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Co-1st Charles Reinke sort of came in first place by finishing with a 3-1 +148 record. His highest-scoring game was a 484-403 win against the resilient Bryan Benwitz. In that one, Charles had bingos of LANGUOR and VIBRATO, while Bryan had ATTORNEY and TRICLADS. He followed up that performance with his worst game of the evening, a 329-413 defeat at the hands of Thomas Reinke. Painfully, Charles played no bingos in that one; Thomas had OCHREAE and RABBLING. However, not all was lost: by virtue of his name being first alphabetically, Charles is bestowed the honor of receiving the first paragraph of the write-up. Some would call that destiny.

Co-1st Thomas Reinke also went 3-1 +148, and is currently wishing that he had tried harder to play optimal endgames in order to scrounge together a few additional points of spread. Like his brother, his best game came in round one, when he downed Dennis Lloyd 452-359, playing VERATRUM, TRECENTO, and PAGINATE. Dennis got down DELAYING. After two additional wins (including a clever endgame against Bryan Benwitz which involved Thomas passing his turn), Thomas' aspirations for an undefeated evening were dashed as he fell to Charles, 419-457. That game was a veritable bingo bonanza, with both players playing three (MONERAN, DIALERS, CATAMITE for Thomas; OUTFISH, HARDILY, INBREEDS for Charles).

Dennis' BIOTECH was picked as word of the week, played against Sue Goldstein in a 351-348 squeaker win for him.

1st Thomas Reinke emerged victorious from a three-player scrabble scrum by finishing at 2-1 +56. He guaranteed a first-place finish by the end of round one by winning both games of a two-on-one match, beating Charles Reinke 415-354 (playing EXPOSAL and EOSINIC) and Bryan Benwitz 382-361 (playing OVERAGE). Apparently having allowed his dominant position in the round-one standings to make him complacent, he lost to Charles in round two, 424-398. Thomas had just one bingo in that game, ITERATED, while Charles had NITROGEN and MANTLET.

Bryan's MINORCA was chosen as bingo of the week for lack of viable candidates.

We are also proud to note that the Star Wars X-Wing players at the adjacent table only outnumbered us 4-3, and we probably could have fought them off had the need arisen since our equipment was significantly heftier than theirs.

1st Charles Reinke ran off an unblemished 3-0 +161 record to score first place among a small group of just four Scrabblers. The high point of his night was a solid 500-381 victory against eventual second-place finisher Bryan Benwitz. Bryan got a single bingo of EUDAIMON, while Charles had ETERNALS, NEREIDS, DETACHES, and GOLDEYES. He secured his undefeated record by escaping with the win in a high-scoring nailbiter against Thomas Reinke, 465-459, thus cementing his temporary position as the "superior" twin. The inferior twin got bingos of GATHERS, SEEDBED, and TOILWORN; the superior one had PINESAP and ANOTHER.

2nd Bryan Benwitz averaged a nifty 455 points per game en route to a 2-1 +245 record. He got off to a blazing fast start by mercilessly dominating Thomas Reinke by a score of 494 to 316. So merciless was he in his domination that his three bingos of HOTLINES, PRECLEAN, and OSETRAS had to be supplemented by a needless fourth bingo, DILATED, to make the grisly carnage complete. He later followed that up with a similarly dominant win against Helen Flores, 490-304, where he played word-of-the-week-runner-up MALARIAL along with FIESTAS.

Helen Flores got word of the week with CRANCHED, boldly played when the conventional word BRANCHED was available to her.