The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Rookie of the Year for the 2021 season is Mike Weyenberg from Manitowoc, WI. This award is given to the player that earns the most WPPR points in their first year of active play.

With the shortened 5 month season of 2021, Mike was still able to play in 30 events. Michael earned 167.32 WPPR points from these 30 events. Mike participated in his first IFPA sanctioned tournament on August 7th at the D82 Pinball Lucky 13 Tournament. Since entering the World Pinball Player Rankings at that time, Mike has seen his rank increase to 344th in the world.

Mike’s greatest achievement of 2021 was his 3rd place finish in the District 82 Pinball December 2021 League, out of 63 players. Overall, Mike placed in the top 4 at 20% of the 2021 events he played in, a truly remarkable achievement.

Congratulations to Mike, our 2021 IFPA Rookie of the Year!

Just a reminder for anyone eligible to claim their $tern Reward, the deadline is December 31st, 2021 for anyone with a 2020 reward available.

The $tern Rewards Program provides IFPA players who qualify the chance to purchase one new Stern Pinball, Inc. (SPI) pinball game directly from SPI at the IFPA Price plus shipping and any applicable taxes. All sales are subject to SPI’s standard terms of sale. Game selection is subject to availability, and no guarantee is made that any particular game will be available.

Qualifying participants will also be eligible for discounts at the Stern online store which features a wide range of Stern and $tern Rewards Program merchandise exclusive to the IFPA rewards program.

Detailed rules for the $tern Rewards Program, including an updated list of qualifiers, and updated list of rewards available can be found HERE. Contact the IFPA at [email protected] if you have any questions.

After a 16-month hiatus, the IFPA began sanctioning events again in August 2021. Since then, we’ve sanctioned over 2000 tournaments and leagues, with nearly 12,000 unique players competing in an IFPA-sanctioned event. We’re glad to be back.

As we come to the end of another year, the 2022 season brings the changeover to our WPPR v5.7 system. This includes the start of IFPA Certified events. Certification brings with it a 20% boost to the WPPR points earned over other sanctioned events. Please see the IFPA Certified Tournaments page for details.

With v5.7, the IFPA is also tightening up the definitions for what we will sanction as an “IFPA Tournament” and “IFPA League.” In a nutshell, multi-day tournaments must end within 7 days of their starting date, and pinball leagues must have a minimum of 6 sessions per season, as well as adjustments to league attendance and format requirements. Additionally, to help support the development of women’s pinball in new regions, the minimum player requirement for events held at private locations will no longer apply to women’s-only events. A full overview can be found on the IFPA League and Tournament Definitions page. These sanctioning requirements will impact some events that have already been approved and added to our calendar, and we sincerely apologize for that inconvenience. Any tournaments or leagues already sanctioned for play with a starting date in January 2022 will be grandfathered in under the old rules. Any tournaments or leagues that begin play in February 2022 will have to follow these new requirements. The IFPA reserves the right to remove sanctioning from events that no longer meet our requirements.

In order to close the books on 2021, we ask any organizer with open tournament results to submit those to us by Tuesday, January 4th. Furthermore, any corrections to player misspellings, incorrect results, improper scoring issues, etc., need to be addressed by January 4th as well. Please take some time to review your own personal results to see if anything looks out of place.

Our plan is to lock down 2021 rankings on January 4th, and use the standings at that time for any IFPA-related campaigns (Stern Rewards Program, Player of the Year, etc.). Any errors caught after that point in time will NOT impact the 2021 standings, although those changes will be reflected in the 2022 rankings going forward.

The 2022 season brings with it the start of qualifying for the following IFPA campaigns:
– IFPA North American Championship Series
– IFPA Women’s North American Championship Series
– IFPA European Championship Series
– any IFPA Country Championship Series
– IFPA18 World Pinball Championship
– IFPA Women’s World Pinball Championship
– Stern Pro Circuit (2020-2022 season)

2022 is the first qualifying period for the IFPA Women’s North American Championship Series. Despite the name, we are currently focusing on supporting and expanding individual women’s state and provincial championships only, and there will not be a culminating national event. We look forward to building toward that goal in the future. Details on qualifying and event format can be found here. We have prepared standings for each state/province that has a championship director identified. If your location isn’t listed and you’d like to run a championship, please reach out to the IFPA Women’s Board at [email protected].

Thank you to all the organizers and players around the globe who make this hobby what it is, especially amidst the challenges and joys of the past year. As always, please reach out if you have any questions or need any guidance.

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Here are the November 2021 IFPA winners for Player of the Month and Biggest Movers:

Player of the Month:
Arvid Flygare from Sweden (153.45 WPPR’s – MAIN)
Kelli Raisler from Austin, TX (37.18 WPPR’s – WOMEN’S)

Biggest Movers:
David Oneil from Boston, MA (+21,033 spots)
Sam Keogh from Malden, MA (+12,481 spots)
Jeremy Smith from Evansville, IN (+10,602 spots)

These players have now all qualified for the Stern Rewards Program for 2021. Congrats to everyone!

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Bob from Outlaw Pinball here, and we are proud to be the newest IFPA Platinum Sponsor! We are giving away a Godzilla Premium pinball machine and I’d like to share how you can get entered to win but first a little about us…

Outlaw Pinball is a Pinball and Retro-Gaming apparel company. We design awesome pinball themed shirts, hoodies, hats and more. We also give away pinball machines!

For our first giveaway, we have a Godzilla Premium, and here’s how you can get entered:

1) Shop at outlawpinball.com and earn 1 entry for every dollar worth of gear you pick up.
2) Become an Outlaw Pinball VIP, which has some really cool benefits, and get 30 entries each month for just $8.95.

We are very excited about our new partnership and can’t wait to give away this Godzilla Pemium!

Play more pinball!

Bob & Team Outlaw

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