As Jennifer and I both start to recover from our bout with post-Virtual World Cup exhaustion, we've each gotten to work brainstorming next steps for the Collins Coalition. Moving forward, we've got two main areas of focus. One is to flesh out the structure of our organization, electing a Board of Directors and building teams of people who will work on further developing the CoCo. That process is ongoing; Jennifer covered everything beautifully in this space last week. We'll be back soon with more updates on elections.

In the meantime, I want to talk to you all about our other objective right now: more virtual tournaments!

We spent nine weeks on the Virtual World Cup - three weeks recruiting players followed by three rounds of pool play and three knockout rounds. The tournament was a blast, but it's come and gone, and many Scrabblers around the world have found themselves quarantined at home for a heck of a lot longer than nine weeks. So... what's next? That's the question I want to answer.

Before I do, I'd love to gather some feedback from all of you. Between my own brain and the handful of suggestions I've gotten lately from other tournament organizers and players, I've got a bunch of different ideas for tournaments, and I'm curious to know what the community at large sees as the best path forward. If you're interested in playing more online tournaments in the coming months, please do read through these ideas and share your feedback!

1. Just run it back.

The idea: The Virtual World Cup went great the first time... so why not just have another one? Same deal as before - 16 national teams, 3 weeks of pool play, 3 knockout rounds.

Pros: The VWC drew an excellent field, as a lot of top players from all over the world were excited at the chance to represent their countries. It was also great for streaming - the best-of-25 matches gave people a lot of Scrabble to watch in a short period of time, and there were a lot of close matches that made for great viewing. There's nothing better than a competitive match that's tied 12-12 at the very end.

Cons: VWC fatigue might be a thing. Having another big worldwide team tournament right after the last one might be a little repetitive, and having a second champion does sort of dilute the bragging rights that the U.S. team earned by winning the first VWC. Do we really want to run it back so soon? Additionally, I do worry about the exclusivity of the event - it would be great to run a tournament open to people besides the top 5 players in the top 16 countries.

2. Return to directing 1-days.

The idea: We ran five 1-day tournaments during the spring months before we graduated to the bigger VWC. They drew decent fields, of around 30ish people each time, and people seemed to enjoy them. We could do more 1-days moving forward.

Pros: A 1-day tournament is small, simple and accessible to anyone who's got a few hours of free time. There are no restrictions to who can enter, and the time commitment is minimal. Easy fun for all.

Cons: 1-days are fine, but they're perhaps a little boring? There are other, more adventurous tournaments we could be running instead.

3. A doubles event.

The idea: How about a tournament that's like the Virtual World Cup, except instead of national teams of 5 players, it's just pairs of 2? You could team up with your spouse, your best Scrabble buddy, or anyone else of your choosing, and we'd have a big pairs tournament.

Pros: Scrabble couples might enjoy this quite a bit, as would anyone who's got a close friend they'd enjoy teaming up with. There would also be an opportunity to have fun with streaming here - with only 4 players competing in each match, you'd have more chances to show a little personality.

Cons: It's maybe a little silly? But I dunno, it would also be pretty fun.

4. An elite individual tournament.

The idea: This one would be similar to the Virtual World Cup, except with individual players instead of teams. We'd invite the 16 best players, or maybe the 32 best, to compete in a bracket to determine the champion. We could either do a North American championship or open it up to the whole world - whichever the majority would prefer.

Pros: Top players enjoy the challenge of playing other top players, and this event would give them a great chance to do it. This would also make for great streaming, as audiences tend to tune in for the best of the best.

Cons: Again, exclusivity is an issue. Is it really better to invite only top players than to open it up to a larger pool of people?

5. Virtual Premier League.

The idea: This is a pet idea I've been kicking around for a while now, but I haven't moved forward with it yet. Borrowing another idea from soccer, we would put teams into a big league system, with multiple divisions, that included promotion and relegation for winning and losing teams. Unlike the VWC where teams are eliminated and the event ends, the VPL could keep going in perpetuity.

Pros: It would be endless Scrabble! Every few weeks, we'd crown our league champions, move some teams up and some teams down, and then run it back again. There would always be more matches to play.

Cons: It would be endless Scrabble. A big commitment for both players and directors, to be sure. (Though players would have the option to drop out in between "seasons," which could be as short as a few weeks.) 

6. Experiment with fun Scrabble variants.

The idea: There are all sorts of possibilities! We could do blitz Scrabble tournaments. We could do Clabbers. Scrabble streamer extraordinaire Ben Schoenbrun wrote in with another idea: Have each country host a qualifier, then have the winner from each country nominate teammates for a team event. I don't know - I'm open to whatever! If anyone has feedback, sound off.

Pros: Who doesn't love a little creativity?

Cons: I suppose there's such a thing as too much creativity.

That's about all I got for now. Jennifer and I are both starting to feel that itch to run a tournament again, and we'd love to have your input on what that tournament should be. If you have opinions, please share them! You can always get in touch with us using the contact form on our website (see the link below); additionally, I'll be posting this blog in a few different social media venues, and I'll be watching the comments closely. Let's hear it!