Jeopardy! 2022 Tournament of Champions format and fieldS (!) revealed.

On today's official Inside Jeopardy! podcast (co-hosted by show Executive Producer Michael Davies and Sarah Foss -- the guest was 2017 winner and 2021 host of the Tournament Buzzy Cohen), the field for the direct 2022 Tournament of Champions was revealed:

• College Champion Jaskaran Singh.  Singh won $250,000 in a college prime-time tournament -- and, as tradition, the College Champion also gains a spot in the Tournament of Champions.
• College Professors Champion Sam Buttrey.  In 2021, he won the first Professors Tournament, a $100,000 prize, and, as tradition with all major tournaments, a spot in the Tournament of Champions.
• 40-time champion and all-time show female winnings record holder Amy Schneider (who defeated Andrew He in her first win, in probably the ULTIMATE Second Chance scenario -- He was leading going into Final and would've won if wagered right).   The first out transgender Jeopardy! champion, Schneider made history in the longest run of victory on the show since Jennings.  Her $1,384,800 places her 11th in all-time, all-shows, and second in the women to Ashlee Register of Duel.
• #10 on the all-time, all-shows list is also in the field, Matt Amodio.  His 38 wins and $1,519,601 -- and they also noted six different guest hosts on the run...  And none of them was Ken Jennings, who will host the 2022 Tournament.  Officially, with two more wins, Schneider will be the Tournament's #1 seed.
• The all-time Canadian winner on the show, Mattea Roach.  $560,983 is ninth all-time in show history.  Roach had 23 wins, fifth all-time.
• Ryan Long from Philadelphia, with 16 wins.  A couple of these were in the "HOW?" file, and with only just over $300,000, Long is more of a "quantity over quality" case in this Tournament.  According to Andy Saunders, 14-8 in Doubles, 8-9 in Final.  How he won 16, I have no idea.
• Jonathan Fisher, who created Jeopardy! history of his own -- an (eventual) ultrachamp taking down an ultrachamp (Amodio -- the first, and, to date, only person to do that).  His stats weren't nearly as impressive:  11 wins, $248,100, but he ends up the fifth-seeded ultrachamp in a show which has had only 14.
• Brian Chang -- who had an unfortunate end to his 7-win streak:  The carryover champion from pre-COVID (Zack Newkirk) could not safely start the new season.  By the time safety would allow, Newkirk defeated Chang for his fifth win and ended his run.
• Courtney Shaw -- the first superchamp on the show in 17 weeks (plus any tournaments and reruns) in S37.
• Eric Ahasic
• Zack Newkirk is also in the field.
• Megan Wachspress, who won six after defeating Ahasic (who had also won six), making that pair the third, through 10 players regular season, to both be in the Tournament (Amodio-Fisher, Chang-Newkirk, Wachspress-Ahasic).  The show notes Wachspress' low average -- did not note it for Fisher or for Long.
• Andrew He, who makes the fourth such pair in the tournament, as he lost to Schneider after five wins.
• Tyler Rhode, a five-time winner.
• Jackie Kelly, a four-game winner, winning the (normal) tiebreaker with $115,100.

That is the usual field size of 15.  HOWEVER, the show announced previously that another tournament would be held before the ToC, with some of the best of the best not to win a single game, but performed so well (probably against one of the ultrachamps) to gain a spot in a one-time Second Chance Tournament.  Here's THAT field, announced about two weeks ago:

• Isaac Applebaum (4th place, 2022 College Championship)
• James Fraser (not sure how he got in this field -- probably they just kept asking people and he was one of the last they needed to ask)
• Sadie Goldberger (Wachspress' first win, would've won with a correct Final)
• Aaron Gulyas (Long's 11th win, would've won if he remembered "Omaha" was the audible call of Peyton Manning.  (His Final was the creator of Omaha Productions, Gulyas said Ric Flair (?!?!?!??))
• Molly Karol (He's fourth win, would've won if He had missed his final, a total of over $30,000)
• Alicia O'Hare (kinda the same boat as Fraser -- acquitted quite well, but we seem to recall the initial idea of this Tournament was all the ultrachamps this season and occasional good challengers to those runs)
• Do Park (Schneider's 14th win -- gave her a good push, but are there 15 better candidates there?)
• Tom Philopose (Long's 15th win -- would've won (with Long's wager and his own) if he got his Final right)
• Tracy Pitzel (Amodio's 24th win -- would've won if she had known the Final, that a Dip containing acetone, benzene, and turpentine kills Toons, as in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"
• Nikkee Porcaro (this one really is a "Huh?" -- sounds like, after they ran out of super/ultrachamp-challenger candidates, they started finding anyone who would've won if they got their Final right to fill this field to the needed amount)
• Renee Russell (Roach's 18th win -- a correct Final would've meant a big score over $40,000 (but one Roach covered), and the producers deemed that sufficient)
• Pam Schoenberg (Schneider's 10th win -- see Russell, but over a $32,000 score if she'd bet fully)
• Jeff Smith (See Porcaro and probably Fraser and O'Hare as well)
• Sara Snider (Roach's 23rd and final win -- had the lead in Final, would've won with a correct response)
• Jessica Stephens (Amodio's defeat and Fisher's first win, and probably a great prototype for the creation of this tournament -- acquitted herself very well in the match!)
• Rowan Ward (Amodio's 18th win (and the final episode of S37) -- appeared under another name in this match (which Rowan uses as an FKA, Nicolle Neulist), falls kind of under the same concept as Russell and Schoenberg)
• Jack Weller (Chang's 4th win -- lost a tiebreaker question to Chang)
• Cindy Zhang (mis-wagered her way out of a championship)

Now, you'll notice that's 18 of those.

That is because there will be two separate nine-person tournaments -- EACH qualifying it's winner for the Tournament of Champions.  Winner-take-all semifinals three days, and a two-day final each week for the qualifier.

But wait!  That's now SEVENTEEN for the main Tournament, and Inside Jeopardy! announced how that's getting handled!

Well, that's because the field is 21!  Here are the four additional direct qualifiers before we get to how they straighten this out:

• John Focht -- four wins, $103,000
• Margaret Shelton -- almost $80,000 in four wins
• Maureen O'Neil -- defeated Margaret, making the fifth such pairing in the Tournament.  $58,200 in her four wins.
• Christine Whelchel -- $73,602 in her four wins, a cancer survivor.  Famously discarded her wig in solidarity and to normalize recovery and remission after Trebek's passing.

So how are they doing this Tournament?

In a manner similar to the Ultimate Tournament of Champions, the top three seeds (Amy, Matt, and Mattea) win automatic qualification to the semifinals.  Davies notes the bigger question (the difference between Mattea and the fourth seed was seven full wins, so granting advancement was never the issue!) was the familiarity with the stage and buzzer for the three seeds.

Davies also noted (and you can see from both lists) that there was no feasible way to get the field to 27 and do three pods.

The other 18 play quarterfinals.  Winner take all.  No wildcards.

Then the seeds come in for the three semifinals.  Winner take all.

BUT THEN, ANOTHER THROWBACK:

You remember The Greatest Of All-Time??  They're bringing THAT format forward, single-game format.

Three wins wins you the tournament.  $250,000 (presumably), and they're still trying to figure out if the "championship belt" format Buzzy Cohen started when his wife gave him a Rocky-style belt for his win is going to continue -- he had one made for James Holzhauer, Holzhauer had one made for Sam Kavanaugh.  No word yet on what Kavanaugh is doing.