1st Thomas Reinke started off the new club year already in midseason form, going 4-0 +342. He narrowly escaped with a win in the first round, beating Helen 456-450. 450 is Helen's second-highest losing score ever; she had previously lost to Thomas with a 459 a few years ago (secondary fun fact: she played TWISTIER in both of those games). Her triple-triple of SLUMPING for 167 wasn't quite enough to earn the win. In the second round, Thomas had another high-scoring close game, this time a 489-478 win versus Bryan. 478 is Bryan's second-highest losing score ever; he had previously lost to Thomas with a 519 a few years ago. Thomas bingoed with LATENTS, ALEURONE, ATTIRED, and DENOTES, while Bryan played SEIZING, GOATIER, and AFEBRILE (adj. having no fever). Thomas got most of his spread in the third round when he dropped 554 on Richard. His bingos were ABOITEAU (n. a dam to prevent the tide from overflowing a marsh, also spelled ABOIDEAU), IONISED, OVERFED, and BATTERS. The fourth round saw his return to having close games, as he eked out a 370-361 win against Mark using the British dictionary. Mark played the very nice EBENEZER* (only good in the British dictionary, and it doesn't mean what you think it means, I was definitely thinking like the famous SCROOGE) right at the end to make things close.

2nd Bryan Benwitz averaged 469 points per game, a stunning number which puts all MLB, NBA, and NFL teams and their paltry point totals to shame, and went 3-1 +316. His lowest-scoring game was in the first round, a 395-329 win against Betty. Betty double-blank-bingoed with CLERKED for 83, going for the "High C" prize, but her money was rudely taken from her when Bryan responded with VACATES for 89. As mentioned, he had a high-scoring loss against Thomas in the next game, 478-489. I guess the moral of the story is that playing three bingos is not enough when your opponent plays four. Not a very good moral, and not very applicable to life in general, but whatever. Bryan attempted to get revenge in the third round, but his vengeance was misplaced as he accidentally beat the other Reinke instead of the one he just lost to. The final was 523-412, with Bryan bingoing with TANNERS, DEROGATE, and MIDDLES. In the final game, he beat Dennis 478-328. Dennis bingoed first with GRANTOR, but Bryan responded with PREUNITE and SOLIDER.

3rd James Frankki put in his third straight 3-1 performance, ending at 3-1 +175 and finishing in third place. That 3-1 finish seemed to be jeopardized by his first-round loss to Dave, 373-388, followed by him getting paired up with Charles in the second round. However, he chose this time to activate "Frankki Mode", which is where he starts drawing better tiles, and won 399-368. He bingoed with MOUSING and PILEATE (adj. having a PILEUS, the umbrella-shaped portion of a mushroom) while Charles could only manage SILANES. "Frankki Mode" continued with a 442-389 win over Helen in the third game. He only bingoed once, with RESTING, so he must have been getting some big power tile plays to score so many points. The upward trend of his scores culminated in a 471-point game against Mary, when he bingoed three times: AURORAS, ABALONE, and DECRIER (at least that's what I think he played; the way it was written on the scorecard it maybe could have been DERRIER*).