An “completely brutal” Every day Double ruling could have price a Jeopardy! Champion their probability to compete within the Match of Champions on Friday’s (Might 23) version of the collection.
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 towards 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 — accurately guessing that “acid take a look at” was the idiom described by the clue, “Its authentic 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 change into 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 recreation, 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 an enormous threat and make it a “True Every day Double,” however sadly for him, that is the place a judgment name had a big impact on his recreation. The clue learn, “Colin Firth performed Vermeer on this 2003 movie.” The proper reply was Woman 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 get better from. Liaw ended the second spherical with -$1,600 and thus didn’t qualify for Remaining 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 partly 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 accurately 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 towards Liaw on the third Every day Double of the day was unfair, nevertheless, 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 pace and at the very least on the printed audio i can’t see how they’ll 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 will sound the identical both method. I do considerably hear two levels to the ‘th’ sound when i sluggish it all the way down to 1/4 pace, however that also simply appears like what your mouth naturally does if you come off the ‘th’ on the finish of ‘with’ right into a vowel. It’s like in the event that they dominated towards ‘What’s Apple’ by saying ‘No, ‘sapple’ is flawed,’” 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 converse to this extra particularly, however I’m fairly certain 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 shall be a formidable competitor in Champions Wildcard.”
One more fan identified that having such a small a part of the clue end in such a devastating loss meant it shouldn’t be certified for Every day Double choice: “Additionally appeared like a foul alternative for a DD once they may count on a tiny meaningless error like which may destroy somebody’s recreation,” they famous.
“That’s why on Wheel, contestants typically clear up the puzzle whereas TALKING. VERY. SLOWLY. So there will be little question they’re saying it precisely,” one other mentioned on the thread.
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