
I'm in agreement - Kendra is awesome. Here's hoping she makes the ToC! (My husband says I have a bit of a girl crush on her. He might be right - it's fun to watch her play so well.)
Moderators: alietr, trainman, econgator, dhkendall
Agreed, hasn't every superchampion gotten some "luck" along the way, being just "one clue away" from losing early on in their run? Even Ken is just another strong four-day champ if his opponent gets a not-ungettable FJ! in his fifth game. Then there are the unfortunate players like HugoZ or TomKBaltimoreBoy (or many many others) who didn't get that "luck" the first time they needed it... who knows what would have happened if they'd been "luckier"?alietr wrote:Having eaten in that cafeteria was not much help in that category (it's actually a pretty popular spot known for its good food).
Yes, Kendra did pretty darn well again, but as always I refuse to make any TOC predictions this early. Sometimes luck works in your favor, and sometimes it doesn't. We'll have to see what the Flying Fickle Finger of Fate has in store for her.
Ken doesn't even rate footnote if TPTB refuse to accept a last name only for "(Marion) Jones" for FJ! in his first game. Luck, buzzer skill, knowledge. That's about how it goes, I think, no?Turd Ferguson wrote:Agreed, hasn't every superchampion gotten some "luck" along the way, being just "one clue away" from losing early on in their run? Even Ken is just another strong four-day champ if his opponent gets a not-ungettable FJ! in his fifth game. Then there are the unfortunate players like HugoZ or TomKBaltimoreBoy (or many many others) who didn't get that "luck" the first time they needed it... who knows what would have happened if they'd been "luckier"?alietr wrote:Having eaten in that cafeteria was not much help in that category (it's actually a pretty popular spot known for its good food).
Yes, Kendra did pretty darn well again, but as always I refuse to make any TOC predictions this early. Sometimes luck works in your favor, and sometimes it doesn't. We'll have to see what the Flying Fickle Finger of Fate has in store for her.
And think what came from that: there may never have been a UToC (I forget ... was that something that was a done deal already or did that solely come about because of Ken), leaving Brad and Jerome as considerably poorer. Would IBM have gone ahead so diligently with Watson? Would Grand Slam still have happened?Volante wrote:Ken doesn't even rate footnote if TPTB refuse to accept a last name only for "(Marion) Jones" for FJ! in his first game. Luck, buzzer skill, knowledge. That's about how it goes, I think, no?
i disagree. first of all, there is a hugely important 4th factor, which you might call strategy. this is where i feel roger outclassed the rest of the ToC field: finding the DDs, wagering on both DDs and FJ, understanding your opponents. there's quite a lot of skill in that area, and most players give almost no thought to it at all. i felt pretty good about my wagering but the lack of awareness/DD-hunting ultimately proved to be my downfall.Volante wrote:Luck, buzzer skill, knowledge. That's about how it goes, I think, no?
They probably would have said they needed a first and last name at the outset if a last name wasn't going to be accepted. So he got away with it. And the supposedly oldest J! champion of the Trebek era, Jerry Harvey(who was supposedly 80 or so years old when he won his $70K in two games) would have won three games and with one more win probably made the Fall 2004 TofC. And Jerry would maybe have been beaten by INvision Game SHow Forum moderator Matt Ottinger two and a half weeks later.Volante wrote:Ken doesn't even rate footnote if TPTB refuse to accept a last name only for "(Marion) Jones" for FJ! in his first game.
They more likely accepted "Jones" because there was no other prominent female Olympian by that name (some call that "assuming contestant knowledge not in evidence"; I call it "giving the benefit of the doubt," as is commonly done when contestants omit given names). Jerry Harvey's age is exaggerated. Julia Lazarus would have won.legendneverdies wrote:They probably would have said they needed a first and last name at the outset if a last name wasn't going to be accepted. So he got away with it. And the supposedly oldest J! champion of the Trebek era, Jerry Harvey(who was supposedly 80 or so years old when he won his $70K in two games) would have won three games and with one more win probably made the Fall 2004 TofC. And Jerry would maybe have been beaten by INvision Game SHow Forum moderator Matt Ottinger two and a half weeks later.Volante wrote:Ken doesn't even rate footnote if TPTB refuse to accept a last name only for "(Marion) Jones" for FJ! in his first game.
I can't speak to what the rules were six years ago, of course, but Glenn and Maggie make a very big deal about telling the players now that they should write down as much information as they think they need in order to be definitively correct. They underscore the fact that Final Jeopardy is the one point in the game where they cannot ask you to be more specific, and if you've not given an unambiguous answer you will be judged wrong. This comes up both in the morning rules overview as well as onstage right before FJ is played. There are no warnings specific to the question.legendneverdies wrote:They probably would have said they needed a first and last name at the outset if a last name wasn't going to be accepted.
But if I say it...bpmod wrote:This.Paucle wrote:i completely agree. Even without the steely.Budphrey wrote:Kendra is a pretty steely competitor. I look forward to seeking how far she can take it.
Brian