Ansun and Sriram continued on spelling, although they had a close call when both got their words wrong. Sriram missed “corpsbruder,” (a close comrade), spelling it “k-o-r-b-r-u-i-t-e-r.” Ansun erred on “antigropelos” (waterproof leggings), spelling it “a-n-t-i-g-r-o-p-o-l-o-s.” But they each went error-free after that until the tie was declared in the 16th round of finals spelling.
Bee officials go through a yearlong process to select the words from among the roughly 470,000 in the Merriam Webster’s Third New International Dictionary. A committee creates lists that spellers can use to study for the earlier rounds of competition, but for the finals, all bets are off. They get no such list.
The words for the final are pre-selected during a rigorous process that bee officials are loathe to talk about.
“The finals list is top secret,” bee spokesman Chris Kemper said. “It is our secret sauce.”
The finalists were culled from a field of 46 semi-finalists based on their performance during spelling rounds earlier Thursday and on a written spelling andvocabulary test Wednesday evening. There were some emotional moments during the semifinals. Two bee veterans who had been favored to make it to the finals, if not to win, were knocked out.