Scripps National Spelling Bee 2024 Results: Winner, Finalists and Reaction

For just the second time in the history of the event, the Scripps National Spelling Bee ended with a spell-off Thursday night.

Emerging victorious was Bruhat Soma from Florida, who spelled 29 words correctly during the spell-off to narrowly beat Faizan Zaki from Texas, who spelled 20 words correctly.

In the final round of the Spelling Bee, Soma spelled "Hoofddorp" correctly while Zaki spelled "nicuri" to advance. Being the only two who spelled their words correctly, the event went into a spell-off, giving fans plenty of excitement.

Throughout the night, Soma managed to spell words with very little hesitation, including his word in the final round of the event. Merely seconds after "nicuri" was pronounced to him, he fired off the spelling like he had just read it himself.

Given Soma's no-hesitation approach, the spell-off certainly worked in his favor.

While Soma and Zaki were the last two standing on the stage, the night began with eight spellers who worked their way through the competition and into the final. The finalists included Soma, Zaki, Rishabh Saha, Shrey Parikh, Aditi Muthukumar, YY Liang, Ananya Rao Prassanna and Kirsten Santos.

By Round 14, four of the original group remained. Parikh was eliminated after spelling "kanin" incorrectly and Prassanna misspelled "murrina" and Soma and Zaki aced their words to force the spell-off.

A spell-off isn't something fans are used to seeing, but it certainly made for an exciting finish to the Bee:

While some fans were in favor of the spell-off, others think the event should have ended with a traditional round:

While the ending of this year's Spelling Bee might be controversial, there's no denying its excitement, and now Soma walks away with a $50,000 cash prize and the Scripps Cup.