Previewing our July 4 weekend tournament in Seattle

Especially here in our little Scrabble bubble that is the Pacific Northwest, where we've got a tight-knit community of people that have lived here and played here for quite a while, your level of familiarity with your most frequent opponents can get pretty high. Dare I say it? At times, the familiarity creeps up to the point where it kinda maybe sorta begins to verge on staleness. I mean no disrespect whatsoever to any of those opponents, who are by and large awesome Scrabble players and awesome people. But certainly, whenever there's an opportunity to bring in some fresh new blood and play some new players for the first time, it's a breath of fresh air.

This coming weekend, we'll get a chance to take several such breaths. Jennifer and I are hosting a 20-game tournament at our home over the July 4 holiday weekend, and what excites us the most are all the new players joining us and making this their first tournament. Of the 10 players competing this weekend, 3 of them - a full 30% of the field! - will be newbies. We're out here growing the game, one new guest at our kitchen table at a time.

It's exciting that all three of these new players - shout out to Joe, Alex, and Luke! - have found us. We've gotten a chance to chat with each of the three a little bit, and their back stories have some similarities. They've played a little bit online, they've familiarized themselves a little bit with the competitive game and the Collins lexicon, and they stumbled upon CoCo tournaments and decided to give this one a try. It's cool to have a little glimpse into each of their three journeys and see how they've found their way here. It gives me hope that more growth like this, and perhaps a bunch more Joes and Alexes and Lukes in the future, could be possible.

Of course, at this point in the game, the first objective is just to show all three of these guys - as well as everyone else joining us this weekend - a good time.

That starts with simply offering everyone a good, challenging weekend of Scrabble. This time around, we've got 20 games on the docket, and a wide-ranging field of players. We've got national champions, newbies, and everyone in between. This group should be as congenial as they are competitive; people can expect a good time both over the board and away from it.

Then, when the last tiles have been played and the clocks are neutralized, we'll try to deliver an all-around enjoyable tournament weekend - some good meals, some good after-hours fun, the whole deal.

In short, what we'll try to do is much the same as we try to do every tournament weekend we host. We'll do the best we can to bring everyone - familiar old Scrabble opponents and fresh new ones alike - together and enjoy each other's company.

Anyway, it all gets underway Friday morning.

We'll see you then.