New Information and an IFPA Statement on the OBX Fall Flippers Incident

Kineticist·article·analyzed·Nov 16, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.021

TL;DR

IFPA releases internal Slack logs defending OBX incident response against bigotry accusations.

Summary

Kineticist publishes internal IFPA Women's Advisory Board Slack conversations regarding the OBX Fall Flippers incident involving alleged harassment by employee Becky Connell. IFPA leadership (Adam Becker, Josh Sharpe, Andy Bagwell) defend their handling as reasonable under challenging circumstances, arguing they acted without discriminatory intent. The publication aims to clarify decision-making logic and counter accusations of bigotry, though Kineticist acknowledges the original incident itself as reprehensible.

Key Claims

The IFPA Women's Advisory Board resigned following the OBX incident response
high confidence · Opening note referencing 'the resignation of the IFPA Women's Advisory Board and their statement'
Becky Connell, a Flippers Arcade employee, perpetrated a harassment incident at OBX Fall Flippers
high confidence · Kineticist states 'the incident at Flippers Arcade, perpetrated by Flippers employee Becky Connell'
IFPA on-site staff confirmed the event would remain sanctioned after the incident occurred
high confidence · Andy Bagwell statement: 'IFPA staff onsite even confirmed to players that asked that the event would still be sanctioned'
IFPA received private support from players of all genders, including trans community, but they fear public backlash
medium confidence · Andy Bagwell: 'We have received a ton of private support on our decision with OBX, from players of all genders, including the trans community. They have all also shared the same sentiment, that they are afraid to post that support publicly because they will be targeted'
IFPA leadership acted without discriminatory intent or bad faith in their response
medium confidence · Kineticist's analysis: 'At no point does it appear that Adam was acting in bad faith or in a discriminatory or unreasonable manner'
The IFPA organization as a whole failed to properly handle the OBX situation, not any single individual
high confidence · Andy Bagwell: 'The OBX decision was a total failure on the IFPA as a whole. The entire IFPA organization must accept responsibility for those failures'
Slack screenshots were published by Josh Sharpe without the knowledge or consent of all parties
high confidence · Kineticist note: 'These screenshots were authorized to be shared and published by Josh Sharpe without the knowledge or consent of all parties'

Notable Quotes

“I still find the incident at Flippers Arcade, perpetrated by Flippers employee Becky Connell, reprehensible and awful, and I wish we didn't live in a world where that kind of treatment of others was commonplace.”
Kineticist @ n/a — Establishes the core incident as unambiguously wrong while defending IFPA response quality
“Josh and Adam are not bigots, and neither am I... The OBX decision was a total failure on the IFPA as a whole.”
Andy Bagwell @ n/a — Key statement from IFPA Director acknowledging systemic failure while defending personal/leadership integrity
“The organizer was immediately in contact with the IFPA after the incident and rightfully trusted us to guide them. The IFPA confirmed the event could continue and would be sanctioned to this organizer during the event.”
Andy Bagwell @ n/a — Core explanation of IFPA decision rationale: organizer trust and explicit sanctioning confirmation
“We have received a ton of private support on our decision with OBX, from players of all genders, including the trans community. They have all also shared the same sentiment, that they are afraid to post that support publicly because they will be targeted.”
Andy Bagwell @ n/a — Claims of hidden support base and chilling effect on public discourse due to harassment
“I do believe that everyone involved in handling that situation from the IFPA side was doing their best in a challenging and stressful situation.”
Kineticist @ n/a — Journalist's conclusion after reviewing full Slack logs, establishing good-faith effort thesis

Entities

IFPAorganizationOBX Fall FlipperseventBecky ConnellpersonJosh SharpepersonAdam BeckerpersonAndy BagwellpersonFlippers ArcadeorganizationIFPA Women's Advisory BoardorganizationKineticistperson

Signals

?
community_signal: OBX Fall Flippers incident sparked significant community backlash against IFPA leadership, with accusations of bigotry and discrimination that leadership characterizes as unfounded harassment
high · Multiple references to public attacks, bullying, harassment of IFPA staff, and accusations of bigotry across Discord and elsewhere
~
sentiment_shift: Divergence between public discourse (hostile to IFPA) and claimed private support (from diverse player base including trans community) with fear preventing public statements
medium · Andy Bagwell: 'We have received a ton of private support... they are afraid to post that support publicly because they will be targeted'
?
business_signal: IFPA Women's Advisory Board resigned in response to OBX incident handling, indicating breakdown in internal consensus and trust
high · Opening statement: 'an update has been shared on Thursday, November 20th, following the resignation of the IFPA Women's Advisory Board and their statement'
?
business_signal: Slack conversations reveal gaps between on-site IFPA staff communications and broader organizational messaging, creating confusion about sanctioning status
high · Kineticist notes earlier: 'At about 3 pm the on-site IFPA Director relays a message that We got it sorted. What was perhaps less clear to some was what exactly that meant for the situation'
?
business_signal: IFPA leadership accepting institutional responsibility for OBX response failures while defending personal integrity and decision-making logic

Topics

IFPA governance and decision-making transparencyprimaryOBX Fall Flippers harassment incident and responseprimaryCommunity harassment and online bullying of IFPA leadershipprimaryWomen's representation and safety in pinball communityprimaryTournament sanctioning policy and proceduressecondaryInternal IFPA communications and coordinationsecondary

Sentiment

mixed(0.35)— Kineticist is sympathetic to IFPA leadership's intent and decision-making process while maintaining that the original incident was reprehensible. Acknowledges IFPA failure as institutional rather than individual. However, underlying tension regarding public backlash, accusations, and fear-based silence in the community creates complex sentiment. Andy Bagwell's statement is defensive while seeking accountability.

Transcript

web_scrape · $0.000

Note: an update has been shared on Thursday, November 20th, following the resignation of the IFPA Women's Advisory Board and their statement. That changed this morning when I reviewed the full internal conversation that was held in the Women’s Advisory Board Slack server, covering the entirety of the discussions held from the first reporting of the incident at Flippers Arcade (which is referenced in the IFPA’s second statement) through the publishing of the IFPA’s initial statement. Given the significance of these discussions and the fact that they involve named leaders of a governing body making decisions about a public-facing incident, I have opted to publish the Slack threads in a mostly unredacted form. Two small redactions were made to protect unrelated personal health information and the identities of involved non-leadership players. I have also omitted a section of the conversation that took place on Sunday that discussed unrelated disciplinary issues. In the last update, I highlighted some fuzziness around what appeared to be an internal communications breakdown among the IFPA team. Specifically, “This is where I believe communication within the IFPA falters. At about 3 pm the on-site IFPA Director relays a message that ‘We got it sorted.’ What was perhaps less clear to some was what exactly that meant for the situation.“ And these conversations fill in a lot of those missing details. After review and combined with all the other context I have about this incident, regarding the IFPA’s decision-making and motivations for certain communications decisions, a lot more is clear to me now. The logic Adam shared throughout the discussions seems straightforward and easy to follow. At no point does it appear that Adam was acting in bad faith or in a discriminatory or unreasonable manner. Though both Josh and Andy Bagwell are mostly silent in the Slack screenshots, I do not believe either was actively working towards goals of discrimination, silencing viewpoints, or, frankly, bigotry of any form. Knowing all of this now, it’s tough to re-examine some of the discussions on the IFPA Discord and elsewhere, which sometimes crossed into bullying and harassment of members of the IFPA team, others with differing views on how the sanctioning process should be handled, and those affected by the harassment incident and its immediate fallout. I still find the incident at Flippers Arcade, perpetrated by Flippers employee Becky Connell, reprehensible and awful, and I wish we didn’t live in a world where that kind of treatment of others was commonplace. But I do believe that everyone involved in handling that situation from the IFPA side was doing their best in a challenging and stressful situation. IFPA Slack Conversations These images were provided to me by Andy Bagwell (IFPA Director), Adam Becker (IFPA Director), and Josh Sharpe (IFPA President). Alongside the images, Andy Bagwell, with the support of Adam and Josh, had this to say: “I've stayed quiet and watched all of the discourse, and having now seen my own local players call Josh and Adam (and the IFPA) bigots I realized I can't stay quiet anymore. Josh and Adam are not bigots, and neither am I. I think that the only fair thing to do at this point is lay everything out to be seen and judged. The OBX decision was a total failure on the IFPA as a whole. The women members of the staff were not willing to allow that blame to be laid at their feet as well. One person is not to blame, the IFPA failed the organizer. All of the IFPA. The organizer was immediately in contact with the IFPA after the incident and rightfully trusted us to guide them. The IFPA confirmed the event could continue and would be sanctioned to this organizer during the event. IFPA staff onsite even confirmed to players that asked that the event would still be sanctioned. Those players stayed and participated because they were told the event would be sanctioned by the IFPA. IFPA staff participated in the event that weekend after the incident. The entire IFPA organization must accept responsibility for those failures. We have received a ton of private support on our decision with OBX, from players of all genders, including the trans community. They have all also shared the same sentiment, that they are afraid to post that support publicly because they will be targeted by the people that have been attacking Josh and Adam. I would encourage those people to speak out and show that support publicly, whether or not you have reached out to us yet. The people pushing this hatred campaign online are either being misled or willfully malicious, and it needs to stop. The attempts at communication up to this point were attempts to be civil, the response to that has been anything but. So again, I think the best course of action at this point is to lay out everything and allow you to make your own determinations. I do not think that the minds of the people who are made up on us being hateful bigots will change, but this is more about showing the community at large that we are not that.” Note: These screenshots were authorized to be shared and published by Josh Sharpe without the knowledge or consent of all parties. After publishing some names have been redacted at the request of those individuals. Any safety reports by individuals were made public prior, e.g. here and in widely shared public Facebook posts.