How Good Is Josh Sokol, Actually?

[@wanderer15]

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!

[@louismyers8845]

I can't wait to watch it!

[@verbosed]

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.

[@louie2]

lol what a dude

[@chris18thseymour]

❤

[@Mclarenboy100]

I legitimately choked when I saw the BYZANTINE play, it's absolutely ridiculous.

[@BraxtonMeyer]

mystery opponent where we can clearly see nigel's beard in the silhouette

[@wanderer15]

good sleuthing! ;)

[@richarddavis2530]

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.

[@DoppelpunktDDD]

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

[@TedRandomGamingChannel]

I think it worked because when I just subscribed to Sokol he was already at 1.35k subscribers! :)

[@asliuf]

omg that A play is INSANEEEEE i effing love it

[@Ben-15]

I wonder who that mystery opponent could be? 😂

[@Drogon7102]

Even his sillhouette is infamous at this point.

[@sorenzollamas]

Josh is an amazing Scrabble player. I recently saw him play C-A-T in a game and it just blew my mind!

[@rubyj138]

THE iconic duo of scrabble content frfr

[@hunterw4304]

Josh: "👍" Will: "This means war."

[@snowfloofcathug]

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

[@RafaelAlcides-g8o]

subed! and happy to see he's way past 1k subs now

[@JoshBreakdowns]

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!

[@wanderer15]

Good points & thank you!

[@connorzittrauer3306]

The NEGOTIATES play… wtf. Awesome

[@tl7653]

Great video!

[@Andrew-bz4yo]

Josh plays Scrabble like psychological warfare

[@brianbowman6639]

Josh Sokol, King of Content

[@zackhample]

This is really cool. Like, REALLY cool. Thanks for putting this together, and man . . . COWRITTEN is gonna be in my dreams tonight.

[@wanderer15]

Whoa...! Hey Zack, thanks for the kind words!

[@gittles9692]

Josh: opens the game with A Will: "Brilliant!" top-level Scrabble is hilarious sometimes, I love it

[@maxlimit9129]

False Swipe Gaming/Will Anderson sub crossover gang represent

[@atreeseedling]

How GOOD was John Sokol actually? And in this video we'll be looking at these competitive championships

[@dustinbrown3317]

I saw the title and was like no way

[@jkid1134]

I mean yeah, Josh Sokol is alright, but he's no Garchomp

[@wanderer15]

I just went and checked out False Swipe and they've got some really high quality vids, wow!

[@jkid1134]

@@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)

[@rxmink]

Favorite youtuber

[@humbertocruz6214]

So great to have star players being good friends and supporting each other for the good of the game.

[@michaelchen2718]

8:03 I was guessing something around "antioxidant"

[@autumnonawhim]

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!

[@Gastogh]

Playing "A" for two points as an invalid word is such a mind flex.

[@elirome6978]

I was asking myself: Would it not be 4 points even, because it works in both directions?

[@meissmart6678]

​@@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.

[@Tomahaka]

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

[@skitsadoodle5194]

I love your scrabble videos! Keep it up!

[@louismyers8845]

he has more than doubled in subs since your video!

[@AcelShock]

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

[@varietygamer1839]

This is the most underrated KZbinr

[@gurchyy]

turns out he's pretty good

[@wanderer15]

He's ok

[@paperpopper1290]

Next we need a Mack Meller video!!!!!

[@wanderer15]

He has made a LOT of Scrabble History!

[@michaelchen2718]

6:12 Ok. Now THIS is insane.

[@SuperN57]

I quite like the url for this video

[@thomasdawson2257]

An 11, wow, what a find

[@WilliamKiely]

I subcribed to Josh because you're such a great content creator! I wish we had you for every game.

[@clausgiloi6036]

INTERVIEWER is just amazing.

[@thebilliestsilly]

That picture at the end of the two hugging is really funny, I can't tell if Will is really short or if Josh is really tall

[@ajax_davis]

You should make a video on how you make such good scrabble videos.

[@wanderer15]

Very meta! (and thank you)

[@andrewmilner-white9988]

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.

[@maxm6931]

He's definitely not just a Sokolled Scrabble expert.

[@himynameisben95]

wholesome video

[@qqw743]

The people need to know the behind-the-scenes stories of Scrabble after-hours parties. I'm guessing Nigel is a madman.

[@michaelchen2718]

8:27 amazing

[@karinvasu3005]

lets gooooo :D

[@Firefly256]

Can anyone further explain the A play? I still don't quite understand, can't the opponent just challenge it?

[@quarkito4301]

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

[@wanderer15]

@@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...

[@joeykrafchick16]

Josh is the new NWL GOAT 🐐 🐐🐐

[@asdfasdf4924]

100% agree. Sorry no troll from me this time Josh! You're just the GOAT!

[@EvanBerofsky]

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.

[@skitsadoodle5194]

11 letter bingo? WHAT!

[@GekkiSpeedruns]

playing the letter A is so chad

[@michaelchen2718]

7:34 genius

[@May2Andrada]

Woohoo🎉

[@nicrueth2056]

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?

[@wanderer15]

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.

[@jarrenbenin7553]

What's more dangerous: Josh Sokol with a dictionary or Jeff Sokol with a pizza?

[@matthewoconnor3362]

In scrabble the small dictionary is almost the same size as the large

[@michaelchen2718]

5:57 wait I'm so confused. Why wouldn't Cesar challenge? Obviously everyone knows "A" is not a valid word??

[@psymar]

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

[@javen9693]

I can't wait for an "Are they good?" video where the answer is No

[@Zekses]

Josh is a bobetah level grandmaster

[@meta04]

a

[@AlexDings]

challenge!

[@chris18thseymour]

exchange

[@jellomochas]

ACETA allows double-doubles ending in L.

[@Fotten333]

Add link

[@DashDrones]

He's no Nigel...

[@wanderer15]

No, but who is?

[@DashDrones]

@@wanderer15 sorry Will, was just a bit of a joke. Happy Friday 👍

[@Headhunter_212]

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.

[@wanderer15]

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!

[@BRlCK]

not me thinking this said jeff sokol and being very concerned

[@michaelchen2718]

5:07 why didn't you block Fug?

[@wanderer15]

Hindsight is 20/20!

[@arthurbraden4102]

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.

[@wanderer15]

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!

[@EAZinPDX]

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*???

[@banananana2]

I gotta know what the longest words ever played are. Like 11 is insane but has anyone ever gotten 12? 13?? 14??? 15???? 16?????

[@markthompson1769]

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

[@banananana2]

@@markthompson1769 Oh shit I miscounted But Nigel could for sure lmao

[@meta04]

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-ru1xc4qf4r]

iirc EXISTENTIALISTS was played from EXISTENT on the board for the max 15 letters

[@SkyFire2112]

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

[@thegodofpez]

That INTERVIEWER play is simply disgusting. 🙏

[@domino14]

haha I won the game where he opened with A though!!

[@wanderer15]

I know, Josh told me. I will add a correction note, I confused it with TERTIALS!

[@axcertypo]

everybody downvote this comment 🙃

[@CoolBubbaP]

Ah yes common words like AA and BAA Oh and Ch Oi Or Oe

[@tranonehalf]

Lol A

[@milliondollaquestion8777]

josh is the hikaru of scrabble, and will is the gothamchess

[@Xeractyll]

Pretty much ^^ XD

[@biggiemac42]

Eh I beat him once

[@wanderer15]

lol, that you did. man that was epic

[@OfficialGidfather]

*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.

[@陳琮方]

lol kzbin.info/www/bejne/d3uscp-IiNhlZ5Y&ab_channel=WillAnderson

[@Ascension721]

cant believe he did this

[@chris18thseymour]

you know you're going places as a KZbinr when you see toxic comments like this! 😅

[@wanderer15]

Gidfather coming in with the hottest take since his manifesto in support of the K tile

[@sterlingburnsides9712]

First! Hi will :=)

[@wanderer15]

Hi!

[@iwersonsch5131]

Wait why is Byzantine valid when Iraqi isn't

[@cukka99]

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.

[@wanderer15]

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").

[@iwersonsch5131]

@@wanderer15 Weird. I looked it up on Collins and it said it's valid because it's relating to Byzantium or the Byzantine empire

[@EltWilder]

Blam.

[@ssgoko88]

Evil Will be like: hi bill here, lets talk about checkers