Jeopardy! History Wiki
Neilesh

Neilesh Vinjamuri (born c. 1995/1996) is a software engineer from Lionville, Pennsylvania.

Jeopardy! Run[]

Neilesh Vinjamuri is the third 3-time Jeopardy! champion to win the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions and the lowest winner in regular-season play (in terms of doubled values) to win the ToC. Per regular-season play win, Neilesh had averaged $17,700. During the 2024–2025 qualification period, Neilesh was qualified as the 15th seed in the 2025 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions.

Regular-season play[]

Before Neilesh's regular-season play run[]

Before Neilesh first appeared on Jeopardy! on July 19, 2024, Isaac Hirsch was on a 9-game winning streak from July 3, 2024, to July 16, 2024, where he lost to Jay Fisher, who would later go on a 3-game winning streak of his own, winning $28,200.

Results[]

Neilesh first appeared on Jeopardy! on July 19, 2024, where he dethroned 3-time champion Jay Fisher, who later went on to become the wildcard semifinalist in the 2025 Jeopardy! Champions Wildcard tournament. Neilesh accumulated 3 wins throughout his run until on July 24, 2024, losing to Davey Morrison, who later went on a 2-game winning streak and became the quarterfinalist in the 2025 Jeopardy! Champions Wildcard tournament.

Game No. Air Date Final score Cumulative Winnings Notes
1 July 19, 2024 $12,000 $12,000 Neilesh's first runaway game.
2 July 22, 2024 $29,100 $41,100 Neilesh's second and final runaway game in regular-season play.
3 July 23, 2024 $11,999 $53,099
4 July 24, 2024 $5,199 $56,099 Lost to Davey Morrison, who went on a 2-game winning streak.

Tournament of Champions[]

In the third quarterfinal game, Neilesh faced off against Greg Jolin and Weckiai Rannila. Throughout the first two rounds of the game, Neilesh came up with 33/34 correct questions (including 1/1 Daily Double). Everyone got Final Jeopardy! correct, and Neilesh advanced to the semifinals while Greg and Weckiai received $5,000.

In the third and final semifinal game, Neilesh faced off against Drew Basile and Drew Goins. Throughout the first two rounds of the game, Neilesh came up with 13/15 correct questions. Basile and Neilesh got Final Jeopardy! correct, and Neilesh advanced to the finals while Basile and Goins received $10,000.

Throughout the finals (which lasted five games), Neilesh faced off against Adriana Harmeyer and Isaac Hirsch. Throughout the first two rounds of the five games, Neilesh came up with a combined total of 99/109 correct questions (including a combined total of 5/7 Daily Doubles). Neilesh and Isaac came up with 3/5 correct questions in Final Jeopardy!, winning 1-1-3 for $250,000 and a spot in the 2025 Jeopardy! Masters tournament.

Jeopardy! Masters[]

Vinjamuri played in Game 1 of the 2nd Knockout Episode against fellow Tournament of Finalists Isaac Hirsch and Adriana Harmeyer. Vinjamuri finished the game with 18/22 correct responses and finished in 3rd. The Final Jeopardy! clue was a triple stumper, which meant Vinjamuri picked up 0 match points.

Neilesh played in Game 2 of the 3rd Knockout Episode against Juveria Zaheer and Brad Rutter. He finished Double Jeopardy! with 4,000 points, with 7/10 correct responses. No one was correct in Final Jeopardy!, which meant he got 0 match points, and finished in 9th place.

Trivia[]

  • Neilesh is the third 3-time champion to win the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions. The first two being Michael Falk (2006) and Yogesh Raut (2024).