Buzzer Timing - Anticipate or Wait?

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triviawayne
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Buzzer Timing - Anticipate or Wait?

Post by triviawayne »

I've seen a lot of discussion in daily games regarding players getting or not getting good buzzer timing.

What are your thoughts on either anticipating the light, or waiting for and reacting to the light, and why (please just don't pick one and not give an explanation as to why, give a reason)?

If you were on the show, state which method you used and if you would change to the other way if given a 2nd chance.

Not having been there, anticipating sure sounds like the better method to me. I figure if a person could get that timing down, it would be a huge advantage of maybe 2/10ths of a second. Drag racers go for a .000 reaction time, I would think Jeopardy players should do the same. Only difference is with drag racing, there is a definitive amount of time between yellow and green (either .4 or .5 seconds, it's been a long time, I don't remember which), and on Jeopardy, there is a human element involved with activating the buzzer system.
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Re: Buzzer Timing - Anticipate or Wait?

Post by MarkBarrett »

For my two games I was lights only both times. I was comfortable with speed reading the clue and concentrating on the edge of the board for the lights without having to follow along with Alex reading the clue. Prior to Alex completing the clue I was able to take in the ending of the clue and be ready for its completion by listening only in being quite familiar with Alex's cadence.

When I wanted in on the buzzer I was successful about 60% of the time and never felt frustrated by my lack of success for being in first other than needing a double rebound to get Nathan Hale while my opponents missed. The clues I really wanted almost always went well when I was keyed up to make sure I got the Disney songs, southpaw, sports jersey guys (got outbuzzed once) and other fun stuff.

The instructions were for lights and I went along for it since it worked for me. What I do not know is what my four opponents were doing. That can make all the difference and can perhaps can vary clue to clue, round to round and game to game.

If all three players are doing lights and you have the best reflexes then don't worry about zen anticipation. You will never be locked out for being too early when doing the lights.

If someone is doing anticipation and is good at it then lights is a lost cause. Some can adjust better than others.

If enough J! champs share (there are plenty of ToCers here) then you'll see the preference is not universal. On the set use the practice time to discover what works. It's not only timing as buzzer position, grip, trigger finger etc. matter as well. What you think you might do from home can differ from what you find is best at the studio.

No time when practicing at home did I expect to play with the buzzer in a downward frozen arm & hand grip only moving my thumb. I expected to play with either a podium resting position or a higher visible look as often seen.
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Re: Buzzer Timing - Anticipate or Wait?

Post by SenseiCAY »

I'm honestly not sure what I did, but I got killed on the buzzers in my only game. I tried some anticipation, and some reacting to the lights, but neither of those things were helpful. I think the biggest thing that did me in was that I didn't spam the buzzers like the producers mentioned - I completely forgot about it. I only hit the button once per clue, and that was probably a large part of only getting in 9 times.
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Re: Buzzer Timing - Anticipate or Wait?

Post by triviawayne »

SenseiCAY wrote: Fri Jul 05, 2019 1:41 pm I'm honestly not sure what I did, but I got killed on the buzzers in my only game. I tried some anticipation, and some reacting to the lights, but neither of those things were helpful. I think the biggest thing that did me in was that I didn't spam the buzzers like the producers mentioned - I completely forgot about it. I only hit the button once per clue, and that was probably a large part of only getting in 9 times.
I think that whole spamming it feels so wrong, but really might be best because you never know if your opponents are locked out.
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Re: Buzzer Timing - Anticipate or Wait?

Post by AFRET CMS »

During my at-home practice, I stood behind a chair and used the "pause" button on my remote as the ring-in buzzer. If I wanted to respond to the clue, I tried to freeze the frame just as AT finished speaking. If I paused, I had to answer and either got points or a deduction. If I didn't pause, it was a no-ring and I didn't deduct anything.

During the practice session in the studio, I discovered that I had trained myself to ring in a shade too early and wound up locking myself out -- there was a slight lag between pushing the pause button and the DVR actually pausing, so compensating for that became part of the habit. It only took four or five instances before that went away, though, and using the lights during board practice helped tremendously with that.

During actual game play, however, after about the first half-dozen clues I found myself ignoring the lights and simply concentrating on the clue, being ready to ring as soon as AT finished. I sometimes made it, sometimes didn't, but self-inflicted lockouts were rare.

According to Andy's stats, I rang in first 39.29% of the time in my first game vs 41.07% for the eventual second place finisher. I was in second place and won in FJ. Second game, I was first-in 36.36% of the time and next-best was 34.55%. Was again in second place and won with a solo FJ solve. My final game, I was first-in 38.60% of the time vs next-best of 29.82, and STILL went into FJ in second place (two incorrect DDs didn't help). I don't know if the difference between a random 33% and my very-slightly-higher stats is statistically significant.

Subjectively, counting the no-rings which don't show up in Andy's stats, I think I was probably able to ring in successfully on well over half my attempts, perhaps as many as two thirds. Of course, we have no way of knowing how many of them were competitive attempts and how many were solo attempts because the other players didn't try to ring in.

In retrospect, the lights helped a lot during the studio practice, and I either forgot to look at them during game play or had my attention concentrated elsewhere. I didn't have too many lockouts, and the "anticipation method" seemed to keep me at least competitive on ringing in. Would it have helped to use the lights during game play? Wish I could say, but anticipation came more naturally for me.
Last edited by AFRET CMS on Fri Jul 05, 2019 5:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Buzzer Timing - Anticipate or Wait?

Post by RandyG »

MarkBarrett wrote: Fri Jul 05, 2019 11:54 am For my two games I was lights only both times. I was comfortable with speed reading the clue and concentrating on the edge of the board for the lights without having to follow along with Alex reading the clue. Prior to Alex completing the clue I was able to take in the ending of the clue and be ready for its completion by listening only in being quite familiar with Alex's cadence.

When I wanted in on the buzzer I was successful about 60% of the time and never felt frustrated by my lack of success for being in first other than needing a double rebound to get Nathan Hale while my opponents missed. The clues I really wanted almost always went well when I was keyed up to make sure I got the Disney songs, southpaw, sports jersey guys (got outbuzzed once) and other fun stuff.

The instructions were for lights and I went along for it since it worked for me. What I do not know is what my four opponents were doing. That can make all the difference and can perhaps can vary clue to clue, round to round and game to game.

If all three players are doing lights and you have the best reflexes then don't worry about zen anticipation. You will never be locked out for being too early when doing the lights.

If someone is doing anticipation and is good at it then lights is a lost cause. Some can adjust better than others.

If enough J! champs share (there are plenty of ToCers here) then you'll see the preference is not universal. On the set use the practice time to discover what works. It's not only timing as buzzer position, grip, trigger finger etc. matter as well. What you think you might do from home can differ from what you find is best at the studio.

No time when practicing at home did I expect to play with the buzzer in a downward frozen arm & hand grip only moving my thumb. I expected to play with either a podium resting position or a higher visible look as often seen.
This is all good advice.

My experience was to be prepared to go both ways and don't be afraid to switch approaches during the game. It really does depend upon the real-time match. Practicing at home is good, taking advantage of the in-studio practice rounds even better. But being able to judge how things are going relative to your actual opponents, and adjust accordingly if necessary, is best. I started by watching and reacting to the lights and got totally shut out. After about a category or so of clues, I switched to focusing on Alex's cadence, his finish, and getting a feel for the split-second to the ring-in period, and then things went much better and I was generally able to get in when I knew the answer. Then, after a bit, I didn't have to actually think about it anymore.
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