2014 National SCRABBLE Championship

The 2014 National SCRABBLE Championship will take place on August 9-13, 2014 at the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center, 153 Franklin Street, Buffalo, NY, 14202. This webpage is updated regularly as additional details become available.

Live Event Coverage

For continuously updated results from our event once it gets underway, please visit the LIVE COVERAGE section.

Registration

Online registration is available as of late December. A list of registered players is available on this website and on cross-tables.com. The rest of this section describes in detail the various terms and conditions of registration, most of which are also discussed on the registration form.

Registration is open now, and will close on July 30, 2014, after which players will only be accepted if they do not make a division odd.

Eligibility

To play in the NSC, you must (1) be a NASPA member, and (2) have played in an officially sanctioned SCRABBLE tournament to earn an official tournament rating. If you live in the United States or Canada, that rating should be a NASPA rating; if you live elsewhere it may be a WESPA rating or other comparable national rating.

If you meet these criteria and prefer to play using the international Collins (CSW) lexicon, you may do so. If at least 20 players register in each of the two planned CSW divisions, players will compete separately in an open division and in one for players whose qualifying NASPA CSW rating (or equivalent as determined by the organizing committee) is less than 1400. The qualifying NASPA CSW rating is the highest tournament rating attained at the end of a NASPA CSW-rated tournament which finished during the period August 1, 2012 to July 30, 2014. (If you had a NASPA CSW rating prior to this period, but did not play during the period, your qualifying rating is that unchanged rating.) The CSW divisions will be NASPA and WESPA rated.

If not, then the TWL division(s), numbered 1–4, in which you may play depend on your rating as follows. If you do not have a NASPA rating, you must play in Division 1, the open division. If you do have a NASPA rating, then your division eligibility is based on a Qualification Rating (QR), which consists of the highest tournament rating attained at the end of any NASPA TWL-rated tournament (or segment of a split-ratd tournament) which finished during the period August 1, 2012 to July 30, 2014. (If you have a rating, but do not play during this period, your QR is your unchanged current rating.) If your QR is 1800 or higher, you must play in Division 1. If it is in the range 1400–1799, you must play in Division 1 or 2. If it is in the range 1000–1399, you must play in Division 1, 2 or 3. If it is below 1000, you may play in any of the four divisions.

Player division assignments will be reviewed after July 30, 2014 to ensure that everyone is registered in the correct division. If the division in which you registered is not one in which your QR permits you to play, we will move you up to the lowest permissible division. If this new division is Division 1, you will be required to pay the difference in entry fees before checking in at the Championship.

Collins Division

Again this year, there will be at least one separate division of players using the Collins lexicon at the National Scrabble Championship. Provided that at least 20 players register for each division, two Collins divisions will be offered.

Your division eligibility is based on your Collins Qualifying Rating (CQR), which is determined in one of three ways, depending on your rating status.

If you have a NASPA Collins rating, then your CQR consists of the highest tournament rating attained at the end of any NASPA Collins-rated tournament (or segment of a split-rated tournament) which finished during the period August 1, 2012 to July 30, 2014. If you have a NASPA Collins rating, but do not play during this period, your CQR is your unchanged current rating.
If you do not have a NASPA Collins rating but do have a NASPA TWL rating, your CQR is your TWL QR as described in the previous section.
If you do not have any NASPA rating but do have a WESPA rating, your CQR is the most current WESPA rating available for you as of July 30, 2014.
If you do not have any NASPA or WESPA rating but do have a foreign national rating, you will be assigned an equivalent CQR by the organizing committee.

If you do not have any sort of rating at all, you must first obtain one at a regular tournament before competing in the Championship.

If your CQR is 1400 or higher, you must play in Division 1. If it is 1399 or below, you may play in Division 1 or 2. If fewer than 20 players register in either division, the two divisions will be combined into a single Collins division.

The Collins division will be run using NASPA rules, except that the Collins lexicon will be used and the challenge penalty will be 5 points per word. The Collins division will be NASPA and WESPA rated.

Entry Fees

The base entry fee for Division 1 and the Collins Division is $175; for Divisions 2–4, $150.

Youths, defined as those whose 18th birthday is after July 20, 2014, may pay $50 to play in any division.

The above fees will be increased by $50 after May 31, 2014. For example, a Division 1 player signing up on June 1, 2014 would pay $225.

Players accepted after the close of registration on July 30, 2014 must pay a $75 late penalty. For example, a youth signing up on August 1, 2014 would pay $175. Acceptance of registrants after July 30, 2014 is not guaranteed, and will generally only be permitted if it does not cause a division to be uneven.

Players not staying at the host hotel for the duration of the event must also pay a commuter/facility fee of $20 per day ($100 maximum). The commuter fee does not apply to those local to the Buffalo area. Verification of status as a hotel guest will be performed at registration/check-in and throughout the event. Players staying at the host hotel for only part of the event must pay the full commuter fee, and may then apply for a refund of $20 per day stayed at the host hotel (to a maximum of $100) after the conclusion of the event, by providing the Championship Committee with hotel confirmation number and dates of stay.

Fees payable are computed based on when (Central Time) funds are received in full. If you are not paying right away online at the moment when you register, please be sure to allow enough time for your mailed payment to reach us.

Division Changes

To change divisions after you have registered, please email the organizing committee at nsc@scrabbleplayers.org. Division changes are subject to the following conditions:

After registration closes on July 30, 2014, if your division change would increase the number of players who may potentially have to have byes (if you would make two divisions odd, or would make a larger division odd), you will be waitlisted until this is not the case.
If you move to a division with a higher base entry fee, the change will not take effect until you have paid the difference in entry fees.
If you move to a division with a lower base entry fee, the difference in entry fees will be refunded to your credit card (if that is how you paid, and if the time limit on credit card refunds has not elapsed), or by check or cash at check-in otherwise.

If your rating rises above the limit for the division in which you registered, you will automatically be moved to the lowest division for which you qualify.

Refunds

If you paid your tournament fees by credit card, any credit owing to you will be issued to your card; otherwise, we will mail a check to your membership address as shown in your member profile. No refunds will be issued after the refund deadlines described below.

All refunds are subject to a cancellation fee of $15.

If you decide you need to cancel your registration, we will refund your entry fee (and commuter fee, if applicable), if you so request by 11:59 p.m. Central Time on July 30, 2014.

Conditions

Rules, Code and Terms/Conditions

By registering for the NSC, you agree to abide by the NASPA Tournament Rules and Code of Conduct, and agree to comply with the 2014 National SCRABBLE Championship Terms and Conditions. In particular, some games at this tournament, probably the highest Division 1 board without a Gibsonized player, will be annotated live. If you refuse to play a designated game with annotation, you will forfeit it, and may at the director’s discretion be assigned a spread penalty of −200 points.

Minor Release

A Minor Release and Consent Form will be required for all players under age 18 as of July 30, 2014, and may be downloaded and submitted in advance, or executed by a parent or guardian at registration.

Player Bulletin

Please read our Player Bulletin, and check it again for last-minute updates before you travel to the event.

Equipment Required

Participants in the 2014 National Scrabble Championship are responsible for bringing all equipment necessary to play in the tournament. If neither player in a game has equipment available for their game, a double forfeit may be imposed.

Changes

The Championship Committee reserves the right to modify the above to account for unforeseen special circumstances.

Hotel/Travel Information

Hotel Registration

The official event hotel is the Hyatt Regency Buffalo at 2 Fountain Plaza, Buffalo, NY 14202 (phone: 716-856-1234). Players registering through our group link are eligible for our special rate of $129/night (includes complimentary Internet) at the event hotel; those who live outside of the Buffalo area and stay elsewhere will pay a $100 facility fee to contribute the cost of the venue space.

The Hyatt is immediately adjacent to the Convention Center, and is connected to it by an indoor walkway, with elevators available for players with mobility issues.

Hotel and Event Parking

The Hyatt Regency offers valet parking at standard hotel rates (currently $23/day). Hotel guests may also make use of the self parking lots in the vicinity of the hotel.

There are a number of self parking lots available to both hotel guests and commuters to the tournament. For a map of available lots, click here.

Daily parking rates at self parking lots vary. Based on the best available information, rates begin at $4 per day. To search for parking rates, visit BestParking.com and perform an address search using "153 Franklin Street" for the address.

Dining

Information to follow. In the meantime, here's are two articles from the Toronto Star about the Buffalo dining scene:

Sightseeing

Information to follow.

Roommate Wanted

If you need a roommate and would like a listing here, please contact the Championship Committee and specify your requirements: male, female or either, smoking or nonsmoking, etc. We will put a listing in this section. If you already have a room, please include in your email what nights your room is reserved. You can list your email address or phone number. Several people successfully found roommates for the NSC this way.

IMPORTANT: When you get your roommate, please contact the committee so we can remove your listing.

Chad Finley is seeking a male, nonsmoking roommate, checking in on 8/8 and checking out on 8/13. Chad does not have a reservation at this time. Contact him at (954) 579-5454 or finley.science@gmail.com.
Robb Griffith is seeking 1–3 nonsmoking male or female roommates. He is staying 8/8–13 at the event hotel.

Airport Transport Information

The nearest international airports to the tournament site are as follows. Note that airports with IATA codes beginning with Y are on the Canadian side of the international border, and that travel time does not include highly variable border-crossing delays.

IATA	Name	Time	Distance
BUF	Buffalo Niagara	00:15	10 mi
IAG	Niagara Falls	00:25	20 mi
ROC	Greater Rochester	01:10	70 mi
YHM	John C. Munro Hamilton	01:15	120 km
YYZ	Toronto Pearson	01:30	150 km
YKF	Region of Waterloo	01:50	170 km
YTZ	Billy Bishop Toronto City	02:00	160 km

Check-In

To play in the first round on Saturday morning, you must check in between 10:00 A.M. and 7:00 P.M. on Friday, August 8, 2014, at the NSC registration desk in the Convention Center lobby outside the playing area. You may ask a friend to check in for you by proxy, if you cannot check in in person. If possible, please email us at nsc@scrabbleplayers.org to notify us in advance of proxy arrangements. If you check in by proxy, but do not show up to play, then neither you nor your proxy will be permitted to check in by proxy at future events. If you do not check in before the desk closes at 7:00 P.M., you may join the championship in progress as soon as it is convenient for the pairings staff to add you back in; this may not take place before Sunday morning. No refund will be issued to latecomers.

When you check in, you will be given an announcement sheet. This is to reduce the number of announcements that have to be made on Saturday morning, so that the event can get underway quickly. You are responsible for familiarizing yourself with the announcements and tournament schedule.

Schedule

This schedule for the 2014 National SCRABBLE Championship may be modified to add new events, or possibly to change room locations. Also, until about a month before the event, it should be considered an early draft, with only the times for registration and the main event to be set in stone. Once the event begins, please check this schedule for changes at the beginning of each day.

Unless otherwise indicated, all events take place at the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center at 153 Franklin Street, Buffalo, NY, 14202.

Friday, August 8, 2014

10:00 A.M.–7:00 P.M.: Registration (Lobby)
10:00 A.M.–11:30 P.M.: After hours room open (Room 106AD)
12:00 P.M.–4:00 P.M.: Early bird tournament, restricted to NSC Staff and other NASPA directors (North Exhibit Floor)
4:30 P.M.–5:30 P.M.: Committee meeting for Division Leaders, Division Assistants, Auxiliary Staff (Room 109)
7:00 P.M.–9:30 P.M.: Opening Reception (Ballroom)

Saturday, August 9, 2014

8:30 A.M.–8:55 A.M.: Set up for play (North Exhibit Floor)
8:55 A.M.–9:10 A.M.: Announcements, group photos TBA (North Exhibit Floor)
9:10 A.M.–1:15 P.M.: Rounds 1–4 (North Exhibit Floor)
1:15 P.M.–2:30 P.M.: Canadian Committee and Technology Committee lunch meetings (Room 109)
2:45 P.M.–2:55 P.M.: Set up for play (North Exhibit Floor)
2:55 P.M.–3:05 P.M.: Announcements and 2013 Best Strategic Prize presentation (North Exhibit Floor)
3:05 P.M.–6:15 P.M.: Rounds 5–7 (North Exhibit Floor)
6:30 P.M.–10:00 P.M.: Advisory Board Dinner Meeting (TBA)
9:00 A.M.–11:00 P.M.: After hours room open (Room 106AD)
8:00 P.M.–11:30 P.M.: Trivia Contest (Room 106BC)

Sunday, August 10, 2014

8:30 A.M.–8:55 A.M.: Set up for play (North Exhibit Floor)
8:55 A.M.–9:10 A.M.: Announcements, group photos TBA (North Exhibit Floor)
9:10 A.M.–1:15 P.M.: Rounds 8–11 (North Exhibit Floor)
1:15 P.M.–2:30 P.M.: Club/Directors Committee and Rules Committee lunch meetings (Room 109)
2:45 P.M.–2:55 P.M.: Set up for play (North Exhibit Floor)
2:55 P.M.–3:05 P.M.: Announcements (North Exhibit Floor)
3:05 P.M.–6:15 P.M.: Rounds 12–14 (North Exhibit Floor)
9:00 A.M.–11:00 P.M.: After hours room open (Room 108AD)
8:00 P.M.–9:30 P.M.: Director meeting (Room 106BC)
8:30 P.M.–11:00 P.M.: Evening Musicale (Room 109)

Monday, August 11, 2014

8:30 A.M.–8:55 A.M.: Set up for play (North Exhibit Floor)
8:55 A.M.–9:05 A.M.: Announcements, group photos TBA (North Exhibit Floor)
9:05 A.M.–1:15 P.M.: Rounds 15–18 (North Exhibit Floor)
1:15 P.M.–2:30 P.M.: Tournament Committee and International Committee lunch meetings (Room 109)
2:45 P.M.–2:55 P.M.: Set up for play (North Exhibit Floor)
2:55 P.M.–3:05 P.M.: Announcements (North Exhibit Floor)
3:05 P.M.–6:15 P.M.: Rounds 19–21 (North Exhibit Floor)
6:00 P.M.–11:30 P.M.: After hours play (Room 106AD)
8:30 P.M.–10:30 P.M.: Town Hall meeting (Room 106BC)

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

8:30 A.M.–8:55 A.M.: Set up for play, group photos TBA (North Exhibit Floor)
9:05 A.M.–1:15 P.M.: Rounds 22–25 (North Exhibit Floor)
1:15 P.M.–2:30 P.M.: Director's Manual Committee and Dictionary Committee lunch meetings (Room 109)
2:45 P.M.–2:55 P.M.: Set up for play (North Exhibit Floor)
2:55 P.M.–3:05 P.M.: Announcements (North Exhibit Floor)
3:05 P.M.–6:15 P.M.: Rounds 26–28 (North Exhibit Floor)
6:00 P.M.–11:30 P.M.: After hours play (Room 106AD)
7:30 P.M.–11:30 P.M.: Tag-Team Tourney (Room 106BC)

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

8:30 A.M.–8:55 A.M.: Set up for play (North Exhibit Floor)
8:55 A.M.–9:05 A.M.: Announcements, group photos TBA (North Exhibit Floor)
9:05 A.M.–1:15 P.M.: Rounds 29–31 (North Exhibit Floor)
1:30 P.M.–2:30 P.M.: Prize Ceremony (North Exhibit Floor)
3:00 P.M.–7:00 P.M.: Tear Down (North Exhibit Floor)

The Rose Award

Bob Schoenman's Protiles honors Rose Kreiswirth's memory. Rose was an expert Scrabble® player for over 30 years and cherished the game for its educational values. An accomplished player, Rose was as well known for her sense of fairness and her congeniality as she was for her competitiveness. The Rose Award will be awarded each year at the National SCRABBLE Championship to a female player who, in the opinion of the judges, best exemplifies the fierce competitiveness and compassion that we remember Rose for. Thank you, Bob and Andi Schoenman!

Other Donors

If you are interested in donating prizes to events at the championship, please email us at nsc@scrabbleplayers.org.

Prizes

Full details about cash prizes, and anticipated merchandise prizes, are now posted on the prize table.

Format

The NSC will be paired using tsh along the lines of past events, including Gibsonization on spread. After an initial phase of fixed pairings based on pre-event ratings, the top contenders are paired with each other, and everyone else is paired Swiss. These two groups, contenders and noncontenders, are paired with minimal repeats. For example, if there is no way to pair the contenders without at least one repeat, then they will be paired with one repeat.

The maximum number of contenders is 12 in Rounds 1-28, 8 in Round 29, 4 in Round 30 and 2 in Round 31. The contenders are further divided into a subgroup of leaders and non-leaders, if this can be done without increasing the number of required repeats while maintaining at least four players among the leaders. Leaders are paired by repeatedly having the top unpaired player play the lowest-ranked player that can catch up to them. Non-leaders are paired Swiss.

For further information about this pairing system, please refer to the section on Chew pairings in the tsh documentation.

Staff

Organizer: Chris Cree
Director: Dallas Johnson
Assistant to the Director: Sue Grogan-Johnson
Master of Ceremonies: Alan Stern
Activity Directors: Alice Ching-Chew; Robin Gates
Division leaders: Division 1: John Robertson; Division 2: Bryan Pepper; Division 3: Dan Stock; Division 4: Arthur Moore; Collins: Kieran O'Connor
Division assistants: Division 1: TBA; Division 2: Shelley Ubeika; Division 3: TBA; Division 4: Diane Moore; Collins: TBA
Webmaster: John Chew
Data Entry: Division 1: Tim Crotty; Division 2/CSW: Reese Daniel; Division 3/4: TBA
Internet reporter: TBA
Internet photographer: TBA
Annotators: Lisa Kessler; TBA

Other Volunteers

Thursday, August 7

Volunteers are needed to help prepare the playing room for the tournament.

Friday, August 8

Volunteers are needed to help with registration and check-in.

10:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M.

12:30 P.M.-3:00 P.M.

3:00 P.M.-5:30 P.M.

5:30 P.M.-7:00 P.M.

Saturday to Wednesday: Game Days

Laptops for Adjudication

We will need at least 10 laptops for adjudications. The laptops will need the latest version of ZYZZYVA. Please be sure the correct word list is in operation and disable your screensaver in the playing area during games.

Clean and Pack

We need about 15 Clean and Pack volunteers to help collect and box NASPA tournament supplies to be shipped back to the storage facility after the awards ceremony on Wed., August 13, 2014.

Unassigned Volunteers

Following is a list of those who have volunteered, but do not yet have a specific assignment:

Vendors

Only vendors of merchandise licensed by Hasbro will be provided with vendor space and permitted to display and/or sell products inside the tournament venue (which includes the playing room, after hours room, meeting rooms, and any other function rooms or prefunction space used by NASPA during the event). Licensed vendors are subject to prior approval by NASPA, at its sole and absolute discretion.

Other vendors who wish to sell products must do so at their own expense from their own rented space (hotel room, meeting room, etc.), subject to any applicable regulations. NASPA accepts no liability or responsibility for such vendors or their activities.

Further Information

This page will be updated as the event draws nearer. If you have urgent questions about the event, please email us at nsc@scrabbleplayers.org.

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