Word Cup Day 2: Dr. Bing leads the way, Berofsky surges to second
We had an exciting Day 2 at Word Cup. Everyone is now comfortably settled in here in Chicagoland - the pairings are fixed, the Twitch broadcast is going strong, and 70 players are duking it out over the tiles. We're almost halfway through our championship event, and we've gotten to see some riveting Scrabble action.
Let's recap where everything stands with 14 games down and 17 still to go.
THE LEADERS
After a strong performance on Day 1, Dave Wiegand delivered more of the same on Day 2. Yesterday he was 6-1; today he posted six wins and a tie, as he ended his day with an incredible 472-472 result against Evan Berofsky. Speaking of Evan, he turned in a fantastic day himself - five wins and a tie! He's now all alone in second place, two games back from the aforementioned Dr. Bing.
Geoff Thevenot stayed strong, keeping his hold on third place overall; David Webb likewise remained in fourth. And one of the day's big success stories was the surge of Ben Schoenbrun, who was a mere 4-3 yesterday but went on a run today to break into the top 10.
Here's the complete rundown...
1. Dave Wiegand (12.5-1.5, +1070)
2. Evan Berofsky (10.5-3.5, +751)
3. Geoff Thevenot (10-4, +284)
4. David Webb (9-5, +483)
5. Conrad Bassett-Bouchard (9-5, +467)
6. Austin Shin (9-5, +445)
7. Marlon Prudencio (9-5, +416)
8. Jesse Day (9-5, +232)
9. Ben Schoenbrun (9-5, +2)
10. Brian Bowman (8-6, +519)
GAME OF THE DAY
It would be tough to top the matchup between Austin Shin and Conrad Bassett-Bouchard that unfolded in round 12. First of all, it was a virtually flawless game between two top players; second of all, there were fireworks. Many fireworks. Come for the hog-related vocab words; stay for the ridiculous Z bingos and H triple-triples. When the dust settles, you'll get to see 1,054 points scored in total. #ScoringNeverStops, indeed.
ALL THE GAMES
Want to click through all of today's Table 1 action? No problem - we got you covered.
Round 8: Evan Berofsky vs. Dave Wiegand
Round 9: Conrad Bassett-Bouchard vs. David Eldar
Round 10: Thomas Reinke vs. David Webb
Round 11: Dave Wiegand vs. Geoff Thevenot
Round 12: Austin Shin vs. Conrad Bassett-Bouchard
Round 13: Jesse Day vs. Sammy Okosagah
Round 14: Marlon Prudencio vs. David Whitley
COMING UP TOMORROW
The chase is on. At this point, it's Dave Wiegand's tournament to lose - and there's a whole host of players who will try to make him lose it. Tune in and find out whether Berofsky, Thevenot, Webb, or anyone else can make a run at the good doctor.
Same time tomorrow. See y'all then.