JEOPARDY!’s infamous Yogesh Raut won his Tournament of Champions match on Wednesday with $24,799 and a spot in the semifinals.
The three-day winner is back after stirring the pot in 2023 by trashing Jeopardy! as “unimportant” and a “glorified reality show” on Facebook upon losing.
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The psychologist and pro quizzer from Vancouver, Washington, faced fellow three-day winner Jake DeArruda from Ludlow, Vermont, and Wildcard winner (and Titanic extra) Nick Cascone from Queens, New York.
In an unexpected twist, all three-day champs were invited to this year’s coveted tournament, deviating from the usual requirement of four wins.
This paved the way for the return of the one and only Yogesh, and he isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
The Jeopardy! round saw DeArruda seizing a $6,600 True Daily Double, giving him an initial edge.
As Double Jeopardy! kicked in, Nick held $1,000, Jake led with $14,400, and Yogesh trailed with $5,600.
Nick seemed poised for a comeback, discovering back-to-back Daily Doubles, but stumbled on the second one, losing $10,000 and failing to recover.
From there, Yogesh dominated, excelling in bottom-row clues and entering Final Jeopardy with $26,800 against Jake’s $14,400 and Nick’s $2,400.
Although no one nailed Final Jeopardy as “Senior senator”, Yogesh made a strategic small bet, securing his place in the semifinals with a grin and a substantial $24,799 – the largest 2024 ToC win yet.
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‘CAN’T BELIEVE THEY BROUGHT HIM BACK’
While Yogesh’s depth of knowledge wowed social media, some couldn’t help but address the elephant in the room – his previous disparaging comments about the game show.
One fan wrote on Facebook: “I can’t believe they brought back Yogesh!”
Another knocked: “Sadly, not the result I wanted today.”
However, a defending voice chimed in: “He played WELL and deserved the win.”
Another wrote: “He trashed the show after he lost last time.”
A fifth wrote: “I still have some anger about some of the stuff I saw. Having reasonable criticism is one thing, but…ugh. Some people got way too personal, and for what?”
A sixth wrote in a Reddit thread: “Fun game with lots of momentum swings. Yogesh put up a monster, all-Coryat score of $26,800. I suspect that his knowledge base is deeper than most of the field, so the harder TOC boards work to his advantage.”
A seventh wrote: “Jesus. It looked like Jake was going to run away with the game, and then it looked like Nick was about to steal the game from both players when he found both of the Daily Doubles.
“Then after that, Yogesh went on an absolute tear. All three players would have been deserving winners.”
One more wrote: “It cannot be understated that a 26K coryat score in a Tournament of Champions setting (where the material and the competition is much tougher) is seriously impressive!”
RAUT’S RANTS
Yogesh made quite a splash before – and most certainly after – his defeat on Jeopardy! last season.
The $98,000 winner (who scored a perfect game) used three of his four on-stage stories to brag about being a big name in the trivia world.
He claimed that he beat James Holzhauer at high school trivia, (whom he called “Jamie”), boasted of being recognized by a now-deceased contestant India Cooper, and beat host Ken Jennings, 49, at a trivia convention.
This persona didn’t go over well, nor did his fiendish buzzer technique or failure to clap for his spirited victor Katie Palumbo.
Yogesh proceeded to post online rants slamming fans, the culture of Jeopardy!, and his peers the next week.
In one Facebook post, the brief winner went long on his stint while sharing an image of an internet post that called him “arrogant.”
“Let’s talk here about the criticisms of my ‘sportsmanship,'” he wrote.
“You may not see me congratulate the person who beat me on camera. THAT DOESN’T MEAN I DIDN’T CONGRATULATE THEM.”
In a second Facebook post, he ripped: “If anything I’ve said has offended you … well, there’s probably a way I could have phrased it that would have hurt your feelings even more.
“And I hereby apologize to myself for not phrasing it that way.”
Yogesh continued: “Jeopardy has not nor will ever be the Olympics of quizzing. Jeopardy is not the problem, its centrality to American quizzing culture is.
“There will never be healthy quizzing culture in this country until we can learn to stop pretending Jeopardy! is important.”
He also mentioned: “Amy Schneider’s BS relating quizzing expertise to ‘privilege,'” and called out other beloved show figures like fashion recapper Lily Nelson (aka OneEclecticMom) and reporter Claire McNear.
He added that his three wins will “never top the list of my quizzing accomplishments — not even my quizzing accomplishments of 2022. It is entertaining to watch but it bears the same relationship to real quizzing that ‘Holey Moley’ does to golf.”
This so-called “non-standard bughouse version of chess,” according to Raut, would merely be “a derivative game designed to introduce high levels of variance that constantly threaten to swamp out differences in skill level, on a glorified reality show.”
Such sour grapes were so unprecedented that NBC ran the headline: “Jeopardy!’ champ Yogesh Raut takes aim at the relevance of the very game he won 3 times.”
Some fans thought Yogesh would be banned for good – instead, he’s now faring quite well in its most esteemed tournament.
TOURN-ING A NEW LEAF
That said, Yogesh is making amends for his past statements and attempting to rewrite his villain narrative now that he’s back.
He’s posted sweet recaps on his Facebook account of each Tournament of Champions game, celebrating the highs and lows of each episode.
Yogesh also told The U.S. Sun in a statement: “Jeopardy is a wonderful opportunity for my peers and I to play competitively and have fun on a national quizzing stage- and I’m excited to be a part of the upcoming Tournament of Champions.”
“While I certainly still stand by the notion that Jeopardy is not – and should not – be the pinnacle of the quizzing community, I want to emphasize my respect for the game and my fellow contestants.”
TOURNAMENT OF UPSETS
At long last, Jeopardy! fans are getting the strike-delayed 2024 Tournament of Champions, the game show’s most treasured tradition.
Previously known as the 2023 ToC, this year’s throwdown was postponed from the fall due to the WGA strike, and in the meantime, past-player Champions Wildcard and Second Chance contests have ensued.
Now it’s finally back with an unprecedented 27 contestants (the largest playing field ever).
But just four games in, and the top seeds are dropping left and right.
21-day champion and golden boy Cris Pannullo lost in a blowout, meaning the only superchampion left is the gentlemanly Canadian Ray Lalonde (13 wins).
Then, trans sensation Hannah Wilson lost on an oversized Daily Double bet, leaving fans heartbroken.
Now, the biggest fan-favorites left are Ben Chan (whose run ended due to a single letter being misspelled), comeback queen Juveria Zaheer, and, not to be discounted, six-day champ and pro quizzer Troy Meyer.
WHAT IS: THE FORMAT?
The ToC starts with nine quarterfinal games, where one player advances.
Then there will be nine semifinals (the best player of three games advances), and a first-to-three-wins finale.
That means the final three contestants could duke it out over three games or up to seven.
The ToC will all conclude in late March, with the victor earning $250,000, a championship belt, an invite to the next Jeopardy! Masters in May, and serious bragging rights.
Ken, 49, will helm the ToC, as he is now Jeopardy!’s permanent and only host following Mayim Bialik’s firing in December 2023.
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