The Tel Aviv Scrabble® Club

Season #16 reached an exciting end with our traditional mini-tournament held in our alternate venue, HaTavor 32.

The stakes were high. In Aardvark, 8 players competed for the title of Division Champion for season 16. In Zyzzyva, the stakes were even higher - two players would get their ticket in Aardvark.

The format: The top 8 players in each division were split into groups of 4 which played a Round Robin. The groups were then combined for two King-of-the-Hill rounds.

The report: In Zyzzyva, Chaya started off very well, and never stopped to look back, finishing the event with an amazing 5-0, and the second highest average in the whole event (after Ma'or in Aardvark). Chaya was invincible. But since Chaya has decided not to return to Aardvark, the battle for 2nd and 3rd was intense, as these positions would each give a players his or her Aardvark ticket. Right up until the end, it was uncertain who would be Chaya's runner-up. Going into game 5, Omri competed against Chaya for the division title, allowing Raz and Phyllis to sneak up from behind and take 2nd and 3rd respectively and subsequently bid Zyzzyva farewell (at least for season 17). Omri already has already been promoted to Aardvark as he won the division over the whole season. Well done, all! Have fun in Aardvark!

In Aardvark, Ma'or's performance was nothing short of perfect (okay, he played a little phoney along the way¡Kso what). Winning all his games, Ma'or scored an average of 140 points more than his opponents, finishing with a +689 differential, and took his 4th Club Champion title (the last being 3 seasons ago). Well done! There was a huge battle for 2nd position, though. No fewer than 4 players had a 3-2 record, meaning that Evan's runner-up position was only due to his superior differential. One of the closest finishes ever (for second place, of course).

Words played:
Best Bingo: An amazing 72 (!) bingoes were played by our club¡¦s top 16. Some were real beauties. Evan's CERATOID was nice, as were Raquelle's TABLEAU and Viva's MICROBES. But the award goes to Evan's PLATEFUL which is the nicest bingo of the event.
Best Phoney: Six were played throughout the mini-tournament. Chaya's GOLDIES*, Michelle's ENTIRED* and Omri's RERACES* all survived. Nancy's SOLARIS* (the final S was a blank) went unchallenged too. Evan got away with his very impressive ALGINASE* against Ma'or's, who returned the favour with a phoney of his own, CURATIONS*, which is the best phoney of the event.

Final Standings - Aardvark:

Final Standings - Zyzzyva: