1st Thomas Reinke claimed undisputed first place with hia 4-1 +495 record. He got off to a rousing start with a 556-317 win against Mark Kenas. Mark's ill-fated play of the expurgated ABO didn't help his cause, and neither did Thomas' bingos of UNFILED# (somehow not good in the American wordlist), SHARPER, and GENOMES. The one blemish on Thomas' otherwise immaculate scoresheet came in round three when he found himself in a two-on-one against Peter Schmiedicke and Sara McLaughlin. He dispatched Peter with some effort, winning 449-423, but was handily defeated by Sara, 414-471. Sara had three bingos of TENDERS, LAUNDERS, and DROOPIER, while Thomas just had AGNATES. This is Sara's second lifetime win against Thomas, while she has not yet managed to defeat the other one.

2nd Peter Schmiedicke went 3-2 +254 to snag second place over a clump of players with 2-2 records. He had a whopping 330 points of spread after the first round where he defeated both Helen Flores (415-356) and Richard Lauder (594-323). That winning score of 594 is Peter's highest in his decade-long club career, and it was achieved with just three bingos: UNCHOSEN, LADRONES, and SIENITE. Peter's second-highest scoring club game, 584, was also against Richard back in 2016, so maybe there's some bad blood there. After defeating Sara McLaughlin in a sad, bingoless 341-332 affair, Peter ran into back to back Reinkes and lost both games, leaving his final record as "three and Reinke".

3rd Aaron Bader made his first club appearance since March 2020 (right before You Know What happened), and performed commendably, going 2-2 +84 against a field comprised solely of strong Collins experts and definitively proving that he still knows how to play Scrabble at a more than adequate level. He defeated Charles Reinke 454-378 with the help of bingos CRISTAE and AMORINI, while Charles had ETERNAL and AERADIOS, in a game that once again demonstrated the astounding utility of high-probability bingos. Aaron's second win came against Mark Kenas, 467-408, with bingos of ANHINGA and REINDUCE (Mark had RODINGS# and TRAILING). But a rematch was less favorable for Aaron, as Mark bested him in a low-scoring (by Collins standards anyway) 379-408 match.

Of note was Charles Reinke's 689 points scored against Helen Flores, a new high game for him at club and the fourth-highest score recorded since modern statkeeping began in 2011 (Thomas owns the three highest scores, including the only 700+ game of 739, although there are two 700+ games pre-2011). Charles' bingos in his 689-point game were FLOUTERS, SOREHEADS, BLOWZIER, INCITER, PYRENOID, and TRIUNITY. His six bingos also ties a club record, achieved on three separate occasions by, you guessed it, Thomas Reinke.