Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center
The Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center is a hotel and convention center located at National Harbor, Prince George's County, in the U.S. state of Maryland. The hotel is situated along the shores of the Potomac, downriver from Washingto ...
in
National Harbor, Maryland
National Harbor is a census-designated place (CDP) in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, located along the Potomac River near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and just south of Washington, D.C. It originated as a multi-use waterfront devel ...
McKinney, Texas
McKinney is a city in and the county seat of Collin County, Texas. It is Collin County's third-largest city, after Plano and Frisco. A suburb of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, McKinney is about north of Dallas.
The U.S. Census Bureau l ...
, who correctly spelled "koinonia" for the win. Due to a rule change in how spellers can make it to the Bee, the bee's total field of 515 spellers was a large increase over prior years.
Field
519 spellers qualified for the Bee, and 515 ultimately showed up for the competition (early news reports stated 516 and were later adjusted). The field included 239 girls (46%) and 277 boys (54%) between the ages of 8 and 15. The spellers came from all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, other U.S. territories and Department of Defense schools, and eight other countries, including the Bahamas, Canada, Ghana, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom; contenders from Italy and the United Kingdom were American citizens living in those countries, and not drawn from the general populations. Over 150 spellers were of Indian descent, including the son of Balu Natarajan, the 1985 winner and first Indian-American winner.(29 May 2018) Indian American kids throng to National Harbor to compete in the 2018 Scripps National Spelling Bee ''The American Bazaar''
Competition
The spelling competition began on Tuesday May 29 with written spelling and vocabulary tests, this is the main way to get to the finals. The rest of day one consisted of one oral round of spelling, designated round two, with words drawn from a circulated list of 600. 452 spellers spelled their word correctly and advanced to day two.Break time spellingbee.com, Retrieved 29 May 2018
On Wednesday, spellers were given words they had not previously been given in one more round of oral spelling, round three. 321 spellers remained at the conclusion of round three — still more than had ever participated in a national Bee. Speller 230, Reagan Remmers of Missoula, Montana, was reinstated after spelling "balaclava" as "Balaklava", which was determined to be a correct homonym spelling, since she had not requested a definition. This was only the fifth time in the past 20 years that a speller has returned after a misspelling. Since the bee now included three days of spelling, pronouncer Jacques Bailly shared duties with associate pronouncer Brian Sietsema on day two to help preserve his voice.(30 May 2018) An important note about our pronouncer spellingbee.com This was the first time Sietsema had been called upon to pronounce, despite being the associate pronouncer for the past 16 years.Nuckols, Ben (30 May 2018) After 16 years, backup spelling bee pronouncer gets his shot Associated Press
At the end of day two, applying the results of the written test, a field of 41 finalists was announced, the cutoff being 28 out of a possible 36 points. The finalists included 16 wild-card entrants and all of the consensus favorites: Shruthika Padhy, Jashun Paluru, Sravanth Malla, Naysa Modi, Sohum Sukhatankar, and Navneeth Murali.Nuckols, Ben (30 May 2018) Dramatic Finals of Scripps National Spelling Bee to Begin Associated PressNuckols, Ben (30 May 2018) Its cut day at National Spelling Bee; 50 advance to Thursday ''The Vindicator''
The morning rounds of day three reduced the field to 16 finalists, which then competed in the evening finals. Karthik Nemmani, a 14-year-old from
McKinney, Texas
McKinney is a city in and the county seat of Collin County, Texas. It is Collin County's third-largest city, after Plano and Frisco. A suburb of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, McKinney is about north of Dallas.
The U.S. Census Bureau l ...
won the bee after he correctly spelled the word "koinonia". 12-year-old Naysa Modi, a fourth-time speller from
Frisco, Texas
Frisco is a city in Collin and Denton counties in the U.S. state of Texas. It is part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and about from both Dallas Love Field and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Its population was 200,509 at the 2 ...
, placed second, falling on the word "Bewusstseinslage". The two finalists were both from the Dallas area; Nemmani was a wild-card entrant under this year's new rules, after losing his county spelling bee to Modi. Third place went to Abhijay Kodali of
Flower Mound, Texas
Flower Mound is an incorporated town located in Denton and Tarrant counties in the U.S. state of Texas. Located northwest of Dallas and northeast of Fort Worth adjacent to Grapevine Lake, the town derives its name from a prominent mound locate ...
(who missed "aalii"), who had tied for first place with Modi in the Dallas regional bee. Jashun Paluru of
West Lafayette, Indiana
West Lafayette () is a city in Wabash Township, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, about northwest of the state capital of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette is directly across the Wabash River from its sister city, ...
, placed fourth. Nemmani is the 14th consecutive Indian-American to win the Bee.Nuckols, Ben (1 June 2018) Dallas duel: Wild card turns tables at National Spelling Bee ''Associated Press''
The entire competition was televised, with the first two days on ESPN3, the Thursday morning rounds on ESPN2, and the Thursday evening finals on ESPN. It was the 25th year of ESPN broadcasting the Bee.Competition Spellingbee.com, Retrieved 29 May 2018
Rule change
Due to a new rule change this year, there were over 500 participants in the Bee, a large increase over the previous record of 293 set in 2009.Hunyh, Ngoc (19 April 2018) Scripps National Spelling Bee: 9 NY students selected as RSVBee contestants ''New York Upstate''
To accommodate the larger field, oral spelling rounds occurred over all three days of the competition, instead of just two. In recent years, spellers had the day off once they completed the written tests on day one, but this year they spelled one word on stage on the first day of competition, and remaining spellers received a second word on day two.
Under a new rule, "wild card" entries were granted to spellers who won a school-level bee but did not win a regional competition. Called the "RSVBee" program,RSVBee spellingbee.com, Retrieve 13 February 2018 it was reportedly created to account for the variations in competition quality in different regions. Though there are about 275 regional bees, about one-quarter of the total 11 million spellers come from only eight regions. Priority consideration for a wild-card applicant goes to spellers who have already made a prior national bee, followed by older spellers reaching their eligibility limit. Since wild-card entries do not have a regional sponsor, they have to pay a $750 entry fee as well their own travel, food, and lodging. That made it unclear how many people would apply when the rule change was announced in December 2017, and Bee officials originally stated that up to 225 RSVBee participants would be allowed.Nuckols, Ben (6 December 2017) National Spelling Bee to offer wild card entries, expand field ''Time Record News'' (Associated Press0
It turned out that the opportunity to attend the National Spelling Bee was a sufficient draw for spellers, as by April 2018, it was noted that in addition to 278 regional winners, 241 RSVBee spellers would also attend.
The rule change may also be related to cost cutting in the newspaper industry. Though there are now well over 200 regional bees across the United States (and a few abroad), some regional bee sponsors (which traditionally have been newspapers) may decide to drop their sponsorship, causing regional bee cancellations if a new sponsor cannot be found. If that happens, local spellers will have no path to the National Bee.Pemberton, Caele (25 January 2018) ''
Kokomo Tribune
The ''Kokomo Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Kokomo, Indiana, United States. It is owned by Community Newspaper Holdings Inc.
The ''Tribune'' was cited by the Audit Bureau of Circulation for the nation's highest market penetration for eig ...
KRIS-TV
KRIS-TV (channel 6) is a television station in Corpus Christi, Texas, United States, affiliated with NBC and The CW Plus. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside low-power dual Telemundo affiliate/ independent station K22JA-D; Scrip ...
The Commercial Appeal
''The Commercial Appeal'' (also known as the ''Memphis Commercial Appeal'') is a daily newspaper of Memphis, Tennessee, and its surrounding metropolitan area. It is owned by the Gannett Company; its former owner, the E. W. Scripps Company, also ...
Star Tribune
The ''Star Tribune'' is the largest newspaper in Minnesota. It originated as the ''Minneapolis Tribune'' in 1867 and the competing ''Minneapolis Daily Star'' in 1920. During the 1930s and 1940s, Minneapolis's competing newspapers were consolida ...
Times Record News
''Times Record News'' is a daily newspaper established in 1907 in Wichita Falls, Texas and owned by Gannett.
From 1976 until 1997, the ''Times Record News'' was part of Harte Hanks chain, when Scripps acquired the paper.
''The Times Record ...
'' (
Wichita Falls, Texas
Wichita Falls ( ) is a city in and the seat of government of Wichita County, Texas, United States. It is the principal city of the Wichita Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay, and Wichita counties. Accordin ...
) (reporting that local school district hosted a bee on March 8, 2018, and that the paper dropped their regional sponsorship after 2017, "because of changes to the company’s direction and strategy"; the paper became a part of the
Gannett Company
Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.