NBC affiliate KING5 in Seattle profiled Canada's top ranked pinball player [player]Robert Gagno[/player]. Robert recently qualified to represent Canada at the upcoming World Pinball Championship held outside Seattle later in June. Click HERE to see the video.

The IFPA is pleased to announce that the following players saw the biggest jump in their world ranking based on their March 2012 tournament performance.

The biggest movers for March 2012 included [player]Charlie Gehlhaus[/player]from the US, who moved up 8864 spots by finishing in 31st place at the Texas Pinball Festival. [player]Matt Brown[/player] from the US moved up 6679 spots from his 21st place finish at the Louisville Arcade Expo. [player]Russell Willoughby[/player] from the US moved up 6572 spots from his 7th place finish at the Louisville Arcade Expo. [player]Cameron Spohn[/player] moved up 6557 spots from his 98th place finish at the Texas Pinball Festival. Finally, [player]Nick Campbell[/player] moved himself up 5983 spots from his 19th place finish at the Midwest Gaming Classic in Milwaukee, as well as his 21st place finish at the 1up Monthly Tournament in Colorado.

Congratulations to Charlie, Matt, Russell, Cameron and Nick, as well as the other players that saw a jump in their ranking from their March tournament performance!

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Month for March 2012 is former World Pinball Champion, [player]Daniele Celestino Acciari[/player] from Rocca di Papa, Italy. Daniele earned 131.38 WPPR points in March, finishing in 1st place at the Stern AC/DC Launch Party Tournament in Rome, 1st place at the Spring Pinball Tournament, 1st place in both the Main and Classics divisions at Pinb-Owls Nest 2012, along with a 2nd place and 5th place finish at the Les 24H Du Mans Flipper in the Main Tournament and Classics Tournament respectively in France. 

The rest of the top 5 for the month of March included [player]Trent Augenstein[/player] of the US with 83.63 WPPR points, [player]Michael Trepp[/player] of Switzerland with 79.77 WPPR points, [player]Cayle George[/player] of the US with 72.54 WPPR points, and [player]Nick Zendejas[/player] of the US with 70.89 WPPR points.

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

29 people competed in this year's 2012 Amusement Expo tournament out in Las Vegas. Utilizing the Pin-Golf style format on Stern's latest game AC/DC, players played 3 pin-holes in an attempt to get as few strokes as possible. The top 4 players qualified for the finals, with the next highest 4 finishers ranked under #250 qualified for the Novice Finals.

[player]TJ Beyer[/player](ranked 1435th in the world) defeated [player]David Burrier[/player](ranked 1075th in the world), [player]Shelley Paule[/player](ranked 1013th in the world) and [player]Roger Sharpe[/player](ranked 342nd in the world) to win the Novice Finals. Current World Pinball Champion, and world ranked #2 player [player]Cayle George[/player] defeated [player]Zach Sharpe[/player](ranked 9th in the world), [player]Bob Matthews[/player](ranked 30th in the world) and [player]Nick Zendejas[/player](ranked 215th in the world) to take home 1st place in the Masters Division. Full results of the tournament can be found HERE.

The Amusement Expo tournament is one of the nearly 350 annual IFPA endorsed tournaments where players can earn World Pinball Player Rankings points, and qualify for the IFPA World Pinball Championship.

On Friday March 30th, the first European Stern Launch Party took place in Rome in order to present and celebrate the new AC/DC Pinball machine. The event was organized by IFPA Italia and Tecnoplay in the Arcade Joy Village of the Italian capital. The location was absolutely outstanding, a big and famous arcade with a lot of customers, with a great setup for both the party and the tournaments. The new born Stern was also surrounded by the pinball Rolling Stones, Shrek, Iron Man and Avatar. The main tournament was played on the AC/DC and it was valid for the International Pinball Ranking, while on the other four machines the side tournament

took place, tournament that awarded a free registration to the upcoming Italian Pinball Championship in Rovigo at the end of April.

The launch party started at 9 pm when the players started to play the new pinball. The tournament format contemplated single player games until midnight, when the top four finishers battle for the win on a four player games on the AC/DC. Top qualifier was the well know [player]Daniele Celestino Acciari[/player], followed by [player]Alessio Crisantemi[/player], [player]Aldo Pancaldi[/player] e [player]Marco Cerigioni[/player]. In the final after two balls Acciari was dead last, but as usually he never gives up passing the other three players and taking his third win in a raw in the last three Italian tournaments. Big applauses and congratulations for him by all players, organizers and a lot of curious people. The event indeed raised a lot of curiosity on many of the customers, in parallel with the Acciari presence, former world champion. To be honest, many of them did not feel to participate, intimidated by the formality of the event. But it was a good cocktail that created a nice atmosphere and made a very enjoyable and interesting night. Official Stern trophies were awarded to the top three, and IFPA Italia trophies to the top four.

The side tournament was played on Rolling Stones and Iron Man, with the final won on Rolling Stones by [player]Marco Cerigioni[/player] who will have the free entry to the Italian Pinball Championship. The top four of each tournament also took home the AC/DC backglass kindly offered by Stern, while all  participants received an AC/DC keychain.

Everybody has been very excited for this party, an optimal way to introduce competitive pinball to many new players who discovered a new and unknown world. Tecnoplay and the Arcade Joy Village have been very satisfied. They are already planning to repeat the experience for next Stern pinball release.

The AC/DC machine was also well received by both expert and casual players, who found it a very well designed and fun pinball. At the end of the tournament a long line of people was waiting to play it until late in the night. Closing the tournament too early was for sure a mistake in the schedule, disappointing many players who really wanted to participate but came after the end of the qualifying section.

In conclusion, a big thanks again to Stern Pinball and Tecnoplay for their support and commitment, giving to IFPA Italia the opportunity to organize such event, the first of its kind in Europe. We absolutely hope it can be the example to follow in the near future in many other European countries.

St. Louis Area Pinball concludes their inaugural league! The passionate and dedicated league players brought awareness of competitive pinball to each other and peripheral patrons, spreading pinball enthusiasm and knowledge to all around. Like any great vice, all it takes is that initial introduction and you are hooked-such

is the allure of competitive pinball, and the robust growth of WPPR ranked players (over 13,000 now!) is a perfect testament to the enthralling nature of the sport.

With participation from over 35 players the season provided an amazing opportunity for competitive pinball and generally great times. The large field allowed for full A, B and C divisions, providing tight races for playoff spots and consistently well matched groups. Many games along the way were decided by a single shot, made or missed. Others saw glorious, crushing victories, like getting Mystery Spot and Alien Invasion in a playoff round, or new league highs being set while under pressure of elimination, and of course the antithesis-house balls; all the greatness that is pinball.

Congratulations to all participants who made this a weekly highlight. Shown in the photo is the A division podium: [player]John Miller[/player] 1st (center), [player]Brian Bannon[/player] 2nd (left), [player]Chuck Sanderson[/player] 3rd (right). With ever growing interest and plenty of developing talent, the next season is sure to supply worthy challengers at all levels (like B division winner: [player]Andy Maurer[/player], and C division winner: [player]Alec Gleason[/player]).

Incredible thanks to [player]Joe Schober[/player] and the Free State Pinball Association for their well developed rules, organizational tools, web hosting and stats programming. The access to current standings, player stats, machine stats and other fun accoutrement were an amazing bonus to our first time through, and we benefitted from their tremendous experience and generosity.

Our league was rotated weekly between 3 venues (The Silver Ballroom, 3rd Rail, and CP Pinball) which can boast, in total, around 100 machines! Jet Spin, Frontier, Eight Ball Deluxe, Twilight Zone, Tron LE and AC/DC only begin to allude to the amazing breadth of games accessible for our league play. All three venues are open to the public, machine status is routinely updated on the pinball rebel locator map and all are star attractions on the St. Louis pinball tour (info on each can be easily found online). Look for annual or biannual tournaments at these venues as SLAP continues to grow.

We will be cheering on four of our own as they make the wonderful pilgrimage to PAPA for Pinburgh at the end of the month, and will be rooting for our winner to make another great impression on the IFPA World Pinball Championships in June.

Join your local league or try to start one up. For those already in a league-next meet, stop and observe your surroundings. Reflect on the sights and sounds, stretch your fingers and wrists; enjoy the fact that you are hanging out with the coolest people around. Enough chatter, there is a ball to plunge, “Let’s Go.”

This month the Seattle Pinball League held a tournament at the house of [player]Todd MacCulloch[/player]. During the tournament, [player]Maurizio Gagno[/player], father of Canada’s top ranked player [player]Robert Gagno[/player] had a chance to capture about 10 minutes of footage. Check out that video HERE.

This amazing venue will be the place where 64 of the world's greatest pinball players do battle in determining who will become the next World Pinball Champion.

Besides playing host, Todd's miraculous play during the 4th quarter of the pinball season secured Todd one of the final spots amongst the field of 64. Entering the weekend of October 23rd, 2012, Todd was ranked 216th in the world, with little hope of being able to represent Canada at the World Championship. With his victory over six of the world's top 10 players, including a finals victory over former multiple World Pinball Champion, [player]Lyman Sheats[/player] at Chicago's Pinball Expo Flip Out Tournament, Todd started his trek up the World Pinball Player Rankings.

Following his trip to Chicago, Todd flew back to Seattle where he captured victory at the Stern Transformers Launch Party that same week. The conclusion of the VRPA League in December saw Todd earn a 2nd place finish, along with over 20 additional WPPR points. Last but not least was the Freezing Fingers Christmas Classic out in Vancouver. Todd finished in 7th place in the main tournament, with a 2nd place finish in the Classics Division, netting him nearly 10 additional WPPR points.

In total, Todd earned over 90 WPPR points in the final two months of 2012, shooting him up to the 103rd ranked pinball player in the world, and earning him a seat amongst the world's best and a shot at the title. With Todd being extremely familiar with home court advantage during his years of battling for an NBA World Championship, will his home court advantage help bring him a World Pinball Championship title?

All these questions will be answered June 8th-10th!

The IFPA is pleased to announced that the following players saw the biggest jump in their world ranking based on their February 2012 tournament performance.

The biggest movers for February 2012 included [player]Steve Ritchie[/player] from the US, who moved up 7480 spots by finishing in 27th place at the AC/DC Launch Party in Chicago. [player]Mikael Mammen[/player] from Switzerland moved up 6442 spots from his 16th place finish at the Cityclub Flipperturnering. [player]Jenny Möller[/player] from Sweden moved up 6062 spots from her 49th and 85th place finishes at the Borås Pinball Classic Open in the Main and Side Tournaments respectively. [player]Victoria Semarjian[/player] moved up 5647 spots from her 5th place finish at the Billy Rays Open, 20th place finish at the Ground Kontrol Tournament and 17th place finish at the Slingshot Lounge Tournament. Finally, [player]Martin Stensson[/player] moved himself up 5418 spots from his 4th place finish at the Borås Pinball Månadstävling, as well as his 86th and 53rd place finish at the Borås Pinball Classic Open in the Main and Side Tournaments respectively.

Congratulations to Steve, Mikael, Jenny, Victoria and Martin, as well as the other players that saw a jump in their ranking from their February tournament performance!

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Month for February 2012 is current World Pinball Champion, [player]Cayle George[/player] from Seattle, WA. Cayle earned 55.83 WPPR points in February, finishing in 3rd place at the Pinbrew Tournament, along with a 3rd place and 2nd place finish at the Rose City Showdown in the Main Tournament and Classics Tournament respectively. 

The rest of the top 5 for the month of February included Jörgen Holm from Sweden with 53.52 WPPR points, [player]Michel Dailly[/player] of France with 49.51 WPPR points, [player]Robert Gagno[/player] of Canada with 48.00 WPPR points, and [player]Aaron Nelson[/player] of the US with 47.26 WPPR points.

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

Yahoo! Sports just released an article about competitive pinball, available HERE. Included in the article is the discussion of the nearly 50 IFPA Leagues held around the world, as well as the now over 12,000 players included in the World Pinball Player Rankings. The two World Pinball Championships that the sport has to offer are also discussed (IFPA which will be held in June outside Seattle, and PAPA which will be held in August outside Pittsburgh), as well as the National Pinball Museum which recently moved from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore.