[cognito20]

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I enjoy this show simply because it's like an All-Star game of trivia. I certainly concur with OP's last sentence.

I personally think John Carpenter is going to take it. He's got a winner's attitude, a killer instinct. A lot of these guys' body language tells you they have low self esteem and don't really think too highly of their abilities, whereas John is composed, like Tiger Woods with a lead going into the last round. I would have seeded him #1 over Jennings.

This game is 50% playing the game, 50% knowledge. Many of the contestants seem unable to actually play the game, ie use switches and passes when they can't answer it, remember that it's their turn, etc. The ones who keep their cool and manage their time well do better than the book smart geniuses.

I think I can beat the lower 1/3 of the brackets just by answering the easy questions quickly and passing/switching the hard ones effectively while they take like 20 sec with a question like "What is 3.3-5.6?"

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After watching Carpenter's first-round performance against Thom McKee, there's no way he's going to win this tournament. He's far too bad at mental math (which incidentally is also what did in Brad Rutter in his quarterfinal matchup) to win a semifinal or final matchup. After seeing all the matches to date, I've gotta think it's going to be Ogi Ogas v. Ken Jennings in the final (although David Legler could easily beat Ogas in the semis, he's been great so far in the tournament also and seems to have no weak spots), and that'll be a tossup. Ogas is the best player in the tournament at the numbers questions, but Jennings has the slightest advantage over him in general knowledge and the word rounds, as well as not being a slouch at the numbers round like Carpenter and Rutter are. I'd say it's going to be Jennings winning it, in a close one. I certainly hope it is, since Ogas has come off as an arrogant jackass in each of his two appearances thus far and he's -really- hard to root for.

--Scott