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

PLAYER OF THE MONTH – [player]Jorian Engelbrektsson[/player]
Jorian earned a total 157.50 WPPR points in September, with victories at both the EPC and the K15 Open in Finland..

BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – [player]Alec Seocanac[/player]
Alec moved up 7971 spots by earning 2.76 WPPR points from his 39th and 8th place finish in the Main and Side tournaments at the 2013 Mad Rollin Pinballs Tournament. This boosted Shaun into now being the 4568th ranked player in the world..

BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – [player]Mikael Olausson[/player]
Mikael moved up 6617 spots from his 55th and 91st place finish at the at Boras Pinball Open Main and Classics tournaments respectively, as well as a 5th place finish in the September West Coast Pinball Manadstavling. In total, Mikael netted 2.80 WPPR points from his performances, which has moved him up to a rank of 4342nd in the world..

BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – [player]Joe Ruesewald[/player]
Joe moved up 6503 spots by earning 3.55 WPPR points from his 3rd place finish at the September edition of the Emporium Chicago Monthly Tournament. This moved Joe into now being the 3861st 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 September 2013 tournament performance.

The biggest movers for September 2013 included [player]Alec Seocanac[/player] from Johnson Creek, WI, who moved up 7971 spots by earning 2.76 WPPR points from his 39th and 8th place finish in the Main and Side tournaments at the 2013 Mad Rollin Pinballs Tournament. This boosted Shaun into now being the 4568th ranked player in the world.

[player]Mikael Olausson[/player] from Gothenburg, Sweden moved up 6617 spots from his 55th and 91st place finish at the at Boras Pinball Open Main and Classics tournaments respectively, as well as a 5th place finish in the September West Coast Pinball Manadstavling. In total, Mikael netted 2.80 WPPR points from his performances, which has moved him up to a rank of 4342nd in the world.

[player]Joe Ruesewald [/player] from Chicago, IL moved up 6503 spots by earning 3.55 WPPR points from his 3rd place finish at the September edition of the Emporium Chicago Monthly Tournament. This moved Joe into now being the 3861st ranked player in the world.

Congratulations to Alec, Mikael and Joe, as well as the other players that saw a jump in their ranking from their September tournament performance!

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Month for September 2013 is newly crowned European Pinball Champion [player]Jorian Engelbrektsson[/player] from Stockholm, Sweden. Jorian earned a total 157.50 WPPR points in September, with victories at both the EPC and the K15 Open in Finland.

The rest of the top 5 for the month of September included fellow Swede [player]Mats Runsten[/player] from Stockholm, with 155.86 WPPR points, [player]Trent Augenstein[/player] from Delaware, OH with 133.58 WPPR points, [player]Philippe Bocquet[/player] from Paris, France with 127.60 WPPR points, and [player]Fredrik Malmqvist[/player] from Skövde, Sweden with 115.16 WPPR points.

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

With over 20 launch parties going on around the world, the most important one will be happening in Chicago, the home of Stern Pinball!

Friday night, October 18th, 8pm at Pinball Expo, Stern will be treating guests to all you can play Star Trek pinball, along with some special surprises in store.

Get your pass for the day at Pinball Expo, and stay for the biggest party of the weekend!

As the 2013 season winds down, we couldn't help but notice how close the race for the IFPA's "World Greatest Pinball Player" title is between 6-time World's Greatest Pinball Player and current world No.1 [player]Keith Elwin[/player], and IFPA10 runner up [player]Zach Sharpe[/player] currently sitting in the No. 2 spot. How close is it?? The IFPA takes a closer look!

Keith's current 5.61 point lead is deceiving in that it doesn't take into account the points each player will be losing before the end of year (based on our 100/75/50/0 decay as tournaments age). The IFPA did a quick analysis, and based on our calculations using today's rankings, if Zach and Keith sat out the rest of the season, Zach would finish at 849.57 WPPR points besting Keith who would finish at 845.01. This margin of 4.56 WPPR points would be the closest in the history of the IFPA's World Pinball Player Rankings.

A big piece of this puzzle will be solved after Pinball Expo, coming up the week of October 16-20th in Chicago. Beyond that it will be up to the travel schedules of both players to see if there will be any more opportunities to improve their WPPR total before year end.

Will Keith make a trip to Riverside to play in the Pinball at the Lake Match-Play Classic? Will Zach's european tour continue to be successful, with a stop at the Dutch Pinball Open coming up November 2nd?

Best of luck to both Keith and Zach as they play for the 2013 title of World's Greatest Pinball Player! We couldn't be more excited to see how things play out!

The IFPA State Championship Series is now officially in the 4th quarter of qualifying, and with that we expect some chaos as players attempt to find their place amongst the top 16 in one of the states within the SCS. We currently have 28 states included in the SCS, which will all culminate in the IFPA State Championship finals. These finals will all be held simultaneously on February 8th, 2014, with 448 finalists competing for not only a State Championship title, but also a spot in the first IFPA US National Championship.

Now three quarters of the way through the 2013 season, there are currently an astounding 4525 players included in the various IFPA State Championship standings (view current standings HERE).

For those players north of the US border, the IFPA Canada Province Championship Series is also currently in progress. Current standings for the Canada PCS are available HERE.

Details for the IFPA European Championship Series are also being finalized for when we start up the 2014 season. More news on that once all the events within the ECS are decided.

Any questions about the SCS, or anything IFPA related, please contact us at [email protected]

San Francisco, CA— Pinball Outreach Project — Pinball Outreach Project, known as POP for short, was invited to spend the afternoon in the All Star Room at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. Patients and their siblings played Transformers and X-men pinball machines. The children ranged in ages form 5 to 17 and were given the opportunity to have one on one instruction from PAPA 14 World Pinball Champion Andrei Massenkoff. “I was really honored to be a part of the event and witness how much everyone was enjoying the games,“ said Massenkoff, who is also a credentialed teacher in the hospital's school program for children in kindergarten to 12th grade.

“From the halls of the hospital floor you could hear the games being played and the laughter from the children coming from the All Star Room,” said Nicole Anne Reik, Executive Director of Pinball Outreach Project who started the organization with the following mission: To improve the lives of children by sharing the history and excitement of the game of pinball. “An older sibling of a patient was overheard saying, “I feel like a kid again,” shared Reik. “This is our first of what we hope to be many visits for the traveling POP program.”

"One of the goals of our Child Life program is to normalize the hospital experience for patients and their families through play. The traveling POP program brought a dose of fun to our patients and families, and the patients couldn't believe their teacher is also a world pinball champion!" said Audrey Muntz, Community Liaison for UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital.

For more information, press only:
Nicole Anne Reik, Executive Director
415-857-1POP
[email protected]

For more information on Pinball Outreach Project:
www.pinballoutreach.org

To celebrate the launch of the Star Trek Pinball machine, Stern and the IFPA are teaming up to host 20 launch parties going on across the globe!

Click on the flyer to find the Launch Party nearest you!

There will be machines set up at each location on free play, with a cash prize tournament also being held throughout the party. Please see flyer for location information, and contact the IFPA at [email protected] should you have any questions.

MLive out in Flint, Michigan ran a piece on the 3rd annual Pin Wars tournament. Pin Wars is one of the nearly 450 annual IFPA endorsed tournaments where players can earn World Pinball Player Rankings points, and qualify for the IFPA World Pinball Championship. This tournament is also part of the IFPA State Championship Series, being included in the qualifying for the IFPA Michigan State Pinball Championship. Featured in the article is tournament organizer [player]Andy Rosa[/player] (ranked 11th in the world). Andy is currently the top qualifier in the IFPA Michigan State Pinbal Championship, as well as 3rd place in Ohio, and 4th place in Kentucky. Also featured in the article is [player]Mark Henderson[/player] (ranked 432nd in the world). Click HERE to read the article.

With the wide of range of flipper rubbers on the market, the inconsistent behavior between various durometers leads to vastly different playing experiences. For tournament play, it was important for the IFPA to find a flipper rubber solution that will allow players maximum control and feel, to be able to perform all the flipper skills needed to play at their best.

Planetary Pinball has just made available Saturn™ Pinball Rubber Rings, a flipper rubber solution with a custom color and durometer that we are proud to support as the IFPA's approved choice flipper rubber for tournament play.

We are excited to announce that Planterary Pinball is offering a promotional discount to any IFPA endorsed tournament organizers that are interested in purchasing the IFPA approved tournament rubber to use in their events. Simply contact PPS, and include the IFPA endorsed event that you organize, and PPS will offer these rings at a discounted price of $1.00 each.
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