I have to admit, it never occurred to me that growing pains might apply to something like a tournament venue, but this past weekend has certainly opened my eyes!

This is the first time I've reserved the party room in my building since moving to Maryland last fall, and though I knew that the room layout and space would allow for a dozen or so players to comfortably play some Scrabble, I didn't realize just how... automated the process would be. Locking and unlocking the door to the room is programmable, which is great - until it locks itself again at 4 p.m. while games are still in progress! (That it announced it was secured again by emitting a horrific shrill alarm was an added bonus.) Plus, the thermostat was not adjustable, which isn't unexpected for a common area like this. Unfortunately for us, it was unadjustable while still being set to heat while we've had an early spring heat wave. Ultimately, open doors, cold water, shorts, and a fan made the room tolerable enough to sling some words around.

Eight experienced and strong players sweated our way through a double round robin, and I think it's fair to say that the action on the boards was even hotter than the room itself! In the end, bragging rights for the region went to Josh Castellano, who clinched first place with a round to spare on his way to an 11-3, +963 record. Second place went to Sammy Okosagah at 9-5, +398, showing that he accumulated little rust during a bit of a tournament hiatus. Ben Schoenbrun completed an impressive comeback from a rough Saturday to end up in third with an 8-6, +485 record.

Since we were playing pre-paired rounds the entire tournament, I sadly don't have a lot of color commentary from the event - we were almost always busy playing! Bob Linn did tell me about a sequence where he drew an unappealing NLLU to a leave of ENT, but rather than panic and simply fish, he took the time to ultimately find a remarkable play of RE(PE)LL(EN)T for 34. Speaking of Bob, I had an opportunity to play DISTAIN(ED) against him (sacrificing a much more aggressive play hooking DISTAIN on the board) - the game itself didn't swing my way, but it was still a fun play! I also had a situation against Matthew O'Connor where he blocked my one place to play VENDEES, which forced me to take some more time to contemplate the TI on the board and ultimately find EVEN(TI)DES to seize momentum. Ben Schoenbrun played a fun INoCUL(AT)E on Sunday morning against Bob - who noted that he also could have played INCULCATE!

All in all, the tournament was a fun success - and I'm hoping to plan some more events in the near future, so keep an eye out for forthcoming announcements from the CoCo!