1st Bryan Benwitz rose to the top of a field of twenty players, an attendance figure that was last achieved in March 2016. Bryan rushed out to an early spread lead when he beat Charles Reinke by a soul-shattering 302 points, 625-323. Bryan played TOWNIES, ENFORCES, DONATED, and the 149-point triple-triple EMULSOID on his way to the third-highest score so far this year. This uncommonly large amount of momentum easily carried him through the next three games, starting with a contest against visiting Scrabble celebrity Josh Sokol, which Bryan won 443-375, thanks to finds of SUDSIER and VITALITY. Bryan's nine-letter FLUORINES (in addition to the pedestrian-in-comparison NAILERS) delivered him a 439-293 victory over James Rollins. He then made his domination complete by beating Thomas Reinke 466-423, vanquishing the second of two Reinkes and symbolically vanquishing the entire Reinke family line in the process.

2nd Lynda Finn went 3-1 +422 with an eye-popping average of 454 per game. She took down Carol Ormand in round one, 436-294, getting a bingo of TRACTION to Carol's phony MEDALERS* (MEDALIST seems to be the word for that concept). Lynda followed that up with an emphatic 487-380 win over club leader Thomas Reinke, slapping down INVADES and ELATERIN vs. Thomas' ARROGATE and TEENAGER. Lynda's singular loss came in round three when she fell to Steve Hartsman 386-447, but she made up for it (and then some) by thrashing Richard Lauder in the final round, 506-272. Richard was sadly held bingoless (sad from his perspective, anyway), while Lynda got down DAVENING, SIENITE, and EROTICA.

3rd Visiting Montrealer Josh Sokol, in town for the weekend's Midwest Major tournament, mostly lived up to his "former National Champion" credentials with a 3-1 +357 performance. He started off with a 446-363 win over Steve Hartsman, where his single bingo of REANOINT managed to hold off Steve's HOORAYS. Feeling confident in Canada's superiority over the USA, Josh then faced off against Bryan "Secret Weapon" Benwitz, and was sent packing back to Canada, 375-443. By the Transitive Property of National Championships, I think this makes Bryan the new North American Scrabble Champion (congrats, Bryan). Josh recovered in round three when he flattened Andy Bohnsack 485-312, bingoing with BARONETS, AGOUTIES, and SEDITION (Andy had TRICLAD and NAPERIES). Switching to the Collins lexicon for the final game, Josh made quick work of Mark Kenas, winning 521-352 and getting three more bingos: CHOREOID, COURAGE, and PLECTRON.

4th Steve Hartsman gets a bonus fourth paragraph (more like a sentence than a paragraph, honestly) for his 3-1 +165 outing, which was capped by a 506-464 win against Charlse Reinke (a game which featured a 118-point bingo of QUARTERS for Steve).

Lloyd's UNIVOCAL was word of the week.