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NSC 2008 Commentary: Round 14

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Go to: Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4, Round 5, Round 6, Round 7, Round 8, Round 9, Round 10, Round 11, Round 12, Round 13, Round 14, Round 15, Round 16, Round 17, Round 18, Round 19, Round 20, Round 21, Round 22, Round 23, Round 24, Round 25, Round 26, Round 27, Round 28, Award Ceremony.

Round 14

game color commentary coming. reception color only for now:

Reception & Afterhours Play

The evening reception, long planned to be held outside, had to be relocated inside at the last minute, due to lightning and thunder and a major rainstorm. So, as a result, as soon as Round 14 was finished, the players were escorted out of the room so that the outdoor reception could be moved indoors to be held in the lobby outside of the playing room and in rooms adjacent to the after hours playing room. At 7:30, the players streamed into the reception and feasted on tables laden with buffalo chicken wings, conch fritters, prosciutto canapes, etc. Seven open bars were scattered around the foyer serving sodas, wines and beers. The theme was part luau, part Caribbean, and part Balinese. NSA employees greeted each attendee and handed them shell necklaces.

The event's highlight was the live music, which consisted of one man playing steel drums and singing to an island soundtrack. It was beautiful and highly enjoyed by the SCRABBLE players. For the first time ever at an NSA reception, the players broke into dance and an impromptu dance floor formed in front of the musical performer.

Randy Greenspan (Buffalo, NY), Ember Nelson (Buffalo, NY), Mike Baron (Corrales, NM), Paul Avrin (New York, NY), Mad Palazzo, Diane Brown (Toronto ON), Denise Mahnken (Long Beach, NY), Ken Middleton (Sherwood Park AB), and Angela Dancho (Thornton, CO) were among many of the dancers. At one point, several of them formed an impromptu line!

Though the food, was reported to be delicious, didn't last long, the bars flowed for a couple of hours. Players began to migrate into the side rooms to play games, just what you would expect at a SCRABBLE tournament.

Per usual, people played Boggle, SCRABBLE (in all its forms), Anagrams, and a new game (to me) called Fry Your Brain (invented by John Robertson and others). Perhaps the most elite game was the "10 letter minimum (11 with a blank)" game of Anagrams. From what I was told, about an hour was spent agreeing on the ground rules. Some of the better plays were DIVAGATIONS, FLATFOOTED, HEARTBROKEN, UNARGUABLY, OUTPOWERING, HOMEOBOXES, REUPHOLSTERING, FACETIOUSLY, AQUAMARINE, VIDEOGRAPHY, and LEAFLETTED. Nathan Benedict (Tucson, AZ) played PECKERWOOD, and Ron Hoekstra (Kentwood, MI) played ANTHROPOMORPHIZED (stolen from HARMONIZED). Another play was RATIONALIZATION (stolen from ROTATIONAL). Players at that game, in addition to the players mentioned above, were Kenji Matsumoto (Amherst, MA), Carl Johnson (Hillsboro, OR), and Rafi Stern (Seattle, WA).

Fry Your Brain featured a beautiful find by Jason Keller (Piscataway, NJ): SESQUICENTARY.

In another Anagrams game, Ryan Fischer (Charlotte, NC) played JEQUIRITIES. The funny thing is, in last night's Anagrams game, he found JEQUIRITY!

Two games that caught a few people's eyes were one featuring some of the event's youngsters. The only real detail that sticks out was that Bradley Robbins (Windham, NH) found and played a 9-letter word. A good reporter would know what that word was...

The other game that garnered attention was a 10-minute multi-continental team game that pitted Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON) & Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (Thailand) versus Jesse Matthews (Kelowna BC) & Win Inthara (Orlando, FL). It went fast (after all, it was a speed game), a bit of imbibing went on, so the details are hazy, but what was clear was that Team Robin/Pakorn played MARTINET and is superior to Team Jesse/Win. Enough said!