Looking back at 2024 by the numbers
There's a certain something in the air when you walk into the playing room at a CoCo tournament nowadays. You can feel it.
There's a positive vibe. There's momentum building. You can tell something is really growing here - you hear people buzzing before tournaments about how excited they are to be there, and they're chatting afterward about how they can't wait for the next one. They're enjoying the camaraderie, the competition, and the fast-developing sense of community. It's difficult to quantify, but it's nonetheless very real.
Actually, scratch that - let's quantify it.
Because what good are vibes when you can cite actual numbers?
Throughout 2024, we've been meticulously tracking every statistic you can think of when it comes to CoCo tournament play. We're counting each tournament, each game, each individual point. And right now, at the end of another calendar year, feels like the perfect time to take a look back at the year that was. Because it's not good enough just to feel the CoCo tournament scene thriving over the past year - no, we need to measure it.
Without further ado, here's a statistical look back at the year that was:
30
Tournaments the CoCo sanctioned this past year, a new record by far. In 2023, this number checked in at 23.5 (including a New Year's event that counted as half because the other half was on New Year's Eve in '22). It's encouraging to see our tournament footprint grow so much larger year after year - and it's exciting to think how much higher this figure can climb in 2025 and beyond.
13
Different cities where we held events. In alphabetical order: Albuquerque, NM; Austin, TX; Columbia, MD; Glen Haven, CO; Hood River, OR; Lewes, DE; New Orleans, LA; Portland, OR; Potomac, MD; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; Slingerlands, NY; Vancouver, BC. It's cool to see our events stretching out all across the continent like this, though I will say we're hoping to diversify a bit in the coming years, holding events in other cities besides the ones in our well-established hotbed areas.
16
1-day tournaments we held this past year, a huge leap from prior years. We didn't really have very many 1-days at all until mid-2023 or thereabouts; we began to make it a point of emphasis from that point on. Our 1-days schedule is booming now, including the successful Portland Pub Scrabble series as well as a number of other short tournaments elsewhere.
120
Players who competed in at least one CoCo tournament in 2024. This is another new record by far, shattering our previous mark of 104 last year. The success of this year's Word Cup in Albuquerque definitely accounts for a sizable chunk of the record-breaking number, but a handful of other events also did well at pulling in new players who had yet to try a CoCo event.
27
Players who competed in a CoCo event for the first time. Shouts go out to you all: Adebola Sanya, Anand Bharadwaj, Anne Hopkins, Ather Sharif, Cam Lawrence, Caroline Polak Scowcroft, Carson Ip, Chris Cheng, Courtney Paley, Dean Saldanha, Dennis Ikekeregor, Emmanuel Egbele, Eta Karo, Ethan Joseph, George MacAulay, Henry Gould, Kaleb Lybecker, Leslie Charles, Mpakaboari Jack, Nancee Mancel, Noella Ward, Nsikak Etim, Olanma Cheche, Peter Dolgenos, Sridhar Paidikondala, Tony Boyle, and Wellington Jighere. We hope to see you all again in 2025!
11
Players competing in their first CSW Scrabble tournament ever. Of the names above: Anne, Ather, Cam, Chris, Courtney, Ethan, Henry, Kaleb, Nancee, Olanma, and Tony all joined the Collins Scrabble scene for the first time, and we're thrilled that they all chose a CoCo event for their first one. Welcome!
17
Players who won at least one CoCo event this year. This list includes Alec Sjöholm (3), Ben Schoenbrun, Brad Whitmarsh, Christopher Grubb, Conrad Bassett-Bouchard (2), Dave Wiegand (9), David Whitley, Eta Karo, Evans Clinchy, Gunther Jacobi, Jesse Day, Joshua Castellano, Kolton Koehler (3), Matthew Tunnicliffe, Mpakaboari Jack, Wellington Jighere, and Yukiko Loritz.
(Let's just pause for a moment and gawk at that 9 number, shall we? Dave somehow managed to win 30% of all CoCo tournaments this year. No, not 30% of the ones he played in - 30% of all of them. Just ridiculous, man.)
$48,466.03
Total prize money won by CoCo players in 2024. This is the biggest year we've ever had in terms of prize money, and it's pretty exciting to see. The aforementioned Mr. Wiegand cashed at a record 13 events; meanwhile, the title of biggest 2024 money-winner goes to Eta Karo, who took down a $10,000 check as Word Cup champion.
3,187
Total games played in 2024. This is a huge jump from a year ago, when we recorded 2,044. Let's keep this number climbing higher and higher in the coming years, shall we?
1,112
The highest combined score in any CoCo tournament game this year. It happened just a few weeks ago when Jesse Day topped Kevin Fraley, 591-521, at the California Open.
729
The highest score by any player in any CoCo tournament game this year. That distinction goes to none other than Dave Wiegand, who scored 729 in a game in Glen Haven, CO this summer.
41
Scores of 600-plus in CoCo tournament games. Dave had the only 700 game; the other 40 merely had a six in the hundreds place. For shame.
12
Ties this year. In other words, approximately 0.38% of games ended in a tie. That's a huge increase from last year, when only 0.29% of games were ties! What does this mean? Almost certainly nothing, but I'm going to get excited about it anyway!
21
People who served as directors and/or organizers for at least one CoCo tournament in 2024. From A to Z, they were: Austin Shin, Chris Tallman, Conrad Bassett-Bouchard, Dave Wiegand, Edward De Guzman, Evans Clinchy, James Curley, Jennifer Clinchy, Jesse Day, Juraj Pivovarov, Kate Fukawa-Connelly, Lila Crotty, Lindsay Shin, Nits Chagti, Peter Armstrong, Rob Robinsky, Robert Linn, Sammy Okosagah, Terry Kang, Tim Fukawa-Connelly, and Tim Weiss. We can't thank these people enough! It's their efforts that make the Scrabble world go round.
5
People slated to serve on the CoCo Board of Directors in 2024 - David Whitley, Peter Armstrong, Randi Goldberg, Rob Robinsky, and myself. Special shoutout to David, who won election for the first time this December, as well as thanks to Yukiko Loritz, who is outgoing after two years of service as our secretary.
58
Articles published on this very blog, the one you're reading right now. That's roughly one every Monday, along with a little extra coverage of some major events like Word Cup. This is our space to share news about what's going on in Scrabble with you, the player community, and we're proud to have fresh content to share with you every week.
24
Videos we posted to our YouTube channel this year - thanks to the live coverage we had on site from the Crescent City Cup in New Orleans and Word Cup in Albuquerque. This is a nice number, but we'd like to pump it up much higher in the coming years if possible, as rich video content is definitely a key pillar of our growth strategy for the CoCo and for the tournament Scrabble community at large.
1,816
New words being added to the Collins Scrabble lexicon at the end of 2024. This isn't a CoCo statistic, per se, but it's CoCo-adjacent, and it's awesome! From fun slang terms like FAM+ and BRUH+ to delicious food items like BULGOGI+ and QUESO+, we're getting a whole bunch of fun new vocab to play with. Playing Scrabble's finna+ be more fun than ever in 2025.
2
CoCo members who will be dearly missed following their passing in 2024. We lost Dan Milton, one of the most active players on the CSW tournament circuit, in May, followed soon after by Steve Pellinen, one of our board members and a pillar of Scrabble leadership, in June. No recap of Scrabble in 2024 is complete without mentioning how much these two men meant to our community and how much they'll be missed.
5
Years the CoCo has now been in existence. Exactly! We first announced our new organization on Dec. 30, 2019, which means today is our five-year anniversary.
It's a little bit surreal to look back on our humble beginnings and see how far we've come in this last half-decade. And it's also exciting to think about what the next half-decade could bring! It's only onward and upward from here. All the numbers you see above are liable to keep going up, up, up as we continue moving forward.