[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the Thursday, February 12, episode of Jeopardy!]
The last quarterfinal Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament game was played on February 12, and the semifinal contestants were set. The game ended in heartbreak for one contestant, who fans thought would win.
Archivist Adriana Harmeyer, from West Lafayette, Indiana, played against lecturer of history, Will Yancey, from Gadsden, Alabama, and retired engineer, Long Nguyen, from Las Vegas, Nevada, on Thursday. Harmeyer won 15 games in June 2024, taking home a total of $351,600. She got to the finals of the 2024 Tournament of Champions, but lost. Harmeyer finished in eighth place on the 2025 Jeopardy! Masters.
Nguyen played in 2023, but lost his game. He entered that year’s Second Chance Tournament and won, advancing to Champions Wildcard. Nguyen lost the CW in the finals. Yancey lost his first game in September 2024, but was invited back for the Second Chance Tournament. He won that and advanced to CW, where he lost in the finals.
The JIT is an invitation-only tournament, where players are typically pulled from previous years’ Masters, TOCs, and other long-running champions. The winner of the JIT takes home $150,000 and advances to this year’s Jeopardy! Masters, which has not yet set a date.
After six quarterfinal games, the winners and three Wildcard players face off in the semifinals, and then the finals, where the first player to two wins is the new champion.
Nguyen had the lead when Harmeyer found the Daily Double on clue nine. She had $1,000 and wagered all of her money in “Antonyms.” The clue read, “Of seldom: This adjective that as a verb means to go somewhere often.” She replied, “What is frequent?” and doubled to $2,000, compared to Nguyen’s $3,800.
He ended the round in the lead with $5,200. Yancey had $4,600. Harmeyer was in third place with $3,400.
In Double Jeopardy, Nguyen found the first DD in clue five. With $8,000 in his bank, he wagered $2,000. In “International Observances,” the clue read, “Meaning ‘new day’ in Farsi, the March observance of Nowruz dates to spring rites of this ancient religion.”
Despite Nguyen saying he doesn’t like the category, he got the answer right. “What is Zoroastrianism?” he answered. Nguyen improved to $10,000.
With $11,600 in the bank, Nguyen found the second DD on clue seven. He wagered $1,600 in “All About Animals.” The clue was “Just between us, these mammals’ genus is Odobenus, meaning ‘tooth walk’–they use their tusks to get out of the water.” “What is a walrus?” he answered correctly, giving him $13,200.
Nguyen continued to dominate the rest of the round, ending with $19,600. Yancey had $7,400. Harmeyer was still in third place with $3,400.
The category for Final Jeopardy was “The Southern Hemisphere.” The clue was “A 1606 map of America shows this archipelago as part of a Southern Continent by a canoe with smoke billowing from its center.” Two of the game show contestants got the answer right.
Harmeyer’s response was “What is Tierra del Fuego?” which was right. She wagered all of her money, giving her $6,800. Yancey had the incorrect response of “What is Antilles?” He wagered all of his money, ending with $0. Nguyen also had the correct response. He wagered $2,000, making his final total $21,600.
Nguyen advanced to the semifinals, where he joins Matt Amodio, Roger Craig, Drew Goins, Andrew He, and Alison Betts. Three wildcard contestants will be added based on the next highest scores.
“Congrats to Long and the other semi-finalists!” a Reddit user wrote.
“LONG!” another commented.
“So happy for Long, definitely feel like people are underestimating him this tournament,” a third added.
“Damn, Adriana’s been a favorite of mine since her original run. I was hoping she’d advance,” a fan said.
Jeopardy!, weekdays, check local listings, stream next day on Hulu and Peacock
