Through three games of the IFPA9 final, both players have held serve with [player]Daniele Celestino Acciari[/player] winning on both Shadow and Medusa, while [player]Cayle George[/player] won on his first pick of Grand Prix. With both Mousin' Around and Attack From Mars left to choose from, Cayle went with Attack From Mars for his second choice. Having won on Attack From Mars in two of his previous playoff rounds, this game was a must win for Cayle to try and even things up. Check out the action HERE,

The second game of the IFPA9 final saw [player]Cayle George[/player] even up the match with [player]Daniele Celestino Acciari[/player] (1-1) by holding serve on his OLD game choice of Grand Prix. The next game in the match had Daniele choosing his MID game, Medusa.  Commentary provided by both [player]Cayle George[/player] and [player]Adam Lefkoff[/player]. Check out the action HERE,

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Month for December 2012 is [player]Beat Kuhn[/player] from Switzerland. Beat earned 124.34 WPPR points in December, winning both the Main and Classics tournaments at Pins and Pints and Pinballz Metal Tournaments. In addition, Beat also won the Offene Frankenmeisterschaft tournament along with a 2nd place finish at the Pinballroom Tournament open division.

The rest of the top 5 for the month of November included [player]Robert Gagno[/player] from Canada with 93.62 WPPR points, [player]Eden Stamm[/player] from Canada with 81.88 WPPR points, [player]Richard Rhodes[/player] from Australia with 75.00 WPPR points, and [player]John Kremmer[/player] of Canada with 72.66 WPPR points.

Congratulations to Beat and the other top WPPR point earners of the month!

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Year for 2012 is [player]Trent Augenstein[/player]. Trent racked up an incredible 760.58 WPPR points during 2012 moving him from 11th to 6th in the world during the year.

Trent was the IFPA Player of the Month in January, April and May of 2012 having won 23% of the tournaments he played in during 2012, and finished in the top 4 in 60% of the tournaments he played in. Trent's highlights during 2012 included a 2nd place finish at Pinburgh 2012, along with victories at this year's Pinball at the Zoo, Pinbowl Tournament and Pinnesota National Championship.

Trent will be given his award at the IFPA10 World Pinball Championship, scheduled for May 31-June 2, 2013 in Germany. The IFPA wishes to congralute Trent on all of his success throughout 2012.

ABC affiliate KOMO4 news out in Seattle recently covered the latest Shorty's Annual Pinball Tournament, held at Shorty's Bar and Grill. Featured in the news piece is [player]Michelle Pfeiffer[/player] (ranked 9724th in the world), [player]Sagel Frazier[/player] (ranked 261st in the world) and IFPA8 World Pinball Champion [player]Cayle George[/player] (ranked 3rd in the world). The Shorty's Annual Pinball Tournament is one of the nearly 400 annual IFPA endorsed tournaments where players can earn World Pinball Player Rankings points, and qualify for the IFPA World Pinball Championship. Click HERE to see the video.

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Month for October 2012 is current IFPA World Pinball Champion, [player]Daniele Celestino Acciari[/player] from Italy. Daniele earned 113.57 WPPR points in October, winning the Swiss Open Main Tournament, Stern Launch Party Tournament and Rome Pinball Tournament. In addition, Daniele finished in the top 4 of the Zelgi Main and Side Tournament in Switzerland.

The rest of the top 5 for the month of October included [player]Zach Sharpe[/player] of the US with 109.11 WPPR points, [player]Albert Nomden[/player] of the Netherlands with 86.01 WPPR points, [player]Bowen Kerins[/player] of the US with 77.43 WPPR points, and [player]Jérémy Reynaud[/player] of France with 73.17 WPPR points.

Congratulations to Daniele and the other top WPPR point earners of the month!

The first game of the IFPA9 final saw [player]Daniele Celestino Acciari[/player] jump out to a 1-0 lead over [player]Cayle George[/player] with a victory on The Shadow. The next game in the match has the players moving to Cayle's pick, Grand Prix. Following the world's greatest Jackbot game ever played by these two competitors at the NW Pinball Championships the weekend prior, this Grand Prix game isn't far behind, with both players rolling the game at over 1,000,000 points.

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Month for August 2012 is [player]Keith Elwin[/player] from the US. Keith earned all 123.17 WPPR points during the PAPA 15 World Pinball Championships. His 7th/2nd/2nd finises in the three Classics tournaments combined with his 4th PAPA title in the last 5 years netted him the second highest WPPR point total for a single tournament in the history of the World Pinball Player Rankings (second to Keith's previous performance at PAPA 13).

The rest of the top 5 for the month of August included [player]Zach Sharpe[/player] of the US with 114.79 WPPR points, [player]Cayle George[/player] of the US with 95.97 WPPR points, [player]Bowen Kerins[/player] of the US with 78.21 WPPR points, and [player]Joshua Henderson [/player] of the US with 77.09 WPPR points.

Congratulations to Keith and the other top WPPR point earners of the month!

With the help of [player]Mark Steinman[/player] (ranked 220th in the world) from PAPA and his slick video editing skills, we’re excited to release the first game from the IFPA9 World Pinball Championship match between IFPA7 World Pinball Champion [player]Daniele Celestino Acciari[/player] (ranked 2nd in the world) representing Italy, and the IFPA8 World Pinball Champion [player]Cayle George[/player] (ranked 3rd in the world) representing the US. On the line was $1350 cash, a brand new pinball machine from Stern Pinball, Space Jet trophy and title of IFPA’s World Pinball Champion. Special thanks also to [player]Adam Lefkoff[/player] (ranked 32nd in the world) and Cayle for providing the commentary as they so often have done for the PAPA videos.

Give [player]Keith Elwin[/player] a challenge that has anything to do with pinball and chances are he rises to that challenge more often than not. This past weekend was no different as Keith was faced with trying to extend his consecutive months streak atop the IFPA’s World Pinball Player Rankings to 25. Following a victory in the Modern Division, and 2nd place finish in the Classics Division, that’s exactly what Keith did, walking away with 69.24 WPPR points from that performance, and putting himself 27.08 WPPR points back ahead of [player]Daniele Celestino Acciari[/player] for the #1 spot.

However, another challenge awaits Keith during the month of August as extending his consecutive #1 streak to 26 months is once again in jeopardy. Before the end of August Keith will lose 83.31 WPPR points when his PAPA 12 results decay to over 3 years old, his PAPA 13 results decay to over 2 years old, and his PAPA 14 results decay to over 1 year old. Meanwhile, Daniele will only be losing 4.37 WPPR points during August, which means that while Keith sits back atop the world rankings for now, he has quite a deficit to make up at the upcoming PAPA 15 World Pinball Championships.

Keith is going to need to earn at least 81.04 WPPR points at PAPA to maintain his #1 ranking through September 1st. Having accomplished that in 3 of the last 4 years, is this something that Keith will be able to pull off once again? We will soon find out as PAPA starts in just a little over a week.

Let's also not forget world No. 3 ranked [player]Cayle George[/player], who quietly will only sit 12.07 WPPR points behind Keith factoring in all the August decay. Factoring in the WPPR points that Cayle will be losing through August, if he earns 92.65 WPPR points or more at PAPA, he will jump both Keith and Daniele to claim the No. 1 spot for the first time. While that is a steep hill to climb, it is possible for a player to walk away with well over 100 WPPR points at PAPA between the A and Classics Divisions.

We're excited to see how things shake out. Best of luck to Daniele, Keith and Cayle!