May 29 (UPI) — The final round of the prestigious Scripps National Spelling Bee gets underway at 8 p.m. EDT on Thursday with nine contestants vying for the title.
The event pits 243 spelling champions from every state and the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands to determine which one earns the Scripps Cup during the spelling competition’s 100th year.
Contestants from Canada, the Bahamas, Germany, Ghana, Kuwait and Nigeria also compete for the title.
National Spelling Bee contestants must not be older than age 15 or have progressed beyond the eighth grade. They advance to the National Spelling Bee by competing in regional competitions.
This year’s nine finalists are between the ages of 11 and 14.
Last year’s runner-up, Faizan Zaki, 13, from Allen, Texas, is among the nine finalists. He lost in a tie-breaking spell-off to last year’s winner, Bruhat Soma.
The winner receives a custom trophy, $52,500 in cash prizes, a commemorative medal and a one-year subscription to reference works from Merriam-Webster and the Encyclopedia Britannica.
All finalists receive at least $2,000, with the second-place finisher winning $25,000.
More than one person can tie for the championship. When two or more contestants tie for the title, each receives the $50,000 grand prize from the National Spelling Bee.
The finals will be aired live on ion, which is available via streaming and many television cable and satellite subscription services.
This year’s National Spelling Bee began on Tuesday, when 60 contestants were eliminated during a preliminary spelling and vocabulary round.
Another 84 spellers were eliminated later on Tuesday after completing a written spelling and vocabulary test.
Three quarterfinal rounds held narrowed the field to 57 semifinalists on Wednesday, and four semifinal rounds produced the nine contestants who qualified for Thursday night’s final round.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee has been held annually since 1925, when nine students competed for the title.
It was suspended from 1943 to 1945 due to World War II and in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The competition has created a historical archive to celebrate the spelling competition’s centennial year.
This year’s competition is its 97th and is being held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., which has hosted the event since 2011.