When: Saturday, December 20th, 2025
Where: Two Cousins Pinball - 9360 River Road, Marcy NY 13403
Open Play Hours: 3:00pm until 11:00pm
Purpose: To celebrate the Holidays with a fun, and free Stern Army Competition, that drives not only the Stern Insider Connected platform, but develops and grows the pinball community as a whole. All skill levels are welcome!
Stern Army Tournament Qualifying Hours: 4:00pm until 7:00pm
Festivus Feats of Strength Semi-Finals & Finals: Semi-Finals begin at 7:30pm and Finals expected to begin at 8:30pm
Entry Fee: To be eligible to compete in the Tournament, the Unlimited Play Admission of $25 is required. For our First Stern Army IFPA Tournament there will be no additional fees.
Happy Festivus: Two Cousins Pinball will provide complimentary Festivus sweets. Any Airing of Grievances can ONLY be pinball related.
NOTE - Per IFPA rules, only the Semi-Finalists and the Finalists will be counted for official IFPA results. IFPA does NOT allow any unverified play (non-team or non head-to-head competition) to be included in the standings.
● Players who purchase an Unlimited Play Admission on December 20th can register for the Tournament at the PinHall desk with Matt or Kevin. For player scores to Qualify, each player must have a Stern Insider Connected account, which can be created at the time of registration for those who do not have one. On the tournament registration the player must list their Insider Connected profile, real name, IFPA #, contact email and phone number. Any non-IFPA members can have their information submitted on behalf of 2CP, to get an IFPA # assigned.
● Tournament play will begin starting at 4:00pm and Qualifying up until 7:00pm. Players can register at the PinHall desk anytime as long as Qualified play is completed by 7:00pm.
● Four (4) Insider Connected Stern Pinball machines will be selected for the tournament and will be labeled beginning at 4:00pm, which will only be available for Tournament players.
● All players have as many attempts at each game as they would like, up until 7:00pm. Each competitor is responsible for making their turn known to anyone currently playing a tournament pinball machine, by simply waiting patiently behind the current pinball player. When a player has finished their game, they must allow the person behind them to play next. This “next player” conduct is expected to occur for everyone waiting in line.
● For just this one day, for the 4 pinball machines selected, the Top 10 Insider Connected scorers on each game will be displayed within the PinHall. At the end of Qualifying (7:00pm), the Insider Connected scores for each player listed in the Top 10, across all 4 games, will be added together to determine their COMBINED scores. The Top 8 players enter the Festivus Feats of Strength Semi-Finals.
○ Example of Scoring: If one player has a top 10 score on one game of 4 billion, and no one else’s combined scores beat that one score, that person is the Top Finalist. However, if another player has scores listed in the top 10 amongst all 4 games, and that player's combined scores are greater than the single player score of 4 billion, that player will be the Top Finalist. The same scoring will be used to determine positions 2 thru 8.
● For each game played, only the Top 10 scores are listed. No player will be listed in the top 10 more than once on each game.
● Qualifying ends promptly at 7:00 PM, allowing time for the scores to be tallied, the Semi-Finalists determined, with Semi-Final play beginningat 7:30 PM.
● Festivus Feats of Strength Semi-Finals & Finals
○ Semi-Finals will begin at 7:30pm. The Semi-Finalists will play 3 of the4 designated tournament games, using the 4-player group match play format, with Pinburg 3/2/1/0 scoring. Each player's combined Insider Connectedscores will be correlated to the proper Pinburg 3/2/1/0 points for IFPA standings (The player with the highest combined score will be awarded 3 points, the second highest combined score receive 2 points, and so on).
○ Finals are anticipated to begin at 8:30pm. The Top 4 Finalists from the Semi-Finals will then play 3 of the 4 designated pinball machines, again using the same Insider Connected combined scores to establish the Pinburg 3/2/1/0 ranking scores to determine the final winning positions.
○ Prizes- The 4 players from the Finals round will receive prizes based on the Finals winning positions. 1stplace will receive a Stern Translite and 2nd, 3rd, & 4th places will each receive a gift card.