The primary spherical of the 2025 Jeopardy! Match of Champions featured a tie between two fan-favorite returning champs heading into Ultimate Jeopardy. The triple-stumper closing clue knocked the main participant out of first place, and one other participant’s all-or-nothing wager resulted in a painful loss. Two gamers shared reminiscences from filming on the Jeopardy! Reddit dialogue board for the February 7 episode, with one admitting they needed to do “a lot math” to make it out of this tiebreaker and the opposite referred to as themselves a “licensed Wagering Fool.”
Competing within the 2025 Jeopardy! ToC finals had been three fan-favorite rivals: Adriana Harmeyer, Isaac Hirsch, and Neilesh Vinjamuri. Vinjamuri is the wildcard entry who’s been dominating the match, and Harmeyer and Hirsch had been seeded instantly into the semifinals due to their performances of their authentic Jeopardy! runs.
They proved to be worthy rivals. It was anybody’s recreation all through your complete episode, with the first-break scores being Harmeyer with 1,600, Hirsch with 2,000, and Vinjamuri with 2,400 and the second-break scores being Harmeyer with 3,400, Hirsch with 2,800, and Vinjamuri with 3,800. Two Every day Double victories in Double Jeopardy had been sufficient to tug Hirsch into the lead coming into the ultimate spherical. His rating going into Ultimate Jeopardy was 13,800, with Harmeyer and Vinjamuri tied at 11,400 every.
A “European historical past” class is what stumped all of them. The clue: “At his trial, revolutionaries referred to deposed Louis XVI with this final title, one used beforehand for a dynasty.” The proper reply: “What’s Capet?” Vinjamuri was the participant who wager all of it, hoping to extend his winnings complete by a big margin to beat each Hirsch and Harmeyer. Hirsch wager 9,001, taking him right down to 4,799, and Harmeyer wagered 6,000 for a closing rating of 5,400. It wasn’t a big lead, but it surely was sufficient to win.
Harmeyer shared reminiscences from this “blur” of a day on Reddit.
“This recreation was a blur. There are two most important issues I bear in mind: The very last thing I checked out earlier than leaving my resort that morning was a listing of the tallest mountains on this planet. If not for that being recent in my thoughts, I’ll have gotten that first Every day Double. Research at your individual danger,” she wrote to followers. “I did a lot math for that closing wager.”
Hirsch had notes for his closing wager.
“Some spare ideas on right now’s recreation,” Hirsch wrote on the identical Reddit board. “Getting in on the buzzer with this group may be very tough. As somebody who does a foul job of disguising my frustration once I can’t ring in, the broad pictures this recreation ought to present a lot of enjoyable response pictures the place I appear like somebody simply killed my canine after I’m overwhelmed in.”
“Clearly I used to be slightly too conservative on my DD wagers right here,” he continued. “In my protection, I’m legitimately horrible at each anagrams and African geography, and I used to be slightly gun shy after whiffing my final two. Nonetheless I got here out of this recognizing the error and deliberate on wagering extra aggressively sooner or later.”
“As an authorized Wagering Fool, I believed second and third being tied can be excellent for me, as they’d each be compelled to wager every thing and I might win in a Triple Stumper state of affairs (or if I acquired closing proper),”Hirsch’s remark concluded. “Sadly, Adriana understands wagering significantly better than I do, so she takes recreation 1. All congratulations to her.”
All three finalists will rematch on Monday, February 10. The primary participant to attain three wins is the champion.
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