What divides us

[redessence]

I've been out of the tournament Scrabble scene for almost 3 months now. I'm rarely on ISC and have purposely limited myself to Words With Friends and iPhone Scrabble games. Even took a break from those for 2 weeks in September. Now that I've been removed from the scene and observe it more as an enthusiast than a tournament player, I honestly think

Comments

[redessence]

I think it's a great idea. However, I think this idea has to assume an internationally unified word source (which in the Scrabble community will only ever be Collins), or else it becomes as accurate an international representation as The "World" Series is to baseball outside of North America (not representative

[magratheazaphod]

NASPA v WGPO totally affects expert players, especially out here on the west coast where most of the major tournaments are opens. The NASPA-WGPO debate undermines the whole structure of tournament scrabble in north america in my opinion.

[jmallick]

I agree with this. Maybe I shouldn't let this bother me so much, but the fact that WGPO tournaments are otherwise played just like NASPA events and aren't on cross-tables just doesn't feel right. Being banned from directing NASPA events after joining a WGPO committee rubbed me the wrong way as well, even though it's probably a fair decision.

I also don't care what our word source is, as long as it's only one. I get tired of seeing those pound signs on letter combos that I accidentally mark with asterisks next to them instead.

[redessence]

I get tired of seeing those pound signs on letter combos that I accidentally mark with asterisks next to them instead.

Same. I see it as another pointless source of contention that gets magnified by a Collins players' all too often snarky response of "----#" to a TWL player's "----*".

[redessence]

For me it's more an issue of the club social scene since the Twin Cities is very active in that area (and outside of me, completely inactive for NASPA tourneys).

I am empathetic to your situation, hence why I have the Minnesota exception in my post.

That's only in opens, which is a tiny fraction of NASPA events.

Granted. However, consider more characteristics of the non-expert player. They are playing matches that are error-laden more often than any of ours. Winners in lower divisions are generally inconsistent for this reason. Over the long term, non-expert players are still not seeing much of their ratings fees and entry fees returned to them, even in divisional tournaments. When they earn prize money in a divisional tournament, it's because they 1) lucked out big time or 2) they're working their way up to expert status and thus shouldn't be considered a non-expert in the semantic sense.

[redessence]

What I mean is that if someone has a club they really like going to and is used as a social outlet that also makes switching an issue, regardless of what state they are in.

Definitely.

I think non-experts are okay with only winning big money occasionally, as they tend to see travelling to tournaments more as a vacation that happens to have Scrabble. It's also important to continue to have novelty prizes though, I think it's more fun for them to be able to win something even if they didn't do well.

Agreed. This is where it's advantage WGPO, because there are more novelty prizes available (to the point of being excruciating to experts).

[scrabblek8]

switching to csw would put us more in line with the rest of the world, which i think would add to our legitimacy as the primary scrabble organization compared to wgpo, in the eyes of the layperson. though said layperson may still prefer to play in wgpo since the dictionary is less scary. as long as wwf and fb scrabble are more in line with twl than csw, i'd imagine that from an increasing membership point of view, it makes more sense for naspa leadership to stay twl.

i really hate the csw/twl divide. it makes me less excited to hang out with my friends, so that i don't have to hear about/experience the tension between the two, and that makes me kind of sad.

[spherulitic]

I'll bring some beer. We'll all be happy.

[quinquennia]

There's no tension here.

[skin_it_mahatma]

zomg. what have i done?

[spherulitic]

How many Scrabblers would be willing to give up their current tournament social scene to fully commit to a Collins switch?

I'm lucky enuf to live in an area of the country where I can switch without giving much up in terms of tournaments.

[redessence]

With what little experience I've had in Collins, I've loved it. I also love TWL. I don't begrudge anyone for choosing just one. I've remained in the TWL camp (for now) because I don't have enough Collins opportunities for switching to be worthwhile right now. That's good that in the NE you have ample opportunities. That's not standard.