Inside courtroom Historic moments 📷 Key players Bird colors explained
Spelling Bees

8 kids won the 2019 Spelling Bee and people are absolutely baffled

In what may go down as the most gripping and challenging final round in spelling bee history, eight students shared the trophy of nation's top speller Thursday night.

Yes, you read that right: eight students, one trophy and a whole lot of words most people haven't even heard before.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee was in its third hour of the final round of 16 spellers when the voice of the competition, pronouncer Jacques Bailly, admitted they may run out of words to give the students.

"Champion spellers, we are now in uncharted territory," Bailly told the packed crowd at Maryland's Gaylord National Harbor Convention Center and those watching in prime time on ESPN.

"We do have plenty of words remaining on our list," he continued. "But we will soon run out of words that will possibly challenge you, the most phenomenal collection of super spellers in the history of this competition."

Historic first:Eight share Scripps Bee championship title in 2019

Three rounds later, eight champions were named. And people were loving every minute of it.

Some people wanted an overtime:

Others gave up on the NBA Finals to watch:

Many people were just amazed by the words the spellers were nailing:

Others wondered how the Bee would pay the prize money ($50,000) to all eight students – and have the trophies available:

The Bee was having a good time with it though:

But who was most excited for these super spellers? None other than the dictionary they defeated:

Contributing: Kristin Lam, USA TODAY. Follow USA TODAY's Ryan Miller on Twitter: @RyanW_Miller

Featured Weekly Ad