Final Jeopardy: Awards & Honors (8-1-14)
The Final Jeopardy question (8/1/2014), in the category “Awards & Honors” was:
There were no winners for this award from 1939 through 1943; in 1944, it was won by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Yesterday, Jeff Xie ($15,000); Alan Koolik, ($25,000); and Cooper Lair ($200) won the amounts in parentheses in the first final match of the 2014 Teen Tournament. Today is the final showdown and their scores today will be added to yesterday’s to determine who will be taking home the $75,000 top prize. Second place gets $25,000 and third place $15,000. If the teens exceed these guaranteed minimums, they get to keep it.
Round 1: Jeff found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “The Story of His Life” under the $800 clue. He was in the lead with $7,000, $3,400 more than Alan in second place. He bet $2,000 and he was RIGHT.
A Pennsylvania businessman: “Young Chocolatier”. show
Jeff finished in the lead with $9,400. Alan was second with $4,600 and Cooper was last with $1,600.
Round 2: Cooper found the first Daily Double in “Arts” under the $800 clue. He was in third place with $4,000, $8,200 behind Jeff’s lead. He made it a true Daily Double and he was RIGHT.
Praise the Lord! Over a century old, this American form of Christian music combines elements of blues, jazz & spirituals. show
Jeff found the last Daily Double in “Anthropology” under the $1,200 clue. In the lead with $15,000, he was $5,400 ahead of Cooper in second place. He bet $3,000 and he was RIGHT.
Elsie Parsons studied these “apartment”-dwelling indians of the Southwest, including the Zuni. show
Jeff finished in the lead with $19,600. Cooper was next with $15,600 and Alan was in third place with $14,600.
ALL of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
“In 1901, the first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Henry Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, whose life was devoted mainly to humanitarian cause….
“The International Committee of the Red Cross, subsequently, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1917 and 1944, as tributes to its humanitarian activities during the two World Wars.” (Red Cross and Red Crescent History)
Alan bet it all and finished with $29,200 today. His $25,000 from yesterday brought him up to $54,200.
Cooper bet $15,400 and finished with $31,000. His $200 from yesterday gave him $31,200.
Jeff also bet it all and ended this match with $39,200. His $15,000 from yesterday put him in a tie with Alan at $54,200.
That called for a tiebreaker which Trebek immediately broke out from the category “Civil War”:
The Battles of Shiloh and Collierville were fought in this state. show
Jeff rang in with the correct answer and won the $75,000! Both Alan and Cooper exceeded the guarantees and get to keep all their winnings.
Well! What a wild finish to the season that brought us the reigns of Arthur Chu and Julia Collins, and The Battle of the Decades.
Although Alex Trebek had previously mentioned reruns of the BotD over the break, today he did not mention it at all. However, we will publish a clue from whatever games are aired with a link to the recaps over the break for anyone who may have missed a game.
3 years ago in the last match of the Teen Tournament:: TWO of the players got this FJ in “LANDMARKS”
Completed in 1869, it has also been known by its nickname “the Highway to India”. show
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Just to shore up some of the economics: the top three took a little over $160,000, the other six semi-finalists took $10,000, and the other six at $5,000 for a shade over $250,000. That was, of course, for a full two weeks worth of games, so about $125,000 per week, or $25,000 per game. Considering they normally pay out $3,000 per game to the non-winners, it’s very much like two weeks of $22,000 (on average) winners. A little expensive, to be sure, but I think they will recoup that extra expense easily. They paid out almost one-third of that total amount to Roger Craig in just one game.
That tiebreaker was worth $20,800!
What a great clip!! I hope Nomi and Will check back to see it! Thank you, VJ!
My understanding that semi’s and finals are shot in one day – the Cooper and Joe semi match was pressure packed and played on a very high level.Some have mentioned it being the best of the tournament. Missing Cowboys and Aliens (using versus) meant difference of at least $21,200 ($31,200 vs $10,000). The pressure of that match was more than finals and could have affected Cooper’s level of play. You see it in sports all the time
Herb, Cooper was the one that got the Cowboys and Aliens clue right. Joe blew it with the versus. Before that Joe got one that Cooper blew (Orincoco / Orinoco River).
Alan’s match came after that one and then the game where Cooper had a bad time and ended up with only $200. Happily, it did not affect his performance in the last match.
Hard for me to tell today if Alan was asleep at the switch or Jeff was just quicker on the draw today.
Point was Joe missed the question about Cowboys and Aliens – the likelihood was that Joe would have chosen the Daily Double, next in sequence in same category, which would have made it impossible for Cooper to have gotten lead going into Final Jeopardy
Herb makes a great point. In a normal taping day, three games are played in the morning, with two after lunch. It seems that they would probably stick to that routine. If they did, and the players would be able to watch the other matches (which I believe is the case), then Jeff and Alan would be comfortably (probably:to some extent) watching as Cooper was nervous watching their’s. As Cooper was still pumped with adrenaline, it would be the lunch break.
As I have said before, please go to a taping if you’re in the LA area. The pace of the game is fast, pretty much the same time is taken as is shown on a YouTube video. So, as you see in sports often the scheduling can play a big part: Cooper probably barely eating his lunch against two more (if only by one blistering game) rested opponents. Of course, it’s impossible for them to play at the same time, so this is inevitable. Further, the logistics of filming the finals on a different day would involve housing the contestants longer, although there certainly can be an argument made for taping the semis on a Tuesday morning, then the finals on a Wednesday (those are the only two days of taping). This would make it difficult for the players who lost in the semis to watch the final, though. Unfortunately for Cooper, as is the way in the real world of sports, he just got a tough draw. He rallied admirably.
Oddly, if they didn’t break for lunch, as they normally do after three games, Cooper may have had the advantage due to momentum. One sees this in sports often, as well (witness the Stanley Cup Champion LA Kings: down 3-0 in the first series, they won three game sevens on the road, then they cruised through the finals).
Wow! Those teens had Sony digging in its pockets. Normally, 1st prize is 75,000, 2nd prize is 25,000, and 3rd prize is 15,000 for a total of 115,000.
Tonight (8/1/2014), 1st prize was 75,000, 2nd prize was 54,200, and 3rd prize was 31,200 for a total of 160,400.
All of the above amounts are in dollars. I was too lazy to put in the dollar signs using my tablet.
These were some sharp teens. Alan got to keep 29,200 more than the normal 25,000 for 2nd place and Cooper got to keep 16,200 more than the normal 15,000 for 3rd place. Nice work gentlemen. Nice work!
btw, one thing I forgot to mention — Jeff was the only Wild Card in the finals.
That’s true. Wasn’t Leonard a wild card last teen tournament also and won it all? If so, there’s something to be said for wild cards.
He wasn’t a wild card per se, Jacob. He won his match in the quarter-finals. There are no wild cards in the semi-finals, but the situation with “no winner” game created a wild card scenario for the third spot and Leonard won it. Here’s the link to his semi-final game that Nilai won. That was a crazy match, man! Emily, a senior, was the Wild Card in that match and could have won it if she had bet big.
Thanks. That was a wild teen season. Just watched Keith Williams Final Wager. He said he bet Sony is not too pleased about the large sums of money won tonight. I guess not. These 3 were just at their lucid best. Fantastic to watch.
Lol: wow! Note the second DD of that game (the second link). Can you say, hit the j-archive!!
Jeff was a wild card by choice, or, more precisely, indifference. It was certainly not like he got beat on his best game. Good game theory, Jeff!
Fascinating finish, wish I had seen it live. Please post a clip of the ending if you can, VJ.
@Eric, I had missed your comments about The Fault in Our Stars, but after reading your post on the CotD page, I found your review in reply to mine, and it makes so much sense.
@William, to read the book with an open mind, disregard my review and read Eric’s. Comments can be hard to locate as we keep jumping between the CotD page and the FJ page, so I’m pasting it here:
“In all reality, sometimes there are people whose very presence makes you feel even more alive, allows you think clearer, and verbalize like with no one else. I didn’t read the book, but I know of this power of Love. Perhaps, that’s the inspiration the author felt.”
I wish all of us are surrounded by people like that.
That is so incredibly thoughtful. Thank you, and thank you for understanding the spirit of the rest of the post.
Jeff rang in as soon as Alex started reading the question and from the look on Alan’s face he thought the entire question needed to be read before ringing in. Or maybe I don’t know what I am talking about.
I have to ask: is this name a derivative from Superbad? If so, nice! If not, please know that I had to ask.
On a more serious note, you bring up a great point: if one can’t win by default, that necessarily means that the other player can’t lose with a wrong answer, thus a player should buzz in as soon as humanly possible, and not after considering the question. Tom Clark, an admitted quiz show lover, said that what he liked about Alan was that he didn’t buzz in unless he knew the answer: perhaps that hesitation was his undoing. Thus, Jeff, in the very end, exhibited better game theory.
oh, so close!!! but a good final, a tie with 54.200 is more than respectable. and cooper, once the pressure was off, finished with a great 31 K today!! i am pretty sure that alan knew tennessee as well, but a 2 day final coming down to a splitsecond, wow!
congratulations to all 3!
and now we will have till september before we see new shows.
Wow! I was reading vj’s game recap here, and as I reached the end of game totals I could see the amazing fact that Jeff was leading by the magic “half of what he trailed by” yesterday –i.e. Jeff trailed by 10k yesterday, so to catch up he would have to have at least a 5k lead today in order to potentially double that lead to 10k in the FJ round.
I gotta believe this is the first time this has happened in a two-day Final.
Great Season Finale!
Actually, season 12, 1996 had one also.
Please note: this information was from Wikipedia and unconfirmed by J-archive. Perhaps Tom Clark knows?
VJ, thanks for your hard work and professionalism this season.
You’re welcome. It’s been a pleasure 🙂
Wow. I would’ve cringed when Jeff didn’t go Roger Craig on the first DD, but he had enough talent to come back. #lumosityfan on J-board. Jeff also has a fantastic geography quiz on J-board: please take it.
Totally, dude! I looked at that first round DD wager and thought, “this guy’s not gonna get there.”
Yeah, he made it tougher than he had to, but he got there. I’m glad that Cooper made a solid showing, as well.
Lol. Imagine if he had gone Roger Craig on both of his DDs and put the game away right there.
I imagine he was wishing he had risked a bit more on at least one of those DDs when he was trying to figure out if he was short at the end
Yeah, it’s tough: under the lights and probably only like twenty minutes between the games. Game theory takes a lot of mental preparation. You pretty much have to be prepared for all types of situations and readily recognize them. Again, not easy under the lights. Maybe that’s why Roger Craig does it: so he doesn’t have to think. Haha.
You actually do see that often in low-level poker tournaments: weak players going all-in because they can’t read the situation well. It’s great, until they get really lucky.
The quiz is called: Think Different: In Honor of the Geography Bee. I’ve asked him to change it to: Think Differently…, but to no avail so far. I was also hoping to get a mention of Dave Madden, but we’ll see.
Please take the quiz at home if you don’t enter. The questions are not only challenging, but the format is very interesting.
Fantastic game. Now you see why I had no fav. Anything can happen in a teen tournament. These were bright young men. Congrats to all three.
They made BotD look like mince meat. Go teens go!
you are absolutely right! after a few shaky weeks a final worthy of ending the season!
well deserved all around. yesterday i think cooper faltered under the pressure. when it was off, he performed extremely well.
too bad that it had to be a tie breaker. both deserved to win. but 54K+ is nothing to sneeze at either.