2009 Great Canadian SCRABBLE Tournament - Revision history

Poslfit: added link

2009-12-17T18:53:46Z

added link

Poslfit: added photo caption

2009-11-13T04:47:21Z

added photo caption

Poslfit: photo

2009-11-13T03:49:50Z

photo

Poslfit: /* See also */ more links

2009-11-13T03:34:22Z

‎See also: more links

Poslfit: introductory note, see also

2009-11-13T03:33:23Z

introductory note, see also

Poslfit: New page: The Hobby Show is a long-established tradition in Toronto, where vendors of R/C vehicles, robots, toys, games, craft supplies, numismatic and philatelic items and genealogical references m...

2009-11-13T03:29:07Z

New page: The Hobby Show is a long-established tradition in Toronto, where vendors of R/C vehicles, robots, toys, games, craft supplies, numismatic and philatelic items and genealogical references m...

New page

The Hobby Show is a long-established tradition in Toronto, where vendors
of R/C vehicles, robots, toys, games, craft supplies, numismatic and
philatelic items and genealogical references meet once a year at a
convention centre to share their interests with the general public.
New management this year has expanded the show to include various
competitive pursuits under the name of The Great Canadian Game Show:
table hockey, trivia, chess, pinball, slot car racing, paper airplane
throwing, video car racing, Rock Paper Scissors, and of course a
rated SCRABBLE tournament.

The show ran for three days, and for the first two days Shan Abbasi
and I manned our booth and kept ourselves busy playing one or two
members of the public for $2 a game and a chance to win one of six
high-game trophies donated by the show organizer. I’m hoping a few
of them will start attending local clubs.

On Sunday, 22 players competed in an open six-game format, with
two-thirds of the entry fees being returned in prize money to the
top three overall and the top players from the middle and bottom
thirds. Top seed was Tony Leah, confident in his ability to tell
CSW from OWL even just before he leaves to represent Canada at the
WSC. For Tara Smylie, winner of the 2009 Toronto School SCRABBLE
Championship, it was her first NASPA-rated tournament, and she
brought along her younger brother Jackson too. They ended up playing
one game with each other, which Jackson won, giving him the higher
initial rating of 563.

The event was also open in that it was played in the middle of the
show, next to the exciting sounds of table hockey and the old theme
from Hockey Night In Canada, with a small crowd of curious spectators. Some players wore earplugs against
these plaguers (no graupels in the forecast), and some looked like
they wanted to complain, but were having too good a time scooping
up holiday presents at bargain prices from the nearby vendors. I
got a fabulous deal on several sets of “SCRABBLE Slam” and
a table hockey set myself.

I always look forward to running tournaments, as they give me a chance
to add and test improvements to tsh. This time around I ran the event
without a printer, using only the electronic scoreboard to display
results and pairings, and reusing old scorecards and scoreslips from
past events to make this if not a totally paper-free event, at least
one for which I didn’t use my printer at all. I also finally figured
out how to do the tricky class/place prize calculation automatically,
so we no longer have to hold up prize ceremonies with “uh... Player
A won the $50 class prize, which is more than the $40 fifth place
prize, so that prize actually goes to the player who finished sixth,
and, um....” Small steps toward a brighter future.

Speaking of which, I’m hoping that the organizer managed
to break even, or at least do well enough to be willing
to try again next year. If he does, I’ll look into bringing
either the CNSC or the WPC to this venue. The price is hard
to beat, and I like the idea of bringing SCRABBLE tournaments
to the public.

Congratulations to Lou Cornelis, who achieved the rare feat of winning
two one-day tournaments in one weekend, adding today’s trophy and
$200 to yesterday’s winnings from Brantford. Tony Leah finished second,
Zev Kaufman third, and Priya Fernando and Lou’s wife Lilla Sinanan
took the class prizes.

-- [[John Chew]]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 ''We are considering soliciting tournament reports from our directors and players. This is a sample of what one might look like.''
-[[Image:DSC00580.jpg|thumb|250px||||John Chew awarding the trophy to Lou Cornelis. Photo by Roger Cullman.]]]]
+[[Image:DSC00580.jpg|thumb|250px||||John Chew awarding the trophy to Lou Cornelis. Photo by <a href="http://www.rogercullman.com">Roger Cullman</a>.]]
 The Hobby Show is a long-established tradition in Toronto, where vendors
 of R/C vehicles, robots, toys, games, craft supplies, numismatic and

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 ''We are considering soliciting tournament reports from our directors and players. This is a sample of what one might look like.''
-[[Image:DSC00580.jpg|right|250px||||John Chew awarding the trophy to Lou Cornelis]]
+[[Image:DSC00580.jpg|thumb|250px||||John Chew awarding the trophy to Lou Cornelis. Photo by Roger Cullman.]]]]
 The Hobby Show is a long-established tradition in Toronto, where vendors
 of R/C vehicles, robots, toys, games, craft supplies, numismatic and

@@ Line 66: / Line 66: @@
 == See also ==
-* [[http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/tourneys/2009/lxt/11/010.shtml full results]]
+* [http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/tourneys/2009/lxt/11/010.shtml full results]
 * [http://www.blogto.com/sports_play/2009/11/the_great_canadian_game_show_and_2009_hobby_show/ BlogTO article] by Roger Cullman

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 The Hobby Show is a long-established tradition in Toronto, where vendors
 of R/C vehicles, robots, toys, games, craft supplies, numismatic and
@@ Line 36: / Line 38: @@
 I always look forward to running tournaments, as they give me a chance
-to add and test improvements to tsh.  This time around I ran the event
+to add and test improvements to [[tsh]].  This time around I ran the event
 without a printer, using only the electronic scoreboard to display
 results and pairings, and reusing old scorecards and scoreslips from
@@ Line 60: / Line 62: @@
 took the class prizes.
--- [[John Chew]]
+&mdash; [[John Chew]]