Lauren Drullinger Dominates Belles & Chimes SATX Summer 2026 Tournament
The San Antonio pinball community gathered on June 28 under a clear sky and 94°F heat for the Belles & Chimes SATX – Summer 2026 #2 tournament. With just 11 participants in the Group Match Play event, the room was small but incredibly tight, as every single game visibly moved the overall standings. Every competitor brought an active IFPA rank to the floor, forming a field with a national average rank of 18514 and eight players carrying Texas NACS standings.
Rising above the fray was Lauren Drullinger, who put together a commanding performance across the two-hour event to capture first place. Holding a current IFPA rank of 8456, Drullinger has focused her 2026 season on improving her rating, and her steady navigation of the 30-game tournament floor proved that effort is paying dividends. She finished with top scores on five of the nine machines she faced, finding a rhythm early and never letting the rest of the field dictate the pace.
Finding a Rhythm at What’s Brewing
The tournament unfolded at What’s Brewing Coffee Roasters, a San Antonio staple where the aroma of freshly roasted specialty coffee blends meets the sharp clatter of flippers. Regulars often praise the shop’s layout, which thoughtfully separates the main café lounge from the three dedicated rooms housing the game boards and pinball machines. While the environment is highly welcoming, competitors quickly learn to bring cash, as the coin-operated machines require quarters and the on-site change machine only accepts bills.
Drullinger wasted no time getting to work in Round 1, stepping up to the 1978 Bally solid-state Harlem Globetrotters On Tour. She secured 7.00 points to open her night, outpacing Destiny Moreno and Zoie Strong in an 18-minute match. Her only stumble in the first round came on Cactus Canyon, where she took third behind Moreno and Strong. She quickly recovered in Round 2 with a clean 7.00-point sweep on the 1994 Bally classic World Cup Soccer, leaving Sona Rivera, Evelyn Cheeka, and Strong trailing behind.
While Drullinger was building her foundation, the rest of the room proved just how volatile a small field can be. In the second round, bottom-seeded Nora Jean Herrera (IFPA #22400) faced off against top-seeded Tricia Gronnevik (IFPA #4335) on Stern’s 2014 release, The Walking Dead (Pro). The ratings systems gave Herrera roughly a 1-in-8 chance of taking the 15-minute, three-player game, but she secured the 7.00-point win. On this John Borg-designed table, players should always focus on the major shots during the Clean The Prison Yard mode, as aiming directly at the animated prison toy is risky and frequently sends the ball draining straight down the middle.
Holding the Line Through the Middle Rounds
Tracing Drullinger’s path through the middle of the tournament reveals a player who capitalized on familiar machines. In Round 3, she returned to World Cup Soccer—the most played game of the night—and again walked away with a first-place, 7.00-point finish. This time, she outlasted Emily Matson, Gronnevik, and Drew Mata during a 16-minute match.
Her momentum briefly slowed on the 1975 Gottlieb electro-mechanical table Atlantis, where she managed 5.00 points in a second-place finish behind Gronnevik. Round 4 presented a similar split in results. Drullinger earned another decisive 7.00 points on Williams’ 1992 Fish Tales, putting up the top score against Strong, Christina Cheeseman, and Herrera. However, she was forced to settle for second position on Dolly Parton, taking 5.00 points as Cheeseman claimed the victory.
Despite these minor point deductions, Drullinger’s consistency kept her firmly anchored at the top of the standings. She recorded second-place round finishes across the first four rounds, pacing herself alongside competitors like Matson and Cheeseman, who were executing their own steady climbs. Cheeseman, a veteran with 282 career tournaments, proved especially resilient, logging an average round finish of 2 across the evening.
Rivalries and Late-Game Pushes
The fifth and final round tested the endurance of the leaders and triggered shifts in several long-standing player rivalries. Drullinger closed out her night flawlessly, claiming first place on both The Walking Dead (Pro) and Evel Knievel, earning 7.00 points in each 14-minute and 13-minute match to secure her tournament victory.
Across the room, other top contenders were battling for the remaining podium spots. Matson, Moreno, Rivera, and Herrera locked into an 18-minute, four-player match on Stern’s 2024 John Wick (Pro). Matson took the 7.00 points, followed by Rivera with 5.00 and Moreno with 3.00. Competitors on John Wick can manage the standard 60-second timer by hitting Job shots for a five-second addition, or by completing the Crate sequence a second time during a Job to earn a substantial thirty-second extension.
That specific match had ripple effects on the historical standings between these players. Matson’s performance helped her claw back points, tightening an already-close rivalry with Moreno over their 12 shared career tournaments. Moreno experienced a similar shift against Rivera, clawing back tonight to tighten the gap in their 13-tournament history. Meanwhile, Cheeseman managed to stay a step in front of Moreno in their closely matched rivalry across 15 shared events, aided by Cheeseman finishing ahead of Moreno in three of the four games they shared at this specific tournament.
Climbing the Texas Rankings
Drullinger’s victory at What’s Brewing provides a significant boost to her 2026 campaign. Entering the tournament ranked #486 in the Texas NACS, she had yet to record a win in her last five events. Topping a tightly packed room of ranked state competitors demonstrates her capability to maintain control over a full evening of group play.
As the San Antonio season continues, Drullinger will look to carry this mechanical consistency into larger fields, leaning on her ability to quickly decipher varied machines from electro-mechanical classics to modern Stern releases. The final standings reflect a hard-fought contest where every single game mattered.
Final Podium:
- 1st: Lauren Drullinger
- 2nd: Emily Matson
- 3rd: Christina Cheeseman
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