J! National College Championship 1st round matchups/format announced..

[weaklink75]

https://www.jeopardy.com/jbuzz/news-events/jeopardy-national-college-championship-starts-january-8

-12 quarterfinal games, winners advance., losers get $10k

-4 semifinal games, losers get $20k

Only 3 highest scoring semifinal winners play in final- 4th gets $35k (I don't know if I like this…)

-2 game final, 3rd gets $50k, 2nd gets $100k, winner gets $250k

[TLEberle]

The better solution is that the top semifinal winner gets a free pass and the other three play off for the last two spots. Odd that they couldn’t do a straight 27 player tournament like Super Jeopardy was supposed to be.

[colonial]

This is better than the original "team" concept that was announced prior to COVID changing the world, but it's still pretty flawed.

It's funny that we were highly critical of Capital One College Bowl producing a format last summer where it was plausible for a team to win its first-round match and not qualify for the quarters based on total points. At least that wasn't a definite conclusion (and, thankfully, it did not happen) -- J! managed to one-up that flaw and (unless there's a surprise the show's not revealing) guaranteed that one of the semifinal winners won't advance to the finals.

Just make the final Super J! style with four podiums -- it's not that hard.


JD

[Matt Ottinger]

"You win your match in a tournament and MAYBE you get to advance," suggests a lack of comprehension about how tournaments work.

[Bob Zager]

Just make the final Super J! style with four podiums -- it's not that hard.


JD

I had a hunch the lowest scoring finalist would be eliminated, or all four would compete ala Super J!  For now Harry Eisenberg's (former Associate Producer, who wrote the book(s) alleging some wrongdoings back in the early 1990s) hunch stands; he'd said that after Super J!, you'll probably never see a four-player system again!

[TLEberle]

From your lips to His ears. Two player final would be better.

[SuperMatch93]

One thing that occurred to me about the player with the lowest semifinal score not progressing is that they will be one of the few adult contestants in the history of the show to have never been beaten.

[weaklink75]

The better solution is that the top semifinal winner gets a free pass and the other three play off for the last two spots. Odd that they couldn’t do a straight 27 player tournament like Super Jeopardy was supposed to be.

I think part of this is they wanted to fit this into 9 eps (18 games)- if they had a 10th ep they could do that playoff.

[MikeK]

One contestant in the upcoming championship is Jeric Brual.  If the name sounds familiar and you played HQ in 2018, he admitted/got caught cheating at it, and he got kicked out of HQ near the end of a $25,000 winner take all game which nobody won.

[Unrealtor]

Surely they could have found something to stretch a single game to fill an hour (or three games in two episodes) in the same way that the regular show took two episodes for the first-round matches of the tag-team tournament a few years ago.

[WhammyPower]

I just thought of an interesting idea in how include the 4th place player:

Give first place a "bye" while 2nd, 3rd, and 4th play one playoff game to determine which two face off against first place. 1st place & top two of the playoff then play three games to determine the winner.

[clemon79]

Here's a messed-up situation.

Before, you could have a higher score in your semifinal than a finalist did in their semifinal, but you lost your game, so oh well. NOW, that finalist can be the low scorer and be sent home and the low player who remains might STILL have scored less than you, and you STILL get to sit and watch.

[TLEberle]

I just thought of an interesting idea in how include the 4th place player:

Give first place a "bye" while 2nd, 3rd, and 4th play one playoff game to determine which two face off against first place. 1st place & top two of the playoff then play three games to determine the winner.

it is like I’m not even here.

[WhammyPower]

I just thought of an interesting idea in how include the 4th place player:

Give first place a "bye" while 2nd, 3rd, and 4th play one playoff game to determine which two face off against first place. 1st place & top two of the playoff then play three games to determine the winner.

it is like I’m not even here.

Wow, I am so sorry. I probably read it and glossed it by, as I tend to do.

[TLEberle]

I just thought of an interesting idea in how include the 4th place player:

Give first place a "bye" while 2nd, 3rd, and 4th play one playoff game to determine which two face off against first place. 1st place & top two of the playoff then play three games to determine the winner.

it is like I’m not even here.

Wow, I am so sorry. I probably read it and glossed it by, as I tend to do.

No worry. It’s more amusing than anything. The one difference where I would quibble is a three game final. I can’t think of a tournament final that was so exciting that it would have been improved by a third game.