The 2024 Scrabble Championship Had the Best Finals of All Time 

No worries we know u edit hard but some mistakes are bound to come

13:38 Ian’s score should read 308 rather than 341, which was his score when Mack played Castrate Great job casting, and I’m looking forward to many more videos :)

Is that why the score was blurred there?

@@galoomba5559 Yes, I tried blurring it with the native YT editor because that one was really quite wrong.

Another error: 8:38 "Ian is forced to dump the Q next turn" Quackle likes 11j (E)LEMI, setting up 10n QI and blocking column O.

It's only downhill from here, boys

They just keep getting better

M A T C H

Fr.

Will's channel is the gateway drug, your content is for the hardcore Scrabble addicts 😉

@@alexpotts6520 I like both and am subscribed to both.

Will makes a choice on which nuances he wants to mention. You go through ALL of the nuances 😀 (I enjoy watching both approaches!)

💀

Because you made a video on the states and valid words, can you please do the same with countries and de facto states

That was so fun. Wirtual is just awesome, his support of / interest in Scrabble has been a huge difference maker!

this is why Scrabble is so awesome, great eye!

@@degenerate82 thank you, although I meant through the U in column 15!! I can't type as well as I can spot lol

omg I saw Wirt's name here and double-took cuz I for sure thought I misread; what a wild moment of worlds colliding

@@xhappybunnyx same bruh im a fan of both niches

Casting with Wirtual was so fun. Beyond being a fantastic content creator, he actually really *gets* Scrabble instinctively, which is amazing to me.

@@wanderer15 omg how'd I miss that?? I've got some content to catch up on. You are both absolutely experts of finding something you're passionate about and disseminating that information in a way that shows us the beauty that you've found. Wishing you both well

@@wanderer15 thank you for casting, it was so random but a ton of fun to watch (and it made me realize I wasn't subbed yet while I've been watching you for a while)

Can 100% attest to this firsthand, Ian was as gracious an opponent as you’ll ever find especially considering the intensity and closeness of the match

@@mysticalsoap I think I saw on the livestream Mack pointing above the word EW. I think what he was talking about was the fact that it would have given him a second spot for his J, had JEW not been expurgated from the dictionary, which would have made his endgame a lot easier as he could have played ESCHAR immediately without worrying about being J-stuck. Incidently, had they been playing Collins then he'd have been completely fine, as JA is also a word in that lexicon, giving him plenty of spots for the J.

@@alexpotts6520 Yep that's exactly right. Interestingly, and I didn't realize this until later (though I discuss it in my video coming out on Friday), had I drawn the U instead of the J, ESCHAR immediately would've still been a loser since Ian could block both UT to the T and UN to the N in DOUBTING (my only 2 U spots) simultaneously as they're so close together, and I'd be U-stuck. That being said, I'd still have plenty of fairly straightforward wins.

I'm going to be covering some of Chloe's games on my channel in due time, and I hope Will does too, she definitely deserves it!

He has actually! About one year ago: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nZdiSggMUsg.html

On my to-do list for sure, Chloe had such a fantastic performance!

Yeah it's really nonstandard The best part is that there's the third way, the Russian way, which is just sort of "Yan".

@@codetaku like chess gm ian nepomniatchi, right?

Sports commentator Ian Eagle is one of the more notable people with this less common pronunciation

Iron is a strong name.

and Ian Ziering from 90210

Hey thanks, appreciate your support!

Thanks man, Aristotle could burn some serious rubber

Too kind!

Thank you very much!

Will playing it smart😂

I remember reading lotr as a kid and that word showed up and I didn't know what it meant and I started saying it out loud.

did not expect to see one of my favorite computer science youtubers in the comments of one of my favorite scrabble youtubers

@@qlf9_ it makes sense though, right?

ELEMI is a sick, sick play!

@@wanderer15 overlapping the ANI of PAESANI and hitting the triple letter?

Thats worrying tbh.

20 bucks says I was shaking more 😉

That was a bit of a spoiler! :)

Really like her playstyle. Great word knowledge pairing up with aggressive & no fear playstyle.

@@zim81 Ah, so you're on the "Havering is London" side of the argument, rather than the people who never accepted the London Government Act 1963 and insist it's still part of Essex?

@@alexpotts6520 East OF London, not East London :) I accept it's not part of London.

Holding two S' is evaluated to be the same as, if not worse, than holding one S. Especially on a board with limits opportunity for hooks. If you can grab a few extra points and un-double the S', it's often the right thing to do

He has 2 s's. the second s is significantly worse than the first since duplicate tiles aren't great, even if it's an S. Playing your second s for 4 more points is generally worth it.

(im just a beginner so others can feel free to correct me) - Ian has two S's on his rack, so the additional S is significantly less valuable. The S is doubled + overalapped, so 6 points may be enough. A pure equity evaluation says that EAOS is ~3 points worse than EAOSS so playing the S for 6 points is justified - If he leaves the spot open, it's a huge scoring play if Mack happens to have the other S to hook onto QI. (Since Ian has two S's, I'm not sure this alone justifies the move as Mack is only ~10% likely to draw the S out of the bag) - It obstructs Mack's ability to play through the G for the triple-word next turn That said, this was not a clear decision and in the commentary for the game, you can hear the announcers analyzing it. The discussion occurs at ~2:59:30 in this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Uw1LMSpGq1E.html

In fact, since Ian would only play QIS over QI if he has duplicated 'S's, Mack can also infer from the QIS play that Ian is extremely likely to have another S. Top-level scrabble can become a mind game at times, since opponents can make inferences on what kind of tiles you have on your rack based on what you didn't play.

True - keep in mind though that the dictionary here was the North American one, where JA is not acceptable!

Thats the more common pronunciation, Ian himself pronounces it the way that Will did. I hadn't heard this alternate pronunciation but apparently some people do use it.

Not to over self-promote, but this question will be answered in excessive detail on Friday on my channel :)

@@mackmeller Haha okay. I’ll be on the lookout for it, thank you :)

Thank you very much!

It's an easy way to determine you have all 100 tiles present. It's standard practice at tournaments for players to 'square' the tiles at the end of a game ready for the next one

@@risky6string OK, I can easily there are 100 tiles, but how can you see they are the right 100? Surely a more methodical arrangement would be more useful...

@@msolec2000 it just rarely ever presents itself as a problem. Theoretically it could but in practice it is so rare as it requires too many oversights on the part of the players. Building something methodical would take an unnecessary amount of time each time and a mistake is still possible

@@risky6string I see. Thank you

Two blanks at the same time is not super common but still shows up time to time. It's actually worse to draw both blanks simultaneously as opposed to one after another.

Proper nouns don't count in Scrabble

@@Emile.gorgonZola Ahh, that makes sense. It wasn't immediately apparent to me since I'm Swedish, and religions and people belonging to them aren't proper nouns in my language. Always great to learn more things :)

​@@vharmi. JEW used to be a valid word but got removed in the NWL20 version along with several other racial/ethnic slurs

Indeed. I hadnt heard that pronunciation either.

He does in fact pronounce it that way, like sportscaster Ian Eagle & actor Ian Ziering.

It’s the correct pronunciation of his name I believe, actually!

It’s unusual for sure but can confirm it’s definitely how Mr. Weinstein pronounces it!

jew is not valid anymore

@@ljkai I think that's pretty pathetic. It's been a word forever.

He does in fact pronounce it that way, like sportscaster Ian Eagle & actor Ian Ziering.

JA is only in the Collins list; they’re playing with NWL.

Yes, NWL! So no JA in the pivotal moments of the last game.

The S is valuable, but when you have two of them, spending one for a few extra points can be a good idea.