Top young U.S. Scrabble player booted; caught cheating at national championship event

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wfgodot

wfgodot

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GROUP: SCRABBLE PLAYER CAUGHT CHEATING AT US EVENT (AP)
ORLANDO, Fla. -- One of the top young Scrabble players in the country has been kicked out of the game's national championship tournament in Florida after he was caught hiding blank letter tiles, organizers said Tuesday.
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The cheating was spotted by a player at a nearby table, who noticed the ejected player conceal a pair of blank tiles by dropping them on the floor, organizers said. Blank tiles can be used as wild card letters. When confronted by the tournament director, he admitted to it, organizers said.
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"It does happen no matter what. People will try to do this," executive director of the National Scrabble Association John D. Williams said. "It's the first time it's happened in a venue this big though. It's unfortunate. The Scrabble world is abuzz. The Internet is abuzz."
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Click to expand...
the rest at link above
 
Sad. Just sad. I don't understand why cheaters think they will gain any satisfaction from their wrongly won "victories".
 
It is sad. SCRABBLE? We cannot even trust our national scrabble champions?

I was in the car with my 20 yr old when we heard this on the radio. She started laughing and admitted that she used to try and sneak the blank tiles into her hand too, but her big brother always caught her. Who knew it was that common a tactic?

So how did this kid get away with it? Werent there any judges or refs watching the game?
 
Nova said:
Sad. Just sad. I don't understand why cheaters think they will gain any satisfaction from their wrongly won "victories".
Click to expand...

It's almost as if cheating (getting away with it) becomes a victory of its own.

VERY discouraging.

~jmo~
 
If there weren't more restrictions in-place prior to this incident, I certainly hope they've been added now. NOT that they should be necessary but still...

sigh

~jmo~
 
I am surprised that this game tournament is not computerized. I play scrabble all the time on line and there is no way you can cheat. jmo
 
Years ago I was a big scrabble player. Many fond memories of playing the
game with my dear mom.

I think this is sad. Why compete just to cheat? :banghead:
Where is the satisfaction in winning this way?

I would imagine it would be easy to hide a tile but more restrictions should
be put in place now that we find people have to cheat. Nothing can be taken for granted anymore- not even scrabble.

I'm glad he was caught.

Goz
 
It's a scrabble game, not the end of the world. LOL.
I don't know that they need more restrictions. After all he was caught.
 
jjenny said:
It's a scrabble game, not the end of the world. LOL.
I don't know that they need more restrictions. After all he was caught.
Click to expand...

It is not the end of the world, not indicating that. Maybe more restrictions are needed so the game can be fair to the real winner, you think?
A cheat ruins it for all.

Goz
 
Gozgals said:
It is not the end of the world, not indicating that. Maybe more restrictions are needed so the game can be fair to the real winner, you think?
A cheat ruins it for all.

Goz
Click to expand...

Plus there's the matter of a $10,000 prize to the winner.

Cheating is cheating, no matter the context.

~jmo~
 
Some people just have no shame. What honor, satisfaction or joy could one get from cheating? To stand there and have people believe a lie?
 
zippitydoda said:
Some people just have no shame. What honor, satisfaction or joy could one get from cheating? To stand there and have people believe a lie?
Click to expand...

None. But I think studies of college students show a steadily increasing complacency toward cheating by themselves and others.

It's at least in part a product of our "goal-oriented" approach to education. I taught college freshmen and women and I was astonished how often the first question of the first day was, "How will this class help me get a better job?" (I was teaching theater at a prestigious 4-year school, so they were basically asking how my class on the history of dramaturgy would help them get a role on a TV sit-com.)

I finally settled on this stock answer: "It won't help you get a job. But if you get one, it might help you be a better artist."

But coming in with a profound faith in the value of the liberal arts, I was quite shocked when I first heard the question. And I think if a college diploma is just a de facto "union card" to you, what difference does it make how you get it?
 
mck16 said:
I am surprised that this game tournament is not computerized. I play scrabble all the time on line and there is no way you can cheat. jmo
Click to expand...


According to my kids there is a way to "cheat" or at least get some help making words that would give you the most amount of points.
 
Good Slate article:

The Case of the Stolen Blanks
The real story behind the cheating scandal
at the National Scrabble Championship.
I had just hung on for a 395-352 victory in Round 24 of the 2012 National Scrabble Championship on Tuesday when an official pulled me aside: A boy had been caught palming the blanks and ejected from the tournament.

The news ricocheted through the ballroom at the Orlando resort where 342 people—men, women, and a handful of children—were gathered for Scrabble’s annual five-day, 31-game championship marathon.
---
Click to expand...
the rest at the link above
 
Nova said:
None. But I think studies of college students show a steadily increasing complacency toward cheating by themselves and others.

It's at least in part a product of our "goal-oriented" approach to education. I taught college freshmen and women and I was astonished how often the first question of the first day was, "How will this class help me get a better job?" (I was teaching theater at a prestigious 4-year school, so they were basically asking how my class on the history of dramaturgy would help them get a role on a TV sit-com.)

I finally settled on this stock answer: "It won't help you get a job. But if you get one, it might help you be a better artist."

But coming in with a profound faith in the value of the liberal arts, I was quite shocked when I first heard the question. And I think if a college diploma is just a de facto "union card" to you, what difference does it make how you get it?
Click to expand...

BBM

I totally agree with that being a common trend now. But I think part of it is because of the sickening way the school system treated these kids with the huge influx and prominence of 'student testing.' These kids were like guinea pigs and were state tested and prodded to the point that teachers began just
'teaching to the test.' For 6 weeks leading up to our ' S.T.A.R. Testing, the teachers focused exclusively upon the upcoming state tests. There was no learning or love of learning nor mental exploration going on. It was purely teaching the students how to 'ace' the upcoming tests. The teachers were frantic about it, and some of them were borderline cheating too. Students who tested poorly were encouraged to stay home sick.

And the amount of stress the students were under was unreal. If you want to attend UCLA or UC Berk you NEED a 4.3+ AND even that is not always enough. So the pressure to get an A on every test and every paper and in every class at the end of every semester is powerful. Cheating is an obvious
solution, imo.
 
katydid23 said:
BBM

I totally agree with that being a common trend now. But I think part of it is because of the sickening way the school system treated these kids with the huge influx and prominence of 'student testing.' These kids were like guinea pigs and were state tested and prodded to the point that teachers began just
'teaching to the test.' For 6 weeks leading up to our ' S.T.A.R. Testing, the teachers focused exclusively upon the upcoming state tests. There was no learning or love of learning nor mental exploration going on. It was purely teaching the students how to 'ace' the upcoming tests. The teachers were frantic about it, and some of them were borderline cheating too. Students who tested poorly were encouraged to stay home sick.

And the amount of stress the students were under was unreal. If you want to attend UCLA or UC Berk you NEED a 4.3+ AND even that is not always enough. So the pressure to get an A on every test and every paper and in every class at the end of every semester is powerful. Cheating is an obvious
solution, imo.
Click to expand...

My own experiences with college freshmen and women predated the No Child Left Behind testing, but I couldn't agree with you more. I always thought of testing as an incentive for learning, not an end in itself. I used to issue a list of 50 or more topics that might be covered on the test, along with a list of 10 more complex essay questions. Not all would be used, but that way I knew that most kids would know those 50 things and be able to discuss those 10 essay topics.

You are also right about the demographics. The population of the U.S. has doubled since I first applied to college, but not one new PRESTIGIOUS university has been built. Sure, many average state schools have exploded in size and many of those offer fine educations. But if a kid (or more likely, his parents) wants the best, he basically has twice as much competition as I did when I applied to an Ivy League school. For such schools, "twice as much" means thousands of additional applications.
 
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