Words With Friends Creators Join D Magazine Tournament

Tim told you yesterday about the Words With Friends cover story in the June issue of D Magazine and the tournament we’re hosting to celebrate it. As your tournament director, I want to tell you just a little bit more about what’s going down.

We’re putting together a field of 64 fierce competitors to battle it out for the glory and honor of being named the 2010 D Magazine Words With Friends Tournament champion. If you’d like a chance to be among those that make it onto our bracket, register here. You have until 5 p.m. May 27 to enter.

Automatic bids have been granted to five members of the D Magazine staff, as well as certain local personalities from the worlds of sports, music, and media. I’ll be telling you more about who those are during the next week.

First up are Paul and David Bettner of Newtoy Inc. They’re the smart fellows featured on our cover. They invented the game that has become an obsession for millions. But apparently that success has caused strife within their own family:

Paul’s mother-in-law, in McKinney, is complaining that her knitting group has been invaded by Words With Friends but that they’ve had to embargo it because the ladies’ ferocious competitive streaks are tearing the fabric of their friendships.

David is in a pickle of his own. His fiancée gets paralyzed when she plays because she’s afraid her word choices will be a referendum on her intelligence.

It gets even worse. “Recently,” David says, “I had my mom call from Florida in the middle of the day. ‘Your servers are down!’ she yelled at me. ‘Fix your s—!’ And I’m like, I don’t need this.”

If you’re in our tournament, you might find yourself going head to head with one of these guys. You might even beat them. Wouldn’t you like those bragging rights?