Thank you to everyone for supporting Josh and getting him well past that 1,000 subscriber milestone! To honor my end of the bargain, my "bonus video" will be dropping tomorrow, 11/3 at noon ET!
@louismyers88459 ай бұрын
I can't wait to watch it!
@verbosed10 ай бұрын
a month or so ago i was streaming scrabble for the first time, and josh came into my stream! he spent an hour in my chat giving me pointers, going back and forth about various things. he was the only person in my chat. there’s no other game where the national champion would be your only viewer. i love scrabble and i’m so grateful of people like you and josh supporting and growing the community with great content.
@louie210 ай бұрын
lol what a dude
@chris18thseymour10 ай бұрын
❤
@Mclarenboy10010 ай бұрын
I legitimately choked when I saw the BYZANTINE play, it's absolutely ridiculous.
@DoppelpunktDDD10 ай бұрын
I love how the top players in North America are all good friends and make these kinds of videos. You all are making Scrabble a very exciting game to follow
@richarddavis253010 ай бұрын
6 months ago, I never thought I'd be excited to see a new Scrabble video on KZbin, but here we are! Thanks for a great analysis of some incredible plays.
@Ben-1510 ай бұрын
I wonder who that mystery opponent could be? 😂
@Drogon710210 ай бұрын
Even his sillhouette is infamous at this point.
@BraxtonMeyer10 ай бұрын
mystery opponent where we can clearly see nigel's beard in the silhouette
@wanderer159 ай бұрын
good sleuthing! ;)
@asliuf10 ай бұрын
omg that A play is INSANEEEEE i effing love it
@TedRandomGamingChannel10 ай бұрын
I think it worked because when I just subscribed to Sokol he was already at 1.35k subscribers! :)
@sorenzollamas10 ай бұрын
Josh is an amazing Scrabble player. I recently saw him play C-A-T in a game and it just blew my mind!
@Andrew-bz4yo10 ай бұрын
Josh plays Scrabble like psychological warfare
@snowfloofcathug10 ай бұрын
Actually spotted that antitoxin play Another great video as always Will :) your mastery and understanding is so evident, your way of putting it together so captivating, and your enthusiasm is infectious. Easily one of the highlights of all of KZbin
@rubyj13810 ай бұрын
THE iconic duo of scrabble content frfr
@maxlimit912910 ай бұрын
False Swipe Gaming/Will Anderson sub crossover gang represent
@atreeseedling10 ай бұрын
How GOOD was John Sokol actually? And in this video we'll be looking at these competitive championships
@dustinbrown331710 ай бұрын
I saw the title and was like no way
@jkid113410 ай бұрын
I mean yeah, Josh Sokol is alright, but he's no Garchomp
@wanderer159 ай бұрын
I just went and checked out False Swipe and they've got some really high quality vids, wow!
@jkid11349 ай бұрын
@@wanderer15 Pokémon players don't mess around haha. you might also like Freezai (kinda nerding out a little, thought the closest these worlds would get to colliding is me nicknaming Pokémon after words on the Scrabble games I'm watching)
@user-ce8nj4pd2q10 ай бұрын
subed! and happy to see he's way past 1k subs now
@JoshBreakdowns9 ай бұрын
I just stumbled upon your channel and it's great, subscribed. One thing I've learned about high level Scrabble by watching your videos are the intricacies of the "timing" of the game so-to-speak. For example in Chess it is not legal for a player to "Pass", or even to play an ineligible move and allow the other player to decide whether to let it stand etc. This creates fascinating endgame scenarios involving concepts such as zugzwang and stalemate. In Scrabble the opposite is true but both games are enriched by the differences in the rules. It's a unique insight into the game that might not be immediately apparent to the casual player. Anyway thanks for making these and I'll be sure to keep watching!
@wanderer159 ай бұрын
Good points & thank you!
@hunterw430410 ай бұрын
Josh: "👍" Will: "This means war."
@AcelShock10 ай бұрын
could you put a link to his youtube channel in the description? i went there to look for it first Edit: thanks for adding it, really appreciate
@connorzittrauer330610 ай бұрын
The NEGOTIATES play… wtf. Awesome
@louismyers88459 ай бұрын
he has more than doubled in subs since your video!
@brianbowman663910 ай бұрын
Josh Sokol, King of Content
@paperpopper129010 ай бұрын
Next we need a Mack Meller video!!!!!
@wanderer159 ай бұрын
He has made a LOT of Scrabble History!
@skitsadoodle519410 ай бұрын
I love your scrabble videos! Keep it up!
@humbertocruz621410 ай бұрын
So great to have star players being good friends and supporting each other for the good of the game.
@gittles9692Ай бұрын
Josh: opens the game with A Will: "Brilliant!" top-level Scrabble is hilarious sometimes, I love it
@Tomahaka10 ай бұрын
Just went and watched Josh’s video and damn, you (and him) are too humble. When you get to a certain amount of subs you should do a review of some games that you’ve played
@tl765310 ай бұрын
Great video!
@rxmink10 ай бұрын
Favorite youtuber
@WilliamKiely10 ай бұрын
I subcribed to Josh because you're such a great content creator! I wish we had you for every game.
@qqw74310 ай бұрын
The people need to know the behind-the-scenes stories of Scrabble after-hours parties. I'm guessing Nigel is a madman.
@michaelchen27188 ай бұрын
6:12 Ok. Now THIS is insane.
@varietygamer183910 ай бұрын
This is the most underrated KZbinr
@thomasdawson225710 ай бұрын
An 11, wow, what a find
@zackhample9 ай бұрын
This is really cool. Like, REALLY cool. Thanks for putting this together, and man . . . COWRITTEN is gonna be in my dreams tonight.
@wanderer159 ай бұрын
Whoa...! Hey Zack, thanks for the kind words!
@Gastogh10 ай бұрын
Playing "A" for two points as an invalid word is such a mind flex.
@elirome69789 ай бұрын
I was asking myself: Would it not be 4 points even, because it works in both directions?
@meissmart66786 ай бұрын
@@elirome6978I would guess not, since the word is only one tile wide and thus wouldn't score the other direction. Same reason that you wouldn't score every single letter as a perpendicular "word" in a normal play.
@clausgiloi60367 ай бұрын
INTERVIEWER is just amazing.
@gurchyy10 ай бұрын
turns out he's pretty good
@wanderer159 ай бұрын
He's ok
@karinvasu300510 ай бұрын
lets gooooo :D
@michaelchen27188 ай бұрын
8:03 I was guessing something around "antioxidant"
@ajax_davis10 ай бұрын
You should make a video on how you make such good scrabble videos.
@wanderer159 ай бұрын
Very meta! (and thank you)
@autumnonawhim2 күн бұрын
7:26 I think what's so interesting about the 9+ letter bingos you highlighted is that they're impressive plays because they show Josh's ability to see beyond the 7 or 8 letter anagrams y'all have to memorize to play at a high level, but none of these words are really beyond a middle schooler's vocabulary (assuming you or someone you've known takes spirulina lol). As a casual player, my heuristic to find words is to look at my letters and try to sound them out in different combinations until they remind me of part of a word, then I look at my other letters and the board to see if I can make the rest of the word. This could totally just be hindsight on my part, but all of these plays seem like really good candidates for that? 1. (S)(IRUL)(N) -> SPIRULINA 2. (C)(WRITEN) -> COWRITTEN 3. (ANTI)(OXN) or (ANI)(TOXN) or (AN)(TOXIN) -> ANTITOXIN 4. This one is definitely the most impressive (BiN)(TINE) -> BYZANTINE 5. (E)(TIaTES) -> NEGOTIATES [also if you pronounce "n'go" it sounds like "nego" which sounds like "negotiate"] 6. (INtERV)(I) -> INTERVIEWER [it also helps that Americans don't really pronounce the T in interview] I'm super curious what his strategy was!
@michaelchen27188 ай бұрын
8:27 amazing
@andrewmilner-white99889 ай бұрын
Kind of surprised that A is alllowed at all, irrespective of challenge rules. Kind of feels like playing a tile between 2 squares, or playing diagonally, or something! Very cool play, i would have laughed if i were his opponent.
@EvanBerofsky10 ай бұрын
i remember josh playing A in shediac. or at least i remember being in the room and hearing one person laughing while the other sounded like their brain was being broken.
@GekkiSpeedruns10 ай бұрын
playing the letter A is so chad
@himynameisben9510 ай бұрын
wholesome video
@meta0410 ай бұрын
a
@AlexDings10 ай бұрын
challenge!
@chris18thseymour10 ай бұрын
exchange
@psymar10 ай бұрын
I once got a ten-letter play. Not a bingo but hit triple word score by extending an opening play of HOLE to form FINGERHOLE
@maxm69319 ай бұрын
He's definitely not just a Sokolled Scrabble expert.
@skitsadoodle519410 ай бұрын
11 letter bingo? WHAT!
@michaelchen27188 ай бұрын
7:34 genius
@Firefly25610 ай бұрын
Can anyone further explain the A play? I still don't quite understand, can't the opponent just challenge it?
@quarkito430110 ай бұрын
I think the point of the play was to make a very unusual move with a hidden intention (which actually was that Josh didn't really want to exchange letters, just have an available letter in play to have a 8 letter bingo) and give room to the opponent to misplay by overthinking (if Cesar felt he was being baited into challeging for some convoluted reason and didn't challenge a obvious wrong word, Josh probably would have a triple word bingo in his next turn). The genius of the play is that it's a play with no downsides for Josh but with a very possible big upside while it's so unusual that a average professional player wouldn't think about and possibly misplay into
@wanderer1510 ай бұрын
@@quarkito4301very, very well said! This is what I was getting at. But, Firefly, your reaction is definitely justified as well. Also, Josh will sometimes do things just to see what will happen, without having explicitly formed this type of reasoning beforehand...
@Zekses5 ай бұрын
Josh is a bobetah level grandmaster
@user-es8oi6jz2b10 ай бұрын
Woohoo🎉
@chrishooks656510 ай бұрын
Most people wouldn't block the fug fugu set up because no one picks up the q with two u's on their rack and only plays fug. Normally one picks up q without the u therefore fug is an assumed s hook setup. One must be weary of Josh😊
@jarrenbenin755310 ай бұрын
What's more dangerous: Josh Sokol with a dictionary or Jeff Sokol with a pizza?
@matthewoconnor336210 ай бұрын
In scrabble the small dictionary is almost the same size as the large
@joeykrafchick1610 ай бұрын
Josh is the new NWL GOAT 🐐 🐐🐐
@asdfasdf492410 ай бұрын
100% agree. Sorry no troll from me this time Josh! You're just the GOAT!
@javen969310 ай бұрын
I can't wait for an "Are they good?" video where the answer is No
@jellomochas10 ай бұрын
ACETA allows double-doubles ending in L.
@nicrueth20568 ай бұрын
Hi Will, love your content! Why did you say you felt like the blocking plays at 1:59 were too large to sacrifice? Did you block the bottom thinking he would be forced to play ZA for only 31, rather than a word ending in Z to double it?
@wanderer158 ай бұрын
It was a misevaluation on my part. I imagined that even with the Z, it wasn’t necessarily the case that Josh would always have a play ending in Z. He might be trying to draw one and not be successful, in which case blocking both spots would be a needless sacrifice. In fact, there’s not many combinations he could have that would absolutely guarantee a followup play in both spots. It’s actually just ITZ for ZIT/TIZ and ADZ for ZA/ADZ. But even then, it’s well worth the sacrifice on my part, because in the many instances where he connects on the spot, it’s so much worse when I don’t block.
@DashDrones10 ай бұрын
He's no Nigel...
@wanderer159 ай бұрын
No, but who is?
@DashDrones9 ай бұрын
@@wanderer15 sorry Will, was just a bit of a joke. Happy Friday 👍
@michaelchen27188 ай бұрын
5:57 wait I'm so confused. Why wouldn't Cesar challenge? Obviously everyone knows "A" is not a valid word??
@Fotten33310 ай бұрын
Add link
@BRlCK10 ай бұрын
not me thinking this said jeff sokol and being very concerned
@arthurbraden41029 ай бұрын
It is incredibly nice of Will to honor his fellow "Scrabbler". Isn't equaled 132 points? Equaled is 37 x 2 = 74 + fugu (8) = 82 + 50 (Bingo) = 132? I am missing something here! .... ohhhhhhhhh ... the d must be a blank and we cannot see that the d is a blank in the video.
@wanderer159 ай бұрын
I shade the blank tile gray and remove the point value from the corner, but I'm open to suggestion for how to make it more obvious on screen!
@EAZinPDX10 ай бұрын
Thanks Will! Just subscribed to Josh’s channel, thereby raising his subscriber count from 998 to 999. So….. who will put him over the 1,000 mark?? Will it be *you*???
@Headhunter_2128 ай бұрын
I’m not sure how the math works but minimizing your opponents big opportunities seems to be as effective over many games as Bingos. I’m curious if this is the case. Wasn’t there a previous US champion whose hyper defensive tactics demo’s this ? Sorry I’m not recalling this legend. IIRC he passed away on the last 5-7 years.
@wanderer158 ай бұрын
You’re referring to the legendary David Gibson - I go in depth into his titanic clash with Nigel Richards in episodes 2 and 3 of Scrabble History!
@domino149 ай бұрын
haha I won the game where he opened with A though!!
@wanderer159 ай бұрын
I know, Josh told me. I will add a correction note, I confused it with TERTIALS!
@axcertypo9 ай бұрын
everybody downvote this comment 🙃
@banananana210 ай бұрын
I gotta know what the longest words ever played are. Like 11 is insane but has anyone ever gotten 12? 13?? 14??? 15???? 16?????
@markthompson176910 ай бұрын
I think most players would find it hard to fit a 16 letter word on a 15x15 board. Maybe Nigel would be able to though XD
@banananana210 ай бұрын
@@markthompson1769 Oh shit I miscounted But Nigel could for sure lmao
@meta049 ай бұрын
also, 16s aren't actually in the relevant word lists even when words like "pizzazz" and "knickknack" (which have too many of one letter to actually form even with the two blanks) are included definitely have seen *phony* 14s (reinteractable) and 15s (safetiedilative, "dilative" already being on the board with the first I being blank) before, though...
@user-ru1xc4qf4r8 ай бұрын
iirc EXISTENTIALISTS was played from EXISTENT on the board for the max 15 letters
@milliondollaquestion877710 ай бұрын
josh is the hikaru of scrabble, and will is the gothamchess
@Xeractyll10 ай бұрын
Pretty much ^^ XD
@SkyFire211210 ай бұрын
Okay…. I thought this video was going to be about the josh Sokol who’s is one of the pedos caught on To Catch a Predator… thank goodness it’s Scrabble
@OfficialGidfather10 ай бұрын
*in 2014 Josh actually lost twice in the same tournament to the same player (some guy named “Ben Schoenbrun”), I don’t see you making videos about that guy, all I’m saying is be consistent. Also what kind of name is “wanderer15”. What a joke.
you know you're going places as a KZbinr when you see toxic comments like this! 😅
@wanderer159 ай бұрын
Gidfather coming in with the hottest take since his manifesto in support of the K tile
@thegodofpez10 ай бұрын
That INTERVIEWER play is simply disgusting. 🙏
@michaelchen27188 ай бұрын
5:07 why didn't you block Fug?
@wanderer157 ай бұрын
Hindsight is 20/20!
@sterlingburnsides971210 ай бұрын
First! Hi will :=)
@wanderer159 ай бұрын
Hi!
@tranonehalf9 ай бұрын
Lol A
@biggiemac4210 ай бұрын
Eh I beat him once
@wanderer159 ай бұрын
lol, that you did. man that was epic
@iwersonsch513110 ай бұрын
Wait why is Byzantine valid when Iraqi isn't
@cukka9910 ай бұрын
The former just happens to have a particular meaning ("intricate"), which is listed in the source dictionary without a capital letter. Kind of like how french is good but, Swedish, for example, isn't.
@wanderer1510 ай бұрын
Good question - "byzantine" as a regular non-proper adjective has come to mean "excessively complicated," of course taking its inspiration from the actual Byzantine Empire. In fact, earlier in the video when I played "greek," it's the same principle. Sometimes, the word greek isn't capitalized when used to explain how complicated something is ("it's all greek to me").
@iwersonsch513110 ай бұрын
@@wanderer15 Weird. I looked it up on Collins and it said it's valid because it's relating to Byzantium or the Byzantine empire
@EltWilder9 ай бұрын
Blam.
@ssgoko888 ай бұрын
Evil Will be like: hi bill here, lets talk about checkers