# 2025-26 IFPA North American Championship Series – Registration is OPEN!

**Source:** IFPA  
**Type:** article  
**Published:** 2026-01-03  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.ifpapinball.com/2025-26-ifpa-north-american-championship-series-registration-is-open/

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## Analysis

IFPA opens registration for the 2025-26 North American Championship Series (NACS), with 49 US state finals plus Washington DC and 8 Canadian province finals scheduled for January 17, 2026. The Women's NACS follows on January 18, 2026, with 1200 and 896 finalists respectively competing for ~$186,000 in combined prize pools and spots in continental championships.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] 49 IFPA State Championship finals plus Washington DC will be held on January 17, 2026 — _Official IFPA announcement by Josh Sharpe_
- [HIGH] 1200 finalists will compete in NACS for nearly $170,000 in cash prizes — _Official IFPA announcement_
- [HIGH] IFPA Women's NACS will have 896 finalists competing for over $16,000 in cash on January 18, 2026 — _Official IFPA announcement_
- [HIGH] Registration closes January 7, 2026 at 8pm CST for both NACS and WNACS — _Official IFPA announcement_
- [HIGH] Players cannot compete in multiple IFPA State/Provincial Championships and must choose during registration — _Official IFPA announcement_

### Notable Quotes

> "Qualifying results for the 2025-26 IFPA North American Championship Series are still coming in, but we wanted to take the opportunity to open up registration in advance to give players more time to respond to their invitations."
> — **Josh Sharpe**, January 03, 2026
> _Explains the rationale for opening registration before all qualifying results are finalized_

> "This will mean that many states/provinces will go far past the top 16 players in order to fill all 16 spots (or 24 players for any Super State/Province)."
> — **IFPA**, January 03, 2026
> _Indicates that player selection rules for states/provinces will require deeper qualification due to multi-state qualified players choosing single entries_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| IFPA | organization | International Flipper Pinball Association; organizing the 2025-26 North American Championship Series |
| Josh Sharpe | person | IFPA official who posted the announcement on January 3, 2026 |
| North American Championship Series (NACS) | event | IFPA competitive tournament with state/provincial finals scheduled for January 17, 2026 |
| Women's North American Championship Series (WNACS) | event | IFPA women's competitive tournament scheduled for January 18, 2026 |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Competitive tournament structure and logistics, IFPA player registration and eligibility
- **Secondary:** Prize pools and financial structure, State/Provincial championship representation

### Sentiment

**Neutral** (0) — Official announcement with procedural information; no subjective tone or community reaction present

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** Established IFPA infrastructure supporting continental-scale competitive pinball circuit with gender-inclusive divisions (confidence: high) — Separate WNACS with 896 finalists and dedicated prize pool ($16,000+) indicating mature competitive structure for women players
- **[event_signal]** IFPA announces major competitive pinball tournament structure with 2,096 total finalists competing across 49 US states, DC, and 8 Canadian provinces on January 17-18, 2026 (confidence: high) — Official IFPA announcement specifying exact player counts, prize pools (~$186,000 combined), and simultaneous national championship finals dates

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## Transcript

2025-26 IFPA North American Championship Series – Registration is OPEN! Posted By Josh Sharpe, on January 03, 2026 ![](https://www.ifpapinball.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/nacs.jpg) Qualifying results for the 2025-26 IFPA North American Championship Series are still coming in, but we wanted to take the opportunity to open up registration in advance to give players more time to respond to their invitations. There will be 49 different IFPA State Championship finals (plus Washington DC) along with 8 different Province finals in Canada. These finals will all be held simultaneously on January 17th, 2026, with 1200 finalists competing for their share of nearly $170,000 in cash, a State or Provincial title, along with a spot in the IFPA North American Pinball Championship. The IFPA Women’s North American Championship Series will be held January 18th, 2026, with 896 finalists competing for their share of over $16,000 Women’s North American Pinball Championship. View the live NACS registration page HERE. The WNACS registration page is available HERE. IFPA State/Provincial Representatives should be sending out emails shortly, although most have already done so with our short registration period. It is important to note that if you do not have a registered IFPA player account, you are INELIGIBLE to participate. If you feel you should have received an invitation to one of the IFPA State Championships and did not, contact the IFPA immediately at ifpapinball@gmail.com, or click HERE to register your profile. Registration closes on January 7th at 8pm CST for both the NACS and WNACS. Any player that has not accepted their invitation by that time will be ineligible to participate. Remember that no player is allowed to compete in multiple IFPA State/Provincial Championships. Players that qualify for more than one IFPA State/Provincial Championship will have to make their choice during this open period of registration. This will mean that many states/provinces will go far past the top 16 players in order to fill all 16 spots (or 24 players for any Super State/Province). Any questions about the NACS, or anything IFPA related, please contact us at ifpapinball@gmail.com. Comments Closed Comments are closed.

_(Acquisition: web_scrape, Enrichment: v1)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: e49b734c-65d8-45a7-b376-379da4f45396*