Scrabble: One-Day Tourney at Soi Prik

Event: One-Day Scrabble Tournament
Venue: Soi Prik, Chiebog Foodpark, Bristol St., North Fairview, Quezon City
Date: November 9, 2024

Format: Straight King of the Hill

Soi Prik Tourney Flyer

The Main Sponsor, Roland and Ben Filio held the banner with other Players

Intense battle inside from board 1 to 6

Players from board 7 to 14

Other view from board 7 to 14

Marie Filio as the Tournament Director of the event

The Twin Brothers of Philippine Scrabble, Roland and Ben Filio

Highlights of my games:

In round 5, I was struggling hard against Ben Filio who played two bingos in a row with blank apiece, TATTiNG and IODISeD, then he also got the QI spot for good score, as I trailed 182-274. A few turns later, Ben opened up with LAV that gave me a nice bingo EELIEST choosing the much bolder play at n9 chopping down his lead 332-337. After Ben played YEED along o-file, and with my lucky draw of AEINORS, this gave me an opportunity to counter with a high scoring play. See the board below:

Board Position after Ben's play of YEED

ERASION along o-file was blocked but there was another opening along row-15 which I instantly played the 131-point play. There were three possible bingos in that spot but I played the Spanish word!

Round 5 matchup with Ben Filio

In round 6, I faced Maida Manaog who had just won her game in board 2. The game started quietly until she played the first bingo, HETAERA and the board looked like this:

Board Position after Maida's play of HETAERA

I was feeling greedy ready to break my high-scoring word in round 5, and slapped down a nine-timer bingo, TONIgT(H)S* for 149 points! Lo and behold, Maida said: "Challenge!" And that word came off. She blocked with OSE, but I hit a sub-optimal bingo TONIeST, missing the ANNUL-I hook, whey! Anyway, I played APPAREN(T) and OILERI(E)S thereafter for my three consecutive bingos and never looked back.

Round 6 Matchup with Maida Manaog

In the penultimate round, Alexis Joyosa having won his round 7 game with a win-loss record of 5-2 needed to beat me twice in order to snatch the championship from me. We had bingo apiece, MEANIES for me and RELAXIN for him, giving him a good lead 205-265 until we reached this board position:

Board Position after Alexis' play of QUAD

Alexis told me later that he was holding the rack of DJNQTUV, after I left the nine-timer open when I played C(L)OWN. He chose to play QU(A)D instead. Off course, yours truly could not be denied with this rack of ACELOT? + R. I laid down the 158-point play that netted me the prize for a High Scoring Word in the tournament. Alexis gallantly fought back and trimmed down the margin due to my lousy tracking in the endgame with the final score of 473-442. This sealed my championship victory!