A Lexington resident is looking for back-to-back titles at the Scrabble Players Championship

The board of a game between Kevin Fraley and Marty Gabriel during the Scrabble Players Championship at the Century Center on Monday, July 22, 2024, in South Bend | MICHAEL CLUBB/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE / USA TODAY NETWORK

Lexington is the current home to one of the world’s best Scrabble players — and he’s looking to win back-to-back titles at the largest Scrabble event in North America.

Later this month, 25-year-old Mack Meller is set to compete in the annual Scrabble Players Championship, which runs from August 9-13 in Maryland. Originally from New York, Meller has lived in central Kentucky for the last three years. He’s feared and well-respected among the Lexington Scrabble club community. And thanks to a recent article from Jake McMahon of The Herald Leader, we learned more about Meller’s dominance from a young age as a top-tier Scrabble player to his current status as one of the best alive.

McMahon recently caught up with Meller, who won the 2024 edition of the Scrabble Players Championship in Indiana, at Sedona Taphouse in Palomar. McMahon saw firsthand how talented Meller is at the word game, watching him take down much older opponents with ease. McMahon witnessed Meller beat a 68-year-old with far more experience than him by a score of 471-274, restaurant goers buzzing in the background over his status as defending national champion.

“I was a pretty well-known entity within the community pretty quickly,” Meller told McMahon. “Everyone was super welcoming and eager to see a new kid who was doing well.”

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Meller started playing Scrabble at the age of five, began competing in tournaments at age 10, and was considered a Grandmaster by 17. He was ranked as the No. 1 player in North America under 18 from 2012-18 and is currently considered the top player — regardless of age — in all of North America. Being successful to this impressive degree isn’t just about knowing and memorizing the dictionary, though.

“SCRABBLE is commonly thought to be exclusively a word game, but at the competitive level it is actually just as much a math game,” Meller wrote on his website. “Especially when only a few tiles remain in the bag, finding a play that wins even with one more possible draw can frequently make the difference between victory and defeat.”

Thanks to a terrific memory and an early understanding of the game’s tricks, Meller’s run of success doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. He has a growing YouTube channel where he teaches people how to play the game. His run for a second straight Scrabble Players Championship victory — and the $10,000 grand prize that comes with it — begins Saturday.