Ep 114: Matthew Thomason, Bryce Lawrence (May 30, 2016; originally aired January 6, 2011)

Rounds: Here.


Here we are at Matthew Thomason's sixth game, his last until the finals.  There's basically no chat with him beyond pointing out that fact, which lends credence to my observation in yesterday's game that they may well have run out of talking points for him.

Standing between Matthew and successful retirement is Bryce Lawrence, a project management student who has just deferred his studies in order to live in South America.  Bryce expands on that: He has deferred for two years in order to go and live with the Matis indigenous tribe; he will be living in the same conditions as they do for his time there.  That certainly sounds interesting (although decidedly not something that I would enjoy) but we don't find out why he is doing this -- what does he hope to do there, that kind of thing.  That really feels like a missed opportunity.


It started out as a very close game, with the contestants finding equal results in the first three rounds.  It looked like it might go down to the wire, but the second third went all Matthew's way, with two good words from him and an arithmetical error from Bryce giving him a commanding lead.  Matthew sealed the game in the last letters round, then finished off emphatically with another fast conundrum solution to make the scoreline 65 to 30.  That makes him the first retiring champion of the series.

I was in decent shape tonight, only missing the one maximum.  It also eluded David's eye, so my solo total will end up the same as him and Lily, and that's always nice.  I was slow on the conundrum, but had done more than enough to beat the contestants.