1st Thomas Reinke dominated once again with a 5-0 +564 record. Domination was total and complete in round one as he summarily dismissed both Dave Kinzer (552-367) and Helen Flores (519-327). Across those two games, Thomas hoarded literally every bingo for himself, getting ARISTAS, ZINGARE, ALTERITY, HERBARIA, LUMPENS, CARESSED, VALERIAN, and IRONERS. Thomas slowed down on the bingos in round two, but made his singular bingo count, getting a 3x3 ROUTEING for 122 to turn away Mark Kenas, 428-371. Resuming his bothersome practice of just plain bingoing too much, he hit three bingos (CORNEAS, BIRDSHOT, WORKDAY) in a 457-386 victory over Bryan Benwitz, who got down REINVENT and HERNIAE. Thomas encountered Mark again in round four and won for a second time, 421-362, landing LEACHING, ROOPIER#, and SPRENTED# to secure a flawless record and further widen the gap in the yearly standings between him and everyone else.

2nd Richard Lauder dialed up the scoring, averaging 419 per game to finish 3-1 +226. A round-one matchup against Bryan Benwitz saw Richard win the bingo battle (playing ENTIRES while Bryan was limited to a grand total of zero bingos) but lose the war, 280-356. That proved to be the end of Richard's losses for the evening, and each of his subsequent three games saw him score above 460. He took down Dave Kinzer 467-362, bingoing with CHEMISTS and BANTIES. That was followed by a good old-fashioned display of Wisconsin hospitality, beating the visiting Floridian Howard Pistol 460-356 with bingos of CRUSADE and SPICIER (Howard got ENDOSTEA and a plausible EPIGONAL* - only EPIGONIC). Richard's night ended strong with a 468-375 win against Helen Flores where he found CHROMATE, DEVIATED, and RELOADS.

3rd Steve Hartsman notched his second-straight third-place showing with a 3-1 +98 record. Like Richard above, his first game was a loss, 359-438 to Howard Pistol. Steve got down NONMETAL and STERLING, but Howard made some great finds of his own with OVEREATS, CORNROWS, and TROPISMS. Steve's fortunes reversed against Helen Flores, with Steve winning 425-270. Encountering Lynda Finn in round three, Steve just barely held on to win a barnburner, 469-457. Both players had three bingos: BAGUETTE, GRINDERY, and MORGANS for Steve; REVISITS, BRAILLE, and ROOSTED for Lynda. Another tightly-contested win followed, this time against Charles Reinke, 418-408. Steve was able to banish Charles directly to the fiery underworld with an 80-point DAMNING.

Notable was Mark Kenas' 632-point game against Charles Reinke, which was the second-highest-scoring game this year. A large fraction of that lofty point total was from Mark's triple-triple find of QUEENLIER for 221 points, played through EE already on the board (thanks Collins!). That 221-point bingo is the fourth-highest since 2011, behind MOBILIZE (248), ZIPPIEST (248), and QUEASILY (239).