Great success for Flipperando in Veneto, a series of tournaments that will be played in different locations in the Veneto region in the italian north-east. The first event took place at “Bar Aurora” in San Zeno di Cassola, just outside Bassano del Grappa on March 6th 2011. 16 players battled on the 7 pinball machines ‘The Flinstones’, ‘Twilight Zone’, ‘Road Show’, ‘The Addams Family’, ‘Monster Bash’, ‘Indiana Jones: The pinball adventure’ and ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’. The qualifying rounds have been played for 4 hours, where the groups of 4 people played 10 rounds defining the standings and the top 4 players who played for the win. Daniele Acciari dominated the qualifing section, joined in the final by Nicola Pierobon, Stefano Aldrighetti and Mauro Spiga. 2 games has been played to decide the tournament: Stefano Aldrighetti won the first on ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’ followed by Nicola Pierobon. Daniele Acciari dominated the second game on ‘The Addams Family’, not enough to take the overall win due to the bad performans on the first game. So Stefano Aldrighetti took the win, followed by Daniele Acciari, Mauro Spiga and Nicola Pierobon. Many congratulations to Stefano for the great performance and also to the two little champions Riccardo and Carlo Trevisan, 6 and 10 years old, surely the two youngest italian players, who impressed for their dedication, commitment and skills.

Going back to the days when they first met at the Broadway Arcade, through the days of starting the Professional and Amateur Pinball Association, continuing through the days of bringing back the International Flipper Pinball Association, Roger Sharpe and Steve Epstein have been involved in the longest continuing head-to-head battle in the history of competitive pinball. If they are together, and there is a game available, there is no doubt they will take time to continue their legendary match up.

The 2011 Amusement Expo gave them 3 full days of action on Stern’s latest, The Rolling Stones. While meetings took up a majority of the week, they did find time to battle 13 times. Walking away with bragging rights was Steve Epstein, defeating Roger 7 games to 6.

24 people competed in this year’s 2011 Amusement Expo tournament out in Las Vegas. Utilizing the Pin-Golf style format on Stern’s latest game The Rolling Stones, players played 3 pin-holes in an attempt to get as few strokes as possible. The top 4 players qualified for the finals, with the next highest 4 finishers ranked under #250 qualified for the Novice Finals.

David Burrier defeated David Crawford, Joe Kirby and Greg Hodecker to win the Novice Finals. Josh Sharped defeated Shelley Paule (2nd), Jim Belsito (3rd) and Trent Augenstein (4th) to take home 1st place in the Masters Division. Full results of the tournament can be found HERE.

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The IFPA and Gameworks teamed up to host their 6th Pinball Tournament of Champions. 34 players participated for the $1600 in cash and prizes up for grabs, qualifying on Stern’s latest The Rolling Stones, along with Ironman, Family Guy and 24.

Zach Sharpe went 6-1 in the finals, defeating Art Dodd (2-0), Josh Sharpe (2-1) and Trent Augenstein (2-0) to take home 1st place. Other finalists included Trent Augenstein (2nd), Josh Sharpe (3rd) and Joshua Henderson (4th).

Gameworks is already planning on the 7th tournament later this year, and will also play host to the Stern Launch Party for The Rolling Stones, March 11th.

The 6th installment of NYC’s own all-day pinball tournament ‘Pinferno Freezes Over’, was to date, the most exciting yet. The tournament took place on Sat Feb. 12th, 2011 at Reciprocal Skateboards NYC. The Tournament started with a 6 hour round-robin style qualification Round played on Creature From The Black Lagoon, Getaway, Fish Tales, and Dr. Who (Not the most variety, era-wise), leaving the top 16 players to battle for the title of Grand Champion in Round II.

The Finals Round couldn’t have been more exciting or poetic. Organizer Jon Ehrlich had to play Organizess Jill Hennessy in the first tier of the bracket. I can tell you in private who won that. Even further down the road, the semi-finals came down to 1st seed Jory Rabinovitz vs. 5th seed Nicola Pierobon (Grand Champion of Pinferno I, and returning for a brief stay in NYC after a lengthy voyage of Central and South America), and first-timer, 3rd seed Lyman Sheats vs. 2nd seed Ed Zeltmann. This turned into what can be considered, the most exciting finals match-up yet, with Lyman battling it out vs. Nicola. Lyman hadn’t done too much tournament-wise lately, and Nicola hadn’t stumbled upon much electricity in the jungles, so both were playing in a fresh, eager fashion. But in the end, there can be only 1. That 1 is Lyman Sheats Jr. emerging victorious as ‘Grand Champion’ of Pinferno VI, in a 3-0 victory. Congratulations Lyman!

To celebrate to launch of the Rolling Stones Pinball machine, Stern and the IFPA are teaming up to host 9 imultaneous launch parties going on across the US!

There will be machines set up at each location on free play, with a cash prize tournament also being held throughout the party. Below are the details for the various locations:

TORONTO (7-10pm EST)
Playdium
99 Rathburn Road West
Mississauga, ON Canada
905-273-9000

PORTLAND (Thursday 3/10, 6-10pm PST)
Slingshot Lounge
5532 SE Center St.
Portland, OR
503/445-6649

SEATTLE (7-10pm PST)
The Waterfront Arcade
1301 Alaskan Way
Seattle, WA
206/903-1081

TACOMA (7-10pm PST)
Dorky’s
754 Pacific Ave.
Tacoma, WA
253-627-4156

BIRMINGHAM (7-10pm CST)
Bumpernet’s
2000 Riverchase Galleria
Birmingham, AL
205/987-2222

DENVER (Sat 3/12 Noon-4pm MST)
Game Exchange
2650 W. 6th Ave
Denver, CO 80204
303/893-4300

HOUSTON (7-10pm CST)
Joysticks
1820  Franklin St.  Ste.B
Houston, TX
713/224-2225

NEW YORK (7-10pm EST)
Ace Bar
531 E. 5th St.
New York, NY
212/979-8476

CHICAGO (7-10pm CST)
Gameworks Schaumburg
601 North Martingale Road
Schaumburg, IL 60173

Any questions, or to get on the Evite list, please email the IFPA at ifpapinball@gmail.com.

February 27th, 2011 will mark the 5th year since the rebirth of the International Flipper Pinball Association.

On that day in 2006 the AMOA assigned the rights of the then defunct IFPA over to Steve Epstein and Roger Sharpe to see if they could elevate the awareness and visibility of pinball across the globe.

With the World Pinball Player Rankings now sporting over 9000 players from 29 countries, and the upcoming World Pinball Championship about to take place in May out in Sweden, the arrow continues to point upwards for competitive pinball.

Thanks for the continued support, and we’re looking forward to seeing where we can take things in the years ahead

On February 18-20th, the third annual Showdown at Slabtown took place at Portland’s Slabtown Bar. The first two days were devoted to the qualifying round ($3 an entry, or four for $10), with finals on Sunday.

Machines were brought into Slabtown for both banks. The Classics line-up: Sky Rocket, Royal Flush, Zip-A-Doo, Super Soccer. (all were set to five ball.)

The Open line-up: Spider-Man, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Indy 500, Sorcerer, Eight Ball Deluxe, Nine Ball.

Over 60 people entered the Classics Tournament and the Open Tournament. Competition was fierce! From the moment the doors opened to the closing bell at midnight Saturday night, folks were lined up to play. Several hearts were broken between 11:45 and midnight on that night (the sign of a good tournament!). Seven top 30 players entered, as well as a whole lot from the top 200. And there was a strong turn-out by out of towners (especially from Seattle and Vancouver, Canada, and with a couple strong contenders coming from California).

The money pool was substantial: $700 to the winner of the Classics (with 2-8 paid out, as well), and $1000 to the winner of the Open (and 2-16 paid out).

First up on Sunday was the Classics finals. The 12 qualifiers played three four-person games, with the top eight advancing. Then that eight got wittled down to four: Keith Elwin, Bowen Kerins, Mike Mahaffey, and Bob Matthews.

In the end local Mike Mahaffey emerged triumphant! Congratulations, Mike.

In the Open tournament final (same format as the Classics), after hours of intense competition four players advanced to the final round: Keith Elwin, Cayle George, Maka Honig, and Bowen Kerins. Bowen finished with two strong games (on Sorcerer and Spider-Man) to come out the winner. Congrats Bowen! He was the only east coaster to come out for the event, and I’m sure he’s not regretting the decision.

Thanks to everyone for entering, and to the Portland organizers/techs. See you next year.

Two tournaments, one place, one day: The Satellite Lounge in Brooklyn, New York. Because of the weather, it originally appeared the February Masters of National Pinball League would be cancelled and rescheduled. Thanks to Steven Bowden and Koi Morris who ran it the tournament played from about 12:30 PM until after 1:30 AM the next morning.

The lineup at Satellite Lounge included Batman (Dark Knight), Earthshaker, Monster Bash, Indiana Jones (STERN), Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Avatar LE. and Sopranos.

When the smoke cleared, Francesco La Rocca came out as winner .

At about 6:45PM, and a visit from IFPA Director Steve Epstein, 28 players competed for the Brooklyn Pinball Championship. It was a single elimination, best 2 out of 3 for each match. Matt Hess ( Binghamton NY) defeated Ed Zeltmann(East Stroudsburg PA) winning the tiebreaker on Avatar LE. Steven Bowden beat Sanjay Shah (both Nj resident) on Indiana Jones to secure 3rd place. Highest Brooklyn resident finish and First Brooklyn Champion of 2011 was Daniel Berman(7th place) and Woman Champion was Penni Epstein. Congratulations to all!

Pic from left : Ed Zeltmann 2nd place on BPC, Francesco La Rocca organizer and winner of MM of NPL, Matt Hess winner of BPC , and Allen Cihak player/operate/owner.

Registration is now closed for IFPA8, and we couldn’t be more excited about the field of participants!

A record 15 countries will be represented at the World Championship this year, including the current IFPA World Pinball Champion, Daniele Celestino Acciari from Italy.

The full field of participants is available HERE.

A reminder that there are 2 more spots still available at the IFPA Satellite Tournaments, the 2011 European Pinball Championship and 2011 Michigan Pinball Expo.