Post-JIT Recap, Leaderboard Update, & My Six Picks for Producer's Choice in Masters [SPOILERS]

Going over the ending of the inaugural Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament, as well as

The First JIT Winner is Crowned

• Victoria Groce (middle) winning over Amy Schneider (left) and Andrew He (right) in the third and final game of the Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament (Jeopardy! Productions, Inc).

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Five years following James Holzhauer’s first record-breaking win of $110,914 in his 4th game back in 2019, Victoria Groce became the 5th qualifier for the 2024 Jeopardy! Masters, the primetime event that debuted the previous year. The Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament (JIT) marked her first appearance since September of 2005, when she defeated all-time champion and fellow tournament participant David Madden in his 20th game before prematurely losing in her second game. She became the second tournament winner of Season 40 to qualify for the upcoming Masters event, following Yogesh Raut’s hard-fought victory over Ben Chan and Troy Meyer in the 2024 Tournament of Champions after six games in the finals. Both players are expected to join the three finalists from the previous Masters event.

• James Holzhauer (left) narrowly winning over Mattea Roach (right), with Matt Amodio (middle) finishing in third place in 2023 Jeopardy! Masters (Jeopardy! Productions, Inc).

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Last year, there were six players in the Masters field. After fourteen games in the quarterfinals over the course of seven days, Sam Buttrey (6th) and Amy Schneider (5th) had the least amount of points between the six players and were the first to be eliminated. Each of the four remaining players played three games a piece, with James Holzhauer winning all three of his games and Matt Amodio winning the last game to get the second spot in the finals. While Mattea Roach and Andrew He each received 2 points for two second place finishes, it was Mattea who grabbed the third spot in the finals by having more correct answers overall than Andrew. Interestingly enough, Matt had fewer correct answers than both of them but advanced due to having 3 points from his win over both players in the last semifinal game.

• The point-by-point breakdown for all six players in 2023 Jeopardy! Masters (Bliss).

With He, Schneider, and Buttrey each finishing from 4th to 6th place, the three players were placed in the inaugural JIT the following year. Each player won their quarterfinal game to advance to the semifinals, where Amy Schneider prevailed over David Madden and Jennifer Quail, along with Andrew He triumphing over Larissa Kelly and Sam Kavanaugh. The hopes of a 2022 Tournament of Champions finals reunion was wiped when Sam Buttrey, despite outperforming Matt Jackson in his semifinal game, lost to Victoria Groce in the same game. Since Schneider and He both lost to Groce in the finals, it’s looking more and more like it’ll be 3/6 of the players from last year’s Masters in 2024. This leaves us with one coveted spot, which is to be decided by executive producer Michael Davies.

Leaderboard Update

• The official website’s TOC tracker is stating that 4 wins is the minimum requirement to be eligible for the next TOC, despite all 3-time winners being seeded into this year’s TOC.

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With the official website displaying Lisa Ann Walter as the only eligible player for the 2025 TOC as of April 10th, 2024, I’ve taken it within my own measure to create my own TOC tracker, followed by a couple of extra spreadsheets to help people keep track of who to expect for Champions Wildcard. Considering that the state of three-time winners appears to be unresolved currently, based on whether or not they’ll be placed in the CWC or TOC, I’ve made a special space for them on the Table of Contents. Once a player surpasses 2 wins, I’ll move them from the Champions Wildcard Tracker to the Three-Time Champion Containment Zone. If the 3-time winner gets through their fourth game, they’ll be out of the containment zone and straight into the TOC tracker, where I can only assume they’ll have officially qualified.

Notably, criteria for my all-time leaderboard includes anyone who wins at least three games, above or below $50,000. Those who win less than three games and less than $50,000 are put in the Single & Double-Time Champions (<$50,000) spreadsheet and are adjusted accordingly, depending on how their run continues or ends. For more details on how the entire document of spreadsheets is organized, you can click the link here.

My “Sweet Six” Shortlist for Producer’s Pick

Now, I’m not Michael Davies obviously. I actually don’t even think we agree a lot on how the show should be run in general, which I might elaborate on in a different article. There’s a solid chance that none of these six players will be tapped as the sixth player for this year’s Masters. One thing to keep in mind in terms of how I decided on these players is the exclusion of 2024 TOC finalists. My reasoning for this is that I think it’s more likely that Ben and Troy will be put into next year’s JIT above anything, similar to how the three 2022 TOC finalists were put straight into Masters before being demoted to the JIT following their pre-finals eliminations.

Another thing about my thought process is that I am particularly sympathetic towards highly anticipated TOC/JIT players who were eliminated sooner than expected, as well as JIT players who didn’t have a whole lot of preparation time and/or narrowly lost to a finalist. This will play a pretty pivotal role in who I would choose as the player to get the final spot in Masters. With that all being said, let’s get into the six players that I think would be best for the final spot, not necessarily in order.

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