Canadian teen Scrabble champions defeat Jimmy Kimmel in style

Yahoo News Daily Brew: Canadian teen Scrabble champions defeat Jimmy Kimmel in style
Canadians are known for their sportsmanship and it was on full display last night in a Scrabble duel between two Toronto teens and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.

Every year, Kimmel challenges the winners of the National School Scrabble Championship to a match on his TV show. This year, the winners were Scarborough Grade 8 students Alex Li and Jackson Smylie.

Kimmel lost last year's duel, so the Canadians entered the game by telling the late-night host he shouldn't be "overly confident."

The comedian soon got his payback in a series of questions about how a couple of Canadians managed to get into an American National Championship.

The Canadian teens let their game speak for itself, throwing down "pointer" for 90 points.

Kimmel responded quickly with a seven-letter word of his own: "phasing" for 84 points. Living up to the Canadian reputation for politeness, Smylie noticed an error and corrected Kimmel's score to 92.

It was of little consequence though, as the Canadians laid down the questionable "zowie" for 58 points. After Kimmel lamented their use of the "zee" tile, Li jokingly asked, "Sorry, what's a zee?" in reference to the difference between U.S. and Canadian pronunciations.

After a few more words, the Canadians stood just nine points from defeating Kimmel (they agreed to play a shortened game to 200). After placing "jager" for the win, Kimmel challenged the word but was overruled by the official Scrabble dictionary. Final score: 249-155.

Asked what they would do with their prize money (they won $10,000 in the tournament), Smylie indicated they might buy some iPads in addition to making investments. Kimmel proved to be every bit as polite as the Canadians, presenting the two of them with free iPads.