IFPA President [player]Josh Sharpe[/player] (ranked 22nd in the world and falling) was recently interviewed by Coast 2 Coast Pinball host [player]Nate Shivers[/player] (ranked 12,916th in the world) to talk about growing up pinball, the resurrection of the IFPA, the future of pinball, and much more! Check out the interview HERE.

In what will go down as the most underwhelming finish in World Pinball Championship history, we're ready to show the Game 5 footage from the IFPA9 World Pinball Championship final match. [player]Daniele Celestino Acciari[/player] had a 3 games to 1 lead over [player]Cayle George[/player] after stealing a win on the road on Cayle’s Attack from Mars pick. Old Chicago was Daniele’s “OLD” era pick, and with a win he would earn the title of World Pinball Champion for the second time. Commentary provided by both [player]Cayle George[/player] and [player]Adam Lefkoff[/player]. Check out the action HERE,

With the 2013 pinball season coming to an end, the World Pinball Player Rankings continues to show no signs of slowing down within the competitive pinball community. We wanted to take a quick look back at the growth we've seen during 2013.

Back in August we saw the World Pinball Player Rankings reach a milestone of 20,000 player ranked. We're proud to say that the total number of players the IFPA is now ranking at the end of 2013 is 21,882. This represents a 33% growth from the end of 2012. In addition, the number of players that played in an IFPA endorsed tournament during 2013 was 9964, up 28% from the number of players that were active during 2012.

We’ve also seen incredible growth in the number of tournaments popping up all over the world. Total number of unique events for 2013 was 622, up 44% from last year. We uploaded an average of 133 tournament results per month during 2013, compared to 82 tournaments per month for 2012, an increase of right around 62%.

The IFPA wishes to thank everyone in the competitive pinball community for continuing to support everything we do to spread the world about our incredible sport to the masses.

Week #1 of the month long Flippin' With the Greats tournaments has begun, running through January 12th!

Check out the LIVE standings HERE!

The IFPA and Gridiron Support are teaming up to host a series of pinball tournaments to raise money for Mike Ditka's Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund, while giving the chance for players to compete for WPPR points and over $20,000 in prizes, including a BRAND NEW pinball machine.

FLIPPIN' WITH THE GREATS will consist of 4 weekly tournaments run at 3 different locations – Modern Pinball NYC in New York, the Silver Ball Museum in Asbury Park, NJ, and the Pinball Gallery in Downingtown, PA. Tournaments will run January 6th-12th, January 13th-19th, January 20th-26th, and January 27th-30th culminating in a Grand Final the day before the Super Bowl on February 1st, 2014 at IFPA Headquarters at MPNYC.

For details on the tournament including registration fees, format, prizes and more, click HERE.

The IFPA is excited to announce that the following players have been now qualified for the $tern Rewards Program based on their December 2013 IFPA endorsed tournament performance! These players have until August 15th, 2014 to exercise their reward option.

TOP 250 RANKED PLAYERS
Any eligible players that finished in the top 250 for the end of the year World Pinball Player Rankings.

BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – [player]David Spasic[/player]
David moved up 11,306 spots by finishing in 14th and 16th place in the Happy Dog Annual Pinball Tournament Main and Classics Divisions respectively. David also won the Side Tournament at Flip Off Hunger – Cleveland, along with a 12th place finish Main Tournament. This netted Layne 18.95 WPPR points and moved him up to a rank of 1675th in the world.

BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – [player]Ashley Shaw[/player]
Ashley moved up 9170 spots mainly due to her 20th place finish at the Flip Off Hunger – Seattle tournament. She also finished in 13th place at the Full Tilt Ballard Weekly tournament, 5th place at the John Johns Tuesday Flip Off, 7th place at Olaf's Monthly, and 10th and 22nd place at the two Add-a-Ball Wednesday Flip Off tournaments she played in. In total, Nathan earned 1.88 WPPR points from these performances, which has moved her up to a rank of 6036th in the world.

BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – [player]Troy Kellogg[/player]
Troy moved up 6936 spots by earning 1.95 WPPR points from his 52nd place finish in the Seattle Pinball League. This moved Troy into now being the 5650th 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 December 2013 tournament performance.

The biggest movers for December 2013 included [player]David Spasic[/player] from Cleveland, OH, who moved up 11,306 spots by finishing in 14th and 16th place in the Happy Dog Annual Pinball Tournament Main and Classics Divisions respectively. David also won the Side Tournament at Flip Off Hunger – Cleveland, along with a 12th place finish Main Tournament. This netted Layne 18.95 WPPR points and moved him up to a rank of 1675th in the world.

[player]Ashley Shaw[/player] from Seattle, WA moved up 9170 spots mainly due to her 20th place finish at the Flip Off Hunger – Seattle tournament. She also finished in 13th place at the Full Tilt Ballard Weekly tournament, 5th place at the John Johns Tuesday Flip Off, 7th place at Olaf's Monthly, and 10th and 22nd place at the two Add-a-Ball Wednesday Flip Off tournaments she played in. In total, Ashley  earned 1.88 WPPR points from these performances, which has moved her up to a rank of 6036th in the world.

[player]Troy Kellogg [/player] from Seattle moved up 6936 spots by earning 1.95 WPPR points from his 52nd place finish in the Seattle Pinball League. This moved Troy into now being the 5650th ranked player in the world.

Congratulations to David, Ashley and Troy, as well as the other players that saw a jump in their ranking from their November tournament performance!

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Month for December 2013 is [player]Andrei Massenkoff[/player] from San Francsico, CA. Andrei earned a total 127.23 WPPR points in December, winning the fall season of both the SFPD League and BAPA League. Andrei also swept the Main and Classics divisions at City Champ, and a 1st/2nd place finish in Main and Classics respectively at the Nutcracker Duel.

The rest of the top 5 for the month of December included [player]Eden Stamm[/player] from White Rock, BC, Canada, with 97.19 WPPR points, [player]Tatsunori Naruke[/player] from Japan with 96.06 WPPR points, [player]Joshua Henderson[/player] from Plainfield, IL with 90.26 WPPR points, and [player]Trent Augenstein[/player] from Delaware, OH with 86.23 WPPR points.

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

If anyone is interested in helping us continue to raise some funds, we put together the "World Pinball Tour" list of events for 2013.

Number of distinct tournaments went up from 343 in 2011, to 431 in 2012, to 622 in 2013. Number of players is also approaching 22,000!

$3 from each t-shirt sale goes into the IFPA funds, so help us raise some funds and get a t-shirt or two.

Click HERE to visit our online store.

The IFPA is proud to announce that registration for the 11th Annual IFPA World Pinball Championship is now open! For more details check out the registration page HERE!

The initial invite list is open for the top 100 players in the World Pinball Player Rankings as of 1/1/2014. Based on the interest of the top 100, we may extend the invite list additional spots so please monitor the registration page at your leisure. Should you be interested, please send payment to the IFPA as your way of committing to attending the tournament. Should you not be interested, it is equally important that we know, so please send an email to the IFPA stating you will not be available to participate.

Should you have any questions about our qualifying process or to find out more information about the tournament, please contact the IFPA at [email protected].

One of the 64 spots will also be available at the 2014 Lyons Spring Classic, to be held the weekend before IFPA11. More details will be available soon.

The IFPA is proud to announce that [player]Zach Sharpe[/player] has finished at #1 on the World Pinball Player Rankings, thus earning IFPA’s top honor as the 2013 “World’s Greatest Pinball Player”. No single tournament victory will ever secure this title for a given year. Only consistent play at the highest level over the course of multiple years leads to players reaching the pinnacle of the World Pinball Player Rankings. This is the 8th time that the IFPA has crowned the World’s Greatest Pinball Player, with Zach now becoming the third player in history to earn the honor. [player]Jorian Engelbrektsson[/player] earned the top spot in 2009, while [player]Keith Elwin[/player] captured the honor the other 6 years.

Ultimately it was Zach's European tour in the fourth quarter of 2013 that helped him secure the #1 spot in what was the closest race for the World's Greatest Pinball Player title in IFPA history (7.92 WPPR points). Zach earned victories at the Danish Pinball Open in Denmark, the Dutch Pinball Open in the Netherlands, as well as the Planet Comics tournament in Italy.

Overall, Zach won 40% of the events he played in, while placing in the top 4 at 62% of his 2013 events, a truly remarkable achievement. Zach will be given his award at the IFPA11 World Pinball Championship, scheduled for May 23-25, 2014 in Denver, CO. Congratulations to Zach, and best of luck to everyone on the upcoming 2014 season in the race for #1.