Played in my 3rd tournament in USA. Not faring too well. Won 2, loss 4 today. I'd say I can do better than that, and that's not just coz I am big-headed. The rules here are different, and different enough that I am playing at probably 60% capability.
One thing is the TWL dictionary. It is so typically American that they don't accept OSW, where English actually originated from, the UK. As per a seasoned veteran, it is not likely to change anytime, when most Americans don't even have a passport, and could care less about the world at large. I played UEY# today, and of course, got it challenged off. (# - OSW only words, not acceptable in TWL). I almost played KAGO# too, but of course, was not sure, and played a safer INKER somewhere else.
Second difference is the double challenge rule, where you lose a turn if a challenge a good word. This makes people really think about challenging, which is good in some case, I suppose. But 5-point challenge rule is definitely more forgiving. Sometimes, the 5-points loses you the game. But in double challenge, you give the opponent 2 turns in a row! I think you will probably lose about 20-points on average because of that. Of course, if your word power is good, that is to your advantage. For newbies (and not so newbie like me, a SOWPODS player), that is tough. But you can also fake it a bit more, if you establish yourself as a word power player.
Well, I got my first rating at 922 in October 2005. So, having on 2-4 in Hayward 2 weeks ago, and 2-4 today, I'd probably drop down to sub-900, I think. Sigh.... hope I can break the 1,000 rating point soon.
Looking forward to 2006!! The new word list will come into play, and with it QI#. And a lot more 2-letter and 3-letter words will come in play, words that I already know. And a new word too, ZA (short for pizza). Yes, the Americans think some words in UK English is not good, and they add ZA!!
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6 comments:
Yup, ratings dropped from 922 to 900 to 859. No way but up!! Or down....
And i thought the ratings are better when the number gets smaller, like being No.1 in most sports? Or is it just the country where you are right now??!
dear anon,
Scrabble ratings work differently. What you mean is ranking, which smaller is better... ie. to be no.1!
basically, the higher your rating, the better your ranking, ie. a 1,500 'rated' player is higher 'ranked' as compared to a 1,000 'rated' player. Hope I don't make it even more confusing.
For better understanding, check out websites like:
www.scrabble-assoc.com (USA), www.toucanet.com (Singapore) etc,
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~rjackman/ (international player ratings),
all which has active ratings for players.
or, another way to look at it, when a hotel is rated 5-star, it is better than one rated 3-star.
Aha.
How about sending us an occasional email telling us of your experiences.
My informants (the kids) are very good at ferreting out these Blog things. I have no idea how they do it!
Rgds
Oh, btw, the anonymous is me, Wai Meng.
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