Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions

[Sokarys]

6 hours ago, Packerbrewerbadger said:

I was rooting for Margaret, I think she would be a wonderful friend!

I adored Margaret during her original run, and have always wanted to just sit down with her and have a sweet tea!

I had high hopes she'd pull it off today - I felt like she played more aggressively than during her original run, when she sometimes came across as just a little too timid. Considering she didn't get any of the Daily Doubles, I actually thought she played better than Tyler overall. Alas....

[HyeChaps]

Monday's game was so low energy, followed by two exciting games.  Looking forward to more fun!

[Browncoat]

Brian and Tyler made exactly the right bets for FJ.  Margaret should have bet it all. 

Count me among those who thought the FJ clue was asking for a commonly used phrase. Like @Katy M, I also thought about "Indian giver", but knew that couldn't possibly be right.  So I missed FJ.  Again.  As usual.

But I did get the TS of Venice, house mouse, Whitehall, and squeal & equals.  

"Bless their hearts!"  Hee!

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Browncoat said:

Margaret should have bet it all. 

Yes, but Margaret still could have lost a tie-breaker.
Is it worse to lose because of a wager or because of slow buzzing or because of a wrong answer?
At least she went out with the correct answer.
 

I was surprised Brian Chang, "an attorney from Chicago Illinois," didn't get the $1000 TS Cubs clue. Even I was familiar with the name of Ron Santo.

[illdoc]

13 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

 Even I was familiar with the name of Ron Santo.

Actually, it rang a bell, but I wasn't sure what team I knew it from, but "Chance" (immediately thought of Tinker to Evers to Chance) actually gave it to me. 

[TaraS1]

I wasn't a fan of Margaret's during her original run, so I was happy with last night's outcome, but overall just happy to see an exciting match.

Sadly, I misunderstood the FJ clue too, so I had no idea.

[chessiegal]

I understood the FJ clue but didn't know the answer. My husband did.

[Clanstarling]

15 hours ago, SierraMist said:

I loved Margaret during her original run.  I'm sad she didn't bet it all (a tie would have been so exciting) but she was always pretty cautious.  Congrats to Tyler.

I know, we were hoping for a tie-breaker because that would have been fun for us to see.

14 hours ago, possibilities said:

That was an exciting game.

I misunderstood FJ. I thought they wanted w phrase that described the failure to fulfill a promise, not that they wanted to know what the promise had been.

Me too. My husband got it, but we both thought it was poorly written.

13 hours ago, Driad said:

I enjoyed Ken's "Bless their hearts" comment [referring to people who think Margaret exaggerates her Southern accent, IIRC].

Loved it, even said it with a more southern emphasis (I had relatives from Mississippi, so it's like old home week when I hear it)

2 hours ago, illdoc said:

Actually, it rang a bell, but I wasn't sure what team I knew it from, but "Chance" (immediately thought of Tinker to Evers to Chance) actually gave it to me. 

My baseball fan husband didn't get it - but I recognized "Chance"  (though I mangled the play) and said it to my husband repeatedly, but he didn't get my mangled version. LOL.

Good game, I too wish Margaret would have won, but them's the breaks.

My own game, not so good - but I don't expect it to be during the tournament, so it met my expectations.

Edited November 3, 2022 by Clanstarling

[Scott]

So it took until last night for me to realize just how different (I would say "screwed up", but I will refrain from editorializing) the rules for this year's ToC are.  First off, I was surprised to see none of Matt, Mattea, or Amy in the show, since that would mean that at least two of them would meet in the first round (under my assumption that the tournament was structured as the past).  Then, at the end, I expected a comment that Margaret's score was likely good enough to make it as a wild card (not realizing there weren't any this year).  The kicker, though, was when Ken commented about being halfway through the quarterfinals--he's precise enough that I would have expected a "more than halfway" comment, if this had been the third out of five.  That's what finally made me look it up.

I know this had all been publicized, but clearly I hadn't been paying attention.  

[Welshman in Ca]

2 hours ago, TaraS1 said:

Sadly, I misunderstood the FJ clue too, so I had no idea.

You're not alone there & I could have sat staring at it for a year and still not understand it.

[dgpolo]

9 hours ago, Gravity Check said:

Don Kessinger was "my" Cub.

Kessinger to Beckert to Banks was my Tinkers to Evers to Chance

[3 is enough]

So it looks like Tuesday will be the first game with either Matt, Amy, or Mattea.  Election night.  Given that I am in Pacific time zone I am not  confident that I will get to see the game. 

[annzeepark914]

16 minutes ago, 3 is enough said:

So it looks like Tuesday will be the first game with either Matt, Amy, or Mattea.  Election night.  Given that I am in Pacific time zone I am not  confident that I will get to see the game. 

I was just starting to worry about this. Maybe ABC, aware that this is TOC time, won't take over scheduled shows until later and use a crawl with local results 🙏🤞🍀.

[Clanstarling]

23 minutes ago, 3 is enough said:

So it looks like Tuesday will be the first game with either Matt, Amy, or Mattea.  Election night.  Given that I am in Pacific time zone I am not  confident that I will get to see the game. 

If I'm reading the brackets correctly (which is by no means certain) Tuesday will be Amy, Wednesday Matt, and Thursday Mattea:

https://www.jeopardy.com/contestant-zone/2022/tournament-champions

Ugh, I forgot it was election night. Well, hopefully the coverage won't interfere with Jeopardy - as I'd rather watch that and find out what happened in the morning.

Edited November 3, 2022 by Clanstarling

[SomeTameGazelle]

6 minutes ago, Clanstarling said:

If I'm reading the brackets correctly (which is by no means certain) Tuesday will be Amy, Wednesday Matt, and Thursday Mattea:

The exhibition match with Amy vs Matt vs Mattea is supposed to be Tuesday. The semi finals would start after that. 

[Browncoat]

5 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Yes, but Margaret still could have lost a tie-breaker.
Is it worse to lose because of a wager or because of slow buzzing or because of a wrong answer?
At least she went out with the correct answer.

Perhaps she would have lost a tie-breaker, but it would have given her one more chance to win.  She was pretty fast on the buzzer during the game.

[alias1]

I was really hoping Margaret would win and unfortunately I think it was the Fallopian Tube response that allowed Tyler to get a head.  If both Margaret and Brian hadn't given a wrong response, I don't think Tyler would have rung in.  I wonder if her FJ wager would have been different had she been ahead.  She played an excellent game.

[30 Helens]

52 minutes ago, SierraMist said:

I was really hoping Margaret would win and unfortunately I think it was the Fallopian Tube response that allowed Tyler to get a head.  

Yeah, I had one of those (ectopic pregnancy) so I knew it right away. Is outside the Fallopian tube even possible?? 

4 hours ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

The exhibition match with Amy vs Matt vs Mattea is supposed to be Tuesday. The semi finals would start after that. 

Exhibition match? They’re really milking this 3 titans thing, aren’t they? I guess they have to make sure the matchup happens in case all three don’t win their respective brackets. Either way, this should give a boost of confidence to one of them.

[saber5055]

56 minutes ago, 30 Helens said:

Is outside the Fallopian tube even possible?? 

It was in the movie Alien.

I easily got the Cubs TS, but then, I listened to Pat and Ron announce all the Cubs games when they were contracted to WGN radio. I even got the TS of the Cubs' nemesis, the (hateful) Cardinals.

I say "Bless your heart" all the time. And I mean ALL the time. Maybe spending every summer, from grade school through college, on a cow/calf farm in the Ouachita Mountains made that common speak for me.

Anyone in the Chicago area looking for rowan, they will be at Hawthorne this weekend and not the Breeder's Cup at Keeneland, which I will be watching on tv. I'm a big racing fan and even owned an off-track Thoroughbred for a while. Riding her was like sitting astride a rocket ship with all burners going, unbelievably powerful animal.

Edited November 3, 2022 by saber5055

[PaulaO]

Thank you <insert favorite deity >.

[Quickbeam]

4 minutes ago, PaulaO said:

Thank you <insert favorite deity >.

Yup! Soooooo happy. 

[Bastet]

Well, boo, I was hoping rowan would win, but it looks like John ran away with it in DJ once he got both the DDs (I'm going to be out tonight, so I just checked the archive).

If it wasn't for the year ending in 2 category, I'd have had a great first round -- unlike the contestants, I did well in films, even though I've never seen most of them, correctly guessing all but one, I also got all but one in verse, and ran the rest.  Other than that pesky history category, in which I could not get my brain to work and missed three (including the one about Grant, even though I did a report on him in elementary school).

I only ran Balkan in DJ, and got all but one in J.  The rest, I missed two or three each.

And I had no idea for FJ.

[ams1001]

50% / 40% / 44%

Wow. This week just keeps getting worse. Ran nothing. My best categories in J! were Objects of Verse and Adverbs, where I missed one each. Missed four films and three in everything else. In DJ a didn't get a single clue in the bottom two rows; got three in Business, one Balkan nation, and two each in the others. My only TS was silently, and I did not get FJ. 

Way to go, John! I don't really remember you, but I was rooting for you, especially when you got into the lead. (Would have been fine with Courtney, too.) But I'll admit I feel a little bad for rowan that they won't get their rematch with Matt.
 

6 hours ago, 3 is enough said:

So it looks like Tuesday will be the first game with either Matt, Amy, or Mattea.  Election night.  Given that I am in Pacific time zone I am not  confident that I will get to see the game. 

Hopefully I'll get home in time (and they won't preempt the game...). I'll be in the office that day, but if I manage to leave on time I can get to my polling place by six, and I've never been there longer than about 20 minutes so with luck that will be the case again. (Never got around to requesting my mail ballot.) I meant to work from home that day so I could try to go at lunch but I forgot when I was making my schedule.

[annzeepark914]

All I can say is, thank God that John won. Rowan was once again OTT...even more so as of tonight.

[Browncoat]

Another one of those, "I could sit here for the rest of the night and never get FJ" FJ clues.  I had absolutely no idea.  

The only TS I got were Lethal Weapon and hurly-burly.  Once upon a time, I knew all the witches' lines from MacBeth.

Congrats to John!

[PaulaO]

Instaget FJ!  Lost Horizon.  Novel by James Hilton, lovely film by Frank Capra starring Ronald Colman.

Edited November 4, 2022 by PaulaO

[shapeshifter]

Even a broken clock [Jeopardy!-viewer] is right twice a day [in a lifetime].
I pulled the TS FJ out of some corner of my brain in plenty of time. 🌞

I thought rowan was less OTT tonight, like the other time when they weren't having a runaway.

I really appreciated how rowan smiled at John when he reached an untouchable score. 
Often players' faces often show their disappointment, even though I'm sure they edit out most of it——which I also appreciate.

[dgpolo]

Just now, shapeshifter said:

I pulled the TS FJ out of some corner of my brain in plenty of time. 🌞

I thought rowan was less OTT tonight, like the other time when they weren't having a runaway.

Yep, said Shangri-La then thought maybe they wanted the book and managed to come up with Lost Horizon then decided that Shangri-La was right. Only TS I got was the shark moving silently.

Totally agree about rowan too, much more subdued today.

I was wondering if this new format has messed with the contestants heads in some way? They all seem a bit off.

[saber5055]

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

I really appreciated how rowan smiled at John when he reached an untouchable score. 

I love rowan and now follow them on Twitter. Today my happy euphoria over That Person losing Tuesday was struck down by my sadness over rowan losing today.

Edited November 4, 2022 by saber5055
Tuesday, not yesterday. Gah.

[vibeology]

I got as far as "merrily verily" and had to turn it off. I'm sure rowan is lovely in person but they are way too showboaty for me. 

[BitterApple]

5 minutes ago, vibeology said:

I got as far as "merrily verily" and had to turn it off. I'm sure rowan is lovely in person but they are way too showboaty for me. 

I like Rowan in a sense that they're a pleasant person but I also wonder if their antics were a distraction to the other contestants. I don't recall them being so over the top in their initial performance. 

[dgpolo]

3 minutes ago, BitterApple said:

wonder if their antics were a distraction to the other contestants.

On various contestant Twitter accounts most of them were hanging out with each other and rowan was in a bunch of pics with a lot of them.

[shapeshifter]

54 minutes ago, dgpolo said:

Yep, said Shangri-La then thought maybe they wanted the book and managed to come up with Lost Horizon then decided that Shangri-La was right.

Ah-ha! I thought it was a black & white film I was recalling!
(wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Horizon_(1937_film)#Production)

I reread the FJ clue (out loud) and was relieved that I only needed to know the name of the place, and not the title of the novel——or the title of the movie, which may or may not have been the same as the novel.

• "This place from a 1933 novel lies in the Valley of Blue Moon, below a peak called Karakal"

Edited November 4, 2022 by shapeshifter

[possibilities]

That was a hell of a blowout. Congrats John!

[30 Helens]

4 hours ago, saber5055 said:

It was in the movie Alien.

LOL. I’m certainly glad I didn’t have one of those!

3 hours ago, Bastet said:

Well, boo, I was hoping rowan would win, but it looks like John ran away with it in DJ once he got both the DDs (I'm going to be out tonight, so I just checked the archive).

Yes, it was a really close match until John found those Daily Doubles. I was rooting for Rowan, too. A, because I like them, and B, because I was hoping for an invite to your Rowan v Amy v Mattea finals party to share in the fun of everyone’s heads exploding.

I would describe Rowan’s demeanor tonight as mildly perky. For anyone who thought it was OTT, I invite you to watch some of the recent Celebrity Jeopardy episodes, especially the last one with Hasan Minaj. Talk about heads exploding.

[853fisher]

RE the Tuesday exhibition match, Michael Davies (the executive producer) said that it was purposefully scheduled then, so that viewers will not miss a step in tournament play due to Election Day preemptions.  He also said that he hopes to be able to put the match on the official YouTube channel as a one-off, so that those who do have a preemption can still enjoy it.  As of whenever he was speaking (not sure when), it had not been worked out with everyone who has a piece of the rights to control where and how the show airs.  Fingers crossed.

RE today's final, I should have known better because "blue" was in the clue, but I just had a hunch that it was "Island of the Blue Dolphins."  I did love that book, although obviously I didn't remember it with any great specificity!

Edited November 4, 2022 by 853fisher

[Prevailing Wind]

Anticipating long lines at the polls, we've rescheduled our condo board meeting for Wednesday, so I'll be able to watch the "special" game. It's the next night I'll miss. Bummer.

[HyeChaps]

John really knows geography!

I've always thought geography was the foundation of Jeopardy preparation.

[ams1001]

12 hours ago, vibeology said:

I got as far as "merrily verily" and had to turn it off. I'm sure rowan is lovely in person but they are way too showboaty for me. 

Honestly, that was probably the most OTT they got. It wasn't as noticeable as the game went on, but also they weren't dominating it like they were in the Second Chance games.

[Caoimhe]

9 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

I would describe Rowan’s demeanor tonight as mildly perky. For anyone who thought it was OTT, I invite you to watch some of the recent Celebrity Jeopardy episodes, especially the last one with Hasan Minaj. Talk about heads exploding.

I’m not one of rowan’s fans but I agree their demeanor was calm compared to their second chance games.  Hasan Minaj is the most extremely OTT Jeopardy player I’ve ever seen, Mayim really handled it well.

I really want Amy to win, she’s my favourite in this tournament.

Edited November 4, 2022 by Caoimhe

[Trey]

Congrats to John for a great game and a solid win.

I got only one ts, Jasperware, but FJ was an instaget, Lost Horizon being part of my high school lit. class.

[possibilities]

The polls don't close anywhere until evening, do they? In MA, they usually close at 8pm. So J! shouldn't be pre-empted, since it usually airs before that, doesn't it? In my market, we get it at 7:30. 

[MrAtoz]

It varies by state.  In Indiana, where I am, polls close at 6:00.  There are several states where they close at 7:00.  By 7:30, when Jeopardy airs locally, we're usually seeing election reports pre-empting regular programming.

[ams1001]

50 minutes ago, MrAtoz said:

It varies by state.  In Indiana, where I am, polls close at 6:00.  There are several states where they close at 7:00.  By 7:30, when Jeopardy airs locally, we're usually seeing election reports pre-empting regular programming.

Yeah, they close at 8 here, but there's always lots of useless news coverage that doesn't really tell us anything long before then. J! airs at 7 here, and I get NYC stations so who knows. It seems if they have a choice to preempt J! or WOF, they usually choose to interrupt WOF (during the height of the early pandemic, they were doing a special broadcast after the news, but they would show J! first).

I figure if all else fails, someone will put it on youtube, though, like usual. They don't stay up long but it's usually up at least long enough to watch that evening or the next day if I miss it for whatever reason.

[Clanstarling]

On 11/3/2022 at 3:02 PM, 30 Helens said:

Yeah, I had one of those (ectopic pregnancy) so I knew it right away. Is outside the Fallopian tube even possible??

I thought not, but then I looked it up:
 

Quote

Up to 98% of ectopic pregnancies occur in the fallopian tubes. Non-tubal ectopic pregnancies are rare, accounting for 7–10% of all ectopic pregnancies and occurring outside the uterus and tubes [3, 4], yet are associated with higher morbidity due to their late presentation and diagnostic difficulties

Never would have guessed that.

23 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

All I can say is, thank God that John won. Rowan was once again OTT...even more so as of tonight.

I thought they were fairly subdued, and even thought "no one can think they're OTT tonight." LOL. Mileage sure does vary.

17 hours ago, 853fisher said:

RE today's final, I should have known better because "blue" was in the clue, but I just had a hunch that it was "Island of the Blue Dolphins."  I did love that book, although obviously I didn't remember it with any great specificity!

That entered my mind, but I guess I have enough buried memories that I figured it didn't fit. Loved the book too.

10 hours ago, Caoimhe said:

I’m not one of rowan’s fans but I agree their demeanor was calm compared to their second chance games.  Hasan Minaj is the most extremely OTT Jeopardy player I’ve ever seen, Mayim really handled it well.

That's Hasan being Hasan. Yes, extremely OTT in this context. Though oddly, in his Prom King comedy special, I don't recall him being like that. Maybe because even though it was funny, it was also heartbreaking.

9 hours ago, possibilities said:

The polls don't close anywhere until evening, do they? In MA, they usually close at 8pm. So J! shouldn't be pre-empted, since it usually airs before that, doesn't it? In my market, we get it at 7:30. 

We're on the west coast and the polls in the east close hours before Jeopardy on our feed. Plus all the useless yammering that goes on before the polls close.

Anyway.....

I managed to get FJ (that's two this week!!), but thought I was wrong (never read the book or saw the film). When my husband said "Xanadu" I thought he was right. So I was thrilled to be right.

Edited November 4, 2022 by Clanstarling
Had a brain fart and used the incorrect pronouns for Rowan. My apologies.

[proserpina65]

On 11/3/2022 at 5:22 AM, Sokarys said:

I adored Margaret during her original run, and have always wanted to just sit down with her and have a sweet tea!

I had high hopes she'd pull it off today - I felt like she played more aggressively than during her original run, when she sometimes came across as just a little too timid. Considering she didn't get any of the Daily Doubles, I actually thought she played better than Tyler overall. Alas....

I tired very quickly of Margaret (by her second game, in fact) but I would've preferred her over Tyler.  So far I am batting zero as far as the contestants I like the most: Ryan, Jonathan and Brian all losing.  Although at least the insufferable Rowan lost.  I couldn't even watch that game; I had to check the archive last night.

[3 is enough]

Glad to hear I should be able to catch the Tuesday episode if I miss it. 

For those of us in the west coverage always begins early because the networks are all based on the east coast.  Checked my local listings and the CBS affiliate that airs Jeopardy in our city starts election coverage at 6pm local time. Jeopardy airs at 7 here so I am out of luck. 

[Bastet]

18 hours ago, BitterApple said:

I don't recall them being so over the top in their initial performance. 

I have no specific memories of that game, but I checked that season's thread here to refresh my memory prior to their Second Chance game, and there was much "oh, thank gods we don't have to see them again" - ha! think again - so they must have been the same in that original game (which, of course, would make sense, as that's simply how they are).

15 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

I was rooting for Rowan, too. A, because I like them, and B, because I was hoping for an invite to your Rowan v Amy v Mattea finals party to share in the fun of everyone’s heads exploding.

Oh, what a time we would have had.

Edited November 4, 2022 by Bastet

[dcalley]

13 hours ago, 853fisher said:

RE the Tuesday exhibition match, Michael Davies (the executive producer) said that it was purposefully scheduled then, so that viewers will not miss a step in tournament play due to Election Day preemptions. 

A category in Tuesday's exhibition game is revealed in the video below. If you want to know but don't want to watch, it's

Spoiler

Remembering Alex Trebek (he died Nov. 8. 2020).

[ams1001]

43% / 57% / 49%

Again, ran nothing. Got four Dinosaurs, Musical Instruments, and Tangled Web, three in Fashion, Direction, Broadway, and OED, two in Homophones and History, one in Champions and Rhyme Time, and zero in South America, and no FJ.

Got two DDs, and a few TSes for once, at least - Prada, clarinet, keytar, and Hadestown.

My ego will be glad when we get back to regular games.