Sunday, April 24, 2011

Will's Gatlinburg tournament -- short form

The revival edition of my favorite tournament, Gatlinburg, drew 53 players. I was seeded third in Division 2, which had 18 players. Going into the final game of the 20-game tournament, I was in 17th place. I was matched against the 18th-place player, Sally Ricketts, who had an equally bad run. The high point in her weekend was scoring 564 points against me on Friday morning. For the finale, I told Sally we were playing for the "title." It was a dubious title, without a doubt. I won the final game, giving me an 8-12 record and a steep drop in my rating. There were some high points. I had a 508 game, the first time I'd cracked the 500 mark in quite a while. I benefited from studying my three-I eights when I played BIKINIED in game 14, and I was able to summon the three possible eights in DEIINOR with an S on the board, so I could play the only one possible: RESINOID (the other two are DERISION and IRONSIDE). And I had a lot of fun playing against some of my favorite Scrabble buddies. But coming in seeded third and ending up near the bottom was frustrating, to say the least.
Quick stats: I finished 8-12, with a spread of +256, meaning I had some big wins and relatively close losses. I had 33 bingoes in 20 games, an average of 1.56 a game. I had five three-bingo games, which is a first for me. I averaged 395 points a game, and my opponents averaged 381. Everything except my win-loss record was pretty good. Ah, well. There's always the next tournament. I recommend Knoxville in June.

1 comment:

Steve said...

Sorry it didn't go better than it did, Will. However, considering that there was only a 6-game difference in performance between second and last in a field of 18, I don't think an 8-12 record is that terrible. Anyway, I know you'll get those rating points back as quickly as you lost them. I just hope it isn't at my expense. :)