IContact 20140205

The following message went out to our iContact list on 2014-02-05:

NASPA Inks Deal With MSI !!

February 5, 2014

Dear NASPA members,

Last month, we (Chris and John) met in Las Vegas with Dave Brannan and Pete Ramsay, respectively the CEO and Director of Marketing & Public Relations of Mind Sports International (MSI), the organizers of last year's SCRABBLE Champions Tournament (SCT) in Prague.

We were in Vegas to play in a tournament directed by Conrad Bassett-Bouchard. The event was the first of a series of monthly West Coast tournaments that MSI is sponsoring, rotating among Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco. We were able to hash out the final details of a comprehensive agreement for mutual cooperation between our two organizations during meetings with Dave and Pete during breaks in the schedule.

While you will have to wait to read in follow-up announcements about some of the specifics of the agreement, here is the big picture:

MSI was established to develop the idea of mind sports events — tournaments where players can get together to play all kinds of different games. MSI wants our game to be a key part of that concept, and we see working with them as a good way to reach out to a new group of players. We are confident, based on their handling of SCT 2013, that we have substantial common interest in promoting our game, and look forward to our collaboration with them this coming year and beyond.

We look forward to sharing more about future NASPA-MSI plans and projects in upcoming mailings and hope that you will have a chance to play in an MSI event this year.

Chris Cree
John Chew Copresidents, NASPA