On 1-day tournaments

It was subtle, and if you blinked, you might have missed it - but last weekend, the CoCo achieved a fun little milestone. It was our first one-day tournament.

The first of the very creatively named "Texas CSW One-Days" took place a week ago Saturday in Jesse Day's living room, where Jesse and his family hosted six players for an afternoon of six games. It was a modest affair, but sources say much fun was had by all. Jesse himself ran the table at 6-0; James Curley finished second at 4-2, while a pair of ne'er-do-wells with the last name Canik followed at 3-3.

It's a simple thing - six people, all living in the same town, all gathering for a day of Scrabble. But it's an inspirational thing, and it's a thing I hope the CoCo can undertake more often in the months and years ahead.

One-day events were not exactly our bread and butter when we first established the CoCo, way back in late 2019 - we wanted to make a big splash right away, and that meant running big events. The longer, the better. But that was more than three years ago, and we're starting to evolve a little bit. As we start to settle into a normal cadence of running normal Scrabble tournaments, we're starting to see that one-days are a natural part of that mix. Speaking as the guy that does a lot of event-coordinating stuff for the CoCo, I can tell you definitively, we'll be making one-days more of a priority in 2023 and beyond.

The CoCo's first one-day was a success because Jesse was an excellent self-starter. He came to us eager to start running tournaments right away, he volunteered his home, and he used Google polls to find dates when as many local CSW players as possible would be available. He brought in a solid field of Austin-area players, and the rest is history. The first Texas CSW One-Day is now in the books, and the second one is already scheduled for next month. All of this happened because Jesse identified a core group of players interested in local tournaments, and he hit the ground running to create events for them.

This feels like something that's replicable in other places - especially other places that have strong bases of local players like Austin does. And we're starting the work now of identifying those places, finding directors we can work with, and making more events happen. A few such conversations are already happening now, as we're lucky to have a small handful of enthusiastic directors who are raring to get started. Having said that, we would love to find more. The more people we can find with a willingness to support small local events, the merrier.

More one-day tournaments are a win-win proposition. For us at the CoCo, getting more events on the calendar is always a priority, and these short tournaments are a quick and easy way to accomplish that. For local players in these Scrabble hotbed areas, one-day tournaments are a great way to get more rated games in. And from a director's perspective, these tourneys are easy to run - you can host one in a simple, modest location like your living room.

So let's do this thing! One-days are the next frontier for the CoCo, and we're eager to conquer it. And we'd love to have you involved - as an organizer, as a director, as a player, you name it.

The first Texas CSW One-Day was a roaring success, and the next one is coming in just a few weeks' time. Wanna play it? Cool. Sign up now.

And if you want to be a part of the wave of CoCo one-days that are on the horizon after that, even cooler. Let's talk about it. Let's make it happen.