Austin Powers wrote: ↑Wed Mar 06, 2019 8:50 am
I also felt the show was hamstrung by the need to highlight recent champs who are good, not great. Personally I would rather see a Jerome Vered or Leslie Shannon up there, and not Austin Rogers’ armpit fart routine. I know these folks still know their stuff - they showed it this weekend in Vegas, for example - and I feel that some of these champs might have put up a bit more of a fight... A tournament of great players shouldn’t have to do that, right?
*****
So, this was ok. Glad to see Brad and Ken still have it. But I feel this won’t and shouldn’t happen again.
First, I thought it played much better than I expected. Of course, I knew quite a few of the 18 players I would say probably 12 to 14 of them. On the Friday night of the tournament, I watched with four of them ( and will be playing with two tomorrow night at O'Briens, and it is my birthday so that should be fine).
Referring to the selection here, I will say is I once heard the president of the former Radcliffe say, we make many mistakes about who we don't let in, but we make no mistakes about we do let in.
Everyone there had a good reason to be there and it's not as though any of them took a space away from somebody else.
As far as how we did in Vegas, man! I must know who this is but I'm not sure. My team finished #6 but not much thanks to me – I wasn't much help on the pop music rounds. Pretty good with cheeses though
I was also a little surprised that the questions didn't run much harder. In the UTOC, there was a game when all three finalists were in the minus column. And I think the hardest board I've ever seen was one of the first round knockouts for the 90s decade in the BotD. It was a grueling game to watch (I'd been eliminated as I was from the previous 84-93 group. But luckily could come to the taping). I think TOC's in these tournaments should be difficult. I think there was only one final Jeopardy that approached the difficulty of my ToC rounds.
But it's been a while, and the riders may have different instructions or are going for something else. I was certainly very happy to see many of the players come back. And I was very happy that I was not spoiled on the tournament and complete disclosure, Buzzy let slip some thing last August which he shouldn't have which led me to ask him a question and he hemmed and hawed but eventually told me that there was going to be a tournament and he told me a few of the people who were going to be in it and so I figured out that guess who is not getting invited. Anyway, I've seen my role taken by a guy who works with computers and a computer as well.
For whatever reasons, market research or got instinct, they chose to run a little young. I think the oldest person playing was Ken Jennings. And the only people who had been in the UTOC were two of the finalists and one of the semifinalists and even battle of the decades people were few – Dave Madden, I think Larisssa, others?...
I don't think they really wanted to give the amount of time necessary which would be months for another UTOC type elimination tourney. And I think they really wanted Brad and Ken to go head to head. And in regular play, Brad is usually dominant but I still remember as does he the Crete Garfield game, Chernicoff and Rooney and him and he was in last place going into final Jeopardy but the point of the game isn't necessarily to dominate. The point of the game is to win.
And he won and sometimes you win because you dominate, and sometimes you win because the others make mistakes or bet wrong. That's how I won more than one game (was in distant third playing my second game against Frank' Spangenberg snd Pam, I am fortunately for me they didn't know if Jay, and even though I did, a bet zero).
I guess I could search but just let me know, who is this who would've liked to have seen some more of the older players? Because for those of us who are older players, it's nice to be remembered.