Summer may be ending, but for us at the CoCo, we’re just getting started. In only four days, 16 players will convene for the first live CoCo tournament in more than a year. Each September, the Labor Day Oregon Coast Open (LOCO) brings players from around North America to a small beachside town - and after a whole pandemic year without live tournaments, we’re now back and ready to play.

The LOCO is essentially the beach version of our winter Hood River tournament. In many ways, it’s the same. The house doubles as both the tournament venue and lodging space. A welcome banner and photo string of pictures from prior tournaments decorate the walls. Players share games, bedrooms, and after-hours entertainment. Evans cooks breakfasts and dinners from scratch, Conrad fires up the grill, and we feature a taco bar and sandwich bar for lunch. We’ve learned a lot about how to whip up tasty meals for a large group and meet everyone’s unique dietary needs. (Directing the LOCO is how I’ve learned that you need 6 large avocados per 10 people to have a sufficient amount of guacamole.)

In other ways, the LOCO is the polar opposite of Hood River. Instead of snow, we have sand and ocean surf. We’ve been in a different house each year, but we’re always close to the beach and have enjoyed fantastic ocean views from the game room. The easy beach access means players can take a barefoot morning stroll in the sand before games start or kick back with a book in the evening while they watch the sun set over the waves. This year, players can enjoy the water without braving the chill of the Pacific Ocean by relaxing in the house’s hot tub after a full day of games.

To stay true to the LOCO’s beachside location, we feature a sea-themed wood plaque for the winner. The top prize plaque for the first LOCO, in 2018, was a piece of wood carved into the shape of a whale; in 2019, it was an octopus. This year, we’ve gone with a jellyfish. In addition to the plaque, which will be engraved with the winner’s name, the tournament champion will also take home $750 in prize money. Second place will claim $450, third place wins $300, and the class prize winner nets $200. As we did for Hood River, the class prize will go to the player from the bottom third who finishes highest in the standings. 

At each lodge tournament, we try to do something special. In prior years, we’ve set up a crêpe bar, run an original murder mystery and puzzle hunt, and held a Scrabbler-inspired trivia night. This year, we’ll set up a trail mix bar where players can create their own custom snack mix to enjoy throughout the tournament. Everyone will be able to take a piece of the LOCO home with them in the form of their personalized wood bowl. For this year’s player scorecards, I continued the jellyfish theme and pre-populated the cards with the round robin pairings. This approach enables the tournament to proceed quickly through the first 15 rounds, without players having to manually look up their pairings each round.

Tournament Scrabble hasn’t evolved much in years and, well, we’re ready to change that. We embrace technology, innovation, and automation and are willing to test-drive new ideas. We look forward to leveraging the digital tools we developed for virtual tournaments to post game results and standings for this in-person tournament in real time. Players will submit their game results in seconds using their phones. The moment they do, you’ll see their results online. This approach means no more delayed results and no need to wait for a human to manually input results from paper slips. To further reduce the amount of paper used at tournaments, we’re piloting use of laminated, reusable blank designation slips. Now you won’t have to messily scratch out a designated blank letter after you phony! You can cleanly wipe away the prior blank designation and pretend that ugly phony never happened.

There’s one other feature of this year’s tournament that has me excited. For the first time, nearly half the field (7 of 16 players) identify as women. Previously, the most women we’ve had at a LOCO was in 2018, when four of the players were women (pictured). Women historically have been underrepresented at many Scrabble tournaments, particularly Collins tournaments in North America. Fostering an environment where all underrepresented players - including nonbinary and transgender players - feel safe, supported, and respected is important to us and our goals for diversity and inclusion.

The LOCO tournament kicks off Saturday morning with a full round robin. You can follow the action on our Live Coverage page and social media channels. And if you find yourself missing over-the-board Scrabble, there are plenty more tournaments coming up.