With the friendly relationship they have off-stage, that leaves an awkward tension: "When we’re hanging out, we’re both Jeopardy! players with a lot in common so we can bond on that level, and I’m just trying to ignore the fact that at some point we’re just going to have to go up on stage and try to massacre each other,” Jennings described.

Their dominance is felt among their fellow contestants, too. Even their competition in the tournament, all former champions themselves, looked to Brad and Ken as the ones to beat. "I certainly felt like there was a little more pressure on us, we’re the ones that are expected to win," Jennings said. "And also people just not wanting to play [Brad and I], people getting bummed when they would read out the seedings. I was surprised, I sort of thought at that high of a level, it’s really anybody’s game any time, but it seemed like it was definitely perceived that there were some top elite there."

Courtesy Jeopardy Productions, Inc.

The Brad vs. Ken final almost didn't happen. In Jennings' semifinal match, he bet big on a Daily Double and lost it, and eventually ceded his once-runaway lead to Forrest, before getting it back in the final minute of play. "You’re not panicky, because it really is just going too fast, but you are just frantically treading water trying to keep up," Jennings said. "I never really felt like 'I’m going to lose the game' but I did feel like it was a little more stressful."

According to him and Rutter, it's all about momentum, and the buzzer. "The buzzer timing is so important and when you get into a rhythm like that – to go back to baseball you’ll hear hitters on a hot streak say that the ball looks like a beach ball –and when you have the timing on the buzzer and you’re just getting in whenever you want, that seems to sort of snowball," Rutter explained.

That's what makes the two of them very nearly impossible to beat – they are so often the ones seeing the beach ball. They rush out of the gate, scooping up every clue, and leave their opponents floundering. There's an intimidation factor inherent in matching up against Jennings or Rutter, and it only piles on in-game. "You hardly ever see that," Jennings said of Forrest's brief comeback. "Usually people who are down $10,000 early, you can just see them check out." That's what happens with most people Jennings and Rutter play, that's why at the end of the day, they're "the only two people who could put 'Occupation: Jeopardy! Contestant' on our tax returns," as Jennings put it.

But regardless of outcome, whether Jennings or Rutter are victorious or Roger Craig becomes a new Jeopardy! legend this week, a giant slayer, they're just enjoying themselves, thankful to be back. It's a game, you know.

"Not that I didn’t have fun at the others, but I think I had a lot more fun this time," Rutter said of the Decades tournament.

Jennings echoed: "You don’t get to do it often enough, and you just try to enjoy it when it happens."

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.

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