TSN Radio 1290 in Winnepeg recently interviewed the new Canadian Pinball Champion, [player]Jack Tadman[/player] (ranked 335th in the world). The Canadian Pinball Championships 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 Canada Province Series, being included in the qualifying for the IFPA Ontario Province Championship. Results from the CPC can be found HERE, and will be up in the World Pinball Player Rankings soon. Click HERE to listen to the segment.

NBC affiliate WCSH6 in Portland, ME recently covered the 7th annual New England Pinball Championships, also known as Pin Maine-ia, which was recently held from June 28th-30th. Pin Maine-ia tournament 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 Maine State Championship. Featured in the article is [player]John Reuter[/player] (ranked 3450th the world) and [player]Jeff Parsons[/player] (ranked 1611th in the world). Click HERE to see the video.

The IFPA, Emporium Arcade Bar, Stern Pinball and Revolution Brewing are pleased to announce the start of a new monthly tournament at the Emporium Arcade Bar in Chicago, IL. The tournament will take place on the fourth Tuesday of each month at 7pm, starting on July 23rd.

Entry fee is $5 plus the cost of games. Tournament format is a single game, single elimination head-to-head bracket. Games and seeding will be chosen at random.

All cash from entry fees will be paid out to the top 4 finishers each month. World Pinball Player Rankings points will also be awarded for all participants.

Please contact the IFPA at [email protected] with any questions.

Stern Pinball, Inc. (SPI), the world’s leading maker of real pinball games, in cooperation with the International Flipper Pinball Association (IFPA), today announced the addition of Avengers Premium to the $tern Rewards Program. The program will reward dedicated players by providing them with the opportunity to use their rewards to purchase new SPI Premium games at IFPA prices.

For more information on the $tern Rewards Program, please click HERE. 

To see a current list of qualifiers, please click HERE.

The $tern Rewards Program uses the IFPA’s World Pinball Player Rankings system to enable players to qualify for the program. For 2012 qualifiers, players have the opportunity to redeem their rewards until August 15, 2013. For those players that qualify during the 2013 season, they will have until August 15, 2014 to exercise their reward.

Each month the player who has earned the most World Pinball Player Ranking points in the past 30 days will be designated as the IFPA “Player of the Month” and qualify for the rewards program. In addition, each month, the three players who move up the most in the rankings will qualify for the rewards program. Finally, at the end of the year, the top 250 ranked players will qualify for the rewards prorgam.

In the history of the World Pinball Player Rankings, through the evolution of the formula that we've used to track the best pinball players in the world, only 3 players had ever actively been ranked in the top spot. Those players were [player]Jorian Engelbrektsson[/player], [player]Daniele Celestino Acciari[/player] and [player]Keith Elwin[/player].

The IFPA is excited to announce that following a sweep at the NW Pinball Championships in both the Open and Classics divisions, [player]Zach Sharpe[/player] has jumped both Acciari and Elwin to join those two gentleman in the prestigious club of being able to say they are the top ranked pinball player in the world.

Since becoming an Uncle to the toddler-to-be-future-hopeful-champion Colin Sharpe, Zach has been on quite a hot streak, earning victories at the following events: 2013 NW Pinball Championships (Main and Classics), 2013 Lyons Pinball Spring Classic (Main and Side tournament), 2013 Michigan Pinball Expo (Main and Classics II), 2013 Strawberry Hill Strike Out (Main and Classics), 2013 Amusement Expo IFPA Championships, 2013 Rose City Showdown, 2013 Pinball at the Zoo (Classics), 2012 Pinnesota National Championships (Charity Division), 2012 GameWorks Chicago Tournament of Champions (both Spring and Fall edition), 2012 Pre-Expo Gameworks Fall Classic, 2012 PinWars Tournament, and the 2012 Midwest Gaming Classic. In addition, Zach finished as runner up at the IFPA10 World Pinball Championship, along with earning a 3rd place finish in the A-division at the PAPA 15 World Pinball Championships, having won both the Classics I and Classics III divisions during the PAPA weekend.

No single tournament result will ever propel a player to the #1 ranking in the world, so a huge congratulations to Zach for this solid and consistent performance, as it's the only way to ever reach the top of the World Pinball Player Rankings mountain.

With plenty of pinball action to go in 2013, including both the PAPA World Pinball Championships in August, and the European Pinball Championship in September, the race for the 2013 "World's Greatest Pinball Player" has never been closer, or included more players! At this point it's safe to say it's a four man race between Zach, Keith, Daniele and current IFPA World Pinball Champion Jörgen Holm, who currently sits in the #4 spot.

The IFPA10 World Pinball Championship marked the return of the Charity Challenge at the championship. Through entry fees, player donations, and the gracious matching of funds raised from both Stern Pinball and Jersey Jack Pinball, and we were able to raise $1695 for Kids Fight Cancer.

Results from the Charity Challenge tournament can be found HERE. Players played one run through a set of 3 games, including an OLD, MID and NEW game. This year the games played included Dogies, Kings of Steel and Monster Bash, with 100-90-85-84-83-etc scoring. [player]Trent Augenstein[/player] emerged victorious with 256 points, besting IFPA8 runner up [player]Andreas Harre[/player] (242 points), new World Pinball Champion Jörgen Holm (227 points) and [player]Roy Wils[/player] (226 points). Showing he still has some gas left in the tank, PAPA Co-founder and IFPA Chairman [player]Steve Epstein[/player] finished 5th with 223 points.

Thanks to Stern Pinball, Jersey Jack Pinball and to all the players that helped raise money for Kids Fight Cancer!

We look forward to continuing the tradition of the IFPA Charity Challenge at IFPA11 as the World Pinball Championship will be celebrated in Denver, Colorado at the Game Exchange of Colorado warehouse. Mark your calendars for what has become an annual tradition of IFPA World Championship Week starting Friday, May 16th, 2014. The week will start with the Lyons Spring Classic that opening weekend, which will also include the battle of the IFPA State Champions at the inaugural IFPA National Championship to be held on Sunday, May 18th at Lyons Classic Pinball. Pre-IFPA tournaments will be happening all week, with the Epstein Cup scheduled for Thursday, May 22nd. IFPA11 and the Charity Challenge will then kick off on Friday, May 23rd.

PAPA, IFPA and MPE are proud to announce that PinBrawl will be returning on Wednesday, August 7th, 2013, in conjunction with the PAPA 16 World Pinball Championships.

PinBrawl is the ultimate team pinball competition featuring teams of 4 players. Although the competition in PinBrawl is as fierce as any other tournament around, PinBrawl has always been about FUN first.

PinBrawl also features many different skill levels of play, with our last tournament having an A/B/C/D/E division. Anyone from pinball wizards to beginners has a chance to not only walk out with some great prizes, but as champions.

At the end of the day, PinBrawl is all about camaraderie. Competitive pinball is usually a solitary sport, and PinBrawl has made it possible to play in a group with your closest friends, and meet tons of other people throughout the matches during the tournament. Many players will say that it is the best tournament they’ve ever played in, so don't miss your chance to get in the action!

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

PLAYER OF THE MONTH – [player]Franck Bona[/player]
Franck earned 91.87 WPPR points in May, including a victory at the Tilt-Up Warehouse tournament. In addition, Franck had a top 10 finish in both the LNJF League and the Rodenbach Pre-IFPA Tournament.

BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – [player]Richard Anderson[/player]
Richard moved up 4504 spots by earning 3.08 WPPR points from his 18th place finish at the Hattersheim Pre-IFPA Tournament, as well as 1.88 WPPR points from his 64th place finish at the Rodenbach Pre-IFPA Tournament. This moved Richard up to the 2889th ranked player in the world..

BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – [player]John Bengry[/player]
John moved up 4154 spots from his 3rd place finish at the Vancouver Metallica Launch Party. John earned 8.63 WPPR points from this performance, which has moved him up to a rank of 2159th in the world. Currently John is sitting in 9th place in the IFPA British Columbia Province Championship standings.

BIGGEST MOVER AWARD – [player]Emma Oliver[/player]
Emma moved up 1789 spots from her 20th place finish at the May meeting of the UK Pinball South West league. This netted Emma .26 WPPR points and boosted her into now being the 9732nd 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 May 2013 tournament performance. Since movement is tracked between the first of each month, this month did see some results from June 1st included.

The biggest movers for May 2013 included [player]Richard Anderson[/player] from Australia, who moved up 4504 spots by earning 3.08 WPPR points from his 18th place finish at the Hattersheim Pre-IFPA Tournament, as well as 1.88 WPPR points from his 64th place finish at the Rodenbach Pre-IFPA Tournament. This moved Richard up to the 2889th ranked player in the world.

[player]John Bengry[/player] from Vancouver, BC, Canada moved up 4154 spots from his 3rd place finish at the Vancouver Metallica Launch Party. John earned 8.63 WPPR points from this performance, which has moved him up to a rank of 2159th in the world. Currently John is sitting in 9th place in the IFPA British Columbia Province Championship standings.

[player]Emma Oliver[/player] from Bristol, UK moved up 1789 spots from her 20th place finish at the May meeting of the UK Pinball South West league. This netted Emma .26 WPPR points and boosted her into now being the 9732nd ranked player in the world.

Congratulations to Richard, John and Emma, as well as the other players that saw a jump in their ranking from their May tournament performance!

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Month for May 2013 is [player]Franck Bona[/player] from France. Franck earned 91.87 WPPR points in May, including a victory at the Tilt-Up Warehouse tournament. In addition, Franck had a top 10 finish in both the LNJF League and the Rodenbach Pre-IFPA Tournament.

The rest of the top 5 for the month of May included [player]Jan Anders Nilsson[/player] from Sweden with 85.48 WPPR points, [player]Trent Augenstein[/player] from Delaware, OH with 65.39 WPPR points, [player]David Grémillet[/player] from France with 64.12 WPPR points, and [player]Zach Sharpe[/player] from Chicago, IL with 63.73 WPPR points.

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