[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the April 23 episode of Jeopardy!]
Nam Nguyen set a formidable buzzer stat within the April 22 sport of Jeopardy!. His buzzer proportion was 71 %, which host Ken Jennings mentioned was “nearly remarkable” on the prime of the April 23 episode. However his speedy buzzing (which he attributes to his online game expertise) wasn’t sufficient to guard the one-day champ from an incorrect reply in Ultimate Jeopardy.
Nguyen, a playwright from Mississauga, Ontario, was taking part in in opposition to Mark Lashley, a professor from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Lianne Schaffer, a piano instructor and musician from Newton, Massachusetts on Tuesday. He loved a big lead for the whole sport, and a runaway sport was almost doable. Because of some Day by day Double motion, Lashley was in a position to catch as much as the purpose the place his rating was only a bit greater than half of Nguyen’s.
The scores going into the ultimate had been Nguyen with $17,600, Lashley with $9,000, and Schaffer with $7,000. A sensible guess from Lashley, plus a low guess and/or loss from Nguyen, might have received Lashley the sport, and it did. Nguyen was the one participant out of the three to reply the ultimate clue incorrectly, dropping his rating by $401 to $17,199. Lashley led to first with $17,601, Nguyen in second, and Schaffer in third with $14,000.
On the Jeopardy Reddit dialogue board for the episode, Nguyen revealed that Jennings himself thought the Ultimate Jeopardy clue was “fairly troublesome.” The class was “Enterprise,” and the clue was, “Within the 1850s the .925 sterling silver customary was instituted by this firm, the primary American one to take action.” The proper reply was, “What’s Tiffany & Co.?” “Tiffany” and “Tiffany’s” would even be acceptable. Lashley and Schaffer answered accurately, whereas Nguyen guessed “What’s Wells Fargo?”
Nguyen took to the Reddit thread to clarify {that a} luxurious model reminiscent of Tiffany’s was not one thing he knew about rising up.
“Ken very kindly mentioned he discovered FJ fairly troublesome within the post-game chat, and clearly the subject material’s particularly reasonable sport (for Mark & Lianne’s taking), however to place a little bit of my life story on the market actual fast, I didn’t develop up in a household the place luxurious manufacturers (esp. bling) had been prime of thoughts,” Nguyen defined. “Hell, my dad was in a Vietnamese refugee camp when he was my age!”
“We’re financially steady now to the extent that even the stolen automotive was primarily an inconvenience for mobility,” he continued, referencing his household’s stolen automotive talked about in his mid-show interview. “However I’ve nonetheless by no means shaken the mindset that something that goes on my physique is utilitarian-first, with out judgment in opposition to individuals who do make artwork of how they give the impression of being each day.”
After Jeopardy, Nguyen took his first journey to Tiffany’s.
“The weekend I obtained again from LA to Mississauga, I tagged alongside buying with some associates, and as they gawked at watches, I took a detailed take a look at a jewellery show for the primary time in my life, and instantly noticed the phrases ‘.925 sterling silver’ for the second time in my life. That’s the way it goes,” he mentioned. “All credit score to Mark to combating tremendously in DJ to maintain me from the runaway after which pulling out Tiffany proper on the finish of the 30 seconds for the W — I hope the dough buys tons of Transformers in your child!”
Jeopardy followers had been supportive in response.
“Nice taking part in, and dangerous luck about FJ. Should you had $401 extra at this time going into FJ I believe you’ll have been a 5+ day champ,” mentioned one reply.
“Rattling! I used to be pulling for you, Nam. I assumed you had the chops to make a ToC run like Alison [Betts]. Identical to the man on my aptitude, you simply had a FJ mind freeze,” one other fan wrote. “See you in [Champions Wildcard Tournament].”
See extra explanations of his taking part in, together with his Day by day Double blunder, within the Reddit thread linked above.
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