Into the jaws of death – or
at least elimination – rode the super-champions of Jeopardy. Matt Amodio, Amy Schneider,
and Mattea Roach have been waiting in the wings as the quarterfinal matches
involving the eighteen ‘other’ Jeopardy champions in the post-Trebek era fought
it out to fight them in this week’s semi-finals. They were given an exhibition
game and then went in to fight for a spot in the $250,000 final – or as all
three of them would no doubt consider it, petty cash.
How did it end up going? If
your only exposure to Jeopardy was the last year, you might be stunned. If like
me, you’ve been watching the show for years, if not decades, then the results
of the last three days – well, you’d still be stunned, but not as much as other
people. How did it play out? To paraphrase a sportscaster long since gone,
let’s go to the recap.
Semi-Final Game 1: Amy
Schneider vs. Maureen O’Neil vs. Tyler Rhode
Early in the Jeopardy round
it looked like we might be in for a Battle Royale: Tyler and Amy spent much of
the first half splitting clues, with Maureen unable to ring in at all. (Maureen
kept her sense of humor: when Ken said before the Final Jeopardy answers were
revealed that Maureen had trouble with the buzzer today, she told him: “You
keep telling yourself that.” But when a response by Tyler added an extra ‘d’ to
Titus Andronicus, he would lose $2000 and drop behind Amy. He never regained the ground. Late in the
Jeopardy round, Amy found the Daily Double, went over the $10,000 mark, and
never quite looked back.
To be fair Double Jeopardy
didn’t go well for anybody: there were a lot of clues left unanswered and
gotten wrong. But Amy maintained her lead throughout and when she found the
second Daily Double with just four clues left she ensured she would have a
runaway game. It was a narrow margin – she finished with $19,600 to Tyler’s
$7000, but a runaway is a runaway.
The Final Jeopardy category
was CONTEMPORARY AUTHORS. “A trip to El Paso with his young son and wonder what
the city might look like years in the future inspired a novel by this author.”
Both Amy and Tyler knew the correct answer: “Who is Cormac McCarthy?” (That is
apparently how he came up with the idea for his dystopian novel The Road.)
Amy was the only person who bet anything, even though she didn’t have too, and
she became the first finalist.
Semi-Final Match 2: Matt
Amodio vs. John Focht vs. Sam Buttrey
Matt had struggled the most
of the three super-champions in the exhibition game as I wrote in Wednesday's
article. He didn’t struggle in this game exactly. The problem was for him John
and Sam had won in runaways in their quarterfinal matches and they were as good
as he was.
All three players started
out well in the Jeopardy round and were evenly matched all the way through.
When it ended, Sam in first was only $600 ahead of Matt in third, with $4600 to
his $4000. John was just ahead of him with $4200.
Matt came out swinging in
Double Jeopardy, finding the first Daily Double on the first clue of the round
in LORE OF THE LAND. As has been his want, he bet everything: “The feathers of
this creature of Russian legend that lent its name to a ballet were said to
provide beauty and protection to the earth.” It took him a long time to come up
with firebird, but he leaped into the lead. Unfortunately for him, it didn’t
last long. Sam got three of the next four clues correct, found the second Daily
Double in SCIENCE TRIOS, and knowing full well what he was up against, bet
$6000.
“Of the three main sections
of an insect’s body, this one is from the Latin for ‘breastplate’. It took him a while but he did come up with
thorax and built an edge with $14,600.
Matt did not surrender.
Neither did John. All three players were on point in Double Jeopardy, not
missing a single clue and with a grand total of three incorrect answers between
them. The scores were very impressive at the end of Double Jeopardy: Sam led
with $23,000, Matt was next with $16,800; John was very much alive with
$12,600.
It came down to Final
Jeopardy. The category was GEOGRAPHIC PAIRS. Geography is one of those
categories Matt has been historically strong in. The clue was tricky: “By
ferry, the distance between these 2 paired Mediterranean islands is about 40
miles from Alcudia to Ciutadella.” All three players knew the correct response:
“What is Majorca and Minorca? (They are also known, respectively, as Mallorca
and Menorca: all three responses contained one of the variations on those
responses. It came down to wagers: John bet $11,400, putting him at $24,000.
Matt was conservative and bet nothing. But even if he had bet everything, it
would not have changed the outcome: Sam bet $10,601, which put him at $33,601
enough to have beaten Matt by one dollar had he done so. Sam Buttrey, winner of
the first Professors Tournament, had defeated the player who had won the third
most game and the third highest amount of money in Jeopardy history. Like I
said: when trying to predict Jeopardy Tournaments of Champions, you don’t know
nothing.
Semi-Final Game #3:Mattea
Roach vs. Eric Ahasic vs. Andrew He
Exhibit two. Given how well
Mattea performed in the exhibition match, you would have thought she would have
a fairly easy victory. But almost from the start of the Jeopardy round, it
seemed that things were not going to go her way.
The round was fairly even
between all three players. By the end of it, Eric was in the lead with $5400 to
Mattea’s $4000 and Andrew’s $3400. Then very early in Double Jeopardy, Andrew
took over.
He got the first two clues
correct, then found the first Daily Double in WORLD LEADERS. He bet the $7000
he had. “After helping to establish this as an independent country, Eduard
Sheverdnadze became its president in 1995.” He knew it was Georgia and leapt to
a huge lead with $14,000.
Then he got the next two clues
correct. Mattea got the $1600 in CARATS wrong, which led to Andrew finding the other
Daily Double. He had a big lead with $16,800:
Andrew: “All of it.”
(Audience gasps)
Ken: Did not think you were
going to say that.
The category was ELEGIES. “1855’s
‘Haworth Churchyard’ was Matthew Arnold’s tribute to these literary sisters,
written soon after the last one passed.” He knew it referred to the Bronte sisters
and went up to $33,600. Even Mattea and Eric applauded him, though it had
essentially sealed their fates.
Neither player surrendered,
particularly not Eric. He would finish Double Jeopardy with $17,000. And Andrew
wouldn’t make much progress from that point on. But after the second Daily
Double, it was all over but the shouting: Andrew finished with $39,200 to Eric’s
$17,000 and Mattea’s $7200.
Final Jeopardy dealt with
LONDON LOCALES. “To fight malaria, this former royal estate helped move quinine
producing cinchona plants from South America to India.” None of the three
players could even come up with a guess.
The clue referred to Kew Gardens, where the Royal Botanical Gardens
were. It made little difference in the scores, and Andrew became the third and
last finalist.
Semi-Final Analysis
So what takeaways should we
make from these games. For the umpteenth time, it’s that winning a lot of games
on Jeopardy is no guarantee that you will even make it to the finals of the
Tournament of Champions. There are now thirteen players in Jeopardy who have
won ten or more games on the show. Amy Schneider is only the fifth to have made
it to the Finals of the Tournament of Champions they qualified for. (Ken
Jennings never played in a Tournament of Champions.) Of the other four, only
one – James Holzhauer has managed to win the Tournament of Champions. And he
very well could have lost to Emma Boettcher, his arch-nemesis. Julia Collins
and Arthur Chu, who won 20 and eleven games respectively, were both defeated by
Ben Ingram in the 2014 Tournament of Champions. Austin Rogers lost his final to
Buzzy Cohen in 2017. Winning a large number of games doesn’t mean you make it
to the grand prize.
And it’s not like Amy Schneider’s
opponents haven’t proven themselves to be formidable. Andrew He ‘s semi-final
win marks the second time in this tournament that he has defeated a double-digit
winner. (He narrowly defeated Jonathan Fisher in his quarter-final appearance.
Furthermore, if you’ve been paying attention, you might know that Andrew’s original
run was ended…by Amy Schneider. Could Amy defeat him again? No question. Will
Andrew be even more motivated to win? I have little doubt.
As for Sam Buttrey, in addition
to having beaten Matt Amodio, right now he is something no other Jeopardy
player in history is undefeated. He didn’t lose a game while winning the Professors
Tournament and he’s managed three runaway victories in the six games he’s won.
We would be a fool to count him out.
The Finals begin on Monday. Be
ready for anything. I already am.
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