Photos: CNSC 2008: Before the Tournament

Mad Palazzo.

Grant Rowland (Mississauga ON) and Mad Palazzo.

John J. Chew III, welcoming the Early Bird players.

The CNSC Cup, donated to the event by John Chew. Past Champions listed: 1996 Adam Logan (Waterloo ON); 1998 Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC); 2000 Ron Hoekstra (Kentwood, MI); 2003 David Boys (Dorval QC); and 2005 Adam Logan (Waterloo ON).

Chris Lipe and Grant Rowland face off round 1 of the Early Bird at table 1.

The goody bag: folder of mats, SCRABBLE pen, SCRABBLE T-shirt with new logo, and a SCRABBLE cube game.

John Chew and Gary Sagara, the event data entry guru, enjoy the flat screen display of event standings.

Mad Palazzo, ever industrious, finds a use for the reflectiveness of the CNSC cup.

Gary Sagara "borrows" the Internet Reporter chair, table, breathing room to go through big board letters.

Visiting data entry expert, John James Chew IV, and his father, John James Chew III.

Mad Palazzo joins in the fun with Gary Sargara after a second box of letters is discovered. This being a Canadian big board, they discovered French SCRABBLE valued tiles, too (W worth 10 points, etc.).

Ross Brown (Kanata ON) (back), Anna Miransky, Jillian Bathgate, and John Chew at the standings computer.

Andy Saunders, Arie Sinke, and Jeff Parsons (Logy Bay NL) at the standings computer.

Andy Saunders, Fraser Simpson (Toronto ON), Yvonne Lobo, Geoff Gibson, Priya Fernando, and Anna Miransky, at the standings screen.

Arie Sinke vs. Geoffrey Newman (Brampton ON), two of the Early Bird 18 and under players. John Chew in the background testing the annotation software.

John Chew at table 1 in front of the big board.

Gene Rawlins vs. Jeff Parsons (Logy Bay NL).

Ross Brown (Kanata ON) vs. Fraser Simpson (Toronto ON).

Yvonne Lobo vs. Brenda Megannety.

A sea of goody bags!

Hasbro Canada donated boards for the Main Event that have been unpacked and are ready to go!

Rubbing the head of Gary Sagara for good luck: John Chew and Mad Palazzo.

John Chew and Gregg Foster discuss interface design (and maybe just a bit of recent gaming software!).

John Chew's 22-inch flat screen display with player standings.

Trevor Sealy vs. Andy Saunders. Trevor won, 491-417.

Pam Hunter vs. Geoff Gibson.

Gregg Foster and John Chew.

John Chew presents second place prize monies to Arie Sinke, who had to leave before the main event began.

Mad Palazzo and Trevor Sealy register Jason Krueger (Calgary AB), Randall Thomas (Calgary AB), and Joan Buma (Grimsby ON).

Registration begins to pick up: John Robertson (Cambridge ON), Marilyn Murray (Richmond BC), Lam Tang (Vancouver BC), Su Edwards, Diane Brown, etc.

Opening comments from John Chew.

Mad Palazzo and John Chew deciding to announce Early Bird standings tomorrow instead!

John Chew.

Brenda Megannety testing the wirelessness of it all.