Few folks might imagine the sort of run champion Scott Riccardi was having on Jeopardy!, least of all Riccardi himself, who remained in sheer disbelief over his streak.
In his look on Jeopardy!’s Winners Circle, Riccardi mirrored on his expertise with a mixture of awe and humor.
“I gotta say, I’m in full disbelief. Nearly each single recreation there have been factors the place I used to be like, ‘Okay, it’s in all probability simply over now. I don’t assume I’m going to have the ability to have the stamina to maintain going, and I don’t know what occurred,’” joked Riccardi to Winners Circle host and producer Sarah Foss.
Throughout the interview, Riccardi mentioned the pondering behind his daring wagering technique, which helped him accumulate his spectacular whole winnings.
“Extremely, you haven’t had that many runaways in your run, but it surely looks as if that has additionally allowed you to make huge wagers to win, and due to this fact, you’re taking a look at over $180,000 that you just’ve earned,” Foss identified.
“Yeah, in a approach, I’m grateful. Every time I’ve had a lead more often than not in Closing Jeopardy, it’s been by barely something, and so they occur to be one which I knew as a result of then while you get that, you simply need to wager a ton,” defined Riccardi. “The final recreation I used to be in second, and I used to be like, ‘That is actually laborious, I really feel like I may be okay as a result of I don’t know if anybody goes to get this.’ And the wagering simply labored out.”
“It’s Jeopardy! We don’t name it that for nothing,” joked Foss.
The 26-year-old then shared how his Jeopardy! journey started.
“I’ve simply been extraordinarily fortunate the place I managed to make it via each a part of the method on my first attempt. I do know [for] lots of people… It’s years and years. So I can’t imagine all of it simply labored out.”
“That first day, I hoped to only win one recreation. It’s laborious sufficient to try this!,” continued Riccardi. “And instantly, we sort of get into rehearsals, and I see Jason [Singer], and instantly, I’m like, ‘I don’t need to play him.’ Like, he’s actually good. And he’s beating me actually badly on getting in rehearsal. It was a tricky Closing Jeopardy, that was simply powerful sufficient for not everybody to understand it, but it surely labored out!,” mentioned the champ, smiling.
He was in fact refering to the Closing Jeopardy spherical by which Singer misplaced to the clue: “Lord of the Flies impressed this collection as did the 1994 movie Heavenly Creatures, which starred one of many present’s actresses.” Singer missed the reply, which was Yellowjackets, permitting Riccardi to maneuver in and take the win.
“So now you get to maintain taking part in, however you additionally know you’ll be again it doesn’t matter what for the Match of Champions. Have you ever been watching the sector rising? What are you fascinated by [in] that degree of competitors?” requested Foss.
“I’m undoubtedly intimidated. I do know a few of these multi-day champions in all probability come from Quiz Bowl backgrounds, and I solely did that sort of factor in highschool. And often I couldn’t go to the meets as a result of it was the identical time as concert events or like, rehearsals. And I didn’t do it in any respect in school. So I’m apprehensive I’m going to run into these individuals who could have all these things sort of inbuilt, or like, if they’re a bit of older, they’ll have extra simply built-in, lived-in information, which might be actually tough,” Riccardi confessed.
“Liam Starnes, he’s solely 20, so it’s going to be actually cool to see all these younger champions going head-to-head.”
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