Jeopardy All-Star Games

[hscer]

no draft in game discussion?

Looks to me like Brad Rutter's got a pretty good shot to add 333K to his lifetime winnings. And for competitive purposes, it's a good thing Brad and Ken Jennings didn't pick early enough to get Roger Craig. If Roger had fallen to Ken I couldn't imagine that team losing (no matter the precise format).

[threearruda]

I'm all in rooting for Ken and Matt on the same team, but Brad has got to be the morning line favorite if we're placing bets. That's a scary quiz bowl team he put together!

[MarkBarrett]

To help with discussion:

Team Buzzy: Alex Jacob & Jennifer Giles (1 & 12)
Team Austin: Roger Craig & Leonard Cooper (2 & 11)
Team Ken: Matt Jackson & Monica Thieu (3 & 10)
Team Julia: Ben Ingram & Seth Wilson (4 & 9)
Team Colby: Pam Mueller & Alan Lin (5 & 8)
Team Brad: Larissa Kelly & David Madden (6 & 7)

Whatever happens it's something different and I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays out. It's only 10 days and then regular play can resume. Seeing the draft live on a Saturday morning was better than any college football game on or the Cards vs. Giants.

Lots of J! staffers in the audience to fill the seats.

I don't think any of those name tags the J! players wore will end up on eBay anytime soon.

As for the teams. We got our answer that Alex Jacob was first pick. I'm not surprised at all that Larissa & David ended up on the same team.

[finishemzoe]

Brad's team looks like a Halloween-themed quiz show. Yeesh.

I'm ALL for Austin's glorious meme team.

Ken has a pretty monstrous line-up there.

Colby and Julia's teams are very well-balanced.

Buzzy really lucked out with Alex Jacob there, they'll put up a very formidable match.

My heart says Team Austin, but my brain says Team Brad... both my brain and heart at the same time say Team Ken...

I don't know y'all, this is insanity.

[MarkBarrett]

This is the video for the draft. I have a FB account though I'm not currently signed in. It works for me while I don't know if it will work for others.

Spoiler

[Rackme32]

For me, the bottom line is:

This team format seems pretty gimmicky, BUT having eighteen of the greatest J! players ever to grace that stage, all in the same tournament is can't-miss TV, plain and simple!

I have no clue what teams are best at what aspect of the game and don't have any inkling who may have drafted better... I just wanna see them throw DOWN!

p.s. I'm tossing out this number just for fun... Total number of stand-and-stares for the entire tournament... Umm... Five.

[MarkBarrett]

For me, the bottom line is:

This team format seems pretty gimmicky, BUT having eighteen of the greatest J! players ever to grace that stage, all in the same tournament is can't-miss TV, plain and simple!

I have no clue what teams are best at what aspect of the game and don't have any inkling who may have drafted better... I just wanna see them throw DOWN!

p.s. I'm tossing out this number just for fun... Total number of stand-and-stares for the entire tournament... Umm... Five.

I'll take over 5 as that is any easy one. To go one step better I'll say there are at least 5 TS clues in the first game. At the minimum, five games with no stumper clues? Not gonna happen. Never. There will not even be one.

Time will tell where the difficult level lies. No way it goes up to UTOC level and I would like it to be closer to TOC play than regular play. If it plays like the BotD then there will be trash for viewers to collect.

[boson]

I never watched David Madden play, so I have trouble handicapping him... However, Brad picked the two professional trivia writers in the field. That looks to be the team to beat to me. Having the best player of all time as the captain helps.

Other than that, I can't predict too much without the format. The last few picks are likely weaker players, who might weaken the early drafting teams, but they are also relatively unknown.

I watched the trash game of Roger's team vs Brad's (with Pam) at TCONA last month. These 'old' champs are still awesome and really want to win.

This will be fun.

[alietr]

Oh, great. I have at least one friend on every team except one. I have no clue who to root for.

[StevenH]

Colby's and Brad's teams look the strongest, but no result would surprise me with these teams.

[NYCScribbler]

Heart says Team Julia (gotta root for my crew), head says Team Brad.

[hbomb1947]

While on paper Team Brad looks formidable, I think most people are seriously underrating Team Colby.

[MarkBarrett]

While on paper Team Brad looks formidable, I think most people are seriously underrating Team Colby.

Brad's team speaks for itself. Larissa has consistently been one of the best players in the show's history and only stopped by a few unfortunate circumstances. David Madden winning 19 games of regular play has to count for something. His ToC ran hot & cold, he was too late for the UTOC and was not eligible for the BotD. David has stayed present in the trivia world and should be an asset to Team Brad although with the longest time away from J! of the 18 there has to be some uncertainty about his return.

I think David Madden was an easy pick for Brad at #7 even with Alan Lin still available at that point.

For Team Colby who is the closer? Is that team good enough to have a game(s) out of reach before the FJ! round? With positions rotating Colby, Pam & Alan each play the FJ! round? Is there a clear cut star or order for playing the FJ! round? Can that person solve a FJ! clue the opponents will not get? Is that team more likely to play the FJ! round on the conservative side or an aggressive side?

I think Team Colby is the only one without a question mark overall as the team members have all played enough (and recently enough) to show what they can do. The other five teams have more of an "if factor" to them due to less game experience or ToC results.

[harrumph]

One way that TPTB could give last few contestants chosen a more even chance would be to make the J! round at a regular game level of difficulty, while making the DJ and FJ rounds at a TOC level.

[AndyTheQuizzer]

The teams are close enough in skill that I would definitely say that no team has less than a 10% shot of winning and no more than a 25% shot of winning at this point.

[alietr]

We might have to re-introduce quatloos for this.

[MarkBarrett]

In a Reddit post Lilly Chin confirmed she is an alternate and named John Pearson (front row left) as the other one:



Corina Nusu & Maggie Speak can be seen with front row seats as well. Clue Crew Sarah is a row back.

[opusthepenguin]

I don't know whether the Arthur Chu omission is a snub or not. They're already including Ben Ingram, the winner in Chu's TOC. And they're including Julia Collins who came in third in his TOC but won more regular season games than Chu--almost twice as many--and who is the winningest woman of all time on Jeopardy! It's hard to argue that Arthur should've been included over either of those. And including three contestants from one TOC seems a bit much. TPTB may indeed have had non-game-related reasons to pass over a politically outspoken individual, but I think the in-game reasons are sound enough.

The omission that hurts more, to me anyway, is Stephanie Jass. I know there were reasons there as well. I wish there weren't. I would have loved to see the fun and the game she would've brought. (Note: If you have any sour thoughts about this, please keep them to yourself. I'm just saying I like Stephanie, I wish she could have been a part of this, and I feel badly for her because I know she would have loved to be there.)

Like others, I do not know who to root for in this thing. So I'm rooting against Brad Rutter. He needs to lose. It's past time. He should have lost to Leslie Frates sixteen years ago. She had the game sewn up. She got FJ right.... And she wagered cautiously, giving Brad the game. Brad's a great player. He's one of the best. But I'm tired of the mythology that he's the GOAT.

[seaborgium]

And including three contestants from one TOC seems a bit much.

Well, doing so twice certainly would be.

[dinghammer]

In a Reddit post Lilly Chin confirmed she is an alternate and named John Pearson (front row left) as the other one:

Thanks. Reading this thread, I was wondering if the spiciest memelord had been considered for a spot.