The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Year for 2019 is Johannes Ostermeier from Munich, Germany. Johannes racked up an incredible 1231.38 WPPR points during 2019. Johannes currently sits as the #1 ranked player in the world having moved himself up from 5th at the start of the year.

This is where I typically list all of the achievements from the Player of the Year, however it’s the first time in IFPA history that the Player of the Year is also the player that won the World’s Greatest Pinball Player award. We’ll just leave that fact here and move on.

The IFPA wishes to congratulate Johaness on all of his success throughout 2019!

The IFPA is proud to announce that Johannes Ostermeier has finished at #1 on the World Pinball Player Rankings, thus earning IFPA’s top honor as the 2019 “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 1st time that Johannes has been crowned the World’s Greatest Pinball Player and the 5th player in history to receive this award (Keith Elwin (7), Jorian Engelbrektsson (3), Zach Sharpe (2) and Raymond Davidson (1) being the other four).

Johaness’ greatest achievement of 2019 was his IFPA World Pinball Championship title with a victory at IFPA16, with a game 9, ball 3 comeback of over 3 billion points on Bram Stoker’s Dracula to capture the crown. Johaness also had victories at the Dutch Pinball Masters, German Pinball Open and Austrian Pinball Open, along with a 3rd place finish at the 2019 European Pinball Championship.

Overall, Johannes won 35% of the 31 events he played in, while placing in the top 4 at 65% of his 2019 events, a truly remarkable achievement. Congratulations to Johannes, and best of luck to everyone on the upcoming 2020 season in the race for #1. Johaness will receive his WGPP trophy at the IFPA17 World Pinball Championship in Florida in June (depending on his school class schedule).

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Year for 2018 is Trent Augenstein from Delaware, OH. Trent racked up an incredible 1578.18 WPPR points during 2018. This beats the previous record of points earned during a year of 1425.50 (also by Trent in 2017). Trent currently sits as the #6 ranked player in the world having held that spot from the start of the year.

Trent was the IFPA Player of the Month in June, July, August and September of 2018 having won 32 of the 90 tournaments he played in during 2018, while finishing in the top 4 in 58% of them.

Trent’s highlights during 2018 included a 3rd place finish at the IFPA15 World Pinball Champinoship, along with 2nd place finishes at the Texas Pinball Festival , 24 Hour Final Battle at The Sanctum, Buffalo Pinball Summer Open (Classics), 1st place finishes at the Pincinnati Matchplay Tournament, The Amazing Pinball Race and Pinball at the Zoo. Trent earned his 3rd career top 4 Major Championship finish with that 3rd place IFPA15 finish.

The IFPA wishes to congratulate Trent on all of his success throughout 2018. The IFPA posts this with the caveat that there are still 71 sanctioned events left on the IFPA calendar, and it’s likely that Trent will play in most of them.

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 2018 “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 1st time that Raymond has been crowned the World’s Greatest Pinball Player and the 4th player in history to receive this award (Keith Elwin (7), Jorian Engelbrektsson (3) and Zach Sharpe (2) being the other three).

Raymond’s greatest achievement of 2018 was defending his IFPA World Pinball Championship title with a victory at IFPA15, along with a victory at the IFPA US National Pinball Championship. Raymond also collected bones at INDISC (Classics), Portland Pinbrawl, Western Canadian Pinball Championships, NW Pinball Championships, Vancouver Flip-Out, Seattle Pinball League, Shortys Annual Pinball Tournament and City Champ and the IFPA Washington State Pinball Championship.

Overall, Raymond won 43% of the 28 events he played in, while placing in the top 4 at 71% of his 2017 events, a truly remarkable achievement. Congratulations to Raymond, and best of luck to everyone on the upcoming 2019 season in the race for #1. Raymond will receive his WGPP trophy at the IFPA16 World Pinball Championship in Italy in June.

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Year for 2017 is Trent Augenstein from Delaware, OH. Trent racked up an incredible 1425.50 WPPR points during 2017. Trent currently sits as the #6 ranked player in the world having moved himself up 6 spots from starting the year ranked #12.

Trent was the IFPA Player of the Month in March and November of 2017 having won 30 of the 96 tournaments he played in during 2017, while finishing in the top 4 in 56% of them.

Trent’s highlights during 2017 included 1st place finishes at the Louisville Arcade Expo, 24 Hour Final Battle at The Sanctum, Ohio Pinball Show, OBX Fall Pinball Bash, Cactus Jacks Silverball Showdown, Bat City Open and Main Street Mayhem II. Trent also earned his 2nd career top 4 Major Championship finish having placed 4th at the PAPA20 World Pinball Championships A-division.

The IFPA wishes to congratulate Trent on all of his success throughout 2017. To celebrate Trent is playing in 7 different tournaments simultaneously RIGHT NOW.

The IFPA is proud to announce that Zach Sharpe has finished at #1 on the World Pinball Player Rankings, thus earning IFPA’s top honor as the 2017 “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 Zach has been crowned the World’s Greatest Pinball Player out of the 12 times we have awarded it, the last time being in 2013.

Zach’s greatest achievement of 2017 was winning the PAPA Circuit Final and well as finishing in the top 3 in all PAPA Classics Divisions at PAPA20, winning one of them. Channeling his older brother, Zach had a slew of 2nd place finishes in 2017 including the IFPA Pin-Masters, IFPA US National Pinball Championship, PAPA20 Classics II and the Pinball Expo Flip-Out Tournament.

Overall, Zach won 12% of the 26 events he played in, while placing in the top 4 at 42% of his 2017 events, a truly remarkable achievement. Congratulations to Zach, and best of luck to everyone on the upcoming 2018 season in the race for #1. Zach will get officially receive his WGPP trophy at the IFPA15 World Pinball Championship in Toronto in June (after he builds it himself next month).

Elk Grove Village, IL – August 11, 2017 – Stern Pinball, Inc., the world’s oldest and largest producer of arcade-quality pinball machines, announced today the hiring of Zach Sharpe as Director of Marketing. Zach will take on marketing accountabilities from recently promoted Jody Dankberg who will serve as the New Director of Licensing and New Business Development. Zach most recently worked as Senior Marketing Producer for world renowned marketing agency iris Worldwide where he excelled at integrated marketing, social media, community engagement, consumer marketing, and strategy development.

In addition to Zach’s many professional accomplishments, Zach is a passionate pinball enthusiast who is currently the #1 ranked pinball player in the world. Zach has also extended his love of pinball by serving as Vice President of the International Flipper Pinball Association, and currently writing game reviews for Play Meter Magazine.

Zach will lead SPI in expanding its rapidly growing global business while focusing on extending the Stern entertainment experience within the consumer, commercial, and competitive player brand portfolio including pinball machines, merchandise, and accessories.

“With Jody focusing on growing our digital, private label, accessories, and merchandise portfolio while managing Stern’s critical licensing partnerships, Zach will add a heightened level of customer engagement. This dynamic duo continues Stern’s commitment to supporting our theme of Everything Pinball,” said John Buscaglia, Chief Revenue Officer of Stern Pinball.

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Year for 2016 is Steven Bowden from Franklin Park, NJ. Steven racked up an incredible 1377.00 WPPR points during 2016. Steven currently sits as the #6 ranked player in the world.

Steven was the IFPA Player of the Month in August of 2016 having won 24 of the 55 tournaments he played in during 2016, and finished in the top 4 in 47% of them.

Steven’s highlights during 2016 included 1st place finishes at the Pittsburgh Pinball Open and Pinvasion, along with a 5th place finish at Pinburgh. Steven also won 7 out the 12 Modern Pinball NYC Super League tournaments during 2016, racking up 506.42 WPPR points in the process.

The IFPA wishes to congratulate Steven on all of his success throughout 2016, and for being one hell of a podcast co-host.

The IFPA is proud to announce that Keith Elwin has finished at #1 on the World Pinball Player Rankings, thus earning IFPA’s top honor as the 2016 “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 7th time that Keith has been crowned the World’s Greatest Pinball Player out of the 11 times we have awarded it, the last time being in 2012.

Keith’s greatest achievement of 2016 was winning his 9th Major Championship at Pinburgh 2016, while also posting victories at Pinball Expo in Chicago, California Extreme, It Never Drains in Southern California, PAPA Circuit Final and Classics II at the PAPA 19 World Championship.

Overall, Keith won 50% of the 12 events he played in, while placing in the top 4 at 66% of his 2016 events, a truly remarkable achievement. Congratulations to Keith, and best of luck to everyone on the upcoming 2017 season in the race for #1.

With the 2016 season nearly half done, we couldn’t help but notice how close the race for the IFPA’s “World’s Greatest Pinball Player” title is. Many years it was simply Keith Elwin sitting alone “Tiger Woods style” at the top spot (often enough that the trophy is still named the “Keith Trophy” on all of our internal IFPA documentation).

We’ve seen a few two-player races develop over the past 10 years that we’ve crowned the “World’s Greatest Pinball Player” title, including a 7.92 WPPR point squeaker in 2013 with Zach Sharpe finishing just ahead of Keith. This was then bested in 2014 when Jorian Engelbrektsson finished ahead of Keith by 7.58 WPPR points (the tightest race we’ve had so far).

While we have gotten used to some entertaining races in the past, this year brings us something we haven’t seen before . . . a FOUR player race for #1! These Four Horseman include 6-time WGPP Keith Elwin,  3-time WGPP Jorian Engelbrektsson (current EPC champ), 1-time WGPP Zach Sharpe (current Pinburgh champ) and Daniele Acciari (current IFPA champ) who has not yet finished a year in the #1 spot.

While the last few weeks have seen some shifting of the #1 spot (Zach, Jorian and Daniele all have tasted #1 during that time), the real test will come after all of the 2013-2015 events on everyone’s resume decay out by the end of the year. After a win at the Lyons Spring Classic last week, Zach currently sits on top, holding a 40 point lead over Jorian, a 42 point lead over Daniele and a 48 point lead over Keith.

Some big point drops are coming as tournaments pass the 1/2/3 year mark with respect to age. We took a look at some of the bigger movements we’ll be seeing on the calendar coming up soon:

August 2016 features the 1-year mark for Pinburgh 2015 results. Nobody is hit harder than Zach, who will lose 34.58 WPPR points from his victory. However, Jorian and Keith will also be hit by this decay, losing 17.44 and 27.02 WPPR points respectively. Having missed Pinburgh 2015, Daniele’s WPPR point total is not impacted at all.

Zach’s consistent ability to NOT win PAPA will also hurt him coming up in August. He will lose 17.99 WPPR points from his 3rd place finish at PAPA17 when that tournament passes the 2-year mark. Keith’s PAPA 18 victory has already gotten the 1-year decay hit with PAPA moving from August to March starting in 2015.

Moving to October, and the 2015 European Pinball Championship will pass the 1-year decay mark. Both Jorian (1st place) and Daniele (5th place) will lose 29.84 and 19.81 points respectively. In addition Daniele finished in 2nd place in the Classics tournament at EPC 2015, which will cost him another 11.22 points.

For Jorian, after defiling the Star Trek machine at the 2014 Pinball Expo Flip Out tournament (in some alternate universe he is STILL playing), those results pass the 2 year decay mark. This will cost Jorian 16.89 WPPR points.

Doing all the math, here is where these four stand, accounting for all point reductions that are due between now and the end of the calendar year:

Zach Sharpe –> 937.37 WPPR points
Daniele Acciari –> 896.03 WPPR points
Keith Elwin –> 878.48 WPPR points
Jorian Engelbrektsson –> 832.67 WPPR points

With the season not even half over, there is of course plenty of tournaments left to shake things up. This includes TWO Major Championships (Pinburgh 2016 and EPC 2016). It’s likely that both Daniele and Jorian will compete in both, while Zach and Keith only have Pinburgh left on their ‘Major’ calendars. Beyond the Majors, each player has their own backyard events worthy of top resume stuffers. We’re excited to see how this race shapes up and will be sure to update this race, especially after we get through Pinburgh 2016 at the end of July.

Best of luck to Zach, Jorian, Daniele and Keith. They have no doubt separated themselves from the pack over the last few years as the greatest players in the world.