WPPR formula change to v6.2 for 2026!
Since the release of WPPR v6.1 for the 2025 season, the IFPA has continued investigating ways to make the World Pinball Player Rankings more accurate for how we rank players across the globe.
These latest changes will be incorporated into WPPR v6.2 which will be implemented starting January 1, 2026.
- Updated TGP rules for Amazing Race format
- Amazing Race has all participants playing 1 machine, with the player finishing in last place being eliminated. Typically games are run concurrently, with players safely moving on to the next machine in the race as soon as they are safe from elimination on the previous machine. Previously the TGP was one less than the total number of players participating in the race. For example, a 16 player race would be +15 meaningful games towards TGP. There will now be two options available for organizers that utilize this format:
- Option 1 –> Any game that is played in full by all participants before moving on to the next machine in the race will earn +1 meaningful games towards TGP per game played. As an example, if 16 people are participating in the finals, all 16 must play the first game before the next game can start for that game to earn +1 meaningful game towards TGP.
- Option 2 –> Any games played concurrently while a previous game is still in progress will earn +1/3rd meaningful game towards TGP per game played.
- Please note that organizers are welcome to split the final between these two options to customize the amount of TGP they wish to earn. For example, assuming a final of 16 players, organizers are welcome to run concurrently until the final is down to 5 players, and then run the final 4 rounds in full. This would be +4 meaningful games towards TGP for the first 12 rounds and +4 meaningful games towards TGP for the final 4 rounds for a total of +8 meaningful games towards TGP for the final.
- Amazing Race has all participants playing 1 machine, with the player finishing in last place being eliminated. Typically games are run concurrently, with players safely moving on to the next machine in the race as soon as they are safe from elimination on the previous machine. Previously the TGP was one less than the total number of players participating in the race. For example, a 16 player race would be +15 meaningful games towards TGP. There will now be two options available for organizers that utilize this format:
Frequently soon to be asked questions:
Q: Why is this change being implemented?
A: The feedback we got from organizers and players was that they were able to earn WPPR points more quickly than other finals formats due to the ability to get future rounds started while previous rounds were still in progress, along with many players only needing 1 ball to catch the lowest score and advance in the tournament.
Q: All this talk about time, but I feel like there’s something else you aren’t telling us. Is there another deeper reason why the IFPA is making this change?
A: Your ability to sniff out that there’s something else going on here is spot on, so we’re willing to share this other reason, and that’s simply the quality of the format in general. We are looking to promote and encourage formats that requires a high quality level of the ‘test of skill’ of the players involved. Often times with Amazing Race, especially in the early rounds, the ‘test of skill’ being judged is based on the ability for a player to pass some insanely low score on a given machine. The volatility of the format in general is something we felt didn’t feed our WPPR machine with respect to who are the best players in the world at a level that other formats of higher quality do.
Q: Why does the IFPA hate FUN?
A: We feel all competitive pinball is fun. While many event formats offer a certain novelty of entertainment for players, our primary focus with the WPPR system continues to move towards creating the most accurate ranking of players we can.
Q: That sounds like a bullshit corporate response answer to my previous question, so please just confirm that the IFPA hates FUN.
A: We hate FUN.
Honest question here. By the letter of how this is set, all players have to play one machine before moving onto the second to get full TGP credit. So if the first player puts up a lot score and then subsequent players beat the score on ball one and then just drain and plunge the rest to complete a “full game”, are we really gaining any sort of advantage in terms of the total amount of pinball played, as opposed to the existing format that runs simultaneously?
The format change here feels like it’s adding time to how long a tournament would take to finish and gaming that TGP by just saying everyone played a full game on each machine without really adding additional pinball play, or is the concern that the order of players would potentially change due to having several machines rolling at once?
Seems to me they dont care about it being skill based anymore. It’s inconvenience-based. That’s why leagues are worth so many points.
Players are still welcome to play just the ball they need to beat the lowest score. There’s no reason to plunge the rest of the balls. Just move on to the next player up.
Then what are you actually accomplishing by making safe players wait for everyone to finish one machine before starting the next machine? The actual play structure is unchanged by waiting for everyone to complete the machine, there’s just a longer wait.
This limits the ability for TGP to generated at a much faster pace compared to other formats where players are forced to wait for a game to be completed before being able to move on.
Organizers now have the choice between still being able to take advantage of how quickly this format can go, but at a more restricted TGP value so it lines up better with the other finals formats that we sanction.
So by that logic, am I right that everyone has to play one machine and then move to the next one to get full TGP per machine but if you have two machines going at once, it then just drops to 1/3 TGP?
If I’m misunderstanding that please do tell me. It just makes it feel like it’s overly complicated when we just want to say “This is the TGP for this part of the format”?
Should clarify, for “the format overall”, not “this part” of it.
It seems that the imbalance being adress here is how quickly meaningful games are earned compared to other formats. Can the IFPA clarify the principle behind this change?
Is it meaningful games per minute (wall clock time), is it playtime per meaningful game, is it how much ranking information comes from each round, or is it something else?
The principle is that if there is a path towards generating TGP quicker over other formats, there is a tendency for formats that are seen as ‘slower’ to no longer be organized.
The was originally seen in WPPR v5.0 where every game played was simply counted in full. During 2014 and 2015 we saw Group Matchplay nearly disappear because those 4-player matches took twice as long as 2-player head-to-head matches. Events that ran head-to-head were worth double the value of Group Matchplay for roughly the same amount of time.
This was addressed in 2016 with our v5.2 update where we graded out 4-player matches at 2X value.
Ultimately it’s about trying to find a reasonable balance between all formats based on how much TGP can be generated over the same amount of tournament time.
People have more fun with head to head. More games, less waiting. That’s why people were ditching 4 player matchplay. Not because it was worth more points, but because the points were actually fun to get without having to wait 40 minutes for an outlier to finish a game each round.
The math on this makes sense; it’s not perfect, but it’s much closer to the true value than the current method. It also has the advantage of being simpler to explain and use than a “math perfect” method would be. Good revision. As Dalton would say, “Bob Approved” (not that you need it).
How would a TO adjudicate a case where one particular game ends up being a major bottleneck to the point where everyone is still playing 3-ball games because the initial score-setter had a solid game, but nearly everyone else either surpasses the solid game with more-stellar play or barely misses, even if those who surpass move on to the next game?
I’m recalling a small, 16-person Amazing Race finals I was in where there was a huge bottleneck on Jack-Bot. I don’t know what kinds of scores were being achieved, but pretty much everyone was waiting to play that game after breezing through the prior games, slowly knocking out the stragglers on those prior games one-by-one.
Because folks were still moving on afterward to the next game in the race, that would mean Jack-Bot would still only amount to 1/3rd of a meaningful game even though basically everyone seemed to be playing 3-ball games (or at least really long clock-time 1 or 2 ball games).
It just doesn’t seem like a meaningful one-size-fits-all solution to the problem at hand, which might just end up burying the format (except for those that just really like the format or those experimenting with their groups/region) since it will be seen as not worth the time spent in situations where everyone is playing a given game or few really well.
OK, those “soon to be asked questions/answers” were some of the funniest things I’ve read in a long time!
Amazing Race sucks
I think this is setting a precedent on a single format that still extends to other formats. Are we saying that “test of skill” and round time should lead to higher points? Because if that’s the case than we should also be reducing points for “balanced” pairing because a high level player getting paired with a low ranked player means the test of skill for that game is also lower. We should also be not counting games where players get tapped out by TD’s because that is also artificially reducing game time. Same goes for not playing the final ball of a game if you are the last player and have won already. They are effectively the same thing, telling a player they have won before they have fully exhibited their skill. I just don’t think there is an effective difference between any of these scenarios and the amazing race format.
1. Seems like tgp more equated to time. Each adjustment each year is based on making tournaments longer.
2. This damages smaller cities that have very good players but their small town can’t do tournaments 5 days a week. Those people deserve a shot at state.
3. Thanks for admitting to hating fun. (Meant as jest.Hoping to just point out how this can affect small pinball communities negatively.)
This change seems to imply that a tournament taking longer is more important to earning points than the amount of pinball played. In these two scenarios, an identical amount of pinball is actually played, so why can’t it be the same value? If it’s “too efficient” at earning points when played concurrently, why not just nerf the points for the format as a whole, but let TDs who want to make it more efficient run them concurrently? I feel like the points a tournament is worth should tied to how much pinball I actually play and not tied to how much I have to sit around and wait. There’s already enough waiting in some of the big tournaments with queues sometimes exceeding 2 hours to play a single game. Making tournaments more efficient should be a good thing, not something to be punished for.
I played in a 31 player Amazing Race tournament a while ago, it was a ton of fun, when running games concurrently it took about 6 hours. To get the same value out of that tournament it would have taken over 28 hours if we were waiting for everyone to finish on a machine before moving on to the next.
It’s interesting to me that the president of the main competitive pinball body doesn’t seem interested in time efficiency of events. Pinball is unique in that it takes longer the better the players are. It struggles to attract viewership and seems to punish events that aren’t marathon sessions running late into the night. Compare that to sports like baseball that recognize the down parts of the sport are not fun and boring, and started utilizing things like a pitch timer to keep the event on track. The IFPA meanwhile seems to want to punish the concept of efficiency.
It’s also just hard to take competitive pinball seriously when the president doesn’t take his press releases seriously ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Honestly, it is nice to see them not be completely serious all the time as it is pinball but those points you make about efficiency are valid. Just gets punished is all if you really want to move it along.
The quality of people playing in the finals does not diminish. Just because someone can get a good score in 1 ball doesn’t take away the work they all did to get to the finals. Now everyone gets to stare at the person playing apparently. Kind of silly but guess it is their sandbox so don’t play in it for points.
Hopefully we can get team play at some point with competitive split flipper for TGP. Now that would be a great challenge.
So option 1 means everyone in finals must play before you move to the next game? They have to play out the whole game even if they beat the score? Seems like the rules should be either nerfed completely or let it run.
To say it is not getting quality of games is a tad silly though. People had to make it to the finals and quite honestly, amazing race can really do even good players dirty. It is actually a fun format to really get it chaotic. Having it run with multiple games is great and really should not punish the TGP. Will other formats get punished if player 4 has a walk off score and they do not play eventually?
Curious how many bigger events that have large points even use this format. Seems mostly smaller areas use it with a few exceptions.
And how does a split get reported? It all shows the same for standings.
And it makes so if a game fails you have void it or have an tpg hit
I understand the decision has been made, but just want to voice that I dislike changes like this. I feel like this was the same case when points were devalued for Flip Frenzy formats, where an emphasis was purely put on “time to complete” finals as the reason for nerfing the points.
Ultimately, I think what this ends up doing is hurting small venues, locations and weekly pinball play. Folks aren’t suddenly becoming a top 500 in the world player by playing in Amazing Race tournaments. In fact, most of the highly ranked folks that play at my location get all their points from traveling to play pinball out-of-state and weeklies tend to only matter if they want to qualify for State Championships.
I also just don’t understand “time” as a factor here as a tournament of only Modern Sterns is going to play much longer in the same format than a tournament on only “classic” pinball machines. If people were just gaming the system – they could just get rid of playing all modern games entirely and stick with games from 40 years ago.
Anyway- not a fan of the change, but also you do you.
Ths
Amazing race Finals is awesome, that being said, I can never use it because our tournament location is coin drop per game.
I’m going to support this for another reason I have not seen discussed. AR is a format where one bad ball can sink a top player. Throw some classics into the lineup and it becomes more of a luck box. That means that AR can be less a judge of a quality player, and can ding their efficiency % to boot. Having it count for less makes this more of a “fun” format and less of a “Pro” format. IMHO
That player may have a bad game regardless of format. There really is no difference if they do bad on a different format or amazing race. Consistently is obviously the key to success. Maybe they do bad first game or maybe close to last. Amazing race actually gets your nerves a little more on edge it feels. It is just you and the machine and not watching someone in your group to maybe get a strategy.
Big problem with new rule is there are 2 ways to submit it from the looks of it. Unless I am looking at it wrong. Option 1 gives full tgp if you wait and option 2 knocks it down if you start new games. More time does not mean better play always. You get people hustl8ng while 4 games are happening and it is pretty intense (for pinball at least). The quality of play is not diminished. Just the time to get to the end
Every single new WPPR rule makes tournaments longer and longer and because of this local tourneys are seeing fewer people show up. IFPA you need to stop this because more time does not always equal better play and it dramatically hurts smaller pinball communities more than larger ones
I think that amazing race should be like Pingolf for TGP. total balls played each round divided by 3 for TGP for each round of amazing race and round down to the complete game. Example let’s say 23 balls were played in round 1. That means only 7 complete games were played for round one.
Seems to me the intent is to make “waiting around” a required element of pinball. When ZMac gets a walk off on ball 3 of a game because he crushed balls 1 and 2, you’re not nerfing the matchplay results because he didn’t play all his balls are you? No, because sometimes in competitive pinball, good players do poorly and it’s easier to beat them otherwise. The same arbitrary and capricious arguments could be made if Eric Stone tilts ball one of Volley and the score to beat is insanely low. Sometimes, you get the benefit of your opponent’s misfortune. We’ve seen plenty of finals where the play is not at the level we’d seen during qualifying. In Amazing Race, it truly matters if you’re a higher seed, because the bar is set lower as a reward for all the work you got to that point.
In Large tournaments, top seeds essentially earned a bye. Yet we aren’t decreasing the value of tournaments where there are byes? No, the higher ranked players earned their easier path to the finish line. The same is true in amazing race, they earned a de facto bye, knowing that someone would have a terrible ball on something and the end result is an easier path through the playoffs… It gets truly hard the deeper you make it into the playoffs and, at 1 TGP per round it scores essentially the same as a Ladder tournament with only the bottom person getting knocked off and yet those are worth way more based on the number of players in the game on a per player basis.
Nerfing is is unnecessary and just a flex to keep the top unmolested by us grinders at the middle of the pack.
While you’re at it, make flipper frenzies back to full value because they are the best intro tournament to get new players into the hobby. If it aint broke, don’t fix it.