Time seemed to freeze when students, faculty, and parents locked in for the second Rummikub competition in DIS history. The air weighed thick with competitive energy as players hid their emotions with their best poker faces. This year’s games were joined by 70 enthusiasts, 20 more than last season’s turnout.

The rules and conditions for the tournament remained nearly the same, except for the fact that this year’s matches were not joined by official Rummikub staff. Rather, headquarters in Busan shipped all the necessary materials (including prizes for winners) free of charge. In addition, in-house volunteers helped the program run smoothly. “That’s really nice because they want to encourage a lot of people to play board games. I hired some of our student staff like CJ and Yujun, they came early in the morning at 10:30 to set up everything, the table and the chairs, and also the logo,” said Ms. Wang, the co-organizer of the event. 

The meetup was also a great opportunity for families to kick “family game night” up a notch. “The students were really passionate and enthusiastic, so I enjoyed it too. I was surprised by how high the level of play was. I had a great time playing alongside them. Also, since this event was held on a weekend and allowed everyone to participate, I think it made the event really meaningful. It was great all around—for community, activity, and fun,” said Mr. Huh, sophomore Aiden Huh’s father.

Some enjoyed last year’s matches so much that they came back for another round of fun. Alumni Bolt Yi and Yugi Ahn took a trip down memory lane as they returned to campus to join in on the excitement. “I won three out of my eight games. I would say it was interesting socializing, and since I haven’t seen like half the students in like a year,” Yi said.

As the long day came to a close, the players gradually narrowed down until only the final four remained: Freshman Elena Lee, Sophomore Aiden Huh and Jake Park and Senior Selina Son advanced to the last game of the day. Only after an hour of intense strategy and focus did the victor emerge, and in the end, Son took the crown with a total of two wins in the final round. Huh secured second place, followed closely by Lee in third and Park in fourth.

The reigning champion of the tournament shared valuable words of advice for all Rummikub enthusiasts. “I was very serious about Rummikub from the get-go. I take it seriously. I wanted to win and also say that Rummikub is not luck. Getting the cards might still get the cards at first might be luck, but your human feeling of like, oh, maybe if I take from this card pile, it’ll be better. That’s all an illusion. If you work hard, then you can do it. And I am very, very happy that I got the crown,” Son said.

With another successful event under her belt, Ms. Wang shared some goals she had in mind for the future. “I just want more people to come next year to participate and win. Honestly, my original plan for this year was to host the tournament two times a year. So my future plan is maybe doing it more often instead of just doing it once a year, since it’s really fun to play with random people like parents,” she said.