Recapping the fourth annual Hood River Open

What a weekend! Every Hood River tournament has been a blast - but for this one, the fourth annual, it really seemed like the stars aligned above Panorama Lodge.

In a testament to the strength and depth of the field, we've had a different winner at this tournament every year - and 2022 was no different, as Jesse Day emerged as the fourth Hood River champion. With his strong performance, he claimed an initial CoCo rating of 2122, leapfrogging Dave Wiegand to become the top-ranked player in North America. Dave, meanwhile, finished second in Hood River this weekend; Conrad Bassett-Bouchard and Chris Lipe took third and fourth places respectively, while Randi Goldberg took home the class prize.

(Also: Mike McKenna took home a $1 bill and a pinecone for winning the "Why'd You Even Come Here?" award, which goes to the player whose final record is closest to 10-10, +0. Amazingly, his record wasn't really close to that mark at all - he went 9-11, -202! We didn't have a single player finish with exactly 10 wins.)

Anyway, let's start at the beginning: On Friday evening, all 20 players (plus a few significant others) convened at Pfriem for a kickoff dinner in bustling downtown Hood River. We all then returned home for a night of homemade Thin Mints for dessert and a variety of after-hours games. Highlights included several rounds of Anagrams (most notably one in which Peter Armstrong found the ridiculous 14-letter FREEWHEELINGLY), plus an all-time first in the tournament Scrabble community: a relatively amicable game of Settlers of Catan.

Saturday morning dawned bright and clear, with Mount Hood making a stunning appearance from under the clouds. Tournament games began Saturday at 9:30 a.m. sharp (read: more like 9:46 if we're being honest), and we were off. The tournament consisted of 20 players and 20 games, giving us the perfect setup for a full round robin plus one King of the Hill round at the end.

Most players played their games in the cozy comfort of the log cabin. A few brave souls, however, bundled up to enjoy the clear skies and amazing view from the lodge patio. Playing outdoors didn't come without peril, however. In one game, a player low on time had to jump up and chase his scoresheet down when the wind carried it away.

That wasn't the only mishap of the weekend involving Scrabble equipment. Unlike the previous two Hood River events, where we created murder mysteries and puzzle hunts for players to solve, this event presented us with a real-life mystery: The Case of the Missing J.

In Round 7, Mike McKenna and Mark Francillon squared off, with what they believed was a full set of tiles. They finished their game, agreed on the score, and went to work tidying the tiles for the next players. Only then did they discover that a tile was missing. After some confusion about how many A's were present, the players confirmed that they had all nine - and then realized they had zero J's. (This author has no idea how it managed to escape both players' notice that the J was never played during their game.)

A full-blown search - which included enlisting other nearby Scrabble detectives - ensued, but no one could find the J. This was not a mystery that would be solved easily. But, as with so many challenges, the outlook improved after a night of sleep. The next morning when Mike woke up, he inexplicably found the missing J tile resting on his pillow. Had it been stuck in his hair? Nestled in his hoodie? Was it secretly sequestered and then placed on his pillow in the middle of the night by Tim Weiss? (He was definitely a suspicious individual, as he was sneaking pinecones into people's beds throughout the weekend.) We'll never know for sure.

Beyond the Scrabble (and Anagrams, and Catan), players filled their evenings with many other games. From One Night Werewolf to So Clover to Splendor, players had no shortage of gaming options. And on Sunday night, quizmaster Puneet Sharma hosted a fun (and challenging!) trivia contest, grilling teams of 4-5 Scrabblers on everything from Christopher Columbus' burial site to the significance of Mount Tibidabo on the sitcom "Friends." As usual, David Whitley outscored just about everyone else in the room combined, but the rest of the teams performed admirably as well.

And oh, the food! Every night featured a different batch of freshly baked cookies - Friday's Thin Mints were followed up by lemon ricotta on Saturday and salted bourbon butterscotch chocolate chunk on Sunday. There was pasta, fresh-baked bread, carne asada tacos, sous vide salmon fillets, omelets, and potatoes fried in everything from butter to duck fat.

As for the Scrabble, the tournament reached a thrilling conclusion, with Jesse outlasting Conrad in the final game to secure his first Hood River title in round 20 on Monday afternoon. Dave took down Ben Schoenbrun to lock in second. All three top finishers - Jesse, Dave, Conrad - finished with identical 15-5 records, meaning the tournament was decided by mere spread points.

After the Scrabble wrapped up, we gathered on the patio for a speedy awards ceremony before heading over to Double Mountain for a pizza lunch.

All in all, it was a fabulous weekend. Panorama Lodge, we love you, and we already can't wait to return next year!