Regardless of
the endless postseason and the ‘tournament fatigue’ that Jeopardy fans have had
to endure this season, it’s hard to argue that the first ever Jeopardy
Invitational Tournament was a resounding success. Along with Amy Schneider, Sam
Buttrey and Andrew He, it brought back twenty two previous great Jeopardy
champions and two former Jeopardy players who had earned their places in game
show lore. We engaged in a brilliant fourteen game tournament which had endless
shocks and surprises and it let to an incredible final with the most unlikely
of winners - Victoria Groce. Given that
this year’s Masters showed Victoria’s ability to utterly dominate so many of
the greatest Jeopardy players of all time – including the trouncing of self-proclaimed ‘Final Boss’
James Holzhauer - this may be the most
significant new tournament since the Masters was created.
It is an
inevitability that, sometime in 2025, we will have another Jeopardy
Invitational Tournament. Three of the invitees names are already written in
stone: Amy Schneider, Matt Amodio and Mattea Roach: the three super champions
of Season 38. According to the guidelines set at the beginning of this year’s
Invitational, other players who competed in the previous two seasons will be
eligible. This means we very well might see the return of many of the last two
years other super-champions, including Cris Panullo and Ray Lalonde, eliminated
in the first round of this year’s Tournament of Champions and Ryan Long and
Johnathan Fisher, the ‘lesser’ super-champions of Season 38. That’s a great
draw right there.
But the question
is who else will fill the remaining twenty spots? It’s clear that winning a
Jeopardy tournament or being a multi-day champion isn’t necessarily a
disqualifier: neither Victoria nor Brandon Blackwell had done either and they
were invited back. And while many of the most memorable players from Jeopardy’s
first forty years were invited back for the first Invitational Tournament,
there were several critical absentees. Among the most significant were Brad
Rutter, Julia Collins and Roger Craig, many of whom believed would be the
producer’s choice for the Masters this year.
I have written
extensively in previous articles in the aftermath of last year’s Masters of
many players I thought should be invited back for the next one. Many of them
ended up being invited to the first Invitational Tournament. I could repeat
myself and list several of the ones I left out and I could also go back further
and mention some I suggested for other tournaments. But I’d like to change it
up a bit in this article.
In the first
Invitational there were quite a few players who would not necessarily have been
my first or even second choices to come back for a tournament of this
magnitude. However many of them played well and many of them were reminders of
a different era in Jeopardy. And for all of the most famous and well-known
Jeopardy champions in the post Ken-Jennings era, there have been many others
who never quite got their due, despite having set records of their own in their
original run that have since been overshadowed or were great players who missed
a chance at greatness in Jeopardy history. I’ve written a lot about Jeopardy
but I’ve never written about them.
So in this
article I’m going to discuss ten former Jeopardy greats from the post Ken
Jennings era, many of whom had moments of greatness but for whatever reason
have been forgotten by Jeopardy fandom. I believe they have earned the right to
be invited back to the next tournament and in this article I will make my case.
Vinita
Kailasanath
Technically Vinita’s
original run was in 2001, but because she qualified for the Battle of The
Decades as part of the 2000s I think she counts.
Vinita won the
2001 College Championship, the last one before dollar figures were doubled.
Indeed, it happened a week after her victory. She was also one of the last
winners of a Jeopardy tournament to receive a sports car along with her $50,000
prize.
A sophomore in
2001 she was unavailable to compete in the 2003 Tournament of Champions so
Jeopardy allowed her to participate in the 2004 Tournament. She did quite well
finishing as a semi-finalist and was ahead of the eventual winner of that tournament,
Russ Schumacher, before losing in Final Jeopardy to him. Several months later
she competed in the Ultimate Tournament of Champions and got to the second
round before being trounced by Brian Moore.
She was invited
to compete in the Battle of the Decades: The 2000s but had the misfortune of
going up against Ken Jennings in his initial appearance. As was the case, she
was trounced by him. Considering her connection to Ken, that is an additional
reason to invite her.
Chris Miller
Chris Miller
was, technically speaking , the only five game winner in Season 20. It was an
impressive run, he won $123,697, small potatoes now; but in 2004, the sixth
highest total any player had won in Jeopardy history. He finished as a
semi-finalist in the 2004 Tournament of Champions, losing to seven game winner
Tom Walsh in a very close semi-final match.
Less than six
months later, he began an impressive run in the Ultimate Tournament of
Champions making it all the way to the semi-finals and facing off against Brad
Rutter. He was tied with him for second after Game 1 and was briefly ahead of
him in Game 2 before Brad utterly tore the place down. He still finished with
an impressive $93,844.
He hasn’t been
invited to another super-tournament since then which means he’s more than
overdue. He’s also a very gregarious personality and I want to hear how he
dressed up as Ken Jennings for Halloween. I think Ken would too.
Maria Wenglinsky
Maria has earned
her invitation for being part of those groundbreaking female champions that
have led the way for such women as Julia Collins and Amy Schneider. In November
of 2005, she became the first female contestant to cross the $100,000 threshold
in earnings, winning $122,300 in five games. One of just two female contestants
to qualify for the 2006 Tournament of Champions, she would make it to the semifinals
before losing a tough semi-final to Michael Falk, the eventual winner of that
year’s Tournament.
Maria was
invited to compete in the Battle of the Decades and would appear in the very
last game in the first round. In a very tough fight between her and Dan Pawson,
she managed to move ahead of him going into Final Jeopardy but lost on a tough
Final Jeopardy clue that no one came close to getting correct. It came down to
wagers and Maria bet too much. Considering that Dan was invited back to the
first tournament it would be fair to invite Maria back this year.
Vijay Balse
Yogesh Raut
shocked the world when he won the 2024 Tournament of Champions and finished
second in this year’s Jeopardy Masters. I think it would be fitting if we
invited back to the next tournament a man who lay the groundwork for Yogesh and
in many ways came from an even more unlikely background to win.
Jeopardy is an
American game show and players who are not born in the United States or Canada
often struggle to do well. Vijay was born
in Mumbai before he moved to New Jersey to work as a chemical engineer.
He was living in Chatham when he won four games and $82,400 in March of 2010.
Not impressive figures by today’s standards they were more than enough to get
him into the 2010 Tournament of Champions less than two months later. That
year, the winningest player was Justin Bernbach who won seven games and just
over $155,000. Vijay defeated him in his semi-final match to go to the finals.
There were
occasions in the finals he struggled again finals but he managed a closely
thought two game final to win the Tournament of Champions. He would be invited
to participate in the Battle of The Decades but would lose in the first round
to Roger Craig, albeit by $1.
Tom Nissley
In the winter of
2010, Tom Nissley put together one of the most impressive runs a Jeopardy
player had since David Madden’s 19 game streak. He would win eight games and
$235,405. Tom was only the third player to win that many games since Madden’s
run: the other two were Tom Kavanaugh in Season 22 and Dan Pawson, who won the
2009 Tournament of Champions and at the time the total was the third highest
any Jeopardy champion had won in regular season play since the dollar figures
had been doubled and the five game limit removed. He was trailing only Ken
Jennings and Madden.
But his thunder
had been stolen at the start of the season by Roger Craig who’d won $230,200 in
six games and had broken Ken Jennings’ one day record of $75,000 on the second
day of Season 26. Both Roger and Tom would waltz to the finals of the 2011 Tournament
of Champions but all of the suspense was gone by the end of Double Jeopardy
round of the first game as Roger already had $43,200 in front of him to Tom’s
$9400. Roger cruised to victory and Tom finished second.
Despite having
played so well in his original appearance, all of the players I mentioned above
received invitations to the Battles of the Decades: 2000s and Tom was not. He
was voted to compete as a fan favorite via Facebook, something that seems
somewhat strange considering his performance and insulting when you consider
David Madden had declined the offer to attend
before the original invitations were sent out. Tom performed well in the
first round even though he didn’t advance to the quarterfinals; he was one of
only four of the fifteen participants in the first round to give a correct
response in Final Jeopardy that week.
Given how good
he was in his original run I think Tom needs to be invited back without any
additional strings.
Elyse Mancuso,
2012 Teen Tournament Winner
Full disclosure:
on YouTube I found Elyse’s triumph in the Teen Tournament under the subheading ‘Best
Final Jeopardy ever.” That’s hyperbole, obviously but there are valid reasons
to invite Elyse back.
When she was a
junior Elyse participated in the 2012 Teen Tournament and won a tight game in
her quarter-final and an even closer one in her semi-final. She faced off
against Rose Schaefer and Catherine Briley in the finals. She went into Game 1
with $23,200 and a big lead over both of her opponents. Then she played well in
the semi-finals and had locked up the tournament with $28,400 at the end of
Final Jeopardy. But that wasn’t why she went viral.
The Final
Jeopardy category was AMERICAN HISTORY: “When the future state of Iowa became
part of the United States, this man was President.” All three players knew the
correct response: “Who was Jefferson? When it came to Elise, she had wagered
$28,000. That brought her total to $79,600.
At the time the
payoff for winning the Teen Tournament was $75,000. Elyse is the only player
during that period to surpass the maximum total. (I should mention her fellow challengers
also significantly passed the totals for second and third place respectively.)
It was the kind
of performance that deserved an encore but Teen Tournament winners had not been
allowed in the Tournament of Champions since 2000. However after last year’s
Teen Reunion Tournament, I think the time has come for another reunion. And I
wouldn’t mind if they invited Rose or Catherine back as well.
Jason Keller
Jason is one of
those Jeopardy champions who should have been listed among the annals of the
great but missed his window.
As 2011 came to
an end, Jason embarked on one the most successful runs any Jeopardy champion
had since David Madden’s streak. He won nine games, tied with Dan Pawson for
the third most to that point in Jeopardy history and $213,900 in those nine
games. At that point it was the sixth highest total any player had won in their
original run.
He then had to wait
more than fourteen months to appear in the Tournament of Champions which took
place in February of 2013. In his quarterfinal match it didn’t seem like there
was much rust: he romped to a quarterfinal victory.
In his
semi-final match things were going well for him as he led in the Jeopardy round
and well into the second half of Double Jeopardy. Then Keith Whitener went on
an incredible run that included a Daily Double which netted him $10,000. He had
an insurmountable lead going into Final Jeopardy in which Jason knew the
correct response but Keith didn’t.
Now Keith was a good player – he’d won seven
games himself that season – and he finished second to Colby Burnett in the
Tournament of Champions. But it had a ripple effect. In the Battle of the
Decades the following year three players were from the 2013 Tournament of
Champions were invited to participate but Keith was invited and Jason wasn’t
even extended a fan favorite entry. And by the time the Battle of the Decades
was over Arthur Chu had finished his eleven game run and Julia Collins was
halfway through hers. The new breed of super-champions was about to leave Jason’s
remarkable run in the dust and he has not been invited to another tournament
since.
Andrew Pau
Andrew Pau had a
similar set of misfortune, though in his case it was a different set of
circumstances. The field in the 2017 Tournament of Champions was arguably the
most impressive in the post Ken Jennings era. Buzzy Cohen, Austin Rogers and
Alan Lin, who were the three finalists in that tournament are among the most
superb players in the past decade and all were deservedly invited to participate
in the Jeopardy All-Star Games the following year. Also invited was Seth
Wilson, who’d won twelve games and participated in the All-Star Games and $265,000
and Lilly Chin, that year’s College Champion who was offered an alternate spot.
The thing is almost 0the entire field was at that level and
I could make an argument for at least four of the other players to be invited
back. But I think the one who deserves it the most is Andrew Pau because he was
not only a great player but his paths crossed with two of the best.
Andrew had
already won six games and over $170,000 when he faced off against Buzzy Cohen,
who defeated him. Buzzy managed to win nine games – but he actually won less in
his original run than Andrew did in his.
Andrew was
dominant in his quarterfinal match and drew Lily and Austin in the
quarterfinal. It was a hard fought battle in the Jeopardy round but in Double
Jeopardy Andrew caught fire and got the first five clues correct before he
found the first Daily Double. Sensing a chance to put the game away early he
wagered $8000 in WORLD PLACE NAMES – and it went wrong. He dropped to third
place.
Now it didn’t
end there: no one played well in Double Jeopardy and Andrew was still within
striking distance at the end of the round even with Austin in the lead. But in
Final Jeopardy Austin got the clue correct and went on to the finals.
Andrew deserves
to come back much for the same reason Jason does – he was this close to a place
among the Jeopardy greats and it backfired.
Emma Boettcher
Anyone who is a
fan of Jeopardy knows who Emma Boettcher is. James Holzhauer will never forget.
She is the contestant who stopped his incredible run the day before he was
likely to pass Ken Jennings for all-time money won. Emma ‘only’ one three games
but she won $97,002 in them and in 2019, that was enough to get her invited to
the Tournament of Champions. (She actually won a bit more than some players
managed to in five games.)
It was perhaps
inevitable that Emma would end up facing off against James in the finals of
that year’s Tournament. But it must have come as a shock to those who watched
just how close Emma came to defeating James in that Tournament. She had a
chance to cause a major upset had she got Final Jeopardy right and he had
gotten it wrong in the climatic game of the Finals. It didn’t turn out that way
but James knew going in how lucky he’d been.
Considering that
we’ve just seen a three game winner not only win the Tournament of Champions
but beat James Holzhauer several times in this past year’s Masters I think that
its well past time for Emma Boettcher to return to the Alex Trebek stage.
Karen Farrell
In Karen’s case
I want her invited back on the principle of equal time. She was one of three female
eight game winners who appeared on Jeopardy in the truncated 2019-2020 season. She
won far less money that the other two - MacKenzie Jones and Jennifer Quail –
and her performance in the Tournament of Champions was in between those two:
she got to the semi-finals before she was trounced by the eventual winner Sam
Kavanaugh.
Now in the first
invitational, Jennifer and MacKenzie were both invited back as was Sam
Kavanaugh and Jason Zuffranieri. I don’t deny they all should have been invited
ahead of Karen; they all won more money then her in their original runs. But especially
since the other two eight-game female champions have received invitations, she
deserves one as well.
I honestly think
if the Invitational Tournament is to become a regular occurrence we must allow
back some of the ‘lesser known Jeopardy Masters’ as well. I think some of the
names I’ve listed are more likely than others but I think its long past time all
of them came back. I’d sure like to see them again, and I bet they have their
own cheering sections as well.
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