Geoff Thevenot asked this in a longer thread, but I think it deserves its own: What got you started in tournament Scrabble? Im sure everyone has a story, and I bet theyre interesting. My own path wasnt as direct as most. When I first found Word Freak on a library shelf in 2006, I was already hopelessly smitten with the game. Id actually played Boggle for years before that, going back to playing with my great-grandmother when I was little, with Scrabble only occasionally with my family. My Boggle partner for a few years as of 2004 was always beating me since she had the OSPD at home, but I was able to pick up some new short words from her. For Christmas that year she got me something she felt would level the playing field - Michael Barons Word Book for Game Players! I was overwhelmed at first. So many words I might never use in Boggle... but I read the text, and so much of it was about Scrabble, and mentioned Scrabble strategy and clubs and tournaments and championships and I thought wait, what? But Scrabbles HARD, right? Then again... its possible to be -that- good at Scrabble? Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. *I* could be that good at Scrabble. It really was a moment of epiphany. Soon several things started happening at once. I started learning more words, started getting better at Boggle, started wanting to play Scrabble more, and after losing a few times my then-game partner stopped wanting to play either with me entirely. So I bought the retail Scrabble software available at the time, Scrabble Online, and started playing against the computer, reading more of The Wordbook over the next few months. Ironically, I couldnt get online at the time, and no one around wanted to play much, so it was a pretty solitary pursuit. Soon I got busy with real-life stuff, moving and a dozen other things, yadda yadda yadda, but I never lost sight of the idea that I could be in a tournament someday. It wasnt until after I got the Internet back for good and got a few other things sorted out in my life that I decided I would pursue Scrabble for real this time. Getting Facebook and liking some of the official Hasbro and EA Scrabble pages were a plus. But most of their commenters didnt seem to be in the same demographic as the folks in the books Id read. Only one at the time, Brian Galebach, seemed to know what he was talking about, and I hoped that if I looked him up, I might find more about the competitive Scrabble scene now, since my information was outdated... and I was right. I wended my way here, found the club nearest to me, and jumped right in. I wasnt sure what to expect at all, but it was eye-opening! These people are playing bingos. These people are challenging, and being challenged, without getting offended. These people are playing -words I know-, words I made myself learn just because I knew theyd come in handy someday. And very soon they did. I won two games my first night! When I played my first tournament only a month later, I got second place, much to everyones surprise - especially my own. In short, Im here for good. As I boggle at the prospect of attending my first National Scrabble Championship in a few weeks, Im grateful to everyone who makes competitive Scrabble pleasant and possible. Thats my story. :) Anyone else?
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 07:24:30 +0000