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Tournament SCRABBLE® play in Canada and the United States is administered by NASPA and its Tournament Committee. All questions about tournaments should be sent to that committee’s mailing list.
Tournaments are organized by NASPA-sanctioned Directors and listed on our calendar. You must be a NASPA member to play in a NASPA event,
Brand-new tournament players must also be NASPA members and may either buy a full membership or a trial six-month membership (US$15) through their tournament organizer. If they opt for a trial membership, at any time during the six-month period they can send an additional $15 and extend it to a full membership.
As players want to register for your tournament, you will need to check the Membership Database to be sure their NASPA membership is current.
Tournament results and ratings are currently posted at the NSA website, but we will start posting them on the NASPA web site in early July.
In order to direct a tournament, you must be a NASPA member and certified as a director. For more information about and for directors, please see our Directors page.
Most tournaments are open to all and fully rated by the NASPA; these are referred to as Open Rated Tournaments (ORT). However, there are also a few other tournament types that are sanctioned and rated. See table below (exerpted from the Director's Manual and expanded) to compare them:
Open Rated Tournament (ORT) | Local Club Tournament (LCT) | Challenge/Championships | |
Advance Notice | 8 Weeks | None required | None Required (for now) |
Tournament calendar listing | Listed on NASPA calendar | Not listed on calendar | Not listed on NASPA calendar |
Rating Method | fully rated | 1/3 rated | fully rated |
How Often? | No other multi day SCRABBLE game tournaments occurring within two weekends and 200 miles of your proposed tournament.
No other one-day tournament on same day within 200 miles. |
At most, once per month | [TBA] |
How Many games? | At least 4 games | At least 3 games | At least 4 games |
How Many players? | At least 4 players in each division, at least 2 rated players in each division | At least 4 players in each division, at least 2 rated players in each division | At least 4 players in each division, at least 2 rated players in each division |
Player restrictions | All players must be current NASPA members | All players must be current NASPA members | All players must be current NASPA members
Entry restricted to challenge/championship participants (e.g., two clubs/two regions, within a state). |
Participation Fee | $.50 per player per game | $.50 per player per game | $.50 per player per game |
Examples | National Scrabble Championship, most tournaments | One-day tournament that is created on short notice | Portland-Seattle Interclub Challenge, Texas State Championship |
NASPA maintains its calendar of sanctioned tournaments as an information resource for its members. Registered directors may apply to the Committee to add fully rated tournaments to the calendar, provided the following conditions are met:
Furthermore, unless there are exceptional circumstances and permission is obtained in advance, an event cannot be rated unless:
Local Club Tournaments (LCT), which are 1/3-rated, do not require advance sanctioning and are not listed in the calendar. LCT's have the same Player Participation fee as sanctioned Open Rated Tournaments.
Major events, such as national championships, are webcast on this web site, and web coverage is archived in perpetuity.
Web coverage typically consists of standings updates continuously throughout an event, commentary about the event’s highlights, photos and interactive games where you can follow along at the top board in real time.
Copyright © 2024 NASPA All rights reserved. SCRABBLE is a trademark of Hasbro, Inc. in the USA and Canada, and of Mattel, Inc. elsewhere. NASPA and its activities are neither endorsed by nor affiliated with Hasbro or Mattel. For more information about NASPA or for comments or issues with this page, please email us.