Player Profile
Edward Okulicz Age: 24 Occupation: Postgraduate student Location: Wollongong Australian National Champion 2001 Queensland Champion 2003, 2004, 2005 New South Welsh Champion 2005 Trans Tasman representative: 2000, 2004 WSC Representative: 2001, 2005 (Reserve)

A major interest?
Edward is the youngest of three children. He grew up in Brisbane, and lived there most of his life. Edward graduated from Queensland University of Technology with a Bachelor of Education, and in 2004 moved to Canberra to work. He has keen interests in trivia, writing, music and politics, and is an avid player of the card game Five Hundred. He hates studying words, but enjoys the ins and outs of Scrabble game-playing theory.

Meteoric rise
Edward began playing Scrabble competitively in October 1998 at the suggestion of Queensland scrabble identities Michael Vnuk and Olga Visser. Armed with some experience but with OSPD-only (not SOWPODS) Edward managed to narrowly win the bottom section at his first tournament. Edward graduated to Masters in his fourth tournament and began a meteoric ratings increase.

Edward nearly doubled his rating in just two years to a whopping 1852 by the end of year 2000. Along the way, he became the top-rated State player in Queensland in April 2000 and maintained that position until his move to Canberra, following which he became the top-rated player in the NSW area. Edward scored particularly strong rating gains at interstate tournaments. The stronger the field, the better he plays...

A rise in "class"
In his debut international tournament, Edward proved his mettle against the Kiwis with an impressive 5th place overall in the 2000 Trans-Tasman Challenge. He improved on this in 2004, coming 2nd. He qualified for, but was unable to attend the 2002 event.

Edward won the 2001 Australian Championships by starting with an unprecedented 17 consecutive wins. He followed up with a run of four straight losses! But the massive margin he had already built up secured his hold on the national title.

Edward played for Australia at the World Championships in Las Vegas in 2001, finishing 23rd. Following his win at the 2004 City of Sydney Masters, Edward spent a number of months as Australia's top-rated player. He moved to Wollongong in 2005 to study a Master of Education, and won both the Queensland and New South Wales Championships.