One of the coolest things about running virtual tournaments this spring has been getting to crown a new champion each time. Our first four events were won, respectively, by Josh Castellano, Ryan Fischer, Jackson Smylie and Jesse Day, all of whom were deserving and gracious champs. This time around, three of those four players couldn't make it, and the one who could - Josh - was too busy playing phony twos to actually win. So it looked pretty likely that we'd get yet another new champion!

(Sorry, Josh. You know I love you. Although I actually hate you. But also, I love you.)

Anyway, we had an enjoyable day of Scrabble on Saturday at our fifth Computer Users' Remote Event. As always, we started off with a get-together in our virtual players' lounge, where attendees from all over the world could mingle and talk about how things were going in their respective countries. It was interesting to hear a wide range of perspectives on the COVID-19 pandemic - in North America, we're mostly still quarantined as new cases continue to pile up, whereas in Australia and New Zealand, life is gradually returning to normal, including some in-person Scrabble events. New Zealand is down to just one COVID-19 case. One!

After some pre-tournament chit-chat, the games got started. We witnessed some fireworks early, to be sure. Alec Sjoholm had a monster first game - he slapped down bingos of ACCURATE, SEASIDE, DROOLIER and FIGURINE all in his first six turns and notched a big win over Lazar Ilic, 555-309. Priya Fernando scored the upset of the day against Esther Perrins - she notched big Q and J plays late in the game and snuck away with a win, 440-362. Josh played everyone's favorite phony two, OT*, in the second round, but managed to rally back and notch a win over Alec. 

After three rounds, it was virtually all Americans at the top of the standings. Martin DeMello, Terry Kang Rau and David Whitley were in first, second and fourth places, all 3-0. Eventually Martin pulled away from the pack, and after five games, he was the only 5-0, with the biggest spread in the field too. He basically just needed to win one of his last two games to seal the deal.

It was Martin against Josh in round 6, and they had a close game at first. Close, that is, until Josh found the ridiculous KIAUGHS for 113 to pull ahead. Martin had to fight through a couple of bad racks after that, and Josh added insult to injury with another big bingo, ADOPTERS, after that. Josh's game, 504-406. That set up a rematch in round 7 for all the marbles.

The seventh game started pretty ugly. After Josh's opening play of WIPED, Martin looked down at EEEEIOT and had to exchange. Josh followed that up with an overlap of WUD on top of WIPED... forming WI*. (See? What did I say about phony twos?) Martin eventually landed the first bingo with a double-double of DEPAINTS, but Josh scored well enough to stay within striking distance. He was still alive until Martin found a rack of BCMST?? and made the play of the tournament - MOBCAST for 90, all but guaranteeing the win and the title.

Martin wins the CURE5! Congrats to Martin. And also to David and Alec, who won their games in the final round and thus snuck into second and third.

There were plenty of good times in the players' lounge after the tournament. Josh and Martin were nice enough to walk us through every step of their championship game, including both the good and the bad (*cough* the phony two *cough*). Players also had fun debating the winner of the Best National Word contest, where each player submitted a play of theirs that best described their home nation. Howard Warner's submission of UTOPIA to describe New Zealand was a solid entry, but the clear winner this time was Marty Gold of the United States, who played NONSENSE. Because, yeah. There's nonsense here everywhere you look these days.

All in all, this was a Saturday well spent. Another successful tournament is in the books, and another new champion has been crowned.

We're happy with how all five of these virtual tournaments have gone this spring, and we've been heartened to see the enthusiastic response from so many players not just here in North America, but worldwide. We're eager to continue running these tourneys into the summer - and in fact, we may even come out soon with some innovative ideas for other virtual tournament formats.

More to come on that soon. Until then, thanks to everyone for your support. We hope you're all staying safe, and glad you're all still able to bond with us over our shared love for Scrabble.