Scott Riccardi misplaced the ultimate Jeopardy! sport of Season 41, however that’s nothing to cry over as a result of he’s a 16-game champion with $455,000 in winnings. Some followers wished he would have received the final sport of the season and continued on to Season 42, however he misplaced on the ultimate query to Jonathan Hugendubler, Now, the tremendous champion is talking out about his time on the sport present, his record-breaking streak, and his prep for the Match of Champions.
In an after-show interview with govt producer Sarah Whitcomb-Foss, she requested, “How does it really feel to know the place it ends for now?”
“It’s simply exhausting to imagine that it even got here this far. I really feel like I barely received loads in my first few video games. Then, I had a reasonably powerful week the place I used to be type of ramped up. There’s at all times a sense like your momentum is just not going to carry up, your luck goes to expire, however I’m glad I can simply lastly calm down,” he mentioned.
Riccardi went on to say that the entire expertise didn’t really feel actual, and he seems like he’s going to get up someday and it was all a dream.
Throughout his run, the tremendous champion reached the Leaderboard of Legends, tying in tenth place with Ryan Lengthy for many consecutive video games received with 16. He’s additionally in eighth place for Highest Winnings in Common Season Play. Riccardi regarded on the leaderboard and thought, “There’s no manner this might occur.”
“Within the tenth spot, sometime, another person is gonna move that mark, and I’m hoping they’ll really feel as completed as I really feel, and the way unbelievable it feels to move somebody like that. Whoever it finally ends up being, I want them the perfect of luck,” he mentioned.
Since he handed 5 video games, Riccardi will compete within the upcoming Match of Champions. Whitcomb-Foss requested him, “How a lot do you take pleasure in this, and the way a lot do you retain the stress on your self to maintain getting ready?” The Jeopardy! winner mentioned up to now month of his reign, he “turned up the jets” with studying and learning. “So, I’m simply going to attempt to study new issues day by day over the break, however with much more leisure.”
Scott Riccardi additionally spoke out on Reddit about Hugendubler and the devastating Closing Jeopardy reply. The class for Closing Jeopardy was “twentieth Century Names.” The clue learn, “In response to one obituary, in 1935 he owned 13 magazines, 8 radio stations, 2 film corporations, and $56 million in actual property.” The reply was “Who’s William Randolph Hearst?” Riccardi’s reply was Howard Hughes. With Hugendubler already $1 above Riccardi along with his wager, he grew to become the brand new champion with $23,601. Riccardi ended with $18,600.
“Congratulations to Jonathan for the superb win! It’s really deserved, and I can’t wait to see him return subsequent season; he’s a strong competitor and all-around fantastic man. Kudos to Charlotte [Cooper] as nicely for a really sturdy displaying in tonight’s sport. I apologize that I didn’t have any earlier alternatives to be energetic in these dialogue threads, however I’m grateful for all the type and insightful feedback all through what has been a totally surreal expertise for me. I hope I didn’t overstay my welcome on the Alex Trebek stage for everybody who watched. There have been too many proficient challengers to have the ability to record all of them right here, however I’m hoping to be a proud supporter of every one among them within the hopes that they make up a sizeable subgroup of Second Probability opponents,” he wrote.
“As for Closing Jeopardy, my thoughts sadly went straight to Howard Hughes principally attributable to overestimating the significance of the film corporations a part of the clue; any earlier FJs that had come to thoughts instantly had labored out, so I trusted my preliminary response on this.”
“Hearst wasn’t on my thoughts in any respect till the second Charlotte’s reply was revealed, and even then it didn’t instantly strike me as appropriate till Ken [Jennings] confirmed it. In truth, I used to be simply particularly unprepared to reply appropriately to a clue about Hearst. I made a psychological notice earlier than flying out that I used to be constantly forgetting to think about, of all issues, Citizen Kane and the Tower of London as responses at any time when they got here up in archived observe clues; within the inexperienced room that week, I reminded myself in regards to the Tower of London however couldn’t bear in mind the opposite half of that psychological notice,” Riccardi went on.
“Additionally, earlier than I began my prep for the present in earnest, I had discovered that I used to be having a tough time correctly retaining data on what I discovered to be a complicated quantity of three-named Williams in publishing (William Randolph Hearst, William Lloyd Garrison, and William F. Buckley, to call just a few), by no means circling again to that thought after I received the decision to be on the present. So a number of info near-misses and a poor understanding of the timeline within the clue actually piled as much as forestall me from getting what I now perceive to be a really gettable clue.”
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