Bill Lorenz Wins Week 5 as Aztec Turns 50 in Malvern

A 50-Year-Old Aztec, a 32nd Seed, and Bill Lorenz’s Week 5 Win

Of the five machines Adam Saylor’s group played, the oldest was the one he topped. Aztec — a single-level Williams electromechanical built around one spinning target the whole game feeds — gave up its best score of the group to Saylor. On a Thursday in July, that was fitting. The machine was turning 50.

Williams shipped Aztec in July 1976, and half a century later it was still helping sort out a league night. The Southeastern PA Pinball League brought 35 players to Pinball Gallery in Malvern for Week 5, splitting them into groups of four — and a few of three — for five games apiece under organizer Bill Disney’s Group Match Play format. Points by finishing position, most points wins, 45 games across the room in 136 minutes.

Aztec at 50: Gordon Horlick’s Williams Original

Gordon Horlick designed Aztec for Williams, and it was no boutique run — 10,150 units rolled out, a healthy number for the electromechanical era. The theme is a postcard tour of the ancient world, and the layout is spare next to anything modern: two flippers, three DC pop bumpers, six standup targets, an upper-right kickback lane, one spinning target, and an end-of-ball bonus that does most of the scoring. There are no ramps to hide behind and no callouts to carry you — the whole game runs through that spinner, lit from the center lane and fed off the left orbit until it stops paying.

Across the group Saylor took three of his five games — Evil Dead, Paragon and the anniversary machine — with a second and a fourth filling out the card. It added up to 19 points, which, as it turned out, was enough for a share of third.

Morton’s 126-Minute Pokémon, and a Top Seed Sixth

Under this format every group is its own five-game tournament, and the sheet fills in one bank at a time. Top seed Tessa Morton opened on the newest machine in the place — Stern’s 2026 Pokémon — and outlasted her foursome over 126 minutes, the longest game of the night. She carried her group but landed sixth overall, one of six players knotted at 17 points.

A few banks over, the seeding sheet turned into a suggestion. Matt Strzelecki, Pennsylvania’s top-ranked player at #1 in the state and #378 nationally, finished third in his three-player group behind Don Werth and Ryan Strobel, good for 18th on the night. Denny Panik, headed for 16th, still grabbed a keepsake, taking the top score on Gottlieb’s 1984 El Dorado City of Gold in his group. The building around them helped — 85 machines spanning 1963 to 2026, a 4.9-rated room where a first-timer and a veteran get the same nod at the door.

The night also nudged a couple of long acquaintances. Craig Patton and Dom Carr have now shared 17 tournaments that still come out close to even; this time Patton finished ahead and kept climbing while Carr settled at 29th. Tony Makowski and Keith Saroka, a dozen events into a similarly balanced back-and-forth, tipped Makowski’s way on this Thursday.

Twenty-One, Twenty, and a Three-Way Nineteen

When the last balls drained, the top of the sheet was tight enough to read in a breath: 21, then 20, then three players at 19. Makowski’s 20 put the veteran in second, an evening’s work from a player 311 tournaments and 13 years into this — he won Sinbad, Bride of Pinbot and King Kong in his group and finished ahead of both Guy Merrill and Mike Rudowsky in four of their five shared games.

Behind him sat the three-way tie for third. Patton took Star Wars: Fall of the Empire, Captain Fantastic and Metallica in his group of three. Saylor had his Aztec night. Zac Martin, at #11 in the state, won Fish Tales, Mata Hari and James Bond, one more solid card in a year that has pulled his rating from outside the top 18,000 to #2,475. Nineteen points each, no way to separate them, all three on the podium.

Lorenz Closes It Out

The cleanest card of the night belonged to its 32nd seed. Bill Lorenz went three firsts and two seconds across his five games, posted the top score on Metallica, Bad Girls and Eight Ball Deluxe, and finished ahead of Dom Carr in every game the two of them played. That made 21 points — one clear of Makowski, and a couple clear of the logjam behind — from a player who sat near the back of the 35-strong field when the groups were drawn. A year ago his rating lived outside IFPA’s top 33,000; tonight it reads #7,702, and it came with first place.

Aztec has watched a lot of these evenings arrive and leave since 1976, and Week 5 was one more, decided the way league nights usually are — a couple of hot games, a card that doesn’t slip, and two points separating the entire top five. The 50-year-old machine did its part, still lighting its spinner for whoever plunges next.

Final Standings — Southeastern PA Pinball League, Summer 2026 Week 5

• 1st: Bill Lorenz (IFPA #7702)
• 2nd: Tony Makowski (IFPA #1605)
• 3rd (tie): Craig Patton (IFPA #8854), Adam Saylor (IFPA #8822), Zac Martin (IFPA #2475)