Recapping a fun weekend of Scrabble in Charlottesville, VA
No two Scrabble tournaments are completely alike. Every one you attend has its own unique look and feel to it - its own unique vibe. That's usually the product of a combination of two factors - the event's venue and its people.
This weekend's tournament, in Charlottesville, VA, had a vibe like none other - it was at times really quite serious, while somehow simultaneously being unusually laid-back and cool, and also being punctuated by a few moments of utter chaos.
I can explain.
Our venue, Random Row Brewing, near downtown Charlottesville, definitely featured all of those qualities. Random Row is a fine establishment, and you can tell they're serious about what they do - they make high-quality craft beer, they serve delicious artisanal pizzas, and they hold all sorts of events for the local community. They do all of these things well, and they're proud of it. They're also quite cool and down to earth about all of the above. And, well, they can also let get things get pretty chaotic at times, whether it's a mob of screaming soccer hooligans invading for a Saturday Liverpool game or a rowdy group of trivia contestants battling it out on Sunday evening.
Our group of Scrabblers was similarly a mixed bag. They definitely showed up ready to play some serious Scrabble, as evidenced by the high quality of games at seemingly every single board throughout the weekend. But the group was also gregarious, eager to enjoy meals and drinks together, and made great conversation throughout the weekend. And there were plenty of chaotic moments too, many of them highlighted by outbursts of "NO!" and "BANGER!" and other such shoutings.
In the end, what we had was a pretty awesome Scrabble tournament. Fourteen players descended upon Random Row for a 14-game event (which made for a very easy round robin + KOTH pairing, music to any director's ears). We had plenty of great games, spirited competition, and an exciting race to the finish.
The first tiles were drawn around 9:30 Saturday morning, and we were off. I myself got off to a hot start - with scores like 623, 601, and 578 in the early going, I was able to pile up a ton of spread points and pull away from the pack early. By the end of the day, I had the top spot at 5-2, +748. Three other players were 5-2 as well - Erickson Smith, Barry Keith, and Rob Robinsky - but I had a huge edge in the tiebreaker. "I'm pretty sure I've got this spread advantage locked down," I told a dinner companion on Saturday night. "If someone else wants to win this tournament, they'll have to win more games than me."
Spoiler alert: Once Sunday rolled around, a whole lot of people won a whole lot more games than me.
I first went from 5-2 to 7-2, but then proceeded to drop every single one of the final five games, leaving me completely out of the money hunt at the end. Eric, meanwhile, won every single one of his seven games on Sunday - and the previous two on Saturday afternoon, too, a 9-game winning streak in total! - and cruised to the tournament victory. Josh Castellano surged to take second place. The final standings featured Eric (12-2), Josh (10-4), and Rob (10-4) well ahead of the rest of the pack.
Congrats first and foremost to Eric, who went on an absolute heater to win the tournament - nine straight wins, 12 of 14 overall, and against the field he was up against, too. It's pretty insane. Props also go to Josh, Rob, and class prize winner Jennifer Clinchy, who was seeded 10th going into the tournament and ended up finishing 5th at 8-6.
Also, a huge thank-you goes out to the crew at Random Row, especially their events coordinator Cori, who did a fantastic job of both preparing in the lead-up to the tournament and taking care of us during it. This event wouldn't have gone nearly as smoothly without her help.
And so we turn the page on another Charlottesville CoCo tournament - our first in almost four years, and only our second ever. This event had it all - some serious Scrabble, some great camaraderie, and more than a few moments of levity. We hope to bring this event back sometime in 2026... but until then, signing off from C'ville.