Battle of the Decades: finals, game one

Battle of the Decades – knockout rounds
Quarterfinals					Semifinals			Finals
1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	1	2
preliminary round

We’re set to begin our preview of the finals, but first, let’s have a moment of silence for those who fell before us.

Thank you.

Now, let’s meet each of our finalists. I assume you’ve heard of them.

The final match is what Alex will certainly refer to as a “two-day total-point affair”.

Our trio will play two individual games. At the conclusion of the second match, the scores from each will be summed; whoever has the highest combined total will claim $1 million.

You can find all of this information in my tutorial on multi-day matches. As I point out there, the prevailing wisdom is to treat Final on the first day as a Daily Double that all three contestants get to play.

Let’s look at how each of our players have handled this limbo situation in the past. As we work from left to right on the lecterns, we see the histories get smaller.

Speaking of which: in the grand scheme of things, our players have tended toward smaller wagers. I highly doubt that will be the case in Thursday’s opener, given their aggression on Daily Doubles in previous rounds.

If I’m right, and our players go big on Day One, it will demonstrate a marked shift in strategy of how the game is played, just over the past decade or so.

(Note that the Ultimate Tournament of Champions had a three-day final match, the only time that format has been used.)

Brad Rutter

Tournament of Champions (11/01/01) [pre-doubled values]

CATEGORY: AMERICAN LITERATURE

Brad	Rick	Tad
6,000	6,500	3,300
3,500	3,500	2,000

Million Dollar Masters (05/13/02)

CATEGORY: WORD HISTORIES

Brad	Bob V*	Eric
15,800	10,400	7,600
4,000	3,600	7,600

I originally had this as a triple-get; thanks to Clint in the comments for pointing out my error.

UTOC semifinals (05/19/05)

CATEGORY: NUCLEAR POWER

Brad	John	Chris
14,200	8,000	7,200
4,200	5,500	2,800

UTOC finals, game 1/3 (05/23/05)

CATEGORY: IMAGES OF AMERICA

Brad	Ken*	Jerome*
14,200	13,000	12,400
4,200	3,000	4,000

UTOC finals, game 2/3 (05/24/05)

CATEGORY: LAW & SOCIETY

Brad	Ken*	Jerome*
15,000	11,000	8,200
5,000	1,000	5,000

IBM Challenge (02/15/11)

CATEGORY: U.S. CITIES

Brad	Watson	Ken*
5,400	36,681	2,400
5,000	947	2,400

Ken Jennings

UTOC finals, game 1/3 (05/23/05)

CATEGORY: IMAGES OF AMERICA

Ken	Brad*	Jerome*
13,000	14,200	12,400
3,000	4,200	4,000

UTOC finals, game 2/3 (05/24/05)

CATEGORY: LAW & SOCIETY

Ken	Brad*	Jerome*
11,000	15,000	8,200
1,000	5,000	5,000

IBM Challenge (02/15/11)

CATEGORY: U.S. CITIES

Ken	Watson	Brad*
2,400	36,681	5,400
2,400	947	5,000

Roger Craig

Tournament of Champions (11/14/01)

CATEGORY: THE PRESIDENTIAL CABINET

Roger	Buddy	Tom N*
43,200	11,000	9,400
6,800	5,000	9,400

If you made it this far, you deserve to know that my money’s on Brad.