Ranks and Badges
For Club Pogo Members Only:

Each time you play any letter, your rank increases at the end of your current game. (You do not need to win the game to get rank progress, but you need to finish the game.) Check the jewel icon next to your name to see your current rank.

The SCRABBLE Rank System consists of 50 ranks and 5 Rank Badges.

To find out more about the badges available for this game, please check out the Game Award book in Badge Central.

When you reach Rank 10, you unlock a special Game Skin, the Diamond Style. You can select this skin by clicking the Style button. The style you choose affects your own game only.

SCRABBLE also includes 3 achievement badges for expert players. If earned, these badges will appear in the game award album alongside the rank badges for Club Pogo members.

Tasks include:

Create 500 Bingos!
Create 8 8-letter words!
Score 100 points or more on a single turn!

National SCRABBLE Association Ratings
For Club Pogo Members Only:

Rated Games are special games that are designed for competitive players. When you play a Rated Game, you collect "ratings points" that show up in the special icon next to your name. There are 3 Rating Levels:

Rating Level:	Points Required	Icon
Novice	Below 1199
Intermediate	1200 – 1599
Expert	1600 and above

As in all Pogo Rated Games, everyone begins at the same level (Novice). Your performance in each game makes your rating go up or down. Your rating goes up faster if you play against players of a higher rating than your own.

Your Rating on Pogo.com is calculated using the official system of the National SCRABBLE Association. This means that you can compare your rating directly with the pros of the NSA to see how you compare!

In order to set up the games similar to way they are played in National SCRABBLE Association Tournaments, Rated Games can ONLY be played with the following options:

- 2-player Games. Rated games must be played with a single live opponent. No 4-player games are allowed. In most rated Pogo games, an AI opponent can step in to finish a game where the live opponent has left the game unexpectedly. However, in rated Scrabble games, we will give the opponent a chance (5 minutes) to rejoin the game if their connection was lost. If the opponent does not rejoin, the remaining player can choose to continue the game with a new live opponent OR continue with an AI opponent. A player who abandons a game before the game is complete will still receive a ratings adjustment based on the results of the current game.

- 25-minute clock per player. Each player has a total of 25 minutes to make all of his or her moves (like a standard Chess clock). If you run out of time, 10 points are subtracted for each minute over the time limit, (rounded up, if necessary).

- Doubling the score for unplayed tiles. If you use all of your tiles before your opponent, you receive double the value of your opponent’s remaining tiles. (This is a slight variant of the standard traditional rule of reducing the score of each player who ends the game with unplayed tiles on his or her rack.)

- Alternating First Turn. On RATED games only, we will look into your player history to see if you took the first turn the last time you played Scrabble on Pogo.com. If you went first last time, you will go 2nd in the current game. If both players in the current game both went either first or second in the previous game, the first player will be chosen randomly, in the same format as non-RATED games.

The dictionary for the Rated Games Option Package will be the Tournament Word List (TWL). This dictionary differs from the official Merriam-Webster Official SCRABBLE Players Dictionary in that it includes some words deemed too off-color to be included in family games.

Note:
In RATED games only, players may sometimes play off-color words. Because these words are included in most standard dictionaries, they are acceptable in RATED games. Of course, the computer opponent does not play off-color words. If you would prefer to avoid seeing such words altogether, please either avoid RATED games, let your opponent know your preference before you begin, or play with friends who share your preference to avoid all off-color words.

Players will not be able to look up any words in the dictionary in rated games, even after the words have been played. Of course, using dictionaries of any kind, whether online or on paper is strictly forbidden in Rated Games!

If players drop out of a game before the game is over, their rating will decrease. Players receive “credit” for the outcome of each game they begin, even if they dropped out before the game was over.
Here are the steps to start a Rated Game:

Click the 2-player Tab
On the Choose a Table dialog, click a Play button.
Click the box that says Make Game Rated (Needs 2 players to start)
Click the Play button

It’s easy to ensure that you only play against opponents who are a good match for you. To play against opponents of your skill level or higher, click “Limit players joining this game to certain skill ratings.” For example, if you do not wish to play against Novice players, leave the Novice item un-checked.

Note:
Rated games where the difference between opponent's ratings is greater than 600 will not affect the players' ratings. This is to prevent more experienced players from taking advantage of new players.