And So It Begins: My First Take On The Jeopardy 2025 Second Chance Tournament Lineup

 

 

As my readers are very aware by now I am no fan of the Second Chance Tournament which Jeopardy producers created in the lead-up to the 2022 Tournament of Champions. I will not relitigate all of the arguments I’ve made over the past two years against them, both in regard to Jeopardy and to how I see game shows overall; by now that horse has essentially become the runniest glue imaginable.

There seemed to be a mandate from the masses towards that way of thinking that started during what the fans of the show called ‘the endless postseason’ that took up nearly 2/3 of Jeopardy’s fortieth season. Even allowing for the extenuating circumstances  - the writers strike as well as the shows ludicrous idea that it could control the force of events -   there is nearly universal accord that every aspect of it, including the fact that there were two separate ones, did much to erode the goodwill the show has managed to maintained in the first two full seasons since the passing of Alex Trebek.  When the show announced it was reducing the ‘postseason’ and starting it more or less in the middle of the current season, one almost hoped they throw out the Second Chance Tournament altogether and take some suggestions that I made over the last two years.

Such is not the case. Yesterday Jeopardy announced the line-up for the 2025 Second Chance Tournament which will begin the last week of 2024 and take up until the second week of 2025. That said, let’s at least acknowledge the show has been learning from its mistakes in two critical ways. First there will only be two weeks of these tournaments, not the three weeks that were related to 2023. Second, in keeping with last year’s lesson both of the winners will advance to the Champion’s Wild Card to play for one of the spots. And in another sign the show is learning from its mistakes this year the Wild Card is scheduled to be ‘brief’ and will involve only 1- and 2 game winners. Finally they have locked down the lineup for right now and there will be no additional participants.

And it’s worth noting, even at a casual glance the eighteen invitees are far more qualified than the lineup that we got in the last two groups of tournaments. Many of them, I should mention, were ones I suspected would be present in one of my earlier articles. Furthermore it has confirmed at least one more player in the coming Tournament of Champions who I will relate below.

Here's the lineup

 

Sam Cameron

Sam is the most recent addition and I do mean recent. He qualified for this tournament when he narrowly lost to Greg Jolin on Friday’s game. (A Daily Double in Double Jeopardy cost him the lead, though he remained in contention until Final Jeopardy.) This would also indicate that Greg Jolin has also qualified for this year’s Tournament. More on that later. Having just seen him, it’s hard to argue he didn’t earn it.

Enzo Cunanan (lost to Adriana Harmeyer)

In what would be Adriana Harmeyer’s eleventh win she faced one of her toughest challenges in Enzo. He remained close to her for much of Double Jeopardy and the two went back and forth for the lead. Both Enzo and Adriana got Final Jeopardy correct. Like the majority of Adriana’s opponents Enzo earned his spot at the table considering how hard Adriana had to fight for every win.

Lindsay Denninger

Lindsay’s position on this list seems to be based on the appearance of another three day winner Neilesh Vinjamuri. In what would be Neilesh’s third win, she was ahead of him going into Double Jeopardy and maintained that lead until she found the first Daily Double. Neilesh recovered and went into Final Jeopardy with a $6000 lead over Lindsay. Both got Final Jeopardy incorrect.

Mike Ferguson

One of Isaac Hirsch’s toughest victories was his seventh win where Mike was fighting with him tooth-and-nail every step of the way. When Double Jeopardy ended he had $17,000 to Isaac’s $21,500 and Final Jeopardy decided it. This was Isaac’s toughest victory by far.

 

Jonquil Garrick-Reynolds

Drew Basile’s second win very nearly didn’t come to pass as Jonquil was close to him every step of the way. It came down to Final Jeopardy and it was a tough one that no one got right. (I could make an argument for Bob Longstreth as well, considering how close the match was.)

Drew Goins

David Erb seemed more than qualified to proceed to the 2025 Tournament of Champions considering that in just three games he won $90,754. In his third victory Drew was the hot player in the Jeopardy round going into Double Jeopardy with $9600 to David’s $2600. But David recovered and when he found the second Daily Double bet the $10,000 he had to take the lead for the first time and held it until the end of Double Jeopardy. I think Drew has earned it based on that.

Zoe Grobman

Zoe’s strikes me as somewhat questionable on this list as she ended up struggling in Jeopardy but ended up in second place in Double Jeopardy

Josh Heit

If Josh doesn’t deserve a second chance I don’t know who does. In Drew Basile’s third game, Josh ended with exactly half of Drew’s total going into Final Jeopardy. Josh bet everything and was correct. Drew was also correct and bet nothing. It was the sixth tie-breaker game in history and Drew got in, just ahead of Josh.

Colleen Matthews

As I mentioned in my original article on Harmeyer, she was lucky in more ways than one. And a large part of that luck was apparent in Colleen’s appearance where she chased Adriana all the way through her fifteenth game, found both Daily Doubles and got them both wrong. As a result of that she was in second place going into Final Jeopardy. Both she and Adriana got it right, setting up Adriana’s date with Drew Basile the next day.

Alex Michev

Alex Michev’s position is somewhat more tenuous than Drew Goins. While he held the lead for all of David’s fourth match and went into Final Jeopardy with a considerable lead, he ended up losing in Final Jeopardy when no one responded correctly to Maddie Carville, who ended up with the most money

Steve Miller

Steve appears to be in this Tournament for the same reason Alex Michev. In what would Amar Kakirde final appearance he came from behind to go into Final Jeopardy with a narrow lead. However all three players got Final Jeopardy incorrect and Abby Mann, who bet the least ended up winning the game. I suspect that Abby earned her spot in Wild Card for this win and thus Steve qualified.

Gino Montoya

Gino seems to have been invited back in large part because of an ill-advised wager in Final Jeopardy in what would be Mark Fitzpatrick’s third win. That said he did play nearly as well as Mark getting 20 correct responses in the game and only making one mistake.

Josh Moss

Josh appeared in Adriana’s third win and no doubt qualified because of the same flaws of so many of her opponents: Daily Double wagers that went wrong. In his case, it happened in the Jeopardy round and dropped him from first to last. He managed to make up a lot of ground and narrowed the gap to $12,200 to Adriana’s $14,400. On those merits he’s earned it.

Ferdinand Percentie

This one is logical. Ferdinand faced off against Amy Hummel in what was her fourth appearance. He had a big lead going into Final Jeopardy $21,600 to Amy’s $13,800. However in Final Jeopardy he was the only player not to come up with a correct response and as a result Amy, who had bet everything, won her fourth game. Rational.

Tekla Sauter

Tekla is described in an article as ‘this year’s Jessica Stephens’ the poor soul who ended up between Matt Amodio when he ended up losing to eleven game winner Jonathan Fisher. Tekla like Jessica, finished second to Drew but actually has the advantage of being the only player to respond correctly to Final Jeopardy. However because Drew had locked up the game by the end of Double Jeopardy, it was irrelevant. She’s earned her second chance the same way Jessica Stephens did.

Scott Tcheng

Scott’s clearly earned this one. In Ryan Manton’s third win the two of them were tied going into Double Jeopardy. Ryan lost everything on the first Daily Double but with just a few clues remaining Ryan found the last one to close the gap. Scott got the next clue wrong to fall behind and that cost him the game as both of them got Final Jeopardy correct.

Will Yancey

In Will’s case even though he didn’t beat anyone of significance it does make sense he was invited back. At the start of the Jeopardy round at one point he had $7400 and neither of his opponents were on the board. At the end of the round he had $12,000 and his nearest opponent had $2600.

Then in Double Jeopardy he became human. He didn’t get a correct response until halfway through the round. He found the second Daily Double and got it wrong. He was still ahead at the end of Double Jeopardy, albeit narrowly with $13,200 to Aiden’s $11,000 And then in Final Jeopardy he was the only player to give an incorrect response. Will certainly seemed like he had the potential for greatness in the Jeopardy round and I see the logic in bringing him back.

 

All things considered this is a far better list then last year’s initial Second Chance selection (most of whom I couldn’t justify) and superior in many ways to the premiere group. I’m still not thrilled with the concept of the tournament but having seen most of them play and how hard they played; I can’t exactly question the logic of giving the overwhelming majority of  these players a second chance. Whether they live up to it remains to be seen.