Syed Imaad Ali of Grade 8-E became the World Champion of the WESPA Youth Scrabble Championship which was held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It was organised by the World English Language Scrabble Players Association this year from 13th-15th December, 2018 @ the Dubai American Academy. More than 100 players from 15 countries participated in it to test their vocabulary skills under one roof. This was the biggest youth Scrabble tournament with respect to the maximum number of players.
Imaad, then 12 years old was dominant throughout the tournament winning 20 out of 24 matches. Most of the games that he played resulted in upsets for the previous world champions. Imaad stayed on top for a better part of the tournament and he eventually, clinched the trophy by defeating Janul De Silva of Sri Lanka in the final by 497 points to 391. He ended up with an eye popping spread of +1694 points.
Imaad has taken over the title from another Sri Lankan, Aabid Ismail whom he defeated in the second last round (semi-final) of the tournament. With this victory, he has become the youngest player ever to have won the Youth Scrabble Championship. Imaad has been praised by the Scrabble fraternity because of his game play and maintaining a cool and a calm posture during the matches.
OTHER BVS ACHIEVEMENTS:
The achievements don’t end here, out of the team of 20 players that represented Pakistan at the event, 8 were Virbaijeeites. Following are their achievements.
1. Saim Usmani of 6-D became the U-12 World Champion. He carried his form from where he left in the qualifiers and finished at 32nd place.
2. Monis Hussain of 6-E was Runner-up of U-12 age category. He finished at 34th place.
3. Virbaijeeite Hasham Hadi Khan was Runner-up of U-14 age category. He finished at 24th place.
4. Young Aehzam Ahmed Siddiqui of 3-B stood third in the U-10 age category.
5. Ali Wasif of 10-D won 10 matches. Rishit Kumar of 6-D and Aashir Ahmed of 7-D won 9 matches.
As a result of the hard work, Team Pakistan became the Champions J for the fourth time in a Youth Scrabble tournament.
Well done players!
Virbaijeeites towards that best light!