Previewing our Memorial Day weekend event in Seattle
At the risk of seriously aging myself, I'll just come out and admit: I'm old enough to remember a time when everybody who was anybody spent their Memorial Day weekend playing Scrabble.
Big Scrabble tournaments were the thing to do on your long holiday weekend. For hundreds and hundreds of people. And not just at one tournament or two - there were major events all over North America, everywhere you looked.
The first year I played a Memorial Day weekend event was 2008. This, per cross-tables, was what the tournament slate looked like that weekend:
You see that first column of numbers, starting with a 145? That's how many people were playing in each city over Memorial Day weekend in 2008. A total of 529 players across 8 tournaments.
Now, a lot has changed and a lot has stayed the same since 2008. Actually, only two things have stayed the same - Scrabble is still a game played with 100 tiles and a board, and Dave Wiegand is still the favorite to win a Memorial Day weekend tournament in Seattle. Other than that, we're basically looking at a whole new world.
Anyway, Jennifer and I are looking forward to hosting an event at our home in Seattle over the holiday weekend. We're expecting 12 players, each of whom will duke it out over the course of 20 games spanning Saturday, Sunday, and half of Monday. And zooming out to look at the rest of North America, it's notable that we're part of a larger Memorial Day scene that includes big tournaments in New York and Montreal. There are no 145-player extravaganzas to speak of, but we've got some events going this weekend. This'll do.
I'm not sure what's happened to Scrabble over the last couple of decades, exactly. The aughts were a different time - Scrabble was flying high after the popularity of Word Freak and the national exposure we enjoyed on ESPN. And it was just a simpler time back then - there was less technology, less chaos in the world, less to distract us from simply relaxing and enjoying a board game.
Scrabble today, like the world today, is messy. You've got more lexicons, more organizations, more noise. Plus some people are playing word games on their phones, or online, or simply watching a streamer or YouTuber to get their Scrabble fix. The in-person tournament scene is no longer the only game in town.
But... man. It's still a pretty good game. It's still very much worth reviving, if you ask me anyway. Especially on these holiday weekends. People have a little time off from school and work, a little more flexibility, a little more capacity to kick back and enjoy some Scrabble. So we'll do everything we can to help them enjoy it.
Obviously, a 12-person tournament at our house is just a small drop in the bucket. But hey, we're doing our part. We're being the change we want to see in the world. Small change, but change nonetheless. We'll set up a couple boards in our dining room, a couple in our living room... we might even run wild with it and have a game on the back porch.
To everyone who's coming this weekend: We can't wait to see you! And to everyone else: Hope you're all doing well, whether you've got a tournament lined up this holiday weekend or not. And maybe you can join us next year.