The IFPA is excited to announce that Stern has added The Beatles Gold to the rewards program. A reminder that the 2018 rewards earned by players expire December 31st, 2019.

The following games are now available under the program (subject to change at anytime): Batman 66 Premium (end of July), Deadpool Pro (in stock), Deadpool Premium (in stock), Iron Maiden Pro (end of May), Iron Maiden Premium (in stock), Guardians of the Galaxy Pro (end of July),
Star Trek Vault Pro (in stock), Star Trek Vault Premium (end of July), Star Wars Pro (end of July), Star Wars Premium (end of July), Munsters Pro (in stock), Munsters Premium (in stock), Beatles Gold (in stock)

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

Bruce Nightingale out of Rochester, NY finished 2018 being ranked 599th in the world. This qualified him for the $tern 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. Bruce redeemed his reward for a Batman 66 Premium.

So far in 2019, Bruce has participated in 4 IFPA sanctioned events and remains in the top 1000 ranked players in the world (ranked 688th currently).

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

While pinball has had many prestigious events over the years, whether it was the Pinball Expo Flip-Out tournaments of the ’90s, Pinburgh of the early ’00s, and the Doubles and Team events held at the IFPA and PAPA World Championships of the ’90s, the IFPA has limited what we consider the current Major Championships of our sport. These Majors include the IFPA World Pinball Championship, PAPA World Pinball Championships, European Pinball Championships and Pinburgh Match Play Championship . . . until today!

The IFPA is excited to announce the addition of a 5th Major Championship to the tournament calendar – The Open IFPA World Championship™.

With the existing IFPA World Pinball Championship using the World Pinball Player Rankings process to qualify players, we have been interested in bringing the opportunity for anyone to earn the “World Pinball Champion” title in a true open-to-all event. It’s with that The Open was created.

The IFPA is excited to partner with It Never Drains in Southern California (INDISC) to make this new World Pinball Championship event possible.

Below is a message from Karl DeAngelo of INDISC on this new IFPA/INDISC partnership:

“We are thrilled to host The Open IFPA World Championship™, replacing our Main tournament division, beginning with INDISC™ 2020. The Open will continue the same tradition of excellence players have come to expect from the INDISC team while creating a new World Championship event not to be missed. Our partnership with the IFPA will also bring requested enhancements to the INDISC tournament experience. In addition to The Open, players can compete in High Stakes, Women’s Championship, Classics I/II, Kids, Seniors, and debuting with The Open for 2020, a Classics Target Match Play Championship. We look forward to greeting all returning players and fresh faces travelling to Southern California for the first time, January 9-12, 2020 for INDISC 2020 and The Open.”

Details on those enhancements that players can expect at The Open/INDISC 2020 will be shared soon!

April 2nd update: 

We have received numerous emails today asking whether this announcement was an April 1st joke, or if it’s another one of our sick and twisted “true announcements” on April 1st. To clarify, this announcement is 100% true. We couldn’t be more excited to partner up with the INDISC staff on making THE OPEN a World Pinball Championship not to be missed for years and years to come. More prizes! More 1099’s! More WPPR’s! More chances to win a World Champion title!

South Carolina ETV published a piece on the resurgence of competitive pinball in South Carolina. Click HERE to read the article and watch the video.

The Post & Mail from Whitley County, Indiana published a piece on IFPA Indiana State Champion Scott Elliott and his trip to the IFPA North American Pinball Championship in Las Vegas. Click HERE to read the article.

sponsored blog post

Click here to get Williams™ Pinball on your iOS or Android device.

For more information, please visit http://bit.ly/WilliamsPinball

IFPA Pin-Masters has started!

Twitch Stream : HERE!

Qualifying Results HERE!

FINALS Results HERE!

LIVE Brackets available HERE:

IFPA North American Pinball Championship

IFPA Women’s World Pinball Championship

Streaming available HERE at IEPinball on Twitch!

Game queue available HERE.

Action kicks off at 11am PST!

Just so it did not come as a surprise to all participants on the 2019 Stern Pro Circuit tour with 18 events remaining, Stern in collaboration with the IFPA and PAPA, have modified the format of this season’s final championship.  This change will reduce the field of qualifiers from 40 players down to 20.  We will also be removing the first 2 rounds and this final in homage of the original PAPA Circuit final will be a strict ladder match format from start all the way to finish.

Through our post mortem process and in meeting with all parties including outside partners (production companies, ESPN, media outlets), this change is needed in order to reduce the overall time of the event, but more importantly paint a clearer picture to the casual viewer of this high level event in a simple, easy to understand and digestible format right from the get go.  While we do not have defined payouts for next year’s final since they are always subject to change based on additional sponsorships throughout the year, we can guarantee that the overall prize package for next year’s championship will increase.

If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to send feedback to [email protected]

NHK (Japanese public TV) covering the pinball movement in NYC. Click HERE to watch the video.