Jeopardy!: See Who Won the ‘Tense’ Champions Wildcard Tournament

Nick Cascone, Dennis Chase, and Jen Jazwinski
Jeopardy! Inc.

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the November 28 episode of Jeopardy!]

The final match of the Jeopardy! Champions Wildcard Tournament is coming to a tense close. Nick Cascone, an orthopedic physician assistant hailing from Queens, New York, enters the game with a carryover of 9,300 from the first match. Dennis Chase, a biotech project manager from Palm Springs, California, earned 3,000 in the previous game, and Jen Jazwinski, a youth services librarian from Algonquin, Illinois, starts the game with a score of 5,600.

However, only one was able to walk away with the top prize and the illustrious invite to the Tournament of Champions.

Nick was able to add $1,000 to his score after finding the first Daily Double. However, he could not escape second place, falling behind Nick before and after the break before moving on to Double Jeopardy. The scores going in were Dennis with $7,200, Nick at 5,800, and Jen with $1.600.

Although Jen grabbed the remaining two Daily Doubles, she dropped 5,000 on the first and was only able to recoup 2,800 on the third, which locked her behind Nick and Dennis for most of the game. Meanwhile, Nich and Dennis sparred with each other on the board for dominance of the score. However, Dennis remained on top with $16,400, and Nick with 14,600. And Jen at $3,800.

It all came down to the Final Jeopardy, in the category of “Literary Geography.” The clue read as follows: “This state univ.’s Writers Workshop has had famous alumni who wrote about the state, like Jane Smiley & W.P. Kinsella.”

However, Dennis finally slipped up, unable to guess the answer correctly. Jen and Nick were able to answer correctly with “University of Iowa,” but Nick, already in the lead, doubled up on his wager, winning the $100,000 top prize and coveted invite to ToC. “You’re headed to the Tournament of Champions, sir,” host Ken Jennings said to an emotional Nick.

“I had a feeling with how much Nick had been posting here that he’d come out on top,” a user on the Jeopardy! Subreddit poted. “Congrats, u/NCascone! Always great to see a fellow community member do so well. :)”

Nick responded, “What can I say? I wonder if I’d been as active if the outcome had been different. I think I probably would have, but who knows?”

“That was a great game, I could feel the tension and excitement,” another noted.

What did you think of tonight’s game? Let us know in the comments below.

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