The case for Collins

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 these events just doesn't work anymore. The rest of the world has caught up to us. I had been away from the international game, and the increase in the overall level of play that I saw was quite impressive. In the 45 round Causeway event, there were no easy games. In the Tournament of Champions that followed, I got my ass kicked. I think Nigel would have won with my tiles just the same. I had a lot of close losses that the well booked and well practiced Collins player would have converted into wins. That being said, it was a tremendous honor to be in that room playing against nine other players who have titles.

Ten years ago, NSA members were asked to vote on the switch to SOWPODS. The vote was pretty one sided, and the status quo remains. At the time, there was more money in OSPD, and the level of play at home was clearly better overall. I wasn't willing to rock the boat on this issue. I clearly preferred SOWPODS, but I knew that this issue had the potential to divide the community. I made a choice to stick with OSPD, and it served me well. Today, the landscape is different. Foreign players are much better now, as I said before. They made me pay for mistakes, and they have expanded well beyond the fish and dish (Peter Morris' term) strategy that is generally an inferior strategy. Michael Tang has worked very hard over the past decade and then some to elevate the scene abroad with his Causeway event. It is an event that is worth going to. I guarantee that you will be amazed at how competitive the games are at that event, and you will be impressed at the effort and personal attention to detail put forth by Michael Tang.

We have all seen the pro/con debates for SOWPODS played out ad nauseam on cgp. It is old and tiresome, no doubt. I will try to bring some fresh and interesting perspective as to why this should replace the game we have at home. I will say that first of all, it is a better game than the one we have here. Second, there is significant benefit to our organization by having a unified book.

Why is it a better game? For one, it is significantly easier to work out of bad racks. There are a lot more escapes. Just knowing the basic ones makes a huge difference. EUOI and EUOUAE are obvious examples. Just having more twos makes for more escapes, also. Not to mention, those extra twos mean that bingos are playable more often. There were a number of times that IWI got me out of jams. I got to play QORMA for 54 points once while knowing that at home, I would have had to exchange. These are basic examples, and they require very little effort to learn.

Look at what QI did for our game. Remember the debate about inclusion of that word? Nowadays, I think most people are grateful for not having to throw it back three times in a game anymore. I'd love to see the debate on cgp if they dared to try to remove it from our lexicon. This is a great example of a word that created a ton of escapes from bad situations. QI had a significant positive impact on how our game is played. I believe that Collins has more of where that came from.

Now consider what it means to have an opponent open with a bingo in OSPD. Most of the time, one will lose those games in OSPD. The opponent will start shutting down the board soon enough. We've all been there, and many of us are reminded often enough by opponents about how lucky we were to draw the opening rack bingo. In Collins, it is much easier to rally after the opponent opens with a bingo. Boards are harder to shut down for a variety of reasons. The average score of a play is higher in Collins, so it only follows that a 72 point opener is more easily overcome, as that 72 point play is not as far removed from the average play as in OSPD. During my Causeway games, I learned this the hard way. I gave away a few games because I tried to protect a lead that in OSPD would have been safe. In Collins, 100 points is not safe. I came back from such a deficit a few times, and my opponents rallied from it a few times as well. The result of this change is that games are much more competitive from the first tile drawn to the last tile played. They are not decided after 5 turns nearly as often. Also consider that blanks aren't quite as important in the international game. Having both blanks doesn't mean quite as much. In OSPD, there is a high correlation between blanks and winning, as we all have been reminded. (This doesn't mean I blame my losses on lack of blanks, because if I didn't do all that I could to maximize my chances, then I have to spend time thinking about what I could have done to maximize my chances.) The correlation is lower in the Collins game. There are few things in this game that are less fun than being hopelessly out of a game after only a few turns. Collins clearly alleviates this problem.

What benefit is a switch to our organization? For one, there will be increased international interest in our scene, and potentially more memberships sold as a result of that interest. Right now, international interest in OSPD is pretty much limited to Thailand, at least when talking about our NSC. We will get a bump in attendance at the NSC if we make the switch. We don't have Causeway type money right now, but it still pays better than a lot of international events. A change will make this a truly global game. Having North America on board would be a huge boost to the international game, also. I think it would be the equivalent of when the rail gauge was standardized in the 19th century. We will likely remain in a rut if we stick with OSPD. The membership hasn't really grown in my lifetime, but it has turned over a decent amount. At home, we are fighting over how to split up a finger pie. The pie will expand if we go to Collins. There might even be more chances at sponsors, because it would give us the chance to solicit outside North America. The chances at that will remain low, but this will improve the potential.

People at home often object to the words in Collins because they don't fit their own perceptions of the English language. The Maori entries are often cited, as are the more archaic entries. I think English has a rich 2000 year history, and Collins does try to capture that much more than OSPD does. English is not limited to the last 200 years at home. It has undergone many changes, whether in England, the places that England colonized, or the internet. Just because we have never seen a particular Collins entry word spoken or written on our soil does not mean that it has no right to be part of a lexicon that represents the English language. I know, this subject of word legitimacy is the one that is cited the most. I know that Collins is not a perfect book, but then neither is ours. The difference is that ours is more provincial. I think it is sad that provincialism carries the day in our organization. It's exactly the way a certain half term governor from Alaska would want it, I'm sure of that. (My straw man argument, and I'm sticking to it, dammit. Those gosh darn elitist bluebloods are trying to change our dictionary and add words that aren't used in the real parts of America... Ironically, refudiate will be added in Collins before it is added at home, though.)

If anything, I consider the word legitimacy to be a red herring. It's what riles people the most in all the cgp threads, it seems. Look, I believe that there should be a vetting process for what gets included, don't get me wrong. At the end of the day, though, it will provide a more enjoyable experience and we will have standardized the rail gauge. We can't lose sight of the big picture. This is not about me wanting to be able to do better in Malaysia or the WSC the next time I go. I am going to make my own effort to learn Collins. I honestly don't care how I do at home anymore. I think this is the ultimate game, and I am going to devote more effort to it. Whether or not we ever switch, this is the direction I intend to pursue. I hope that more players here join me in wanting to switch to a better game that brings the world together instead of a provincial game that isolates us from it.