Scrabble Scrambled My Head

Let's see, choir was just over on Wednesday, the 3rd of June, right? Just yesterday and today, my brain has been fried into bits. Thank goodness I'm still functional (although I don't think I'll survive the frying from Madam Tan when I get back to school). The abscissa question would probably be the last of me.

Anyway, getting back to the MSA Nationals......

I didn't die or anything, so it must have went fine, right? Wrong.

Yes, I exceeded my own expectations to get 9 points out of 15 games and end up in the top 25. And yes, I am the only person in the entire tournament to get NINE points and have a spread of NEGATIVE 671. Six hundred. Negative.

If you weren't fast enough to catch it, it means that I lost more than what I won. I'm the only person in the top 25 to get a negative spread that low. The other negative (which was -17 only) was Stephanie Mary Anne. Seventeen. Only. Mine? Holy crap. Hold on, my crappy score isn't even HOLY!! Pht pht pht.

Let me reveal the disturbing facts, shall I?

Saturday, 6th June 2009

It started off well. Sailed through Mohamad Ehsan, Vinnith Zahanif. It was very well, actually. Up to my 3rd game, that is. Then, I moved up. All the way up. To rank number 9. To table number 5. Against Shu Wen's *ahem* friend, Wong Han Wey.

That game started off well too, with me starting with a bingo, INDUSTRY. That was my first rack. From my second rack right to the end of the game, I was somewhat "doomed" with horrible-terrible-like-vegetable tiles. Every rack, and I repeat, EVERY rack I had was either ALL vowels or ALL consonants. I spent more than 3 turns changing tiles and still ended up with the whole rack full of the same species of alphabets. If I were in a competition whereby the tiles I get must be of the same kind (vowels or consonants), I'd be the grand champion. I might sound like I'm trying to put the blame on something else rather than bear responsibility to my loss, but it's really true for this game. The longest word I made here was EUOI. Notice that it's only FOUR letters long and that it's made purely from vowels. And guess my last rack. FFGGCRA. ONE vowel. And the rest? I got rid of the vowel and Han Wey stole 28 points from my the rest of my last rack. I lost by nearly 250 points and don't wish to remember this game.

The loss got my spread in the negatives.

I had the whole lunch to mope over that matter before I faced Chear Tze Xian. Here, I start to realise that everytime I put out a bingo, my opponent would surely put out ANOTHER bingo to catch up with my score. It didn't just start off here, it started off since my first game. At this point, I just started wishing that my opponents never ever have to get a bingo when matched with me. I won Tze Xian by 10 points no thanks to me not being able to play a bingo. I had one....but...there was no place to put it. Damn.

In my 6th game, I was up against Irfan. this game got my spread back in the positives (I would soon regret this). Just like I've mentioned, right after I play my bingo, he plays his. Geez, that made me not have a convincing win. Oh well, at least I'm in the positives again. *Grins happily*.

For my 7th game...ahem...We were waiting for our names to be announced, and I was with the DJ and Sultan Abdul Samad bunch. We were talking about our games when Ramaraj's father called out, "Table 5, Yeow Liiyung, Scott Chung." Then the crowd around me went "Oooooooh", as in "Goodbye to you, my friend. My deepest condolences". I overtook Han Wey by rank (miracle) and he was laughing at my ill luck. By some freak misfortune, I was back at table 5 (oh, screw you, table 5!!), this time, with (oh no) Scott Chung. Apparently, I was one rank above him. I shouldn't be. I shouldn't have been. Because this game with him threw my spread back into the negatives again.

Unlike the last time, I didn't completely die and lose by 300+ points, but the pressure was there. He did say "Hi", but he's still Scott. I realised then that the organizers were "looking out" for me and my games since I was "performing" and they started crowding round the table. Parents too. Parents of the elite scrabble players. [The truth is, I'm not that good. It just so happens that I have bingoes for every game so far. Every time I play the bingoes or some high-scoring words, Henry, Jocelyn or Dr Adele just so happen to walk by. Lucky? NOT.]

My tiles were unusually great, but my head went blank. People are staring, they are judging my moves, it's unusually hot in this elite part of the tournament and the guy sitting opposite me is Scott Chung. What do I do?

Go blank and die.

Which is exactly what I did. And I shouldn't have done so.

Scott must be thinking, "Why am I matched against someone so pathetic like her?". I don't blame anyone who was thinking like that.

My spread dwelled in the negatives. I resented my position and points because that made me susceptible to meet the elite players. And I wasn't ready. Like the game against Scott. Stupid me. Well, at least he said something unrelated to scrabble. It's nice to know that a human still exists in him.

My 7th game was against Looi Yih Feng on table 8 (crap!! I'm STILL in the top 10 tables?). When we saw each other, we were like "Not you again......". He had a miserable loss to me last year when my last word was a bingo. And I had a miserable loss too when I lost to him by around 13 points. This year, he was surely out to kill me. True enough, he was. He played 2 bingos and I had none. But I caught up miraculously in the long-winded game. We were the last to finish in the 7th (last game) of the day and the pressure was building up. He's score was 403. Mine was 402. I held 2 tiles and he, 3. It was my turn. Basically, that put me in the superior. I had to finish my two tiles NOW. I held U and N. So, I put out TUN, with the impression that he would surely challenge it. He did. 4 points inflated to 9. His tiles I,I and D were added to my score. I won by 16 marks (he must be cursing) and I would regret it (again) the next day.

Sunday, 7th June 2009

We arrived late. No thanks to the nutty driver of the monorail who was too kind to squash all those who didn't make it onto the monorail in time. We waited more than 15 minutes in KL Sentral and ran inside the Berjaya Times Square. Even Pn Loo was running! The guards thought we were mad.

When we reached the tenth floor, I screamed "Hallelujah, we made it!!" thank goodness it was only the scrabble players who were present. I don't want to end up in Hospital Bahagia to meet the legendary Mahyun.

We ran up to the paper which stated the playing positions. After reading Hui Jan's blog, it wouldn't be very sensible of you to not be afraid of William Kang. Now, which table was I on? Table 6. Crap. The elite place again.

I was leading initially, until he put out XU. I was still within the recovery range until he put BAIZA. I thought I could fish up an "S" to grab BAIZAS as well as steal the triple-word score. Unfortunately, he reached the "S" first, grabbed a "Q" and got a blank tile as well. So, he played QUOTERS to get the triple-word and BAIZAS. That was 115 points itself. I heard Jen Ho's father assuring William's father that his son already had the winning edge. Now, I feel miserable. Pressure built its foundation in my heart and I just let everything slide downhill. It's over, I lost. No use fighting anymore. I didn't bother getting rid of the high-point tiles and William got 26 points from them alone (nearly as bad as Han Wey's game).

To you, my past self.....If I were there beside you at that time, I would've slapped you to your senses. Even if you didn't win, you could've at the very least TRIED to save your doomed spread!!

Ever since my game with William, my spread never saw the light of optimism again.

I was talking to Leong Yan Mei after that game. It so happened that she was standing next to me while waiting for our tables. It was also coincidential that we were matched against each other for round 10. She had 2 bingoes and considering the fact that I had none, it was still miraculous to know that I only lost by 60 points.

I dropped to table 15 after that, the lowest I could go. I beat Amirul to go against Yan Mei again.

I beat Yan Mei more than she beat me in round 10. This isn't good.

In round 13, guess what? I was up against Yih Feng. Again. Table 8. Again. This time, due to horrible luck, he had FOUR bingoes. That isn't even counting the ones I managed to block. I lost.....very miserably. Ah well, at least my score was above 300.

I dropped to table 12 with Rachel Decruz. Gheek warned me that she was good. I won in the end (and would regret it too).

The final match!!! And look who I'm against! Alvin Lau, last year's number 5! Hooray, I believe I can fall. This is probably the dumbest game I have ever played in my entire life!! Every rack I had was a bingo!!! But you know what? There was no place to put the damn word. I passed one turn, hoping that Alvin would put out a tile to my favour. "First time I've seen someone pass". You can say that again. I'm the first person I know to pass too. Luckily I made EXCUSINGS, thanks to E hook. Next time, I know better than to wait for my opponent to play a tile to my benefit. I'll just sacrifice the idiotic bingo and play. I can't believe I wasted a whole game of bingoes. I lost this round and cursed it. If I won, I could've made it to top 15. It was a total screw-up. FUMINGS doesn't exist??!! Geez.

I must say that I'm still dissatisfied with the overall tournament.

Firstly, I wasn't aiming for top 25. I just wanted to have a postitive spread. Unfortunately, thanks to "high" points, I was sent to the elite and they destroyed my spread. Way to go.

Secondly, I realised that I give up easily. Next time, I'll at least fight for my spread.

Thirdly, I should've won at least one more game to get into top 15.

Fourthly, I'm just four positions away from top 20.

Fifth, I could've taken care of my spread a bit more to slide into top 20.

Sixth, I need to be more consistent.

Seventh, I actually regret winning(?!).

Last but not least, DJ scrabblers need a revamp.

A few other things that I didn't mention in the above might amuse you. In each monorail station, they put a different kind of animal up for show. KL Sentral had an Iguana, which spurred Gheek and I to talk about Cassandra's sister, who promptly scared Gheek on MSN.

"Hi, I'm Iggy the Iguana. My back is "scaly" like the keys on a piano. Wanna stroke me? ABCDEFGABCCCCCC!!!!!"

Among the other things Cassie's sis says are :

"You know, the teachers at school are always going on about how bad our batch is compared to other batches so I tell them they are old fashioned and I think that's fair because I'm only returning their compliment. But they always misunderstand me and ask me to stand outside class. I feel this is unfair so I start screaming names at the teacher. Other teachers from other classes come out to see what the commotion is all about and they see me and they start screaming at me. To silence me, my teacher comes out and puts his hand over my mouth but I bite it hard and he starts cursing and saying, "I can't take this crap anymore", and I'm like : "Who is crapping?You is crapping?". So he takes his bag and swings it at me in an attempt to hit me but I grab it and swing it hard onto his face and so he leaves school with a swollen hand, bleeding gums and a foul mouth.This has happened to 6 or 7 teachers but they don't expel me 'cos I tell them I know where they live and I'll go to their house and be not so nice...."

"Ooooo!!Cat!!I wanna stroke it and create friction on its fur 'til all its fur drops off and then maybe the flesh will drop off too or giant blisters will start appearing and by this point the cat in my hands will probably go "Meow" in a scared tone but I'll hold on tighter and when I stroke it harder it'll be even more friction-ny and if I'm lucky it'll just fade away.....Friction!!"

Morbid kid. Gheek's morbid too.

On the second day, we loitered in Borders. Shu Wen accidentally misplaced her dad's phone and....it was lost and never found.

After reading Hui Jan's latest post about how her version of the MSA went (and what William Kang said), I would like to say Hi to all of you out there who are currently reading my lame experience. Nice to meet you in the internet world. I would appreciate it if you said Hi too, so at least I know who discovered my elusive blog and in case you try to take revenge on me next year. =/

Happy holidays. Don't forget to pray for me in case my maths teacher kills me for my answer.

PS : No, seriously, say Hi.