Wow, thanks so much Will for this amazing video and to everyone who's since subbed! The 3k subs mark was officially passed less than 10 hours after the video was posted, which is absolutely insane. Can't thank you all enough for your support!
You deserve it Mack, your videos are awesome and super interesting to see your mind work out complex strategies even to someone like me who loves vocabulary and game theory but is amateur hour level at best. You’ve actually helped me improve my game tremendously (to the point where as a result a lot of my friends don’t like to play with me much anymore so I mostly just play online now).
Respect to Will for promoting another TH-cam channel. Mack's channel is pretty awesome and I'm surprised how it rarely shows up in YT recommendations when looking for Scrabble stuff. Being able to see the live thought process of a top player is invaluable for Scrabble players
his human vs ai bestbot series has shown up in my recommended for every episode; A great series and has massively helped my own game seeing how that man thinks
Mack is a machine. I've never see anyone as quick with endgame calculations as him, he's definitely in contention for best in the world at the purely mathematical side of Scrabble for me. It's like he instantly knows how much every play scores without having to process anything at all, even several turns of calculation down the line. Other sides of his game are also elite, but that's the thing that sticks out as most superhuman to me when I watch him. Hopefully we get that juicy bonus video :)
Disagree. The most superhuman thing about Mack Meller is the fact that he hasn't thrown his PC out of the window after playing almost 100 games against BestBot.
Yes that's exactly what I was going to say. His speed and accuracy at calculating the scores from play sequences is perhaps unmatched in scrabble. It really is such an important asset to have. For me it's the most impressive thing about him but that's probably because I love Maths so much so love seeing the calculations.
@@DecoAoreste Well, if I had a PC surely it'd have been out the window long ago. But... I have a Mac and I couldn't in good conscience defenestrate something that sounds like my own name :)
Will used this episode to basically promote another's brilliant plays and TH-cam channel. Will is a great guy in addition to being a top Scrabble player and Scrabble TH-camr. Always a fan. Will head up to Mack's channel
So great to see top players supporting each other. I too cannot figure out,why Mack' s channel is not mentioned more often in the weekly NASPA news. His channel is awesome as is Will's.
What stuns me about Mack's videos is how seamlessly he can verbalize his thoughts while navigating complex positions. Scrabble is difficult enough already when you don't have to talk at the same time 😅 Also, if people are unsure what to watch first, check out the video where he solves Scrabble puzzles as quickly as possible ("Scrabble puzzle SPEEDRUN!") for a really vivid demonstration of how ingrained the dictionary is into his brain. I found that wildly impressive.
Mack Meller is probably my favorite Scrabble channel on TH-cam (no offense Will, he uploads 10x more often than you and always has a steady stream of new stuff) and it’s funny because any time I bring him up to my friends, most of whom couldn’t care less about competitive Scrabble but are polite enough to hear me out, I have to clarify that no it’s not the now dead young white rapper. It’s MELLER, the Scrabble wunderkind.
I’ll second the recommendation here. His bestbot games yield some truly amazing insights into the mind of a scrabble champion, and the analyses are top-notch.
mack is such an underrated creator and person- i’ve taken a few lessons with him over zoom and learned a ton, and he’s super humble despite being a scrabble god
2:55 This may be the only time I've seen OSSIFRAGE outside of "the magic words are squeamish ossifrage" (the solution to a 1977 cryptanalytic challenge).
TOO LATE, FOOLISH MORTAL! I'm already subscribed! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!! But seriously, his Scrabble lightning rounds are a sight to behold. Also, how tall are y'all? You "look" tall, but Mack "looks" short (in his YT videos), but since he's taller than you, either you're both short or you're both tall.
Yeah I'm between 6' and 6'1'' -- we'll say 6'1'' with shoes haha. My neck still gets sore from looking up to the giant that is 6'7'' Josh Sokol though!
I don't even play Scrabble or ever seen the board in real life, but I have always loved Will Anderson's videos and the amazing Nigel Richards analyses videos. I wait patiently for each upload, knowing that there is another great youtube channel of another top tier scrabble player recommended by Will will definitely get a subscribe from me. Looking forward for more content 💜
Found Mack's channel months ago and I've been waiting for this video recommendation! His videos are amazing. So glad to see the friendly competition among top level players.
It would be interesting to understand how long it took Meller to work through the permutations in his endgame against Krafchick. And also how much he calculated explicitly versus how much he intuited (which would be equally impressive in a different way). Whatever the answer, it looks like a superhuman feat to me, although I am admittedly not a Scrabble player.
I don’t know about this game in particular, but iirc Mack has said that he likes to leave about 7-10 minutes for the pre-endgame phase (out of a 25 minute game), because the decisions are more consequential in the endgame.
His full video on it is here: th-cam.com/video/KExn0LnxCMg/w-d-xo.htmlsi=W2yUGC8fLr5IkDqz He explains that it took him about 10 minutes of in-game processing to arrive at WIS - the video is longer because he's explaining in detail so that mere mortals can follow along!
I mentioned this on Mack's channel today. I finally realized why I will never be a top player. You need to have a name that's a valid word like Will, Mack, Joey, Alec (Sjoholm), Josh (Sokol), or Joe (Edley).
Having watched all of your videos, it's always absurd to me that the players spends so much time and effort just to find the only sequence from one specific draw of the tiles (which means they should scan through 30-ish of other combinations FREQUENTLY)
Well, I do feel that these types of situations are especially video-worthy, because of how dramatic those endings tend to be. For every one of these that connect, there's many more where a player comes up with a brilliant idea to possibly steal a game, but the tiles don't cooperate. So keep in mind that the number of videos like this on my channel doesn't line up with how rare they are overall. The mark of the true giants like Nigel and Mack is their ability to consistently spot these outside-the-box winning sequences.
I get a lot of my stats from randomracer.com, which aggregates data from annotated games on cross-tables.com. There's a leaderboard there, and under the "Bingos Played" section, you can see that Mack sits atop the list. However, that is in part because of several constructed games that Mack made against Quackle where he plays a slew of 9 letter words. That being said, he would likely still be at or near the top of the list without them.
How do you get the official grandmaster title? And why is a disconnected 9 supposedly harder to see than a connected one? The moral of this video for me is for players to study the 9s and longer.
To get the NASPA grandmaster title, you must: - Be a NASPA member for five consecutive tournament years, and play at least 50 games in NASPA tournaments in each of three of the five tournament years (this is to be eligible for a title); - Perform in the top 1% of eligible members throughout the same five years NASPA must: - Update its titlists page (it hasn't been updated since 2022)
Rating is indeed Elo - GM titles aren't as standardized worldwide the way they are in chess. In Scrabble it requires being rated in the top 1% of players for 5 consecutive years. I believe Mack achieved this at age 16 which is absolutely insane.
1:46 not that it I'd find this, but caregiver as a word is really easy, you need a very basic vocabulary to know it. You don't even need to speak English well
Wow, thanks so much Will for this amazing video and to everyone who's since subbed! The 3k subs mark was officially passed less than 10 hours after the video was posted, which is absolutely insane. Can't thank you all enough for your support!
You deserve it Mack, your videos are awesome and super interesting to see your mind work out complex strategies even to someone like me who loves vocabulary and game theory but is amateur hour level at best. You’ve actually helped me improve my game tremendously (to the point where as a result a lot of my friends don’t like to play with me much anymore so I mostly just play online now).
Thanks Mack for informing us that we have crossed the mark. Over to you Will, the bonus video😂
What’s the link to the Joey video
Respect to Will for promoting another TH-cam channel. Mack's channel is pretty awesome and I'm surprised how it rarely shows up in YT recommendations when looking for Scrabble stuff. Being able to see the live thought process of a top player is invaluable for Scrabble players
Yeah I watched about all of his 1st mack vs machine series. Dude is crazy good and makes awesome content
Thanks so much for your kind words, really appreciate it!
the algorithm is kinda brutal to scrabble creators, not sure why. I get recommended a bunch of chess videos whenever i watch scrabble content lol
his human vs ai bestbot series has shown up in my recommended for every episode; A great series and has massively helped my own game seeing how that man thinks
He's clueless about promoting himself but yeah, he's great
Mack is a machine. I've never see anyone as quick with endgame calculations as him, he's definitely in contention for best in the world at the purely mathematical side of Scrabble for me. It's like he instantly knows how much every play scores without having to process anything at all, even several turns of calculation down the line. Other sides of his game are also elite, but that's the thing that sticks out as most superhuman to me when I watch him.
Hopefully we get that juicy bonus video :)
Disagree. The most superhuman thing about Mack Meller is the fact that he hasn't thrown his PC out of the window after playing almost 100 games against BestBot.
Yes that's exactly what I was going to say. His speed and accuracy at calculating the scores from play sequences is perhaps unmatched in scrabble. It really is such an important asset to have. For me it's the most impressive thing about him but that's probably because I love Maths so much so love seeing the calculations.
@@DecoAoreste Well, if I had a PC surely it'd have been out the window long ago. But... I have a Mac and I couldn't in good conscience defenestrate something that sounds like my own name :)
Thanks so much Amaranth for your kind words and all your support and commentary on my games, really appreciate it!!
highly recommend mack's series about Phonies, great stuff
Will used this episode to basically promote another's brilliant plays and TH-cam channel.
Will is a great guy in addition to being a top Scrabble player and Scrabble TH-camr. Always a fan. Will head up to Mack's channel
100%! I've known Will for over half my life (kinda crazy right?!) and can definitely attest to that :)
So great to see top players supporting each other. I too cannot figure out,why Mack' s channel is not mentioned more often in the weekly NASPA news. His channel is awesome as is Will's.
Thanks so much Humberto, really appreciate your support!
He’s crazy good at Scrabble math. It’s incredible how quickly he’s able to calculate the value of plays.
7:33 He sacrifices..... THE BINGO!!!
Nice homage, Will! Between you, Mack and Josh’s regular video updates, my love for Scrabble has been reinvigorated. Keep on keepin’ on, man! 🤟
Always appreciate the kind comments, thanks!
Mack, in my opinion, is the GOAT of Scrabble due to his speed and insane accuracy. His blitz games and one-minute games are the stuff of legends.
Haha thanks so much, really appreciate your support!
0:19 Bro know every scrabble players to the heart💀💀💀💀
Mack is unbelievable. The MYXOMATA clip on Josh's channel was among the most insane scrabble feats I've ever seen
Hahaha thanks! I'm still not exactly sure how that happened :D
Link please? I wasn't able to find it.
@@Bonifratz th-cam.com/users/shorts13x9kz1BTEw
@@Bonifratz it's one of Josh's TH-cam Shorts, his channel name is axcertypo.
@@Bonifratzsearch Josh Sokol scrabble find his channel check top 3 short videos
What stuns me about Mack's videos is how seamlessly he can verbalize his thoughts while navigating complex positions. Scrabble is difficult enough already when you don't have to talk at the same time 😅
Also, if people are unsure what to watch first, check out the video where he solves Scrabble puzzles as quickly as possible ("Scrabble puzzle SPEEDRUN!") for a really vivid demonstration of how ingrained the dictionary is into his brain. I found that wildly impressive.
true. he makes it look so easy lol
Mack Meller is probably my favorite Scrabble channel on TH-cam (no offense Will, he uploads 10x more often than you and always has a steady stream of new stuff) and it’s funny because any time I bring him up to my friends, most of whom couldn’t care less about competitive Scrabble but are polite enough to hear me out, I have to clarify that no it’s not the now dead young white rapper. It’s MELLER, the Scrabble wunderkind.
4:21 In a modified tile bag game, Mack plays iNF(ERE)NCES, a 10 letter bingo.
I’ll second the recommendation here. His bestbot games yield some truly amazing insights into the mind of a scrabble champion, and the analyses are top-notch.
Those have indeed been tremendous to watch
mack is such an underrated creator and person- i’ve taken a few lessons with him over zoom and learned a ton, and he’s super humble despite being a scrabble god
Thanks so much for your kind words John, really appreciate it! Hope to meet you in person at a tournament sometime!
scarble
CHALLENGE +5
I just got recommended one of Mack's videos about crazy phonies that stayed on the board
Those are some of my favorites of his!
Thank you for all you do to promote other quality scrabble channels whilst also making great content on your channel!
2:55 This may be the only time I've seen OSSIFRAGE outside of "the magic words are squeamish ossifrage" (the solution to a 1977 cryptanalytic challenge).
What a marvelous collection of Mack's brilliant finds and likely unfathomed (without this thorough explication) endgame analysis! Kudos to you both!
The love between these too is just the best!
TOO LATE, FOOLISH MORTAL! I'm already subscribed! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!
But seriously, his Scrabble lightning rounds are a sight to behold. Also, how tall are y'all? You "look" tall, but Mack "looks" short (in his YT videos), but since he's taller than you, either you're both short or you're both tall.
I'm 5'11", but I'm guessing he's 6'1" or so now!
Yeah I'm between 6' and 6'1'' -- we'll say 6'1'' with shoes haha. My neck still gets sore from looking up to the giant that is 6'7'' Josh Sokol though!
Josh is so tall that he plays overtall without getting challenged 😂
I watch both Mack and Will already tho
Mack is an absolute menace in blitz games
I don't even play Scrabble or ever seen the board in real life, but I have always loved Will Anderson's videos and the amazing Nigel Richards analyses videos. I wait patiently for each upload, knowing that there is another great youtube channel of another top tier scrabble player recommended by Will will definitely get a subscribe from me.
Looking forward for more content 💜
I love these videos and I watch every single one. Keep making amazing content bro.
Snap, that's a big recommendation on Mack's channel.
Love it. Growing the community is absolutely the most important thing we can be doing.
Found Mack's channel months ago and I've been waiting for this video recommendation! His videos are amazing. So glad to see the friendly competition among top level players.
His finds are amazing.
FINALLY a Mack Meller vid
So... Mack is a young version of Nigel Richards, then.
He also has the second-highest Voight-Kampff score ever recorded.
Excellent video will!
3k subs already achieved, 5k and hopefully we finally get a match between you two.
That would be sick!
It's amazing that you have time to make youtube videos with all the autographs you must sign.
My hands get very tired and my ink bills are through the roof but anything for the fans
new Will Anderson video alert!!!
You are a true blessing. Will
It would be interesting to understand how long it took Meller to work through the permutations in his endgame against Krafchick. And also how much he calculated explicitly versus how much he intuited (which would be equally impressive in a different way). Whatever the answer, it looks like a superhuman feat to me, although I am admittedly not a Scrabble player.
I don’t know about this game in particular, but iirc Mack has said that he likes to leave about 7-10 minutes for the pre-endgame phase (out of a 25 minute game), because the decisions are more consequential in the endgame.
His full video on it is here: th-cam.com/video/KExn0LnxCMg/w-d-xo.htmlsi=W2yUGC8fLr5IkDqz
He explains that it took him about 10 minutes of in-game processing to arrive at WIS - the video is longer because he's explaining in detail so that mere mortals can follow along!
I mentioned this on Mack's channel today. I finally realized why I will never be a top player. You need to have a name that's a valid word like Will, Mack, Joey, Alec (Sjoholm), Josh (Sokol), or Joe (Edley).
Having watched all of your videos, it's always absurd to me that the players spends so much time and effort just to find the only sequence from one specific draw of the tiles (which means they should scan through 30-ish of other combinations FREQUENTLY)
Well, I do feel that these types of situations are especially video-worthy, because of how dramatic those endings tend to be. For every one of these that connect, there's many more where a player comes up with a brilliant idea to possibly steal a game, but the tiles don't cooperate. So keep in mind that the number of videos like this on my channel doesn't line up with how rare they are overall. The mark of the true giants like Nigel and Mack is their ability to consistently spot these outside-the-box winning sequences.
YAYAYAYAYAYAY SCRABBBBLEEEEEEE !!!!!!
Is there any kind of archive that tracks which player has the most 9 letter bingos?
I get a lot of my stats from randomracer.com, which aggregates data from annotated games on cross-tables.com. There's a leaderboard there, and under the "Bingos Played" section, you can see that Mack sits atop the list. However, that is in part because of several constructed games that Mack made against Quackle where he plays a slew of 9 letter words. That being said, he would likely still be at or near the top of the list without them.
3:58 I believe it’s pronounced trill-oh-bite
Awesome video as always.
Btw if it helps - *wis* is said "WISS" (rhymes with *sis* and *dis*) per double-checking Merriam Webster.
Thanks, and noted!
i love mack 😊
heard he has a pretty good music career too. KIDS was dope
Gotta get your signature as tiles.
it is a tragedy that Mack Meller & David Webb don't play in the same lexicon, would be a great battle to watch
I dont play scrabble, and I dont watch any scrabble content. Im subbed to you because you are a great story teller :)
Did not realize that Selectman was new England only
Will, how long do endgame such as these take top players to calculate? It seems like scrabble calculation is harder than chess.
Mack meller, sounds like the rapper
He has 2.75k subs now
You know Will, you're kinda like the Mack Meller of chess
Selfless.. dude you're awesome.
4 hours ago and he’s already at 2.8k, hurry and subscribe and he can make it to 3k on even the same day this video came out!
Words.
How do you get the official grandmaster title? And why is a disconnected 9 supposedly harder to see than a connected one? The moral of this video for me is for players to study the 9s and longer.
To get the NASPA grandmaster title, you must:
- Be a NASPA member for five consecutive tournament years, and play at least 50 games in NASPA tournaments in each of three of the five tournament years (this is to be eligible for a title);
- Perform in the top 1% of eligible members throughout the same five years
NASPA must:
- Update its titlists page (it hasn't been updated since 2022)
Mack Meller at 2.99K subs now. C'mon people, let's sub him so we can get Will's bonus video!
I see a Will video, I click
is rating just elo or is there weighting for score? what rating is GM?
Rating is indeed Elo - GM titles aren't as standardized worldwide the way they are in chess. In Scrabble it requires being rated in the top 1% of players for 5 consecutive years. I believe Mack achieved this at age 16 which is absolutely insane.
He might be best oat
subbed!
5 minutes ago is freaky
I've stu,bled on his videos on phoneys
I am same age he
Spoiler Blocker Comment
Ah, a true Mack Meller fan. Well played
Spoiler: yes I hit 3000 subs!!!
hamburger
1:46 not that it I'd find this, but caregiver as a word is really easy, you need a very basic vocabulary to know it. You don't even need to speak English well
WOOP WOOP THIRD COMMENT!
GUYS SUBSCRIBE TO MACK!!
😍
Nah he’s trash 😂 we’ve beaten him several times