Jesse Day from the U.S. has won the maiden MGI Virtual International Scrabble Championship, which featured players from across the world. The scrabble championship, which had three Nigerians in the semifinals, including former world champion, Wellington Jighere, Eta Karo and John Aiyedun, was filled with funfare and excitement as the players battled for the top spot.
The organisers said the competition was used to keep players in Nigeria and across the world in top shape following the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sport.
The 22 participating countries featured 112 players with the winner getting $1,000, while others got consolation prizes in different categories.
Speaking after the event, tournament organiser, Lukman Owolabi, congratulated Jesse Day for winning the inaugural 2020 MGI Virtual International Scrabble League Series.
He added: “We have made an indelible mark and recorded the first and biggest ever online tournament in terms of prizes and number in the history of online scrabble.
“We have learnt quite a few things in the course of running this inaugural tournament and we will be drawing on the experience for further improvements in subsequent editions.
“As most people are aware, we pioneered a monitoring system at the latter stages of the tournament to address the issue of cheating in online scrabble play. The deployment of video camera/screen sharing to monitor players was largely successful and we will consider adopting the monitoring system from the beginning in the next virtual series.”
