Regarding Brad's performance: I wrote this on another board after Wednesday's match.
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I don't want to lapse into a Ringer longform here, but Brad Rutter's performance in these first two matches really showcases the fragile and ephemeral nature of peak human ability. This is a guy who has won dang near $5 million playing Jeopardy, beating all comers repeatedly, save for a computer specifically designed to beat him. Going into the tourney, I had him taking it in 4 or 5. He's basically the same age I am, and clearly in better physical shape than I am. But, just like when you see it with a veteran athlete, it seems like he longer has the ability to hit that highest gear, both with his brain and with his twitch reflexes on the buzzer. Jennings and Holzhauer are blowing him away - Rutter finished last night's second game with a score you really don't see outside of Celebrity Jeopardy.
I have no doubt Brad could still walk into your local upper-tier pub quiz and pants everybody, and he could likely roll off a string of wins against the standard pool of everyday Jeopardy contestants. But that ability to win at the highest level just seems gone, and I don't know if it's possible to get that back once that fades. It's given some added weight to how I feel about not nailing as many answers on the show as I think I should, or the gradual but consistent increase in my forgetting of things I need to find or do.