What do you get when you combine 18 rowdy Scrabblers, a quaint Southern college town, and a charming little neighborhood Cajun restaurant? A heck of a weekend, that's what.

Everyone had a blast at the Charlottesville tournament that just wrapped up yesterday. It was the first live CoCo event ever held on the East Coast, and it was great to bring such a big, vibrant group of players together in this part of the country. Our field was a motley mix of Charlottesville locals, others from around the mid-Atlantic region, and still others who traveled from as far as New York, Ohio, Texas, and Missouri. For me personally, it was my first opportunity to see a number of good friends in person again since the pandemic began, which was exciting and long overdue, and for the CoCo, it was a milestone weekend as well. Wins all around.

Speaking of wins, Sam Rosin ended up with way more of them than anyone else. It was Sam's first tournament in over two years, and his first multi-day in three, but if he was even the slightest bit rusty, he didn't show it. With a record of 12-2, +993, he was absolutely dominant, and he takes a personally engraved wooden plaque all the way home to... Charlottesville. A few minutes away.

But hang on - let's back up. Here's how the weekend went, starting from the beginning:

• We arrived early on Saturday morning and got everything set up at Southern Crescent, a New Orleans-style restaurant and cocktail bar that's just a couple of blocks removed from downtown Charlottesville. We set up two different playing rooms for people - a cute little outdoor area with picnic tables and chairs, and an indoor dining room in the front of the restaurant, near the bar. Then, at 9 a.m., we were off and running.

• When we got underway, our eventual champion Sam got off to an inauspicious start - he dropped a 451-338 decision to Chris Lipe in the first round, putting him in 15th place to start the tournament. At first, it was Chris and myself who led the field - at the lunch break on day 1, we had similarly strong records of 4-0, +422 and 4-0, +324.

• Then we started to fade, and Sam surged. Fast. After his loss in the first round, Sam proceeded to win 11 consecutive games from rounds 2 through 12, and he racked up a huge spread in the process, too. I took a few losses - against Chris, Ben Schoenbrun, and of course Sam - along the way, but I did my best to stay within striking distance until the end. Meanwhile Chris had a really rough Sunday morning, and he moved back toward the middle of the pack.

• With two rounds to go, Sam was 11-1, +1002, and I was 9-3, +650. Bob Linn had a decent grip on third place at 8-4, though Chris and Ben and others were looking to overtake him. I was the only one with a chance to take down Sam, so I was paired with him in round 13, needing to beat him twice by an average of 90ish.

• I got the first one, bingoing with a massive double-double of SNIDEST for 104 early in the game and never looking back from the early lead. I won by about 100, setting up a second game where I needed to win by 78 to take down the tournament, and... nah, that was not happening. Sam was in total control in the final round - he got down a heavy bingo of GRAITHS early that put him ahead 130-38, and even though I bingoed a couple of times, Sam couldn't be denied. He hit me with a series of 40- and 50-point plays, including a really nice six-letter word of INCONY for 47, and I never really made it competitive. It was Sam's win by a 489-404 final, and it was Sam's tournament.

• I finished in second place, with a record of 10-4, +659; Ben came back and took third place away from Bob in the end. He was 9-5, +465. We also handed a class prize to Marty Gold, who entered the tournament unrated by the CoCo and ended up with an awesome record of 9-5, +176, fifth place overall.

Anyway, that was the Scrabble. There was much more to the event, though. Everyone in attendance got to enjoy a weekend packed with fun friend gatherings, raucous games of Puns of Anarchy, and tons and tons of food. Oh, the food. People noshed on bagels at Bodo's, burgers and fries at Citizen Burger Bar, loaded nachos and beers at Three Notch'd, bibimbap and chicken wings at Maru, breakfast sandos at Belle, pastries and coffee at Marie Bette, and of course, lots of Cajun fare from our hosts at Southern Crescent. There were muffulettas, red beans and rice, gumbo, and much more. Nom.

So that's a wrap! I'm really happy with how the tournament went overall, and I know Jennifer is, too. We're both thrilled for Sam to have earned the victory, as he's a great player and an even better human, and it's sweet that he gets to enjoy a tournament win in C'ville, the city he's called home for the last couple of years. I also want to express my gratitude to Jennifer, who worked incredibly hard to make this event run smoothly (much harder than I did, to be honest), and whose efforts paid off. And also to my mom and dad, who did everything from coordinating logistics with the venue owners to finding tables and chairs to bringing in snacks for hungry players. It was such a great team effort that made this tournament work well as it did.

Thanks also to all 18 of the players who turned out! It was great to get such a diverse crowd of people from all over the place to converge on my little hometown for an event. I want to give special shoutouts to Mike McKenna, who just immigrated from Australia to the U.S. a few weeks ago and was able to travel down from New York for the weekend; to Joe Roberdeau, who drove all the way here from far-away Cincinnati; and to Marty, who had a can't-miss event back home in Arlington on Saturday night, so he commuted all the way to Charlottesville and back twice. (That's 2 hours of driving each way, each day - 8 total.) It's incredibly flattering to see the lengths you all went to make it to a CoCo tournament.

It's also super exciting to see the ranks of CoCo players grow deeper. Of the 18 players this weekend, 9 were playing one of our events for the first time (including our champ Sam). That means the roster of players with an official CoCo rating has ballooned from 29 to 38 (and Sam’s sparkly rating of 2049 puts him in second place in North America, trailing only Dave Wiegand).

And in just a few weeks, we'll keep that train moving along. The next CoCo tournament is on the other coast, in Seattle, just 4 short weeks away; then after that, there's a little winter holiday layoff before we launch into a busy 2022 tournament slate including Hood River, San Diego, Austin, Boston, and more.

If you're reading this and you want to get in on that action... well, then, you know what to do. Look below. Click the thing.