Revision as of 13:19, 9 August 2009

This page lists all prizes to be awarded at the 2009 National SCRABBLE Championship.

We are grateful to Hasbro for increasing their contribution to this second major championship in Dayton, and to our many private donors this year. Overall donations, which amounted to the equivalent of four divisions' prize funds in 2007, are down significantly this year, and pay for only two. We are nonetheless happy to be able to offer a Division 5 prize fund that is between 2007 and 2008 values on a per player basis, prize funds for Divisions 2, 3 and 4 which are between 2007 and 2008 gross values and awarding the 2009 National Scrabble Champion the top prize of $10,000.

In addition, all division winners will receive personalized commemorative boards designed by Kelly Smith.

Inquiries concerning the allocation of the prize fund should be directed to this year’s budget committee, consisting of John Chew and Mary Rhoades, preferably after the conclusion of the Championship.

This Year’s Prizewinners

Complete lists of prizewinners by division are available at this web site: Division 1, Division 2, Division 3, Division 4 and Division 5.

Congratulations to 2009 National SCRABBLE Champion Dave Wiegand.

Prize Chart

The following chart shows the prizes that will be awarded in each division. “Pick” indicates that the winner can choose one from the following pool of prizes: 9 Scrabylon DVDs, 6 sets of Protiles, 2 copies of the book Letterati, and 1 Luise Shafritz quilted board cover.

Prize Rules

• Cash prizes will be mailed by check to the winners; 30% withholding tax applies to those who have not completed the appropriate IRS form.
• Noncash prizes may not be shipped, and may be awarded to a runner-up at the organizers' discretion.
• Players are ranked according to their record. A player with more wins has a better record than one with fewer wins. If two players have the same number of wins but different number of losses, the player with fewer losses has the better record. A player’s spread in a round is the signed difference between the player’s score and the player’s opponent’s score, and is positive if the player won the game. A player’s cumulative spread is the sum of all their spreads. A tie counts as half a win and half a loss, no spread. A bye counts as a win with a spread of +50. A forfeit win (loss) counts as a win (loss) with a spread of +50 (−50). If two players have the same number of wins and losses but different cumulative spread, the player with the higher cumulative spread has the better record. Players who are tied on wins, losses and cumulative spread will share monetary prizes and draw randomly to determine who receives merchandise prizes.
• Unless otherwise indicated, plays including one or more words which are not acceptable in the tournament lexicon will not be eligible for word or turn prizes.

Class prizes

Class prizes are awarded to those players whose pretournament ranking among all players who played at least one game in the tournament was no better than the median, based on their tournament record. A player may not receive both a class prize and an overall rank prize; instead, the player receives the prize of higher value, and the prize(s) of lower value is awarded to the player(s) with the next best record

Tuff Luck

The “Tuff Luck” prize is awarded to the player who loses six games by the smallest total spread.

Best Record, Lower Half, Day 3

This prize is awarded to the player who had the best record counting only the player’s Day 3 games, and whose start-of-day rank among all players who played at least one game on Day 3 was no better than the median.

Best Record, Lower Half, Day 4

This prize is awarded to the player who had the best record counting only the player’s Day 4 games, and whose start-of-day rank among all players who played at least one game on Day 4 was no better than the median.

Best Earth Word

The winners of these prizes will be determined by the donor.

High “NSC” Words

These prizes are awarded to the highest-scoring words containing the letters N, S and C. A blank may be used for any or all of the letters.