NYC CSW
Oh, hey, I won. I suppose I should write something about it.
This totally came out of nowhere. I went in expecting to be mediocre (and knowing that there was nothing wrong with mediocrity in a field this ridiculously dense with talented players). In the beginning, I was indeed mediocre. In the middle, I was still mediocre. Then at the end, I just randomly won all the games. My records this weekend included 1-1, 2-2, 4-4, 5-5, 6-6, 7-7, 8-8, and then whoa, that's weird, 13-8.
Doesn't really make much sense. I wasn't expecting to do well this weekend. I'd taken a solid five months off from studying CSW this year (three in the winter between New Orleans and BAT, then another two in the summer between Montreal and Nationals). My prep work for this tournament was basically five days of cramming. Seriously, I didn't even look at the fours. I still don't know them.
I went to bed Sunday night feeling fine about being .500 -- I'd had an awesome weekend with my friends and eaten fantastic food, and as long as I could scrape together an 11-10 finish, my rating wouldn't take much of a beating. Cool. Then I started drawing lights-out, and I survived a couple scary endgames, and suddenly I was in contention.
The last game (http://cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=12311) was a laugher. Doesn't take a grandmaster to pluck bingos outta the bag one after another and play them. Pretty representative of the whole day for me -- when I needed a lucky break, I got it, simple as that.
Eventually I wanna get good enough at CSW that I can win tournaments like this even when luck isn't on my side. That's gonna take more comphrensive knowledge of the shorter words, more practice with some of the crazy preendgame/endgame situations that come up using the big book, and just more experience in general. But this was a good step for me. I'm excited and confident about Scrabble again, and definitely looking forward to October. Lake George and Can-Am shall be excellent.
Here's some bingos (now with more pound signs!):
mine (46 in 21 games -- 31 lamepods, 13 funpods, 2 nopods):
GRAINAGE#
POINADOS* (oops, no S on POINADO#), MURRIES
DIARISES#, PIANISTS, TRACHLE
PONTAGES#, CRANNOGE
PETIOLED, SEARATS#
STREAMER, RESPITED
ARISTAE, BEANPOLE, GAZIEST#
INFULAE#, DIORITE, BINARIES
SEABIRDS, HEROISM, CLAVATED#, INSHRINE
TRICEPS, TYRANTED#, CORNLAND#
FLAXIER
IRONISE#, RABIETIC
RECLINED, ROLFING, TAURINES, BISERIAL#
none
EMOTING
none
CINEREAL#, ABORIGEN#
REMATES, SURGEON, RALLINE
OCARINA, REGULOSE* (oops, thinking of RUGULOSE), MYRIADS
TOILETED
SONATAS, TRAITOR, TIERCEL, AVERMENT
theirs (33):
OVERDOGS, FILAMENT
LEGATES
RESITED, POSAUNE#
FORMICAS, FLORISTS, ARISTAE
BOLDENED#, INVERSE with all seven fucking overlaps on the triple for 113
HEDGEROW, SALIFIED, BERTHAGE#, SNOTTIE#
THERIAN
PRERADIO, MISTUNES
none
APPOSING, URODELES, ATONIAS
ENRAUNGE#
OUTSAID
ALGICIDE, OUTRAVED
ETAMINS, COLLETS
DRAGGERS
AYWORDS#
ROOSTED, ANEROIDS
UREDINIA
none
VOUDOUN, SINOPIA
none
In closing: Joy Burgers, El Aguila tacos and Earl's grilled cheese sandwiches are all drooltastic. This is not debatable.
This totally came out of nowhere. I went in expecting to be mediocre (and knowing that there was nothing wrong with mediocrity in a field this ridiculously dense with talented players). In the beginning, I was indeed mediocre. In the middle, I was still mediocre. Then at the end, I just randomly won all the games. My records this weekend included 1-1, 2-2, 4-4, 5-5, 6-6, 7-7, 8-8, and then whoa, that's weird, 13-8.
Doesn't really make much sense. I wasn't expecting to do well this weekend. I'd taken a solid five months off from studying CSW this year (three in the winter between New Orleans and BAT, then another two in the summer between Montreal and Nationals). My prep work for this tournament was basically five days of cramming. Seriously, I didn't even look at the fours. I still don't know them.
I went to bed Sunday night feeling fine about being .500 -- I'd had an awesome weekend with my friends and eaten fantastic food, and as long as I could scrape together an 11-10 finish, my rating wouldn't take much of a beating. Cool. Then I started drawing lights-out, and I survived a couple scary endgames, and suddenly I was in contention.
The last game (http://cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=12311) was a laugher. Doesn't take a grandmaster to pluck bingos outta the bag one after another and play them. Pretty representative of the whole day for me -- when I needed a lucky break, I got it, simple as that.
Eventually I wanna get good enough at CSW that I can win tournaments like this even when luck isn't on my side. That's gonna take more comphrensive knowledge of the shorter words, more practice with some of the crazy preendgame/endgame situations that come up using the big book, and just more experience in general. But this was a good step for me. I'm excited and confident about Scrabble again, and definitely looking forward to October. Lake George and Can-Am shall be excellent.
Here's some bingos (now with more pound signs!):
mine (46 in 21 games -- 31 lamepods, 13 funpods, 2 nopods):
GRAINAGE#
POINADOS* (oops, no S on POINADO#), MURRIES
DIARISES#, PIANISTS, TRACHLE
PONTAGES#, CRANNOGE
PETIOLED, SEARATS#
STREAMER, RESPITED
ARISTAE, BEANPOLE, GAZIEST#
INFULAE#, DIORITE, BINARIES
SEABIRDS, HEROISM, CLAVATED#, INSHRINE
TRICEPS, TYRANTED#, CORNLAND#
FLAXIER
IRONISE#, RABIETIC
RECLINED, ROLFING, TAURINES, BISERIAL#
none
EMOTING
none
CINEREAL#, ABORIGEN#
REMATES, SURGEON, RALLINE
OCARINA, REGULOSE* (oops, thinking of RUGULOSE), MYRIADS
TOILETED
SONATAS, TRAITOR, TIERCEL, AVERMENT
theirs (33):
OVERDOGS, FILAMENT
LEGATES
RESITED, POSAUNE#
FORMICAS, FLORISTS, ARISTAE
BOLDENED#, INVERSE with all seven fucking overlaps on the triple for 113
HEDGEROW, SALIFIED, BERTHAGE#, SNOTTIE#
THERIAN
PRERADIO, MISTUNES
none
APPOSING, URODELES, ATONIAS
ENRAUNGE#
OUTSAID
ALGICIDE, OUTRAVED
ETAMINS, COLLETS
DRAGGERS
AYWORDS#
ROOSTED, ANEROIDS
UREDINIA
none
VOUDOUN, SINOPIA
none
In closing: Joy Burgers, El Aguila tacos and Earl's grilled cheese sandwiches are all drooltastic. This is not debatable.