Welcome to the 2024 IFPA Women’s North American Championship Series!
Below you will find information about qualifying and the state championship to be held in 2025.
The IFPA Women’s North American Championship Series is an annual pinball competition with players qualifying throughout the entire calendar year.
The top 8 ranked players based on open events and the top 8 ranked players based on women’s-only events will be invited to play in the state championship. The tournament will be a head-to-head, single elimination bracket with best-of-seven matches.
Tournament date: Sunday, January 19, 2025
Location: What’s Brewing in San Antonio, TX (138 W. Rhapsody Dr., San Antonio, TX 78216)
Time: TBD
Entry fee: $20 per player plus coin drop
Information
This page includes information regarding qualifying and the championship format for Texas. This year, the winner of each women’s state/provincial championship will be invited to participate in the Women’s North American Championship, to be held at Wizard’s World Arcade in Fort Wayne, IN, on March 22, 2024. If the winner cannot attend, the runner-up will be invited to participate. The weekend of March 22-24th will include the Women’s North American Championship and the Women’s World Championship, as well as satellite events, to ensure there are plenty of opportunities to compete throughout the weekend.
Texas Women’s Standings for Open Events
Texas Women’s Standings for Women’s Events
Texas IFPA Women’s Representative
Elizabeth Dronet – bellesandchimeshouston@gmail.com
WNACS Official Rules (2024)
2024 Women’s North American Championship Series
WNACS Official Rules (2024)
I. Quick Overview
The IFPA Women’s North American Championship Series is an annual pinball competition with players qualifying throughout the entire calendar year. Included in the WNACS are the IFPA Women’s State Championship Series in the United States and IFPA Women’s Provincial Championship Series in Canada; anyone with interest in running the IFPA Women’s District Championship Series in Washington, D.C., should reach out to the IFPA directly. At the end of each calendar year, the top 8 ranked players with the most WPPR points based on open events and the top 8 ranked players with the most WWPPR points based on women’s-only events will qualify for the playoffs, where they will compete for the title of IFPA State/Province/District Champion within that area.
From there, these champions will be invited to compete in the IFPA Women’s North American Pinball Championship, details about which can be found below. Any mentions of “state championship” below are intended to include provincial and district championships as well.
II. Competition Details
- How to qualify
Unlike most tournaments where the qualification process takes place over a couple of days at the tournament site, qualifying for the IFPA Women’s State Championship Series is based on results from all the IFPA-endorsed tournaments held throughout the year in each eligible state. Utilizing its World Pinball Player Rankings and Women’s World Pinball Player Rankings, the IFPA will be tracking results based on where those IFPA-endorsed tournaments are held, maintaining separate state rankings made up of those filtered results. Qualifying will be based on two sets of standings: performance in open events and performance in women’s-only events, with 8 qualifiers coming from each standings. If fewer than two women’s-only events are held in a state in a given calendar year, only the top 8 women based on open event performance will qualify for the Women’s State Championship that year.
For example, the open side of the Oregon State Rankings will be made up of IFPA-endorsed tournaments and leagues such as Emerald City Pinball League, Pinball Knights Weeklies, and the Northwest Oh-Pin. The women’s-only side of the Oregon State Rankings will be made up of IFPA-endorsed events such as Battle of the Belles, Next Level’s International Women’s Day Tourney, and Gator Queens. The top 16 players that earn the most ranking points based only on these subsets of events (8 from the open side and 8 from the women’s-only side) will qualify for the IFPA Oregon Women’s State Championship. Similar to the World Pinball Player Rankings, only a player’s 20 best events of a given type within that state will count towards their standing in each subset.
No player will be eligible to play in more than one IFPA Women’s State Championship, so it is likely that the IFPA will have to move down the state rankings list to find 16 eligible qualifiers to participate in the Women’s State Championship. It is possible to qualify for an IFPA Women’s State Championship within a state that player does not live in, and it is even possible for players that live outside of the country to qualify for an IFPA Women’s State Championship should they earn enough WPPR points within a state to qualify.
The IFPA requires that all players have a registered account to be eligible to compete in the IFPA Women’s North American Championship Series. It is the player’s responsibility to make sure they have a registered account, or they run the risk of not having an email address on file with the IFPA to be contacted for participation in any State Championships they are qualified for. Please register your IFPA profile to ensure we have a way to contact you. If you see a green check within your profile information on your IFPA profile page, it means we do have a registered email address on file for you.
Unlike the North American State Championship Series, there are no Super States with an expanded field of qualifiers at this time.
- Fees
An endorsement fee of $1 per player, per event will now be required for women’s events to be endorsed by the IFPA and award WWPPR points within the United States, Canada, and Washington, D.C.
Tournament Directors are responsible for submitting payment to IFPA after results are approved. WWPPR points will not be posted until payment has been received by the IFPA.
The fees collected will be allocated to the prize pool of that state (65%) and prize pool of the Women’s North American Championship (25%), with 10% of the fees being withheld to cover processing fees related to those payments. Please note for Canadian provinces the endorsement fee will be paid in CAD; however, the funding for the Women’s North American Championship will be based on the USD total.
In addition to the prize pool funded by IFPA sanctioning fees, there will be a $20 entry fee per participant for each Women’s State Championship and the Women’s North American Championship event.
Consult the section “Format of Matches: Winners” below for payout structure details.
III. Format of Matches
- Seeding of finalists
Players who qualify based on their women’s-only event performance will be assigned odd seeds, and players who qualify based on their open event performance will be assigned even seeds. Players who qualify via both types of events will not be locked into a specific side of the rankings until all participants have been finalized, at which point they will be assigned the higher of the seeds they achieved. Seedings should be updated whenever changes to the committed participant field occur up until the event begins.
In the event that organizers/tournament directors have exhausted all potential qualifiers from one subset of the qualifying standings, they may draw from qualified players on the other set of standings. (Note: This applies only for the regions that are eligible for a 16-player championship. Regions without a sufficient number of women’s events will continue to draw 8 participants from the open rankings.)
In the event that any qualified players are tied with the same amount of In-State W/WPPR points on either side of the standings, we will look at the overall W/WPPR rank of those players as of the end of that calendar year to determine seeding. Any players tied on the qualifying bubble with the same State ranking position will result in a play-in tiebreaker game to determine who joins the field of finalists for the State Championship. Game and position will be pulled at random by the TD.
- Machines Chosen
With each IFPA Women’s State Championship being held at a different location, each will have a different set of games available for the tournament. Please check with the IFPA Women’s State Representative for details on the game list once the location has been finalized for that particular IFPA Women’s State Championship.
- Head-to-Head Single-Elimination Format
Players will be placed in a single-elimination bracket once the seedings have been completed.
First-round pairings for events with 16 qualifiers are as follows:
1 vs. 16, 2 vs. 15, 3 vs. 14, 4 vs. 13,
5 vs. 12, 6 vs. 11, 7 vs. 10, 8 vs. 9
Second-round pairings are as follows:
1/16 winner vs. 8/9 winner, 2/15 winner vs. 7/10 winner,
3/14 winner vs. 6/11 winner, 4/13 winner vs. 5/12 winner
Third-round pairings are as follows:
1/8/9/16 winner vs. 4/5/12/13 winner,
2/7/10/15 winner vs. 3/6/11/14 winner
Fourth-round pairing are as follows:
Two winners of round 3 play for the State Championship
Two losers of round 3 play in the Consolation Final for 3rd/4th place.
Each match will be a race to 4 wins (unless a match is tied 3-3 after 6 games where a sudden death tiebreaker will be played – see below). At the start of the match each player will choose an “OLD,” “MID,” and “NEW” machine. The lower-seeded player will choose the first machine, followed by the higher-seeded player choosing the second machine. This picking order will continue until all 6 games have been chosen. A machine may not be picked more than once in the same match. Once a player verbally makes any choice regarding machine or position, they are locked into that decision. Please note that State Reps have the authority to not have an era breakdown for the event, in which case the choices of each player at the start of the match will be from the entire field of available machines.
The higher seed will first choose whether they want to start on one of their own choices, or one of the lower seed’s choices. If the higher seed wants to start with one of the lower seed’s choices, the lower seed will then select which of their three chosen machines they want to start with. Choice of position will be based on who originally selected the machine before the match started. The player that did not have the machine as a part of their three choices will have choice of position on that particular machine. The match will alternate between machines chosen by each player until all 6 games are completed. Should a player reach 4 wins before all 6 games are completed, no further games should be played. If the higher-seeded player chooses to start on one of their machine choices, they will choose game number 1, 3 and 5 in the match (from their 3 picks). The lower-seeded player would then be choosing game number 2, 4 and 6 in the match (from their 3 picks).
Should the match be tied after these 6 games, the match will move to “Sudden Death.” This will be a single game where any of the remaining machines are available to be chosen. The higher-seeded player will have choice of machine or position for this “Sudden Death” game.
Each player will have the opportunity for 30 seconds of practice time before starting every game of every match. This is to ensure that both players have a chance to get familiar with the machine.
The winner of the match advances to the next round, while the loser is eliminated.
The 3rd/4th place Consolation Final will be played as a best-of-three instead of a best-of-seven, using the same rules. It is up to the IFPA State Representative as to whether matches will be played out to determine 5th through 16th place.
- Winners
Winners will receive cash prizes as cash or check during an awards ceremony shortly following the conclusion of all final rounds. Winners need not be present to receive prizes; prizes will be supplied via postal mail if necessary. All taxes are the sole responsibility of winners. Certain tax forms may need to be completed, as directed by tournament officials. All decisions by tournament officials regarding winners and prizes are final.
Any state with 16 finalists will have the following payout structure:
1st place – 30% of the prize pool
2nd place – 18% of the prize pool
3rd place – 12% of the prize pool
4th place – 8% of the prize pool
5th through 8th place – 4% of the prize pool each
9th through 16th place – 2% of the prize pool each
First Place will also receive the title “IFPA Women’s State Pinball Champion” for the state being contested. For example, the winner of the IFPA Illinois State Women’s Championship will receive the title of “IFPA Illinois Women’s State Pinball Champion.” This title remains in effect until the next annual IFPA Women’s State Championship Series, or will expire after two years if the IFPA Women’s State Championship Series is discontinued.
IV. Rulings and Malfunctions
All rulings and malfunctions will be based on the rules for the IFPA/PAPA unified ruleset, available HERE.
V. IFPA Women’s North American Championship
As part of the prize package for each IFPA Women’s State Championship, each IFPA Women’s State Champion will win entry into the IFPA Women’s North American Pinball Championship. If the IFPA Women’s State Champion is unable to attend the IFPA Women’s North American Pinball Championship, the runner-up at the Women’s State Championship will be allowed to participate and serve as the representative of that state.
The IFPA Women’s North American Pinball Championship will be held on Friday, March 28, 2025 at Port City Pinball in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Please see the Women’s North American Pinball Championship event page for additional details on the format and prizes.