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Toronto SCRABBLE^® Club on Woogles

Since January 2021, the Toronto Scrabble Club (NASPA Club #3) has met virtually online at Woogles.io.

Club play is open to anyone who agrees to comply with the NASPA Code of Conduct. There is currently no fee for club play.

How to Play

1. Contact the director of the next available weekly session, and tell them which rounds you want to play, in what lexicon, and on what date. The default lexicon for our club is the current edition of the NASPA Word List (NWL), but players may by mutual consent play with Collins Scrabble Words (CSW) or the NASPA School Word List (NSWL). If your plans change, be sure to let the director know, so that your opponent isn't kept waiting for you.
2. If you have never played on Woogles.io before, create an account there and play at least three practice games. The Woogles Quick-Start User Guide may be useful. You must have played three complete games on Woogles before you start playing regularly scheduled club games, so that your opponent doesn’t end up having to teach you how to play.
3. Join the Zoom conference or the club chat lobby by ten minutes before the start of each game to find out who you should play.
4. In the club chat lobby, click on START CLUB GAME and fill out the form that appears as follows:
   • Opponent: the screen name of your assigned opponent
   • Dictionary: NWL, unless you have both agreed to play in NSWL or CSW
   • Challenge rule: Double (NWL) or 5 points (NSWL or CSW)
   • Initial Minutes: 25 (but note that all games must end within 55 minutes of pairings being announced)
   • Time Setting: Use Max Overtime
   • Overtime: 10 minutes
   • Rated: On
5. Play your game. Contact the director if anything unusual happens, or to submit prize word entries.

Schedule

The club meets virtually on Wednesday evenings, according to the following times. Be sure to confirm your attendance by 6:30 P.M. on game day.

Directors

You can contact our regular directors as follows:

• John Chew: call or text 416-876-7675, text using Facebook Messenger
• Lisa Kessler: TBA
• Fern Lindzon: TBA
• Glenn Mosher: TBA

If you would like to join this list and direct the occasional virtual club meeting, please email John at poslfit@gmail.com. You need to be a NASPA-certified club director, and be familiar with club administrative procedures.

Club Season Standings

Games played count for club (but not tournament) ratings. See current standings, updated weekly.

Club Administrative Procedures

If you have volunteered to run an occasional virtual club session, thank you very much. You should find everything you need to know about it here. If you don’t, please let John know what was missing so that he can add it.

We have tried to make the club experience as similar as possible to the real thing, for both directors and players. So, pairings groups of up to eight players, and the same pairing procedures that you should be familiar with from the main club admin guide, but without any money being involved.

The main difference is that we use a shared Google Sheet instead of a sign-in sheet and score slips. The Google Sheet has one worksheet per week (plus a master, and at least one hidden one); you do not need to view or edit any of the other worksheets in the workbook. If this is your first time using the Google Sheet, tell John which Google account you want to use to get editing access to it.

When people contact you to register for a weekly session, look to see if they are listed in the weekly worksheet. If so, assign them to a tentative division (1, 2, 3). Assigning them to a division will make them show up in the pulldown menus used to assign opponents. If they are not listed, ask them for their Woogles name and check that they have completed three games on Woogles. If they do not have a Woogles name or have not played three games, ask them to contact you again when they have met these requirements. Add qualified new players to the bottom of the worksheet, and use their current club rating (or 0 if unrated) as a guideline for assigning them to pairing divisions.

At 6:15 P.M., John will open a Zoom conference, and assign you as host as soon as you join.

At 6:30 P.M., registration is closed. Check to make sure that everyone who registered is present (either in Zoom or in the Woogles club chat) or accounted for (has credibly said that they will arrive by 7:00). Adjust division sizes as needed: there should be no more than one division larger than 8 players, and you may find it easier to assign as many players as possible into 4-player round-robin groups. If you like, sort the players by division in preparation for pairing them. Assign the first-round pairings however you like, or if you have no idea, KOTH but pairing CSW players together. If you have round robins planned, go ahead and enter their pairings for Round 2 and Round 3. For non-round-robin groups, you will pair winners vs winners in later rounds according to our usual custom. Announce pairings to players via Zoom, and on Woogles chat for anyone that is not on Zoom. This should take you to about 6:45 P.M.

At 7:00 P.M., make sure that everyone is playing the correct Round 1 opponent.

As you see scores come in on the Woogles club scores pane (typically from 7:10~7:30), enter them into the Round 1 Score column of the Google Sheet, and watch the wins and cume fields automatically fill in. Check with each pair of players as to who went first, and fill in that information (1 or 2). When all scores are in for a division, or at 7:35 at the latest, (re)announce the Round 2 pairings.

At 7:40 P.M., make sure that everyone is playing the correct Round 2 opponent. Enter scores and 1sts/2nds as they come in (typically from 8:00-8:30), and enter and announce pairings, as before.

At 8:40 P.M., make sure that everyone is playing the correct Round 3 opponent. Enter scores and 1sts/2nds as they come in.

When all results are in for the night (they typically come in from 8:45-9:15), email or message John to let him know that the scores are ready to copy to the club statistics system.