Across essentially all major sports, we’ve seen replay take an expanded role in correcting mistakes — or, in MLB’s case, upholding obvious errors.
But if there’s one event that we all thought was safe from replay stoppages, it probably would be the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Well, I have some bad news because VAR has infiltrated the Spelling Bee. Yes! The Spelling Bee went to replay.
During Thursday’s finals, Roy Seligman was knocked out of the competition after replay review determined that he actually misspelled “ambystoma.” The VAR folks (I’m calling it VAR) determined that Seligman gave an “i” instead of “y,” which led to one of the roughest eliminations you’ll see in a Spelling Bee.
They have spelling bee VAR and this kid just got eliminated because of it pic.twitter.com/ahCzhi2Fjh
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) July 9, 2021
I mean, come on!
The way the judge had to soften the blow for Seligman with a bunch of compliments while delivering the bad news just goes to show how out of place replay review was in that competition. If the judges couldn’t hear the word correctly, then that’s on the judges. You can’t go back and check the tape. It’s a Spelling Bee! It’s not like you have Angel Hernandez behind the plate or something.
After audio review, the judges determined that #Speller1 Roy Seligman did misspell ambystoma. No one envies the judges on having to make these calls. Roy represented The Bahamas wonderfully tonight and throughout the competition. #SpellingBee #TheBeeIsBack
— Scripps National Spelling Bee (@ScrippsBee) July 9, 2021
You really have to feel for Seligman. I can’t imagine what the emotional rollercoaster of thinking he spelled the word correctly must have been like only to have it taken away by VAR.
He took it well, but man, that was tough to watch.
https://youtu.be/lUq6ZIhSIeg