An update on the state of the CoCo

If you'll allow me to be totally honest about something for a second, then let me just say: It feels good just to pause briefly and breathe.

I think I can speak for Jennifer and Becky and everyone else involved with running BlitzChamps when I tell you, this tournament was a grind! We were directing Scrabble matches pretty much around the clock for nine weeks straight, plus four more busy weeks of playoffs. Between arranging pairings, answering people's texts and emails, and broadcasting live streams of as many matches as possible, there wasn't a lot of time to relax.

I'm not complaining, mind you. All of the effort was 100% worth it, and I'd do it all again. But man. Now that the tournament's over, it's really refreshing to have some time to relax. I'm writing this on a Saturday afternoon - today I slept until 10:30, enjoyed a leisurely brunch, and didn't have to think for one second about what time I was next going live on Twitch. This is nice.

The other nice thing is, as we enter a bit of a lull in tournament play, the whole CoCo team is able to pause for a moment and take stock of things. Today is a great time to give a rundown of where everything stands with our organization. Here's our outlook on virtual Scrabble, live Scrabble, and all the legwork we've been doing behind the scenes.

Looking back on BlitzChamps

We just wrapped up the World Blitz Scrabble Championship the week before last, and we're really happy with how it turned out. I just posted a full-blown recap last week, so I won't belabor everything again here, but suffice it to say, we were really pleased with the high level of competition throughout the tournament, especially in the later rounds. Will Anderson is a very worthy champion, and David Eldar put together a fantastic performance as runner-up. Congrats also to semifinalists Edward Okulicz and Janul De Silva, as well as everyone else who went deep in the playoffs.

We gleaned a lot of positives from this event - perhaps most importantly, we learned that people do have an appetite for a long, time-consuming tournament that takes place only online. We were a little apprehensive about running a 13-week thing when we first started out, but we've since learned that it works. Especially during these pandemic times, a lot of Scrabblers like having an entertaining way to occupy themselves at home, especially if it involves interactive content like Twitch streams.

We also picked up a few tidbits of constructive criticism that can help us next time. You guys are opinionated about all sorts of things - division structures, tiebreaker rules, resignations, forfeits, playoff bracket formats, etc, etc, etc. We appreciated hearing from everyone on all this stuff, and we're going to do everything we can to come back next time with events that meet your expectations.

A quick peek at our virtual club

Meanwhile, as BlitzChamps has come and gone, the CoCo virtual club has kept chugging along. Becky, Pete, and Geoff have all done a fantastic job as directors, handling all the busywork of coordinating pairings and standings, plus greeting all the players in the Woogles chat and making them feel welcome. They've been awesome.

We originally set out to run two club sessions per week, on Tuesday nights and Saturday middays, but it's become clear that Tuesday meetups are far more popular than weekends. So we've decided to scrap weekend club and put all our energy into Tuesdays, which are going swimmingly. The club is regularly drawing a couple dozen players, and it's appealing to people from all different time zones. Play begins at 7 p.m. EDT / 4 p.m. PDT, and it runs for 5 hours, so players from all over the world have found time for a few games. If you haven't yet played a club session and you're interested, then check it out sometime!

The CoCo keeps evolving

While the blitz tournament and the club have been our most forward-facing endeavors, we've also been doing a lot of work behind the scenes. Over the last few months, our board of directors has been crafting a strategic plan that maps out the CoCo's goals, both short-term and long. Short-term, we want to continue offering people options for virtual tournament and club play; long-term, we have more ambitious aims, including growing the Collins-playing community in North America and ultimately becoming the official sanctioning body for Collins events here. I'm grateful that we have such a strong team of volunteers working together toward those goals.

We're also working to improve the financial health of the CoCo as an organization. Pete has been instrumental here - as the CoCo's treasurer, he's been handling all the logistics of getting us certified as a nonprofit, setting up our bank accounts, and mapping out our budget for the months and years ahead. He's also been keeping tabs on the CoCo's donors. A number of you have generously contributed financially to the CoCo, and we couldn't be more thankful. To check out a list of who's donated - and perhaps to chip in a little yourself, if you're so inclined - you can visit our donation page.

Looking ahead to live tournaments

It's becoming something of an elephant in the room: With COVID-19 cases gradually declining in North America, and many members of the Scrabble community getting vaccinated, are we getting close to a return to live tournaments?

The short answer, sadly, is no. While the pandemic is gradually getting a little better, the truth is it's still bad. COVID deaths in the United States alone are still at almost 1,000 a day, which is frankly horrifying. While a lot of the vaccination news of late has been encouraging, there are still a lot of unanswered questions, such as how well the vaccines prevent transmission to others and how well they protect against new variants of the coronavirus. For the time being, we're still erring on the side of caution.

Obviously, we all miss live Scrabble. We'd love to play it again someday. But we have to be patient, and we can't reopen tournaments until the time is right. We're going to continue keeping a close watchful eye on the pandemic, and we'll hope for the best.

And, as for virtual tournaments...

With BlitzChamps now in our rear-view mirror, it's time to move forward. Our Tournaments team is working hard on a couple of new ideas, and we'll be ready to announce them soon.

If you'd like to be the first to know when we unveil new events, that's easy enough. Visit our virtual tournaments page, and you can put your name down on our mailing list.

But for now, all you get is this teaser. New tourneys are coming your way soon! We hope you'll enjoy them as much as you enjoyed BlitzChamps.

We'll talk soon, I assure you.

Until then: Happy Scrabbling.