Speaking strictly as the marketing arm of the Collins Coalition, I can definitely say: It's been a very strange year and a half.

A big part of what I do for the CoCo is tell the story of the organization. Craft a public-facing message. I try to shape public perception of who we are and what we're about. But, um... who are we? What are we about? It's changed dramatically ever since the COVID-19 pandemic touched down in the U.S. and Canada back in early 2020. So much so that it's difficult to remember where we started.

When we originally launched back in December 2019, we did so with the goal of reforming the live, in-person tournament Scrabble scene in North America. Seriously - we can prove this. We kept receipts. The entire challenge for us, at that time anyway, was to figure out why people weren't traveling to tournaments and work to reverse that trend.

Then, of course, COVID hit. Like everyone else on planet Earth, we were forced to pivot to a new approach. I'm proud to say we pivoted well - between March 2020 and June 2021, we ran 10 successful 1-day tournaments, one high-profile team tournament featuring 16 of the world's best national teams, and one blitz championship that attracted dozens of elite speedy Scrabblers. We drew in players from all over the planet, we fostered high-level competition, and we generated a lot of engagement from both players and fans watching along on Twitch and on social media. For a time, this was what we were known for. This was our brand.

Which makes it all the more challenging to pivot back to that first thing.

Live tournaments were our goal when we first set out - and now that a substantial number of players are vaccinated against COVID and ready to resume small in-person gatherings, live tournaments are once again our focus. On June 28, we announced that six new tournaments were open for business; now, amazingly, the first of those tournaments is almost here. Our Lincoln City, Ore., multi-day event gets underway in 12 days. Real, over-the-board Scrabble is back.

So with that said, I thought it would be worthwhile to take a moment and revisit where we stand with live tournament play. Where were we, anyway?

As you may or may not remember, the CoCo has run a grand total of one tournament ever. That would be the Hood River Open, in February 2020, the only event we managed to sneak in before the pandemic wiped out the rest of our 2020 plans. Conrad Bassett-Bouchard won the event, going 15-5 with a spread of +1332, just barely edging out second-place Chris Lipe, who was 15-5, +1314. As a result, Conrad currently holds the top spot in our list of rated players. (And, uh, if you played Hood River at all, then congratulations, because you're one of our top 20 players in North America.)

Anyway, that's where things stand now. We've run one tournament, and we've been itching to run more ever since. And come next week, we'll finally start to do so.

I'm happy to say that we now have a great infrastructure in place for that. We've come a long way since that first event in February 2020 - in the last 18 months, we've developed a great many resources that will make the entire tournament experience run more smoothly, from start to finish. We have a CoCo Play Store that allows players to easily register for events online. We have a wealth of resources for both players and directors, as well as a detailed list of COVID safety guidelines. We have a sleek web-based interface that directors can use to generate tournament pairings and standings, as well as built-in functionality for publishing live coverage on this very site. In short: We're ready to roll.

I do want to add: Across our whole organization, we are aware that the pandemic is still ongoing. We are carefully watching new developments, including numbers of new cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. We know that COVID-19 is still a threat. But we also believe strongly that the vaccines work, and that we can make live Scrabble a reality if we proceed with caution and run events in a way that minimizes the risk to player health and safety. That's why we are not only requiring every single player to be fully vaccinated, but also strongly encouraging people to stay masked and distant in places tangentially related to our tournaments (airports, hotels, restaurants, and the like) where others might not be inoculated. We're cautiously optimistic that with these measures in place, in-person Scrabble will be viable in 2021 and '22.

So. With all of that said: Let's get after it! In-person Scrabble resumes in less than two weeks. With boards, and tiles, and everything. I know everyone on our team is excited to get back to playing the game we all know and love - and we hope you're excited too.

See you soon!