Jeopardy!: Yogesh Raut wins Tournament of Champions 2024

Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions 2024 has officially wrapped up, with Yogesh Raut being crowned the winner. This season, the finalists were Troy Meyer from Tampa, Florida, Yogesh Raut from Vancouver, Washington, and Ben Chan from Green Bay, Wisconsin. However, only one of them was crowned as the champion in the end.

Through his impressive performance, hard work, and consistent efforts, Yogesh won the Tournament of Champions 2024 and earned a grand prize of $250,000. He will also be appearing on Jeopardy! Masters prime-time tournament which will air in May 2024, exclusively on ABC.

In a recent interview with the Seattle Times on Wednesday, March 20, 2024, Yogesh shared his experience on the show. He also admitted to luck being the most important factor in the game:

"It is inherently a challenging game to play. There’s a lot of luck involved, and over and over again I benefited from the bad luck of other contestants. Even though so much of [the game] requires skill, to win, you also need luck on your side. It’s impossible to win without both of those things.”

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How did Yogesh Raut win Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions 2024?

Revealing the strategy he used in the finals, Yogesh explained that having the skill and expertise during the show is mandatory, otherwise surviving becomes difficult. In the last round, contestants had to brainstorm information about the human body.

Surprisingly, Yogesh Raut was in second place, between his fellow competitors music executive Troy Meyer and philosophy professor Ben Chan, who were in first and third place, respectively.

Yogesh was familiar with the Final Jeopardy! category. He shared that his mother is a doctor, which is why he had "a lot of basic knowledge" related to the human body.

Even though the 2024 winner thought Ben was "the most expert" in the subject, Yogesh took advantage of being in second place, as there was still a possibility that he might get an answer wrong, which was not the case with Ben. Explaining his thought process, Yogesh noted:

“Even though I was in second place going into Final Jeopardy! I didn’t necessarily have to get Final Jeopardy! right to stay ahead. I could also stay ahead of him with a small wager, even if I got it wrong.That’s a strong position to be in because essentially, the first-place player has to get Final Jeopardy! right in order to win.”

Yogesh was the only finalist who was able to guess the clue, "this glandular organ that starts to shrink at puberty is known for being where the cells key to adaptive immunity develop." He instantly replied with "the spleen" as his final answer.

When he was told his answer was correct, Yogesh couldn't believe he was being crowned the winner of the Tournament of Champions 2024. For him, the guess "triggered a memory," as he tried to find where he remembered this information from.

Later, he revealed that his October 2018 blog on the involution of the thymus was the source of the spleen guess. A part of his brain was familiar with that information as he had done extensive research beforehand, making it a focal point in the game. Yogesh, however, believes it was his luck that won him the title.

"But I wasn’t confident and also the pressure was off because ultimately if Troy got it right, he wins. If he gets it wrong, I win,” he told the Seattle Times.

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To see Yogesh Raut's journey on the show, stream Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions 2024 on ABC.