Victoria Groce handily defeated self-proclaimed “final boss” James Holzhauer and 2024 Tournament of Champions winner Yogesh Rautto become Jeopardy! Masters champion on Wednesday (May 22) and is now opening up about her experience.
The Chase star took to the Jeopardy! Reddit forum on Thursday (May 23) for an AMA (Ask Me Anything), where she opened up about her favorite TV shows, how she practiced her buzzer technique, and the shock she felt about being asked back on Jeopardy!
Before being invited to (and winning) the Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament, Groce had only played two games of Jeopardy! almost 20 years ago. In 2005, she ended David Madden’s impressive run of 19 games but lost in her second episode.
However, since then, Groce has become a formidable figure in the trivia community, and in 2022, she joined ABC’s game show The Chase as “The Queen.” But even with those credentials, Groce said she never expected to get the call to return to Jeopardy!
“I did NOT have a sense that I was going to get back on the show at any point,” she told one Reddit user. “It really was totally out of the blue. My husband can vouch that I went around in a state of utter shock for days after the invitation.”
“I honestly think 2005 me would check herself into some sort of psychiatric clinic because I would think it was a sign that something had completely broken in my sense of reality,” Groce said when asked what her past self would feel if she knew she’d one day win Jeopardy! Masters.
“It was not at all on the list of things I would’ve considered conceivable,” she continued. “To get a call to come back…like, it was unbelievable and I would’ve been completely satisfied even if I had just flamed out. Genuinely.”
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Groce made the most of her second chance, winning the JIT! in dominating fashion and earning her spot in Masters. Throughout both tournaments, she displayed vast trivia knowledge and quick speed on the buzzer, which made her tough to beat.
When asked about how she studies for the show, particularly for subjects she isn’t interested in, Groce said, “In general you want to go from broad to narrow on fields you don’t know much about. I personally can’t learn minutiae about something until I learn the basics. So if there’s something where I’m like “this is a big gap,” I try to find an explainer or a really basic resource to learn and THEN go deeper into it.”
She added, “Taking the time to let things sink in and being patient is important; there’s only so much you can learn at one time. To me, I find it kind of liberating that I CAN’T learn everything; it’s literally not a possible thing.”
As for how she got so good at trivia, Groce explained, “It’s not the most exciting answer, but playing a ton and studying a ton. I did quiz bowl and other trivia things from the time I was a kid until a little out of college, kinda left the community for awhile when my kid was young (just too busy), and then got back into it about 12 years ago, and about 10 years ago I started doing gradually more of it.”
When it came to her quick finger on the buzzer, Groce put it down to her musical training (and love of video games).
“I have both a LOT of musical training on instruments involving finger dexterity (piano and harp, mostly) and have played a LOT of video games over the course of my life couldn’t have been anything but helpful,” she shared.
“I’ve mentioned in other places that I love rhythm games and have definitely logged my 10,000 hours there; I also have played some games where there’s fast-twitch stuff.”
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Others wanted to know the fate of The Chase, which ABC has yet to confirm whether or not it’s returning.
“We are kind of in limbo!” Groce said. “We are neither cancelled nor renewed. I am hoping that the fact that we were asked to talk about it on Jeopardy is a good sign.”
As for non-game-show-related questions, Groce said some of her favorite TV shows are Community, Mad Men, ArrestedDevelopment (the firstthree seasons only), and Ted Lasso, and one of her favorite books of all time is The Kingdom by Emmanuel Carrere.
She also said her pick for “sexiest man alive” would be Talking Heads frontman David Byrne.
But when asked to name her five favorite Jeopardy! players ever, Groce didn’t want to say outright. But she did note, “I remember rooting very hard for Robin Carroll and Eddie Timanus back in the day. As far as more recent people I really enjoyed Deb Bilodeau and Hannah Wilson—I got to meet them both briefly after TOC and they were lovely folks.”
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