a particular subject, and the first team to buzz in was given the selection. If one of the teammates chose the right plate, the other was given ten seconds to try and decipher it. If not, the other team was given ten seconds to see if they could solve. If the team that buzzed in first did not choose the correct plate, the other team got first crack at solving the plate and both teammates could offer guesses. Once a team correctly deciphered a plate, they were given a choice of one of the blank spaces to fill and, once it was, five seconds to guess. If all seven spaces were filled and the team that filled the last one could not solve the Super Stumper, the opposing team was given one last chance to solve. If it was still unsolved after that, a speed-up round was played with a new Super Stumper. Control started with the team that gave the last correct answer, and they chose a space and were given five seconds. If they could not solve, the other team chose its own space to fill. The teams took turns filling in the blanks until one of them solved the Super Stumper. The first team to solve two Super Stumpers won the game and , and advanced to the bonus round for a chance to win more money. Originally, solving a Super Stumper won the team that did so and the right to play the bonus round. If a Super Stumper went unsolved, the next one was played for an additional , and play continued in this manner until a Super Stumper was solved. Also, the team who correctly buzzed in first was able to play or pass; this was dropped relatively early in the run after many more contestants elected to play. Plates The writers on Bumper Stumpers had various methods they used to relay the necessary information to lead the contestants to the identity of the subject owning the plate. For instance, a plate belonging to swashbucklers might read PYR88, with the solution being "pirates" ("pyr" + "eights"). Another plate belonging to Bill Cosby might read IIPI, with the solution being his television series I Spy ("Is" + "pi"). In both these cases, pairs of letters and numbers are read as plurals instead of “eighty-eight” or “eye-eye”. This was the case in most uses of pairs,