(French here) I'm not surprised at all. I've seen a documentary once about Scrabble competitions and the guys were discussing after the match about the missed possibilities. One guy was complaining that he could almost get one long obscure word I've never heard about which would be worth a lot of points and the others were discussing about it. The reporter then asked them what the word meant and no one had any idea. Not a single French player could explain what the word meant, it was just in the official dictionary, that's all.
When you organize a Scrabble competition, you need to have an official dictionary or people start inventing non-sense words to get points. In French for example, you could add the prefix 're' (meaning again or back) to almost any verb and everyone would understand, this is just an example but it's really easy to create nonsense words that people understand from their root. And since you have an official dictionary, it's not about words anymore, it's about memorizing the dictionary.
When you organize a Scrabble competition, you need to have an official dictionary or people start inventing non-sense words to get points. In French for example, you could add the prefix 're' (meaning again or back) to almost any verb and everyone would understand, this is just an example but it's really easy to create nonsense words that people understand from their root. And since you have an official dictionary, it's not about words anymore, it's about memorizing the dictionary.