The Quizbowl Resource Center

Anybody on the Jeopardy! teen tournament active in quizbowl?

wd4gdz wrote:Anybody on the Jeopardy! teen tournament active in quizbowl?

Ben Schenkel from Moravian (PA) will be on this Wednesday. He was an all-star (#14 individual scorer) at HSNCT last year.

Aiken's Amy Varallo travels to LA on March 10th for Jeopardy competition to be aired in July. Is this new? I didn't know that there was more than one teen tournament.

Yeah, they're doing two this year, towards the bookends, I think.

Ben from Moravian got 3rd after blanking on Moby Dick in Final Jeopardy. I think they're having a wild card game though, se he may still make it to the semis. I could be wrong though.

Is he the only quiz bowler who made it?

I knew I recognized him from nationals. I was thinking Shady Side, though. Eh, at least I had the right state.

AndyBrindlee Mountain wrote:Ben from Moravian got 3rd after blanking on Moby Dick in Final Jeopardy. I think they're having a wild card game though, se he may still make it to the semis. I could be wrong though.

Is he the only quiz bowler who made it?

Top 4 non-winners (wildcards) make it in. Ben's guaranteed a spot.

Well, it all depends on how future non-winners fare. Someone can oust him from his slot.

Not with just one game left and a maximum of two people to overtake him; he's first or second in wildcard standings.

he was first

AndyBrindlee Mountain wrote:Ben from Moravian got 3rd after blanking on Moby Dick in Final Jeopardy. I think they're having a wild card game though, se he may still make it to the semis. I could be wrong though.

Is he the only quiz bowler who made it?

I'm not sure I would call his answer "blanking". If you keyed in on "wrecked" then Robinsoe Crusoe was tempting. If you focused on "whaling ship" then Moby Dick was the choice.

Moravian's team won the varsity division of the Delaware Fall Open, with Ben in the captain's chair. He told me he had made it that day.

I don't know about the other 13, but I can tell you David from Wilmington Friends is not a quizbowler. Friends does not even have a team, and does not do Delaware Comcast tournament. Charter had 3 in the pool, but alas none were picked. We got our revenge when an unhappy David finished second at the WorldQuest competition a few weeks ago.

For a broader topic of conversation: does anyone else think Jeopardy is shying away from quizbowlers since Ken Jennings' success?

I've always told people who try out for Jeopardy!: it is a casting call. It's not merit-based. It's a question of who the producers think look good on camera and can carry themselves as likeable competitors to an audience. I doubt that they are deliberately avoiding qb players; they know they're out there, and they have recruited people who compete at qb the last few times. However, playing qb is not sufficient to get recalled onto the show.

I disagree with the avoiding. But I do think that its about who they think will work well on TV. I mean, if you were a casting director, would you pick a genius who, albeit smart, might faint on TV. Granted, there's a ridiculous amount of luck and/or personality going into the choice, but discounting merit completely is unfair to the process. I mean, in order to be eligible, you have to take a test which is reasonably hard to pass.

Good point. I should say "it's not completely merit-based."

Well, remember that a lot of people at home like to follow along with the questions and 'play along'. If Jeopardy takes the top merit-qualified candidates that also fulfill the other criteria (e.g. telegenic nature, personality, appearance, demographics), people would not drop any questions, people would answer all the questions very quickly and not get many questions wrong.

Jeopardy takes a variety of people (who are at least qualified by the test) in terms of merit, because they want to make it interesting. They want people who will answer many questions successfully, people who will miss questions, people who the audience can relate to on an intellectual/knowledge level, etc.

(At least this is how I see it...if anyone can correct me with a better explanation I would greatly appreciate it.)

Stat74 wrote:

AndyBrindlee Mountain wrote:Ben from Moravian got 3rd after blanking on Moby Dick in Final Jeopardy. I think they're having a wild card game though, se he may still make it to the semis. I could be wrong though.

Is he the only quiz bowler who made it?

I'm not sure I would call his answer "blanking". If you keyed in on "wrecked" then Robinsoe Crusoe was tempting. If you focused on "whaling ship" then Moby Dick was the choice.

I admit that, at first, I was thinking Robinson Crusoe, but then, 2 things popped into my head that made me change my answer: 1) It said whale ship and 2) Robinson Crusoe is believed to be largely based on Alexander Selkirk and his sailing mishap.

I've never been on the show though, so I can't say what I'd have done.

UERD:
Jeopardy does want a variety, but the test doesn't provide for it. Most people have a problem with the timing issues of the test. Only the people who can digest the information quickly enough can pass the test. I think they said the average score with the time limit is like a 25 and the average score with 2 seconds more per question is like a 35. Something like that. The nature of the tryouts is such that the people who pass will be quick thinking and smart. And as far as missing questions, that's close to impossible to figure out. Like I had a horrible accuracy level on the show, but in tryouts I didn't miss any questions, and I believe I got a 49 on the test. Just goes to prove, while they look for variety, it's ridiculously hard to find.

Thanks for clarifying that for me. I know a bunch of people who went to audition, but I've never done it myself (closest I came was taking the written test at HSNCT once).

mhanna wrote:Aiken's Amy Varallo travels to LA on March 10th for Jeopardy competition to be aired in July. Is this new? I didn't know that there was more than one teen tournament.

They just announced on tonight's Jeopardy that they will be having this year, for the first time, a second teen tournament that will air in July. So I'm thinking she's part of that. Congratulations to her!

Interesting... so both teen champs make it to the ToC?

Nah, teen champs haven't been in the ToC for years, unfortunately.

Amy told me that she will get a guaranteed appearance fee but that teens no longer participate in the TOC.

They told me that I could go to the ToC, but so far I haven't heard anything.

Kriti Gandhi from Centennial is going to be taping in March.