The Invitational Tournament aired in March going through to early April hosted by Ken Jennings. In addition, it is the final tournament that marks the end of a long tournament arch that started in Season 40.
The tournament was held immediately after the 2024 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions, and the ToC winner and JIT winner will advance to the Masters along with the three who were seeded in the last Masters. Three participants from the previous Masters series and 24 other champions will compete to determine who will advance to the Masters. The rules are the same as the previous 27-player tournament, but instead of a 2-day system, the finals will be held in a format similar to the revamped ToC tournament, the winner of two out of four rounds being the winner. The prize money is the same as other 27-player tournaments: $100,000.
It was confirmed on Inside Jeopardy! hosted by Buzzy Cohen that Julia Collins (Biggest Money Winner of Season 30 and 2014 ToC 2nd runner-up), Brad Rutter (2001 ToC, 2002 MDM, 2005 UToC, 2011 IBMC 2nd runner-up, 2014 BotD, and 2019 ASG winner), Roger Craig (2011 ToC winner and 2014 BotD 2nd runner-up), and Emma Boettcher (James Holzhauer's giant killer and 2019 ToC 1st runner-up) all received invites, but declined due to scheduling conflicts. Maybe they can be back in the future. But, Roger will appear in the 2025 Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament.
Like the 2019 All-Star Games, many winners of other tournaments were invited, and what was unique was that Victoria, who defeated David Madden despite being a single winner, appeared[1]
Also, except for Victoria, there were no champions with 3 or 4 consecutive wins, and except for Chuck, most of them were contestants who debuted in the 2000s to 2020s.[2]
Brandon Blackwell also appeared, probably aiming for a showdown with James, who regularly appears on The Chaser, at the Masters. If Victoria or Brandon wins, it will mark the first time in history that a participant who did not advance to ToC wins a major tournament.
The third match of the Quarterfinals of this competition marks the 9,000th episode on a syndicated basis.
With Amy and Andrew advancing to the finals, the fourth rematch took place following Regular, S39 ToC, and Masters.
Victoria's advancement to the finals marks the first time in three years since the 2021 ToC that two women have advanced to the finals, and marks the first time since Super Jeopardy in 1990 that a champion with four or fewer consecutive wins has advanced to the finals and won (the first time with fewer than three consecutive wins).
Similarly, Wheel of Fortune (2) has also been running a special feature called Fan Favorite since Season 40, in which previous contestants reappear. The difference is that here, there are also contestants who did not win.[3]
Evaluation[]
As the inaugural champion was Victoria, for the first time in history, a single-win champion who did not advance to ToC had the opportunity to win a major tournament. Like Yogesh, the winner of this ToC, she showed that the number of consecutive wins is not in proportion to the results of the next major tournament, and was the production team's choice. This proved to be correct.
In fact, just as your score on Jeopardy is not a measure of your quizzing skills, even though you can win a lot in a row, there are cases where you lose by missing the FJ, and there are many cases where you do not win because you cannot choose the DD. Victoria is such an example, as she was always in the lead but was unable to continue her winning streak because she failed to hit the last FJ. She was able to completely dispel this regret through her reappearance.
Starting with this 2024 ToC, it has been proven that the results of the Regular Game will not necessarily affect the ToC or other major competitions, and it has made it possible to understand why the production team called in Brandon and Victoria. On the other hand, there are many opinions that it is unfortunate that champions who have won 3 or 4 times in a row cannot be invited, but since it is an invitational tournament, it seems that they will also be invited soon.
References[]
↑In fact, it's because she won the most, but she has achieved good results in other quizzes. She also appeared as a regular chaser in The Chase, and there are many examples of her winning at least major competitions on a winning streak.
↑ This appears to be due to the fact that most participants before the 2000s were old and had difficulty participating due to long recording sessions, so most of them did not participate.
↑However, there are some opinions expressing disappointment because there were no $100,000 or $1,000,000 BR winners last season.
