We're coming up on the end of the calendar year, and all of the holiday vacations and whatnot that come with that. For many, 2024 is starting to wind down. But that doesn't mean the CoCo tournament calendar is slowing just yet - far from it, in fact.

This past weekend, the first in December, was a blockbuster one for us. We had a major event in San Francisco - one of the biggest CSW tournaments on North American soil this year - as well as the grand finale of a yearlong series taking place up the road in Portland.

Let's start with the California Open, which took place in downtown SF on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Here's a report from CO director Edward De Guzman:

It's a wrap for the 15th California Open! The 2024 Collins division of the CO was the largest in the history of the event with 33 players from across the country and Canada. There was even a former World Champion - Wellington Jighere - in the mix for the title. In the end, Brad Whitmarsh of Massachusetts took this year's title with a 15-5 +1155 record.

A big, big thank-you to all the players for making the CO's return to San Francisco a great one. And equally big thanks to my co-directors Chris Patrick Morgan and Arthur Braden who took on the director duties throughout the weekend. Finally, thanks to Joshua Sokol-Rubenstein, who made it possible for others to watch live action at the top table by streaming games on his Twitch channel.

The plan for 2025 is to keep the event at the Parc55 Hilton Hotel in downtown San Francisco. Hope to see you there!

Thanks to Ed for running the show at the CO, and congrats to everyone who finished strong - the champion Brad, the other top money winners (Rob Robinsky, John O'Laughlin, and Kevin Fraley), and the three class prize winners (Sridhar Paidikondala, Martin DeMello, and Bharath Balakrishnan) as well.

Meanwhile, up the interstate in Portland, there was a smaller yet still highly significant tournament taking place - the 11th and final installment of the Portland Pub Scrabble series, a monthly-ish Scrabble tournament that's been taking place at assorted beer-soaked venues all around the city throughout 2024.

The grand finale of the "PPS" series went down at Rogue Eastside Pub - a fitting grand finale venue if ever there was one - and six Portland Scrabble regulars were there to duke it out. Dave Wiegand and Kolton Koehler led the event pretty much from wire to wire - also fitting, as they've been two of the strongest players throughout the Portland Pub series.

Through four out of six rounds, Dave was 4-0 and Kolton was 3-1, setting up a scenario where Kolton had a chance to beat Dave twice in a row and win the tournament. He got the first game, prevailing 507-435 in round 5 - but Dave delivered the knockout blow in round 6. He won a big one, 565-319, to lock down the tournament victory.

This brings us to the end of an action-packed year of Portland Pub tournaments. Dave, whose win this weekend was his fifth out of the 11 events, is the runaway champion for the year. Kolton finishes tied for second place alongside Gunther Jacobi; meanwhile, Travis Chaney takes home the class prize for consistently finishing higher than his seed throughout the year.

Thus concludes an epic weekend of West Coast CSW Scrabble! Thanks to all who directed; congrats to all who prevailed. We'll see you all again on the tournament circuit next time, whether it's this coming weekend in Vancouver, BC, or somewhere on down the road in 2025.