We are now at
the official halfway point of the quarterfinals of this year’s Jeopardy Masters.
If we needed proof that we were in for a different kind of Masters, the last
two matches have more than demonstrated it. Trends are developing that might
play out in the Masters as a whole, so let’s jump in.
Recap of May 6th:
The Final Boss Wins and The Queen Continues Her
Reign
The first match
of Day 2 was a rematch of the finalists of last year’s Masters: James
Holzhauer, Mattea Roach and Matt Amodio. From the start of the Jeopardy round,
it was a two person race between Matt and James. Matt got off to a fast start
in the round, finding the Daily Double early in 18TH CENTURY NAMES.
He bet the 5000 points he had:
“In 1792 he
surprised London concertgoers with his Symphony No. 94.”
Matt knew it was
Haydn (the Surprise Symphony) and doubled his score. James managed to make up a
lot of ground but at the end of the round Matt had 12,000 points to James’
6800. Mattea trailed with 1200.
James struck
first in Double Jeopardy when he found the first Daily Double in DEATH OF A
WRITER. Though it had gotten well the last time, he bet the 8400 points he had:
“This author
from Sauk Centre, Minnesota died in a nursing home in Rome in 1951.” It took
James a minute but he came up with Sinclair Lewis and doubled his score to take
the lead away from Matt.
Matt made up a
lot of ground in the next several clues but then James found the other Daily
Double in a category never seen before:
THE RESPONSE’S
GPA: As Ken put it: “Each response is a series of letters that would average
out to the GPA we give you.” It’s the kind of category most Jeopardy players
don’t go near until the end of the round. Matt had gone to it first and James
had rung in.
He had 20,000
points.
James: “I’m
staring Matt down trying to get a player read. All right, he looks serious. All
of it please.”
The audience was
stunned.
“3.6: Limerick
rhyme scheme.”
James: “What is
A-A-B-B-A?”
He got it and
doubled his score. I’ve seen James do remarkable things before but this was one
of his boldest.
He finished
Double Jeopardy with 45,200 points, the highest score at the end of Double
Jeopardy in the brief history of MASTERS. Matt had 19,200 and Mattea 5600.
Last year, this
scenario would have been one where James took Final Jeopardy as an opportunity
to mock Ken. This time he didn’t and neither did anyone else.
The category was
20th CENTURY LEADERS. “1 of the ‘Big Four’ at the 1919 Paris Peace
Conference & a former journalist, he’d supported the impressionists and
Alfred Dreyfus.” All three players knew the correct response: “Who is
Clemenceau?” (the Prime Minister of France). James notched his first victory
and gained 3 match points, Matt gained his first and Mattea gained none.
In the second
half Victoria and Yogesh, winners of the first two games of the tournament,
faced off against Amy Schneider. Yogesh and Victoria fought fairly evenly in
the first half of the Jeopardy round, but Victoria took the lead for good when
she found the Daily Double in RENAISSANCE MASTERS:
“Many artists
have depicted Christ crucified; his version, in a Madrid collection, has Toledo
in the background.” Victoria knew it was El Greco, doubled her score to 8800
points. Victoria finished the Jeopardy round with 12,400 points to Yogesh’s
5000 and Amy’s 600.
Amy got to the
Daily Double far too early for her sake, the first clue of Double Jeopardy.
Things were going fairly evenly in Double Jeopardy but Victoria retained her
margin, helped by a period when she got 5 out of 6 clues correct before she
managed to find the other Daily Double in WE OUT HERE TRYNA MINE. She already
had 24,200 points.
It is here that
we notice a change in Victoria’s approach to Daily Doubles that no other Master
has tried to this point. While everyone else, regardless of their position, is
inclined to go all in when Victoria is in the lead she wants to make sure she doesn’t
lose it if things go south. So we could hear her whispering in her head before
she decided to bet 13,000 points.
“In a 1909 book
on mining, this man who got more famous 20 years later noted that
overproduction of mined metals can ‘depress prices.” It took a moment for
Victoria to respond: “Who is Herbert Hoover? (He was an engineer before he
began his time in public life.) She added 13,000 points and ensured herself a
second straight runaway with 41,000 points to Yogesh’s 11,800 and Amy’s 10,200.
The Final
Jeopardy category was 20th CENTURY WRITERS: “Becoming a British
subject in 1927, he described himself as a classicist in literature, royalist
in politics & Anglo-Catholic in religion.” Both Amy and Yogesh knew the
correct writer: “Who is T.S. Eliot?” Victoria, however, did not: she wrote
down: “Who is Tolkien?” It cost her 9000
points but she still won her second consecutive game and 3 more match points.
Yogesh took second place and gained 1. Amy still had zero.
LEADERBOARD
AFTER MAY 6TH
Victoria Groce –
6
James Holzhauer
– 4
Yogesh Raut – 4
Matt Amodio – 1
Mattea Roach – 1
Amy Schneider –
0
Interestingly
while Victoria had won both games in dominant fashion at this point she was the
only contestant who has not given a correct response in Final Jeopardy. This
could very well come back to bite her as the tournament continues.
May 8th:
Another Raut Rout And The Two Chasers Face Off
In Game 1 Yogesh
faced off against Amy and Matt. Yogesh got off to a bad start, going in the
hole early at -1800 points. Matt got to the first Daily Double a little too
early in EUROPEAN GEOGRAPHY. But Yogesh rebounded at the end of the round and
leaped ahead of Amy with 5400 points to her 4600 and Matt at 2200.
Matt got to the
first Daily Double on the first clue of Double Jeopardy in NATURE: “Also called
the scaly anteater, it gets its other name from the Malay for ‘roller’,
describing its defense mechanism.” Matt knew it was pangolin and doubled his
score. The round was fairly even until Yogesh managed a run of four consecutive
correct responses which brought him up to 15,400 points before he found the
other Daily Double in LITERATURE: WHO SAID IT? (You had to name the character.
Yogesh went all in:
“She betrayed
you, Winston. Immediately – unreservedly. I have seldom seen anyone come over
to us so promptly.” Yogesh hesitated before saying: “Who is O’Brien?” (from 1984)
He was at 30,800 points and then managed three more consecutive correct
responses in COUNTRY MUSIC HISTORY to lock up the game. He would finish with
36,400 points to Amy’s 12,200 and Matt’s 7200.
The Final
Jeopardy category was THE THEATER. “This show debuted December 20, 1879 in a
theater on the Devon coast, with the cast in costume from a related show.” Both
Matt and Amy knew the correct response: “What is The Pirates of Penzance?
(The cast was in costume from H.M.S. Pinafore, Gilbert and Sullivan’s
previous operetta.) Oddly enough Yogesh didn’t and wrote down nothing. It didn’t
change anything: he got his second win and three more match points. However,
Amy had wagered enough to go past Matt for second place and get her first match
point of the tournament.
Game 2 featured
the first match between James and Victoria in this tournament, but the two of
them knew each other from their previous work on The Chase. Some people
were insulted that in his introduction Ken didn’t give enough credit to Mattea.
I’m pretty sure they didn’t mind.
In the Jeopardy
round James and Victoria fought pretty much dead even before James got to the
Daily Double in STARTS AND ENDS WITH ‘R’. Yet again he wagered everything he
had: 5800 points. And just as in the Jeopardy round of his first appearance, it
didn’t go well: “This device allows air to get from a scuba diver’s oxygen tank
and into the diver’s lung.” James paused before going to what I thought was the
correct response: “What is a respirator?” It was in fact a regulator, and he dropped
from first to zero. Victoria finished the round in the lead with 8800 points to
James and Mattea’s 1400 apiece.
In Double
Jeopardy Victoria maintained her lead for the first bit and then James got to
the first Daily Double in PLACE. This time betting his 4200 wasn’t really an
option:
“This spot in
London was once where religious types grew vegetables; looks like an ‘N’ got
dropped along the way.” James thought: “What is Covent Garden?” (Not Convent
Garden) and the battle was joined.
James was
nipping at Victoria’s heels when she slowly picked THEY DID BAD for 800. That
was the right choice as the other Daily Double was there. She had 14,000 to
James 11,200:
Victoria: “I believe
the move is: all in.
After the
gesture, Ken asked: “What do you think James?”
James: Poor
technique. Good strategy, though.”
“Though
nicknamed for a weapon regulated by Congress in 1934, he doesn’t seem to have
killed anyone; kidnapped yes.”
It took Victoria
a moment to come up with: “Who is Machine Gun Kelly?” She doubled her score to
28,000.
But neither
James nor Mattea rolled over and for the first time so far in this year’s
Masters the game didn’t end in a runaway: Victoria led with 29,600 points to
James 17,600 and Mattea was still very much alive with 7000.
The Final
Jeopardy category was FAMOUS LAST WORDS and in a way it was on the nose because
for the first time all three players were stumped. “In 1530 he made his last
confession & wished that “I had served God as diligently as I have done the
King.” Now to their credit they all had the right idea: All three wrote down: “Who
is Thomas More?” I initially thought it was More too, but at home I guessed it
was Cardinal Wolsey, which was the correct response. Like More, Wolsey served
Henry VIII and had failed to annul his marriage to Katherine of Aragon. The
wagers made sure all three players finished exactly as they were at the end of
Double Jeopardy and Victoria won her third consecutive game. Victoria took 3 Match
Points, James took 1, and Mattea got zero.
LEADERBOARD
AFTER MAY 8TH
Victoria Groce:
9
Yogesh Raut: 7
James Holzhauer:
5
Matt Amodio: 1
Amy Schneider: 1
Mattea Roach: 1
Halfway through
the quarterfinals, the newcomers to the Masters Victoria and Yogesh have more
than proven that they are the equal of the old guard, winning five of the first
six games and playing impressively in all three they have appeared in. However,
it is worth noting that Victoria has yet to give a correct answer in Final
Jeopardy. Matt and Amy, by contrast, have answered all three Final Jeopardys
correct but all its gotten them so far is one match point apiece. Mattea has
only gone one out of three Final Jeopardys correct and James and Yogesh have
each answered two correctly.
Things are doubtless
going to change dramatically in Friday’s game. In Match 1 Matt, Amy and Mattea
will face off, guarantee that one player will gain an advantage to fourth place
in this tournament. And in the second match, the three players who have won all
six games so far are going to face off for the first time: James, Victoria and
Yogesh. How will it turn out? Stay tuned, Masters Fans.
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