u/Equivalent-Record168

I posted an 11 letter word play the other day of VERBALIZERS. 8 days after my post I get this reply from ScrambleWiz.

ScrambleWiz

•2d ago

VERBALIZERS on a Scrabble board and you still couldn't verbalize a humble brag normally?

I reply with:

Equivalent-Record168

OP•2d ago

humblebrag is one word, why are you even on a scrabble sub when you don't grasp word knowledge?

ScrambleWiz replies back:

Fair correction — HUMBLEBRAG is 20 points in Scrabble btw. Lesson learned on both fronts 🙏

My final reply was:

Equivalent-Record168

OP•1d ago

Humblebrag is not worth 20 points on any Scrabble board btw. No where are there 10 spaces on a Scrabble board without a MULTIPLIER square (premium squares, bonus squares) lol. Have you even played Scrabble before out of curiosity? If you were to play this word anywhere on a Scrabble board you would hit a minimum of 1 Mulitplier square, you could possible hit 2 Multiplier squares, or best case scenario you would hit 3 of them. This word would not be worth 20 points ever. So definitely not a lesson learned on this front but if we are keeping score that is 2 lessons for you now, right?

If I posted my original comment any other way, I would've had ppl coming after me for bragging or being pretentious, right? I posted it the way I posted it and I get someone telling me I should have phrased it normally while referencing a word that has only existed since 2010. To recap here you then spelled the word incorrectly and then failed to correctly add up the value of humblebrag. Instead adding a space and creating 2 words and then adding up the base value of just the tiles without factoring in that no 10 letter word would equal 20 pts on any Scrabble board ever.

Most ppl consider Scrabble to be a word game or a game best suited for good spellers or ppl with a large lexicon. It is most definitely a strategic math game that favors both good spellers and those with above avg vocabularies.

This is straight from the internet: Scrabble is defined as a word game primarily because of its original design and marketing intent, though expert play relies heavily on math. Its creator, Alfred Butts, specifically set out to combine three game types: chance, strategy, and words.

In reality, most experts agree that it is a math game at its core: it is a math game played with word-shaped tokens.

Idk why you posted what you originally posted. Perhaps you thought it was funny or snarky or necessary for me to know what you were thinking. In this sub, most posts get over 1500-2000 views but only garner 10 upvotes and even less comments. It is a reserved crowd in here. Tbh, despite your opinion being none of my business, I guess I was somehow offended by it slightly given my response. An 11 letter play is a very rare feat on a Scrabble board but then to have someone make a seemingly negative remark about that achievement too? The nuance of your original post wasn't lost on me either.

Anyone can use an anagrammer, right? But not everyone can spell or add, those are just some basic fundamentals you are either taught/learn as a child and continue to learn as an adult. Anagrammers do not teach you, they show you shortcuts, they can definitely be used as study tools. But in online Scrabble they are mainly used to cheat. There are at least 2 distinct generations that grew up using anagrammers to play online Scrabble to cheat and to them, this is normal. You can't even play Scrabble Go without hints or word spy being built into the interface-it is made for ppl who don't want to actually think for themselves. I would rather have lifelong knowledge than disposable knowledge gained from an anagrammer. But again, that is just my humble opinion.

Tactical or "Cheat" Knowledge

In gaming communities, this is sometimes colloquially called tactical knowledge. It is information used purely for a strategic advantage in the moment. Unlike sustainable knowledge, which you intend to keep, tactical knowledge is treated as a "throwaway" once the score is tallied.

Humblebrag got added to the Scrabble word list 4 years after it became a word. At no point did I have to look that info up at all. I have been familiar with the etymology of humblebrag since 2010, studying it on wordlists (also word lists is an acceptable spelling) since 2014 when it made the official Scrabble wordlist but have never gotten to play it in an actual game. Exactly 1 day before you made this comment, Will Anderson used the word HUMBLEBRAG in the playscrabble.com Word Summit puzzle of the day. The puzzles are designed by Will Anderson, a top-ranked Scrabble player and mathematician known for his deep strategic approach to the game. There's that word math again!

But why add anything up yourself, right? When you can get an anagrammer to do the work for you...

Great advertising/marketing for your site btw, the fact that it can add up Scrabble scores but it doesn't take into account the multiplier squares on an actual game board.

Also saw your amazement at a 533 high score posted here in the comment section. I have a 667 and a 717 posted here as well, both with full pics of each play and the entire board. The 717 also has a 239 point bingo played. I spelled all these words and added up the potential value of each play myself before playing them too!

I posted a googled answer about how playing in a small pool of tiny Scrabble club in a rural area can affect your ELO. I straight cut and pasted the reply google gave. It was an easier option than trying to explain to hobby players the difference in ratings in large pools, small pools, or sanctioned tournaments. Immediately got a reply from this guy. This was my reply:

Absolutely! No one here seems to understand how ELO ratings work, right? I mean the ppl who comment, not actual players. Ppl here list an expert player at an ELO of 1800, while others here say 2000 or above. Ppl also fail to realize that if you play within a small pool of ppl it will not be indicative of your actual ELO score.

If you want to actually understand how an ELO rating works and why some ppl who are good players have low ones or vice versa, look up the different sources that show ratings, they all differ quite a bit.

Best way to show ppl who generally have no clue is to cut and paste an AI blurb, imo. But hey, be a hobby player with no actual skill and keep commenting, right? I mean you are already killing it with the upvotes.

>And isn't that what this community is all about, dropping a post with 2000 views and no upvotes at all. But say something negative or drag someone else's posts and get showered in upvotes by other hobby players with no actual game skill.

In a small, isolated rural club, your Elo rating is a relative measure of your skill compared only to that specific group of people, rather than an absolute measure of your ability against the broader global or national talent pool.

Because the Elo system relies on transferring points between players based on the outcome of their games, small "pockets" can experience unique mathematical effects:

• Closed Ecosystems: In isolated groups with no "cross-pollination" (players who travel to other clubs or national tournaments), the average rating of the group remains fixed. If the group started at a default rating (e.g., 1200) and never played outsiders, a 1600-rated player there might be a shark in that pond but only a 1200-rated player in a metropolitan area with a more elite talent pool.
• Rating Inflation/Deflation:
  • Inflation: If your club regularly has new players who join, lose a few games, and quit, they essentially "inject" free points into your local pool, potentially inflating everyone's local ratings.
  • Deflation: If your local group consists of highly skilled but unrated "living-room" experts who only play each other, your ratings might stay low even if you are all objectively very strong.
• Style Bias: In a small group, you often learn to play against specific people's habits rather than mastering the diverse strategies required to face thousands of different opponents.
• Pool Size Influence: Top ratings are highly dependent on pool size. For example, to reach a world-class Elo of 2000+, you need to beat many people who already have high ratings. In a 10-person club, it is mathematically difficult to climb that high because there aren't enough points to go around.

These were just practice games against the computer. Was about to play RAISINS for a solid bingo but then saw the available P and played ASPIRINS for 149 pts. Finished the game with a 595, still didn't give me an ELO point. Next game played TAQUERIA for 125 pts. Finished the game with a 454, still didn't give me an ELO point. 18th game at 2131.

This account I have is just for practice playing against the Computer set to Hard. It is very seldom that the Computer will ever block you/play defensively or use the multiplier squares itself. The higher your ELO rating the harder the computer plays, this is from my experience playing on this site since April/May 2022. It is extremely easy to set yourself up for Triple/Triples imo. My highest ELO was 2209 with just over 1000 games played in 2022, this is a point when I would play opponents on the site. I found that when opponents cancel a game I would then lose ELO points so I stopped playing that way. I have another temporary account where I play the Computer set to Master or Grand Master that I regularly play at also. Again, I do this just for practice and learning new words and trying to improve my gameplay.

At no point do I think (more like, at no point am I delusional enough to think this would be my avg and ranking in the real world) that I would have a 444 point avg or a 2100+ ELO rating in an actual tournament setting against other Advanced or Expert players. I was a former teenage Regional Scrabble champ in Toronto. I played regular NASPA tournaments prior to Covid but had never won another tournament other than my teen years. I avg in the high 400's in in-person games, conservatively saying 385-425 pts. My highest ELO achieved was 1833 in ranked play. I am at best an Advanced player but no where even close to an expert player. The players that keep track of all the tiles played to the point they know their opponent's last rack and can figure out their endgame move and block them, or score higher than their move, boggle my mind.

I have gotten away with a lot of strategic tactics that definitely help your gameplay like memorizing all the 2's and 3's, knowing the majority of the words with the high value tiles, knowing words with high vowel counts to avoid discarding, rack management, knowing most prefixes and suffixes, and my biggest trick - Bingo hunting. I find to actually cross over to the realm of Expert player you need so much more than this. I can find 8 letter bingoes also but I rarely try and do this. Why? I have a lazy brain, my brain at no point wants to put that effort in. It is considerably more work for me to scour the board looking for an 8. I can count on 2 hands the amount of times I have also played a 9, SPAGHETTI being my career highlight on 3 disconnected words.

Expert players have such a refined knowledge of the ins and outs of the game, it is insane to me, and I am not a bad player by any means. I never tried to memorize all the 4's, 5's, or 6's. Granted I do know a lot of them, but never have I taken those steps. I am very big on trying to know all permutations of a words like RUINATE, URINATE, TAURINE, URANITE or MEDICAL, CLAIMED, DECIMAL. I constantly make wordlists and study them. The back of the actual physical Scrabble dictionaries are great too because they have all the high value tile words in 3's 4's, 5's and 6's. This has always been a great resource to me. For Expert players, most of the things I listed are just second nature to them. I find most Expert players are extremely high functioning and often have backgrounds or careers that reflect this also. I used to be a Spelling bee champion as a child too, winning almost every year I can recall while in school. I also would regularly win contests in Ontario with Youth reading programs at local libraries when the challenge was to read 100 books over the Summer. Keep in mind these were youth novels so they were very short books. I would generally read 200 books per summer and most of mine were Young Adult or Adult books. I say this because I was well read and had a very developed vocabulary too. Yet I still could not/cannot hold a candle next to an Expert Scrabble player. I see great plays, bingo lanes, and hooks very fast but no where close to how an Expert player calculates these same opportunities. The amount of things an Expert player is calculating in their heads while I am simply bingo hunting is astounding.

I have beaten expert players in tournaments, though not very often, it is a bit of a fluke mixed with skill and bad tile draws from the Expert. I quickly get reminded why I am an Advanced player the next game however and not in the Expert league. I regularly beat the Computer set to Grand Master too but this is again based on tile draws and the fact the Computer hardly ever plays defensively. It is not a skill set, more happenstance than anything and poor programming of the playscrabble.com's AI Grand Master, imo.

So, back to the Glitchiest Site ever, playscrabble.com. I played 3 bingoes today, AMUSIVE for 113pts, WEEKLIES for 100pts, and DRIFTED for 94 pts. The site listed my best move as WEEKLIES for 100pts when clearly 113 > 100. The best play of the game to me, was at K1-O1 where I was about to play YOGIN for 30+ pts and at the last second I changed my play to HYING for 53 pts. This is also my 13th WIN against the Computer set to HARD without any ELO point being awarded and being stuck at 2131. This is not a new thing by any means for this site. In 2022, I would average a total of 10 winning games just to earn a single ELO point. This was the case once you surpass a 2000 ELO you seemingly had to play more games for a single ELO point. You can still win a game against the computer but if the computer goes out first and you are left with tiles on your rack, you are not awarded an ELO point. I have no issue with this glitch/rule at all. I included screenshots of 32 games where I was stuck at 2028, in maybe 3-4 of these games did the computer finish before me. This is a big change from the 10 games I was used to. I also played 22 games, all wins for ELO 2026 also, for a single point too. This is where I have to ask myself am I playing for the glory of fake ELO points or am I really trying to improve my overall gameplay. I think secretly I just want an ELO of 2500 and an avg game score of 500 with an avg word score of 50.

So when I started my 33rd game while stuck at 2028, I figured the Computer was glitching extra hard for some reason. I went to the Lobby and played against an actual competitor to see if I can unfreeze my dormant ELO rating. The reason I hate doing this is because there are at least 2 generations of players who have grown up with online Scrabble, where using an anagrammer is 2nd nature or just part of the game to them. The site playscrabble.com even has one of these tools built into it. These players see absolutely nothing wrong with using an anagrammer during live play, to them it is not cheating it is just how the game is played. I don't mean to stand on a soapbox as a Scrabble purist here nor do I want to knock on newer generations who choose to play differently than I do. I hear the argument that "If I wasn't supposed to use the anagrammer, why is it even there?", loud and clear. I understand that most schools have lowered explicit spelling instruction too because of technology. I get that autocorrect, spellcheck, and AI powered tools make traditional spelling outdated or feel outdated. Apologies for the digression. I played against someone named ThePace, they had a 289 avg game score, and a 22 pt avg word score, at the time they had a 1731 ELO, this was on May 4th. When I took a pic of their profile today their ELO had dropped to 1700.

Any time I play with anyone online if I open with a bingo, they immediately quit. If I am doing well, they quit. Or they resign right before the end of the game so the match isn't recorded on your stats. As soon as an opponent resigns too, you suddenly lose ELO points because they chose to quit, through no fault of your own. I point out the fact that you may lose as many as 10-50 ELO points with an above 2000 ELO rating if this occurs and you have to play 10+ games to earn back a single point (in some cases 20+ or 30+, I am learning...) This is why I previously mentioned in 2022 that I stopped playing against ppl and chose to play against the Computer only. Just the sheer amount of games you would have to play to earn a single ELO point back was frustrating. This is also a contradiction to me saying that ELO points in online Scrabble sites do not mean anything as I seemingly clutch to mine like gold.

I also hate playing against ppl who cheat. I will play against ppl who cheat though because I feel I am a better player even with your anagrammer. I don't mean this boastfully, I just mean that if someone has a bingo starting with a G but no place to play it, they generally have no clue that you can hook the G off an open A and make the play that way. In my experience anagrammer users have very limited knowledge of the game. ThePace was a Good player, not great, but they didn't quit at all. Even when I had a single tile left when most players won't bother waiting for you to finish your move and resign since he was down by 150+, they still didn't quit. ThePace played a bingo of TRIBUNALS and finished with a healthy 346, I think they may have had 350+ but got caught with some letters on their rack. Not a bad score considering their avg is listed at 289. I luckily played 3 bingoes, VEINULES, VOMITORY, and ISOGRAM. Was proud of the fact that I played 2 V bingoes, despite one of the V's being a blank. The site finally awarded me a single ELO point after 33 games. Now I am stuck at 2131 but that is the price you pay for playing at playscrabble.com.

The ELO points at playscrabble.com are not real nor they reflect your actual level of play imo. They are some indication of your skill set, sure. I hear players here all the time mention they have an 1800+ or 1900+. I can get to an 1800 ELO on playscrabble.com in 4 games, I have gotten to 1900 before in 7 games. I can make a video of this if needed or you can use an anagrammer and play 3-6 random ppl in games on a new account and see how high your ELO will be with 6-10 straight wins. I don't say this as a brag, I say this to point out how hokey the ratings here are. If 2 beginner players with matching 1500 ELO's play against one another, you may earn 15-30 points after the match taking you up to 1530 ELO, sometimes you may earn more too which isn't very formulaic. If a beginner 1500 ELO plays someone with 1000+ games played and an 1800+ ELO, you can earn as much 50, 75, or sometimes 100+ ELO points. Again not very formulaic. The most I have gotten for a single win was 142 ELO points. So for me, an ELO of 1800+ isn't very impressive, however if you have this ELO and thousands, if not tens of thousands of games played, this is mildly impressive. It isn't just a flash in the pan but something you can sustain over a given time. Also doesn't mean you aren't using an anagrammer for all of those games either.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. As per usual, I hope this didn't come off as pretentious or overly ranty. Was just trying to sum up Expert players vs Advanced players, site glitches on playscrabble.com, worthless ELO points in online environments, ELO scores online vs ELO scores irl, online Scrabble vs In-person play, non-formulaic ELO point distribution at playscrabble.com. Why do I continue to play here/there? I have never found a better Scrabble tool than playing against the Computer set to Grand Master in my entire life. I learn new words every single game played. I like to set the time limit to 45 minutes, sometimes I choose the 15 minute overtime too and see what I can accomplish. If anything, I am a way better Blitz player 1-3 minute games.

Apologies for the blocky paragraphs, the run-on sentences, and poor punctuation. I appreciate you taking the time to read.

Happy tiling!

Was just doing some practicing against the Computer set to Hard. My tile draw was STRIN and 2 blanks. Endless possibilities. I thought I would try and take my time and find out the best scoring move.

The first play I tried to make was hitting the Triple/Triple from A15-H15. If I could just come up with an 8 letter word that ended in IST, I would be set for a nice score. I spent so much time trying to come up with a word and just couldn't think of anything besides IRONISTS for 74. My first instinct is to always look for an open triple/triple when playing the computer-this would never happen in a real game ofc because a real opponent would generally not leave that set up or would block a bingo lane most likely as a defensive strategy.

Again, I was just practicing against the Computer. My 2nd instinct was to play the other open Triple word by hooking a K off of BAR at A10 for KBAR. Once again I spent a considerable amount of time here trying to think of a 7 letter word with my given tiles that ended in K, I had nothing so I moved on. I had lots of options to pluralize SAGO(s) and form a word there but the score was minimal. Same with adding something to the available F, like FAINTERS or something. The score there was also pretty minimal. Same situation with the letter C too. At this point I didn't think to play anything from E1-E8 either, nor did I attempt a play from J4-J11.

The next play I came up with was CORSETING for 70 points from G13-O13, a 9 letter play. The score here was less than IRONISTS which netted me 74 points. More importantly though had I played this I would then be giving my opponent the opportunity themselves to hit a Triple/Triple from O8-O15. Again I was just playing a practice game against the Computer set to Hard, so chances of the Computer getting a Triple/Triple are slim to none (it could happen though). If I had the Computer set to Master or Grand Master the likelihood of the Computer scoring a Triple/Triple obviously goes up exponentially. I think there also used to be an Expert setting here before too but I can't be positive.

The setting options are EASY, MEDIUM, HARD, MASTER, and GRAND MASTER.I personally spell Grandmaster as one word but playscrabble.com has it spelled as 2 words so I just wrote it here how I saw it. I was just practicing Bingo Hunting so I set the Computer to HARD only. I highly recommend setting the Computer to Grand Master and studying all the words that it will play that you don't know. I have beaten the Computer by 200+ points before set at Grand Master which was a record for me but it is maybe 20% of the time that I do beat it at this setting. For me, this setting is an invaluable study tool. It is also very easy to play defensively against the Computer at this setting as it just seems to slap down Bingoes anywhere. The Grand Master setting doesn't seem to have an understanding of bingo lanes, Triple/Triples, or Double/Doubles. So I find blocking it or taking advantage of a lane it opened very easy.

Apologies for my digression...the final word I decided to go with was THORNINesS, a 10 letter word for 76 points. I was mainly focussed on the points here and 76 beats 74 or 70, also the length of the word was cool too. I had IRONISTS 8 letters 74pts, CORSETING 9 letters 70pts, or THORNINESS 11 letters 76pts. The last picture I included was of JERK being played from A7-A10 for 55 pts, here was the K hook off of BAR at A10 that I was searching for earlier but couldn't find.

This is from a game on April 14th, I played VOLTA, which was low scoring. I try and play by the rule if it doesn't score me at least 25-28pts (if not more), don't play it or exchange tiles. I then played a very questionable VERB for 12 pts only, which goes against every single basic Scrabble principle I have. I would never ever usually make any play that wasn't at least 20 points unless it was endgame. I luckily got AIZERS and a blank on my next draw for VERBALIZERS as a triple word and a bingo. It was only worth 122pts but the impressive thing for me was the length of the word. 122pts is a ton of points too, I was just saying this in comparison to a 239pt bingo I had posted a little while ago.

Just thought I would share the playscrabble.com Word Summit puzzle from today. I never find these very challenging or fun but the cool thing about this sub is that there are Scrabble players from all walks of life. These puzzles have sort of become like Wordle to me, which is never a challenge to solve. I find this a great study tool though if you can solve them in less than 30 seconds, or when the word is so woven into the board that you end up creating 4-7 words in total, including the puzzle word. There are a few times that they are hard or harder than the average daily puzzles. They often throw you a red herring too where you see an obvious spot for the QZXJ which will score in the 90's or even 100 but that isn't the correct answer. It is always best to scan the board first. The puzzles are very formulaic so once you get used to them they become very easy to solve. I contradict myself too because obviously some part of me finds these fun because I keep coming back to play them daily. I also definitely get frustrated 2-3 a month trying to solve a certain puzzle. I think this is a great tool to improve your gameplay.

I included this today because of the sheer length of the word and because of the dismal selection of tiles that you were given to play.

Here is the link if anyone is interested in playing.

https://playscrabble.com/word-summit