Monday, May 12, 2014

Stuck in the middle

I guess if you're going to get run out of the gym on Jeopardy!, there's probably no shame in having Ken Jennings and Chuck Forrest be the people you're playing against.  (Seriously, I played in a game, in the semifinals, in a tournament, against Ken Jennings and Chuck Forrest.  That this happened is still kind of hard to believe.)

And what a game it was!  I was really only a passive participant, but it was fun to be standing up there watching these two masters plying their craft.  Ken's buzzer timing is truly incredible.  I know what it feels like to be able to ring in whenever you want to -- in my original run of shows, I had been really, really good on the buzzer, mainly from lots of practice beforehand.  I got in that zone during the ToC finals as well.  But I had no chance against Ken.  I'm not really sure whether I was a little early or a little late; probably a matter of picoseconds (cough, cough).  I now know what it must've felt like for the people I defeated in my original run of shows (or any of the 150+ people who had to play Ken previously)...it is really frustrating to know stuff and not be able to get in.

During this game, a whole lot of what Ken got, I knew, but couldn't get in (except for anagrams...I hate anagrams and he's so good at those kinds of categories).  Pretty much everything Chuck got was stuff I didn't know.

After the first round, Chuck and I were a bit in shock that Ken had run up such a big lead.  But, as Alex said, there's lots of money available in the DJ round, and I was very impressed when Chuck got that Daily Double and worked his way back in the game.  And then Ken finds the Daily Double, bets big, and misses...things are getting interesting!  (The "spy novel" category was not loved by any of us.)  Chuck even managed to take the lead briefly, though it didn't last long.  All I was able to do was purloin a letter and yet again forget the category on a video clue (I actually said something like "Russ, look at the category!" after that but I guess they edited it out).   At least I could commiserate with Ralph (but I didn't beat the smart kids this time):
That final is one I very likely would've figured out while sitting on the couch at home -- I knew that poem came from Kipling in regards to the Philippines.  But it didn't come to me right away, and I saw Ken and Chuck both start writing before Alex was even finished reading the clue and I knew I was done and the brain turned off.  (Note to future contestants, if you're ever in a situation where it doesn't matter if you get the final right, like if you bet $0 or made a small bet from a close 2nd place, consider starting to write a response down immediately.  It has a major psychological effect, or at least it did for me.  Same thing happened in my "spam" game...Mike and Elana started writing it down immediately, it didn't come right to me, and I couldn't think straight after that.)

Major congrats to Chuck and Ken on an epic game!
I'll post some more thoughts about the entire tournament and the experience when it's done.  I feel so lucky to have been a part of it, to have made it this far into a tournament with such incredible players (and really great people).  And to have had a chance to share the experience with so many friends and family and supporters.

Finally, in case you missed these:
(The backstory here is that they made all of the 2000s contestants say this when filming the promotional videos for the tournament. We all thought it a little bit silly but it was a great topic for our son's onesie to commemorate the day.)
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