I wanted to write a quick note to all NPC players ahead of Season 2 as it pertains to our leagues, Grand Finals, and the IFPA.
In November, at a tournament in North Carolina, players were intimidated by bigoted location staff, hate crimed, and were unable to participate in a tournament many traveled a great distance to take part of. Due to IFPA’s mishandling of the situation and poor communication in their leadership, IFPA allowed the event’s ranking to stand despite banning the location from hosting tournaments for a minimum of one year. Additionally, IFPA leaked internal communications of their Women’s Advisory Board on the incident to a pinball publication, resulting in the board resigning in full.
In response, many locations and players around the world have been suppressing their IFPA profiles, opting out of IFPA events, and removing their tournaments from IFPA sanctioning.
First and most importantly, I want to stress that I vehemently oppose the behavior of the location and staff, that I staunchly believe and support the victims, that trans rights are human rights, and that the behavior of the IFPA has been unacceptable. Many location admins and tournament directors are publicly and privately conversing with the IFPA, imploring them to do better and make changes to ensure these things don’t happen again. IFPA is making motions that they have acknowledged they need to make changes and are slowly rolling those out. I remain cautiously optimistic that IFPA will change and do better, though we are closely monitoring the situation and will continue to re-evaluate our relationship as we go.
Now, what does this mean for NPC? Let me summarize first and explain what is happening for Season Two in depth after:
- NPC Leagues and Grand Finals will be IFPA Sanctioned for Season Two.
- Individual locations will determine if they will allow opt outs of individual players’ results being submitted to IFPA, and the NPC office will support those locations logistically.
- All locations will support players who wish to suppress their IFPA profiles and results.
- Our leagues and locations will have zero tolerance for any behavior similar to the OBX incident. We universally work hard to ensure our locations are available, fun, and safe for all pinball players.
This may be antithetical to the overall sentiment at the moment, so I’ll explain in depth why we are going this way for season two.
First and foremost, one of the core tenets of NPC was to make these leagues sanctioned to make more pinball players eligible to play for their state and national championships, and to help boost the prize pool of those championships. There’s a notion that the $1 submitted to the IFPA helps fund or support the IFPA, but that’s not the case — 65% is reserved for State Championships, and 25% to the national pool. The remaining percent is used to cover credit card fees and processing fees. We want people to feel pride in competing for their state in the same way that we want people competing for their teams at Grand Finals.
Equally important, this development came after a lot of planning for Season 2 was already completed. We have been working to make changes for Season 2, working with our location leagues, and talking to new spots in joining. By the time this blog post goes live, many months of work went in predicated on sanctioning being a core part of the league. It was too late to meaningfully discuss more changes before getting ready for season two.
Finally, while I am disgusted with the IFPA and want to see meaningful change, I firmly believe the best way to hold accountable is to remain in the discussion. This is an ever-evolving position, and you have my word that the structure of our league and our relationship with IFPA will be discussed in depth before NPC Season 3. At that time, we should be in a good position to evaluate IFPA’s changes and discuss in full with our locations.
I realize that some people will be disappointed with this decision and I hope it doesn’t impact your ability to play with us this season. But I do want to assure you I would love to discuss your thoughts and feelings on this (or any aspect of NPC!). My door is always open, and my mind is always changing. You can find me on the discord or drop me a note at derek@npcpinball.org. This decision late in the planning of Season Two ultimately lies with me, so I ask that you please respect your location admin teams if you don’t agree with it — please share your feelings with me directly, should you feel comfortable doing so.
I pride myself on my location being a safe, welcoming environment for all players we’ve ever hosted here. My expectation in building NPC (and after a season of operation, confirmed) is that all our locations also value that commitment. And with that commitment, we will continue to listen to our players and locations on what matters as we plan forward.
Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you out flipping soon.
Derek Correia, Founder and Vice Dictator, NPC Pinball