Toronto-based artist joins growing trend of ‘Jeopardy’ super-champions

It’s not your creativeness: “Jeopardy” streaks are getting longer.

Ray Lalonde, the Toronto-based scenic artist who’s received 11 video games and counting, is simply the most recent in a brand new era of trivia titans to take up residence on the Alex Trebek Stage.

After Thursday’s sport, Lalonde had amassed US$311,500.

Contemplate additionally Mattea Roach, the 24-year-old Canadian “Jeopardy” phenom who received 23 straight video games earlier this 12 months, giving her the fifth-longest streak within the present’s historical past.

The 2 are amongst solely 16 contestants within the present’s historical past with successful streaks of a minimum of 10 video games, stated Andy Saunders, the Guelph, Ont.-based blogger behind “The Jeopardy! Fan.”

Of these 16, seven appeared on the present in 2021 or 2022, together with Amy Schneider and Matt Amodio, who maintain the second and third-longest streaks of all time.

Saunders has a concept as to why.

“The present lowered its barrier to entry,” he stated.

Close to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the present’s producers started permitting would-be contestants to audition at any time, fairly than solely having the ability to take an entrance take a look at a number of days out of the 12 months.

And for individuals who ace that preliminary take a look at, the second spherical of auditions is now carried out through video name, Saunders stated, fairly than requiring quiz present hopefuls to journey to a significant metropolitan centre to check out in individual.

“There have been lots of people on the market who’re superb at ‘Jeopardy’ and simply wanted that additional nudge to check out, making it that little bit simpler for them,” Saunders stated.

A spokeswoman for “Jeopardy” didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark about whether or not the variety of candidates has gone up lately, however Saunders stated he’s eradicated a number of the different doable explanations.

The present’s clues don’t appear to be any more durable, he stated, and the so-called super-champions use a wide range of completely different methods, so it’s not their type of play that’s giving them an edge.

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Jeopardy! champ Mattea Roach beats Amy Schneider, Matt Amodio in pleasant sport

However regardless of the rationalization, Saunders stated he enjoys the lengthy streaks.

“I completely love watching wonderful gamers do nicely,” he stated.

Not solely does it offer you one thing to root for, however you additionally get to research the sport in a barely completely different method, Saunders stated.

“You’ll be able to undoubtedly inform with the longer streaks that sure gamers are good in sure classes and never as a lot in others.”

It appears to be working for the present, he added: “The scores are nonetheless going up every time there’s an extended streak.”

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