Andy here, with a double shot of recaps, this time of Quarterfinals 2 and 3!
Your second set of quarterfinalists:
Colby Burnett
David Menchaca
Joel Pool
Alex noted that the Tournament of Champions games tend to play quicker – which they do!
J! round categories:
GREAT BRITON
TIE ONE
“TAS”-MANIA
AISLE OF MAN
CANARIES
SURROUNDED BY WATER
The Daily Double was found under GREAT BRITON $400 – very early on, the second clue – and by Colby, after he got the $200 clue. He bet $1,000 and his clue was: In 1997 a memorial fund in her name was established to continue her humanitarian work. The correct answer put him at $1,200!
The interviews in the Tournament of Champions are always my favourites. Colby Burnett Day was proclaimed by the governor of Illinois after his Teacher’s Tournament win; David Menchaca found out about fan fiction that people on Twitter wanted to write (Jeanie, fess up, that was you, wasn’t it?) – and Joel owed his nephew 0.1% of his winnings for commandeering his brother’s television during his nephew’s TV time!
The Jeopardy! round was mostly Colby’s, as he held the lead after the Jeopardy! round! Scores were:
Colby $7,600
David $3,800
Joel $3,000
DJ! round categories:
PIN THE TALE ON THE WRITER
LET’S ROCK
“BABY” MOVIES
THE OLD FARMER’S ALMANAC 2013
U.S. POLITICS
PUNNY & NOT-PUNNY DEFINITIONS
David got off to the best start in Double Jeopardy! and had the first Daily Double (under US POLITICS $1600). Scores:
Colby $8,000
David $5,400
Joel $3,800
Betting $2,600, he saw the following clue: 1968 was the last time a third-party candidate captured a state; Nixon won 32 red states, Humphrey took 13 blues, & this independent won a block of five Southern states. Sadly he was 20 years too late and his incorrect answer put him at $2,800.
Colby got to play the final Daily Double, under PIN THE TALE ON THE WRITER $1200. Scores:
Colby $9,600
David $4,800
Joel $4,600
Saying “I will not Roger Craig this”, he bet just $800. His clue: “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” (1892). He was good to bet small, as he gave an incorrect response, falling to $8,800.
This time, it only took 5 more correct responses from Colby to cement his score going into Final Jeopardy!
Scores going into Final:
Colby $15,200
David $11,600
Joel $5,800
FJ! category: MUSEUMS
FJ! clue: Its collection includes a 16″ high architects’ model of its first permanent building, opened in 1939
Joel 5800 – 5800 = 0
David 11600 – 0 = 11600
Colby 15200 + 1200 = 16400
Colby Burnett joins Paul Nelson as the second semifinalist!
Now onto Friday’s quarterfinal:
David Gard, Monica Thieu and Jason Keller are the third set of quarterfinalists!
Jason’s lost a good bit of weight since his original run on the program!
J! round categories:
PORTU-GALS & GUYS
GENETICS
3 Ls
TONY-WINNING MUSICALS IN OTHER WORDS
AN IMPORTANT QUESTION
WHO WANTS A SANDWICH?
Jason got off to a quick start, picking up 3 of the 5 clues in 3 Ls, but Monica did quite well until negging on the PORTU-GALS & GUYS $1000 clue (Teresa Heinz Kerry was born to Portuguese parents in this then-Portuguese colony on Africa’s east coast) — picked up by Jason to boot! David only got in on a pair of $200 clues over the first 15!
At the end of the first segment, the scores were:
Jason $4600
Monica $1800
David $400
For the most part, the Tournament of Champions interviews didn’t fail to disappoint! Monica put together a clip reel for her honors banquet at her school, and put in some of her mistakes! Alex said he never lets them put in his mistakes! Jason put scans of his prize cheques from the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament and his Jeopardy! cheque in the same frame. The amounts were slightly different, though! (He only won $25 at the ACPT!)
Monica picked up the Daily Double right out of the break (GENETICS $600) and made it a True Daily Double, very excitedly, in fact, eliciting a response of “It doesn’t take much to get you excited” from Alex! Her clue (and her reaction to Alex’s comments):
Her 50-50 went the wrong way and her score fell to $0. Thankfully for her, she quietly said “no big deal” and she got that $1800 back by getting the next two clues! I really liked watching Monica play this game!
Jason got a roll going midway through the round for a few clues – interestingly enough, a variation of the WHO WANTS A SANDWICH $1000 clue (This city gives its name to an omelette & a sandwich of eggs, chopped ham, & green pepper) came up in one of the LearnedLeague MiniLeagues recently!
At the end of 30 clues, the scores were:
Jason $8800
David $2400
Monica $1400
DJ! round categories:
NAME THE COMPOSER (performed by Gilles Apap)
WHO’S YOUR MAMA?
AMERICAN HISTORY
LAKES
NATURAL SYMBOLS
LET’S MAKE THEM SCOTTISH
David wanted absolutely no part in Daily Double hunting (you might have gotten a different impression had you read a competing recap). Tsk tsk tsk. Jason did, and the trivia gods smiled upon him. Jason got the Daily Double, under LAKES $1600. The scores were:
Jason $10,000
David $4,000
Monica $1,400
Alex pointed out that Jason seemed very happy to have found that Daily Double. He bet $4,000.
His clue: To create this lake in the 1960s, historical ruins such as Abu Simbel were moved to higher ground. His immediate correct response moved him to $14,000.
Meanwhile, Jason went over to NAME THE COMPOSER – and as we played that category, I had to ask: How on earth is naming the “Peter and the Wolf” composer a $2,000 level clue at the Tournament of Champions?
Meanwhile, after finishing out Composers, Jason went to AMERICAN HISTORY $1200 and found the game’s final Daily Double! Scores at this point were:
Jason $17,600
Monica $3,000
David $2,000
Betting $5,400, his clue was: In a 1779 battle in the North Sea, he captured the Serapis, a British man-of-war. Another correct response put Jason’s score up to $23,000.
From there, it was pretty much Jason making sure he kept a lock, and Monica and David positioning themselves as best they could for wild cards. Monica went on an excellent run on the final dozen clues to make Jason sweat a little bit, but Jason still had his lock!
I found the WHO’S THEIR MAMA? $1600 clue amusing (models Elizabeth & Georgia May Jagger) I went to high school with a girl named Bianca Hall – that makes it really easy to keep Mick Jagger’s wives straight! (Bianca was first, then Jerri Hall)
Scores going into Final:
Jason 28200
Monica 9800
David 2400
FJ! category: FAMOUS WOMEN
FJ! clue: Her 1886 obituary in a Mass. paper said, “very few in the village, except among the older inhabitants, knew” her “personally”
David 2400 – 2300 = 100
Monica 9800 + 1200 = 11000
Jason 28200 + 0 = 28200
Jason’s the third of five semifinalists! Monica’s in the fourth wild-card spot, and gets to sit on pins & needles for 2 days!
Wildcard standings:
Paul Nelson (win)
Colby Burnett (win)
Jason Keller (win)
1. Jason Shore $14,000
2. Stephanie Jass $13,000
3. David Menchaca $11,600
4. Monica Thieu $11,000
—
5. David Gard $100
6. Joel Pool $0