Editing Pinball (section)

==Competitions==
Two Pinball World Championships were held in the [[Washington, D.C.]] area in 1972 and 1973 under the auspices of the World Pinball Association which also published a newsletter carrying results of regional tournaments.

In 1974, students at [[New Jersey City University|Jersey City State College]] wanted to make pinball playing a varsity school sport, like [[American football|football]] was, so they started a Pinball Club Team to compete against clubs at other schools. They asked two other schools to participate. [[Saint Peter's University|St. Peter's College]] took up the challenge, while the other school did not.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://faculty.njcu.edu/Jvelasco/Documents/NJCU_Pinball_Wizards_1974.pdf |title=Article about the Jersey City State College pinball club |access-date=October 27, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120514004141/http://faculty.njcu.edu/Jvelasco/Documents/NJCU_Pinball_Wizards_1974.pdf |archive-date=May 14, 2012 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

Many pinball leagues have formed, with varying levels of competitiveness, formality and structure. These leagues exist everywhere from the Free State Pinball Association (FSPA) in the Washington, D.C. area to the Tokyo Pinball Organization (TPO) in Japan. In the late 1990s, game manufacturers added messages to some games encouraging players to join a local league, providing website addresses for prospective league players to investigate.

Competitive pinball has become increasingly popular in recent years, with the relaunch of both the [[Professional and Amateur Pinball Association]] (PAPA) and the International Flipper Pinball Association (IFPA).

Two different systems for ranking pinball players exist. The World Pinball Player Rankings (WPPR) was created by the IFPA. The WPPR formula takes into account the quantity and quality of the players in the field, and awards points based on that calculation for the nearly 200 IFPA endorsed events worldwide. PAPA manages a ranking system known as the PAPA Advanced Rating System (PARS), which uses the [[Glicko Rating System]] to mathematically analyze the results of more than 100,000 competitive matches. Since 2008 the IFPA has held a World Championship tournament, inviting the top-ranked WPPR players to compete; the 2019 title holder was Johannes Ostermeier of Germany.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ifpapinball.com/ifpa16/results |title=International Flipper Pinball Association |publisher=Ifpapinball.com |date=June 9, 2019 |access-date=August 24, 2019}}</ref>

PAPA also designates the winner of the A Division in the annual PAPA World Pinball Championships as the World Pinball Champion. Current Junior (16 and under) and Senior (50 and over) World Champions are Joshua Henderson and Paul McGlone, respectively. Samuel Ogden has become one of the most memorable champions in the PAPA tournaments, winning four straight competitions from 2004 to 2008 in the 50 and over category.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://papa.org/|title=PAPA.ORG – The Professional & Amateur Pinball Association|website=papa.org|language=en|access-date=March 2, 2017}}</ref>

In 2018, the IFPA and Stern Pinball created the Stern Pro Circuit. The top 32 qualifiers in this series are invited to the Stern Pro Circuit Final for an invitation-only, no-entry-fee-required event where all contestants who qualify win prize money.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Stern Pro Circuit |url=https://www.ifpapinball.com/circuit/ |access-date=2023-04-02 |language=en-US}}</ref>

The popularity of competitive pinball continues to increase with widely adopted tournament rules,<ref>{{Cite web |title=PAPA/IFPA Tournament Rules |url=https://www.ifpapinball.com/rules/ |access-date=2023-04-02 |language=en-US}}</ref> standard competition formats<ref>{{Cite web |title=Match Play Ratings {{!}} Match Play Events Handbook |url=https://matchplay.events/handbook/match-play-ratings |access-date=2023-04-02 |website=matchplay.events |language=en}}</ref> and guides for new players.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Competitive Pinball 101: Complete Guide to Tournaments |url=https://www.pinballtn.com/guides/competitive-pinball-101/ |access-date=2023-04-02 |website=Pinball Tennessee |language=en-US}}</ref>