In the history of competitive pinball, very few (35 in fact) have had the chance to call themselves a Major Champion. Like professional golf or tennis, the opportunity to join this elite club only happens a handful of times every year. THE OPEN – IFPA World Championship brought together one finalist looking to add their name to this list (Viggo Löwgren) and three finalists looking to add to their already established legacies (Escher Lefkoff – 4-time Major Champion, Jason Zahler  – 2-time Major Champion and Zach McCarthy – 2-time Major Champion).

After qualifying as the #15 seed, Zach McCarthy had not just one, but TWO ball 3 comebacks (Grand Lizard and Johnny Mnemonic) in the final round to capture his 3rd Major Championship, becoming only one of 9 players to do so.

With his 2nd place finish, Jason Zahler earned his 6th top 4 finish in Major Championships. 3rd place went to Escher Lefkoff who earned his 9th top 4 finish in Major Championships. 4th place went to Viggo Löwgren who earned his 3rd top 4 finish in Major Championships.

To view the most current list of Major Championship stats, click HERE.

Here are the December 2024 IFPA winners for Player of the Month and Biggest Movers:

Player of the Month:
Jared August from West Bloomfield Township, MI (300.86 WPPR’s – MAIN)
Jane Verwys from Chicago, IL (71.82 WPPR’s – WOMEN’S)

Biggest Movers:
Rodney Olsen from Seattle, WA (+29,990 spots)
Kimberly McMillan from Ontario, CA (+20,862 spots)
Paul Meredith from Fort Wayne, IN (+20,288 spots)

These players have now all qualified for the Stern Rewards Program for 2024. Congrats to everyone!

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The IFPA sanctioned 12,758 events in 2024, the most we’ve ever had. Those events have to go through a calendar approval process as well as a results approval process. As the number of events we sanction continues to grow, so does the workload our staff puts in to review and approve these events. Sometimes there’s re-reviews and re-approvals when questions pop up. Just when our deck of approvals is clean, wait 5 minutes and more are sure to come in.

There are two people I just had to highlight as there’s no way our organization could keep up with this demand without them. When you see your event on the calendar or results on the website within only a few days, it’s really these two individuals that make it happen. These two individuals are Germain Mariolle and Michael Trepp! If you see either of these two, don’t hesitate to thank them for their effort. Any chance to embarrass them in any way is at the top of my list!

Here were the final numbers for 2024 approvals (both results, calendar and updates):

Germain Mariolle – 18.016
Michael Trepp – 17,001
Josh Sharpe – 772
Andy Bagwell – 346
Zoe Vrabel – 86
Brian Shepherd – 42
Adam Becker – 40

A serious THANK YOU for not only Germain and Michael (and of course Brian Shepherd for all the behind the scenes work), but all the volunteers, representatives and directors of IFPA that allow us to keep this crazy thing going!

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Too many media pieces coming in to list them separately. Click below to read/watch/listen the following:

NACS/WNACS Weekend is upon us!

Best of luck to the over 1000 competitors spread across the United States and Canada!

Stay up to date on all the brackets, all the streams, all the winners!

CLICK HERE!

Congratulations to all the players who have qualified for the Stern Rewards Program for the 2024 calendar year by finishing in the top 1000 of the World Pinball Player Rankings! Contact us at ifpapinball@gmail.com if you’re interested in redeeming.

Detailed rules for the Stern Rewards Program, including an updated list of qualifiers, and updated list of rewards available can be found HERE.

Here is the current list of what’s available as of this moment. We will do our best to update the rewards website as often as possible.

Avengers Premium
Deadpool Premium
Deadpool Pro
Elvira House of Horrors Premium
Foo Fighters Pro
Foo Fighters Premium
Iron Maiden Pro
Iron Maiden Premium
James Bond 007 Pro
James Bond 007 Premium
Jaws Pro
John Wick Pro
John Wick Premium
Jurassic Park Premium
Mandalorian Pro
Mandalorian Premium
Rush Pro
Star Wars Comic Pro
Star Wars Comic Premium
Stranger Things Pro
Stranger Things Premium
Venom Pro
Venom Premium
X-Men Premium

The IFPA is proud to announce that registration for the 20th Annual IFPA World Pinball Championship is now open! For more details check out the registration page HERE.

The initial invite list is open for the top 75 players in the World Pinball Player Rankings as of 1/1/2025. Based on the interest of the top 75, we may extend the invite list additional spots so please monitor the registration page at your leisure. Should you be interested, please send payment to the IFPA as your way of committing to attending the tournament. Should you not be interested, it is equally important that we know, so please send an email to the IFPA stating you will not be available to participate.

Should you have any questions about our qualifying process or to find out more information about the tournament, please contact the IFPA at ifpapinball@gmail.com.

Three of the 80 spots will also be available for the highest ranked finisher not already in the IFPA field. One is reserved for the 2024-25 IFPA North American Pinball Championship, one is reserved for the 2024-25 IFPA European Pinball Championship and one is reserved for the 2024 IFPA Women’s World Pinball Championship.