Carolina Cup and Nationals
Off to David Gibson's house tomorrow, for the 2nd installment of the Carolina Cup, our own little Scrabble "border war". Last year SC pulled out a 1-win victory (40.5-39.5, the last game to come in was a tie), but this year our team is much stronger, with 6 of the top 10 active players plus the reigning NSSC champs comprising the NC team. Anything can happen, but I like our chances this year to reclaim Carolina supremacy. I really enjoy the format, it's nice to play something that isn't "quads, swiss, KOTH, most wins and spread" every now and then.
And in 3 weeks I'll be flying down to Orlando for my first Nationals. I am ridiculously excited for this tournament, just can't wait for it to come. I recently purchased a new copy of Bob's CSW12 Bible and have been trying to see as many CSW-only words as I can, paying more attention to those that look more playable. Delving deeper into the lexicon just confirms that I'd rather play this over TWL. I realized recently this is because I'd rather have a more inclusive dictionary as a rule. It ticks me off so much more when a word I know to be perfectly reasonable like DETANGLE#+ or NONANE# comes back as no good in TWL, whereas something like LAYDEEZ# or ZYLONITE# being good in Collins isn't nearly so infuriating (I just shake my head and say "Collins, you so crazy).
I'm getting a few games in against Quackle here and there, including trying out ENGRACED# as a 3x3 and finding out it's good. Aerolith daily challenges of course. I feel more prepared than for either of my previous CSW tournaments, but I haven't played in a field this big since my 2nd full tournament, 2.5 years ago (D2 at EC '10).
I like the field we have so far, opponents old and (mostly) new to me. It's still surreal to me that I'm positioned as the 3rd seed in the division right now, weirder still that people are actually picking me for the NSC roto, but I'm going to try my best to hold that rating up. A positive mindset usually leads my play to be more adaptive, and thus more likely to steal games or spread. I've played and defeated enough experts to know that I belong at their level, where I was so less confident of that going into Alpharetta '10 and EC '11. We'll see what happens, but I'm aiming to do some damage in Orlando. While having too much fun of course.
And in 3 weeks I'll be flying down to Orlando for my first Nationals. I am ridiculously excited for this tournament, just can't wait for it to come. I recently purchased a new copy of Bob's CSW12 Bible and have been trying to see as many CSW-only words as I can, paying more attention to those that look more playable. Delving deeper into the lexicon just confirms that I'd rather play this over TWL. I realized recently this is because I'd rather have a more inclusive dictionary as a rule. It ticks me off so much more when a word I know to be perfectly reasonable like DETANGLE#+ or NONANE# comes back as no good in TWL, whereas something like LAYDEEZ# or ZYLONITE# being good in Collins isn't nearly so infuriating (I just shake my head and say "Collins, you so crazy).
I'm getting a few games in against Quackle here and there, including trying out ENGRACED# as a 3x3 and finding out it's good. Aerolith daily challenges of course. I feel more prepared than for either of my previous CSW tournaments, but I haven't played in a field this big since my 2nd full tournament, 2.5 years ago (D2 at EC '10).
I like the field we have so far, opponents old and (mostly) new to me. It's still surreal to me that I'm positioned as the 3rd seed in the division right now, weirder still that people are actually picking me for the NSC roto, but I'm going to try my best to hold that rating up. A positive mindset usually leads my play to be more adaptive, and thus more likely to steal games or spread. I've played and defeated enough experts to know that I belong at their level, where I was so less confident of that going into Alpharetta '10 and EC '11. We'll see what happens, but I'm aiming to do some damage in Orlando. While having too much fun of course.