Apr 24-28, 2023: Ready Player Three
Players on podium 3 win every game this week as the champions turn over rapidly
Trending This Week
Total attempts per game fell, from 95.0 last week to 92.2 this week. This is still within the overall “normal” band as established by Season 38, but it’s the lowest we’ve had since May of last year.
Maybe a little more dramatic is the quick drop of total BuzC$, from $38040 last week to $34800 this week. This is also well within historical norms but is also the lowest since May 2022 and made for a different feel to the games this week.
With attempts, scoring, and FJ rate down but with a slight bump up in contention, we had a volatile week of champions. No one managed to win two, as the player at the third podium won each game.
Word Categories, Clue Length, and Volatility
Back in my writeup on Troy Meyer, I noted that he’d really only had trouble with a weird wordplay category. I think wordplay categories are generally a source of volatility in Jeopardy play. Although not as large a factor as Daily Doubles or Final Jeopardy, wordplay categories play differently from other categories as they can reward different kinds of thinking. Wordplay categories are also harder to nail down a strict order of difficulty, as they’re often more about whether inspiration comes in the moment.
Tuesday’s game presented another difference: Clue length.
I was particularly struck by how Johanna was the only player to buzz in on The No-S Plural of…, getting four correct and one incorrect, but that immediately after the commercial and introduction break, Dillon was the only one to get in on Bar Lines, running the category. In the metrics, neither has any particular advantage over the other on timing, so seeing a strict breakdown by category here was interesting to me, especially when Plural was a series of rapid-fire single-word clues. Johanna also plucked off a few of the shorter clues in State Nicknames. This pattern didn’t hold into Double Jeopardy, where the shorter clues were concentrated in 11-Letter Words, which got mixed between Dillon and Ian, but I still feel there’s something in clue length as factor in rhythm.
All in all, wordplay categories are statistically weirder, and if I were going to pull out anything in classifying categories to do research, that would be the first thing.
This Week’s Champions
Six champions to review this week, with a new one each day. As expected given the low attempt totals for the week, everyone here is on the lower side of attempting. There’s some variation in timing, accuracy, or balancing the two.
Kevin Belle, our reigning champion going into the new week, will be interesting to watch. He hasn’t missed on a buzzing clue yet (he did miss a DD) and he’s quick to get in when he attempts, but he didn’t attempt a lot in his first game. If that was just a matter of bad categories for him in DJ that game, then his scoring is likely to pick up on Monday.
Emma Hill Kepron
Average buzz score: $12067 (32nd out of 49 champions this period)
Average attempt value: $30283 (29th)
Average conversion value percent: 39.5% (36th)
Average buzz value percent: 51.8% (37th)
Average accuracy value percent: 78.2% (22nd)
Average DD score: $2000 (25th)
Average DD+: -0.02 (32nd)
Average end DJ score: $14067 (31st)
Dillon Hupp
Average buzz score: $11000 (t-35th out of 49 champions this period)
Average attempt value: $25373 (40th)
Average conversion value percent: 43.0% (27th)
Average buzz value percent: 67.8% (6th)
Average accuracy value percent: 64.4% (42nd)
Average DD score: $1400 (31st)
Average DD+: -0.29 (40th)
Average end DJ score: $12400 (38th)
Johanna Stoberock
Average buzz score: $12300 (t-30th out of 49 champions this period)
Average attempt value: $24046 (42nd)
Average conversion value percent: 51.2% (11th)
Average buzz value percent: 58.4% (28th)
Average accuracy value percent: 88.9% (8th)
Average DD score: $1500 (30th)
Average DD+: -0.45 (46th)
Average end DJ score: $13800 (33rd)
Jesse Matheny
Average buzz score: $11000 (t-35th out of 49 champions this period)
Average attempt value: $24301 (41st)
Average conversion value percent: 46.3% (20th)
Average buzz value percent: 77.5% (1st)
Average accuracy value percent: 65.2% (40th)
Average DD score: -$4100 (49th)
Average DD+: +1.17 (2nd)
Average end DJ score: $6900 (48th)
Eric Anderson
Average buzz score: $3500 (49th out of 49 champions this period)
Average attempt value: $22264 (46th)
Average conversion value percent: 16.9% (49th)
Average buzz value percent: 40.3% (48th)
Average accuracy value percent: 31.0% (48th)
Average DD score: $500 (40th)
Average DD+: -0.07 (34th)
Average end DJ score: $4000 (49th)
Kevin Belle
Average buzz score: $15200 (15th out of 44 champions this period)
Average attempt value: $20640 (48th)
Average conversion value percent: 73.6% (1st)
Average buzz value percent: 73.6% (2nd)
Average accuracy value percent: 100.0% (1st)
Average DD score: -$1000 (46th)
Average DD+: -0.31 (41st)
Average end DJ score: $14200 (29th)