# The National Spelling Bee ended this evening - and how!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-national-spelling-bee-ended-this-evening-and-how/834809>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 31, 2019, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-national-spelling-bee-ended-this-evening-and-how/834809 "2019-05-31T06:31:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2019, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-national-spelling-bee-ended-this-evening-and-how/834809/21 "2019-06-01T13:39:43Z")

</div>

> [@nearwildheaven](#):
>
> Likewise, the 9th place person probably didn’t expect to get the 2nd place honors and corresponding lovely parting gifts.

Is that what happened? Usually – at least in my experience with ranked competitions-- if two people tie for first (or any other place), the next person is not second place (or whatever), but third place (or whatever plus one). If eight people tied for first, the next person down would be ninth place, not second. Did they change that up here, too?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2019, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-national-spelling-bee-ended-this-evening-and-how/834809/22 "2019-06-01T19:37:36Z")

</div>

Sometime during the competition they posted a chart that said something like, anyone who went out during the X round or later got a certain amount. I think it was the 7th round and $2000, but it might have been the 10th round. At the point where they posted it they were already far past the 7th round and there were, I think, 11 left, so I’m assuming the three who went out before the last round got $2000 apiece. But I don’t know what their place number would have been. 9th, 10th, 11th. Or 2nd, 3rd, 4th. (They did not all go out in the same round.)

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-national-spelling-bee-ended-this-evening-and-how/834809.md?page=1)