The Orlov was named for Rick Orlov, a former political reporter/columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News and longtime Glimmer. Rick first joined the Glimm when I was a young cops reporter at the Daily News and he was our City Hall reporter. For years, Rick battled complications from diabetes. Each March, when I got a $5 bill in the mail with a hand-written note from Rick, I knew he was doing OK. In 2015, I didn’t get get that $5 or that hand-written note. He had died about a month before the tournament started.

Rick never won the Glimm, and he never finished dead last — he was a quintessential middle-of-the-packer. To honor Rick, each year we award The Orlov to whoever finishes in the exact middle of the pack. That person gets their $5 entry fee back — and they’ll get it via snail mail, with a hand-written note.

Previous winners of The Orlov:

• 2024: Jack Otter
• 2023: Evan Kwarta
• 2022: Sharat Raju
• 2021: Christian Mordarski
• 2020: COVID
• 2019: Dan Stamm
• 2018: Brendan Mordarski
• 2017: Arthur Whang
• 2016: Darren Price
• 2015: Jim Iovino