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Scripps National Spelling Bee ends in a tie for second straight year

(Photo by Jack Gruber, USA TODAY Staff )

(Photo by Jack Gruber, USA TODAY Staff )

It came down to the wire in the 2015 Scripps National Spelling Bee between Gokul Venkatachalam and Vanya Shivashankar, but neither of them seemed to even notice the mounting pressure. We (the royal we, myself included) would hold our breath every time they stepped up to the microphone as the words got more and more complex and obscure.

“Myrmotherine,” “scherenschnitte,” “urgrund,” and “sprachgefühl” to name a maddeningly impossible few.

But every time, Vanya would give us that smirk that read “I know this one, too,” and Gokul was just shy of completely inscrutable.

On the final word, “nunatak,” the LeBron James superfan didn’t even ask for language of origin or anything like that. He knocked it out like it was nothing.

And so, for the second straight year,  the competition ended in a tie. Thank goodness for that because if it hadn’t, the competition might’ve gone on into next week. Nothing was going to stump these kids.

(Thanks to Erick Fernandez for the Vine.)

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