Defending Scrabble Titles Is Impossible. Could He Do It Twice?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- Jackson Smylie has been one of North America's finest players for the better part of a decade. In 2023, he did something that only Nigel Richards has ever done before: successfully defend a North American championship title. In 2024, his battles with fellow elite expert Rafi Stern on his quest to repeat this impossible Scrabble feat were absolutely epic, with crazy swings and twists in each game.
Sometime soon, I plan to resume streaming on my Twitch channel:
/ wanderer15
I also have a weekly show on the official Scrabble Twitch channel (Tuesdays 3-5 PM ET): / scrabble
Play Scrabble at playscrabble.com!
Will narrating my games:
"With the tile combination of 'EAULNRB', they could play the bingo of 'NEBULAR' or use the S-hook to form 'NEBULAS'. Instead, they didn't see either of these words and panicked before playing 'EAR', giving up a chance at 50 points and losing the game."
Relatable content!
I really think Will should do a series where he reviews bad 'viewers' games and give tips on how to improve + it would be super funny.
@@michalkocourek5401 absolutely. i agree. i also don't have anything to add though. but the reply boosts the comment and gives a larger chance of will seeing it
This is a really fun idea...
@@michalkocourek5401 how to lose at scrabble
11:50 Rafi nodding like "ooooof, nice move, it stings, but nice move"
10:40 BARON doesn't just allow S- and G-hooks, but also an even sneakier Y-hook with BARONY.
So sneaky that Will didn't see it!
Good eye!
7:54 Will showing off with his editing there
i know, right!? you can see the improvement compared to videos ~a year ago, and it's AWESOME.
Thank you very much! In general, I'd like the game board to be more dynamic in general for these analysis videos, so I'm trying to think of things I'd like to learn to do graphically and mess around until I figure it out.
6:19 I love to see casual post-game chats from elite players, honestly and openly talking about their match as peers. Beautiful sportsmanship.
Watching the final matches of word cup was truly incredible, congrats to Jackson and ty will for bringing the epic series to a wider audience
Jackson Smylie is amazing. His word knowledge and board sight make him a formidable opponent.
Just realized Jackson went first in all 3 games. I assume it's because Rafi was 15-13 on firsts and seconds in round 29 and Jackson was 13-15, and that the last game was a coin flip, but man that's a humongous advantage for Jackson!
If you ever play an invalid word, doing it in game 1 is perhaps best so your opponent has to double check all your words for the rest of the match. Great video Will, I suppose this is why people call you the Tchaikovsky of Go.
Where is nigel richards these days?
Probably memorizing German dictionary for fun
chilling in malaysia
I think he’s kind of doing a Magnus and taking a break to let everyone catch up a bit haha
I wish there were more of his games casted with commentary.
The only ones I could find were from 2018, and the quality just isn't that great 🥲
Rumor has it he’s learning Spanish
Some time ago i was trying to come up with a format where stronger players can win more consistently, and I felt like the only thing that could work would be synchronization between different games played by different players. It went something like this:
- Before the start of the game, the 100 tiles are randomly drawn by an arbiter without the players present.
- For each game in the synchronization, the first 7 tiles are placed on one player's rack and the last 7 tiles on the other. The remaining 86 tiles are placed in a line with two ends.
- During the game, each player draws tiles from their end of the line instead of from a bag.
- Exchanged tiles are placed in the bag and not seen again until the endgame.
- Once there are 6 or fewer tiles left in the line, all tiles are placed in the bag. Players are now drawing from the bag.
- After the game, your win/loss and spread are compared to the average win/loss and the average spread across all players who were playing the same side as you. Your true score for the rankings is the difference between your result and the average
Actually, in French scrabble tournament play we use a synchronised variant ("duplicate") where everyone plays on the same board. It works like this :
- The arbiter draws 7 tiles from the bag.
- After a fixed time (typically 3 minutes), everyone writes down the highest scoring word they've found with these 7 tiles.
- The highest scoring possible valid word is played on the board, regardless of the words that have been written down by the players. Everyone scores the points from the word they've found (phonies score 0).
- New tiles are drawn from the bag and the timer is restarted. If at any point, the rack contains 7 vowels or 7 consonants (6 vowels or 6 consonants before move 15), the tiles are put back in the bag and 7 new tiles are redrawn.
- Repeat until all vowels or all consonants have been played. The winner is the one who scored the most points (ie found the highest scoring words) throughout the whole game.
While this variant removes all luck, it also removes all strategy (it's just about finding the highest scoring word at each turn), unlike yours. "Classic" scrabble tournaments (with the usual rules) also exist in French, but the duplicate scene is more competitive.
@@pialba I heard about that, the downside is that this becomes a pure puzzle with no strategical weighing of options (of course puzzles still have a strategy in how you find the solution quickly, but that's way different from being a good strategic player)
Props to Jackson for winning back to back to back, but can we also please take a moment to talk about Nigel (because we so rarely do on this channel) casually winning three in six years??
I think those were the only three that he competed in, too!
got put onto your work a few months ago after reading Seven Games by Oliver Roeder and Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis, and man, your editing and narration has just been constantly getting better. can't wait to see more!!
Thank you, I really appreciate that! (Two fantastic books, by the way)
This was a great video, my whole body was very tense while watching. Now I have achides all over
I got excited at the end, thinking he was going to pull AARDVARK out of nowhere, but unfortunately he was one letter off…
I’m struck not only by the extremely high level of play on display (AREAWAYS? ARApAIMA?!) but also by the consistency of excellence from both players. With the lone exception of the sneaky and unintentional phony *ACHIDES, I didn’t hear Will point out any moments when either player made a sub-optimal play. Beautiful to see, really.
Yeah, absolutely true - very high level being showcased by both players here.
I know this is about back to back championships but Nigel has 5 wins in 6 years in NA and 3 wins in 6 years. AND Nigel is the only one who was champion of both at the same time (2012).
Nice video looking forward to the recap of the 2024 chutes and ladders championship
Just taking a moment to compliment the editing at 7:46
Cool edit at 7:50
Achides nuts
@7:45 slick graphics
Brilliant work, Will
AREAWAYS is stunning!
11:00 he has a bingo, missed iridian!
Not valid in the lexicon they were using.
MORE SCRABBLE RAHHHH
Those were some crazy plays
cool editing!
Can you do a video on how scrabble tournaments work. What is the format, what tournament long strategies do you employ?
Was wondering the same. Why do some people face each other more than others?
@@miniropThe rating.
@@Benjy52 I understand that, but why isn't it a round robin? How are the first plays decided? Based on overall rankings? If the top players play each other multiple times, does it mean the bottom players do that too? etc. (Looping back to coldenfees' video idea, the part "what is the format".)
@@minirop It’s like the Premier League. Everyone faces against each other until every matchup is completed.
Good question. There are a lot of tournament formats in widespread use, but for this one, a format called "modified Swiss" is used to ensure that players are matched with opponents who are performing similarly in the standings to them. The pairings are designed to minimize the chances of repeat matchups, but after a certain point, repeat matchups are permitted to allow top performers to better control their own destinies against one another. (A full video about this could be fun to do sometime!)
Will, this makes me wonder what the biggest in-game swing/comeback is. Rafi was down 132, and won by 52. Any other examples?
There have been some huge ones in Scrabble history for sure... maybe someone cleverer than me could figure out the biggest comebacks! I myself have a couple 170-ish point comebacks in my game history.
10:34 Why not deputise over deputies here.... floating the TLS with the E was not necessary, and the s/d hook created at the back is blocked by "mercy" already. Since "ze" is valid in Collins (z still in the bag), this was just asking to be Z-bombed for 90+ points...
Was thinking the same, it seems like an obvious and weird mistake for an elite Scrabble player to make unless I'm missing something?
@kb27787 I watched the stream at the time and in the post-mortem analysis between the players, or maybe in the interview with the commentators, Jackson said he wasn't 100% on DEPUTISE (as opposed to DEPUTIZE). DEPUTISE is valid in the lexicon being used, but ZE# is valid only in Collins and this tournament was played with WOW24 (WGPO's current lexicon), one of the North American lexicons.
Yes, as overidleevildoer suggests, I think it was just picking the 100% sure bet word over the 99% certain word. Even without ZE as a threat in the North American dictionary, it's true that that scoring spot can be pretty damaging, but not more damaging than losing a turn needlessly with a normal word bingo available.
10:36 I wonder why Jackson didn't opt for DEPUTISE here to not open the big scoring spot while taking the lead
@Cloiss_ I watched the stream at the time and in the post-mortem analysis between the players, or maybe in the interview with the commentators, Jackson said he wasn't 100% on DEPUTISE (as opposed to DEPUTIZE).
Amazing word knowledge 👏👏👏
3:48 GOB -- Wouldn't this play (of only three letters) be evidence that Jackson already has an s or blank for the Reiving hook?
It definitely does signal some strength (good observation!), but I actually agree with the decision making by Rafi that he needs to go for the hyper-aggressive option there to actually pull off the comeback. His lead is still somewhat tenuous after the lower-scoring plays - he can expect to be trailing a lot of the time after Jackson's next move.
will anderson to nigel richards is as
gothamchess is to magnus
Impressive.
3:37 why he didnt play Dex horizontally in top left?
You should do a video about naughty words that have won championships.
Jackson is a class act, and extremely good looking!
facts
9:44 This is actually a tactical error. He could've played 'SEX' instead, which is way funnier.
ARAPAIMA!!! Jeeeeeez 😮
Are there any players who often play believable phonies? Not very sporting, but if it could give you an edge, could you create a bank of plausible words (similar to others) made with common racks?
Short answer - definitely, there are players who are extremely gifted with the art of bluffing. For some of the crazier / less believable bluffs in tournament play, Mack Meller has made a bunch of fantastic videos breaking those down.
@@wanderer15 Heh, I was asking the question to all commenters but grateful to get a reply from the OG!
Thanks, I've enjoyed some of Mack's videos but I'll seek out the ones you mention. Keep up the great vids and best wishes!
Wen Jackson-Mack battle of the century match???
Can you make a video of moments where false words went unchallenged?
Guys wake up, a new vid is here
Isn't that IRIDIAN?...
Unfortunately not valid in the North American lexicon (frustrating, I know...)
Jackson Smylie is not related to Guy Amiley-don't be deceived.
How can this be possible????????? I struggle against zoey on easy.
Lets start debate lol. 1:52 Y is vowel not consonant
It’s weird, I’ve heard commentators call it a hybrid, half consonant, half vowel
Vowels and consonants are defined by how the sound is made: with or without constriction of your throat. Y can be and is both a vowel and consonant sound-wise. It's called a semi-vowel when referring to the letter though, as those are two different things that just have a large overlap in the words used for them
@@charls828 it's not weird. It just shows the difference between the lies (or "oversimplification") you are taught in school and phonetics. Y is just a letter than can represent different sounds. One of those is /j/ in "yes", which is a consonant whilst at the end of words (like "nerdy") it represents a vowel.
I’ve heard of places like Canada teaching it as a vowel, when as much as it may act like one it is not. It’s about the closest thing to being a vowel without being a vowel
hamburger
crazy
;-;
Hoping you'll feature more women Scrabble masters' games in the future.
I think men and women play together, right?
You might be interested in his video before this lol.
As to why there arent more, sadly there are less women in the top divisions and the games that go unrecorded or are unremarkable won’t make it into a video, but a women’s day video of sorts where he finds plays from scrabble history would be p cool
Like the one that he literally just made?
@@charls828 I did, that is why I said "more" because, cmiiw, the previous vid was the his only video having a female master as the main topic.
Two videos before that, I showcased an amazing comeback by top expert Laurie Cohen at the same event Jackson won in this video!
If it's impossible, then how could he do it once? I thought you knew the meaning of words, but apparently not "impossible". But then again, no one else on youtube seems to know what it means either.
Repeating as a champion is a massive statistical outlier, considering that only two people have done it in major championships...
We got mr. word police over here, Will you’re getting arrested
@@charls828 yeah will doesn't know any words
"oh look at me I'm going to scrutinize people for no reason because I am superior" 😂
The alternate title "Defending Scrabble Titles is Statistically Extremely Unlikely Though It Has Been Done Before a Small Number of Times" performed poorly in A-B testing