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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the January 29 episode of Jeopardy!]
Two Daily Doubles and the winner’s quick buzzer skills caused one Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions player major grief in the third game of the quarterfinals on January 29 (the third game of the 2025 ToC overall). The player admitted that they “got wrecked” by the winner’s runaway victory on the Jeopardy! Reddit page.
Game 3’s lineup was Neilesh Vinjamuri, a three-game champion from Lionville, Pennsylvania; Weckiai Rannila, a three-game champion from Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Greg Jolin, a five-game champion from Raymond, New Hampshire. While Jolin walked into this game with more career wins than his competitors, Vinjamuri came with a history for quick buzzer work.
Neither Jolin nor Rannila could keep up with Vinjamuri’s buzzer speed in this quarterfinals game. He answered 33 clues correctly and gave only one incorrect answer. Weckiai had eight correct answers and two incorrect, and Jolin had 13 correct answers and five incorrect. Vinjamuri added 1,000 to his leading score of 4,400 after finding the Daily Double in the first round, but Jolin had major losses on both of the Daily Doubles in round two.
He lost 3,800 on a true Daily Double, and then lost 2,000 more on another true DD. The scores heading into Final Jeopardy were Vinjamuri with 28,200, Rannila with 4,600, and Jolin with 800, making it a runaway win for Vinjamuri. All three players answered correctly in the final round. Vinjamuri wagered zero and advanced to the semifinals with a final score of 28,200. Rannila ended with 7,599, and Jolin ended with 1,031.
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“Lol I got wrecked,” Jolin commented on the Jeopardy! Reddit discussion board for the episode. “More cogent thoughts after I get to watch later today.” Fans replied with words of support.
“Sometimes it’s hard to get that mojo back, especially against someone who got over 30 clues correct (and only a single neg, to boot). You’re still a heckuva champ!” one reply reads.
Another reply noted Vinjamuri’s buzzer history. “Neilesh was incredibly good on the buzzer in his initial run and incredibly good on the buzzer in this game,” they wrote. “It’s impressive just how much you DID get in, especially on that fought bottom row content.”
One viewer said that Vinjamuri’s strong performance is an early standout for the tournament. “I think this is the first shock result of the ToC. Neilesh came to play,” they said. As one user replied, “I mean it was a shock but I believe Neilesh has the highest correct response percentage of anyone in the field, so I knew he could definitely pull it off, but I didn’t think it would be a runaway.”
“He got quite a few bottom row gets in his original run as well,” the viewer said back. “Looks like his biggest weakness in his original run was actually his FJ get rate (only one out of four correct), but if he keeps this up, he may be near-impossible to stop.”
What do you think of Vinjamuri’s performance? Is he the one to beat? Let us know in the comments section.
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