I won’t lie: going in I had
far higher expectations then I did at the finals of last year’s Invitational
Tournament. Because that year it was a face-off between two former Jeopardy
Masters from the year just past: Andrew He and Amy Schneider – and as we all
saw Victoria Groce came out of nowhere to run the table.
This year was in many ways
a face-off between two all-time Jeopardy greats: Matt Amodio, two-time former
Jeopardy Masters and one of the greatest players in game show history and Roger
Craig, a six day champion who in so many ways was a foreshadowing of the
Jeopardy super-champions we’ve enjoyed in the past five years. Ken Jennings
could appreciate this better far more than he did in previous Jeopardy Masters:
something that he made clear in his interview with Roger.
He joked that he felt a
slight ill-will to Roger but as with James Holzhauer, it was game recognizing
game. Roger as he reminded us on his second appearance broke Ken Jennings
one-day record of $75,000 with $77,000. Ken has gone head to head with Roger in
the Battle of the Decades Final and we know very well he’s one of his biggest
fans. He expressed how remarkable he’d found it. Roger in turn said that he’d
held that record for nine years until James Holzhauer shattered in and now he
and Ken “are on page 2 of the Jeopardy website.” He also casually mentioned how
Matt pushed him back a little: “But I don’t hold any grudges.”
The interview section
showed the kind of fun and mutual respect so many of these greats have for each
other. Matt, who said he was auditioning for game show villain said that it
wasn’t going well so he was catching up on pop culture and “last night I saw I,
Tonya.” The huge laughter that came after this was capped by Ken saying: “I
guess in this scenario it’s not the knee so much as it is the wrist.”
I expected there would be
great game play and I also wondered just how Juveria, good as she has proven to
be, would match up against two of the all-time greats. Well here’s how it
played out in what was a best of four final. The first player to notch two wins
moves on to the Masters.
Game 1
As you might have expected
Matt and Roger got off to the quickest
start in the Jeopardy round. Juveria was briefly in second when she found the
Daily Double in FEELING PUNCHY. At the time she had $3400 and after saying: “I
know nothing about boxing,” she then did what I figured one had to do against
these powerhouses: bet everything.
“A powerful punch, it’s
likely named for the agricultural practice of cutting dried grass.” She sighed,
pondered and guessed: “What is a roundhouse?” It was not; it was a haymaker. She
dropped to nothing. And sadly it got worse from there, she was at -$600 by the
end of the round to Matt’s $4000 and Roger’s $5200.
Matt came out swinging in
Double Jeopardy. After getting the second clue correct, he found the first
Daily Double in EUROPEAN GEOGRAPHY. He bet the $6600 he had:
“Connected to the
Tyrrhenian Sea, the Strait of Bonifacio separates these two islands.” It took
him a moment: “What are Corsica and Sardinia?” And he was in the lead with
$13,200.
That clue was the third in
a run of ten consecutive correct response for Matt before Juveria
managed to ring in ahead of him by which point Matt was at $24,800. Then Roger
rang in twice successfully and then found the other Daily Double in LAYING DOWN
THE LAW.
As is his tradition he bet
everything he had: $9600. “The Department of Justice states that elements of
this paired crime involve the ‘intent to facilitate the commission of a crime
by another.” Roger needed a moment too before he guessed: “What are aiding and
abetting?” He was correct. Now he was at $19,200 and the battle was truly
joined.
For Juveria the triumph
was that she dug herself out of a hole of -$2600 to be at $1000 at the end of
Double Jeopardy. She had no chance of winning against Roger’s $22,400 and
Matt’s $30,000 even.
The Final Jeopardy
category was MEDIEVAL EUROPEANS. “This mathematician of Pisa studied in Algeria
& later wrote a book introducing Arabic numerals to a larger audience.” I
figured it out based on my knowledge of being something of a mathlete when I was
younger.
Juveria was first and she
wrote down: “Who is Fibonacci?” (The famous mathematician.) She wagered $500.
Roger has a background in science and he knew it was Fibonacci. He bet $7597
putting him in the lead with $30,397. Matt, of course, is also a scientist. He
also knew it was Fibonacci. He wagered $15,601 to give him $45,601 and his
first match point. It is also, by the way, the highest total any competitor at
the end of Final Jeopardy so far in Season 41. (Or for Matt Amodio, a day that
ends in ‘Y’.)
GAME 2
From the start of the
Jeopardy round this was a fairly even match. Roger got to the Daily Double
first in 2024 WORDLES, DEFINED. He had just $600 but he bet the $1000 he could
saying: “I am a Wordle guy:
“Part of the NATO Phonetic
alphabet.” ___V_.” He figured out it was: “What is Bravo?” and jumped to $1600.
All three players were even matched in the round: each gave nine correct
responses. Matt had a narrow lead with $5200 to Juveria’s $4600 and Roger’s
$3400.
Matt got off to a fast
start in Double Jeopardy but then Juveria interrupted his four clue run to get
the $1200 clue correct in 5-LETTER GEOGRAPHY. She found the Daily Double on the
next clue in this category. As in yesterday she went all in, betting the $7800
she had. This time it went better:
“Site of an art show with outposts
in Hong Kong and Miami Beach, this city sits near where France, Germany and
Switzerland meet.” Somehow she knew it was Basel and she went into the lead
with $15,600.
That was close to her
highpoint in Double Jeopardy with a flurry of incorrect responses. When Roger
got to the other Daily Double just four clues later, he had dropped to $1000.
He bet the $2000 he could in COLLEGE SEALS:
“From 1783 to 1929 this
university in Virginia used what’s called the Jeffersonian seal, which depicts
Greek revival architecture.” Roger paused before guessing: “What is William
& Mary?” That was where Jefferson went to college and he was now at $3000. He
spent the rest of the round recovering and both he and Matt made up a lot of
ground though neither could catch Juveria. At the end of Double Jeopardy she
was in the lead with $16,000, Matt was next with $13,600 and Roger was very
much alive with $9400.
Final Jeopardy had to do
with BRITISH ROYALTY. “In the 12th century after walking barefoot,
this man stripped down & allowed himself to be flogged by dozens of monks.”
Now I knew the correct response but because of my history with theater.
Roger was first. He
crossed out a couple of names, first Richard, then Henry and settled on Edward.
That was wrong. He lost $4201, dropping him to $5199.
Matt was next. He wrote
down: “Who is Richard I?” That was also wrong. He only bet $2401, leaving him
with $11,199.
Finally it came down to
Juveria. She had written down: “Who is Richard Lionheart?” That was wrong. The
king in question was Richard I’s father, Henry II who ordered the murder of Thomas
a Becket and was doing penance for it. (I knew this because I had seen the film
version of Becket which begins and ends with Henry II being punished in
this way.)
So Juveria’s wager was all
important. Knowing she had to win, she bet $11,201. That dropped her to $4799,
and Matt ended up getting his second win and clinching his spot in the upcoming
Jeopardy Masters, along with another $150,000.
This is, as Ken mockingly
noted in the interviews during Game 2, the first Tournament of any kind that
Matt has won in four years of Jeopardy play. His total of money won as of this
writing is $1,868,601. He is still currently just behind Amy Schneider in fifth
place for money won as her elimination game gave her another $5000, putting her
at $1,869,800. However that will change at the end of the Masters this year
regardless of how Matt does.
FINAL WORDS ON THE 2025 JEOPARDY
INVITATIONAL
It is difficult to imagine
any stigma on Matt’s victory in this tournament the way some questioned whether
last year’s Invitational had been set up as a face off between the three
players who had been eliminated from the previous year’s Masters. (That didn’t
happen because of Victoria Groce’s victory over first Sam Buttrey in the
semi-finals and winning the whole tournament.)
For one, none can argue
that Matt didn’t earn his way every step of the process. He only narrowly beat
Hannah Wilson in the quarterfinals, having trailed her much of the game before
managing to narrowly come from behind. In the semi-final he thought hard
against Luigi De Guzman and Emily Sands in a hard-won victory. And no one who
saw his match against Roger in Game 1 and a far fiercer on tonight’s game can
argue that there is any blemish on his work here.
After little more than two
and a half months of the postseason – far less ‘endless then last year, we now
have the official lineup for five of the slots for the 2025 Jeopardy Masters.
Matt Amodio will face off against his old rivals Yogesh Rout and Victoria Groce
from last year and James Holzhauer from the last two years as well as Neilesh
Vinjamuri, the winner of the 2025 Tournament of Champions. The question is, who
will fill that final spot? Who will get that final spot? We will no doubt find
out sooner rather than later.
But starting tomorrow we
now return to our regular Jeopardy play. I’ll be back with more about Jeopardy
when the next super-champions arises – which may be sooner than you think.
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