Pay to Play at the National Spelling Bee

26 May 2019, 11:13 AM

From Axios:

quote:
Elite spellers now can pay to get a spot in the iconic Scripps National Spelling Bee, The Wall Street Journal's Shalini Shankar reports (subscription):

"Until last year, winning a regional spelling bee was the only way that children from across the U.S. could be invited."
"Then, 14-year-old Karthik Nemmani won the 2018 Bee, correctly spelling the word koinonia for the championship."
"He was part of the Bee’s first-ever class of 'invited' spellers: kids who lost at regionals but whose parents agreed to pay an entry fee of $750 and fund their family’s own travel and lodging, potentially thousands of dollars."
"This new pay-to-play option, called 'RSVBee,' nearly doubled the number of young people vying for the championship to more than 500."

"For this year’s event, which takes place [this] week, Scripps has raised the fee to $1,500, getting even more takers."
Why it matters: "Now, paying contestants will outnumber those who got there the traditional way."

26 May 2019, 11:49 AM

Nina

Ugh.

Is nothing sacred?

26 May 2019, 01:28 PM

Axtremus

I am ok with this.
I don’t see why there needs to be any “qualifying round” for something like spelling. In theory all contestants can enter and compete all at the same time and the ultimate winner can be determined in one round. “Regionals” are mere artifacts of outdated logistical constraints.

26 May 2019, 02:02 PM

Cindysphinx

I’m with Nina. Rich kids have two ways to make it to nationals. Poor kids have only one.

This is not how sport and competition work. No matter how much elite prep and coaching you buy, you still have to win fair and square.

What next? Will rich kids be allowed to buy a vowel?

26 May 2019, 02:17 PM

QuirtEvans

quote:
Originally posted by Cindysphinx:
I’m with Nina. Rich kids have two ways to make it to nationals. Poor kids have only one.

This is not how sport and competition work.

Exactly. Rich kids get a second chance.

Or, alternatively, they can just skip the potential embarrassment of losing in qualifying.

This is pure vanity.

26 May 2019, 02:22 PM

Steve Miller

quote:
Originally posted by Cindysphinx:
This is not how sport and competition work. No matter how much elite prep and coaching you buy, you still have to win fair and square.

I'm not sure how true that is any more. I'm not even sure it was true in the past.

27 May 2019, 10:11 AM

Daniel

quote:
Originally posted by Cindysphinx:
I’m with Nina. Rich kids have two ways to make it to nationals. Poor kids have only one.

This is not how sport and competition work. No matter how much elite prep and coaching you buy, you still have to win fair and square.

What next? Will rich kids be allowed to buy a vowel?

31 May 2019, 06:15 AM

Axtremus

Eight (8) Co-Champions :

https://www.washingtonpost.com...tled-down-finalists/

After 20 rounds, the organizer called it quit and made all eight remaining contestants co-champions. And the 50K USD prize reserved for champions is not split -- each co-champion wins 50K USD.

292 or 565 contestants came to the national Spelling Bee through the "pay to play" method discussed earlier, but I have not been able to find out how many of these "pay to play" contestants made it as co-champions. But looking at the results, the "pay to play" program made the competition more competitive by a wide margin. Wider access indeed allowed more competent contestants into the competition.

31 May 2019, 07:13 AM

Daniel

31 May 2019, 10:31 AM

Bernard

The National Spelling Bee has lost it's integrity.

What's next? MLB announces losers in the playoffs can pay $1m for a second chance? You lost in the qualifying round at the Olympics? No problem, just pay a fee and proceed to the finals.

Sheeshus.

01 June 2019, 02:53 AM

Cindysphinx

Are the pay to play contestants equally capable? We don't know, but it doesn't matter. Expanding g the number of eligible contestants is not necessarily a good thing. The competition now takes a much longer time, and these are minors.

It's also not rewarding for those contestants. In the qualifying round, the only thing they risk if they miss a word is that their parents now have to pay.

If they are going to keep this foul system, then the regional winners should get a bye for the first few rounds. Let the rich kids slug it out. There should be a meaningful advantage for those who the right to be there.

For comparison, the US open tennis tournament has a nationwide tournament open to anyone, even me. It takes months. The winner gets a slot on the qualifying round at the open.

I think the entry fee is about $100. So if I wanted to get destroyed by an aging pro or promising junior in about 20 minutes, I could do that. I cannot, however, just show up and play the main draw because I paid $1500.

01 June 2019, 07:40 AM

jon-nyc

Although in all likelihood they’re not rich kids, they’re middle class Indian American kids who have spent 40 hours a week outside school studying for the bee and missed one in regionals.

Not quite Felicity Huffmanns daughter waltzing into USC.

But still. I agree it’s an unfortunate development.

01 June 2019, 08:18 AM

Axtremus

“For comparison, the US open tennis tournament ...”

That’s a whole different type of game entirely. With tennis, ping pong, football, chess, sepak takraw, wrestling, ... you have to directly play against another contestant to advance.

Spelling is more like track and field, swimming, cycling, weight lifting, ... you can independently measure each contestant against something objective (e.g., time, distance, weight, # of words from a predetermined set that you know how to spell). With this sort of games, qualifying rounds are mere artifacts of logistical limitations (or marketing ploy). As technology advances to let us overcome more logistical challenges, I’d rather see these qualifying rounds go away.

Length of time it requires to complete the competition? That’s also just a logistical challenge that can be improved through better technology enabling better game design. (E.g., think massively parallel spelling tests using networked computers with regularly scheduled breaks.)

The old system of requiring qualifying round winners to secure sponsorships is inefficient and not much fairer in that the ability to secure sponsorship has nothing to do with the ability to spell. Rich kids will still get better coaching/training and rich kids will still have better connections to secure sponsorships.

01 June 2019, 08:21 AM

Axtremus

quote:
Originally posted by jon-nyc:
Although in all likelihood they’re not rich kids, they’re middle class Indian American kids who have spent 40 hours a week outside school studying for the bee and missed one in regionals.

Not quite Felicity Huffmanns daughter waltzing into USC.

But still. I agree it’s an unfortunate development.

Unfortunate in what ways?