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2013 School Scrabble Championship comment 1: another $10,000 bluff
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Donald Sauter
Jun 4, 2013, 11:52:53 AM6/4/13
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2013 School Scrabble Championship comment 1: another $10,000 bluff
NOTE: this comment is in response to an interesting article in Deadspin on the 2013 School Scrabble Championship. The author would not post my comments, so rec.games.boards gets them. The Deadspin article is at:
http://deadspin.com/searching-for-anything-but-bobby-fischer-at-school-scra-496035498
***
Thanks a million! I've been waiting for years for a look at the School Scrabble Championship, keeping a running Google News search on "school scrabble" and "fatsis.
But no thanks for spilling the beans on the phony ELOPEES in the playoff game. I was planning to spring that on the public myself. This is at least the third year in a row for a $10,000 bluff. Two years ago it was CARNATE, which made a bit of a stir in the media. Last year it was ROTUNDER. That was stonewalled, but now you can see it in the picture of Andy's board.
While poker-style Scrabble may be fine and dandy between consenting adults, how many people would agree it's desirable for young students? Funny how, even within serious Scrabble circles, discussion of phonies is always accompanied by embarrassment and shame. Witness,
> "These more experienced kids will sometimes just throw down eye charts, and the younger kids are too scared to call them on it,"
In a Slate article about Scrabble cheating, prompted by the episode at the 2012 National Scrabble Championship, Stefan Fatsis devoted a big paragraph to phonies, although he takes pains to assure us, "technically, that wasn't cheating." School Scrabble had to set a cap on the point spread because of phony-paloozas.
Instead of all this handwringing, wouldn't it make more sense to simply return to the original, classy, free challenge that served Scrabble perfectly well from 1948 to 1976? Nobody can tell us who snuck in the bluff rule in 1976, anyhow. And keep in mind that there are really only a few thousand people on earth who play the North American poker-style Scrabble. In the rest of the world, the penalty for challenging a good word is a mere 5 points--equivalent to about a seventh of a turn. The tens upon tens of millions of people playing Scrabble and its ripoffs electronically have spoken loud and clear: they want no part of this bluffing garbage. Surely not a game in a million nowadays is played with the North American challenge rule. Unfortunately, the standard fix is more ludicrous than bluffing is revolting; the programs won't even let you enter an invalid word! Imagine baseball in which you get to keep swinging until you finally get a hit.
Isn't it time to pull tournament Scrabble back out of the barroom, at least for the kids? All it would take is a quick stroke of the pen.
Donald Sauter
NOTE: this comment is in response to an interesting article in Deadspin on the 2013 School Scrabble Championship. The author would not post my comments, so rec.games.boards gets them. The Deadspin article is at:
http://deadspin.com/searching-for-anything-but-bobby-fischer-at-school-scra-496035498
***
Thanks a million! I've been waiting for years for a look at the School Scrabble Championship, keeping a running Google News search on "school scrabble" and "fatsis.
But no thanks for spilling the beans on the phony ELOPEES in the playoff game. I was planning to spring that on the public myself. This is at least the third year in a row for a $10,000 bluff. Two years ago it was CARNATE, which made a bit of a stir in the media. Last year it was ROTUNDER. That was stonewalled, but now you can see it in the picture of Andy's board.
While poker-style Scrabble may be fine and dandy between consenting adults, how many people would agree it's desirable for young students? Funny how, even within serious Scrabble circles, discussion of phonies is always accompanied by embarrassment and shame. Witness,
> "These more experienced kids will sometimes just throw down eye charts, and the younger kids are too scared to call them on it,"
In a Slate article about Scrabble cheating, prompted by the episode at the 2012 National Scrabble Championship, Stefan Fatsis devoted a big paragraph to phonies, although he takes pains to assure us, "technically, that wasn't cheating." School Scrabble had to set a cap on the point spread because of phony-paloozas.
Instead of all this handwringing, wouldn't it make more sense to simply return to the original, classy, free challenge that served Scrabble perfectly well from 1948 to 1976? Nobody can tell us who snuck in the bluff rule in 1976, anyhow. And keep in mind that there are really only a few thousand people on earth who play the North American poker-style Scrabble. In the rest of the world, the penalty for challenging a good word is a mere 5 points--equivalent to about a seventh of a turn. The tens upon tens of millions of people playing Scrabble and its ripoffs electronically have spoken loud and clear: they want no part of this bluffing garbage. Surely not a game in a million nowadays is played with the North American challenge rule. Unfortunately, the standard fix is more ludicrous than bluffing is revolting; the programs won't even let you enter an invalid word! Imagine baseball in which you get to keep swinging until you finally get a hit.
Isn't it time to pull tournament Scrabble back out of the barroom, at least for the kids? All it would take is a quick stroke of the pen.
Donald Sauter
Gene Wirchenko
Jun 5, 2013, 12:48:41 AM6/5/13
to
On Tue, 4 Jun 2013 08:52:53 -0700 (PDT), Donald Sauter
<donald...@gmail.com> wrote:
[snip]
>But no thanks for spilling the beans on the phony ELOPEES in the
playoff game. I was planning to spring that on the public myself.
This is at least the third year in a row for a $10,000 bluff. Two
years ago it was CARNATE, which made a bit of a stir in the media.
Last year it was ROTUNDER. That was stonewalled, but now you can see
it in the picture of Andy's board.
According to dictionary.reference.com, "carnate" is a word. It
means "Invested with, or embodied in, flesh."
[snip]
Sincerely,
Gene Wirchenko
<donald...@gmail.com> wrote:
[snip]
>But no thanks for spilling the beans on the phony ELOPEES in the
playoff game. I was planning to spring that on the public myself.
This is at least the third year in a row for a $10,000 bluff. Two
years ago it was CARNATE, which made a bit of a stir in the media.
Last year it was ROTUNDER. That was stonewalled, but now you can see
it in the picture of Andy's board.
means "Invested with, or embodied in, flesh."
[snip]
Sincerely,
Gene Wirchenko
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