Andy here with a double-shot of shock and virality from the Jeopardy! Teen Tournament! 2 games in one!
First up, the Jeopardy! round that had everybody talking and tweeting on Wednesday night!
Your first semifinalists were William Crouch, Irene Vazquez, and Barrett Block!
J! round categories:
HEY, I JUST MET YOU
THIS IS CRAZY
BUT HERE’S MY NUMBER
SO CALL ME
MAY “B”
YEAH, WE WENT THERE
It was the eighth-grade Irene who had the best of it on the Carly Rae Jepsen board, having $9,200 to Willliam’s $4,400 and Barrett’s $3,800.
DJ! saw much more normal categories of:
HAPPY 100th BIRTHDAY, FEDERAL RESERVE!
VOCABULARY
ART & ARTISTS
I SAW THAT ON TV
SLICES OF ORANGE
ANATOM”E”
This round was all Barrett, including a True Daily Double for $5000 on the 10th clue (ANATOM”E” $2000: This other name for the auditory tube honors an Italian anatomist), meaning we had scores going into Final Jeopardy! of:
Barrett $26,400
Irene $14,000
William $8,000
FJ! category: FAMOUS ASIANS
FJ! clue: When this diplomat met the singer Psy in 2012, he said, “until 2 days ago…I was the most famous Korean in the world
William 8000 – 8000 = 0
Irene 14000 – 13900 = 100
Barrett 26400 + 1601 = 28001
So, Barrett’s the first finalist. Who will he play?
Kelton Ellis vs. Joe Vertnik vs. Tori Amos is the second semifinal!
J! round categories:
PIZZA-PALOOZA
RELIGIONS
MAJOR LEAGUE SPORTS CITIES
ACADEMIC ANAGRAMS
YOUR FRIENDS, THE POLICE
“A” “P” HISTORY
Joe was even with Kelton and Tori until he found a lot of mojo in both ANAGRAMS and MAJOR LEAGUE SPORTS CITIES! The scores at the end of 30 were:
Joe $7,200
Kelton $3,400
Tori $2,800
DJ! round categories:
ENGLISH LITERATURE
THE VOICE
SKIP IT
BIOLOGY
COUNTRY FACTS
CROSSWORD CLUES “E”
Tori did an excellent job trying to hunt down the Daily Doubles in this round! I was quite impressed with this part of her game! She was starting at $1200 and downwards. Of course the first one she found was at the $800 level! She tried to pull herself back into the game with a True Daily Double on the following ENGLISH LITERATURE clue: In this futuristic but not Orwellian novel, Mustapha Mond was called “the resident controller for Western Europe”. Unfortunately, she gave the wrong book and she had to rebuild from $0. To add insult to injury, the second one was at $800 as well. Poor Tori.
By the time Final Jeopardy! rolled around, Kelton didn’t quite have a lock game!
Scores going into FJ!:
Kelton $16,400
Joe $12,000
Tori $1,600
FJ! category: CAPITAL CITIES
And then, as Ken Jennings put it on Twitter so eloquently this evening: “Oh no, a tragic development in the Hunger Games”…
I’m going to suggest the following wagers here:
Kelton: All you have to do is bet $7,601 and you’ve got a trip to the Finals if you’re right.
Joe: You’re done for if Kelton’s right, here, so look at things if he gets it wrong. If he does, he should fall to $8,799. Thus, the most you should possibly consider betting is $3,200 (falling to $8,800 if you’re wrong).
Tori: Really, there isn’t too much you can do. However, because you just never know what might happen, hold back something. Please? I personally like $2, but $200 works as well.
FJ! clue: It’s criss-crossed by dozens of “peace walls” that separate its Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods
Tori 1600 – 1600 = 0 (Sigh.)
Joe 12000 – 12000 = 0 (Ugh.)
Kelton 16400 – 16400 = 0 (Good heavens.)
What this means is that the highest-scoring non-winner gets the third spot in the finals (Meaning, Irene, at $100, is suddenly still alive!)
Of course, this is just one more reason why contestants really should look at wagering strategy before going onto the program!
Jeanie’s got the suddenly-even-more exciting third semifinal tomorrow! I’ll be back this weekend with a couple of Q&As!