My first experience directing a Scrabble tournament came just after my 25-year anniversary, which occurred on April 20, 2022. I'm not referring to 25 years of marriage (although I am married), but 25 years of playing in Scrabble tournaments. I finally got to experience all of the anxiety, stress, anticipation, and uncertainty involved in directing a tournament. Most importantly, I also finally got to experience the rewards involved in directing. It turns out, it is very rewarding to bring together a bunch of great people for the purpose of playing a challenging game that everyone already loves. (Well, no one loves drawing IIUU repeatedly, but in general, we play because we love the challenging nature of the game.) I played my first game of Scrabble in Madison, Wisconsin as a kid, and this would also be where I would direct my first tournament.

Scrabble on Lake Mendota

After trying to figure out a venue, I discovered about 4 months prior to the tournament that I could hold the tournament at a small family cabin on Lake Mendota. The essentially free venue allowed me to designate more money to the prize fund. It also provided for scenic views of the lake throughout the tournament, which was mostly ducks, boats, and a lot of water. It rained on Friday and Saturday, so there were no games played outside on the front porch. However, being inside playing Scrabble on a rainy day isn't so terrible.

Food

As usual, there was food. On Saturday for lunch, we had Taigu Noodles from Middleton, a Chinese restaurant that makes homemade noodles and specializes in dishes from the Shanxi region of northern China and the Canton region of southern China. There were various fried rice and noodle dishes with homemade noodles, as well as egg rolls, sesame balls, and more.

On Sunday morning there was breakfast before the tourney. It consisted of coffee, orange juice, bananas, eggs, bacon, Beyond Meat sausage, and Bagels Forever bagels with cream cheese and Neufchâtel.

On to Sunday lunch, when I feel like I had one of those director moments. I had just finished game 11 out of 14, and lunch was supposed to be after game 12. My mom stopped over and informed me that the place I was getting the lunch from, for which I had the order all ready, had unexpectedly closed that day. She had also sent me a text message saying the same thing, but because I was playing a game I never saw it. So unless I figured out something quick, there would likely be a bunch of ravenous players and no food except for bagel chips and popcorn. My mom mentioned something about pizza. I quickly Yelped and remembered Jet Pizza, and it all turned out OK. I was able to get 3 delicious large Detroit-style pizzas (8 square pieces each) in 30 minutes for pickup.

People

I had some worries about how many people would actually come, because CoCo tourneys are very new to the Midwest. I wasn't worried about being odd or even, because I would be the player to even things out if necessary. After a few phone calls and emails on the Friday before the tourney, I thought maybe I would end up with 10 players instead of 8, and this indeed happened. Everyone already on the list showed up, I ended up playing, and there were also last-minute entries from Bill Rexhausen and Mark Kenas, both Wisconsin players. Special thanks to players who traveled a little further, including Becky Dyer (who came from Austin), Brian Bowman (from Kentucky), and Zbigniew Wieckowski (from Minneapolis).

Games/Prizes

The story of the tournament was definitely the strong play of the Reinke brothers, who are both Middleton natives. Maybe they were fresh from having only a 5-minute commute to the tourney, while many others were groggy from traveling by car or plane. Or, OK, maybe it was just that both Reinkes were playing really well.

After going undefeated for the first 11 games, Charles Reinke won the tournament after 12 games, and was Gibsonized over the last 2 rounds. This was a truly amazing and dominant performance. Charles won the first prize of $400 as well as the special director's prize, which was a free entry to the upcoming CSW Word Cup (a $140 value). Charles' only losses were in rounds 12 and 14, so he finished 12-2.

Thomas Reinke finished in second place, earning a prize of $275, in his first CSW tournament. Thomas went 3-1 against me, including beating me in each of the last two games. Our last game was very closely contested, and I had to win by 21 to take second place. I played what I thought was my best play at the end, making O(V)OLI for 24, but I left Thomas an available bingo of F(I)GURErS through an I, that I wasn't positive was valid. Sure enough, Thomas played FIGURERS, and he won the game easily. It turns out I missed a better endgame sequence that would have blocked Thomas' bingo, and then saved OVOLI or OLIO for my outplay. In this scenario, I would have won the game but would have still finished in third place, just 3 spread points out of second.

I ended up in third place anyway, at 8-6, earning $150. I finished the round robin at 7-2 but went 1-4 over the last five games, with one loss to Geoff Thevenot, three losses to Thomas, and a win over Charles.

Melissa Routzahn and Bill Rexhausen faced off twice at the end of the tournament. In round 13, they finished with a tie, 411-411! So they battled again in round 14, with the class prize on the line; Bill won 399-366, earning $175.

Some other notable things happened. Melissa started out the tournament with a 520 losing score against Brian, who had a 598. Melissa had bingos on four of her first five turns, but she couldn't survive Brian's 3x3 and other high-scoring plays. Other big scores included another 598 (Charles), 590 (Thomas), 588 (Geoff) 574 (Charles), 572 (Charles), 572 (Thomas), and 570 (Melissa). In one game, CAFFEINE and OPIOIDS were both played. The low winning score was Geoff's 388, in a 388-383 victory over Brian. Some other interesting bingos included HELIDECK, ANALECTA, and PHUTTING.

In summary, what was truly amazing to me in this tournament was the players. Where were the petty complaints, scoring errors, overdraws, poor winners, poor losers, etc.? At this tournament, these things were nonexistent.

Also, I want to add that Jennifer Clinchy did a lot of work behind the scenes for this and other tourneys. She helped make things very easy with the CoCo website and tournament software, as well as her communication up to and during the tourney.

I admit, I was tired after directing and playing, and because I had family obligations and early travel the next day, I couldn't just crash after it was over. Usually, I get tired just playing in a 14-game tourney, so this was definitely more tiring. I will definitely be directing again in the near future, though my next tournament will likely not be in Madison. So look for a possible announcement sometime soon.