The IFPA Board of Directors continues to monitor the impacts of COVID-19 as we consider our path forward. We have received questions from the pinball community about the ongoing suspension of IFPA-sanctioned tournaments and leagues and what criteria we will use to determine when to end our suspension. While we do not plan to lift the suspension in the immediate future, we want to share some of our criteria for making this decision as well as offer some alternative avenues to encourage the continued enjoyment of competitive pinball.

We wish we were able to sanction events right now. Not only does our organization depend on competitive pinball in order to exist, pinball is a source of joy and community for each of us, and we are impacted by the absence of tournaments and leagues on both an organizational and a personal level. Given the close quarters and high-contact nature of pinball events, we recognize the heightened level of risk that they carry, and we are not comfortable incentivizing gathering in groups, regardless of size, to play pinball during a highly contagious pandemic.

Additionally, the IFPA is a global organization. While some regions are reopening or were not as severely impacted by the virus, we want to ensure that our plans to restart sanctioning are fair to all players. We rely on the expertise and guidance of our IFPA Country Directors and State Representatives to understand the situation on a regional basis, and we are listening to their input regarding whether they feel that tournaments and leagues are possible and prudent based on the specific realities of their communities. As of May 19th, our Country Directors and State Representatives are unanimous in their opinion that it is not safe to re-open IFPA sanctioning at this time. We will continue to consult them as the situation develops. All IFPA staff, country directors, and state representatives are volunteers, so please be respectful in offering your feedback as we navigate the re-opening process.

While we are honored that our work is a motivating factor in many players’ competitive pinball journeys, the IFPA does not control pinball tournaments and leagues outside of the sanctioning and ranking systems that we offer. If restrictions are eased in your area, you are welcome to gather for a pinball event within the guidelines of your local health authority. These events will not be worth WPPR points, but they can be for money, prizes, and/or glory. We appreciate the various ways the competitive community has innovated during our sanctioning hiatus, including Dead Flip’s virtual invitationals and Laura Fraley’s Quarantopia selfie league.

The IFPA is currently working on a campaign to reintroduce IFPA Challenge Matches as activity we will approve during this period where we are not sanctioning tournament and league play. We will share more about this initiative shortly, as we are very excited to start this on June 1st.

The IFPA will continue to monitor the situation closely and communicate with our Country Directors and State Reps to determine when it will be appropriate to restart our sanctioning process. Stay tuned for additional details in the coming months, and stay safe!

sponsored blog post

Here are the February and March 2020 IFPA winners for Player of the Month and Biggest Movers:

Player of the Month:
February –> Jason Lambert (134.13 WPPR’s)
March –> Levente Tregova (242.87 WPPR’s)

Biggest Movers:
February –> Michael Bair (+12,630 spots), Dutchy van Steeg (+12,571 spots) and Alijoscha Heppner (+11,683 spots)
March –> Chris Blake (+7517 spots), Phil Nguyen (+6507 spots), Jean-Michel Ferland (+6060 spots)

These players have now all qualified for the Stern Rewards Program for 2020. Congrats to everyone!

With the State of Illinois under a stay-at-home order, we’ve been getting a bunch of questions about the availability of games under the Stern Rewards Program. We figured it was easiest to post an update.

For anyone interested in redeeming their reward for something they can get immediately, here’s the current list of games available for immediate delivery through the program:

Star Wars Pin
Stranger Things pro
Stranger Things Premium
Black Knight Premium
Munsters Pro
Beatles Gold

Detailed rules for the Stern Rewards Program, including an updated list of qualifiers, and updated list of rewards available can be found HERE.

Yesterday the IFPA announced that Josh Sharpe would be declared the IFPA17 World Pinball Champion later this month. He forgot that all IFPA decisions now have to go through a voting process of the IFPA Board members (those 12 members can be found HERE). By a vote of 11-1, the IFPA is not moving forward with the plan that was announced yesterday.

Originally scheduled for May 29th-31st, 2020 at The Pinball Asylum in Fort Myers, Florida, the IFPA has officially postponed this event. The new tentative date for IFPA17 will be November 13th-15th, 2020. We will continue to monitor the possibility of those November dates working. If things slip beyond that, the tournament will be rescheduled for 2021 in Florida. All future IFPA hosting sites will be pushed back 1 year to accommodate.

The current list of the 64 players registered for the event will still have access to those spots for November (or any future date). Those players that originally declined their invitation for the May dates will have priority access to the alternate list should any of the current participants not be able to attend. This includes anyone listed as “NOT ATTENDING” on the participants list available HERE.

We will continue to monitor things in the upcoming months as to the viability of the November date. Updates will be posted here as well as sent to the current participant list.

Any questions please contact us at [email protected].

To ensure the competitive pinball community stays safe and does all it can to help slow the spread of COVID-19, the IFPA has made the difficult decision to change the date and location of the IFPA17 World Pinball Championship.

Originally scheduled for May 29th-31st, 2020 at The Pinball Asylum in Fort Myers, Florida, the IFPA is moving up the dates of IFPA17 before the pandemic gets worse. The new date for IFPA17 will be April 24-26th, 2020. Due to the current travel restrictions, the site for IFPA17 has moved to IFPA Headquarters in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

With the move of IFPA17 to Illinois comes the COVID-19 state orders that the IFPA will need to follow. Yesterday, Governor JB Pritzker extended the stay-at-home order through to the end of April statewide.

With that order in place, the IFPA will look to fill the field of IFPA17 with all ranked players currently following the stay-at-home order within IFPA HQ. Amanda Sharpe, once ranked as high as 2177th in the world back in August 2010, hasn’t play in an IFPA sanctioned event since 2015 and is currently not ranked. Other members at IFPA HQ including Colin, Charlotte and Evan Sharpe are also unranked. This leaves Josh Sharpe as the lone eligible participant for the IFPA17 World Pinball Championship.

It’s an extremely tough decision to make, but the IFPA feels that it’s best for everyone for the organization to move forward in this manner. We look forward to awarding Josh Sharpe with his first Major Championship victory after the tournament concludes on April 26th.

In light of ongoing restrictions and public health recommendations across the globe, the IFPA has decided to uphold the suspension of sanctioning for pinball tournaments and leagues for WPPR points until further notice.

We ask that Tournament Directors with pending calendar entries continue to remove them via the tournament manager in order to ensure that players do not think there is still a sanctioned event occurring. For TDs worried about the 30-day advance notice rule, we still plan on waiving that rule once we have this situation behind us and begin sanctioning events again.

sponsored blog post

ABC21 in Fort Worth posted a podcast about the Wizard’s World Pinball Arcade. Click HERE to listen. Starts at the 16min mark.

1075th World Ranked pinball player Bill Lascher wrote an article for Fortune magazine on the impact of COVID-19 on competitive pinball. Click HERE to read the article.