Nigel Richards, a renowned Scrabble player, recently won the Spanish World Championship title despite not having any command over the Spanish language. His success has ignited discussions on the role of memorization in competitive Scrabble, where players often rely on extensive vocabulary lists rather than language proficiency. Some commenters have shared their insights into the nature of competitive Scrabble and its parallels to other competitive formats such as Sudoku, questioning the depth of linguistic understanding required in these games. The victory raises questions about the skill set needed to excel, including how players manage the nuances of different languages and the communication rules during gameplay. Additionally, this event has sparked debate on the motivations behind such impressive feats in language memorization versus broader life ambitions.