With one IFPA9 spot still up for grabs, we didn't let that stop us from projecting the pairings for the first session.

A reminder that the NW Pinball Championships will be awarding the last seat at the table, so check out details of that tournament at http://www.bdivision.com.

Group #1
1. Keith Elwin (USA)
32. Olli-Mikko Ojamies (FIN)
33. Sean Grant (USA)
64. Peter Menzel (AUS)

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The IFPA and Gameworks teamed up to host their 8th Pinball Tournament of Champions from May 4th-6th. PAPA was also in the house for this event, as it was the 2nd tournament on the newly formed PAPA Circuit for 2012. This added $1500 to the prize pool, along with the chance for players to win PAPA Circuit points to qualify for the PAPA Circuit final in March 2013.

53 players participated for the $3500+ in cash and prizes up for grabs, qualifying on Stern's AC/DC, Ironman, Tron and Transformers.

Zach Sharpe took home his 3rd Gameworks title in 8 attempts, defeating Derek Fugate (2-1), Jason Werdrick (2-1) and Keith Johnson (2-1) to take home 1st place. The deciding game came down to Tron where both players battled to the very end. After the final end of ball bonus from Keith, he fell just short of catching up to Zach's score (45,328,230 to 45,052,540). With the PAPA cameras rolling all weekend, the action was all caught on tape. Check it out HERE.

Other finalists included Keith Johnson (2nd-right), Trent Augenstein (3rd-inner left) and Jason Werdrick (4th-left).

Full results can be found HERE.

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Month for April 2012 is Trent Augenstein, from Delaware, OH. Trent earned 96.42 WPPR points in April, finishing in 2nd place at Pinburgh as well as 1st and 4th place at the Pinball at the Zoo in the Main and Classics tournaments respectively.

The rest of the top 5 for the month of April included Adam Becker of Canada with 91.41 WPPR points,  Franck Bona of France with 81.11 WPPR points, Zach Sharpe of the US with 75.83 WPPR points, and Alain Boulieu of France with 73.20 WPPR points.

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

The IFPA is pleased to announce that the following players saw the biggest jump in their world ranking based on their April 2012 tournament performance.

The biggest movers for April 2012 included Morten Månsson from Denmark, who moved up 9819 spots with a 16th and 6th place finish at the Danish Pinball Championship in the Main Tournament and Classics Tournament respectively. Kevin Strasser from the US moved up 8510 spots from his 14th place finish at the Little Shop of Games Openhouse. Jeff Davis from the US moved up 7906 spots from his 30th and 33rd place finish at the Pinball at the Zoo Main and Classics tournaments. Dan Jensen from Denmark moved up 7293 spots from his 5th place finish at the Flippermaskiner.com Workshop. Finally, Benjamin Bussy from France moved himself up 7142 spots from his 33rd place finish in the LNJF League.

Congratulations to Morten, Kevin, Jeff, Dan and Benjamin, as well as the other players that saw a jump in their ranking from their April tournament performance!

The inaugural season of the Lafayette Indiana Pinball League is complete!  Graciously hosted at Main Street Amusements with 24 pinball machines AND growing (Transformers LE arrived the day after finals).

Our format was eight weeks of group play, with the 4 top players playing a 7 game group playoffs.  The remaining 12 players played off through a double elimination best two out of three bracket.  After losing to Tom, Terry managed to win the losers bracket to play Tom again in the final match.  In order to win Terry needed to beat Tom twice, and that he did. Congratulations for Terry Vandervate who won the bracket (5th)!

The main finals took about 4 hours, just slightly shorter than the bracket finals. Congratulations to Brian Bauer (4th), Ben Ashman (3rd), Bob Skinner (2nd), and Joe Said (1st)!

Many thanks to Dan St. John, prorietor extraordinaire, the IFPA, Mark and Kevin over at PAPA, and everyone who came out to play!

When you think about reaching the pinnacle in one's sport, it doesn't take long to link that to the trophy associated with that achievement. In the National Hockey League players yearn for the chance to win the NHL Championship and hoist the Stanley Cup over their shoulders. In the National Football League players dream of reaching the Super Bowl and getting a chance at putting their fingers on the legendary Vince Lombardi trophy. These trophies represent what it means to have become a champion.

Over 20 years ago, Steve Epstein and Roger Sharpe, the founders and then organizers of the Professional and Amateur Pinball Association (PAPA) set out to create such a trophy for the world of competitive pinball. What emerged became known as simpy the "Space Jet", and it was what players battled over during the various PAPA leagues and PAPA World Championships held in the 90's. The last known Space Jet in existence was awarded to Lyman Sheats, following his victory at the PAPA 7 World Pinball Championships back in 2004. What followed was the complete devastation of the PAPA facility due to flooding, and the Space Jet was lost forever . . . until now.

With the help of Mark Steinman from PAPA, some small quantity of Space Jets were recently able to be recovered. Through a gracious donation to the IFPA, we are proud to say that the Space Jet has come home to Epstein and Sharpe. We are also extremely proud to announce that the winner of the upcoming IFPA9 World Pinball Championship will be awarded one of these iconic Space Jet trophies as reward for their achievement of becoming the next IFPA World Pinball Champion.

In addition, through 3D scanning, stereolithography printing technology, and some volunteering hours courtesy of Raw Thrills engineering, the IFPA was able to recreate the iconic Space Jet trophy so it can continue to be produced after the remaining stock of the original Space Jets are exhausted.

Who will be the first player in nearly a decade to hoist the Space Jet above their shoulders? We're 1 month away from finding out.

Special thanks again to PAPA and Raw Thrills for helping make this a reality.

As we get ready for IFPA World Championship Week out in Seattle, we are pleased to open pre-registration for both the Shorty's and Full Tilt tournaments. Pre-registration will be open until May 28th. While you can show up the day of to participate, there is a $5 discount on the registration fee for those that pre-register ($20 versus $25 at the door).

Registration is available here:

Pre-IFPA Tournament Registration

SHORTY'S and FULL TILT$40.00 USD SHORTY'S only$20.00 USD FULL TILT only$20.00 USD

These Pre-IFPA Tournaments both start at 1pm, with check in starting at noon. Shorty's will be Tuesday, June 5th, with Full Tilt being Wednesday, June 6th.

Full details for the Shorty's Pre-IFPA Tournament are available HERE.

Full details for the Full Tilt Pre-IFPA Tournament are available HERE.

Any questions, please contact the IFPA directly at ifpapinball@gmail.com

Seattle's Pinball Zine, Skill Shot recently published an article in Skill Shot 23 about the IFPA's World Pinball Player Rankings. Check out the article HERE.

Players interviewed included current IFPA World Pinball Champion, and #2 ranked player Cayle George, Jeff Gagnon (ranked 92nd), Raymond Davidson (ranked 68th), Julie Gray (ranked 134th) and Maka Honig (ranked 69th).

All 5 of these players will be competing in IFPA9, the upcoming World Pinball Championship being held just outside Seattle starting 6 weeks from tomorrow.

The Denver Westword just wrote an article on the upcoming Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown. Featured is show organizer Dan Nikolich (ranked 1096th in the world). The 2012 Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown, now in it's 9th year is one of the nearly 350 IFPA endorsed tournaments where players can earn World Pinball Player Rankings points to qualify for the World Pinball Championship. To view the article click HERE. For more details on the Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown, click HERE.

The IFPA is proud to announce it will be teaming up with GameWorks once again for the 8th Chicago Pinball Tournament of Champions the
weekend of May 4th-6th at the Schaumburg location (Streets of Woodfield).

We would normally be announcing a $2000 prize pool, but this edition of the tournament is the 2nd tournament included on the 2012 PAPA
Circuit. With that comes an increase of the prize pool to $3500!!

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:
Fri 5/4: 6-11pm –> OPEN QUALIFYING
Sat 5/5: noon to 11pm –> OPEN QUALIFYING

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