Episode 422: Michael Trepp

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·17m 55s·analyzed·Jun 25, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.029

TL;DR

IFPA director Michael Trepp discusses tournament administration, European pinball, and competitive infrastructure.

Summary

Jeff Teolis interviews Michael Trepp, an IFPA director from Switzerland responsible for validating tournament submissions and results. The conversation covers Trepp's role in competitive pinball administration, the Swiss pinball scene and top players, tournament submission best practices, the European Championship Series (ECS) and European Pinball Championship (EPC), and the bidding process for hosting the IFPA World Championship.

Key Claims

Michael Trepp is one of the primary IFPA directors responsible for verifying and validating tournament submissions and match play results
high confidence · Jeff explicitly introduces him as 'one of the IFPA directors' whose role is critical to ensuring tournament results are submitted and validated
The best practice for tournament result submission is to use Matchplay and include Matchplay links, which many organizers fail to do despite instructions being in red
high confidence · Michael directly states: 'The easiest is use Matchplay and include the Matchplay links. A lot of times people don't, do they? Yes, they don't. It's written in red. But people don't read'
The IFPA dollar fee was Michael Trepp's input/proposal, originally intended to fund European Championship Series prize pools
high confidence · Michael states: 'I mean the IFPA dollar fee, this was before this started, was one of my inputs, you know' and explains he wanted tournaments in Europe to have pinball machine prizes
The European Pinball Championship (EPC) predates the IFPA, starting in 1996, with the modern EPC beginning in 2005
high confidence · Michael: 'The EPC started in 1996, I think...and then there was a break for a couple of years and then 2005 was the first new EPC and the IFPA came later'
For many years the EPC location selection was 'first come first serve' until organizers implemented a more formal discussion and selection process
high confidence · Michael explains: 'for many, many years was first come first serve...And now it's just...now it starts to be more discussion before, because there are some problems at past EPCs'
The 2025 EPC in Austria had 384 players competing
high confidence · Jeff states: 'this is the biggest tournament I'll go to all year, 384 players'
The IFPA World Championship bidding process alternates between Europe and North America, with Sweden scheduled to host in two years (2027)
high confidence · Michael confirms: 'it alternates always between Europe and North America...now it's in Austria in two years it will be in Sweden at the Lund Pinball Academy'

Notable Quotes

“Without this person there's a good chance it doesn't get submitted or validated in the IFPA.”
Jeff Teolis @ early in interview — Establishes the critical importance of Michael Trepp's role in competitive pinball infrastructure
“I played competitively with pinball for a long time and played a lot of tournaments back in the years when there weren't so many tournaments. But life came into the way. So I didn't play so much. My hobby is pinball. So at the end, my free time I spent doing pinball stuff.”
Michael Trepp @ mid-interview — Explains his motivation for volunteering IFPA administrative work despite reduced competitive play
“The easiest is use Matchplay and include the Matchplay links. A lot of times people don't, do they? Yes, they don't. It's written in red. But people don't read, so yes. Suck less and read.”
Michael Trepp / Jeff Teolis @ mid-interview — Practical advice for tournament organizers; establishes a running joke theme 'suck less'
“I always wanted to have a tournament in Europe where you can win a new pinball machine. So I proposed, so why don't every tournament who is part of the series pay something to be in the series, so we can spend this money for the pinball machine.”
Michael Trepp @ mid-interview — Reveals Trepp's direct role in proposing the financial mechanism (IFPA dollar fee) that funds European competitive infrastructure
“For many, many years was first come first serve. And now it starts to be more discussion before, because there are some problems at past EPCs.”
Michael Trepp @ mid-interview — Indicates historical challenges with EPC organization and evolution toward more formal planning
“This is the biggest tournament I'll go to all year, 384 players. I said, this is as good as any tournament I've been to in years.”
Jeff Teolis @ later in interview — High praise for the 2025 EPC execution and scale; validates recent organizational improvements
“You're probably going to be back for Austria and things like that for this year's one where you volunteer your time. And it shouldn't go unnoticed because it is a hell of a commitment and the IFPA and Competitive Pinball doesn't run without people like you.”

Entities

Michael TrepppersonIFPAorganization Jeff TeolispersonJosh SharppersonBen MoserpersonHugo RitterpersonRobert SuterpersonLeventepersonAndrea Salateperson

Signals

?
business_signal: IFPA World Championship hosting rotates between Europe and North America with planned expansion consideration; Sweden confirmed as 2027 host at Lund Pinball Academy
high · Michael: 'it alternates always between Europe and North America...now it's in Austria in two years it will be in Sweden at the Lund Pinball Academy'
?
community_signal: IFPA implementing formal planning and review process for EPC hosting to ensure consistent quality and address historical organizational problems
high · Michael states: 'And now it starts to be more discussion before...to have a group who decides where the EPC will be held next year or in the next years. And to just look before the tournament to communicate with the organizers'
?
community_signal: European pinball competitive infrastructure grows annually; significant volunteer labor and coordination required to sustain tournament validation and organization
high · Jeff: 'Josh has told me this there are so many so many leagues and tournaments and events that happen in the IFPA and it grows every single year'
?
event_signal: 2025 EPC in Austria was exceptionally well-executed with 384 players; viewed as one of highest-quality tournaments in recent years
high · Jeff: 'This was my favorite EPC. I thought it was so well run...this is as good as any tournament I've been to in years'
?
personnel_signal: Michael Trepp's IFPA administrative role evolved from competitive player experience; continues volunteer work despite reduced tournament participation since 2017-2018

Topics

IFPA tournament administration and validationprimarySwiss and European pinball competitive sceneprimaryEuropean Pinball Championship (EPC) organization and evolutionprimaryIFPA World Championship bidding and hosting processprimaryTournament result submission best practicesprimaryVolunteer labor in competitive pinball infrastructuresecondaryPinball venue landscape in SwitzerlandsecondaryCompetitive player development and consistencysecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.85)— Jeff expresses high respect and gratitude for Trepp's contributions; Trepp is collaborative and candid about IFPA processes. Discussion acknowledges past EPC problems but frames them as resolved through improved organizational practices. Tone is grateful and appreciative of volunteer work.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.054

it's time now for another pinball profile i'm your host jeff teels you can find everything on pinballprofile.com we're on twitter x instagram at pinball profile a great facebook group as well you can email pinballprofile at gmail.com and if you'd like to show your support on patreon don't worry the show will always be free but uh we certainly do appreciate the support patreon.com slash pinball profile thanks to great supporters like jimmy law lua w jerry s bart v colin m and others we really appreciate that i'm talking to somebody who is very very important in the tournaments that you play why because without this person there's a good chance it doesn't get submitted or validated in the IFPA. He is one of the IFPA directors. He's from Switzerland. I'm going to butcher his first name, but it's Michael Trepp. Michael Trepp, Mikkel Trepp. How am I saying it properly? It's fine like this. It's Mikkel Trepp. Okay. Better said than you. But hey, first of all, the reason I want to bring up the IFPA director is because I know behind the scenes who Josh has told me this there are so many so many leagues and tournaments and events that happen in the IFPA and it grows every single year I know we had a little lull obviously when the world shut down but it's just picked up where we left off and somebody has to go through all the submissions check all the match play make sure everything's working right and for the most part it's you it's Jermaine and have you ever stopped to think how many hours you put into this No. No, I don't want to know it. Well, the other question is, other than being a great guy, why do you do this? That's a good question. I mean, I played competitively with pinball for a long time and played a lot of tournaments back in the years when there weren't so many tournaments. So I was everywhere. And, you know, life came into the way. So I didn't play so much, so many tournaments in the last years, so since 2018 or 17. But, I mean, my hobby is pinball. So at the end, my free time I spent doing pinball stuff. So it's just another pinball stuff I do, and I like doing pinball stuff. It doesn't matter what it is. It's playing pinball, fixing my games. It's another story. Or talking about pinball, playing tournaments and so on. Just approving some results and doing pinball stuff. So I love your country. My wife and I were talking about if there's one place you could pick to live, and we live in Canada. Switzerland often is mentioned in the top three. It's just such a beautiful place, and I've only been once. I will go again. But when I was there, I'm doing touristy stuff, so I didn't really see the pinball scene. But I certainly know about you and Robert Suter and Levante. And who else am I forgetting? There's so many great players. Yes, there are a couple of really good players in Switzerland. Who did you miss? I don't know. At the moment, the top two players in Switzerland are Ben Moser and Hugo Ritter. I've played Ben many times, yes. They play the most tournaments at the moment, so they're on top. and Robert Sutter, he almost retired from pinball. Really? Yeah, not really. I saw him a couple of years ago in Germany at the IFPA World Championship. I got a funny picture of him and I riding saddles at Freddy's. That was his last IFPA. And yes, I mean, I know Robert since more than 20 years. so and it talks about it's every year to retire it's tough to pull the trigger and finally do it yeah you know as i get older and others get older you think uh maybe another year but then you look at guys like bob matthews who just turned 70 and is still dominating so i think robert should keep playing but yes he keeps playing he he played it just doesn play it doesn travel anymore yeah Yeah So where are the places to play in Switzerland The places to play in Switzerland On location there aren't many machines. There's just one operator in the region between Zurich and Basel. This is Andrea Salate. I organized with him the biggest tournament in Switzerland. The ECSE event in Switzerland. I always say the unpronounceable Northwest Schweizer Flippermeisterschaft and other operators I don't know Levente puts up some games on location in the region of Schaffhausen but it's mostly in clubs mostly clubs the clubs they are in Basel there are two clubs the Flipperegger Basel and Fynn-Flibertal they have about 40-50 games each location in Zurich there are some locations um silver ball with 70 80 games and there's famous pin city yeah I've heard about pin city tell us about that well pin city is just just beautiful you know they have uh awesome collections um 100 something 100 something yes there are two guys there. It's Herb and Marcus. And one collects mostly Godly from the 70s and mostly 70s. And they're proud of their Dave Christensen collection. So they have every game Dave Christensen made. Wow. What are some of his games? It's like Matahari, Voltan Escapes the Cosmic Doom, Four is the one started he only did the slingshot I don't know something like this the art on a slingshot and it the famous captain fantastic and there's the blue rogo and the red rogo green rogo and one of them were only about 40 games I don't know he's an artist that certainly his work has been everywhere and some people you know hey wait a second here it's 2025 but you think of when the games were done and that's right this it's I mean now it's 2025 so it's a different time it's a different time. Staying in Switzerland here, I was fortunate enough to meet a few years ago and saw him again this weekend here in Austria. I saw Hugo Ritter and Hugo, great player. He came to Jagdpinn and did really, really well in Canada. Yes, I think he won one of the tournaments. So he's playing really well. He's a guy to watch out for, for sure. Yes, yes. I mean, he's still young. That's He's usually a strength for people. Yes, he's now, I don't know. You've been playing 22 years. You and I are past our prime. I think he's now 19 or 20 years old. I don't know exactly. He needs some consistency, you know. There are really some tournaments he sucks. No, not really. We all have those. We all have those, but if you look at other players, the really good ones, they don't suck at any tournament, you know. That's the difference, you know. So he plays some really good pinball, but he needs some more consistency. Lesson learned here. Suck less. Yes, suck less. Okay, back to the IFPA. And this is important because, again, we talk about you looking through all the submissions and whatnot. And you and I actually have had some emails back and forth because I thought I laid everything out on a tournament or a league. Yes, I remember. I want to bring that up because we have to make sure when we're submitting a league, submitting a tournament, we have all the right information, especially when it comes to results, because they have to be verified. And it's very tedious. And sometimes people like myself in that example make it difficult for people like you and Jermaine and others. What is the best advice you can give people like us that submit tournaments or leagues to make it easier for you? Let's start with the result submission. The easiest is use Matchplay and include the Matchplay links. A lot of times people don't, do they? Yes, they don't. It's written in red. But people don't read, so yes. Suck less and read. There's two lessons from this podcast so far. I'm sure there'll be more, but it certainly helps too. The thing that's maybe difficult for you and certainly people running tournaments are there so many different formats And then you got Certified and Certified Plus and boosts and this and that and playoff formats And did you have 10 or no more than 50 I'm curious. There were simpler times in the IFK. I like where it has become now because it's more sophisticated, it's more complicated, but it's probably more accurate. Yes, it is more accurate, of course. Back in the days, it just was 25 points for the winner. That's it. Yeah, we started with this, yeah. Yeah, in my basement, me, my kids, and my dog were playing a tournament. Hey, here's my 25 points. Exactly. Yeah, it wasn't good. Oh, it was awesome. Now there's the dollar fee, which some people obviously groaned about, but there's a reason to do that. It's not so much to build up money for things like states, provincials. It's commitment, in a way. Yes, of course. I mean the IFPA dollar fee, this was before this started, was one of my inputs, you know. Oh, was it? Yes. So because I always wanted to have a tournament in Europe where you can win a new pinball machine. So that was a long way to go. And we started this ECS series in Europe, the European Championship Series. And Timber won that this year, didn't he? Timber won that series, yes. And I proposed, so why don't every tournament who is part of the series pay something to be in the series, so we can spend this money for the pinball machine. So, but the Europeans, they weren't on my, they didn't want it. So, a bit of a fight. It was a bit of a fight. But then later came the FBA fee. first all in North America then introduced in Europe and there was another chance for me to say hey let's take something out of this money for the IFPA EPC or some people really insist it's not the IFPA EPC they call it other but I don't care I want to talk to you about the EPC and again we just had a wonderful time in Austria with what Stefan Riedler did and RS Pinball and his incredible team, yourself included. What goes into the selection of where the EPC will be? Are you part of that? Because you're the eyes in Europe for a lot of people back in North America. Yes. Originally, the EPC started before the IFPA was... Oh, I didn't know that. The EPC started in 1996, I think. Okay. I was there for three years and then there was a break for a couple of years and then 2005 was the first new EPC and the IFPA came later. And it's just, I don't know, years ago it was, we had a Google Group and... A lot of pen and Yes, not a pen and paper, Google group and just somebody said, oh, EPC wants to do it. And it was for many, many years was first come first serve. Oh boy. Yes. And if nobody stepped in, this was for example in 2010, there was no EPC and I said to Levente, let's do the EPC in Switzerland because nobody wants to hold it. So we talked to an owner from location, okay, let's do EPC. And now it's just, yeah, it was four years, it was just first come first serve. And now it starts to be more discussion before, because there are some problems at past EPCs, we don't talk about this. Sure. Well, I guess what we're saying is, moving forward, you know, this event is, I've been to three. This was my favorite EPC. I thought it was so well run. So some of those, if you say, troubled times of previous EPCs, you learn from them and you find some sort of consistency. Here's the minimum that you need to do. And, you know, I've had a bunch of Europeans ask me, how does this compare to North America? And I said, well, this is the biggest tournament I'll go to all year, 384 players. There's also tons of techs. I said, this is as good as any tournament I've been to in years. So it a lot of work but again you have consistencies now Okay for EPC we have to put on a good show It is a major pinball event and you have to have the bare minimums The tech work and I can only imagine how long it took to set up these games Arno in Austria has done a ton of this, and yourself included. So the consistencies, if you have any concerns about EPC, you should not. The team is really well equipped now. Yes, I mean, that's the problem. The team changes every year because it's another location. But you're from Switzerland, you're in Austria, and you're helping out. Yes, that's right. I'm from Canada. I was one of the TDs, so people step up. Yes, people step up. That's a good thing. People step up, they participate anyway, they travel there, and they're ready to help. And that's one thing we're starting now in Europe, to have a group who decides where the EPC will be held next year or in the next years. And to just look before the tournament to communicate with the organizers, what do you have in mind, what are your plans, because we want to know. no because if the the problems we had if they will get if they stay the problems you know then uh maybe the epc won't be a major anymore but that's not going to be the case you guys are fixing it i had somebody ask me that i said i don't think that's going to happen because there are too many people that are invested in making sure that it's a wonderful event that's not going to happen it's going to be a major yeah you should be a major it definitely should be a major yes of course so So that's for the EPC. Now, the IFPA World Championship is going to be here in late June in Austria. And that is a bidding process. It alternates always between Europe and North America, Europe and North America. And, you know, maybe someday we'll get to Australia, right? Like that. Why not? If they put together a bid, look what they're doing with Brisbane Masters. And Jason Lambert probably could put together a great team. So how does that bidding process go for the World Championship? Oh, that you have asked for? Josh. I don't know. Oh, okay. I've seen the bidding process for things like the North American Championship Series. I've seen the list that they put out. So maybe it's similar to that for hosting the World Championship. I just know if somebody's interested. They have to have run big, big tournaments before and showcased that they can do it. Josh sends... No one's going to get it the first time. No. Like, you have to show, what have you done there? Yes. And Josh sends a sheet, and they have to fill out the sheet. and then he looks at the sheet and of course now for now it's in Austria in two years it will be in Sweden at the Lund Pinball Academy and just ask me are you know these guys you have you ever have been there so I can give some inputs but but I mean they have a lot of experience and the IFP World Championship has been in Sweden before so good country directors great players you've got Arvid and Vigo there who could maybe win it for their country. The Swedes know how to organize tournaments, so I have no worries. Michael, I want to thank you very much personally and probably on behalf of everyone listening to Pinball Profile for everything that you do because here you are at this tournament and spending lots of hours, lots of time, lots of labor to do this. I've seen you at IFPA World Championships. You're also doing that. You're probably going to be back for Austria and things like that for this year's one where you volunteer your time. And it shouldn't go unnoticed because it is a hell of a commitment and the IFPA and Competitive Pinball doesn't run without people like you. So thank you very much. Thank you, Jeff. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find everything on pinballprofile.com or on Twitter, X, Instagram, at pinballprofile. Join our Facebook group as well. A good community there. You can email pinballprofile at gmail.com. And if you'd like to show your support on Patreon, you can do so patreon.com slash pinball profile thanks so much to rodney c to stefan r nick n Fox Cities Pinball erica's pinball journey derrick s and others with one of the most important people in the ifpa you heard me josh with michael trump i'm jeff teolas ... ... ...