Having watched Jeopardy for more
than thirty years (that concept frightens me as well) I have become aware of
certain patterns that occasionally appear but that recent viewers might be less
aware of. These include the phenomena that might be called a ‘cluster of
champions’. More likely due to coincidence and luck then the rise of super-champions
in the past decade they have history of appearing slightly more frequently.
A cluster is basically when a
quick succession of qualifiers for the Tournament of Champions arise during a
short period of time, usually one following the other or at the most the day
after one has been defeated. They happened very rarely during the first twenty
years of the show, mainly because it was very difficult for a succession of
four or five game winners to occur. It did happen, of course but rarely more
than once a season at most.
It happened more frequently
after Ken Jennings appearance and then began to officially start become more
often during the next few years. The first one of real significance came during
the 2011-2012 season when Jason Keller, David Leach and Dan McShane all
qualified for the Tournament of Champions in the course of a month. Jason won 9
games, Dave won 6 and Dan won four.
We saw a similar cluster the
following season when Keith Whitener won seven games, was defeated by Paul
Nelson who won 5 and then two days after he was beaten, Jason Shore won four.
In the midst of this was the 2012 Teachers Tournament which was won by Colby
Burnett, so you could argue four players qualified for the 2013 TOC in less
than six weeks.
The arrival of the
super-champions began in Season 30 and began to draw considerably more
attention but the clusters were often as common. In the 2014-2015 season,
Michael Bilow, Kerry Greene and Alex Jacob all qualified for the 2015 TOC
pretty much consecutively and two days after Alex was defeated Greg Seroka
would have a seven game streak and win $180,401. During the 2017-2018 season
Gilbert Collins, Rachel Lindgren and Ryan Fenster would all win five games in
during January of that year. Clusters were not as noticeable during Season 38
considering all of the super-champions but they did happen. Christine Whelchel,
Margaret Shelton and Maureen O’Neill all won four games consecutively and Ryan
Long’s sixteen game streak gave way to Eric Ahasic’s six game streak and Megan Wachspress’
six game streak
Defining clusters has been
slightly more difficult with the rise of Second Chance Tournament, Champions
Wild Card and allowing three game winners, which has its own issue. However in
the last month of Season 41, it’s pretty clear we have just gone through
another cluster of Jeopardy champions, none of whom are super champions but all
of whom will likely be formidable in the 2026 Tournament of Champions.
The same week that Laura Faddah’s
run came to an end Alex DeFrank managed the impressive one day total of $42,401
in his first victory. The next day he came from behind to win in Final Jeopardy
and by Thursday had won $102,400 – more than Laura had won in eight games. But
on that day he ran into Cameron Berry who absolutely ran away with it by the
end of Double Jeopardy and won with $24,600.
Cameron’s run lasted one day as he
then ran into Josh Weikert, a politics professor from College Pennsylvania. In
what was a difficult battle Josh emerged the victor winning $23,601. He then
went on to win every game the following week finishing it with 100,202.
Then on Monday he ran into Bryce
Wargin and Allison Willard. This was a tight match from beginning to end. Josh
was leading at the end of the Jeopardy round and at the end of Double Jeopardy
even though Bryce and Allison found all the Daily Doubles and were never far
behind him. At the end of Double Jeopardy all three had impressive totals: Josh
led with $15,000, Bryce was next with $12,400 and Allison had a very impressive
$11,400.
The Final Jeopardy category was
COMMUNICATION. “Invented by a student in 1824, this system has a total of 64
combinations. Allison couldn’t come up with an answer. Bryce could: “What is
Braille?” As Ken pointed out “Six dots, 2 to the 6th.) Bryce bet
$3400 and moved into the lead.
It came down to Josh. He wrote
down Semafore, crossed it out and wrote: “What is Morse Code?” (That was my
guess as well.” It cost him $9801 and Bryce became the new champion with
$15,400. (It’s almost certain Allison will be invited back in the next Second
Chance Tournament, considering how she played she’s more than worthy.)
Bryce then won the next three
games during the week, always in the lead at the end of Double Jeopardy. He had
gotten three Final Jeopardys correct and the fourth incorrect but because no
one else did, he kept the title. He’d already won $70,199.
Yesterday with a win automatically
punching his ticket to the Tournament of Champions he faced Guy Branum and Mike
Dawson. It was a close match in the Jeopardy round but at the end of it Bryce
was in third with $3400 to Guy’s $6800 and Mike’s $5800.
Bryce found the first Daily
Double on his first pick and naturally risked everything in LITERATURE. “A
Simple Habana Melody by Oscar Hjuelos focuses on the rumba, but this other
5-letter dance is in the title of his best known work.” I knew it but he didn’t.
He guessed: “What is the tango?” It was the mambo (The Mambo Kings Play
Songs of Love) He dropped to zero and spent the rest of the round in third
place, finishing with $5600 to Guy’s $10,800 and Mike’s $15,000.
Whatever chance he had depended
on Final Jeopardy. The category was THE NOBEL PRIZES. “Only one man and one
woman have won Nobel Prizes in 2 different categories, with this category in
common.” Bryce’s response was the wrong one: “What is physics?” It cost him all
but a dollar. It didn’t matter because both Guy and Mike knew the right category:
chemistry. (Ken told us: Madame Curie won in Chemistry & physics; the other,
Linus Pauling, chemistry and peace.”) Mike became the new winner with $21,601.
Bryce’s $70,199 and four wins
will be sufficient to get him to the Tournament of Champions this year. It
remains to be seen whether this cluster will continue to grow much in the same
way the one that took up most of regular play in Season 40 did. As for possible
qualifiers for the next Second Chance Tournament, there are a couple of obvious
ones in this cluster (along with Allison who like I said is a sure thing) :
Brett Aresco: Led Alex at the end of Double
Jeopardy in his second appearance but was defeated when he got Final Jeopardy
wrong.
Geraldine Rodriguez: Only player to get Final
Jeopardy correct but was too far behind to benefit from it in Josh’s second
win.
Melanie Hirsch: Was ahead of Josh at the end of
the Double Jeopardy round of his fourth appearance. All three players got Final
Jeopardy wrong; Josh’s wager was small enough to leave him the last man
standing.
Alfred Wallace: Made a remarkable recovery to
nearly overtake Bryce in the Double Jeopardy round of his fourth win having got
six of the first seven clues correct. He responded incorrectly on the second
Daily Double and could never get close enough again.
There may be more from the rest
of the seventeen games that were played but these are by the far more deserving
ones in my opinion. (The last several months have done much for me to reevaluate
by opinion on the Second Chance Tournament overall.)
I’ll be back when the next player
qualifies for the Tournament of Champions or at the end of April whichever
comes first. (You never know with Jeopardy.)
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