This weekend, we fell back on an old formula for a Scrabble tournament that's tried and true. You take a motley mix of 10-12 Scrabble players, you gather them together, and you descend upon a city that's beautiful, walkable, and littered with establishments that serve craft beer and loaded nachos and waffle fries and giant pretzels. You frequent said establishments for an entire weekend - and at various points in time, you sneak in a few games of Scrabble. This formula has been tested. It works.

This past Saturday and Sunday brought the second CoCo tournament ever held in Portland, Oregon. The first one, back in October of last year, was a blast, so we returned this May for more of the same. Conrad Bassett-Bouchard took the helm as director for the second time, hosting the event yet again in his cozy living room. And this time, he branded the event as the Oregon Scrabble Championship.

Not that it was just Oregonians competing this weekend - far from it. This event brought a bevy of players from all over, including some locals from the Portland area, a couple of Washingtonian neighbors from up north, and a handful of Californians who made the trip up the coast. Everyone came together to duke it out under one roof. And here's what went down:

• The tournament started out well for the Oregonian natives. Peter Armstrong, who lives just a few blocks away from Conrad's place, roared out to a 7-1 start on the first day, notching big wins over top seeds like Alec Sjöholm, David Whitley and, uh, me. But could Pete parlay the fantastic Day 1 into a tournament win? Turned out, there were two major obstacles to that.

• Obstacle 1: Another Oregonian. Dave Wiegand also went 7-1 on the first day, and his spread in the 7 games he won was absolutely insane - he beat his opponents by a total of over 1,700 points. He spent almost his entire day putting up comical scores like 620-263, 621-353, 594-312, and 570-242. It was quite the spectacle to watch. (Take it from me, because I'm the guy that scored the 242.)

• Obstacle 2: Pete couldn't possibly win the tournament, because he had to leave on Day 2! Family obligations unfortunately took him out of town on Sunday, which meant Pete had to step aside that morning after round 9.

• The tournament continued, though. Pete was replaced by Chris Patrick "XP" Morgan for rounds 10 through 15, so the pairings were still even. But with Pete out of contention for first place, the championship picture began to look a little different.

• Dave started to fade a little bit after his strong start - Sunday brought three losses for Dave head-to-head against Alec, plus another tough beat against David. It was those two guys - Alec and David - who began to surge to the top.

• Going into the final round, it was Alec and David tied for first place at 10-4, while Dave was a game back at 9-5, but with a better spread. So Alec and David went head-to-head for the title of Oregon state champion, and Dave needed to win his last game to take second.

• The tournament ended with Alec notching a big win in the final round, 534-407 over David, while Dave squeaked past me by a score of 396-395 (oof, that hurt!) to secure second place. David fell to third place, while KC Frodyma put up a solid 7-8 record as one of the lower seeds, giving her the class prize.

In addition to all the Scrabble, much fun was had by the group after hours. There was plenty of non-Scrabble gaming, as players engaged in chess and Codenames and anagrams and a new instant classic party game - Ransom Notes, which brought endless fun in the form of silly phrases written with refrigerator magnets. And of course, people enjoyed all sorts of great food, including smoked trout BLTs at Interurban and various tacos at Mole Mole Mexican Cuisine. And there were numerous beers and bar snacks at Great Notion, StormBreaker, Cascade, Rogue, and Breakside.

In conclusion: Thanks to everyone who made the trip to participate in this event! And thanks also to Conrad, of course, for directing and hosting everyone. He did a great job running a house tourney for the second time, and I'm excited at the prospect of more Conrad-hosted events in the months and years ahead.

But in the meantime, we've got a bunch of other tournaments coming up later in 2022, and they're scattered all across the land. Why not find one that appeals to you and sign up today?