Josh Sharp is a prominent competitive pinball player, tournament organizer, and game designer who has held multiple leadership roles in the pinball industry. He is the son of Roger Sharp (credited with saving pinball) and brother of Zach Sharp, and has served as IFPA director/president overseeing tournament governance and the WPPR ranking system. His roles span competitive play, rules design (including work on Cactus Canyon upgrade kits and Stern game balancing), and industry advocacy, though his authority and decision-making power in tournament sanctioning has drawn criticism.
Josh Sharp, as IFPA President, holds sole voting power over IFPA decisions, making the Women's Advisory Board's recommendations non-binding.
Josh Sharp stripped two parts during installation by over-tightening the back setback hex bolts from the top instead of tightening by hand first and then from the side.
Tournament-balanced games need only two viable strategic choices, not 71 different combinations.
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Josh Sharp scored 813M, placing 6th in Iron Maiden CPE 2025 qualifiers
Josh Sharp is IFPA President
Cactus Canyon was the last WPC game made before the transition to Pinball 2000 with video monitors
The original Cactus Canyon design team intended 'Save Polly' to feature multiple scenarios beyond just the original train bank/waterfall captures
Unused speech lines were recorded in the original Cactus Canyon ROM but never called/implemented in the shipping game
Josh Sharp used his father Roger Sharp's personal contacts to reach original Cactus Canyon team members for design research
Cactus Canyon Remake features Bucking Bronco mode (left orbit), Save Polly train mode (center ramp), Save Polly waterfall mode (left ramp), Save Polly bank heist mode (right ramp), and Trick Shot mode
The Cactus Canyon Remake Limited Edition includes an interactive Boss Bart topper that responds during gameplay
European Pinball Championship presents unique organizational challenges due to rotating locations and organizing teams annually
Josh Sharp's father restricted him and his brother Zach from competing in pinball tournaments as children to preserve the fun aspect
Zach Parks won back-to-back Expo Classics championships
Josh Sharp's son Colin is actively competing in pinball tournaments in 2024
Arvid Flygar and Daniele are the only two known Europeans to win Stern Pro Circuit finals in recent history
Hybrid tournament format balances fairness, skill demonstration, and stress levels better than card-based or unlimited-play formats
Card-based tournament formats increased significantly in 2023-2024 but provide poor player experience due to stress and anxiety
Unique IFPA player count in 2024 exceeded 35,000, up from just under 33,000 in 2023
2024 IFPA tournament events reached 10,206 with two months remaining, on pace to exceed 2023's 10,324 total
Five major pinball tournaments returned in 2024 for the first time ever in IFPA history
Josh Sharp is CFO at Raw Thrills and heavily involved with play mechanics for the company's Pulp Fiction pinball entry
Josh Sharp was removed from the Twippy Committee between November and the content creator award elimination announcement
We Are Pinball is providing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Premium Edition as Open World Championship prize
IFPA has nearly reached 100,000 ranked players
Josh Sharp sent Mark Ritchie 17 emails within 72 hours of learning about the Pulp Fiction project with suggestions and requests for involvement
Approximately $2 million was invested in Pulp Fiction development before final approval from Tarantino
Josh Sharp indicated Pulp Fiction's reveal timing was driven by licensing requirements
Josh Sharp is handling rules for Pulp Fiction
Josh Sharp and his father Roger Sharp negotiated rights to the dormant IFPA name/association to legitimize the rankings project
Josh Sharp failed to qualify for the 2022 World Championship in Germany despite hosting duties due to COVID-era lockdowns limiting his tournament participation
After lockdowns ended, Josh recovered from 200th to top-25 ranking relatively easily due to access to District 82 tournaments and ability to travel
The new WPPR system (5.8+/6.0) will use efficiency percentage scoring to penalize players with excessive tournament play after a 'reasonableness threshold'
Tom will drop significantly in WPPR rankings under the proposed system despite winning at high-value events, due to 870+ total tournament entries diluting his efficiency percentage
Top-ranked players like Escher, Ray Day, and Keith Elwin will not be significantly negatively affected by the new WPPR system because their best 20 results are representative of their overall play quality
Josh Sharp created the WPPR rankings system in February 2006 as a vanity project to determine who was better between himself and Swedish player Jorgen Holm
The original IFPA was founded in the 1990s and became defunct around 1995-1996 as pinball crashed commercially
The proposed ranking changes will allow competitive players with limited geographic access to tournaments (like Adam Becker) to compete fairly against high-volume players
COVID lockdowns in 2020-2021 created ranking anomalies that motivated the overhaul of the ranking system
District 82 tournaments are worth significantly more Whoppers than equivalent placements at smaller venues due to higher quality of competition
The new efficiency metric cannot yet account for opponent strength differences between high-volume and low-volume players, which is a known limitation
Americans have significantly better tournament access and pinball infrastructure than international players, especially compared to the UK scene
Josh Sharp has been competitively playing pinball since age 13 in 1993, giving him 30+ years of tournament experience
Josh Sharp created the IFPA Whopper ranking system in 2006 after negotiating rights to the dormant IFPA name with his father Roger Sharp
The original motivation for the Whopper system was personal vanity/ego to compare himself to international players like Jorgen Schwartz he never competed against
The proposed version 6.0 ranking changes will cap the value of tournament wins beyond a 'reasonableness level' to prevent over-weighting high-volume play
Designing the Pulp Fiction rules was fulfilling a lifelong dream for Josh Sharp
Pulp Fiction pinball comes in three tiers: Limited Edition, Standard Edition (premium), and Operator Edition
The Operator Edition includes a custom coin door that accepts dollar bills
The LE model includes a custom topper, mirror blades, shaker motor, and speaker grills with three logos
Josh Sharp stated the Lyman Sheets code update is nowhere near complete
Modern pinball design has shifted toward prioritizing rules complexity and multiplier stacking over entertainment and story
Tarantino rejected the original backglass artwork (Mia movie poster) and requested Matt Scott design an alternative
The briefcase was the first feature mechanically built into Pulp Fiction pinball
Quentin Tarantino does not carry a cell phone and uses an answering machine for communication
Josh Sharp played double the amount of tournaments compared to average top-1,000 player
Multi-match play time bonus was added in version 5.3 to prevent four-player matches from disappearing
IFPA is a 'really poorly run business' because it doesn't operate for profit
Certified Plus events require 128+ players and receive 150% TGP boost; Regular Certified events have no player minimum and receive 125% boost
Championship series events (states, provincials, nationals) receive 150% boost in 5.8
Colin Sharp (age 11) completed cubing competition with best three-by-three time of 24.78 seconds and finished 106th out of 200 competitors
Maximum event grading percentage expanding from 100% to 200% for 2023
Events with 20+ hours of qualifying and unlimited best game format will have qualifying games counted double in value
Three major tournaments are currently active; Pimberg and Papa would be granted major status if they returned
Josh Sharp and Lyman Sheets collaborated on enhanced code for Cactus Canyon Remake including new Bionic Bart callout mechanics
Lyman Sheets and Josh Sharp laughed hysterically over the 'but not here' mechanic concept
Previous Final Round episode contained inaccurate information about IFPA league policy changes
IFPA World Championship cut line in Italy (2-3 years ago) dropped as low as 59-60 players due to high country delegation attendance
Cactus Canyon code update will take until 2029 or later to release
Supply chain constraints, not speculation, are driving persistent pinball market inflation
Raw Thrills ships 100 games weekly but receives 106 orders, growing backlog by six units per cycle
IFPA sanctioned 2,000 events in 2024 compared to 7,591 in 2019
IFPA attendance reached approximately 44,000 people in 2024 compared to 174,000 in 2019
World Championship is expanding from 64 to 80 players starting in 2023 in Germany
Certified events require minimum 64 rated players with dedicated qualifying and finals structure
Josh Sharp's consulting work across multiple pinball manufacturers is intended to improve the industry overall
Josh Sharp holds multiple NDAs and cannot confirm or deny which manufacturers he consults for
Josh Sharp is known as master of not winning tournaments
Josh Sharp came in second to Jason Wordrick in the previous day's match play event
Josh Sharp is still employed at Raw Thrills and has not joined Chicago Gaming's internal team
Doug Duba conceived and drove the topper integration for the Cactus Canyon Remake
Modern pinball games require designing primarily for broad casual appeal rather than niche competitive players to achieve strong sales
The original Cactus Canyon design document contains numerous unused sound ROM content and unrealized gameplay features
Josh Sharp's relationship with Chicago Gaming Company/Doug Duba goes back approximately 20 years as a vendor at Raw Thrills
The original Cactus Canyon was not finished when it shipped due to the transition to Pinball 2000 and time constraints
The Cactus Canyon Remake will ship as a complete, finished product without incremental code updates
Tom Keve, co-designer of original Cactus Canyon, currently works at Stern Pinball on titles including Game of Thrones, Star Trek, and The Beatles
Matt Correal was the original programmer of Cactus Canyon and was consulted via Zoom for the Remake code design
Rob Berry composed the original Cactus Canyon music and performed voice work; he has volunteered to do new pickups for the Remake
Josh Sharp was involved in the Cactus Canyon Remake project before Lyman Sheets joined
IFPA will implement original 30-day advance sanctioning notice requirement starting August 1; Allentown (end of July) event grandfathered in
IFPA reopening based on 60% of global player base being in areas deemed safe to sanction
COVID exposure occurred at last major IFPA event; participants were notified via email
Josh Sharp's ranking improved by one spot to 47th after Pinball Profile World Tour event at Jack Danger's
All 2021 championship series finals are canceled; 2023 will feature IFPA 18 World Championships instead
The ICR formula is 'so easily exploitable' that a restructure to quarterly qualifying tournaments was necessary.
Mid-tier IFPA players (outside top 100) represent the largest buyer segment for the Stern Rewards program.
Josh Sharp was extremely nervous playing in his first ICR match despite owning one of the games.
64 of 725 ICR participants advanced to playoffs in 2020 season.
IFPA 17 World Championship will likely occur in November 2021 in Fort Myers, Florida.
The IFPA will not mandate masks at tournaments; that decision will be left to tournament directors.
The IFPA will not freeze WPPR decay when the one-year tournament shutdown anniversary arrives in March 2021.
Only two Stern Pro Circuit events occurred in 2020 (InDisc and Pinmasters).
Stern Pinball agreed to allow Stern Rewards program re-qualification for all previously-qualified players despite ranking decay.
Josh Sharp's competitive success is primarily attributable to high tournament participation volume rather than raw skill.
Josh Sharp has attended Free Play Florida for eight years
This is Josh Sharp's last Free Play Florida event
Josh Sharp has attended Free Play Florida for eight or more years
Josh Sharp is the outgoing IFPA President
This is Josh Sharp's last Free Play Florida event attendance
Josh Sharp's house contains approximately 25-30 classic and modern pinball games in great condition
Only 10.6% of North American IFPA-affiliated states/provinces have sanctioned tournaments; 27% of the global player base outside North America is cleared to resume play
ICR has over 500 players and approximately 8,000 matches completed in two months, with new players being added daily
Josh Sharp consulted on American Pinball's Hot Wheels, primarily on rules and playfield design, working with American Pinball team
Lyman designed Elvira, House of Horrors with shot-setup and cash-out mechanics enabling players to accumulate exponentially high scores independent of total play time
IFPA will not sanction small tournaments (3-10 players) during COVID because it breaks the competitive pyramid structure (state/provincial/national/world finals) necessary for WPPR points to have meaning
Josh Sharp has four second-place finishes at Papa World Championships, creating long-standing championship disappointment despite competitive success
Zach Sharp achieved approximately $400 million on The Simpsons Pinball Party under tournament (league) settings at Keith's house
IFPA suspended tournament endorsement during COVID-19 to relieve decision-making pressure on tournament directors
Josh Sharp is a frequent contributor to TiltForms 2 pinball rules forum
The 2019 Pin-Masters tournament start time was changed to 9:00 a.m. due to Saturday evening party considerations
Raw Thrills TMNT arcade reached 1,000 units sold faster than any other Raw Thrills title
Josh Sharp contacted Stern's Jody Dankberg to recommend TMNT pinball license based on arcade success
If IFPA 17 is postponed, moving it to conjunction with Free Play Florida timing would be beneficial to attendance
IFPA will suspend event sanctioning through end of March 2020 with potential extension based on CDC/WHO guidance
Stern Pro Circuit events will not assess zero points for 2020 calendar year if missed; missed events receive hall pass to 2021
IFPA 17 (end of May, Fort Myers) has not been canceled but contingency plans are being discussed
IFPA rankings system will decay to zero over three years of inactivity if no events are run
Some pinball players attempted to gain ranking advantage by playing tournaments while others were suspended
Tournament organizers received highest volume of positive feedback when IFPA made the suspension decision for them
Stern Army program encompasses approximately 200 location-based pinball venues globally
Josh Sharp will personally bet IFPA 17 will be canceled based on pandemic trend of 30% daily growth in diagnoses
Josh Sharp (competitive player) does not use shaker motors on his machines
Carl D'Angelo's quality focus on InDisc details sometimes exceeds operational necessity
2024 was Josh Sharp's worst year of competitive pinball play ever
The Stern Pro Circuit field reduction from 40 to 20 was the primary driver of increased attendance at 2024 circuit events
The IFPA Open at InDisc will offer a prize package over $10,000 for the winner, including a new Stern in Box game plus $5,000 cash
Adam Becker had 98+ pending IFPA-related emails and is managing unsustainable administrative workload
In December alone, Washington state had 48 pending IFPA tournament events awaiting processing
Josh came 'on the line' at Pinberg via tiebreaker and narrowly missed finals qualification
Josh intentionally lost a tournament match to Ed Robertson to encourage new player engagement
Josh Sharp finished 21st on the 2024 Stern Pro Circuit, outside the top 20 finals
Stern Pro Circuit prize pool increased by $10,000 for first place finish
Josh Sharp plans to implement four-year term limits for IFPA president and state/provincial/country representatives
IFPA has grown to over 73,000 different players
Josh Sharp plans to establish a Rookie of the Year award program funded by $1 tournament entry fee
A top-10 finish at Pinberg generates approximately 71 whopper points
Josh Sharp discussed on Slam Tilt podcast why he dislikes Twilight Zone despite loving it in childhood, citing tournament ruleset limitations
Josh Sharp proposed escalating Powerball jackpot as rule fix for Twilight Zone to encourage longer Powerball play and improve tournament balance
Spider-Man does not have software rules for handling stuck balls behind visors, so they must be treated as stuck balls
Attack from Mars has a software 'dirty pool rule' that allows balls stuck behind the visor to remain in play rather than being treated as stuck
The Stern Pro Circuit Final defending champion (Josh Sharp) is required to attend the 2019 event in Chicago
Josh Sharp is expecting his third child
Tournament directors frequently fail to consult IFPA rules documentation before making rulings on stuck ball situations
Josh Sharp qualified for the World Championship in Milan, Italy (June) at approximately 85th position on the entry list last year
Josh Sharp is likely approaching the end of his high-level competitive pinball career due to age, family obligations, and tournament demands
Adam Becker's role requires him to approve both calendar submissions and result submissions, totaling approximately 11,600 touches per year
IFPA processed 5,768 tournament events in the previous year
IFPA membership grew by 11% in 2018 to nearly 66,000 players following Josh Sharp's $1 per-player fee implementation
Josh Sharp advanced from qualifying on Radical with a clutch final ball
The 3-2-1-0 scoring format for three games is uncommon in tournament structure
Josh Sharp tilted immediately (ball one) on Volley in quarterfinals with zero score
Raw Thrills shut down all factory production except Halo for five weeks due to demand exceeding manufacturing capacity
North American World Championship cuts are typically harder than European cuts
Italy will host next year's World Championship with approximately 85 as the qualification cutoff ranking
Josh Sharp's IFPA ranking remains high despite infrequent tournament play because he performs exceptionally well in the few tournaments he does enter
IFPA has grown from ~500 players in initial rankings to ~60,000 cumulative players ever, with ~8-10,000 active players annually
Continuous-play tournament formats (Flip Frenzy, Match Play) result in better new player retention than traditional double-elimination brackets
Players have historically exploited WPPR system by recruiting non-pinball players to increase tournament participant count and perceived value
IFPA rewards program offers special pricing on pinball machines to top 1,000 ranked players, with machines shipping directly from Stern
Top 64 players' WPPR values determine tournament pot size; tournaments with more than 64 participants don't proportionally increase point payouts
Stern Army program recently expanded to Canada; expansion to Australia pending distributor coordination
Australia is the second-largest country by tournament player participation after the United States
The major WPPR system change occurred approximately 3 years ago, shifting from guaranteed minimum tournament values to quality-based grading
Johannes from Germany is approximately 16 years old and ranked around 6th-7th in IFPA rankings
The facility in Toronto for IFPA 15 has been prepared to tip-top shape by Adam Lefkoff with extensive effort and investment
Event submissions through April 2018 total 1,790 compared to 4,830 for all of 2017, representing a contraction in event submission numbers
Nearly 12,000 different players have played pinball through May 2018, approaching the 20,000 total for all of 2017
The dollar membership model is working well and has stopped causing controversy among skeptics
The 25% WPPR boost to Country Championships is retroactive to earlier events
Iron Maiden was released in late March or early April 2018
Iron Maiden demonstrates good game design through multiple valid attack strategies used by top finalists
Zach Sharp is a second-degree black belt in martial arts
Josh Sharp retroactively changed circuit finals rules, increasing IFPA points distribution
Josh Sharp won the PAPA/Stern Circuit Final championship
IFPA bank account has reached $20,000 in funds
RoboCop has extremely tight tilt debounce settings where any warning means the ball will tilt
Josh intentionally picked RoboCop for the final game against Colin Urban to get revenge for previous losses
Circuit final win is Josh Sharp's biggest public competitive achievement
Josh Sharp won the 2018 Stern Pro Circuit Finals championship
Josh Sharp struggled in the tournament with multiple third-place finishes but advanced each time due to the tournament format
Josh Sharp works at Roth Thrills
When a Tron ball saver fires a second ball while the original remains in play, the player must drain one ball
Pinberg averages approximately 137 Whopper points per year across the three-year evaluation period
IFPA World Championship will be excluded from Stern Pro Circuit due to its pre-baked-in qualifying process
Raw Thrills has contractually prevented their contract manufacturer from serving other pinball developers to protect assets
Big Buck Hunter took 6-7 years before meaningful sponsorship returns were achieved
ARA (Dutch Pinball successor) lacks sufficient funds to repay early backers and will struggle to secure a new manufacturer
Manufacturer partnership is essential for securing sponsorship attention compared to player-only organizations
Stern Pro Circuit finals will be held at a barcade/bar venue in Chicago in February-March 2019, mirroring Big Buck Hunter World Championship model
Year one of Stern Pro Circuit will retain 75% of Papa's existing 20 events based on three-year Whopper point averages
Stern is providing a new in-box game (~$5,000 value) as grand prize, which Papa did not offer previously
The Stern Pro Circuit is an evolution of the Papa Circuit featuring the first major manufacturer partnership in pinball tournament history
Big Buck Hunter championships at Raw Thrills successfully use online tournament fees to fund championship pot and attract sponsors like Jägermeister
We are attempting to elevate what our state and national championships mean by having endorsed tournaments fund prize pools via $1 per player per event instead of finalists funding them
The Pinside poll on the new funding model achieved 52% approval rating
I played in 39 events myself last year
Some tournament directors will refuse to run endorsed events even if the fee is free, based on ideological opposition
The goal is to attract bigger and more lucrative sponsors by demonstrating larger prize pools and exposure
Josh Sharp (IFPA director) is implementing new governance rules requiring minimum 50% tournament participation thresholds and retroactively applying them to past events
Ball savers have no place in a pinball tournament.
Josh Sharp confirmed he listens to Slam Tilt Podcast by discussing it with Ron at Freeplay Florida
Josh Sharp runs the Stealthy League tournament at Level 257 with monthly finals on first Tuesday
Josh Sharp is tournament director offering In-N-Out Burger as bonus prize for acing every game in finals
Josh Sharp custom-modified googly eyes on his Star Trek TNG machine for perspective depth effect
A Vegas tournament previously used 10 games with 40 participants successfully
Hell's Bells is the most lucrative mode on AC/DC Premium for skilled players