Five months ago, Holzhauer, a sports bettor from Las Vegas, had a shot at surpassing the $2.52 million Ken Jennings won during his record 74-game winning streak in 2004. But in Holzhauer’s 33rd game, Boettcher, a Chicago-based librarian, dethroned him and reaped game show glory. She went on to win the next two games, losing the third.

Holzhauer and Boettcher will go up against a third finalist, to be determined in Wednesday’s semifinal, in a two-game match that will air on Thursday and Friday. The winner, determined by the highest total for the two games, will take home $250,000. The runner-up will win $100,000 and the third-place finisher gets $50,000.

During his 32-game streak, Holzhauer, 35, set the record for the most money won in a single episode and then surpassed that total three more times. (The new record, which he set on April 17, is $131,127.) Holzhauer’s statistics far exceeded those of the other players in the Tournament of Champions, a regular “Jeopardy!” event in which recent big winners compete against one another. Close watchers of the show had debated online whether Boettcher’s winnings, which amounted to just under $100,000, were low for a champions contestant . Some fans speculated that the show chose her for the potential ratings bump that would come with a rematch.

After Boettcher’s semifinals win aired on Monday, Holzhauer tweeted a photo of Boettcher’s triumphant smile, poking fun at her detractors. Boettcher, 27, had carefully and intensively trained for the show, tracking her success with clues in a notebook and building the confidence it took to bet large Daily Double wagers.