One of the Scrabble world's top young players was thrown out of the 2012 National Scrabble Championship, which concluded Wednesday in Orlando, after getting caught cheating, according to the players' association spokeswoman.
The player, who is not being identified because he is a minor, hid two blank Scrabble tiles in the 24th round of play, spokeswoman Katie Schulz said.
"Another player at a nearby table noticed that the tiles were on the floor. So the tournament director was called over, who questioned the young person, and he admitted to concealing those two tiles," Schulz said.
Schulz said the first cheating scandal in the national tournament's 34-year history rocked the Scrabble world. The tournament attracts international players of all ages and skill levels, and is the biggest contest in the world, she said.
"Generally scrabble players are very rule oriented so this is a very unusual occurrence," she said.
Scrabble is a word game that rewards players with large vocabularies who know lots of esoteric words. English-language versions of the game use 98 letter tiles and two blanks, earning players points based on the ease of use.
The most common letters, including all vowels, are worth one point each. Harder-to-use letters "Q" and "Z" earn 10 points. Blanks function like wild cards.
