Fans first met Yogesh Raut in 2022 when he competed on the only Jeopardy! perfect game since the turn of the century.
Then, he was invited back to participate in the 2024 Tournament of Champions. Of course, as fans know, Yogesh won!
With the victor headed to another huge Jeopardy! match-up, let’s get to know him a bit better. Read on to learn more about Yogesh, including where he stands with the Masters tournament.
Yogesh Raut didn’t think he’d be back on ‘Jeopardy!’
The Vancouver, Wash., native, a social and personality psychologist, took home nearly $100,000 back in 2022.
Winning $250,000 in the Tournament of Champions? Yogesh didn’t think this would ever happen.
As he shared in an article on the game show’s site, there was only a 1/27 chance he’d take home the top prize.
“It took decades of hard work and dedication to put myself in a position to win the ToC, and it took a great deal of luck for me to triumph over equally skilled competitors,” Yogesh wrote in the piece.
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Yogesh also shared a bit about how he became so adept at quiz games.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the first knowledge quizzing demonstrations I ever gave involved knowing states, capitals, and U.S. presidents,” he said. “Growing up as the child of immigrants, with a foreign-sounding name in the heart of Central Illinois, I had to prove every day that I was an American.”
“Negotiating exclusion is fundamentally intertwined with my drive for learning,” Yogesh also shared. “In my struggle to not be a perpetual outsider, I quickly became attuned to listening to others, finding out what they cared about, and developing ways of having conversations about those things despite living in a household where most of Americana was unfamiliar and most contemporary pop culture was shunned.”
Yogesh is p’ing me off with that buzzer, man. It doesn’t take all that. 😒 #Jeopardy
— Ashley W. (@virgo_chevell) May 6, 2024
Some ‘Jeopardy!’ viewers don’t like Yogesh Raut’s answering style.
While many at-home viewers are rooting for the podcaster and blogger when he competes on Jeopardy!, some fans aren’t loving how aggressively Yogesh hits the buzzer to answer questions, per Newsweek.
In fact, his repeated attack on the buzzer quickly became a hot topic on social media.
“My guy Yogesh is absolutely PUMMELING that buzzer today on Jeopardy!,” one viewer joked on X during a May 6, 2024 game.
“Yogesh gonna break that buzzer,” another X user commented, while someone else observed, “Yogesh needs to calm down with the buzzer.”
But fans are going to see a lot more of the contestant “pummeling” the buzzer, as he advances in the competition.
Game on 🕹️ Which matchup are you excited to see? The newest season of #JeopardyMasters premieres TONIGHT at 8/7c on ABC and Stream on Hulu. pic.twitter.com/q4VrWj5fgs
— Jeopardy! (@Jeopardy) May 1, 2024
Yogesh Raut is killing it on ‘Jeopardy! Masters.’
Yogesh is holding his own during the second season of Jeopardy! Masters.
The remaining players at time of writing include Victoria Groce, Amy Schneider, James Holzhauer, Mattea Roach, and Matt Amodio.
So, will Yogesh become one of three players to earn the most points over three weeks of Jeopardy! Masters and move on to the finals?
If so, he would win and walk away with half a million dollars! To be fair, James is definitely favored to win, but we’ll all be watching!
