First face-to-face scrabble tournament since pandemic set in Cebu City 

CEBU CITY, Philippines—Face-to-face scrabble is set to return here with the staging of the Cebu City Charter Day Scrabble Tournament 2022 on Friday, February 25, 2022, at the dance studio of the Cebu City Sports Center.

Organizer Marilyn Abella, the wife of the late “Father of Cebu Scrabble” Ka Roger Abella, told CDN Digital that this is their first face-to-face tournament since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020.

“Excited na ang mga bata moduwa, pero naa sad uban hesitant kay wala pa sila na vaccinated. Excited nami mabalik ang face-to-face, pero sa karon, hinay-hinay lang usa and hopefully mo hinay pa ug maayo ang Covid-19 para maka balik na ta sa normal,” said Abella.

(The kids are excited to play but some are hesitant because they are not vaccinated yet. We are excited to play face-to-face scrabble but for now, we are doing it slowly. Hopefully, the COVID-19 situation will also be better so that we can return to normal.)

To ensure that the safety and health protocols are followed during the tournament, Abella estimates to have just 50 scrabble players to compete.

Their most previous scrabble tournament, their monthly virtual scrabble competition was in November last year. They had to postpone their succeeding monthly virtual tournaments due to Typhoon Odette that cut off most of the participants’ internet connection since December.

Abella said they are expecting private school and public school players to compete, with most of them coming from their grassroots program.

These scrabble players are from Don Vicente Rama Memorial National High School, Ramon Duterte National High School,  Quiot National High School, University of the Visayas (UV), and University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R).

She also revealed that the PAREF-Springdale is planning to join the tournament. 

The tournament features a six-round Modified King of the Hill format that uses the Collins Scrabble Words (CSW 2021) as word reference. In addition, the tournament has five-points per challenge with 25 minutes per player.

According to Abella, they are seeking sponsors for the tournament which they are planning to hold regularly.

This as they can only provide trophies, medals, and gift surprises for the winning word wizards instead of cash prizes that adds more excitement to the tournament.

Nonetheless, they are both optimistic and glad that they are allowed to hold face-to-face tournaments amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.

This tournament is co-organized by the Cebu Scrabble Association, Cebu City Sports Commission, Department of Education Cebu City Division, and the Cebu City Local School Board.

/bmjo

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