The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Year for 2019 is Johannes Ostermeier from Munich, Germany. Johannes racked up an incredible 1231.38 WPPR points during 2019. Johannes currently sits as the #1 ranked player in the world having moved himself up from 5th at the start of the year.

This is where I typically list all of the achievements from the Player of the Year, however it’s the first time in IFPA history that the Player of the Year is also the player that won the World’s Greatest Pinball Player award. We’ll just leave that fact here and move on.

The IFPA wishes to congratulate Johaness on all of his success throughout 2019!

The IFPA is proud to announce that Johannes Ostermeier has finished at #1 on the World Pinball Player Rankings, thus earning IFPA’s top honor as the 2019 “World’s Greatest Pinball Player”. No single tournament victory will ever secure this title for a given year. Only consistent play at the highest level over the course of multiple years leads to players reaching the pinnacle of the World Pinball Player Rankings. This is the 1st time that Johannes has been crowned the World’s Greatest Pinball Player and the 5th player in history to receive this award (Keith Elwin (7), Jorian Engelbrektsson (3), Zach Sharpe (2) and Raymond Davidson (1) being the other four).

Johaness’ greatest achievement of 2019 was his IFPA World Pinball Championship title with a victory at IFPA16, with a game 9, ball 3 comeback of over 3 billion points on Bram Stoker’s Dracula to capture the crown. Johaness also had victories at the Dutch Pinball Masters, German Pinball Open and Austrian Pinball Open, along with a 3rd place finish at the 2019 European Pinball Championship.

Overall, Johannes won 35% of the 31 events he played in, while placing in the top 4 at 65% of his 2019 events, a truly remarkable achievement. Congratulations to Johannes, and best of luck to everyone on the upcoming 2020 season in the race for #1. Johaness will receive his WGPP trophy at the IFPA17 World Pinball Championship in Florida in June (depending on his school class schedule).

Qualifying results for the 2019-20 IFPA North American Championship Series are still coming in, but we wanted to take the opportunity to open up registration in advance to give players more time to respond to their invitations.

46 different IFPA State Championship finals (plus Wash DC) along with 8 different Provinces in Canada. These finals will all be held simultaneously on January 18th, 2019, with 1024 finalists competing for their share of nearly $95,000 in cash, a State or Provincial title, along with a spot in the IFPA North American Pinball Championship.

View the qualifying standings HERE.

IFPA State/Provincial Representatives should be sending out emails shortly, although most have already done so with our short registration period. Important to note that if you do not have a registered IFPA player account, you are INELIGIBLE to participate. If you feel you should have received an invitation to one of the IFPA State Championships and did not, contact the IFPA immediately at [email protected], or Click HERE to register your profile.

Registration closes on January 7th at 8pm CST. Any player that has not accepted their invitation by that time will be ineligible to participate.

Remember that no player is allowed to compete in multiple IFPA State/Provincial Championships. Players that qualify for more than one IFPA State/Provincial Championship will have to make their choice during this open period of registration. This will mean that many states/provinces will go far past the top 16 players in order to fill all 16 spots (or 24 players for any Super State/Province).

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

As State/Provincial Representatives alert us to who is attending, we will be updating the registration page HERE.

Brian O’Neill out of San Francisco, CA finished 2018 as the 66th ranked pinball player in the world. This qualified him for the Stern Rewards Program for finishing the year ranked in the top 1000. The rewards program allows qualifiers to purchase a brand new Stern pinball machine at a special IFPA price. Brian redeemed his reward for a Jurassic Park Pro.

So far in 2019, Brian has participated in 32 IFPA sanctioned events and has improved his rank to 65th in the world. He’s also currently sitting in the top 10 of both the California and Massachusetts SCS qualifying for this season.

Congratulations to Brian, and remember if you’re interested in qualifying for the Stern Rewards Program, check out the rules here.

Here are the November 2019 IFPA winners for Player of the Month and Biggest Movers:

Player of the Month:
Eric Stone (159.72 WPPR’s)

Biggest Movers:
Christopher Greif (+19,072 spots), Erik Etheridge (+18,091 spots) and Chris Rozek (+16,702 spots)

These players have now all qualified for the Stern Rewards Program for 2019. Congrats to everyone!

As we come to an end of another season, the 2019 season brings us some additional challenges with the changeover to our WPPR v5.6 system.

Up first is closing the books on 2019, and in order to do that we are asking that any organizer that has open tournament results submit those to us by Saturday, January 4th. Furthermore, any corrections to player misspellings, incorrect results, improper scoring issues, etc, all 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 2019 on January 4th, and use the standings at that time for IFPA17 World Championship qualifying purposes, IFPA Women’s World Pinball Championship as well as the other Championship Series purposes (North American Championship Series, European Championship Series, etc). Any errors caught after that point in time will NOT impact the 2019 standings, although those changes will be reflected in the 2020 rankings going forward.

Any questions please contact us at [email protected], and remember that if your profile doesn’t say ‘Registered’ with a green check mark, that we do NOT have your email address on file. Players that don’t have their profile ‘Registered’ are ineligible to participate in any IFPA Championship Series.

With the State and Provincial Championships planned  for January 18th, 2020, registration process for SCS is going to be QUICK (not quite Pinburgh fast, but fast). Players will have until the end of January 7th, 8pm CST to declare the state they wish to compete in. Contact your IFPA State Representative to make sure you are registered for the state you wish to play in.

Nick Lane out of Buffalo, NY finished 2018 as the 729th ranked pinball player in the world. This qualified him for the Stern Rewards Program for finishing the year ranked in the top 1000. The rewards program allows qualifiers to purchase a brand new Stern pinball machine at a special IFPA price. Nick redeemed his reward for a Deadpool Pro.

So far in 2019, Nick has participated in 8 IFPA sanctioned events and is currently ranked 1026th in the world.

Congratulations to Nick, and remember if you’re interested in qualifying for the Stern Rewards Program, check out the rules here.

sponsored blog post

Abari Game Bar is proud to announce they have received a generous sponsorship from CoinTaker for this event. This will allow the top 4 finishers to compete for a minimum combined prize pool of $500. CoinTaker is a family owned and operated business located in Sunbury, Pennsylviania who offer sales and support for the world’s best pinball manufacturers, including Stern, Chicago Gaming, and American Pinball Machines. They also sell accessories which include Superbands, Art work, Toppers, Shooter Rods, LEDs, and much more!

Louis Marx is back with the third interview in the IFPA Tournament Director Stories series. This time he meets with Greg Poverelli out of New York City.

To read the interview, click HERE.

The Burn in Ashburn and eastern Loudoun County Virginia posted an article about the resurgence of competitive pinball in the area. Click HERE to read the article.