After coming in as runner-up during last year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee and bungling an earlier chance to win on Thursday night, Faizan Zaki was given a word that, if spelled correctly, would let him finally win it all: “éclaircissement.”

He smiled and, without hesitation, stated each letter easily, then collapsed on the floor amid a shower of confetti. The 13-year-old of Plano, Texas, didn’t even need to ask for the word’s meaning, “a clearing up of something obscure.”

The stunning win capped a surprising run that took down six finalists and momentarily left the bee’s winner in doubt.

Here are five takeaways from the competition.

The nine finalists were unflappable.

None of the nine finalists were eliminated in the first round as they easily tackled words like “isopag,” “ethology” and “Politique.” The vocabulary round took out the first finalist, Akshaj Somisetty, 13, of Harrisburg, Pa., after he incorrectly defined “imbroglio.”

In the third round, Esha Marupudi, 13, of Phoenix, was eliminated after misspelling “aromorphosis,” and Oliver Halkett, 13, of Los Angeles, was out after struggling with the word “aurore.”