Rutvik Gandhasri, speller 189, is out.
The California eighth grader finished sixth last year, in his first Bee.
This year, he was tripped up by the word auteur, a film director who holds the view of filmmaking in which the director is considered the primary creative force in a motion picture.
Rutvik had invented a robot that mops the table, and recognizes when it gets to the edge.
He got a standing ovation as he left the stage.