This past Saturday and Sunday brought another historic first for the CoCo - it was our first time hosting two different events on the same weekend.

We've had multiple "tournaments" coincide in various ways over the last couple of years. We've had tournaments with multiple divisions running side by side. We've had events that featured both a main event and separate early birds, late birds, and so forth. But two completely different events, in two different cities, each happening simultaneously? This was uncharted territory for us, and now we've planted our big ol' purple CoCo flag there.

Events went down this weekend in St. Louis, Missouri, and Austin, Texas, thanks to the efforts of directors Chris Lipe and Jesse Day respectively. Chris and Jesse are both repeat directors who have consistently put together great tournaments for us, and it's awesome to see them keep up the good work. Chris directed a 2-day tournament in his neck of the woods for the second year in a row, while Jesse continued his series of "Texas CSW One-Days" with another 6-game event this past Saturday.

Let's hear from both directors on how their events went.

Here's Chris:

A small but enthusiastic group got together in St. Louis this weekend for 14 games of Scrabble. With only four players in our field, we made a last-minute decision to relocate the tournament to our kitchen table, where co-directors Mischa and Mr. Doggy were able to supervise the action. When the dust settled on the first day, Jason Keller had opened up a lead at 8-1, a couple games clear of the field. Saturday night brought us to the traditional St. Louis BBQ at Salt and Smoke, a magical place where the salty, fatty goodness of brisket is cut through by the delightful bitterness of a local craft ale. Everyone was tired from a long day, so after finishing our meats, or fishes, or falafel burger on a gluten-free bun, everyone retired, with games resuming the next morning.

The next morning, Brian Bowman closed to within two games of Jason, leaving a small opening to catch him for first. But Jason ultimately prevailed, pulling through with a late bingo of SNIPPETS in the deciding tussle to seal the tournament. "I guess it's just not my game," said Brian.

We had decided to award a prize for first alongside a flat $10/game prize, so none of the games in the last round were meaningless. Brian beat me in the last one to seize second place on spread. After some applause for Jason and a group selfie with tournament organizer Mr. Dog, the group went to the City Foundry - a great upscale food hall built in an old industrial space in St. Louis' Midtown neighborhood - for lunch and cheesecake before departing. Many thanks to Jason, Brian, and Randi, and of course thank you to our two furry directors.

...and here's Jesse:

The second-ever Texas CSW One-Day again drew 6 participants. We chose "best indictments word" as our monthly theme, for which there were many excellent submissions. First-time participant Michael Donegan eventually earned a free lunch for IMPEDE. Becky Dyer handed host Jesse Day his first ever tournament loss at his own house by one point, 465-464.

In the championship game, Becky, facing nearly a 100-point deficit on a closed board, extended JAIL to JAILBOUND* for 60 in an attempt to steal both the victory and the "best word" prize. Even more remarkably, her opponent Chris Canik immediately challenged with 100% confidence, having coincidentally looked up all of the valid CSW JAIL- words immediately prior to the final round.

Chris went on to win the game and the tournament, stomping the opposition with a dominant 5-1, +727 record and sweeping most of the prize money (first place, the newly sponsored "Malaysian Ringer" award for greatest rating gain, and the second class prize for most places above seed).

We'll take a break for July and seek to resume in August, when we'll see if Chris can extend his reign of terror.

Thus ends the CoCo's first multi-tournament, multi-city weekend! And it's the first of many, I'm hoping. As our organization grows to include more directors, in more cities, running more events, I'm anticipating plenty more busy weekends like this one in our future. And I couldn't be more excited.

As for now: Props to everyone on the weekend that was. Thanks to Chris L. and Jesse for their directorial efforts; congrats to Jason and Chris C. on their impressive wins. Cheers all around. Until next time...