7 things you didn't know about the National Spelling Bee

It's the best week of the year for spelling nerds.

About 285 kids from across the country are competing in the Scripps National Spelling Bee near Washington, D.C. You might have heard about the contest's decision to make the word list more difficult after the last two spelling bees ended in ties, but here are some things you might not know about Bee Week:

1. The spelling bee was put on hold during World War II.

The competition, launched in 1925, was taken over by the E.W. Scripps Company in 1941 and put on hold for three years during the war. There was no national contest from 1943 to 1945.

2. The spelling contestants have their own autograph books, sort of.

Actually, they're more like yearbooks. Each contestant gets a "beekeeper," as the book is affectionately called. The contestants sign each other's beekeepers during Bee Week, a sign of the tight-knit community the national contest cultivates.

3. The contestants aren't immediately eliminated every round.

The National Spelling Bee began Tuesday with the written preliminary exam, but there are no immediate eliminations for getting a wrong answer there. Rounds two and three on Wednesday are where the competition heats up. Just as with the final round, if a contestant misspells a word in the preliminaries, that's the end of the road. Spellers eliminated from round two are tied for the same place, and the same goes for those eliminated during round three, according to the Bee Week Guide.

4. C-R-Y-I-N-G: There's a couch for that.

Misspell a word? It's off to the crying couch. When contestants lose, they go to the couch with spelling bee officials to wait for their parents to meet them. It's known as a safe space for kids to weep after their loss.

5. Spelling bee dynasties: it's in their blood.

For many, the spelling bee is a family tradition. There's the "Beefather" Merle Shivashankar, father of Kavya (2009 spelling bee champion) and Vanya (the 2015 co-champion). And the Estep family of Berryville, Va., has four children who have made it to the national competition. Edwin, the youngest sibling, is competing for the second consecutive year. Among the top 2016 contestants, 29 have relatives who have participated in a combined 67 Scripps National Spelling Bees, according to the website.

6. How do you spell Hippogriff? This year's spellers love 'Harry Potter'.

When asked about their favorite novels, the spellers ranked J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series first, followed by the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. The Harry Potter film franchise was ranked third among the contestants' favorite movies, after Star Wars and the Avengers, according to the Bee Week guide.

7. An 11-year-old boy, born deaf, competes in the national contest.

Neil Maes, 11, of Belton, S.C., will compete in his first National Spelling Bee this week. Having received cochlear implants in both ears as a baby, the boy trained his brain to understand spoken words. When Maes takes the stage, the bee's announcer will speak into a microphone that sends an FM signal into his cochlear implants so that he can hear the word without background noise.

"My goal was for him to meet his potential, no matter what it was," his mother, Christy Maes, said. "It turned out to be pretty good!"

2015 USA TODAY Spelling Bee Interactive

Contributing: The Associated Press