{"id":11267,"date":"2019-08-28T10:00:16","date_gmt":"2019-08-28T15:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/?p=11267"},"modified":"2019-08-28T14:25:39","modified_gmt":"2019-08-28T19:25:39","slug":"the-time-i-outscored-2-jeopardy-all-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/2019\/08\/the-time-i-outscored-2-jeopardy-all-stars\/","title":{"rendered":"The time* I** outscored*** 2 Jeopardy All-Stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nApril 5, 2003:<\/strong> The Janss steps\u00a0on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles, among my minimal photographic evidence of being there.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Jeopardy All-Star Games are re-airing this week and next. The novelty tournament brought back 15 talented, fan-friendly contestants for what may end up remembered as the last big event before a gambler broke the game.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 2003 NAQT Intercollegiate Championship Tournament<\/a> was held at UCLA. Jeopardy All-Star (and team captain) Colby Burnett\u00a0was there<\/a>.\u00a0Jeopardy All-Star (and winning team member<\/a>) Larissa Kelly\u00a0was there<\/a>.\u00a0Jeopardy All-Star Roger Craig was there<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And a random schmuck from Iowa State who three years later faceplanted at a Jeopardy audition final was there<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(It was my second and most recent visit to California and the last time I used my Discman, since lost to battery corrosion. It also involved walking through the Bel-Air neighborhood after midnight Pacific Time. Uber was not an option in April 2003.)<\/p>\n

*Or, for Burnett, times, because about a year later at the Carleton Undergrad Tournament, it was Iowa State Hall Effect 225, Northwestern Burnett 95.<\/p>\n

**That game was me and one other person vs. Burnett playing by himself. I was a senior, Burnett a junior.\u00a0According to my notes and a recap sent to ISU Quiz Bowl record keeper and future Jeopardy Tournament of Champions winner Michael Falk<\/a>, that day I “drew upon [my] childhood, four years at ISU, tournament\/practice knowledge, current events, and the television show ‘Wishbone’ .” The “power” tossups (extra points for early answers) against Burnett were for questions about Howard Dean, ALF, and polygamy.<\/p>\n

***But back to the 2003 ICT. Those future All-Stars were playing in Division I, and I was playing in Division II. Same questions, different groups. A tiebreaker loss on the first day resulted in my ISU team<\/a> being in the third group. That meant the next day we played easier competition and went undefeated. We had the third-most wins in D-II, but because of the pod we were in, it only counted as 17th place.<\/p>\n

In the tournament, individual rankings<\/a> are done by “points per 20 tossups heard.” That accounts for “powers”, regular answers, and “negs”.<\/p>\n

I was 16th in D-II with 29.33 PP20TH, or roughly three tossups per match. My two power answers were for Steve Wozniak and Marty McFly, because of course they were.<\/p>\n

Burnett was 44th in D-I with 22.98 PP20TH.<\/p>\n

Kelly was 57th in D-I with 19.09 PP20TH.<\/p>\n

So strictly by overall average score, against differing levels of competition, as individuals in a team setting, I once held my own in comparison with two people who later would win big on Jeopardy. It’s the flimsiest hat rack you’ve ever seen, but it’s something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 5, 2003: The Janss steps\u00a0on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles, among my minimal photographic evidence of being there. The Jeopardy All-Star Games are re-airing this week and next. The novelty tournament brought back 15 talented, fan-friendly contestants for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11267"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11287,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11267\/revisions\/11287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}