Results of the Candidates Match to Represent Philippines to WSC 2005

CANDIDATE MATCH RESULTS:

John Edward Tabasa of Cebu Scrabble Association Inc. (CSAI) bested the other 23 Word Wizards in a Candidates Match held on July 5-7, 2005 at Entertainment Area of SM North EDSA, North Ave., Diliman, Quezon City.

Tabasa amassed a 17-7 win-loss record and +999 points spread to secure a berth in the World Scrabble Championship (WSC) 2005 to be held in London this coming November 2005. His expenses which included hotel accommodation and round trip plane ticket shall be shouldered by the main sponsor, Mabuhay Educational Center, Inc.

In the final round, Teodoro Martus, Jr. (15-8, +741) record also from CSAI needed to beat Tabasa (16-7, +952) by 106 points spread to win the championship but the latter prevailed in a close fought game, 375-328 dropping Martus to 2nd place but also gained a slot to WSC 2005.

On the other hand, Renante de la Cerna also from Cebu, rallied behind from a 9-9 win-loss record card, won all his 6 remaining games including his last round conquest against Orville James Alagaban (CSAI), 404-397 to finish 3rd place overall and secured the last slot of the Team Philippines to WSC 2005.

Let us wish them good luck!

Final Standings after 24 Rounds Straight KOTH

1.  John Edward Tabasa (Cebu)      17  +999
2.  Teodoro Martus, Jr. (Cebu)      15  +694
3.  Renante dela Cerna (Cebu)      15  +420
4.  Orville James Alagaban (Cebu)  15  +351
5.  Oscar Rivera, Jr. (Rizal)        14  +529
6.  Roger Parchamento (La Union)    14  -146
7.  Leonora Labog (QC)              13  +406
8.  Marlon Prudencio (Makati)      13  +403
9.  Jose Marte Toroy (Cebu)        13  +146
10. Tanjee Rabong (QC)              13  +112
11. Odette Carmina Rio (Iloilo)    12  +426
12. Ronald Credo (QC)              12  +209
13. Joel Toroy (Cebu)              12*  -246
14. Hyatt Basman (Pasig)            12  -424
15. Maida Manaog (Pasay)            11  +715
16. Teejay de Jesus (Laguna)        11  + 93
17. Delio Dimaano (San Pablo)      11  - 44
18. Andronico Aquino (Lipa)        11  -124
19. Robbie Onate (Los Banos)        11  -779**
20. Antonio Malonzo (Manila)        10  -368***
21. Ursita Aparre (Cebu)            10  -656
22. Ashby Rivera (Manila)          10  -753
23. Rolly Mandapat (Pasig)          9  -563
24. Bing Encelan (Rizal)            withdrawn 


If either one or two of the top 3 players will not be able to make it, they should give ample time to hand over their slot to the next in line players according to the ranking.

Note: Corrections to previous print-out

* - In round 21, Joel Toroy (10-10, -205) was paired
to Marte Toroy (10-10, -73). Marte won, 310-461. Joel
incorrectly filled up his scorecard with 11 wins. In
his last 3 rounds, he won 2 games. So, the adjusted
win-loss record of Joel should be 12-12, -246 instead
of 13-11, -246.

** - Robbie Onate forgot to put negative sign in his
total cumulative spread. His final spread should be
-779, not +779.

*** - Antonio Malonzo won his final game against Rolly
Mandapat by +100 pt. spread but forgot to subtract it
from his previous cumulative spread of -488. The final
spread should be adjusted to -388 instead of +100.


NON-CANDIDATES MATCH RESULTS:

Meanwhile, the other tourney simultaneous with Candidates Match was won by Mario Recedes (16-8, +1290) followed by Mario Miranda (16-8, +619). Alberto Palomo (14.5-9.5, +512) finished at 3rd place.

Final Standing after 24 rounds KOTH

1.  Mario Recedes (QC)          16    +1290
2.  Mario Miranda (Los Banos)    16    + 619
3.  Alberto Palomo (QC)          14.5  + 512
4.  Teodorico Marinas (San Juan) 14.5  + 122
5.  Bobby Suma (Taguig)          14    + 781 
6.  Eliezer Dayon (QC)          13    + 179
7.  Rey Mandani (QC)            12    -  77
8.  Louie Mark de Guzman (QC)    12    - 406
9.  Hashib Salic (Taguig)        11    +  29
10. Ringo Ayuban (QC)            11    - 905
11. Rey Toledo                  Withdarwn
12. Nenita Daproza              Withdrawn
13. Arturo Illusorio            Withdrawn


MISCELLANEOUS:

The RATINGS COMMITTEE would like to acknowledged the following Scrabble Players whose got neat Scorecards and accurate arithmetic computation. They also used black or blue ink to fill up their scorecards which is very helpful to the Ratings Committee in double checking it. Keep up the good work!
1. Marlon Prudencio
2. Odette Carmina Rio
3. Nora Labog
4. Andronico Aquino
5. Brenda Ambler
6. Vilma Vecino
7. Rosario Lambino


COMMON ERRORS IN THE SCORECARDS:
1. Interchanged scores;
2. Incorrect arithmetic of spreads and cumulative
spreads;
3. Scores and spreads, do not tally with each other.

SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE ON THESE PROBLEMS:
1. Players themselves should recheck the entries of
their scorecards before submitting it to the
Officials;
2. Officials must double-check both scorecards if it
tallies including respective wins and cumulative
spreads;
3. The use of calculator would be helpful to speed up
the process.


By: RATINGS COMMITTEE



Many thanks to Marlon Prudencio for sharing the photos with reports:

Stage of the Candidates Matches / Nationals 2005 at the SM City Entertainment Plaza.

The Nationals 2005 scene. Players are battling it out for the 3 slots for Philippines in the World Scrabble Championship 2005 to be held in London, UK on November 2005.

Leonora Labog with her self-printed SOWPODS book (complete up to 16 letters!).

Oscar Rivera (eventual 5^th placer) and Hyatt Basman (the top finisher with 12 wins after day 2 and eventual 14^th placer).  Hyatt only needed 3 wins in Day 3 to cinch one of the 3 slots, but after his ‘TOTALISM’ was ruled out invalid in Round 18 against John Tabasa, a win became very elusive to Hyatt on the final day. Lesson: word judges should be very cautious and very thorough in accepting or ruling out a word! No room for mistakes! No room for 2^nd or 3^rd Opinions!

The marvelous trio, MAR-HY-NO or better yet, HARMONY!

Marlon Prudencio placed 8^th, Leonora Labog placed 7^th and Hyatt Basman placed 14^th out of 24 candidates in the Nationals/Candidates Matches 2005.

Nora Labog (the ISC queen), Roger Parchamento (the pride of La Union), Odette Rio (5^th placer in the Thailand King’s Cup 2005, two-time National Champion), Hyatt Basman (the ‘Conqueror’) and Ronald Credo (the ‘Analyst’ and also a two-time National Champion).

The famous end-game move of ‘WARCRAFTS’ (54 pts) played by Maida Manaog against Robbie Onate on Day 2.

Ronald Credo played ‘DESPOIL’ for 117 pts. (FUZEES was challenged unsuccessfully) in the endgame, to beat Renante dela Cerna of Cebu in this game. 2 moves earlier, Ronald missed a bingo (I forgot what the word is) under EQUATE (a 6-tile overlay!), which could have given him the big advantage in this game prior to the last moves.

 (Blogger's Note: I was holding DEIILNS, then I played the phoney INSILED* below EQUATE forming QI, UN, AS, TI and EL which was challenged off the board, instead of INISLED -107 points, a six-letter overlap with YEN, QI, US, AL, TE and ED)

Roger Parchamento vs. Tanjee Rabong. After Tanjee played JEEZ for 84 pts, Parchamento played the grandslam move of ‘OXIDAnT’ for 99 pts to beat Tanjee by just a few points.

Game 15: Marlon Prudencio vs. Maida Manaog.  Maida was ahead by 44 points going to the endgame. She could have won this game outright had she spotted RESHINE/TWINER as her last move, instead of blocking and playing HIE. Marlon played the grandslam ‘PERITUS’ to beat Maida by 27 points. Had Maida chose to block the HOT opening, Marlon would play ‘ERUPTION’ in the floating ‘N’ of TWIN. But then again, this could have been Maida’s game had she not missed RESHINE.

Game 18: A very-high scoring game between Marlon Prudencio and Leonora Labog. After Nora played ‘PANTIES’, Marlon played the 4-timer ‘TRIONYMS’. Later, Nora played EXCRETE for 118 pts, but Marlon hit back with a niner ‘SMOGGIER’ for 176 pts. Marlon was leading by 110 points when Nora got the 1^st blank and played TWIRLED. This play could not have gone through had Marlon not missed ‘OVARITIS’ in the floating ‘T’ of NOTED, instead of just blocking with ORA. Nora again drew the second blank on her next turn and played QUEASIER to get ahead, 470-456. Marlon then played GIRDS for 43 pts, which was actually a wrong move as he could have saved his S to play GO/OS/QIS for 27 pts on his next turn. Nora went on to play OWE/OUR/WED/EAS (32) and then FAN/FA/THON (29) to beat Marlon by 3 pts, 526-523.

Game 23: Marlon Prudencio vs. Teodoro Martus of Cebu. After Martus played ‘OVERATE’, Marlon counteracted with ‘BEZANTS’. After three more moves, Martus played ‘MATURES’ and Marlon retaliated with ‘TIRELESS’. The game was close-fought until Marlon missed the niner ‘ANNULOSE’ right after Martus played ‘QUEEN’.

This shattered Marlon’s hope for the last slot of the 3 reps in the WSC 2005, while Martus’ win assured him of a 2^nd place in the Nationals, which he eventually gained.