The Word That Could Get Scrabble Cancelled

[@ATOM-vv3xu]

Just spent 8.5 minutes watching some sht until the topic that I clicked for came up. You need to change that. Never spend more than a minute explaining rules. Especially if the only thing to see is an unemotional face.

[@isaacbeen2087]

HAH?!?

[@HonkeyKongLive]

You seem like the kind of person who gets bored reading a stop sign.

[@ATOM-vv3xu]

@@HonkeyKongLive those 8.5 minutes were not worth the time for me in terms of information density, I could have watched the vid entirely without them, so I told him exactly that, hoping that he would learn better and thus gain popularity on YT

[@tomlaptain646]

@@ATOM-vv3xu I found those 8.5 minutes really interesting, learning about the relevant rules that come up, and helping someone who has only played scrabble casually to understand the course of action that occurred in the professional game.

[@kelperdude]

I gave up watching after a few seconds.

[@bitzibaerlie]

When I looked at the thumbnail, I did not realise that the word was blurred and it looked to me as if someone ridiculously played "redialing" out of bounds. That would have been a far funnier controversy. :P

[@Squish-E]

That’s what I thought too!

[@artmoore4457]

Every Scrabble player has a "I misdesignated the blank" story, and it's always painful. An opponent once played a double blank bingo against me, designated correctly, then changed the order of the letters to increase the score for the play. This moved blank #2 ahead of blank #1, and made it an invalid word. Yes, I challenged it off.

[@galoomba5559]

How exactly is it defined which is blank 1 and which is blank 2?

[@10thletter40]

​@@galoomba5559 I assume whichever is placed first

[@artmoore4457]

​@@galoomba5559 The blank designation slip used in tournaments has spaces for blank 1 and blank 2. Per the rules, the first blank is one that appears first in the word you played. If you played the word MARkErS (lower case denotes a blank) you would designate blank 1 as a K and the second an R. Then you notice the second R in the word is on a triple letter score, so you swap the position of the R and the second blank. Without updating the slip the word played becomes officially MAkrERS and can be challenged off as a phony.

[@Pyronaut_]

This feels so weird, but I guess it makes the most sense with what we have to work with. I feel like it would be smart for scrabble sets to update the blank tiles so they each have a different number or other designator printed somewhere on them. That would be much easier to keep track of.

[@artmoore4457]

​@@Pyronaut_ For most tile sets the blank has nothing on it. Other tile sets have a symbol or logo on it. Perhaps it may seem unusual to the newcomer and perhaps there is room for improvement, but those who play competitively are just used to it. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I've had to refer back to the blank slip after it's been designated. You just remember it. When someone plays a subsequent word using that same blank and it doesn't make sense then perhaps you would look at it again. When I play in my weekly Scrabble club we just designate them verbally, clarifying by pointing to a like tile already on the board or using "as in" ("C as in cat").

[@PaulFisher]

A few minutes after you told the story of writing “Z” instead of “N”, I feared the absolute worst (intended word: one who zigs when they should have zagged; actual word: [REDACTED]). I was downright _relieved_ when it was “only” as bad as it actually was. This was interesting even for me as a non-Scrabble player. Thanks!

[@glowstonelovepad9294]

The word was "lagoons", but it was read as "lagoozs".

[@zanti4132]

This video reminds me of how I got cheated once out of a bingo when I was playing against a computer. My word was ASSHOLE. The computer wouldn't allow it.

[@axcertypo]

That one is still playable in tournaments worldwide, except the School Scrabble tournament

[@keylimepie3143]

I had a computer not let me play the word JEW once.

[@lilyofluck371]

​@@keylimepie3143??? That's so bizarre

[@powerofk]

If I remember correctly, that’s because proper nouns are forbidden in Scrabble (yes, I get the joke, and it’s offensive-but explaining why that word would be disallowed) @@keylimepie3143

[@Trip_Fontaine]

@@lilyofluck371 @keylimepie3143 It's because Scrabble doesn't allow capitalized words. So the un-capitalized "jew" in that context is a very offensive verb meaning "to haggle too much over a price." I can see both sides over whether the word should be allowed or not. Just explaining why it was disallowed in case you didn't know.

[@Nightenstaff]

I've always wondered why the Scrabble tiles don't have a dry erase coating on them. Not just the Blank since you don't want it to feel different in the bag, but all the tiles. Then, when a Blank is played, you just write your intended letter on the tile. Zero chance there's a question of what the tile is. Once the game is over, you wipe off the surface. This would likely be overkill for your basic set, but make it an option on some of your nicer boards.

[@axcertypo]

This is a good idea! Someone also suggested having a set of two of each letter with no point value, that you could use to designate the blank once it's played. Such a small community requires thoughtful fixes like these!

[@beeble2003]

@@axcertypo A duplicate set of tiles means you'd have to go from 100 tiles to 152, which would be a massive hassle. Dry-erase sounds like a good idea but, practically, the ink doesn't fully wipe off, so the blank tiles would be an obviously different colour, so you'd be able to see them in your opponent's rack.

[@klawiehr]

There’s definitely a disconnect in thinking between competitive Scrabble players and the general public. Like you said, strings of letters become essentially no different than strings of numbers. Then you have to think…oh yeah, this means something. And the definition isn’t just a study aid to remember if it takes an S.

[@bluerendar2194]

Iirc there's even the infamous story of someone winning the Scrabble championship... of *French* scrabble while not speaking French. Just memorized the officially used French Scrabble dictionary and using Scrabble strategy.... LOL

[@artmoore4457]

@@bluerendar2194 Yes, that was Nigel Richards, the GOAT of Scrabble.

[@MikehMike01]

Radical left wing extremists, having few options, have turned to running scrabble

[@Notester82]

Gosh, what an insane story! (Also the introduction of blanks + blank designation and other Scrabble explanations throughout the video were appreciated!)

[@InvalidOS]

didn't expect to see you here

[@glowstonelovepad9294]

There was one time when I had the tiles A, C, E, L, and a blank, and I was going to play the word "bleach" with a H that was already on the board, with the blank as a B. I had thought of this play when it was my opponent's turn after I had drawn the tiles after my previous play. However, I messed up and accidentally played "bleach" with a B that was already on the board instead, but accidentally still played the blank as a B instead of a H, making my play "bleacb" instead of "bleach", which was challenged off the board the next turn.

[@ValkyRiver]

I remember when I played MUCK when my highest scoring play was actually the F word…

[@Iridescence93]

I fund that 4-letter word that starts with a C far more uncomfortable to play than the F-word (not even sure if it's valid anymore) but I've definitely felt the need to apologize to my opponent when that was the best play I saw a few times. .

[@Pyronaut_]

I was definitely interested in Scrabble as a word game, but I never really got super deep in the game because I had a bad experience trying to play with family. In the game I was able to play DINOSAUR which made me so excited because its so rare in casual play to be able to make an 8 letter word. Instead of being excited with me and continuing the game, everyone else just started cooperating against me and started spending their turns looking through a dictionary to try and figure out the best possible word they could make. Which held up the game and made me frustrated with them playing really obscure words until I got too heated and then the game ending got blamed on me.

[@Oneiroclast]

That's why under standard rules the dictionary cannot be referenced unless a challenge is officially declared.

[@vetinaris1297]

You all took it way too seriously. Next time just laugh and enjoy the challenge.

[@davidstone9981]

In an expert-level game played in Atlantic City against Randy Greenspan, some time in the 1990s, my outplay, to win, was the N-word, pluralized. Randy commented, "Nice play," and we wrote down the scores. Later, he said, "You also had GINGERS," and I was surprised that I'd missed that.

[@MountainHawkPYL]

I remember hearing that story several years ago.

[@iwersonsch5131]

and then players go back to playing bundle of sticks

[@garrincha9249]

Iwer sonch on scrabble 😮

[@timpunny]

scrabble mario 64😊

[@percussivejekyll]

I love this video, mainly because when I tried to explain to my friend that its ok for scrabble to have weird words in its dictionary, to which my friend responded “but a word game has to have only normal words in its dictionary” to which I responded “Scrabble isn’t a word game!”, my friend did NOT understand, this video made my friend understand, thank you for making this!

[@axcertypo]

this is awesome, thank you for fighting the good fight! :)

[@SteveBennett1]

Some great twists in that story! I found even at 1.25x speed it was kind of unbearably slow though, and I had to skip a lot of bits to get to the juice.

[@axcertypo]

Heard, and I agree. Hopefully this KZbin thing can help me gather my thoughts and explain concepts faster in the future. Thanks for watching!

[@minerscale]

@@axcertypo I somewhat disagree with OP here, I actually quite appreciated the pace as a stylistic choice, although I appreciate it's somewhat non standard. It was very fun to see all of the background you presented fall together into the tragic punchline of the video! The key detail though is that I am not a scrabble player, and I suspect people already quite good aren't the target demographic. I felt like this video was for me and it worked quite well!

[@arsonist___]

Not sure if I just couldn't focus, but I had to bump the speed up to 1.75x to make it sound normal

[@michaelcarroll5801]

@@axcertypo I am a sort of goldilocks in this situation, I appreciate some of the slow moments while still feeling the speaking pace could be picked up at other less important points. General rule would be important = talk slow and not important = talk fast. Having a less predictable pacing with variety in the pace is what generally helps people be more engaged with someone when they're speaking. Hope that helps, cool video.

[@peterfranklinrouth895]

@@axcertypo I watch your videos at 1.5x and Will's at 1.25x. I hope this increases the competitiveness between you. :)

[@asdfasdf4924]

My mythology and English composition teacher in college used to say "when you're spelling words, you're casting spells, that's how powerful words are"

[@wabbajocky8235]

I CAST THE SPELL "ICUP"!

[@YayComity]

There's another subtle point that can be made by this story. It's that there can be a disconnect between the spirit of a rule and the application of a rule, and in my opinion (which is not common), good sportsmanship should dictate that when they conflict, both players should yield to the spirit of the rule rather than jumping on a technicality. Regardless of how that game unfolded, if it were me, I would never jump on the technicality brought forth by the obvious error in circling the wrong letter, any more that I would conflate the use of an unrelated word with a similar offensive one. The actual intent here is 100% innocent AND the circling of the wrong letter is 100% clearly also a simple mistake. Charitably-minded good sports should overlook both. As for people being offended by even incidental similarities to the offensive word, I don't criticize them for that. After all it is a very powerful word and is still used by awful people to propagate the ugliest form of racism. It's ok in my mind for an incident such as this to be totally dismissed as innocent and yet to still acknowledge that the unfortunate result could be hurtful. Should the word that was played be banned? I don't think so, but I'd understand if it was. I'm annoyed almost every day when Boggle with Friends doesn't accept a certain four letter word starting with R and ending with a word related to monkey. That IS a real word and also has innocent meanings. Yet I'm sympathetic to those for whom the word is especially poignant. ...just an unfortunate consequence of playing games with words that have meanings and evoke strong feelings.

[@johnwilder4789]

Agree with you 100% on the importance of good sportsmanship and the spirit of the game. What's fascinating, and definitely unintuitive to those new to competitive Scrabble, is that in a tournament setting competitive players don't consider challenging a misdesignated blank poor sportsmanship whatsoever, even if the ability to do so does seem like an arcane technicality. I've seen misdesignated blank challenges before, and the player who loses their turn is always upset, but they're upset at themselves for their error, and not their opponent for challenging. The other thing to consider is that misdesignations will often happen due to time pressure (i.e., the player who's misdesignating is doing so because they're flustered and extremely low on time). So, if the player had managed their clock better throughout the game, they would have had the time to calmly circle the correct letter on the blank slip.

[@Firefly256]

Some players consider misdesignating a blank as part of the game, probably similar to seeing a better play immediately after hitting the clock, a strategy misplay, they believe it's part of the game to make sure you don't make any mistakes

[@axcertypo]

this is a very good observation! There are so many subtle points I wanted to add to this video, such as that one, but I'm glad I didn't have to. I have serious qualms with the idea of blank designation, and I might make a more in-depth video about why, but the main reason is that it's an extra step that our brains don't process properly a lot of the time, not only acknowledging what the blank is designated as, but also connecting what we know we want the blank to be with the letter we circle. The reason that it would be bad etiquette to accept the word, is simply that others would not do the same, which puts you at a disadvantage to others who would be in the same position. It's not fair to yourself, or to others in the tournament. It's collusive.

[@josepherhardt164]

I think for two players to collude on fixing an error like this MIGHT get them in trouble with the tournament referee. I don't know the rules for Scrabble, but such a collusion would likely make a stir in a chess tournament. Anyone know?

[@axcertypo]

@@josepherhardt164 indeed

[@l_..l.l.__l..l8833]

An interesting and unfortunate situation! Just want to add your video craft is rapidly improving - keep working on it!! This video had a lot of really good storytelling and foreshadowing, and you're clearly getting more comfortable on camera!

[@justrecentlyi5444]

Could they have a double set of "blank tiles" that you replace on the board after playing your blank, to avoid mistakes like this?

[@axcertypo]

That's a very interesting idea! I haven't found a reasonable flaw with that, so long as there's enough space and equipment

[@pialba]

I guess it could lead to scoring mishaps when playing through or parallel to an already existing blank, unless the blank tiles are clearly different from standard tiles.

[@justrecentlyi5444]

@@pialba Yes, I was thinking of contrasting colors, or perhaps the circular mark I've seen in online representations.

[@richardklepper3299]

why not just use a dry erase marker and write one the tile

[@algotkristoffersson15]

@@richardklepper3299because of the exact problem explained in the video.

[@JasonVaysberg]

Great video, Josh! I love this story-telling style of video. I can tell how much work you put into this one.

[@DK-ZERO]

16:15 onwards, the no-no word is a near anagram of "ragging"

[@corporeal5347]

Easy enough to put S instead of D, they're right next to each other on the keyboard

[@assault410]

"The word that every scrabble players knows" Should be interesting "Niggards" Not what I expected lmao, wouldnt catch me saying that

[@MisterRubbertoe]

Something in my brain is just wired differently, when it comes to how “the general public” reacts to a word, and how I do… I guess I go more on the intent that I perceive from someone, versus the “scary/bad” word itself. And in a game like this, like you said, there is no intent, the definitions don’t matter… a binary of “is word” and “is not word” - so you’d hope TGP would understand and not overreact. But I know that’s not how it works. 😏 I’m disabled, and I’ve often referred to myself and my damaged areas as “g*mpy” and “cr*ppled up” (etc) and I’ve legit had folks tell me that I shouldn’t say that. 😅 To me, that’s laughable… but for others, it’s time to get big mad. 🤷🏻‍♂️😏 The same way my wheelchair-bound friend calls handicapped parking spaces “Wheelie Spots” Honestly, I’m surprised they are still called handicapped spaces, I realized, as I typed this. 🤓

[@VRNocturne]

I've played Scrabble but not on any serious competitive level. It was interesting to hear about the game from the prospective of the pro scene and stories like the one you presented here.

[@JohnDoe-ti2np]

The latest revision of the North American lexicon seems to be headed in the wrong direction. Introducing monstrosities such as HORSEFEATHERSES, reinstating potentially offensive words---what were they thinking?

[@axcertypo]

Will be addressing this in a future video, stay tuned

[@user-ru1xc4qf4r]

@@axcertypo is the video coming soon?

[@axcertypo]

@@user-ru1xc4qf4r yes. I have interview footage and intro, and simply need to create the rest of the narrative. So it should be ready in 10 to 20 weeks... Just kidding of course. Should be ready next week.

[@qlf9_]

one of the most insightful scrabble videos i've ever watched

[@LittleBear97]

Definitely a step up in editing, really makes the video enjoyable to watch! Super interesting as well :)

[@axcertypo]

Thank you! Will keep trying to improve

[@SerbAtheist]

"10 seconds Mr. Marsh."

[@geckogeico2212]

I know the answer but I don't think I should say it

[@vwabi]

Subscribed. The ending was a great shocking twist, but also the whole 17 minutes leading up to that were incredibly engaging and interesting, as somebody who doesn't play scrabble.

[@TommyLikeTom]

If you think about it this can happen in any live game, and it actually happens far more frequently at sporting events, and not because of some strange coincidence either

[@ronaldscredo2009]

If there were playing NWL lexicon, Joey should have blocked it with ELD, or if CSW, then TWP at the top right would be denying his opponent of the triple2. In North American penalty rule, a loss of turn would be a result for successful challenge or what you called double penalty. Since that was the last turn of Jesse, Joey should have challenged it.

[@SirBroadsword]

The easier solution to all of this would be for people to stop being so ridiculously overly sensitive.

[@abebuckingham8198]

I think everyone knew exactly what word would be the problem. Might want to make similar plays illegal in the next version of the rules since the word list is arbitrary anyway.

[@maxmustermann5590]

Before finding wills channel I thought exactly that. Scrabble is about knowing words, and the word list is riddioulus. Now I understand and love the game way more, it's way closer to a game like chess than to crossword puzzles, but the general public is completely unaware of that.

[@sheeperskipps]

Was not expecting that to be so dramatic. But yeah, let's hope on a public broadcast something like that doesn't happen

[@starcastin]

Hi there, love your channel! One suggestion and a request would be to raise the video volume as it still sounds a little soft and I can't seem to make out some words, even with max KZbin volume and speaker settings, not a headphones user. Not sure if it is because KZbin has loudness normalization functions that lowered the audio but I have to raise volume for the videos here to the max and then get jump-scared by other videos' loudness.

[@starcastin]

(CSW) I remember playing MOHO instead of H_M_ and it gave my opponent a big score of FRANC on the left of MOHO making CH with the C on the triple letter square for a massive score, simply because I don't want to play that word. And my opponent after the game actually pointed out to me the other spelling actually would have scored higher there.

[@blicake]

The story starts 10 minutes into the video 👍

[@Benzebuth18]

Words meaning irrelevance is very true. A guy in Belgium won a Scrabble competition in French without being able to speak French 😅

[@reformCopyright]

That was of course none other than Nigel Richards.

[@YayComity]

Interesting set of circumstances. Obviously totally innocent and unrelated to the offensive word it brought to mind (a word that I hear hundreds of times almost every day played in the jukebox of the bar I frequent, but that's another tangent). Also ironic that the GOAT's name is also close to that same word. And one of the top African players hails from a country that also nearly spells that same offensive word. No comment how just a close inexact match with that powerful word is enough to trigger people. It is what it is. But gee, when our ancestors decided to go around kidnapping people of other races as forced laborers, not only do they fail to recognize it as morally and ethically wrong, they totally overlooked the future impact on board games.

[@kk99-g7d]

Dude talks in 0.5x speed

[@axcertypo]

tryna popularize the 1.25 and 1.5x speed options :P

[@logeybear3018]

If I were to conjecture why it wasn't challenged had it been noticed, I'd say it was out of sympathy. It would go down as possibly the worst blank tile slip-up of all time, and no one would want to be remembered for that instead of their accomplishments, hence why it may not have been challenged. P.S. Gauri says hi

[@axcertypo]

I wish top Scrabble players were as wholesome sportsmen as you make them out to be, but nah, it would have been challenged for sure. No one would feel good about it, but it would have come off the board.

[@logeybear3018]

Schucks.

[@galoomba5559]

I don't get why a word _sounding similar to_ an unrelated offensive word is a bad thing. btw, was SUGARING not valid for some reason?

[@justin_tang]

SUGARING doesn't score enough, as the A is doubled instead of the G for 9 fewer points.

[@JasonVaysberg]

Look up the Wikipedia page on the word. There have been people fired for using the word in workplaces because people don't know what it means.

[@galoomba5559]

@@JasonVaysberg firing people for using a word you don't know is ridiculous

[@hi-i-am-atan]

well, then you have not have significant exposure to bigotry you may think this is reductive. this is because, again, you do not have significant exposure to bigotry and so mentioning, say, the significant number of transphobes who believe that _everyone in hollywood is secretly trans_ and actively use phrenology to """prove""" this. this may sound like i am making up a hyperbolized strawman. i am not using a derogatory non-slur in place of a very similar-sounding slur is not a level 1 tactic to these people. it is, like, a level -1 tactic. it's shit they do as edgy teens, prior to falling down the pipeline

[@JohnDoe-ti2np]

@@hi-i-am-atanYou make valid points. But it seems likely that in the specific case of David Howard, the word was part of his active vocabulary and he simply used it without realizing that it could be misinterpreted.

[@robinier]

How are legitimately offensive (e.g. word portion you blurred) or vulgar (e.g. 4-letter) words handled in Scrabble tournaments? Are they even listed in the Scrabble dictionary? I know the source dictionaries (Collins, Merriam) list such words with usage notes.

[@axcertypo]

Since the early 2020s (i.e very recently), words whose usage is considered mostly to entirely offensive towards someone's identity are considered invalid. A word that has an offensive and a non-offensive meaning is usually OK. Until 2020, anything that was a word, however offensive, was playable in tournaments. I might make a video explaining the whole debacle at some point soon, because it's very convoluted and a huge source of tension in the community.

[@robinier]

@@axcertypo Thx for the reply! Timing makes sense; I know there were US style guide changes (e.g. AP, Chicago) among other usage shifts after the 2020 Floyd protests. Does Scrabble devolve the decision-making, perhaps by banning words marked "highly offensive" in a source dictionary? Or do they decide it themselves? A video on Scrabble swear words might be interesting, though covering offensive words could turn political if mishandled. I like the Scrabble vids from you and other YTers because they're more wholesome and not so political lol.

[@axcertypo]

@@robinier the North American sanctioning organization did not consult lexicographers when deciding which words to expunge, but the World organization had at least some discussions with the world brandholder, Mattel, before deciding which ones to remove

[@robinier]

@@axcertypo Interesting. Thx again for replies. Was a cool video to watch; been enjoying yours and Will's.

[@saveddijon]

Ouch! Goes to show: on the out play, hold, then confirm the score with your opponent, and then (usually) challenge.

[@RockoStarrYou]

I can understand how a typo/mistaken formation of a word that closely resembles an existing offensive word can be genuinely offensive to some, but it still feels like a bit of a reach. Not denying that it can be offensive and should be avoided, but that's just not the word.

[@bassett_green]

e-ink displays are small enough now that we could use one for the blank tile!

[@Trizzer89]

A full turn is too much penalty for a challenge and 5 points is too low

[@BramCohen]

There aren't that many problematic words and removing them from the dictionary wouldn't result in much practical play changes. I put together a dictionary for another game and wound up erring on the side of removal, so a bunch of words like 'mamie' are out. Since they're all just strings of letters it doesn't really matter all that much.

[@onehumannow]

Thanks for video and content. One thing that is missing from the conversation is the 10-point oversight of JM...Normally players report scores to each other late in the game to see if there is "agreement". Did this not happen? Did JM not ask for a "score check" prior to making his play? There is no mention of a recount at the end of the game (unless I missed that tidbit of info). it is not clear to me how the score was corrected. Can you provide clarification? Thanks!

[@axcertypo]

Hey! Thanks for the kind words. Both players omitted to verify the score until after Joey's play of BLEW. I'm pretty sure that Jesse then asked Joey for the score before making the final move, and they found the discrepancy then and there. It's possible they recounted afterward.

[@Jivvi]

Someone once played EXQUIZITE against me, across two triple word scores, with the Z on a double letter score, and the X making another word, and using the triple word score twice, and I didn't challenge it. I thought it was one of those words that's spelt with a Z in American English, and an S in British English, both of which would be valid. It's not. EXQUISITE is always spelt with an S. It was an invalid word, worth somewhere around 700 points, and I didn't challenge it.

[@axcertypo]

as much as I'd like to believe this, the most EXQUIZITE* could score given the parameters you set, is 533. Pics or it didn't happen :P

[@sophiegrey9576]

For those who don't care about the story: 16:20 But it's a wild story and i'd recommend watching all the way through personally!

[@beardalaxy]

I was wondering the other day if someone had ever attempted to play something like this is a match seriously. Not quite what I imagined lol, but still interesting nonetheless. There have definitely been times I have seen my best word as being something incredibly crass/crude and decided on playing something else for everyone's benefit lol.

[@whatwouldsaido]

Oi, do you have a license to have a visual representation of a word that looks similar to another word that people don't like?

[@axcertypo]

KZbin monetization rules are stringent :)

[@welovemrp00]

I had a really hard time following this. Still not sure if I understood

[@axcertypo]

let me know what part(s) you're unsure about, happy to help. Sorry I couldn't be more informative

[@welovemrp00]

@@axcertypo no need to apologize, the fault most likely falls with me. I understood why the word mistake was.. unfortunate. But I could not follow the rules about challenges. I'm not sure how the regular challenge is different from the 5 point challenge and why they're scored differently. Id probably get it if I watched it again

[@axcertypo]

@@welovemrp00 I see! The problem I think is that the difference in the challenge rule doesn't actually matter in the example I gave. In both challenge rules, the play could have been challenged with the same results. I also didn't mention what challenge rule the example game used. The difference is mainly that in DOUBLE challenge, the consequence for challenging an opponent's word is losing a turn, but in 5-POINT, the consequence is adding 5 points to opponent's score. I just wanted to explain challenging, and of course talk about how the last play of the game is a free challenge in DOUBLE challenge, which provides more incentive to double check what has been played, and makes the scenario that occurred even less likely.

[@steveclout239]

Why didn't he play OP in the bottom left corner, or UP/PA nearly the top left corner?

[@axcertypo]

That wouldn't make sense, since neither of those options score a lot of points and only use one tile, when there are none left to draw. You either want to block one of the two triples around the G, or use up more letters and score as much as possible.

[@steveclout239]

@@axcertypo I mean the guy with 4 tiles left at the end.

[@axcertypo]

@@steveclout239 ohhh! yeah he can't make another play after BLEW. His opponent played all of his letters and none remained to be drawn from the tile bag. that's how scrabble games end.

[@ghhh5172]

Just write on the blank tile 😂

[@thegodofpez]

#SUNGAZING just sent me spiraling. How that could be a word just blows my mind. STARGAZING is good, but if #SUNGAZING is valid, I would assume *MOONGAZING would be as well. 🤷‍♂️ Thanks for the content, Josh. 👍

[@rune4543]

huge fan of this kind of video - you deserve so many more subs!!

[@KamiNoBaka1]

Y'know, watching this in depth video on a competitive Scrabble play made me realize something: Scrabble's only fun if you allow alternative dictionaries and common use words that aren't in the dictionary. Competitive Scrabble players running the numbers and analyzing things in-depth like this makes it look like work. Like, I love playing Scrabble, but I don't think I'm even slightly interested in competitive Scrabble. It's just something I've never thought of before.

[@sillychinas]

Nice “oh no my 👑” hoodie

[@axcertypo]

no doubt you will see more IMRosen merch on this channel

[@Jello_Criminal]

Gotta wear my headphones 🎧 Dude the room is dead quiet. I can hear the room.

[@axcertypo]

the magic of noise suppression 🎙 and noise cancellation 🎧🔇 I should probably take them off for some videos, but then I'd hear my own voice even more ;)

[@Koerq]

How much would using a dictionnary like Woogle's ECWL make the game too trivial for Expert Players? Your point about us viewers watching a Scrabble Game and thinking "That can't be a word" every 2 plays does massively reduce the appeal of the game as a viewer sport in my opinion! I wonder if there could be a "juste milieu" in that regard? But I understand this is not really in spirit of the Competitive Scrabble Tradition.

[@JasonVaysberg]

The problem is that words that are relevant to you or I can be very different depending on where we reside, the career we are in, etc. For instance, much of the science/medical jargon I'm exposed to daily would be considered "that can't be a word" to many people. And that's despite my frustration at words I use nearly daily not being valid, as is. Similar problems exist depending on the industry. If one were to live in Hawaii, words like "aa" and "pahoehoe" describing the texture of volcano lava are going to elicit much less of a "That can't be a word" effect, but of course those words will be bizarre to those of us in the continental US. However, the utility of a word like "aa" is independent of that and it will still be a very valuable 2-letter-word. It's just a tough balance.

[@Cloiss_]

It changes the game's strategy quite considerably when you reduce the size of the word list, even if this means only playing words that everyone recognizes. Some people like it better that way, but even as a beginner player who is nowhere near knowing all the obscure words on a Scrabble board, I don't have a lot of fun playing the Common English Lexicon because it makes it so much harder to find a good play, and is frustrating when I can't play a word that I do know.

[@axcertypo]

English Scrabble, with the current far-from-abridged word lists, really seem to strike an incredible balance, with just enough luck that you can't feel so bad about losing certain games, but more than enough opportunity to create chances to win almost every game, to the point where you can almost never say "I could not have won". Reducing the word list and using the Common English Lexicon, as echoed by Cloiss, does not create that medium. I do however think it's a very good idea to use such a lexicon for entry-level players, especially youth, to get people interested in the strategy and motions (the parts that really count) and seeing who sticks around for the next level.

[@nickk6556]

Awesome story and video :) keep up the great content Josh!

[@axcertypo]

thanks buddy

[@ultimatedbz2]

Would it be a good idea to instead of the paper slips have a set of clear plastic and transparent tags with the different letters on them. When you use a blank just place one of the clear tags over it, the tiles being clear prevents players from slight of handing the tags ontop of nonblank tiles sice you can always see the tile under it. Would also save on paper waist

[@Qaywsx186]

The problem with that could be that , on a quick glance ,they could be mistaken with tiles which are worth points and taking time to put the tag on the tile

[@alexread6767]

... I have never even heard of tiles having positive or negative scores. I may not be familiar enough with this game to understand

[@axcertypo]

Aha! Yeah, those are heuristics that have been developed using millions of self-play engine games, where a computer plays itself and calculates the aggregate value of a letter, based on how it compares to other letters. The letters you might expect to be useful tend to be better than average, and those that form fewer words tend to be worse than average. Sorry for not explaining that more in depth!

[@TheBcoolGuy]

Why is someone who spends so much time with words afraid of one? Blurring it and everything, when it didn't even properly spell the word. Weak mindset.

[@axcertypo]

Was for monetization purposes, nothing weak about wanting to get paid for the work I put in to a video

[@bubbagarland]

Cheers, keep em coming

[@christianvittorio]

no hate, I'm impressed at how slow you can talk

[@seazeiscool]

very interesting video as a person that does not play scrabble at all really one thing i have to ask tho: while i assume all offensive slurs are banned from tournament play, what about normal "swears" like f**k or sh*t or even asshole; which aren't very offensive at all nowadays, are those banned too to keep the game family friendly or are they perfectly fine in competitive play?

[@axcertypo]

Thank you! Words that are not offensive to a group of people are acceptable in adult tournament play, so curse words are fine. However, there are many "School Scrabble" programs that aim to get kids into the game through primary school and secondary school in the US and Canada, where they use a list that doesn't contain curse words, or "naughty" words.

[@jnerdsblog]

uuuugh 'canceled' is not a thing. People have always, and will forever more, avoid that which they don't agree with. This is clickbaity, which is a shame because otherwise I woulda been interested in more of your stuff. This is an interesting topic with a terrible frame. e: oh come on. There is no risk here, and unless I missed something, the letters you blurred out would not spell the word that rightfully should be blurred. You are taking no risk by posting this that I can see.

[@axcertypo]

I appreciate your thoughts, but I disagree with your implications. I understand why you think I might be misleading potential audience, but I do believe the things I said. Perhaps I am overly worried about something like this happening, and I am glad to hear varying opinions on the matter! You probably would not have found my channel in the first place if I hadn't used words that would feed the algorithm. As for blurring the word out, I think there's a good chance KZbin would have demonetized and suppressed this video if I hadn't done that. I wasn't originally planning to do so, but after talking to a bunch of people about how to frame the situation, the consensus was something like this. I have 400 other videos on this channel that you might enjoy if you give me a chance... :P

[@tomlaptain646]

Honestly as far as clickbait goes, this is pretty light imo. Enough to satisfy the algorithm and draw people to the video, but not going so far that the title is unrelated to the video. I think it's well balanced and a good job.

[@0011peace]

Why not havetoken letters that are different color to denote blank after declared replace blank with the token

[@harrison5280]

Your words seem to melt into each other and your tone and intonation made this video unlistenable. However the content is still pretty good and reading the captions was good enough for me.

[@emd1999]

why did it take almost 9 minutes to get to the point of the video?

[@axcertypo]

If you have any books near you, let me know how many pages it takes to get to the point. I'm on KZbin to tell stories. Many people don't know a thing about Scrabble, and I'm happy spending a bit of time giving them the context they need to understand the juicy bits. I'm sharpening my craft and hopefully things will come together a bit more in the next videos.

[@ethanhawksley9097]

Why don’t you just use dry erase marker if they’re tiles?

[@scarletevans4474]

I don't understand the end of the video, why would you even want to censor the broadcast just because someone made a mistake? Wouldn't hiding what happened possibly allow for abuses and even rigging the tournament results? Also, not knowing about possible opponent's swindles or mistakes is even worse, as you can make mistakes like Joey here, who didn't challenged what he should.

[@SqueakyMcGee]

Tbh I’ve never seen a word

[@sorrychangedmyusername3594]

Bro got devastated due to the N-word 😭

[@abee127]

INT. GREAT HALL - HOGWARTS - NIGHT The Great Hall is dimly lit, filled with anticipation and tension. The TriWizard cup, gleaming with glory, sits at the center of the room, surrounded by eager onlookers. Harry and Cedric Diggory sit across from each other at a small table, a SCRABBLE board set up between them. Their eyes lock, determined and competitive. This is no ordinary game; it's a battle of wits to determine the TriWizard champion. HARRY (whispering to himself) I've got to do this... for all of us. Cedric places his word on the board: "QUIDDITCH." The crowd murmurs in appreciation. Cedric smirks, confident in his move. It's Harry's turn. He surveys the board, searching for a way to win. His eyes narrow as he spots his opportunity. HARRY (whispering to himself) I can't lose. I won't lose. With precision, Harry places his tiles on the board, running the word "VOLDEMORT" through two existing words: "WAND" and "MAGIC." The letters slide into place, forming the name that strikes fear into every wizard's heart. The audience gasps collectively, and a chill sweeps through the Great Hall. Whispers of disbelief and fear ripple through the crowd. Pandemonium breaks out as students and teachers react in shock, some even dropping their wands. Dumbledore, seated at the head table, rises to his feet. His eyes lock onto Harry, his expression a mix of anger and concern. DUMBLEDORE (booming) HARRY POTTER! Harry looks down, chastised, realizing the gravity of his action. The TriWizard cup gleams in the background...

[@yat_ii]

1:50 why not just write on the scrabble piece itself with a marker?

[@donovanmahan2901]

How are you going to get it off the tile?

[@null009]

Skip to 15:30 and save yourself the useless preamble.

[@kcStranger]

LMAO

[@kenhaley4]

I don't know why you had to blur out the "offensive" word. It was a misspelling of the actual offensive word. And clearly there was no intention of offensiveness to begin with. Political correctness has trumped common sense (as is the case so often nowadays).

[@axcertypo]

I think you're aware that you'll often see people misspell said word to try and get around moderation rules. Essentially cheating their way towards being offensive. This is not the case here, but that wouldn't necessarily be obvious to an outsider. The word is not blurred in the publicly available annotations of the game or in any other context, other than a KZbin video that needs to follow strict rules, governed by AI, to remain monetized. Because so many people try to circumvent moderation rules just to be offensive, that feeds a climate of distrust, and political correctness remains the path of least resistance.

[@DougBrockmeier]

Bring back PDQ!

[@DanDart]

You seem to be saying that there's no single source of truth in a lot of this, however what about the OED?

[@axcertypo]

determining what constitutes a word is always going to be arbitrary to a certain extent. The OED is a great dictionary, maybe the best in the world, but it's not the only truth. Many people devote their lives as lexicographers for other dictionaries, who are we to say they are wrong to do so?

[@DanDart]

@@axcertypo Well, scrabble rules say that this is the single source of truth, obviously there are other dictionaries for other languages - so we're really working with whatever dictionary for whatever language we're using, are we not? How is this not a solved problem?

[@axcertypo]

@@DanDart hm, I'm confused now. It seems you are under the impression that there's only one dictionary for the English language. That's not true.

[@DanDart]

@@axcertypo Oh no that's not what I'm saying. I'm aware that there's Cambridge also, etc, but what I'm saying is that I've read the rules in the box and it's said the OED is standard. Perhaps something similar to that effect, any other may be used as long as it's agreed upon as a house rule, so what's the problem? Have OED tournaments, Cambridge etc.

[@axcertypo]

@@DanDart right, that's what we do, basically. We have agreed upon word lists that we use in tournaments. They are subject to change, though, as language evolves

[@Trip_Fontaine]

This threat of "being canceled" is why I support bowdlerizing the dictionary. In today's culture, it's just not worth it to take the risk of a scandal. This sucks - but it's simply the reality we live in and we can't just blindly ignore it. Many Scrabble clubs meet in public spaces. I wouldn't feel comfortable plopping down an offensive word in such a club with families walking by and observing. I don't need "Racist Scrabble Players at Panera's!" to be a viral video featuring me. Obviously, I could simply not play the offensive word. But that's annoying too. And it's annoying to even be put in the position where I have to make that decision just to play a game that's supposed to be fun. This outweighs all arguments against censoring the dictionary in my view.

[@WingedAsarath]

Also, at the end of the day, as this video pointed out, Scrabble is not actually a word game. It's a mathematics and strategy game, with a pool of valid number combinations selected by a dictionary. High-level players use rote-memorisation of valid combinations, not linguistic knowledge, when making their plays. Removing potentially offensive words from the Scrabble dictionary in essence only removes a few possible strings of numbers from the pool of valid plays; it doesn't censor anyone's ability to make art or spread information.

[@Trip_Fontaine]

@@WingedAsarath Yup, also a great point. It's nothing like censoring a word in a book or a movie.

[@quilesboy]

Gamer word?

[@abee127]

Maybe I missed it, but doesn't this video exclude the important context that until 2020, the inward would be a valid word? I think the suggestion of a broadcast delay is ridiculous -- even if something like this happened in a broadcast and became a viral "scandal" the publicity from the controversy would likely help the game overall. Civilized people can separate the definition of words from their construction, even if there are a select few that cannot be uttered even in abstract without fear of violent reprisal.

[@axcertypo]

a lot of things have changed since 2020. I think I'll be making a video about said context very soon. I have thought about how bad publicity could be good overall, but I'm not sure that applies here, given historical precedents. It certainly applies to making a video about a controversial subject, but not to getting sponsorships and airtime.

[@abee127]

@@axcertypo There are more valuable things than sponsorships and airtime

[@weewooweewoo906]

u r a very pretty human

[@joepiazza3756]

N word with the hard A.

[@affegpus4195]

Lmao

[@r3v01t_6]

It’s just a game where words should just stay as words. Playing an offensive word doesn’t make you offensive. Mistakes happen, and I think the people trying to get views for such an occurrence are quite niggardly.

[@leonsines247]

I zoned out and fell asleep for 19:04.. 😴😴😴😵😵😵😵😵😵😵😵😳😳😳😳😳

[@erisdiscordia5429]

You know, if you're going to remain flat, unemotional, unemotive, and in general a complete bore to look at, you can skip filming yourself and just do a voice over.

[@cultoftyler9045]

please talk faster

[@axcertypo]

sorry, slow brain, will work on it

[@Mr_Wigglesworth]

There's like... 200 cuts in this, 1 after another. They're really small, but I noticed them all. You're clearly reading from a script, so instead just fill the screen with graphics instead of making a cut every 5 seconds. Half the time it happened MID SENTENCE. You stopped talking mid sentence because you forgot what your script said and cut out that time. Point is, put more effort into these videos. Yes this is hate comment.

[@axcertypo]

heh... don't worry I've gotten better! I think most of this video was refilmed because it took me like a month to put it all together and I needed the takes to at least seem like they were done the same day. It wasn't effort that was lacking, it was experience :)

[@Milkymalk]

Well, that was boring.

[@Manigo1743]

The constant cuts in your speaking are extremely annoying

[@axcertypo]

Yup, I realize that better content creators do the same thing but it's a voiceover so viewers can't tell it's all edited. Gotta learn how better to fool you