It's hard to believe we're almost halfway through the calendar year. The time has really flown by. And all along the way, we've been putting on action-packed Scrabble tournaments across North America. Everywhere from Austin to New Orleans, from the suburbs of Albany to the boonies in Oregon, we've been hosting events throughout the year.

And there are still more tournaments being added to the calendar all the time. As we plow forward into the second half of 2023, there's a lot for CSW Scrabble players in North America to be excited about - plenty of places to go, people to see, and top-notch Scrabble events in which to compete.

Let's take a look at what's new on the 2023 tournament calendar.

Ramping up our 1-days

As promised, we're working this summer to ramp up our 1-day tournament offerings, and we've got some real progress on that front to announce. As of today, we have three new 1-day tournaments on the schedule that are open for registration, with more likely coming soon.

• Aug. 5: Slingerlands, NY (director Terry Kang)

• Aug. 12: Portland, OR (director Dave Wiegand)

• Sept. 30: Seattle, WA (directors Jennifer and Evans Clinchy)

All of these tournaments should be a blast. Terry is running her third CoCo event at her beautiful house in Slingerlands, and I can attest that she's a fantastic host. Dave, a new director we're excited to bring on board, is hosting an event at Oakshire Beer Hall in Portland, a popular hangout for the local Scrabblers in PDX that's renowned for its food, drink, and laid-back brewpub environment. And as for Jennifer and myself, we love hosting Scrabblers at our home in Seattle, and we're psyched to run our first 1-day.

Plus, the ongoing "Texas CSW 1-Days" series, being run by Jesse Day down in Austin, is going swimmingly, and there's likely another one of those coming up in August, date TBD.

More tile slingin' in Slingerlands

In addition to the 1-day tournament that Terry has planned for August, she's also got another multi-day event on the books shortly after - a 15-game tournament set to take place over Labor Day weekend.

I couldn't be happier to see Terry stepping up her directing efforts. At the risk of repeating myself, she's a wonderful host, and she's also fitting a pretty glaring need on the CoCo tournament map. There are so many players in the Northeast region - from Boston to New York to New Jersey, not to mention our neighbors up in Canada - eager to play CSW tournaments, and Terry is the perfect director, in the perfect location, to bring them all together. You love to see it.

The NACC keeps growing

The North American Collins Championship (NACC) is our flagship tournament - the big event that we're building up to all year. We're excited to welcome CSW players from all over North America and all around the world to Seattle the weekend of Nov. 10 for the only major tournament on American soil that's truly Collins-only. And as the year goes along, it's been exciting to watch the field grow.

We're 5 months out from the event, so there's still a long way to go, but already we're looking at 24 players on the entrants list, including quite a few of the top players in North America. And we're expecting that list to balloon much more as the year goes on.

Stay tuned to this space throughout 2023, as we're preparing to announce many more details about the upcoming NACC - everything from prize money to after-hours activities to our plans for streaming and other live coverage.

Ready to ring in 2024?

For the second year in a row, CoCo players can celebrate the new year in style - with a weekend tournament in Southern California, hosted by the dream team of organizer Sandy Nang and director David Whitley.

Last year's Los Angeles New Year's Tournament was a blast by all accounts, so it's awesome that Sandy and David are bringing the event back for the second annual. And this year, they're making it a three-day affair, with 20 games in total - 8 games Saturday, 8 Sunday, and 4 Monday. So come to L.A. for a nice long weekend of Scrabble, plus ring in the new year surrounded by Scrabble friends. What could be better?

It's been an awesome first six months of 2023, and we're optimistic that the next six will be even better. Are you ready to plan your Scrabble excursions for the rest of the year? Then head over to our tournaments page and find the right event (or events!) for you.