Even with some odd pronunciations, the co-champions of the 2015 Scripps National Spelling Bee proved they really are the best.
Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel challenged Vanya Shivashankar and Gokul Venkatachalam to a live spelling contest on "Jimmy Kimmel Live." Watch the video here and see what words tested the three.
Shivashankar and Venkatachalam won the Bee on May 29, 2015 in New Harbor, Maryland. The event was televised on the ESPN network.
Fans of the event played along via a new mobile app called Buzzworthy.
Shivashankar, 13, is from Olathe, Kansas. Venkatachalam, 14, is from St. Louis, Missouri. This is the second year in a row there were co-champions of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Gokul got the last word in the national event — "nunatak."
"Their command of the language and ability to defeat the language is beyond what we could imagine," said Rich Boehne, CEO of the E.W. Scripps Company.
The Bee championship finals rapidly boiled down to two experienced spellers who were both in their last year of eligibility. There weren't enough words on the list to separate them.
The championship list contains 25, with many drawing gasps. Shivashankar's last word was "scherenschnitte."
This was her fifth and final chance to win.
