WPPR formula change to v6.0 for 2024!

Since the release of WPPR v5.8 for the 2023 season, the IFPA has continued investigating ways to make the World Pinball Player Rankings more accurate for how we rank players across the globe.

Accuracy has been a topic of hot debate ever since the first World Pinball Player Rankings were posted back in February 2006, with many complaints about the fairness of trying to compare players from around the globe where the access and opportunity to compete in IFPA sanctioned events vary so greatly.

WPPR v6.0 is primarily focused on trying to answer a systemic problem regarding the advantages of access and privilege that certain players have at their disposal, giving themselves more opportunities to compete in IFPA sanctioned events and earn WPPR points towards their ranking at a level that is above and beyond their peers. There’s privilege when it comes to players that live close to more opportunities, and privilege when it comes to players that can afford to travel and create those opportunities for themselves. Ultimately this leads to situations where the accuracy of players we’re attempting to rank is flawed due to the inconsistent level of opportunities some may have over others.

These latest changes will be incorporated into WPPR v6.0 which will be implemented starting January 1, 2024.

• Creation of the “WPPR PRO” rankings
  • This ranking will analyze to what extent the results making up that player’s ranking are a representative sample of all the active results over the past 3 years on that player’s profile. To the extent that it is representative, your relative rank will go up. To the extent that it is not representative, your relative rank will go down. More details on the “WPPR PRO” formula can be found HERE.
  • The “WPPR PRO” rankings will list the top 250 players ranked in the ‘Main’ system after this v6.0 adjustment is made, and the top 100 players ranked in ‘Women’s’ system after this v6.0 adjustment is made.
  • The “WPPR PRO” rankings will be the metric that is officially used for IFPA World Pinball Championship qualifying and seeding, along with who we crown as the “World’s Greatest Pinball Player” for finishing in the #1 spot.
• Reduction in the number of events that count towards a player’s world ranking.
  • Reduced from 20 events down to 15 events.
  • IFPA North American Championship Series will remain at 20 events counting in those standings.
• Dynamic portion of the WPPR Point Distribution formula will be changing. The dynamic distribution will stretch to anyone that finishes in the top half of the field regardless of the number of players at the event (previously this was capped at the top 64 players for any events with more than 128 participants).
• The IFPA will be implementing a $1 sanctioning fee for Women’s events in North America starting in 2024.
• Update to eligibility requirements for events to grade out to >100%
  • Previously the finals format must include an elimination format that includes a minimum of 10% of the participants to be eligible. This elimination format must include a round where a maximum of 4 players remain. We are adding the requirement that any meaningful tiebreakers to either receive a bye, advance to finals or advance through rounds within finals cannot be done through an automatic tiebreaking process. These tiebreakers must be played out.
• Any players currently playing their turn in another match at the same location cannot be penalized as absent for the other concurrent events. This only applies to concurrent events that both have direct play formats.
• Tournaments that run an UNLIMITED Card qualifying format with a minimum 20 hours of qualifying time, will have those qualifying games counted at 4X value (16% increase to TGP for each game included in the qualifying standings). Unlimited Best Game qualifying format with a minimum 20 hours of qualifying time will continue to have those qualifying games counted at 2X value.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us at ifpapinball@gmail.com with any questions. Check back when we announce that WPPR v6.0 has been implemented for 2024 as details are subject to change prior to launch.