Scrabble Australia
The WESPA Scrabble Championship 2017
WESPAC is a prestige invitational event in the spirit of the World Scrabble Championship. The first such event was held in Perth in 2015, and it is intended that it should take place under the supervision of WESPA every odd year. In 2017 the WESPAC will be held at the Kenyatta International Convention Center, in Nairobi, Kenya from 6-12 November 2017. Check out what is planned at wespac2017nairobi.com
Selecting Australia's team for 2017
A team of thirteen Australians will be selected to play in the 2017 WESPAC.Open events
Alongside the selective event, there will be open events for which players not selected by Australia may travel to Nairobi to compete in. There will also be a last chance event in Nairobi, offering a further opportunity to play in the main event.Qualifying period The qualifying period is the twelve month span from 1 May 2016 to 30 April 2017.
Eligibility: You must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident on 30 June 2017, and be a financial member of ASPA on 30 June 2017.
Selection by major titles
A maximum of two eligible players are selected by tournament success, namely(1) The winner of the 2016 Australian Masters.
Joanne Craig
(2) The highest placed eligible
Australian in the 2017 Australian Championship.
Russell Honeybun
Players who qualify this way must also play 90 games recognised by ASPA during the qualifying period.
If any of these berths is unfilled for any reason, the place is taken by another player selected via ratings.
Players who qualify via ratings
All remaining eligible places will be determined by ratings as follows- The method of ranking candidates is by the three peak statistic (the Q statistic) described below.
- Players may appeal to CASPA for a special dispensation in exceptional circumstances.
- In the event of any unforeseen issue the decision of CASPA is final.
The three peaks Q statistic
The primary criterion for ranking candidates is the Q statistic calculated like this:
- Subperiods are May to Aug 2016, Sep 2016 to Dec 2017 and Jan to Apr 2017.
- The Qstat: The qualifying statistic is Q = (P1 + P2 + 2 x P3)/4 , which is a weighted average of peak ratings in the three subperiods.
- Third peak: You cannot earn the peak in the third subperiod until you have played 60 games rated by ASPA in the qualification period.
- Penalty: If you do not earn a peak in a subperiod , your peak in that subperiod is
equal to the last rating minus 200.
There is no longer a requirement about how often this may be applied.
- Games quota: You must play at least 90 games recognised by ASPA or WESPA in the qualification period.
- Multiday tournament which spans two subperiods will be treated for peak and game count as occurring on the first day.
- Missed games: If you miss a game in a tournament for any reason other than an assigned bye, you cannot count a peak attained in that tournament for any qualification purposes. Games played will count towards games quotas. Ratings will be calculated as usual, with byes and forfeits not rated.
If two players have the same Q statistic, the one with the greater number of games in the qualification period is ranked higher.
Intentions:
For the sake of making travel plans, it is helpful to other candidates if you can let us your intentions. We are grateful to the following players who have indicated that they will not go or are highly unlikely to go.Alastair Richards,David Eldar,Edward Okulicz,Daniel Piechnick,Cameron Farlow,Peter Kougi,Ryan Sutton,Michael Cameron,Ron Baginski,Michael McKenna,Anand Bharadwaj,Trevor Tao,Mythili Rudra,David Vanzyl,Stephen Mooney Purse,Rocky Sharma,Tony Miller. Further from May: Trevor Halsall, Rod Talbot, Nick Ivanovski, Rael Hayman, Chris Hall, Joanne Craig playing for NZ, Jane Brown, Gwen Lampre
There will be other events for those who do not qualify, so Scrabble players of all abilities may be interested in checking out travel plans. See the Scrabble offerings at wespac2017nairobi.com
Contact Barry.Harridge at gmail.com to let us know your intentions or to ask for further information.
Selection has now finished. Barry Harridge will be contacting people to finalise acceptances. Adam Kretschmer is assisitng in finalising, and you can check the Nairobi webiste to see acceptances by country. This page updated by Martin Waterworth as at 17 June 2017.
Final selected player list is below:
Too few games
Chris May (NSW) (currently rated 1990) only 28 games
Naween Fernando (VIC) (currently rated 1960) only 17 games
Simon Walton (SA) (currently rated 1711) only 20 games
Graham Bell (WA) (currently rated 1672) only 47 games
Jimmy Scarff (VIC) (currently rated 1650) only 6 games
Quentin Abbott (QLD) (currently rated 1577) only 25 games
Lois Binnie (VIC) (currently rated 1570) only 24 games
Recently processed:
02.04.2017 Bisection (Youth Fundraiser) (WA) New peak for Edie Mueller
02.04.2017 Nationals Warm Up (ACT)
09.04.2017 Lake Macquarie (NSW)
15.04.2017 2017OZCH (WA) New peak for Russell Honeybun, Trevor Halsall, Esther Perrins, Nick Ivanovski, Rod Talbot, Barry Jordan, Chris Hall, Oliver Jenner-O'Shea
23.04.2017 Paradise Point (QLD)
29.04.2017 Civil War Pub Tourney (SA) New peak for Oliver Jenner-O'Shea, Barry Jordan
30.04.2017 NUNAWADING (VIC) New peak for Trevor Halsall, Gwen Lampre