WWTBAM Bored

Okay, so Nigel Richards just won his fifth National Scrabble Championship, ho hum. The more exciting news is that seventh place in the top division was taken by a thirteen year-old boy. Mack Meller has been scary good for nearly two years already. If he gets through puberty unscathed, he has a long run ahead of him as one of the best players we've ever seen.

Also, he's a hell of a nice kid!

http://event.scrabbleplayers.org/2013/n ... /1/07.html

franktangredi wrote:Okay, so Nigel Richards just one his fifth National Scrabble Championship, ho hum. The more exciting news is that seventh place in the top division was taken by a thirteen year-old boy. Mack Meller has been scary good for nearly two years already. If he gets through puberty unscathed, he has a long run ahead of him as one of the best players we've ever seen.

Also, he's a hell of a nice kid!

http://event.scrabbleplayers.org/2013/n ... /1/07.html

do scrabble prodigies arise like chess prodigies? NB in the pic he looks about 11 FWIW

Is he going to be the next famous Scrabble player after whatshisname and that other guy?

etaoin22 wrote:

franktangredi wrote:Okay, so Nigel Richards just one his fifth National Scrabble Championship, ho hum. The more exciting news is that seventh place in the top division was taken by a thirteen year-old boy. Mack Meller has been scary good for nearly two years already. If he gets through puberty unscathed, he has a long run ahead of him as one of the best players we've ever seen.

Also, he's a hell of a nice kid!

http://event.scrabbleplayers.org/2013/n ... /1/07.html

do scrabble prodigies arise like chess prodigies? NB in the pic he looks about 11 FWIW

We've had a quite number of players who were experts in their teens, though none who rose this fast this early. A lot of top players think of Scrabble more as a math game than a word game, and when someone young sets out to memorize the words, they can soak it up like a sponge.

franktangredi wrote:Okay, so Nigel Richards just one his fifth National Scrabble Championship, ho hum. The more exciting news is that seventh place in the top division was taken by a thirteen year-old boy. Mack Meller has been scary good for nearly two years already. If he gets through puberty unscathed, he has a long run ahead of him as one of the best players we've ever seen.

Also, he's a hell of a nice kid!

http://event.scrabbleplayers.org/2013/n ... /1/07.html

I thought that was an unexpected name for the newborn prince...

How did Winter Zxqkj do this year? I remember his name!

smilergrogan wrote:How did Winter Zxqkj do this year? I remember his name!

He finished 18th out of 40 in the division in the Collins Division, which uses the international dictionary as opposed to the US/Canada dictionary. Incidentally, the director of that division for the second year was my protege and former GC member, Jason Idalski.

franktangredi wrote:

smilergrogan wrote:How did Winter Zxqkj do this year? I remember his name!

He finished 18th out of 40 in the division in the Collins Division, which uses the international dictionary as opposed to the US/Canada dictionary. Incidentally, the director of that division for the second year was my protege and former GC member, Jason Idalski.

Is there another division called the Chronic Division?

(Previous Bored Incarnation reference, Frank. I don't remember if you were participating then or not.)

mrkelley23 wrote:

franktangredi wrote:

smilergrogan wrote:How did Winter Zxqkj do this year? I remember his name!

He finished 18th out of 40 in the division in the Collins Division, which uses the international dictionary as opposed to the US/Canada dictionary. Incidentally, the director of that division for the second year was my protege and former GC member, Jason Idalski.

Is there another division called the Chronic Division?

(Previous Bored Incarnation reference, Frank. I don't remember if you were participating then or not.)

Is that a reference to the ******* Division?

lb13

I got to play Mack, and it was a real pleasure, even though I played pretty badly and he got every S and blank.

I ended up in 42nd place after being as high as 13th with eight games to go. I was the 62nd seed, so even though that fall was disappointing, I'm pretty happy with the final result, which is a lot better than I've done before.

Got to meet ShamelessWeasel, who was there with his son Kevin, who was in the lead for quite a while in Division 4 but ended up in third.

smilergrogan wrote:How did Winter Zxqkj do this year? I remember his name!

To be clear, that isn't Winter's name. The "Zxqkj" was added because of software that was unable to accommodate players with no last name.

Nobody asked, but in case anyone's curious what a person who named himself Winter looks like, he was interviewed on Bloomberg today:

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/starbuck ... D2fwA.html

plasticene wrote:Nobody asked, but in case anyone's curious what a person who named himself Winter looks like, he was interviewed on Bloomberg today:

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/starbuck ... D2fwA.html

He looks pretty normal to me. Does he somehow make money from this obsession? It seems ironic for him to fly all over the world to visit 11,000+ Starbucks, then express concern about how Starbucks is affecting the environment.

TheConfessor wrote:

plasticene wrote:Nobody asked, but in case anyone's curious what a person who named himself Winter looks like, he was interviewed on Bloomberg today:

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/starbuck ... D2fwA.html

He looks pretty normal to me. Does he somehow make money from this obsession? It seems ironic for him to fly all over the world to visit 11,000+ Starbucks, then express concern about how Starbucks is affecting the environment.

Ironic is not the word that flew to my mind, although it does start with the same letter.

His obsession definitely costs him quite a bit of money, which he keeps track of on his website. He loves traveling, but doesn't particularly like doing any normal touristy things. He's definitely a bizarre character. He makes a good living, but he's homeless, since he prefers to sleep in his car rather than pay rent. (He showers at the gym.)

plasticene wrote:His obsession definitely costs him quite a bit of money, which he keeps track of on his website. He loves traveling, but doesn't particularly like doing any normal touristy things. He's definitely a bizarre character. He makes a good living, but he's homeless, since he prefers to sleep in his car rather than pay rent. (He showers at the gym.)

In fact, he's constantly touting all the reasons sleeping in your car is better than having a permanent home.

On the days I have to pay the mortgage or mow the lawn, I'm not sure I disagree with him.