On 24 August 2018 (Friday), 26 players from Australia, India, and Hong Kong participated in the Warm-Up tournament of the Scrabble Seventy Years Hong Kong Challenge organised by Mattel Games and Hong Kong Scrabble Players Association. The tournament was held in Methodist School.

The 26 players were divided into 4 groups according to their WESPA Ratings (HKSPA Ratings if a player has no WESPA Ratings), with 8 players in Group A and 6 players each in Groups B, C, and D. Players in Group A played a single round-robin (7 games) while other players played a single round-robin (5 games) followed by 2 games paired by King-of-the-Hill (KOTH).

All 3 overseas players were assigned to Group A. They are Karen RICHARDS from Australia (Chair of the WESPA Youth Committee), Sanjoy GUPTA from India (Organiser of the WESPA Championship 2019) and Shaun DONNELLY from Australia.

Jason TSANG (front left) against Shaun DONNELLY (front right), Sanjoy GUPTA (back left) against Karen RICHARDS (back right)

After 7 exciting games, TSANG Wai Yin Jason from Hong Kong came first in Group A with 6 wins and 1 loss. Winners of Groups B, C, and D are LAW Long Yin Thomson (with 5 wins and 2 losses), FUNG Tsz Hin (with 7 wins), and SO Yat Long Ernest (with 6 wins and 1 loss) respectively.

Chi Ning LEE from Mattel (right) presenting the winner’s medal to Jason TSANG (left)

Chi Ning LEE from Mattel presenting the winner’s medals to the winners of Group B, C, and D

Full results of the tournament can be found at https://70years.hkscrabble.org/coverage/warmup/.

After the tourney, the overseas players had the Welcoming Dinner at a Dai pai dong, a kind of restaurant unique to Hong Kong!

Warodom GEAMSAKUL from Japan and Shaun DONNELLY with the local players at the Welcoming Dinner

Congratulations to all the winners, and we wish all participants of the Main tournament good luck!