Methodology
How we produce our rankings, curate news, calculate statistics, and maintain data quality.
World Rankings
📐 How Rankings Are Calculated
Our rankings are based on publicly available WESPA tournament results. We track official WESPA-rated events and reflect the most recent data available from wespa.org.
We maintain three ranking types:
WESPA Ratings: Elo-style ratings based on over-the-board (OTB) tournament performance. Higher-rated opponents yield more rating points. Updated after major tournaments.
YTD Rankings: Cumulative Year-to-Date points from October 1 to September 30. Players' best 5 tournament results count. Used for Summit Cup qualification (top 24).
Online Ratings: Separate from OTB. Based on WESPA-sanctioned online tournament events. Different player pool and rating scale.
Update frequency: Rankings are updated manually after major tournaments, typically within 1-2 weeks of results being published by WESPA. We aim to reflect the most current publicly available data.
Limitations: Our rankings are approximate reflections of official WESPA data. For authoritative, real-time ratings, refer to wespa.org.
Latest News Curation
📰 How News Is Sourced
News is fetched via Tavily web search API with Scrabble-specific queries, then optionally summarised by AI, and requires manual admin approval before publication.
🧩 News Pipeline
Search: Tavily API queries rotate daily across 7 Scrabble-related keywords. Results filtered to last 7-30 days.
Filter: Generic topic/tag pages rejected. Only article-level URLs with real content are kept.
Summarise: AI optionally improves snippet summaries (titles and URLs always come directly from search results).
Deduplicate: Items matching titles from the last 7 days are skipped.
Approve: Admin reviews each item and approves, hides, or deletes. Only approved items appear publicly.
Source attribution: Every news item links to its original source. We do not claim original reporting — we aggregate and summarise with attribution.
Statistics & Data
📊 Data Sources
All Scrabble statistics are derived from the official SOWPODS (Collins Scrabble Words) dictionary and standard Scrabble tile distribution. No proprietary or copyrighted word lists are redistributed.
Tile values & distribution: Based on the standard English Scrabble set (100 tiles). These are factual, publicly known values published by Hasbro/Mattel.
Word counts & scores: Computed programmatically from the SOWPODS dictionary. Scores calculated using standard letter values.
Probability calculations: Based on combinatorics from the standard 100-tile bag distribution.
Editorial Standards
✓ We Do
- • Cite sources for all claims
- • Link to original WESPA/NASPA data
- • Attribute news to original publishers
- • Correct errors when identified
- • Update rankings after major events
✗ We Don't
- • Fabricate statistics or rankings
- • Publish unverified news without review
- • Redistribute copyrighted word lists
- • Present AI-generated content as fact
- • Claim official WESPA/NASPA affiliation
Corrections Policy
If you identify an error in our rankings, statistics, or content, please contact us. We will investigate and correct verified errors promptly. Corrections are noted in our release notes.
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