JEOPARDY! breakout star Victoria Groce has everyone buzzing, but fans may not know that a yearslong battle with chronic migraines actually led to her trivia success.
The star of The Chase won the new Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament against Amy Schneider and Andrew He on Tuesday, April 9.
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Victoria defeated 40-time champion and 2022 ToC winner Amy and 2022 ToC runner-up Andrew in the JIT finals.
The prize is $100,000 and a slot in next month's Jeopardy! Masters special on ABC in primetime.
The top three faced off until one player notched two victories, and Victoria notched the needed two wins to Amy's one win.
After the pro quizzer won the tournament on Tuesday's episode, she'll now go to Masters.
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But cementing herself in theJeopardy!history books or becoming The Queen on ABC's The Chase nearly never happened.
'I COULDN'T MANAGE'
Victoria won one Jeopardy! game in 2005, which is notable since she ended David Madden's 19-game streak at a very young age.
Then, she took a 20-year hiatus from Jeopardy!, so her inclusion in the JIT came as a surprise to many.
Victoria left trivia when she had her daughter Nora at 23, right after her initial Jeopardy! stint in 2006, and then fell ill.
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“I actually spent most of my twenties really quite ill," she shared in a 2022 interview with the What It Takes to Know Everything podcast.
"I have chronic migraine, and it’s varied from being an annoyance to being pretty debilitating through most of my adult life."
However, she explained that this condition changed her career path.
"In fact, I would be probably doing something very different right now if I hadn’t been very sick through most of the late 2010s," she added.
“I initially intended to become a genetic counselor. I wanted to do vaccine development for emerging viral diseases.
"But in 2015, my migraine prophylaxis basically completely failed.
"I had days where I had to take sick days off work because I couldn’t manage the 15-minute walk from the parking to my office.”
“I had started dipping my toes back into trivia a couple years prior to that,” she added.
"I had time and I had space and I had not a lot of ability to do much of anything else. So, I gradually started just doing more and more [trivia].”
In other words, thanks to the difficult obstacle she overcame, she was afforded the time to become the trivia titan she is today.
NEW QUEEN OF JEOPARDY!
Victoriabeat outAmyandAndrewin the third final match despite missing two Daily Doubles, clinching the title.
Victoria entered the crucial last round after the costly misses with $11,400, Andrew $10,000, and Amy $7,200.
The clue under "BODIES OF WATER" read, "The smallest inland sea in the world, it’s completely within the territory of a single country & connects 2 other larger seas."
Everyone was correct with "Sea of Marmora," and Victoria wagered $8,601 to win the game and the tournament with $20,001.
Victoria covered her face and was left in near tears as the audience roared, and she uttered, "Oh my God!"
She hugged her opponents and they all came together for a group hug, leading Andrew - who couldn't notch a win - to hoist Victoria's arm up in a kodak moment.
Amy earned a second-place prize of $50,000, while Andrew collected $25,000 for third place.
Fans flooded social media, ecstatic for The Queen of The Chase and now Jeopardy!, who will inject fresh blood into next month's Masters.
"Congratulations to Victoria. She absolutely earned this tournament win and the ticket to the Masters!! And she overcame two surprising Daily Double misses, costing her 8,800, no less. That's a testament to just how strong her all-around game is," one Redditor wrote.
"Victoria and James are heavy favorites to make the Finals of Masters in my mind," another predicted.
"Congratulations to Victoria! I was pretty nervous about the match since today's Daily Doubles were tricky," wrote a third.
MORE ON VICTORIA GROCE
Victoria is a quiz expert hailing fromGeorgiabut now living in Pittsburgh with her husband and daughter.
When she finally returned to the trivia world in the mid-2010s, she made a name for herself.
Victoria admitted to Ken Jennings during her tournament win, "I never thought I would be here again. I felt I was basically a kid in a lot of ways," referring to her initial appearance.
"I know I had a kid of my own but I was at a very unsettled time in my early 20s. So to be back here as an adult is kind of blowing my mind."
In 2021, Groce was named World Quizzer of the Year. She also played on the winning team for the 2021-2022 Quizzing World Cup.
Her longtime teammate isTroy Meyer,and she cheered him on in the audience for the2024 Tournament of Champions.
“I had absolutely no inkling that anything might be in the future and I was very, very OK with that," she also toldTribLiveabout returning to Jeopardy!.
"I just viewed it as his cool thing that’s part of my life story. I never felt any bitterness or that I deserved to come back.”
“I knew what the studio would look like. I knew what the timings would be, what happens when,” she added to the outlet. “It was good to have had that experience right beforehand.”
WHO IS: ALSO IN MASTERS?
Jeopardy! Masters 2024 will begin on Monday, May 8, on ABC in primetime.
Victoria will be a fresh addition to the lineup, as Amy and Andrew were in it last year. She will play againstJames Holzhauer, with whom she co-stars on The Chase.
Masters 2024 will feature the six highest-ranked contestants of the year.
Masters’ first three spots were guaranteed to last year’s finalists:Matt Amodio, reigning championJames, andMattea Roach.
The fourth slot goes toYogesh Rautfor winning the 2024 Tournament of Champions.
The fifth slot goes to Victoria, and the sixth to aProducer's Pick, who can be anyone and will beannounced on Friday.
Regular episodes with new contestants returnfor the first time this season tomorrow, and will continue until Season 40 ends in July.
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That means that for the first time in eight months, three-day champ Lucas Partridge from last summer and two civilian players will take the stage.
The JIT finals air continues tonight at 7 pm ET on ABC - check your local listings.
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