2007 WSC

2007 World SCRABBLE® Championship: Team Canada

Qualified as 2005 Canadian Champion

When Adam Logan won the 2005 CNSC, he won a place on the 2005 Canadian WSC team. He will however not be taking advantage of this, as he went on to win the 2005 WSC and will therefore be invited to return as the defending champion.

Adam Logan

Qualified on Rating

The following five players qualified by having the highest peak tournament ratings (QR) during the qualification period.

Mark Schellenberg

David Boys

Joel Wapnick

Evan Berofsky

Dean Saldanha

Qualified by Tournament

The qualifying tournament on July 7–8 will determine the two remaining places on the Canadian team, as well as the precedence order of all team alternates. The following eight players are registered to compete in the QT:

Ron Hoekstra and Tony Leah qualified as the winners of the QT. The following players are the team alternates in the order in which they may be called upon: Albert Hahn, Geoffrey Newman, Steve Ozorio, Sinna Vijayakumar, Andrew Golding.

Ron Hoekstra

Tony Leah

Qualification Rules

Here are the rules by which players qualify for the team:

The qualification process for Team Canada was announced August 17th, 2006. Once at least one player has potentially qualified on rating, this page will be kept updated with current qualification standings.

1. These rules describe how seven players will qualify to represent Canada at the 2007 World SCRABBLE® Championship (WSC).

2. Qualification is based on a player's tournament activity during the Qualifying Period (QP), which begins on August 1st, 2006 and ends on June 1st, 2007. A player's peak rating (PR) is their highest tournament rating during the QP, not including mid-tournament ratings at split-rated tournaments, or any ratings earned before a player has played at least 40 games in Open Rated Tournaments during the QP.

3. As in past years, the winner of the first Canadian Championship held after the last WSC qualifies. This time, Adam Logan, who won the 2005 Canadian Championship, which took place after the 2005 WSC, qualifies. He will however decline this qualification in favour of playing as the defending World Champion.

4. A Qualifying Tournament (QT) will be held in July 2007 at a location to be determined by the usual vote of players who have registered as of May 13th. The top two finishers from the QT will qualify. The QT will use the same lexicon and challenge rule as the WSC. To play in the QT, a player must have played at least 20 games in Open Rated Tournaments during the QP.

5. The remaining five places will go to those players who have the highest PRs.

6. All players who wish to qualify to play in the WSC must register with John Chew by June 6th, 2007, regardless of on what basis they think they will qualify. As of when they register, players must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents. A player who registers for the qualification process but then without good reason withdraws from it after the end of the QP or does not play in the WSC will not be able to qualify based on PR at the next World SCRABBLE® Championship. At the end of the QP, registered players who have qualified based on PR will be so informed, and up to 24 additional registered players will be invited to participate in the QT. If there are more than 24 players who want to participate in the QT, only those with the highest PR will play.

7. Players who forfeit tournament games under suspicious circumstances will have their games for that event nullified towards earning a PR.

8. If any of the seven qualified players decides not to play in the WSC, their place will be given to the 3rd place player at the QT, and so on.

The following players registered for the qualification process: Albert H., Andrew G., Dave B., Dean S., Evan B., Geoff N., Joel W., John C., Libero P., Mark S., Ron H., Steve O., Tony L., S. Vijay, Zev K.

Craig R. withdrew at the end of the qualification period, because of a schedule conflict with the QT. Emanuel C. was removed from the QS because he failed to play in enough games during the QP. Libero P. and Zev K. withdrew after the end of the QP. John C. declined to play in the QT at the last minute, citing medical reasons.

As a result of a vote held among players registered as of 2007-05-13, the qualifying tournament will be held at Earl Bales Community Centre in Toronto.

• Toronto received 7 votes: Craig R, John C, Libero P, Steve O, Tony L, S Vijay, Zev K.
• Calgary received 5 votes: Albert H (4), Mark S.
• Montreal received 4 votes: Andrew G (3), Emanuel C (1).
• Vancouver received 2 votes: Dean S (2).

Voting for nonwinning locations and thereby adding to their carryover votes (new totals shown in parentheses) if they attend this year were: Albert H (5), Andrew G (4), Dean S (3), Emanuel C (2), Mark S (1). Past holders of carryover votes who did not vote this year were David B (1), Joel W (1), Randall T (1). Evan B (0). The QT will be directed by Mad Palazzo. Further details on the format will be announced when the registration period ends and the number of players is known, but for now players should be prepared to play roughly from 9:00 to 6:00 on each of Saturday, July 7th and Sunday, July 8th.

Current team qualification standings and Current QT qualification standings are updated monthly, with the publication of each new ratings list.

Here are the results of the QT:

WSC QT

Rank Seed Name               Wins Cumul OldR NewR Chng For Agn  Hi
  1     3 Hoekstra, Ron       9.0  +639 1866 1891  +25 428 379 603
  2     4 Leah, Tony          9.0  +535 1857 1888  +31 423 382 500
  3     1 Hahn, Albert        9.0  +499 1908 1921  +13 431 392 584
  4     7 Newman, Geoffrey    6.0  -728 n.r. 1801      381 437 444
  5     6 Ozorio, Steve       5.0  -196 1660 1692  +32 398 413 446
  6     5 Vijayakumar, Sinna  4.0  -299 1773 1739  -34 400 423 534
  7     2 Golding, Andrew     3.0  -450 1889 1821  -68 402 440 481

 1  Hoekstra, Ron      B-- B-- L04 L04 W05 W05 W06 W06 L02 W02 W07 W07 W03 L03 
                       W04 
                        +0  +0 382 316 464 512 415 464 298 400 490 401 467 358 
                       603 
 2  Leah, Tony         W05 L05 L03 W03 B-- B-- W07 W07 W01 L01 W06 W06 W04 W04 
                       L03 
                       399 374 401 410  +0  +0 427 461 500 392 490 402 464 394 
                       383 
 3  Hahn, Albert       W07 W07 W02 L02 W06 L06 W05 L05 W04 W04 B-- B-- L01 W01 
                       W02 
                       455 503 417 387 551 350 453 399 377 584  +0  +0 293 361 
                       469 
 4  Newman, Geoffrey   W06 L06 W01 W01 W07 W07 B-- B-- L03 L03 W05 L05 L02 L02 
                       L01 
                       385 437 405 423 444 411  +0  +0 296 390 419 345 314 374 
                       308 
 5  Ozorio, Steve      L02 W02 B-- B-- L01 L01 L03 W03 W07 L07 L04 W04 W06 L06 
                       L06 
                       383 390  +0  +0 383 446 416 423 418 405 415 417 375 331 
                       369 
 6  Vijayakumar, Sinna L04 W04 L07 L07 L03 W03 L01 L01 B-- B-- L02 L02 L05 W05 
                       W05 
                       363 534 417 445 396 434 320 381  +0  +0 341 370 344 480 
                       379 
 7  Golding, Andrew    L03 L03 W06 W06 L04 L04 L02 L02 L05 W05 L01 L01 B-- B-- 
                       B-- 
                       371 355 481 453 426 404 421 398 368 431 386 333  +0  +0 
                        +0