So you've surely been wondering, throughout all these stories of parenthood and adventure, "yes, but what is the Australian Scrabble scene like??" Well, the suspense is over: they are a gang of friendly, intense people who are so deep into geeking out about Scrabble that it feels totally normal.
Yesterday I (Jakob) played an evening tournament with 15 pleasant Canberrans and it was the biggest blast from the past I've had in a decade. All the quirks of competitive Scrabble were right where I'd left them. Scoresheets with tracking pads (i.e., the 100 letters printed on the page, so you can cross them off and know what's left in the bag). Hisses of "take your post-mortem outside, we're still playing!" People drawing tiles with the bag held high about their head, to prove they aren't peeking. The sinking feeling when someone challenges your play. Occasional outbursts of "you're GOT to be kidding!" or "aarrghh..." when someone just can't control themselves. Lively comparisons of study apps ("I've put together a list of all the seven-letter words with a W and a U because I hate them! There are 343!") A player at Board 2 was visibly trembling as they started the game. So fun.
Australia uses the international dictionary (CSW), which has 25% more words than the North American one (TWL). I only managed to study for 45 minutes beforehand, but probability helped me out: memorising the new two-letter words, and most of the threes with high-scoring letters (QZXJK), provided ~50% of the benefit in 2% of the words. Even so it was hard to keep them straight (e.g., which one is not a word? OA OE OI OO OU) and chickened out on OO.
My favourite moment was holding GIIOTV?, with an N open. I saw pIVOTING, but my opponent blocked it. Bummer. But wait! There's an I beckoning to me from the tenth column! And, because I happen to have recently reviewed dermatology at work, VITIlIGO jumped out in flashing neon, and every pleasure neuron I've got fired simultaneously.
Lucky tiles and a few good finds won me all four games - which, in the ratings system's infinite wisdom, rates me 1982, a new lifetime high and 5th in Australia. Given this is a solid 200-300 points above my actual playing level right now, it's tempting to quit while I'm ahead ... but last night was too much fun, and I suspect I'll return to the stuffy basement of the Southern Cross Club before too long.
Yesterday I (Jakob) played an evening tournament with 15 pleasant Canberrans and it was the biggest blast from the past I've had in a decade. All the quirks of competitive Scrabble were right where I'd left them. Scoresheets with tracking pads (i.e., the 100 letters printed on the page, so you can cross them off and know what's left in the bag). Hisses of "take your post-mortem outside, we're still playing!" People drawing tiles with the bag held high about their head, to prove they aren't peeking. The sinking feeling when someone challenges your play. Occasional outbursts of "you're GOT to be kidding!" or "aarrghh..." when someone just can't control themselves. Lively comparisons of study apps ("I've put together a list of all the seven-letter words with a W and a U because I hate them! There are 343!") A player at Board 2 was visibly trembling as they started the game. So fun.
Australia uses the international dictionary (CSW), which has 25% more words than the North American one (TWL). I only managed to study for 45 minutes beforehand, but probability helped me out: memorising the new two-letter words, and most of the threes with high-scoring letters (QZXJK), provided ~50% of the benefit in 2% of the words. Even so it was hard to keep them straight (e.g., which one is not a word? OA OE OI OO OU) and chickened out on OO.
My favourite moment was holding GIIOTV?, with an N open. I saw pIVOTING, but my opponent blocked it. Bummer. But wait! There's an I beckoning to me from the tenth column! And, because I happen to have recently reviewed dermatology at work, VITIlIGO jumped out in flashing neon, and every pleasure neuron I've got fired simultaneously.
Lucky tiles and a few good finds won me all four games - which, in the ratings system's infinite wisdom, rates me 1982, a new lifetime high and 5th in Australia. Given this is a solid 200-300 points above my actual playing level right now, it's tempting to quit while I'm ahead ... but last night was too much fun, and I suspect I'll return to the stuffy basement of the Southern Cross Club before too long.
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| Sorry my pictures are so much worse than Tamar's |
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| But look! Cute toddler in a tent! |
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