Recapping the second annual Austin Tile X-Words (ATX)

Twelve tileslingers rode into town this past weekend for the second annual Austin Tile X-Words (ATX) tournament. Half the field were Texas locals, representing the growing Collins scene in the Lone Star State. These included Ben Weaver, playing in his first ever tournament, and Prashant Murti, in his second. It's great to see new players joining CoCo tournaments, and that gives us a lot of impetus to create some one-day tournaments in Austin in the near future.

As the morning of ATX Day 1 rolled in, it seemed that playing Scrabble was not sufficiently physically exerting for some competitors. Winter, Dave Wiegand, Evans Clinchy, and Jesse Day found themselves taking part in the Longhorn Run 5K race one hour before the tournament began. All four successfully navigated the surprisingly hilly UT campus course and made it to the playing venue with limited sweating - although towels were observed being utilized during the first round of games. Winter emerged victorious among the Scrabble track team, though all four competitors finished with suspiciously fast times. According to one correspondent, this may be because the boffins at UT might not know exactly how long a 5K is.

With a field of 12 players and 14 rounds to play, we decided to use a round-robin format for the first 11 rounds. There were fireworks from the start, as Jesse posted a 611 in his first game; Evans, Sandy Nang, and Rasheed Balogun also recorded wins with over 500 points to open the tournament. By lunch time on the first day, Jesse and Dave both had 4-0 records, with only 5 spread points between them. The lunch hour turned into a lunch 90 minutes thanks to particularly slow service at one of Austin's most respectable Korean fried chicken joints. The staff there really put the Stop in "KO Stop."

Once we managed to get the afternoon games started, Jesse and Dr. Bing continued their excellent showing, finishing the day at 7-1 and 6-2 respectively. Joining them at the top of the standings were Evans (6-1), Chris Lipe (5-3), and Rasheed (5-3). Several noises of exhilaration and exasperation were heard during round 7 when Winter had 4 bingos in a row against Evans - OVERDOSE 66, RUSTABLE 62, NEEDIEST 86, COTELINE 72.

After games on Day 1, many players and friends went out for a relaxing dinner at the Jester King microbrewery, with some showing that they are also highly proficient cornholers as well as Scrabblers.

The tournament really heated up on the second day. Jesse in particular had an action-packed stretch: In round 10, Chris beat him 555-426; then, in round 11 to close out the round-robin portion, Jesse beat Bing 530-499. Their combined 1,029 points were the highest cumulative total in any game this weekend.

After the first 11 games, Bing, Jesse, Evans, and Chris found themselves in the top four, so Jesse faced Chris in round 12. Chris won again, 651-374 - 1,025 cumulative points! Chris had four big bingos - TIMBRAL for 76, JAVELINS for 76, SEPALOID for 149, and ATTIRED for 73 - and his winning score was the highest of the tournament. In the other game, Bing beat Evans 423-366 despite Evans' very nice SALCHOW for 81.

Going into the final two rounds, Dave had a 10-2, +1300 record, putting him two games clear of Chris, Evans, Jesse, and Rasheed, who were all on 8 wins. Following his big win in the previous round, Chris had the best spread of +755, meaning he would get the chance to beat Dave twice in a row by huge margins. Undaunted, Chris did manage to beat Dave in round 13, albeit fairly narrowly - 436-407. Chris had the high-scoring CRYSTAL for 104, while Dave countered with FEMINAzI for 74 and REVOTES for 91. This set up a scenario where Chris would need to win by 244 in the final round to take the title. Chris beat Dave again in the final game, but not by enough - his 433-380 victory earned him a very well deserved second place, but it was Dr. Bing who retained his Austin Tile X-Words title.

In the race for third place, in round 13, Evans played Jesse. Evans' play of the game was PASQUIL for 0 - he managed to find the only seven-letter word with a rack of AILPQU?, but unfortunately for him, he played it by hooking the S on GADARENE. GADARENE is an adjective that means "involving or engaged in a headlong or potentially disastrous rush to do something." Evans made a GADARENE decision involving the word GADARENE. Jesse went on to win the game 496-383, setting up a third-place match in the final round against Rasheed, which Jesse won 471-383 to secure a place on the podium.

Although just missing out on the final places, Rasheed won a prize for playing the highest scoring word containing the letters A-T-X. His AXINITES for 98 was the clear winner. Another prize was for the best "Texas" word, as judged by director's assistant Isabelle. It was looking like David Whitley would win this with BOWIE (James Bowie died at the Alamo, as every 11-year-old Texan should know); however, in the final round, Evans displayed some high-level strategy. He played BOWIE himself to cancel out David's play. This meant that Evans secured the class prize with his other submission of HORNINGS (hook 'em, Horns!). Meanwhile, the class prize went to the best performance by a sub-1700 player. Both Randi Goldberg and Sandy ended up with 6 wins, which meant Randi took the prize thanks to her better spread.

We're very happy to have now run two Austin tournaments in April, and we hope to make this two-day tournament a regular on the schedule. Additionally, it looks like we might be able to start offering some one-day tournaments in the Austin area, which would be fantastic.

Thanks to all the players for coming - we look forward to seeing you again.