We endured a long, long, long, long wait before finally resuming in-person Scrabble tournaments. At times, it seemed like forever.

We began building the CoCo infrastructure in late 2019. Going into 2020, we had big plans to run live events all over North America… and then, you know, 2020 happened. A good chunk of 2021 passed us by as well. But we kept waiting, biding our time, and we knew our moment would eventually come.

This past week, it did. Over Labor Day weekend, we finally resumed live Scrabble with a 20-game tournament on the Oregon Coast, and we're pleased to say the event went smoothly. We're grateful to everyone who helped make it happen.

First, a little background on the Labor Day Oregon Coast Open (LOCO) - Jennifer and I have been running weekend-long tournaments in rental houses for the last few years. In early 2018, we organized our first Hood River event, and players enjoyed the experience quite a bit. They got to live together in shared quarters, eat and drink and be merry together, and play 20 games of Scrabble against a competitive field. The event was a hit - so we figured, why not introduce another one like it? Instead of Presidents' Day, we'd do Labor Day, and instead of a snowy cabin in the mountains, we'd hit the beach. The first LOCO went down in 2018, and we made it annual from there. After a COVID layoff in 2020, this year's event was the third.

The weekend was great fun as always. People got to relax at the beach house, hang out, enjoy a few drinks, and catch up with old friends. Some went down to the beach and tossed a Frisbee; others soaked in the hot tub in our backyard. We cooked lots of food in the kitchen; we grilled on the grill outside. And eventually, we got down to playing a little Scrabble. Here's a recap of what went down over the board.

• Day 1 saw Becky Dyer cruising to the top of the standings, going 7-1 on the first day (and not only that, but getting to play DYER for the first time ever in a tournament). The only other player in the running, at the time anyway, was the 6-2 David Whitley - the other top seeds all had a few losses and were trailing the top two.

• On Day 2, another group of contenders emerged. Becky and David began to fade toward the middle of the pack a little bit; meanwhile, Conrad Bassett-Bouchard went on an absolutely insane run, putting up a record of 8-0, +1378 on the second day. Dave Wiegand was almost as good, winning 7 games out of 8, and Kolton Koehler also put himself in the hunt, winning 6. With 16 rounds down and 4 to go, we had a scenario where Conrad led the field at 13-3, but Dave and Kolton were within striking distance, with 12 wins and 11 respectively. This set up an exciting final morning.

• Day 3 began in intriguing fashion, as the two leaders both started with a loss - Dave fell victim to Chris Grubb, and Conrad lost a heartbreaker to Kolton. Then Kolton won again in round 18, and Dave won a crucial head-to-head with Conrad; in round 19, Dave and Kolton both won again. This meant Dave and Kolton were tied for first place, each 14-5, and they would go head to head for all the marbles in round 20.

• Ultimately Dave won the title, prevailing 517-368 over Kolton in the final round. Conrad recovered after a rough morning to win his final game, taking down Chris in a 509-403 decision, and that meant he locked up second place, with Kolton settling for third. Meanwhile Ruth Hamilton, by virtue of her win in the final round against Judy Romann, earned the class prize for finishing the highest among all players seeded in the bottom third.

• After the tournament wrapped up, we all went outside for a nice, sunny awards ceremony. Everyone clapped for Dave, Conrad, Kolton, and Ruth; afterward, we retreated to the house to devour leftover burgers and gumbo for lunch. Then, it was time to unwind on the beach.

Overall, this was a blast of an event. We're really happy with how everything turned out, and more importantly we're just happy to be back. Way back when we launched the CoCo almost two years ago, our goal was to run big, open, inclusive, in-person Scrabble tournaments. This week, we took a big step toward that goal, and that's gratifying.

If you'd like to look back on the third annual LOCO that was, all that information is available on our results page. To view the complete list of everyone who's played an in-person CoCo tournament to date - now 27 total players, up from 20 last week - you can check out our ratings page. And of course, if you want to play an in-person tournament yourself in the months ahead, we've got a place for that too. Check out our list of upcoming events and register for one today.