06/27/2022 - Pinball Statistics Power Rankings

Written By Tim Sexton - Pinball Developer

Today, I am publishing the first ever pinball power rankings list. I hope to publish these weekly, with changes highlighted and a little bit of discussion.

The pinball power rankings factor in 5 statistics: IFPA Rank, IFPA Rating, IFPA Eff percent, IFPA Power 100 Win percentage, and Match Play Ratings. Only the top 250 players in the IFPA rankings are compared, since IFPA Power 100 data is only available for those players. Of the 250 players analyzied, only the top 100 players are shown in the Pinball Statistics Power Rankings each week. You can read more about the statistics used in the Pinball Statistics Power Rankings here.

Since this is my first update, I am not able to talk about who has moved up or down from last week. In future weeks, a player’s name will be accompanied by a stat that shows how much they have moved up or down the rankings since the previous week. I’ll also provide some commentary on a few of the players each week. This week, let’s look at the inaugural Pinball Statistics Power Rankings top 10.

1st. Escher Lefkoff

Putting Escher up at #1 is unlikely to be controversial. Escher cemented his reputation as one of the greatest players in the game when he became the youngest player to win the PAPA 20 World Pinball Championships in April 2017 at age 13. Since the IFPA resumed sanctioning pinball tournaments in August 2021, Escher has played some exceptionally efficient pinball, highlighted by his victories at Pinball Expo 2021, INDISC 2022 Classics II, and the D82 Great Lakes Pinball Open 2022 Main Event. Notably, Escher recently took the coveted spot of #1 in the IFPA World Pinball Player Rankings (WPPR) after his elite performances at the IFPA17 World Pinball Championships in Fort Myers, Florida and the District 82 Triple Flip Open in De Pere, Wisconsin.

2nd. Johannes Ostermeier

Had the Pinball Statistics Power Rankings existed prior to today, the story I would be writing here would likely be about Johannes’ vault up into 2nd place. Prior to the 2022 IFPA Pinball Olympics at Bulls & Balls in Fulda, Hesse, Johannes had not played in 20 pinball tournaments over the past 3 years. Johannes exceeded performance expectations when he dominated the field of over 120 players with an average finishing placement of 2.83 in 6 of the 7 events he competed in.

3rd. Eric Stone

Anybody who had to pick the number 1 player in pinball right now would certainly have to consider putting Eric Stone in that spot given that he is the current IFPA World Pinball Champion. This is where I step in, not to apologize for putting him in 3rd, but to explain that I deliberately tried to design the Pinball Statistics Power Rankings to take into account how often a player is playing. My goal with the power rankings is to rank how much of a force a player is in pinball right now. While Eric’s performances have been dominant at tournaments he has been to, he did not have the opportunity to follow up his The Open 2020 championship win this year, and has not been able to battle it out at any of the WPPR farms that have sprouted up across North America and Europe. However, we can look for Eric to make a run for the top of the power rankings in late July after YEGPIN.

4th. Raymond Davidson

If Pinball Statistics Power Rankings had been keeping data in 2021 and 2022, Raymond likely would have held the #1 spot for a long time. Since Raymond’s dominant double-header victory at the Texas Pinball Festival, winning both Main and Classics events, he has not played with quite the same efficiency. Raymond’s 3rd place at Pintastic New England was a solid finish, but it unlikely to move him up the power rankings because the event was won by one of the hottest players in competitive pinball right now, who is none other than

5th. Jason Zahler

If you have competed anywhere in the Northeast megalopolis over the past decade, Jason Zahler’s recent dominance at pinball tournaments is likely no surprise to you. Jason has been a strong pinball player since he was able to show how old he was just by holding up his fingers. Coming out of the COVID-19 pinball hiatus, however, Jason has been nearly unstoppable, winning a majority of the events at the Delaware Pinball Collective farm weekend and both the Allentown and Pintastic show Stern Pro Circuit tournaments.

6th. Keith Elwin

Let’s say you’re reading this because you happen to be one of the tens of thousands of handsome, intelligent, and effortlessly cool sports analytic blog readers with an unquenchable thirst for as much sports analytics and commentary as you can get your eyeballs on, but this is your first encounter with Competitive Pinball analytics. If this describes you, the first player you want to learn about is Keith Elwin. He is not only the winningest player of all time in terms of major championship victories, but also a professional pinball game designer at Stern Pinball. Recently, his concession to Escher Lefkoff in Game 9 of the IFPA World Pinball Championships quarterfinals spawned an 8 page (and counting) thread over on Pinside.

7th. Jared August

Jared has been playing really, really good pinball for a few years. He appears to have come out of the time vortex that was the 16-month hiatus from competitive pinball due to the COVID-19 pandemic without missing a beat. Currently ranked 4th in the world, Jared has only finished outside the top 10 in 3 events he has competed in this calendar year.

8th. Cayle George

10 years ago, Cayle George probably would have been in the Pinball Statistics Power Rankings top 10. In 10 years, Cayle will probably be in the Pinball Statistics Power Rankings top 10. In the past 12 years, Cayle has spent the vast majority of that time ranked in the top 10 in the world. He plays a lot of pinball, and he plays it well.

Cayle's Historical IFPA Ranking

Cayle George’s IFPA WPPR Rank over time. Retrieved from the IFPA Companion App

9th. Daniele Celestino Acciari

Daniele joins Johannes as the only European players to make this week’s Pinball Statistics Power Rankings top 10. There is no doubt to anybody who has seen Daniele play that he is one of the best in the game right now. Things are just starting to kick into high gear again for the European players, who have suffered from a slower start to farm season this year, as well as a lack of major events including EPC and IFPA’s European rotation.

10th. Stephen Prusa

I expect this to be the most controversial inclusion in the Pinball Statistics Power Rankings top 10 this week. Believe me, I was surprised to see his name all the way up here when he is currently ranked #88 in the world. He does, however, have some of the most impressive statistics of any pinball player with 105 1st place finishes out of a total of 272 total events played. Stephen excels in 3 of the 5 components that factor into the power rankings.

  • IFPA Rating Lower Bound - 2004.13 (4th)

  • IFPA Eff percent - 69.570 (4th)

  • Match Play Ratings Lower Bound - 1828 (4th)

Now, I have no idea what Stephen has planned for upcoming pinball tournaments this year, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the player base at Kidforce was ready for him to swing for the fences at some of the bigger tournaments on the circuit. If I may, I’d love to recommend a trip this August to the New York City Pinball Championships in Brooklyn, NY featuring:

  • 3 IFPA Certified pinball tournaments.

  • Large selection of games on Free Play.

  • Tons of food, beverage, and shopping options on site.

  • Pinball seminars, live podcasts, and live entertainment.

  • and a whole lot of fun!

Tickets are on sale now at Eventbrite - NYC Pinball Championships 2022. Register for the tournament before June 30th to receive a $10 discount PLUS 5 free entries that can be used for any of the tournament games.

06/27/2022 - Pinball Statistics Power Rankings

  1. Escher Lefkoff

  2. Johannes Ostermeier

  3. Eric Stone

  4. Raymond Davidson

  5. Jason Zahler

  6. Keith Elwin

  7. Jared August

  8. Cayle George

  9. Daniele Celestino Acciari

  10. Stephen Prusa

  11. Bowen Kerins

  12. Aleksander Kaczmarczyk

  13. Colin Urban

  14. Colin MacAlpine

  15. John Delzoppo

  16. Walt Wood

  17. Zach McCarthy

  18. Dalton Ely

  19. Julio Vicario Soriano

  20. Andy Rosa

  21. Paul Englert

  22. Robert Sutter

  23. Flavio Baddaria

  24. Gabor Solymosi

  25. Germain Mariolle

  26. Jim Belsito

  27. Peter Andersen

  28. Arvid Flygare

  29. Phil Grimaldi

  30. Markus Stix

  31. Jason Lambert

  32. Carlos Delaserda

  33. Karl DeAngelo

  34. Andrei Massenkoff

  35. David Riel

  36. Jason Werdrick

  37. Derek Price

  38. Marcus Hugosson

  39. Robert Byers

  40. Andrew Foster

  41. Roberto Pedroni

  42. Nico Wicke

  43. Drew Cedolia

  44. Viggo Löwgren

  45. John Miller MO

  46. Josh Sharpe

  47. Neil Graf

  48. Steven Bowden

  49. David Daluga

  50. Andy Bagwell

  51. Robert Gagno

  52. Will McKinney

  53. Alberto Santana

  54. Joe Lemire

  55. Travis Murie

  56. Adam Becker

  57. Elliott Keith

  58. Emil ED Dreiborg

  59. Markus Virtanen

  60. Franck Bona

  61. Zach Sharpe

  62. Paul Jongma

  63. Dave Hubbard

  64. Mats Runsten

  65. Luke Nahorniak

  66. Lewis Bevans

  67. Tim Sexton

  68. Timothy Street

  69. Jonas Valström

  70. Phil Birnbaum

  71. Lonnie Langford

  72. Anthony Lambos Jr

  73. Jesse Baker

  74. Trent Augenstein

  75. Adam McKinnie

  76. Jordan Semrow

  77. David Peck

  78. Johnny Modica

  79. Tobias Wagemann

  80. Alex Harmon

  81. Mark Pearson

  82. Donavan Stepp

  83. Billy Brown III

  84. John Shopple

  85. Bill Mason

  86. Derek Thomson

  87. Olli-Mikko Ojamies

  88. Jörgen Holm

  89. Jack Tadman

  90. James Scott OH

  91. Keri Wing

  92. Sean Davis

  93. Reidar Spets

  94. Levente Tregova

  95. Brian O'Neill NH

  96. Tom Graf

  97. Matthew Stacks

  98. Jerry Bernard

  99. Danielle Peck

  100. Roland Nadeau

Tim Sexton - Pinball Developer
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Introduction to the Pinball Statistics Power Rankings