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Scrabble Players Championship

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Scrabble competitionNot to be confused with the World Scrabble Championship or the WESPA Championship.

The Scrabble Players Championship (formerly the North American Scrabble Championship, and earlier the National Scrabble Championship) is the largest Scrabble competition in North America. The event is currently held every year, and from 2004 through 2006 the finals were aired on ESPN and ESPN2. The 2023 event was held in Las Vegas from July 15–19, 2023, with Joshua Sokol emerging as champion.

Championship history

The first officially sanctioned Scrabble tournaments in the U.S. were spearheaded, organized and run by Joel Skolnick in the mid-1970s. Skolnick was a recreation director for the New York City Parks and Recreation Department. He approached Selchow and Righter in late 1972, and the first tournament, open to Brooklyn residents only, commenced on March 18, 1973. The Funk and Wagnalls Collegiate Dictionary was used to rule on challenges, and the official word judge was Skolnick's then-wife Carol. Carol's sister, Shazzi Felstein, who would later finish in ninth place at the first North American Invitational tournament, won the first preliminary round with 1,321 points over three games. The final round took place on April 15, 1973, and Jonathan Hatch was the winner of the first official Scrabble tournament

The summer of 1973 saw two more tournaments, held respectively at Grossingers (won by Minerva Kasowitz) and the Concord hotel (won by Harriet Zucker) in New York's Catskill region. Another two tournaments quickly followed in November that same year: in Baltimore, Gordon Shapiro topped approximately 400 contestants; and at the Brooklyn War Memorial approximately 2,000 people entered the nine weekly preliminary rounds of the first all–New York City Scrabble Championship. It was won by Bernie Wishengrad. The New York City Championship was thereafter held annually, jointly sponsored by Selchow and Righter and the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation.

The first national tournament was the North American Invitational, held May 19–21, 1978, in the Presidential Suite of the Loews Summit Hotel in New York City. Joel Skolnick and Carol Felstein, as usual, served as the tournament director and word judge, respectively. David Prinz took the $1,500 first prize, followed by Dan Pratt and Mike Senkiewicz.

In 1980, soon after the publication of the first Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, control of the national tournament passed to the National Scrabble Association. They continued to organize the tournament until 2008.

The official name of the tournament has been National SCRABBLE Championship in recent years, except in 2006 when it was named US SCRABBLE Open. In 2015, to recognize the longtime eligibility of Canadian members, it was renamed North American SCRABBLE Championship.

Since 2009, the tournament has been organized annually by NASPA Games (formerly known as North American SCRABBLE Players Association). The first event under NASPA was held in Dayton, Ohio, in August 2009. Since then, the championships have been held in various U.S. cities (chosen more or less based on a rotation between five regions: southeast, southwest, northeast, northwest, and central).

The 2020 and 2021 events were canceled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The 2022 event, the first under the new SPC identity, was held in Baltimore on July 23–27, and was won by Michael Fagen, a data analyst from Quebec.

Collins

In 2012, a Collins division for international-English play was added for the first time, won by Sam Kantimathi with a 24–7 record. In 2013, John O'Laughlin, creator of the Quackle software program, won the division with a 24–7 record, winning $2,500 and claiming his first NSC divisional title. Past world, national, and Canadian champion Adam Logan won the division easily in 2014 with a 23–4 record and four byes. Peter Armstrong prevailed over past champion Dave Wiegand in 2015, winning 3–2 in the final best-of-five series. David Eldar won the division in 2016 with a 27–4 record, beating past champion Logan by a six-game margin. Austin Shin won the top division in 2017 with a 22–9 record, prevailing over runner-up Dave Wiegand in the final round; this was the first year that Collins players were divided into two divisions. Austin repeated his win in 2022, defeating Waseem Khatri from Pakistan in a 5-game playoff.

Youth

Rafi Stern won division 3 of the 2006 National Championship, posting a 20-8 record. Joey Krafchick out of Georgia won division 5 at the 2007 Players' Championship with a 25.5-5.5 record, followed by Bradley Robbins from New Hampshire winning division 6 going 24-4 in 2008. In 2010, Richard Spence of Arizona won Division 4 with a 25.5–5.5 record, and in 2011, won Division 2 with a 25–6 record. In 2012, Amalan Iyengar of North Carolina won Division 4 with a 22–9 record. Also in 2012, Chris Canik of Texas won Division 3 with a 26–5 record, the best record in that division's history. In 2013, Andy Hoang of North Carolina won Division 3 with a 23–8 record. Bradley Robbins and Andy Hoang are the only people to have won both the National School Scrabble Championship (2010 for Robbins, 2009 and 2012 for Hoang) and a division in the National Scrabble Championship (2008, Division 6 for Robbins & 2013, Division 3 for Hoang). Mack Meller of New York placed seventh in Division 1 in 2013. He started the 2014 event with a 7–0 record, giving him first place in Division 1 after the first day of the event, and again finished seventh overall.

Past events and Division 1 winners

NASPA Word List (NWL/OTCWL/OWL/OSPD)

Year Winner Location Region Entrants Winner's Prize Total Prize Pool
2024 Kentucky Mack Meller South Bend
2023 Quebec Josh Sokol Las Vegas SW 239 USD 10,000 USD 43,750
2022 Quebec Michael Fagen Baltimore NE 244 USD 10,000 USD 42,200
2019 Washington (state) Alec Sjöholm Reno NW 249 USD 10,000 no current data
2018 New York (state) Joel Sherman (2) Buffalo NE 403 USD 10,000 USD 52,000
2017 Pennsylvania Will Anderson New Orleans SE 365 USD 10,000 USD 54,350
2016 South Carolina David Gibson (2) Fort Wayne C 417 USD 10,000 USD 49,275
2015 Ontario Matthew Tunnicliffe Reno NW 340 USD 10,000 USD 50,225
2014 California Conrad Bassett-Bouchard Buffalo NE 524 USD 10,000 USD 45,775
2013 New Zealand Nigel Richards (5) Las Vegas SW 521 USD 10,000 USD 43,725
2012 New Zealand Nigel Richards (4) Orlando SE 339 USD 10,000 USD 36,150
2011 New Zealand Nigel Richards (3) Dallas 329 USD 10,000 USD 42,075
2010 New Zealand Nigel Richards (2) Dallas 408 USD 10,000 USD 42,075
2009 Oregon Dave Wiegand (2) Dayton 486 USD 10,000 USD 43,175
2008 New Zealand Nigel Richards (1) Orlando 662 USD 25,000 USD 85,385
2007 British Columbia James Leong Dayton 451 USD 12,000 USD 85,385
2006 Minnesota Jim Kramer Phoenix 625 USD 25,000 USD 85,385
2005 Oregon Dave Wiegand (1) Reno 682 USD 25,000 USD 85,415
2004 Texas Trey Wright New Orleans 837 USD 25,000 USD 92,805
2002 New York (state) Joel Sherman (1) San Diego 696 USD 25,000 USD 89,290
2000 Michigan Joe Edley (3) Providence 598 USD 25,000 USD 89,290
1998 Illinois Brian Cappelletto Chicago 535 USD 25,000 USD 82,200
1996 Ontario Adam Logan Dallas 412 USD 25,000 USD 75,485
1994 South Carolina David Gibson (1) Los Angeles 294 USD 15,000 USD 50,585
1992 Michigan Joe Edley (2) Atlanta 315 USD 10,000 USD 35,910
1990 Tennessee Robert Felt Washington 282 USD 10,000 USD 37,400
1989 Michigan Peter Morris New York 221 USD 5,000 USD 24,425
1988 Minnesota Robert Watson Reno 315 USD 5,000 USD 23,100
1987 New York (state) Rita Norr Las Vegas 327 USD 5,000 USD 16,850
1985 Florida Ron Tiekert Boston 302 USD 10,000 USD 52,370
1983 Quebec Joel Wapnick Chicago 32 USD 5,000 USD 13,600
1980 Michigan Joe Edley (1) Santa Monica 32 USD 5,000 USD 10,100
1978 New York (state) David Prinz New York 65 (invitational) USD 1,500 USD 8,400

Collins Scrabble Words (CSW)

Year Winner Location Entrants Divisions Winner's Prize Total Prize Pool
2024 Virginia Joshua Castellano South Bend
2023 Nigeria Wellington Jighere Las Vegas, NV 47 1 USD 4,000 USD 8,500
2022 United Kingdom Austin Shin Baltimore 34 1 USD 3,000 USD 5,850
2019 New York (state) Jesse Day Reno 35 1 USD 3,000 USD 5,850
2018 Washington (state) Evans Clinchy Buffalo 73 2 USD 4,000 USD 10,000
2017 United Kingdom Austin Shin New Orleans 64 2 USD 4,250 USD 10,550
2016 Australia David Eldar Fort Wayne 44 1 USD 2,500 USD 6,000
2015 California Peter Armstrong Reno 48 1 USD 2,500 USD 6,000
2014 Ontario Adam Logan Buffalo 63 1 USD 2,500 USD 5,775
2013 California John O'Laughlin Las Vegas 40 1 USD 2,500 USD 4,700
2012 California Sam Kantimathi Orlando 38 1 USD 1,500 USD 3,450

See also

References

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  66. NSC 1985 results at cross-tables.com
  67. NSC 1983 results at cross-tables.com
  68. NSC 1980 results at cross-tables.com
  69. NSC 1978 results at cross-tables.com
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  76. "NASC 2017 Live Coverage". event.scrabbleplayers.org.
  77. "NASC 2016 Live Coverage". event.scrabbleplayers.org.
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