Well, the million to one shot
didn’t pay off. But not for lack of trying.
Last night, I basically said
that Rowan Ward was on their way to the Tournament of Champions after finishing
Game 1 of the Final with $30,000, more than $25,000 than their nearest opponent.
Until the very end of Game 2, there was an excellent chance that I was going to
have spend this article eating even more crow. Because Jack Weller spent all of
that time making it look like the impossible was going to happen.
Rowan did what they had done
in Game 1 and got off to a fast start, but unlike in Game 1 their opponents
were determined not to go quietly. Jack managed to get to the Daily Double in
the Jeopardy round ahead of them – something no one had managed in Game 1.
Knowing what he was up against, he bet $1800 in the category FROM THE LATIN:
“This 9-letter word for the
sacred writings of the Bible is from the Latin for ‘to write’.
Jack knew it was scripture and
doubled his score. Rowan managed to
overtake him late in the Jeopardy round, but unlike last night, when it ended
their lead was anything but insurmountable. Rowan had $6800, just $2000 more
than James. Sadie had $2600.
A critical moment came early
in Double Jeopardy. On the second clue of the round in MYTH-POURRI, Rowan got a
$1600 clue wrong and James got it right. He went back into the lead with $7600
and far more importantly found the first Daily Double on the next clue of the
round in that category. He went big:
$7000.
“Allecto, or ‘unceasing in
anger’, was one of the 3 vengeance goddesses really living up to this
collective name.” Hew knew they were the Furies and widened his lead to
$14,600. For the rest of Double Jeopardy Rowan was chasing him but couldn’t
catch him. The closest they ever game to narrowing the gap was when Rowan found
the other Daily Double in DAYS OF YORE and bet the $6400 that they had:
“In 1429 Charles VII granted
nobility, arms and the surname du Lys to her family.”
Rowan knew it was Joan of Arc
and went up to $13,600 to Jack’s $18,200. That was as close as Rowan would get
to him. Rowan actually got far more correct answers than Jack – 27 to his 18 –
but Jack didn’t make a single mistake, and perhaps more importantly five of his
correct answers were $2000 clues. By the time Double Jeopardy was over, Jack
was in the lead with $29,400 to Rowan’s $20,000. (Sadie had the misfortune of
being caught between these two buzzsaws and had only $5000. If Jack could get
Final Jeopardy right and Rowan erred, he could very well pull off one of the biggest
comebacks in Jeopardy history.
The Final Jeopardy category
was the deceptively easy sounding ARTISTS. The clue was very tough: “Sabena
Airlines commissioned a painting by this artist, “L’Ouiseau de Ciel”, a bird
whose body is filled with clouds in a blue sky.” All three players guessed
Picasso, which was the wrong response. The correct one was Rene Magritte. (Sabena
is the National Airline of Belgium and Magritte is a famous Belgian surrealist.) Jack by necessity wagered everything and
Rowan ended up betting $12,201 (which would have been enough to beat Jack by
one dollar had both of them been correct). As a result, Rowan still emerged the
victor but they clearly knew how close they had cut it: Rowan was
understandably emotional by the end.
It's hard to argue the Second
Chance didn’t provide exactly what Jeopardy looks for in any tournament: great play
memorable games and exciting finals, both of which (for completely different
reasons) came down to the last moments in Final Jeopardy. There were exciting
close games and runaway games. There were fascinating personalities and
breakout stars. There were tough Finals and categories which showed immense amounts
of humor by the writers, occasionally poking fun at the contestants and the nature
of the Tournament. (In the last Double Jeopardy round of tonight’s game, there
was a category called ‘SECOND’ CHANCES.) In short, it was everything you hope a
Jeopardy tournament will be and if you are lucky, sometimes actually get.
I’m still not a hundred
percent sure that this can be the kind of thing that is done every year. Jeopardy had to go through what amounted to
two seasons of games to find these particular eighteen contestants and as I
mentioned in an earlier article, they were really stretching the definition of
the term. (I grant you a lot of them earned it; it does not change that
underlying fact.) And it’s hard to imagine another scenario like this coming up
in time for the next Tournament of Champions which the show’s producers still
think will happen some time in the next season. But all of that considered, it’s
hard to argue that the Second Chance Tournament did not provide exactly what it
set out to at the beginning: it gave players who they thought deserved another
chance on Jeopardy one, and most of them more than demonstrated that
they earned it. You really can’t ask for much more than that.
Tomorrow, I will give you my
preview for the 2022 Tournament of Champions which begins Monday. I’ll refresh your memory on the players, give
you the lay out and get you prepared. Spoiler: given the results of this
tournament, Matt Amodio in particular might be in for more than he bargained
for.
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