of the competition, raising the limit to 240 participants.

An all-time record never achieved by the event so far (the previous record was achieved by the EPC 2013 of Stockholm with 190 enrollments), which seems even more amazing considering that the requests to participate had exceeded even the 300 ones. Another record of the Italian edition of the EPC are the countries represented, with 15 National Teams that will compete in the team competition, for a total of 17 countries that count at least one player in the competition. The largest delegation is the Italian one, with 43 players, followed by 30 players from Germany, 21 from Belgium and 20 from Hungary, until 6 players from Romania, 4 from Finland and 1 player from Slovenia. With 1 player even coming from Canada. He is Robert Gagno, the only participant from North America, an autistic boy but a real star of sports pinball, which is in the twelfth position in the world ranking. He appears to the European show as one of the favourites players, although, in case of a victory, the title of European Champion would go to the player came at the second place. But the prestige gained and the points for the world ranking will be confirmed.

But it will not be easy to win the most important title taking into account that the strongest players on the world will be present. First of all, our Daniel Acciari, two time world champion and currently number 3 in the world ranking, who will fight until the last ball not to miss the opportunity to win the only trophy missing on his personal list of trophies, that he could win just in its own land. But he will have to deal with another big favorite players: the Swedish world champion in office Jorgen Holm, number 4 in the ranking. Among other prominent personalities ( and some of them have already won a European title): the Dutch Jogma Paul, the Swiss Robert Suttter, the French Frank Bona and the other Swiss Levente Tregova. It is worth mentioning, however, the presence of other top level players such as the Sweden Mats Runsten, currently number 10 in the world, the Spanish Julio Vicario Soriano, the Hungarian Krisztián Szalai, the German Andreas Harre, (vice world champion in 2011), or the French Timothée Hulin Bouard and Alain Boulieu, and many  other that will surely give a hard time. Looking at Italy, in addition to the usual Acciari, we have high hopes for Roberto Pedroni and Cesare d' Atri, numbers 2 and 3 of the Italian ranking, which are sure that can compete on the same level of the European pinball's “elite”. And just these three players will wear the Technoplay's shirt of the Italian National Team at the European Championship (along with a fourth player between Mauro Spiga and Mario Anzini, according to the verdict of the last hour ranking), but even at the more important challenge of 2014 World Champions that will be held in Denver, Colorado, in late May.

The European Pinball Championship 2014
The European Sports Pinball Championship will take place in March for the first time ever in Italy. The Rimini fair will host the most important competition of the Old Continent – thanks to a partnership between IFPA Italia and Rimini Fiera SpA – which will open its doors to the competitive pinball on the occasion of Enada Spring 2014. The European Championship, in fact, is one of the side events of the next Enada (hence the sponsorship of the event and of the National Association SAPAR who is the organizer), and for this reason it will be held from Friday, March 21, 2014 (last day of Enada, which starts on the 19th) until the following Sunday, 23. But during the fair, in the two previous days, IFPA Italia and Technoplay – Official partner of Italian sports pinball – organize another warm-up tournament in view of the European one, where the new Stern pinball dedicated to the Ford Mustang and realized in partnership with the American automaker, will be presented a preview.

(all info on: www.ifpaitalia.it – www.europinball.org)

 TVNZ in New Zealand was on hand to cover the Pincade meet in Christchurch. Click HERE to watch the video.

NBC affiliate WCSH Channel 6 in Portland, ME visited the host of the 2013 IFPA Maine State Pinball Championship, [player]John Reuter[/player]. Also interviewed is the first IFPA Maine State Pinball Championship, [player]Michael Haycock[/player]. Click HERE to watch the video.

WTMJ 620AM in Wisconsin recently interviewed the Waun-a-Pinball Tournament director Steve Tully. The Waun-a-Pinball Tournament is one of the over 1600 IFPA endorsed events held around the world where players can earn WPPR points to qualify for the IFPA World Pinball Championship, as well as qualify for the IFPA Wisconsin State Pinball Championship. Click HERE to listen to the interview. Steve then appeared on WTMJ a few days later for another interview. Click HERE to listen to the second interview.

ELocal Magazine in New Zealand published an article on the father/daughter duo , [player]David Peck[/player] and [player]Danielle Peck[/player] that will be representing New Zealand at the IFPA11 World Pinball Championship in Denver. Click HERE to read the article.