Registration is now closed for IFPA10, and we couldn't be more excited about the field of participants!

IFPA10 will set a new record for most countries represented in the history of any pinball tournament with 19. Included in the field are the two previous IFPA World Pinball Champions, [player]Daniele Celestino Acciari[/player] (IFPA7 and IFPA9 World Pinball Champion), and [player]Cayle George[/player] (IFPA8 World Pinball Champion). Both Daniele and Cayle will be serving as team captains for the inaugural Epstein Cup battle between Europe and the USA.

Another IFPA record that has been set is the cut line for at-large bids into an IFPA World Championship. At rank #66, [player]Alain Boulieu[/player] from France become the last player above the cut line, destroying the previous record of rank #126 set at IFPA8 in Sweden.

The full field of participants is available HERE.

A reminder that 1 more IFPA10 spot is still available at the IFPA Satellite Tournament in Rodenbach the weekend before IFPA10. Full details for that tournament will be available soon.

Last week we announced who will be representing Team Europe in the inaugural Epstein Cup. With IFPA10 registration now officially closed, we're excited to announce that the roster for Team USA has now also been finalized.

Representing Team USA at the 2013 Epstein Cup will be IFPA8 World Pinball Champion and team captain [player]Cayle George[/player] (ranked 3rd in the world), [player]Zach Sharpe[/player] (ranked 4th in the world), [player]Trent Augenstein[/player] (ranked 6th in the world), [player]Josh Sharpe[/player] (ranked 12th in the world), [player]Joshua Henderson[/player] (ranked 15th in the world), [player]Andrei Massenkoff[/player] (ranked 24th in the world), [player]Lyman Sheats[/player] (ranked 22nd in the world) and [player]Jason Werdrick[/player] (ranked 36th in the world).

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Month for January 2013 is [player]Steve Zahler[/player] from the US. Steve earned 89.36 WPPR points in January, including a 2nd and 1st place finish in the Main and Classic tournaments at the Maryland Pinball Championship. In addition, Steve won the Middletown NY Pinball Open, and finished in 12th place at Pinferno.

The rest of the top 5 for the month of January included Stéphane Pinck from France with 59.88 WPPR points, [player]Steven Bowden[/player] from Somerset, NJ with 54.16 WPPR points, IFPA8 World Pinball Champion [player]Cayle George[/player] from Seattle, WA with 48.30 WPPR points, and [player]Tim Tournay[/player] of the US with 46.87 WPPR points.

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

There is less than one week left of open registration for the IFPA10 World Pinball Championship, but with the top 8 ranked players from Europe all having signed up to compete, the roster for Team Europe has been finalized. Representing Team Europe at the inaugural Epstein Cup is current World Pinball Champion and team captain [player]Daniele Celestino Acciari[/player] (ranked 2nd in the world) from Italy, Jörgen Holm from Sweden (ranked 5th in the world), [player]Jorian Engelbrektsson[/player] (ranked 8th in the world) from Sweden, [player]Franck Bona[/player] (ranked 9th in the world) from France, [player]Robert Sutter[/player] (ranked 13th in the world) from Switzerland, [player]Levente Tregova[/player] (ranked 17th in the world) from Switzerland, David Grémillet (ranked 14th in the world) from France, and [player]Julio Vicario Soriano[/player] (ranked 18th in the world) from Spain. The Epstein Cup will be held Thursday evening prior to the start of IFPA10.

On July 12, 2012, the 2011 results from California Extreme dropped 25% in value for being over year one old. That decay has caused the first shakeup at the #1 spot in the past 24 months when [player]Keith Elwin[/player] reclaimed the #1 spot from then world ranked #1 player [player]Jorian Engelbrektsson[/player]. This time around it’s 2-time and current IFPA World Pinball Champion [player]Daniele Celestino Acciari[/player] from Italy moving into the #1 spot for the first time.

Historical World Pinball Player Rankings records are only kept monthly, so it is still possible for Keith to extend his #1 ranked player streak to 25 months before August 1st hits. Keith will be at the 2012 California Extreme tournament with a chance to increase his WPPR point total before the calendar turns. Before the end of the month Keith will actually lose another 5.09 WPPR points when the 2010 California Extreme results decay to over 2 years old, which will put him at a 12.96 WPPR point deficit behind Daniele. With Keith's worst event on his top 15 resume being worth 29.18 WPPR points, Keith is going to need to earn at least 42.14 WPPR points at the 2012 CAX tournament to reclaim the #1 spot.

Will Keith get the job done, or will Daniele be starting a #1 streak of his own? We will soon find out as the tournament is coming up in a few short weeks.

Looking at past CAX results, Keith has earned over 42.14 WPPR points in each of his last 4 trips to the tournament. What may shake things up this year is CAX being a part of the 2012 PAPA Circuit which could make for a much tougher field of competitors compared to years past. All we know is this battle is far from over!

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.

Back in early November the IFPA reported on the race for #2 in the World Pinball Player Rankings for 2011 between [player]Jorian Engelbrektsson[/player] and [player]Cayle George[/player]. As the year now comes to a close, it's looking like Jorian will finish slightly ahead of Cayle in the world rankings.

What we didn't see coming was Switzerland native [player]Robert Sutter[/player] exploding in the final 6 weeks of the season to overtake the #2 position! Robert participated in three tournaments within Switzerland since November finishing in 1st place twice and 2nd place once.

In addition to finishing #2 in the World Pinball Player

Rankings, the IFPA is proud to announce that Robert is the 2011 IFPA Player of the Year! This award is based solely on WPPR points earned during 2011, rather than the 3 year rolling period that the World Pinball Player Rankings are based on.

Congratulations to Robert for his spectacular 2011 season!