Big guns to compete in Philippines qualifying scrabble tourney

CEBU, Philippines — A bunch of top caliber scrabble players across the country will be seeing action in the Cebu leg of the 2019 Philippine National Qualifying Scrabble Championship slated on April 6-7 at Robinsons Galleria Cebu, said Marilyn Abella of the organizing Cebu Scrabble Association (CSA).

Among them are Cebuano professional players Dartspeed Eslao, Renante Dela Cerna, Joel Toroy, and Jowar Ayuno.

Abella added that Robbie Onate, president of the Unified Scrabble Association of the Philippines, Inc. (USAPI) from Manila, will also be coming over to compete as well as some other professional players from Mindanao.

The two-day tilt leg features three categories, professional, high school and elementary.

In high school and elementary division, Abella said word wizards from the University of San Jose-Recoletos, Cebu Institute of Technology-University, Paref-Springdale, Quiot Elementary School, City Central School, and Ramon Duterte Memorial National High School  have already signified their intent to take part in the competition.

Spearheaded by the CSA in association with the Cebu City Sports Commission (CCSC) and the Department of Education-Cebu City Division, the event serves as the Philippine qualifiers for the World Scrabble Championship set this October in Goa, India.

Only the top five players in each division, which will be determined through a ranking system, will be qualified to compete in the national championship in Manila this June.

Aside from advancing to the national finals, the winners in the Cebu leg will also receive cash prizes. The champion in the professional category will pocket P12,000, while the top high school and elementary players will get P5,000 each.

Entry fee is pegged at P700 for rated professionals, P500 for non-professionals, P400 for college and P200 for high school and elementary players.

For inquiries, one may contact Orville at 0947-7886944 or Marilyn at 0998-8572724. On-site registration will start at 10:00am.