I am here to defend Jeopardy James!
James Holzhauzer lost yesterday in Jeopardy! and his massive win streak came to an end.
His instant legacy will be that he revolutionized Jeopardy because of his approach to the game. He played the game like a gambler, which no one had done before and his strategy made him the second winningest competitor ever in Jeopardy! history. Since his day 1 victory on Jeopardy!, I have been a Jeopardy James stan because he's a professional gambler, a profession I admire so much because I am personally awful at gambling. Anyone who can be a professional at gambling has my respect.
Anyway, I was doing some research on him when I came across this video and boy am I upset by it! Because not only does Robin, disrespect James, she unintentionally disrespects the whole sports world as a result...and that is something I cannot stand for!!
In this video, Falco said James doesn't "respect", the game. However, it's clear she's just jealous because she lost! Robin Falco said that "he didn't treat it like a game" because he took it seriously. "He took a year off from work" and studied to play the game like a gambler.
Sorry to tell you this, but he's a professional sports gambler!
That doesn't mean you sit in an office all day. Your hours are flexible which allows you to study Jeopardy! tape and prepare to win games. It's like any competition. If you want to win, then you need to prepare. The Patriots didn't win 5 Superbowls by having fun and playing football like a game. They approached the sport like a business and made it their job to be the best ever.
That's exactly what James did too. In Jeopardy! (if everything goes your way), you can win over $100,000 per game! That's over a years salary!! Why would you not treat the show like a job when you get on?? If you go on a 5 or 6 day winning streak, your earnings can become a life changing amount!
In the video, Robin also says he was not "respectful to [her]". That is all hearse after the fact. She can be slanderous all she wants, but the simple fact is that she's upset she lost to him and is attempting to ruin his reputation as a result. On top of that, she wasn't even close to beating him. She finished with $3,300 and James finished with $49,600. That gap is too large for her to complain about. If you just take their totals going into Final Jeopardy, she had $4,600 and James had $29,600. This means not only did she not have enough to catch him, but she also missed the Final Jeopardy. It's not unfair if you don't miss questions. Robin complaining about the results of Jeopardy!, is like complaining that the refs missed a holding call in the first half so that's why you lost by 35 in a football game. If you lose by that much you were going to lose anyway.
She also fundamentally destroys her own argument when she says "we got the Daily Doubles. We couldn't do anything with them". her inherit argument was that James ruined the game because he made it a job and played it like a gambler. However, in this statement she says that both she and Tyler (the other competitor from their show) couldn't take advantage of the Daily Doubles. According to The Jeopardy Fan, a Jeopardy! stats website, the Daily Double efficiency for this episode was -18. This means that the Daily Doubles ended up hurting more than it helped. So she didn't lose to James because of some unfair strategy. She lost to James because she just missed questions and didn't buzz in fast enough.
After Robin unapologetically slanders James, Adam Levin quickly comes to his defense by saying that James was nice to both his son and him as well which immediately disproves Robin's argument that James is a bad guy. The guy literally made wagers based on significant dates surrounding his family! He wouldn't wager his money like that if he didn't care about them! Throughout the entire run of the show and throughout all of the interviews he has given to various media outlets, he has given no indication that he's a bad guy. So we're just supposed to trust her word when he have numerous pieces of evidence in James's favor? I don't think so.
If you wanted to beat him you should have worked harder to beat him. Read books on how to buzz in quicker, watch more episodes, and learn more about general knowledge.
As much as many people don't want to admit, Jeopardy! is all about how much you know. If you just know more than everyone else and you have the discipline to buzz in first, you'll win every time.
Unlike Robin, his two other competitors in this video like both his strategy and him as a person, which is the right take to have. As fans of competition and games, we love when something new comes along and presents a new challenge to us. We love seeing greatness on display because it inspires greatness in us!
That's why Steph Curry is such a fascinating basketball player to watch. He literally revolutionized NBA offense! That is why UConn Women's Basketball is good for college basketball. Their dominance forced other programs to get better and the rest of Women's College Basketball got better as an attempt to beat UConn.
Greatness makes everyone better and influences others after them to also be great!
*image found via TheJeopardyfan.com
*video found via Youtube. The original link is embedded in the video.