2016 Canadian School SCRABBLE Invitational

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Commentary: Before the Tournament

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Go to: Before the Tournament, Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Award Ceremony, Final Round 1, Final Round 2.

Pre-event

Friday

Alongside this year’s CNSC 7-game Early Bird tournament, the inaugural 3-game Canadian School SCRABBLE Invitational will take place. Ten school teams were invited to participate, and for the time being, the teams are pretty much Toronto-centric, but in time, the event hopes to draw students from further away, too!

The top-ranked team of this year’s Invitational is Jack & Jamie WSWD (Westwood), the reigning Toronto School SCRABBLE champions. They join Zoe & Mireille BWMR (Bowmore), Eric & Evan JMNR (Jack), Evan & Ben BWMR (Bowmore), Karanvir & Aayam FLCR (Fletcher's), Lucas & David BWMR (Bowmore), Michael & Jack BRWN (Brown), Harman & Navroop FLCR (Fletcher's), Kiran & Gurleen FLCR (Fletcher's), and Victoria & Paneet FLCR (Fletcher's). All of them competed in this year’s Toronto School SCRABBLE Championships and six of the teams joined Jack & Jamie WSWD (Westwood) at April’s North American School SCRABBLE Championship (held at Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots) in Foxboro, MA.

In the past, few Canadian students traveled to the North American School SCRABBLE Championship, but this year Hasbro Canada supplied a bus! So, 21 student players and parents/students jammed into the bus for the daylong drive to Massachusetts-based weekend event. John Chew coordinated for the bus but executing the trip was all due to the incredible efforts of Vera Bigall, the director of this year’s student event.

This morning, after the students play their first game, Matthew Tunnicliffe, the reigning North American SCRABBLE Champion, will visit and play all ten teams, at once. The students will be set up on one side of the table and Matthew will make quick plays (assisted by someone drawing replacement tiles for him) on each board. The speed with which Matthew will have to play might hurt his strategy and maybe one of the student teams will be able to defeat him. Can’t wait to find out.

Each student received an event swag bag with event tiles (with maple leaf blanks), a wooden NASPA rack, and a SCRABBLE Twist game provided by Hasbro Canada.

After the exhibition matches and lunch the teams will play two more games before a winner is determined. Point spread is going to matter!

The students excitedly poured into the playing room over the past hour. There are almost as many parents as kids! In the pre-event for fun games, I spotted a fun Zoe & Mireille BWMR (Bowmore) play: REJOICERS through the ER for 76! Nothing like a fun 9-letter-word to get the SCRABBLE juices running! At the next board: ERASION and HASSELEd* (the phonies are beginning early!).

Vera Bigall (assisted by the wonderful Sue Trembley) welcomed the teams and parents with a quick review of the day’s plan. She explained how the top two finishers today will be returning on Monday to have their best of 2 finals. The student games will be run concurrently with the main event final games (you can see both on the web site!).

The games have begun!