Tournament of Champions Game 4 Recap
Courtney Shah vs. rowan ward vs. John Focht
Before we get to see Courtney, rowan, and John face off, first we have to eat lunch. I had been told at Jeopardy! Honors that they might want to record my podcast appearance during lunch break, so I lingered in the studio until the audience wranglers ushered us out (we ended up recording the podcast after taping, I’ll get to that later!)
Cindy and I had brought snacks for lunch, but we ended up walking a block or two to a poké bowl place with Sam K, Lucy Ricketts, and David Maybury. David got food and joined the rest of us for a snack potluck in this outdoor patio place at the Starbucks next door. (Yes, I looked it up on Google Street View so I could put a photo here.)
Sam K. had bananas, Cindy had everything bagels, and I had Trader Joe’s PB&J bars and trail mix (I also had dried banana chips, but they seemed irrelevant in the presence of fresh bananas). We shared amongst ourselves (from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs), but I still didn’t eat an everything bagel because of onion breath concerns. The one thing I completely forgot to bring in my mom-bag of snacks was WATER. I normally drink a lot of water (#HydrateOrDiedrate) but the day was so busy I hadn’t realized how very thirsty I was until I started eating. I don’t remember if I asked out loud for water or if I just gazed wistfully at drinks through the window of the Starbucks, but Sam K. had a bottle of water and an empty Nalgene and poured half the bottle into the Nalgene for himself and gave the rest to me. It was like a 12 oz. bottle, truly not enough to share, but he shared anyways (and also told me there was a water dispenser with paper cups outside the Alex Trebek Stage so I wouldn’t die.) Not all heroes wear capes!
We made our way back to the Sony parking garage, where there was a vending machine. It was out of water, of course, so I got a Dr. Pepper which is basically the same thing, right? We had to go through the same process as the morning - line up to get checked in, bag check, line up outside - and then it was back to the Jeopardy! set for Game 4.
Outfit Details
Courtney is STUNNING in red. I wasn't recapping during her original run but I can tell she knows her jewel tones. Plus wearing short sleeves in the Jeopardy studio is always an alpha move.
I love that rowan is wearing what looks to be their purple and black ensemble from when they faced Matt Amodio in Season 37! Fantastic full circle moment for sure. Also love the blue hair that is a shade light enough to not blend in to the Jeopardy background.
I was SO excited to see John wearing a plaid tie AND a pocket square! (Folded in a very precise crown shape!) This is just a great outfit - classic but with character. Love it. (And I love seeing so many pocket squares in this tournament.)
In person, I wrote down this tie as “greyish blue” but it looks almost periwinkle on my screen. This is another new tie and I LOVE it with the grey suit. I’m so excited that Ken got a few new ties for the occasion of ToC!
Vibe Check
Courtney - serene
Courtney’s vibes were so grounded, like she may have been nervous but I did not feel any nervous energy from her. Just so balanced.
rowan - joyful!!!
rowan’s tornado of joyful exuberance comes through on TV but is even more powerful in person! Just the brightest light of pure trivia bliss.
John - prepared
I also wrote down “assassin” in my notes as the game progressed. So impressively calm and did what he came to do. Absolute masterclass of preparation and efficientcy. Can not wait to see him in the semi finals.
Mistakes and Retakes
In the introduction when Ken talked about rowan being a “Second Chance winner” he kept messing up the phrasing. I think he said “Second Chance Tournament winner” first, and then “Second Chance champion” or something.
There was one spot where Ken lost track of who was picking next and had a weird pause while saying “Back to youuuu….. Courtney”, I think they rerecorded it as a pickup later.
Either this game had hardly any flubs or I quit writing them down because that’s all I have!
Interesting clues/categories
Three triple stumpers just in the Film Fight Marquee category, these boards are not for the faint of heart!
My Jeopardy! group chat had been talking about Parade magazine & Marilyn vos Savant just a few days before this taped! So I almost yelled out loud when this clue came up (and I hoped rowan had been paying attention to the group chat!)
Marilyn vos Savant was also the subject of an Omnibus Podcast episode. My loyal readers may remember way back yesterday when Left Behind (another Omnibus topic) was a clue. Ken assured me during the Q&A that it’s “just a coincidence” when topics line up between the (at the time of publication) 512 Omnibus episodes and the hundreds of Jeopardy! clues each week.
Seeing John nail the back-to-back Daily Doubles was just ELECTRIFYING.
The Well-Oiled Machine
During commercial breaks, if Ken doesn’t have a lot of pickups to do he will talk to the audience and take questions. He got a chance to do that during this game and told us it was nice to have an audience. He said, “We had empty seats for 2 years and the vibes weren’t great!”
That’s all I wrote down as far as production highlights! I think by this point everything was such a familiar routine that I wasn’t taking note of it.
Oh, Stage Manager Jimmy McGuire did his audience spiel for the afternoon crowd, even though it was mostly the same people as the morning crowd. The main thing I remember is that he has 3 jobs but the most important job is #3, “being your best friend”.
Overheard Segment
Ken: Did your big data exercise influence your play?
John: YES! [there was more discussion but I didn’t write it down]
Ken: Were you confident on your answer?
John: Shangri-la was my other choice but I really wanted to write an X.
Miscellany
John’s mom & grandma were behind us and during the break after Double Jeopardy (and that big geography Daily Double), I heard his mom saying, “He was always good at geography, even as a child.” It was SO adorable and reminded me of how I brag about my 9-year-old, and I suddenly had a vision of being in the audience watching my kid play Jeopardy! in like 20 years. It honestly made me a little emotional!
After the game I turned around and asked, “Are you John’s mom??” and talked to her for a while. She was so sweet and told me how excited everyone was at Jeopardy! Honors trying to figure out who I was, since at the time my Twitter profile photo was just a cartoon unicorn. She was so sincerely interested in my work (somehow we ended up even talking about my fabric business). I treasure the whole conversation!
I love how the games in this ToC have all been so exciting, but in different ways. Game 1 was unexpectedly tough and ended with Maureen defeating Ryan, the highest-seeded quarterfinals player. Game 2 had Andrew losing $10,000 on a Daily Double and then coming back to win on a FJ triple-stumper. Game 3 had Tyler and Margaret neck-and-neck until the bitter end. And then Game 4 John had a runaway by the end! I won’t spoil anything, but I can say that tomorrow’s game is… also very exciting!
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