Roach proud of her Jeopardy! exploits
HALIFAX — Mattea Roach is glad there was a lull between her 23rd and 24th games of Jeopardy!.
It gave her time to decompress and get to know the woman who would end her historic victory run on the popular quiz show Friday.
“I've never been upset to lose at anything as long as I liked the person I'm losing to,” Roach posted to her Twitter feed Saturday.
“I had a great time talking to Danielle (Maurer) and loved her energy.”
Roach, a 23-year-old Toronto tutor with deep roots in Nova Scotia who captured the attention of this country with her seemingly endless repository of random facts, ended her run with a lesson in grace.
Her posts to Twitter were a promised wrap-up of her thoughts on her 23-game win streak and how it ended.
She wrote about how she played well in her final game but Maurer played better, ably finding and capitalizing on Daily Doubles.
Roach lost by $1 after Maurer successfully answered the Final Jeopardy question: Which two mayors gave their names to a facility built on the site of an old racetrack owned by Coca-Cola magnate Asa Candler?
The answer – in case you ever need to know it – was Hartsfield-Jackson, of the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
“I am actually familiar with Hartsfield-Jackson airport and have flown through it, so this was a case of me just not being able to parse a clue properly in time!” Roach said on Twitter.
“As soon as I saw Danielle's response, I knew she must be right, and when I saw her wager, I knew my time was up. I think that nearly losing
on Thursday had caused me to make my peace with the idea of a Jeopardy run coming to an end, so my immediate response in the moment wasn't one of sadness, but of pride at what I had accomplished and excitement for Danielle.”
With total winnings of $560,983 US, Roach is the most successful Canadian competitor ever on the popular trivia show and is in the all-time top five in cash and won games.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former Nova Scotia premier Stephen McNeil were among those singing her praises on social media after her winning streak ended.
She has already earned a spot in the show's Tournament of Champions, which will air in the fall.
Roach was in Nova Scotia
this past week visiting family.
In a Jeopardy! subreddit group, Maurer said, "I just want to say, Mattea was wonderful the whole day. She was incredibly kind to nervous contestants and gave us the best possible advice, and she absolutely did not have to do that. She's a queen, and I have the utmost respect for her."
Maurer is a digital marketing manager from Peachtree Corners, Ga.