A recap of 2022 by the numbers
It's a little hard to believe, since it feels like an eternity since we first launched the organization way back in late 2019, but it's true: 2022 was actually the CoCo's first full calendar year of running in-person Scrabble tournaments.
Crazy, right? But think about it: We opened our doors at the end of 2019. In 2020, we got a grand total of one tournament in before COVID shut everything down. And in '21, we waited about two-thirds of the year before enough players were vaccinated and the pandemic was a little more under control, then we finally held our grand reopening on Labor Day. So it wasn't until this year that we finally got a full 12 months of live Scrabble in.
All I can say is, it's about time. After all, getting to play tournaments is the whole reason we do this. So it's pretty gratifying to get to offer that tournament experience to our player base year-round. Yeah - 2022 was pretty great.
With a full year of tournaments (almost) in the books, now seems like a good time to take a look back at everything. Here's a look at 2022 by the numbers - all the tournaments, the games, the players, and more.
17.5
CoCo tournaments played in 2022. There's a 0.5 in there because I'm half-counting the upcoming Los Angeles event - our first-ever New Year's tournament! L.A. starts on Dec. 31 and ends on Jan. 1, 2023.
2,081
Total games played. Not too shabby. We've come a long way since 2020, when this number was a grand total of 200.
99
Players who played in at least one CoCo tournament this year. One short of an even hundred! Bummer. Maybe next year...
12
Players who won at least one CoCo tournament this year. Dave Wiegand tops the list, with a whopping five titles; Rob Robinsky was the king of Minnesota, winning two events there. Ten other people (Alec Sjöholm, Becky Dyer, Ben Schoenbrun, Charles Reinke, Conrad Bassett-Bouchard, Jesse Day, Kolton Koehler, Matthew O'Connor, Sam Rosin, and myself) won one tournament each.
11
Countries from which players came to play a tournament this year. In addition to the U.S. and Canada, we saw competitors join us from Australia, Germany, India, Ireland, Kuwait, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, and the United Kingdom.
1,780,215
Total points scored in CoCo tournaments this year. That's an average of just under 428 per player, per game.
723
The highest score recorded by any player in a single game this year. Fittingly, that distinction goes to Dave Wiegand, who defeated poor Sandy Nang by a score of 723-274 at the Austin Tile X-Words event in April. The only other 700+ game this year came from Conrad Bassett-Bouchard, who enjoyed a 713-253 win over Kolton Koehler at our beach house tournament in Oregon over Labor Day weekend.
545
The highest losing score in a game this year. This one comes courtesy of Brian Bowman, who came up short against Conrad Bassett-Bouchard at Word Cup by an incredible final score of 553-545.
328
The lowest winning score in a game this year. Props to KC Frodyma, who emerged victorious by a 328-309 decision against Lola McKissen at our Oregon State Championship event in May. Not exactly a barnburner...
1,127
The highest combined score in a game this year - Will Anderson beat Charles Reinke at Word Cup by a score of 687-440. Not every day you score 440 points in a game and still get totally crushed. Sorry, Charles.
8
Tie games this year. The highest-scoring tie we had was David Eldar 541, Wolfram Poh 541, at Word Cup this summer; the lowest-scoring tie was Paula Catanese 361, Mark Kenas 361, also at Word Cup.
55
Articles published on this very blog you're reading right now. That's one every Monday morning, plus a smattering of other special editions here and there. It might seem like a small thing, but it's important for us to use this site as a way to communicate with the Scrabble community on a regular basis. And apparently, you all have responded - total page views on the CoCo site this year are at 100,474 and counting.
35
Videos posted on our YouTube channel. These were mostly games from this year's Word Cup and ATX events, with a couple of others in the mix as well. Our videos received 15,128 views in 2022, all told, for a total of about 3,740 hours of viewing time. Video is an important part of our marketing strategy - it helps expose new people to our great game, as well as create interesting content for existing players. We're proud of the high-quality video content we put out in 2022, and we'll look to keep building on that success next year.
17
Directors who ran or co-ran CoCo tournaments in 2022. In addition to Jennifer and myself, Allison Anderson, Becky Dyer, Chris Lipe, Conrad Bassett-Bouchard, David Whitley, James Curley, Mark Francillon, Marty Gold, Mike Johnson, Peter Armstrong, Puneet Sharma, Rob Robinsky, Steve Pellinen, Terry Kang, and Zachary Dang all helped make tournaments happen this past year. I can't express how thankful I am for all of these folks. The CoCo doesn't exist without great directors. We're lucky to have many of them.
5
People who served on the CoCo's Board of Directors. The aforementioned Becky, Mike, Pete, Steve, and I made up that five-person team this year. Serving on a board means slogging through a lot of administrative stuff like answering emails and attending meetings and whatnot, but our board also plays an important role in steering the future of the organization. Our group has had a productive 2022, no doubt.
2
Board members turning over as we move into 2023. Becky and Mike are stepping down this year - although both remain integral parts of the team. Becky handles everything behind the scenes, including updating our ratings, entrants lists, and countless other bits and pieces you see on this site; Mike remains a tournament director and has been doing great work finding venues for future events. Next year, Becky and Mike will no doubt continue to shine in their roles, and we've got two great board members stepping in for them in Rob Robinsky and Yukiko Loritz.
1
Year ahead that we're totally psyched for. 2022 was a blast; 2023 is gonna be even better. Get ready.