For all of us Scrabblers across North America, it's been a long time since we've gotten to enjoy a major championship-level event. We've all been weathering this pandemic and doing what we can to stay safe and healthy, and that's made a large gathering of hundreds of players pretty much impossible. We're coming up on three years now since that's been a thing.

But in 2022, we've got high hopes for the return of serious Scrabble. And today, it's time to announce a big reason why - together, WGPO and the CoCo will be hosting a championship event this summer. The Word Cup will take place between July 9 and July 13 in Chicagoland, and it will feature a CoCo-sanctioned, WESPA-rated Collins division with big prize money - at least $10,000 for first place.

The Word Cup has been a tentpole event on the WGPO calendar for a decade now, and we're excited to play a role in this year's tournament. This is something that's been in the works for months - WGPO and CoCo leadership have long thought of one another as natural collaborators, as we share a lot of the same values and organizational goals. And for this tournament, the collaboration is a perfect fit, as both sides bring a lot to the table. WGPO has a great event that's already established, and great people in place to run it, plus the funds to make this year's Word Cup the most successful one yet. As for the CoCo, we've got a host of new technologies for improving the tournament experience, plus a growing community of enthusiastic Collins players that we're excited to rally together for a major CSW championship.

This will be a big tournament with big prize money! Thanks to the donation WGPO has received from the Jon Shreve Family Foundation - plus the sizable amount that we hope to collect in entry fees - there is going to be a lot of funding to award generous payouts, up and down the prize table. That $10,000 figure for first place is only a minimum, assuming at least 20 registered players - it could be higher if we draw a lot more than that. And we expect to pay out some serious cash as well for second, third, fourth, and more. We're expecting this to be the most lucrative CSW tournament ever played on American soil.

Some details:

• This year's Word Cup will be directed by Mike Johnson, Steve Pellinen, and Lynda Finn from the WGPO team, plus Evans Clinchy, Jennifer Clinchy, and Becky Dyer on the CoCo side.

• The championship event will be 31 games, starting on Saturday, July 9 and wrapping up Wednesday, July 13. Players will play seven games each day, plus three games on the final day.

• The venue will be the DoubleTree by Hilton Lisle Naperville, located at 3003 Corporate West Dr., Lisle, IL 60532.

• Player capacity for this event will be at least 250 players. We may lift this cap a little bit higher, depending on player demand and venue accommodations.

• Collins players can expect all the same CoCo tournament rules they know and love - CSW21 lexicon, WESPA rule book, 5-point challenge, digital results submission. And it's WESPA rated! This will be the first WESPA-sanctioned event in CoCo history, though certainly not the last.

• As always, players must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, including any necessary booster shots. Other health and safety regulations are TBD, once we draw closer to the event date. Note that we may need to require masks.

On behalf of our whole team, I can say: We're excited! All of us have high hopes for making this the biggest, most exciting Scrabble tournament North America has seen in a long time.

To learn more about this championship event, you can check out the event page that we just launched today. If you have any questions for our team of directors, there's a link there to contact us, so fire away. And if you're ready to sign up, then hop to it! We're expecting spots in this tournament to go quick, so don't wait. Enter now for your chance to win the Cup.