This past week, women made history in more ways than one. In the United States, we elected our first woman to serve as Vice President. This historic achievement demonstrated that on a national level, women are overcoming systemic barriers to lead and inspire others. In our much smaller world of tournament Scrabble, women are making progress here, too. 

East Coast player Terry Kang has been playing Scrabble tournaments for 20 years. Many of you in North America and overseas will know that she’s an avid player. She is also a director and active contributor to the Scrabble community. She and Stefan Rau have co-directed “RauHaus” tournaments in their New York home. These popular tournaments have attracted players for years, and we were thrilled to hear that Terry looks forward to directing under the CoCo banner when live tournament play resumes.

Already, Terry has been an active CoCo member and a frequent CURE player. Earlier this year, she played in the inaugural CURE tournament and three more over the summer. Yesterday, she made CoCo history as the first woman to win a tournament, online or otherwise. We support a diverse and inclusive tournament environment and love to see women, and those from other underrepresented groups, succeed in Scrabble. 

Terry went into the final round of the CURE7 in second place. Both she and Brian Bowman had 5-1 records, with Brian in first place with a larger spread of +318 to Terry’s +243. They were paired in the final round and Terry needed to win to clinch the title. In that final game, Terry found the double-blank bingo of f(L)OOdWAY, impressing the Twitch audience watching from home. (If you missed the live Twitch broadcast, you can still check out the archive of the CURE7 stream with live commentary on our YouTube page.)

Brian finished the tournament in third place, but did not leave the CURE7 empty-handed. The theme for this tournament’s Best Word competition was Best Gaming Word, and Brian won over the Twitch audience with his entry of BINGO. We have been glad to see Brian and many players from around the world join us this year for their first CURE tournament. At each CURE, we have crowned a new unique champion.

If you’d like to be the last CURE champion of 2020, you’ll have your chance at the CURE8 on Dec. 5. There is no better way to commemorate International Ninja Day than to join your fellow Scrabble ninjas at the CURE8. We hope to see you there!