Daily analysis, Thursday, July 31 – Teen Tournament Finals, Day One
| 2014 Teen Tournament | |||||||||
| Overview | Teens in the TOC | Joe Taglic interview | |||||||
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals | |||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
Welcome to The Penultimate Final Wager! (I’ve been waiting all season to say that.)
Tough draw for Cooper on the buzzer, but he can make up some ground here on what is essentially a Daily Double for all three players.
Cooper Lair: 5,600
Alan Koolik: 19,200
Jeff Xie: 17,000
The Final Jeopardy! category: BEST-SELLING NOVELS
The results
Standings for the final match
As I explain in this video, the scores from Day One are, effectively, halved for the second game. That’s because the players can’t touch their Day One totals, but they can double up their holdings in the concluding match.
To be in control of his own destiny heading into Final:
- Cooper needs to be leading Alan by more than 12,400, and leading Jeff by more than 7,400
- Jeff needs to be leading Alan by more than 5,000, and either leading Cooper or trailing him by less than 7,400
- If Alan is not in the lead, he can be trailing Cooper by less than 12,400 and Jeff by less than 5,000
The Final Jeopardy! clue for July 31, 2014 (BEST-SELLING NOVELS):
THIS NOVEL IS DEDICATED TO ESTHER EARL, WHO DIED OF THYROID CANCER AT 16 & NEVER GOT TO READ IT
[spoiler]What is The Fault in Our Stars?[/spoiler]