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Top of the grade (Scrabble)
11 years ago
This weekend, I came back up to Hamilton from New Plymouth (I'm currently still here) to play in this year's National Scrabble tournament. Based on my rating, I started fifth in the E grade (five grades, A is the best players, E is new/middling players), and clawed my way through fifteen games to win 12, and the medal/$80 prize for coming first in the grade. My rating was 742 to start, and I'm now 855, the highest I've ever been, I think. As a comparison, the lowest rating in the A grade was 1737 to start.
As far as I can remember, this is the first time I've won the grade at the Nationals, though I've previously won the E grade at another tournament, while I was suffering through an increasingly bad case of the flu.
If you're bored already, move on. The following I guess is more of a record to myself of what I got. * denotes an invalid word, and a lower case letter indicates a blank.
Games won: 12 of 15.
Margin: 714 (1)
Bonus words: 13
Average score: 368
Bonus words played, and score:
IRISATE (to make iridescent), 72
LARDIER (more like lard), 73
SANDIER (more like sand), 72
TRIPPING (the act of one who trips), 82
PRETEND (to make believe), 84
STARCHED (STARCH, to stiffen fabric), 68
REINING (REIN, to restrain or hold back), 64
DEVOURS (eats voraciously), 74
ENTAILED (ENTAIL, to restrict inheritance to a specified line), 60
BRAVEST (BRAVE, showing courage), 76
GUILDERS (former monetary unit of the Netherlands), 77
REVISION (a revised version), 62
FUSIONS (FUSION, the act of melting together), 79
(1) Margin, or spread as it's usually called, is a cumulative total of the score difference in each game.
TRIPPING was a gift to me; it was the end of the game, and I was considering trying TRIPING*. My opponent played TAINT, providing me with the I I needed to go out with TRIPpING.
In game 6 I had AEEGLT? on my rack. I was sure there were several words there, but I couldn't find anything. I've now since found that there are 20 words, a couple of which came to mind (such as GELATEs), but I wasn't sure of their validity. I might have won this game if the X hadn't been hiding in the bottom of the tile bag for my opponent to pick up; she played NIX for 30, eliminating the slim lead I had over her, and beating me by just 4 points, even with the 12 points she gave me from her leftover tiles after I'd gone out. This was also the game in which I had my highest-scoring bonus, PRETEND (to her 78-point opener tHRIVING).
DEVOURS was a gamble, because the only place to hook onto was the front of OHO; I had no idea if SOHO was a valid word, but I was desperate to make up some ground (the score was 204 to 308 at that point), so I made the play. My opponent challenged SOHO, and I was gratified to find that it was valid, and gave me an extra 5 points for the challenge. I lost that game by 28, which was still far better than the hundred or so behind I'd been just before. SOHO, by the way, is apparently (according to Zyzzyva), a huntstman's halloo.
I think the best game for me was game 11, where neither of us had any bonus words, but I won by 137 (387 to 250) by getting the Q, Z and X, and managing to score a total of 92 off them, or the words that contained them. Best score for that game was my 56 for NOX (and 53 for FERNY, which made MOZE on the way down), compared to my opponent's highest score of just 26.
As far as I can remember, this is the first time I've won the grade at the Nationals, though I've previously won the E grade at another tournament, while I was suffering through an increasingly bad case of the flu.
If you're bored already, move on. The following I guess is more of a record to myself of what I got. * denotes an invalid word, and a lower case letter indicates a blank.
Games won: 12 of 15.
Margin: 714 (1)
Bonus words: 13
Average score: 368
Bonus words played, and score:
IRISATE (to make iridescent), 72
LARDIER (more like lard), 73
SANDIER (more like sand), 72
TRIPPING (the act of one who trips), 82
PRETEND (to make believe), 84
STARCHED (STARCH, to stiffen fabric), 68
REINING (REIN, to restrain or hold back), 64
DEVOURS (eats voraciously), 74
ENTAILED (ENTAIL, to restrict inheritance to a specified line), 60
BRAVEST (BRAVE, showing courage), 76
GUILDERS (former monetary unit of the Netherlands), 77
REVISION (a revised version), 62
FUSIONS (FUSION, the act of melting together), 79
(1) Margin, or spread as it's usually called, is a cumulative total of the score difference in each game.
TRIPPING was a gift to me; it was the end of the game, and I was considering trying TRIPING*. My opponent played TAINT, providing me with the I I needed to go out with TRIPpING.
In game 6 I had AEEGLT? on my rack. I was sure there were several words there, but I couldn't find anything. I've now since found that there are 20 words, a couple of which came to mind (such as GELATEs), but I wasn't sure of their validity. I might have won this game if the X hadn't been hiding in the bottom of the tile bag for my opponent to pick up; she played NIX for 30, eliminating the slim lead I had over her, and beating me by just 4 points, even with the 12 points she gave me from her leftover tiles after I'd gone out. This was also the game in which I had my highest-scoring bonus, PRETEND (to her 78-point opener tHRIVING).
DEVOURS was a gamble, because the only place to hook onto was the front of OHO; I had no idea if SOHO was a valid word, but I was desperate to make up some ground (the score was 204 to 308 at that point), so I made the play. My opponent challenged SOHO, and I was gratified to find that it was valid, and gave me an extra 5 points for the challenge. I lost that game by 28, which was still far better than the hundred or so behind I'd been just before. SOHO, by the way, is apparently (according to Zyzzyva), a huntstman's halloo.
I think the best game for me was game 11, where neither of us had any bonus words, but I won by 137 (387 to 250) by getting the Q, Z and X, and managing to score a total of 92 off them, or the words that contained them. Best score for that game was my 56 for NOX (and 53 for FERNY, which made MOZE on the way down), compared to my opponent's highest score of just 26.
Gildedtongue
~gildedtongue
Congrats on your wins!
