GT: Scripps National Spelling Bee - THU 8 PM ESPN (fantasy draft inside)

[Flip Murray]

THE COMPETITION:

The 89th Scripps National Spelling Bee Finals. 10AM ESPN2 continuing at 8PM on ESPN.





THE COMPETITORS:

40 pre-pubescent word nerds and 40 awkwardly tall girl word nerds


THE FAVORITES (I have no idea I just picked 3 at random):



Cameron Keith - Colorado - The Westbrook of Words




Cooper Komatsu - California - The Steph of Spelling




Snehaa Ganesh Kumar, California - The Lebron of Linguistics


THE HOME-STATE HERO



Bettie Closs - Durham NC - The Frank Kaminsky


THE WORDS:

I've never seen any of them before


THE PRIZE:

40 **** GRAND and the title of World **** Champion



WHO WILL BE THE CHAMPION SPELLER?







Spelling Bee Fantasy Draft Picks:

1. fatlever - Smrithi Upadhyayula, Speller No. 229 - ELIMINATED - 5th Place - theriaca
2. SWedd523 - Jairam Jagadeesh Hathway, Speller No. 152 - CO-WINNER
3. SnidleyFC - Rutvik M. Gandharsi - Speller No. 20 - ELIMINATED - 6th Place - Betony
4. Flip Murray - Cooper Komatsu - Speller No. 13 - ELIMINATED - 9th Place - illicium
5. yosemiteben - Sreeniketh A. Vogati - Speller No. 38 - ELIMINATED - 8th Place - palagonite
6. JDR - NIhar Saireddy Janga - Number 232 - CO-WINNER
7. LP - Sneeha Ganesh Kumar - Number 16 - ELIMINATED - 3rd Place
8. Braggins - Sylvie Lamontange - Number 30 - ELIMINATED - 4th Place - chaoborine
9. Slam - Mitchell A. Robson Number 114 - ELIMINATED 7th Place - Wehrmacht
10. Diop - Jashun Paluru - Number 74 - ELIMINATED 10th PLACE - can't remember

[Flip Murray]

History lessons itt

its the offseason so its very hard to stay on topic. Boredom has fully set in at this point. I'm watching the freaking spelling bee right now for gods sake on ESPN2. The weirdness is so real and i'm really just watching hoping they screw up and cry

Edit: Girl from Waxhaw just blew it. Her word was like 19 letters long

Edit 2: Girl from Durham still alive. She spelled "Wootz" correctly. Whatever that word is

Edit 3: Moving over to the Off Topic thread

Edit 4: We got a cryer!

Edit 5: you know some of these kids are going to get flogged when they get home if they lose

Edit 6: Finals are tonight at 8. I'm thinking about making a gamethread

Edit 7: THE WINNER GETS 40 **** GRAND. If I won that much money in middle school I would've spent it all on ps2 games and Yoohoos.

Edit 8: This is bull. Why do they spell different words? They should all be in a soundproof room then each come out and spell the same word. Some kids are getting straight redonkulous words with no language of origin while other kids are getting the equivalent of words like dog and cat

Edit 9: moving into gamethread now

[yosemiteben]

I'm in on this game thread. Cooper in 4.

[Flip Murray]

Has any "Star Speller" ever been exposed as badly as Cooper Komatsu?

[Flip Murray]

With the cap going up next year I think Kumar could get the max.

[Flip Murray]

amcoolio can we get signatures?

[yosemiteben]

Just by way of background, last year Gokul Venkatachalam, 14, of Chesterfield, Missouri; and Vanya Shivashankar, 13, of Olathe, Kansas split the title. Important to realize that both had the letter "V" in their names and have multisyllabic last names. Will be interesting to see if that trend holds true this year.

BTW, there is a six year old that qualified for this competition (serious WTF) named Akash Vukoti. Pulling for him in this one, but worried he might be a little too mentally fragile for this level of competition.

[Flip Murray]

Just by way of background, last year Gokul Venkatachalam, 14, of Chesterfield, Missouri; and Vanya Shivashankar, 13, of Olathe, Kansas split the title. Important to realize that both had the letter "V" in their names and have multisyllabic last names. Will be interesting to see if that trend holds true this year.

BTW, there is a six year old that qualified for this competition (serious WTF) named Akash Vukoti. Pulling for him in this one, but worried he might be a little too mentally fragile for this level of competition.

It's all legit too. I heard that his agent has documentation from doctors that the cartilage in his hand hasn't fused yet so he is in fact the age he claims.

[Flip Murray]

we're separating the wheat from the chaff now. People were dropping like flies for the first couple hours. Now that we're down to 17 nobody is missing words. 11 consecutive correct spellings

[Flip Murray]

The best thing about this competition is that they don't put the correct spelling of the word up for the first 30 seconds like us dumb **** sitting at home are going to be able to get it right.

[Flip Murray]

daguerreotype... It sounds like De-Gary-Oh-Type

And the kid freaking nails it.

Up Next: the hometown hero Betty...

NOOOOOOO SHE MISSED. NOOOOOOOO. Caliginous that's not even a **** word. I call bull. Cheaters

[fatlever]

Watch on YouTube

[fatlever]

with the 5th pick in the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee contest, Fats selects

https://secure.spellingbee.com/public/spellers/2016/274

Speller No. 274, Shiva Yeshlur



I want to play in a jazz fusion band with Shiva and his alto saxophone.

[Flip Murray]

And there it is folks, we're down to the Top 10 who will compete on ESPN at 8pm tonight.

Read on Twitter

[fatlever]

this thread needs some good luck charms

Spoiler:

[Flip Murray]

Anybody who wants to sign up for the Fantasy Draft for the finals can do so now. First come = first pick of the finalists.

https://secure.spellingbee.com/public/spellers/speller_roster?year=2016

This link will provide more info


Your choices are spellers number: 13, 16, 20, 30, 38, 74, 114, 152, 229, and 232

[fatlever]

And there it is folks, we're down to the Top 10 who will compete on ESPN at 8pm tonight.


[tweet]https://twitter.com/ScrippsBee/status/735895672185065472[/tweet]

Shiva didnt make it. I need a new pick.

[fatlever]

Anybody who wants to sign up for the Fantasy Draft for the finals can do so now. First come = first pick of the finalists.

https://secure.spellingbee.com/public/spellers/speller_roster?year=2016

This link will provide more info


Your choices are speller numbers: 13, 16, 20, 30, 38, 74, 114, 152, 229, and 232

OK, I've got my pick for the fantasy draft

https://secure.spellingbee.com/public/spellers/2016/229

Speller No. 229, Smrithi Upadhyayula



She has to be a great speller with that name. She wrote her own **** book. I bet it was about a brain surgeon who flew to the moon on a rocket she designed to perform emergency surgery on her astronaut little brother.

I bet i misspelled 3 words just in that last paragraph alone. Thanks Google.

[Flip Murray]

Anybody who wants to sign up for the Fantasy Draft for the finals can do so now. First come = first pick of the finalists.

https://secure.spellingbee.com/public/spellers/speller_roster?year=2016

This link will provide more info


Your choices are speller numbers: 13, 16, 20, 30, 38, 74, 114, 152, 229, and 232

OK, I've got my pick for the fantasy draft

https://secure.spellingbee.com/public/spellers/2016/229

Speller No. 229, Smrithi Upadhyayula

She has to be a great speller with that name. She wrote her own **** book. I bet it was about a brain surgeon who flew to the moon on a rocket she designed to perform emergency surgery on her astronaut little brother.

I bet i misspelled 3 words just in that last paragraph alone. Thanks Google.

That's a pretty decent pick. She's just getting every word almost instantly.

Her bio:

In addition to spelling, Smrithi is interested in writing. She has written a book and is currently working on the sequel. Her favorite food is macaroni and cheese, and she likes it best with scrambled eggs. She's learning Indian classical music, and really likes to swim, play piano, roller-skate and ice-skate. Her favorite book is The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey, and her favorite movie is Interstellar. Playing flute is her first passion, but when she's not doing something musical, she loves learning to do intricate hairstyles and writing short stories. Smrithi previously competed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 2015, tying for 22nd place.

[Flip Murray]

lol check out this kid's bio. And he's available for the draft. Speller #38 Sreeniketh A. Vogati

https://secure.spellingbee.com/public/spellers/2016/38




Bio:

Sreeniketh discovered his love for spelling when he enrolled in a local spelling bee and won the gold medal with close to zero preparation. However, his interests are eclectic. He found his love for chemistry, his first area of passion, in the 2nd grade, and he can now sing the elements of the periodic table in order! At about the same time, he also realized he loved math. He understands and appreciates fundamental concepts of algebra, geometry, trigonometry and calculus. He ranked 10th in the United States in the International Math Kangaroo competition in 4th grade, and 18th in 6th grade. His latest passion is physics, and he loves reading Richard Feynman's famous lectures. A self-taught and still-learning computer programmer, Sreeniketh is fascinated by JavaScript. He dabbles as a part-time author and has written some prose and short stories, but he dreams of becoming a scientist or researcher in the future. In his spare time, Sreeniketh enjoys playing clarinet and watching television programs that feature humor, banter and lots of puns — his favorite is Phineas and Ferb. He also enjoys tennis, chess, swimming and carom billiards.






humor, banter and lots of puns. This man has taste