Recapping an action-packed Bend Weekend

There are few cities in North America as perfect for a gathering of Scrabble players as Bend, Oregon. With its picturesque views, hipster vibes, and countless tasty restaurants and cool breweries, it's the ideal setting for a weekend of word-gaming fun.

So when Travis Chaney, tournament organizer extraordinaire and longtime Bend enthusiast, came to us a while back with the idea to host a Bend Weekend - jam-packed with boards, brews, and much more - our response was unequivocal. We couldn't get it on the tournament calendar fast enough.

This past weekend was that Bend Weekend. Six intrepid players gathered together and enjoyed everything from an anagrams championship to a pub crawl to a 1-day Scrabble tournament.

Here's Travis with the director's report:

Bend Weekend was full of fun times, starting with the Anagrams championship on Friday night, won by Kolton Koehler. Saturday afternoon, five players visited five breweries in festive downtown Bend, with Dave Wiegand going 6-2 to win.

After enjoying the beerage of Saturday afternoon, the human versus machine challenge pitted each player in ten 5-minute speed games against HastyBot on Woogles. Alec Sjöholm won, beating the bot six out of ten games with a spread of +84!

The tournament on Sunday was a close race, coming down to the last round, where four players were in the running with 4-3 records. Alec came out on top with a 5-3 record and a +281 spread, while Conrad Bassett-Bouchard finished second with a 5-3 record and +152 spread. Kolton Koehler made what was the most impressive play of the tournament, playing PENTAMERY through disconnected letters!

Thanks to Travis for putting together this weekend extravaganza of beering* and word-gaming. And props to everyone who won a share of the Bend Weekend title - Kolton the anagrammer, Dr. Bing the champion pub-crawler, and Alec who bested computers and humans alike at actual Scrabble. Cheers all around.