If anyone is interested in helping us continue to raise some funds, we’ve put together the IFPA World Pinball Tour t-short, showing the list of IFPA endorsed events for 2012.

Number of unique tournaments went up from 52 in 2006, to 74 in 2007, to 102 in 2008, to 182 in 2009, to 228 in 2010, to 343 in 2011, to 431 in 2012!

Number of players has now also passed 16,000 from 39 different countries!

$3 from each t-shirt sale goes into the IFPA funds, so help us raise some funds and get a t-shirt or two.

Click HERE to visit our online store.

The Denver Westword just wrote an article on the upcoming Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown. Featured is show organizer [player]Dan Nikolich[/player] (ranked 1096th in the world). The 2012 Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown, now in it's 9th year is one of the nearly 350 IFPA endorsed tournaments where players can earn World Pinball Player Rankings points to qualify for the World Pinball Championship. To view the article click HERE. For more details on the Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown, click HERE.

Pinballcenter will hold its first International Pinball Festival this spring in the beautiful Edwin-Scharff-Haus convention center located on the Danube river banks. Up to 192 competitors can participate in the IFPA (International Flipper Pinball Association) sanctioned tournament. It will be one of the largest pinball tournaments ever held in Europe. The World Pinball Player Rankings includes more than 13,000 competitors worldwide.

The legendary pinball designer Steve Ritchie will be the featured speaker of the festival. Over his 35 years in the industry, he has designed many beloved innovative classics, among them: Firepower, Terminator 2, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Spiderman.
He will be discussing his latest creation, themed after the multi-platinum Rock n’ Roll enduring legends: AC/DC. At least 100 pinball machines will be available for unlimited free play all weekend with the paid admission. Many enthusiasts from all over Germany and neighboring countries will be contributing their games of all eras: from electromechanical classics of the 60s to the popular hits of the 70s, 80s and 90s, and of course the brand new AC/DC pinball machine. There is room to host up to 300 machines. Keep your eyes out for some very special rare games.

The tournament participants will be evenly split according to their World Pinball Player Rankings between four main pools of 48 contestants each for the match-play qualifiers. Players will then be assigned to initial groups of four depending on their rankings. Unranked players will be assigned randomly. The groups are intended to allow players to play with people of different levels.

There will be five rounds of match-play, each involving one game on two different machines. After each round the rankings within each pool are updated and new groups of four players are determined depending on the cumulative results of the rounds. So each
participant is guaranteed several hours of fun will playing 10 four-player games at the minimum.

Eight players from each of the four pools will advance to the play-off tournament bracket. In each bracket, two players will face off in best-of-three games on an assigned machine. The winner advances to the next bracket. The first Pinballcenter Festival Champion will be decided by a single game on the same machine between the top four players. For more details, please refer to the pinballcenter festival tournament webpage: http://www.flipperfestival.de

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!

The weekend dedicated to the Pinb-Owl's Nest 2012 is over, a pinball tournament at the Bar Palladio in Fontaniva (PD). A wonderful weekend of pure pinball and associated to the deepest charity for the association Il Nido del Gufo, which operates in Colombia. All the raised fees during the two days were entirely donated at the ONG with the goal of giving hope to people who really need it.

The organization, the participation and the atmosphere of the weekend have been outstanding, with pinball lovers coming from many parts of Italy and from France too. The Pinb-Owl’s Nest had two different tournaments: the Main one and the Classics. The Main tournament was structured with a open qualification section, during the all Saturday and the Sunday morning, on the five machines Congo, Medieval Madness, The Addam's Family, Indiana Jones and Monster Bash. Five more pinball (Corvette, Cirqus Voltaire, Cactus Canyon, High Speed II: The Getaway, Bram Stoker's Dracula) were set up in free-play. Furthemore, the oldest machine Ten-Up (Gottlieb 1973) and Time Machine have been used for the Classics. In the Main tournament, the top 24 made it to the Sunday afternoon finals, with Acciari as best qualifiers followed by Dailly and Anzini. The 24 were divided in six 4-players groups, which played 3 games each to determine the 12 who advanced to the head to head elimination bracket. All matches have been a race to 2 wins, defining the two semifinals: Acciari vs Spiga and Melone vs Marta Roberto. The semifinal between the favorite Acciari and Spiga was over on the third game on The Addam’s Family, where Acciari with the final bonus passed Spiga by less then a million. In the other match-up Melone was able to make it in to the final, dominated by Acciari with two fabulous games on Bram Stoker's Dracula and The Addam's Family. Spiga won the final for the third place winning on Cactus Canyon. The Classics was won again by the cannibal Acciari followed by Dailly and Pierobon Matteo. At the end, rich awards were given to many players. The top 8 took home prizes donated by many retailers of then town, as well the top three of the Classics and the top three women (Sabrina Telatin, Scagliarini Anna e Squizzato Sara) and the youngest participant Andretta Alberto, six years old.

A huge thanks goes to the commitment, dedication and patience of Matteo Filippin, Claudio Melone, Sara Squizzato, Matteo Pierobon, Matteo Pontarollo, Mauro Spiga, Mauro Violetto, Loris Trevisan, who made possible and wonderful the weekend, but mostly Livio and Lisa Pierobon, parents of Nicola who thought the event from the far Colombia where he is volunteering for Il Nido del Gufo.

The day concluded with big thanks and hugs, demonstration that everybody appreciated the two days of pinball. And a goodbye to the next event, with a great desire to repeat these meetings dedicated to the passion for pinball, but above all, to friendship, brotherhood and mutual respect. This is the wonderful world of pinball!

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!

In continuing coverage leading up to the 9th annual Fairfax Pinball Open, WTOP 103.5FM interviewed [player]Paul McGlone[/player], the 223rd ranked pinball player in the world, and winner of the Classics A division at FPO9. They also have an article online with some additional coverage of the event. Other players featured include [player]Chris Newsom[/player](ranked 467th, and winner of the A division), [player]Trent Augenstein[/player](ranked 12th), [player]Dave Stewart[/player](ranked 303rd) and [player]Catrina Enders[/player](ranked 3003rd). 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 listen to the audio portion, and HERE for the online article. 

In continuing coverage leading up to the 9th annual Fairfax Pinball Open, the Fairfax City Patch interviewed [player]Ken Van Pool[/player], the 2268th 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, including LIVE results from the tournament as the action unfolds.

The Orange County Register just did an article on the Orange County Pinball League. Featured in the piece are [player]Jim Belsito[/player] and [player]Bob Matthews[/player], both of whom will be representing the US at the upcoming IFPA9 World Pinball Championship outside Seattle later this year.

Click HERE to read the article.

Click HERE to find out more about the Orange County Pinball League.