Fall is in the air, and it's most definitely noticeable up in the Pacific Northwest. The days are getting shorter, the rain's getting heavier, and the temperatures are getting a little cooler each day. But the Scrabble action in Portland is not cooling off one bit. The tournaments are still coming hot and heavy.

This weekend brought the ninth installment in the yearlong Portland Pub Scrabble series. Fittingly, event #9 drew a field of 9 - and as per usual, there was top-notch competition across the board.

As this tournament unfolded, it became clear that three top contenders would be in the mix all the way to the finish - Kolton Koehler, Dave Wiegand, and Travis Chaney. Kolton started out the tournament on fire, winning his first four games and putting up Koltonesque barn-burning scores like 470, 553, and 504. Meanwhile the other two guys were not far off the pace, each starting 3-1.

In the pivotal fifth round, Dave scored a clutch win over Kolton, 502-364, while Travis took down Alec Sjöholm by a decisive margin of 566-330. That set up a Dave/Travis showdown for all the marbles in round 6... and Dave took it down. For the fourth time, Dr. Bing is your Portland Pub Scrabble winner.

Congrats to Dave on the win, and to Kolton, who won his final game to move to 5-1 and lock down second place. Props also to Travis on third place, and to Gunther Jacobi, who took down the class prize. And a hearty welcome to Carson Ip, who competed in his first CoCo tournament. Carson put up a very respectable record of 3-3... and with a 496-434 victory in round 3, he dealt Dr. Bing his only loss on the day!

We've now got nine Portland Pub Scrabble events in the books this year, with only two still to go. Dave has himself a nice lead in the yearlong standings - he's got four titles overall, Kolton has two, and three other players - Gunther, Alec, and Conrad Bassett-Bouchard - have won one each.

The last two "PPS" events of the year are tentatively scheduled for Nov. 2 and Dec. 7. We're working out the details, and we'll have more information for you soon. Until then, have a look at the multitude of other events on our tournament calendar, all open for registration now.