Jeopardy 2014 TOC Top 12
Here are the Top 12 candidates for Jeopardy’s 2014 Tournament of Champions as of 5/30/2014:
- Julia Collins $428,100 (20x champ)
- Arthur Chu $297,200 (11x champ)
- Ben Ingram $176,534 (8x champ)
- Drew Horwood $138,100 (8x champ)
- Jared Hall $181,001 (6x champ)
- Sandie Baker $140,200 (6x champ)
- Andrew Moore $137,803 (6x champ)
- Jerry Slowik $121,800 (5x champ)
- Joshua Brakhage, $103,205 (5x champ)
- Rebecca Rider $101,600 (5x champ)
- Sarah McNitt $89,398 (5x champ)
- Rani Peffer $68,701 (5x champ)
The links go to the last game each one played. This list has been reordered by number of games won. See Keith’s comment below. An additional note about this list — it does not include tournament winners who are eligible for the TOC — in fact, last year’s winner was the Teacher’s Tournament winner as well.
Colby Burnett was the winner of the last Tournament of Champions.
And here is list of players who have won over $150,000 on Jeopardy to date:
- Ken Jennings – $2,520,700 (74x champ)
- Julia Collins $428,100 (20x)
- Dave Madden $430,400 (19x)
- Arthur Chu $297,200 (11x)
- Tom Nissley $235,405 (8x)
- Roger Craig $230,200 (6x)
- Larissa Kelly $222,597 (6x)
- Jason Keller $213,900 (9x)
- Joon Pahk $199,000 (7x)
- Tom Walsh $184,900 (7x)
- Ben Ingram $176,534 (8x)
- Dan Pawson $170,902 (9x)
- Justin Bernbach $155,001 (7x)
- Mark Runsvold $153,800 (4x)
Here is the comment Arjav left on Fauxbituaries re the TOC lineup
“I have the matchups for the ToC. Thanks to Jeanie Kenkel for these.
Ben Ingram vs. Rebecca Rider vs. John Pearson
Arthur Chu vs. Andrew Moore vs. Rani Peffer
Julia Collins vs. Joshua Brakhage vs. Jim Coury
Drew Horwood vs. Terry O’Shea vs. Sarah McNitt
Jared Hall vs. Sandie Baker vs. Mark Japinga
Again, I was NOT at the taping. Jeanie Kenkel was, and if you want evidence that these are real, check out her blog post titled “Speechless”, and you’ll see the thread of comments which eventually leads to the matchups.” ~ Arjav Rawal
Here are the links to the last games on the TOC contestants not named in the list
Mark Japinga – $112,600 (4x) last game
Jim Coury – 2013 College Tournament Winner last game
Terry O’Shea – 2014 College Championship Winner last game
A lot of you may be wondering why Jerry Slowik is not on there. He was accused of child molestation a few months ago, and the trial is in October. Being as the ToC was being taped on September 30 and October 1, he was not allowed to participate and was replaced with Mark Japinga instead. Mike Lewis was the alternate.
Wow, Arjav, just wow. I was wondering about him. Thanks for the info.
Here’s the article (LINK), complete with… a shrugging Slowik in his mugshot.
He maintains his innocence.
Let us all please remember, in all fairness and justice, there is a difference between accused and indicted and an even larger to found guilty.
Again, because he was going to be tried in October, and the ToC was taping in September, and also they didn’t know whether he was guilty or not, they kicked him out, because let’s face it, a show like J! wouldn’t want to have a criminal compete.
I am really excited about The Jeopardy! Tournament Of Champions. It’s something that I’ve been waiting for all year, well almost 2 years but I have a feeling that Arthur Chu and Julia Collins are the 2 powerhouses in this tournament. We’ll see if I’m right or 1 of the 2 is the main powerhouse.
My predictions for this:
Monday 11/10: John is the clear underdog in this one, seeing as he is in because of a tournament and we don’t see a lot of gameplay in tournaments. I’d pick Ben over Rebecca, but Rebecca is easily a dark horse provided she hits a big DD wager early in J or DJ.
Tuesday 11/11: Rani has no chance against Arthur and Andrew. Both are Forrest Bouncers, and Rani can only hold her own if she uses the Forrest Bounce too. It will be interesting to see this play out between Andrew and Arthur, two controversial players who used the Forrest Bounce to a Moneyball level.
Wednesday 11/12: Definitely a hard one to decide. Julia is great on the buzzer, Joshua has an amazing knowledge depth, and Jim is a tourney guy, so I don’t know much about him. I will say this all depends on 2 things: 1) Daily Doubles, and 2) Final Jeopardy!.
Thursday 11/13: Drew needed lots of luck to win those 8 games, but he has an AMAZING amount of knowledge. Sarah also equal on knowledge, and same with Terry, although tournament champions aren’t so used to this. I will rate Terry the lowest, solely because 1) tournament, 2) she beat someone from my hometown NorCal, and 3) she’s a tournament player who won because of luck, and only luck.
Friday 11/14: This game is the group of death. Jared won a ****load of money during those 6 games, while Sandie was amazing. Mark, on the other hand, took out Ben Ingram. While I was hoping to see a rematch this will do justice. I will call this for Mark, but all three will be wild cards.
Your prediction means John didn’t win, Ben or Rebecca did.
The next ToC airs on November 10-21, 2014.
They’ll have the TOC in November, filmed in September.. For sweeps month and all.. They sure have a full boat with this next TOC.. Lots of good players.
The TOC is always in the middle of the current season. BUT the players of the TOC are from the previous 1/2 season TOO when the next TOC happens of the current season. So after the last TOC in January of 2013, the 1st new 5 time champ only had one more game to win. And he had to wait until the TOC of January of 2013 played out to come back on. He won one more game in late January of 2013. He has had to wait the longest—so far almost 16 full months!!! I hope this 2014 TOC happens BEFORE the major tournament that happens next month with the players of the past three decades…
Don’t see how they can have the 2014 TOC before the Battle of the Decades, which is scheduled from May 5 through May 16.
Well as it turns out, the Battle of the Decades is playing this week and next. Ken Jennings airs tonight. Brad Rutter sure did do great on yesterday’s program. But I do hope Ken wins today so that he can be seen on next weeks shows.
I am just so surprised that the TOC has not been aired yet. Does anyone know if the TOC has been played out in the studio yet? It is about time the tourney airs as the last one was in January of 2013. Jeopardy! does not normally wait this long between tourneys. They usually wait just long enough to get 15 players for the TOC. I am sure they have that amount by now.
I see pros and cons to both. I think number of wins generally implies dominance – a 5xer has dispatched 10 players whereas a 3xer, only 6. (That’s not always the case, of course – I think Carlos would be the easy favorite in a matchup with Rani Peffer.)
Going by money is problematic because many high totals come as a result forced large wagers in FJ. Who is the better player: the guy who nearly doubles his money in a $18,000-$17,600 pre-FJ gunfight, or the guy who enters FJ with a lock at $25,000?
Just can’t see it. The guy who enters FJ with a lock at 25K may have just got lucky with a DD in his wheelhouse. It’s not a matter of who’s the better player, it’s who won the most money to me — period. Just like it is as to who wins the match.
Exception: teachers tournament winners. The winner already won a grand prize. Giving them a shot at another one costs someone from the regular games a place.
oh well, that’s just how I see it.
I personally don’t see a problem with allowing some 2xers in, as you suggested in the reply to my post. I’ve seen many 2xers that held so much promise, only to get beaten the third day by some fluke. I guess it all depends on the boards on any given day. A lot of the dominant one day champs we see may be due to the boards favoring their areas of knowledge… who knows. I’d say if a 2xer that has like 50k average for each day would be a great candidate. Someof the 4xers and 5xers, etc have needed some luck to get to those number of wins, Rani is a good example. I really liked her, she’s bubbly and a great personality and I was so happy she managed to snag that 5th win to secure her place in the ToC, but she wasn’t a very dominat player, and needed a combo of a little luck and subpar challengers. I don’t hold much hope for her to make it past the quarterfinals in the ToC, but hey, she could surprise me like Kristin Morgan did this last time. She was not dominant at ALL during her 5x run, only had 69k to show for it, had a co-champion two of those days, but look what she did…she made it to the finals! I was pleasantly surprised.
Drew Horwood, the 8x champ from back in March, needed lots of luck too, and wasn’t dominant. I have no doubt someone like Carlos could have cleaned his clock if paired together in a game, but still, you gotta hand it to these champs that can win 8x games… only four others have won more than that number. He had to be doing something right. Same goes for Rani… 5x wins is a great thing, and we don’t see many women get that high. 4x, maybe, but not 5x…. we’ve only have two women ToC eligible so far this year.. Rebecca Rider and Rani Phiffer. Both are 5xers. I’m sure we will see another one or two before the qualifying period is over.
Women superchamps are even MORE rare, as only Larissa Kelly (6x) and Stephanie Jass (7x) fit that category.
yeah, I remember Stephanie — after a while, I started calling her Steamroller Stephanie. If I’m remembering right, in the TOC, she got in the semi finals with a wild card and lost to Colby Burnett.
there are a lot of factors. do you bet gutsy on a dd, do you get lucky with a clue or a category, do you get a dd in a category you dominate, are there 2 or 3 categories by a fluke that favor you.
sometimes somebody might have just by accident read about the clue in fj and the other 2 are stumped and what have you.
In April 2014, there have been two more 5 time champs. The latest winner of 6 games is another superchamp woman; Sandie Baker who won 6 games (and bet too much on her 7th game and lost) totaling 142, 200, which includes the $2000 she won for coming in second on 4/17/14
The college tourney winner and the teacher tourney winner both make it to the TOC. After that the 5x and up winners ALL go to the TOC when it comes up. Does not matter how much money they have won. They all will make it to the TOC unless the 5x and up winner can’t make the TOC then producers keep going down the list to 4x champions, then to 3x champions if they get that far down the list. But when they do get to the 4x and the 3x winners, it is the ones who won the most, then the 2nd most and so on of those that do not win 5 or more games. That has been their system since the beginning. But this seasons’ TOC should have been played by now. And the TOC will include the latest 6x winner; Sandie Baker who won $142,200 as of 4/17/204
You may want to go by number of wins, and the money they won, when making this list…. 5x champs are guaranteed a spot in the ToC, 3xers are eligilble but only when there are not enough 5x+ timers or 4xers. Most of the J! pages on the net go this way, because it’s more accurate and shows the 3xers at the bottom of the list, which would be accurate, since a 4xer with 60k in winnings will always get into the ToC before a 3xer with 90k, for example.
Just a suggestion 🙂