As the countdown to the biggest joust between African Champion Enoch Nwali and West African title holder Timilehin Doko winds down, Segun Durojaye the Nigeria Scrabble Federation (NSF) Players’ Representative has described the Ultimate Scrabble Showdown as a positive influence on the game.
Both champions will from Friday July 19-21 head into a showdown over 21 rounds of games at Lekki, Lagos for the bragging rights as the winner of the maiden tournament.
Durojaye during an interview stated that the competition is a positive addition to scrabble in the continent as it will help players’ engagement especially with the younger talents getting into the fold.
A top cash prize of 300,000 naira will go to the winner while the other contender will receive 200,000.
” With so much at stake, it’s a good thing that Enoch Nwali and Timilehin Doko will be going head-to-head in a tournament like the Ultimate Scrabble Showdown. It’s a positive thing” he continued “that Nigeria is throwing up such a high-powered, high stake tournament as big as this. It’s positive in all ramifications of it because, these guys are arguably the best emerging players in the circuit and they have proven themselves at tournaments both locally and internationally” the “Okocha of Scrabble” emphasised.
He added that he was grateful to the initiator, Olatunde Oduwole for finding resources to bring the Ultimate Scrabble Showdown into reality.
“The good thing is that Mr Olatunde Oduwole is a player formally based in Nigeria giving back the game. For me, that’s the real, real win in all of these! Scrabble players who over time have had fortune smiled on them , they have travelled, they have won laurels and made name for themselves must as a matter of necessity, compulsion look back and plough back by ensuring the game does not die and they live to see that an incoming generation of players who will take over and add better value to the game. That for me is the winning side of the game.
These two guys; (Enoch and Timilehin) have actually shown that they are ready to take over from where we stopped.”
Nwali established his dominance on the continent in October 2022 at the African championship in Zambia and has won the Emmanuel Egbele Annual Scrabble Tournament, Lekki Classics and most recently, renewed his status with a national title at the Scrabble Festival held in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State in April.
On his side, Doko remains the highest ranked Nigerian in the Pan African Scrabble Association (PANASA) rankings.
He was the runner-up at the 2023 MGI Scrabble Grand Slam before he took the WASC title in Lagos.
The exciting encounter between two strategists will be available through subscription.
