As we begin the semi-finals it is important
to remember that this is the only third time that Jeopardy is using this format
for its Tournament of Champions. (The endless postseason of Season 40 caused
them to do ridiculous contortions.)
The first time that Jeopardy gave the three
biggest winners of the previous season a bye to the semi-finals was in 2022
when they famously did for three of the greatest Jeopardy players of all time:
Matt Amodio, Mattea Roach and Amy Schneider. Amy was the only one to win her
semi-final match and go on to the finals. Matt was defeated narrowly by Sam
Buttrey and Mattea was routed by Andrew He.
Amy went on to narrowly beat both of them to win the Tournament of
Champions.
Last year the same approach was done for
Adriana Harmeyer, Isaac Hirsch and Drew Basile. Adriana and Isaac went on to
win their semifinals but Drew would lose to Nilesh Vinjamuri and it would be
Nilesh who went on to win the Tournament of Champions.
So the question was how would the format
favor the three biggest winners of Season 41: super-champion Scott Riccardi, 8
game winner Laura Faddah and 7 game winner Paolo Pasco. Here's how it played out.
Game 1
Scott Riccardi
vs. Tom Devlin vs Allegra Kuney
Reminder: Both Allegra and Tom won their semi-final games in runaway
victories, though neither responded correctly in Final Jeopardy.
For the first half of the Jeopardy round
Tom seemed absolutely in charge. Then Scott finally found the Daily Double in
CALIFORNIA GEOGRAPHIC. He had $3800 to Tom's $6000 so he did what he does and
bet everything:
Formerly Ocean View Avenue, this Monterey
street process around 240,000 tons of sardines in 1945. Scott is a Steinbeck fan so he instantly
responded: "What is Cannery Row?" He doubled his score and went into
the lead for the first time. He held it but it was a near thing: Scott finished
the Jeopardy round with $8200 to Tom's $7400 and Allegra's $1200.
The first half of Double Jeopardy was a
back and forth between Scott and Tom for the lead. Scott had just taken it back
and found the first Daily Double in LIGHTENING UP THE ENLIGHTENMENT. He then
made the biggest Daily Double wager of Season 42 so far: all $15,400 he had:
"We're all signatory to this, the
title of a 1762 work by Rousseau." He responded: "What is The
Social Contract and jumped to $30,800.
On the very next clue he found the other
Daily Double in LATIN LOVERS. There was a long pause as he did math in his head
before finally deciding to wager $6000:
Euripides was famous for this Latin-phrase
plot resolution; in 'Orestes' Apollo shows up and restores order. Scott knew it was deus ex machina and went
up to $36,800.
Tom didn't surrender. In fact he
technically played a better game then Scott. He got 24 correct responses to
Scott's 22 with each only getting one incorrect and finished with $19,000. But
those three Daily Doubles allowed Scott to finish with $41,200, a closer
runaway then the ones we've become used to from Scott but nevertheless a
runaway. Allegra managed $7600.
The Final Jeopardy category was EUROPEAN
HISTORY. Writing from prison to here père in 1793, she quoted the dramatist
Cornelie 'Crime makes the shame, and not the scaffold."
All three players wrote down the same
person: "Who is Marie Antoniette?" As Ken said to Allegra " I
can see why you would say that, but it's actually not correct." When he
revealed the response all three players said: "Oh!" It was Charlotte
Corday, who famously assassinated Marat.
(For the record I also wrote down Marie
Antoniette but at the last possible second, crossed it out and wrote down
Corday. I can't tell you why exactly; perhaps it's because I figured out
Corday's father might still be alive while Marie Antoniette's had long passed.)
It didn't make a difference in the final
results as neither Tom nor Scott wagered anything and Scott became a
well-deserved finalist.
Game 2
Laura Faddah
vs. Steven Olson vs TJ Fisher
Steven and TJ went back and forth for the
lead in the Jeopardy round. Laura, however, got to the Daily Double in BOOK IT.
With only $200, she bet the $1000 she had:
In a 1906 novel he wrote of 'splitters' who
earned 50 cents an hour doing nothing but chopping hogs down the middle. She figured out it was Upton Sinclair, the
author of The Jungle and went up to $1200. She was still in third at the
end of the round with $2000 to TJ's $3400 and Steven's $6200.
Laura picked first in Double Jeopardy and
found the first Daily Double in 'N' THE CITY. She bet the $2000 she had:
Once named for Nicholas II, a city on the
Ob was given this new name meaning 'New Siberia'
Laura spent a long time but couldn't come
up with the answer: "What is Novosibirsk?
She dropped to zero and was essentially out
of contention; she would only be able to answer one clue for the rest of the
game.
Steven got the next two clues correct and
then found the other Daily Double in FROM THE NECK UP. He thought a long time
before deciding to bet the $9400 he had. He would immediately regret it:
Also called gray matter, this outermost
part of the brain with a 2-word name integrates sensory impulses.
Again he stared and finally guessed;:
"What is corpus callosum?" It was in fact the cerebral cortex. He
dropped to zero and by the benefit of not answering a clue TJ was in the lead
TJ's performance was perfect. He gave
sixteen correct answers and no wrong ones. Steven gave 23 correct answers and
only two wrong ones. However one of them was that Daily Double. However he
still managed to finish Double Jeopardy with $8400 to TJ's $13,800. Laura had
$1600.
The Final Jeopardy category was 20th
CENTURY BIGWIGS. That could have meant anything. The subtitle of a 2022 bio
of this magnate who died in 1976 is 'The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth – But Not
Its Mineral Rights.
Laura spent a lot of time thinking and at
the last minute wrote down: "What is De Beers?" She was thinking of
diamonds, which was a good guess but wrong. It cost her everything but a
dollar.
Steven also wrote down: "Who is De
Beers?" He bet $5404. He dropped to $2996.
It came down to TJ. He wrote down:
"Who is Nestle?", then crossed it out and wrote down DuPont. He was also wrong. The subtitle refers to a
quote by the oil billionaire J. Paul Getty. (I wasn't any better then them; my
best guess was Howard Hughes.)
It came down to his wager. TJ had bet
$3001. It left him with $10,799 and that was enough to make him the second
finalist.
Game 3
Paolo Pasco vs
Cameron Berry vs. Ashley Chan
Paolo came out swinging in the Jeopardy
round when he found the Daily Double when he was still the only player with any
money. He had $2400 to risk in PHRASES FROM SPORTS and while he clearly wasn't
comfortable with the category he nevertheless bet everything:
This 4-word phrase meaning 'last minute'
comes from stretching a cable across the finish lines in horse racing. He guessed: "What is just under the wire?"
And that was acceptable. 'Down to the wire' would have been to.
He finished the Jeopardy round with an impressive
$9200 to Cameron's $4200 and Ashley's $800.
Two clues into the Jeopardy round Paolo
found the first Daily Double in 'E' BEFORE 'I'. (They had to be consecutive letters.)
He bet $6000:
The great ice age occurred during this epoch
that preceded the one we're in now." He figured it out. "What is Pleistocene?" and jumped
to $16,600.
However Cameron responded correctly on the
next clue and found the other Daily Double on the follow response in VICE
PRESIDENTS. He didn't like the odds but he bet the $6600 he had:
Nominating him at the convention, ex-VP
Hubert Humphrey called this man 'my personal friend and a truly great
American."
There was a very long pause. At the last
possible second he said: "Who is Mondale?" And it was correct. He
doubled his score and it was now a dogfight.
Paul and Cameron basically were dead even.
Paolo got 24 correct answers (the 2 Daily Doubles included) and two incorrect
ones. Cameron got 22 correct answers (including his Daily Double) and two
incorrect ones. Paolo would finish with $24, 800 to Cameron's $22,000 while
poor Ashley was lucky she finished with any money at all and had just $400.
Once again it came down to Final Jeopardy. The
category was BODIES OF WATER. This body of water with over 1/3 of the
world's marine mammals, like the vaquita, has been called 'the Aquarium of the
world'.
Ashley's response was revealed first:
"What is Lake Baikal?" It was incorrect. She bet everything.
Next came Cameron. He wrote down:
"What is the Mariana Trench?" That was incorrect. He wagered $21,199
leaving him with $801.
Now Paolo clearly had a lot of respect for
Cameron as it seems he assumed Cameron would respond correctly. He wrote down:
"What a fun time!" and then added: "I Dunno though sorry."
(I didn't either my guess was the Indian Ocean.)
Ken told us the name 'vaquita' would've clued
you in that it's something Latin American. It was the Sea of Cortez, or the Gulf
of California.
But Paolo had bet nothing. It left him with
$24,800 and that was enough to make him a more deserving finalist.
So for the consecutive year the two biggest
money winners of the season are finalists in the Tournament of Champions. And
for the first times since 2022, a three game winner is not competing at all as
TJ Fisher is a five-game winner.
Who will win this year's Tournament of
Champions? I'll be back when its all over with the recap.
No comments:
Post a Comment