Introduction:
This season, I played in Division 2, with 8 titled players* (3 WESPA International Masters, 4 WESPA Masters and 1 NASPA Master) - more titled players than non-titled players! It was undoubtedly one of the toughest fields I’ve played in, but I still tried to play my best, with a goal of avoiding relegation in my mind.
*Technically 9 as KoalaJ (John Holgate) is a WESPA Master, but his Woogles account isn’t linked to his WESPA Profile
Game 1: A Plethora of 9s
In this position, I’m down 226-263 against merlion, and it is me to play.
I had the stylish O1 PIANOLI(ST) for 86 as my only bingo. Obviously I didn’t spot that, and opted for my 2nd best move of 15J OILPAN for 37. Unfortunately a bingo is a bingo, and Macondo heavily prefers PIANOLI(ST) with a win-rate of 59.5%, while OILPAN is only sitting at 33.4%, a 26.1% error, contributing 1 MI on my side.
A few turns later, I caught up to more or less even out the game, and I’m facing the following position:
Knowing WINTRY is a word but unsure of its part of speech, I decided to try O1 WINTRIe(ST) for 86, reasoning it’s Void and no harm in trying anyways. As I clicked “Play”, I heard a sound effect, and saw the play go through. I was delighted to get down a 9 letter bingo, but more importantly, take a bingo lead, giving me more room to work with.
In the actual game, merlion immediately hit back with 5D HaNDLES for 83, but drew 4 A’s in the replenishment draw. With a more flexible rack in the pre-endgame and endgame, I clinched a narrow 14 point win, ending the game with a score of 440-426.
My MI: 4.3
Opp’s MI: 4.4
Game 2: The 67 point Endgame Mistake
Now, it was my opponent who made the mistake, but I figured it was a cool sequence, so I decided to show it here as well.
In this endgame position, dragon is up 440-335, and the game is essentially won for him already. He played N12 TIZ for 50, and I was barely able to fit OUTSAIL in L6, forming TOEA, XI and EL for 83 as a bingo out, ending the game with a score of 444-490.
While it may seem obvious that blocking my bingo would be better for my opponent, the way of doing so is absolutely genius in my opinion. Macondo suggests the simple looking M10 ROTL for 11. It seems strange at first until you realise, by doing so he sets up N12 wIZ for 49 to go out, while my best play would just be 1J SITULA for 34. The game would have ended with a score of 389-502, a 113 point win for opponent, so the mistake cost him 67 spread points. Nevertheless, hats off to dragon for achieving sub 2 MI this game, and congrats for emerging victorious in this stacked field!
My MI: 2.8
Opp’s MI: 1.9
Game 3: Bingoes Missed, Mistakes Everywhere
As the subtitle suggests, this game against KoalaJ went disastrously for me. First, I would like to present the following position:
I’m down 203-228 and it is my turn. I quickly (and correctly) determined none of the 7s fit on the board. So I have to look for 8s. A competitive player with some word learning could easily find 15C (R)ETIRANT for 77. A somewhat casual player with some basic English vocabulary could find 6A TREATIN(G) without any major issues. So what did I play? I simply forgot about the bingoes and played N7 (HO)T for 6. No, this wasn’t intentional, I straight up whiffed on Row 6. I’d be fine with missing (R)ETIRANT, but missing TREATIN(G) is just straight up unforgivable, and should be worth 3 MI on its own. With that being said, I’ll definitely look closer at all lanes before pivoting away from the thought of bingoing, to avoid similar mistakes in the future.
Things have become dire as KoalaJ bingoed. Now I’m down by 81 and desperately need a bingo. Holding the probability #1 7-letter bingo rack of NOTAIRE/OTARINE, I again deduced there were no playable 7s. I looked for 8s for quite a long time, and couldn’t find anything, so I opted for 15A (G)O(R) for 4, praying I didn’t miss a bingo. After the game ended, I went to check the analyser, and was devastated by what I saw. 13G (T)ENTORIA for 68 was my one and only bingo, but I know this word as I remember it as SENSORIA but S’s changed to T’s. I was disappointed by the fact I missed 2 easy bingoes in a row, definitely an underperformance on my side.
After a few more medium/large mistakes here and there, the game ended with me losing 359-477, one of the bigger losses for me this season.
My MI: 6.2 (rip)
Opp’s MI: 3.2
Game 4: Endgame Clutch
With 1 tile in the bag, avruga has a narrow lead of 378-353 and it’s my turn.
Looking at an unseen pool of BDLNSSVY, I know I have a very decent shot at winning here. After looking for bingoes to no avail, I decided to find a scoring play and hope that I can go out next turn. However being down by 25 with low pointers, it’d not be as easy to achieve as it sounds, so the solution here seems to be playing off 1 tile and hope for a bingo. I ultimately decided on C8 L(AR) for 3, keeping the very strong leave of DENOT?. Drawing the B gives me BOuNT(I)ED at 2C (and apparently BOD(EM)ENTs at 15D), and I also somehow saw the crazy possibility of (EN)DOrS(EM)ENT if I draw 1 of the 2 S’s! It would’ve been crazy style points and my first disconnected 11 letter bingo! Other draws would also likely give me enough time to score and narrowly clinch victory.
In the actual game, I draw the B and avruga plays L6 (E)NVY, then I go out with BOuNT(I)ED to steal a 48 point win with a score of 440-392. According to Macondo, L(AR) was one of the two best plays that wins 75% of the time, where I would only lose if I drew the D or V (L gives DOLeNTE, N gives eNDNOTE, S gives DONs(I)EST other than the disconnected 11 above), so I’m glad it all worked out.
My MI: 4.1
Opp’s MI: 5.6
Conclusion:
I ended up with a very decent result of 7-7 -158, but unfortunately the pack was very close, and I was 39 spread points behind 10th place (kfraley at 7-7 -119), causing me to come in 11th, and relegate to Division 3. Nevertheless, I’m quite satisfied with winning against 5 of the titled players. Congratulations to Biyo for clinching the season victory, and hopefully I can return to Division 1 soon!
Statistics:
Score Average: 429.9
Turn Average: 34.6
MI Average: 3.6
Missed Bingo Turns: 11 (4 word knowledge, 7 playfinding)
Suboptimal Bingo Turns: 16 (6 word knowledge, 10 playfinding)
Lost Endgame Points: 70 (7/14 optimal endgames [1 me bingo out, 1 opp bingo out], 0 blown endgames)