Pakistan hosting world's first online youth scrabble championship in January

• Pakistan to host world’s first online scrabble championship from January 22
• PSA youth director says this is a great honour for the country
• 96 players from 16 countries of five continents will compete

KARACHI: Pakistan is all set to host the first international online youth scrabble championship starting January 22. 

At least 96 players from 16 countries of five continents will compete, The News reported organisers as saying Wednesday.

Pakistan has been selected as the host by the World English-language Scrabble Players Association (Wespa), the global regulatory body for scrabble.

Pakistan Scrabble Association (PSA) Youth Director Tariq Pervez says it is a great honour for Pakistan.

Read more: 14-year-old becomes youngest national champion in Pakistan scrabble history

The championship is being played online for the first time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The PSA official said the first virtual youth championship will be sponsored by Quetta Gladiators and Pharmevo.

Tariq said they have come up with technological solutions to hold the virtual championship as all the scrabble events have been cancelled till 2022 in the world.

He was accompanied by Faraz Maqbool of Quetta Gladiators, Mansoor Khan of Pharmevo, tournament director Hassan Hadi Khan and director technical Vali M Khubaib, 

How will the online championship work?

All players are under 18 years of age. The championship will be played on a team format for the first time with with each team consisting of six players. 

Teams are divided into four groups of four teams each who will play the group stages on round robin league basis. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the quarter-finals.

Read more: 13-year-old Pakistani prodigy reaches World Scrabble Championship quarter-final

All games will be completely surveilled by the technical team through webcams. Selected matches will be live streamed with running commentary by leading commentators Will Anderson and Jesse Day of USA. Waseem Khatri and Daniyal Sanaullah will be doing the Urdu commentary for Pakistani viewers.

The Pakistan team will be announced at the end of the qualifying tournament on January 17.