You MUST:

• Put the starter tile in place as directed at the start of each round

• Keep the starter tiles in place during the full round

• Connect all your words and use the pink tile in the center

• Designate a scribe to record your board on paper

• Record blanks where used – they are worth zero points

• Hand in your diagram to a sheriff – they’ll come to your table to pick it up

You CAN:

• Dump all the tiles out of the bag at the beginning

• Form words LEFT to RIGHT

• Form words DOWN

• Use a blank tile to represent a letter

• Change the placement of your words

• Buy green tiles for one round use

• Buy cheat sheets

• Ask the Sheriffs questions

You CANNOT:

• Form words diagonally

• Form words backwards

• Form words upwards

And above all, have fun!

Finally:

• Our judges use official North American Scrabble Association scoring software to verify the accuracy and legitimacy of words

• You will not get your paper boards back after they are scored

More About Team Scrabble

What are the green tiles for?

You may purchase extra Scrabble tiles for one round use. These tiles are green. The cost of the tile equals the point value on the tile. For example, an “A” is worth 1 point and is $1, while a “Q” is worth 10 points and is thus $10. You may purchase green tiles each round, but they must be returned after each round.

Cheat sheets

While you cannot bring your own cheat sheets, you may purchase them at ScrabbleMANIA! for $10 per list. You may keep the purchased sheets for all three rounds.

Permitted words:

Any words listed in a standard English dictionary are permitted with the following exceptions:

• Words spelt with an initial capital letter

• Abbreviations

• Prefixes

• Suffixes

• Words requiring an Apostrophe

• Words requiring a hyphen

• Foreign words in a standard English dictionary are considered to have been absorbed into the English language and are allowed.

There are five ways that new words can be formed:

1. Adding one or more tiles to the beginning or end of a word already on the board, or to both the beginning and end of that word.

2. Placing a word at right angles to a word already on the board. The new word must use one of the letters of the word already on the board.

3. Placing a complete word parallel to a word already played so that adjoining tiles also form complete words.

4. The new word may also add a letter to an existing word.

5. To ‘bridge’ two or more letters already on the board to form a new word. 

Clarification of some commonly misunderstood Scrabble rules:

1. If any tile touches another tile in adjacent rows, it must form part of a complete word crossword fashion, with all such tiles.

2. A dictionary or word guide may NOT be used while a game is in progress to search for words to fit the tiles on your rack.

3. The same word CAN be played more than once in a game.

4. Pluralized words ARE allowed.