Tournament...

I realize a lot of the people who read this blog are only casual players- and to you I say, "try playing competitively! It's lots of fun, and completely addictive!"

Even if you don't have a casual club or slightly more serious NASPA sanctioned club nearby, you can still play online, live, with  someone from somewhere around the world. I really think that playing with a time clock and the possibility of phonies adds a dimension to the game that is a lot more fun than just playing on Facebook in your spare time. (Though I do that, too.)

But back to the title- I played in a tournament this weekend, which was a lot of fun. (One more, link- you can see a list of upcoming tournaments here.) The interesting thing about playing in tournaments is that you tend to remember your mistakes a lot more vividly.

So if I had to list the top highlight and lowlight of this tournament, they would be as follows:

Lowlight:
Challenged RUTILES (lustier, ruliest) in my first game, which is a pretty high probability bingo that I somehow didn't know. I was most likely going to lose the game anyways, but losing my turn caused my opponent to beat me by even more, which put a stain on my record for the rest of the tournament. (I finished 3rd out of 6, with a 4-2 record and a spread of -59. The 2nd place person was also 4-2 but had a positive spread.)

Highlight:
I didn't have any particular stellar play that stood out, but I felt like I played well in general, and a lot of the words I've studied/ learned over that last couple of years came in handy. I felt like I had an edge over most of the players as far as word knowledge (apart from the blunder above), and I hope to continue the trend next time.