Recapping this weekend's 1-day tournament in Columbia, MD

For quite a while now, the D.C./Maryland/Virginia region - or "the DMV," as it's affectionately known - has been one of North America's hotbeds of Collins Scrabble. So it should come as no surprise that the region has hosted many a CoCo event. In the last couple of years, we've seen directors in the area host tournaments in Charlottesville, VA, Potomac, MD, and Silver Spring, MD, and that's only the beginning.

This weekend brought yet another CoCo event for the DMV faithful to enjoy - this time, in Columbia, MD. The event came together thanks to the efforts of Sammy Okosagah, who graciously offered to host a tournament at his home, and Rob Robinsky, who volunteered to direct. And it was a smashing success!

Here's Rob's take on the tournament:

What happens when you assemble a group of 10 talented, affable, and experienced Scrabble players in a couple of rooms for eight hours or so? Well, from a director's perspective... you get a whole lot of nothin' going on. This weekend's one-day tournament in Columbia was the smoothest, most undramatic tournament I've ever been a part of! Thanks in no small part to Sammy's recruiting prowess, we quickly filled up both his kitchen and living room with action-packed and competitive games while remaining remarkably on schedule. A true director's dream!

The tournament was quite closely contested through Saturday morning, with everyone entering the lunch break with both wins and losses. Fueled by Sammy's generous assortment of lunch options, Josh Castellano went on a run at the right time and ended up clinching first place with a round to spare at 6-1, while the next four players all had 4-3 records with varying spreads. Continuing the streak of easy directing, the final King of the Hill pairings conveniently provided head-to-head matchups to decide both second place (between Sammy and Wale Fashina) as well as the class prize (between Tim Weiss and Ayotunde Adeyeri). In the end, it was Sammy and Tim joining Josh on the prizewinners' podium. The CoCo theme of the day continued even beyond the tournament, as we got to watch the beginning of Coco Gauff's remarkable turnaround at the U.S. Open as we packed away boards and blank slips.

This will definitely be the first of hopefully many one-day tournaments in the D.C. area!

I can only concur with Rob. Looking forward to many more events in and around D.C.

Thanks to Rob for making this tournament happen, and to Sammy for his hospitality. And to everyone else in the DMV: Keep on being one of the most Scrabblin' spots in North America. You love to see it.