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ONE OF THE top young Scrabble players in America has been kicked out of the game’s national championship tournament in Florida after he was caught hiding blank letter tiles, organisers have said.
John D Williams Jnr, executive director of the National Scrabble Association, said that a male player was ejected from the 350-player event in Round 24 of the 28-round event.
The cheating was spotted by a player at a nearby table, who noticed the ejected player conceal a pair of blank tiles by dropping them on the floor, organisers said. Blank tiles can be used as wild card letters. When confronted by the tournament director, he admitted to it, organisers said.
Williams, who has served as executive director for 25 years and co-authored a book on the popular Hasbro board game in 1993, said this was the first incident of cheating at a national tournament. However, he said it’s been known to occur at smaller, regional events.
“It does happen no matter what. People will try to do this,” he said. “It’s the first time it’s happened in a venue this big though. It’s unfortunate. The Scrabble world is abuzz. The internet is abuzz.”
Williams would not identify the player by name or age because he’s a minor. There are four divisions and he was competing in Division 3.
He said Division 3 is equal to “any great living-room player out there.”
In Scrabble matches, players accumulate points during one-on-one matches by pulling random letter tiles from a bag of 100 and trying to create words.
A total of 98 tiles have letters on them and two are blank. Blank tiles can be used as wild card letters to complete words.
The ejected player had concluded a previous game and never reinserted the blank tiles into his bag in an attempt to use them at his discretion in the next game, organisers said.
Players in the national tournament format play multiple matches over the five-day event. The winner is determined by a combination of their overall record against other players and the cumulative point spread over the entire tournament.
The ejected player forfeited all of his wins.
Williams said there is usually “good self-policing in the Scrabble world” as players try to protect the integrity of statistics on the competitive circuit.
The winner of the contest receives the $10,000 (€8,107) top prize.
“It gets pretty deep. We’re one step away from drug testing,” Williams joked.
While Williams said this was the first time the national tournament has dealt with scandal, the incident could shine a brighter light on other advantages players have been known to employ.
Even before Tuesday’s cheating ejection it was well-known that some players take minerals known as “alleged brain boosters.”
“But no steroids so far,” Williams quipped.
And if you add 2013 and 1432 you get 3445. Then if you add those numbers, you get 16. Which, coincidentally, is the house number on Petunia Drive where my auntie Doris lived with that bloke from the dairy. And he was mad about The Beatles! But that’s another story!!
Well it was either number 16 or number 18, I always get those two mixed up because my friends the Heath twins lived at number 18 (or it could’ve been 16), but not the same road. That lad was never the same after the dairy closed. I blame the supermarkets.
Go back to bed Gavan!
I’m already up now, might as well do the 9 at 9….
Ah leave Gavin alone! Just a light article on a day a lot of people probably can’t read!! :) here’s to the early risers !!
Gavan why has there been no article on the disaster that was The Gathering in Dublin last night.
I am calling on Miriam to do a prime time investigation into what a sham it was. Not as much as a firework
The fireworks were on at 8 so they could be a family friendly event. I thought the concert was great, yes it wasn’t as good as say the London or Edinburgh events but if we had of spent the same budget on ours there would have been uproar.
How come tickets were €20 then? By the sounds of it, it wasn’t worth it.
I came on looking for an article to vent my anger at about that!
New year, same old moaning.
No it’s not. We deserve better than what was put on last night. It was to be the great event to kick start The Gathering 2013. We can spend millions on Dublin Castle for a bunch of EU politicians but we have to settle for the sham that was last night.
Tickets were ?15 which for a live concert on New years eve wasn’t bad, I thought Imelda May was fantastic. Trinity looked amazing I was passing on Sunday evening when they were practicing it was lovely.
Glad you enjoyed it. Happy new year Helen
Thought it was really funny when RTE started showing other countries new year firework displays at midnight. License fee money at work right there!!
Oh God will you all stop till lunchtime!!
They’ll be sorry Gavan when that question is asked at a table quiz!! Hey, this is stuff we need to know!
Wow. Full marks on your research there Gav. (You forgot to mention that they are both years and also that they both add all their digits up to an even number). Even more wow now.
Have a horrible & unpleasant two thirteen everyone ;)
You mean twenty thirteen?
No Robin. two thirteen. Just ask Micheal Noonan
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