As is quickly becoming tradition in Culver City, the period following the Tournament of Champions is for the Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament, where greats from the recent (and not-so-recent) past return to the Alex Trebek Stage to do battle for a chance to reach (or return to) Jeopardy! Masters.
I should note one caveat here: Due to the storms currently disrupting travel throughout much of North America shortly prior to taping, there is certainly a chance that the lineup announced this past Monday will have to undergo some changes.
The 18 Announced Players:
The following 18 players have been announced as participating in the 3rd Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament; they are presented here in alphabetical order.
Eric Ahasic
210 correct, 25 incorrect
17/20 on rebound attempts (on 44 rebound opportunities)
36.84% in first on buzzer (189/513)
15/17 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $65,000)
3/9 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $19,022
37.240% to win quarterfinal
53.644% to advance to semifinal
20.103% to advance to final
7.499% to win tournament
Eric’s probably going to be one of the two most underrated players in this field by the average fan; he is the best player in the field right now when it comes to taking advantage of Daily Doubles. If can keep finding them, that will improve his chances of qualification significantly.
Matt Amodio
1791 correct, 216 incorrect
78/93 on rebound attempts (on 222 rebound opportunities)
44.76% in first on buzzer (1727/3858)
101/119 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $388,200)
47/67 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $20,915
45.955% to win quarterfinal
59.619% to advance to semifinal
25.566% to advance to final
12.041% to win tournament
Matt is back in the field looking to win it again after dropping down from last season’s Masters. While Matt and Andrew He are essentially co-favorites, Matt should at least be able to get through the opening round.
Drew Basile
213 correct, 47 incorrect
11/17 on rebound attempts (on 51 rebound opportunities)
37.83% in first on buzzer (216/571)
11/17 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $36,400)
5/10 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $15,280
31.780% to win quarterfinal
48.050% to advance to semifinal
14.988% to advance to final
4.320% to win tournament
While Drew certainly isn’t universally beloved among the J! fandom, the Survivor alum undoubtedly boosts the show’s ratings and profile when he does appear. There’s nothing about Drew’s profile that particularly stands out, but a couple of good breaks could see him make a deep run in this tournament.
Alison Betts
150 correct, 31 incorrect
10/12 on rebound attempts (on 42 rebound opportunities)
37.59% in first on buzzer (150/399)
10/12 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $31,000)
4/7 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $13,257
26.286% to win quarterfinal
44.102% to advance to semifinal
12.478% to advance to final
2.992% to win tournament
A lot of alumni—especially recent alumni—will be cheering for Alison. While the prediction model doesn’t take this into account, she doesn’t have to worry about travel—which could be a huge boost to her chances considering the pre-taping travel situation in North America.
Roger Craig
588 correct, 120 incorrect
33/42 on rebound attempts (on 98 rebound opportunities)
40.50% in first on buzzer (601/1484)
35/41 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $155,400)
14/24 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $15,436
43.881% to win quarterfinal
55.938% to advance to semifinal
22.541% to advance to final
9.917% to win tournament
Roger was the show’s first “King of Analytics” and is back looking to improve upon his 2nd place finish in last year’s Invitational. I look forward to watching strong gameplay during any of his games.
Tom Cubbage
255 correct, 21 incorrect
16/19 on rebound attempts (on 54 rebound opportunities)
31.60% in first on buzzer (231/731)
11/13 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $14,500)
12/13 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $15,292
42.718% to win quarterfinal
61.001% to advance to semifinal
23.718% to advance to final
9.314% to win tournament
Tom Cubbage (the 1989 College Champion and 1989 Tournament of Champions winner) is, in my opinion, the other most underrated player (along with Eric). He reached the semifinals of Battle of the Decades, becomes the second player (after Chuck Forrest) to play in 5 different decades, and yet hasn’t missed a Final Jeopardy since the Bush administration. The elder Bush administration. Less than 3 months into it in Jeopardy! Production Time. That’s the main reason he’s the player most likely to reach the semifinals.
Karen Farrell
243 correct, 26 incorrect
15/20 on rebound attempts (on 52 rebound opportunities)
37.88% in first on buzzer (225/594)
8/13 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $6,900)
9/11 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $16,491
30.215% to win quarterfinal
49.792% to advance to semifinal
14.841% to advance to final
3.852% to win tournament
8-game champion Karen Farrell returns to this year’s event after a semifinal finish in the 2021 Tournament of Champions. While this is a very strong field, Karen’s stats say that she has just as much of a chance as anyone does of having a good tournament.
Liz Feltner
48 correct, 6 incorrect
6/6 on rebound attempts (on 23 rebound opportunities)
19.30% in first on buzzer (44/228)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
2/4 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $8,450
19.679% to win quarterfinal
36.922% to advance to semifinal
7.806% to advance to final
1.132% to win tournament
Will Liz be able to follow in the footsteps of her fellow Jeopardy! National College Championship alumni Jaskaran Singh and Raymond Goslow? While the Unified Prediction Model isn’t keen on her chances, last year’s tournament tells us that you absolutely can not count her out.
Jennifer Giles
109 correct, 18 incorrect
4/6 on rebound attempts (on 25 rebound opportunities)
31.78% in first on buzzer (109/343)
3/5 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $2,400)
3/7 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $12,829
25.023% to win quarterfinal
44.329% to advance to semifinal
11.846% to advance to final
2.761% to win tournament
We haven’t seen Jennifer since the All-Star Games of 2019, where she was a teammate of Buzzy Cohen & Alex Jacob. Our Teachers Tournament representative in this event may struggle to make it out of the opening round, but anything can happen in these events!
Drew Goins
221 correct, 29 incorrect
10/12 on rebound attempts (on 41 rebound opportunities)
37.54% in first on buzzer (214/570)
11/14 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $26,600)
5/10 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $17,300
32.508% to win quarterfinal
49.107% to advance to semifinal
15.576% to advance to final
4.599% to win tournament
A lot of fans will be thrilled to see Drew Goins returning to the Alex Trebek Stage after his run in last year’s postseason ended one game short of the finals. I’m sure a lot of people are hoping that they get to see Drew on their televisions more than once in this event.
Adriana Harmeyer
497 correct, 62 incorrect
30/40 on rebound attempts (on 102 rebound opportunities)
32.96% in first on buzzer (469/1423)
17/25 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $24,400)
18/25 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $14,144
35.281% to win quarterfinal
51.878% to advance to semifinal
16.208% to advance to final
4.490% to win tournament
You don’t win 16 games without being a good Jeopardy! player, and being a player coming back from Masters, that probably means she would avoid playing against a fellow Master until at least the semifinals. That will help her advancement chances.
Andrew He
557 correct, 76 incorrect
36/42 on rebound attempts (on 99 rebound opportunities)
31.52% in first on buzzer (521/1653)
32/41 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $147,400)
15/29 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $15,007
46.020% to win quarterfinal
60.174% to advance to semifinal
25.737% to advance to final
12.062% to win tournament
Andrew He took a year off thanks to fatherhood but is back and ready to impress everyone with his Jeopardy! skills in 2026. The Unified Prediction Model gives him a slightly better chance than Matt Amodio to take overall victory in this tournament.
Josh Hill
207 correct, 32 incorrect
4/7 on rebound attempts (on 25 rebound opportunities)
42.43% in first on buzzer (213/502)
7/10 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $24,195)
4/9 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $17,578
28.971% to win quarterfinal
47.155% to advance to semifinal
14.477% to advance to final
3.908% to win tournament
7-time champion Josh Hill hasn’t been seen since the 2019 Tournament of Champions, but has been keeping his head in the game since; it wouldn’t surprise me if his preparations pay off.
Isaac Hirsch
513 correct, 104 incorrect
30/37 on rebound attempts (on 102 rebound opportunities)
36.87% in first on buzzer (525/1424)
20/30 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $17,000)
15/25 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $14,288
38.735% to win quarterfinal
53.560% to advance to semifinal
18.828% to advance to final
6.370% to win tournament
Isaac Hirsch made the semifinals of Masters last season; the skills he learned there will absolutely help him in being a very tough out in this tournament. (Additionally, the same considerations as Alison Betts work in Isaac’s favor—he’s local, so he doesn’t have to stress about travel pre-taping.)
Long Nguyen
104 correct, 18 incorrect
5/7 on rebound attempts (on 19 rebound opportunities)
36.14% in first on buzzer (103/285)
6/7 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $16,400)
4/5 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $13,840
33.438% to win quarterfinal
48.373% to advance to semifinal
16.324% to advance to final
5.115% to win tournament
Long is #2 in this field in terms of taking advantage of Daily Doubles, behind Eric Ahasic. The returnee from 2024’s Champions Wildcard is very capable of putting up very high scores.
Mehal Shah
170 correct, 24 incorrect
13/13 on rebound attempts (on 33 rebound opportunities)
35.68% in first on buzzer (162/454)
9/11 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $37,200)
1/8 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $14,925
25.710% to win quarterfinal
43.614% to advance to semifinal
11.944% to advance to final
2.730% to win tournament
Mehal Shah had a heartbreaking exit from the 32nd Tournament of Champions. I’m glad that wasn’t his final exit from the Alex Trebek Stage. He’s been snakebitten on Final Jeopardy in the past, though, and he may need to turn that around in order to reach the second tape day.
Veronica Vichit-Vadakan
162 correct, 18 incorrect
10/14 on rebound attempts (on 42 rebound opportunities)
29.76% in first on buzzer (150/504)
5/7 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $8,200)
5/9 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $13,533
31.225% to win quarterfinal
50.225% to advance to semifinal
15.455% to advance to final
4.277% to win tournament
Veronica finished third in the 2021 Tournament of Champions, was the alternate in last year’s Invitational, and has always been a deceptively strong player. The Unified Prediction Model thinks so too, giving her a better-than-average chance of at least making it to the semifinals.
Will Yancey
156 correct, 37 incorrect
10/13 on rebound attempts (on 25 rebound opportunities)
34.43% in first on buzzer (157/456)
10/15 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $15,600)
4/8 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $12,850
25.335% to win quarterfinal
42.517% to advance to semifinal
11.564% to advance to final
2.621% to win tournament
Will made it through Second Chance last season to finish 3rd in Champions Wildcard. The Unified Prediction Model doesn’t give him the greatest chance, but he has proven in the past that he can put up big numbers if necessary.
What About The Wild Cards?
With this 18-player field, Jeopardy! is in unprecedented territory. Every other time the show has planned on advancing non-winning players, it has been “5 winners + 4 wild cards”. Advancing one fewer player from one more game in a tournament where Final Jeopardy has played at 44% in the quarterfinals over the last two years will make things interesting.
Before I reveal any numbers, I want to give some of my own thoughts as to how I think the wild cards will go:
- With there being only 3 spots available from 6 games, I think that it is incredibly unlikely for there to be 3 players from one game advancing (barring an outlier board.) Thus, finishing at least second should be paramount. The math bears this out as well, as finishing third means you’re guaranteed to have at least one player behind you in the standings at the outset.
- With only 25% of nonwinning scores advancing, I think that it will also be unlikely for a player to advance without either a runaway game or a correct response in Final Jeopardy.
Because a smaller percentage will be advancing, and the last 20 years of data has generally seen people betting more conservatively to the “5 game, 4 wildcard” paradigm and not a “6 game, 3 wildcard” paradigm that might see more aggressive betting, I don’t think we have perfect data to even model what might happen.
What I have chosen to do, in light of the potentially changed paradigm, my wild card prediction model will use the same methodology that I have used since 2017 (including the combinatorics method also used by Keith Williams, set to 6 games and 3 wildcards instead of 5 games and 4 wildcards), except that the model will use a mean and standard deviation that is weighted 50% from the previous Tournament of Champion model and 50% from the previous “supertournament” model.
The graphic below gives the % chance of qualifying as a wild card, with “finishing position unknown”, “finishing in third place in your quarterfinal”, and “finishing in second place in your quarterfinal”.
To everyone competing: Good luck, and I hope you all make some incredibly entertaining television.
It will be good to see one of my favorites play this game again…Eric.
(Admin note: Comment regarding Tournament of Champions removed as it was made in a JIT thread and could be seen as a spoiler for someone a few days behind.)
How are matchups determined in postseason competition? Are the players seeded, or is it purely random?
The show has never released a methodology.