I remember talking with David after this, as we were both standing outside the venue waiting for our rides to the airport. He was very gracious. I also got to play him in this tournament and somehow won that game, which I will always treasure as an achievement against one of the all-time greats. RIP David Gibson.
I don't really know anything about Scrabble, but these videos do expose me to all kinds of weird words. The only "mew" I knew was the sound cats make, but apparently it was also once a noun meaning "prison." And from that, we get "mewed up" meaning "imprisoned" or just "cooped up," and thus "unmew" is a verb meaning "release from bondage" or just "let out." Knowing that a mew was a prison gives me new insight into the pokemon Mew.
One thing to keep in mind about NORTHING is NORTHED* is invalid, while SOUTHED, SOUTHING, and NORTHING are all valid. It is a nuance that even if you are pretty sure of that being the outlier in the group, over a long tournament, it is very easy to be cautious that you are mixing up your preparation.
@@BrettMKW To my mind, the flagrant arbitrariness and inconsistency of the word lists used by official Scrabble tournaments is a disgrace to the organizations that maintain them, hardly something to celebrate. It wouldn't be that hard to clean them up.
2:39 Those standings are wild, most of the people behind our two stars have spreads of over +1000 and then there's just this one guy who's at -12 despite a 19-11 record.
Z(AG) is a great example of what sets Nigel apart, it's not that others don't know the word or can't understand the idea behind the move, it's just that it wouldn't occur to most players over the board because getting rid of the J first is so normal. He's so good at thinking outside the box. PS, this is some fantastic content. Exactly what we need to get people interested in the game.
I think they’re complicated in different ways - in fact, I’ve done a bit of work on a video comparing and contrasting the two games…hope to publish sometime soon!
My fiancé REALLY likes scrabble, and I'm more of Jeopardy kind of guy, but I really appreciate your channel; I get factoids about scrabble and it's history for me, and conversation to share with her about something she cares about - cheers
This is a fascinating flip from most your videos that I've binged over the last couple of days. I've seen so many seven and eight letter words that have bamboozled me, wondering where on earth they came from. And yet, I use "northing" just about every day at work because the UK Ordnance Survey uses a grid-reference system where any location in the country can be pinpointed using the distance from an arbitrary point off the south-west of England, using metres east from that point (known as eastings) and metres north (**northings**). Language is fascinating, and so are these videos.
Thank you for this comment! It does go to show that one person's obscure word may be another person's everyday word - though some Scrabble words are so obscure that I doubt they're anyone's everyday word anymore. In this case, the combination of David likely not being sure of the word's definition and the fact that he was facing the one player who flawlessly knows the dictionary was the decisive factor.
Amazing to think of all the crazy words that a scrabble player might doubt as real, NORTHING was the one that threw him off. Maybe it's just the field I work in (mapping), but to me, eastings and northings are pretty familiar concepts. A northing is basically akin to a longitude, but on a flat map (as opposed to a round earth). Also by chance I played EASTINGS in a game today. :)
I'm not a big scrabble player (last time I played was more than a year ago, and 2 years before that) but these videos make it sound super tense and interesting. Really well done video!
I’m surprised that David wasn’t sure of NORTHING. I would have thought that even a normal person would know the word because northings and eastings are used so often in geography as a way of expressing co-ordinates, similar to longitude and latitude
I barely ever play scrabble but these videos has got me hooked! Subscribed. These guys are amazing and your videos are extremely addicting and entertaining!! Great job!💯
I didnt even know there was a competetive scene for this game, but these videos are awesome. sort of like scrabble version of agadmators chess videos, love it :) very interesting even though i do not play
Another great video Will! A suggestion: could you cover the history of Scrabble engines? I think it'd be an interesting watch, Kasparov vs. Deep Blue sort of games always seem to get a lot of interest, and Scrabble engines are in an interesting place currently in terms of current strength and future potential. Looking forward to more either way. Keep it up
important to realize that this is played from the North American "Scrabble Dictionary, which is different from the International Collins dictionary which he most commonly plays from. Consequently, Nigel had to edit his mental lexicon to fit the differences, which makes his play more amazing. It may also be the reason that North Americans have only won the World Championship three times and not for years. They don't adapt to the vastly expanded Collins dictionary though no one doubts their skill. C .
I must say that there is an intimidation factor to Nigel like no other. When he makes a play you don't understand, it doesn't feel like a mistake, it feels like a calculated set up (whether it's actually set up ot not which it often is) anyone would lose focus from that stress.
Great video like all the others, but one thing I'll say as a recording engineer is that you should make sure to keep your recordings from having really harsh amplitude dynamics in your audio levels. Maybe some slightly better mic placement, or eq/dynamic eq, or some light compression or something. There are parts where your audio levels get a little harsh on the ears, especially on sibilants. So using a de-esser would probably be the easiest to implement and the most advisable. Just dont accidentally turn up the de-esser so much that you accidentally give yourself a lisp lol. Keep up the great work tho!
On Davids first move, could he passed and hoped that Nigel played an E, allowing him to bingo with glaciers? I know that Nigel might now have played it, but is the risk worth it for the chance at an early bingo? (I'm also super proud of seeing glaciers)
Fantastic, gripping video. Well done Will - I hope thousands of people watch this. One very small quibble - David had one last shot at winning the championship with an almost-impossible to find play on his 13th move (holding AELNOR?). Were you aware of this and left it out so as to not complicate the story?
@@Kingoflettuce OuT for 2 using the blank for two points! It blocks WEFTS and threatens LEARN/ROUT. Nigel's best play is either WAIFS for 22 leaving it alone or EF for 20 but both win the game by exactly 168 and lose nationals by 2 spread points!
On your video learning scrabble words. You recommended three vowel 4s q words with no U. Where can I get all the word lists. Because in some lists most words arent valid.
Try using the program Zyzzyva to generate your own word lists. I made a video about it here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HSh-6GWxqws.html
at least the gen alphas (except me, who different) don't play scrabble often* so that they don't see this vid saying "wOw, [some gen alpha bonkers]" after the word "mew".
