Thursday, May 25, 2023 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

[Archivists]

J! Round

[Archivists]

DJ! Round

[Archivists]

Box score

[theFJguy]

FINAL JEOPARDY! CATEGORY
ASIA

FINAL JEOPARDY! CLUE
Trained as an engineer, premier Li Peng championed this in 1992; it would ultimately displace over a million people

Ed Petersen:12400+2401=14801
Jesse Chin: 14800+10001=24801 (New Champ)
Megan Braught: 6200+1200=7400

Correct response:

Spoiler

Three Gorges (River) Dam

Daily Doubles
Jesse: 2600-1000
Megan: 3400-2000
Jesse: 5600+4000

Coryats
Ed: 12400
Jesse: 13800
Megan: 8200

Combined: 34,400

Scores at the end of the Jeopardy! Round
Ed: 5600
Jesse: 2800
Megan: 3000

[MarkBarrett]

Do the J! contestants waste hundreds of dollars to paid professionals for handling taxes? The form clue being a stumper coupled with the guesses had me shaking my head.

4/6 on wagering clues was an improvement over yesterday.

The FJ! clue had me needing think time to figure it out. At first I went on a Bird's Nest/Olympics detour. 1992 told me to keep thinking. It couldn't be Tiananmen Square. I simplified it to something famous built in China way after the Great Wall. Aha! I felt confident while I was writing and I was sure I did not need the "River" that Megan added.

The CWC pool keeps growing while the SCC is not finding as many candidates as earlier this season.

[MarkBarrett]

Carousel: https://j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=7983

[Xu Donym]

Do the J! contestants waste hundreds of dollars to paid professionals for handling taxes? The form clue being a stumper coupled with the guesses had me shaking my head.

That clue is also factually incorrect as written. There are hundreds of millions of taxpayers around the world, most of whom are not citizens of the United States. How hard would it have been to edit the clue to say "Most U.S. taxpayers..."? Would Alex Trebek have let that clue get through unedited?

[Hugo Z]

Couldn't recall the name of that damn dam. Now if they had wanted to know which instrument John Wetton played...

[opusthepenguin]

Do the J! contestants waste hundreds of dollars to paid professionals for handling taxes? The form clue being a stumper coupled with the guesses had me shaking my head.

Especially when, given the space of two wrong responses to collect his thoughts, Jesse Chin, an accounting director from Bayside, New York, remained clam.

[opusthepenguin]

Wow. This seemed like more of a train wreck than the 7 triple-stumpers would suggest. I just assumed I was going to make a fourth podium poll tonight until I checked the archive. Maybe it's just the nature of the triple-stumpers. Not knowing form 1040, as Mark already pointed out. Bard of Stratford and Bard of Stratford-upon-Avon but no third buzz to pick up Bard of Avon. (Ken would have pointed out the "3-word nickname" spec to help Megan and us understand why they couldn't stretch a point in favor of "Bard of Stratford-upon-Avon ". Oh well.) A stand-and-stare for the 2-word title of the leader of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. (Ok, the clue didn't mention that Luxembourg is a Grand Duchy.) Not knowing what v-word describes Heifetz and Midori. Not knowing what v-word means bearing live young. NOT KNOWING AGENT MAXWELL SMART'S NUMBER!!!!!!

Any reputable sources call it Mons Olympus rather than Olympus Mons? I'm not disputing the ruling and it wouldn't have affected the outcome. Just kind of interesting.

Megan kind of reminded me of Rachel McAdams. Or maybe Hillary Swank. Or someone who gets cast when those two ladies are already committed to another project.

Well, despite a few gaffes along the way, they all got FJ right. (As did I before the music stopped.) Not sure I would have predicted that. Megan didn't suss out the situation enough to realize she needed to wager everything, especially given Ed's wager from second yesterday. He's not going to drop down to 7400 the way her wager required him to. So the game ended for her when she locked in that wager. That said, I think his 2401 to put himself a buck ahead of Jesse may not have been optimal. This seems like a $0 or $1 situation since he had double Megan's score. Then again, if Jesse knows how to wager, he might go small on the theory that Ed will as well. So Ed's 2401 may represent some good second-order thinking. 2401 may be as good a wager as 1 after all. I'll be interested to see what the wagering Vikings think.

[Bamaman]

I didn’t know the dam was that recent but nothing else came to mind.

In Ed’s spot I would have considered betting zero on FJ as I suspected Megan wasn’t going all in.

We now have 41 ex-champs for the CWC with 46 games to go. That’s not counting the ones who have won four or more games. There were nine of them so just eleven TOC qualifiers right now so they will likely have to dip into the three day pool.

[threearruda]

I liked this FJ - got it after about 5-10 seconds of think time, and, like MB, swatted away other somewhat reasonable guesses (Birds Nest). I learned through Twitter that Jesse is a sports memorabilia guy like myself so I was happy to see him win!

We now have 41 ex-champs for the CWC with 46 games to go. That’s not counting the ones who have won four or more games. There were nine of them so just eleven TOC qualifiers right now so they will likely have to dip into the three day pool.

I have 44 on my spreadsheet including the new champ tonight and all 3x champs - I spotted Robbi Ramirez and Devin Lohman as omitted from your list. Either way, I think you're right (..ok hope, but still!) on the point about 3x champs, particularly the highest earning of those 3x champs who I think will be a lock to go straight through to ToC regardless of what happens between now and July.

I'm about as square on the ToC bubble as one could possibly be right now, and am definitely not running to these game threads at 1pm every day to check who won. My very rough, non-mathematical formula for pace shows that, as of today, we're on track to finish with:

* 20-21 regular play champs who win 3 or more - we're at 16 now, so 4-5 additional over the last 45 games, with 2-3 of those surpassing my ranking (3x, ~$68k) and presumably auto-qualifying.
* 70 different champions total by season's end including the future ToCers.

It's really going to come down to how many players the TPTB mean by "a few" that advance to ToC. I've hypothesized rough formats for the ToC field that start at the top 15 and advancing 6 from CWC, and others that take 18 and 3, 21 and 6 to make 27, etc. (and CWC formats that play identical to how Second Chance went last year, as well as one that's pyramid-style that advances 1-day champs to 2-day champs, and so on.)

Till then, I'll keep sweating!

[Bamaman]

I liked this FJ - got it after about 5-10 seconds of think time, and, like MB, swatted away other somewhat reasonable guesses (Birds Nest). I learned through Twitter that Jesse is a sports memorabilia guy like myself so I was happy to see him win!

We now have 41 ex-champs for the CWC with 46 games to go. That’s not counting the ones who have won four or more games. There were nine of them so just eleven TOC qualifiers right now so they will likely have to dip into the three day pool.

I have 44 on my spreadsheet including the new champ tonight and all 3x champs - I spotted Robbi Ramirez and Devin Lohman as omitted from your list. Either way, I think you're right (..ok hope, but still!) on the point about 3x champs, particularly the highest earning of those 3x champs who I think will be a lock to go straight through to ToC regardless of what happens between now and July.

I'm about as square on the ToC bubble as one could possibly be right now, and am definitely not running to these game threads at 1pm every day to check who won. My very rough, non-mathematical formula for pace shows that, as of today, we're on track to finish with:

* 20-21 regular play champs who win 3 or more - we're at 16 now, so 4-5 additional over the last 45 games, with 2-3 of those surpassing my ranking (3x, ~$68k) and presumably auto-qualifying.
* 70 different champions total by season's end including the future ToCers.

It's really going to come down to how many players the TPTB mean by "a few" that advance to ToC. I've hypothesized rough formats for the ToC field that start at the top 15 and advancing 6 from CWC, and others that take 18 and 3, 21 and 6 to make 27, etc. (and CWC formats that play identical to how Second Chance went last year, as well as one that's pyramid-style that advances 1-day champs to 2-day champs, and so on.)

Till then, I'll keep sweating!

Thanks for the catch. I don’t add people until they lose since we don’t know which list they’ll be on. Obviously, the format for the tournaments will depend on the field size since they won’t know how many will qualify until the end of the season. And we don’t know how they are determining the SCC or how many advance to the CWC. Heck, we could have nine more five-day champs and then the four-timers are on the bubble.

Right now you are the 15th seed but of course we don’t know the format. Only two double digit champs so far, unlike the barrage of superduperchamps from S38.

[Golf]

Megan didn't suss out the situation enough to realize she needed to wager everything, especially given Ed's wager from second yesterday. He's not going to drop down to 7400 the way her wager required him to. So the game ended for her when she locked in that wager. That said, I think his 2401 to put himself a buck ahead of Jesse may not have been optimal. This seems like a $0 or $1 situation since he had double Megan's score. Then again, if Jesse knows how to wager, he might go small on the theory that Ed will as well. So Ed's 2401 may represent some good second-order thinking. 2401 may be as good a wager as 1 after all. I'll be interested to see what the wagering Vikings think.

You've mentioned the three valid wagers, $0, $1, $2401.

On the heels of James/Mattea FJ wagering last night, second level thinking is just not needed against 99.99% of contestants. The leader isn't going to wager $0 because of second level thinking, the only reason the leader will wager $0 is because they don't feel comfortable with the category. But even that is an extreme rarity.

But you're right about Megan, she didn't figure out the situation, and I can't say I was surprised. So yes, $0 is a good play without a whole lot of worry about a potential tie-breaker. And even if there is a tie-breaker, why be concerned about a buzzer race against someone whose score you've doubled over 60 clues?

Against some players, I wouldn't like wagering $1 at all. I think $2401 is far superior. But against Megan, $1 might be better for the reasons discussed above. If 3rd has shown the ability to wager properly, I'm never wagering $1 because you can accomplish the exact same thing in regards to 3rd and still cover a $0 wager from the leader.

If I'm in 2nd here, I wager $0 every time and have zero concern about Megan's wager or facing her on a tie-breaker.

I think another interesting question is if you're Megan, do you wager $0 or $6200? Two things to consider, the category and how wager savvy 2nd is.

Of course all of this is moot if the contestants would have wagered more strategically on the DD's. Hard not to chuckle at all three.

[Bamaman]

Megan didn't suss out the situation enough to realize she needed to wager everything, especially given Ed's wager from second yesterday. He's not going to drop down to 7400 the way her wager required him to. So the game ended for her when she locked in that wager. That said, I think his 2401 to put himself a buck ahead of Jesse may not have been optimal. This seems like a $0 or $1 situation since he had double Megan's score. Then again, if Jesse knows how to wager, he might go small on the theory that Ed will as well. So Ed's 2401 may represent some good second-order thinking. 2401 may be as good a wager as 1 after all. I'll be interested to see what the wagering Vikings think.

You've mentioned the three valid wagers, $0, $1, $2401.

On the heels of James/Mattea FJ wagering last night, second level thinking is just not needed against 99.99% of contestants. The leader isn't going to wager $0 because of second level thinking, the only reason the leader will wager $0 is because they don't feel comfortable with the category. But even that is an extreme rarity.

But you're right about Megan, she didn't figure out the situation, and I can't say I was surprised. So yes, $0 is a good play without a whole lot of worry about a potential tie-breaker. And even if there is a tie-breaker, why be concerned about a buzzer race against someone whose score you've doubled over 60 clues?

Against some players, I wouldn't like wagering $1 at all. I think $2401 is far superior. But against Megan, $1 might be better for the reasons discussed above. If 3rd has shown the ability to wager properly, I'm never wagering $1 because you can accomplish the exact same thing in regards to 3rd and still cover a $0 wager from the leader.

If I'm in 2nd here, I wager $0 every time and have zero concern about Megan's wager or facing her on a tie-breaker.

I think another interesting question is if you're Megan, do you wager $0 or $6200? Two things to consider, the category and how wager savvy 2nd is.

Of course all of this is moot if the contestants would have wagered more strategically on the DD's. Hard not to chuckle at all three.

1. I’m making the MSB from the lead. I’m not risking the game hoping Ed is some wagering savant. And if you are Asian and FJ is Asia you could have a slight advantage anyway.

2. I’m betting zero from second place. I can see the logic in betting $2,401 but the leader is going to make at least the MSB over 97% of the time. Also, the $2,401 wager runs the risk Megan makes some crazy wager like $3,800 going for the nice round number. I didn’t foresee her betting everything even if the category was about the Oscars.

3. I’m betting the whole thing from third place. Ed betting zero is highly possible so I’m not taking any chances. Ed showed common sense in making the MSB from second yesterday so he doesn’t seem likely to make the suicide wager from second today.

[OrchidEntity]

Let us remember Kate Rowland, a one time champion from Season 27. Why her, specifically? Well, since she did win a game, her second and final match almost certainly had her introduced as Our Returning Champion...A (Family) Doctor From Chicago, Illinois. I wonder if she's still a dedicated viewer and was amused by those two categories.

Also, Jesse appeared on Reddit about a week before this game, so I had a feeling he was going to win this one. If he's reading this, hi! Good work on the cover wager!

[alietr]

Can you imagine, in a democracy, having a project that moved a million people (almost all of them involuntarily)? On the one hand, it shows how an autocracy can get things done. On the other, it shows just how cruel an autocracy can be. And the Chinese government does excel at cruelty.

[Bamaman]

Can you imagine, in a democracy, having a project that moved a million people (almost all of them involuntarily)? On the one hand, it shows how an autocracy can get things done. On the other, it shows just how cruel an autocracy can be. And the Chinese government does excel at cruelty.

You don’t have to imagine it.

https://www.nbcnews.com/specials/americ ... nequality/

[opusthepenguin]

I think another interesting question is if you're Megan, do you wager $0 or $6200? Two things to consider, the category and how wager savvy 2nd is.

Given Ed's wager the previous night, I think $6200 has to be the way to go. Against an opponent with a history of over-wagering in FJ, $0 becomes much more attractive.

[threearruda]

Jesse has hired me as his personal secretary. He writes:

“ Let the people at JBoard know that I didn’t ring in on 1040 because Meg and Ed confused me with the W2 and W4 answers so I thought I misread it and was just rereading and then time ran out “

Weird things happen up on stage!