Quick Overview

The IFPA Women’s North American Championship Series is an annual pinball competition with players qualifying throughout the entire calendar year. Included in the WNACS are the IFPA Women’s State Championship Series in the United States, IFPA Women’s Provincial Championship Series in Canada and the IFPA Women’s District Championship Series in Washington D.C. At the end of each calendar year, the top 8 ranked players based on women’s events and the top ranked players based on open events from each state will qualify for the playoffs, where they will play for the title of IFPA Women’s State/Province/District Champion within that area.

Any mentions of “state championship” below is intended to include provincial and district championships as well.

Competition Details

1. How to qualify

Unlike most tournaments where the qualification process takes place over a couple of days at the tournament site, qualifying for the IFPA Women’s State Championship Series is based on results from all the IFPA endorsed tournaments held throughout the year in each eligible state. Utilizing its World Pinball Player Rankings, the IFPA will be tracking results based on where those IFPA endorsed tournaments are held, maintaining separate state rankings made up of those filtered results. Qualifying will be based on two sets of standings: performance in open events and performance in women’s-only events, with 8 qualifiers coming from each standings. If fewer than two women’s-only events are held in a state in a calendar year, only the top 8 women based on open event performance will qualify for the Women’s State Championship.

For example, the open side of the Oregon State Rankings will be made up of IFPA endorsed tournaments and leagues such as Emerald City Pinball League, Pinball Knights Weeklies, and the Northwest Oh-Pin. The women’s-only side of the Oregon State Rankings will be made up of IFPA endorsed events such as Battle of the Belles, Next Level’s International Women’s Day Tourney, and Women’s Wednesdays. The top 16 players that earn the most WPPR points based only on these subsets of events (8 from each subset of standings) will qualify for the IFPA Oregon Women’s State Championship. Unlike the World Pinball Player Rankings, all events held in a state in a calendar year will count toward these standings.

No player will be eligible to play in more than one IFPA Women’s State Championship, so the IFPA may have to move down the state rankings list to find 16 eligible qualifiers to participate in the State Championship. It is possible to qualify for an IFPA State Championship within a state that player does not live in, and it is even possible for players that live outside of the US to qualify for an IFPA State Championship should they earn enough WPPR points within a state to qualify.

It is the player’s responsibility to make sure they have an email address on file with the IFPA, or they run the risk of not being contacted for participation in any State Championships they are qualified for. Please fill out an IFPA profile to ensure we have a way to contact you. If you see a green check within your profile information on your IFPA profile page, it means we do have a registered email address on file for you.

Unlike the North American State Championship Series, there are no expanded field Super States at this time.

2. Fees

The IFPA does not currently charge an endorsement fee for women’s events. As such, entry into each Women’s State Championship will be $20 per player. Consult the section “Format of Matches: Winners” below for payout structure details.

Format of Matches

1. Seeding of finalists

Players who qualify based on their open event performance will be assigned odd seeds, and players who qualify based on their women’s-only event performance will be assigned even seeds. A player who qualifies in the Top 8 of both rankings will be assigned the higher seeded slot, and the next ranked player in the other set of rankings will move up to the vacant seed. If initial seeding is subsequently altered based on who can attend, players are locked into the side of the rankings where they initially qualified higher.

For example, if Olivia Helm qualifies 1st in Arizona’s women’s-only event standings and 6th in Arizona’s open events standings, she will be assigned Seed 2 and skipped over when her name comes up for Seed 11. If it turns out all five women ranked higher than Olivia in the open standings end up not attending the Arizona Women’s Championship, Olivia does not get offered Seed 1; she has already been locked in at Seed 2 (which was her higher finish originally) and the next ranked woman based on open standings would be offered Seed 1.

In the event that any players are tied with the same amount of In-State WPPR points on either side of the standings, we will look at the overall WPPR rank of those players as of the end of that calendar year. Any players tied on the qualifying bubble with the same State ranking position will result in a play-in tiebreaker game to determine who joins the field of finalists for the State Championship. Game and position will be pulled at random by the TD.

2. Machines Chosen

With each IFPA State Championship being held at a different location, each will have a different set of games available for the tournament. Please check with your event director for details on the game list once the location has been finalized for that particular IFPA Women’s State Championship.

3. Head-to-Head Single Elimination Format

Players will be placed in a single elimination bracket once the seedings have been completed.

First round pairings are as follows:

1 vs. 16, 2 vs. 15, 3 vs. 14, 4 vs. 13,

5 vs. 12, 6 vs. 11, 7 vs. 10, 8 vs. 9

Second round pairings are as follows:

1/16 winner vs. 8/9 winner, 2/15 winner vs. 7/10 winner,

3/14 winner vs. 6/11 winner, 4/13 winner vs. 5/12 winner

Third round pairings are as follows:

1/8/9/16 winner vs. 4/5/12/13 winner,

2/7/10/15 winner vs. 3/6/11/14 winner

Fourth round pairing are as follows:

Two winners of round 3 play for the Women’s State Championship

Two losers of round 3 player in the Consolation Final for 3rd/4th place.

Each match will be a best-of-seven. The higher seeded player will have choice of machine or position for the 1st game, with the loser of each subsequent game having choice of machine or order, until someone has won 4 games. A machine may not be played more than once in the same match unless there are less than 7 machines available. If that is the case, only after all machines have been chosen can either player select that game to be played for a second time within the same match. Once a player verbally announces their game choice, or chooses position, that decision will be locked in and cannot be changed.

Each player will have the opportunity for 30 seconds of practice time before starting every game of every match. This is to ensure that both players have a chance to get familiar with the machine.

The winner of the match advances to the next round, while the loser is eliminated.

The 3rd/4th place Consolation Final will be played as a best-of-three instead of a best-of-seven like all other rounds, using the same rules. It is up to the event director as to whether matches will be played out to determine 5th through 16th place.

4. Winners

Winners will receive prizes during an awards ceremony shortly following the conclusion of all final rounds. Winners need not be present to receive prizes. All decisions by tournament officials regarding winners and prizes are final.

Any state with 16 finalists will have the following payout structure:

1st place – 40% of the prize pool ($130 based on $20/player entry fee)

2nd place – 30% of the prize pool ($95 based on $20/player entry fee)

3rd place – 20% of the prize pool ($65 based on $20/player entry fee)

4th place – 10% of the prize pool ($30 based on $20/player entry fee)

Any state with 8 finalists will have the following payout structure:

1st place – 40% of the prize pool ($64 based on $20/player entry fee)

2nd place – 30% of the prize pool ($48 based on $20/player entry fee)

3rd place – 20% of the prize pool ($32 based on $20/player entry fee)

4th place – 10% of the prize pool ($16 based on $20/player entry fee)

All monetary prizes must be distributed in a 40%-30%-20%-10% payout structure to the top four finishers. Additional non-monetary prizes may be awarded at the event director’s discretion.

First Place will also receive the title “IFPA Women’s State Pinball Champion” for the state being contested. For example, the winner of the IFPA Illinois Women’s State Championship will receive the title of “IFPA Illinois Women’s State Pinball Champion”. This title remains in effect until the next annual Championship Series, or will expire after two years if the Championship Series is discontinued.

Rulings and Malfunctions

All rulings and malfunctions will be based on the rules for the IFPA/PAPA unified ruleset, available HERE.