After nearly a month of fast action finger fury, LG Electronics MobilComm USA announced that 20-year-old Nathan Schwartz is the winner of the second annual National Texting Championship.

The Clyde, OH resident correctly texted the winning phrase, "Does everybody here know the alphabet? Let's text. Here it goes ... AbcDeFghiJKlmNoPQrStuvWXy & Z! Now I know my A-B-C's, next time won't you text with me?" in just 60 seconds.

LG's National Texting Championship, which challenged America's fastest fingers in a text-off, came to a close in New York, July 7. More than 15,000 text-message enthusiasts risked carpal tunnel to win the $50,000 prize and the title of America's fastest texter.

The contest began June 9 with the Regional Qualifiers and ended July 7 with the final texting show down at the Roseland Ballroom in New York. Winners of the first round advanced to the National Online Texting Competition June 18, after which winners competed in the SMS Wild Card Challenge June 19-25.

The fourth round was broadcasted as a two-minute television micro-event on MTV's "A Shot at Love 2: Happy Hour." Finally, winners of those rounds came together in an LG venue to compete in the ultimate installment of the competition.

The National Championship was open only to the 2007 LG National Texting Champion, the LG New York Text Challenge Qualifying Event Champion, the seven LG Regional Qualifying Texting Champions, the LG National Texting Online/LG Wild Card Champion and the two MTV Qualifiers.

The qualifiers were organized into three groups of four, with one winner from each group. Each group was given a unique number and a referee. The National Championship rounds were played using any LG phone that featured full QWERTY keypads such as the enV2, enV and Voyager.

When cued, participants placed their closed handsets on a set mark, and then stood with hands folded behind their backs. A 00:00:10 countdown appeared on the screens in front of them.

When the countdown reached zero, a horn sounded and a phrase appeared on the LG plasma screens. Participants then opened their handsets and texted the phrase to the designated referee's phone. The first correct text message received by the referee was deemed the winner, who then proceeded to compete in the next round.

Three heart-pounding rounds later, America finally found its texting champion.