The sad truth is that tournament Scrabble in North America is on the decline. This is a simple fact, verifiable using any number of metrics. Look at the number of people playing tournaments, the amount of media coverage the game gets, the prize money players are winning - across the board, the numbers are plummeting. Compare the situation today to the way it looked even a short while ago - say, 15 years - and it's night and day. The tournament scene just isn't what it used to be.

There's no reason this should be the case. Scrabble, and other word games like it, are immensely popular and always have been. It's estimated that roughly one-third of all homes in the United States have a Scrabble set. Words With Friends, a Scrabble knockoff if ever there was one, was named the most popular mobile game app in America in 2017. People love word games. They just aren't showing up to play tournaments.

Mind you, this is a uniquely North American problem - elsewhere in the world, the game is booming. In Thailand, generations of young kids are learning Scrabble in schools, and they're flocking to tournaments from there. In Pakistan, they're cranking out Scrabble talent at an unbelievable rate. Nigeria has an amazing depth of great players, and they're practically treated like royalty there. Meanwhile, on our home continent, the game flounders.

This has been an issue for a while, and it's not going to magically cure itself. As I see it, we as a community have two options - we can sit back and let the game atrophy until it eventually dies out, or we can do something. Now. My vote is for the latter - and that's why the Collins Coalition exists. It's our attempt to do something to ensure that tournament Scrabble on this continent not only survives, but thrives.

The plan here is to build a grassroots movement, give control of tournament Scrabble back to the players, and lift it to new heights. No executive or corporation makes the game - we the people do, and there's no limit to what we can accomplish with our positive energy and enthusiasm. Together, we can build a vibrant players' organization that reestablishes North America's position as a world power in Scrabble. Does that sound daunting? Perhaps, but it can be done.

We don't have every single detail figured out, but that’s by design - we want you all to help us shape this. We sincerely value the input of the Scrabble community on how we develop and where we focus our efforts. What we do know is that we are starting out with the right values at heart. We value diversity and inclusion - we want everyone to feel welcome, and everyone to feel that their opinions are being heard. We value empathy for our members, and we'll work hard to treat them with respect and represent their best interests. We value the international Scrabble community - we care about the rest of the world, and we want them to care about us too. And finally, we value growth. Again, Scrabble's popularity is sky-high, and it's time for our tournament scene to truly capitalize on it.

We're off to a good start. We have our values, we have a plan, and we have several tournaments on the schedule. What we need next is you. We hope you'll join us! Come play, come direct, come do whatever suits you best. But please, come along. Exciting things are happening in North American Scrabble, and we want you to be involved.