The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Rookie of the Year for the 2022 season is Matthew Harjo from Seattle, WA. This award is given to the player that earns the most WPPR points in their first year of active play.

Matthew played in 72 events during the 2022 season earning a total of 217.68 WPPR points. Matthew participated in his first IFPA sanctioned tournament on January 21st at the Ice Box Friday Night Live. Since entering the World Pinball Player Rankings at that time, Matthew has seen his rank increase to 625th in the world.

Matthew’s greatest achievement of 2022 was his 23rd place finish in the NW Pinball Championships Classics tournament, out of 115 players, netting himself 12.97 WPPR points. Overall, Matthew placed in the top 4 at 14% of the 2022 events he played in, a truly remarkable achievement.

Congratulations to Matthew, our 2022 IFPA Rookie of the Year!

The IFPA is proud to announce that Escher Lefkoff has finished at #1 on the World Pinball Player Rankings, thus earning IFPA’s top honor as the 2022 “World’s Greatest Pinball Player”. No single tournament victory will ever secure this title for a given year. Only consistent play at the highest level over the course of multiple years leads to players reaching the pinnacle of the World Pinball Player Rankings. This is the first time that Escher has been crowned the World’s Greatest Pinball Player and one of six players in history to receive this award (Keith Elwin (7), Jorian Engelbrektsson (3), Raymond Davidson (3), Zach Sharpe (2) and Johannes Ostermeier (1) being the other five).

Escher played in 49 IFPA sanctioned events during the 2022 season, facing World #2 Raymond Davidson 28 times (going 20-8 against Raymond in those events). His greatest achievement of 2022 was his 1st place finish at the D82 Great Lakes Pinball Open Main Event, earning him 97.48 WPPR points. Escher also finished in 4th place at the IFPA17 World Pinball Championship earning his 2nd top 4 finish in a Major Championship. Overall, Escher won 33% of the 49 events he played in, while placing in the top 4 at 63% of his 2022 events, a truly remarkable achievement.

Congratulations to Escher, and best of luck to everyone on the upcoming 2023 season in the race for #1. Escher will receive his WGPP trophy at the IFPA18 World Pinball Championship in Germany in June.

Someone out there let Escher know that his IFPA profile picture is quite old. I blame Adam Lefkoff.

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Year for 2021 is 13 year old Arvid Flygare from Lund, Sweden. In the shortened 2021 season, Arvid was still able to rack up an incredible 665.14 WPPR points during 2021. Arvid currently sits as the #6 ranked player in the world having moved up from the #155 ranking at the start of the year.

Arvid was the IFPA Player of the Month in November and likely December 2021 after all results are finalized, having won 14 of the 42 tournaments he played in during 2021, while finishing in the top 4 in 62% of them.

Arvid’s highlights during 2021 included a sweep in both the Main and Classics tournaments from the Matchstick Pinball Open along with a top 4 finish at all five events at the Borås Pinball Classic Open, four of which were 1st place finishes.

The IFPA wishes to congratulate Arvid on all of his success throughout this shortened 2021 season!

The IFPA is proud to announce that Raymond Davidson has finished at #1 on the World Pinball Player Rankings, thus earning IFPA’s top honor as the 2021 “World’s Greatest Pinball Player”. No single tournament victory will ever secure this title for a given year. Only consistent play at the highest level over the course of multiple years leads to players reaching the pinnacle of the World Pinball Player Rankings. This is the 3rd time that Raymond has been crowned the World’s Greatest Pinball Player and one of five players in history to receive this award (Keith Elwin (7), Jorian Engelbrektsson (3), Zach Sharpe (2) and Johannes Ostermeier (1) being the other four).

While the 2021 season ended up being only 5 months long, Raymond was still able to play in 21 IFPA sanctioned events during this season, with 11 of those events hitting his top 20 IFPA resume. His greatest achievement of 2021 was his 1st place finish at the D82 Pinball Super Series Event 6: 2 Bank MatchPlay, earning him 70.52 WPPR points. Overall, Raymond won 33% of the 21 events he played in, while placing in the top 4 at 62% of his 2021 events, a truly remarkable achievement.

Congratulations to Raymond, and best of luck to everyone on the upcoming 2022 season in the race for #1. Raymond will receive his WGPP trophy at the IFPA17 World Pinball Championship in Florida in May.

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Rookie of the Year for the 2021 season is Mike Weyenberg from Manitowoc, WI. This award is given to the player that earns the most WPPR points in their first year of active play.

With the shortened 5 month season of 2021, Mike was still able to play in 30 events. Michael earned 167.32 WPPR points from these 30 events. Mike participated in his first IFPA sanctioned tournament on August 7th at the D82 Pinball Lucky 13 Tournament. Since entering the World Pinball Player Rankings at that time, Mike has seen his rank increase to 344th in the world.

Mike’s greatest achievement of 2021 was his 3rd place finish in the District 82 Pinball December 2021 League, out of 63 players. Overall, Mike placed in the top 4 at 20% of the 2021 events he played in, a truly remarkable achievement.

Congratulations to Mike, our 2021 IFPA Rookie of the Year!

We’ve spent the last year and a half watching the WPPR decay take its toll on the world’s top ranked players. 9 months of 2020 inactivity saw Raymond Davidson overtake Johannes Ostermeier for the World’s #1 spot. Continued inactivity in 2021 saw Eric Stone jump into the World’s #1 spot only to have Raymond Davidson recently jump back ahead of him.

With IFPA resuming sanctioning of events on August 1st, we will finally have a race to talk about! While the IFPA isn’t holding any Championships for the 2020 season, we will continue to award our highest honor, “World’s Greatest Pinball Player” to the player that finishes ranked #1 at the end of this season.

There’s SIX players within 100 WPPR points of one another in this race for #1. If we factor in a fully decayed 2021 season, here is how things would end if none of these six players participated in any IFPA sanctioned events for the remainder of the season:

Raymond Davidson –> 606.13 WPPR points
Peter Andersen –> 586.80 WPPR points
Colin Urban –> 555.69 WPPR points
Eric Stone –> 547.04 WPPR points
Johannes Ostermeier –> 531.08 WPPR points
Escher Lefkoff –> 519.56 WPPR points

We expect all 6 of these players to get out there one way or another. With no Majors on the calendar for the remaining part of the 2021 season, it will be interesting to see how the chase for the top spot turns out! Best of luck to Raymond, Peter, Colin, Eric, Johannes and Escher!

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Rookie of the Year for the 2020 season is Michael Bair from North, Canton, OH. This award is given to the player that earns the most WPPR points in their first year of active play.

With the shortened 3 month season of 2020, Michael was still able to play in 12 events. Michael earned 23.56 WPPR points from these 12 events. Michael participated in his first IFPA sanctioned tournament on January 10th at the Kidforce Friday Knockout. Since entering the World Pinball Player Rankings at that time, Michael has seen his rank increase to 3305th in the world.

Michael’s greatest achievement of 2020 was his 27th place finish in the Kidforce Collectibles Pinball League Winter Season, out of 165 players. Overall, Michael placed in the top 4 at 42% of his 2020 events, a truly remarkable achievement.

Congratulations to Michael, our 2020 IFPA Rookie of the Year!

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Year for 2020 is Eric Stone from Fort Myers, FL. In the shortened 2020 season, Eric was still able to rack up an incredible 458.24 WPPR points during 2020 (which would put him in the top 50 in the world based on ONLY these 3 months of play). Eric currently sits as the #2 ranked player in the world having moved up from the #12 ranking at the start of the year.

Eric played in 10 events during the 2020 season, winning 6 of them, while finishing in the top 4 in 7 of them. Eric also finished as the IFPA Player of the Month for January 2020.

Eric’s highlights during 2020 included his first Major Championship title, taking 1st place at The Open – IFPA World Championship back in January. He also won the Classics II division at INDISC while finishing in 2nd place in the Classics I division.

The IFPA wishes to congratulate Eric on all of his success throughout this shortened 2020 season!

The IFPA is proud to announce that Raymond Davidson has finished at #1 on the World Pinball Player Rankings, thus earning IFPA’s top honor as the 2020 “World’s Greatest Pinball Player”. No single tournament victory will ever secure this title for a given year. Only consistent play at the highest level over the course of multiple years leads to players reaching the pinnacle of the World Pinball Player Rankings. This is the 2nd time that Raymond has been crowned the World’s Greatest Pinball Player and one of five players in history to receive this award (Keith Elwin (7), Jorian Engelbrektsson (3), Zach Sharpe (2) and Johannes Ostermeier (1) being the other four).

While the 2020 season ended up being less than 3 months long, Raymond was still able to play in 8 IFPA sanctioned events during this season, with 6 of those events hitting his top 20 IFPA resume. His greatest achievement of 2020 was his 5th place finish at The Open – IFPA World Championship. He also finished in 4th place at both IFPA Pin-Masters as well as the IFPA North American Pinball Championship.

Congratulations to Raymond, and best of luck to everyone once we’re able to once again sanction competitive pinball events around the globe. Raymond will receive his WGPP trophy at the IFPA17 World Pinball Championship in Florida in November (depending on us getting through the pandemic).

The IFPA is pleased to announce a new award from the 2019 season, and that’s the Rookie of the Year award. This award is given to the player that earns the most WPPR points in their first year of active play. Our Rookie of the Year for 2019 is Axel Blonde from Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Axel racked up an incredible 366.09 WPPR points during 2019. Axel participated in his first IFPA sanctioned tournament in April 2019. Fast forward 8 months and Axel currently sits as the 226th ranked player in the world, and is the top seed in the upcoming 2019-20 IFPA British Columbia Provincial Championship.

Axel’s greatest achievement of 2019 was his 16th and 9th place finishes at the NW Pinball Championships Main and Classics events, one of the stops on the Stern Pro Circuit during the 2019 season. Overall, Axel won 27% of the 44 events he played in during 2019, while placing in the top 4 at 73% of his 2019 events, a truly remarkable achievement.

Congratulations to Axel, our first IFPA Rookie of the Year! Best of luck to all the players that have yet to start competing on their journey to becoming IFPA’s next Rookie of the Year.