Ever watch Jeopardy and get super excited when you get a question right? Now, try correctly answering 1,299 questions.

Matt Amodio was recently eliminated from the game of Jeopardy, but not before he set the second longest all-time win streak in the show’s history. Amodio is a graduate of UW-Madison with a Master's degree in computer science + has made the Badgers proud. Currently, Ken Jennings holds the all-time win streak record with 74 consecutive wins and $2,520,700 in winnings.

During Matt Amodio’s historic run:

🏆 He won 38 consecutive games of Jeopardy
💰 Took home $1,518,601 in winnings
❓ Answered a total of 1,299 clues correctly
🥉 He became the 3rd millionaire contestant on the show in regular season play.

Amodio built the reputation of saying “what’s” instead of “what is” when formulating his answers. This strategy was used to potentially speed up his response time, allowing him to focus more on saying the correct answer than the game show’s famous phrase.

There is some speculation that Amodio purposely lost his last game of Jeopardy!, with some fans believing that he was ready to return to his normal life. Amodio said that while he was truly eager to get back to his studies — currently a Yale Ph.D. candidate studying artificial intelligence — he did not purposely lose. He also shared that he will be participating in the “Tournament of Champions” Jeopardy! showdown when it returns next year.

Keep an eye out for On Wisconsin Magazine’s interview with Matt Amodio coming out next quarter.