Final Jeopardy: Novel Words (7-24-14)
The Final Jeopardy question (7/24/2014), in the category “Novel Words” was:
This word for a person without certain abilities has made it from the realm of fantasy to the OED.
Day 4 of the 2014 Teen Tournament Quarter-Finals: Today’s players are Ananya Nrusimha, a sophomore from East Amherst, NY; Alan Koolik, a junior from Boca Raton, FL; and Kevin Huang, a senior from Irvine, CA.
Round 1: Ananya found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Fictional Characters” under the $1,000 clue. She was in the lead with $2,600, $800 ahead of Alan in second place. She bet $1,000 and said “Don Quixote.” That was WRONG.
As this book begins, Santiago had “gone eighty-four days… without taking a fish.” show
Alan finished in the lead with $7,200. Ananya was second with $3,800 and Kevin was last, in the hole for $1,400.
Round 2: Ananya found the first Daily Double in “Middle Ages” under the $1,200 clue. She was still in second place but had done some catching up. With $6,200, she was only $1,400 behind Alan’s lead. She bet $1,500 and she was RIGHT.
The high period of this architectural style of rib vaults & pointed arches began around 1200. show
Ananya found the last Daily Double in “The Genius Bar” under the $1,600 clue. In the lead with $8,900, she had $100 more than Alan in second place. She bet $600 and she was RIGHT.
She is still the only woman to win Nobel Prizes in 2 different fields, which she did back in 1903 & 1911. show
Alan finished in the lead with $17,600. Ananya was next with $15,500 and Kevin was in third place with $3,400.
TWO of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
“A Muggle is a person who is born into a non-magical family and is incapable of performing magic. Most Muggles are not aware that magic exists at all and that those with it have organised their own society largely separate from the Muggle world. The few Muggles that do know of the existence of the wizarding world are usually parents, or close relatives, of witches and wizards (for example, Hermione Granger’s parents, Mr and Mrs Granger, knew of the wizarding world because of their daughter, as did Harry Potter’s aunt and uncle). Muggles are not to be confused with Squibs, who also lack magic but are born into magical families and are aware of the wizarding world. ” (Harry Potter Wiki)
Kevin got it right and doubled his score. He finished with $6,800.
Ananya wrote down “powerless.” She lost her $8,699 bet, finishing with $6,801.
Alan also got it right. He bet $13,401 so he won the quarter-final spot with $31,001.
Before Alan’s bet was revealed, Alex said the bet didn’t really matter because Alan was going to win today’s game. Since he got FJ! right, it didn’t matter, but what a risk! If he had been wrong, Ananya would have won and Kevin would be on the Wild Card list. But he wasn’t wrong so Ananya now occupies the 4th spot on the list. By now we know anything can happen tomorrow!
Jeff Xie — $19,000
Kat Deabill — $14,400
Erin Christopher — $9,000
Ananya Nrusimha – $6,801
2 years ago:: TWO of the players got this FJ in “Antarctica”
This country that explored the Antarctic interior is the most northerly nation to claim territory on the continent. show
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Top Coryat Scores (excluding 7/24/2014 game):
20,000 Kat
19,600 William
18,000 Jeff
15,000 Selena
If I understand the Coryat correctly, as just the face value of all pre FJ responses attempted (correct – incorrect), since Alan had no DD attempts, his pre-FJ (17,600) is his Coryat.
For Ananya, it would be: 15,500 + (1000-1000) +(1200-1500) + (1600-600) =16,200.
For Kevin, like Alan with no adjustments, his pre-FJ is his Coryat 6,800.
I think that it is easy to see that for a game theorist, the Coryat holds about as much weight as Batting Average does in baseball.
indeed, what a risky – though gutsy- bet by alan. this was rather a type of bet you would expect in the final of a major adult tournament or single game with high scores than at the beginning of a teen tournament.
he must have been very confident about the fj category too, but then he is very young.
and i am not exactly a harry potter et al expert, so fj would have gotten me.
@John, Do you think Alan was anticipating Ananya would bet it all? Hence his wager. If she had bet it all and been correct she would have had 31,000. It appears he went for the lockout at 31,001. Risky, but, it worked for him.
yeah, he played like in a single game. alan had 17.600, more than enough for a wild card. i do not remember, somebody – leave alone at a tt – missing a wildcard with 17.600. even ananya with 15.500 could have taken the risk and not wager anything. now she is at 6.801, a much more dangerous spot.
“The Old Man and the Sea” seems to be a favorite of the j clue writers. this is the fourth or fifth time within a little more than a year that either the book itself, the movie, hemingway, cuba or some other connected reference came up.
Tomorrow we have 2 seniors (Sydney and Joe) and one 10th grader Sam. Jeff has a lot of fans on J Board because he has been posting there for a year. So they knew he was going on Jeopardy. I’ve been reading the comments over there a long time and haven’t seen any posts by the other teens. Sometimes a lesser known contestant can take it all.
Wow! That was a good game from Alan. He’s one to watch in this tournament. He did not have many wrong responses in the game. Highest total so far. Kevin had me concerned in the first round hovering in negative territory. Glad to see him dig himself out of the hole. Ananya was really struggling with fj. The guys jumped on it in a nanosecond.
Nice going teens!
Although I’m sure that Alan played a good game, personally, I would keep my eye on Jeff as the one to watch in this tournament: his pre-FJ total was higher and displayed better game theory judgement. Of course, we’ll see next week.
I have to wonder if Jeff is going to display tactics shown by AChu (via Roger Craig) and go DD hunting. I would love to see that.
Alan was doing that tonight. Jumping around the board but somehow Ananya found the DDs. He tickled me going straight to a 2,000 clue first but no DD there. Oops. But he still won in the long run.
I thought that he probably was wishing he got his hands on one of those DDs. Probably would have made a big bet. (though only he knows if he knew them or not)
For those of you who don’t follow these posts regularly: Daily Double hunting can be used basically two purposes: offense and defense. Offensively, one tries to take charge of a game with larger wagers, thus forcing the other players to panic or make errors. Defensively, one aims for a category they feel their opponents are relatively (to oneself) strong in, then bet little so the opponents may not score on them: AChu did this, bet $5 and answered “I don’t know”, without even trying to guess at the answer (he oddly ended up tying the game).
The strategy did not work for Alan offensively or defensively because Ananya found all three DDs.
What worked for Alan was being a good solid player and as vj pointed out getting the fj clue correct.
If Kevin wouldn’t have buzzed in on that last clue, he would probably still be in contention for a Wild Card spot.
Yeah, there was that $2K error for Kevin — in Use Your “Head” — In a classic American tale, he chases Ichabod Crane.
He gave the story name. But even if he answered it correctly, I think Ananya would have adjusted her bet accordingly.
@vj, Congrats. You predicted 2 correct responses. Again I was off by one. I thought for sure all 3 contestants would get this fj clue.
Funny that I asked the girl over here and she said the boy would know it.
btw on the above, Alan got that $2K that Kevin missed. I know it doesn’t matter now but if Kevin had got it, the ending scores would have been 15,600, 15,500 and 7,400. If Kevin left it alone, they would have been 17,600, 15,500 and 5,400. Just strange how that last clue affected her wild card chances!
Yeah. He said “Sleepy Hollow.”
And the category specified “Head” had to be in the reply.
Keith Williams reported on The Final Wager two nights ago that in the last two years of teen qualifying, the average score for wild cards was in the 15s, so Ananya could’ve stayed. If any bet, I would advise only enough to barely take the lead (2101), leaving behind a decent remainder.
I certainly don’t understand the big bet by Alan. He definitely should’ve bet zero. That is, mathematically, his chances of qualifying with 17,600 should be higher than his chances of getting the response correct. So far, it seems that we have seen the best game play by Jeff.
I was quite surprised with Ananya’s big FJ bet because of her low DD bets.
That’s a great point. Remember that DDs are a player’s best chance to take control of a game. They are unique because only one person can answer, and thus score on, them.
VJ: flashing a little game theory game (she sometimes claims not to understand it all that well). Tight point.
Of course, Ananya still has a decent chance to get in: all three players tomorrow have to beat her score for her to be eliminated.
I have to wonder if these kids are googling “Jeopardy betting strategy” after these qualifying rounds. If not, Jeff has a big advantage.
Of course, this analysis is flawed as below: Ananya must have a higher total than both non-winners tomorrow. Yikes!
Congrats Kat and Erin!
Kat’s in, Erin’s on hold.
Three good scores tomorrow and Erin’s toast…bad scores tomorrow in 2nd and 3rd and Ananya’s golden.
I, for some completely unknown reason, was thinking that there was going to be five wild cards. Of course, I now rightly stand corrected.
William’s Golden — a little humor, it’s his last name 🙂