Teen Texter, Kate Moore Wins $50,000 While PAW > Zippity Split in 60 Seconds

By Editor Wireless and Mobile News on June 17, 2009 1:43 PM

The third annual LG U.S. National Texting Championship, concluded with 15-year-old Kate Moore from Des Moines, Iowa as the winner. Moore, won the title of the LG U.S. National Texting Champion, along with $50,000 in prize money by texting on an LG enV3.

The winning phrase was "Zippity Dooo Dahh Zippity Ayy ... My oh MY, what a wonderful day! Plenty of sunshine Comin' my way ... ZippittyDooDahZippityAay! WondeRful feeling, Wonderful day!" which Moore completed flawlessly in less than 60 seconds. The contestants used the new LG enV3 phone, the newest edition in the enV family, which features a full QWERTY keypad.

"When I heard the final phrase, I got so nervous and thought how can I finish that!" said winner Moore. "But apparently, my thumbs are faster than everyone else's! I'm so excited to be this year's champion."

Kate told AP:

"Let your kid text during dinner! Let your kid text during school! It pays off .Your kid could win money and publicity and a phone."

More frequently sent 4,000 texts-per-month, eight months after she got her first cell phone.

Moore won the title of texting championship after beating step sisters Erin Fink, 15, and Morgan Dynda, 14, both from Pooler, GA. The two sisters and best friends drew gasps from the crowd as they went head to head in a semi-final texting showdown in which Dynda came out on top, placing her in the final round where she competed against Moore.

After Dynda won the first battle of the three round finals, Moore began to tear up. The level of stress increased and the battle became more dramatic. However, Moore remained strong and won the second round. With the final round important to both girls, the one to flawlessly complete the final phrase, fastest, was Moore. When the judges declared Moore the winner, the crowed erupted in cheers as confetti fell to the floor. Moore's mom, in the audience, put her hands to her face and looked shocked as she watched her daughter win the competition and grand prize of $50,000.

The third annual LG U.S. National Championship took place over two days, with the final round and crowning of the winner in New York on June 16, 2009 at the NEP Studios. During the competition, players competed in various challenges, including Text Attack, Blind Texting, Pressure Cooker, and Text and Dodge. In each challenge, the contestants were typing in phrases on their LG enV3's exactly as they appeared on the overhead LG plasma screens with no typos or abbreviations, ultimately trying to be quicker than their opponents. An additional challenge included Text to Speak where contestants quickly decoded everyday text abbreviations into phrases.

All three contestants were stumped by the acronym PAW (Parents Are Watching). This challenge supports another LG initiative, LG DTXTR, which provides an online tool for decoding text abbreviations. PAW is one of more than 2,000 acronyms currently on the site, which is an ever-expanding glossary where users can enter their own texting abbreviations to be included for others to learn.

Following national preliminary rounds that included more than 250,000 participants, the competition started off with 22 contestants who went through a "Sudden Death" round, resulting in 6 contestants that endured the various challenges to try and accumulate the most points for their texting skills. The three top contestants with the most points following the challenges competed in a final qualifying round. The top two contestants then fought to be crowned the LG U.S. National Texting Champion in the traditional style of the competition, a speed tournament.