‘Jeopardy Masters’: NW player faces ridiculously hard ‘Final Jeopardy’ clue

The field is narrowing as “Jeopardy Masters” continues, moving toward its conclusion, when the three players who manage to accumulate the most points will compete for the $500,000 grand prize.

This week, Tuesday and Wednesday featured players facing off in quarterfinals games. Vancouver’s Yogesh Raut, who came in second in the “Jeopardy Masters” event, entered the first of the games on Tuesday, May 20, holding the top spot on the “Jeopardy Masters” leaderboard.

But in a game featuring Raut, last year’s “Jeopardy Masters” winner Victoria Groce, and Roger Craig, the leaderboard positions changed.

The “Final Jeopardy” category was “Book Titles.” The clue: “The journey in the title of this 1878 novel is from Paris to ‘The vast tract of unenclosed wild known as Egdon Heath.”

All three players had the correct response, guessing Thomas Hardy’s “The Return of the Native.” Groce finished in first with 18,001 points, Raut finished second with 13,600 points, and Craig placed third with 10,399 points.

In the second game on Tuesday, Matt Amodio finished first, followd by Isaac Hirsch and Juveria Zaheer.

Going into Wednesday’s match-ups, Groce had moved up to the top spot on the leaderboard, followed by Raut. In the first of the games played, Groce, Raut and Amodio competed.

When it came time for “Final Jeopardy,” the category was “Portmanteau Words.” The clue: “A play on a portmanteau coined in 2012, this 7-letter word is now used to describe a similar U.K. headline from 1973.”

Not only was the clue difficult to unravel, but when the answer was revealed, it was jaw-droppingly obscure. Amodio guessed “Canexit,” a play on Canada and Brexit. Raut just wrote, “What ….” Groce wrote, “What is Eurexit?”

Host Ken Jennings wasn’t very clear when he said the answer. It sounded sort of “Rentry,” but some people heard “Brentry,” which makes sense since the clue said it was seven letter word.

At any rate, as comments on YouTube reflected, not many people seem familiar with “Rentry,” or “Brentry.”

“I’m a NPR and BBC World News junkie, but I never heard (the answer) before,” wrote one commenter. Other comments include: “When none of the contestants get it, and none of the viewers get it ether, it’s a bad question”; “That’s tough, as a Brit that’s not a commonly used phrase at all”; and “is this a word people have used before or did we just have to make up a new word on the spot?”

Groce again won, with a total of 22,399 points. Raut was in second, with 9,595 points; and Amodio finished third, with 1,200 points.

In the second game of the Wednesday episode, Isaac Hirsch finished first, Juveria Zaheer finished second and Roger Craig finished third.

The leaderboard as of now has Groce in first place, followed by Raut, Hirsch, Zaheer, Amodio and Craig.

“Jeopardy Masters” returns on Tuesday, May 27. Want to catch up? You can stream “Jeopardy Masters” on Fubo, which offers a free trial; and on Hulu.