National Spelling Bee, at a Loss for Words, Crowns 8 Co-Champions

A​ superhuman group of adolescents broke the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday, with 8 contestants crowned co-champions after the competition said it was running out of challenging words. They are the Octo champions !!! It was a stunning result, coming just after midnight Thursday, for the 92nd annual event, which has had six two-way ties but had never before experienced such a logjam at the top. After the 17th round, Jacques Bailly, the event’s pronouncer, announced that any of the eight remaining contestants who made it through three more words would share in the prize. The eight words were all used in the final round of this year’s Spelling Bee, which ended in an eight-way tie after the competition said it was running out of challenging words.