Tickets on sale September 27th 10:00 AM Pacific Time

SPF26 - Main Tournament (Certified)

January 9 - 10 2026

Registration for the main tournament will go live at 10:00am Pacific time on Saturday, September 27th 2025 at www.starfightersarcade.com

$150.00 entry fee per person. Maximum 160 players.

Refund Policy: Refunds for the main tournament will be processed as 80% of entry fee through December 31, 2025. Processing fees are not refundable. Entry fee is not refundable after December 31, 2025.

Starfighters Pinball Festival (SPF) 2026: A Festival of Tournaments!
The main tournament will be a certified event with a maximum of 160 players consisting of two days of group match play:
Qualifying on Friday January 9th (day 1)
7 rounds of 3 games per round with tiered swiss pairings for a total of 21 qualifying games. Top players will qualify for finals. Division restrictions will be top 250 in overall IFPA rankings restricted to Division A and top 1000 restricted to Division B. Players qualifying below 40th will be submitted to IFPA per their qualifying position.
Finals on Saturday January 10th (day 2)
Division A Finals: Top 40 players qualify (top 4 double bye, 5th - 12th single bye).
Division B Finals: The next 16 highest finishing players who are not ranked in the top 250
Division C Finals: The next 16 highest finishing players who are not ranked in the top 1000
Finals will be group elimination with 3 games per round.

SPF26 - Classics Tournament (Certified)

January 8 -11 2026
PARTICIPATION IN THE MAIN TOURNAMENT NOT REQUIRED

Entries will be $3 each, 4 for $10 or 10 for $20.

Players may purchase unlimited entries to use on 15 classic arenas with their best 10 arenas counted.

Qualifying will be open Thursday evening, Friday, and Saturday, with finals Sunday for the top 40 players. Top 4 qualifiers receive a double bye and qualifiers 5-16 receive a single bye.

Exact timing to be published in the rules on the website soon.

Finals will be group elimination on 3-games banks. Cash prizes to all 40 finalists and trophies to the top 4.

SPF26 - Women's Tournament (Certified)

January 8-11 2026
PARTICIPATION IN THE MAIN TOURNAMENT NOT REQUIRED

The women’s tournament is a certified* unlimited entry best game event.

Entries will be $3 each, 4 for $10 or 10 for $20.

Players may purchase unlimited entries to use on 9 arenas with their best 6 arenas counted.

Qualifying will be open Thursday evening, Friday, and Saturday, with finals Sunday for the top 24 players with the top 8 receiving a bye.

Exact timing will be published in the rules.

Finals will be group elimination on 3-game banks. Cash prizes will be paid to all 24 finalists. Trophies to the top 4.

* Format qualifies for certified status and requires 48 participants in order to advance 24 players to the finals. In the case of fewer than 48 participants, top 16 will advance to finals and the event will not qualify for the certified boost. The 2025 event included 58 participants.

SPF26 - Max Match Play

Thursday January 8th 2026 6PM
PARTICIPATION IN THE MAIN TOURNAMENT NOT REQUIRED

The Max Match Play IFPA sanctioned tournament will be held Thursday evening on the SPF main bank of games.

The event will be 10 matches of Max Match Play qualifying. Finals for top 16 will be group elimination, one game per round.

$20 entry fee per person on the day of the event, cash and trophies to the top 4 players. Participation in the SPF main tournament is not required - this event is open to the public and limited to 120 players.

SPF26 - Sunday Strikes

Sunday January 11 2026
PARTICIPATION IN THE MAIN TOURNAMENT NOT REQUIRED

This IFPA sanctioned tournament will be 5 fair strikes held on a selection of games from the main tournament banks.

$20 entry fee per person on the day of the event, cash and medals to the top players. This event is open to the public and will be held concurrently with both the classics and women's best game finals.