random throwaway scrabble stats trivia post
I went through in semi-sobriety last night and compiled the results of the last 10 nationals (including the 2007 PC, excluding all-stars), dating back to the 2000 Nationals. I went through and just looked at top 5 finishes and did a couple of quick metrics.
29 people have had top-5 finishes since 2000. Of those, a whopping 17 are accounted for by three players. Who are they, and how many times have they placed each?
[Name the 3.]
Nigel Richards and Brian Cappelletto at 6 and Dave Wiegand at 5
A slightly harder question - after that triumvirate, no one has finished in the top 5 more than twice. Seven people have two finishes in the top 5 to their name since 2000. Who are they?
[Name the 7]
Joe Edley (1st in 2000, 5th in 2005), Jim Kramer (1st in 2006, 4th in 2011), David Gibson (2nd in 2004, 3rd in 2008; omitting his win at the All-Stars tournament), Adam Logan (4th in 2000, 4th in 2009), Chris Cree (4th in 2004, 5th in 2009), Jerry Lerman (4th in 2005, 2nd in 2007) and Joey Mallick (3rd in 2007, 4th in 2008).
Let's combine that list into one...
[All 10]
Nigel Richards, Brian Cappelletto, Dave Wiegand, Joe Edley, Jim Kramer, David Gibson, Adam Logan, Chris Cree, Jerry Lerman and Joey Mallick.
Doesn't that look suspiciously like a list of the best players over that timespan? That gives us a pretty neat criterion for determining who the top 10 players in a given decade are: Make it to the top 5 at Nationals twice (noting that Nationals are yearly now, whereas they used to be every two years). It's hard not to feel that if the Thais were coming over every year that they would quickly join the list.
Maybe the most surprising omission from that list is one of the three players who have won without ever placing in the top 5 in that timespan. Who are the three?
[Name the three]
I had Joel Sherman in mind as the most surprising. The other two are Trey Wright and our very own nagekinoki
It should be pointed out that the latter two basically haven't played a Nationals since their accomplishment.
Not to highlight the gender imbalance in Scrabble, which is a stupid thing, but anyway - only one woman has placed in the top 5 from 2000 on. Who was it?
[who?]
Laurie Cohen came in third in the 2010 NSC
So far as I can tell, I was the third youngest person to finish in the top 5 since 2000. Can you name the two who were younger at the time of their result?
[Name both]
I believe the youngest was Panupol, who was 21 when he finished runner-up to Dave in the 2005 Reno NSC, and that the second-youngest would be Orry Swift, who is a little bit older than me but placed 4th in the 2010 NSC.
I'm on the record as saying that this will be the year that a young player (i.e. post-word freak) will win Nationals. However, looking through the records I realized that one P-WF player has already managed to compile a 6th place finish and two 7th places! Who am I talking about?
[Who?]
None other than nigelbo, who took all of three years to achieve the feat
Who is currently the highest-rated player never to have finished in the top 5? Who was the highest-rated until yesterday?
[Name both]
keylimeguy just hit his new peak of 2003, narrowly passing bbstenniz
If I had to choose three people who I think might hit the top 5 this year, it would have to be Conrad (who already has a 7th place finish under his belt), Rafi and Carl, all of whom I know are scarily talented players. Again, looking through the results it feels we're at some kind of regime transition to the next generation of players.
Insane bonus question: In the course of these questions, I have mentioned the following top-5 finishers. Using a point system where 1st in 5, 2nd is 4, 3rd is 3, 4th is 2 and 5th is 1, they are: Nigel Richards with 22, Cappelletto and Wiegand with 16, Kramer and Gibson with 7, Lerman and Edley with 6, Sherman, Wright, Leong and Mallick with 5, Logan & Panupol at 4, Laurie Cohen & Chris Cree at 3, Orry Swift at 2 and myself at 1. That's a total of 17 people. Who are the 12 other people who I haven't mentioned?!
[Name all 12]
Geoff Thevenot (2nd in 2006), Kenji Matsumoto (2nd in 2011), Jakkrit Klaphajone (3rd in 2002, maybe the hardest name to guess on the list), John Luebkemann (3rd in 2005), Pakorn (3rd in 2006), Joel Wapnick (3rd in 2009), Brian Bowman (3rd in 2011), Mark Pistolese (4th in 2006), Randy Hersom (5th in 2000), Paul Epstein (5th in 2002), Scott Appel (5th in 2006) and Matt Graham (5th in 2008).
At some point I'd be curious in doing something like this for Worlds.
29 people have had top-5 finishes since 2000. Of those, a whopping 17 are accounted for by three players. Who are they, and how many times have they placed each?
[Name the 3.]
Nigel Richards and Brian Cappelletto at 6 and Dave Wiegand at 5
A slightly harder question - after that triumvirate, no one has finished in the top 5 more than twice. Seven people have two finishes in the top 5 to their name since 2000. Who are they?
[Name the 7]
Joe Edley (1st in 2000, 5th in 2005), Jim Kramer (1st in 2006, 4th in 2011), David Gibson (2nd in 2004, 3rd in 2008; omitting his win at the All-Stars tournament), Adam Logan (4th in 2000, 4th in 2009), Chris Cree (4th in 2004, 5th in 2009), Jerry Lerman (4th in 2005, 2nd in 2007) and Joey Mallick (3rd in 2007, 4th in 2008).
Let's combine that list into one...
[All 10]
Nigel Richards, Brian Cappelletto, Dave Wiegand, Joe Edley, Jim Kramer, David Gibson, Adam Logan, Chris Cree, Jerry Lerman and Joey Mallick.
Doesn't that look suspiciously like a list of the best players over that timespan? That gives us a pretty neat criterion for determining who the top 10 players in a given decade are: Make it to the top 5 at Nationals twice (noting that Nationals are yearly now, whereas they used to be every two years). It's hard not to feel that if the Thais were coming over every year that they would quickly join the list.
Maybe the most surprising omission from that list is one of the three players who have won without ever placing in the top 5 in that timespan. Who are the three?
[Name the three]
I had Joel Sherman in mind as the most surprising. The other two are Trey Wright and our very own nagekinoki
It should be pointed out that the latter two basically haven't played a Nationals since their accomplishment.
Not to highlight the gender imbalance in Scrabble, which is a stupid thing, but anyway - only one woman has placed in the top 5 from 2000 on. Who was it?
[who?]
Laurie Cohen came in third in the 2010 NSC
So far as I can tell, I was the third youngest person to finish in the top 5 since 2000. Can you name the two who were younger at the time of their result?
[Name both]
I believe the youngest was Panupol, who was 21 when he finished runner-up to Dave in the 2005 Reno NSC, and that the second-youngest would be Orry Swift, who is a little bit older than me but placed 4th in the 2010 NSC.
I'm on the record as saying that this will be the year that a young player (i.e. post-word freak) will win Nationals. However, looking through the records I realized that one P-WF player has already managed to compile a 6th place finish and two 7th places! Who am I talking about?
[Who?]
None other than nigelbo, who took all of three years to achieve the feat
Who is currently the highest-rated player never to have finished in the top 5? Who was the highest-rated until yesterday?
[Name both]
keylimeguy just hit his new peak of 2003, narrowly passing bbstenniz
If I had to choose three people who I think might hit the top 5 this year, it would have to be Conrad (who already has a 7th place finish under his belt), Rafi and Carl, all of whom I know are scarily talented players. Again, looking through the results it feels we're at some kind of regime transition to the next generation of players.
Insane bonus question: In the course of these questions, I have mentioned the following top-5 finishers. Using a point system where 1st in 5, 2nd is 4, 3rd is 3, 4th is 2 and 5th is 1, they are: Nigel Richards with 22, Cappelletto and Wiegand with 16, Kramer and Gibson with 7, Lerman and Edley with 6, Sherman, Wright, Leong and Mallick with 5, Logan & Panupol at 4, Laurie Cohen & Chris Cree at 3, Orry Swift at 2 and myself at 1. That's a total of 17 people. Who are the 12 other people who I haven't mentioned?!
[Name all 12]
Geoff Thevenot (2nd in 2006), Kenji Matsumoto (2nd in 2011), Jakkrit Klaphajone (3rd in 2002, maybe the hardest name to guess on the list), John Luebkemann (3rd in 2005), Pakorn (3rd in 2006), Joel Wapnick (3rd in 2009), Brian Bowman (3rd in 2011), Mark Pistolese (4th in 2006), Randy Hersom (5th in 2000), Paul Epstein (5th in 2002), Scott Appel (5th in 2006) and Matt Graham (5th in 2008).
At some point I'd be curious in doing something like this for Worlds.