After beginning as the frontrunner, Jeopardy! Masters season 3's Victoria Groce placed third in the tournament behind winner Yogesh Raut and runner-up Juveria Zaheer, and she now reveals if Yogesh deserved to win. Victoria came into Jeopardy! Masters season 3 after winning season 2, during which she bested runner-up Yogesh and third-place finisher James Holzhauer. She'd previously won the 2024 Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament, after returning to the game twenty years after defeating 19-day champion David Madden in 2005. As the Jeopardy! Masters season 3 winner, Yogesh was awarded $500,000, $100,000 for his favorite charity, and the coveted Alex Trebek trophy.

Victoria Groce placed third in the tournament behind winner Yogesh Raut and runner-up Juveria Zaheer, and she now reveals if Yogesh deserved to win.

In a Jeopardy! Reddit post, Victoria discussed her Jeopardy! career, and she revealed that she believed that Yogesh and Juveria deserved to win Jeopardy! Masters season 3. She wrote, "In 2005, I went on Jeopardy! I won one game against two spectacular players (#bringbackstevekaltenbaugh!), lost my second game, figured Jeopardy! was squarely in my rearview mirror, and happily went on with my life."

Victoria itted that her life was too full to focus on trivia, so she stopped doing it. She said, "Between work and school and parenting my life was way too busy to do much else, and quiz is one of the things that I dropped. In 2014, Kristin Sausville was offering Learned League invitations to friends and I grabbed one, figuring what the heck, I could manage six questions a day."

Victoria shared that, as she focused more on quiz, she started to wonder where it could lead. She explained, "And gradually over the next decade I started spending more and more of what little spare time I had on quiz. 'Maybe I can relearn what I learned for Jeopardy to get on another game show.' 'Maybe I can be better than a .100 film player at LearnedLeague.' 'Hey, my friend invited me to play the World Quizzing Championships and I did surprisingly well. Maybe I can do better!'"

Victoria then marveled at her experiences as a Chaser on the game show, The Chase, and Jeopardy!, stating that she didn't feel that she deserved everything that's happened to her throughout the last three years. She confessed, "The utterly insane things that have happened to me over the last three years—The Chase, getting an invitation to come back on Jeopardy!, Masters, everything—I never ever could have predicted when I got back into this hobby a decade ago. I don’t feel like I deserved them. I most certainly don’t feel like I was owed them."

Victoria also expressed her gratitude for all of the opportunities in her life. She wrote, "And I cannot express how grateful I am. Ten years ago I was fearful that I’d have to quit working because of my health and I’d be basically dependent the rest of my life. And now I’ve not only had such amazing experiences in JIT and Masters, but I’ve made the most wonderful friends and gotten the chance to write a book, which had been a dream of mine since I was a kid."

Victoria continued, "Thank you for watching, and thank you for enjoying this show. I’m acutely aware that I had all kinds of ways to not be here in tonight’s matches—they didn’t have to invite me; I had lots of routes to losses in JIT and Masters last year and this year—and I can honestly say I have felt nothing other than great about how things have gone."

Victoria concluded by congratulating Yogesh and Juveria, and revealing that she believed that they deserved to take first and second place in Jeopardy! Masters season 3. She wrote, "All my congratulations to Yogesh and Juveria, who played beautifully and deserved to win."

What Victoria Groce’s Loss Means For Jeopardy!

Victoria Is Still A Jeopardy! Legend

Although it was shocking to see Victoria come in third in Jeopardy! Masters season 3 after she dominated the early rounds of the tournament and went undefeated during the semi-finals, it means that anything can happen during a Jeopardy! game. Victoria won the first game of the finals and went into the second game as the only player with points, which carried over. She had an incredible lead over Yogesh and Juveria, who both had zero points, while she had 14,400 points.

However, Victoria didn't have any luck with Daily Doubles in the final game because Juveria found two and Yogesh found one, and their gutsy true Daily Double moves during Double Jeopardy! brought their scores to astronomical heights. Despite this, the final scores were still close as Victoria ended with 36,400 points because of her game 1 winnings. However, Juveria bested her with 36,800, and Yogesh won with 41,601. Although she didn't win Jeopardy! Masters season 3, Victoria is still a Jeopardy! legend.

Our Take On Yogesh & Juveria Defeating Victoria On Jeopardy! Masters

Yogesh & Juveria Deserved Their Wins

While I was shocked and disappointed that Victoria didn't win Jeopardy! Masters season 3 after rooting for her throughout the tournament, I believe that Yogesh and Juveria deserved their wins. Victoria is an incredible Jeopardy! player, so Yogesh and Juveria had to do whatever it took to beat her. Their bold true Daily Doubles gave them an edge over her in the final game, and they were amazing to watch.

I also noticed that Yogesh seemed to know almost every answer that Victoria did, but she beat him to the buzzer. If he'd been able to buzz in first, his scores might've been even higher in the earlier rounds. However, in addition to having a phenomenal amount of knowledge, Victoria is always able to keep her cool in order to dominate Jeopardy! tournaments with the buzzer, which is an important part of playing the games.

Jeopardy! Masters season 3 was the most exciting so far. It was a thrill to see a rematch between last year's winner and runner-up, Victoria and Yogesh. It was also so inspiring to see Juveria, who didn't even win her first regular Jeopardy! game, come back for the Second Chance tournament, and win her place in Champions Wildcard, which led to her winning a spot in the Tournament of Champions. Juveria also placed second in the 2025 Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament.

Jeopardy! Masters season 3 featured nine icons of the game, including Yogesh, Juveria, Victoria, Isaac Hirsch, Matt Amodio, Roger Craig, Brad Rutter, Adriana Harmeyer, and Neilesh Vinjamuri. It's always a treat to see the most extraordinary minds come together to compete in these tournaments. Victoria, Yogesh, and Juveria are three of the best Jeopardy! contestants of all-time, and it was an honor to watch them compete in Jeopardy! Masters season 3.

Jeopardy! Masters is available to stream on Hulu.

Source: Victoria Groce/Reddit