Friday, November 20, 2015 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

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Friday, November 20, 2015 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by Archivists »

Game Recap for Show #7175, 2015-11-20

2015 Tournament of Champions final game 2.

CONTESTANTS
Kerry Greene, a volunteer CASA guardian ad litem from Manchester, New Hampshire (subtotal of $3,400)
Alex Jacob, a currency trader from Chicago, Illinois (subtotal of $29,600)
Matt Jackson, a paralegal from Washington, D.C. (subtotal of $3,000)

OPENING REMARKS
Alex Trebek: Thank you, Johnny. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Hi, folks. Because I have very little imagination, I'm going to begin this program the way I think I've begun the deciding game in all of these tournaments in the past, and that is--this is D-Day--decision day. At the end of this half hour, one of these three players will pick up $250,000. We'll get rid of the scores right now. We will add them to whatever they accumulate today to determine the champion. Good luck. Let's go to work. Categories now in play...

JEOPARDY! ROUND CATEGORIES
WRITERS MAKE PRETTY GOOD FRIENDS (5/5)
CABLE SHOWS (4/5)
LESSER-KNOWN SUPERHEROES (4/5) (Alex Trebek: Keep in mind that each response will end in "I-Z-E-R", okay?)
BODIES OF WATER (5/5)
FIT BITS (5/5)
HOW MANY MILES? (5/5, including 1 correct Daily Double)

THE RIGHTS & THE WRONGS
Alex: 13 R (including 1 DD), 0 W
Matt: 9 R, 1 W
Kerry: 6 R, 0 W

Clues revealed: 30
Triple Stumpers: 2
Jeopardy! Round Potential Lach Trash: $1,800



JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
Alex found the Daily Double on the 13th clue. Matt had $3,200, Alex had $2,800, and Kerry was at $1,800. Alex made it a True Daily Double, wagering $2,800.

HOW MANY MILES? $800: One lap of the Daytona 500 is this many miles

SCORES AT THE FIRST BREAK
Alex: $6,400
Matt: $3,200
Kerry: $1,800

CONTESTANT INTERVIEWS



Alex Trebek: You regular fans of our program know that on the deciding day in our tournaments, I let the contestants talk about anything they want to talk about. So, Kerry?

Kerry: I'm gonna talk a little bit about CASA again because I started that way, so I'm gonna finish that way. Um, it's a great nonprofit organization that I work for as a volunteer. And. um, we represent kids in abuse and neglect cases. And every state has a chapter of CASA except North Dakota. And, uh, I really encourage people to sign up and go through the training. It's the most rewarding thing I've ever done, and I don't get paid a dollar.

Alex Trebek: And you've been generous with your winnings. [Overlapping with Kerry] And that--and that charity--

Kerry: I did make a donation to CASA, as well. I really believe putting your money where your mouth is, and I was able to do it.

Alex Trebek: And you're gonna have at least an additional $50,000--

Kerry: Yeah, I bet they're thinking about that now.

[Laughs]

Alex Trebek: Are they? Okay.




Alex Trebek: Alex, what about you?

Alex Jacob: I just want to say thanks to friends, family, and Twitter for all the support.

Alex Trebek: Okay, good.




Alex Trebek: What about you, Matt?

Matt: I want to say a brief thank-you message to all of my teachers who believed in me when I didn't believe in myself. I would like to single out two, though. Of course, that's not--those aren't the only two who have meant a lot, but, um, my high-school theater director Laura Rosberg, uh, and my history teacher Sue Ikenberry. Um, I wouldn't have been here without either of you, and I'd like you to know that.

Alex Trebek: Way to go, Matt. That's great. As you know, here at Jeopardy! we really have a high regard for teachers and how important they are in our society.

TRIPLE STUMPERS IN THE JEOPARDY! ROUND
CABLE SHOWS $1000: Dorian Gray & Dr. Frankenstein are among the characters who have stepped off the page & into this drama on Showtime

LESSER-KNOWN SUPERHEROES $800: When it comes to cutting expenses & finding deals to stay under budget, this superhero saves the day
(Matt: Who is Itemizer?)

SCORES AT THE END OF THE JEOPARDY! ROUND
Alex: $8,600
Matt: $5,600
Kerry: $3,200
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Re: Friday, November 20, 2015 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by Archivists »

DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND CATEGORIES
HOW THE EAST WAS WON (4/5, including 1 correct Daily Double)
13-LETTER WORDS (5/5)
THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH (2/5, including 1 missed Daily Double)
THE PERIODIC TABLE (4/5)
MYTHOLO"G" (5/5) (Alex Trebek: Each correct response beginning with the letter "G".)
MOVIE LINES, MADE TV-SAFE (5/5)

THE RIGHTS & THE WRONGS
Matt: 12 R, 2 W (including 1 DD)
Alex: 10 R (including 1 DD), 0 W
Kerry: 3 R, 2 W

Clues revealed: 30
Triple Stumpers: 4
Double Jeopardy! Round Potential Lach Trash: $7,200



FIRST DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
Alex snagged the next Daily Double on the 5th clue. Matt had $8,400, Alex had $11,800, and Kerry was at $3,200. Alex wagered $100.

HOW THE EAST WAS WON $1200: Russian caravans got access to Beijing in a 1689 treaty with this dynasty that gave its name to a region
[Alex Jacob gave his response as the time's-up signal sounded.]
(Alex Trebek: Just in the nick of time, once again.)

SECOND DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
It was Matt who snatched up the last Daily Double of the game on the 8th clue. Matt had $10,000, Alex had $11,900, and Kerry was at $3,200. Matt made it a True Daily Double, wagering $10,000.

THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH $1600: Overseeing the FDA is one job of this Cabinet department
(Alex Trebek: You're bright enough to do the math.)
(Matt: Sorry, Mom, I'm betting it all.)
...
(Matt: What is the United States Department of Agriculture?)
(Alex Trebek: No, what is [*]. Sorry, Mom. Sorry, Matt.)

TRIPLE STUMPERS IN THE DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND
THE PERIODIC TABLE $2000: (Jimmy of the Clue Crew reports from Livermore, CA and shows an animation.) Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory collaborated on the discovery of element number 116, which was even named livermorium; it was created by smashing atoms of curium, atomic number 96, with atoms of this element

THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH $2000: An executive action delayed deportation for people brought to the U.S. as kids, known by this hopeful term

THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH $1200: James Clapper tells the President about moles & dead drops as National Director of this
(Matt: What is the NSA?)
(Kerry: What is the CIA?)

HOW THE EAST WAS WON $2000: Asian nomads had a "beef" with this wealthy merchant family that colonized the steppes in the 1500s & 1600s
(Alex Trebek: Hurry!)
(Kerry: No.)
(Alex Trebek: [Sounding the time's-up signal] Oh, darn.)

SCORES ENTERING FINAL JEOPARDY!
Alex: $18,700 (lock tournament)
Matt: $7,200
Kerry: $3,200

FINAL JEOPARDY! CATEGORY
PHILOSOPHERS

VENUSIAN MONOLOGUES/MARTIAN CHRONICLES
Lock for first place; lock for second place.
Alex: Wager between $0 (venusian) and $4,299 (martian), and enjoy your victory.
Matt: Wager between $0 (venusian) and $799 (martian), and enjoy 2nd place.
Kerry: You've no hope of catching up... unless Matt does something stupid. So risk $3,199.

FINAL JEOPARDY! CLUE
His last name means a type of burial place & in 1855 that's where he went

FINAL SCORES
Kerry: $3,200 + $1,500 = $4,700 = $8,100 cumulative (Who is Kierkegaard?) (2nd runner-up)
Matt: $7,200 - $0 = $7,200 = $10,200 cumulative (Who is . . .) (1st runner-up)
Alex: $18,700 - $0 = $18,700 = $48,300 cumulative (Who Thanks to everyone who works on the world's greatest game show!!) (Tournament champion)
(Alex Trebek: [To Kerry] In Danish, [the surname] means "churchyard". It also applies to graveyard.)
...
(Alex Trebek: And as we come to you, Alex, I just want to say that this was the most dominant performance by anyone in any of our tournaments.)
(Alex Jacob: Wow.)

Total Potential Lach Trash: $9,000

GAME DYNAMICS
Image

CORYAT SCORES
Alex: $17,800, 23 R (including 2 DDs), 0 W
Matt: $17,200, 21 R, 3 W (including 1 DD)
Kerry: $3,200, 9 R, 2 W
Combined Coryat: $38,200

BATTING AVERAGES
Alex: 23/60 = .383
Matt: 21/59 = .356
Kerry: 10/58 = .172
Team: 54/63 = .857

MISCELLANEOUS INTERESTING CLUES
BODIES OF WATER $600: This gulf that borders two countries is named for the capital of one

HOW THE EAST WAS WON $1600: In the 1700s, Russia overcame resistance from the native Koryak & annexed this peninsula

MYTHOLO"G" $800: This Hindu deity is often honored at the start of a new venture

THE PERIODIC TABLE $800: Here's the periodic table as he laid it out

HOW THE EAST WAS WON $800: Musket-toting Cossacks outgun the locals in a work depicting the 1580s conquest of this vast eastern region

CORRECT RESPONSES
2 1/2
Penny Dreadful
Economizer
Manchu
Health and Human Services
calcium
the Dreamers
Intelligence
the Stroganoffs
Søren Kierkegaard
the Gulf of Riga
the Kamchatka Peninsula
Ganesh
Mendeleev
Siberia
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Final Jeopardy! Round

Post by theFJguy »

Philosophers

His last name means a type of burial place & in 1855 that's where he went.
Spoiler
Who is Kirerkegaard? Matt had no response; Alex wrote "Thanks to everyone who works on the world's greatest game show!"
Kerry Greene: $3,200+$1,500=$4,700+$3,400 yesterday=$8,100 -> $50,000

Matt Jackson: $7,200-$0=$7,200+$3,000 yesterday=$10,200 -> $100,000

Alex Jacob: $18,700-$0=$18,700+$29,600 yesterday=$48,300 -> $250,000
Last edited by theFJguy on Fri Nov 20, 2015 11:44 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Friday, November 20, 2015 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by seaborgium »

Code: Select all

Matt:  3000  7200 10200 17400
Alex: 29600 18700 48300 67000
Kerry: 3400  3200  6600  9800
Alex: You have a superlock on first place. Bet what you want, and congratulations.
Matt: Alex has you superlocked, but you have a lock over Kerry for second place. Bet under $400.
Kerry: You can take second place if Matt overwagers. But bet what you want, since he'll fall behind your day 1 score if he loses everything today.

Edit: somehow summed two even numbers into an odd one
Last edited by seaborgium on Fri Nov 20, 2015 11:15 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Friday, November 20, 2015 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by JonathanHenke »

Congrats to Alex on the victory. To have a lock tournament and win with a $0 wager is truly impressive — especially facing the 4th-winningest player in Jeopardy! history.
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Re: Friday, November 20, 2015 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by JonathanHenke »

Oh, and for the record, I missed FJ again — but for the first time in a while, I actually thought it was one I should have gotten.
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Re: Friday, November 20, 2015 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by patkav »

A thousand poxes on the social media people at the Chicago Tribune for tweeting about this at 4:22pm CST. Because, you know, everybody who watches Jeopardy is home at 3:30pm to watch it.

That being said, congratulations Alex. I can't wait to watch both final games later this evening.
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Re: Friday, November 20, 2015 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by JonathanHenke »

(I guess I'm the only one who gets Jeopardy! at 4pm, so I'll just keep talking to myself.)

This also means that of the top five players ever, by regular-game win streak, none has won a tournament of champions.
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Re: Friday, November 20, 2015 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by arjavrawal »

JonathanHenke wrote:(I guess I'm the only one who gets Jeopardy! at 4pm, so I'll just keep talking to myself.)

This also means that of the top five players ever, by regular-game win streak, none has won a tournament of champions.
I would move to Minnesota just for that. I can see why you left the Bay Area, it's not that great out here. (MarkBarrett doesn't count cause he's not from the East Bay).

Anyways, now that I know Alex has won, congrats.

And thanks, Jonathan, for spoiling it for us all. (Kidding. I'm in Chicago for a funeral so can't watch anyway.)
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Re: Friday, November 20, 2015 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by Jeff-thecdboy »

JonathanHenke wrote:(I guess I'm the only one who gets Jeopardy! at 4pm, so I'll just keep talking to myself.)

This also means that of the top five players ever, by regular-game win streak, none has won a tournament of champions.
For me, it's 3:30 PM, so I have you beat by a half-hour. Anyway, congrats to Alex Jacob on his great TOC win.
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Re: Friday, November 20, 2015 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by grindcore »

Great tournament.

Alex, when you landed on that DD... I really thought you were going to do it dude. I would've wet myself.
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Re: Friday, November 20, 2015 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by zdude69closedrofl »

4:30 PM for me. Congrats to Alex Jacob on the most dominant ToC performance I've seen since Roger Craig. There really isn't much to say, but this was one of the more exciting ToCs I've seen in a long time. Matt Jackson tried to change up the game this time around with the TDD (good going on that), but unfortunately it just didn't work out in his favor. Kerry Greene was definitely at a disadvantage with these two guys, but she did everything she could and her whole ToC performance was very admirable. Alex certainly came out the most deserving, knowledgeable, fast, and prepared out of all the competitors. Such a great tournament with so many quality players. I don't think I'll be forgetting this one for a while.
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Re: Friday, November 20, 2015 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by floridagator »

What a great game. AT has already delivered the sermon, so all that's left for us is the benediction. The key moments were Matt's TDD and Alex finding the DJ DD and taking it out of play. But with Alex's $26,600 lead, there wasn't much anyone could do. Matt needed to keep the others off the buzzer and find and bet big on all three DDs. Kerry was playing well enough that it couldn't be done.

I hope to see Alex again on the next special tournament.
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Re: Friday, November 20, 2015 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by econgator »

Congrats to all three, but especially Alex. Well done, sir!
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Re: Friday, November 20, 2015 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by WooWho? »

Good grief, Alex, you could've given them a CHANCE at least! :lol: Well played, enjoy the money!
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Re: Friday, November 20, 2015 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by Abraxas »

Congratulations to Alex on winning the tournament! I had 36 correct responses including the triple stumper of economizer. I also got the missed DD of Health and Human Services, and I got FJ.
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Re: Friday, November 20, 2015 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by Winchell Factor »

So, I understand about recency bias, and I acknowledge that I have a vested interest in saying this, but:

I don't think there's any doubt that Alex is one of the 10 best players of the last decade. Maybe pretty high up in that list; I haven't really tried to figure it out.
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Re: Friday, November 20, 2015 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by hbomb1947 »

When AT said "this was the most dominant performance by anyone in any of our tournaments," I couldn't really disagree. I don't even have to ask Mark Barrett for the answer; I know that Alex Jacob has to be the only person who's ever had lock games in the quarters, semifinals, and both days of the final round of a TOC. (I know that technically the two halves of the TOC don't count as lock games, but it's still an unprecedented achievement.) Congrats to OMG on the victory and on cementing his status as a player for the ages.

That missed TDD by Matt (which of course he had to attempt -- and kudos to him for doing it) was the crusher -- although the fact that he got FJ wrong means it likely wouldn't have made a difference to the ultimate outcome. (And I would bet the farm that Alex knew the correct response to tonight's FJ -- even though, once again, the poker player didn't show his hand. :) ) Props to Matt for one of the great regular-season runs we've ever seen and being runner-up in a TOC. Losing to Alex is no disgrace, and we'll surely see Matt again in a future tournament -- and by then he may have filled in some of the gaps in his knowledge base. And props also to Kerry for a great tournament as well and doing her best to hang in there against two juggernauts.

FJ was an instaget for me, bringing me to 3-2 for the week and salvaging a 5-5 record for this tournament's FJ's. Although I was a philosophy major in college, I got it from the etymology -- kirk = church, and Kierkegaard sounded like church something, which = a burial place. (I initially thought "church garden," then I thought of "churchyard," which is a common name for a type of cemetery.)

I was extremely disappointed that the writers used the sanitized version of the the Snakes on a Plane quote (the one that SyFy had used when they cablecast that film) on the Samuel L. Jackson clue. :D

What do we all think of Alex's $100 wager on his DJ-round DD, which did give Matt a chance to get back into the game if things had gone a little differently? Especially since he got that DD right? :) Was it the logical equivalent of Alex's zero-dollar FJ wagers in both games -- just trying to sit on his big lead?
Last edited by hbomb1947 on Fri Nov 20, 2015 8:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Friday, November 20, 2015 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by hbomb1947 »

Winchell Factor wrote:So, I understand about recency bias, and I acknowledge that I have a vested interest in saying this, but:

I don't think there's any doubt that Alex is one of the 10 best players of the last decade. Maybe pretty high up in that list; I haven't really tried to figure it out.
Respectfully, only saying "one of the top 10," IMO, understates how great a player Alex is. I sure would like to see him in a matchup against Roger Craig, as well as seeing if he could hang with Rutter and Jennings. I would say Alex is indeed high up on the list (and after all, he does have the same number of regular-season victories as Roger).

For those who are familiar with the sabermetric concept of "similarity scores," if there were a way to compute those for J! contestants, I would guess that Roger would be the most similar player to Alex.
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Re: Friday, November 20, 2015 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by Winchell Factor »

Yes, a shout-out to Kerry for a really great tournament. I remember watching them play tonight's FJ. I remember having no idea, and watching them reveal Kerry's response and thinking, "No, that can't be...oh, my God, Kerry knows this!"

That was a wonderful way to put a bow on a very well played tournament. Enjoy the dough, my friend!
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