NASPA-Collins Scrabble in North America
By Nick Ball
On the rise
From just one or 2 tournaments per year through the 2000s, to 16 in 2010, and now 12 as of mid-June 2011, Collins Scrabble play in North America is taking off. While the scene is still small and many Collins tournaments remain single divisions of just a few players, there is a definite presence that has become established and is unlikely to recede.
A major factor in the rise in tournaments is the decision by NASPA to rate Collins games from 2010 onwards, under the NASPA SOWPODS rating system. While WESPA has rated North American Collins games for several years, the NASPA decision helped to encourage a small but critical mass of interest that made it worthwhile for directors to establish Collins divisions. For directors, the extra work involved is minimal. The main requirement is that the division contains at least four people, whether or not WESPA ratings will also be sought. The division should also use a challenge rule in line with WESPA tournaments (e.g. five or 10 points per word for unsuccessful challenge). [Ref. http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/w/Directing_SOWPODS_tournaments]
Many people have put in a lot of hard work to help establish the scene. In particular, NASPA co-president John Chew works tirelessly on a huge number of different things to do with the game, and this extends to Collins. For example, he maintains the NASPA SOWPODS rating system and assists tournament directors interested in rating Collins tournaments/divisions. Sam Kantimathi likewise never tires of promoting the game. He attends many Collins divisions and has provided much help and encouragement, such as ordering the Collins word list for players here, since it is not available in bookstores.
NASPA's other co-president and founder, Chris Cree, established and organized the World Players Championship in Dallas,TX, in 2008 and 2010, and this event has been well attended by many top international players. Travis Chaney established the West Coast World Championship Wordlist Challenge (WCWCWC) in Ashland, OR in 2009, and this remains one of the largest Collins events. And editor of The Last Word newsletter, Cornelia Guest, has published several articles on Collins.
Other Collins-related contributions from North Americans are:
• John O'Laughlin and Jason Katz-Brown incorporating Collins into Quackle
• Michael Thelen adding Collins to to Zyzzyva
• Chris Lipe's 26-part posting to cgp on the Collins three-letter words
• the work of the directors of all the Collins divisions so far
• the many committee members of NASPA and WESPA, and so on.
Apologies to any not mentioned who should have been! My own small contribution has been to edit the NASPA Wiki pages on Collins in North America [http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/w/SOWPODS]. These are designed for North American players familiar with the game using the OWL2 lexicon but who may be interesting in trying Collins, or just finding out more about it. In particular, there is a list of Collins tournaments [http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/w/CSW_Tournaments] and two 'cheat sheets' [http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/wiki/images/7/7c/Collins_cheat_sheet.pdf; and http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/wiki/images/d/db/Collins_cheat_sheet_part_2.pdf], designed to introduce the most useful Collins words in the same way as the NSA's 'Important Words to Raise Your Score' sheet.
Tournaments
Since there have already been 12 tournaments this year, I won't attempt to provide a detailed review, but briefly summarize each one. The results are also given in the table below.
The 2011 rated Collins year began in February in Boston, MA, over the weekend of Feb 5–6. Kate and Tim Fukawa-Connelly were the organizers. Brian Bowman went 9–3, to beat out 1995 World Champion David Boys, Richard Buck, Bradley Whitmarsh, and Sam Kantimathi. Prasanth Seetharam (rated 1307) went 5–7 to gain 138 ratings points. Kate's blog postings on the event featured some of the fun Collins-only words played.
At the Phoenix, AZ event, February 19–21, Arizona player Nathan Benedict beat Mark Kenas and Marty Gabriel by four games to go 19–2. Nathan is one of the highest-rated Collins players, moving up to 2075 after this event.
In Charlotte, NC, also Feb 19–21, Matthew Bernardina, despite being the lowest seed at 1611, won 15–6, with one tie, to beat out Sam Kantimathi and Steve Polatnick. He gained 249 points in a field with an average rating 1787.
In Bethesda, MD, Mar 19–20, in a tournament organized by Ted Gest, long-time Collins expert and Quackle co-author John O'Laughlin won 11–3, beating Richard Buck and another long-time Collins player, Bob Linn. The 8th-placed Puneet Sharma is one player enjoying the the increase in Collins tournaments. Like me, he experienced great difficulty 'unlearning' words to play OWL2 since coming to America from the WESPA world.
Thanks to the bold initiative and work of Travis Chaney, the WCWCWC has become one of the largest Collins events in North America since its inception in spring 2009. This year it was held in the historic Ashland Spring Hotel in downtown Ashland, OR, from Mar 25 to 27. Dave Wiegand, the 2005 and 2009 National Champion, went 17–3 to beat Nathan Benedict and John Chew and go over 2000 in all three ratings systems (NASPA, NASPA/SOWPODS and WESPA). The road to victory included the word BEJEEZUS against myself, for 142 points.
The Boston Area Tournament (BAT), currently organized by Sherrie Saint John and John Chew, has been running each year since the early 1980s. Although the main event did not offer Collins the 'late bird' did — and uniquely among tournaments described here, it had two divisions. In division 1, John O'Laughlin won again, beating Marty Gabriel and Jason Keller, and in division 2, Chris Lipe beat Puneet Sharma and Prashanth Seetharam. One unlucky player in division 2 went 0–6, which is unusual — most Collins players, even 'newbies' just trying it out against a much stronger field, usually manage to win a game or two.
Gatlinburg, TN, Apr 22–24, organized by Ryan Fischer: Kelly McKenzie went 12–8 to beat Brian Bowman (also 12–8) and Bob Linn.
In Portsmouth, NH, May 14–15, again run by Kate and Tim Fukawa-Connelly: John O'Laughlin won again with 9–3, beating world No 9 David Eldar from Australia, and Chris Lipe. John thus raised his rating to 1981.
The Teeny Tiny Tucson series on May 21 was really tiny Collins-wise, with the bare minimum of four players. But it was strong on quality, with an average rating of 1833. Laurie Cohen beat Sam Kantimathi, Nathan Benedict and Jim Lamerand.
In Montreal, QC, May 28–29, David Boys beat John O'Laughlin and 2005 World Champion Adam Logan, going 10–4 to their 8–5–1 and 7–6–1. Andrew Golding is another Collins regular and, despite being lower-rated at 1615, won a couple of games against opponents of average rating 1943.
The Arden Cup is a major tournament held over Memorial Day weekend, May 28–30, in Skokie, IL, north of Chicago. After hosting the WSC qualifier in 2009 this year, it ran a Collins division in its own right for the first time. Sam Kantimathi saw off all-comers to win
14–4 and gain 99 ratings points. Brian Cappelletto, the 2001 World Champion, also made a return to the international lexicon, placing second at 12–6, and expert Collins regular Mark Kenas was third.
The North American Scrabble Tour (NAST) final in Revere, MA held a one-day Collins event on the Sunday after the main event on June 5, both directed by Sherrie Saint John. Bradley Whitmarsh won on 5–1, with Richard Buck, Carl Durdan and Mark Kenas all on 3–3.
Other venues have offered to hold Collins divisions if there was sufficient interest, but have so far fallen short. These include Austin, TX (organized by highly rated Collins player Geoff Thevenot); Philadelphia, PA; Kelowna, BC; Wilmington, DE; and Hancock, MA. Thus, the majority of offered Collins venues have attracted enough players, but some haven't.
At the time of writing (June 2011), more than 30 further tournaments or divisions are scheduled (or offered) for the remainder of the year, including Albany, NY; Bethedsa, MD (again); Akron, OH; Victoria, BC; Old Greenwich, CT; the 'Lunch Bird' at the Nationals in Dallas, TX in August; Dover, DE; Seattle, WA; Stamford, CT; and several in Austin, Philadelphia and Toronto.
Toronto is promoting its International Open in September. With a minimum first prize of $3000, organizers expect to attract many top players.
Tournament notices are also beginning to appear for 2012. In particular, Sam Kantimathi is organizing a large event in Las Vegas in February. And we have been getting excited about Michael Tang's 'Causeway' event in Vancouver, BC planned for May. [Editor: Shortly after this was written, Michael announced that his planned Causeway circuit — with big-money events held three months apart, at Melbourne, Vancouver, Manchester and Johor Bahru — would not go ahead. Watch out for more detailed information in these news pages.]
The future
Given the increasing number of tournaments, the next year will be a very interesting one for Collins play in North America. The prize money on offer for the Causeway event could have encouraged several top North American players to try the lexicon.
It is notable that a significant fraction of North America's top-rated players (at June 16, six of the top 10 and 11 of the top 25) are already regular Collins players. If a few dozen more were to switch, it is plausible that the Collins division at many tournaments would become the de facto division 1 — as happened in Britain back in the late 1990s when SOWPODS (as it was then) became rated.
It remains to be seen how much Collins will percolate through the North American scene. In the author's (biased) opinion, the essential problem is that players are happy as they are, and have no desire to try and play two lexicons, even if they are interested in principle.
And who can blame them? It was similar in Britain in the 1990s: most people were against switching, and the change was driven from the top.
Whether or not this will happen here is not clear. Many players are also likely intimidated by the high average ratings of the Collins divisions. As the results tables show, several lower-rated players are trying out the lexicon, but they remain in the minority. So far, there has been insufficient attendance at most Collins tournaments to make two divisions viable.
For the lexicon itself, the current messages coming from the dictionary committees are also, unfortunately, discouraging. The NASPA committee has announced that the OWL3 is currently scheduled for publication in 2013. Given that the world will be switching to CSW12 on Jan 1, 2012, such a publication would outdate the CSW12 list after just one year. That would leave an incomplete incorporation of the North American list for the first time since the international lexicon was first devised at the inaugural World Championships in 1991. It could also provide a significant disincentive to switching. Hopefully, this situation will be avoided.
Despite this uncertainty, these are exciting times for North American players interested in the international lexicon. For the first time, a viable scene exists — and although it remains to be seen how quickly it will grow, a core of regular Collins attendees frequents the tournaments and many more have tried out the game.
Table of results
This table gives 2011 Collins tournament results up to June 17, 2011. For full details of the results, and more recent tournaments, see Cross-Tables [http://www.cross-tables.com], or the NASPA results pages [http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/w/Tournament_results]. On Cross-Tables, results for Collins tournaments or divisions are given in italics.
| Tournament | Dates | Games | Players | Lo/Hi Avg [a] | Winner (Rating) | Win-Loss | Contact(s) [b] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boston, MA | Feb 5–6 | 12 | 12 | 1307/1977 1823 | Brian Bowman (1906) | 9-3 +752 | Kate & Tim Fukawa-Connelly |
| Phoenix, AZ | Feb 19–21 | 21 | 8 | 1464/2041 1740 | Nathan Benedict (2041) | 19-2 +1468 | Laurie Cohen |
| Charlotte, NC | Feb 19–21 | 22 | 8 | 1611/1955 1787 | Matthew Bernardina (1611) | 15-6-1 +1049 | Ryan Fischer |
| Bethesda, MD | Mar 19–20 | 14 | 8 | 1371/1880 1740 | John O'Laughlin (1880) | 11-3 +967 | Ted Gest |
| Ashland, OR | Mar 25–27 | 20 | 18 | 1030/2075 1706 | Dave Wiegand (1968) | 17-3 +1636 | Travis Chaney |
| Boston, MA (Div1) | Apr 10 | 6 | 6 | 1784/1918 1853 | John O'Laughlin (1918) | 5-1 +602 | Sherrie Saint John & John Chew |
| Boston, MA (Div2) | Apr 10 | 6 | 6 | 1271/1738 1470 | Chris Lipe (1738) | 5-1 +713 | Sherrie Saint John & John Chew |
| Gatlinburg, TN | Apr 22–24 | 20 | 6 | 1603/1943 1794 | Kelly McKenzie (1668) | 12-8 +583 | Ryan Fischer |
| Portsmouth, NH | May 14–15 | 12 | 6 | 1754/2007 1866 | John O'Laughlin (1945) | 9-3 +647 | Kate & Tim Fukawa-Connelly |
| Tucson, AZ | May 21 | 8 | 4 | 1552/2072 1833 | Laurie Cohen (1912) | 5-3 +333 | Ed Saunders |
| Montreal, QC | May 28–29 | 14 | 6 | 1615/2015 1888 | David Boys (1926) | 10-4 +950 | Sary Karanofsky |
| Skokie, IL | May 28–30 | 20 | 9 | 1507/2046 1818 | Sam Kantimathi (1810) | 14-4 +605 | Jason Brooks |
| Revere, MA | Jun 05 | 6 | 6 | 1432/1881 1727 | Bradley Whitmarsh (1881) | 5-1 +469 | Sherrie Saint John |
[a] Low, high, and average ratings of the players at the tournament, to give an idea of the playing strength. All ratings shown are NASPA SOWPODS.
[b] Tournament organizer/contact/director, as listed on the NASPA tournament calendar, http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/tourneys/listings.html.
Note: Nick Ball is the ultimate trans-Atlantic competitor. He started playing Scrabble at school in the UK and played his first rated tournament in 1995. He moved to North America in 2004 to take up a postdoctoral position in astronomy, and is currently living/working in Victoria, Canada. Nick represented England at the World Scrabble Champs in 2005 and the US in 2009. And he has achieved peak ratings of 198 in the UK, 1687 in North America TWL, 1895 in North America Collins and 1997 in WESPA.
June 2011