Opening up the CoCo mailbag

From the very beginning, we've striven to be a transparent and player-first organization, and that means being willing to listen to feedback from the player community and respond honestly. This is important to us at the CoCo. If you ever have questions, comments, concerns, fears, worries, or anything else you want to express, our inbox is open. We promise to listen.

To that end, we'd like to share some responses to a few reader questions we've received. We put out some calls on social media to solicit questions about the CoCo and its future, and below are a few of the most interesting submissions we got. Let's get into it...

Q: Which word list will you be going forward with when live Scrabble can be played again?

-Jeremy H.

A: It took me a second to realize this wasn't a troll question. After all, we're called the Collins Coalition. Your answer is right there in the name, man!

But no: Given recent events, this question is actually quite real and quite significant. There's been a lot of debate throughout the last year about revising the dictionary to remove slurs, and Collins may well be affected by this. CSW19 has been the standard lexicon worldwide since the last update, but we could see a new, expurgated lexicon before long, and that would leave us with a decision to make.

I don't think the CoCo has a clear view on expurgation. Just among the people on our board of directors and our tournaments team, there's a wide range of viewpoints - some people favor removing slurs, others want to keep them, and still others are indifferent.

But I will say this: One of our founding principles was the idea of unifying the North American Scrabble community with the rest of the world, and that requires playing with the same dictionary as everyone else. Ergo, we're going to take our cues from WESPA on this. If they begin using a revised lexicon in early 2022, which it sounds like they’re on track to do, we will almost certainly adopt whatever they recommend.

Q: As you may know, COVID-19 has hit many countries very hard. WESPA is not hosting any online anti-cheating tournaments except for the World Youth Scrabble Championship (WYSC). I recommend another World Blitz Scrabble Championship. Unfortunately, I missed this year's blitz tournament, but I will definitely play the next one, if there is one, and I'm sure many other players from different countries will want to participate too.

-Archana P.

A: To address your first sentence first, I just want to say you're in our thoughts. All of us on the CoCo team have been watching the pandemic closely, not just at home in North America but globally as well, and it's truly dismaying to see the virus continue to do the damage it's done. In the U.S. and Canada, we're all very fortunate to have access to life-saving vaccines, but we know that many others in the world are not so lucky. We feel for you, and we hope the situation improves before too much longer.

As for directing another blitz championship: We'll see. To be honest with you, our original intent when we founded the CoCo was not to run these massive online tournaments that are open to the entire world - this was a strategy we adopted on the fly when COVID-19 began. Our real goal is to reform live, in-person tournament play in the United States and Canada, and now that the pandemic situation is starting to get better at home, we're going to resume live tournaments soon. Our first one is happening in three weeks.

I'm not saying we've ruled out the possibility of another BlitzChamps, or other big online tournaments of that ilk. We do strive to be a democratic organization, and if more online play is what the people demand, we'll certainly consider it. But the in-person game is still our main focus.

Q: Now that the hybrid model of working, including working from home, is getting to be acceptable, why not also adopt a hybrid model of Scrabble tourneys? There could be separate ratings for over-the-board play and online play, with camera setup and screen-sharing, as is being implemented in the WYSC.

-Arindam B.

A: It's a great question - definitely one that merits discussion. But for now anyway, your answer will be similar to the answer above: As far as the CoCo is concerned, in-person Scrabble is still our bread and butter.

The last couple of years have definitely been eye-opening. We've definitively learned that serious, competitive online Scrabble can be a thing. For those who enjoy playing online, these are exciting times. A whole world of new possibilities is opening up.

But, at the risk of sounding old-fashioned, I still have a soft spot for the traditional game, played over the traditional board. I think people love coming to in-person Scrabble tournaments for a variety of reasons - they love the travel, they love seeing their friends in the flesh, and they love the tactile experience of shaking up that bag of 100 tiles and drawing seven at a time, by hand. For now, I expect the CoCo will remain focused on offering people that experience.

Again, though, our organization is committed to giving the player base what they want. If there ever comes a day when in-person Scrabble declines, and the vast majority of people prefer to play online, we may someday adjust accordingly.

Q: What is the status of whether or not CoCo events will be WESPA-rated?

-Terry K.

(Note: This question is actually left over from an old mailbag from back in early 2020, pre-pandemic. But we didn't get around to answering it then, and it's still relevant now, so let's answer it.)

A: This remains a key goal for the CoCo. We believe the U.S. and Canada should have a players' organization that's fully interconnected with the global Scrabble community, and that means having as many tournaments as possible that are sanctioned and rated by the global Scrabble governing body. We want every event in the U.S. and Canada to be WESPA-rated.

It's a long-term goal, though. WESPA doesn't grant member status to just anyone - there's a rigorous process for vetting Scrabble organizations and recognizing them as national associations. To be honest, we're still in the preliminary stages of that. We've had conversations with people at WESPA, and they've been friendly, but there's nothing official to announce yet. After all, we've still only had one live tournament ever (in Hood River, Ore., in early 2020), so we're still working to establish a legit track record of sanctioning events.

I will note, though, that you don't necessarily have to belong to a WESPA member organization to run a WESPA-rated tournament. According to WESPA's website, they can recognize any event as an "international tournament" if it's open to players internationally and has a prize pool of $2,500 or more. We are optimistic that we can break this threshold at least once or twice in 2022 - so stay tuned for that.

That's all for today. But if you have any questions of your own that you'd like to ask, then please, ask away. You just might see your submission show up in a future mailbag column!