Recapping the autumn 2021 quarter of CoCo virtual club play
It's that time again - we've concluded another quarter of play at the CoCo Virtual Club on Woogles. But before we get to the thrilling details, I should add that the CoCo Club was recently honored with a Woogie award for being voted the best club on Woogles! This, of course, confirms what we directors already knew - we have a great group of players joining us from around the world each week, and that's what allows us to offer a formidable level of Scrabble competition in a fun and friendly atmosphere. Thank you to everyone for coming to play, and we look forward to more great Scrabbling in 2022!
The fourth quarter of 2021 was just like the previous two: Austin Shin, for whom the scoring (and winning) never seems to stop, finished first, and Sammy Okosagah finished next behind him. As you might imagine, these two Scrabble heavyweights are often matched against each other in club - they faced off 15 times this quarter, with Austin winning eight and Sammy winning seven. Austin put up a blistering 36-9 record against everyone else, which gave him a +28 win-loss differential and the top spot for the quarter. Sammy's +13 locked in his third straight second-place finish.
Third place for the quarter went to Mohammad Sulaiman, who held off David Eldar's late charge in the final week's session to finish a game ahead in win differential, +10 to +9. This was the second top-three finish for Mohammad this year - he also came in third in the spring quarter.
Coincidentally, the top three finishers in win differential were also the three players who played the most games during the fourth quarter, and so they were each also awarded the virtual Club Cup. There were a total of 65 rounds held over the 13 weekly club sessions, and Sammy and Mohammad played in all 65 of them to tie for most games played. Austin was next with 60, and Becky Dyer and Bharath Balakrishnan played 48 games each and were both awarded the third-place cup.
A few more fun numbers from these last few months:
Players playing at least one club game: 29
Players playing 10 games or more: 18
Total games played in club: 343
Total points scored: 289,726 (422.35 per player per game)
High games: Austin Shin (632, 623, 602, and 594 - the four highest scores of the quarter), Mohammad Sulaiman 590, Colin Northmore 588, David Whitley 588, Sammy Okosagah 579, David Eldar 575
High combined score: 1,044 (Becky Dyer 553, Kevin Fraley 491)
High losses: Kevin Fraley 491, David Eldar 474, Colin Northmore 471
Tie games: 1 (Mohammad Sulaiman vs. Andrian Setiawan, 451-451)
Nailbiters (games decided by 10 or fewer points): 23
Again, thank you to all of our players, and to Woogles for providing us a great place to meet online and play. The first quarter of 2022 is already underway, so come join the fun!