A little
Jeopardy tournament history before we begin the recap.
After the
Ultimate Tournament of Champions in 2005, it was clear that Ken Jennings and
Brad Rutter were the two greatest players in the history of Jeopardy. It was
made very clear in their matchup with Watson in 2011. When the Battle of The
Decades took place in 2014, even before it began I‘m willing to bet most viewers – myself among them – were certain
Ken and Brad would be in the finals. That happened, but I noticed something
along the way.
Ken and Brad
were invited back to represent players in different decades. With Brad, it was
the 1990s; with Ken the 2000s. Both managed to win their first round
appearance, though Ken prevailed more easily than Brad did.
In each
quarterfinal match, all three players
represented a different decade: 1980s, 1990s or 2000s. So theoretically Ken and
Brad could have faced off against each other in a quarterfinal. That didn’t
happen. Part of it may have been the desire of the producers to build suspense
that might be diminished if one player eliminated the other in the quarterfinals
or the semi-finals. The better explanation is that they wanted both these great
champions to earn their way to facing each other in the finals. Both men won
their matches in routs.
In the
semi-finals Ken and Brad could have also faced off but they didn’t. Ken
narrowly won his semi-final match, Brad romped to victory. Both men did make it
to the finals – and spent a fair amount of both games badly trailing Roger
Craig, who ended up being his own worst enemy. (I’m hoping he shows up in the
next invitational tournament.) Brad narrowly ended up winning the million
dollar prize.
In the Jeopardy
All-Star Games, Ken and Brad could have faced off in the first match but this
time there was an element of chance: the Teams that would face off in the first
match were determined by random drawing and Brad’s team ended up facing off
against teams led by Colby Burnett and Buzzy Cohen. (Most of the members of all
three teams – except Brad and Buzzy – ended up playing in the Invitational)
Brad’s team managed to get off to a big lead in the first game of the two game
match and was badly trailing at the end of Double Jeopardy of Game 2. Only
narrow luck stopped Team Brad from making it into the finals on the first game.
Team Brad faced off against Team Ken in the finals and thanks to a great
performance by Brad in Double Jeopardy of the climatic game, his team won.
All of which is
a roundabout way of saying that when I heard that Sam Buttrey, Andrew He and
Amy Schneider would be competing in the Invitational Tournament, I had a
feeling that each one of them would be competing in their own quarterfinal
game. The logic was based on the same reasoning as for the matches between Brad
and Ken. Considering that the prize was, among other things, reentry into the
Masters in a couple of months, one would expect that the three players
eliminated would each have to earn their way back into the next round. This
logic was proven correct in the quarterfinals and as we saw over the previous
two weeks, all three players managed to win their matches/
I expected a
similar logic to playout in the semi-finals and that too was proven correct.
Amy played in the first semi-final match, Andrew the second and Sam Buttrey the
third. The question going forward was whether the skill they had could prevail
against players who were, if not necessarily their equals, at least as good and
in many cases with as much if not more experience in tournaments behind them.
How did it play
out? Let’s go to the videotape. (If you’re not old enough to know to remember
that but know who said it anyway, you’re probably a Jeopardy fan.)
Semifinal #1
Amy Schneider
Jennifer Quail
David Madden
To briefly recap
the quarterfinals, Amy won her match in a runaway. David also managed a runaway
victory, though he sort of backed into it. Jennifer came from third place in
Double Jeopardy to win in Final Jeopardy.
At the start of
the Jeopardy round Amy went into an early lead. Jennifer managed to get to the
Daily Double ahead of her. At the time she had $3000, a little less than half
Amy’s total. She bet everything in NAMED FOR A PLACE:
“This word
meaning to ramble comes from the name of a winding river in Turkey.” Jennifer
paused and then made a guess: “What is saunter?” It was actually meander.
Jennifer dropped to zero. At the end of the Jeopardy round, Amy had an
impressive lead with $8400 to Jennifer’s $1200 and David’s $400.
David began his
comeback in Double Jeopardy on the first clue of the round when he found the
first Daily Double in MOUNTAIN HIGH, VALLEY LOW. He bet the $2000 he could:
“Most of what
was once the Nubian Valley is not this lake.” He knew it was Lake Nassar and he
was now at $2400.
The next six
clues were split evenly before David got to the other Daily Double in
ASTRONOMY. He know had $5400, more than half Amy’s total of $10,000. He bet
$5000:
“The ‘E’ in
NASA’s T.E.S.S satellite stands for these that it’s actively looking for,
whether they can support life or not.” David knew they were exoplanets and took
the lead for the first time in the game.
For the rest of
the round it was a dogfight between David and Amy for the lead, with neither
able to hold it for long. The game turned on the last clue of Double Jeopardy,
ASTRONOMY for $400:
“This type of
pollution refers to the human generated glow that impairs a stargazer’s view of
the heavens.” Amy rang in just ahead of David with haze. That put her up
$17,600 to David’s $17,400. Jennifer was very much alive with $7200.
The Final
Jeopardy category was HISTORIC GROUPS. “The Kipchak Khanate is another name for
this group that was eventually defeated by Tamerlane in 1395.”
Jennifer wrote
down: “What is the Mongol Army?” That was close to what they were going for,
but not right. She lost everything.
David wrote
down: “What is the Golden Horde?” That was correct. He wagered $209 which put
him at $17,609.
It came down to
Amy. She had written down: “What is the Golden Horde?” She had bet $17,500. Had
David rung in ahead of her on the last clue, he almost certainly would have won
but Amy had managed a hard-fought battle to the finals.
Semi-Final #2
Larissa Kelly
Andrew He
Sam Kavanaugh
Andrew had won
in what was nearly a runaway. Larissa had managed a dominant victory. Sam had
managed to narrowly win in a Final Jeopardy that came down to careful wagering.
At the start of
the Jeopardy round, Larissa and Andrew divided many of the early clues but
Larissa got to the Daily Double first in STARS & CONSTELLATIONS. She
gambled and bet the $3600 she had:
“If you’re
really smart, you should know that this constellation was named for South
Africa’s Table Mountain.” Larissa couldn’t come up with an answer. It was
Mensa. She dropped to zero. Andrew held the lead and kept it for the rest of
the Jeopardy round but Larissa made a remarkable recovery. At the end of it,
Andrew had $5600, Larissa had $4000 and Sam had $800.
In the first
third of Double Jeopardy, Sam and Larissa managed to make a lot of ground up
and it was very close when Andrew found the first Daily Double. He was still in
the lead with $9600 but Larissa was at $8400 and Sam had made it up to $7200.
Just as in the
previous match, he wagered everything in CLASSICAL LITERATURE: “In this
Sophocles play, Orestes enlists the aid of his sister, the title character, to
kill his mother and her lover.” Andrew knew it was Electra and jumped into a
huge lead with $19,200.
No one got the
next two clues correct. Andrew then got the next two correct responses before
he found the other Daily Double in BEFORE THEY WERE CONGRESSWOMAN. He bet
$6000:
“in the 1990s
this future senator from Illinois was the only woman in her helicopter training
class.” Andrew knew it was Tammy Duckworth and went up to $27,200. At that
point it was all over, sans the shouting but Andrew solidified his victory by
getting the next three clues in THREE CONSECUTIVE LETTERS IN A ROW correct. He
finished the game with $32,000 to Larissa’s $12,200 and Andrew’s $9200. Once
again Andrew’s performance was only second best: Larissa got 21 correct answers
and one incorrect one, while Andrew got 20 correct answers and one incorrect
one. But the Daily Doubles again proved the margin of victory. Though as it
turned out, even had the Daily Doubles not been a factor Andrew might have
ended up winning anyway.
The Final
Jeopardy category was PHYSICISTS. “This man with a force named after him
published an 1835 scientific treatise on the physics of billiard balls.” Now I
don’t know if Larissa and Sam didn’t know the correct response or because they
were hopelessly behind, they didn’t take the question seriously. Both used
their time to right tributes to Andrew. What I do know is that Andrew did know
the correct response: “Who is Coriolis?” As Ken explained, the Coriolis force
explains the movement of objects on a spinning Earth, not unlike a billiard
ball, perhaps.” Andrew had wagered nothing but he was also a finalist.
Semi-Final #3
Victoria Groce
Sam Buttrey
Matt Jackson
Matt had the
most dominant win of the quarterfinals by a country mile. Victoria’s had been
nearly as easy and Sam had needed a late Daily Double to ensure his victory.
All three had played impressively but Sam’s win had been the least dominant. He
seemed outmatched but as Jeopardy fans knew he’d beaten players who on paper he
should have been trounced by.
Of the three semi-final
matches, this one was by far the most evenly fought. All three players, from
start to finish, played at a near even level. At the first commercial break in
the Jeopardy round, Matt and Sam were tied at $2200, with Victoria just $200
behind them both.
The game changed
when Victoria found the Daily Double in a category she did not like YOU CAN’T
SPELL…Nevertheless, she wagered the $2600 she had:
“You can’t spell
this word, meaning to belittle, without ‘spar’.
She knew it was
disparage and jumped into the lead. She managed to hold it for the rest of the
round but the scores were still very close: she had $6000, Matt had $4800 and
Sam was at $3600.
Sam seized
momentum early in Double Jeopardy when he found the first Daily Double on the
second clue of the round in TRAIN TALES. He chose to bet the $5400 he had: “This
title train was filled with children ‘all in their pajamas and nightgowns’ as
it raced northward.” Sam knew it was The Polar Express and jumped into
the lead with a huge $10,800.
Sam held it for
a bit longer but then Victoria went on a very impressive run. She managed to
get eight out of eleven clues correct (she got one wrong that cost her $2000).
With Matt getting the other two, Sam was held in stasis at $13,600 and Victoria
had surpassed him with $16,800 when she found the other Daily Double in A BEACON
IN THE NIGHT. She pondered before betting $9000:
“The Laterna of
this Italian port is the Mediterranean’s tallest lighthouse; Antonio Columbo
was a keeper in 1449 of the first ones there.” Victoria needed to think a long
time before she seemed to guess: “What is Genoa?” She was right.” She had
figured out that Columbo was Columbus’ uncle and that was where he was born.
It was now
impossible to pass her total of $25,800 but all three players managed with impressive
totals. Victoria finished with $27,000, Sam was at $16,000, Matt was at
$10,400.
The Final
Jeopardy category was an old standard. STATE CAPITALS. This can often sound
easier then the clues are and such was the case today. “It was named for a
nearby river that explorer Gabriel Moraga named for one of a religious grouping
of 7.”
Matt’s response
was revealed first: “What is St. Paul?” Not a bad guess, but incorrect. It cost
him everything but a dollar.
Sam was next. He
wrote down the correct response: “What is Sacramento?” I didn’t know that it was named for the seven
sacraments. Sam wagered $11,001, putting him ahead by a dollar.
Ken mentioned
before Victoria’s response was revealed that Sam was a California native. Would
someone born in Pittsburgh make the same leap?
Victoria had
written down Sacramento. She wagered $5001 to make her the third and last
finalist – and guarantee that the finals of the tournament would not be
a reunion of the finalists of the 2022 Tournament of Champions.
All three finalists
played brilliantly in both their quarterfinal and semi-final games. And all do
have a different motivation to win this
Tournament.
For Victoria, it
is a chance to prove that having spent so much time on The Chase, in the
company of Brad Rutter and James Holzhauer, that she is worthy to play Masters
with the rest of them. For Amy, it is a chance for redemption: she already made
it clear in her quarterfinal victory that she is irked that she didn’t
even make it into round 2, something her fellow super-champions of Season 38 did.
And for Andrew, it is a chance for a different sort of redemption: as he was
only eliminated from the Finals as a result of a tiebreaker I have little doubt
he wants another swing at James, Mattea and Matt.
Who will achieve
their goals? Tomorrow we begin to find out. We’ve already had more than our
share of thrills throughout the last two weeks; I have little doubt they will
continue. It will take two victories to punch your ticket to the Masters. We’ll
see who manages to get their first. I imagine it will be a thrill.
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