Naperville resident Yejun Kim’s gamble was not enough Wednesday night for her to move on in the “Jeopardy! National College Championship” tournament competition.
The Northwestern University senior, who entered the game’s final round in third place with $6,000, opted not to bet anything on the Final Jeopardy question. Her correct answer pushed her past Villanova University’s Mitch Macek, who gave an incorrect response, but didn’t give her enough to surpass Brandeis University student Joey Kornman’s $17,201 total.
“I went with a copout with (betting) zero dollars but I think that was the best choice for me,” she said Thursday, acknowledging she was unlikely to pass Kornman even if he got the question wrong.
The Final Jeopardy question: “He’s called ‘a flame of inspiration in freedom’s darkest hour’ in the proclamation making him an honorary U.S. citizen.” The answer: “Who is Winston Churchill?”
Despite the loss, Kim will still receive a $10,000 prize for being on the show.
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“It was so scary, the nerves shook me a for a while up there,” she said of her experience.
“Something a lot of people don’t think about when they’re watching is the strategy of the buzzer,” she said. “I struggled with the timing of that, but that was an experience in and of itself.”
Her one regret? “I’m sad I never got to do a Daily Double,” she joked.
Kim was one of 36 undergraduate college students chosen to compete in the prime-time, tournament-style competition in which game winners move on to the next round of play.
The first four games were played Tuesday and Wednesday nights, with the 12 winners moving on to next week’s semifinal rounds. The three highest-earning semifinal winners will compete in the two-game championship.
Kim, who is majoring in chemical engineering, attended Indian Prairie School District 204 schools and graduated from Waubonsie Valley High School in 2018.
The rules of the game prohibited her from telling anyone other than her close family and some of her professors that she had been chosen to compete, so it was “a huge relief to finally tell people what I was doing and telling people to watch,” she said last week.
During the interview portion of the game with host Mayim Bialik, Kim said she had tried competitive trivia in high school but stopped “because it was too stressful for me.” It was her college roommate, Ava, who helped her get back into watching “Jeopardy!” when they started watching the show together.
Both she and Ava took the “Jeopardy!” exam and went through the audition process, she said.
“Hi, Ava!” she said to the camera during the show.
Kim also she thanked friends and family who reached out and watched Wednesday’s episode.
“I think I enjoyed that more than seeing myself,” she said. “I liked hearing about (them watching).”
The National College Champion will win a $250,000 grand prize. The second-place winner takes home $100,000, third-place collects $50,000, and fourth-place, $35,000. Semifinalists receive $20,000 each and the remaining contestants $10,000 each.