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It's been two years since the Scripps Spelling Bee had an event, and last time it had eight (eight!!) co-champions, which should've brought existential questions about whether spelling is a competition or not. This year they've been playing around with what's expected of the kids in the second round by throwing them questions about what words mean as opposed to simply just their spelling, so you have to know the dictionary backwards and forwards and not just rote memorize the letters in sequence, which... probably won't whittle things that down, to be honest. But maybe! Quarterfinals are today at noon on ESPN 3, while semifinals will be on June 27th with the finals on July 8th, which... seems very bizarre scheduling to me.
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Jun 15, 2021 14:30
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 04:11 |
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Why do spelling bees have to only allow children to be competitors? Surely there is room for a proper pro scene and more demanding formats.
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Jun 15, 2021 14:38
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let's bee it up yo
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Jun 15, 2021 14:38
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they should add sections where the children have to do MMA moves and strikes to each other, like chessboxing
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Jun 15, 2021 14:40
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Feels Villeneuve posted:they should add sections where the children have to do MMA moves and strikes to each other, like chessboxing
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Jun 15, 2021 14:41
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Oh, they're doing it over Zoom, I was not expecting that. Explains the schedule more now.
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Jun 15, 2021 17:13
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So just a trip report for those who can't watch right now because they have lives, but the kids are all at home, occasionally a studio if they're sponsored by a TV station or whatever, and have to hold their hands up for the camera. Feels like you'd more safeguards against cheating than that, maybe the camera operator is from the spelling bee? Dunno. Thing I like is they're complimenting these kids when they miss before going, a nice touch since it's done more or less in isolation without any support from the fellow spellers or anything like that.
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Jun 15, 2021 17:39
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I didn't catch any of the semifinals so I have no idea how differently it was formatted compared to the stuff I was seeing. Tomorrow's the finals and I recognize none of the spellers from any previous competitions, which is to be expected when a year passes. I will probably be recording something for a podcast during the time it's on (unfortunately) but I might try and watch it somehow during that. If the Suns are beating the Bucks' rear end badly enough, you could do worse than tune to ESPN 2 and watch middle schoolers try to tie each other as 12-way cochampions of spelling.
Probably Magic fucked around with this message at 03:46 on Jul 8, 2021 |
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Jul 8, 2021 03:41
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 04:11 |
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Zaila Avant-Garde is a pretty rocking name.
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Jul 9, 2021 03:19
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