Portland, Oregon is one of the flagship cities on the CoCo tournament map, no doubt about it. It's home to an incredible roster of local Scrabble talent - and since it's one of America's coolest cities, it also has no trouble drawing hordes of out-of-town visitors to play tournaments again and again.

This past weekend brought the third CoCo event that Conrad Bassett-Bouchard has directed in his home in northeast Portland, and the second annual October tourney that he's affectionately dubbed the Portland-Alberta Beer Scrabble Thing (PABST). And the event most certainly lived up to its name. It was in Portland, the Alberta Arts District to be specific, and there was beer and there was Scrabble. And it was a thing. A glorious thing, indeed.

Fourteen players converged upon PDX to duke it out over 14 games, making for a nice, tidy round robin followed by a King of the Hill final round for all the marbles. And in the end, we had a new champion - Kolton Koehler, who notched his first-ever CoCo tournament victory in dramatic fashion.

More on that in a bit. But let's start at the beginning: It was actually quite the inauspicious start for Kolton, who barely snuck away with wins in the first two rounds. He started the tournament squeaking past Stefan Kac in the opening game, 423-417, then beating yours truly in a close one as well, 467-459. Then he lost his next two. By lunchtime on Saturday, he was 2-2 with an atrocious spread. Meanwhile Dave Wiegand was a pristine 4-0, and Alec Sjoholm was undefeated but not untied - he was at 3.5 wins including a 453-453 game against Betty Cornelison.

After lunch, Kolton rallied to win four straight, and Conrad Bassett-Bouchard went on a tear as well. After the first day, Alec led the field with 6.5 wins, while Dave, Conrad, and Kolton all had 6.

Eventually, Sunday culminated in Kolton facing off with Alec for the title, as Alec had 10.5 wins and Kolton had 10. And their final battle was neck and neck the whole way, right down to an incredible finish.

Down by a bingo late in the game, Alec came up with the nice bingo of VOLUMING, which Kolton held for a bit, then correctly accepted - it's good. They went into an endgame situation with Kolton slightly ahead and Alec looking for a way to come back, and he decided his best chance was to try the dubious S hook of VOLUMINGS*. After checking and double-checking all the math, Kolton realized that VOLUMINGS* was for the tie! And because Alec was a half-game up in the standings, a tie would win him the tournament.

So Kolton was looking at three possible outcomes. He could simply accept VOLUMINGS*, take the tie game, and finish the tournament with 10.5 wins. He'd be guaranteed second place. Or he could challenge. If he was right, the title was his! If he was wrong, he would lose the game, finish 10-4, and possibly be surpassed by both Conrad and Dave in the standings. He could fall as far as fourth.

In the end, Kolton decided, you play to win the tournament. So he challenged VOLUMINGS* - and it came off, and he made his outplay. The tournament was his!

It was a surreal moment - I don't think I've seen anything like it in all my Scrabbling years. Just a ridiculous way for a weekend-long tournament to reach its conclusion.

The final standings showed Kolton in first place at 11-3, Alec second at 10.5-3.5, and Conrad edging out Dave for third place, with both players 10-4.

Of course, there was plenty more to the weekend than just the Scrabble. As the event's name would imply, there were plenty of opportunities for brewery field trips throughout - players enjoyed duck confit and barrel-aged wild ales at Cascade Brewing on Friday night, as well as smashburgers and hazy IPAs at Great Notion on Saturday. And there was all sorts of after-hours fun in the evenings including anagrams, Splendor, and Things.

Thanks to Conrad for directing this event, and congrats to all the prizewinners - Kolton, Alec, Conrad, and Dave. (Fourth place technically counts as cashing in this event - Dave received a whopping $2.) Props are also due to Gary Smart, who had a rockin' final day with 5 wins in his last 6 games, netting him the class prize. And a warm welcome to Gunther Jacobi, who played his first CoCo tournament this weekend and finished a respectable 7-7.

This was another enjoyable weekend of Scrabble. I hope we'll see you - yes, you! - at the next one. Until then, feel free to browse the results from the second annual PABST.