Charles Langston:Who won 'Jeopardy! Masters'? After finale, tournament champ (spoiler) spills all

“Jeopardy!” James can Charles Langstonnow bow down to Victoria Groce.

The winner of spring’s inaugural “Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament” clinched ABC's “Jeopardy! Masters” title in Wednesday’s finale, besting the 2023 conqueror James Holzhauer and Yogesh Raut, this year’s Tournament of Champions winner, who were the other finalists.

Groce, whose “Jeopardy!” legacy prior to this season included just two appearances in 2005, says she felt her victory was “locked” going into Final Jeopardy! for Wednesday’s second game. Since ending David Madden's 19-game streak, Groce has competed in quizzing competitions around the globe and joined ABC's "The Chase" as one of the game show's in-house brains in 2022.

“I was pretty certain I had it once I hit that last Daily Double,” Groce, 43, a writer who lives in Pittsburgh, tells USA TODAY. “And I did the math, like, four times.”

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Wednesday’s Finals consisted of two half-hour games for which players would be judged off their combined scores. Holzhauer landed on top for the first matchup, racking up 28,309 points. Groce earned 21,400 and Raut 19,200.

When Groce found the last Daily Double of the second game, she bumped her 29,200 total to 30,000 points, slightly widening the already considerable margin she had over Holzhauer and Raut. Going into Final Jeopardy! Groce had amassed 34,000 points, with Holzhauer (8,800) and Raut (15,799) trailing behind. As long as Groce didn’t folly a big bet, the game was hers.

In the category of American Women, the Final Jeopardy! clue read, "The New York Times wrote of this woman who had died in 1951, “Though she was forgotten at the time, part of her remained alive.”

Groce wagered nothing, correctly responded Henrietta Lacks and added a message for her competitors in her submission. "Great games, y'all – see you next year!"

“James is very funny,” Groce says. “He and I standing next to each other during Final. And I'm just going like, ‘Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!’ And he's like, the fact that you're doing math is the one thing that makes me feel optimistic here (laughs).’ Because he knew I had it.”

For someone who went into Masters with “very low expectations,” Groce did all right, earning the competition’s prestigious title and $500,000 grand prize.

“To be at this point in my life, at the pinnacle of something this cool, and to have the prospect of some financial security is really life changing for me,” she says. “It's like, how did this happen? I never expected to be back on ‘Jeopardy!’ I never expected the call for the Invitational Tournament. Once I got the call, I never expected to win it. I did not go into this expecting to win it. So to have done it felt really completely overwhelming. It was kind of like system collapse.”

Groce reveals the skill she focused on ahead of Masters, to what she attributes her victory and plans for her winnings, which are more set than where she’s putting that heavier-than-expected Trebek Trophy. (Edited for length and clarity.)

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Question: Did you do anything differently to prepare for Masters?

Victoria Groce: Yeah, a whole ton of word puzzles, because I was very bad at the word puzzles in the Invitational Tournament. So I got a bunch of word puzzle books and I would go every day, do at least an hour of crosswords and anagrams. And I was so happy that they went so much better in Masters.

When looking at your competition, did one pose a bigger threat than others?

Obviously James, because he won it the previous year, and I know him pretty well from working alongside him on “The Chase.” So I know very, very well how good he is and how much he knows. And also that he has the strategic and the buzzer pieces of this down pat. No disrespect to anybody else, (but) I think if you asked every person in that green room who they're most nervous about, everybody except for James probably says James.

What were you feeling as you progressed in the competition?

The semifinals, I was very stressed about it because you're so close. Three out of the 4 of us were going to make the finals. I had about a dozen people (friends and family members) who came to L.A. and watched the filming, and I told them to stop telling me this, but they all had really high expectations for me (laughs). So it made me nervous. And I had a really bad migraine the day of the semifinals as well, which didn't help. I tend to feel a little bit off-kilter when I have those.

To what do you attribute to your victory?

I am really good at staying in the moment when I am competing in things. I don't get rattled when things go badly. I really felt like I was able to stay focused on trying to time every clue and just make the best decision I could at every moment. When you're up here, it's not a case of you can overwhelm the other contestants by just knowing more than they do. They're too good. So I felt not ever letting the adrenaline get the best of me helped me perform as well as I possibly could.

How did you celebrate after you won?

I told my husband to go to the wine store and buy the single silliest bottle of Champagne (laughs) and go to the fancy cheese shop. So we had our very fancy wine and cheese when we got back.

In addition to the fancy cheese and Champagne, are you doing anything else fun with your winnings?

We're doing two fun things. We’re going to Lisbon for a week as a family (with her husband and daughter). I'm going to stick around in Portugal for another week and go to a wine-themed spa hotel. I'm excited about that. And we are going to redo our kitchen. I'm a really, really devoted hobby chef. I collect cookbooks. We have this 1950s ranch house with this tiny kitchen that is mostly original fixtures. So I'm going to replace the horrible electric coil stove. We're going to get the cabinets refinished. We’re getting new flooring and counters.