Crossing the Chasm

[slipkin]

A year or two ago, a night school in little Palmer, MA announced that they would run a Scrabble tournament. I expected maybe 5 other people. I mean, how many people play Scrabble tournaments? There were 50. The room was full.

How do we get enthusiastic folks out for a few games like this? How do we get them just a little more engaged? How do we make folks like this feel like that they are part of "the Scrabble community", even if at the periphery for the start?

[millcake16]

A year or two ago, a night school in little Palmer, MA announced that they would run a Scrabble tournament. I expected maybe 5 other people. I mean, how many people play Scrabble tournaments? There were 50. The room was full.

How do we get enthusiastic folks out for a few games like this? How do we get them just a little more engaged? How do we make folks like this feel like that they are part of "the Scrabble community", even if at the periphery for the start?

Why are we just hearing this story NOW? (That's not an accusatory tone!) Just a story that would have been nice to spread around at the time. Any idea who ran this tournament, and what prompted it? Was it a "just for fun" tournament? Some more details would be helpful, including how many were unable to fit into the room because it was full.

[listeme]

Cross-culture publicizing of events could really help a lot here. We can keep our eye out for events like this and pass out information about the more organized tournament scene, particularly when there is a newcomer version of a bigger tournament (like Sherrie's). But it's pretty important for us to be willing to participate somehow in the less formal events, as well. Volunteer to help with pairings at an informal event, stuff like that, if we don't want to push formal agenda on a casual gathering (or inflict expert-level play on an unsuspecting room).

There are a lot of online tournament-type activities, too.

[slipkin]

Why are we just hearing this story NOW?

I forgot?

any idea who ran this tournament, and what prompted it? Was it a "just for fun" tournament? Some more details would be helpful, including how many were unable to fit into the room because it was full.

It's mentioned on this page: http://www.topfloorlearning.org/news2.asp

Nobody didn't fit into the room

[trashman]

From Seth's link: Players who are rated by the American Scrabble Association will play only with other ranked players.

A rival org has popped up, and I'm totally in the dark.

[wvscrabble]

From Seth's link: Players who are rated by the American Scrabble Association will play only with other ranked players.

A rival org has popped up, and I'm totally in the dark.

Don't worry... it only lasted for one year. Kind of like the XFL.

[edhorch]

American Scrabble Association

Don't worry... it only lasted for one year.

Did they use red, white and blue tiles?

[listeme]

We stopped into a corporatist coffee shop tonight, here in the suburbs, and there were two women playing on a Super Scrabble (with plastic grid) board, with the red dictionary that you can get at the corporatist bookstore. They seemed to be playing a void game (they would look the words up after the play). There was some sort of timer on the table, but I didn't recognize the make.

We arrived as the game ended, and they did a fair amount of post-morteming. As far as I could tell, they were using all the twos. There was also a laminated (or somehow plasticized) list of short words on the table. They were clearly not noobs.

Here is the bad news. We didn't talk to them. At first we were ordering the corporatist drink, and then they were post-morteming, and then we were sort of peering over them hoping they would look up and we could say, "hey, you know there are some clubs in the area?" They didn't look up. So we took our drink and left, ashamed.

I don't think I'm by any means the shyest player in our organization. I DO think that if I had had a business card with scrabble info on it, I would have felt comfortable leaving one there and then slinking away. But maybe that came in the Super Scrabble box.