Scrabble with 39 blank tiles!

[@cooperkomatsu329]

QUIETENER!! came up in the best-of-7 against josh

[@mackmeller]

Crazy timing, this was recorded well in advance of the match with Josh!

[@annayosh]

A bot that just makes the highest point play rather than the highest equity play might actually be stronger than Quackle in this variant.

[@nautilus269]

There was a time when championship player wanted to sacrifice over 90 points, if not many more for the purposing of fishing. There are flaws in the programming. I wish there was a true Stockfish of Scrabble. This hypothetical bot needs to be programmed to mimic Nigel Richard's plays and set ups.

[@dotcom137]

Modified Scrabble is my favorite series right now, I've being watching the old ones

[@mackmeller]

Thanks! I've just been underwater with analysis videos lately but I hope to resume it more regularly in the coming weeks/months :)

[@weee50]

Oddly, Quackle works fine with more than 39 of the same tile for me. Even a game with 100 blanks and nothing else works, although it seems to mess with the engine: Speedy Player would always play one tile for 0 points instead of bingoing, since the equity value of six blanks is more than 50 points.

[@mackmeller]

Huh, interesting. I wonder if it was an issue with my computer... I did just get a new one so might have to test it again!

[@eugenerichardson7691]

Mack! suggestion for ya: how about doing scrabble with the letters in the word HAM, perhaps 20 of each tile, 20 H's, 20 A's, and 20 M's? You can edit the tile set to your wish. A lot of words can be made from these, like, HM, HMM, HA, AAH, AHA, HAHA, MAMA, MAMMA, AMA, MM, MMM, AA, HAM of course, and probably many more! Besides, with H being 4 points and M being worth 3 points, you might be able to make some higher scoring plays than expected. Hope you take this idea for consideration, and keep up the great Scrabble content!

[@TheBcoolGuy]

This guy's whole house is made out of ham.

[@mackmeller]

Would be particularly fitting since I famously had a lucky ham sandwich at the lunch break during SPC finals this summer! Was 0-2 pre-ham sandwich, 3-0 post-ham sandwich...

[@coolnath99]

these modified tile bag games are really fun. i was just imagining what this format would be like if it was over the board so you would have to remember what all the blanks were.

[@JasonVaysberg]

Mack is a 'messiah' of finding difficult blank bingos.

[@dehydratedbowser5261]

This made me wonder, what would be the optimal play on turn 1 if you started with 7 blanks?

[@BrettMKW]

My guess would be something with a ton of duplicates and ugly tiles to play through. PIZZAZZ, TSKTSKS, BOOBOOS, etc. PIZZAZZ does take a Y hook tho which is completely pointless knowledge to know normally as you can't actually play PIZZAZZ or PIZZAZZY in a regular game.

[@ravi12346]

Maybe bingo in the middle position to guarantee that you'll have at least one available double-double lane next turn?

[@mackmeller]

Haha great question, no idea but I feel like I'd go VIVIFIC with the second I on the star. Makes 7s impossible, doesn't give back a ton of distinct floaters, and as pointed out below guarantees me a 2*2 lane next turn.

[@AmaranthRBY]

...I have to assume this was recorded before the showmatch against Josh Sokol where you instantly slammed qUIE(TE)NER as a double double? I thought it was nuts even by your standards but it's easier to believe if it was fresh in your mind from this hahah

[@paulthompson1466]

This must've been before because Mack didn't mention it here, and he looks to have had a haircut between this and the Josh match!

[@Morphior]

Where can I watch that match?

[@paulthompson1466]

@@Morphior kzbin.info/www/bejne/a4G9aGlsmdybhqs

[@nkinast1]

​@@Morphior​ kzbin.info5PZ766dwhPI?t=8108&si=RlUCxm7G8849AAsF Quietener comes down about 1/3 of the way through.

[@mackmeller]

Yeah this was definitely prerecorded, probably by at least a week since I usually try to get well ahead before I go on any sort of extended trip. Crazy timing indeed though!

[@iwersonsch5131]

That moment when your triple-triple scores 131 cause you used 5 one-pointers and 2 blanks

[@100beep5]

Kinda wish you could do this with blanks scoring points based on what they are... You can do it with blanks having a fixed value, though.

[@nautilus269]

@Mack Meller Is it possible for you to do a series of games against Speedy Player in Quackle? I find it to be very aggressive, and almost always taking the top play, regardless of the consequences. It's comparable to a computer version of Jackson S. Even if you only play say 20 games against it, it would still be appreciated. Maybe a Clabbers game at least 1 in 5 games. Would be so good to watch. Quackle can be harder than Bestbot at times in my opinion.

[@mpeterll]

How about a modified tile-bag game that showcases all the short "Q" words (qi, qat, qadi, qaid, etc)? something like 30 Q's and the rest all a, i, t, d.

[@mackmeller]

I do have one from way back with tons of Qs!

[@mpeterll]

@@mackmeller I know you did one with 20 Q's, but the rest of the tile bag was normal so it didn't have the same effect. All legal words were still possible. The idea is this one would be that there are only a few words that one can play and the Q's are the only way to score well so you want them rather than trying to avoid them.

[@coolnath99]

21:27 hot sauce for quackle

[@mackmeller]

That'll be a whole bottle!

[@Bigbobvb]

How can I share a recent game to you from Lake George to get potentially featured? 533-489 final score: 7 bingos, 4 straight ending in OVERJOY for 140 opening an S hook on the 3W. One S in the bag with us each drawing 7 to empty it. Couple pretty crazy positions late

[@tomh1760]

I love the channel and the videos, Mack, and I'm constantly in awe of your word knowledge. I'm begging you to get a decent external microphone, though. You're too good and these videos are too creative for them to be weighed down by subpar computer audio. Bump up those production values and this channel will 100% take off. Congrats on your championship!

[@mackmeller]

I think this should hopefully be better going forward -- I do have an external microphone, I'm 99% sure the problem is my computer was constantly overheating and the computer fans would start blowing like crazy a few minutes into each recording, and that interfered with the audio. That computer actually died for good right before I left for Lake George (RIP), and my new computer never has the fans going off, so the audio seems a lot better. If it's still bad during the videos that go up the week of Oct 28th then let me know and I'll see what else I can do, as those are the first batch that will have been recorded using the new computer.

[@Splax77]

For the turn at 6:20 you had the unplayable 7 of WOMBATS :)

[@tarheeledfish]

Dunno if you saw it, but you coulda played er to go out forming (wiNDsurf)e(r) and (Gi)r(d) for only 6 points. Hah.

[@mackmeller]

Oh wow nice! I did not see it haha

[@-Mopo-]

With ??? endgame, you should have orchestrated going out on your next turn with ?? or ??? for 0. Just cuz.

[@mackmeller]

Haha that would've been epic!

[@Joslinmeister]

Until the bot played PA, I was thinking it might be possible for it to bingo with 7 blanks through the D I on the 14 row but I don't think it's possible. Closest a solver found for me was (MY)D(R)I(ASIS) and (MY)D(R)I(ASES) both both make SP* 😢

[@nautilus269]

And also, has there ever been a game where both have scored over 600, yet not won? IE drawn? In any form.

[@iwersonsch5131]

How often do people lol* at the fact that nothing goes between two Ls?

[@AmaranthRBY]

It's pretty funny that LOL* isn't in but LOLZ# LULZ# are both good

[@reality3166]

what about scrabble with 15 letters per rack

[@mackmeller]

Unfortunately I don't think that's currently doable in Quackle but I'd be so down

[@nautilus269]

This format needs to be adopted world wide, as Scrabble 2.0. Imagine playing Nigel here. Next challenge - try this as Clabbers. Are custom formats like this playable vs any other bots, such as 'Best bot'?

[@mackmeller]

Unfortunately this can only be done with Quackle at the moment, but would love to try this against BestBot too!

[@nautilus269]

@@mackmeller Please post a Clabbers game at least once a fortnight, if not more frequently. It's very entertaining.

[@JavierSanchez-eo3xp]

Where do you get an updaated version of Quackle? Or is it only the 2019 version?

[@oliverhees4076]

Curious, how was the exact number of blanks calculated? Just vibes or was there some thought put into it? Why not 40 or 35 or 30?

[@mackmeller]

Ah I mentioned it quickly in passing at the start but Quackle crashes if you have more than 39 of the same tile!

[@BuffaloBom3]

volost with bot when?

[@SteveBennett1]

Hey Mack, I love your videos, but please, please get a decent microphone to improve the audio. The room reverb is hard on the ears.

[@mackmeller]

I think this should hopefully be better going forward -- I do have an external microphone, I'm 99% sure the problem is my computer was constantly overheating and the computer fans would start blowing like crazy a few minutes into each recording, and that interfered with the audio. That computer actually died for good right before I left for Lake George (RIP), and my new computer never has the fans going off, so the audio seems a lot better. If it's still bad during the videos that go up the week of Oct 28th then let me know and I'll see what else I can do, as those are the first batch that will have been recorded using the new computer.

[@-Mopo-]

RETROUPFIELDING ?

[@brianchau7328]

HI MACK❤

[@mackmeller]

Hi!

[@vitex198]

YOOOOOOOO