Match 1
Long Nguyen vs Andrew He vs
Juveria Zaheer
Long was up against two players
with multiple Jeopardy wins behind them.
For the second consecutive game
Long started the Jeopardy round in the red. Indeed at one point he was actually
at -2400. But he began to dig himself out of the very deep hole when he found
the Daily Double in WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?
Foie gras can be used to make
pate, a meat spread ; pate served in an earthenware dish is called this, from a
word meaning 'earth'.
Somehow
he figured it out: "What is tureen?" And went from -1600 points to -600
points.
This time Long managed to finish
the Jeopardy round on the positive side with 400 points. He was 3000 behind
Andrew at 3400 points while Juveria led with 4400.
Juveria struck first in Double Jeopardy
in YOU STUDIED YOUR CAPITALS, RIGHT? And while she wasn't sure she'd studied as
much as Long she bet the 6000 points she had:
The relationship with the Netherlands
in the name of Aruba's capital. She
mumbled before guessing: "What is Oranjestad?" And with that she doubled
her score to 12,000.
She was on cruise control for a
while and found the other Daily Double in THIS AIN'T SHAKESPEARE. (The category
had to do with other Elizabethan plays and playwrights.) Already with a
commanding lead with 20,800 she was modest this time and bet just 5000 points.
It was the right call:
Thomas Kyd set the stage for
'Hamlet' and other Elizabethan tales of revenge with this bloody play set in
Iberia.
Juveria was thinking of David
Mamet: "What is The Spanish Prisoner?" So close it was The
Spanish Tragedy.
She dropped to 15,800 points but
despite that neither Andrew nor Long could catch her. She ran away with 20,200, Andrew next with
7200 points, while Long trailed with 4000 points. However with those match
points very important for both Andrew and Long second place was going to matter
a lot.
The Final Jeopardy category was
LEADERS. In a eulogy his successor Ingvar Carlsson said: "We stand
united in anger & grief" and "he made the world aware of us
all."
Long's response was revealed
first. He said: "Who was Gustavus Adolphus?" That was incorrect. It
cost him 3001 points, putting him at 999.
Next came Andrew. He wrote down:
"Who is Dag Hammarskjold?" (That was my guess, for the record.) It
was a good guess; it was the right part of the world but it was also wrong. He
lost 1001 points finishing with 5999.
Juveria also wrote down
Hammarskjold. The clue referred to Olof Palme, the prime minister of Sweden who
was assassinated in 1986. Juveria got
the win and 3 match points. Andrew got his first match point, putting him into
a tie with Long with 1 apiece.
Interview: Juveria revealed that
when she first took the test she hadn't watched the show in 20 years. So the
first she watched was the 2022 Tournament of Champions. She made it clear the
player she watched and considered her idol – and who she'd gotten a picture
with – was 'terrorizing her right now.' Andrew told us that the more he returns
to Jeopardy he gets recognized – but not actually know who he is so they come
up to him and just say "Jeopardy!"
Keeping himself humble he added "If they Google 'Jeopardy Asian
Guy' they will come up with Jamie Ding." Long Nguyen told us he has a huge
database of knowledge – a literal database on a computer. Then he told us
"Mormons love Jello!" Ken naturally said: "I can't deny
it."
Match 2
Victoria Groce vs. Paolo Pasco vs. Yogesh Raut
Victoria came out swinging in the
Jeopardy round starting off strong. She had 3600 points when she found the
Daily Double in HELLO, GORGES. (Ken doesn't say "Oh the writers are having
fun.") Victoria chose to bet everything yet again. (It took her awhile to
say true Daily Double.)
Fossil Bed II at this site that
lives up to part of its name dates somewhere between 1.15 and 1.7 million years
old, y'know give or take.
She figured it out: "What is
Olduvai Gorge?" She went up to 7200 points. She finished the round with an
impressive 10,000 points to Yogesh's 3400 and Paolo's 2800.
There were struggles for all
three players early in Double Jeopardy but Yogesh managed to turn it around
when he found his groove in BRITISH WAR HISTORY and found the Daily Double
there. Trailing with 7000 to Victoria's 12,000 he bet 100 percent of his money:
This war between Britain and
Spain began in 1739 following the capture of a British ship and an assault on
its captain. He figured
it out: "What is Jenkins' ear?" He doubled his score to 14,000 and
took the lead.
Two clues later Victoria found
the other Daily Double in FESTIVALS & HOLIDAYS. She was tied with Yogesh
for the lead and she bet everything. And then came one of those moments on
Jeopardy that breaks your heart sometimes.
The Fete National De Quebec is
also known as the day of this Biblical purifying guy; respond en Francais, s'il
vous plait.
It was the Francais that got her.
She said: "Who is Jean De Baptiste?" It was just Jean Baptiste; they
didn't need the 'de'. It dropped her to zero and Victoria never recovered.
Yogesh would finish with 19,600 points to Paolo's 4800 and Victoria's 2000.
How the match points would be
awarded was preordained but Final Jeopardy went forward. The Final Jeopardy
category was 19th CENTURY BRITISH POETRY.
The famous opening of this long
poem continues "But still will keep a bower quiet for us and a sleep full
of sweet dreams.
It was a killer. Victoria wrote
down: "What is a Prelude?" Apparently she was thinking of Wordsworth.
It was wrong. She lost 222 points, dropping her to 1778.
Paolo just wrote a lot of dots.
(Better than I did.) He lost nothing.
Yogesh seemed to have written.
"What is Crossing the Bar?" The poem was actually was from Keat's
Endymion and followed the famous lines "A thing of beauty is a joy
forever." Yogesh bet 9999 points but he still won, receiving 3 Match
points. Paolo got 1. Victoria 0.
(For the record I didn't even
have the right century. My guess was Paradise Lost.)
Interviews: Yogesh told us he has
spent time in zoom rooms watch cozy detective shows from 20 years and they
pause halfway through to figure out who did it. He mentioned they're talking
about the Ellery Queen show with Jim Hutton in the 1970s. Paolo went into detail
about his job as a crossword puzzle writer. He told us about being raised on
puzzle magazines and that one of his first tantrums because he couldn't get a second
word search book at Walgreen's. Victoria then told us she had a chance to watch
Paolo at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament last year. She compared his
dominance at crossword puzzles to seeing Simone Biles at the U.S Gymnastic tournament.
(Jeopardy champions always prop each other up.)
LEADERBOARD AFTER AUGUST 26TH
Paolo Pasco – 4 Match Points
Yogesh Raut – 4 Match Points
Victoria Groce – 3 Match Points
Juveria Zaheer – 3 Match Points
Andrew He – 1 Match Points
Long Nguyen – 1 Match Point
All six Masters officially have
points on the board and for the first time in a long time no one has a clear
advantage after the first two nights of Jeopardy Masters. Furthermore after two
matches the only players to have responded correctly to Final Jeopardy in
either game were Victoria and Yogesh in Game 1. (They're all still doing better than me; at this point
in the Masters I'm 0 for 4, which is pretty close to where I usually am at this
point.)
Tomorrow Yogesh and Juveria will
face off yet again in the second game and I have no idea yet who will be
leading off in the first match of Thursday. Still it's a thrill and a half. See
you tomorrow, same Jeopardy time, same Jeopardy channel.
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