CoCo Blog
Check back every Monday for a new post featuring event coverage, tips on how to improve your Scrabble play, and the latest news from the CoCo’s club and tournament directors.

An update on the field for the Virtual World Cup
As of this writing, we're looking at 64 total players signed up - not too far from our goal of 80 players plus alternates. Here's a country-by-country breakdown of where the field stands right now, along with some next steps for how we can fill this thing out.

Announcing the Virtual World Cup
Over these next few months, we're going to be running a team tournament that's open to the entire world. We plan to gather national teams from all the world's top Scrabbling nations and pit them against each other in a big tournament to compete for global Scrabble supremacy. We'll call it the Virtual World Cup.

Annotated Game: Josh Castellano vs. David Whitley
We're still plugging away at our CURE series of virtual Scrabble tournaments this spring, and every tournament, there's at least one fascinating game that merits a closer look. This time, it's a matchup between two American experts, Josh Castellano and David Whitley.

Crowning a new champion at the CURE5
This was a Saturday well spent. Another successful tournament is in the books, and another new champion has been crowned. We're happy with how all five of these virtual tournaments have gone this spring, and we've been heartened to see the enthusiastic response from so many players not just here in North America, but worldwide.

Scrabbler Q&A: Will Anderson
Welcome to another installment of our Scrabbler Q&A series. Once every month or so, we'll sit down with a member of the Scrabble community for a lengthy interview. Our guest this time is Will Anderson, who's used his time at home to launch a word game Twitch stream where he plays Scrabble, Boggle and other games for a live audience.

Annotated Game: Esther Perrins vs. Austin Shin
Today's annotated game is from the CURE4, our most recent online event. It's a matchup between two of the world's top players - Esther Perrins, of Australia, and Austin Shin, who recently moved to the United States. Thanks to both Esther and Austin for sharing their analysis of the game.

An update from the CoCo amid the COVID-19 pandemic
Back when COVID-19 cases started to rise in North America, we were quick to take action to protect our players. We canceled our spring and now our summer tournaments. The good news is, we’ve pivoted to hosting virtual tournaments and kept moving forward with plans for our long-term future.

Witnessing world-class competition at the CURE4
For the fourth installment of this spring's virtual tournament series, we decided to do something a little different. Rather than start first thing in the morning out here in Seattle, we scheduled the CURE4 for 5:00 p.m. Pacific instead. The idea was to open the event up to Scrabblers all over the world. Our plan worked like a charm.

Annotated Game: Jackson Smylie vs. Cedric Lewis
Not much has changed since the last time we shared a tournament game in this space - we're all still quarantined, and our tournaments are still virtual. So we thought we'd share another game from our Computer Users' Remote Event (CURE) series. This one is from CURE3 - it's a matchup between Jackson Smylie and Cedric Lewis.

Scrabbler Q&A: Ben Schoenbrun
Welcome to another installment of our Scrabbler Q&A series. Once every month or so, we'll sit down with a member of the community for a lengthy interview about their life in Scrabble. Now seemed like the perfect time to interview Ben Schoenbrun - a.k.a. Bnjy - about the work he's done to create virtual Scrabble tournaments while all of us are stuck at home.

An international battle royale at the CURE3
This past weekend, we're proud to say we had players from seven different countries competing in a one-day tournament, including some from the opposite side of the world. Players joined us from the U.S., Canada, England, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Singapore.

Annotated Game: Josh Castellano vs. Sam Rosin
Here's an in-depth look at a matchup from our first CURE. The players are Josh Castellano, who would eventually win the tournament, and Sam Rosin, another one of the top experts in the field. Thanks to both players for agreeing to chat about their plays!

Coming together for the CURE2
Yesterday, we directed our second online tournament, the CURE2. This tournament featured a diverse field with first-time Collins players, people from three continents, and representation from many women and non-expert-rated players. Thanks for coming together from around the world, and congratulations to Ryan Fischer, our CURE2 champion!

Recapping the first Computer Users' Remote Event (CURE)
When we first announced the CoCo's founding three months ago, we had no idea that we'd be here today. And by "here," I mean cooped up in our respective homes, isolated from one another, with no way of meeting over the board. But what is life if not unpredictable?