It's been almost three months now since we reopened our doors and cautiously began to hold in-person Scrabble tournaments again. The COVID-19 pandemic remains very much a threat, but we've braved forward, holding in-person events that are relatively small and 100% fully vaccinated. So far, so good. Everyone in our player base remains safe and healthy, and we've already held a few successful tournaments.

We scheduled 10 tournaments at the start of the 2021-22 season; so far, three are in the books and the other seven are still to come. I'm really happy with where everything stands so far. For the CoCo, we're taking positive steps - holding events in new locations, welcoming new directors into the fold, and letting more and more players experience a CoCo event for the first time. And also, just on a personal level, I'm honored every time someone takes the leap and decides to enter one of our tournaments. It's great that so many people have faith in what we're building here.

Having said all that: It's no time to get complacent! I still want to build our little network of tournaments into something bigger and better. I'm always thinking about growth - it's something I work on every single day. I hope more players, in more locations, all over North America are able to enjoy the tournament experience we have to offer. So today, I thought I'd share some thoughts on how I'd like our tournament scene to expand moving forward.

As I see it, this requires looking at three key areas. Let's break them down...

Running more tournaments in the United States

We've put 10 tournaments on the calendar so far - one each in Lincoln City, Portland, Charlottesville, Seattle, Hood River, San Diego, Austin, Boston, Madison, and St. Louis. This is a good start! I like the way we've begun to spread out across the U.S., starting with a cluster of tourneys in the Pacific Northwest, and then slowly branching out to include some events on the East Coast and in the Midwest as well.

That said, I'm always looking to put the CoCo on the map in new locations. As I see it, there are a number of places around the country where we've yet to set up shop. To name a few:

• Northern California

• The New York/New Jersey/Connecticut tri-state area

• More of the mid-Atlantic, especially D.C. and Maryland

• More of the Upper Midwest, especially Minnesota

• More of the South, especially North Carolina and Georgia

• More of New England, especially Vermont and Maine
  
  

All of these are pockets of the U.S. where there's a decent-sized base of Collins enthusiasts, but not a ton of live tournament opportunities just yet. In the weeks ahead, I'll be eager to chat with people in these regions about what we can do to create more tournaments.

Establishing a presence in Canada

One very obvious thing you'll notice when you scan the list of tournament locations above: All 10 are in the United States! Zero are in Canada. And yet allegedly, the CoCo is a North American Scrabble organization. I get it - that's a weird look, at best.

Here's the thing. We've worked to launch our initial batches of tournaments in places where we're likely to draw decent-sized fields. In Canada, that's often difficult, due to some structural issues. In some places, there just aren't many Collins players; in others, there are players, but there are already entrenched directors running lots of events. And, just about everywhere, Canadian tournament attendance is boosted by U.S. players crossing the border, which the pandemic has made difficult.

Long story short, we do hope to get some tournaments set up north of the border sometime soon. I think it would make sense for us to target areas near big cities where there's a solid population of Collins-playing locals - the Toronto, Ottawa, and Vancouver areas most definitely come to mind. This will be a key area of focus for us in 2022.

Holding major flagship events

So far, we've done a good job as an organization of putting together medium-sized events, in the range of 10 to 20 players each. But this leaves a major question unanswered: What about bigger tournaments? There's a definite void in the Scrabble community for a large, championship-level event that has strong grassroots enthusiasm from the players and puts Collins competition in the spotlight, where it belongs.

To this, I can say: We're definitely working on it. By now, the secret is out that we've been in discussions with WGPO on the possibility of putting a big Collins championship side by side with next summer's Word Cup; I can confirm that yes, those talks are coming along. There's nothing concrete to announce just yet, but stay tuned.

I think I can speak for the whole CoCo team when I say, our long-term vision is one where the Scrabble champion of North America wins the crown by competing in a Collins event against all of the continent's best players. One of our organization's goals is to actively push the community toward that future in real, tangible ways. I can't promise it will happen overnight, but I can certainly say we're going to keep plugging away at it. I'm hoping 2022 is a year of significant steps forward.

In short, all of us on the CoCo squad are excited about our growth so far, and we're ready to work hard to keep that train moving. And, as always: We're always in the market for good, dedicated people with a willingness to help. We've got a great team in place to help our directors thrive - including a webmaster, a marketer, a treasurer, and a host of other volunteers - and we're all eager to propel the North American Collins community together. If you'd like to be a part of that, all you've got to do is reach out.