On elite-level Scrabble - and this weekend's Champions Cup

This coming weekend brings a major event on the CoCo tournament calendar - for the second year in a row, the Champions Cup is upon us. In the coming days, a group of elite players will descend upon Slingerlands, N.Y., where they'll compete against a group of their peers for the title of champion among champions. This is an elite-level event, open only to players with peak ratings of 1850 and up, which makes winning it all the more prestigious. I, for one, couldn't be more excited.

Having said that, I recognize that not everyone feels the same way. Of the 163 players currently on the CoCo member list, only 35 are in that 1850-plus rating band, which means this is a highly exclusive tournament. It's going to rub some people the wrong way when you hold an event and tell almost 80% of your player base that they're not welcome. There's always been at least a little bit of talk out there about elitism among the Collins ranks, and there's no doubt that holding events like this one can play into that.

On some level, that perception is understandable. You can trace its origins back to the early 2000s - way back in the day, there was basically no CSW happening in North America to speak of, which meant pretty much the only reason anyone learned the big book was if they qualified for Worlds and were gearing up to compete against the best players on the planet. If you were rated below, say, 2000, there was no reason to bother with an international dictionary.

That was a long time ago, though. We've watched the CSW interest trickle down since then - the 1900 players saw their 2000-rated friends playing the lexicon and became curious to try it, then the 1800s wanted to join in, then the 1700s, and so on. Fast-forward to today, and there are players at all levels who enjoy the Collins game.

This is a good thing! Collins Scrabble - nay, Scrabble in general - should be open and welcoming to everyone. Different people enjoy the game for different reasons. Some want to compete and dominate and win big money; others just want to see their friends and play a game they enjoy. We should have a community that accepts those in the latter group and treats them with respect.

Having said that: Elite Scrabble play does matter. Or it should matter, anyway. Scrabble is a competitive endeavor, after all, and there are some players among us who work extraordinarily hard to master it so they can compete with the absolute best. All of that work has merit. It deserves to be recognized. It deserves to be rewarded.

You can probably sense at this point the push and pull that I'm grappling with. Among CoCo leadership, we get a lot of feedback from a lot of different perspectives. People's viewpoints on elite Scrabble are all over the place. Multiple people have flat-out opined to us that events like Champions Cup shouldn't exist; meanwhile, we've also been told that our tournament coverage isn't focused enough on the top players. Someone once asked me why a tournament recap I wrote wasn't headlined "Wiegand wins another tournament, increases North American-best rating to 2138." (I'm paraphrasing here, but you get the idea.)

I'd say our job here, as an organization, is to try to find a consensus. To appeal to as broad a player base as possible. We're trying to build a big tent, fit everyone in it, and offer Scrabble events that appeal to anyone and everyone. If you're ultra-competitive? Cool. If you just want to have fun? Also cool.

It's worth noting that on the CoCo tournament calendar, Champions Cup is chronologically sandwiched right between two events called "Portland Pub Scrabble." A week ago, a dozen players descended on Portland to drink some craft beers and play a couple of casual, laid-back tournaments; a week after Champions Cup, they'll have the chance to do it again. And in between the two, you've got the most cutthroat tournament of the year.

I love that both things are things. And I also love that, in both cases, the directors of these tournaments get a chance for their own unique voices to shine. In Slingerlands, Terry Kang is running Champions Cup because it was her idea to invite all the best players in North America to visit her home and compete. In Portland, Dave Wiegand and Conrad Bassett-Bouchard just want to get together and play a few games and have a beer. You love to see both kinds of events thrive.

Or at least I do.

But I can't emphasize this enough: This is just one guy's opinion. And, out there in the player community, every single opinion matters. Do you have thoughts about the balance between elite, highly competitive and the more casual game? Please, please, please share them. We want to hear them. You can talk to me, or to any other CoCo board members or tournament directors, whenever you see us at tournaments. You can also email the entire board directly. However you choose to engage with us, engage with us. We want to hear from you so we can keep shaping tournament Scrabble to reflect what you all, the players, want. Help us to help you.

Anyway, where was I? Oh right - Champions Cup this weekend. It's gonna be great. At least I think so. If you agree, then you can follow along on our website all weekend long.