When we first announced the North American Collins Championship (NACC) back in January, it felt like we had all the time in the world. We were 10 months out! We had 10 sweet, sweet months to plan the event, recruit players, raise money, and put together the biggest, baddest championship event on the block.

What happened next? Well, we blinked, and 7 of those 10 months were gone. Seriously - where on earth did the time go? I have no idea.

In any event, it's now time to kick things into high gear. Our championship event is now rapidly approaching, and with that, we figured it was time for an update. Here's everything you need to know about the upcoming NACC...

The field keeps growing

Right now, we're sitting pretty at 30 players, and we're proud to say that list includes a host of former national champions and other top players. There's also a blossoming Div. 2, perfect for those who prefer to play against other intermediate and novice competitors.

Having 30 players in the fold is a good start, but we're optimistic we can grow that number ever larger this fall. We've still got a long way to go until mid-November, and a lot of players are only now starting to look ahead toward the autumn months after a busy summer of Scrabble. We definitely plan to keep on recruiting over the next few weeks. Let's keep building this thing!

A sneak peek at the venue

We had a chance to visit the Crowne Plaza Seattle-Downtown last week, and we were thoroughly impressed. It's everything you could ask for in a championship tournament venue - it's located right in the heart of downtown Seattle, and it's a super nice location all around. The playing room is big and spacious and conveniently located right on the ground floor. The restaurant and bar on the second floor look scrumptious. The guest rooms are swanky. And there are gorgeous views of the Seattle skyline everywhere.

If you're looking for an exciting vacation spot this fall, it's tough to do better than a beautiful hotel, in the heart of an awesome city, with a high-level Scrabble tournament on the premises to boot. Even when you're losing, you're winning.

Looking ahead to live coverage

One aspect of the CoCo brand that we're most proud of is our robust live coverage of our events. Seeing as the NACC is our biggest event of the year, we're most definitely planning to pull out all the stops when it comes to covering it.

We're hoping to provide a world-class stream of the event, similar to what we produced for last year's Word Cup - we're still in the early stages of going through our budget and seeing what's realistic. Additionally, we're planning to use every channel we have to pump out social media and blog content throughout the tournament. You can expect photos on our Instagram feed, written recaps on our website, pairings and standings and whatnot on our live coverage page, and so on. We'll do everything we can to enable Scrabble enthusiasts around the world to follow this tournament.

All the other bells and whistles

Aside from the basics like the venue and the live coverage, we're planning all sorts of other little touches of flair that will make this event a memorable one. For starters, we've already commissioned a couple of shiny new CoCo-branded trophies for the two division winners - check out the photo above and see them for yourself. They look pretty sweet.

But the good stuff doesn't end there. We've got all sorts of swag for this year’s NACC entrants - keychains, chocolates, stickers, pens, and more. We're planning after-hours events like a trivia competition and a chess night. We're planning on this being not only our biggest tournament of the year, but also our most enjoyable for everyone. Let's have some fun!

And if you're ready to get in on that fun, you know what to do. Head over to our NACC tournament page and sign up today. We would love to see you there.