Bill Medina didn't expect to walk out of the Cottonwood Mall food court with a $10,000 scholarship.
The 16-year-old West Mesa High School junior won GSN's "Word Slam," a scholarship competition held Saturday.
"I'm really excited," Medina said, holding up a giant check. "I never thought I could win."
GSN, formerly the Game Show Network, has been conducting this tournament for three years, said Joel Chiodi, vice president of marketing and promotions.
"This is our second time in Albuquerque," he said. "We're thrilled to be here. We love it here."
The game show was taped for broadcast and will be aired in September or October, Chiodi said.
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"We plan on going deeper into the lives of the contestants a little bit," he said. "We'll be interviewing family members and filming them in their homes."
Evan Anderson, a 17-year-old Monzano High School student, won the first round of semifinals to compete against Medina. He beat out dozens of contestants to get that far but met his match in Medina.
"I'm not too upset," Anderson said after he lost the final round. "I came here and didn't expect to get anywhere. But I did get a crazy backpack. So that's cool."
In the final game, contestants were given a short word and using a clue, came up with a larger word that contained it.
The final question had Medina and Anderson looking at the word "ham." The clue was about to small lizards. Medina buzzed in first with the answer: chameleon.
"That was pretty hard," Anderson said. "I have a chameleon at home. I should have gotten that one."
Hundreds of people poured into the food court to register to play the game. The event lasted almost four hours.
Chiodi said he was happy with the turnout.
"It's always a great crowd here," he said. "And they stayed for the whole time, which is always good."
Albuquerque is the first stop on the 11-city tour, which was apparent because of technical difficulties. Words displayed on the contestant's screens would sometimes take longer than usual to appear, and buzzers would go off unexpectedly.
Kimberly Locke, third-runner-up of the second season of "American Idol," hosted the competition. At one point during a vocabulary game, she ran out of questions for the contestants.
"This is our first city," she told the crowd. "There's going to be some glitches."
Her debut album, One Love, abruptly began blaring through the food court, while the contestants waited on stage. The problem didn't take long to fix, and the show went on.
Chiodi said game shows are heavily edited, leaving room for errors.
"That's pretty common," he said. "There will always be a glitch here and there."
Chiodi said the money Medina won will go into a Bank of America higher education savings account.
Medina said he wants to go to UNM and play sports. As for Anderson, he said he still plans on going to UNM regardless of losing the scholarship money. He said he was glad the stressful situation was over.
"Now it's time for a cigarette," he said.
