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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.

1st Thomas Reinke enjoyed his second straight week at the top of the weekly standings thanks to a 4-1 +381 record. Most of his spread came from a round-one excursion against Helen Flores which he won by a score of 555 to 296. Helen, to her credit, did get down a bingo of QUEEREST, while Thomas had NEMESIA, DEFAULT, and BELEAPS. Thomas' sole loss was a (relatively low-scoring) nailbiter against his brother Charles Reinke, a game in which Charles prevailed 360-356. Thomas would later get his revenge by beating Charles 461-368.

2nd Charles Reinke went 3-1 with a tame +28 total spread. He won a squeaker against Bryan Benwitz in the first round, 415-404, despite getting outbingoed two to one (AEROSOLS for Charles, DEVOICES and CLEMATIS for Bryan). The major success of Charles' night came against Dennis Lloyd in a 459-383 win. Dennis fought gamely with his bingos of OUTLETS and TWINGES (the latter for a bruising 98 points), but Charles couldn't be stopped with his four-bingo assualt of EROSION, PLETHORA, OVERHUNT, and EASELED (the last of which was later turned into WEASELED, much to Dennis' benefit).

Bryan Benwitz gets special mention for his anomalous 1-2 +298 record, wherein he averaged 491 points per game. A 482-506 loss against Thomas in the second round and a 588-point game in the third round contributed to this heinous aberration. Bryan also played the word of the week with CLEMATIS (which is just CLIMATES with the vowels creatively rearranged).