300 games later, these Words With Friends foes forged a real-life friendship

The internet is crying, quickly wiping away the tears and defiantly shouting, “I’m not crying, you’re crying!”

This time, it’s all because of a tweet Friday showing photos of a young man’s first real-life encounter with a friend he made over a year ago when they squared off on the smartphone game Words With Friends.

Spencer is 22 and lives in Harlem, and Roz is 86 and lives in a retirement community in Florida. But that hasn’t stopped the two from forging a friendship that finally culminated in hugs Friday, according to Amy Butler, a New York pastor who brokered the real-life meeting.

As of Saturday morning, Spencer’s tweet had amassed more than 120,000 retweets, 520,000 likes and 2,600 comments. He said he considered Roz “a good friend of mine” even before they got the chance to meet.

“Life is f---ing crazy i’ve never been to Florida yall (sic),” Spencer said in another tweet, while his photos were busy going viral. Clearly, the moment wasn’t lost on him, or the thousands of others who shared the heartwarming moment, including the Words With Friends account itself.

At least one Twitter user who responded had a similar story, pointing to the ability of the game that was developed in 2009 by social game developer Zynga to bring word enthusiasts together over miles of coastline or even oceans.

No word on who got the better of the 300-plus match history between the two friends, though.

This story was originally published December 2, 2017 at 12:35 PM with the headline "300 games later, these Words With Friends foes forged a real-life friendship."