'I'll Take Obscure Trivia For $2,000, Alex.' Chatham Man Sets Record on Jeopardy

By Alicia Cruz
The New Jersey Newsroom

"I'll take obscure trivia for $2,000, Alex."

45-year-old chemical engineer, Vijay Balse's knack for the unusual and tough helped him polish off the first of two Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions episodes on Thursday, leading him to the final round Friday night where Balse walked away $250,000 richer as he claimed first place status.

“Winning a Tournament of Champions game is definitely much more gratifying than winning a regular game,” Balse, of Chatham told the Star-Ledger.

Balse, a native of Mumbai, India, won $82,400 during five games earlier this season, which qualified him to return to the Sony Pictures Studios in Los Angeles to tape the Tournament of Champions, to compete against 15 of the shows recent champions for a quarter of a million dollars.

Balse’s run, described as "impressive," earned him a place in Jeopardy history as the first person to ever win three games against a super champion, but stopped short of matching the record set by Ken Jennings who won $2,520,700 during a streak of 74 consecutive victories in 2004.

Balse beat out 14 other competitors to win this year’s Tournament of Champions and said he was thrilled at the opportunity to meet the players he had rooted for on television, but was not at all intimidated by the stiff competition

Was he intimidated?

"Not at all," the Chatham resident told the Star-Ledger.

Confident in his ability to do well on the tough trivia show, Balse said there is always an element of luck.

"Sometimes the categories go against you, maybe you're feeling a little under the weather. Maybe the buzzer is not your friend," he said.

Producers advise contestants to press the buzzer multiple times. But he opted for a different approach, finding it better to wait for the right moment and press only once.

"Focus on that one instance of time and then press the button," said Balse who was a member of the Bowl quiz team at his Alma Mater, the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Balse, who auditioned six times in the past 16 years for a spot on the show, called himself "an inspiration to people to keep trying."

The most difficult thing about being on the program, he said, was “keeping your cool," which many would likely agree seemed to come easy for this trivia genius.


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