2011 Scrabble moments of the year
Rather than write about each tournament, since that's something we do throughout the year anyway, I'm going to make a list of some of my personal top Scrabble-related moments of the year (forgive me for forgetting some stuff, I put down all the stuff that came quickest to memory):
#7
Watching nagekinoki absolutely pummel his competition this year. Between winning the SDO, BC Player's Championship, CO and Emerald City (and in contention for the KO right up to the end), James has demonstrated to Scrabble world witness just how formidable he is as an opponent. Those of us who are fortunate enough to have had him cook for us also know how formidable he is in the kitchen!
#6
Learning and playing the Chinese drinking game with Betsy Chai and some of the other KO participants. I still totally suck at it and frequently say 51 in Cantonese by mistake, rather than 15. Keeping on the games theme, playing Mahjongg and introducing Things to the Scrabble world was also up there in awesomeness.
#5
Getting to play on Table 1 at a big tournament for the first time. While discovering that I had missed CORVEES against tranonehalf was an absolutely horrible feeling, going through than annotation experience itself was absolutely liberating. By the last annotated game, I was much more relaxed and didn't even care that much that Adam Logan's complete annihilation of me was online for all to see.
#4
Road tripping with Eric and spherulitic from Toronto to Rome, NY, and further on to Boston with Eric. The awesome vinylchances hosted us at his grandma's house. As a particularly amusing point, my first time to Boston in ages was during Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, which was happening in Vancouver. Being on the streets of Boston after they won the Stanley Cup and then watching the riots break out in Vancouver was a very unique experience.
#3
While it's not specific to Scrabble, it involves a Scrabbler (James) and was one of the funniest things to happen to me this year. Read the original LJ post here: http://redessence.livejournal.com/57062.html
#2
This one wins for my craziest travel story of the year. At noon on Thursday April 7th, Alaska Airlines called to tell me that they had cancelled my evening flight out of Kelowna to Seattle. There are four flights a day from Kelowna to Seattle, and the 3rd one leaves around noon, so I had no way of flying out of Kelowna to get to San Diego on time for the SDO. Faced with no other choice to get there on time, I had Alaska rebook me to fly out of Seattle at the earliest possible time on Friday morning to get to San Diego. After that, I called Rebecca Slivka in Seattle, who graciously agreed to let me crash on her couch on Thursday night. Finally, I packed up my SMART car so that after my last class on Thursday finished (2 PM), I would drive 6 hours to Seattle from Kelowna.
The back up plan worked perfectly. My flight landed in San Diego on time (thanks to bbstenniz' dad for picking me up), and I arrived at the playing room just a few minutes past the scheduled start time for games. I should perhaps consider making grand entrances to tournaments in the future, since the SDO ended up being my best performance in a D1 multiday to date: 5th of 106 with a record of 14-6, +930.
#1
For moment of the year across all categories, this was the clear winner. There are no words on my part that can adequately explain it, so bear with me. wantonhalo and rafij52 teamed up and delivered an absolutely hilarious rap song to summarize the VIP tournament at James' house this past March, just watch it!
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150117459024033&set=t.1492904897&type=2&theater
Results-wise, the year overall for Scrabble was alright. Excluding the VIP (which was 8-4, +300ish), my record for the year (NASPA) was 73-58, +3322. Quite proud of the SDO (hence it being #2 on my list).
Happy New Year everyone!
#7
Watching nagekinoki absolutely pummel his competition this year. Between winning the SDO, BC Player's Championship, CO and Emerald City (and in contention for the KO right up to the end), James has demonstrated to Scrabble world witness just how formidable he is as an opponent. Those of us who are fortunate enough to have had him cook for us also know how formidable he is in the kitchen!
#6
Learning and playing the Chinese drinking game with Betsy Chai and some of the other KO participants. I still totally suck at it and frequently say 51 in Cantonese by mistake, rather than 15. Keeping on the games theme, playing Mahjongg and introducing Things to the Scrabble world was also up there in awesomeness.
#5
Getting to play on Table 1 at a big tournament for the first time. While discovering that I had missed CORVEES against tranonehalf was an absolutely horrible feeling, going through than annotation experience itself was absolutely liberating. By the last annotated game, I was much more relaxed and didn't even care that much that Adam Logan's complete annihilation of me was online for all to see.
#4
Road tripping with Eric and spherulitic from Toronto to Rome, NY, and further on to Boston with Eric. The awesome vinylchances hosted us at his grandma's house. As a particularly amusing point, my first time to Boston in ages was during Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, which was happening in Vancouver. Being on the streets of Boston after they won the Stanley Cup and then watching the riots break out in Vancouver was a very unique experience.
#3
While it's not specific to Scrabble, it involves a Scrabbler (James) and was one of the funniest things to happen to me this year. Read the original LJ post here: http://redessence.livejournal.com/57062.html
#2
This one wins for my craziest travel story of the year. At noon on Thursday April 7th, Alaska Airlines called to tell me that they had cancelled my evening flight out of Kelowna to Seattle. There are four flights a day from Kelowna to Seattle, and the 3rd one leaves around noon, so I had no way of flying out of Kelowna to get to San Diego on time for the SDO. Faced with no other choice to get there on time, I had Alaska rebook me to fly out of Seattle at the earliest possible time on Friday morning to get to San Diego. After that, I called Rebecca Slivka in Seattle, who graciously agreed to let me crash on her couch on Thursday night. Finally, I packed up my SMART car so that after my last class on Thursday finished (2 PM), I would drive 6 hours to Seattle from Kelowna.
The back up plan worked perfectly. My flight landed in San Diego on time (thanks to bbstenniz' dad for picking me up), and I arrived at the playing room just a few minutes past the scheduled start time for games. I should perhaps consider making grand entrances to tournaments in the future, since the SDO ended up being my best performance in a D1 multiday to date: 5th of 106 with a record of 14-6, +930.
#1
For moment of the year across all categories, this was the clear winner. There are no words on my part that can adequately explain it, so bear with me. wantonhalo and rafij52 teamed up and delivered an absolutely hilarious rap song to summarize the VIP tournament at James' house this past March, just watch it!
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150117459024033&set=t.1492904897&type=2&theater
Results-wise, the year overall for Scrabble was alright. Excluding the VIP (which was 8-4, +300ish), my record for the year (NASPA) was 73-58, +3322. Quite proud of the SDO (hence it being #2 on my list).
Happy New Year everyone!