Dhruv Gaur ’21 advanced to the semifinals in the “Jeopardy!” Tournament of Champions after defeating two opponents in the quarterfinals in an episode that aired last night.
Gaur won the “Jeopardy!” College Championship in April 2018, taking home a $100,000 prize and earning him a spot in this year’s Tournament of Champions. In the tournament that features top players from previous seasons of the show, Gaur is the only college student in contention.
“It was really validating to win as a college student playing against adults,” Gaur said after the Tuesday episode. “I wasn’t sure how I would do against people who have just got a lot more experience and worldly knowledge than I have. I think I had some imposter syndrome going in, but after (advancing) I definitely felt like I deserved to be there.”
Returning to the show was an exciting experience for Gaur. “It’s just generally a really fun environment to be in,” he said.
Despite his enthusiasm, some of the differences between the Tournament of Champions and the College Championship made Gaur nervous. “A lot of other people who were going to be in the tournament were posting on Twitter and Facebook about how much they were studying, and I was like I have school and a job over the summer, so I couldn’t really study as much,” he said.
In his spare time this summer, Gaur and his friends made watching “Jeopardy!” reruns a regular activity.
“I think over the course of the summer, he ended up with a stack of a couple thousand flashcards,” said Tanay Nunna ’21, a friend of Gaur’s.
Filming for the Tournament of Champions took place in September in Culver City, California. “It was weird because it was a small hotel and basically all ‘Jeopardy!’ people, so we all knew each other from TV,” he said.
Though Gaur had to miss class to film, “it was during the tail end of shopping period, so not a lot was going on, and it wasn’t super difficult,” he said, adding that professors were very accommodating after learning the reason for his absence.
“A lot of people just know him as ‘Jeopardy!’ Dhruv, but I don’t see him that way most of the time,” said Soham Kale ’21, another of Gaur’s friends, referencing other extracurricular involvement. “Sometimes people don’t realize that there’s this whole other part to him that’s also super accomplished.”
Nunna added that Gaur is a “very aware and open-minded person when it comes to new experiences, and he just takes on new challenges in a very positive way.” Nunna praised Gaur’s passion for “learning about literally anything.”
The last time Gaur appeared on “Jeopardy!”, he was tight-lipped about his performance until the show aired, citing confidentiality agreements, Nunna said. “We’d try to read his reactions to our questions and catch him off guard, but we could never tell if he won or not before the show aired,” Nunna said. Gaur hid his trophy and brought it out after his public win to keep his victory secret.
Gaur’s friends praised his continual dedication to “Jeopardy!” “I look at Dhruv, and I’m like here is someone who goes to school with me who (had) already done something amazing at the age of 19,” said friend Sheril Varghese ’21. “He reminds me that I go to school with some amazing, talented people.”
