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#character-encoding UTF-8
#player1 Carl Carl
#player2 Josh_S Josh S
>Carl: ?EEIIOR -EIIO +0 0
#note So far this morning, I'd salvaged a tie that I thought was lost, and I got to beat Jackson on the top board. I was feeling really, really good going into this game. But Fate had other plans.
>Josh_S: AEFGOOT H4 FOOTAGE +80 80
>Carl: ?DEELMR 5E REM.LdED +90 90
#note I had intended to make the second D the blank but transposed them, the first of several weird mistakes. (-0.5)
>Josh_S: IJN J5 .JIN +26 106
#note As it turned out, my mistake netted me an extra point.
>Carl: IILNORU 9J NORI +16 106
#note There's a difference between feeling good and playing well. I spent forever on this rack but couldn't find anything decent. What I eventually played is nowhere near the top ten. 9E ORIGIN is clearly best; I never saw it. Other good contenders are LURID L1, 4K OIL, and F3 LIEU. (-8.5)
>Josh_S: FO 6F FO. +31 137
>Carl: EEILTUU 8L ETUI +20 126
#note LOTSA duplicates at this tournament. I know I've already said this repeatedly, but given the number of clunky racks and boneheaded plays, I can't believe I finished in 5th place. I must have gotten lucky, but it's hard to say where.
>Josh_S: BIOV L1 BOVI. +28 165
>Carl: AELMRUZ 1J LA.RUM +30 156
#note A lot of good plays sim within a few points, including mine. REZ 10L wins the sim by .5%
>Josh_S: SXY 10G S.XY +45 210
#note One of a few reasons why NORI was stupid.
>Carl: AEIRSTZ O5 SAT.RIZE +68 224
#note How in the heck does the O3 placement win the sim? (-1?) Get outta here, Quackle, you're done.
>Josh_S: AEEW 3I WEA.E +30 240
>Carl: ACEEINU 2C EUCAINE +66 290
>Josh_S: ?HLNRST C2 .NTHRaLS +72 312
>Carl: ABDDENU N3 DAUB +38 328
>Josh_S: IOTV 8A VO.TI +27 339
>Carl: ADDENRY 13L DYAD +37 365
>Josh_S: AGOT 14K GOAT +22 361
>Carl: EELNPRW 15L WREN +53 418
>Josh_S: IQ 1G QI +50 411
>Carl: EHILNPP E7 P.LEI +14 432
#note And then the meltdown happened. I just... couldn't... think. Whether it was due to fatigue, stupidity, my rapidly advancing age, etc., I just lost it. I saw NIPPLE immediately, but it didn't seem right because Josh will pluralize it (but so what?). And then I thought I wouldn't have an out in 2, despite, obviously, HIN or HIT 3A, 4A. I even saw that GECKS/NIPPLES gave me GHI to go out, but I just couldn't make anything make sense. Then, with time winding down, I somehow convinced myself that I had to play something that couldn't be pluralized. (-39)
>Josh_S: ACEGKOS D11 GECKS +29 440
#note This isn't an isolated incident either. You can see something very similar happen in the final round of SWILLLNS against Mack Meller. I had like 10 minutes to figure out that endgame, but spent half of that retracking. Then, flustered, I saw the winning move but, with time winding down, played something else instead. It's like I couldn't do the math to figure out which one to play. Against Josh, it was even worse, not merely because the endgame here is very easy. One move prior, I realized I had been notating my scores as Josh's and vice versa; once discovered, I was unnerved by it. I deeply worry that these are the first signs of senility--hair doesn't go gray all at once, you know-- and wtih every passing tournament, these lapses will only become more frequent. Whatever gains I figure to make in terms of word knowledge, strategy, etc. will gradually be undone by the merciless passage of time.
>Carl: HNP 10M PH. +21 453
#note More charitably, I didn't play Scrabble for three years and I don't have many opportunities to play over the board these days. Basically, I'm out of shape, and I see it as a minor miracle that I've done so well, both at this event, and at previous events this year. Also, when I say this isn't an isolated incident, I also mean that it's not isolated to me. When I made the finals in 2019, some very strong opponents made some amazingly bad plays against me-- "gifts", you might say. I'm not just talking about the infamous ADRESSER game. One top expert got both blanks against me but then lost two challenges and ultimately the game. Another top player had a winning endgame and 15 minutes to solve it but lost because he mistracked. If I had lost any two of those games, I wouldn't have made the finals. Even one might have been enough.
>Josh_S: AO 14B OA. +14 454
#note Bottom line: sometimes you're the one receiving the gifts, some times you're the one giving them. Today, I had an ADRESSER moment to end the morning on this surreal day of Scrabble. But the worst is yet to come.
>Josh_S: (N) +2 456
#note By Day 4, everyone's brains are mush from too much Scrabble. There's no telling who's going to be giving gifts. This time, for whatever reason, it was me.
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