Recapping the 6th annual Hood River Open
It's remarkable - this tournament takes place in the same lodge, in the same town, on the same weekend, with many of the same people, again and again, every single year, and yet somehow, it absolutely never gets old. Not for me, anyway. And evidently, not for a handful of others who keep coming back every time.
This past weekend brought the sixth annual installment of our Hood River tournament, and it was just as much fun as the five before it, if not even a little more so. The event featured a motley mix of the old Hood River regulars and quite a few new faces, but the group got along beautifully just the same. There was good food and drink, good camaraderie, and much fun had by all. And of course, we managed to sneak in 20 rounds of Scrabble along the way.
Let's recap some of the highlights:
Well, I always suspected our streak of "a unique Hood River champion every year" would come to an end someday, and ultimately, it was indeed ended by the exact person I always suspected would end it. Surprising no one, Dave Wiegand took home the trophy this year, his first HORO win since he took down the very first one back in 2018. Dr. Bing was absolutely dominant this time. He was 15-1 after the first two days, leaving little doubt that it was his tourney for the taking. And his results were ridiculous along the way - he put up a run of 522, 538, 561, and 515 on Sunday afternoon against four top experts as he began to run away with it. He finished the tournament 17-3, +2110, three wins and about a thousand spread points ahead of the entire field. That's how you win a title.
The race for second place was a little more interesting - it was close the whole way, but Conrad Bassett-Bouchard pulled away with it by putting together an 8-1 run in rounds 11 through 19. Rob Robinsky had a shot to overtake Conrad in the 20th game if he beat him in a blowout, but Rob merely won a close one. So when the dust settled, it was Conrad, Rob, and Chris Lipe all tied at 14-6, in that order spread-wise. Congrats to all three on cashing!
Congrats also to Terry Kang, who made her very first pilgrimage to Hood River and walked away with the class prize. With a solid 10-10 finish against a tough field, Terry was the highest finisher among the lower seeds. Not bad - especially considering she was one of the only three players who took down Dr. Bing.
After games each day, there was all sorts of after-hours fun. Players enjoyed games ranging from Codenames to So Clover to Ransom Notes to a new favorite called Haiclue. There was some Anagrams, too, though perhaps a tad less Anagrams than usual. And there were plenty of cookies for dessert, among other tasty treats.
Speaking of tasty treats: We made s'mores for the first time! Which is truly an embarrassment, really. How did we go six years staying in a lodge with a firepit and only now think to make s'mores? What's wrong with us? Anyway, we finally did the thing this year, and the s'mores were delicious. Well, some of them anyway. Certain lodge attendees, including your faithful recap blog writer, ended up with not much more than some terrifying stick fires and badly charred marshmallows. Oh well.
As always, some of the most fun parts of the weekend were the outings to downtown Hood River for group meals at the local breweries. The pizzas and IPAs at Double Mountain never disappoint, nor do the gastropub fare or barrel-aged ales at pFriem.
It was a thrill to welcome six players to Hood River for the first time! In addition to our class winner Terry, we were also graced with the presence of Travis Chaney, Bharath Balakrishnan, Nitya Chagti, Anuj Shetty, and Eric Fox. All made for wonderful additions to the group.
We were also pleased to note that this was one of the most diverse fields we've had at a CoCo tournament - of our 20 players, five were women and four were foreign-born (all four from India). We always strive to make CoCo tournaments appealing to all different Scrabble players of all different backgrounds, and it's awesome to see the whole group come together, compete over the board, and enjoy each other's company.
I'll close with this: One of the most gratifying things about being a tournament director is hearing players tell you after a tournament that they're excited for the next one. And this weekend, there was an outpouring of that. We heard numerous players tell us either "I'll be back in Hood River next year for sure," or "I can't wait for the next tournament on the CoCo calendar," or both. It's music to our ears. Jennifer and I both are honored to have so many awesome people come back again and again for these tournaments, and, like you, we also can't wait for the next one.