1st Charles Reinke went 4-1 with a sizable +685 spread, easily wresting first place from the plebeians below him who only played four games. His experience in the first round was emblematic of the vagaries of Scrabble, and, indeed of life itself: playing in a two-on-one, he was defeated by Betty Hasselkus 409-335, but defeated Dave Gilligan 545-277. Against Betty, he played ERUMPENT to counter her STOLLEN (which will be a seasonal word once Thanksgiving passes). Against Dave, he had PEREONS, LEVIRATE, and word-of-the-week CARYATIC, while Dave had ENSNARES. Charles followed up a lukewarm first round with a game that was anything but lukewarm, as he scored an incredible 604 against Helen Flores, and played some fun bingos in the process: TERRINES, GALLICAN, and a triple-triple TRIVIUMS for 140. A "trivium" is apparently an introductory course at a medieval university, and not an instance of trivia as the folk definition would have you believe. Charles continued his path to first place with a 429-353 win over Richard Lauder (despite the latter's out-bingo of NOSTRIL), and the path came to an end with a close 422-409 victory against Bryan Benwitz. In the last one, Charles had DEFICIT and VENUSES to Bryan's TRIAGED and RECTORS (which was sadly never extended to ERECTORS).

2nd Thomas Reinke barely snuck into second place, beating out the third-place finisher by eight spread points with his 3-1 +231 record. Unlike his first-place started slow but finished strong, Thomas won his first three games before falling in the last round. His first game was against Gail Salm, and he won big, 444-318, despite the bingo tally being knotted at one apiece (CUSHIER for Thomas, RUNTIEST for Gail). The racks were a bit more fruitful against Bryan Benwitz, as he got down three bingos (CONTAGIA, STATIVES, and LONICERA) in a 422-321 win. A 460-309 win against Betty Hasselkus must have been achieved solely through revengeful intent, because it wasn't achieved through a multitude of bingos (Thomas only had DEONTIC), but in any case, it set him up for a perfect night going into the fourth round. However, Mark Kenas made easy work of Thomas, 325-472, crushing those dreams like a flower underneath the boots of a passing army regiment.

3rd Mark Kenas enjoyed a third-place finish with his 3-1 +223 final record, but would have enjoyed second place a lot more had he won his final game by just four more points. As is usual for him, he played a series of Collins games against Aaron Bader, winning the first two before losing one. Their first game was a barn-burner, ending 471-461 in Mark's favor. Bingos of MANTELET, USAUNCE, and ILLATION contributed much to the winning effort (Aaron had LARKIER and CASEATED). The second game was much more lopsided (459-333, Mark's win, thanks to BIDARKA, HERIOTS, and IRONIZED), but balance was restored as Aaron took game three, 466-406. Mark was then given the opportunity to take on Collins switch-hitter Thomas Reinke, and he was especially eager to win given that Thomas had taken the win in their first three Collins encounters. That eagerness translated into easy victory as Mark held Thomas bingoless, played ANTISEX, TAENIAE, and RETILES as his own bingos, and won 472-325.