IFPA Opt-Out & Leadership Concerns

We are providing all players the option to opt-out of IFPA participation and have placed the IFPA on a probationary evaluation period.

Beloved Pinball Community, 

We, your HFPL organizers, feel that the IFPA mishandled an event in 2025 which excluded and created an unsafe atmosphere for trans players. You can read an in-depth account of the event on Kineticist as well as an update here. Note that though this is a relatively comprehensive and accessible account of events, we do not endorse the editorializing and bias present in the articles. 

Instead of acting in accordance with their own by-laws regarding discrimination by de-sanctioning the tournament and nullifying results, the IFPA allowed the tournament results to remain. Afterwards, they issued a clarifying statement on existing bathroom access requirements.

Subsequent statements and measures taken by the IFPA in response have been inadequate and demoralizing for many in the community. Advice on how to respond to this incident from their Women's Board was dismissed, causing the entire Women's Board to resign. Rather than addressing the issues that caused the resignation, the IFPA is simply recruiting new board members. 

Approximately two months after the original incident, the IFPA issued an official code of conduct for the first time in the organization’s history.  Their code of conduct falls short of the standards that we hold our players to at Holy Frijoles. Please review our code of conduct if you plan on participating in our events. 

Until such time as there are other options for competitive rankings that better align with our values, we will continue to host IFPA sanctioned tournaments. That said, we will be giving all players the option to opt out of IFPA participation, on a per-event basis, while continuing to play in our tournaments.

Ultimately, we felt it was more important to continue offering welcoming competitive spaces, rather than make a blanket decision that would prevent our folks from competing in state and national ranked events. The IFPA details this "opt-out" option in their guidelines:

“Players that opt-out –> Since the launch of the IFPA sanctioning fee, we have given TD’s the option to allow players to not be included in the results submitted into IFPA. This was done to accommodate players that were against the sanctioning fee, but is available regardless of reason. This includes top 250 players currently ranked in the WPPR PRO system. Please note that TD’s are not forced to give this option to the players attending their event. This is done at the discretion of the TD. It is recommended that the TD confirm if players want to opt-out before the event starts so other players are aware. Players that opt-out do not contribute to the value of the tournament, they do not earn WPPR points, they are not responsible for having the $1 fee paid on their behalf. For IFPA purposes it is as if they did not participate.”

Pinball is for everyone. We do not and will never tolerate discrimination.

Love, HFPL Organizing Team