For the last two years the
Jeopardy Masters has been the highpoint of Jeopardy fans seasons, myself
included. Each time it does more to make even those of us who feel we are
complete geniuses at Jeopardy feel incredibly stupid while many great Jeopardy
champions remind us of why they are such great Jeopardy players in the first
place.
And whether it is by necessity or
simply a desire to adjust the game, the 2025 Masters lineup is as close to
living up to the name as possible so far. To be sure James Holzhauer, Mattea
Roach and Amy Schneider are absent for the first time since the Masters began
two years ago but a wonderful combination of the old and the new is upon us.
Here’s a review of the lineup:
Victoria Groce: winner of the
2024 Jeopardy Invitational and last year’s winner.
Yogesh Raut: winner of the 2024
Tournament of Champions and runner-up in last year’s Masters.
Matt Amodio: winner of the 2025
Jeopardy Invitational Tournament, third place in the 2023 Masters, last place
in the 2024 Masters
And here are the newcomers:
Nilesh Vinjamuri: winner of the
2025 Tournament of Champions.
Isaac Hirsch: 9 Game winner with
$215,390, runner up in the 2025 Tournament of Champions.
Adriana Harmeyer: 15 game winner
with $349,600, runner up in the 2024 Tournament of Champions.
Roger Craig: winner of six games
in 2010 and winner of the 2011 Tournament of Champions. Third place finish in
the Battle of the Decades against Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. Part of Team
Austin in the Jeopardy All-Star Games. Runner-up in the 2025 JIT.
Juveria Zaheer: Winner of the
Jeopardy Second Chance Tournament and one of the 2024 Champions Wildcard
Tournament winners. Participant in the 2024 Tournament of Champions. Has
already defeated Seth Wilson and Ray Lalonde, both of whom won double digits in
games in the 2025 JIT. Runner up in that tournament.
And Last but far from least:
Brad Rutter, Jeopardy’s All-Time
money winner with just under $5 million in earnings.
So we have three of the greatest
players in the history of Jeopardy, including the postseason. We have four
Tournament of Champions winners participating. Four of the all-time money
winners in Jeopardy play are in this tournament. Two very different players who
made the most of their Second Chances on this show in JIT. And two players who
have gone up against Ken Jennings on multiple occasions – one of whom actually
had the measure of him more than once.
I will confess that while I’ve
had certain favorites in each of the first two Masters the possible face-offs
at every level fill me with the kind of anticipation that the first two could
only hint at. The fact that some of these match-ups have, in fact, already
happened (all three finalists from this year’s TOC and JIT are participating)
has done nothing to diminish my anticipation and I seriously doubt it will
anyone else’s. And it doesn’t hurt that with this new lineup there are far more
possibilities for upsets than ever before.
This is a different set up then
the last two years. There will be six ‘knockout’ games over the first three
weeks, though I’m not sure how the lineup will play out. I have little doubt it
will become clearer in the weeks to come. But for now, I’m going to deal with
tonight’s two matches and the results. Both of which were thrilling in their
own ways.
Match 1: Victoria Groce vs.
Yogesh Raut vs Brad Rutter
Previous History: Facing against each other in the
2024 Masters Victoria managed to defeat Yogesh twice in the quarterfinals, one
semi-final match, and both of the finals. Yogesh has only defeated Victoria
once: the first semi-final match.
Yogesh got off to a lightning
fast start in the Jeopardy round. He already had 5600 points when he found the
first Daily Double in A LITTLE ALLITERATION (Victoria would point out how hard
it was to say that category). As is usually the case in these Tournaments
Yogesh went all in:
4 cantons surround this 44 square
mile body of water in Central Switzerland
It took him a moment to come up
with: “What is Lake Lucerne?” but he did and he doubled his score. At the end
of the Jeopardy round Yogesh had 15,400 points the highest total amassed by any
one player in the Masters in the Jeopardy round. Victoria trailed with 3800 and
Brad, who was up and down, finished with a 1000 points.
In Double Jeopardy the show
played an early gag by something all Jeopardy fans are used to: WAS THAT ON
YOUR FLASH CARDS?, was one category. That category caused some struggles for
all three players and by the time Victoria got to the first Daily Double in POETRY-POURRI
she had 5000 points. She had little choice but to go all in:
In Yeats’ ‘The Second Coming’ the
line ‘the centre cannot hold’ is preceded by these three words, later a novel
title.”
Victoria knew it was: “What is things
fall apart?” and was now at 10,000 points, closing the gap. However Yogesh then
got two consecutive 1600 point clues correct and when Victoria missed a 1200
point clue in BONE OF CONTENTION Yogesh found the other Daily Double in the
2000 point clue in this category.
Wagering from the lead, he bet ‘only’
5000 points:
A pair of the bones in the mouth
have this name, like that of a hill in Rome.
It took him a moment to get
there: “What is palatine?” and he went up to 27,600 points. Despite the best
efforts of Victoria and Brad they couldn’t close the gap enough to stop Yogesh
from running away with the game: he finished with 30,800 points to Victoria’s
14,000 and Brad’s 6200.
The Final Jeopardy category was
EUROPE: “Words meaning, “water’s edge’ are one suggested etymology of this
city, once capital of the province of Aquitania.”
Brad joked: “What is Go Birds?” a
reference to his beloved Eagles. He lost 4022 points. Victoria wrote down the
correct response: “What is Bordeaux?” That was correct: (the French words for
edge and water).” She wagered nothing. Yogesh’s insurmountable lead was
critical because he wrote down Glasgow. He wagered nothing and took his first
victory and 3 match points. Victoria got 1, Brad zero.
Key Interview: As you’d expect Ken brought up
Brad’s last appearance on the Alex Trebek stage at the GOAT. Brad was more
traumatized by that and asked Ken not to mention it. He also said that he hoped
to have many opportunities to make fun of Ken, during this tournament. But
there was a genuine sense of respect between the two.
Yogesh said he had immense
respect for Victoria already and Victoria said she thought she had a target on
her back having won once already. She was wearing a green jacket – the Masters
Jacket. It didn’t bring her luck this time. We’ll see if it does later/
Match 2: Matt Amodio vs. Roger
Craig vs. Juveria Zaheer
Matt found the Daily Double in
the Jeopardy round on the second clue and lost the 1000 points he’d already
gotten. From that point on the match was a fight to the death between all three
in the Jeopardy round. Matt finished it with a narrow lead: 5000 points to
Roger’s 4400 while Juveria was not far behind with 2800.
In Double Jeopardy Roger got a
2000 point clue correct, got another one incorrect and was back at 4400 points
when he found the first Daily Double in SCIENCE VOCAB. Roger is a scientist and
he perfected the move everyone in the Masters has been using so it was no surprise
he bet everything:
From Greek for ‘swift’, this word
first appeared in a 1967 paper called ‘Possibility of faster-than-light
particles’. Roger
didn’t hesitate: “What is tachyon?” He went into the lead with 8800 points.
Juveria then got two clues
correct in OLD & NEW GEOGRAPHY. But when she went away from it and Roger
went back to it, he benefited and found the other Daily Double. Still in the
lead with 9600 points, he bet 6000:
“Using prefixes now associated
with gender, the Romans ID’d these two areas of Gaul on either side of a mountain range.
Roger needed a little more time
to come up with: “What is cis-Alpine and trans-Alpine?” Roger had a big lead
with 15,600 points. That was pretty much his highwater part as he went up and
down quite a bit in Double Jeopardy but neither Juveria nor Matt could make up
sufficient ground and there were quite a few Triple Stumpers. Still the scores
were incredibly close at the end: Roger finished with 15,200 points, Matt was
next with 10,600 and Juveria was very much alive with 8800.
The Final Jeopardy category was
WORLD LITERATURE: A follow-up to an earlier work, this 1671 efforts
references eventually triumphs written in the Book of Job and the Gospels.
Juveria’s response was revealed
first: “What is Paradise Regained?” She was correct. She wagered 7201
points, putting her at 16,001 points. Next came Matt. He also wrote down: “What
is Paradise Regained?” He wagered 6000 points, putting him in the lead.
Roger had that poker face. He
also put down: Paradise Regained. He
wagered 6801 points, giving him 22,001 and his first victory in Jeopardy
Masters.
I won’t lie to you, my readers:
every time Roger got a Daily Double correct I applauded heartily and when he
ended up winning I all but cheered. Seeing Roger play in this field is a
realization of a dram I’ve wanted almost since the Masters began. I can’t wait
to see how he does against other Masters.
Interview Notes: Juveria’s daughter did a
presentation on her for International Women’s Day focused on being her mother
and being on Jeopardy – but not the rest of Juveria’s career.
Roger joked about being from the
dark ages ‘Season 27’. Ken asked if playing against Brad and me cured him of
stage fright and Roger agreed. Ken then admitted he still got nervous every
time he played against Brad. Roger said “I don’t have any Brad PTSD. (We’ll
have to see if that changes.) Matt, it’s worth noting, did not introduce him as
a game show villain as he joked in the Invitational.
LEADERBOARD AT THE END OF APRIL
30TH
Yogesh Rout – 3 Match Points
Roger Craig – 3 Match Points
Victoria Groce – 1 Match Point
Matt Amodio – 1 Match Point
Brad Rutter - Zero Match Points
Juveria Zaheer – Zero Match
Points
Still to play:
Adriana Harmeyer
Isaac Hirsch
Nilesh Vinjamuri
Already this Masters is living up
to its name and next Wednesday can’t come soon enough. I’ll be back with the
results then.
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