Comments | scrabbleshells: The down low, or "Are you even KIDDING me???"

scrabbleshells

The down low, or "Are you even KIDDING me???"

Jan 04, 2010 19:22

I'm 1166 after Albany, the lowest number attached to my Scrabble rating since 2006.

"Are you even KIDDING me?!?!?!" was my catch phrase for the weekend. There were *SO* many wrong, just WRONG things that happened, and while I am writing them out of my system, I definitely won't be posting them here.

Suffice it to say that I will NEVER play in ( Read more... )

albany wrap-up 2010

Comments 5

graperonto January 5 2010, 13:50:02 UTC

So what kinds of things did Division 3 players do? Now you've got me curious!

scrabbleshells January 5 2010, 21:34:04 UTC

talk on your time, don't raise the bag above eye level, throw a tile back in when they overdraw, yap and coffehouse throughout the whole game, hit the clock as soon as they hit down when they lose a challenge, and mostly get indignant and self-righteous when you point these things out ( ... )

el_jefe_rey January 11 2010, 05:04:01 UTC

...sorry to hear things didn't go well.

It should comfort you to know that from Feb. 2nd on, your opp. can no longer start the clock immediately after they lose a challenge. Unfortunately, it remains legal until then.

I find the most effective way to get an opponent to shut up is to warn them once or twice, call the director (or just ask them 'Could you stop cheating' if I really had to).

I've encountered bad rules abidance from all sorts. With uppers, recalcitrance is the reason for lack of abidance ('I've been doing it this way for 30 YEARS, why should I stop now?') vs. ignorance for the lessers*- not really a great tradeoff, but at least the ignorami have seemed more open to rules info.

vavaverity January 11 2010, 08:00:22 UTC

It was just surprising. I mean, when I play the players in that ratings range that live around here, they all do things the right way, or at least are willing to when you point something out. The negative wall that hit me when dealing with some of these people was amazing.

I'm just glad I won't have to play them down there ever again. Lesson learned!

edhorch January 5 2010, 14:30:03 UTC

I totally hear you. You (and too many others, I fear) have heard me whine and complain about all the things that stop me from at least achieving solid intermediate status (1400-1500). Almost getting smacked down to sub-1000 again last July got me very close to hanging up my tournament tile bag for good. I can't bring myself to pay $300-$400 for AC just to give more ratings points away to novices who have to be reminded to hit the clock or complain about their tiles as they're drawing the bag.

I really wish Matt was still running the Philly tournaments. :(

If Princeton goes OK, I'll probably go to Albany. Some weekend when the in-laws can take the kids, Eileen and I can stay over for one of the Rhinebeck tournaments--that's such a neat town.

And I'm really grateful that our club is still thriving and playing there is so much fun.