The participants and tournament officials of the 2nd Councilor Rey Gealon Open Scrabble Tournament pose for a group photo at the venue, SM Seaside City Cebu. | Contributed photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Lord Garnett Talisic and Rafael Suaso emerged champions in their respective category in the recently concluded 2nd Councilor Rey Gealon Open Scrabble Tournament on Saturday, September 9, 2023, at the SM Seaside City Cebu.
Talisic of the Cebu City National Science High School and Saso of the Quiot Elementary School duplicated their title-winning performances in last May’s inaugural tournament held at the same venue.
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Talisic scores 770 spread points
This time, Talisic logged six wins worth 770 spread points to clinch the high school title. Rjay Talatayod of Quiot National High School placed second with five points equivalent to 376 spread points.
Rounding off the top three word wizards in the tournament was Cebu Institute of Technology-University’s Leo Paolo Ballaso who also had five wins, but with a lesser spread points of 369.
The fourth place went to Uriel Drago Cabuguas of St. Scholastica’s with four wins (505 spread points) and Caroline Oloden of the Ramon Duterte Memorial National High School also with four points and 498 spread points.
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Highest single turn
Olden logged the highest single turn worth 136 points after forming the word “Gangster,” while Shinji Estoy of Ramon Duterte NHS scored the highest single game of 630 points.
In the elementary division, Suaso finished with six wins and 553 spread points. Abriana Toleroso of Taptap Integrated School placed second with four points and 367 spread points, while Henry Pable from Quiot Elementary School completed the top three word wizards with four points and 334 spread points.
Quiot’s Zoe Balazo and Ailex Palco of Taptap settled for fourth and sixth places, respectively.
Cash prizes were given away to the mentioned winning word wizards courtesy of Gealon who is a sports advocate and Cebu City councilor.
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