94th Scripps National Spelling Bee

The 94th Scripps National Spelling Bee was a spelling bee that was held at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.[2] The finals were held on June 2, 2022, and televised on Ion Television and Bounce TV, marking the first time in 27 years that the Bee was not televised on an ESPN network.[3] The winner of the bee was Harini Logan, an 8th–grade girl from San Antonio, Texas,[4] who won with 21 words spelt correctly during the Bee's first spell-off round.[5][6]

94th Scripps National Spelling Bee
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DateMay 30–June 2, 2022
LocationGaylord National Resort & Convention Center (National Harbor, Maryland)
WinnerHarini Logan
Age14
ResidenceSan Antonio, Texas
SponsorThe Brauntex Performing Arts Theatre Association
Sponsor locationSan Antonio, Texas
Winning wordmoorhen (spell–off)
No. of contestants234[1]
PronouncerJacques Bailly and Brian Sietsema
Preceded by93rd Scripps National Spelling Bee
Followed by95th Scripps National Spelling Bee

Field

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There were 234 contestants in the field for the 2022 edition of the spelling bee, which was a modest increase over 209 spellers that competed in the year before. This year marked a return to normalcy for the bee after the past two years were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.[1][7] The youngest speller in the bee was 7–year old Matthew Yi, and the most experienced speller was 13–year old Akash Vukoti.[8] 12 spellers from ages 11 to 14 made the final round, which was held on June 2, 2022.[9]

Competition

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Actor LeVar Burton hosted the spelling bee on Scripps-owned Ion Television and Bounce TV, which broadcast every day of the event.[10]

The spelling bee was broken up into four segments this year: preliminaries, quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals.[6] The newly introduced word meaning competition returned for the second time.[11] After the preliminary round, the field was already reduced from 234 to 88 spellers.[12]

Both the quarterfinals and semifinals took place on June 1, 2022.[13] 40 more spellers were eliminated in the quarterfinals, leaving the field at 48 spellers.[14] The word meaning round caused many contenders to be eliminated in this round.[11] A controversial monument came in the semifinal round when speller Surya Kapu misspelled the word leucovorin, but was reinstated after an appeal saying that he was not given enough information about a root in the word.[15] 12 spellers remained after the semifinals.[9]

The finals began on Thursday night at 8pm[16] and lasted for over 3 hours.[17] The third–to–last speller was eliminated in Round 11, leaving 12–year old Vikram Raju and 14–year old Harini Logan to compete for the title.[18] Logan had a chance to win the bee in Round 16 after Raju misspelt the word caul, but Logan was unable to correctly spell the word drimys for the championship.[19] The two remaining competitors lasted through the entire championship word list after 18 rounds, meaning the tiebreaker round implemented after the 2019 finish was used for the first time. Competitors have 1:30 to spell as many words as they could from the tiebreaker list.[6] Logan spelled 21 words correctly to Raju's 15 in the spell–off round, making Logan the 2022 champion.[20]

Word list championship round

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Word list spell-off round

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Asmelash, Leah. "What to know about this year's Scripps National Spelling Bee finals". CNN.com.
  2. ^ Bahrampour, Tara. "Spelling Bee 2022 nears final round with nerves, cramming, lucky octopus". The Washington Post.
  3. ^ Bumbaca, Chris. "How to watch, stream 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee Final (Hint: It's not on ESPN anymore)". USA Today.
  4. ^ Bumbaca, Chris. "Harini Logan, an 8th-grader from Texas, wins 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee in historic spell-off". USA Today.
  5. ^ Helsel, Phil. "Scripps National Spelling Bee: Lightning round spells victory for Texas eighth grader Harini Logan". NBCNews.com.
  6. ^ a b c "Competition". SpellingBee.com.
  7. ^ Dater, James. "Everything you need to know about the 2022 Scripps Spelling Bee". SB Nation.
  8. ^ Liebergen, Stephanie. "Scripps National Spelling Bee Returns After Pandemic Pause". Newsy.
  9. ^ a b Jones, Douglas. "Winner for Scripps National Spelling Bee to be announced after finals air Thursday night". FOX13.
  10. ^ Steinberg, Brian. "LeVar Burton Joins 'National Spelling Bee' as Owner Scripps Hopes for Buzz". Variety.
  11. ^ a b Nuckols, Ben. "Vocab questions reduce spelling bee to 3 letters: A, B or C". AP.
  12. ^ Bryant, Christian. "How the Scripps National Spelling Bee came to be". KBZK7.
  13. ^ Kiner, Deb. "How to watch the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and Pa. students, today and tomorrow, June 1-2". PennLive.com.
  14. ^ "2022 Round 4 Results". SpellingBee.com. Archived from the original on 2022-06-08.
  15. ^ "Speller Reinstated Into National Spelling Bee After Appeal". VOANews.
  16. ^ Van Brugen, Isabel. "How to Watch and Live Stream The Scripps National Spelling Bee Finals". Newsweek.
  17. ^ Cramer, Maria. "Harini Logan, 14, Wins National Spelling Bee in Blistering Final Spell-Off". New York Times.
  18. ^ "2022 Round 11 Results". SpellingBee.com. Archived from the original on 2022-06-03.
  19. ^ "2022 Round 16 Results". SpellingBee.com. Archived from the original on 2022-06-29.
  20. ^ Helsel, Phil. "Scripps National Spelling Bee: Lightning round spells victory for Texas eighth grader Harini Logan". NBCNews.com.