With the World Scrabble Championship coming up and confusion about how American participants can qualify for it, it's about time for a rant. Being so new to the scene I'm probably not even qualified to comment on this. But it makes me sad that the USA seems so out of sync with the world Scrabble community. Was the goal of SOWPODS to create a unified English-language lexicon for the whole world? If so, what was the point of nearly everyone switching except the USA?

I find it very strange that Americans who want to compete in the World Championship must take upon themselves not only the task of learning the words, but keeping two lexicons mentally separate in their brains. Personally I would love to compete at the WSC someday, and I want to learn all the words, but I'm not looking forward to lexicon confusion. For now it's pretty much all OWL all the time, and trying to avoid SOWPODS completely.

I hate censoring my own learning. I don't think I'm the only one either; there is a large contingent of younger players who don't whine about having to learn new words. But we're all being grandfathered into this broken system. The only real arguments I've heard against adopting the international lexicon are "we don't want to have to learn more words" and "including all these crazy words will drive people away from Scrabble". The first argument doesn't hold any water with me. Most people will need to learn the new 2s, 3s, 4s, and some high-probability bingos (1000 words, maybe?). Expert players ought to be willing to work harder than that. That's why they're experts. The second argument seems like a non sequitur... people don't generally like or dislike Scrabble because of the dictionary. They play it because it's a fun game. Pruning the lexicon as Dan Pratt generally suggests will not attract players to tournaments or the kitchen table, and expanding the lexicon will not drive them away. Why would it?

As if lexicon confusion weren't a large enough self-imposed handicap, Hasbro and the NSA seem totally uninterested in the WSC. It's completely off the radar. Heck, I don't even know when the next WSC is going to be. And now apparently no one knows whether there will be a qualifying tournament or what. What the heck is going on here? I guess it's a Hasbro/Mattel thing. For the sake of the game and its players, I wish these companies would get their acts together. The problem seems mostly to be with Hasbro, though it may just seem that way to me since I'm within their domain.

Are there any real reasons not to join the rest of the world and adopt SOWPODS at this point? I know the issue has apparently been beaten to death on CGP, so it gets nixed every time anyone so much as mentions it. But especially with all the new players coming in, I think it deserves to be discussed again.

I just realized that I only post about club sessions when I do well. Oh well, here's another very positive report from last night's session. Final record 5-1 +904, but 3 of those wins were against the relatively weaker players in the club. I'd watch out for Jess Mickelson once he hits the tournament scene, though. He beat me last week, and he's definitely been studying up.

Game 1, Kirsten Gwilliam, W 533-223.
Me: ??SSQXZ, Bingos: DEvOTES, lINEATE(D), REFUGIA.
Opp: SSJ, Bingos: none

Game 2, Kent Nelson, L 347-364.
Me: SSQ, Bingos: PONDERS.
Opp: ??SSJXZ, Bingos: T(I)RELESS.

Game 3, Marie Irvine, W 511-251.
Me: SSSSQXZ. Bingos: AGAROSE, SATIRIC.
Opp: ??J. Bingos: none

Game 4, Mike Stevens, W 424-329.
Me: ?JQXZ. Bingos: BREATHE, ANTI(P)ODE.
Opp: ?SSSS. Bingos: SYNuRAE.

Game 5, Victor Torres, W 490-371.
Me: ?SSSSX. Bingos: LABrOID, DAGGERS, SIENITE.
Opp: ?JQZ. Bingos: (E)NTRAILs.

Game 6, Jess Mickelson, W 464-327.
Me: ?Q. Bingos: PRANGED, COIfFED, VALETED.
Opp: ?SSSSJXZ. Bingos: YElLOWS.

I got some good stuff, and was happy with how I played (prequackle, of course). It was especially nice to find VALETED instantly, because that was one of the "difficult" 7s I'd been having trouble with a few weeks ago. Most of my finds of 7s were in the top 6000 or so, which is great, because it means my studying is paying off. Since I started using cardbox mode with a short timer, I feel like I've been finding bingos much more quickly, and with less effort. I'm excited for the next few months. Lots of study, and I should be ready for whatever tournament I play in next.

Thanks to many people whose names I will actually remember and mention in a post to the Zyzzyva users group, Zyzzyva will have SOWPODS definitions for all OSWi base words up to length 8, plus inflections. I always forget how much tweaking it takes to prettify large amounts of data, even with my trusty servant Ruby to help. I've been working to get these definitions into Zyzzyva format for most of the past five nights or so. I hope I haven't poisoned my brain too much with British words, but I tried to pay as little attention as possible while paying as close attention as possible. I'll be doing some spot checking tomorrow, but other than that, I think the word list is ready to roll, and I plan to announce it on the Zyzzyva list either tomorrow or Thursday. Now, time for bed.