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Rebecca Naden/PA Wire

Scrabble player caught cheating at US event

“It’s unfortunate. The Scrabble world is abuzz. The internet is abuzz”.

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.

Scrabble player demands opponent be strip-searched over lost ‘G’ >

How to: survive a long-haul flight >

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29 Comments
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    Mute bob
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    Aug 15th 2012, 12:12 PM

    I’m lost for words!

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    Mute Adam O'Sullivan
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    Aug 15th 2012, 12:26 PM

    If they did drug test them would they only check for E’s?

    92
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    Mute Colm mccormack
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    Aug 15th 2012, 12:35 PM

    A G N B

    That’s bang out of order.

    84
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    Mute Mike Creamer
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    Aug 15th 2012, 12:39 PM

    i like it

    19
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    Mute Gagsy 99
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    Aug 15th 2012, 12:28 PM

    I wonder how his girlfriend feels about……oh wait,…

    78
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    Mute Pierce2020
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    Aug 15th 2012, 12:13 PM

    “Abuzz” 75 points on a triple word score, nice

    62
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    Mute Damocles
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    Aug 15th 2012, 12:22 PM

    How? One z would have to be a blank.

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    Mute Pierce2020
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    Aug 15th 2012, 12:31 PM

    You’re right it should be 45, ah that’s how I keep winning.

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    Mute Damocles
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    Aug 15th 2012, 12:43 PM

    Pierce,

    If we’re going to get precious about it then depending on which triple word score you’re using and the orientation of the word the the z, the blank or the b could be on a double letter score.

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    Mute Pierce2020
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    Aug 15th 2012, 12:54 PM

    Damocles, this is why you and I stopped playing scrabble

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    Mute Damocles
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    Aug 15th 2012, 2:02 PM

    Just sayin’

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    Mute Pierce2020
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    Aug 15th 2012, 2:07 PM

    That’s it Damocles, you’re barred from the Mornington Crescent scrabble league

    26
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    Mute Damocles
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    Aug 15th 2012, 2:14 PM

    Sheesh. ‘Snot fair.

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    Mute mattoid
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    Aug 15th 2012, 12:24 PM

    Not the sharpest knife in the drawer methinks – wouldn’t it have looked just a little suspicious when four blanks were played instead of two, and his last table was left with no blanks?

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    Mute Kerry Blake
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    Aug 15th 2012, 12:31 PM

    Was wondering about that as well.

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    Mute Michael Russell
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    Aug 15th 2012, 1:05 PM

    He’s good with words, not maths

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    Mute Brian Doran
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    Aug 15th 2012, 1:11 PM

    read the article, he took the blanks after the end of his previous game, meaning the blanks were used in the previous game and only one bag of tiles is used during a game so obviously his bag of tiles is the one that was being used during the game in which he was caught cheating

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    Mute mattoid
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    Aug 15th 2012, 2:08 PM

    Brian, a player doesn’t have a personal bag of tiles in scrabble – the bag of tiles is shared between all competitors in the game, in this case two…

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    Mute Abi Dennis
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    Aug 15th 2012, 12:21 PM

    i havent been this devo since that tranpire did the dirt on rpatz IS THERE NO HONOUR IN THIS WORLD?!

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    Mute Abi Dennis
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    Aug 15th 2012, 12:26 PM

    *trampire…god damn touch screen

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    Mute Simon Barnes
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    Aug 15th 2012, 12:58 PM

    I liked ‘tranpire’ better :-)

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    Mute Jim Walsh
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    Aug 15th 2012, 12:54 PM

    My world has just come to an end. Is there no honour left at all!

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    Mute Kevin Maughan
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    Aug 15th 2012, 1:31 PM

    Just like Fr Dick Byrne. All his words said “Useless Priest Can’t say Mass.”

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    Mute Paraic Simpson
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    Aug 15th 2012, 1:03 PM

    What a cheating f_ _ _er

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    Mute Gis Bayertz
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    Aug 15th 2012, 7:00 PM

    Somebody think of the children

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    Mute Tim O'Hanrahan
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    Aug 15th 2012, 1:30 PM

    “A Red Letter Day 4 Scrabble”

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    Mute Paraic Simpson
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    Aug 15th 2012, 1:02 PM

    What a cheating f_ _ _Dr

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    Mute ThePeople OfIreland
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    Aug 15th 2012, 4:11 PM

    And it’s not even a good cheat. If there are only 2 blank tiles in the bag and say the other guy got them how could he cheat

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    Mute sunshine
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    Aug 15th 2012, 1:05 PM

    Lol trampire is what the papers are calling the one from twilight that cheated on Robert partisan

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