He Drew The Worst Letters in Scrabble. Then He Won.

Welcome to Episode 20 of Scrabble History, a series where I break down some of the most incredible plays, epic rivalries, and amazing moments in Scrabble's rich competitive history.
The recently-concluded 2024 Crescent City Cup had no shortage of incredible live-streamed Scrabble games. In this video, I'll break down my favorite of them all - a back-and-forth match between Scrabble legend Dave Wiegand and his top expert opponent, 2014 World Championship finalist Chris Lipe. At the critical moment, Dave drew some of the absolute worst tiles in Scrabble, but he didn't let that stop him...
Sometime soon, I plan to resume streaming on my Twitch channel:
/ wanderer15
I also have a weekly show on the official Scrabble Twitch channel (Tuesdays 3-5 PM ET):
/ scrabble
Play Scrabble at playscrabble.com!

[@wfcyellow]

As they say: "When life gives you lemons, make sure you watch Will Anderson's coverage of round 10 of the 2024 Crescent Cup."

[@reginaldforthright805]

When life gives you tangerines make sure to watch will vinton’s coverage of the ski jump preliminaries for the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer

[@wfcyellow]

@@reginaldforthright805 Reg you're ill. In a good way.

[@wanderer15]

They do be saying this

[@worldbfr3e263]

I watched this live and there was a small "easter egg" of sorts. At 8:44, Dave has his rack arranged "VU(L)SIVE" to suggest he might play "EVULSIVE" off the top E. The only problem is Evulsive isn't a valid word and the commentators knew this because one of them (the one on the left at 8:55) played it in the a game against Dave himself in a prior competition but Dave let it play anyway. The commentators were slightly worried that maybe Dave was confused by that and thought it would be valid but in the post-match interview revealed that he set up his rack like that to poke fun at that commentator.

[@wanderer15]

Yes, Dave is a master of these little easter eggs! In fact, when Conrad asked him postgame whether he thinks about stuff like that to troll the commentators/viewers, he said not really, but I typed in chat that Dave is in fact a master troll, which elicited his laugh in the postgame interview clip I showed here!

[@loust1264]

dave is a menace 💀

[@thalarides]

I'm a newb at Scrabble. Finding one bingo is hard. But calculating which of the 14 possible racks (after playing U or V and drawing one out of seven distinct letters) have more than one bingo, while also considering in each case whether the remaining tiles that the opponent has have bingos and where they can be played depending on where you play your tile... Mindblowing!

[@wanderer15]

Well said! And to make matters even crazier, Dave had a blank tile. So every permutation could have up to 26 extra combinations to check (though as long as you find a couple different bingos from a given rack, you can move on to the next permutation).

[@nerdpiggy]

What did the photographer say to the Scrabble tourney winner? "Say QIS!"

[@reginaldforthright805]

It’s pronounced kwiss, not cheese, contrary to widespread belief, and refers to the Chinese practice of cultivating bonsai trees.

[@nerdpiggy]

@@reginaldforthright805 nooooo my joke :(

[@galoomba5559]

@@reginaldforthright805 you're wrong

[@reginaldforthright805]

@@galoomba5559 no, it’s deliberate misinformation. Keep on your toes

[@reginaldforthright805]

@mouykaing7456 im helping people spot misinformation

[@skitsadoodle5194]

"More like Chris turned his lemons into lemony risotto wrapped around mozzarella cheese" had me bawling with laughter

[@deguvnor598]

Will, your story-telling skill, video animation, and scrabble analysis makes this channel a must-watch for even the passive scrabble player. It was absolutely a pleasure playing against you in Albany. Keep it up!

[@wanderer15]

Thank you so much!

[@muffintentacle9808]

So weird that this is the 2nd time in a few months that a brilliant play of CUT was played in a critical position.

[@mattcanik]

I had the same exact thought when I watched the video.... but missed the opportunity to say it live =\

[@meissmart6678]

Hey Will! I've been watching your and Mack's content from the shadows for a couple months now, but just recently tried out my first Scrabble game (casual with friends). In it, I was able to find AZO hooking JO with a Z on the triple letter, then later out-bingoed with TAMARIND! Wouldn't have been possible without your always engaging and helpful content, so thanks!

[@wanderer15]

Amazing play - so glad to hear this!

[@thomasdawson2257]

I don't often watch games live but this was one of the few games I saw and it was so fun to watch. All thanks to you growing Scrabbles presence.

[@PersonmanGaming]

This is a really good one! My one tiny bit of feedback is that I wish the definitions stayed on screen for like 1.5 seconds longer, i kept having them fade out just as i switched my attention to them from the play on the board

[@HopUpOutDaBed]

if I had a nickle for every time cut was a brilliant pre-endgame move...

[@vitex198]

Can we get a vid about like, the best three letter word plays or something like that? Plays like that are truly fascinating sometimes

[@davidstone9981]

One of my proudest moments in Scrabble was drawing to a tie with Dave many years ago (402-402). He's such a solid player, and I was never anything more than a low-level expert (tho I once cracked the top-50 in N. America). He was really nice, too. I remember him from that profile photo you always post of him -- that's how he looks in my mind's eye -- so it was humbling to see how much older he and I both look all these years later! Great commentary as usual, Will!

[@glowstonelovepad9294]

I played "vurp" once when I had a U and a V and surprisingly didn't get challenged

[@gurchyy]

Another great video! Can't imagine seeing all of this over the board...

[@jonahsmith3221]

Will Anderson dropping a video is among the finest pleasures in life. Love your content man.

[@TheRealVenusian]

Love that one of the options was ARANCINI, one of my favorite Italian foods! I shouted it out once I saw it, just a second before it go played. Also feel like Dave could have also played VENUSIAN at some point :)

[@tissuepaper9962]

I was very proud of myself for finding BOYCOT(T) hooking the T in BIDENTS, and then sad that I missed the bingo BOYCOTT(S).

[@gmaasry]

Fantastic video. The type of thing one should show to people to get them more into Scrabble! Even knowing a lot of the words involved (which is a lucky coincidence, I assure you), I don't think I would ever have the skill to see all of them let alone consider the many outcomes in that final position. What a phenomenal talent Dave is!!

[@tissuepaper9962]

Scrabble is one of those games where the rules are easy to understand, but the skill ceiling is fantastically high. Casual players see it as a game of vocabulary, but veteran players see it as a game of strategy and imperfect information.

[@CanadianPianoMan]

Gotta say the intro to a scrabble video is one of the last places I expected to see Annette Obrestad

[@domino14]

She was one game away from winning the open TWL division of the tournament, amazing as her first tournament was just two years ago.

[@CanadianPianoMan]

@@domino14 I'm not entirely surprised. She first gained notoriety as a poker prodigy, winning a very prestigious poker tournament just a day shy of 19, having allegedly started playing online at 15. She would be pretty high on the list of people I would pick to learn a new game and learn it well in a short amount of time.

[@wanderer15]

She played several excellent games on the live stream as well - could be great candidates for future videos too.

[@TheLawman23]

I was gonna say this too, was not prepared for a Poker pro on a Scrabble video; actually had to rewatch the intro twice just to make sure I wasn't seeing things

[@mattcanik]

@@TheLawman23 There's a surprising amount of overlap between poker and Scrabble. Many top experts have skill at both. Maybe you could become one? :)

[@roryosullivan3000]

This is one of your best videos. Excellent game and excellent coverage

[@liu4236]

I love that they turned their lemons into lemonades! 🤣

[@zmaj12321]

That analysis is absurd! So much that needs to be considered, but it turned out to be worth it in the end.

[@AlexDings]

Only thing that could make these awesome recaps better would be to turn some of the moves into quick puzzles for the audience, i. e. give them a second to look for BOYCOTTS or GRANDPA or maybe ARANCINI themselves

[@negativeseven]

Honestly, as someone who, like probably the majority of viewers, cannot generally spot these words in mere seconds, this would just slow down the pace of the video for me. (that being said, in a rare turn of events I did spot BOYCOTT on the rack, mainly because the alphabetical ordering is quite close to it already)

[@AlexDings]

@@negativeseven What I mean is to give people a chance to pause the video. In most instances, Will mentions the solution so immediately that you can hardly pause even if you want to

[@eric-smith-egg]

@@AlexDings give us a second to look for DURCHGEPAUSTE

[@wanderer15]

I keep forgetting to do this…it’s definitely a good idea

[@CarloRossiTheGreat]

I've played scrabble my whole life but never thought of it like this. Incredible analysis.

[@wanderer15]

Thank you for giving my video a try!

[@danielzitnik4247]

When you were going over all of Dave's Bingo potential when deciding to play his V, his duplicate U, or something else, with a blank in hand, is a pro player able to actually calculate all these lines given how many combinations the blank can represent? I imagine that would take a long time.

[@lkjkhfggd]

It's incredible how good players can get at this game. Memorizing all the words in the dictionary is one thing. Being able to play the word scramble part is another. Being able to find placements on the board that maximize points is another. And then tracking all the letters and considering your and your opponent's potential draws and then plays is out of this world.

[@josephpotter7301]

The production of these videos are insane! Incredible work!

[@wanderer15]

Thank you very much!

[@dentonyoung4314]

Another amazing game, and a brilliant analysis, especially of the ending.

[@richards31415]

Interesting to note C(U)T blocks the disconnected 9 lane on row 10, but that lane is not needed with the 6-tile combination that is left

[@Manigo1743]

That's nothing. I can draw the best tiles in Scrabble, and then lose.

[@Kosmicd12]

Another great story told! Question: what does the '#' mean at the end of words?

[@ValkyRiver]

This word is in the Collins dictionary, but not the north american NWL dictionary.

[@Kosmicd12]

​@@ValkyRiveroh! Thanks 🙂 is there a different syntax for the other way around? In North American, but not Collins?

[@craftyawesome6830]

@@Kosmicd12 I'm not aware of any, because that is really rare.

[@VerticalChain83]

​@@Kosmicd12 maybe $ sign?

[@justin7035]

That is unbelievable. The depth of calculation and knowledge is just.. jaw dropping

[@WyattUTFT]

Arancini was the first time I’ve ever watched one of these videos and spotted the move they were going to make

[@spoody7259]

i cant unsee chris looking like a mix of ozzy osbourne and toby maguire

[@Shea_Fresh]

Don't know why this was recommended to me to watch, but had fun. These are top players for sure!

[@glowstonelovepad9294]

If I had a nickel for every time a game on this channel started with "fiord", I'd have 10 cents. That's not alot of money, but it's weird that it happened twice. (The other one is the first game in the video with cut and tan).

[@sandekv]

As a Norwegian, that spelling hurts me. Not only did English speakers butcher the pronunciation, they even made up a new spelling based on the bad pronunciation.

[@J3Puffin]

I learned so many words watching this coverage

[@johnstevenson3628]

This video was awesome and I really enjoyed it. Your editing, visuals, narration, and story telling are all really well-done and deserve praise. 😁 However, could you include almost (if not all) of the definitions for words used. I really like how you provide most of them, but I don’t think most people, including myself, know what words like ‘luvvies’ means until we look it up. 😅 It’d be very much appreciated and make the viewing experience even better. Thanks so much and keep up the great work! 🙏

[@wanderer15]

I can definitely be a little more proactive with those definitions. Thanks for the kind words!

[@johnstevenson3628]

@@wanderer15 You even respond to comments and try to improve the channel?! This guy needs 1M subs ASAP.

[@domino14]

10M (O)U actually wins 5/8 endgames with ADNR draws, it just so happens that it woulda lost this one :/ (he gets VESUVIAN/AMUSIVE etc with an A draw). The only way I can see to block both bingos is PANDOUR and that gives Dave back VAURIENS#

[@wanderer15]

Nice!

[@phonxil4592]

According to the thumnail, he's a game changer

[@JohnDoe-ti2np]

Great video! I was slightly confused by the # marks until I realized that it meant "invalid in NWL but valid in Collins."

[@empowers67]

hey will, I’m a big fan of your scrabble content, it’s inspired me to get better at scrabble and sign up for events in my area! I was wondering if you have any tips or resources for players looking to self analyze their games. Is that software i see commentators using sometimes in your videos something that would be useful in this pursuit? Thanks in advance and keep up the great work!

[@mattcanik]

quackle is the engine the commentators use, you can find it with a quick google search. woogles also has an engine that isn't as refined yet

[@lazyguyy]

Fantastic video, as always! Thank you for sharing :)

[@jommy4867]

Super Mario World clickbait title card? Well done. You got me.

[@joelhoeve]

Incredibly impressive

[@mettataurr]

the amount of variations to consider for one move.. this games crazy

[@asliuf]

love this, what a stunningly difficult move to get perfectly

[@thegodofpez]

What a crazy endgame sequence! 🤟

[@stegomasaurus6737]

1:21 I think Fawful slipped a word into the Scrabble dictionary.

[@tranonehalf]

Congrats to Dave! Awesome person. What an endgame play.

[@niconewtime5589]

Wow is that the former poker player annette obrestad at 0:03 ? 😮

[@richards31415]

Yep

[@mattcanik]

she's now decided to become a scrabble grandmaster and is doing a pretty darn good job of it

[@bootmii98]

Not only is this not played in Crescent City, it's a CSW game...

[@jchi]

Did you see Nigel Richard's recent 748 point game at Bangalore?

[@wanderer15]

Video on that insane game coming next week!

[@Questica127]

Where can I find the AI ranking of all the 3 letter combinations?

[@alexlatham6836]

In another game, Dave Wiegand had even more garbage tiles! He had 3 U’s and both V’s with 3 tiles in the bag and lost after his opponent bingoed using both blanks, emptying the bag (he would have probably won if his rack wasn’t so bad; therefore, it was stronger for his opponent to make a 1/2 tile fish, according to Joel Wapnick).

[@glowstonelovepad9294]

7:03-7:37 Where can I find the full list of ranked 3-letter combinations?

[@furretwalky]

I read about ARANCINI in a Scrabble book I have, glad to see it being used XD

[@throwaway1743]

That is such an unbelievable board, wow

[@pacdiesel6240]

Love the content and would watch anyway, but I have to say that your thumbnail for the video is a stroke of genius akin to “Vesuvian.”

[@SG2048-meta]

I didn’t know WUDU was a word, that would have helped massively when I had the rack WUUUDXI (I played WUD instead leaving 2 U’s and then proceeded to draw another U later on)

[@KeyholeGod]

I think if you didn't know about WUDU, then exchanging would've been a bit better

[@SG2048-meta]

@@KeyholeGodyeah probably

[@Random1785YT]

you got the worst 3-letter combination, congrats

[@alistercaddy1208]

Although his tiles LOOK ugly, he still manages to get one down Hey, I thought this was a family channel

[@omnomnom1410]

Here for the Super Mario World thumbnail

[@wjstie]

very late but is there a link to the evals of all the 3-tile leaves anywhere? love the videos 🙏

[@wanderer15]

If you visit cross-tables.com, under the Learn tab you can check Leave Values and enter in some examples for yourself. The full set of 3-tile values is a big text file I could dump somewhere if needed.

[@Bltz3r]

I think it would be interesting for us to see the time they had on a clock so we can better understand how long they were thinking about their moves

[@simon-xi3cv]

Excellent video, thanks!

[@artful1967]

SCRABBLE on another level

[@jkid1134]

I saw arancini almost instantly because I am hungry and feel equal parts proud and taunted Also good video etc.

[@JOSIAHLEONRAPHAMoe]

Will can you do a speed run vid of you anagramming the top20k sevens

[@PendragonDaGreat]

7:51 surprised "Vesuvian" isn't defined as "A type of volcanic eruption"

[@jenriesgamingworld8041]

imagine a game where someone starts with 4 A's a K, a Q, and a Z

[@vanshjain3428]

If possible would love to see a collaboration with another youtuber as the video you made with Wirtual is my favourite video of yours till date ❤❤

[@abee127]

How much time did Dave have in order to calculate this? What are the time controls in a game like this?

[@peterfranklinrouth895]

I think I am right in saying each player gets a total amount of time to use as they see fit. When you end your turn your timer pauses until it is your turn again. If you pause the video at 8.38 you can see the timers at the bottom showing Dave has used about 4.5 minutes more than Chris.

[@yriiiiiii]

While your videos have been of excellent quality for a while, i gotta say: your thumbnails are getting too good!❤

[@wanderer15]

Glad you like them! I couldn’t think of anything better for this one so I fell back on some SNES classics…

[@billynakamura48]

I thought you said my game with Carl was your favorite 🤣

[@BramCohen]

Not exactly to do with this game, but a thought I had after seeing some of your analyses is that a scrabble variant where before gameplay starts a third party removes a single unrevealed tile from the bag would result in a lot of interesting subtle endgames along the lines of the sort of situations you like analyzing.

[@PretzelBS]

That’s a lot of 8 and 9 letter bingos to find wow

[@kicking222]

TIL the youngest bracelet winner in World Series of Poker history plays American Scrabble tournamenets. Awesome.

[@Fungo4]

I'm definitely going to start using the word rubineous from now on.

[@alexpotts6520]

A great way to euphuise your conversations.

[@asterpw]

Interesting thumbnail choice.

[@hurkahurk]

Hilarious thumbnail

[@wanderer15]

Hopefully I don’t cause an uproar putting the Triforce in the area where you actually get the Master Sword

[@Trizzer89]

These endgames are ridiculous. How do they have time to anagram 16 different 8 letter combos. AND you need to think about the opponents rack

[@bubbagarland]

Dave is brilliant

[@dustinbrown3317]

Is playing CUT not a misplay shutting down the lanes that featured 9s through the N and O?

[@ValkyRiver]

None of the bingos after playing off a U are through the N and the O.

[@wanderer15]

It’s not ideal for Dave to block anything, but his playing there shows a recognition of the fact that it doesn’t actually block any of the bingos he can actually draw after dumping the U.

[@musicav3284]

Dave has unplayable SURVIVE

[@jellomochas]

1:18 where did Chris's R go?

[@rickpgriffin]

That looks like a mistake, he draws an R on the next turn so was it unknown if he was holding an R or L at that moment?

[@li7islithiumseven]

I got 4 Us in Scrabble Go!, I won.

[@TheBadDeadFox]

Nice

[@girlmaya6818]

This is a simpleflips thumbnail

[@foodie_sys]

JOE BIDENTS!!!!!

[@vincentskater]

at 3:45 you say "he scores for 57" when he only scored for 37 :o :o

[@wanderer15]

Thanks - just attempted to fix in KZbin Studio, hopefully it works!

[@jakko_]

3:38 That’s my president 🫡 🇺🇸

[@100beep5]

5:41 Would that be using a blank as a Q? When has that actually happened?

[@XSneakerGirlXTLK]

Love your vIDEOS

[@T1J]

U's are the bane of my existence

[@wanderer15]

This means you are a true Scrabbler now.

[@christopherwellman2364]

Not only do they use words I've never heard of, they use words I've never heard of.

[@looserkidful]

3:24 its 10 percentpoints not 10% :)

[@dontcaremate]

at 3:40 you said he played BIDENTS for 57, but the indicator says ‘+37’ next to his name

[@wanderer15]

Thanks! I just attempted to fix it in KZbin Studio. We'll see if it works.

[@DanielDugovic]

I thought G was the worst letter. 😀

[@shailen824]

This is a thumbnail appreciation comment

[@villelankinen]

hmm, thought "ee" was not valid

[@wanderer15]

It is a very strange word for sure. These players are using the Collins dictionary, the worldwide standard which is more permissive than the Merriam Webster one, so if you’re used to that, some words may look unfamiliar. (When I show definitions on screen, these are denoted with the # symbol)

[@villelankinen]

@@wanderer15 Thanks Will! Another question - why are they playing CSW in an American tournament? Kinda cool if there's enough players in the US to have tournaments with both dictionaries!

[@leiz8048]

banger

[@OfficialGidfather]

Guy like me finds that