The National BONGLE Tournament
Norbert and Wesley have both made it through all of the preliminaries, matches, quarter-finals and semi-finals and now are face-to-face for the National BONGLE Championship Series. BONGLE (not related to or based upon any other trademarked word game, no matter what you think) is played with these tournament rules:
BONGLE is played in a best of Nine games format. If any game ends in a tie, additional games will be played until one player has won five games.
The two competitors are shown the same 4x4 grid. Each cell of the grid contains a letter of the English language, and 16 different letters are used.
Both players have exactly one minute to write down as many non-capitalized words (of length 3 or more) in the English language that can be spelled in the grid. A word can be spelled if, starting with the square where its first letter is, you can move to the second, third, etc. letter in series of horizontally-, vertically- or diagonally-consecutive squares/steps. A letter in a cell may be used more than once in a word, but only if one or more different letters falls between its uses. See the diagram below for examples of valid and invalid words.
When the minute is done, the word lists for the two competitors are checked. Any words appearing on both players’ lists are eliminated. Remaining words are scored by length. A word of length X scores X2 points: 3-letter words score 9 points, 4 letter words score 16 points, etc. A player’s score for the grid is equal to the sum of each of their words’ scores.
The highest score for each grid wins that game. Remember, they are playing best of 9.
Results as Reported by ESPN- Although ESPN was very good about reporting which words each contestant came up with during the series, they never actually showed the grids at all. The words reported were:
Match 1 Norbert: FLIP, HOGS, OPEN, RIFT, TYPE, TRAMP
Match 1 Wesley: FISH, SHOE, OPTICS, PHOTOS
Match 2 Norbert: FOX, GUNS, GUST, LEFT, PEGS, SHOP, MINUS, SNAIL, THIGH
Match 2 Wesley: CHIP, HELP, ANIMAL, EXPLAINING
Match 3 Norbert: FAR, WIFE, HORSE, VISIT, WHOSE, FEVERISH
Match 3 Wesley: INVEST, TWIRLED, SCHOLARLY
Match 4 Norbert: CAY, HAT, COAT, FLUTE, FEATHER, GRIFTER
Match 4 Wesley: ANY, FIGS, SHOW, LUNCH, TIGER, FIREHOSE
Match 5 Norbert: DIE, OAF, HEIR, DRIFT, SWEAT, WRENCHED
Match 5 Wesley: COLT, LADY, KNACK, SENSE, ANACONDA
Match 6 Norbert: EYE, SHROUD, TROPIC, GHASTLY, THROUGH
Match 6 Wesley: CHAT, EDGY, CIRCA, NASTY, PIROGUE, TRUDGED
Match 7 Norbert: SKY, TRICKY, RHINOPLASTY
Match 7 Wesley: FORK, LOIN, NOTE, PORCH, DEFEAT, STRAFES
Match 8 Norbert: BRUIN, AROUND, THOROUGHFARE
Match 8 Wesley: ALOFT, BOARD, LOUDER, ROTUND, TIGHTS, INJURED
Match 9 Norbert: GAS, GNASH, PERVY, VAULT, DENTIST, PRESIDE
Match 9 Wesley: SNUG, TIER, QUAVER, PEASANT, VANGUARD
Cache is located at 44 NORBERT 93 WESLEY
