Final Jeopardy: World Heritage Sites (3-21-16)
The Final Jeopardy question (3/21/2016) in the category “World Heritage Sites” was:
The 14th century citadel of the Ho Dynasty in this country was added to the World Heritage list in 2011.
New champ Steve Stoffle won $17,599 in last Friday’s game. In his second game, he takes on these two players: Melissa Spencer, from Des Moines, IA; and Kim Vu, from Washington, DC.
Round 1 Categories: Now You See Me – World Holidays – E Before I – Around the USA – The French Mistake, Voila! – We Love Mel Brooks
Steve found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “French Mistake” under the $800 clue. There were 9 clues left after it. He was in third place with $800, $$4,200 less than Melissa’s lead. He bet the $1,000 allowance and he was RIGHT.
It’s “a disgraceful skeleton”, said Guy de Maupassant; “You see it from everywhere… an unavoidable and horrid nightmare.” show
Melissa finished in the lead with $6,000. Kim was second with $3,600 and Steve was last with $2,200.
Round 2 Categories: Pop Quiz – American Poets – The 20th Century – Newspapers – Art for Art’s Sake – Words that Start Like Days of the Week
Steve found the first Daily Double in “American Poets” under the $1,200 clue on the 9th pick of the round. He had moved into the lead and now had $8,600, $1,800 more than Kim in second place. He bet $3,000 and he was RIGHT.
This poet once claimed that English was the only language in which the pronoun “I” was written with a capital letter. show
Just when we had given up hope of seeing it, Melissa found the last Daily Double in “Newspapers” under the $2,000 clue. She was in second place with $8,800 now, $4,800 less than Steve’s lead. She bet $2,000 and took a guess with Florence. That was WRONG.
L’Osservatore Romano was founded in Rome, but moved here in 1929 during Mussolini’s era. show
Steve finished in the lead with $13,600. Melissa was next with exactly half of that– $6,800, and Kim was in third place with $6,000.
TWO of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
“Since 1993, eight Vietnamese locations — including three citadels — have been designated as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO, with another seven awaiting formal classification. Many of these sites are of great natural or historical significance, such as Ha Long Bay and the complex of monuments in Hue. But the citadel to most recently acquire UNESCO’s seal of approval (in 2011) is the almost unknown Ho Citadel, situated in a remote backwater of Thanh Hoa Province, around 150 kilometers south of Hanoi. The choice of the Ho Citadel for such a prestigious honor is strange for a couple of reasons.” (CNN Travel: Most Unlikely UNESCO Site)
Kim got it right. His $5,500 bet brought him up to $11,500.
Melissa also got it. She bet it all and finished with $13,600.
Steve thought it was Korea. He bet $1.00. That left him $13,599 and made Melissa Spencer the new Jeopardy champ. Confound it! We’re never going to see a tiebreaker, are we?
The last triple stumper came up right before the last Daily Double. It was worth $1,000 and was in “The 20th Century” category:
This 1935 Act, a New Deal program, guaranteed workers the right to organize unions.
2 years ago: NONE of the players got this FJ in “Historical Nicknames”
Nickname shared by George Armstrong Custer, Native American Chief Crazy Horse and a member of a 1930s comedy team. show
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Did he answer Venzetti instead of the correct Vanzetti?
That’s what it sounded like to me, listening to it live, but they’re generous with pronunciations sometimes.
Steve doesn’t want to share the prize with Melissa. That ended up costing him dearly.
Supposedly, there are no more ties, so if he wagered “0” they would have gone to a tie-breaker
Supposedly? No.
“1. Tie Breakers – There can only be one winner. This has long been the case in tournament play and was recently adapted into regular game play. A tie at the end of Final Jeopardy! sends the game into a tie-breaker clue.” Jeopardy.com: 4 Rare Jeopardy Scenarios
I wonder if she deliberately tanked that DD to end up with half his total, or if she just blundered into it with a timid wager. The latter would make me even more annoyed at the result.
I didn’t see it as a timid wager. If she bet more than that and was wrong, Steve would have had a runaway, but if she was right, I guess the results would have been the same. She would have made her best bet to win and Steve would have bet to beat that by $1, missed FJ and lost anyhow.
But since she did end up like that and a tiebreaker question is another shot at winning the match, I just can’t understand why Steve bet that dollar.
Perhaps timid was the wrong choice of word; 2000 or thereabouts is such a common DD wager, that I don’t know if there was any strategy behind it. I Just wish more people used DDs aggressively. Maybe not boom-or-bust like Philip, but a guy can dream 🙂
I like them to be aggressive with the DDs, too, but not foolish and it would have been foolish for Melissa to risk more than $2K today.
Sure boom-or-bust gets high praise when the player is right. Heh. We saw both sides of that coin with Philip last week but only the bad side with Bill in the 3-9 game.
And the very bad side with Aurora. Philip did what he had to do to get back in the game. He just had a bad game.
Other than that, top notch game theory analysis, VJ.
Thanks, Eric, though I am laughing at the notion of me analyzing game theory. I think that the trivia gods giveth and they taketh away so Philip’s fate was predetermined. But good for him for betting big on the lucky ones.
Seriously, you have come a long way in the last three (?) years. Keith has done you well!
Yes, Philip about killed me as I shouted “Vancouver ” at the tv. I think he did very well for the knowledge bank he had. It was great to see an educator do so well!