When you start getting involved in pinball competitions, you’re probably going to hear a lot of acronyms and terms that don’t make sense. What’s the IFPA? What do they have to do with tournaments? What’s the difference between sanctioned and non-sanctioned tournaments? And why are people talking about burgers?!
Fear not, these questions and more will be answered.
Who is the IFPA?
According to their website, “The objective of the International Flipper Pinball Association (IFPA) is to serve as the governing body for pinball as a competitive sport, through the sanctioning and organizing of events at the Local, State, National, and International levels.”
Essentially, the IFPA decides what tournament formats can be officially used for tournaments, manage the official calendar, sanction events, distribute WPPRs (we’ll cover that in a bit), and deal with issues in the community as they arise. The IFPA is also responsible for supporting state representatives in organizing State Finals, organizing the North American Championship Series (NACS), organizing the Women’s North American Championship Series (WNACS), the IFPA Women’s World Championship (WWC), and the IFPA World Championship. (They also help to organize several other national-level championship series across the world, but those we just listed are likely the ones most relevant to you.)
There are 13 people who work on a volunteer basis to make sure that things in competitive pinball are running as smoothly as possible. Josh Sharpe (son of Roger Sharpe) is the President of the IFPA. The rest of the IFPA volunteers are country directors, women’s board members, and more. They ensure that competitive pinball functions at a global level and continues to grow.
In addition to the IFPA staff, there are state representatives (open and women’s) and country directors that run things at the local level. In the US, a state representative’s job is to organize and run the state championships.
What is tournament sanctioning?
In order for a tournament to be sanctioned, it must meet the following criteria:
- A Tournament Director (TD) must submit the event to the IFPA calendar at least 30 days in advance of the event
- The tournament must use approved qualifying and finals formats
- The tournament must follow all other IFPA tournament rules, such as publicly posting about the tournament, pre-registration times, and more
Most of the tournaments that you will see on the Utah Pinball Tournament Page are sanctioned tournaments. If they aren’t, they’ll usually say so in the description. Sanctioned tournaments will follow one of the formats we’ve discussed in previous blog posts.
Non-Sanctioned tournaments can also follow those formats, but in Utah they typically involve something a little out of the ordinary: Split flipper teams (where two players play simultaneously, one in charge of each flipper), player disadvantages (playing with lobster claw oven mitts on), trivia questions, and more. These tournaments are just for fun and aren’t counted towards your official rankings.
For real, what are WPPRs?
In every sanctioned tournament, you will earn World Player Pinball Rankings, or WPPRs (pronounced whoppers), that contribute to your state and world ranking. Each tournament is worth a different amount of WPPRs because it is dependent on the format, how many people attend, and a variety of other factors. The better you finish, the more WPPRs you earn.
The WPPRs you earn are then used to calculate your overall IFPA rank, as well as your state rank. Every WPPR you earn contributes to your overall rank, but WPPRs you earn in a specific state only count to your ranking in that state. For example, if you played in a tournament in Colorado while you were on vacation, those WPPRs do not contribute to your Utah rank.
In the US, there are open state rankings and women’s state rankings. These rankings are calculated during the entire calendar year and change every time results are submitted. At the end of the calendar year, your final rank determines if you are eligible to compete in state finals. If you are, your state representative will reach out to you with information.
The hard work the IFPA has put in helps the pinball community continue to grow, and puts a well-deserved spotlight on competitive pinball. If you’re curious about where you stand, you can always check out your IFPA profile and current rankings.