On the state of the tournament Scrabble scene today

I remember that when we first announced the opening of the Collins Coalition, some 19 months ago now, we heard more than a little bit of criticism about the negative impact our presence might have. We were splintering the community, they said. There was already an established organization running Scrabble clubs and tournaments in North America, and our new thing was an act of rebellion against the "official" organization that was already in place.

Now, to be fair: Those criticisms weren't without merit. Were we rebelling? Were we splintering? Sure. Then again, we had good reasons to do so. We wanted a Scrabble organization that valued democracy and transparency and was committed to the international lexicon and the international game. Such an organization didn't yet exist, so we made one. It's clear that we were splintering something; the real question is whether our reasons were sufficient to justify that splintering.

But we can table that discussion for another day. The interesting thing now, some 19 months later, is to reconsider what it means to rebel against the "official" organization when said "official" organization is official no longer.

On Thursday, it was announced that Hasbro is terminating NASPA's license to use the "Scrabble" trademark. Effectively, this news means that North America no longer has an official Scrabble organization - all of us, NASPA included, are independent and unsanctioned.

The revocation of NASPA’s license is a positive development for the Scrabble community in North America. We are better off moving on from NASPA anyway. We've already gone over NASPA leadership's failings in this space before, including the decline of the tournament Scrabble scene on their watch and their failure to deal with sexual assault and sexual harassment. There's no need to belabor those points any further. In any event, it's encouraging to see Hasbro take action against NASPA in light of all this.

It's hard to predict what will happen next. We know now that Hasbro is severing ties with NASPA, but that leaves a lot of questions unanswered. For starters: What will Hasbro do, if anything, to fill that leadership void? Will they look for a new organization to steward the game in the United States and Canada, filling NASPA’s former role? Or will they ditch that model altogether, simply leaving nobody at all in charge of the tournament scene from a corporate standpoint? It’s all very unclear.

Here's what is clear, though.

The tournament Scrabble community is still alive and well. No one killed the game, last week or anytime else. No one can kill the game. Scrabble's lifeblood has always been its people - the people who love the game, the people who play the game, the people who direct the game. All of the above are still here, and no corporate owner can possibly take them away. In the Scrabble community today, you see passionate, hardworking people everywhere you look. You see them directing tournaments, whether for NASPA or WGPO or the CoCo or anywhere else. You see them creating amazing new platforms like Woogles. The important questions now are how all of these people organize, how they work together, and what they work toward.

As we start to take on those questions, I humbly ask: Consider us. And not so much “us” as people, but rather, think about the goals we've established as an organization and the work we're doing to achieve them.

Way back in December 2019 when we announced the CoCo's founding, we put together an "About Us" page that laid out who we are and what we stand for. I'll share a few snippets here:

People are the heart of our coalition. We are a democratic organization with elected leaders. We are committed to being transparent and accountable. We publish our budget and explain how we use CoCo funds to advance the community.

Our goal is to build a stronger Scrabble community - one that is diverse, inclusive, growth-oriented, safe, and supportive for players from all walks of life.

We value your opinions and ideas and are committed to representing your interests. We dare to be innovative and adaptive as we build a more diverse, inclusive, and educational word game community. We treat our members with empathy and compassion.

The world is much larger than just North America, and the word game community is as well. We strive to join the modern age by igniting a truly global Scrabble culture in the United States and Canada, becoming a member of WESPA, and empowering players to learn alongside the rest of the world. We encourage players to enjoy the international tournament scene, and we welcome players from abroad to come learn and play with us.

Every word of that still stands today.

If you have a moment, I'd love it if you could pause and ask yourself: Do you believe in the goals and values articulated above?

Because if you do, now is the perfect time to consider making a change. Take another look at the tournament Scrabble scene today and the Collins Coalition's place in that scene. We are not some subversive actor working against the powers that be - in fact, there no longer are any "powers that be." There are just people - people organizing, people working together to make our community better. Scrabble right now is a clean slate, and there's a real opportunity to create something new that's better than ever. I hope you will consider creating with us.