The February Scrabble Bash: a recap

The Colombo Scrabble Club held its first ever virtual tournament on the 19th of February 2022 on woogles.io. This was also the first tournament the CSC held since 2020, being an attempt to revive the Scrabble scene in Sri Lanka.

A few years previously, Sri Lanka was one of the leading nations in international Scrabble. The youth team were champions at the WESPA Youth Championships for three consecutive years, and the 2017 event was won by Sri Lankan Aabid Ismail. However, in recent times, the team has slipped down to 3rd place.

In response, the Colombo Scrabble Club initiated a series of tournaments known as CSC Scrabble Bash, beginning with the one held this Saturday. Nearly forty players from four different countries participated in the event. Former Sri Lankan youth team member Hasindu Arumapperuma was the champion, while Malaysian Ahmed Aqmarul Harraz was a close runner up, followed by Aehzam Ahmed from Pakistan.

Harraz won his first 7 games in a row, and was ahead in his final game until Hasindu found the late-game bingo of ENCLOSE, giving him a slight lead that he turned into a win in a close endgame.

The game that decided the tournament
The game that decided the tournament

You can go through that game here, and see all other tournament games in our club room.

The tournament was directed by Adheesha Dissanayake and Aminthika Dissanayake of the Colombo Scrabble club committee. We plan to conduct another in the near future, and we hope to see you there!

Final Standings

  1. Hasindu Arumapperuma 7 (+1414)
  2. Ahmad Aqmarul Harraz bin Azhan 7 (+795)
  3. Aehzam Ahmed Siddiqui 6 (+1821)
  4. Kavindu Malawaarachchi 6 (+1319)
  5. Triambak Eashwar 6 (+1280)
  6. Imeth de Silva 6 (+1132)
  7. Chanmini Perera 5 (+1268)
  8. Ometh Rajapakse 5 (+594)
  9. Archana Padumadasa 5 (+516)
  10. Thenura Gunasekera 5 (+189)

View the full list here.