For Mattea Roach on Jeopardy It Was 23...And Then, Not Me

 

 

On Thursday night, it looked like Mattea Roach’s had finally run out on Jeopardy. She spent almost the entire game in second place behind Sarah Snider and was in a distant second when Final Jeopardy happened. When she wrote down her response for Final Jeopardy, she added in parentheses: “If this is it, thanks for the fun!) But the fun didn’t end as inexplicably Sarah didn’t know the answer to a seemingly easy reference to Citizen Kane and in shock, Mattea’s streak continued.

But perhaps the writing was on the wall. It didn’t seem that way for much of the Jeopardy round when she held a considerable lead. Then near the end Danielle Mauer risked everything on a Daily Double in INTERNATIONAL COMPUTER GLOSSARY and made it work for her. She closed the gap considerably. Mattea did what she did so often in Double Jeopardy; she built a commanding lead early. But late in Double Jeopardy Danielle, in a distant second bet $5000 on a Daily Double in 4 ‘N’ and at the last possible second came up with a correct response to a clue referring to the Annunciation, taking a potential runaway game away from Mattea. When Double Jeopardy ended: Mattea led with $19,200 to Danielle’s $11,400: a large but not insurmountable lead.

The Final Jeopardy category was a very broad one: USA and the clue was not an easy one: “These 2 mayors gave their names to a facility built on the site of an old race track owned by Coca-Cola magnate Asa Candler. Danielle is a resident of Peachtree Corners, Georgia: The correct response was, which she knew, was “Who are Hartsfield and Jackson?” (the namesakes of the Atlanta airport.) As Ken would say: “For a Georgia native, maybe not so hard, but remember these clues are written months in advance and assigned randomly (without knowing who the contestants are). Mattea knew that better than most contestants. Just three days earlier, the Toronto native had done very well on a clue that happened to refer to ‘O Canada!” But Final Jeopardy giveth as much as takes away. Mattea didn’t know the correct response. Her guess was: “What are Churchill and Downs?” (idk). She wagered $3601, which brought her down to $15,599, exactly one dollar less that Danielle’s total after Final Jeopardy. Danielle could not stop laughing as she won $15,600 and more importantly became known as the Jeopardy champion who had dethroned Mattea Roach, the winner of the past 23 games and $560,983.

It is a testament to the quality of play in the thirty-eighth season of Jeopardy that both of these totals were only the third highest number achieved by a Jeopardy champion this season. Matt Amodio and Amy Schneider had won 38 and 40 games respectively with both winning within the $1.5 million range. And while Mattea Roach may be the fifth winningest player in Jeopardy history in terms of both games won and money won, compared to the four players ahead of her, Mattea doesn’t even come close to them in comparison to those four ahead of her. A simple chart will suffice:

AT 23 GAMES

Matt Amodio: $825,401

Amy Schneider: $855,600

James Holzhauer: $1, 780,237

Ken Jennings:  $755,360

 

(On a side note, I was rather stunned to see that the three players directly behind Jennings in games won all were winning money at a much higher rate then him. Jennings was far more conservative in his wagers in Final Jeopardy and he did get quite a few wrong along the way.)

Mattea’s score while impressive is far more a factor of her betting conservatively on Daily Doubles and not having nearly as big a lead when Final Jeopardy came. In her 23 games, Mattea managed to runaway with thirteen of them. That’s an impressive number by anyone, including most Jeopardy players. But compare that to the four players ahead of her on the list by this point in their runs:

 

Ken Jennings: 18 Runaways

James Holzhauer: 21 Runaways

Matt Amodio: 19 Runaways

Amy Schneider: 18 Runaways

 

Now I’m not trying to diminish Mattea’s accomplishment by any measure – she is clearly one of the greatest Jeopardy players in history. But as anyone who has spent a long time watching the show, it is clear that her level of greatness is more in line with many of the players she just surpassed earlier this week. I mentioned in an article about this being peak Jeopardy that Mattea does compare much more favorably with the other two players who won nineteen games, David Madden in 2005 and Jason Zuffranieri in 2019 and Julia Collins who won 20 games in 2014. Another chart will show how well she compares with that group in terms of money won and games won by runaway:

 

 

Mattea Roach: $460,184 – 13 Runaways

David Madden: $430,400 – 11 Runaways

Julia Collins: $428,100 – 13 Runaways

Jason Zuffranieri: $532. 496 – 14 runaways

 

All things considered, this isn’t bad company to be a part of. And to be listed among the ten winningest Jeopardy players of all time (Matt Jackson and Austin Rogers each won thirteen games and just over $410,000 for both of them) its impressive company to be in by any measure.

Now comes the obvious question: whither the Tournament of Champions? As someone who has spent his life watching these tournaments, I can tell you firsthand that just because you win the most money in a season doesn’t mean you necessarily win that Tournament, and that’s before you consider that two of Mattea’s fellow competitors are going to be Matt Amodio and Amy Schneider. What I’m relatively sure of that Mattea, much like the show itself, has a great future of her ahead in Jeopardy. At only 23, she has a lot of tournaments to look forward to (given the show’s history, it is more than likely that there will be one for the fortieth anniversary of Jeopardy less than two years down the road. And given how entertaining a personality she is to watch behind the podium even before she plays the game, she’s already become one of the most popular players of all time. I can’t wait to see what she accomplishes in the years to come.