STORY:
AMBI: SCRABBLE TOURNAMENT
SAM KAUFMAN: What you are listening to is the announcers from a competitive event. But one that most people don’t think of as competitive. Scrabble. Competitive Scrabble is a pastime for tens of thousands of people worldwide. There are all kinds of people who play Scrabble competitively, even children.
COOPER 2
COOPER: (0:57) A very good game would be like a 400. Braggable is maybe 500. The best I’ve gotten in a club or tournament is 568, but I got like a 6-something against a friend.
That’s Cooper Komatsu, an 8th grader from Southern California, and one of the top youth Scrabble players in the country.
COOPER 1
COOPER: (16:11) We have the best combined rating, and the highest rated player in the tournament, which is my partner. I’m probably third highest rated.
Cooper is an energetic, positive kid. And a kid who evidently loves Scrabble. In addition to competing in …show more content…
It’s just that luck can play a big part.
And luck can play a big part. But I’m getting ahead of myself. How does a 13 year old kid end up playing competitive Scrabble anyway? Well, for Cooper, it started young. He would play on the same team as his mom — another avid player — and soon graduated to playing against her. He first got really excited about the game when he played “QUAIL” for 81 points and realized that he was getting better. He started going to local Scrabble clubs at age 7, when his parents were no challenge for him anymore. And it’s there that Lucky 13 was formed.
COOPER 1 COOPER: (6:01) We’ve been friends since fourth or fifth grade, when he heard about the club and he wanted to join.
One of the aspects of the game that Cooper enjoys most it’s social component. Through Scrabble, Cooper has gotten to meet and compete against people from all over the country. While he admits that it is sometimes odd to want your friends to lose, Cooper doesn’t seem to have much of a problem with
AMBI: SCRABBLE TOURNAMENT
SAM KAUFMAN: What you are listening to is the announcers from a competitive event. But one that most people don’t think of as competitive. Scrabble. Competitive Scrabble is a pastime for tens of thousands of people worldwide. There are all kinds of people who play Scrabble competitively, even children.
COOPER 2
COOPER: (0:57) A very good game would be like a 400. Braggable is maybe 500. The best I’ve gotten in a club or tournament is 568, but I got like a 6-something against a friend.
That’s Cooper Komatsu, an 8th grader from Southern California, and one of the top youth Scrabble players in the country.
COOPER 1
COOPER: (16:11) We have the best combined rating, and the highest rated player in the tournament, which is my partner. I’m probably third highest rated.
Cooper is an energetic, positive kid. And a kid who evidently loves Scrabble. In addition to competing in …show more content…
It’s just that luck can play a big part.
And luck can play a big part. But I’m getting ahead of myself. How does a 13 year old kid end up playing competitive Scrabble anyway? Well, for Cooper, it started young. He would play on the same team as his mom — another avid player — and soon graduated to playing against her. He first got really excited about the game when he played “QUAIL” for 81 points and realized that he was getting better. He started going to local Scrabble clubs at age 7, when his parents were no challenge for him anymore. And it’s there that Lucky 13 was formed.
COOPER 1 COOPER: (6:01) We’ve been friends since fourth or fifth grade, when he heard about the club and he wanted to join.
One of the aspects of the game that Cooper enjoys most it’s social component. Through Scrabble, Cooper has gotten to meet and compete against people from all over the country. While he admits that it is sometimes odd to want your friends to lose, Cooper doesn’t seem to have much of a problem with