Monday, November 6, 2017 Game Recap and Discussion [SPOILERS]

[Archivists]

Game Recap for Show #7626, 2017-11-06

2017 Tournament of Champions quarterfinal game 1.

CONTESTANTS
Pranjal Vachaspati, a Ph.D. student from Urbana, Illinois
Hunter Appler, an attorney from Augusta, Georgia
Buzzy Cohen, a music executive from Los Angeles, California

OPENING REMARKS
Alex: Thank you, Johnny. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the only Jeopardy! tournament that allows you, viewers, a chance to revisit and re-enjoy some of your favorite Jeopardy! players in recent history. We have three excellent ones with us today. Pranjal, Hunter, and Buzzy, good luck, fellas. Here we go. First round, the Jeopardy! Round. Today we start off with these categories...

JEOPARDY! ROUND CATEGORIES
CAPITAL BIRTHPLACES (4/5, including 1 correct Daily Double)
BACKING BANDS (3/5)
"X"CELLENT 9-LETTER WORDS (5/5)
RECYCLOPEDIA (5/5)
AMERICANA (4/5)
THE CIA (5/5) (Alex: We're going undercover at...)

THE RIGHTS & THE WRONGS
Buzzy: 12 R (including 1 rebound), 1 W
Pranjal: 8 R (including 1 rebound and 1 DD), 1 W
Hunter: 6 R, 2 W

Clues revealed: 30
Triple Stumpers: 4
Jeopardy! Round Potential Lach Trash: $2,000



JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
Pranjal found the Daily Double on the 11th clue. Buzzy had $2,000, Hunter had $800, and Pranjal was at $3,600. Pranjal wagered $1,600.

CAPITAL BIRTHPLACES $600: Pope Francis I

SCORES AT THE FIRST BREAK
Buzzy: $5,600
Pranjal: $5,200
Hunter: $800

CONTESTANT INTERVIEWS



Alex: One of the joys of working the Tournament of Champions is that I get to find out from our Jeopardy! champions how they spent their winnings. Pranjal Vachaspati, how did you spend yours?

Pranjal: I bought three cars that are all older than me.

Alex: What are we talking about?

Pranjal: A 1991 Mazda Miata, and I just, a couple of months ago, bought a non-running 1984 and 1980 Mazda RX-7 that are mostly in pieces in my garage right now.

Alex: Our definitions of old are a lot different.

[Laughter]




Alex: Hunter Appley, attorney from Augusta, Georgia. How did you handle your winnings? You started a new hobby.

Hunter: That's right. I've always wanted to take up blacksmithing. So--

Alex: Are you serious?

Hunter: Absolutely. We found a folk school in North Carolina, not too far from my house, and my wife and I started blacksmithing classes.

Alex: [Miming working the bellows] Does this make you feel good? Just keep pumping that air in there?

Hunter: Yeah, it's a workout.

Alex: I'm sure it is.




Alex: All right, now we come to Buzzy Cohen. Music executive from L.A. Everyone was very proud of your wins, but your mom wasn't. Why is that?

Buzzy: She was proud, but she made a couple comments about how I mentioned my daughter, I mentioned my wife, I mentioned my high school teacher, I mentioned my grandfather. And she said, "It's like you don't have a mother."

[Laughter]

Buzzy: So, Mom--

Alex: Sorry, Mom, sorry. Buzzy's sorry.

TRIPLE STUMPERS IN THE JEOPARDY! ROUND
BACKING BANDS $1000: Bob Seger & this band

AMERICANA $400: In the 1920s "Cave Wars", operators of smaller caves would falsely tell tourists about closures in this now national park

BACKING BANDS $200: Ziggy Marley & these alliterative folks

CAPITAL BIRTHPLACES $400: Martina Navratilova
(Pranjal: What is Moscow?)
Buzzy: What is Kiev?)

SCORES AT THE END OF THE JEOPARDY! ROUND
Buzzy: $8,400
Pranjal: $5,400
Hunter: $1,200

[Archivists]

DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND CATEGORIES
B.C. PLACES (3/5)
OPHTHALMOLOGY (5/5, including 1 correct Daily Double)
"FUSION" (4/5)
STARS' INITIAL SHOWS (4/5)
WRITERS WHO SELF-PUBLISHED (2/5, including 1 missed Daily Double)
NOT YOUR EVERYDAY WORDS (5/5)

THE RIGHTS & THE WRONGS
Pranjal: 8 R (including 1 DD), 1 W
Buzzy: 9 R, 2 W
Hunter: 6 R, 1 W (including 1 DD)

Clues revealed: 30
Triple Stumpers: 6
Double Jeopardy! Round Potential Lach Trash: $8,400



FIRST DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
Pranjal snagged the next Daily Double on the 9th clue. Buzzy had $10,800, Hunter had $2,800, and Pranjal was at $10,200. Pranjal wagered $4,000.

OPHTHALMOLOGY $1200: Ophthalmologists put a plus sign before your prescription number to show you have this condition

SECOND DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
It was Hunter who snatched up the last Daily Double of the game on the 21st clue. Buzzy had $12,800, Hunter had $8,000, and Pranjal was at $13,000. Hunter wagered $7,000.

WRITERS WHO SELF-PUBLISHED $1200: In the 1700s, this poet published his own books, made his own ink, and hand-printed the pages like the one seen here
(Hunter: Who is Coleridge?)

TRIPLE STUMPERS IN THE DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND
"FUSION" $1200: This vehicle out of Detroit that debuted with the 2006 model was once going to be called the Futura
(Buzzy: What is a Chevy Volt? Oh!)

B.C. PLACES $1200: After 1400 B.C. this city near Crete's northern coast reverted from mighty capital to just another town
(Pranjal: What is Minos?)

B.C. PLACES $2000: Hattusa, a vast fortress city, served as the capital of this empire that covered most of ancient Anatolia
(Buzzy: What is the Assyrian Empire?)

STARS' INITIAL SHOWS $1600: Sarah Jessica Parker, 1982:
"S.P."

WRITERS WHO SELF-PUBLISHED $2000: In 1827 he paid a printer to publish 50 copies of "Tamerlane and Other Poems"

WRITERS WHO SELF-PUBLISHED $400: Before Warner Books picked it up, James Redfield self-published this "Prophecy" about a mysterious manuscript

SCORES ENTERING FINAL JEOPARDY!
Buzzy: $16,400
Pranjal: $15,000
Hunter: $1,400

FINAL JEOPARDY! CATEGORY
MUSIC & HISTORY

VENUSIAN MONOLOGUES/MARTIAN CHRONICLES
First equals second plus third. Shore's Conjecture.
Buzzy: Wager $13,600. Risk any less and Pranjal may overtake you if you both get it right; risk any more and Hunter may overtake you if you get it wrong. Or, you could try out a Shoretegic bet of $10,801.
Pranjal: Wager all $15,000. If Buzzy bets correctly, then you'll tie for the win if you both get the correct response.
Hunter: Wager all $1,400, and you have a hope of snatching up a tie for first with Buzzy if you're the only one to provide the correct response.

FINAL JEOPARDY! CLUE
This 1880 piece was written more than 6 decades after the Battle of Borodino, the conflict it commemorates

FINAL SCORES
Hunter: $1,400 + $0 = $1,400 (What the 1812 Overture?) (3rd place)
Pranjal: $15,000 + $1,401 = $16,401 (What is the 1812 Overture) (2nd place)
Buzzy: $16,400 + $13,600 = $30,000 (What is the 1812 Overture?) (Automatic semifinalist)
(Alex: [To Hunter] By Tchaikovsky.)

Total Potential Lach Trash: $10,400

GAME DYNAMICS


CORYAT SCORES
Buzzy: $16,400, 21 R, 3 W
Pranjal: $11,200, 16 R (including 2 DDs), 2 W
Hunter: $8,400, 12 R, 3 W (including 1 DD)
Combined Coryat: $36,000

BATTING AVERAGES
Buzzy: 22/58 = .379
Pranjal: 17/60 = .283
Hunter: 13/59 = .220
Team: 52/63 = .825

MISCELLANEOUS INTERESTING CLUES
AMERICANA $800: Head west from this Tennessee city over the De Soto Bridge and you're in Arkansas

RECYCLOPEDIA $800: A benefit of recycling is fewer greenhouse gases like this one, whose molecule is seen here

THE CIA $800: (Alex gives the clue from the CIA.) Six Americans were rescued from revolutionary Iran in 1980, in a daring CIA plan using phony production materials like these, in this movie about a fake movie

"X"CELLENT 9-LETTER WORDS $400: It's an adjective describing the shape seen here

THE CIA $600: (Alex gives the clue from the CIA.) In the 1950s and '60s, brave pilots wore body-fitting pressure suits like this one, often flying at higher than 70,000 feet in this alphanumeric reconnaissance aircraft that is still very much in use today

AMERICANA $1000: The Wyoming national refuge for these 600-pound creatures holds an annual antler auction
(Hunter: What are moose?)

THE CIA $1000: (Alex gives the clue from the CIA.) Forged German passports like this one helped members of this forerunner of the CIA infiltrate Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II

THE CIA $400: (Alex gives the clue from the CIA.) Standing guard on the CIA grounds is a statue of this early American spy who paid the ultimate price in service to his country way back in 1776

RECYCLOPEDIA $400: Newspaper can be recycled via this art technique, whose name means "chewed paper"

THE CIA $200: (Alex gives the clue from the CIA.) In 1961, the CIA's historic mission of intelligence gathering and analysis took up residence in this community, named for the estate of an early colonial governor of Virginia

AMERICANA $200: Valley Forge is 25 miles from this city where the British lived comfortably as the Continental Army froze
(Hunter: What is Trenton?)

B.C. PLACES $800: This ship-building civilization made of independent city-states began trading with Egypt around 3000 B.C.

CORRECT RESPONSES
Buenos Aires
the Silver Bullet Band
Mammoth Cave
the Melody Makers
Prague
farsightedness
William Blake
the Ford Fusion
Knossos
the Hittite Empire
Square Pegs
Edgar Allan Poe
The Celestine Prophecy
the 1812 Overture
Memphis
methane
Argo
hexagonal
U-2
elk
OSS (Office of Strategic Services)
(Nathan) Hale
papier-mâché
Langley
Philadelphia
Phoenicia

[theFJguy]

FINAL JEOPARDY! CATEGORY
MUSIC & HISTORY

FINAL JEOPARDY! CLUE
This 1880 piece was written more than 6 decades after the Battle of Borodino, the conflict it commemorates

Buzzy Cohen: 16400+13600=30000 (Semi-Finalist)
Hunter Appler: 1400+0=1400
Pranjal Vachaspati: 15000+1401=16401

Correct response:

Spoiler

“1812 Overture”

Daily Doubles
Pranjal: 3600+1600
Pranjal: 10200+4000
Hunter: 8000-7000

Coryats
Buzzy: 16400
Hunter: 8400
Pranjal: 11200

Combined: 36,000

Scores at the end of the Jeopardy! Round:
Buzzy: 8400
Hunter: 1200
Pranjal: 5400

[MarkBarrett]

I liked the monkey see, monkey do with Buzzy & Alex:

Spoiler

Ouch for Hunter running into the most difficult of the 3 Daily Doubles. That was not a good time to go from 75% to 66% on career DDs.

In the QF round the 2/2 on DDs and still trailing for Pranjal is no big deal. In the semis those wagers need to be enough to have the lead for the FJ! round.

Hope Bob Seger is not watching tonight. SJP is probably fine with her SP being forgotten. I used to watch the show and used that trash in STARS’ INITIAL SHOWS for my only category run.

Ammo for the conspiracy buffs with Buzzy the music executive getting a FJ! category of MUSIC & HISTORY. With Buzzy’s big bet I’m wondering if he was thinking more recent music history and not early 1800s? It worked out fine for Buzzy to enjoy the rest of the taping day.

After game 5 there may have been some players who wished they had played the Monday FJ! clue as I expect at least one of the five FJ! clues this week to be on the more difficult side of things and today was not the one.

[StevenH]

Classic study list material on FJ. I wonder if this will turn out like the 2014 ToC with easy QF FJ clues.

[JLJ]

https://youtu.be/SFHIUmqMwJU

Bull Durham never fails to deliver.

[zdude69closedrofl]

Damn, didn't expect Hunter to go out like that. I had all three making it to the semifinals, but it's not looking too great for him. Buzzy and Pranjal were just smashing it the whole time. Congrats to Buzzy on the win!

[acthomas]

https://youtu.be/SFHIUmqMwJU

Bull Durham never fails to deliver.

Beat me to it. Was quoting the scene into my empty viewing area. But I've shouted weirder things on the treadmill before.

[Bamaman]

Too bad a TOC starts out with a Teen Tournament FJ. Even if you’ve never heard of that battle (I haven’t), you should be able to quickly do the math (which was much easier than 1100-522) and think of a musical piece that references a time just before 1820.

Tough break for Hunter. I thought they were going to show a picture of the author and it just got worse from there.

[TenPoundHammer]

Ziggy Marley/Melody Makers was my only miss in Backing Bands, strangely, and I felt it was way more obscure than Seger/Silver Bullet. Can we poll?

Lach Trash: Silver Bullet Band.

"Wend" was my only miss in Not Your Everyday Words.

LASIK seemed very easy for the bottom box.

"Celestine Prophecy" also seemed insanely obscure for the top box.

1812 Overture seemed way too easy, so I figured it had to be something else.

[econgator]

Yeah, how was The Silver Bullet Band a TS?

Took me about 15 seconds, but the 1812 Overture came to mind.

[rjaguar3]

1812 Overture seemed way too easy, so I figured it had to be something else.

What something else did you guess? (You did guess, no? )

[acthomas]

During the ophthalmology DD I had this mental image of Pranjal, or another contestant, making a coin-flipping gesture/mime.

I imagined I might do in that situation, as might other contestants, if they didn't find it too...

(•_•)
( •_•)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)

Austin-tatious.

(Apologies all around.)

[zerobandwidth]

• Monday: Buzzy and Pranjal duel into five digits. Pranjal aims for $20k but Buzzy goes all-in, taking the win but with Pranjal easily clinching a wildcard.

Good evening, I'm Nostradamus.

[threearruda]

That was a really tough break for Hunter. Seemed like the right move, just didn't pan out this time. I only knew that DD from my Romanticism course in which we spent an entire class period talking about Blake's illustrations.

That was a fun game; fast paced, close until the end featuring three evenly matched champs who played quite well for the most part. Surprised myself by scooping up a nice total of trash from the dorm.

Looking forward to seeing Buzzy and (likely) Pranjal again next week!

[JLJ]

• Monday: Buzzy and Pranjal duel into five digits. Pranjal aims for $20k but Buzzy goes all-in, taking the win but with Pranjal easily clinching a wildcard.

Good evening, I'm Nostradamus.

I was going to basically message that to you earlier, but didn’t want to spoiler the game for you.

[goatman]

WTG Buzzy! Sorry Hunter ouch! J! loves to call up the more obscure artists and poets in these tournaments... tough break.

45R for goats. Instaget FJ. LT (Not much!): Martina Navratilova ex: Prague, CZ; Anatolia > Hittites; MDD: Wm Blake "painter poet"; I offered Coleridge for Poe on Tamurlane, however! DOH!

No get on Ford Futura > Fusion. AT a bit arro on that clue IMHO, IDK WLT "Ford" from "Detroit Auto Show" LOL!

[OSXpert]

1812 Overture seemed way too easy, so I figured it had to be something else.

I thought this as well, but it was still my guess.

[hbomb1947]

Props to Buzzy on outperforming my expectations of him. I had Pranjal winning this one and Buzzy advancing as a wild-card and that was flipped. Considering that he landed on zero DD's, Buzzy played really well to be leading going into FJ. I wasn't enamored of his reckless FJ wager, but he got away with it due to an easy (in the context of a TOC) FJ.

What a well-played game by all 3 players that was fun to watch. Hunter did well to hang in there with the buzzsaws on either side of him, and I loved his DD wager. It was just a tough DD. He was also hurt by a bunch of negs; if he had, say, a couple thousand more when he hit the DD, maybe he would have wagered more conservatively on it, as he wouldn't have had to go big to have a chance to take the lead.

Near-instaget here on the FJ; Borodino was a Russian battle, and the 1812 Overture fit the math and was by Tchaikovsky.

I was surprised the Ford Fusion was a TS. Maybe the contestants overthought that one.

ETA: unless I missed it due to fast-forwarding or something, Alex didn't say anything in memory of Cindy Stowell. I had kind of expected him to.

ETA: When I wrote " I had Pranjal winning this one and Buzzy advancing as a wild-card and that was flipped," I didn't mean to imply that I have knowledge that Pranjal will, in fact, advance as a wild card. I just assumed that his total will hold up to get a wild card at the end of the week. We shall see if that's the case.

[Elijah Baley]

WTG Buzzy! Sorry Hunter ouch! J! loves to call up the more obscure artists and poets in these tournaments... tough break.

45R for goats. Instaget FJ. LT (Not much!): Martina Navratilova ex: Prague, CZ; Anatolia > Hittites; MDD: Wm Blake "painter poet"; I offered Coleridge for Poe on Tamurlane, however! DOH!

No get on Ford Futura > Fusion. AT a bit arro on that clue IMHO, IDK WLT "Ford" from "Detroit Auto Show" LOL!

William Blake has come up about 20 times in the past 10 years. But yes, otherwise, he's completely obscure!