‘Jeopardy!’: How Jamie Ding Opponent Knew Champ Was Going to ‘Stomp’ Everyone

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Jamie Ding is taking up space in Jeopardy! fans’ minds and in the game show‘s backstage area. An opponent of the super champion shared a shocking detail about how he knew Ding was going to “stomp” everyone in the competition.

Ding, a law student from Lawrenceville, New Jersey, has won 17 games, almost $500,000, and made his way onto the Leaderboard of Legends. After his streak seemed to never end, Ding got his own wardrobe backstage.

Mikey Hlebasko, from Marietta, Georgia, who played against Ding in his 17th game on April 6, told Reddit users about the detail when he opened up about his game on the platform. “I was Mikey on this episode! Amazing experience. Will share some things about the day under spoiler tags,” he wrote.

“The moment we knew Jamie was going to stomp us was not when Ken [Jennings] announced his super impressive stats, but when we saw he had an entire wardrobe already hanging out in the Green Room. He was planning to stay a while! Very nice guy though! Dry sense of humor, was very supportive of us newbies explaining the processes, etc.,” Hlebasko shared.

“That’s hilarious about the wardrobe. Love to read about little nuggets like that,” a Reddit user replied. Ding has worn a lot of orange on the game show, stating that it is his favorite color and the color of his alma mater.

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Hlebasko shared that he knew he wasn’t going to beat Ding, even if he played a perfect game. ” It was very frustrating knowing so many that I was just unable to get in on. Producers kept telling me I was going a bit early- Jamie being insane on the buzzer definitely drove that. Ken told us after the game that Maggie and I had held Jamie to a 68% successful buzzer rate, which was the lowest of his run so far. Felt a little better after that,” the sales operations director said.

He also replied to Jason Snell, who faced off against Ding as a four-day champion. Hlebasko shared that the game was a “tough draw,” but he was happy to be “part of history.”

Hlebasko also shared that he would love to do the Second Chance Tournament if he were invited, but he suspects he “didn’t distinguish myself enough to get that invite, but maybe there’s some hope.”