Registration is now closed for IFPA9, and we couldn't be more excited about the field of participants!

12 countries will be represented at the World Championship this year, including the current IFPA World Pinball Champion, [player]Cayle George[/player], current PAPA World Pinball Champion, [player]Andrei Massenkoff[/player], as well as previous IFPA and PAPA World Pinball Champions [player]Keith Elwin[/player], [player]Jorian Engelbrektsson[/player], [player]Daniele Celestino Acciari[/player], [player]Bowen Kerins[/player] and [player]Lyman Sheats[/player]. No tournament in competitive pinball history has featured more World Pinball Champions under one roof, so the competition will be fierce. Will one of these 7 add to their respective legacies, or will a new World Pinball Champion be crowned? This answer will come in a few short months.

The full field of participants is available HERE.

A reminder that there are 1 more spot is still available at the IFPA Satellite Tournament, the 2012 NW Pinball Championship. Full details available HERE.

The IFPA and Stern teamed up to host the 6th Launch Party in celebration of Stern's latest release AC/DC. 43 players participated in the AC/DC Launch Party Tournament held at Gameworks in Schaumburg. Each player had one opportunity to play the tournament machine in the hopes of qualifying for the final round. The top 4 scores of the night faced off in a single 4-player game to determine the winner. Finalists included [player]Lyman Sheats[/player](1st), [player]Jason Werdrick[/player](2nd), [player]Penni Epstein[/player](3rd) and [player]Joe Katz[/player](4th). Lyman took home $80, a 1hr. Gameworks game card and a custom AC/DC Grand Champion trophy.

In continuing coverage leading up to the 9th annual Fairfax Pinball Open, the Fairfax City Patch interviewed [player]Colin Horner[/player], the 134th ranked pinball player in the world. The Fairfax Pinball Open 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.

Click HERE to see the article/video.

Click HERE for more information on the Fairfax Pinball Open.

In continuing coverage leading up to the 9th annual Fairfax Pinball Open, the Fairfax City Patch interviewed [player]Rich Wickersham[/player], the 3887th ranked pinball player in the world. The Fairfax Pinball Open 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. Click HERE to see the article/video. Click HERE for more information on the Fairfax Pinball Open.

The Fairfax City Patch has an article and video promoting the upcoming 9th annual Fairfax Pinball Open which starts this Friday, February 24th. The Fairfax Pinball Open 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. Featured in the video is [player]Rob Wintler-Cox[/player], currently ranked 397th in the world. Click HERE to see the article/video. Click HERE for more information on the Fairfax Pinball Open.

February 19^th, 2012 – The event was held at Ace’s Breakaway and Play, an arcade at the middle of the city on Smithfield street. In addition to the two AC/DC machines available for play there, Ace’s also features five other pinball machines among its games every day. This weekend it was Family Guy, Avatar, Tron, Batman (Stern), and Transformers. Over 60 people attended the launch party.

The tournament on AC/DC was the main feature of the night. There were 30 competitors and over 70 entries placed. After the dust from qualifying ended, four players remained at the top of the standings. [player]Jon Replogle[/player] (IFPA ranked at 135^th in the world) had the top qualifying score of 181,516,810. Second in qualifying was [player]Pete Hendricks[/player] (148) with a score of 140,711, 840 followed by [player]Cryss Stephens[/player] (234) with 89 million and [player]Al Thomka[/player] (91) with just over 70 million.

The finals were a one game playoff, winner take all. [player]Al Thomka[/player] started off the grouping strong putting up a score of over 50 million on his first ball and really putting the pressure on the rest of the group to perform. In the end [player]Pete Hendricks[/player] captured the win with a score of 92,233,320.

Along with the cash for 1^st place, each of the final four also received entries to the PAPA World Championship (www.papa.org).

Special thanks goes out to Stern Pinball, the IFPA, PAPA, Ace’s Breakaway and Play, Betson Distributing, [player]Doug Polka[/player], [player]Nick Jaquay[/player], [player]Pete Hendricks[/player] and [player]Al Thomka[/player] for their support in running the event.

In the ongoing coverage of the Rose City Showdown out in the Portland, The Oregonian has an article that was released over the weekend. The Rose City Showdown 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.

Featured in the article is 58th ranked [player]Aaron Nelson[/player], 43rd ranked [player]Adam Lefkoff[/player], 457th ranked [player]Kevin Kerr[/player] and the world’s current #1 player [player]Keith Elwin[/player]. Additional players mentioned in pictures from the article include 423rd ranked [player]John Fujita[/player] and 34th ranked [player]Eden Stamm[/player]. Aaron, Adam, Keith and Eden are 4 of the 64 qualifiers for the upcoming World Pinball Championship, June 8th-10th outside of Seattle, WA.

To read the entire article click HERE. To read more about the Rose City Showdown, including full results, click HERE.

KATU in Portland had some coverage of the 4th annual Rose City Showdown, one of the nearly 350 annual IFPA endorsed tournaments where players can earn World Pinball Player Rankings points. Top ranked Portland player, and 58th ranked in the world [player]Aaron Nelson[/player] and 43rd ranked [player]Adam Lefkoff[/player] are both featured. Aaron and Adam both recently qualified for IFPA9 the upcoming World Pinball Championship held outside Seattle later in June.

Click HERE to see the video. Click HERE for more information on the Rose City Showdown, including full results of the event.

The Washington Post wrote an article on the Free State Pinball Association's John's Place League, one of the nearly 50 IFPA endorsed leagues held around the world. Players mentioned include [player]Paul McGlone[/player], [player]Chris Newsom[/player] and [player]Rich Wickersham[/player]. There is also an announcement regarding the upcoming Fairfax Pinball Open, one of the nearly 350 IFPA endorsed tournaments where players can earn World Pinball Player Rankings points. To read the entire John's Place League article click HERE. To read the Fairfax Pinball Open announcement, click HERE. For more details on the Free State Pinball Association, click HERE. For more details on the Fairfax Pinball Open, click HERE.

The Charleston City Paper wrote an article on the new Charleston Pinball Federation which will be hosting their first IFPA endorsed event, titled "Pinception", this upcoming Saturday at 2pm at the Recovery Room.

The full article can be found HERE.

More detailed information on the tournament can be found HERE.