Faizan Zaki's enthusiasm for spelling nearly got the better of him. Ultimately, his joyful approach made him the Scripps National Spelling Bee champion.
The favorite entering the bee after his runner-up finish last year — during which he never misspelled a word in a conventional spelling round, only to lose a lightning-round tiebreaker that he didn't practice for — the shaggy-haired Faizan wore the burden of expectations lightly, sauntering to the microphone in a black hoodie and spelling his words with casual glee.
Throughout Thursday night's finals, the 13-year-old from C.M. Rice Middle School in Plano, looked like a champion in waiting. Then he nearly threw it away. But even a shocking moment of overconfidence couldn't prevent him from seizing the title of best speller in the English language.
With the bee down to three spellers, Sarvadnya Kadam and Sarv Dharavane missed their words back-to-back, putting Faizan two words away from victory. The first was “commelina,” but instead of asking the requisite questions — definition, language of origin — to make sure he knew it, Faizan let his showman's instincts take over.
“K-A-M,” he said, then stopped himself. “OK, let me do this. Oh, shoot!”
“Just ring the bell,” he told head judge Mary Brooks, who obliged.
“So now you know what happens,” Brooks said, and the other two spellers returned to the stage.
Later, standing next to the trophy with confetti at his feet, Faizan said: “I'm definitely going to be having nightmares about that tonight.”
Even pronouncer Jacques Bailly tried to slow Faizan down before his winning word, “eclaircissement,” but Faizan didn't ask a single question before spelling it correctly, and he pumped his fists and collapsed to the stage after saying the final letter.
Faizan finished in second place in 2024 and returned to the Bee this year for his fourth try at the cup.
The bee celebrated its 100th anniversary this year, and Faizan may be the first champion who's remembered more for a word he got wrong than one he got right.
“I think he cared too much about his aura,” said Bruhat Soma, Faizan’s buddy who beat him in the “spell-off” tiebreaker last year.
Faizan had a more nuanced explanation: After not preparing for the spell-off last year, he overcorrected, emphasizing speed during his study sessions. He had no regrets about showing that enthusiasm, even though it nearly cost him.
“No offense to Bruhat, but I think he really took the bee a little too seriously,” Faizan said. “I decided to have fun with this bee, and I did well, and here I am.”
Those are among the hallmarks of well-coached spellers, and Faizan had three coaches: Scott Remer, Sam Evans and Sohum Sukhantankar.
“He's crazy. He's having a good time, and he's doing what he loves, which is spelling,” Evans said.
Said Zaki Anwar, Faizan's father: “He's the GOAT. I actually believe that. He's really good, man. He's been doing it for so long, and he knows the dictionary in and out.”
With the winner’s haul of $52,500 added to his second-place prize of $25,000, Faizan increased his bee earnings to $77,500. His big splurge with his winnings last year? A $1,500 Rubik’s cube with 21 squares on each side. This time, he said he’d donate a large portion of his winnings to charity.
Texas well-represented at spelling bee in 2025
Out of 243 champion spellers competing in this year's Scripps National Spelling Bee, 22 were from Texas and four were from North Texas.
The other 18 Texas children competing in the annual spelling bee are listed below. As they're eliminated, details are in parentheses after their name.
AbileneSariah Titus, 12, 7th grade (Out in Round 6, misspelled paraclete as paracleat)
AmarilloArnav Parat, 12, 7th grade (Out in Round 9, misspelled tatpurusha as tatpurasha)
AustinThevaan Butani, 11, 5th grade (Out in Round 5, misdefined flagrant)Tarini Nandakumar, 14, 8th grade (Out in Round 6, misspelled culmen as culmin)
Corpus ChristiIsaac Cancio, 14, 8th grade (Out in Round 9, misspelled choristate as christate)
DallasAvishka Dudala, 12, 7th grade (Out in Round 7, misspelled voltinism as voltonism)Faizan Zaki, 13, 7th gradeShreyansh Zadoo, 14, 8th grade (Out in Round 7, misspelled neoteny as neotini)
El PasoAnaya Tonde, 10, 4th grade (Out in Round 3, written test)
Fort WorthBrihasa Veduru, 12, 7th grade (Out in Round 10, misspelled cardueline as carduiline)
HoustonNoah White, 10, 4th grade (Out in Round 6, misspelled categorem as catagorem)Luke Nguyen, 14, 8th grade (Out in Round 3, written test)Zachary Teoh, 8, 2nd grade (Out in Round 5, misdefined manifold) Teoh was the youngest speller in the Bee.
LaredoAlejandro Martinez, 14, 8th grade (Out in Round 4, misspelled keelblock as kielblock)
LubbockMichael Tesfaye, 14, 8th grade (Out in Round 3, written test)
McAllenCaleb Giuoco, 14, 8th grade (Out in Round 6, misspelled petiole as pettiole)
MidlandShreeya Sivakumar, 14, 8th grade (Out in Round 5, misdefined dirge)
OdessaKrish Patel, 14, 8th grade (Out in Round 3, written test)
San AngeloJarah Abarquez, 14, 8th grade (Out in Round 1, misspelled Beaux arts as bozar)
San AntonioSiyonamithra Kandala, 13, 7th grade (Out in Round 9, misspelled soukous as sucuse)
VictoriaChev Diondrei Bondoc, 12, 6th grade (Out in Round 3, written test)
WacoAarav Sargurunathan, 13, 8th grade (Out in Round 3, written test)
Texas spellers, with 16 wins, have won more national bees than spellers from any other state. The last champion from Texas was Harini Logan, of San Antonio, in 2022. The last champion from North Texas was Rohan Raja, of Dallas, in 2019.