1st Steve Hartsman unambiguously dominated a smaller-than-usual crowd of seven Scrabblers, finishing 4-0 +310 with a 452 average. His first game was also his best, as he took down Andy Bohnsack in a slugfest, 498-421. A wide selection of high-probability bingos was on display: Andy found EROSIONS and BERATING, but was overwhelmed by Steve's finds of OESTRIN, REVOTED, HIRSUTE, and GIRASOLE. Steve then went on to achieve the rare feat of beating both Reinke twins back-to-back, 426-398 vs. Charles and 409-377 vs. Thomas. The third Reinke twin was too busy playing Yu-Gi-Oh! to get in on the action. Undefeated going into the final game, Steve kept the bingos flowing with a 473-300 win against Dennis Lloyd, slapping down BOLETES, GRANOLAS, and WASTERS to take home a shiny trophy all the way back to Milwaukee. (Just kidding. The budget doesn't allow for weekly trophies.)

2nd Thomas went 3-2 +295, playing thirteen bingos, which is honestly a kind of normal number for him these days. A first-round Collins-lexicon brawl with Charles Reinke ended badly for Thomas; his brother bingoed the first five turns of the game (COURAGE, LOCAVORE, ENDORSE, FREEING, RETINAE) to take a lead that no amount of counter-bingos (EULOGIST, PATINED, RAILROAD) could hope to overcome. Thomas stormed back with a pair of wins in round two, felling Dennis Lloyd 494-308 and Andy Bohnsack 453-437 in a two-on-one. Of note was Thomas' bingo of SIXTEEN, which scored 100 points and was ripe for all kinds of jokes about the score of the play. After dropping a game to Steve Hartsman, 377-409, Thomas ended his night with a convincing win against Richard Lauder, playing JAROSITE, ORIOLES, and AROINTS for a 546-254 win.