Recapping the Seattle Summer Scrabble Tournament
After the madness of Word Cup, Evans and I were quite content to host a low-key tournament in our Seattle home with a great little group of players. Eight participants joined us from as far away as Portland, the Bay Area, and Southern California to play 14 games of Scrabble.
The weekend tournament kicked off with 7 games on Saturday. Players enjoyed the chance to take in some sun and fresh air while playing on the backyard patio under the shade of a massive sunbrella and Seattle's legendary old trees.
Jesse Day and Conrad Bassett-Bouchard both had strong starts, going undefeated in their first five games and ending the day with 6-1 records. In the evening, we had a culinary interlude, crushing backyard barbecue for dinner and a big skillet cookie with homemade ice cream on top for dessert.
Day 2 saw Cecilia Le and David Whitley surge toward the top of the pack, while Jesse lost several games in a row. But Conrad remained strong, and ultimately he was able to clinch victory toward the end of the day. He ended the tournament with a 12-2 record, three games ahead of the entire field, plus an impressive spread of +1390. Notably, he beat Jesse in Round 13 despite drawing only one E. Well done, CBB!
David snuck past Cecilia in the race for second place, finishing with a record of 9-5, +472. A terrifically strong performance came from Bharath Balakrishnan, who came into the tournament as the bottom seed. With 4 rounds of the tournament still to go, he was already Gibsonized for the class prize with a 6-4 record. He ended up finishing in fifth place with a solid 7-7 record, -65 spread. Both he and Conrad took home wood-burned plaques commemorating their performances in this weekend's tournament.
It won't be long before we host another Scrabble tournament (also complete with tons of home-cooked meals). Our Labor Day Oregon Coast Open (LOCO) beach tournament is right around the corner, coming up in early September. In the meantime, if you're in the Midwest or Mid-Atlantic, we have a couple of great August tournaments happening soon near Minneapolis and Washington, D.C.
No matter where you live, there is a CoCo tournament coming up near you in the months to come. Check out our tournament calendar today, and find out what's going on in your neighborhood.