An “completely brutal” Every day Double ruling might have value a Jeopardy! Champion their probability to compete within the Event of Champions on Friday’s (Might 23) version of the sequence.
Brendan Liaw, a stay-at-home son from Vancouver, British Columbia, got here into the sport with a three-day successful streak and a complete of $59,398. Competing in opposition to him have been Jim Carpenter, a retired music professor from Charlotte, Vermont, and Congressional liaison David Crockett from Washington D.C.
Within the first spherical, Liaw took the lead, incomes $5,200 to Crockett’s $4,000 and Carpenter’s $3,800. It was Carpenter who secured the Every day Double for the spherical — appropriately guessing that “acid take a look at” was the idiom described by the clue, “Its unique sense needed to do with dissolving metals to find out gold content material; now it means an final proof.” By wagering $1,000 on the DD, Carpenter introduced himself near the others.
In the course of the interviews section of the day, Liaw, who’s in the hunt for a profession, revealed his ambition: to grow to be a comedy author for Conan O’Brien.
In Double Jeopardy, it was Liaw who discovered each Every day Doubles. The primary got here within the class “S is for Small,” and he wagered $5,000 of his obtainable $12,000. The clue learn, “From the Latin for ‘spark,’ it’s a tiny quantity; add -ting & it describes one thing that’s glowing.” Liaw answered incorrectly and dropped his rating to $7,000. The second Every day Double got here within the class “Pop Tradition Gems.” At this level within the sport, Liaw was at $8,200 to Crocket’s $12,400 and Carpenter’s $12,200, and there was little cash left on the board. So Liaw determined to take a giant danger and make it a “True Every day Double,” however sadly for him, that is the place a judgment name had a huge effect on his sport. The clue learn, “Colin Firth performed Vermeer on this 2003 movie.” The proper reply was Lady With a Pearl Earring, and the judges dominated that his response was “with the” as a substitute, making the inner article (and thus the reply) incorrect.
That left him in a gap he couldn’t recuperate from. Liaw ended the second spherical with -$1,600 and thus didn’t qualify for Last Jeopardy. In the meantime, Carpenter got here in with $13,400, a really slight lead over Crockett’s $12,800.
Within the class “Time,” the clue learn, “Eponymously named & in use for greater than 1,600 years, it was based mostly partially on ideas from the Greek mathematician Sosigenes.” Whereas Crockett incorrectly guessed that it was the solar (after crossing out the also-incorrect chronometer) and misplaced $3,999 — leaving him with $8,801 as his grand complete — Carpenter appropriately answered that it was the Julian Calendar, including $12,201 for a complete of $25,601 and making him a one-day champion.
Many followers felt that the ruling in opposition to Liaw on the third Every day Double of the day was unfair, nonetheless, and a few engaged in a really technical debate over the matter on Reddit.
“Completely brutal ruling on that DD. I’m listening again to it at half velocity and at the least on the published audio i can’t see how they will justify ruling that as clearly being ‘with the’ as a substitute of ‘with a.’ There’s no pause between the 2 ‘th’ sounds and the vowel after it could sound the identical both approach. I do considerably hear two levels to the ‘th’ sound when i gradual it right down to 1/4 velocity, however that also simply appears like what your mouth naturally does once you come off the ‘th’ on the finish of ‘with’ right into a vowel. It’s like in the event that they dominated in opposition to ‘What’s Apple’ by saying ‘No, ‘sapple’ is incorrect,’” one fan wrote.
One other responded by saying, “I’m additionally listening to it slowed down and to my ear it’s 100% ‘with the.’ The second syllable clearly begins with ‘th’, and I don’t see how one can fairly interpret it because the ‘-th’ carried over from the top of ‘with.’ Perhaps a linguist can clarify communicate to this extra particularly, however I’m fairly positive I hear a glottal cease on the finish of ‘with’, so the ‘th; after it must be the beginning of ‘the.’ Robust however truthful ruling, imo. Brendan can be a formidable competitor in Champions Wildcard.”
Yet one more fan identified that having such a small a part of the clue lead to such a devastating loss meant it shouldn’t be certified for Every day Double choice: “Additionally appeared like a nasty alternative for a DD once they may count on a tiny meaningless error like which may wreck somebody’s sport,” they famous.
“That’s why on Wheel, contestants typically resolve the puzzle whereas TALKING. VERY. SLOWLY. So there will be little question they’re saying it precisely,” one other stated on the thread.
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