Jeopardy! fans stunned as frontrunner Mattea Roach loses to underdog with 'heart-stopping' Tournamen

JEOPARDY! frontrunner Mattea Roach has lost and was eliminated from the Tournament of Champions in Friday's "heart-stopping" episode.

Fans were floored by their defeat and by an underdog's wild winning move.

The 24-year-old writer and podcaster from Canada faced Andrew He - a software developer from California - and Eric Ahasic - a meteorologist from Minnesota.

Starting last Monday, Ken Jennings, 48, began presiding over the fierce $250K face-off featuring 21 (now three) game show greats from the past year.

Tonight was the last semi-final match - legend Amy Schneider and Professor's Tournament champ Sam Buttrey won and have advanced to the finals.

In a shock upset, the last spot went not to 23-time winner Mattea but Andrew, who made perhaps the biggest, boldest move of the tournament.

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It read: "After helping to establish this as an independent country, Eduard Shevardnadze became its president in 1995."

Andrew got it correct with "Georgia" and went from $7K to $14K.

But he 'Daily Doubled' up.

'I DID NOT THINK YOU'D SAY THAT'

Andrew then landed on the other remaining Daily Double.

With $16.8K, he again bet: "All of it," without a second of pause, and the crowd hushed.

Host Ken said: "I did not think you were gonna say that."

It read: "'Haworth Churchyard' was Matthew Arnold's tribute to these literary sisters, written soon after the last one passed."

Andrew was again correct with "The Bronte Sisters" and after two all-in Daily Double bets, had $33.6K.

The book was closed after that, and fans were shocked Mattea didn't win, but wowed that Andrew bet it all not once, but twice.

He had a runaway going into Final Jeopardy at $39K with $17K for Eric and $7,200 for Mattea in third, who smiled proudly.

No one even had a guess on Final Jeopardy - all three hilariously just wrote a question mark, and Andrew unquestionably emerged as the last finalist in the Tournament of Champions.

'MY JAW WAS ON THE FLOOR'

One Reddit user wrote: "Andrew's first all-in had me excited, but the second one... Y'all, my jaw was on the floor."

Another agreed: "Need to send Andrew the bill for my blood pressure doctor visit after THAT."

A third wrote: "Andrew CRUSHED this game today. He really does have what it takes to defeat Mattea Roach (23-day super-champion)."

A fourth lamented: "Mattea :(" and a fifth had to agree: "Yeah, two days in a row where I’m disappointed on a sentimental level."

But one more admitted: "That might’ve been the greatest thing I’ve ever seen in this show."

"I really thought it was a mistake - I screamed with joy when he pulled it off."

A final fan wrote as they watched Andrew go for broke twice: "I pulled my shirt up over my head and covered my ears - wow."

UNEXPECTED FINAL THREE

This year's Tournament of Champions started airing on October 31.

40-time winner Amy, Andrew, and fan-favorite Sam Buttrey who beat Matt Amodio in a similar upset have emerged as the three finalists.

This year's tournament has featured more super-champions (or contestants who have won more than 10 games) than any year prior - 4 regular season wins are needed to be considered.

Tonight was Mattea's first match since Mattea, Amy and Matt Amodio were seeded and got byes given their prior win counts.

But 38-time champ Matt lost to professor Sam, who proved to be a powerhouse last night, and tonight was sadly Mattea's turn - so only one super-champ is in the finals.

Mattea, Matt (and earlier, 16-time winner Ryan Long) were knocked out in shock moments - so past stats have proven no measure of success.

Starting Monday, the final three will play until one of them wins three matches - which could take three days or stretch on for seven showdowns.

Regular episodes and reigning ace Cris Pannullo will return mid-November when it all concludes.