I played in the biggest Scrabble tournament in the country — and it was nothing like the game you grew up playing

Patty Hocker/NASPA

When most people think of Scrabble, they think of a leisurely game night in grandma's living room.

But for a few thousand people, the iconic board game is a competitive, adrenaline-filled, highly cerebral discipline, worthy of hundreds of hours of study and a lifetime of obsession.

I'm one of those few, and last month, I flew to New Orleans to compete in the North American Scrabble Championship with 400 fellow word nerds.

The tournament was a marathon — 31 games in five days — that pushed me to the brink of mental exhaustion. But it also offered an illuminating look into a quirky subculture that toils in relative obscurity, far from the confines of grandma's living room.

Here's what it's like to play in the biggest Scrabble tournament in the country:

The tournament playing room was a scene to behold. Most of the nearly 400 players hailed from the US and Canada, but some traveled from countries as far away as Thailand and New Zealand.

Patty Hocker/NASPA

The competition was open to players of all ages, so long as they're members of the North American Scrabble Players Association.

Patty Hocker/NASPA

I've been playing tournament Scrabble since high school. Like many players, I got serious about the game after reading "Word Freak" by Stefan Fatsis, a journalist who explored the underground Scrabble scene and eventually became an expert-level player.

Mark Abadi/Business Insider


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