Previewing this weekend's Boston area tournament
Guess who's heading to Boston this week!
No, not Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets. Well, yes, Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets, but that's actually not who I meant. I'm talking about the CoCo, actually.
This weekend, 12 players will descend upon the Boston area for a two-day, 14-game tournament. We'll get started at 10 a.m. Saturday, and play will run through early Sunday evening. This is an event that's long overdue, honestly, both for the CoCo and for myself personally. I'm excited that it's finally happening.
From the CoCo's vantage point, this is the first tournament we've ever held in New England, at long last. We've been working for the last year or so on getting live tournaments off the ground in various locations around North America, and the Boston-ish region has been high on our list for a while. It's a hotbed of Scrabble, with lots of active and enthusiastic players, and lots of Collins activity in particular. It's always been a natural fit for a tournament. For various reasons - marathons, college graduations, that pesky little global pandemic - it's been difficult to find exactly the right time and place to have an event. But now, for the first time, one's happening, and I'm psyched.
It's also special for me because I've always had a strong connection with the city of Boston. It's where I was born, approximately 194 years ago, and where my family still has roots today. It's also where I first seriously got into Scrabble - my first tournament, way back when, was a 1-day event that took place an hour down Interstate 90 in Worcester. I've played many Boston area tournaments in the years since then, but none in quite a while, so it's exciting to be back - and to launch a new CSW-only event, with a strong field, in a nice venue.
That venue, by the way, is my alma mater. I graduated approximately 166 years ago from Tufts University, a smallish liberal artsy-ish school in the suburbs just north of Boston, and I love to go back and visit when I get the chance. Last year, as the pandemic situation started to improve a bit, I reached out to the school events staff to ask about the possibility of directing a Scrabble tournament on campus. To my pleasant surprise, they were excited to have us, and they offered me an alum-friendly rate on a beautiful performing arts space we could use as a playing room. We've now got a nice space, a capable events staff running things for us, and 12 players ready to sling tiles - we should have a fantastic weekend ahead of us.
And I'm hoping this weekend is a chance not just to play Scrabble out in the burbs, but to show people around the rest of Boston a little bit as well. I'm planning a couple of group dinners for players in and around the city - one in Boston's North End (think Little Italy) and another in Cambridge - and I'm excited to show people some sights and share some tasty meals as well.
In short: I'm looking forward to a fun weekend, both Scrabble-wise and otherwise. If you're coming, great! Can't wait to see you there. If not, we'll see you online. Check back this weekend, and there will be plenty of live coverage waiting for you on this very site. Until then...