Team Brainiacs has emerged champions in the second edition of the 2021 Mind Games Incorporated (MGI) Scrabble Premier League.
Brainiacs were confirmed newly crowned champions at the grand finale held at D’Podium International Event Centre, Ikeja, Lagos, on Saturday.
It would be recalled that the inaugural edition which was held in 2019 was won by Team Blazers.
Brainiacs finished top in Division A which is made up of 12 teams and won the N1.5 million cash prize.
In Division B, which is made up of 10 teams, Team Merry-ers emerged champions and claimed the cash prize of N1 million.
Division B champions Team Blazers
For emerging champions, Merry-ers, alongside Indomitables, have been promoted to Division A, while the last two teams in Division A, Lekki Bombers and Lusty Seniors are relegated to Division B.
At the Gala Night held on Saturday after the two-day grand finale, both Brainiacs and Merry-ers were awarded with dummy cheques and trophies.
Godwin Victor of Team Brainiacs emerged the Most Valuable Player in this year’s edition and went home with N200,000.
And in the Patrons Cup, Olaribigbe Akeem was the winner and was awarded with N120,000 and a trophy.
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Speaking after the event, organizer of the MGI Scrabble Premier League, Lookmon Owolabi expressed his gratitude to everyone who made it possible.
“First, I have to give thanks to God because without God all these would not have been possible.
“Also, I would like to thank all the people that have supported this brand. The players, the sponsors, and I would like to say that this is being sponsored by scrabble players. I bankrolled the event but with the support of the scrabble players, we have been able to do this successfully. COVID came but thank God we are alive and we were able to beat COVID, we picked up in Abuja and this is the final of the event.“
Owolabi called on sponsors to be a part of the MGI Scrabble Premier League so as to take it to greater heights.
He added:”That’s actually expected. The structure of the league is that the team goes all over the country, actually in four locations, Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and this is where we draw the curtains of the league.
“So this is an event that every player look forward to and participate in and the standard of the event is top notch.
“We just hope to sustain the temple, the standard and everything that MGI brings to scrabble. And I will like to use this opportunity to appeal to sponsors, corporate individuals so that we can take this game to where it should be.“
And on how they were able to emerge champions in this year’s edition, captain of Team Brainiacs Eta Karo said:“I feel extremely elated very happy, it was not an easy experience. Last year we missed the championship, it was really painful so we went back to the drawing board and we came out with a strong formula which we have been using to coordinate our team to prepare ourselves for this year’s edition.”
By James Agberebi
