Huddled around a table like generals planning their next strategic move as teachers and friends watched with bated breath, the three teenagers attracting all this attention were not part of the prelude to a school fight, but the country's first organised Vocable championship final held at Sekolah Menengah Sains Selangor, Kuala Lumpur.

Vocable is a local version of a word puzzle game and often requires the players to have a decent English vocabulary to excel. Hence, prior to this intra-school competition, all the Form One to Form Three students underwent a test to select the best 16 from each form for the finals on Oct 14 and 15.

Following several gruelling rounds, first former Nur Hazwani Mohd Nizam, second former Nur Syafinaz Zainal and third former Ahmad Fauzee Mazuki emerged as the respective form champions, earning the right to face each other in the final. Syafinaz was the clear favourite, having consistently posted high scores throughout the competition. "I did not expect to make it to the semi-finals and I am really excited by this," said Syafinaz.

"I think the government encourages these kinds of activities. Apart from helping to increase one's vocabulary, it also promotes social interaction and muhibbah. And unlike football or hockey, word board games can be played anywhere," added Zainal. And while computer word games are important tools for vocabulary building, Zainal believes computer games lack one important element: social interaction.

"It is a very anti-social activity - one-on-one - while this game requires the participation of three to five people. Children today are losing their social skills because they are stuck in front of the computer screen," said Zainal.

The winning competitors echoed these sentiments. "It has helped improve my English and taught me to think fast in a competition and I think it will also sharpen my competitive instincts," said Ahmad.

The competition was held in conjunction with the NBA's launching of the school board game club - the first in the country. The club not only offers word puzzle games like Vocable and Sahibba, but also traditional games like carom, backgammon, congkak and chess.

"We encourage schools to form board game clubs. Hopefully, it can be used to forge friendships and give school leavers an alternative to the lepak culture," said Zainal. "The future is bright and we hope board games will be very popular in the country and that our youth can see it as the next 'in' thing," he added.

Following the excellent response to this competition, it seems likely that board games would gain more appeal throughout the country. And with the promise of more competitions for schools as well as colleges and universities, the first board game club in SM Sains Selangor may not be the only one for long.