A Come-From-Behind Victory
The first round involved the top 8 participants from the written round. Contestants were given a minute to answer each of a series of questions, and the first two to give three correct answers proceeded to the final round. The first to gain a spot in the Final Round was Lauren Chen (Dutch Fork, 10th grade) after giving correct answers to Questions 2, 3 and 4. After that, Ian Ruohoniemi (Daniel High School, 12th grade) and Andy Hu (Lexington High School, 12th grade), who were trailing with two points, simultaneously obtained their third point after giving a correct answer to Question 6.
| Participant | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Q5 | Q6 | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lauren Chen | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 3 | |||
| Connor Lehmacher | ✓ | ✓ | 2 | ||||
| Kevin Feng | ✓ | ✓ | 2 | ||||
| Ian Ruohoniemi | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 3 | |||
| Janette Park | ✓ | ✓ | 2 | ||||
| John Staubes | ✓ | ✓ | 2 | ||||
| Andy Hu | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 3 | |||
| Sanatana Reddy | ✓ | ✓ | 2 |
Only one of the two could advance to the final round. Ian and Andy played a tiebreaker question, and Ian won.
The final round was held on-stage: contestants were given buzzers and 90 seconds,
and only the first to answer a question correctly earned the point. Ian won a 3-2 come-from-behind victory, defeating runner-up Lauren after eight questions.