Recapping this weekend's Bend, Oregon tournament
If anyone hasn't been to Bend, it's an amazing place to visit in the high desert of central Oregon. It has beautiful natural scenery such as mountains, volcanic monuments, forests, and rivers. Bend is a destination city for outdoor activities such as mountain biking, skiing, and rock climbing.
Seven players came to Bend, including four former national champions. This would prove to be a very difficult field for such a small tournament. Everyone filtered in on Friday night and Saturday morning. Travis Chaney was first to arrive, bringing with him a bunch of treats from Trader Joe's. There was a late-night trip to Immersion Brewing, after a few players arrived hungry following the long trek from Portland to Bend. We played a few games of Codenames, which were very fun and competitive. (Personally, I think I was more on top of my Codenames game than my Scrabble game.)
On Saturday morning, we had chocolate chip pancakes with maple syrup. Because I had three different pancake batters on three separate pans, it was slightly more complicated than my normal version of pancakes, and I hope I succeeded. There was coffee too - even French press coffee from Thump and Back Porch.
Then the games started, with all seven players competing in a double round robin. Everyone got to play each opponent twice in a row, with the odd player out getting a double bye. Some players opted to enjoy the hot tub during their byes. We were scheduled for an early start, at 9 a.m., and we missed our goal by just 15 minutes, starting at 9:15. We ended up playing all of our games on one big table, which provided for a lot of camaraderie, and you could see what was going on in every game at once. We also had great scenery to look at, with deer often venturing right up to the windows in the backyard. I had the first double bye, which I mostly used to clean up and do some other tasks. My first opponent was Dave Wiegand, and I won my first game against him. However, this was my only win against the top 3 seeds, as I went 0-6 against them after this win. My own tourney would turn out to be pretty mediocre.
We ended up playing 10 rounds on Saturday, with a lunch break for tacos and Back Porch coffee. We finished up our games around 6:30 p.m. Two players - Dave and Conrad Bassett-Bouchard - played a full 10 games because they didn't have their byes until Sunday morning, while everyone else played a mere 8 games on Saturday. In the end, it was just me playing David Whitley, in two very enjoyable and competitive games, eating pizza as we played. Pizza delivery after a long day of Scrabble seemed like a good option. Anagramming, hot-tubbing, and long words on Aerolith would follow.
On Sunday morning, we were all treated with breakfast tacos on homemade flour tortillas, cooked by chef Conrad. I made a trip to Sparrow Bakery for some additional treats, including chocolatines and ocean rolls. Did I mention it also started snowing on Sunday? Making the trip back from the bakery, I couldn't even make it up the hill to the house in my car. There was suddenly a lot of snow (and very little traction)! I parked at the bottom of the hill and hiked up, which wasn't too bad.
Although others tried to contend, the race for first place in the tournament turned out to be a grueling competition between Dave, Conrad, and Alec Sjoholm. In the end, Dave came out on top, winning $350. Conrad took second place, winning $175.
I'll also describe one sequence of plays, where Alec played RESPLIT vertically on the right side of the board, starting one spot below the triple word in the upper right corner. Dave played ZINGIBE(R) to the R in RESPLIT. But that's not all - after that, Dave played DOWP for 86 points horizontally in the top-right corner, overlapping ZINGIBE(R), making DI/OB/WE/PRESPLIT. This is definitely a champion-level play. Alec and Conrad also made plenty of their own champion-level plays throughout the tourney. These plays almost seem routine when you see them happening all the time.
My last game was very enjoyable and memorable, despite a loss. I played David Brown for the fourth time, and this time he was determined to beat me. The lead switched back and forth about 10 times during the game. At one point, I played HALL(O)WER for a bunch of points, and then HALLOWER(S)/COBS for 50+ more. At the end, he thought for a long time, then finally played NOMOI, blocking a bunch of lanes. The play surprised me - until I realized it was a great strategic play that blocked a bunch of possible bingos and other plays I might have. He initially won the game by 3 - but after a recount, the lead dwindled to 1. It was ultimately David's win by the slimmest of margins, 446-445.
Post-tournament, we made a trip to Crux Fermentation Project, a great brewpub with a taco truck in the back, where one guy was valiantly slinging extremely tasty tacos in cold snowy weather. Of course, there was anagramming. Later, we "fried our brains," and some people hot-tubbed outside, which seemed to feel perfect in the cold snowy weather.