Recapping two Labor Day weekend tournaments

Labor Day weekend has long been one of the best weekends of the year on the Scrabble tournament calendar. People everywhere, across the U.S. and Canada alike, have a nice long stretch off from school and work, which means plenty of time to indulge in their favorite board game. So they flock from all over to come to tournaments and compete.

For the CoCo, 2024 brought a historic first - this time around, we had not one but two tournaments happening over Labor Day simultaneously, one on each coast. Out West, Scrabblers converged on Portland, OR, for the blockbuster PDXwords event - one of the biggest tournaments of the year west of the Mississippi. Meanwhile in the East, there was a convivial beach gathering for a tournament on the coast of Delaware. At both events, there was no shortage of good fun, nor of heated Scrabble competition.

Let's recap the action.

First up: Portland, brought to you by organizer Scott Smith, director Juraj Pivovarov, and producer Conrad Bassett-Bouchard.

Here's Conrad's report on what went down...

A fun time was had as always in the Portland suburbs for Labor Day weekend!

Alec Sjöholm took down the early bird on Friday with a 7-1 record, despite a thwapping upset from Jeannie Wilson. Ruth Hamilton took second.

For the main event, we thought we were going to have two divisions, but the majority of players requested one, so off the 18(!) of us went! We offered a large suite of class prizes for the bottom half of the division. Kolton Koehler jumped out to a quick 8-0 start, but by the end of day 2, Alec, Dave Wiegand, and I had all caught him, with Winter on the outside looking in.

Some notable plays:

• Alec overlapped PALUDINE with OD(O)RISES for 2x8. He also played CHITCHAT (I think a C or an H was a blank).

• Travis Chaney played OLOGY. Then he extended it as a non-bingo to make NEONAT(OLOGY).

• Kolton stole victory from the jaws of defeat against Winter by extending HAWKS to MOPE(HAWKS) for 72+5. He also beat me with a sick find of the only 8 in DENNPY??.

• Paula Catanese won a game 581-500.

• However, my personal favorite play of the tournament was when Betty Cornelison played (T)REkKIES* to a triple for 98, making the blank a second K! Alas, unlike JEDI, this has not yet made it into the dictionary, and so it ultimately scored 0. Betty had to settle for RES(T)rIKE (albeit still getting +5 for the challenge) on the next turn.

After round 19, first and second were pretty much locked up - I had to beat Dave by 328 in the final round to win the tournament, but could only manage to win by 40ish, despite putting up a score above 500. Dave took first place, me second, Alec third, and Kolton fourth. Class prizes went to Paula, Joe Roberdeau, and Betty.

Also, a warm welcome to Ather Sharif, who played in his first CoCo event, starting it off with a 430 against me in round 1!

Looking forward to seeing folks back in Portland next Labor Day! My best on behalf of local Portland organizer Scott Smith and traveling director extraordinaire Juraj Pivovarov!

As for Delaware, Tim Weiss and family served as gracious hosts for the beach weekend; Nits Chagti directed the Scrabble of it all.

Let's hear from Nits...

Ten Scrabble players gathered in Lewes, DE over this past Labor Day weekend to enjoy huge platters of seafood, long walks on the beach, and, of course, 18 games of competitive Scrabble.

First things first: Congratulations to Kaia for acing her director certification and apprenticing at the tournament!

I have to admit, there were what felt like two lives to this Labor Day weekend: the beach and the tournament itself, and I would be remiss not to give them equal attention. The fun and frivolity began on late Friday night when all 10 players collected at The Wheelhouse for fish tacos, fried cornbread, and lively conversation, before most of us retired to the lovely Weiss residence for the night.

Saturday morning started off without a hitch, with most players getting up much earlier than the 9:30 a.m. start time to enjoy the serene morning. All three mornings, the players were treated to a breakfast spread that could rival most catered events: an assortment of fruits, bagels, granola, coffee, tea, juices, jams, and freshly-made egg and cheese sandwiches were provided by our incredible hosts, Eileen and Danny Weiss.

With the ample space and lovely weather, most players chose to set up their gear outside to play in the gentle breeze. We were also visited by a startling number of Canadian geese over the day. New recruits to Collins, perhaps? Saturday saw Ben Schoenbrun taking an immediate lead - after Ben went undefeated on Day 1, it was quite clear that he was the one to watch out for. It wasn't until Sunday afternoon that our host, Tim Weiss, managed to get a game off of Ben.

The players collectively decided to make their lunch break shorter so as to have more time for the beach in the evening, aided in no small part by the generosity of our hosts, who picked up and treated us to Grotto Pizza. There was some excitement over lunchtime when Becky and I came across a harmless (but huge) black snake on our walk around the huge pond out back.

Incredibly, games ended well before planned even after the shorter lunch break, and the evening began with most of the group heading to the Rehoboth Beach to frolic in the sand. Upon the excellent suggestion of Matt O'Connor, we meandered to The Point to catch the sun setting on the ocean, before proceeding to the Big Oyster Brewery for a group dinner (I am happy to report that their veggie burgers are to die for).

Sunday worked quite like a well-oiled machine and the players began their games after a quick morning visit from a blue heron. By the end of Day 2, Ben sat a comfortable three games ahead of the pack at 13-1, and Matt stood in second place with a record of 10-4, while Josh Castellano and Bob Linn brought up the lead with records of 9-5.

After games, the group took a 30-minute ride out to Bethany Beach, where we enjoyed more beach fare at The Ropewalk, followed by Kohr Brothers for dessert. That evening, we had one collective goal: not to let our frozen custards perish as we walked through large crowds swaying to live music on our way to get sand under our toes.

On Monday, although Ben suffered two losses against me and Bob, it was clear by Round 17 that he could not be caught. Ben won the tournament, and Matt held on to second place. When the dust settled, Ben finished with a dominating record of 15-3 +1530, for which he won $400. Matt took home $260 for second with a record of 12-6 +883, and Tim earned third place and $150 for his record of 11-7 +582. The class prize of $150 went to Bob, who had surged into fifth place.

I want to take a moment to acknowledge that the MVPs of the event were, beyond doubt, Eileen and Danny Weiss, who not only opened their home to us, but went above and beyond to set up a breakfast spread each morning, treated us to Grotto Pizza on Saturday, and got us a variety of sandwiches, bagels, and wraps from Surfside Bagel on Sunday for lunch. Their generosity truly knows no bounds and, without them, this weekend would not have been possible - much less successful. I cannot thank them enough for all that they did.

As always, it was a lovely time directing - helped along, not least of all, by the fact that these were veteran players who knew the ins and outs of playing competitive Scrabble. We enjoyed playing outside on the porch until it got too hot or too windy, at which point we shoveled ourselves (and multiple blankets) into the tundra that was the basement. We certainly had a ball walking around the beaches, enjoying the seafood, and taking in the sights. I couldn't have imagined a better way to spend the last warm long weekend of the year: a Beach-Adjacent Labor Day Excursion to Rural Delaware As Scrabble's Happening (BALDERDASH).

Thanks to all the volunteers who made these two events possible - and congrats to all the winners!

For more on these two tournaments and how everything shook out, check out our results pages at your leisure.