Tournaments

Tournament SCRABBLE® play in Canada and the United States is administered by NASPA and its Tournament Committee. All questions about tournaments should be sent to that committee’s mailing list.

Playing in Tournaments

Tournaments are organized by NASPA-sanctioned Directors and listed on our calendar. You must be a NASPA member to play in a NASPA event,

Brand-new tournament players must also be NASPA members and may either buy a full membership or a trial six-month membership (US$15) through their tournament organizer. If they opt for a trial membership, at any time during the six-month period they can send an additional $15 and extend it to a full membership.

Membership Database

As players want to register for your tournament, you will need to check the Membership Database to be sure their NASPA membership is current.

Tournament Results

Tournament results and ratings are currently posted at the NSA website, but we will start posting them on the NASPA web site in early July.

Directing Tournaments

In order to direct a tournament, you must be a NASPA member and certified as a director. For more information about and for directors, please see our Directors page.

Most tournaments are open to all and fully rated by the NASPA; these are referred to as Open Rated Tournaments (ORT). However, there are also a few other tournament types that are sanctioned and rated. See table below (exerpted from the Director's Manual and expanded) to compare them:

	Open Rated Tournament (ORT)	Local Club Tournament (LCT)	Challenge/Championships
Advance Notice	8 Weeks	None required	None Required (for now)
Tournament Calendar listing	Listed on NASPA calendar	Not listed on NASPA calendar	Not listed on NASPA calendar
Rating Method	fully rated	1/3 rated	fully rated
How Often?	No other multi day SCRABBLE game tournaments occurring within two weekends and 200 miles of your proposed tournament. No other one-day tournament on same day within 200 miles.	At most, once per month	[TBA]
How Many games?	At least 4 games	At least 3 games	At least 4 games
How Many players?	At least 4 players in each division, at least 2 rated players in each division	At least 4 players in each division, at least 2 rated players in each division	At least 4 players in each division, at least 2 rated players in each division
Player restrictions	All players must be current NASPA members	All players must be current NASPA members	All players must be current NASPA members Entry restricted to challenge/championship participants (e.g., two clubs/two regions, within a state).
Participation Fee	$.50 per player per game	$.50 per player per game	$.50 per player per game
Examples	National Scrabble Championship, most tournaments	One-day tournament that is created on short notice	Portland-Seattle Interclub Challenge, Texas State Championship

Championships

Major events, such as national championships, are webcast on this web site, and web coverage is archived in perpetuity.

Web coverage typically consists of standings updates continuously throughout an event, commentary about the event’s highlights, photos and interactive games where you can follow along at the top board in real time.