Can you name the Bavarian city located on the Danube that was the legislative seat of the Holy Roman Empire from 1663 to 1806? If not—and don’t blame yourself for not knowing that off the top of your head—then you too would have lost today’s National Geographic Bee.

Rahul Nagvekar, a 14-year old from Texas, won the bee after dominating the first 14 rounds of the competition and making it through three tie-breaking questions against three-time finalist Vansh Jain from Wisconsin. Beyond geographic bragging rights, Nagvekar walked away from today’s bee with a $25,000 college scholarship, a fully paid trip to the Galapagos Islands and the chance to travel to Russia next year for the International National Geographic Bee.

Today’s 10 finalists worked their way through harrowing elimination rounds that started with four million kids nationwide and ended with 54 fifth- to eight-graders representing the U.S. states and territories that traveled to D.C. this week. On Tuesday, all contestants participated in preliminary rounds for the few spots in today’s Alex Trebek-hosted grand finale.

Matthew Wilson, our D.C. representative, was eliminated early on the the preliminary rounds, but Adam Rusak, a 13-year-old from Gaithersburg, made it to today’s finals. He didn’t last long, though, falling early in the contest under a barrage of difficult questions—including one posed via video by President Barack Obama. (The Nuclear Security Summit took place in what Asian capital located on the Han River? The answer was Seoul.)

Nagvekar, an eighth-grader from outside Houston, all but dominated the initial rounds, scoring 33 points to Jain’s 29. They managed to make it through all five championship questions and three tiebreakers before Nagvekar could claim victory. (Sample question: What city is a major transportation hub due to its location near the Caledonian Canal and the head of the Moray Firth? It’s Inverness, duh.) California’s Varun Mahadevan took third place, and Arizona’s Raghav Range claimed fourth.

It was Regensburg, by the way. Don’t pretend you knew that.

The National Geographic Bee 2012 airs tonight [Thursday, May 24] at 8 p.m. ET/PT on the National Geographic Channel and Nat Geo WILD.