2015 TOC: The Triple Stumper Factor

Let’s get ready for the TOC by looking at some of the players’ statistics, starting with Triple Stumpers.

Now that Matt Jackson is going to be in Jeopardy’s 2015 Tournament of Champions, the buzz is that both he and Alex Jacob are sure bets to make it to the 2-day final. Just like Ken Jennings, Roger Craig and Brad Rutter didn’t face off against each other in any of the quarter-final or semi-finals in the Battle of the Decades, the assumption is that Alex and Matt will not be in the same game so that they can win their quarter-final game and semi-final.

Matt Jackson won 13 games and Alex Jacob won 6. We don’t really know what advantage that gives Matt, but we do know that Greg Seroka won 7 games (one more than Alex), and Kerry Greene won 6 games (the same amount as Alex). They just didn’t get anywhere near the press or twitter buzz even though they are both excellent players. So we decided to compare 7 games that these Top 4 Champs played in this post, looking at how many triple stumpers were in 7 games. For Greg and Matt, that has to be the first 7 games they played.

The triple stumpers are often talked about. “I can’t believe no one got that!” They translate into category weaknesses, gaps in knowledge, etc. But sometimes, especially toward the end of the game, the player won’t risk taking a guess on a clue if they’re just not sure their answer is right. Anyhow, however you view the triple stumpers, let’s see how many there were in 7 games for each of the Top 4 Champs who will be playing in this year’s TOC.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
TOTAL

Kerry
10
11
3
7
5
5
9
50

Alex
8
7
10
7
4
7
6
49

Greg
6
3
8
7
4
8
5
41

Matt
9
3
10
10
8
14
5
59

Oh, wow, Matt had the most. But wait, hold on. Matt’s boards very rarely had any clues left uncovered, right? Right. So that means there were more clues in his games for the players to get or not get. The other champs may not have seen as many clues. Let’s check that out. Same 7 games.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
TOTAL

Kerry
0
1
4
0
0
1
0
6

Alex
4
0
0
4
5
2
2
17

Greg
0
2
0
2
1
0
6
11

Matt
0
0
0
0
0
5
0
5

So there it is. Make of it what you will. We would say, based on that, Alex could have run across 2 more triple stumpers, and Greg one more, if all but 5 clues were uncovered. Post your own thoughts on it, or you can post a triple stumper that blew your mind. If you can still remember it, it must have been a goodie.

See all the games these champs played on J-Archive in Season 31 and Season 32

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