Andy here with another two-in-one shot! Remember, the wild card cutoff is $11,000 right now – I’m kinda cheering for Monica to make the semifinals as that final wildcard, but we’ll see what happens!
Monday’s contestants: Dan McShane, Kristin Morgan, and Keith Whitener!
J! round categories:
NATIONALITIES?
LITERARY TERMS
BING’S TOP SEARCHES: 2012
AN “IMP”ISH CATEGORY
MICRO
MANAGE
(Who uses Bing, anyway? I’ve been Google for at least the past decade…)
The first segment of the game was pretty evenly-matched; Dan nearly called for NATIONALITIES? but switched his call to MICRO $1000 — good thing he did, as the game’s first Daily Double was there! The scores at this point sat at:
Kristin $1,400
Dan $1,200
Keith $1,200
Dan chose to make it a true Daily Double; his clue: This field covers the control of bits of matter smaller than 1/100th the thickness of a sheet of paper. A few of my pub quiz regulars were part of the program dealing with this at the University of Guelph, so this one came to me very quickly. Came quickly to Dan as well, and he doubled his score!
Typical Tournament of Champions judging, Kristin got dinged for giving the nounal form “dystopia” when they were looking for the adjectival form “dystopian”! A $1,600 mistake for her!
By the end of 15 clues, the scores were:
Keith $2,800
Dan $2,000
Kristin $1,600
Keith’s loss was pre-empted in his area due to election coverage; his wife refuses to see the loss!
Keith couldn’t quite get the TOM in the following clue (BING’S TOP SEARCHES $600): Get on the dance floor & spell out for us this most-searched charitable organization.
Kristin recovered nicely in the second half of the round, and with about 8 or 9 clues left, she had a comfy lead! However, Dan came storming back! In the “No shame, only points” department, and $1,000 for Dan: “Among the Top 5 celebrity events was the birth of Lorenzo Lavalle, her son”
At the end of 30, the scores were:
Dan $6,000
Kristin $5,600
Keith $4,200
DJ! round categories:
NONFICTION
THE TV CHARACTER’S JOB
LET’S GO TO THE CIRCUS
LANDMARKS
IN THE DICTIONARY
1960s BLACK AMERICA
None of the three players seemed like they wanted to hunt! It was Kristin who got to the first Daily Double, under 1960s BLACK AMERICA $1200! Scores were:
Dan $8,400
Kristin $7,600
Keith $6,600
Kristin bet $2,500. Her clue: In March 1964 he broke with the Nation of Islam. Her correct response put her at $10,100!
The more I watch these quarterfinals, the more I get the sense that the writers really didn’t try to ramp up the difficulty too much!
It was Keith who played the game’s final Daily Double, under LANDMARKS $1600. Scores now were:
Dan $12,400
Kristin $10,900
Keith $7,800
His bet was $5,000. His clue: Architect Guarino Guarini designed the Cappella Della Sacrea Sindone to house this relic. Keith got it immediately, and he went up to $12,800 and the lead!
By the end of the Double Jeopardy! round, the scores sat as follows:
Keith $16,000
Kristin $13,300
Dan $12,400
FJ! category: WORLD CAPITALS
FJ! clue: Alphabetically, Zagreb is the last world captal; this capital of a former Soviet republic is second to last
Dan 12400 + 7600 = 20000
Kristin 13300 + 4200 = 17500
Keith 16000 + 10601 = 26601
Darn it, can’t they throw a stinker of a final into there! That eliminates David and Monica and puts Jason and Stephanie, the pre-tournament favourite of many, onto the bubble!
Wildcard standings through Monday:
Paul Nelson (win)
Colby Burnett (win)
Jason Keller (win)
Keith Whitener (win)
1. Dan McShane $20,000
2. Kristin Morgan $17,500
3. Jason Shore $14,000
4. Stephanie Jass $13,000
—
5. David Menchaca $11,600
6. Monica Thieu $11,000
7. David Gard $100
8. Joel Pool $0
Tuesday’s quarterfinalists: Ashok Poozhikunnel, Dave Leach, and Patrick Quinn!
J! round categories:
WHO’S ON FIRST?
SAY “LA-V”
HOUSEHOLD HINTS
TILE LAND
COMPUTER LINGO
THE FUTURE (a category presented by Al Gore!)
I like anyone who goes into sports right away — yes, I ran WHO’S ON FIRST. It was very evenly matched through 15 clues. The scores at the first break sat at:
Ashok $2,800
Patrick $2,600
Dave $2,000
As always, the interviews proved to be interesting! Dave, in fact, started a board game selling business after his run ended!
Coming out of the break, Patrick got to play the first Daily Double, under THE FUTURE $800. Scores were:
Patrick $3,200
Ashok $2,800
Dave $1,800
Betting just $1,000, his clue was: Population & economic growth threaten our natural resources; one example is the erosion of this, the upper 6 inches of farming land that provides 99% of human food. Patrick’s correct response put him at $4,200!
Coming out of the break, nobody was able to really take charge of the game, and negs kept the scores down! At the end of 30 clues, the scores were:
Patrick $4,600
Ashok $4,400
Dave $3,200
Patrick had a particularly painful neg on COMPUTER LINGO $1000 (Send me that report as a PDF, this “format”). He gave no response after ringing in, and later admitted he “used to teach that!”. Dave’s reaction was pricelss to that!
DJ! round categories:
BRIDES OF SHAKESPEARE
THE LIFE OF A GENIUS
G.I. JOES
THE BEGINNING, MIDDLE & END LETTER
THE WIZ
EASEL DOWN THE ROAD
I’m not sure Patrick quite recovered from the earlier neg. He negged on back-to-back clues in SHAKESPEARE’S WIVES and Ashok had trouble getting in on the buzzer! Dave played the first Daily Double of the round, under THE LIFE OF A GENIUS $1200. Scores were:
Dave $4,800
Ashok $4,400
Patrick $1,800
His bet was $2,500. His clue: They’ll want your intellect at these Murray Hill, N.J. labs, the longtime research & development arm of AT&T. His correct response put him up to $7,300!
Meanwhile, the middle of the round, saw Ashok and Dave get most of the clues. It was Dave who played the final Daily Double, under THE BEGINNING, MIDDLE & END LETTER $1600. It was the 25th clue of the round, and the scores were at:
Dave $14,500
Ashok $9,200
Patrick $3,000
Dave’s bet this time was $3,500. His clue: A: The crop feed also called purple medic. Dave had no response and his score fell to $11,000. He was very demonstrative, though! I liked that.
By the end of the final five clues, the scores sat at:
Dave $12,600
Ashok $12,400
Patrick $5,000
FJ! category: THE NEW 7 WONDERS OF THE WORLD
FJ! clue: On the new list chosen in 2007, this wonder designed by Heitor da Silva Costa is the only statue
Patrick 5000 – 4011 = 989
Ashok 12400 – 400 = 12000
Dave 12600 + 2500 = 15100
While very close, obviously Patrick’s and Ashok’s responses weren’t quite enough!
Final wildcard standings:
Paul Nelson (win)
Colby Burnett (win)
Jason Keller (win)
Keith Whitener (win)
Dave Leach (win)
1. Dan McShane $20,000
2. Kristin Morgan $17,500
3. Jason Shore $14,000
4. Stephanie Jass $13,000
—
5. Ashok Poozhikunnel $12,400
6. David Menchaca $11,600
7. Monica Thieu $11,000
8. Patrick Quinn $989
9. David Gard $100
10. Joel Pool $0
Jeanie’ll be back with the first two semifinals tomorrow and Thursday!