Player Titles

Beginning in 2017 (and backdated to 2011), NASPA has recognized player excellence by awarding the titles SCRABBLE Expert, SCRABBLE Master and SCRABBLE Grandmaster.

An annually updated list shows the years in which each titlist achieved their current rank.

How Titles are Earned

For player recognition purposes, our tournament year begins when the first game begins at the North American SCRABBLE Championship (NASC), and ends just before the first game begins at the next NASC.

We rank players according to their overall performance ratings (OPR). An OPR is like a tournament performance rating (PR), but takes into account all of the games played during a period of time, regardless of how many tournaments they were played in.

The player with the highest OPR each tournament year is designated our Player of the Year.

Now, when deciding who will become a SCRABBLE Expert (EX), SCRABBLE Master (SM) or SCRABBLE Grandmaster (GM) each year, we look at OPR calculated over rolling periods of 5 consecutive tournament years, and consider only those players who have played 50 games in each of 3 of the 5 tournament years making up each such quinquennium.

We list those players according to their 5-year OPR, and see who falls within which percentile. Those in the top 25% are named SCRABBLE Experts, those in the top 6% SCRABBLE Masters, and those in the top 1% SCRABBLE Grandmasters.

Players retain earned titles as long as they maintain their memberships in good standing, or until they earn a superior title.