Two of the choices on this list are among the best of all time. Two are here because they managed to beat one of the people on this list. The last slightly violates my own rules, but I have my reasons.
Alan Lin
The 2017 Tournament of Champions had some truly extraordinary players – Buzzy Cohen and Seth Wilson were among the most successful, but there were quite a few other very good ones, among them Andrew Pau who I mentioned in passing in Buzzy’s entry and Lisa Schlitt who managed to win six games and over $140,000. By comparison Alan Lin’s track record was less so – he won six games but ‘only’ $125,600.
But when he got the Tournament of Champions he showed what he was made of. He managed to utterly smoke Austin Rogers’ (we’ll get to him, believe me) when they met in his quarterfinal. In his semi-final match, up against Pranjal Vachaspati (another six game winner who won more than him) he managed a narrow victory. Then came the finals when he, Buzzy Cohen and Austin Rogers’ clowned around in the introductions and were deadly serious in the match.
In games that featured tough Final Jeopardy’s, Alan managed to get through Game 1 in first place. When Buzzy went all in on a Daily Double late in Game 2 and made it work, Alan was inclined to do the same and it did not. The fact that he managed to emerge from the chaos in second place with $100,000 is remarkable.
In the All-Star Games less than two years later, he was drafted by Colby Burnett to play on his team utterly determined ‘to crush Buzzy Cohen’. While he could not do that in the one round they competed against each other, Alan did earn a certain amount of vengeance when Colby’s Team managed to beat both Team Buzzy and Team Austin to go to the Finals. Of course, they then had to face off against teams led by Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, which was a massacre, though none of that could be blamed on Alan who played well in both games. He would share in a prize of $100,000.
Alan will be invited back for the next tournament as surely as Buzzy and Austin will be. The question is will he clown around there, and will he finally be able to achieve his goal of defeating Buzzy in the process?
Lilly Chin
I am putting Lilly Chin on this list for several reasons. First I believe we need some decent College Champions in this tournament and while there are some very good options, Lilly stands out.
In the 2017 College Championship representing MIT, she played superbly in her quarterfinal and semi-final match, coming from behind in the Final. She played on an even keel throughout game 1 of the Final and blew her opponents away in Game 2. Of course, she is known far less for that then her response in the Final Jeopardy of Game 2 when for her response she wrote down: “Who is the spiciest memelord?” She still won in a walk.
Competing in the Tournament of Champions that November, her play was superb. Competing against Jason Sterlacci, that year’s Teachers Tournament and Tim Aten, who’d won seven games she managed to stay even the whole match, finishing with a respectable third and qualifying for a wildcard. Then in the semi-final, she had the misfortune of drawing Austin Rogers and Andrew Pau and managed to play evenly with both of them throughout the Jeopardy round and coming within an eyelash of taking the lead on a Daily Double late in Double Jeopardy. But her luck ran out and she finished with $10,000. She was selected as an alternate for the Jeopardy All-Star Games and in my opinion was a better selection than at least three of the draftees, including another College Champion Monica Thieu.
I’m not saying that I wouldn’t object to having Monica in this tournament; if there was a way to find room for both I’d have no problem. But if we have to only take one, I’d rather go for the spiciest memelord and the better player.
Austin Rogers
Austin is one of the most recognized Jeopardy players in history, known for his gestures and wild gesticulations at the introductions of his games. Lost in this, perhaps, is the fact that he is also one of the greatest players in history as well as one of the most entertaining.
When Austin had his run in the fall of 2017, he put together one of the most impressive streaks in Jeopardy history. His twelve wins were at the time in the top ten and his total of $411,000 was the sixth highest amount of money won by a Jeopardy Champion to that point in history. Twice he managed to win more than $65,000, something that no player in Jeopardy history to that point – not even Ken Jennings – had ever done. This is no doubt lost in recent years with so many extended winning streaks but Austin was impressive behind the podium.
Like so many double-digit winners, Austin struggled in the Tournament of Champions. Alan Lin defeated him soundly in his quarterfinal and he qualified only via wild-card. He was being hammered by Andrew Pau in his semi-final match until Andrew bet big on a Daily Double and it went against him. Even then, Austin only narrowly won. And throughout the Finals, his play was all over the place: he only managed to go into game 1 in the lead because everybody got Final Jeopardy wrong and though he had a slim chance of winning late in Game 2, that Final was also tough and he finished in third place with $50,000
He was elected a team captain in the Jeopardy All-Star Games and while his choices for teammates were good, the luck was not with them. His Team had to face off against Ken’s and Ken demolished Austin in the Jeopardy round of the first game and Double Jeopardy of the second. Redemption came in the wild card game where he played superbly in the Double Jeopardy round of Game 1 but a tough Final Jeopardy sunk all boat. When Game 2 went to Final Jeopardy, he was in the position to lead his team to victory but in a Final Jeopardy no one could get right (and really, it was the easiest of the match) his team went down to defeat sharing in a $75,000 prize.
Austin’s appearance is inevitability: his totals have diminished on the record books in recent years but his aura has not. His opponents might be immune to his clowning – but not his ability.
James Holzhauer
I don’t think I really need to say anything about James Holzhauer that has already been said. When you finish this close to Ken Jennings in total money won in less than half the games, when you break the record for money won in a single game and then break your own record two days later, when just one year after your appearance you’re playing against Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings in the Greatest of All Time Tournament in Prime Time – and hand Brad Rutter his first defeat ever – when you’re so associated with game shows you’re now a vital part of another one with Brad Rutter and Buzzy Cohen, you don’t need to say anything.
There is, however, one question left. With Jennings’ retiring, does Holzhauer now officially hold the title of greatest Jeopardy player ever? Now that Matt Amodio and Amy Schneider have passed his total of games won (though nowhere near his money won) are they better than him? And will Brad Rutter want revenge on the one active player who defeated him?
Emma Boettcher
I have no use on this list for a player who’s only won three games. I didn’t want to include Michael Falk, winner of the 2006 Tournament of Champions, because he only won three games before he got there. But for Emma, I’ll make an exception. Because we all know who she beat in her first game.
Emma, in case you’ve forgotten, dethroned James Holzhauer. She won three games and just over $93,000 but that was enough to get her into the 2019 Tournament of Champions. And she managed to show her skill to end up in the Finals against – well, James Holzhauer.
What may have been forgotten in the annals of history is that Emma managed to stay close to James in the first game. And at the end of Double Jeopardy of Game 2, due to a gutsy Daily Double on her part and the rare case of a Daily Double going against Holzhauer, Emma went into Final Jeopardy not just leading James, but with the chance for the upset of the decade if she could get Final Jeopardy right and he got it wrong. She did get it right, but so did he and James would add another $250,000 to his pile of chips. Emma left with a well-deserved $100,000
I think that Emma deserves to come back if for no other possibility than to see if there’s going to be another head-to-head between them.
There will be two more entries in this series, the last covering this past season.
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