Comments | bricap: The case for Collins

bricap

The case for Collins

Dec 12, 2010 04:05

I have just spent nearly two weeks playing 72 games of Collins. I'll spare the details of my performances in the two respective tournaments. Nothing to really write about there, except that I probably will need three years to master the Collins and the intricacies of the game associated with that book. Cramming for three months before one of ( Read more... )

Comments 79

nigelbo December 12 2010, 23:26:01 UTC

I am convinced. I will try to get around to it sometime soon hopefully, but I would like to support the cause by actually learning and giving it a try at some point for sure.

wallydraigle December 13 2010, 04:22:17 UTC

First of all, I have enormous respect for Brian's strategic prowess within the game of Scrabble, and his contributions to Scrabble theory. I think this is the most articulate case for Collins I’ve seen in a while. Watching Brian's annotated games has undoubtedly made me a better player. And I understand Brian's desire to take up Sowpods after Causeway. After all, Brian has a much stronger understanding of TWL than of Collins. I’m not trying to sway Brian into not playing Sowpods, but I’m just trying to state the case for TWL ( ... )

jigsawn December 13 2010, 05:36:48 UTC

There isn’t a lot of skill in 550-500 contests eitherThere's the skill of learning, retaining, and finding those words. There are many skills that go into Scrabble besides those of strategic thinking. I don't mean to denigrate strategy at all, but it's not the end-all be-all in this game, and you seem to be implying that it should be ( ... )

jigsawn December 13 2010, 05:46:43 UTC

strength OR a weakness, that should have said

Thread 20

synodalhaj December 13 2010, 03:54:33 UTC

Fantastic. I'm in.

jalapic December 13 2010, 05:02:33 UTC

great post brian. i've been studying collins now actively for 2 months. it's going to take me a long time, but i have no intention of going back to twl. i hope to be playing you at a collins tourney at some point down the line

ar_raqis December 14 2010, 00:59:42 UTC

what he said, except replacing 2 months with 8 hours. doesn't matter. I still know just as surely I'm not going back.

evwhore December 13 2010, 05:39:58 UTC

Brian, do you plan to post this to CGP, and/or would you mind if someone else did so?

bricap December 13 2010, 05:59:10 UTC

I want to wait on going to cgp for a bit. Let's see how it unfolds on livejournal first. Keep the comments coming, everyone, pro and con. And thank you for asking.

(The comment has been removed)

chaithedog December 13 2010, 06:33:54 UTC

Dave Wiegand has had some limited success with introducing Collins to our club. Several intermediate players have taken to it, although it's arguable how deeply they would want to pursue it. You may want to start with free challenges, and then move to -5 per challenge.

ar_raqis December 14 2010, 01:05:41 UTC

"they aren't really interested in learning a whole new dictionary."

Well, clearly they didn't learn all of ours.

I think a crucial barrier for people is the psychological feeling of losing some of your mastery. All of a sudden, with conversion, there are a bunch of highly useful words you don't know and players who haven't studied as much do. To me, though, that's outweighed by the fact that Collins words are just way cool and fun to play. And the imbalance doesn't last very long. (The higher up the ladder you are the longer it lasts, but I mean for most players.)