Whew, we did it again!

Thank you to the 132 players from 36 states and three Canadian provinces for joining us in New Orleans, Louisiana for a beautiful long weekend of Scrabble! The past few days were full of seafood, jazz, king cake, upsets, and 12-letter words! We absolutely loved having everyone here to play Scrabble and enjoy the city.

After 20 games, below is the list of prizewinners in each division.

CSW Open:

1st Place: $2,500, Dave Wiegand (14-6, +1065)

2nd Place: $1,000, Joshua Castellano (14-6, +930)

3rd Place: $500, Evans Clinchy (13-7, +435)

4th Place: $300, Kevin Fraley (13-7, +129)

5th Place: Tiles and bag, Sam Rosin (12-8, +803)

Class Prize 1: $230, Robert Linn (11-9, +387)

Class Prize 2: $200, Tim Weiss (11-9, -290)

High Win: $20, Rob Robinsky (674)

High Loss: $20, Chris Lipe (573)

CSW Lite:

1st Place: $800, Yukiko Loritz (14-6, +1135)

2nd Place: $400, Terry Kang (13-7, +477)

3rd Place: Tiles and bag, Bharath Balakrishnan (11.5-8.5, +740)

Class Prize: $230, Guy Ingram (12.5-7.5, +427)

High Win: $20, John Karris (610)

High Loss: $20, Jeremy Jeffers (453)

We are grateful for the donations, ratings, and support from both the CoCo and WGPO. But mostly, we are thankful for each and every player, from those of you who return every year to those of you who have checked this event off of your bucket lists. Without each of you, this event would not have been possible.

We also want to thank our streaming team! Christian and Andrew Kay did another wonderful production, bringing our event to an audience all over the world. They worked extra hard to set up our commentators in the hallway, which added a special touch! Thank you, Matt Canik and Conrad Bassett-Bouchard, for commentating all weekend (with special guests Jesse Day and Josh Sokol)! We appreciate you sharing your expertise, your Scrabble stories, and your muffulettas! The stream team even worked through lunch on Saturday so we could all enjoy a bonus streamed game! Check out twitch.tv/austinho9 to relive all the Scrabble fun from the event.

Finally, we want to recognize our organizational team. Tim and Kate Fukawa-Connelly continue to run a seamless event with pairings expertise beyond my understanding. My mom, Lila Crotty, works closely with the Drury Hotel (whoop!) and she makes sure you never run out of scoresheets or fortune cookies! And I hope you don't get annoyed by the many communications from Austin and myself as we try to stay organized ahead of the tournament. Each of us loves how much you all love this event, and we will continue to host it as long as you all enjoy it.

Until next time!