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The 2016/17 International Flipper Pinball Association (IFPA) Australian Championship Series (ACS) final will be held in Melbourne on February 11 and 12! Australasia’s top 32 ranked pinball wizards will face off for the ultimate crown!

With most of the Australian eastern states represented and a solitary New Zealander, the competition is guaranteed to be flipping hot! Number one contender is the young gun, Jordan Tredaway. Jordan has had another stellar year winning competitions or being in the top 4, which makes him the one to beat. Looking at the table of the top 32 players, any one of these wizards is capable of carrying away the crown. We will be covering the event, with live social media commentary and updates, so make sure you follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Bring on February 11 and 12!

Young gun, Jordan Tredaway will be the one to beat

The Pinball Wizard himself, Wal Dickie – we bet he’ll shake things up!

Johnny Crabtree will be tough wizard to beat

The dynamic pinball duo, Nick Hamhougias and Martin Robbins

Dr. C (Stacey Borg), will be flippin’ with precision!

For those of you that want to know more about the IFPA Australian Championship Series and it’s finals competition rules, here you go:

The IFPA Australian Championship Series (ACS) is an annual pinball competition where the qualification is done over an entire calendar year. Results of all IFPA-endorsed tournaments held in Australia count towards qualification. The top 32 players at the end of the calendar year are invited to compete in the IFPA Australian Championship Series Final, held the following February. The winner is crowned IFPA Australian Pinball Champion.

The IFPA ACS final consists of a group stage and a knockout stage. For the group stage, the field of 32 players is split into two pools of 16 players each. Qualifiers ranked 1,4,5,8,9,12,13,16,17,20,21,24,25,28,29,32 are placed in Pool A, and qualifiers ranked 2,3,6,7,10,11,14,15,18,19,22,23,26,27,30,31 in Pool B.

The group stage consists of 5 rounds of 4-player group match play. Each player is grouped with the other 15 players in their pool once each across the 5 rounds. Groups play 3 games in each round: one old, one mid, one new. 7-5-3-1 scoring. The top 7 players from each pool advance to the knockout stage. The winner of each pool receives a bye in the first round of the knockout stage. Players tied for 1st or 7th place in their pool will play a one-game tiebreak match on a randomly selected machine.

The knockout stage consists of head-to-head, single elimination best-of-3 matches until the final, which will be best-of-5.  Players will be seeded according to group stage standings, then ACS qualifying rank. The higher seed in each match will have choice of machine or order for game 1 or 2 (at their discretion), as well as game 3. In the final, the higher seed will have choice or machine or order for any two of games 1 to 4 (at their discretion), as well as game 5. No machine may be played more than once in a match.

If you want to watch Australia’s top pinball players in action, then head to the Thornbury Bowls Club, 27 Ballantyne St, Thornbury on February 11 and 12 (from 10am). It’s a short walk to the High Street cafes, the St Georges Motor Inn, Route 11 and 86 trams, and Thornbury station on the South Morang train line. We can’t wait!