Welcome to the first JEOPNERDY! Recap!

This will be the first in a weekly series of articles recapping and reviewing the performances of contestants on the feature live program on JOHN DiMARCO’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL.

About Jeopnerdy!

Before going into the whole recap, a little history about Jeopnerdy! from its inception all the way to its current iteration.

There are many imitators but only one true originator. YouTube VileMike created the original that would become the game of today. Together with (now) Salty Trekker, co-hosted by John DiMarco, Jeopnerdy! gained a huge audience as a once-weekly event, drawing in many viewers and contestants. Events would unfold which would cause John DiMarco to spin off Jeopnerdy! away from Salty Trekker / VileMike’s format into its current iteration, co-hosted by Professor Brainy Specs. This current version has been running for 172 weeks and has grown immensely popular on YouTube.

John has created questions and game boards for almost the entire run. Several guests have popped up over the years to create game boards of their own, from YouTuber Tokyo Gaijin (aka Gul Tokyo, aka me) to Omnicast.net, the current reigning Jeopnerdy! champion. Over the course of the last few years, the game has evolved both in technology and format. The introduction of Final Jeopnerdy! along with a complex game board display, programmed by Professor Brainy Specs, to the current opening graphics created by Patrick Neijenhof (who also hosts a growing STAR TREK-themed game show based on Wheel of Fortune) has helped to cement John DiMarco’s Jeopnerdy! into a YouTube staple.

The Hall of Fame

Over the course of the last few years, Jeopnerdy! has seen a plethora of champions come along. Notably among the best of the best by YouTube handles:

• Omnicast.NET
• Patrick Neijenhof
• Trek Master Mike
• Sinnabun
• Mercer Create

Occasionally, an anomaly will appear and others will take the title. However, the champions listed above are extremely humble and welcome any new challengers to take them on. Each broadcast has an open invite to join the game as a contestant so literally anyone can play!

Game Format

As of this reviewed broadcast, each episode plays three games: two “easy” rounds and one “hard” round. Anyone can join in at any level they wish to try their luck at, but traditionally three players play each game with a champion able to choose to defend their win in the next run. The so-called “easy” games are there for general players who wish to answer questions as difficult as, “He was the Captain of the original Enterprise, NCC-1701, in TOS.” / “Who is Captain Kirk?” – level questions. The hard round consists of questions that you may not necessarily know without deep core knowledge of the franchise. Such as, “This was the first mention of the Borg being from the Delta Quadrant.” / “What is ‘Descent‘ on an LCARS screen?” and the like.

The game has two playable modes: “turns” and “buzzers.” Each has their own set of rules. Going backwards, the “buzzer” rounds play just like the game show. However, with “turns,” it’s exactly how it sounds. Each contestant takes a turn. On their turn, they have the chance to answer the question for double points, or pass it to someone else who could steal it. The thief only gets the face value. For example, if player PlanetX chooses “TOS Monsters for 1000,” if he gets it right, he gets 2000 points. However, if he passes to Gul Tokyo and he gets it, Tokyo only gets 1000 points.

Again, anyone can join the games to test their knowledge of STAR TREK.

Now that the formalities are out of the way, let’s get started on this week’s recap!

GAME 1: Easy Round 1

This game was well fought by players PlanetX, Mercer Create, and Tdouwd. This round was authored by Omnicast.NET.

PlanetX and Mercer came out strong right out of the gate. The highlight of this particular game was PlanetX landing on the category of “Tokyo’s Top 5 Episodes” for 600, nailing “A Taste of Armageddon” pretty quick, which he proclaimed was his favorite episode. However, when faced with the “Ship’s Log” audio category, he couldn’t recognize the log entry from that same episode. Omnicast.NET was quick to remind us all that a few months prior, Gul Tokyo had the same gaff, claiming that “In the Pale Moonlight” was his favorite episode yet forgetting the name of said episode when confronted with a picture of Senator Vreenak’s “It’s a faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake!” image.

In Final Jeopnerdy, Mercer Create (going by “General Mercer” in this game) took home the gold with a decisive win with 19199 points versus 0 points from both Tdouwd and PlanetX as each contestant bet it all and got it wrong against Mercer’s correct answer.

GAME 2: Easy Round 2

Another turns-based game, this one pitted Mercer Create as returning champion against Gul Tokyo and Araviksonder. Mercer immediately went for the attack, claiming 2000 points right off the bat, with Gul Tokyo unable to come up with a counter with his 1000 point question pick, which no one got right. This gave Mercer Create a chance to hit another 1000 point question, giving him another double-score, leading the game early at 4000 to 0 to 800 with Aravik in 2nd place.

Later in the game, Gul Tokyo would pick up a Daily Double and pull a successful attempt to gain just 1 more point off of Mercer, a ploy which would stick for a couple of questions before Mercer would clearly pull ahead.

In Final, everyone would get the correct question with Gul Tokyo and Mercer both betting everything. However, it was Mercer who came into Final in the lead and would end up successfully defending his title against a mediocre performance from Gul Tokyo and a great attempt by Aravik.

Mercer Create would retire from game play for the evening, yielding his champion seat to Gul Tokyo for the hard round.

GAME 3: Hard Round

This buzzer round would see Hard Round Champion Omnicast.NET defend against Gul Tokyo and Patrick Neijenhof. The buzzer format was a direct challenge by Gul Tokyo, who would grow to eat his words with a side of Japanese nattou – disgusting and re-regurgitated slop that passes for a breakfast food.

From the onset, Omni dominated the entire board, with Gul Tokyo unable to answer anything. He would get one question and control the board, selecting difficult answers that even stumped Omni. However, it would come down to a near complete blow-out as Omni took everything in Final against Patrick’s 800 point final score and an absolutely pathetic performance by Gul Tokyo, who bet it all and ended up with 0 points. What saved Patrick’s performance was his correct answer to the Final, which Gul Tokyo proved severely inept to accomplish, costing him the game.

Omni took home the complete destruction, betting only 9 points and winning with 4409 as a final score.

Winners’ Recap

• Game 1: PlanetX (Returning Champion) vs. Mercer Create vs. Tdouwd. Winner: Mercer Create
• Game 2: Mercer Create (Returning Champion) vs. Gul Tokyo vs. Araviksonder. Winner: Mercer Create
• Game 3: Omnicast.NET (Returning Champion) vs. Gul Tokyo vs. Patrick Neijenhof. Winner: Omnicast.NET