Tough move here. My hope was that reparalleling MIS with ISO would help me open more of the board on subsequent turns, but particularly blocky AMIS hooks like the one Vince played are bad news. Sim actually prefers LIS slightly over MIS on that basis, allowing many fewer points per turn to Vince by allowing fewer hooks and less lucrative plays down the L column. #strategysmall
unsure of OFFY#! - hence why I didn't play AYU with OFFA, but totally spaced on AYU with FA and FY which is probably the best play anyway #findingsaddest
Not playing the bingo and playing 15A (WHIT)STER instead sims better which is kinda cool. also 11H STRiFES sims better i guess because i bingo more next turn?? is this is a #strategysad ? could be
quackle doesn't like this very much. even though i block way more bingos with my play, 5D VEXIL scores more and keeps AS. also, trains can bingo up top, and it doesn't bingo THAT often (about 60% if i leave the bottom open). #visionlarge -9.5
Still had no idea what to play but missed the killer JESTER at O10, which gives me a 15% chance per Quackle. I'm so fixated on bingoing or trying to score a ton by drawing OU out of the bag but idk. man this game was so sloppy and this is why I'll never be good at scrabble #findingsadder
hilariously ran out of time here. I assumed he was going to play something with QUATE like ME(R)C so I put down PASSIvE and EQUAT* and only stopped because I didn't have enough time to circle the blank and hit the clock before going overtime. Then I realized I was about to play a hilarious phony and laughed instead of actually finding a better bingo. Then I was down to -00:45 so I had to just play the first thing I saw. #timeSADDEST #findingSADDEST
shiiiiiit I missed FREMD. #findinglarge I was also close to exchanging here, and I think it is fine, especially cause DEFT doesn't take an S so overlaps may not leave me with much. ERST sims best, followed by EMRST then DERST then DEFT quite a bit below #tacticssmall as well for the DOUBLE FAIL!!1
Scored as 36. QANAT has the best equity, but the best play is O3 VALONIA, which blocks high-scoring bingos on columns N and O. Also, I might as well play my I off, given that six more I's are unseen. #strategymedium
I don't know why I played this over J11 TENIA--maybe to keep the A for G9? Quackle prefers short plays like 4N DA, 14H AIT, and O10 AIT, but it doesn't realize that Mike has just fished. I like J11 TENIA best. #tacticssmall
no clue. I thought about this and AVANT. Regretted not doing AVANT. The V is bad reminder #1248793751 and also no need to open unneccessary lanes #strategysmall
Drat. Still not rock solid on finding the 30k-40k probability 8s like UNFIXITY, which plays at A8 for 89. I'd have had a shot of seeing it if the X had been a natural tile as opposed to the blank designation. #findinglarge
Saw the best play a bit too late. Sadly. Can you find it? It scores 27 points.
This pre is otherwise complicated. DETOXING can happen and win whenever. I don't want to play more than 3 tiles because 4-tile plays by him make me have to play 3 (or hopefully 2) to not empty. I chose this because I can then play HE at 6F or M3 next turn if he plays 4 and maybe hold on. #findinglarge
Holy defensive board after 9H IOTA! That might even force him to exchange occasionally. I was not fond of a super tight board early on since my ADY leave wouldn't have served me that well. But IOTA sems to sim ahead of TOADY because Brandon averages 7 points less after IOTA. #visionmedium
Still shaken from the turn before and how bad I am, I oversee OBOL in the same spot for 4 more (or heck, even BOLO) until about 3 seconds after I hit my clock #findingsadder
I really didn't want to play YOWIEs N10 because of the I draws, but this has to be worse. I ran out of time. Quackle likes 11E (Q)I, which is hilarious. I think this is just bad. YOWIEs has to be better #strategySAD
I was under time pressure and just played equity. I got very lucky that this blocked 11D (BE)WEARIED which I completely missed. 12K VLOG(S) is best. #timesaddest
I think VOCAB needs to come down here. Although it doesn't do as good a job at outrunning as GUACO, it lowers his bingo% from 22 to 13. I may have to go all in on defense here, it will be tough to outrun (if he bingoes he's still drawing into a great pool). If he bingoes after GUACO I could possibly win, I'll be down at least 25 (for 11 row bingoes), an out in two will probably not win with GV in hand. RE- bingoes will win the game instantly for him. I think VOCAB is the play, outrunning with GUACO isn't viable enough. #visionmedium
and then... this happens. ladies and gentlemen, your 2020 National Scrabble Champion can't find a top 500 word, or its anagram, on a wide open board. i don't know what to attribute this to. lord knows i've spent many hours thinking about this move and how i've been playing for nearly 15 years and how simple of a word it is, one doesn't even have to be a scrabble player to anagram the simple everyday word UNIDEAL. argh. makes me want to never play again. but i'm pretty sure it was due to a combination of nerves and tilting, and as long as i am actively working towards those, i suppose errors like this will become rarer. but talk about not being clutch at all, god damn. -39.5 #knowledgelarge #unideal #ridiculous
I hope I would have found 11D SCRE(W)ERS OTB, but after challenging off the phony I completely stopped looking at horizontal plays through OUTWIT as I thought that all of them would give him DIDDLERS. However, 12C CRESS(I)ER is best with his rack. #findingsadder
There's a lot of stuff that's better than this like 7F MENYIE and F6 ME(I)NY that I wasn't sure of. B6 YE(R) is best. #STRATEGYSADDEST #KNOWLEDGESADDEST
tough situation here. should i do 14A JIG for real? it sims far best. but if i don't, JIG at H4 and GITCH at D2 are still significantly better than my lamish move. i definitely saw JIG, but it really didn't seem right. -14 #strategylarge
Never considered that TUFT 4C blocks X and Q bombs. That alone makes it worth playing. I was really close to playing this but just felt Jason was too likely to play on row 2 anyway, but the Z has a decent future on this board anyway. Even if I assume Jason plays on row 2 a ton more often than random, TUFT is worth doing. I thought I was being mature, but I was just being cowardly. #strategymedium
could also do PAH for one point less to further restrict overrlaps. I retain the only two letters in the pool that can overlap PA. Furthermore, he can set up D(RAG) or B(RAG) after either play with R(AG) for 4, but I can draw an E to block with TE(PA) after PAH and it is much trickier to block after HAP. B(ROO) is the lurking threat here, he could just bingo there at any time, but making another spot with R(AG) might just be his key to victory in some lines. #tacticssmall
7I HIRCINe and I chickened out of I4 CHIR(M)INg because why would that be a word? #KNOWLEDGESADDEST
Spoiler: I maintain that spending like 100 minutes on this move is what cost me the game (along with all of my following mistakes). Stay tuned for primo facepalm opportunities.
S isn't amazing here so it's best to take 13 points with SN(E)LL 6H which I considered. Also better to keep RS here, the vowels to play through do not comprise of an E so the D is not very good. #strategysmall
O1 BEAU is best, but again, I don't know the hooks to pAtHOGEN. #knowledgelarge but there are also better plays that I did know, like G4 UPO and 3D UVEA. I would like them more if they didn't kill the row 3 lane....
C13 JEE is the obvious play here. my main issue is that i thought the chances of that E staying open were infinitesimal, and not only that but i was probably going to give up a bunch of points. but the amount of points i give up is actually not that big, he has a bad rack a lot of the time and may overreact to the open E (but then i still have nowhere to bingo except through the N or some miracle overlap). so i don't even know. maybe i shouldn't concern myself too much with this situation. -5 #strategymedium
IN MY HEAD I SHIT YOU NOT I WENT "oh I need an N for NEONATAL" and then i DIDNT. SEE. THE. FUCKING. N. I just spent the whole time being like "huh i wonder if I should play OAT or AAL" instead!!! AND I PICKED THE WRONG ONE LMAOOO #VISIONSADDEST
H1 BLIP is only 1 less but keeps much better. 4D D(u)PING is sick vision and keeps a comparably good BL leave, but DGIN is just much better than GL as a leave. #findingquestionable