Story of Reprive
This is the story of ( probably a long boring one ) how Reprive came to life. It all started on the 3rd of December, 2023; when I lost the top table game of the Wespa Youth Cup 2023 against my good friend Adheesha Dissanayake. I was on a 7/7 winning streak and lead the tournament after beating big shots in the playing field such as Hivin Dilmith, Affan Salman, Ali Salman.
Winning a WYC was never in my bucket list, simply making it to the team so that I could go abroad was all I ever cared about. But there I was, about to win the tournament ( or so I thought 💀). Before the final round, the SL team had pretty much guaranteed the top 3 positions ( so Me, Hivin and Adheesha would've been top 3 one way or the other).
With over confidence settling in I started my game with Adheesha partially trying to accept the fact that I've achieved so much than I ever dreamt of. Looking back at it, I dont think I was determined to win given that I was guaranteed a spot in the top 3.
You're probably wondering how does this all relate to Reprive. Now this is where things get interesting, usually any player of decent caliber would take this game very seriously and do their best, but for some reason ( over confidence? ) I was way too defensive, missing nearly FIVE BINGOS. And no not the crazy ones like ATLATLS but some words that pretty much anyone within the top 10 would've spotted instantly.
These are the bingos that I missed, how many of them do you know?
COLONELFIDEISTEPIGONIBIOGENICand ofcourse,
REPRIVE
Checkout the annotated game here
So why REPRIVE? you might ask. Well, that was one of the very last moves of the game, having played that would've won me the game and inreturn the Championship. Me being me, didnt spot it nor did I bother to take enough time to think it through as I had a small lead and figured I could win since adheesha seemed to be having a hard time with his tiles. Little did I know that there was an unseen X which I didn't notice at all ( I had tracked properly but probably didnt check my scorepad ). Adheesha went on to play like the pro he is and before I knew it, I had lost the finals.
When I told this story to some of my friends, they didn't take it well. Some empathized me some simply couldn't believe and I didn't want to accept it either.Slowly with time, it was clear that nothings gonna bring me back the championship I came so close to.
HOWEVER, at the time of the creation of Reprive, I am completely over the whole experience and believe it or not, I don't regret losing that game one bit. Later on I realized in a few years time nobody will care about who won or lost. Unless you're a hard core Scrabbler, fat chance you'd even know the name of the 2020 WYSC Champion. Took me a while, but now I know that only the memories I made with my teammates is all thats going to matter.
I know for a fact that when I look back in a few years, my 3rd place trophy will be just a piece of metal, but the friends I made along the way will be something truly speical and close to my heart ( kinda cringe, I know! ). Shoutout to my brother and 2017 WYC Champin Aabid Ismail, for guiding me along the way, my family for being with me through thick and thin and all my teammates who made sure I felt welcome. (I'm much of an introvert so making friends is hard for me :D)