Nine weeks ago, we began this tournament with 80 players; we have now officially narrowed the field down to our final 16. From here, every single match will be do-or-die, and the world's best speedy Scrabble players will vie for the title of World Blitz Champion.

We began the World Blitz Scrabble Championship with 80 players, all wide-eyed and hopeful and looking to assert their speed-Scrabbling dominance. Now, as we near the end of pool play, there are just 24 players left with a shot at winning the tournament.

The penultimate week of BlitzChamps will feature two absolutely crucial matches in each group - all the No. 1 seeds will face the No. 3's, while each No. 2 battles the No. 4. We'll know a whole lot more about the playoff picture once the dust settles.

Who will make the playoffs? Who will they face? What will the competition look like? The closer we get to bracket time, the more these questions start popping up. So today, I thought I'd give a few answers.

We're now through five rounds of pool play, with four still to go. At this point, there are a number of players who began this tournament outside the top 3 seeds in their groups but are now in contention.

The 2-versus-3 matchups are now behind us, and we now have far more clarity on how the standings look in each group. Let's take stock of everything, group by group - who's winning, who else is in the hunt, and which key matches are still to come in weeks 5 through 9.

It's time for a major showdown in each group - the No. 2 seeds take on the No. 3's. In most groups, these are the two players most likely to be on the bubble for a top-two finish and a playoff spot.

We're now two weeks into the World Blitz Scrabble Championship. Let's take a look at some notable developments from these first two weeks and what they mean for the tournament moving forward.

We're now wrapping up the first round of the World Blitz Scrabble Championship and, my goodness, it's been an action-packed tournament so far. Collectively, we played 324 games of Scrabble in a span of 4 days. There was action around the clock.

Three weeks ago, we first announced the World Blitz Scrabble Championship to the public. Now, 80 signups and a bunch of directorial legwork later, we're ready to go! The roster of players is set, and tonight, we'll be announcing the groups for pool play in a live broadcast.

As of this writing, we've got a total of 63 people in the field. There's still about a week until registration closes, as we'll be accepting new sign-ups until Monday, Jan. 25 at midnight GMT.

Last week, we announced the start of CoCo virtual club sessions, which give Collins players the chance to meet up on Woogles twice a week and play casual games. Today, we unveil our second big offering of 2021. Introducing: the World Blitz Scrabble Championship!