North America
The main Scrabble associations in North America are the National Scrabble Association (NSA) and North American SCRABBLE Players Association (NASPA). NASPA is starting to sanction official clubs and tournaments in 2009, taking this role over from NSA. The NSA will continue to coordinate activities such as the school Scrabble program, literacy fundraisers and casual Scrabble clubs.
Tournaments range from one day tournaments that are composed of only 6 or 7 games, to the National SCRABBLE Championship, which lasts 5 days and 31 games. The NSA maintains a ratings system based on wins, ties and losses, with ratings ranging from just over 2000 to under 300. Larger tournaments can also carry significant prize money. The official dictionary is the Official Tournament and Club Word List. When a player challenges a word he considers to be invalid, if the word is invalid it is removed from the board with a score of zero. However if the word is valid, the player who challenged the word loses his turn.
Scrabble clubs are also run that meet on a regular basis, usually weekly or biweekly at the same venue. Players usually play a smaller number of games than they would play at a tournament.
Read more about this topic: English-language Scrabble
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