Recapping the Memorial Day Oregon Coast Open (MOCO)
Call it the LOCO, call it the MOCO, call it what you will. Here's what I'll call it: our best one yet.
This was our fifth annual beach house tournament on the Oregon Coast - formerly known as the Labor Day Oregon Coast Open (LOCO), now the Memorial Day Oregon Coast Open (MOCO). And I'm pleased to say the event went smoother than ever.
It's a relief to say that, honestly. Truth be told, these destination house tournaments are a lot tougher to run than your run-of-the-mill Scrabble event. You're not staying at a hotel, with an entire hotel staff at your beck and call - instead, you are the staff. You're the shuttle drivers, the venue management, the chefs, the janitors. You're the handymen when the clothes dryer breaks or the oven won't preheat. You've got to do it all - which is simply not possible unless the entire group pitches in and does their part. So it's gratifying when the entire group does. This year's MOCO went beautifully, and everyone did an awesome job contributing their hard work to make that happen. Thanks to everyone for coming, for playing, and for helping the proverbial trains run on time.
Oh, and congrats to our champion! For the fourth time in a row (which is absolutely ridiculous, considering the strength of the field this tournament draws every year), Dave Wiegand took home the title. And he did so in dominant fashion, too, going 16-4 with a robust spread of +1512. Dr. Bing took this field apart even more surgically than usual.
Let's recap the weekend from start to finish, beginning on Friday afternoon...
The MOCO festivities began quite inauspiciously, with... braving a whole lot of traffic on our caravan from Portland to the coast. You won't believe this, but our cohort of Scrabblers weren't the only ones with the bright idea to spend Memorial Day weekend on the beach! The highways going west were pretty congested. All of us headed out there in the afternoon, and by 6 or 7 or so, we'd all made our way to the Lincoln City area. Good things come to those who wait.
Dinner the first night was at Pelican Brewing, a local brewpub with a wide variety of beers on tap and a fantastic food menu. Players noshed on all sorts of seafood dishes including shrimp linguine, Dungeness crab mac and cheese, and even ahi tuna poke nachos. (Note: Good luck finding the only anagrams steal for POKE NACHOS. You will not find it.)
Once we all finally settled into the beach house on Friday night, there was much after-hours fun to be had. People duked it out over the pool table, soaked in the hot tub, and started the first of many rousing Anagrams games over the weekend. I baked a few cookies for dessert, and various people cracked open various growlers of Pelican to-go beer. (Cookies and beer - the meal of champions.)
The tournament got underway on Saturday morning, and Dave was strong right out of the gate. He was 4-0, +829 at the first lunch break, including the play of the day - with ABEHOY? on his rack and an open B on the board, he found his bingo of BEACHBOY! An amazing find, and incredibly apt, given the tournament setting. Alec Sjöholm was also 4-0 at lunch, while three players - Peter Armstrong, David Whitley, and Bharath Balakrishnan - were right behind at 3-1.
After lunch, a handful of players enjoyed a nice walk on the beach (I suppose that'd make them beachboys). Then it was back to the house, where the top players battled it out - Whitley won all four games in the afternoon and surged into first place, followed by Bing and Alec at 6-2 and a whole bunch of 5-3s. Then it was time for pasta, fresh-baked bread, and an absolutely incredible Celtics/Heat Game 6.
Perhaps even more incredible was the game the next morning, between Dave and Alec - Dave won by an unreal final score of 593-591! Alec had an early triple-triple of CLODDIER for 176, plus two other bingos; Dave, meanwhile, bingoed four times to start, dropping FEMITER, DYNAMISE, SCOFFER, and TWANGIER. Bing eked out the dramatic win in the endgame, and with it, he started to make his move toward the top of the standings. Dave, Pete, and David were all knotted up at 9-3 after 12 games.
Late Sunday was when Dave began to pull away, winning all 4 games after lunch and building a big lead on the entire field. He was 13-3 with the biggest spread, while everyone else had 10 wins or fewer.
Also, speaking of big spreads, we had an absolutely massive amount of guacamole left over from lunch. Somebody (read: me) forgot to update the grocery list after Hood River, so we ended up buying enough avocados to feed 22 people, not 12. Between the guac and the 2,000-piece jigsaw puzzle we brought, there was way too much unfinished business this weekend.
Finally on Monday, the tournament wrapped up. Dr. Bing was Gibsonized as expected, at 16-4, while Pete took second place with 13 wins and Kolton Koehler surged late to take third with 12. Puneet Sharma won the class prize for the best finish out of the bottom third of seeds (he went 10-10 with a solid spread), and Bharath won the Best Beach Word prize for his play of SANDIER. (Dave's BEACHBOY was deemed ineligible because he had already won a cash prize. Also, Bharath pointed out, he technically played BEACHBOYS himself, because he hooked an S onto Dave's bingo.)
And that was that! The rest of the weekend went about as you'd expect - more beach time, more food, more beer, and more Anagrams. And there was a Celtics/Heat Game 7 that we will never speak of again.
Congrats to everyone who performed well at the fifth annual xOCO, and again, a big huge gargantuan thankyou to everyone who helped us run the event smoothly. And, uh, better luck next time to everyone with regards to finishing the massive guacamole bowl and the 2,000-piece puzzle. I believe in y'all.
For a look back at the MOCO that was, head over to our dedicated tournament page at your leisure. And to learn more about exciting CoCo events like this one that are coming up, our tournament calendar is always just a click away.