Show has been averaging about 10 triple stumpers a game the last week or so. Mattea still is too conservative on Daily Doubles. Today she bet enough in the last one tonight to put the game away but she only needed to bet $2,000 to do that (her standard Daily Double bet). In her interview tonight she talked about being inspired by Julia Collins and Amy and joked that she thinks Amy will beat Mattea easily in the tournament of champions. Matt and Amy will definitely bet big. We shall see in November (expected air date for this season’s tournament of champions – courtesy of Amy at the White House).
It will be interesting to see if they pair Amy and Matt in the first round of the tournament.
On a recent episode I knew 6 answers that none of them attempted or got wrong!
Its my understanding that the producers of the show set the parings for the tournament of champions. They seem to line up top contestants from each season to meet as late as possible. Arthur Chu and Julia Collins met in the finals of their tournament of champions. James and Emma Boettcher (who won 3 games but did defeat James in the regular season) met in the finals of their ToC. So I am expecting that Matt, Amy, Mattea and Jonathan will all be in separate quarterfinals. And if no more than 3 of them advance, I am not expecting them to face each other in the semifinals either.
Will be interesting to see what they would do with Jonathan and Matt if all 4 of the super champs advance to the semifinal. Would they want Matt and Jonathan to re-match in the semifinal or wait for the final? I would think the idea of Matt, Amy and Mattea in the finals would be very appealing for the show (but you never know if all/any of them will advance that far).
Re-matches in the Tournament of Champions are not common. Emma was the first contestant to beat a 10+ game winner who wasn’t a one game winner (Emma won three games–think she was a wild card contestant for the ToC because 3 wins doesn’t typically qualify). Jonathan won 11 games after beating Matt. Contestants who beat Matt and Amy were one and dones. Arthur and Julia didn’t face each other until the ToC finals but both Arthur won 11 games and Julia 20 that season.
And this season runs through July 29, 2022. Not sure at this point how much longer Mattea’s streak will continue or who will follow with streaks of their own which could impact the ToC for this season.
I was totally shocked when none of the contestants knew disc and drum brakes. Really?
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I would expect that the TOC is seeded, so that top players do not take each other out in early rounds. Matt, Amy, and Mattea would be placed in different quarterfinals.
Mattea’s betting strategy seems very odd. Ahead by many, many thousands and can’t lose. What is the point of betting $0? I just don’t get it.
I’m guessing it was not a Final Jeopardy category she was comfortable with (and didn’t want to lose money).
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She clearly has categories that she does not like/isn’t comfortable with her knowledge. I think its true of all other contestants too but Mattea verbalizes her thoughts more than any other contestant I can recall seeing on the show. She noted that her $0 bet was probably the most responsible bet she had made. When Ken noted “Not a Civil War buff” Mattea gave a “know nothing” sign.
Another game with double digit triple stumpers. Including starting the show off with back to back triple stumpers (all 3 got first one wrong and then didn’t buzz in on the second one).
I understand that but there just doesn’t seem to be much reason to bet NOTHING. You never know what the question will end up being and she’s gotten other questions related to America correct. I’m clearly missing something. She does not seem to be a risk taker and that could work against her when she goes up against other champions.
Mattea is very conservative with her bets. She notes it and Ken jokes with her a little about it. I think it may well come back to hurt her in the tournament of champions. Amy and Matt won about $200k and $300k on daily doubles. Mattea seems to win about $2,000 per show on them. That likely will not cut it against Amy and Matt. Ken bet big when he played against James and Brad. You could see it made him uncomfortable to do that (went against all his first instincts as a player). But he had seen James play and knew he wasn’t going to beat James playing small ball. Will be interesting to see if Mattea changes her betting strategy for the ToC.
Mattea has won over $500K so far so clearly it’s working for her…
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Without question. Also won more regular season games than all but 4 contestants. So Mattea is doing a lot of things very well. And is one of the best champions the show has ever had.
She has often made max bets (with no risk of loss) in runaway games and made exact cover bets in games she leads but that are not runaways. So she definitely understands and uses the best Final Jeopardy betting guidelines. When she doesn’t make a max bet in Final Jeopardy, I have viewed that as her own assessment of her strength in the category.
Yesterday’s show put her into 5th place for all-time regular season winnings. She may have known she was there already without betting anything (but its by about $2k). She is behind just the Big 4 (and next one to pass would be Amy if Mattea can win $850k more). Still has a chance (though maybe not based on fact that shows are taped weeks in advance) to get there but its a long way to go. Based on her average winnings to date, she would need to win 35 more games to pass Amy, 41 to pass Matt, 80 to pass James and 82 to pass Ken.
There was some speculation last week that Mattea’s streak would soon end because she was on a couple talk shows. Long time champs have often gone on talk shows about the time their runs end on the aired shows. Hasn’t happened so far (knock on wood though again, shows taped in advance so nothing to jinx).
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Yesterday, being Canadian, Mattea did not feel very confident with a Final Jeopardy topic of The Civil War. But she was able to rhyme “beat 'em” with Antietam.
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Wow, that certainly could have gone another way. Surprised she did not get the Final Jeopardy question.
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That was a nail biter!
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Read an interview with Mattea. She talked about playing with loss minimization rather than gain maximization. And not buzzing in before she knew the answer. Describes her style of play well. And again, has totally worked for her and made her one of the greatest champs in the shows history. Will be interesting to see if she changes her approach for the ToC.
Do we have another super champ in this season? Or maybe Mattea will take us to the end of the regular season.
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Another interesting game. Final Jeopardy this time centered on Atlanta and coincidentally, one of the contestants lives in an Atlanta suburb! But, Ken has said previously that the questions are chosen randomly.
I really wish they would just name Ken as permanent host for the regular games. I’m not a fan of switching off with it. Mayim could still do some of the extra things, like the college tournament.
Mattea benefited from several questions that were Canada based. Way things work out sometimes.
Interestingly, Mattea has said that she thinks Ken should be the permanent host. I do not like switching back and forth with hosts. But I don’t understand that will change until next season. This season ends July 29th (aired shows). Not sure how they will handle the ToC in terms of a host.
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I like Ken for the host of the regular daily games. There was talk of a nighttime ABC show, with a lot of tournaments. I say let Mayim do those. She has a day job.
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Pretty sure the ToC will be in prime time with Mayim as host.
I will miss Mattea. Cute, smart, funny.
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