Abeokuta, the rocky capital city of Ogun State will be the venue of the 2nd SouthWest Closed Scrabble Championship which will be held on August 12 this year.
The Championship is an initiative directed at unearthing and harnessing players from the region for national and international championships.
Intending participants who reside in any of the six states of Ogun, Ondo, Oyo, Lagos, Ogun and Ekiti would have the opportunity of competing against some of the top players from the zone.
Strategically, students from tertiary institutions would have the advantage of facing off with players like African and EEAST champion Enoch Nwali who would have returned from the ongoing World English Language Scrabble Players Association Championship (WESPAC) in the United States of America.
12 rounds of games would be played in the Opens, Intermediate and Masters categories with minimum ratings pegged at 1100, 1101-1399 and 1400 respectively.
Emmanuel Egbele who is the SouthWest Zonal representative of the Nigeria Scrabble Federation (NSF) described the second edition of the tournament as timely as it would help players recalibrate for the forthcoming President’s Cup and the Dr Winifred Awosika African Youth Scrabble Championship (AYSC) holding in the same month and the National Sports Festival.
“This particular edition provides a great opportunity for participants to meet players who must have returned from the WESPAC and get some direct experience from them which is another gambit needed by these players to prepare for AYSC and the President’s Cup”
“Another reason why this second edition is critical to participants is the fact that it’s being held in Abeokuta, Ogun state, who are the host of 2024 National Sports Festival.”
” We are proud of what the South-West Closed Scrabble Tournament has achieved after the first edition in Ibadan, Oyo state. It has given some filip to the huge number of new entrants in the sport. Remember,” he recalled, ” the tournament provided the platform which gave Adeyemi Adeosun his first title in scrabble”
A cash prize of 250,000 naira has been guaranteed among other fantastic prizes at the one-day tournament.
