This Scrabble Outplay Will Awe You 

you can feel the overawe and jism from will's initial reaction

"Turd" and "Jism" both being best moves. Incredible stuff.

The definition at 4:50 lol

4:46 "JISM n. let's just focus on the game, shall we"; spoken like a true Scrabble master! ;D

Thanks for the balanced review Will. Definitely a complicated game. I was about half a second from emptying the bag with NOISE/TOISE, which of course would have won, so it still sticks in my head. I’d also considered ENTOZOA but for various reasons opted against it (don’t ask me what those reasons were…) Definitely a great example to all players to play for any win, however improbable. Sometimes it comes off, and those are the games that go down in history

Brilliant definition at 4:43

"Josh get aggressive and play DORK" that cracks me up lol

You may not like it, but this is what peag scrabble performance looks like.

Nothing like two grandmasters going at it and putting on a tactical and strategical masterclass. And Will's explanation of the plays is easy to follow.

This game was like a Mexican standoff, or a samurai duel. Just two players making calculated jabs at each other, setting up bingos and blocking each other's setups, until one player finds an opening and lands the killing blow. also "let's just focus on the game shall we" hehe

Hey Will, I was wondering whether you could specify the lexicons at the beginning of matches for convenience because viewers may not know if it's CSW or NWL, and which update it is

The overawe at the definition of jism!

Whole game: Brett - *_doing sth_* Josh - *_m e n a c i n g_*

The way the Ague threat lingered the entire game and got cashed out in the last turn was awesome to see. By the way Will you're kinda the Tiger Woods of poker

Brilliant pre endgame sequence for Josh. Those 2 in the bag endgames are some of the trickiest to permeate and he seemingly did it with ease

I watched this one live and was really pleased with myself for spotting Josh's setup at 4:23 in that Josh had the only remaining A

This game, along with your commentary is really impressive. I could say that Josh prepared a very powerful attack, Brett soon realized and tried to interrupt the preparation with various critical hits, but Josh managed to fend off all of that. In the end, the preparation is complete and Brett is overawed, blown into Smithery with the allmighty blast. Also, knowing that you are a very skilled player, why don't you do more of your plays? I'd like to hear more about the thought process of a player in an actual game, and compare it to the optimal play.

Watched it live and you didn't even show Josh's reaction via his cam which also definitely was a highlight or the fact that either the game before or after he blew out harshan a pair of amazing games he played which were a treat to watch with my only criticism being the delays to the start of the days but that's wasn't your causing. Also thanks to Austin for casting with you.

These videos are phenomenal Will! Not just entertaining but educational as well. And your coverage was fantastic. I only watched a few games but I love the live coverage.

The level of strategy they use with their setups is so impressive. I'm still just happy if I can find some of these good words even though I have been playing for a long time

Loved seeing the reactions from both players, clearly a lot of respect from both sides.

I think W(E)D might be better to go for OVEREAT or OVERFAT with either an EE or EF draw. Still great inference by Josh, and great board awareness early on

I watched the coverage and saw this one live, you guys did a great job, but since you asked for some constructive feedback, here's what I've got! I would have loved a bit more love put into the overlays, a little extra splash of colour here and there or some changes of font size would go a long way in terms of readability. I am not sure if you ever watch chess coverage, and I know this is a big ask and requires investment both from tournament organisers and even manufacturers, but electronic boards and racks with RFID for the pieces would allow software to seamlessly track the live board state. We have these in chess and they are amazing, and will be needed at some point in the future for scrabble if it is going to grow, so why not try to get the ball rolling as soon as possible. Austin isn't as smooth as you as commentator yet, he just needs to do more volume and he'll be over the jitters in no time. Until then, I find whenever I'm doing coverage with someone who has a lot of knowledge but less commentary experience, moving into more of a interviewer role and asking them leading questions will make their life easier. A round timer could be a great addition for the times between live games. You also don't have to fill all the dead air yourself, you could easily do Q&A with the live chat during those down periods. Thanks for all the hard work that goes into running these. I've organised, broadcasted and commentated a ton of volunteer coverage myself, and I know how exhausting it can be, if it wasn't so fulfilling to do it for the games we love nobody in their right mind would do so. Thanks.

That was so sick. I think that was the best scrabble game I've ever seen. The strategy in this game was far more impressive than a player just banging out a lot of bingos.

I really enjoyed your coverage of the event, hope to see more!

Great job. That was quite the contest. Never surrender.

Spectacular game and similarly great analysis by you, Will. A thing of beauty.

Incredible play on all sides. Applauds! 🙏

Great video! I witnessed this live and it was so cool

Im so happy for Josh. Great video Will!

This is your best video yet, Will. Thanks for reigniting my love of scrabble!

definitely one of your best videos

These guys are another level 👏👏👏👏

Great stuff all around guys! Keep ya peckers up.👍

Saw this live on your stream, it was a treat. Only advice I'd have is to include the timezone when you notify when the next games start or breaks end.

This is the type of play that I think is underused a lot in current top scrabble, but is a key type of strategy (exploiting a small advantage patiently at an opportune time) in top levels of play in games like chess. It makes me think it can happen more often, but we haven't trained ourselves to recognize it most of the time. Current computer engines also don't do this and my guess is people are too reliant on computers for the post-game analysis

those 3-word daily puzzles proving their worth * bicep emoji *

I forgot my number one tip for coverage in my other comment. Ask your audience for help. I found such talented people who were willing to volunteer their time over the years simply by asking on stream. I met an amazing ex live-television video production guy who instantly elevated everything I did by 15x the polish by asking the audience and waking up to a DM the next day. Multiple commentators, software devs, VFX artists who did overlays. People love to contribute their professional skills to their hobbies and feel valued for them. You'll be amazed by your audience.

Great vid watched you and Austin commentate on it as well. Great coverage with the RU-vid vids as well. Only think I can think of that would make the live events better is maybe a post match interview with the winner (or loser) is that something that’s ever done or something the players would be up for?

I watched the MGI classics and i was just thinking it might be gd if we brought back the live web cams on the racks? The one in MGI was a tad laggy to update. Other than thst it was AMAZING atw to the commentary and being able to annotate the board as the commentors talked starts with us too !!!

Hi Josh, I loved the livestream. You both were great, and so were the games. If you're looking for constructive feedback I'd say get a producer if you can. You were distracted a lot of the time trying to get the tech to work, and it got in the way of the conversation and back-and-forth analysis between you both. Love this channel and keep it up!

And that’s why you play it through, even if you know (as Josh probably did) that you’re

amazing vid

Video number 2 of asking you to continue with Better Know a Letter (if you want a suggestion for the next letter, do Y)

that was mind blowing

I’m overawed by this video

waiting for that 50k milestone..

Josh is a very strong player, and he has a very strategical style. I hope to learn from it

I wonder if ERHU/AH should have been considered when HURL was played to try and address the AGUE threat

Will kicked in while I got my coffee, *Perfection*

Well, Brett certainly didn't play the pre-endgame all that well I thought. There was no good in letting Josh fish for a bingo if he didn't already have one, so (R)OIN leaving two in the bag just doesn't seem worth it. He *knows* Josh has the A, but he can't know whether he has a bingo, but regardless, giving him one extra turn almost never helps when you can do nothing to block the spot he's looking to bingo in. I'm sure Brett came to the same conclusion upon examination after the game that playing NOISE hooking HURL with the S for 26 was the best chance of winning; if Josh hasn't drawn a bingo, he's unlikely to overcome the deficit by making an out in two sequence, and if he does have a bingo, then 9 times out of 10 Brett is lost in any case, unless it's some crazy bingo not using a V, and he can stick Josh with that tile, but that's bound to be in the 1 out of 10 game scenario. I have a sneaking suspicion if Nigel were in Brett's shoes, we would have seen a different play, but Nigel operates on some advanced computer system that we've yet to hack, though my instinct was that leaving two in the bag was not a particularly good choice while the game was going on. Mind you, I wasn't sitting under the lights, with the clock running, etc. ROIN simply accomplishes very little from what I can see, aside from blocking a semi-decent place to play WAVED or something, which still shouldn't threaten Brett's lead or chances of victory after he pulls whatever out of the bag. I'm sure if Brett had a multiple chances to replay this pre-endgame, he would choose differently, but alas that's Scrabble and life, after all.

Just wondering if MIN(Y) instead of JISM, could have deflected that A-GUE setup. But according to the Quackle engine, JISM was way above the best choice.

That's sad when TURD is your best move. Great game.

I love watching the streaming videos. I watched most of them. I would've liked to see a camera showing the racks. Normally, you have that. But maybe this time there was some technical difficulties?

Thanks for another great video Will! Have you played Balatro? It's based on poker, but in playing it I realized it might have just as much in common with Scrabble. Would love to hear if you have any thoughts

Never overlook the dorks hook

Constructive criticism: Austin's audio was a bit muffled, echoey, and quieter than yours, so I think him having a mic and you two normalizing your volumes would've helped a lot. Also, there were times where your audio would shift in overall volume (I noticed this particularly in the day 2 video, for example at 24:30). Other than that, just the obvious UI and camera glitches and the issues with slow updates and whatnot. Thanks for your coverage of the event!

A lot of cool 4 letter words in this one

loved and appreciated the coverage of the classics. The only thing I'd suggest is that the audio was really sharp and hard to listen to at points. Not sure if this is a mic quality or an audio mix issue. Regardless, looking forward to more!

By the way, this game had a lot of parallels to chess. Often in chess you can create a positional weakness on the board that is difficult or impossible for your opponent to defend. That's exactly what happened here - Josh created a weakness on the AGUE line and kept pressuring until it was un-defendable, which allowed him to cash it in at maximum value.

Josh plays TURD followed by DORK; subsequently wins

The gothamchess thumbnail elements are kicking in, and I am all for it

Very interesting. Out of curiosity, what would have happened if the combination in the bag was E and F or something else? Did Josh's set up work with any other combinations besides EE?

A moment of awkwardness passed around my room when Will made the AHHHH on live blasted out at full volume

Dork and turd… sounds like my scrabble games haha

QIN is only in the international version right?

It's easy to see why Josh is a champion

Constructive Feedback of the livestreams (my first time following an event in livestream form): * there was a weird volume ducking when switching between the main view and the analysis board * it was a bit difficult for everyone to follow when the tile racks were not being updated quickly (everyone commented on this) Great Things: * the absolute joy in Will and Austin's voices, even though the feed starts at 6am/5am in their timezones, they were glad to be here and glad to commentate * the detailed analysis for possible moves, "can he/she find this word", and outlining possibilities * if there was a blowout game, the commentary was still good to follow and entertaining without devolving into irrelevant tangents: this is not easy Best Highlight: * Will's impression of @dweebovision

Guuuuuuuueeeeee.

JISM was the final stroke that made me burst out. And Will finally seeing it in OVERAWE also made him burst out! What a really great game overall! (If yall somehow don't know, JISM is a slang term for the white stuff)

3:40 whatttt since when is ZE valid???

How is the first move 16? I count 7 points. Even if the starting square is double, that's only 14

Some scrabble expert please help me understand this! Why do the players always awkwardly hold the bag over their head when drawing tiles?

Hamburger

Is there a reason you defined Ladino as the clover and not the language?

The definition lol

Hi Will! Can you also do a video about a female scrabble player? Thanks in advance!

Is JISM a suboptimal play for not blocking the A lane? Quackle 99% win rate did not consider the fact that Josh had the case A. Also wanna know what does Josh feel when he realises he missed the Collins bingo😂😂😂

10:18 What the hell is YRIVD????

I literally JUST turned off the stream before this happened! Maybe I should’ve stayed a little longer

gud vid willian👌👍

3:34, isn't ZE invalid?

Ayo it's the Gotham Chess of Scrabble

i thought 'ague' was pronounced 'aig'

HE QUOTED ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i AM OFFICIALLY FAMOUS😇😇😇😇😇😇

AA, AAL, OE, OO, IO. It's like watching Scrabble be played in a language you don't speak. Hard pass on international games, too many cooks.